"Yea, also I continued in the work of this wall." Neh. 5:16.

In Chapter 6 we find the enemy making another and most determined effort. If he cannot succeed
by attacking the captives from without, and if the internal trouble is settled, he will now try to get
the remnant to be less exclusive. "Sanballat and Geshem sent unto me, saying, Come, let us meet
together in some one of the villages in the plain of Ono. But they thought to do me mischief."
(Chap.6:2).

Here is the cry for union:"Why are you so exclusive? Cannot you join with us in the work of the
Lord?" Now, beloved, Nehemiah teaches us, and Jeremiah also, how we are to meet all such
advances. God in His grace has called us out from the evil that has come into His Church, and we
must be careful not to lessen in the eyes of others, nor to lose the sense in our own souls, of the
distance between the ground on which we are and that out from which we have come. Beloved
saints of God are where We were, but true love will cause us to walk in the light we have
received, that they also may learn and obey the truth in the love of it.

Listen to what Nehemiah said to the messengers of Sanballat and Geshem, "I am doing a great
work, so that I cannot come down:why should the work cease, whilst I leave it, and come down
to you?"(Chap.6:3). This was a beautiful answer. So sure as we depart practically from the
ground of thorough separation to which our Lord has called us, our strength will be seen to go.
Any vacillation brings in weakness. In the world it is said, "Nothing succeeds like success;" but,
amongst saints, "Nothing succeeds like consistency". Nehemiah said, "Why should the work
cease whilst I come down to you"? And Jeremiah said another very plain, and most helpful word,
which it is well we should heed, each one of us:"If thou take forth the precious from the vile,
thou shalt be as my mouth; let them return unto thee, but return thou not unto them".

The separated one must say, "I am here for God, and I must abide with God". But if Nehemiah
will not listen to this proposal, Satan will put forth one more effort. Tobiah, Sanballat, and
others, sought to make Nehemiah afraid, but again he goes to prayer. In everything he turns to
God, and at verse 15 we read:"So the wall was finished in fifty-two days. And it came to pass,
that when all our enemies heard thereof, and all the heathen that were about us saw these things,
they were much cast down In their own eyes:for they perceived that this work was wrought of
our God". (From "Nehemiah and His Workers".)

FRAGMENT. He everywhere hath sway, and all things serve His might; His every act pure
blessing is, His path unsullied light. We comprehend Him not, yet earth and heaven tell God sits
as sovereign on the throne and ruleth all things well.