The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Chronicles — Section 205

only to give it (1) the place that belonged to it of right; (2) the place that for honour it merited; (3) tbe place where it would be likely to be most influential. Even the ark out of sight was only too liable to be proportionately out of mind. There is, therefore, nothing of the nature of a mere empty demonstrativeness in the activity of David and his people. Of national, historic, and revealed sanction, what tbey sought to do tbat day was the proper thing to do. Again, it was something more tban merely tbe becoming thing to do. 2. It was a holy thou~ht and a holy deed. For the ark was a. symbol of the higbeet kind; it spoke to a.II who knew of it of the Divine presence. To bring such a remembrancer into the midst of the nation and to its metropolis was to put it also at its moral centre, and where it would radiate forth innumerable rays of light and truth and warmth._ Here placed, it taught (1) how God must not be regarded as a. God far off, but as one nigh at hand; (2) how God wills to be in tbe constant sight and constant regard of his people, though in veiled majesty; (3) how Goel would be known, even by symbol and emblem (though not by image), rather than as merely working through second causes and inexplicable influences. The ark ought to be where it can be "inquired at" or "sought to" in whatever may be the ordained ways. Once more, the ark was not only the depository of law and commandment, tbe stones of Sinai and the strict impartiality of ancient covenant, but its chiefest and most con- spicuous accessory was all of mercy, and mercy ever accessible. 3. It was a course tending to the higher health of all to bring that ark back. Not mere addition to ecclesiastical pomp and furniture and display, nor to a pervading and penetrating sense of tbe awful and tbe infinite in contact with human life, it brought in benigner influences as well. Hope for the sinner; pardon for the penitent; soothing to save from despair; bright and happy thoughts of the supreme Father. That mercy-seat and overshadowing cherubim served to break up into welcome radiancy what would otherwise be the insufferable blaze of the eternal Light himself. It is like an infinite nature parting itself into those attributes by which alone partial and finite creatures like ourselves can in any wise lay hold upon it with comfort. Mere soothing, mere comforting, mere subduing influences will not necessarily minister to the higher educa- tion of either individual or community, but such influences as these must do so. And the known and offered mercy of God, just so fenced as it is, must be all pure gain to those who look to it and live in it. II. THE FAILURE AND THE PECULIAR CIBCUMSTAN0ES OF IT. Though to the eye that looks on the outside only it might then have seemed, and may now seem, tbat it was not altogether necessary that failure should have been allowed to be the result of the day aud of what happened upon it, yet: 1. As matter of fact, this was the verdict, very decisively pronounced by the person who bore the principo.l part in tbe tmns- action, and apparently no objection, no remonstrance is made by any others, and they were many, involved in the loss. 'rhat the outer reason was not very patent, and the obstacle not very physical, may make the difficulty the worse. Nervous complo.ints may be lo.rgely compounded of fancies-these their chiefest ingredients-yet they are, as matter of fact, not a whit the less real; they are the stubbornest to hold their own, and most indocile to argument or to persuasion. Much more are conscientiou,, ;::,m- plnints untractable, and justly so. Force will not drive tbem, persuasion will u1.,t conquer or stifle them, their reason is deep-hidden within themselves. And something of this kind must have been at the heart of the matter when David found himself so appalled and so stricken by a certain kind of impression which he received upon the death of one person-an event which muBt have heen, in all ordinary aspects, ont> of the commonest sights for David. Tbat the failure, therefore, arose from the unseen aad the intangible forces that were set active confessedly by the death of one man made by no means a less real, less serious obstacle, but rather the reverse. 2. The failure was very une:,;pected. It certainly was very unexpected as matter of fact. But it was also unexpected in the further degree that, if it had been thought of-if it had entered into the passing stream of thinking of any one, it would have been at once carried out of the current and surrendered itself to the nearest eddying. For (1) nothing in the object at heart would have warranted tbe gratuitous conjecture of ill omen; (2) nothing in the necessities or likely perils of circumstances would have suggested the conjecture; and (3) nothing (so far as was known) done, or neglected in the preparations, would have bespoken failure in the judgment of a calm, sympathizing, kindly bystander. Little 198 THE FIRST BOOK OF THE CHRONICLES. [cH. xtu.1-14.