for his sake. Now this wns always a strong characteristic of David-a charm ot character and bearing which attached to him many lovers and friends. Jonathan loved him in youth as his own soul. His warriors were so devoted to him, that ho had but to wish for water from the well of Bethlehem, and three heroes dashed through the ranks of the Philistines to draw water and bring it to their chief. Ittai the Gittite and others are evidences that David retained this attaching power even in old age. And did not the Son of David, with an attraction which we cannot analyse or define, draw to himself the sons of Zebedee, and the sons of Jonas, the brother and sisters at Bethany, Mary of Magdala, and many more who found in his companion- ship and favour all that their hearts desired? Did he not afterwards draw to him- self the persecutor, Saul of Tarsus, and engage the all-enduring loyalty and love of Paul ? And are there not thousands on thousands who, though they have not seen him, love him, and in whose eyes he is never more worthy of love than when contem- plated as One despised and rejected of men, "a Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief"? It was a solace to Jesus in his deepest suffering that they who knew him best loved him. How often he dwelt on it, on the night in which he was betrayed I "If ye love me, keep my commandments." "He that loveth me shall be loved of my Father." '' The Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me." Just as it comforted David when hunted and proscribed to know that Jonathan loved him truly and well, so it comforted the Son of David, that though men might hate and kill him, there were those who loved him truly and well, and whom neither death nor life could separate from bis love. 2. Hated. We have seen how David's courage and discretion stirred Saul's jealousy. A man so rare in his qualities, so evidently fitted for greatness, drew after him eyes of cruel envy. So it befell the Son of David. Because Jesus drew to him disciples and friends, the priests and rabbis hated him. Because he was followed by multitudes, the rulers took counsel together against him. Because he answered and acted wisely, the scribes and Pharisees were filled with malice against him. Wherever he went, jealous eyes watched him, and crafty ques- tions laid wait for him. The Scripture was fulfilled: "They hated me without a cause. 11 Pontius Pilate easily detected the motive (no just cause) which led the Jewish Council to arraign the Son of David at his judgment-seat. "He knew that for envy they had delivered him." So it is to-day. Jesus Christ is proclaimed as mighty to save. The world is being filled with his name, and everywhere cries ascend of" Hosanna to the Son of David." And how is it taken? Some love, but some also hate. Some feel as Jonathan did. They are <]nite drawn out of them- selves to the Lord Jesus. He is, he must be, their Beloved and their Friend. And how significant of his greatness it is that he, now unseen, awakens in human hearts a faith as strong, an attachment as ardent, as thrilled the breasts of apostles who accompanied him and women who ministered to him in Galilee I Paul, who had not seen him in the flesh, loved him as truly and served him ns enthusiastically 11.s Peter and John, who had. Christians of the eleventh century, like Bernard of Clairvau:x, or of the fifteenth, like him who wrote as Thomas a Kempis, clave to him as devoutly as the Fathers who lived within a few generations of the apostles. And comparative modems, like Herbert, Bengel, Rutherford, Madame Guyon, Brainerd, Whitefield, the Wesleys, Toplady, Hervey, Henry Martyn, McCheyne, Adolph Monod, have held him as precious as did the most fervent spirits of earlier times. Jesus Christ has always known how to draw men to himself, and hold them by cords of spiritual attraction, so that they have loved him as their own souls. Others, however, eye him as Sabi eyed David, in order to find fault with him. Oh, what a triumph it would give to a certain class of men if they could only find a blot in the Lord Jesus; if they could show him to have been no better or higher than other men I But it cannot be clone. His way is perfect. His character, however closely scrutinised, reveals no flaw. It comes to this, that men hate him because he is so good. They love the darkne8s rather than the light, because their deeds are evil.-F.
Vere. 29, 30.-David proved and tried. I. EXEMPLARY CONDUCT UNDER TRIAL. One can hardly imagine a cour~e of events more likely to turn a young man's head and make him giddy with elation than the rapid promotion of the youthful D,wid. Brought at once from comparative obscurity iuto the full b]aZP. of public admiration THE FIRST BOOK OF SAMUEL. [cH. xvm. 1-30.