Ill. THE SUSPICION TO WHICH DAVID GIVES EXPREBSION WAS ONE DORN OF A HEART THAT 1'"EVERTHELESS YEARNED TO TRUST, TO REPOSE CONFIDENCE, TO LOVE WITH THOROUGH UNION. David any way incurs the risk of going forth to meet these volun- te~rs. It would ha.ve been madness to do so had Saul himself been in the company. When Saul wa.s most in David's hand and within his power, it is noticeable that with all his generous and God-taught 8paring of him, David does not neglect the manifestly necessary precaution a.s to himself and his own sarety. The oft-aimed javelin, thou"h it had missed its literal aim, had not missed mark altogether. It had fixed what mi"b.t sometimes, what under other circumstances often ha.s been worse than any javelin° in ~he _breast or heart, viz. a lifelong cause for caution and distrust. But let there be any Justifiable doubt, any reasonable ground for hope in fair play and sincerity, and it is not David's heart that will be slow to respond to it, hazard its genuineness, and welcome its approach. What an honest speech his is! Nothing disguised, he acknowledges he needed" help." "To help me" is his humble confession, untinged by hauuhtiness. And nothing affected, warrior though he was, good with every weapon, the ;ling and stone upward, yet his heart's deepest desire is peace: "If ye be come peaceably." And nothing ungenuine; his own individuality is not sheltered under the cloak or behind the bulk of a big-sounding " cause" or " principle," or other professed issue at stake. No; he says, "If ye be come unto me." But what then? what of all this? Why, "Mine heart shall be knit unto yon," my heart shall be one with you. There is no offer to make any other bargain. There is no condition of any sufficient credentials, and such as will bear searching and microscopic examination. He takes an honest fa.ce, an honest tone, an open offer, a loving heart, one that is prepared to trust and longs to trust-suspicion its strange and unwelcome work. And this constitutes for him the inner girt and discernment, to recognize their counterparts in others. And his gladdened ear hears the cheers of his own catchword, "peace,'' twice re-echoed for himself, and again" one cheer" for his" helpers." While God's Na.me and praise and faithful promise close the matter of the dialogue: "Thy God helpeth thee," Happy if every beginning of suspicion ended with such confidence I
Ver. 18.-Tlie Spirit that taught to speak and taught to l1ear aright. The words ol Ama.sai, the uttering of which is especially a.scribed to the impulse of the Spirit, must be worthy of some particular notice. They may be depended upon for containing and being ready to convey some instructive lessons or illustrations of important principle. The caution or suspicion of David at a moment of such uncertainty for him has been accounted for and justified. Ama.sai's answer that moment to the doubting language and bearing of David should properly decide all either one way or the other, if he iM to be depended on to speak truth and without dissembling. But how did David know this ? Could he UDerringly read the signs and trust his own power to discern ? There are moments when honesty and truth may be said to be unable to do anything else than recognize honesty and truth ; they know their own face as a roan knows his own face in a mirror. Tone also tells the truth, that mere words may not be depended upon to tell, and certainly tone and look and manner all added are very reliable witnesses one way or the other, witnesses of sincerity or insincerity. Any way, it is scarcely open to us in any fairness to suppose that David would, by carelessness or by self-confidence, lose the second moment the very advantages which his caution and venial suspicion show that he was in quest of the former moment. So we may suppose at all events that the same Spirit who taught Amasai to speak aright taught David to hear aright. At the same time, that Spirit himself seldom moves without signs accompanying aud following. Some evidences of this may be observable as we proceed. Notice- L S01,tE EVIDENCES OF SINCERITY STAMPED ON THE ANSWER OF AMABAL 1. Its prcnnptness. There was no hesitation, no casting about for words, no lingering to con- trive safe words. A falsehood is often boldly spoken, and the tonguo of insincerity is practised in glibness and smoothness. But this will generally be in paths already well koown, aud not as now, when perhaps the last thing to have been expected from tho err. xu. 1-J.0.J THE FIIlST BOOK OF THE CHRONICLES.