did, that that heart would never have moved towards Him at all, if left to itself. It was the Shepherd who had sought the sheep, not the sheep that had sought the Shepherd. And now that the first bleat of penitential sorrow bears witness that the stray one had been not only sought but found, how does the joy of the Shepherd's heart flow out, in the consolatory assurance "The Lord also hath put away thy sin; thou shalt not die." Would that this touching display of the perfect grace of God might be used of the Holy Spirit, both to break and to comfort the heart of some stray sheep of His flock, whose eye may rest upon these pages.

Here then let us pause for a moment, and contemplate the first stage in the restoring process. Bitter and heavy, and long continued chastenings from the hand of God, are to follow this first step; but before a single stripe is inflicted, the soul is brought to perfect rest before God in the assurance that it is for edification, not for destruction, that it is thus dealt with. A ministry is needed, it is true, to make David sensible of his sin, and willing to acknowledge it; but the moment that ministry is successful, and David acknowledges his iniquity, that moment he is assured of full forgiveness. "The Lord hath put away thy sin." All the chastening follows in the train of this." Sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death." Grace rescues David, so that he dies not; but the child must die. The Lord's enemies have had fearful occasion given them to blaspheme; and before all the Lord must make it manifest that He neither sanctions David's sin, nor winks at it. David himself, moreover, has to learn through all this, what an evil and bitter thing it is to forsake God. All these, and other objects, have to be accomplished; and in order to them, the sword is never to depart from David's house. The indignity and wrong he had done to Uriah secretly, has to be done to him openly before the sun. But needful, yea, indispensable, as all this is, 'ere a single stroke of the rod descends, David is assured that his sin is put away, he shall not die. And is not this the Lord's way with us still, beloved? Many a question He may have to settle with us in detail; He may have, as it were, to disown our ways in the sight

of all; that so His name be not dishonoured; but is it not still his way to strengthen us to endure all this, by assuring us of free forgiveness for all; and that, however he may have to sift and chasten us, it is not in anger, but in love; that it is because he is for us, and not against us. Yea; and the heart, thus strengthened, can take God's side against our own crooked when his grace has assured us that it is against our ways, not our persons, that His dealings are directed.

ways,

And yet let us give ear to the exhortation which speaketh unto us as unto children, "My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord." It is no trifling matter to be under the chastening hand of God. He is not like the soft and indulgent parent, who spares the rod and spoils the child. True, he afflicts not willingly; nor does he administer a single stroke that is not absolutely needed. But then on the other hand, He does not withhold a single stroke that is needed. He has no false tenderness. Think of what David passed through-the death of his child, after all his fastings and prayers, and wearing of sackcloth, in the vain hope of turning aside the stroke:the dishonour of another child of his, leading as it did to the slaughter of the guilty Amnon, by his brother and hers, the wilful Absalom. What a voice must all this have had in David's conscience! How, at every turn, it must have reminded him of his own sin. And then, after the lapse of years, Absalom, first exiled, and now restored, rebels against his father. Having stolen the hearts of the people, the conspiracy being ripe, he gets himself proclaimed king, and David has to flee for his life from Jerusalem. His long tried and hitherto faithful_counsellor, Ahithophel, is banded with his own son to destroy him. And when Ahithophel advises to pursue after the hoary-headed king, and come upon him while he is weary and weak-handed; "and I will smite," says he, "the king only;”—this infernal counsel meets with the warmest response from Absalom and his followers. "And the saying pleased Absalom well, and all the elders of Israel." What must David's heart have felt, when, in banishment from his beloved Jerusalem and the house of his God, he hears of Absalom's thirst for his blood. And Israel, too,

ready and eager to fight the battles of the rebellious son against his father, the Lord's anointed. Little did David anticipate this when fulfilling the lusts of his flesh and of his mind. But such were the bitter consequences of his ways; and if by all this God was shewing his hatred of the sin which, nevertheless, he had put away, surely David must have learnt by it all, with deepening horror and self-loathing, what the true character of his sin was.

And so he did. Beautiful is the meekness with which he bows to the hand that smites him. See his care for the ark of God. "And all the country wept with a loud voice, and all the people passed over: the king also himself passed over the brook Kidron, and all the people passed over, toward the way of the wilderness. And lo, Zadok also, and all the Levites with him, bearing the ark of the covenant of God: and they set down the ark of God: and Abiathar went up, until all the people had done passing out of the city. And the king said unto Zadok, carry back the ark of God into the city: if I shall find favour in the eyes of the Lord, he will bring me again, and shew me both it, and his habitation." Precious as it was in his eyes, he would not have the ark of God to be the companion of his wanderings, when these wanderings were occasioned by, and the witness of, his sin. If it please God, he shall be brought back to it; but if not, still let not the ark of God be disturbed. "But if he thus say, I have no delight in thee: behold, here am I, let Him do to me as seemeth good unto Him." What prostration of soul is here! How conscious is David of having no claim by nature, and of having forfeited every title resulting from the relationships which grace had established. He is cast entirely on mercy, and mercy is not to be, cannot be, dictated to. He is content that it should be with him in everything as the Lord pleases." And David went up by the ascent of Olivet, and wept as he went up, and had his head covered; and he went barefoot; and all the people that was with him covered every man his head, and they went up weeping as they went up." What a procession. At Bahurim, Shimei curses him and casts stones at him, crying after him, "Come out, come out, thou bloody

man, and thou man of Belial: the Lord hath returned upon thee all the blood of the house of Saul, in whose stead thou hast reigned; and the Lord hath delivered the kingdom into the hand of Absalom thy son: and behold, thou art taken in thy mischief, because thou art a bloody man." How every word must have gone to his heart. It was not, indeed, as the reviler said, because of the blood of the house of Saul. David had never taken pleasure in their blood; he had spared Saul himself once and again when he had his life in his hands. But this is no comfort to him now. He knows that he has shed blood, innocent blood, and though Shimei be ignorant of it, every word he utters, revives the whole scene in David's memory, and gives it a voice in David's conscience. And see how softly he treads and how meekly he bows. Abishai would go over and take off Shimei's head. But what says David?. "What have I to do with you, ye sons of Zeruiah? So let him curse, because the Lord hath said unto him, Curse David. Who shall then say; Wherefore hast thou done so?... Behold my son, which came forth of my bowels, seeketh my life; how much more now may this Benjamite do it? Let him alone, and let him curse; for the Lord hath bidden him." And what is it that enables David thus to "accept the punishment of his iniquity?" next verse discloses the secret. "It may be that the Lord will look on mine affliction, and that the Lord will requite me good for his cursing this day." His soul has drunk in the consolation of that word. "The Lord hath put away thy sin; thou shalt not die;" and now, severe and complicated and apparently interminable as his trials are, he has in the depths of his soul a confidence in God which keeps him from fainting under the rebukes of His holy hand. And now that in the depths of his distress, this expression of confidence in the Lord's grace has been drawn out of him; now that he has fully bowed to all that has come upon him ("I was dumb, I opened not my mouth; because thou didst it") the fact becomes apparent that the worst is over. From this time, the Lord turns his captivity. It is not that it is all overthat he has seen the last of it. No, the sword is never

The

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to depart from his house as long he lives. But there is in important turn in his affairs. Instead of being, as at were, given up into the hand of his enemies, the Lord begins now to act manifestly on his behalf. Ahithophel's prudent counsel is rejected by Absalom, and in despair he goes and hangs himself. The two armies of David and Absalom are drawn out for battle, and David receives an affecting proof of the place he fills in the hearts of those who still cleave to him. They insist that he shall not go out to the battle. "The people answered, Thou shalt not go forth; for if we flee away, they will not care for us; but now thou art worth ten thousand of us; therefore now it is better that thou succour us out of the city." The battle is set in array, and very soon the followers of Absalom are discomfited before David's servants. But alas, victory, in a case like this, has its pangs and its sorrows, scarcely less pungent than those of defeat. When the just judgment of God has armed brother against brother, and father against child, even though victory should be on the side of righteousness, at what a fearful cost is it won. Twenty-thousand men of Israel dead on the field can be no matter of rejoicing to Israel's king. Nor is this the worst. David had charged the captains concerning Absalom. (It may be that it was tenderness of nature, but what, save tenderness became one in David's circumstances?) "Deal gently for my sake with the young man, with Absalom." Such were his words; and he returned into the city to await the result. Tidings are brought him of the victory which God had graciously wrought. "Is the young man Absalom safe?" was his only reply. Another messenger arrives and proclaims the victory; the same question is proposed to him; and when he replies, "the enemies of my lord the king, and all that rise against thee to do thee hurt, be as that young man is," he can contain no longer. He sees in himself the cause of all these calamities to the nation and to his household—he thinks not of his own deliverance and triumph but of his son's destruction

a And thus, when on his death-bed, he hears that Adonijah is in rebellion against Solomon who had been chosen of God to be his

successor.