for want of "ear to hear." And some things the most essential to bear are crowded out unheard because of the rush of sounds to the ear, hollow as ever sound could be. B_ut the wakefulness of an open ear is here, and the irreparable does not happen, and the disastrous stroke does not fall upon a whole kingdom and people ere yet the tidings ol the danger have reached the responsible persons. David might now have said, with the prophet (Isa. I. 4-), " He wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hea~ as th_e lea~ed_." And ho~ much depenrls on this daily opening of our ear, and this openmg of 1t Ill the morning, before the dangers of the day's lire have opened upon us, instead of that opening of it that may come perforce at evening, or in the very night, or after some startling calamity, when all except the dead have no choice but to hear! Though Jesus first warned us, and after him some of the most solemn connection of all Scripture repeated the strain, how much do we lose by altogether under-estimating the message of the words," He that bath ears to hear, let him hear" I 2. Here is proof of wakeful care. The enemy's daring front and adventurous challenge scarcely anticipate David's firm front and readiness to accept the challenge. His preparedness is quite as noticeable as their initiating energy. Some initiating energies have much cause to repent of themselves, nnd court their own destruction; and it proved so now for the Philistines. The victory does not often lie with those that are "first in their own cause." David does not live every hour all in a tremble of apprehension and suspicion, it is true; but it is also true that he has wisely not allowed himself to live forgetful, unheedful of the constant proximity of a constant foe. He is not now caught napping. He is not found now lapped in luxury. He is not betrayed as one living in a fool's paradise, lulled in false peace, mistaking security for safety, choked by pride in the height and dignity of his position, and deceiving himself as though he were the unassailable and unimpregnable itself. The sound of alarm entered full sonorously into his ear, but no panic of alarm entered into his heart. Does the "foe" seek him, and insolently and defiantly scan bis proportions and his armour? be does not forget that old matter of Goliath and the sling and stone on the one hand, nor is he the man, either by character or by the emergence of unguarded position, to hirle himself or to have a moment's inclination to hide himself, but he " goes out to meet" the foe, well prepared to face him and, if God speak the word, to encounter him also in actual conflict. Nor does he forget the spirit of the old confidence and the source whence he derived bis own confidence. "Thou comest to me with a swoP<i, and with a spear, and with a shield; but I come to thee in the Name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied." 3. Lastly, here is proof positive of prayer. David has shown the courage of the man and of the king and of the commander of God's people and army. He presents himself and them in front of the foe that courts the trial of battle. But before he lifts a hand, strikes a blow, draws a sword, he asks of the Lord. He asks for knowledge of duty, "Shall I go np?" He asks for warrant of the language which he may hold to his own people and to the defying foe. "Wilt thou deliver them into my hand?" '!'his last thing he had been permitted to add in hiH forewarning to Goliath of what awaited him : "This day will the Lord deliver thee into my hand; and I will smite thee ••• that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel .•. for the battle is the Lord's " (1 Sam. xvii. 45--4 7). And he wishes to be able to do so again. There. would. be great advantage in being able to use confident language on the matter on th!s occa~1on also. God had occasionally permitted his own people to go to defeat (as he ce~tamly does for our discipline and for after advantage permit us often to fin~ defeat awh1~e), so that David might desire for his own heart's sake to be assured that this was not gorng to be the case now. But there was other reason why authority to speak on the °;latter of victory certain would be great advantage. He announces it to the foe, and 1t comes true and then strikes a deep lasting residuum of terror and of reverence for the next like 'occasion. He announce; it to his own people, and it comes true; and with what con'fidence both towards their God and towards their king docs it invest them in many a future! Prayer brings blessing, prayer brings knowledge, prayer strengthens ~nd exhibits to just view that connection between himself and his weak creature and child, which the condescending Hearer of prayer loves to acknowledge.
V' ers. 13-17.-TM /aith that '8 content to leave self in thd background Mid ou. XIV, 1-17.] THE FIRST BOOK OF THE CHRONICLES. 221