walls were built in the teeth of an armed and implacable foe, built with the trowel in one hand, the javelin in the other, and that the sleep of the workmen was broken with watching, and their clothes never taken off except to wash them, and flung on again half dry, it was an unrivalled feat of labour, zeal, judgment, courage and piety, and will so remain to the end of time. NEHEMIAH, REFORMER. Ezra came to Jerusalem fourteen years before Nehemiah; he left the holy seed of Judah pure at Babylon, but found it at Jerusalem mingled with that of idolaters. When he discovered this he rent his garment and mantle, and plucked off the hair of his head and beard, and sat down astonied until the evening sacrifice. God so shake out every man from his house and from his labour who performeth not this promise." This was a master-stroke, and shows the man of genius. Such appeals to the senses as well as to the conscience take the whole mind by assault, and fix the matter forever in the memory. His hearers cried "Amen! and praised the Lord, and-kept their promise. All preceding governors of Jerusalem had acted on their powers and bled the people themselves, and even let their servants oppress and pillage them. Not so Nehemiah; with him it was more blessed to give than to receive. He kept a noble table, and entertained one hundred and fifty Jews every day from the city, besides hungry souls from the villages; but all this at his own expense; the governor's allowance he never touched, because, as he said, the people were burdened enough without that. His mind runs forward, and he relates this a little out of place His sorrow and his eloquence touched-chapter v. 13-19. I have but placed it many hearts, and led to a public confession and to solemn pledges of reformation, especially from such of the offenders as belonged to Levi, Ezra's own tribe. But during that solemnity he rose and threw himself down at the gate of the Temple, and prayed and wept and confessed the sins of his people. But it is clear from Nehemiah's own account that intermarriage with heathen and other abuses proved too strong for Ezra in the long run. Nehemiah found this malpractice and many others at Jerusalem. Indeed, his great enemy, the heathen Tobiah, owed much of his power to having married a Jewess of good family. Nehemiah set himself to reform this, but not this alone. He was not a better, but a greater, man than Ezra, and made wiser reforms, and kept them alive, which Ezra failed to do. One thing that shocked him much was the usurious practices of the wealthier Jews, and their cruelty in selling their poor debtors into bondage. "What!" said he, "we have redeemed our brethren that were sold unto the heathen, and will ye sell your brethren?" and they found nothing to answer. Then he reminded them he had power to levy large exactions upon them, and besought them to imitate his moderation. Such was the power of his example and his remonstrances that he actually induced the creditors to restore to the ruined debtors their houses, vineyards, and olive yards, and a little of the forfeited produce to keep them alive through the famine. When the relenting creditors had bound themselves to this by oath, he took his tunic in both hands and shook it, and said, "May in its true sequence. It is a noble trait, and every generous heart goes with him, when with honest simplicity he bursts out, "Think on me, my God, for good, according to all I have done for this people.' Though he was nominal governor of Jerusalem for twelve years from the date of his first visit, it would seem, on a careful comparison of all his statements, that Hanani and Hananiah acted for him by his own appointment during a portion. of that time as well as after it had expired. But as Ezra, both before and after Nehemiah's arrival, was unable to cope persistently with the abuses of the day, so Nehemiah's own lieutenants failed to withstand them. Probably Nehemiah himself felt there was no one in whom he could place a blind confidence; for, twelve years after his first visit, he came back to Jerusalem with enlarged powers, and this time he nowed priests as well as laymen he was not a man to be trifled with. Eliashib the priest had given his kinsman, Tobiah the heathen, an apartment in the Temple, and Tobiah had furnished it. Nehemiah bundled out all his furniture and effects, and had the rooms purified after him. He found a priest, grandson of this very Eliashib, married to a heathen. He chased him out of the Temple. On the other hand, he found that certain lay rulers, whose business it was to see the tithes paid to the priests and Levites, had so neglected them that many of that sacred tribe were working in the fields for a bare subsistence. Nehemiah rebuked these negligent officials, and established storehouses for the tithes of corn, new wine, and oil; and to secure the Levites against any future neglect in the distribution of these stores, he selected Shelemiah, a priest, Zadok, a scribe, and Pedaiah, a Levite, as almoners or distributors of these stores, and associated with them one Hanan, a man of approved fidelity. Both priests and laymen had become loose in observing the Sabbath day. He found Jews treading the wine-presses, gathering in the harvests, and trading on the Sabbath day, and men of Tyre bringing fish and other wares into the markets of the city. He treated natives and aliens alike, stopped the home trade, and closed the gates of the city against the Tyrians. But the Tyrians were hard to deal with ; they lodged outside the wall, and offered their wares outside. "Do that again," said Nehemiah, "and I will lay hands on you." This frightened them away for good. Then came his worst trouble, the persistent intermarriage with heathen. Ezra had withstood this for years in vain. Nehemiah had combated it with partial success; yet now Nehemiah found Jews who had married wives of Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab, and their children could not speak Hebrew, but naturally spoke their mothertongue. Then he came out in a new character. He contended with them, and cursed them, and smote certain of them, and plucked off their hair, and made them swear by God not to give their daughters to heathen husbands nor their sons to heathen wives again. After this ouburst of impassioned zeal, which at first takes the student of his mind a little by surprise, he returned to his grave character, and reasoned the matter with those he had terrified into submission. "What Jew," said he, "was ever so wise, so great, so beloved of God, as King Solomon? Yet outlandish women could make even him sin against God and commit idolatry." Nehemiah prevailed, and there is reason to believe that idolatry received its death-blow under his rule. He ends his brief but noble record with his favourite prayer, "Remember me, O my God, for good." That prayer has long been granted. But the children of God on earth have not seen all his value. Do but enume rate the various parts he played, the distinct virtues he showed, the strokes of genius he extemporised and all to serve, not himself, but his country and his God. Faithful courtier, yet true patriot; child of luxury, yet patient of hardship: inventive builder, impromptu general, astute politician, high-spirited gentleman, inspired orator, resolute reformer-born leader of men, yet humble before God. He rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem; he restored the law of Moses. Tradition says he lived fifty years after the events he records; he probably returned to Persia; but if he did, he was not the man to stay there half a century and leave the city and the law to take care of themselves. Character is a key to facts; and it was not in Nehemiah's character to live and desert the two great works of his life for fifty years or so. When, after two centuries of small events, small men, and no history, big events and the big men they generate came again to Judea, and raised history from the dead, we find the stamp of Nehemiah and his pupils marked on the Jewish mind so plainly that the story of the Maccabees seems but a natural sequence of Nehemiah's chronicle. Nehemiah fought tooth and nail for all the law of Moses, and especially the Sabbath day. Nehemiah tore the holy seed out of the embraces of the heathen, and ended the moral influences of idolatry. This was sure to drive the idolater, sooner or later, from the bloodless weapons that alone can conquer the mind, to persecution and brute force; and accordingly in the next Hebrew record, behold those weapons levelled against constant souls, and the sword of heroic Judas. Nehemiah, then, is not what hasty judges have called him, one of the lesser lights." He is a gigantic figure that stalked across the page of history luminous, then glided into the dark abyss of time, but scattered sparks of historic light, and left, not one, but two immortal works behind him. As to the character of his piety, he relies on God, seeks His glory, and is unceasing in good works for his nation. But then he despised lucre, and sought not the praise of men for those works. It is no small matter to look to God alone, with much light or little. He lived under a covenant of works, and thought accordingly; yet methinks he needed but a word or two from Christ's own lips to be a Christian saint. AT BY WILLIAM WESTALL, AUTHOR OF "RED RYVINGTON," "THE PHANTOM CITY," "Two PINCHES OF SNUFF," ETC. CHAPTER XXXIX.-A SMART MOVE. T the office of the Helvetic News, as at most newspaper offices, salaries were paid weekly. Every Saturday morning Gibson went down stairs, drew enough money to pay himself and his staff, and then handed to each man his due. On the Saturday succeeding Harman's suspension he returned from this usually pleasant mission with a very long face. "Pay me my arrears of salary, then, and an indemnity of ten thousand francs for breaking my contract, and I will go at once," replied Gibson hotly. 66 'No, Mr. Gibson, I shall not pay you a centime for breaking your contract. I said just now that you might go whenever you liked. I say now you must go when I like, and that is to-day. You cease from this moment to be editor of the Helvetic News, Mr. Gibson." "You will have to put up with short com- "You forget, I think, that my engagement .mons this week, gentlemen," he said. "Mayo does not terminate for eighteen months," has not yet succeeded in making fresh bank-replied the editor, with forced calmness. "I ing arrangements, and can only give us halfpay; the balance must stand over until next week. The clerks below are being treated in the same fashion; only the compositors are getting paid in full.” "Let us be thankful for small mercies," said Milnthorpe, pocketing his money. "This is twice as much as I expected." On the following Saturday Gibson returned from his wonted interview with the cashier with a longer face than ever. "I have nothing at all for you to-day," he exclaimed dolefully. "It has been a hard struggle to pay the compositors; there is not a centime for anybody else. I am very sorry; but what can I do? And I don't know what will be the end of it, either." Balmaine felt glad that he had sold his claim on Harman's estate, but Gibson felt far from glad that he had bought it. The prospect of a favourable dividend was decidedly worsening. At the first meeting of creditors some very damaging disclosures had been made. Mr. Rickarby A. Little turned out to be a big creditor, fully secured. He had been lending the defunct firm money at usurious interest. Corfe made a violent speech against both him and the debtors, and threatened to have Harman prosecuted as a fraudulent bankrupt. All this put the editor very much about. He felt that he should never be able to forgive himself for not accepting Little's offer on the nail; and when on the next pay-day there was again no money in the big safe-not even for the compositors he quite lost his temper, fell out with Mayo, and gave that astute gentleman the opening for which he had long been looking. "You say you won't stand it," said the manager sneeringly. "Leave it then. "Leave it then. You can go whenever you like." will go, certainly, if you wish it; but as you put it in that way I demand seventy-five weeks' salary at 300 francs a week. That makes-let me see -22,500 francs. Are you prepared to give me 22,500 francs ?" "No; nor 22,500 centimes. You shall have the arrears of your salary-I will send you a cheque next week-and that is all you will get." "Then I shall sue you," returned Gibson, turning pale. "I will make you pay." "Try, by all means, if you think you can get anything," returned Mayo coolly. "All the same, you will make a great mistake. It does not seem to occur to you that you have broken your contract pretty nearly every week for the last five or six months, and that you have not a leg to stand on." "What do you mean?" "What I say. You undertook to edit this paper and write the leaders, didn't you ?" "Certainly." "Have you done so?" "Of course I have." "Not you. You have left it all to your assistants. You rarely appear at the office before 6 P.M.-generally not until sevenand you often leave before nine. There are weeks (referring to a diary) when you have written but one leader-one week you wrote none; for the last three months your average has been two." "I never undertook to write every leader. It is quite sufficient if I give instructions and see them written, and, in short, take the entire responsibility of the rédaction." "I don't think so. You surely don't suppose that it ever entered into our calculations to pay a man like you 300 francs a week merely to give instructions? We can do that ourselves, Mr. Gibson. However, as you say you are going to sue us, and the affair in that case will have to be discussed in another place, I don't see that anything is to be gained by bandying words; and, with your leave, I will go up-stairs and tell Balmaine and the others what has happened." "I shall go with you, and take away my private papers," said Gibson, bottling up his indignation, though with difficulty. "As you will. If we have to fight, we may as well fight like gentlemen. I shall say no more than is necessary, and nothing that need give you offence." They found all the sub-editors in their room, waiting to be paid. "You will be surprised at what I have to tell you," said Mayo quietly. "Mr. Gibson and I have had a slight difference of opinion, and he has dissolved his connection with the paper." "It is quite true," added the ex-editor, with assumed indifference, "although it would perhaps be more correct to say, my connection with the paper has been dissolved. However, it comes to the same thing. I am going, and I confess that I am very sorry to part with you, gentlemen. We have always got along very well together, and though our official relations have ceased, I trust our friendship will continue." "I am very sorry," said Balmaine, taking his proffered hand, "and very much surprised. So far as it depends on me, our friendship will not be in the least diminished." The others expressed themselves to the same effect, for all liked Gibson. Even his besetting sin of indolence, though not without drawbacks, had left them far more liberty than they would have enjoyed under a less easy-going chief. "I am glad to hear you say so," returned Gibson with feeling. "I suppose we shall see each other now and then, and I should not be surprised if we were all to meet in London on some not very distant day. If we do, I will ask you to dine with me at the Savage. Au revoir." "I know what that means," said Mayo, with rather a forced laugh; "it's a parting kick. He thinks the paper is going to pot, and that in a week or two you will all be in London looking for berths. But he was never more mistaken in his life. Will you step this way a moment, Balmaine (going towards the editor's room)? I want to speak to you." When they were alone the manager explained to Alfred that Gibson, having resigned his post for reasons to which it was not necessary "further to allude," he should be glad if Balmaine would take his place. He had watched him, read his articles (which were always excellent) and felt certain that he would make a most efficient editor-inchief. For the present he could not offer him more than 150 francs a week; but when they had succeeded in reorganizing the finances of the paper they would "make it two hundred." To such a proposal there could, of course, be only one answer, for though the editorship might add somewhat to Balmaine's responsibilities it would add little to his work, much to his power, and the increased salary would be highly acceptable. The next thing was to tell Delane and Milnthorpe. This Mayo did in a very few words; and, after expressing a hope that they would pull well together, was making off in a hurry, when an observation from Milnthorpe, though not ostensibly addressed to him, "pulled him up sharp." "Had you not better go down-stairs for our salaries, Mr. Balmaine?" said the junior sub with the gravest of faces. "I don't suppose Mr. Gibson got the money, or he would have paid us." "I beg your pardon, gentlemen," said Mayo, wheeling round and turning red, "I ought to have told you. The fact is the fact is-there is nothing in the safe; but I have paid the compositors in full and last week's arrears, so the paper is safe. But I am in treaty for a new banking account, and Mr. Leyland has gone to London to see what he can do there; and I have no doubt that next week I shall be able to pay you in full. I can sympathise with you, for I am as hard up as anybody. I have not drawn a centime since Harman's stopped." "It's all very fine," grumbled Delane when the manager had disappeared, which he did without pausing for a reply, "but if Mayo has drawn nothing since the suspension, he took deuced good care to feather his nest before. I vote we do as the compositors have done." "What have they done?" inquired Milnthorpe. "They threatened to strike if they were not paid up, and, as you hear, he has paid them." "And makes a virtue of it. Mr. Mayo is certainly a very clever man. I do believe he will keep the ship off the breakers after all. It's a very smart move too, getting rid of Gibson. How much are you to have, Balmaine, if it's a fair question?" |