seize the full kingdom. It may be urged that this was 11:ood policy, but it was really something far deeper-it was that true piety, which finds its best expression in waiting on God and waiting for him. A common Christian sin is saying we trust God, yet taking life into our own hands. IV. GOD MAKES HIS PROVIDENOEB EVENTUALLY WORK OUT HIS PROMISES. We may conceive of all things and all events as under his control ; and the hearts of all men are in his hands. He is the Divine Master of all man's wilfulnesses. 'l'he Jona ages are his to work in. He can not only use forces, but fit forces together, and compel them to serve his ends. Perhaps the greatest marvel of human life is the way in which things unfold, and seemingly imposaible issues are reached. In St. Paul's thought, "All things work together for good." Full illustration is found in the events which led David to his throne. What, then, becomes the duty of the child of the Divine promises? Simply this-let him do the right, so far as he knows it, and in dependence on God's strength, day by day ; and let him rest assured that the faithful Promise-keeper will find the fittings, and lead on to the final issues.-R. T. Ver. 6.-Joab, the military statesman. Though this man, Joab, is introduced to us before (2 Sam. ii. 13, 26, etc.), yet, in order of time, this passage is his first appear- ance, and only here have we the account of his prowess in taking J ebus, and his part in the building of the city of David. He probably had been chief captain of David's band of outlaws, but on this occasion he gained the position of general of the national army, and he became subsequently the great military statesman of the kingdom, and the chief king's counsellor. Probably he may be regarded as the man who exercised most influence over the king, and the careful review of their relations produces a deep iµipres- sion that the influence was seldom a good one. He became David's master, and under his bondage David vainly writhed and struggled in his later years. I. JoAB HIMSELF. The incidents by which he is made known to us are mainly the following:-!. .Abner's killing of .Asahel,Joab's brother (2 Sam. ii.12-32), filled Joab with purposes of revenge. 2. Joab treacherously slew .Abner (2 Sam. iii. 6-39), and David felt himself too weak to do more than denounce the murder ; he dare not punish the murderer. 3. Joab took a leading part in the wars of the reign, especially distinguishing himself against the .Ammonites (2 Sam. x. 6-14). 4. Joab connived at David's sin in the matter of Bathsheba, and so gained the power over him which he so humiliatingly used afterwards. 6. Joab was faithful in the time of .Absalom's rebel- lion. 6. He directly and insultingly disobeyed his king and lord in slaying .Absalom. 7. He showed his mastery and his control of the army by killing Amasa, who had been appointed chief genero.l in his stead. 8. He properly remonstrated with David against his self-willed scheme of taking a census. 9. But after David's'death he took the part of Adonijah, and was condemned by Solomon. He was strictly a man of the world, brnve, daring, manly, generous, and persevering, but masterful, impatient of what he thought David's hesitancy and weakness; a man who saw clearly an end to be aimed at, and wo.s in no way particular about the choice of means by which to reach it. lfo was unscrupulous, having no quick sensitiveness of conscience to thllt which is wrong. Ho ordered his life by the rule of the expedient, not the rule of the right, and was heedless of the claims of others if they stood in his _way. A man who was a type of a clo.ss still to be found in business and social spheres, who are all for self, and do not mind who they trample down as they go up. "His character was ambitious, daring, unscrupulous, yet with an occasional show of piety" (2 Sam. x. 12). Wordsworth says, "Joab is the personification of worldly policy and secular expediency, and temporal ambition eager for its own personal aggrandizement, o.nd especially for the maintenance of its own political ascendancy, and practising on the weaknesses of princes for its own self-interests; but at last the victim of its own Machiavellian shrewdness." II. JOAB's INFLUENCE ON DAVID. Sometimes it was good. He skilfully aided in tho restoration of the banished Absalom ; and he properly roused the king from the exces- sive grief he felt at the death of his favourite son. Again and again, with statesman- like genius, he enabled David promptly to seize the occasions that promised success ; and he had reliaion enough, or insi~ht enough, to see where David was wrong in tho matter of tho c;nsus. But, as a whole, Joab's influence was bad. His unscrupulous- ness led David into crimes, and his masterfulness preventc<l David from properly 172 THE FIRST BOOK OF THE CHRONICLES. [cH. x1. 1-47,
punishing crimes. When conflict came between state necessity and religious duty, Joab gained the victory for mere policy, and so made David act in ways that were unworthy of one who was only Jehovah's vicegerent. It is never good for us to come into the power of any fellow-man. We should be ever in God's lead, but refuse any fellow-man's bonds. And no undue influence exerted by a fellow-man can ever relieve our responsibility before God. Craft, guile, policy, are no forces of blessing in any human spheres.-R. T.