Nehemiah 2:12-20 And I arose in the night, I and some few men with me; neither told I any man what my God had put in my heart to do at Jerusalem… I. A TYPE OF ALL GOD'S TRUE REPAIRERS. Think of our English Church alone, Ridley at Cambridge, musing in his walks over St. Paul's Epistles; Wesley in days when our pulpits were too much filled with "apes of Epictetus," brooding over the gospel of grace and the sweetness of the name of Jesus; Simeon, maturing the views which stirred so many stagnant parishes, and gave a fresh spring to missionary work; in the last few years Aitken, often spending six hours in prayer within his church upon the Cornish cliff, and then going out with his soul on fire to speak to sinners of redeeming love — what are these and many others but Christian Nehemiahs? Such men began with prayer their survey in solitude and silence of the wall which was broken down. They ended by crying with a voice that went forth with the winds, and entered with the power of God into hundreds of spirits — "Come and let us build up the wall of Jerusalem." II. LESSONS FOR ALL SUCH REPAIRERS. 1. The builders worked under arms. Those who at this crisis would do a real work of spiritual restoration in the English Church, must "every one have his sword girded by his side," and "so build." Those who seek three great ends — a more reverent worship, a ministry fuller of individual consolation, and a tenderer devotion — must, even while they build, be equipped and vigilant against a hostile influence. (1) They must guard against a Romanising ritual, and, I will add, a sentimental ritualism. (2) They should be vigilant to resist other and far subtler invasions of principles hostile to the spirit of the English Reformation. (a) We are often told that we must have among us habitual private confession, and absolution, and systematic spiritual guidance. I hold with Mason, who says, "We have not only a public absolution in our Church, but a private one also, for there are many who want particular comfort. And therefore we use a private absolution in the visitation of the sick, and so often as the broken hearts and wounded consciences of particular persons do require it." But if any desire to go further — to change confession from a medicine for the morbid into a good for all — they are aiming at that which the genius of Teutonic Christianity, the character of the English people, and of the English Reformation, render an impossibility. (b) A second point, in which our builders need to wear the sword while they repair the wall, concerns the form of the devotions which they may introduce or recommend. Let me instance that of which so much has lately been heard — the worship of the Sacred Heart. 2. The builders worked under the harmonious co-operation of priesthood and laity. Ezra and Nehemiah combined in the restoration. (Abp. Alexander.) Parallel Verses KJV: And I arose in the night, I and some few men with me; neither told I any man what my God had put in my heart to do at Jerusalem: neither was there any beast with me, save the beast that I rode upon. |
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