{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_10326/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_10326","id":"gutenberg_10326","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10326","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Religion/Spirituality","Church of England -- Sermons","David, King of Israel","Sermons, English"],"text":"Transcribed by David Price, email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk\n\n\n\n\nDAVID:  FIVE SERMONS\n\n\n\n\nNOTE:--The first four of these Sermons were preached before the\nUniversity of Cambridge.\n\n\n\nSERMON I.  DAVID'S WEAKNESS\n\n\n\nPsalm lxxviii. 71, 72, 73.  He chose David his servant, and took him\naway from the sheep-folds.  As he was following the ewes great with\nyoung ones, he took him; that he might feed Jacob his people, and\nIsrael his inheritance.  So he fed them with a faithful and true\nheart, and ruled them prudently with all his power.\n\nI am about to preach to you four sermons on the character of David.\nHis history, I take for granted, you all know.\n\nI look on David as an all but ideal king, educated for his office by\nan all but ideal training.  A shepherd first; a life--be it\nremembered--full of danger in those times and lands; then captain of\na band of outlaws; and lastly a king, gradually and with difficulty\nfighting his way to a secure throne.\n\nThis was his course.  But the most important stage of it was\nprobably the first.  Among the dumb animals he learnt experience\nwhich he afterwards put into practice among human beings.  The\nshepherd of the sheep became the shepherd of men.  He who had slain\nthe lion and the bear became the champion of his native land.  He\nwho followed the ewes great with young, fed God's oppressed and\nweary people with a faithful and true heart, till he raised them\ninto a great and strong nation.  So both sides of the true kingly\ncharacter, the masculine and the feminine, are brought out in David.\nFor the greedy and tyrannous, he has indignant defiance:  for the\nweak and helpless, patient tenderness.\n\nMy motives for choosing this subject I will explain in a very few\nwords.\n\nWe have heard much of late about 'Muscular Christianity.'  A clever\nexpression, spoken in jest by I know not whom, has been bandied\nabout the world, and supposed by many to represent some new ideal of\nthe Christian character.\n\nFor myself, I do not understand what it means.  It may mean one of\ntwo things.  If it mean the first, it is a term somewhat\nunnecessary, if not somewhat irreverent.  If it mean the second, it\nmeans something untrue and immoral.\n\nIts first and better meaning may be simply a healthy and manful\nChristianity, one which does not exalt the feminine virtues to the\nexclusion of the masculine.\n\nThat certain forms of Christianity have committed this last fault\ncannot be doubted.  The tendency of Christianity, during the\npatristic and the Middle Ages, was certainly in that direction.\nChristians were persecuted and defenceless, and they betook\nthemselves to the only virtues which they had the opportunity of\npractising--gentleness, patience, resignation, self-sacrifice, and\nself-devotion--all that is loveliest in the ideal female character.\nAnd God forbid that that side of the Christian life should ever be\nundervalued.  It has its own beauty, its own strength too made\nperfect in weakness; in prison, in torture, at the fiery stake, on\nthe lonely sick-bed, in long years of self-devotion and resignation,\nand in a thousand womanly sacrifices unknown to man, but written for\never in God's book of life.\n\nBut as time went on, and the monastic life, which, whether practised\nby man or by woman, is essentially a feminine life, became more and\nmore exclusively the religious ideal, grave defects began to appear\nin what was really too narrow a conception of the human character.\n\nThe monks of the Middle Ages, in aiming exclusively at the virtues\nof women, generally copied little but their vices.  Their unnatural\nattempt to be wiser than God, and to unsex themselves, had done\nlittle but disease their mind and heart.  They resorted more and\nmore to those arts which are the weapons of crafty, ambitious, and\nunprincipled women.  They were too apt to be cunning, false,\nintriguing.  They were personally cowardly, as their own chronicles\ndeclare; querulous, passionate, prone to unmanly tears; prone, as\ntheir writings abundantly testify, to scold, to use the most\nvirulent language against all who differed from them; they were, at\ntimes, fearfully cruel, as evil women will be; cruel with that worst\ncruelty which springs from cowardice.  If I seem to have drawn a\nharsh picture of them, I can only answer that their own documents\njustify abundantly all that I have said.\n\nGradually, to supply their defects, another ideal arose.  The\nwarriors of the Middle Ages hoped that they might be able to serve\nGod in the world, even in the battle-field.  At least, the world and\nthe battle-field they would not relinquish, but make the best of\nthem.  And among them arose a new and a very fair ideal of manhood:\nthat of the 'gentle, very perfect knight,' loyal to his king and to\nhis God, bound to defend the weak, succour the oppressed, and put\ndown the wrong-doer; with his lady, or bread-giver, dealing forth\nbounteously the goods of this life to all who needed; occupied in\nthe seven works of mercy, yet living in the world, and in the\nperfect enjoyment of wedded and family life.  This was the ideal.\nOf course sinful human nature fell short of it, and defaced it by\nabsurdities; but I do not hesitate to say that it was a higher ideal\nof Christian excellence than had appeared since the time of the\nApostles, putting aside the quite exceptional ideal of the blessed\nmartyrs.\n\nA higher ideal, I say, was chivalry, with all its shortcomings.  And\nfor this reason:  that it asserted the possibility of consecrating\nthe whole manhood, and not merely a few faculties thereof, to God;\nand it thus contained the first germ of that Protestantism which\nconquered at the Reformation.\n\nThen was asserted, once for all, on the grounds of nature and\nreason, as well as of Holy Scripture, the absolute sanctity of\nfamily and national life, and the correlative idea, namely, the\nconsecration of the whole of human nature to the service of God, in\nthat station to which God had called each man.  Then the Old\nTestament, with the honour which it puts upon family and national\nlife, became precious to man, as it had never been before; and such\na history as David's became, not as it was with the mediaeval monks,\na mere repertory of fanciful metaphors and allegories, but the\nsolemn example, for good and for evil, of a man of like passions and\nlike duties with the men of the modern world.\n\nThese great truths, once asserted, could not but conquer; and they\nwill conquer to the end.  All attempts to restore the monastic and\nfeminine ideal, like that of good Nicholas Ferrar at Little Gidding,\nfailed.  They withered like hot-house exotics in the free, keen,\nbracing English air; and in our civil wars, Cavalier and Puritan, in\nwhatever they differed, never differed in their sound and healthy\nconviction that true religion did not crush, but strengthened and\nconsecrated a valiant and noble manhood.\n\nNow if all that 'Muscular Christianity' means is that, then the\nexpression is altogether unnecessary; for we have had the thing for\nthree centuries--and defective likewise, for it is not a merely\nmuscular, but a human Christianity which the Bible taught our\nforefathers, and which our forefathers have handed down to us.\n\nBut there is another meaning sometimes attached to this flippant\nexpression, 'Muscular Christianity,' which is utterly immoral and\nintolerable.  There are those who say, and there have been of late\nthose who have written books to shew, that provided a young man is\nsufficiently brave, frank, and gallant, he is more or less absolved\nfrom the common duties of morality and self-restraint.\n\nThat physical prowess is a substitute for virtue is certainly no new\ndoctrine.  It is the doctrine of every red man on the American\nprairies, of every African chief who ornaments his hut with human\nskulls.  It was the doctrine of our heathen forefathers, when they\ncame hither slaying, plundering, burning, tossing babes on their\nspear-points.  But I am sorry that it should be the doctrine of any\none calling himself a gentleman, much more a Christian.\n\nIt is certainly not the doctrine of the Catechism, which bids us\nrenounce the flesh, and live by the help of God's Spirit a new life\nof duty to God and to our neighbour.\n\nIt is certainly not the doctrine of the New Testament.  Whatsoever\nSt. Paul meant by bidding his disciples crucify the flesh, with its\naffections and lusts, he did not mean thereby that they were to\ndeify the flesh, as the heathen round them did in their profligate\nmysteries and in their gladiatorial exhibitions.\n\nNeither, though the Old Testament may seem to put more value on\nphysical prowess than does the New Testament, is it the doctrine of\nthe Old Testament, as I purpose to show you from the life and\nhistory of David.\n\nNothing, nothing, can be a substitute for purity and virtue.  Man\nwill always try to find substitutes for it.  He will try to find a\nsubstitute in superstition, in forms and ceremonies, in voluntary\nhumility and worship of angels, in using vain repetitions, and\nfancying that he will be heard for his much speaking; he will try to\nfind a substitute in intellect, and the worship of intellect, and\nart, and poetry; or he will try to find it, as in the present case,\nin the worship of his own animal powers, which God meant to be his\nservants and not his masters.  But let no man lay that flattering\nunction to his soul.  The first and the last business of every human\nbeing, whatever his station, party, creed, capacities, tastes,\nduties, is morality:  Virtue, Virtue, always Virtue.  Nothing that\nman will ever invent will absolve him from the universal necessity\nof being good as God is good, righteous as God is righteous, and\nholy as God is holy.\n\nBelieve it, young men, believe it.  Better would it be for any one\nof you to be the stupidest and the ugliest of mortals, to be the\nmost diseased and abject of cripples, the most silly, nervous\nincapable personage who ever was a laughingstock for the boys upon\nthe streets, if only you lived, according to your powers, the life\nof the Spirit of God; than to be as perfectly gifted, as exquisitely\norganised in body and mind as David himself, and not to live the\nlife of the Spirit of God, the life of goodness, which is the only\nlife fit for a human being wearing the human flesh and soul which\nChrist took upon him on earth, and wears for ever in heaven, a Man\nindeed in the midst of the throne of God.\n\nAnd therefore it is, as you will yourselves have perceived already,\nthat I have chosen to speak to you of David, his character, his\nhistory.\n\nIt is the character of a man perfectly gifted, exquisitely\norganised.  He has personal beauty, daring, prowess, and skill in\nwar; he has generosity, nobleness, faithfulness, chivalry as of a\nmediaeval and Christian knight; he is a musician, poet, seemingly an\narchitect likewise; he is, moreover, a born king; he has a\nmarvellous and most successful power of attracting, disciplining,\nruling his fellow-men.  So thoroughly human a personage is he, that\nGod speaks of him as the man after his own heart; that our blessed\nLord condescends to call himself especially the Son of David.\n\nFor there is in this man (as there is said to be in all great\ngeniuses) a feminine, as well as a masculine vein; a passionate\ntenderness; a keen sensibility; a vast capacity of sympathy,\nsadness, and suffering, which makes him truly the type of Christ,\nthe Man of sorrows; which makes his Psalms to this day the text-book\nof the afflicted, of tens of thousands who have not a particle of\nhis beauty, courage, genius; but yet can feel, in mean hovels and\nworkhouse sick-beds, that the warrior-poet speaks to their human\nhearts, and for their human hearts, as none other can speak, save\nChrist himself, the Son of David and the Son of man.\n\nA man, I say, of intense sensibilities; and therefore capable, as is\nbut too notorious, of great crimes, as well as of great virtues.\n\nAnd when I mention this last fact, I must ask you to pause, and\nconsider with me very solemnly what it means.\n\nWe may pervert, or rather misstate the fact in more than one way, to\nour own hurt.  We may say cynically, David had his good points and\nhis bad ones, as all your great saints have.  Look at them closely,\nand in spite of all their pretensions you will find them no better\nthan their neighbours.  And so we may comfort ourselves, in our own\nmediocrity and laziness, by denying the existence of all greatness\nand goodness.\n\nNathan the prophet said that David's conduct would be open to this\nvery interpretation, and would give great occasion to the enemies of\nthe Lord to blaspheme.  But I trust that none of you wish to be\nnumbered among the enemies of the Lord.\n\nAgain, we may say, sentimentally, that these great weaknesses are on\nthe whole the necessary concomitants of great strength; that such\nhighly organised and complex characters must not be judged by the\nrule of common respectability; and that it is a more or less fine\nthing to be capable at once of great virtues and great vices.\n\nBooks which hint, and more than hint this, will suggest themselves\nto you at once.  I only advise you not to listen to their teaching,\nas you will find it lead to very serious consequences, both in this\nlife and in the life to come.\n\nBut if we do say this, or anything like this, we say it on our own\nresponsibility.  David's biographers say nothing of the kind.  David\nhimself says nothing of the kind.  He never represents himself as a\ncompound of strength and weakness.  He represents himself as\nweakness itself--as incapacity utter and complete.  To overlook that\nstartling fact is to overlook the very element which has made\nDavid's Psalms the text-book for all human weaknesses, penitences,\nsorrows, struggles, aspirations, for nigh three thousand years.\n\nBut this subject is too large for me to speak of to-day; and too\ndeep for me to attempt an explanation till I have turned your\nthoughts toward another object, which will explain to you David, and\nyourselves, and, it seems to me at times, every problem of humanity.\nLook not at David, but at David's greater Son; and consider Christ\nupon his Cross.  Consider him of whom it is written, 'Thou art\nfairer than the children of men:  full of grace are thy lips,\nbecause God hath blessed thee for ever.  Gird thee with thy sword\nupon thy thigh, O thou most Mighty, according to thy worship and\nrenown.  Good luck have thou with thine honour; ride on, because of\nthe word of truth, of meekness, and righteousness; and thy right\nhand shall teach thee terrible things.  Thy arrows are very sharp,\nand the people shall be subdued unto thee, even in the midst among\nthe King's enemies.'  Consider him who alone fulfilled these words,\nwho fulfils them even now eternally in heaven, King over all, God\nblessed for ever.  And then sit down at the foot of his Cross:\nhowever young, strong, proud, gallant, gifted, ambitious you may be-\n-sit down at the foot of Christ's Cross, and look thereon, till you\nsee what it means, and must mean for ever.  See how he nailed to\nthat Cross, not in empty metaphor but in literal fact, in agonising\nsoul and body, all of human nature which the world admires--youth,\ngrace, valour, power, eloquence, intellect:  not because they were\nevil, for he possessed them doubtless himself as did none other of\nthe sons of men--not, I say, because they were evil, but because\nthey were worthless and as nothing beside that divine charity which\nwould endure and conquer for ever, when all the noblest accidents of\nthe body and the mind had perished, or seemed to perish.  In the\nutmost weakness and shame of human flesh he would shew forth the\nstrength and glory of the Divine Spirit; the strength and the glory\nof duty and obedience; of patience and forgiveness; of benevolence\nand self-sacrifice; the strength and glory of that burning love for\nhuman beings which could stoop from heaven to earth that it might\nseek and save that which was lost.\n\nYes.  Look at Christ upon his Cross; the sight which melted the\nhearts of our fierce forefathers, and turned them from the worship\nof Thor and Odin to the worship of 'The white Christ;' and from the\nhope of a Valhalla of brute prowess, to the hope of a heaven of\nrighteousness and love.  Look at Christ upon his Cross, and see\nthere, as they saw, the true prowess, the true valour, the true\nchivalry, the true glory, the true manhood, most human when most\ndivine, which is self-sacrifice and love--as possible to the\nweakest, meanest, simplest, as to the strongest, most gallant, and\nmost wise.\n\nLook upon him, and learn from him, and take his yoke upon you, for\nhe is meek and lowly of heart, and you shall find rest unto your\nsouls; and in you shall be fulfilled the prophecy of Jeremiah, which\nhe spake, saying, 'Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither\nthe mighty man glory in his might, neither let the rich man glory in\nhis wealth:  but let him that glorieth glory in this, that he\nunderstandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord, who exercises\nloving-kindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth:  for in\nthese things I delight, saith the Lord.'\n\n\n\nSERMON II.  DAVID'S STRENGTH\n\n\n\nPsalm xxvii.  1.  The Lord is my light, and my salvation; whom then\nshall I fear?  The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom then\nshall I be afraid?\n\nI said, last Sunday, that the key-note of David's character was not\nthe assertion of his own strength, but the confession of his own\nweakness.  And I say it again.\n\nBut it is plain that David had strength, and of no common order;\nthat he was an eminently powerful, able, and successful man.  From\nwhence then came that strength?  He says, from God.  He says,\nthroughout his life, as emphatically as did St. Paul after him, that\nGod's strength was made perfect in his weakness.\n\nGod is his deliverer, his guide, his teacher, his inspirer.  The\nLord is his strength, who teaches his hands to war, and his fingers\nto fight; his hope and his fortress, his castle and deliverer, his\ndefence, in whom he trusts; who subdueth the people that is under\nhim.\n\nTo God he ascribes, not only his success in life, but his physical\nprowess.  By God's help he slays the lion and the bear.  By God's\nhelp he has nerve to kill the Philistine giant.  By God's help he is\nso strong that his arms can break even a bow of steel.  It is God\nwho makes his feet like hart's feet, and enables him to leap over\nthe walls of the mountain fortresses.\n\nAnd we must pause ere we call such utterances mere Eastern metaphor.\nIt is far more probable that they were meant as and were literal\ntruths.  David was not likely to have been a man of brute gigantic\nstrength.  So delicate a brain was probably coupled to a delicate\nbody.  Such a nature, at the same time, would be the very one most\ncapable, under the influence--call it boldly, inspiration--of a\ngreat and patriotic cause, of great dangers and great purposes;\ncapable, I say, at moments, of accesses of almost superhuman energy,\nwhich he ascribed, and most rightly, to the inspiration of God.\n\nBut it is not merely as his physical inspirer or protector that he\nhas faith in God.  He has a deeper, a far deeper instinct than even\nthat; the instinct of a communion, personal, practical, living,\nbetween God, the fount of light and goodness, and his own soul, with\nits capacity of darkness as well as light, of evil as well as good.\n\nIn one word, David is a man of faith and a man of prayer--as God\ngrant all you may be.  It is this one fixed idea, that God could\nhear him, and that God would help him, which gives unity and\ncoherence to the wonderful variety of David's Psalms.  It is this\nfaith which gives calm confidence to his views of nature and of man;\nand enables him to say, as he looks upon his sheep feeding round\nhim, 'The Lord is my Shepherd, therefore I shall not want.'  Faith\nit is which enables him to foresee that though the heathen rage, and\nthe kings of the earth stand up, and the rulers take counsel\ntogether against the Lord and his Anointed, yet the righteous cause\nwill surely prevail, for God is king himself.  Faith it is which\nenables him to bear up against the general immorality, and while he\ncries, 'Help me, Lord, for there is not one godly man left, for the\nfaithful fail from among the children of men'--to make answer to\nhimself in words of noble hope and consolation, 'Now for the\ncomfortless troubles' sake of the needy, and because of the deep\nsighing of the poor, I will up, saith the Lord, and will help every\none from him that swelleth against him, and will set him at rest.'\n\nFaith it is which gives a character, which no other like utterances\nhave, to those cries of agony--cries as of a lost child--which he\nutters at times with such noble and truthful simplicity.  They\nissue, almost every one of them, in a sudden counter-cry of joy as\npathetic as the sorrow which has gone before.  'O Lord, rebuke me\nnot in thine indignation:  neither chasten me in thy displeasure.\nHave mercy upon me, O Lord, for I am weak:  O Lord, heal me, for my\nbones are vexed.  My soul also is sore troubled:  but, Lord, how\nlong wilt thou punish me?  Turn thee, O Lord, and deliver my soul:\nO save me for thy mercy's sake.  For in death no man remembereth\nthee:  and who will give thee thanks in the pit?  I am weary of my\ngroaning; every night wash I my bed:  and water my couch with my\ntears.  My beauty is gone for very trouble:  and worn away because\nof all mine enemies.  Away from me, all ye that work vanity, for the\nLord hath heard the voice of my weeping.  The Lord hath heard my\npetition:  the Lord will receive my prayer.'\n\nFaith it is, in like wise, which gives its peculiar grandeur to that\nwonderful 18th Psalm, David's song of triumph; his masterpiece, and\nit may be the masterpiece of human poetry, inspired or uninspired,\nonly approached by the companion-Psalm, the 144th.  From whence\ncomes that cumulative energy, by which it rushes on, even in our\ntranslation, with a force and swiftness which are indeed divine;\nthought following thought, image image, verse verse, before the\nbreath of the Spirit of God, as wave leaps after wave before the\ngale?  What is the element in that ode, which even now makes it stir\nthe heart like a trumpet?  Surely that which it itself declares in\nthe very first verse:\n\n'I will love thee, O Lord, my strength; the Lord is my stony rock,\nand my defence:  my Saviour, my God, and my might, in whom I will\ntrust, my buckler, the horn also of my salvation, and my refuge.'\n\nWhat is it which gives life and reality to the magnificent imagery\nof the seventh and following verses?  'The earth trembled and\nquaked:  the very foundations also of the hills shook, and were\nremoved, because he was wroth.  There went a smoke out in his\npresence:  and a consuming fire out of his mouth, so that coals were\nkindled at it.  He bowed the heavens also, and came down:  and it\nwas dark under his feet.  He rode upon the cherubims, and did fly:\nhe came flying upon the wings of the wind.  He made darkness his\nsecret place:  his pavilion round about him with dark water, and\nthick clouds to cover him.  At the brightness of his presence his\nclouds removed:  hailstones, and coals of fire.  The Lord also\nthundered out of heaven, and the Highest gave his thunder:\nhailstones, and coals of fire.  He sent out his arrows, and\nscattered them:  he cast forth lightnings, and destroyed them.  The\nsprings of waters were seen, and the foundations of the round world\nwere discovered, at thy chiding, O Lord:  at the blasting of the\nbreath of thy displeasure.  He shall send down from on high to fetch\nme:  and shall take me out of many waters.'  What protects such\nwords from the imputation of mere Eastern exaggeration?  The firm\nconviction that God is the deliverer, not only of David, but of all\nwho trust in God; that the whole majesty of God, and all the powers\nof nature, are arrayed on the side of the good and of the oppressed.\n'The Lord shall reward me after my righteous dealing:  according to\nthe cleanness of my hands shall he recompense me.  Because I have\nkept the ways of the Lord:  and have not forsaken my God, as the\nwicked doth.  For I have an eye unto all his laws:  and will not\ncast out his commandments from me.  I was also uncorrupt before him:\nand eschewed mine own wickedness.  Therefore shall the Lord reward\nme after my righteous dealing:  and according unto the cleanness of\nmy hands in his eyesight.  With the holy thou shalt be holy:  and\nwith a perfect man thou shalt be perfect.'\n\nFaith, again, it is, to turn from David's highest to his lowest\nphase--faith in God it is which has made that 51st Psalm the model\nof all true penitence for evermore.  Faith in God, in the spite of\nhis full consciousness that God is about to punish him bitterly for\nthe rest of his life.  Faith it is which gives to that Psalm its\npeculiarly simple, deliberate, manly tone; free from all exaggerated\nself-accusations, all cowardly cries of terror.  He is crushed down,\nit is true.  The tone of his words shews us that throughout.  But\ncrushed by what?  By the discovery that he has offended God?  Not in\nthe least.  For the sake of your own souls, as well as for that of\nhonest critical understanding of the Scriptures, do not foist that\nmeaning into David's words.  He never says that he had offended God.\nHad he been a mediaeval monk, had he been an average superstitious\nman of any creed or time, he would have said so, and cried, I have\noffended God; he is offended and angry with me, how shall I avert\nhis wrath?\n\nNot so.  David has discovered not an angry, but a forgiving God; a\nGod of love and goodness, who desires to make his creatures good.\nPenitential prayers in all ages have too often wanted faith in God,\nand therefore have been too often prayers to avert punishment.\nThis, this--the model of all truly penitent prayers--is that of a\nman who is to be punished, and is content to take his punishment,\nknowing that he deserves it, and far more beside.  And why?\nBecause, as always, David has faith in God.  God is a good and just\nbeing, and he trusts him accordingly; and that very discovery of the\ngoodness, not the sternness of God, is the bitterest pang, the\ndeepest shame to David's spirit.  Therefore he can face without\ndespair the discovery of a more deep, radical inbred evil in himself\nthan he ever expected before.  'Behold, I was shapen in wickedness:\nand in sin hath my mother conceived me;' because he could say also,\n'Thou requirest truth in the inward parts; and shalt make me to\nunderstand wisdom secretly.'  He can cry to God, out of the depths\nof his foulness, 'Make me a clean heart, O God:  and renew a right\nspirit within me.  Cast me not away from thy presence:  and take not\nthy holy Spirit from me.  O give me the comfort of thy help again:\nand stablish me with thy free Spirit.  Then shall I teach thy ways\nunto the wicked:  and sinners shall be converted unto thee.'  He can\ncry thus, because he has discovered that the will of God is not to\nhate, not to torture, not to cast away from his presence, but to\nrestore his creatures to goodness, that he may thereby restore them\nto usefulness.  David has discovered that God demands no sacrifice,\nmuch less self-torturing penance.  What he demands is the heart.\nThe sacrifice of God is a troubled spirit.  A broken and a contrite\nheart he will not despise.  It is such utterances as these which\nhave given, for now many hundred years, their priceless value to the\nlittle book of Psalms ascribed to the shepherd outlaw of the Judaean\nhills.  It is such utterances as these which have sent the sound of\nhis name into all lands, and his words throughout all the world.\nEvery form of human sorrow, doubt, struggle, error, sin; the nun\nagonising in the cloister; the settler struggling for his life in\nTransatlantic forests; the pauper shivering over the embers in his\nhovel, and waiting for kind death; the man of business striving to\nkeep his honour pure amid the temptations of commerce; the prodigal\nson starving in the far country, and recollecting the words which he\nlearnt long ago at his mother's knee; the peasant boy trudging a-\nfield in the chill dawn, and remembering that the Lord is his\nshepherd, therefore he will not want--all shapes of humanity have\nfound, and will find to the end of time, a word said to their inmost\nhearts, and more, a word said for those hearts to the living God of\nheaven, by the vast humanity of David, the man after God's own\nheart; the most thoroughly human figure, as it seems to me, which\nhad appeared upon the earth before the coming of that perfect Son of\nman, who is over all, God blessed for ever.  Amen.\n\nIt may be said, David's belief is no more than the common belief of\nfanatics.  They have in all ages fancied themselves under the\nspecial protection of Deity, the object of special communications\nfrom above.\n\nDoubtless they have; and evil conclusions have they drawn therefrom,\nin every age.  But the existence of a counterfeit is no argument\nagainst the existence of the reality; rather it is an argument for\nthe existence of the reality.  In this case it is impossible to\nconceive how the idea of communion with an unseen being ever entered\nthe human mind at all, unless it had been put there originally by\nfact and experience.  Man would never have even dreamed of a living\nGod, had not that living God been a reality, who did not leave the\ncreature to find his Creator, but stooped from heaven, at the very\nbeginning of our race, to find his creature.\n\nAnd a reality you will surely find it--that living and practical\ncommunication between your souls, and that Father in heaven who\ncreated them.  It will not be real, but morbid, even imaginary, just\nin proportion as your souls are tainted with self-conceit, ambition,\nself-will, malice, passion, or any wilful vice; especially with the\nvice of bigotry, which settles beforehand for God what he shall\nteach the soul, and in what manner he shall teach it, and turns a\ndeaf ear to his plainest lessons if they cannot be made to fit into\nsome favourite formula or theory.  But it will be real, practical,\nhealthy, soul-saving, in the very deepest sense of that word, just\nin proportion as your eye is single and your heart pure; just in\nproportion as you hunger and thirst after righteousness, and wish\nand try simply and humbly to do your duty in that station to which\nGod has called you, and to learn joyfully and trustingly anything\nand everything which God may see fit to teach you.  Then as your day\nyour strength shall be.  Then will the Lord teach you, and inform\nyou with his eye, and guide you in the way wherein you should go.\nThen will you obey that appeal of the Psalmist, 'Be ye not like to\nhorse and mule, which have no understanding, whose mouths must be\nheld in with bit and bridle, lest they fall upon thee.  Great\nplagues remain for the ungodly.  But whoso putteth his trust in the\nLord, mercy embraceth him on every side.'\n\nFor understand this well, young men, and settle it in your hearts as\nthe first condition of human life, yea, of the life of every\nrational created being, that a man is justified only by faith; and\nnot only a man, but angels, archangels, and all possible created\nspirits, past, present, and to come.  All stand, all are in their\nright state, only as long as they are consciously dependent on God\nthe Father of spirits and his Son Jesus Christ the Lord, in whom\nthey live and move and have their being.  The moment they attempt to\nassert themselves, whether their own power, their own genius, their\nown wisdom, or even their own virtue, they ipso facto sin, and are\njustified and just no longer; because they are trying to take\nthemselves out of their just and right state of dependence, and to\nput themselves into an unjust and wrong state of independence.  To\nassert that anything is their own, to assert that their virtue is\ntheir own, just as much as to assert that their wisdom, or any other\npart of their being, is their own, is to deny the primary fact of\ntheir existence--that in God they live and move and have that being.\nAnd therefore Milton's Satan, though, over and above all his other\ngrandeurs, he had been adorned with every virtue, would have been\nSatan still by the one sin of ingratitude, just because and just as\nlong as he set up himself, apart from that God from whom alone comes\nevery good and perfect gift.\n\nSettle it in your hearts, young men, settle it in your hearts--or\nrather pray to God to settle it therein; and if you would love life\nand see good days, recollect daily and hourly that the only sane and\nsafe human life is dependence on God himself, and that--\n\n\n   Unless above himself he can\nExalt himself, how poor a thing is man.\n\n\n\nSERMON III.  DAVID'S ANGER\n\n\n\nPsalm cxliii. 11, 12.  Quicken me, O Lord, for thy name's sake:  for\nthy righteousness' sake bring my soul out of trouble.  And of thy\nmercy cut off mine enemies, and destroy all them that afflict my\nsoul:  for I am thy servant.\n\nThere are those who would say that I dealt unfairly last Sunday by\nthe Psalms of David; that in order to prove them inspired, I ignored\nan element in them which is plainly uninspired, wrong, and\noffensive; namely, the curses which he invokes upon his enemies.  I\nignored it, they would say, because it was fatal to my theory!\nbecause it proved David to have the vindictive passions of other\nEasterns; to be speaking, not by the inspiration of God, but of his\nown private likes and dislikes; to be at least a fanatic who thinks\nthat his cause must needs be God's cause, and who invokes the\nlightnings of heaven on all who dare to differ from him.  Others\nwould say that such words were excusable in David, living under the\nOld Law; for it was said by them of old time, 'Thou shalt love thy\nneighbour and hate thine enemy:' but that our Lord has formally\nabrogated that permission; 'But I say unto you, Love your enemies,\nbless them that curse you, and do good to those who despitefully use\nyou and persecute you.'  How unnecessary, and how wrong then, they\nwould say, it is of the Church of England to retain these cursing\nPsalms in her public worship, and put them into the mouths of her\ncongregations.  Either they are merely painful, as well as\nunnecessary to Christians; or if they mean anything, they excuse and\nfoster the habit too common among religious controversialists of\ninvoking the wrath of heaven on their opponents.\n\nI argue with neither of the objectors.  But the question is a\ncurious and an important one; and I am bound, I think, to examine it\nin a sermon which, like the present, treats of David's chivalry.\n\nWhat David meant by these curses can be best known from his own\nactions.  What certain persons have meant by them since is patent\nenough from their actions.  Mediaeval monks considered but too often\nthe enemies of their creed, of their ecclesiastical organisation,\neven of their particular monastery, to be ipso facto enemies of God;\nand applied to them the seeming curses of David's Psalms, with\nfearful additions, of which David, to his honour, never dreamed.\n'May they feel with Dathan and Abiram the damnation of Gehenna,'\n{285} is a fair sample of the formulae which are found in the\nwritings of men who, while they called themselves the servants of\nJesus Christ our Lord, derived their notions of the next world\nprincipally from the sixth book of Virgil's AEneid.  And what they\nmeant by their words their acts shewed.  Whenever they had the\npower, they were but too apt to treat their supposed enemies in this\nlife, as they expected God to treat them in the next.  The history\nof the Inquisition on the continent, in America, and in the\nPortuguese Indies--of the Marian persecutions in England--of the\nPiedmontese massacres in the 17th century--are facts never to be\nforgotten.  Their horrors have been described in too authentic\ndocuments; they remain for ever the most hideous pages in the\nhistory of sinful human nature.  Do we find a hint of any similar\nconduct on the part of David?  If not, it is surely probable that he\ndid not mean by his imprecations what the mediaeval clergy meant.\n\nCertainly, whatsoever likeness there may have been in language, the\ncontrast in conduct is most striking.  It is a special mark of\nDavid's character, as special as his faith in God, that he never\navenges himself with his own hand.  Twice he has Saul in his power:\nonce in the cave at Engedi, once at the camp at Hachilah, and both\ntimes he refuses nobly to use his opportunity.  He is his master,\nthe Lord's Anointed; and his person is sacred in the eyes of David\nhis servant--his knight, as he would have been called in the Middle\nAge.  The second time David's temptation is a terrible one.  He has\nsoftened Saul's wild heart by his courtesy and pathos when he\npleaded with him, after letting him escape from the cave; and he has\nsworn to Saul that when he becomes king he will never cut off his\nchildren, or destroy his name out of his father's home.  Yet we find\nSaul, immediately after, attacking him again out of mere caprice;\nand once more falling into his hands.  Abishai says--and who can\nwonder?--'Let me smite him with the spear to the earth this once,\nand I will not smite a second time.'  What wonder?  The man is not\nto be trusted--truce with him is impossible; but David still keeps\nhis chivalry, in the true meaning of that word:  'Destroy him not,\nfor who can stretch forth his hand against the Lord's Anointed, and\nbe guiltless?  As the Lord liveth, the Lord shall smite him, or his\nday shall come to die; or he shall go down into battle, and perish.\nBut the Lord forbid that I should stretch forth my hand against the\nLord's Anointed.'\n\nAnd if it be argued, that David regarded the person of a king as\nlegally sacred, there is a case more clear still, in which he\nabjures the right of revenge upon a private person.\n\nNabal, in addition to his ingratitude, has insulted him with the\nbitterest insult which could be offered to a free man in a slave-\nholding country.  He has hinted that David is neither more nor less\nthan a runaway slave.  And David's heart is stirred by a terrible\nand evil spirit.  He dare not trust his men, even himself, with his\nblack thoughts.  'Gird on your swords,' is all that he can say\naloud.  But he had said in his heart, 'God do so and more to the\nenemies of David, if I leave a man alive by the morning light of all\nthat pertain to him.'\n\nAnd yet at the first words of reason and of wisdom, urged doubtless\nby the eloquence of a beautiful and noble woman, but no less by the\nSpirit of God speaking through her, as all who call themselves\ngentlemen should know already, his right spirit returns to him.  The\nchivalrous instinct of forgiveness and duty is roused once more; and\nhe cries, 'Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, which sent thee this\nday to meet me; and blessed be thou, which hast kept me this day\nfrom shedding blood, and from avenging myself with mine own hand.'\n\nIt is plain then, that David's notion of his duty to his enemies was\nvery different from that of the monks.  But still they are\nundeniably imprecations, the imprecations of a man smarting under\ncruel injustice; who cannot, and in some cases must not avenge\nhimself, and who therefore calls on the just God to avenge him.  Are\nwe therefore to say that these utterances of David are uninspired?\nNot in the least:  we are boldly to say that they are inspired, and\nby the very Spirit of God, who is the Spirit of justice and of\njudgment.\n\nDoubtless there were, in after ages, far higher inspirations.  The\nSpirit of God was, and is gradually educating mankind, and\nindividuals among mankind, like David, upward from lower truths to\nhigher ones.  That is the express assertion of our Lord and of his\nApostles.  But the higher and later inspiration does not make the\nlower and earlier false.  It does not even always supersede it\naltogether.  Each is true; and, for the most part, each must remain,\nand be respected, that they may complement each other.\n\nLet us look at this question rationally and reverently, free from\nall sentimental and immoral indulgence for sin and wrong.\n\nThe first instinct of man is the Lex Talionis.  As you do to me--\nsays the savage--so I have a right to do to you.  If you try to kill\nme or mine, I have a right to kill you in return.  Is this notion\nuninspired?  I should be sorry to say so.  It is surely the first\nform and the only possible first form of the sense of justice and\nretribution.  As a man sows so shall he reap.  If a man does wrong\nhe deserves to be punished.  No arguments will drive that great\ndivine law out of the human mind; for God has put it there.\n\nAfter that inspiration comes a higher one.  The man is taught to\nsay, I must not punish my enemy if I can avoid it.  God must punish\nhim, either by the law of the land or by his providential judgments.\nTo this height David rises.  In a seemingly lawless age and country,\nunder the most extreme temptation, he learns to say, 'Blessed be God\nwho hath kept me from avenging myself with my own hand.'\n\nBut still, it may be said, David calls down God's vengeance on his\nenemies.  He has not learnt to hate the sin and yet love the sinner.\nDoubtless he has not:  and it may have been right for his education,\nand for the education of the human race through him, that he did\nnot.  It may have been a good thing for him, as a future king; it\nmay be a good thing for many a man now, to learn the sinfulness of\nsin, by feeling its effects in his own person; by writhing under\nthose miseries of body and soul, which wicked men can, and do\ninflict on their fellow-creatures.\n\nThere are sins which a good man will not pity, but wage internecine\nwar against them; sins for which he is justified, if God have called\nhim thereto, to destroy the sinner in his sins.  The traitor, the\ntyrant, the ravisher, the robber, the extortioner, are not objects\nof pity, but of punishment; and it may have been very good for David\nto be taught by sharp personal experience, that those who robbed the\nwidow and put the fatherless to death, like the lawless lords of his\ntime; those like Saul, who smote the city of the priests for having\ngiven David food--men and women, children and sucklings, oxen and\nasses and sheep, with the edge of the sword; those who, like the\nnameless traitor who so often rouses his indignation--his own\nfamiliar friend who lifted up his heel against him--sought men's\nlives under the guise of friendship:  that such, I say, were persons\nnot to be tolerated upon the face of God's earth.  We do not\ntolerate them now.  We punish them by law.  We even destroy them\nwholesale in war, without inquiring into their individual guilt or\ninnocence.  David was taught, not by abstract meditation in his\nstudy, but by bitter need and agony, not to tolerate them then.  If\nhe could have destroyed them as we do now, it is not for us to say\nthat he would have been wrong.  And what if he were indignant, and\nwhat if he expressed that indignation?  I have yet to discover that\nindignation against wrong is aught but righteous, noble, and divine.\nThe flush of rage and scorn which rises, and ought to rise in every\nhonest heart, when we see a woman or a child ill-used, a poor man\nwronged or crushed--What is that, but the inspiration of Almighty\nGod?  What is that but the likeness of Christ?  Woe to the man who\nhas lost that feeling!  Woe to the man who can stand coolly by, and\nsee wrong done without a shock or a murmur, or even more, to the\nvery limits of the just laws of this land.  He may think it a fine\nthing so to do; a proof that he is an easy, prudent man of the\nworld, and not a meddlesome enthusiast.  But all that it does prove\nis:  That the Spirit of God, who is the Spirit of justice and\njudgment, has departed from him.\n\nI say the Spirit of God and the likeness of Christ.  Instead of\nbelieving David's own statement of the wrong doings of these men\nabout him, we may say cynically, and as it seems to me most\nunfairly, 'Of course there were two sides to David's quarrels, as\nthere are to all such; and of course he took his own side; and\nconsidered himself always in the right, and every one who differed\nfrom him in the wrong;' and such a speech will sound sufficiently\nworldly-wise to pass for philosophy with some critics; but,\nunfortunately, he who says that of David, will be bound in all\nfairness to say it of our Lord Jesus Christ.\n\nFor you must remember that there was a class of sinners in Judaea,\nto whom our Lord speaks no word of pity or forgiveness:  namely, the\nvery men who were his own personal enemies, who were persecuting\nhim, and going about to kill him; and that therefore, by any hard\nwords toward them, he must have laid himself open, just as much as\nDavid laid himself open, to the imputation of personal spite.  And\nyet, what did he say to the scribes and Pharisees:  'Ye go about to\nkill me, and therefore I am bound to say nothing harsh concerning\nyou'?  What he did say was this:  'Ye serpents, ye generation of\nvipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?'\n\nYes; in the Son of David, as in David's self, there was, and is, and\nwill be for ever and ever, no weak, and really cruel indulgence; but\na burning fire of indignation against all hypocrisy, tyranny, lust,\ncruelty, and every other sin by which men oppress, torment, deceive,\ndegrade their fellow-men; and still more, still more, remember that,\nall young men, their fellow-women.  That fire burns for ever--the\nDivine fire of God; the fire not of hatred, but of love to mankind,\nwhich will therefore punish, and if need be, exterminate all who\nshall dare to make mankind the worse, whether in body or soul or\nmind.\n\nBut David prays God to kill his enemies.  No doubt he does.\nProbably they deserved to be killed.  He does not ask, you will\nalways remember, if you be worthy of the name of critical students\nof the Bible--he does not ask, as did the mediaeval monks, that his\nenemies should go to endless torments after they died.  True or\nfalse, that is a more modern notion--and if it be applied to the\nPsalms, an interpolation--of which David knew nothing.  He asks\nsimply that the men may die.  Probably he knew his own business\nbest, and the men deserved to die; to be killed either by God or by\nman, as do too many in all ages.\n\nIf we take the Bible as it stands (and we have no right to do\notherwise), these men were trying to kill David.  He could not, and\nupon a point of honour, would not kill them himself.  But he\nbelieved, and rightly, that God can punish the offender whom man\ncannot touch, and that He will, and does punish them.  And if he\ncalls on God to execute justice and judgment upon these men, he only\ncalls on God to do what God is doing continually on the face of the\nwhole earth.  In fact, God does punish here, in this life.  He does\nnot, as false preachers say, give over this life to impunity, and\nthis world to the devil, and only resume the reins of moral\ngovernment and the right of retribution when men die and go into the\nnext world.  Here, in this life, he punishes sin; slowly, but\nsurely, God punishes.  And if any of you doubt my words, you have\nonly to commit sin, and then see whether your sin will find you out.\n\nThe whole question turns on this, Are we to believe in a living God,\nor are we not?  If we are not, then David's words are of course\nworse than nothing.  If we are, I do not see why David was wrong in\ncalling on God to exercise that moral and providential government of\nthe world, which is the very note and definition of a living God.\n\nBut what right have we to use these words?  My friends, if the\nChurch bids us use these words, she certainly does not bid us act\nupon them.  She keeps them, I believe most rightly, as a record of a\nhuman experience, which happily seems to us special and extreme, of\nwhich we, in a well-governed Christian land, know nothing, and shall\nnever know.\n\nSpecial and extreme?  Alas, alas!  In too many countries, in too\nmany ages, it has been the common, the almost universal experience\nof the many weak, enslaved, tortured, butchered at the wicked will\nof the few strong.\n\nThere have been those in tens of thousands, there may be those again\nwho will have a right to cry to God, 'Of thy goodness slay mine\nenemies, lest they slay, or worse than slay, both me and mine.'\nThere were thousands of English after the Norman Conquest; there\nwere thousands of Hindoos in Oude before its annexation; there are\nthousands of negroes at this moment in their native land of Africa,\ncrushed and outraged by hereditary tyrants, who had and have a right\nto appeal to God, as David appealed to him against the robber lords\nof Palestine; a right to cry, 'Rid us, O God; if thou be a living\nGod, a God of justice and mercy, rid us not only of these men, but\nof their children after them.  This tyrant, stained with lust and\nwine and blood; this robber chieftain who privily in his lurking\ndens murders the innocent, and ravishes the poor when he getteth him\ninto his net; this slave-hunting king who kills the captives whom he\ncannot sell; and whose children after him will inevitably imitate\nhis cruelties and his rapine and treacheries--deal with him and his\nas they deserve.  Set an ungodly man to be ruler over him; that he\nmay find out what we have been enduring from his ungodly rule.  Let\nhis days be few, and another take his office.  Let his children be\nfatherless, and his wife a widow.  Let his children beg their bread\nout of desolate places.  Let there be no man to pity him or take\ncompassion on his fatherless children--to take his part, and breed\nup a fresh race of tyrants to our misery.  Let the extortioner\nconsume all he hath, and the stranger spoil his labour--for what he\nhas is itself taken by extortion, and he has spoiled the labour of\nthousands.  Let his posterity be destroyed, and in the next\ngeneration his name be clean put out.  Let the wickedness of his\nfather and the sin of his mother be had in remembrance in the sight\nof the Lord; that he may root out the memorial of them from the\nearth, and enable law and justice, peace and freedom to take the\nplace of anarchy and tyranny and blood.'\n\nThat prayer was answered--if we are to believe the records of\nNorman, not English, monks in England after the Conquest, by the\nspeedy extinction of the most guilty families among the Norman\nconquerors.  It is being answered, thank God, in Hindostan at this\nmoment.  It will surely be answered in Africa in God's good time;\nfor the Lord reigneth, be the nations never so unquiet.  And we, if\nwe will read such words rationally and humanly, remembering the\nstate of society in which they were written--a state of society,\nalas! which has endured, and still endures over a vast portion of\nthe habitable globe; where might is right, and there is little or no\nprinciple, save those of lust and greed and revenge--then instead of\nwishing such words out of the Bible, we shall be glad to keep them\nthere, as testimonies to the moral government of the world by a God\nand a Christ who will surely avenge the innocent blood; and as a\nGospel of comfort to suffering millions, when the news reaches them\nat last, that they may call on God to deliver them from their\ntormentors, and that he will hear their cry, and will help them.\n\n\n\nSERMON IV.  DAVID'S DESERTS\n\n\n\n2 Samuel i. 26.  I am distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan:\nvery pleasant hast thou been unto me:  thy love to me was wonderful,\npassing the love of women.\n\nPassing the love of woman?  How can that be, we of these days shall\nsay.  What love can pass that, saving the boundless love of him who\nstooped from heaven to earth, that he might die on the Cross for us?\nNo.  David, when he sang those words, knew not the depth of woman's\nlove.  And we shall have a right so to speak.  The indefeasible and\nDivine right which is bestowed by fact.\n\nAs a fact, we do not find among the ancient Jews that exalting and\npurifying ideal of the relations between man and woman, which is to\nbe found, thank God, in these days, in almost every British work of\nfiction or fancy.\n\nIt is enunciated, remember always, in the oldest Hebrew document.\nOn the very threshold of the Bible, in the very first chapters of\nGenesis, it is enunciated in its most ideal purity and perfection.\nBut in practice it was never fulfilled.  No man seems to have\nattempted to fulfil it.  Man becomes a polygamist, lower than the\nvery birds of the air.  Abraham, the father of the faithful, has his\nSarah, his princess-wife:  but he has others beside, as many as he\nwill.  And so has David in like wise, to the grief and harm of both\nhim and Abraham.\n\nSo, it would seem, had the majority of the Jews till after the\nCaptivity; and even then the law of divorce seems to have been as\nindulgent toward the man as it was unjust and cruel toward the\nwoman.  Then our blessed Lord reasserted the ideal and primaeval\nlaw.  He testified in behalf of woman, the puppet of a tyrant who\nrepudiated her upon the most frivolous pretext, and declared that in\nthe beginning God made them male and female; the one husband for the\none wife.  But his words fell on unwilling ears.  His disciples\nanswered, that if the case of a man with his wife be such, it is not\ngood for a man to marry.  And such, as a fact, was the general\nopinion of Christendom for many centuries.\n\nBut of that, as of other sayings of our Lord's, were his own words\nfulfilled, that the kingdom of God is as if a man should put seed\ninto the ground, and sleep and wake, and the seed should spring up,\nand bear fruit, he knew not how.\n\nIn due course of time, when the Teutonic nations were Christianised,\nthere sprang up among them an idea of married love, which showed\nthat our Lord's words had at last fallen on good ground, and were\ndestined to bear fruit an hundredfold.\n\nGradually, with many confusions, and sometimes sinful mistakes,\nthere arose, not in the cloister, not in the study--not even, alas!\nin the churches of God, as they were then; but in the flowery meads\nof May; under the forest boughs, where birds sang to their mates; by\nthe side of the winter hearth; from the lips of wandering minstrels;\nin the hearts of young creatures, whom neither the profligacy of\nworldlings, nor the prudery of monks, had yet defiled:  from them\narose a voice, most human and yet most divine, reasserting once more\nthe lost law of Eden, and finding in its fulfilment, strength and\npurity, self-sacrifice and self-restraint.\n\nThat voice grew clearer and more strong as time went on.  It was\npurged from youthful mistakes and youthful grossnesses; till, at the\nReformation, it could speak clearly, fully, once and for all--no\nlonger on the ground of mere nature and private fancy, but on the\nground of Scripture, and reason, and the eternal laws of God; and\nthe highest ideal of family life became possible to the family and\nto the nation, in proportion as they accepted the teaching of the\nReformation:  and impossible, alas! in proportion as they still\nallowed themselves to be ruled by a priesthood who asserted the\ntruly monstrous dogma, that the sexes reach each their highest\nexcellence only when parted from each other.\n\nBut these things were hidden from David.  One can well conceive that\nhe, so gifted outwardly and inwardly, must have experienced all that\nwas then possible of woman's love.  In one case, indeed, he was\nnotably brought under that moral influence of woman, which we now\nregard, and rightly, as one of the holiest influences of this life.\nThe scene is unique in Scripture.  It reads like a scene out of the\nMiddle Age.\n\nAbigail's meeting with David under the covert of the hill; her\nturning him from his purpose of wild revenge by graceful\ncompliments, by the frank, and yet most modest expression of her\nsympathy and admiration; and David's chivalrous answer to her\nchivalrous appeal--all that scene, which painters have so often\ndelighted to draw, is a fore-feeling, a prophecy, as it were, of the\nChristian chivalry of after ages.  The scene is most human and most\ndivine:  and we are not shocked to hear that after Nabal's death the\nfair and rich lady joins her fortune to that of the wild outlaw, and\nbecomes his wife to wander by wood and wold.\n\nBut amid all the simple and sacred beauty of that scene, we cannot\nforget, we must not forget that Abigail is but one wife of many;\nthat there is an element of pure, single, all-absorbing love absent\nat least in David's heart, which was present in the hearts of our\nforefathers in many a like case, and which they have handed down to\nus as an heirloom, as precious as that of our laws and liberties.\n\nAnd all this was sin unto David; and like all sin, brought with it\nits own punishment.  I do not mean to judge him:  to assign his\nexact amount of moral responsibility.  Our Lord forbids us\npositively to do that to any man; and least of all, to a man who\nonly acted according to his right, and the fashion of his race and\nhis age.  But we must fix it very clearly in our minds, that sins\nmay be punished in this life, even though he who commits them is not\naware that they are sins.  If you are ignorant that fire burns, your\nignorance will not prevent your hand from suffering if you put it\ninto the fire.  If you are of opinion that two and two make five,\nand therefore spend five pounds while you only possess four, your\nmistake will not prevent your being in debt.  And so with all mortal\naffairs.\n\nSin, [Greek], means first, it seems to me, a missing the mark, end,\nor aim of our existence; a falling short of the law, the ideal, the\ngood works which God has prepared beforehand for us to walk in; and\nevery such sin, conscious or unconscious, must avenge itself by the\nDivine laws of the universe, whether physical or spiritual.  No\nmiracle is needed; no intervention of God with his own laws.  His\nlaws are far too well made for him to need to break them a second\ntime, because a sinner has broken them already.  They avenge\nthemselves.  And so does polygamy.  So it did in the case of David.\nIt is a breach of the ideal law of human nature; and he who breaks\nthat law must suffer, as David suffered.\n\nLook at the latter history of David, and at what it might have been.\nOne can conceive so noble a personage under such woman's influence\nas, thank God, is common now, going down into an honoured old age,\nand living together with a helpmate worthy of him in godly love and\nhonesty to his life's end; seeing his children Christianly and\nvirtuously brought up, to the praise and honour of God.\n\nAnd what was the fact?\n\nThe indulgence of his passions--seemingly harmless to him at first--\nbecomes most harmful ere he dies.  He commits a crime, or rather a\ncomplication of crimes, which stains his name for ever among men.\n\nI do not think that we shall understand that great crime of David's,\nif we suppose it, with some theologians, to have been merely a\nsudden and solitary fall, from which he recovered by repentance, and\nbecame for the time to come as good a man as he had ever been.  Such\na theory, however well it may fit certain theological systems, does\nnot fit the facts of human life, or, as I hold, the teaching of\nScripture.\n\nSuch terrible crimes are not committed by men in a right state of\nmind.  Nemo repente fuit turpissimus.  He who commits adultery,\ntreachery, and murder, must have been long tampering, at least in\nheart, with all these.  Had not David been playing upon the edge of\nsin, into sin he would not have fallen.\n\nHe may have been quite unconscious of bad habits of mind; but they\nmust have been there, growing in secret.  The tyrannous self-will,\nwhich is too often developed by long success and command:  the\nunscrupulous craft, which is too often developed by long adversity,\nand the necessity of sustaining oneself in a difficult position--\nthese must have been there.  But even they would not have led David\nto do the deed which he did, had there not been in him likewise that\nfearful moral weakness which comes from long indulgence of the\npassions--a weakness which is reckless alike of conscience, of\npublic opinion, and of danger either to earthly welfare or\neverlasting salvation.\n\nIt has been said, 'But such a sin is so unlike David's character.'\nDoubtless it was, on the theory that David was a character mingled\nof good and evil.  But on David's own theory, that he was an utterly\nweak person without the help of God, the act is perfectly like\nDavid.  It is David's self.  It is what David would naturally do\nwhen he had left hold of God.  Had he left hold of God in the\nwilderness he would have become a mere robber-chieftain.  He does\nleave hold of God in his palace on Zion, and he becomes a mere\nEastern despot.\n\nAnd what of his sons?\n\nThe fearful curse of Nathan, that the sword shall never depart from\nhis house, needs, as usual, no miracle to fulfil it.  It fulfils\nitself.  The tragedies of his sons, of Amnon, of Absalom, are\naltogether natural--to have been foreseen, but not to have been\navoided.\n\nThe young men have seen their father put no restraint upon his\npassions.  Why should they put restraint on theirs?  How can he\ncommand them when he has not commanded himself?  And yet self-\nrestraint is what they, above all men, need.  Upstart princes--the\nsons of a shepherd boy--intoxicated with honours to which they were\nnot born; they need the severest discipline; they break out into the\nmost frantic licence.  What is there that they may not do, and dare\nnot do?  Nothing is sacred in their eyes.  Luxury, ambition,\nrevenge, vanity, recklessness of decency, open rebellion, disgrace\nthem in the sight of all men.  And all these vices, remember, are\nheightened by the fact that they are not brothers, but rivals; sons\nof different mothers, hating each other, plotting against each\nother; each, probably, urged on by his own mother, who wishes, poor\nfool, to set up her son as a competitor for the throne against all\nthe rest.  And so are enacted in David's house those tragedies which\nhave disgraced, in every age, the harems of Eastern despots.\n\nBut most significant is the fact, that those tragedies complete\nthemselves by the sin and shame of David's one virtuous and famous\nson.  Significant truly, that in his old age Solomon the wise should\nlove strange women, and deserting for their sakes the God of his\nfathers, end as an idolater and a dotard, worshipping the\nabominations of the heathen, his once world-famous wisdom sunk into\nutter folly.\n\nBut, it may be said, the punishment of David's sin fell on his sons,\nand not upon himself.\n\nHow so?  Can there be a more heavy punishment, a more bitter pain,\nthan to be punished in and by his children; to see his own evil\nexample working out their shame and ruin?  But do not fancy that\nDavid's own character did not suffer for his sin.  The theory that\nhe became, instantly on his repentance, as good and great a man as\nhe was before his fall, was convenient enough to certain theologians\nof past days; but it is neither warranted by the facts of Scripture,\nnor by the noble agonies, however noble, of the 51st Psalm.\n\nIt is a prayer for restoration, and that of the only right and true\nkind:  'Take not thy Holy Spirit from me;' and, as such, it was\ndoubtless heard:  but it need not have been fulfilled instantly and\nat once.  It need not have been fulfilled, it may be, till that life\nto come, of which David knew so little.  It is a fact, it was not\nfulfilled in this life.  We read henceforth of no noble and heroical\nacts of David.  From that time forth--I speak with all diffidence,\nand merely as it seems to me--he is a broken man.  His attitude in\nAbsalom's rebellion is all but imbecile.  No act is recorded of him\nto the day of his death but what is questionable, if not mean and\ncrafty.  The one sudden flash of the old nobleness which he has\nshewn in pardoning Shimei, he himself stultifies with his dying lips\nby a mean command to Solomon to entrap and slay the man whom he has\ntoo rashly forgiven.  The whole matter of the sacrifice of Saul's\nsons is so very strange, so puzzling, even shocking to our ideas of\nright and wrong, that I cannot wonder at, though I dare not endorse,\nColeridge's bold assertion, that they were sacrificed to a plot of\nState policy, and the suspicion of some critics, that the whole\nscene was arranged between David and a too complaisant priesthood,\nand God's name blasphemously taken in vain to find a pretext for a\npolitical murder.  And so David shivers pitiably to his grave, after\na fashion which has furnished a jest for cynics and infidels, but\nwhich contains, to the eyes of a wise man, the elements of the\ndeepest tragedy; one more awful lesson that human beauty, valour,\nwit, genius, success, glory, are vanity of vanities:  that man is\nnothing, and God is all in all.\n\nBut some may ask, What has all this to do with us?  To do with us?\nDo you think that the Scripture says in vain, 'All these things are\nwritten for our example'?  As long as human nature is what it is\nnow, and was three thousand years ago, so long shall we be tempted\nto commit the same sins as David:  different in outward form,\naccording to the conditions of society; but the same in spirit, the\nsame in sinfulness, and the same in the sure punishment which they\nbring.  And above all, will men to the end be tempted to the sin of\nself-indulgence, want of self-control.  In many ways, but surely in\nsome way or other, will every man's temptation be, to lose self-\ncontrol.\n\nTherefore settle it in your minds, young men, that the first and the\nlast of all virtues and graces of which God can give is self-\ncontrol; as necessary for the saint and the sage, lest they become\nfanatics or pedants, as for the young man in the hey-day of youth\nand health; but as necessary for the young man as for the saint and\nthe sage, lest, while they become only fanatics and pedants, he\nbecome a profligate, and a cumberer of the ground.\n\nRemember this--remember it now in the glorious days of youth which\nnever will return, but in which you are sowing seed of which you\nwill reap the fruit until your dying day.  Know that as you sow, so\nwill you reap.  If you sow to the flesh, you will of the flesh reap\ncorruption; corruption--deterioration, whether of health, of\nintellect, of character in some shape or other.  You know not, and\nno man knows, what the curse will be like; but the curse will surely\ncome.  The thing which is done cannot be undone; and you will find\nthat out before, and not merely after your dying day.  Therefore\nrejoice in your youth, for God has given it to you; but remember,\nthat for it, as for each and all of his gifts, God will bring you\ninto judgment.  And when the hour of temptation comes, go back--go\nback, if you would escape--to what you all were taught at your\nmother's knee concerning the grace of God; for that alone will keep\nyou safe, or angel, or archangel, or any created being safe, in this\nlife and in all lives to come.\n\n\n\nSERMON V.  FRIENDSHIP; OR, DAVID AND JONATHAN\n\n\n\n2 Samuel i.  26.  I am distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan:\nvery pleasant hast thou been unto me:  thy love to me was wonderful,\npassing the love of women.\n\nPassing the love of woman!  That is a hard saying.  What love can\npass that?  Yet David doubtless spoke truth.  He was a man who must\nhave had reason enough to know what woman's love was like; and when\nhe said that the love of Jonathan for him passed even that, he\nbestowed on his friend praise which will be immortal.\n\nThe name of Jonathan will remain for ever as the perfect pattern of\nfriendship.\n\nLet us think a little to-day over his noble character and his\ntragical history.  It will surely do us good.  If it does nothing\nbut make us somewhat ashamed of ourselves, that is almost the best\nthing which can happen to us or to any man.\n\nWe first hear of Jonathan as doing a very gallant deed.  We might\nexpect as much.  It is only great-hearted men who can be true\nfriends; mean and cowardly men can never know what friendship means.\n\nThe Israelites were hidden in thickets, and caves, and pits, for\nfear of the Philistines, when Jonathan was suddenly inspired to\nattack a Philistine garrison, under circumstances seemingly\ndesperate.  'And that first slaughter, which Jonathan and his\narmour-bearer made, was about twenty men, within, as it were, an\nhalf-acre of land, which a yoke of oxen might plough.'\n\nThat is one of those little hints which shews that the story is\ntrue, written by a man who knew the place--who had probably been in\nthe great battle of Beth-aven, which followed, and had perhaps\nascended the rock where Jonathan had done his valiant deed, and had\nseen the dead bodies lying as they had fallen before him and his\narmour-bearer.\n\nThen follows the story of David's killing Goliath, and coming back\nto Saul with the giant's head in his hand, and answering modestly to\nhim, 'I am the son of thy servant Jesse the Bethlehemite.'\n\n'And it came to pass, when he had made an end of speaking unto Saul,\nthat the soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David, and\nJonathan loved him as his own soul.\n\n'Then Jonathan and David made a covenant, because he loved him as\nhis own soul.\n\n'And Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was upon him, and\ngave it to David, and his garments, even to his sword, and to his\nbow, and to his girdle.'\n\nHe loved him as his own soul.  And why?  Because his soul was like\nthe soul of David; because he was modest, he loved David's modesty;\nbecause he was brave, he loved David's courage; because he was\nvirtuous, he loved David's virtue.  He saw that David was all that\nhe was himself, and more; and therefore he loved him as his own\nsoul.  And therefore I said, that it is only noble and great hearts\nwho can have great friendships; who admire and delight in other\nmen's goodness; who, when they see a great and godlike man,\nconceive, like Jonathan, such an affection for him that they forget\nthemselves, and think only of him, till they will do anything for\nhim, sacrifice anything for him, as Jonathan did for David.\n\nFor remember, that Jonathan had cause to hate and envy David rather\nthan love him; and that he would have hated him if there had been\nany touch of meanness or selfishness in his heart.  Gradually he\nlearnt, as all Israel learnt, that Samuel had anointed David to be\nking, and that he, Jonathan, was in danger of not succeeding after\nSaul's death.  David stood between him and the kingdom.  And yet he\ndid not envy David--did not join his father for a moment in plotting\nhis ruin.  He would oppose his father, secretly indeed, and\nrespectfully; but still, he would be true to David, though he had to\nbear insults and threats of death.\n\nAnd mark here one element in Jonathan's great friendship.  Jonathan\nis a pious man, as well as a righteous one.  He believes the Lord's\nmessages that he has chosen David to be king, and he submits; seeing\nthat it is just and right, and that David is worthy of the honour,\nthough it be to the hurt of himself and of his children after him.\nIt is the Lord's will; and he, instead of repining against it, must\ncarry it out as far as he is concerned.  Yes; those who are most\ntrue to their fellow-men are always those who are true to God; for\nthe same spirit of God which makes them fear God makes them also\nlove their neighbour.\n\nWhen David escapes from Saul to Samuel, it is Jonathan who does all\nhe can to save him.  The two friends meet secretly in the field.\n\n'And Jonathan said unto David, O Lord God of Israel, when I have\nsounded my father about to-morrow any time, or the third day, and,\nbehold, if there be good toward David, and I then send not unto\nthee, and shew it thee; the Lord do so and much more to Jonathan.'\n\nThen David and Jonathan agree upon a sign between them, by which\nDavid may know Saul's humour without his bow-bearer finding out\nDavid.  He will shoot three arrows toward the place where David is\nin hiding; and if he says to his bow-bearer, The arrows are on this\nside of thee, David is to come; for he is safe.  But if he says, The\narrows are beyond thee, David must flee for his life, for the Lord\nhas sent him away.\n\nThen Jonathan goes in to meat with his father Saul, and excuses\nDavid for being absent.\n\n'Then Saul's anger was kindled against Jonathan, and he said unto\nhim, Thou son of the perverse, rebellious woman, do not I know that\nthou hast chosen the son of Jesse to thine own confusion, and unto\nthe confusion of thy mother?  For as long as the son of Jesse liveth\nupon the ground, thou shalt not be established, nor thy kingdom.\nWherefore now send and fetch him unto me, for he shall surely die.\nAnd Jonathan answered Saul his father, and said unto him, Wherefore\nshall he be slain? what hath he done?  And Saul cast a javelin at\nhim to smite him; whereby Jonathan knew that it was determined of\nhis father to slay David.'\n\nHe goes to the field and shoots the arrows, and gives the sign\nagreed on.  He sends his bow-bearer back to the city, and David\ncomes out of his hiding-place in the rock Ezel.\n\n'And as soon as the lad was gone, David arose out of a place toward\nthe south, and fell on his face to the ground, and bowed himself\nthree times; and they kissed one another, and wept one with another,\nuntil David exceeded.  And Jonathan said to David, Go in peace,\nforasmuch as we have sworn both of us in the name of the Lord,\nsaying, The Lord be between me and thee, and between my seed and thy\nseed for ever.  And he arose and departed:  and Jonathan went into\nthe city.'\n\nAnd so the two friends parted, and saw one another, it seems, but\nonce again, when Jonathan went to David in the forest of Ziph, and\n'strengthened his hand in God,' with noble words.\n\nAfter that, Jonathan vanishes from the story of David.  We hear only\nof him that he died fighting by his father's side, upon the downs of\nGilboa.  The green plot at their top, where the Israelites' last\nstruggle was probably made, can be seen to this day; and there most\nlikely Jonathan fell, and over him David raised his famous\nlamentation:\n\n'O Jonathan, thou wast slain in thine high places.  I am distressed\nfor thee, my brother Jonathan:  very pleasant hast thou been unto\nme:  thy love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women.  How\nare the mighty fallen, and the weapons of war perished!'\n\nSo ends the beautiful and tragical story of a truly gallant man.\nSeldom, indeed, will there be seen in the world such perfect\nfriendship between man and man, as that between Jonathan and David.\nSeldom, indeed, shall we see anyone loving and adoring the very man\nwhom his selfish interest would teach him to hate and to supplant.\nBut still every man may have, and ought to have a friend.  Wretched\nindeed, and probably deservedly wretched, is the man who has none.\nAnd every man may learn from this story of Jonathan how to choose\nhis friends.\n\nI say, to choose.  No one is bound to be at the mercy of anybody and\neverybody with whom he may come in contact.  No one is bound to say,\nThat man lives next door to me, therefore he must be my friend.  We\nare bound not to avoid our neighbours.  They are put near us by God\nin his providence.  God intends every one of them, good or bad, to\nhelp in educating us, in giving us experience of life and manners.\nWe are to learn from them, live with them in peace and charity, and\nonly avoid them when we find that their company is really doing us\nharm, and leading us into sin and folly.  But a friend--which is a\nmuch deeper and more sacred word than neighbour--a friend we have\nthe right and the power to choose; and our wisest plan will be to\ncopy Jonathan, and choose our friends, not for their usefulness, but\nfor their goodness; not for their worth to us, but for their worth\nin themselves; and to choose, if possible, people superior to\nourselves.  If we meet a man better than ourselves, more wise than\nourselves, more learned, more experienced, more delicate-minded,\nmore high-minded, let us take pains to win his esteem, to gain his\nconfidence, and to win him as a friend, for the sake of his worth.\n\nThen in our friendship, as in everything else in the world, we shall\nfind the great law come true, that he that loseth his life shall\nsave it.  He who does not think of himself and his own interest will\nbe the very man who will really help himself, and further his own\ninterest the most.  For the friend whom we have chosen for his own\nworth, will be the one who will be worth most to us.  The friend\nwhom we have loved and admired for his own sake, will be the one who\nwill do most to raise our character, to teach us, to refine us, to\nhelp us in time of doubt and trouble.  The higher-minded man our\nfriend is, the higher-minded will he make us.  For it is written,\n'As iron sharpeneth iron, so a man sharpeneth the face of his\nfriend.'\n\nNothing can be more foolish, or more lowering to our own character,\nthan to choose our friends among those who can only flatter us, and\nrun after us, who look up to us as oracles, and fetch and carry at\nour bidding, while they do our souls and characters no good, but\nmerely feed our self-conceit, and lower us down to their own level.\nBut it is wise, and ennobling to our own character, to choose our\nfriends among those who are nearer to God than we are, more\nexperienced in life, and more strong and settled in character.  Wise\nit is to have a friend of whom we are at first somewhat afraid;\nbefore whom we dare not say or do a foolish thing, whose just anger\nor contempt would be to us a thing terrible.  Better it is that\nfriendship should begin with a little wholesome fear, till time and\nmutual experience of each other's characters shall have brought\nabout the perfect love which casts out fear.  Better to say with\nDavid, 'He that telleth lies shall not stay in my sight; I will not\nknow a wicked person.  Yea, let the righteous rather smite me\nfriendly and reprove me.  All my delight is in the saints that are\nin the earth, and in such as excel in virtue.'\n\nAnd let no man fancy that by so doing he lowers himself, and puts\nhimself in a mean place.  There is no man so strong-minded but what\nhe may find a stronger-minded man than himself to give him counsel;\nno man is so noble-hearted but what he may find a nobler-hearted man\nthan himself to keep him up to what is true and just and honourable,\nwhen he is tempted to play the coward, and be false to God's Spirit\nwithin him.  No man is so pure-minded but what he may find a purer-\nminded person than himself to help him in the battle against the\nworld, the flesh, and the devil.\n\nMy friends, do not think it a mean thing to look up to those who are\nsuperior to yourselves.  On the contrary, you will find in practice\nthat it is only the meanest hearts, the shallowest and the basest,\nwho feel no admiration, but only envy for those who are better than\nthemselves; who delight in finding fault with them, and blackening\ntheir character, and showing that they are not, after all, so much\nsuperior to other people; while it is the noblest-hearted, the very\nmen who are most worthy to be admired themselves, who, like\nJonathan, feel most the pleasure, the joy, and the strength of\nreverence; of having some one whom they can look up to and admire;\nsome one in whose company they can forget themselves, their own\ninterest, their own pleasure, their own honour and glory, and cry,\nHim I must hear; him I must follow; to him I must cling, whatever\nmay betide.  Blessed and ennobling is the feeling which gathers\nround a wise teacher or a great statesman all the most earnest,\nhigh-minded, and pious youths of his generation; the feeling which\nmakes soldiers follow the general whom they trust, they know not why\nor whither, through danger, and hunger, and fatigue, and death\nitself; the feeling which, in its highest perfection, made the\nApostles forsake all and follow Christ, saying, 'Lord, to whom shall\nwe go?  Thou hast the words of eternal life'--which made them ready\nto work and to die for him whom the world called the son of the\ncarpenter, but whom they, through the Spirit of God bearing witness\nwith their own pure and noble spirits, knew to be the Son of the\nLiving God.\n\nAy, a blessed thing it is for any man or woman to have a friend; one\nhuman soul whom we can trust utterly; who knows the best and the\nworst of us, and who loves us, in spite of all our faults; who will\nspeak the honest truth to us, while the world flatters us to our\nface, and laughs at us behind our back; who will give us counsel and\nreproof in the day of prosperity and self-conceit; but who, again,\nwill comfort and encourage us in the day of difficulty and sorrow,\nwhen the world leaves us alone to fight our own battle as we can.\n\nIf we have had the good fortune to win such a friend, let us do\nanything rather than lose him.  We must give and forgive; live and\nlet live.  If our friend have faults, we must bear with them.  We\nmust hope all things, believe all things, endure all things, rather\nthan lose that most precious of all earthly possessions--a trusty\nfriend.\n\nAnd a friend, once won, need never be lost, if we will only be\ntrusty and true ourselves.  Friends may part--not merely in body,\nbut in spirit, for a while.  In the bustle of business and the\naccidents of life they may lose sight of each other for years; and\nmore--they may begin to differ in their success in life, in their\nopinions, in their habits, and there may be, for a time, coldness\nand estrangement between them; but not for ever, if each will be but\ntrusty and true.\n\nFor then, according to the beautiful figure of the poet, they will\nbe like two ships who set sail at morning from the same port, and\nere nightfall lose sight of each other, and go each on its own\ncourse, and at its own pace, for many days, through many storms and\nseas; and yet meet again, and find themselves lying side by side in\nthe same haven, when their long voyage is past.\n\nAnd if not, my friends; if they never meet; if one shall founder and\nsink upon the seas, or even change his course, and fly shamefully\nhome again:  still, is there not a Friend of friends who cannot\nchange, but is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever?\n\nWhat says the noble hymn:--\n\n\n'When gathering clouds around I view,\nAnd days are dark and friends are few,\nOn him I lean, who, not in vain,\nExperienced every human pain:\nHe sees my griefs, allays my fears,\nAnd counts and treasures up my tears.'\n\n\nPassing the love of woman was his love, indeed; and of him Jonathan\nwas but such a type, as the light in the dewdrop is the type of the\nsun in heaven.\n\nHe himself said--and what he said, that he fulfilled--'Greater love\nhath no man than this--that a man lay down his life for his\nfriends.'\n\nIn treachery and desertion; in widowhood and childlessness; in the\nhour of death, and in the day of judgment, when each soul must stand\nalone before its God, one Friend remains, and that the best of all.\n\n{285}  From a charter quoted by Ingulf--and very probably a spurious\none.","title":"David: Five Sermons","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":15043}