live,
in order that they might go up by turn to lead the temple singing, xii.
29.

When all who were to take part in the service had assembled, there was a
great sprinkling. The priests and the Levites purified themselves, and
purified the people, and the gates, and the wall.

A red heifer (see Num. xix.) was led by one of the priests outside the
city. There she was killed, her blood was caught in a basin, and was
sprinkled seven times before the temple. Then her flesh was burnt
outside the city, and the ashes were carefully collected and mixed with
water. This water was put into a number of basins, and the priests and
Levites went with it up and down the city, sprinkling it first on
themselves, then on the men, women and children in the city, and
afterwards on the wall, and the gates, and all that was to be dedicated
to God.

All were to be made pure before they could be used in God's service. The
Great Master cannot use dirty vessels; they are not fit for His use,
they cannot do His work.

If you want God to use you in His service, you must first be sprinkled,
made pure from all defilement of sin. Until this has been done you
cannot do one single thing to please God; until you have been cleansed,
it is impossible for you to work for God.

How, then, can we be cleansed? How can we be made vessels meet for the
Master's use, fit for the service of God? Thank God, we have a better
way of cleansing than by washing in the ashes of a heifer.

'For if the ashes of an heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to
the purifying of the flesh: how much more shall the blood of Christ,
who, through the Eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God,
purge your conscience from dead works _to serve the living God?_' Heb.
ix. 13, 14.

The blood must be sprinkled, the conscience must be purged, then begins
the service of the living God; all works before that are dead, works of
no avail, utterly worthless and good for nothing, in the Master's
estimation.

When all was ready and the purification was complete, the great company
of the musicians met in the temple courts. The blast of the priests'
trumpets was heard on one side, and on the other the sweet melodious
songs of the white-robed minstrels.

When all were in order they marched to the Valley Gate, on the western
side of the city. Here Nehemiah divided them into two companies, in
order that they might make the circuit of the city, walking in gay
procession on the