The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Chronicles — Section 160

and splendour of the very few are built on the excessive toil and wrecked health of rnst numbers. And even in the natural order of things, the fame of the great rests on the substructure of millions of lives of the bumble obscure, whose industry, honesty, endurance, are the staple and the strength of the whole community, and whose bead and heart are often of the most superior. 'l'he edifice that towers the highest, in fact, must rest on the broadest base. 'l'bese considerations may guide us to the following conclusions upon the general subject, suggested by the particular instance so naively expressed now before us :-1. There is, beyond doubt, a vast amount of gratuitous, unjust, cruel, vicarious suffering in the world, and found in men's mutual relations. 2. There is also, beyond doubt, a vast amount of vicarious joy and advantage. The striving, the toil, the genius, the self-sacrifice of one often serve, not the private selfish advantage of some one other, but to a most beneficent degree they serve the advantage and help the joy of very many others. 3. Whether it be in the matter of suffering or of advantage and joy, this presence is by no means all due to the action, and mournful action, of human selfishness, error, greed. There is Divine design in it, Divine use for it. It is one of the strongest of the cohesive forces that contribute to hold together the conglomerate mass and yet very various fellowship of humanity. The entangle- ment that results from this unequal, system of exchange and substitution (the particular instances of which are so intricate, often so inscrutable, apparently untoward), consti- tutes probably one of the most ubiquitous and unresting of the mutual attachments and attractions of human society. 4. Even within the experience of the very indi- vidual at whose expense awhile the vicariousness seems to take effect, there are not unfrequently large redeeminit and compensating considerations. As for instance here: (1) David bad the opportunity given to him of learning, learning well, the profession ,,f a king, learning it practically, "even when Saul was king" in reality. If be were doing work and encountering risk, which formally did not belong to him, he was deri"l'ing untold advantages and the facilities of experience. (2) He was being divinely 1wrmitted to mark himself out for the dignity when it should become vacant, in the eyes of all those with whom, ere long, the decision and gift of it would, under God, m,t. How many men, in how many directions, would value just the corresponding opportunity above all things! How much would it be worth to one! (3) Even during learning, education, and possibly much suffering, David was evidently, to the eye that could see deepest, to the heart that should beat truest, receiving the decoration of real honour. To a great mind, to a pure heart, it is sometimes the highest investment of honour which could be conferred, to be the one divinely selected to do the work, while others take the pay. This is not of man, nor by man, but God's own chosen children recognize and value above everything else what are also his chosen methods of reward. I!. OF THE VICARIOUS PRINCIPLE THAT ENTERS SO LARGELY INTO HUMAN LIFE, IN Jl'S M.OBT DIRECT DrvIJ:s""E RELATIONS. 'l'he latter part of the verse before us is of the highest and most precious significance to every Christian man, and certainly not least so to the Christian pastor and minister. "The Lord thy God said unto th~e, 'l'hou ~halt feed my people Israel, and thou sbalt be ruler over my people Israel." Every servant of God from the first was set to be a witness of God and a witness for God, by word and deed before the worlcL And every Christian is called to be a witness of Jesus Christ and his truth, and a witness for these before the world, in all he says and does. We object to such an appellation as "vicar of Christ," or "viceroy" of Christ, on behalf of the pope or of any other one man exclusively of others. But the description of the latter part of this verse applies accurately to all the pastors-the under-Hhepherds of Christ's fold and flocks-and by inference, in their measure and degree, to all his people whomsoever. All of these have something to say, have much to do, "in the 81.ead of Christ." Nor should they repine when they may be called to bear and suffer in the Name and for the sak,e of Christ. The fact before us is just simply this, that David was entrusted by God' and on behalf of God with a great work, which was and could be only the work of God himself in the last resort, 'l'he people are emphatically 1,is; none could provide the food but he (Ps. xxiii. 1); none could find tho wisdom to rule, "the wisdom profitable to direct,'' the gift to "rule" but he. And he said, 11~verLheless, "'!'hot! shalt feed . . . thou sbalt be ruler over my people Israel." Out of the one simple but great fact before us we may select some special phases of it. 1. It i$ a very elevating reality of human life and work that it is not altogether shut off to cH, x1. 1-47.] THE FIRST BOOK OF THE CHRONICLES. 151