fear not but that you shall be " more than conquerors, through Hhn who loved you."]
2. In maintaining your steadfastness, look well to your own spirit —
[Persons do harm when they vindicate themselves in an unbecoming temper and spirit. We are to " instruct in meek- ness them that oppose themselves." " A soft answer turneth away wrath '^i" and "he who ruleth well his own spirit, is greater than he who taketh a city^." It is impossible not to admire the spirit of David on this occasion : let it be transfused into your minds ; and, " instead of being overcome of evil, learn, under the most trying circumstances, to overcome e^dl with good."]
d Prov. XV. 1. e Prov. xxv. 28.
1 Sam. xvii. 45, 46. Then said David to the Philistine, Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and xmth a shield : hut I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, tvhom thou hast defied. This day will the Lord deliver thee into mine hand.
THAT God acts in a sovereign way in the distri- bution of his favours is a truth to which proud man is very averse : yet does it meet us in every part of the Holy Scriptures. We have seen it in the eleva- tion of Saul to the regal office : it appears also in the selection of David, whom Samuel was ordered to anoint as successor to the throned We behold it now again in raising up David, whilst yet a youth untrained to war, to slay Goliath, from whom all the army of Israel fled. It might rather have been ex- pected that Jonathan, who had already shewn a most extraordinary valour, should stand forth as a cham- pion on this occasion ; or at least that some valiant man should have been found in the camp to espouse his country's cause : but God had ordained that David should possess the throne of Saul ; and by this means he began to educate, as it were, the youth for his destined office.
a 1 Sam. xvi. 1 — 13.