2. What David really desired was not mere water, or even water from the well of Bethlehem, but to drink its water as he had done in other days — to drink it with the feelings of childhood. He wished to be again the shepherd boy passing in and out at the gate of Bethlehem, free from care as in the days of other years. It was natural, but it was vain. When he longed for the water of the well of Bethlehem he forgot to consider how, though the well might be the same, he was changed ; how, even if its waters were given him clear and cool as in days long ago, he must drink of it now no longer as the light-hearted boy of Bethlehem, but as a careworn man.
3. David wanted, not what he thought he wanted and asked for so importunately, but his childhood. We easily read enough between the lines of the incident to comprehend that the thirst was not so much in this man's throat as in his heart. Amid these deeds of arms his spirit was wounded and parched. Near his native place, within sight of the hills on which he kept his father's sheep, he was thinking of his boyhood, and his longing for the dear old well was a home-sickness. Worn out with his manifold troubles and anxieties, he wished to be a child again, and the well round which he used to play seemed a kind of fountain of youth. If he could only drink of its water, all the heavy weight of the years would fall off his spirit and he would become young again, with all the fresh hopes that animated him in life's morning.
Ye see me now an ould man, his work near done, Sure the hair upon me head's gone white;
368 THE WELL BY THE GATE
But the things meself consated 'or the time that I could ruu, They're the nearest to me heart this night. Just the daisies down in the low grass,
The stars high up in the skies, The first I knowed of a mother's face Wi' the kind love in her eyes,
Och, och ! The kind love in her eyes.^
III. Why did He Long foe it?
1. David was feeling the strong pressure of memory, the strength of association with a happy past; the force of that strongest of all the associations which bind a man with unalter- able piety to the scene of a happy boyhood. It was merely a sentiment; there were other wells as refreshing, other waters as cool, as that which trickled forth at Bethlehem. But the well of Bethlehem surely reminded him of the early days, with all their glad, free innocent ways, when he was a simple-hearted, God-fearing child, knowing little of evil and nothing of fighting and sorrow and life's rough work. Now his hands had shed blood ; his heart had been torn with fierce passions. It was not as in the olden days. He had lost much. He had gained much also, but it was the loss that he thought of now.
2. Why is it that men turn back thirsty and weary to the streams of their boyhood, and lighten up the darkness of their cave with the glory of memory ? Because there are losses connected with the passing of youth which can never be repaired and made good. Other good gifts may come in the place of the gifts of youth ; but David showed in that cry for " the water of the well of Bethlehem, which is by the gate," that he was conscious of the loss of something which was absolutely past recovery. The feeling has been expressed in most beautiful verse by Wordsworth. He says that with youth something was gone from him which could never be restored.
Nothing can bring back the hour
Of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower.
* Moira O'Neill, Songs of the Glens of Antrim.
2 SAMUEL XXIII. 15 369
(1) David was thinking of his lost enthusiasms. He had not reached his prime, yet life seemed to be closing in. There were withdrawals and impoverishments about his life which perplexed that large spirit within him, as it yearned for wider scope, fuller liberty, and nobler attainments. He yearned for the ampler liberties of youth, the wild free play of childhood. He longed for those days when mankind appeared as one brotherhood; when the thought of hating, or being hated, had never crossed his mind, but when all men appeared to be one loving confederacy.
How strong the memory of victorious enthusiastic youth was in David ! The first encounter with the lion and the bear — v/hat strength it gave him ! What a force it was ! That great encounter with the Philistines, when in his generous, boy-like ardour he could not understand how men who believed in God could cower before a bully giant, or acquiesce in a living degradation! See again how this lived with him into darker years ! See him take the sword of Goliath from the sacred precinct where it had been laid up as a consecrated relic, and say, " There is none like that ; give it me ! "
^ It constitutes the great and magnificent quality of youth that it can glow and blaze. It is a very commonplace thought after all that when men are old they will take things more c-almly, meaning only that the fires will have burned low. Cyni- cism is a poor exchange for enthusiasm. There are many and manifest temptations of youth, such as rashness, both of judg- ment and of conduct, hotheadedness, passion, unbalanced zeal, but these are all the extravagances of what is its finest quality. The world needs the strong hopefulness and buoyancy of youth, as well as the large experience and cautious wisdom of age. Youth is the motive-power of the world, driving it to new ends, and bringing to it new hopes.^