The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Chronicles — Section 162

and invested with a special honour the principle that was to last and to gain in signifi- ca°:ce when the outer sh.ell of cust.om or form was withered to nothing. The ceremony which set forth the makmg of a kmg of Israel was that of anointincr. '!'his was the th!rd time_ J?avid had been anoint~d. ~ut these _su~cessive acts of a;ointing were not vam repet1twns. The first was his private anomtmg, by Samuel accordin.,. to God's word and according to God's private call (1 Sam. xvi. 1, 12, 13): The s:cond was when David became king over Judah, and when the call and the willincr consent of his fellow-men, and of those up to this time his fellow-citizens, were added to the Divine appointment (2 Sam. ii. 4). .And the third was on the occasion before us when the heads of the whole people, with hearty unanimity, added the sanction of their presence and consent. Now, therefore, the anointing was finally performed. It was a ceremony, but not one destitute of meaning and of usefulness. It marked David to the eyes of all the nation as their " feeder and ruler," appointed of God, accepted of themselves. And it reminded himself of the solemn responsibility laid upon him to fulfil his duty to men as under the commands of God. II. THE C01'"DITION PRECEDENT TO IT. "David made a covenant with them, .. before the Lord." Beyond doubt, the choice and the call and the ordination of David were all of God. Beyond doubt, nothing could be safer or b&tter for all the people than to accept his deed and appointment unquestioningly. But there are ever an earthly order and a visible sign of some kind for us men, answering to the Divine will. These God does not only permit, but, as we believe, he enjoins them. It is another indication of the fact that God would ever be lifting our level nearer his own. The exact matter of the cn\'e11ant is not here given us, nor in fact in any of the parallel places. Yet with 'l"ery little hesitation we may say that we hear the echoes of it from the death- bed of David (2 Sam. xxiii. 2-5). It consisted of a solemn mutual engagement-he "to rule jnst, ruling in the fear of God; " they to follow and obey. God's covenants with man at any and every time are of the nature of free promises of mercy and grace, but of what in their very nature require the loving acceptance and use of them to impart availingness to them and to keep them availing, and this is the only kind of condition attaching to them-no meritorious condition. But in the fa.et of this covenant being made, and in the fact of its being so explicitly recorded, we have au evidence of God's condescending attention to our mutual relations. Though he it is "Who with sovereign right elects and with the right of a. sovereign voice calls one and :another to pre-eminent place and authority over us, yet he bids us see and watch the ,thing that is transpiring, and insist upon the right and just being done, and he submits :bis own choice to the verdict of the conscience of his people. We have a great .ecclesiastical principle, in embryo, as we might suppose, a.n instance of God's roye.l .congi d'ilire, entrusted to the elders of all Israel, and not formally put into effect by ,these until his own chosen one has entered into a covenant with them. IIL THE MORAL SUPPORTS NECESSARY TO THIS KING-MAKING. Remarkable, and in ,some respects even unique, as wa.s the raising of David to be king, in this final appoint- ment and anointing of him, yet it follows the lines of any other high appointment to .command of one man amongst his fellow-men. He is not really and for ever to be 'hedged in as a divinity, nor of divinity, except as this highest power works by human agency. The higher such a position is, the more necessary is it that it be not arti- ficially dissevered from the aid, the approval, the moral influence of others. Tile exalted individual's temptation to forget this, and even to override it, has very often been unceremoniously enough called to account and fiercely rebuked. The hierarchy -that obtains in human society, in the human family, may be accepted as an incon- testible fact, and, therefore so far forth as authorized of nature. But neither ought this to be strained or exaggerated. Much less are we to create, favour, or permit violent gaps between rank and rank, class and class. The most insensible gradations from rank to rank and class to class make the strongest, safest society. History proves, by instances almost innumerable, that to disbelieve and affront this principle is disaster, but to set it at nought and defy it is to court destruction, and that without remedy. We must not overlook the significance of the expression that "the chief of the mighty men whom David had" neither held themselves aloof from him nor were held at a distance by him in his new greatness. They stood near the throne. They helped to uphuld its dignity and the authority of him who sat upon it. There :s Jeally no on. n 1-47.] THE FIRST BOOK OF THE CHRONICLES.