's Pool, or Pool of Siloam, which watered the king's garden. But at
this south-east corner the rubbish was so great that the mule he was
riding on could not proceed. Pile upon pile of stone, heap upon heap of
broken fragments of what had once been so magnificent, lay so thickly
massed together that it was of no use attempting to ride further. So
Nehemiah dismounted, and probably leaving his mule with some of his
companions by the Gate of the Fountain, he went on foot a little
further. Going up the Kedron valley he examined the eastern wall, which
was in much better condition than the rest; and then, turning to the
west, he came back to the rest of the party and returned with them to
the Valley Gate.

Now Nehemiah has seen the work before him, and has realised that it is
both vast and difficult. He is ready now to put his scheme before the
people of Jerusalem. He finds the city governed by no single man, but by
a kind of town council. He now summons a meeting of these rulers, and he
also invites the nobles and the working men to be present. Then he makes
his appeal:

'Ye see the distress that we are in, how Jerusalem lieth waste, and the
gates thereof are burned with fire: come, and let us build up the wall
of Jerusalem, that we be no more a reproach.'

Then, to cheer them on to make the effort, he tells them how God has
helped him up to that point; he tells them what the good hand has done
for him already in opening the king's heart and the king's purse.

What response does he meet with? As one man that large assembly rises
and joins in the cry, 'Let us rise up and build.' Happy Nehemiah to find
such ready help, to find those he speaks to willing at once to fall in
with his scheme, and to aid him in his work.

It is to be feared that had he lived in our more cautious and
calculating days, Nehemiah would have had many a bucket of cold water
thrown on him and his plan. One would have risen and would have said,
'The work is too hard, the heaps of rubbish are too great, it is
impossible to undertake such a task. Look at the south-east corner, who
will ever be able to clear away the heaps that have accumulated there?'

Another would have been sure to grumble at the expense, would have asked
how they, poor down-trodden Jews as they were, could ever afford to give
time or money to such a vast undertaking?

A third would have risen with a long face, and would have asked, 'What
will Sanballat say if we rebuild the wall? W