The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Chronicles — Section 275

not greatly assisted to learn his own character, and to seo, plain as a sunbeam, his life's duty, or wha_t remain~ of it. The chapter e~hibits a parable truo in large part of it of many a life, yet m a very great proportion of those lives true still only like a 11arable, unknown, unacknowledged, while life's best part is being lived. It shows- I. A LIFE LO:l<G SPENT IN SOME OBEDIENCE TO DIVINE MONITIONS AND PRINOIPLE SUDDENLY SEEMING TO LIFT ITSELF UP FOR ITS HIGHEST EFFORTS GOD-WARD. It cannot be said nor thought that the life of David, when a boy, had been an irreliaious 0 life-a life thoughtless of God, his ways and works, or defiant towards him. All tbe indications are to the contrary. From very earliest manhood, we know as fact that David's life had been remarkably answerable to Divine interposition, reverently received, gratefully and modestly acknowledged. Further, through the best and proudest of life's days that life had been so baulked, so endangered, so keenly exercised, that it were not too much to say that even nature would have taught it some religion, and that it was glad to keep near to the mighty Friend. Yet had it known many a lapse, many a weariness, many an hour of faint faith, many an impure or very mixed motive. There can be no doubt, however, that hitherto the victory had always been of the good. Its greatest temptations were now upon it, when ease, peace, grandeur, luxury, were its lot. It bears the strain, and at the very time seems gathering together its strength for its supreme religious effort. Heart and conscience approve. Nay, a nation's heart and conscience join to approve. Conscious human purpose and love offer themselves volun- teers for Divine work. Can there be a doubt of their acceptableness? At all events there proves to be a refusal of some sort to their acceptance. lL A LIFE LON'1 AND llRAVELY SPENT IN THE EXEROIBE OF ALL ITB OWN ACTIVE ENEllGIES SUDDENLY DISCOVERED STRICTLY llOUND llY DIVINE CONTROL. David had been no passive recipient of Divine favour and protection. He had been constrained to employ all his own best jud,,crment, talents, effort, and to add thereto many a loud and hearty and impassioned prayer for help, mercy, deliverance. Judging from what we know of human nature, of our own nature, we should not have wondered if the latter exercises of the soul had often seemed lost in comparison of the former energies of the miud and body. But again it turns out that it was not really so. In this character we do not have to do with the restless, brooding, defiant soul, of one who feels so pressed by circumstance that he cannot wait for priest, or prophet, or his God, but must act for himself and by him.self. No; a blank refusal evokes from David the testimony that he holds himself practically and intelligently to the distinct order of a master. He knows control, submits to control, promptly and gracefully answers to it. IlL A LIFE THAT THROUGH A LONG TIME HAD llEEN UNABLE TO BEE THE BEASON OF ITSELF, il'D TO WHAT IT WAS TO LEAD, AND WHERE THE STRANGE VICISSITUDE SHOULD END, SUDDENLY AUTHORITATIVELY INFORMED THAT IT WAS AND ALL THE WHILE HAD llEEN TRIBUTARY TO mGHEBT ENDS. God tells David that from" the sheepcote" to his present " house of cedars" he had been with him, he had been training him, he had been evoking good out of all evil, for him personally antl for all his people Israel. He had not been living, working, suffering, rejoicing, anguished with fear and cruelty, buoyant with hope and victory, for nothing, nor for a spasmodic, theatric, sensational display, nor for a mockery of collapse at last. No; it was to make him a name, and a great name, and a name divinely and historically through all time worth having-a model ruler, a model king, and a blessing to his people Israel. All the while, from the first breathing of David's name to this present, David had been drawn through a career which, all appearances notwithstanding, had been tributary to Divine results. What firmness, what confidence, what glory, is it to any life that can embrace this creed, and that believes it with the heart I IV. A LIFE THAT RAD llEEN CONDUOTED THROUGH EXTREMES OF EXPERIENOE, AND MANY AN HUMILIATING VAnIETY A.MONG THEM, 18 NOW APPRISED THAT IT IS ADMITTED TO PARTICIPATION IN FULFILLING THE VERY HIGHEST OF DIVINE OOUNSEL. It is what astounds David beyond all else. It is what rejoices him above all else. It is what more than compensates for all the past. It pours streams of enraptured joy and corresponding vigour through all his nature. What thanks come from bis lip I What adoring praise wells up from his heart! What prayer-a veritable "making request with joy "-he has strength and confidence to pour forth! His gladness for himself (whose purpose was just denied) and for his people ill indistinguishably mingled-one cu. xvn. 1-27.] THE FIRST IlOOK OF TllE CIIRONICLES. 273