Nehemiah 4:6 So built we the wall; and all the wall was joined together to the half thereof: for the people had a mind to work. The chief characteristics displayed by Nehemiah and his fellow-citizens in prosecuting their work were — 1. Earnestness. Earnestness is an important factor in all Christian work and consists — (1) In a thorough persuasion of the truth of the message we make known — the efficacy of the remedy we convey to men. (2) A deep sense of the value of those we seek to save. (3) An intense conviction that it is God's work and not our own we are seeking to do. 2. Persistency. 3. Union. 4. Courage. 5. Prayerfulness.Summing up these characteristics, we may say to the Christian worker, "Add to your work earnestness, and to earnestness persistency, and to persistency union, and to union wisdom, and to wisdom courage, and to courage prayer"; "for if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ" (2 Peter 1:8). (W. P. Lockhart.) Parallel Verses KJV: So built we the wall; and all the wall was joined together unto the half thereof: for the people had a mind to work. |