of fish; and, therefore, on the Sabbath, the Tyrians found they did more
business than on any other day.

As Nehemiah leaves the city by the Fish Gate, he meets donkeys and mules
bringing in sheaves of corn, or laden with paniers containing figs, and
grapes, and melons; he meets men laden with all kinds of burdens, and
women bringing in the country produce that they may sell it in the
streets of Jerusalem.

Then, passing on into the fields, he notices that work is going on as
usual. They are tilling the ground, gathering in the corn, pruning the
vines, and standing bare-footed in the winepresses to tread out the
juice of the grapes.

So the promise about the Sabbath has been kept no better than the other
promise; the covenant has been totally disregarded.

Turning homewards, Nehemiah discovers that the remaining article of the
agreement has also been broken. For, as he passes through the streets,
and listens to the children at play, he finds that some of the little
ones are talking a language he cannot understand. Here and there he
catches a Jewish word, but most of their talk is entirely unintelligible
to him. On inquiring into the reason of this, he is told that these
children have Jewish fathers but Philistine mothers, and that they are
being brought up to talk the language and learn the religion of their
heathen parent. They are making for themselves a strange dialect, a
mixture of the two languages they have spoken; it is half Jewish, half
Philistine.

'Their children spake half in the speech of Ashdod, and could not speak
in the Jews' language, but according to the language of each people,'
xiii. 24.

Poor Nehemiah must have been filled with sorrow and bitter
disappointment, as he found Jerusalem and its people in such a
disgraceful condition. He had left the holy city like the garden of the
Lord, he comes back to find the trail of the serpent all over his
paradise. They did so well whilst he was there, they wandered to the
right hand and the left so soon as he was parted from them.

Nor is Nehemiah the only one who has had this bitter disappointment;
many a parent, many a teacher, many a friend can enter into his
feelings, for they have gone through the same.

The young King Joash 'did that which was right in the sight of the Lord
all the days of Jehoiada the priest.' But as soon as the old man was in
his grave all was changed, and he did instead that which was evil.

And Joash has many followers, th