The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Chronicles — Section 212

los\. by one it is gained by another, it is worthily fulfilled, it la bountifully rewarded, Notice- I. THE ARDUOUS TRUST OF THE FIRST MAN IN THE KINGDOM HAS COME BY CIRCUM• STANCES, WHATEVER THEY MAY BE, TO BE FORFEITED, EITHER TEMPORARILY OR ALTO• GETHER, TO O"NE OF THE HUMBLEST. Very much of human life and circumstance often seems to go by chance, often seems to be mos, arbitrary, often seems to those who most implicitly strive to believe in providence very unlike the work of an all-wise and beneficent providence. But sometimes we seem more able to get a clue which helps to_ strengthen, refresh, re~ew an implicit faith. The mere glimpse of such an explanation does at the same time rebuke our former doubt and failing faith. Have :we no_t help here also? . All David's position, all his holy enthusiasm, all his good intention, do not suffice, 1t appears, to compensate the absence of some certain real moral ~uality. David had much of the_ noble, the brave, the forgiving, the gen~rous: a~out him. B~t m~re than once he lets himself ~owu for the want of a calm, unsparing faithfulness with himself. And for want of this, one of the grandest prizes one of the greatest opportunities, now slips from his fingers. One of the strongest Com,s of human weakness will be found t-0 consist in want of continuity of moral etl:nrt. One of the great victorious forces, despite of all human weakneHs, will be found in the reverse of this-" patient continuance," undespairing tenacity, the importunity which enlists time on its side. This present in one who seems to have no outer advantage of position or grace or other gift will avail more than a score of other gifts of fortune and gifts of character, if this be absent or inconspicuous, Surprising dash is in the lonu run conquered, for it is exactly for every matter of long run that dash has littl~ persuasion. The lowliest humility of person, place, character, which has power to wait, to endure, to continue, has a career before it which, without one ambitious endeavour or thought, gets borne on irresistibly to the highest goal. But the other style may break down irremediably in a moment. We should not need always to wonder so much when "the mighty are put down from their seats and they of low degree are exalted," if we would just see that the reverse that thus happens is empha- tically not that of chance or reckless caprice, but a result or that which God most regards, the presence of some deep-lying, significant moral quality, or the want of it. The unnoticed working of this truth is not equivalent to any uncertainty in the working of it. And the invisible working of it, even when most invisible to man, is no stealthy indication of the indefensibleness of it when God should once arise to reveal and vindicate all. And he it is who is Arbiter of providence. Meantime man- kind is ever being offered openly enough its own lesson. II. A TRUST OF THE HIGHEST RELIGIOUS CHARACTER AT HOME IN LOWLY LODGING, The history of real greatness, of genuine goodness, and emphatically of God's Church, is a continuous illustration of this very thing. 'l'he palace has seldom enough been, either of human endeavour or Divine decree, the nursery or the only real thing fit to be called greatness. Abundant privilege, knowledge, opportunity, have not been the seed-bed of signal and bright displays of goodness. The places where these grow are not here. Nay, these two things may be said-that it is impossible to calculate or to foresee where they will be found; and that it is the least correct account of them to say that they "grow." They at all events "are born." "The Spirit bloweth where it listeth," and we ofttimes are startled to hear the sound of it, and are envious that the pinion is h~ard BO fleet and so strong as it passes our own ear or our own abode in order to light upon the head or the roof of some very humble neighbour. No lodging was too humble for Jesus from birth to death, from stable and manger to that cross upon which he "had not where to lay his head." And the nearest approaches to the God- like visitation in heart and home of man have been in the humble heart, the lowly home, the meek spirit, the Church that " the world knoweth not." Whoever this Obed-edom was, up to this time his name was not inscribed on any roll of fame. And had it not been for his being ready to entertain that ark without the self-depreciation of Moses when he wanted to evade responsibility; without the panic of David when he thought of his own safety rather than of the honour and safe housing of that very ark ; without the unmannerly prayer of the stricken Peter, "Depart from me," when he feared his Saviour more than his sin,-his name would never have been where it find~ now its chiefest glory, nor hie home one of the veritable oases of the world'& desert.  011. llIII, 1-14.] THE FIRST BOOK OF THE CHRONICLES. 205