ending his life, not with a Nunc dimittia, but with the charge, "His hoar head bring Thou to the grave with blood." In the varied elements of his life and charo.cter there is no one in the whole of the Bible like David. A life teeming with vicissitudes, with romance, with pathos, and those startling changes of fortune which make history so much stranger than fiction. What drama is equal to it for tragic and romantic inte1,est alone, to say nothing of instruction? His character is as varied as his life. It reminds to no small extent of him whose writings in the New Testament hold somewhat the same place as the Psalms in the Old, the Apostle St. John. In both there is all the strength of man with all the tenderness of woman.· In both there is the same in- tensity-intensity of action, intensity of thought and word, intensity of love and hate. They could hate with the same fervour that they loved. They abhon·ed that which was evil in cleaving to that which was good; the one implied the other. But, as we might-anticipate from the difference of the dispensations under which they lived, the indignation which St. John feels for the wrong done to his Lord, David often feels for the wrong done to himself. He has strong words, and strong deeds sometimes, for those who treat him ill. With the exception of his dastardly conduct to Uriah there is no meanness about him. There is nobility even in his faults ; and certainly his repentance is noble. Is there any one in the whole of the Old Testament ·of whom we know so much, and yet find so much to admire, and praise, and love? With his chivalry and generosity, with his passionate love for hie friend and for his son, with his sweetness and delicacy, his energy ancl courage, do we not feel him to be a man after man's own heart as well as after God's? Whether we take the world's rough measure and judge him by what he did, or look deeper and judge him by what he was, we must admit that in him we have a king who was at once a true hero and a true saint. He was buried "in the city of D11,vid," i.e., on Mount Zion, in a tomb which he had probably prepared for himself. Even the site of it is now unknown. But he had reared himself another monument far more lasting in those imperishable hymns which have secured him a memorial in the hearts of all mankind. Of course not all the Psalms are his ; perhaps by no means all of those which bear his name. But they are his in spirit, if not in fact: the Divine inspiration flows through him to those who were moved to imitate him. They belong to no Church, eastern or western, not even to Christianity itself, although the Gospel alone can girn them their full meaning. They are the possession of the whole human race wherever it knows its God. Since the day on which he gave them to the world, the Psalms of David have never ceasecl to rise to the eternal throne. It may be thought that this survey of the life of David is in extent out of all proportion to the remainder of the summary. But the example of Scripture itself would seem to show that this is not so. ·whether we regarcl the influence of David "himself upon the people he ruled, or the growth and development of the people under his guidance, or the instruction which bis life supplies for each inui,·idnal son!, or the deep analogies which lie between the history of Israel at this its mo~t glorious period and the history of the Christian Church, the age ancl roigu of David ~tands alone in the history of Israel. If Samuel had founclecl a school of prophets, Davicl had founded a sohool of heroes a nation of warriors, consecrated, like a great military order, to the work of fightin~ for the Lord ngaiust the heathen, for H_im who now first bc::?ins to bo commonly known as "the Lord of hosts." Cnmin~. like J can ~f A:rc, from deep pastoral solitudes to take the lead in armies and stand at the xxxvi INTRODUCTION TO THE HISTORICAL DOORS:
right !1A,n<l of kings, he had reanimated and raised from llisgrace to glory a noble but disheartened nation. A man of the people himself, and owing nothing to his birth, he was a liY:ing witness to all, that the very highest advancement was pos- s:ihle to every man who worked with the blessing of Jehova,h. Thus the whole nation felt itself ennobled in him, and reverenced him with an enthusiastic devotion both on the throne and in his grave. This enthusiasm was not the creation of David: it met him ha.If way, and was the greatest of all his adv11ntages; second only to the aid of Jehovah Himself. Thus he and his people mutually acted and re11cted on one another, a type and an e11rnest of the relations between Christ and His Church. He abode among them, and they were represented and glorified in him, each rendering still further advance more possible for the other. From that uncertain period, which is neither childhood nor manhood, the nation had emerged into the strength and self-possession of the prime of life. How long will it remain there'! For the prime of a nation's life has no necessary limits. If the right conditions are there, the limits may be extended indefinitely. This question will find an answer only too soon in the history of the next reign.