Nehemiah 13:15-22

Reader! doth it not strike thy mind while reading this account of the profanation of the sabbath, that there is but too great a resemblance between the days of Nehemiah and the present, in this crying sin of our guilty land. Must not everyone say that will speak the truth, that there never was a period more alarmingly evil in this particular than the present. Oh! ye masters of families! parents of the rising generation! are ye not seriously concerned what judgments of the Lord may follow! and will ye not attempt a reform to prevent a sin big with the most awful evil, both as it concerns the present life and that which is to come. And oh! ye ministers of the sanctuary and faithful magistrates of the people, may the Lord encourage your hearts and hands to follow the bright example of Nehemiah, and to bring back the hallowed sabbaths of the Lord to their original sanctity. Nehemiah's prayer at the close of this passage for God's remembrance of him, sweetly explains the sense in which he looked for that remembrance; namely, in the greatness of divine mercy. And where is the greatness of God's mercy but in Jesus Christ.