pursuit of his object, did not neglect the precautions and preparations which the emergency required. Have you in this respect imitated his example? Have you studied to fortify yourself according to the word of God, and by the fear of God, against your specific temptations to deficiency in patriotism; to strengthen yourself the most carefully where you perceived yourself the weakest; and, so far as in you lay, to leave no part unprovided against an attack? Nehemiah shrunk not, in his country's cause, from any personal hardship. Constantly employed from the rising of the morning until the stars of evening appeared, in encouraging his countrymen to rebuild the city of their God, and in opposing the designs of their enemies; he had not even the ordinary comforts which attend repose after labour. So neither I, nor my brethren, nor my servants, nor the men of the guard which followed me, none of us put off our clothes, saving that every one put them off for washing. Have you submitted to privations, have you endured hardships, if emergencies have required them for the land of the sepulchres of your fathers? Have you cheerfully sustained the burdens deemed essential to national security? Have you been faithful and watchful in the discharge of your public duties; anx

ious to discern the methods in which you may contribute to the general welfare; anxious to adopt each in its time, and place, and proportion; anxious by seasonable exhortation and counsel to induce others also to bear hardships for their fellow-subjects, and to approve themselves in the sight of their God as genuine lovers of their country? How many men, in different periods, (I speak without any special reference to present times,) who have stood forward among the loudest in professions of patriotic zeal, have soon been heard among the loudest of the complainers under some temporary pressure indispensable to the public safety? How many of those who have been deemed ready at any given moment to cut off the right hand, and to pluck out the right eye, in their country's cause, for the sake of Christ; have not forborne, through love to Him, from repining even at small difficulties and small sacrifices in its service! Can each of you appeal to the Searcher of hearts, and say with Nehemiah, so did not I?

Other instances in which this eminent servant of the Lord of Hosts manifested, by acting differently from men whose minds are fixed on selfish ends, his faithfulness to that ruling principle, which determined his conduct,

T 4

duct, and led him to consistent and persevering patriotism, will be developed in a subsequent discourse. Let those parts of Nehemiah's history which have been explained become subjects of private meditation. Let us earnestly implore the Giver of all good to strengthen us by His all-sufficient grace, that in the discharge of our duties to our country we may for His sake sit light to worldly ease, and indulgence, and emolument, and advancement; that for His sake we may uphold that righteousness which exalteth a nation (o), uphold it not only by practical holiness, but by stedfastly keeping aloof from familiarity with the wicked; that neither ridicule, nor slander, nor fear may influence us, when treading the path of christian patriotism, to turn aside or to slacken our pace: but that in labours, in watchings, by pureness, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned, by evil report, by the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armour of righteousness on the right hand and on the left, we may in all things approve ourselves as the servants of God (p), to the benefit of our native land, and the glory of Jesus Christ our Lord.

(9) Prov. xiv. 34.

(p) 2 Cor. vi. 4-8.

SER

SERMON XV.

CHRISTIAN PATRIOTISM illustrated by the CHARACTER of NEHEMIAH,

NEHEM. V. 15.

But so did not I, because of the fear of God.

IN the preceding discourse, the character of Nehemiah considered with respect to patriotism has unfolded much of its excellence. In contemplating this servant of God, we beheld, in the first place, his decided disregard of splendor, luxury, and indulgence, that he might seek the welfare of Israel: secondly, his stedfast refusal either of union or of intimacy with the enemies of the Jews: and thirdly, his firmness in the cause of his country against ridicule and against violence, his watchful circumspection, his patient and persevering endurance of hardship. We are now to attend to other circumstances in his public conduct, under which he was equally blest with the testimony of an approving conscience.

IV. It has not been very uncommon for persons in high situations to wink at wrong proceedings in those over whom they are invested with authority, through fear of giving offence, or for the purpose of more easily ac complishing some end of their own. When Saul, instead of destroying the flocks and herds of the Amalekites, according to the express commandment of God, had brought them into the camp of Israel: he confessed that he had acted thus, because he feared the people and obeyed their voice. Other instances of sinful compliance on the part of the Kings of Israel with the inclinations and practices of their subjects might be produced. So did not Nehemiah. He did not hate his countrymen in his heart in suffering sin upon them (a). He did not shrink from any risk of offending persons of the highest rank and the most commanding influence at Jerusalem, when they disobeyed the law of their God. Being apprised that the men of wealth among the Jews had rendered themselves masters of the property and the persons of their poorer brethren by means of usurious mortgages, he was very angry when he heard the cry (b) of the distressed, and rebuked the nobles and the rulers, and set a great assembly against them; and con(b) Nehem, v. 1, &c.;

(a) Levit. xix. 17,

strained