Let religious professors in particular remember it ; for if they cast a stumbling-block before men, they will be accountable to God for all the e\dl that ensues. Methinks, in this, and in many subsequent events, David could not but see the sad fruit of his own iniquities ; and that very consideration would add ten-fold poignancy to all his grief: and many parents may find in the conduct of their children the severest reprehension for their own neglects. Let us guard against all such occasion for self-reproach ; and endeavour so to act, that we may be able to say to all around us, " Whatsoever ye have seen and heard in me, do, and the God of peace shall be with you."]
2 Sam. XV. 25, 26. And the king said unto Zadok, Carry hack the ark of God into the city : if I shall find favour in the eyes of the Lord, he ivill bring me again, and shew me both it, a?id his habitation : but if he thus say, I have no delight in thee; behold, here am I, let him do to me as seemeth good unto him.
SIN, though forgiven, rarely passes unpunished in this present world : on the contrary, God marks his indignation against it here, in order to embitter it the more to the offender who has committed it, and to endear to him the more that mercy which has been exercised towards him. At the very time that he forgave the sin of David, he declared to the par- doned penitent, that the sword should never pass from his house, even to the latest hour. Accord- ingly we find, that David was afflicted in no common degree in his own family ; and in such a way as strongly to bring his sins to his remembrance. He had dishonoured the wife of his friend Uriah ; and his own son Amnon violates his daughter Tamar. He had contrived and accomplished the death of Uriah ; and his son Absalom contrived and accom- phshed the death of his own brother Amnon. He had dishonoured God in the face of the whole world; and he himself is driven with scorn and infamy from his throne. Yet, though in this respect a monument of God's displeasure, he was now living nigh to God,