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? What will Tobiah do? What
will Geshem whisper? Now indeed we have no open rupture with the
governors, but who can tell what the result of our taking action in this
matter will be? Surely it is better to let well alone.'

A fourth would have given as his opinion, that what had served for 150
years would surely last their time. True, Jerusalem was forlorn and
defenceless, but they had grown accustomed to it now. It struck
Nehemiah, of course, coming as he did fresh from the glories of Shushan,
but they had become used to it, and he would soon do the same. There was
no need surely to make a disturbance about it or to run into any risk
about it.

A fifth would have suggested, with some warmth, that surely old
inhabitants of the city were better judges of its requirements than a
stranger, and that it was for the town council to propose such a scheme
if they saw the necessity for it, and not for a new-comer who had been
less than a week in Jerusalem.

These, and countless other objections, might have been raised, had the
meeting been called in our lukewarm days.

But the Jerusalem committee did not act thus, they did not fill
Nehemiah's way with difficulties and his soul with discouragement. A
plain bit of work lay before him and before them; he was ready to lead,
and they were ready to follow. 'Let us rise and build,' they cry. And