NEHEMIAH MOURNING OVER JERUSALEM.

men.

NEHEMIAH, who was cup-bearer to Ahasuerus, the Artaxerxes Longimanus, according to Dr. Prideaux, of Profane History, having been informed by some persons lately arrived from Jerusalem, that the city was in a deplorable state of desolation, was sorely distressed at the sorrowful recital. He learned to his great grief that its walls were broken down, its gates destroyed, and its inhabitants exposed to the incursions of their enemies, who were every day taking advantage of their unprotected state. The mournful relation affected him so deeply, that he "sat down and wept, and mourned certain days, and fasted, and prayed before the God of heaven *." He supplicated the Almighty to favour the design which he entertained of beseeching the king's permission to repair to that capital, which had fallen into the most deplorable disorder, for the purpose of regulating the administration, and of ameliorating the condition of his miserable countryWhen Nehemiah appeared the next time before the king, Ahasuerus, perceiving by his melancholy bearing that he was under some sorrowful influence, inquired what caused his depression. Encouraged by this condescension, the cupbearer related to his royal master the cause of his distress, and, at the intercession of Queen Esther, the sovereign granted him leave to go immediately to Jerusalem to repair the walls, set up the gates, regulate her civil and ecclesiastical administration, and fortify the city against the incursions of its neighbours. He proceeded thither without delay; when, in spite of the opposition of Sanballat, a chief of the Cuthites or Samaritans, who were sworn enemies to the Jews, he eventually accomplished his purpose. In the print the artist has supposed him to have arrived by moonlight before Jerusalem; when beholding its external desolation, its walls broken down, and many of its gorgeous edifices overthrown, he goes apart upon an elevation where he can overlook the holy city, and pours out his soul in tears."