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.
1. Look up the story of Nehemiah in the Bible dictionary.
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._ Nehemiah. | _d._ ___________________________
HYMN AND PRAYER BOOKS FOR THE NEW WORSHIP
We have seen that a new kind of public worship of God had been growing up among the Hebrews, beginning with the time when the prophets began to condemn the misuse of the old animal sacrifices. The new worship consisted chiefly of prayer. We have seen how the exiles in Babylon began to come together on the Sabbath days to study the law and other sacred writings, and also for prayer. Those exiles who returned to Judæa brought this custom with them. Special buildings, called synagogues, were erected in Judæa as well as wherever there were faithful Jews in other lands. These synagogues rather than the temple gradually came to be the real home of the Jewish religion even in Jerusalem itself. The chief part of the synagogue service was always the study of the Scriptures. But prayer was also given an important place.