The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Chronicles — Section 187

lip of David we.s the boldness that was required !or the outspeakin"' of suspicion. 2. Its unqualified frankness. No limping sentence, no lama engage~ent, no offer nor attempt at contract or bargain, but uncompromising self-surrender: "Thine are we, David, and on thy side, thou son of Jesse." Such is the style of these men and of zealous fidelity of service. 3. The absence of tM slightest appearanu of feding offended. There might have seemed room in such a case, some plausible room, for betraying a sense of affrontedness. Honest men come up to offer their allegiance, love, and very life, and they are met with question sceptical of their honesty. This was a growin"'lY good sign of their sincerity, for the affronted man often enough knows, as often as a"ny bystander, that there is no affront; that that which may sound like affront or look like it is the necessity of wisdom and of the position, and he betrays himself in seein" the affront-betrays that he wishes to take it. 4. The discrimination shcwn in th~ selection of one word used in this reply. "Peace" is the key-word of their reply. David bad said-had happened to say-no, had designed to say, "If ye be come peaceably unto me to help me." Everything lay really in that word "peaceably." And the men questioned, perceived, and felt it, a.nd Amasai, led by the Spirit, answers both to the spirit and to the letter of the somewhat plaintive melancholy "if" of David. "Peace" is the burden of his response. 5. The heart and earnestness thrown into tM reply, "Peace, peace be unto thee, and peace be to thine helpers." David's was o. question of peace for himself, and of help for himself. But such is the confidence in their cause and in themselves as honest men, that those who come to him engage and IU!sure "Peace, peace" for him and for those who should help him. This looks like -nen thoroughly conversant with their snbject and thoroughly confident in it. They seem to want to say that there is no stint of peace; their persuasion of it is such that they are sure it is "enough" for him and "enough for all." 6. The piety and right sound practical tMology thrown into it. The answer does not "heal slightly.n h docs not promise "peace" from a barren source. It does not rest its own confidenco on man. "For thy God helpeth thee" is the assigned ground of Amasai's confidence, that peace dawning splendidly and surely now for David and for his cause. 'fbeso men themselves had done right to wait till they were sure that the call was of God, and that God was with David, and that the cause of David was the cause of God. And as soon as they were convinced of this they came to David. And they came to help, nerve, and brace up his own faith, while they would say to him, "If God 1e with thee, who ca.n be against thee?" "If God be with thee, what but peace can attend thy steps and those of all thy helpers?" II. SoME EVIDENCE OF A GOOD TRUSTFUL HEART IN DAVID. 1. He also makes no delay. He receives them who had answered so well and so much to the point. He receives them "graciously." And became then and there a feeble, humble, but real type of him who "receives graciously" all who humbly and with the spirit of self- surrender and faithful service come to him. 2. He heartily trusts. As they had with heart replied to him, and with enthusiasm proffered to join him and bis cause, ho throws at once to the winds the last symptom of a suspicion, and reposes a hearty trust in the new-comers. "He made them captains of the band." '.l'bcre were trust and promotion at the san::e time. It is not one of the least interesting parts of the study of the manner of Je.sus' miracles to observe how against those occasions on which for some good reason he saw fit to keep even an earnest supplicant waiting, there wero others in which alike with signal promptness he blessed them, and with signal trust and condescension called them to his service. It now needed no condescension on tho part of David, but it did need trust, and he finally acquits himself herein of any suspicion of possessing a heart that loves suspicion. Ver. 40.-The earnest of human joy. When the joy of a vast number of people finds expression in unison it must needs be exceedingly impressive. Were it possible to hear at once that consentaneous volume of sound of gladness, it would be nothing less than overpowering in its effect. Or, if it were possible to sec at a glance all the signs and all the manifestations of the sparkling gladness, no scene of outer nature could be supposed so dazzling, ro bewildering. But in the known harmonious joy of e. vast multitude of people, it is not the mere effect upon our sense of the expression of it or the manifestation of it that would invest it with its most real e.nd in fact most solemn  THE FIRST BOOK OF THE CHRONICLES. [en, xn.1-40,