The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Chronicles — Section 277

absolutely so their own, that to think of others is only to think that they are without part or lot in the matter. They owe none of it to God's gift. They owe none of it to man's help. They have gained and they have risen, all thanks and all credit only to themselves. And ail that they have and all that they are is to and for themselves. But there are in human nature different dictates from these. There a.re those who compare themselves with others, to wonder unfeignedly why God has made them to differ, and in deepest humility to acknowledge their indebtedness to him. There are those who from the heart believe that" it is more blessed to give than to receive" and whose first dictate is to give of all which they gain. They know and heed w:n the word that reminded them once," Freely ye have l'eceived, freely give," and they have found for themselves that there is no life they so really have as that they give. Alike those who long to have but think they have not, and those who beyond question have, and have much, need most to be reminded what things possession, and large possession, has proved its power to effect. It is very apt to kill sympathy, to chill charity, to ingrain selfishness, and to create the overweening and haughty temper. Happy indeed when the contrary holds good, and that which should be in the nature God once created, exists and is still manifest. This was the case now with Davi<l, in spite of the peril in which he was placed. He had already abundantly shown that in all his own good he wished others to take a share. Ill. THE PRINCIPLE OF BEING STIMULATED BY THE EXPERIENCE AND ENJOYMENT OF 01'."'E'S OWN GOOD TO SEEK THE GOOD OF OTHERS, PRESENTED NOW IN ONE OF THE IDGHEST rossmLE OF rrs APPLICATIONS. The visible object of David's loving and sympathetic anxiety is now no longer human; it is the ark of God. Everything helps favour and set forth happily the ex.ample here given to us. Though the words are so few, the description so brief, it is a very living impression which they combine to produce upon us. It is not so often that the imagery of the East, the life of three thousaJ.J.d years ago, and the very language of the Old Testament, so accord for a moment with our own modern habits and feeling. We a.re invited to see David at ease in his own new house. He sits in that house. A friend and sacred friend, a prophet, is with him. He has been thinking many a time of that which he now resolves to put upon his lip, and confide to his prophet-friend. He has a house now for the first time, it may be said, in all his life. It is his own, and in every way his own, built for him and built by him. He knows every piece of cedar in it, and every block of stonfl. This means comfort for a man who has had a very driven, anxious, wearying life. It means sta- bility for a man who was ordered about at first, hunted about secondly, and more lately in his own responsibility has been compelled to strain every nerve to meet the urgencies of his position. It means also safety, for David is now undisputed and sole king of all the land. And it means splendour exceeding all that his nation had ever known, and all that surrounding nations had known. That grand new house, however, would never have been the joy and satisfaction it is but that other work of his hand had been blessed, and the ark is in Zion. Yes, but the ark is not housed so worthily as David is himself, whereas he feels justly that it should be entertained far more worthily. It appears that it is not human sympathy merely which warms the heart of David. The principle is great and sacred, but there is for all that something which is higher, more sacred still. David would do honour to the God of the ark in finding a worthy temple- canopy for the ark of God. He believes in the Church of the living God, and in the living God of the Church. The "invisible appears in sight;" his gaze, his thought, bis heart, are all held by it. He would spend untold labour, lavish unmeasured wealth, summon the pick of all the earth's wisdom and art and skill, in the service of him, who nevertheless needs no richest gifts of man, because all the wealth of all the universe is his. And David's thought is acceptable, and his purpose is right. There is the unwonted nobility of a spiritual purview about it. Tho homage of the heart is indis- putably there. Practical faith is there. The merit of a grand national, ay, and universal, example is there. Here is no covert showing of sympathy, and giving of gift, and ren- dering of honour due, with indirect calculations and sidelong glances of how much shall come back in kind from admiring and surrounding and obsequious courtiers and friends. No, the servant is in the presence of the Master. Tho subject before the King of kings. The creature before the great Creator. The blessed dependent before the sole Giver of all good. And this fills him with shame, with humility, with impassioned desire, an<l CH, xvu. 1-27.J THE FIRST BOOK OF THE CHRONICLES. 275