Article February 12, 1944 Issue

"I cannot come down"

[Of Special Interest to Youth]

HELEN G. ELLIS-DANVERS

Nehemiah was rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem, doing a good work. As is not unusual when anyone is doing a good work, there were those who wanted to prevent it, so they tempted Nehemiah to come down and leave it. The first four temptations were that he should come down into the villages, but he recognized the malicious purpose of the invitation and refused it, asking why the work should cease for him to come down and talk with his enemies. Next they took an open letter to Nehemiah, purporting to warn him of an evil report about him and urging him to come down and take counsel. Again Nehemiah refused, saying he knew it was only a lie to prevent the work from continuing. Then they told him that he was in danger of his life and had better come down and hide in the temple, lest his enemies kill him. This time he asked why he should flee to the temple to save his life. He knew God had not sent them, and again he refused to leave the work and come down. So the wall was finished, and his enemies saw that it was the work of God.

We can learn a very important lesson from this story. Every one of us is building a wall, which is the true consciousness of God, man, and the universe; and assuredly, since it is a good work, we are also sometimes tempted by error, in various forms, to come down to material consciousness and leave our spiritual building; but like Nehemiah we must refuse.

Nehemiah did not say, "I can come down for only a few minutes," or, "Just this once, I will come." He knew how dangerous that would be, how it would give the enemy a chance to pull down some of his work and make it difficult for him to go back to it. Just the same holds true with us. If we come down to material thinking even for a minute, we have difficulty in retracing our steps, and have to build over again what has been pulled down.

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