but in our text we behold him sending a prophet unto David to bring him to repentance, after the commission of such crimes as cannot be contemplated without horror and amazement. But " His ways are not as our ways, nor his thoughts as our thoughts."
The conduct of David as portrayed in our text, together with the means used by Nathan to humble him for it, lead us to shew,
I. To what an awful extent a man's conscience may be seared — We read of persons whose " consciences are seared as with an hot iron^:" and such was now the state of David —
[One would have supposed that, after the commission of adultery with Bathsheba, he would have been scarcely able to endvu'e his existence tlu'ough the agonies of his mind: but he was only concerned about conceahng it from man : accordingly, on findmg that her pregnancy must of necessity lead to a dis- covery of the crime, he adopted various means to deceive Uriah; and when he did not succeed m them, he sent an order to Joab to expose, and to desert, him in battle, so as to ensure his death by the hands of the enemy. Would one not suppose that such complicated crimes as these should awaken him ? Yet behold for nine or ten months he was, as far as appears to us, altogether insensible of his guilt.
At the same time he was quick-sighted enough to the crimes of others, and severe in the extreme against the man, whom Nathan represented as oppressively taking the favourite lamb of a poor neighbour in preference to one out of his own flock : he deemed that man to be worthy of death, because he had shewn no pity; and adjudged him to pay four-fold for the injury he had committed.
Who can reflect on this without utter astonishment ? That so holy a man as David, who had been so honoured of the Lord, and had done so much for the honour of his God, should be left to fall in so grievous a manner, and to lie for so long a time impenitent in his sins! Who can look upon it, and not weep for him? Who can look upon it, and not tremble for himself?]
But awful as this state of mind appears, it is, alas ! too common in this world —
[Such enormous crimes indeed as those of David are not common; but who has not committed some evils which ought
* 1 Tim. iv. 2.
Nathan's parable. 267
316.]
to have humbled hun in the dust before God? yet who
has not contmued months, and even years, without ever abasing himself with humiliation and contrition? Who has not she\\Ti a strange insensibility with respect to the guilt he has con- tracted? We can easily discern the faults of others,
and can censure them with severity ; but towards our own we are most blind and most indulgent.
Nor must we be considered here as referring altogether to those who despise religion: it is a common evil: it is found even in the house of God : there are professors of religion who are as blind to their own sins, as if they never had known what sin was ; and who, if their misdeeds are unknown to man, con- tinue for years unhumbled in the sight of God. Yes ; there are too many, who are both blinded and " hardened by the deceitfulness of sin ;" and, if ever God should give them true repentance, they will be as much astonished at their present insensibihty, as now they are at that wliich is recorded in our text.]
Seeing then how callous a man's conscience may become, let us inquire,
II. In what way it may be most successfully excited to perform its office —
Much may be learned from the conduct of Nathan on this occasion :
1. We should endeavour to divest men of the self-love that blinds them —