ery and despair.

=The great massmeeting.=--In that little country of Judaea it was
possible to gather into an assembly, perhaps in the open space in
front of the temple, men from almost every country village and city
street. Such an assembly Nehemiah called and laid before it the
complaints he had received. He told the rich nobles to their faces:
"You exact usury, every one, of his brother. The thing you do is not
good.... I pray you leave off this usury." The nobles had nothing to
say. Every one knew that what Nehemiah said was true. Then he went on:
"Restore to them their fields, their vineyards, their olive-yards, and
their houses, also the grain, the new wine, and the oil that you exact
from them." Then said they, "We will restore them."

And Nehemiah made them take oath to carry out their promise. "Also I
shook out my lap," Nehemiah writes in his memoirs, "and said, So God
shake out every man from his house, and from his labor, that
performeth not this promise; even thus be he shaken out and emptied.
And all the congregation said 'Amen,' and praised the Lord. And the
people did according to this promise."

=The beginnings of a just and happy nation.=--Nehemiah could not stay
long in Jerusalem. But he was able to make another visit a few years
later. And for a time at least his ideas were carried out. During this
time there was happiness among the people. They all had something to
eat and clothes to wear. All fathers and mothers had a little time to
play with their children after the close of work each day. All who
could read had a little time to study the rolls of the prophets and
the law of Jehovah. And all were brothers. More than ever before the
old dreams, handed down from Abraham, had begun to come true.

STUDY TOPICS

1. Look up the story of Nehemiah in the Bible dictionary.

2. Read Nehemiah 1-2, or 5. 1-6, 16.

3. On the right side of the line, below, write what in your judgment
corresponds to the men and conditions of Nehemiah's time.

_Nehemiah's Time_ | _Our Own Time_
|
_a._ Walls around the city. | _a._ ___________________________
|
_b._ Robbers, and enemies such as | _b._ ___________________________
Sanballat. |
|
_c._ The poor and enslaved people. | _c._ ___________________________
|
_d._ Neh