angels looked on,and might have come to the rescue, no voice said "Forbear;" and the only voice that did then speak as with authority-authority notwithstanding what it must say and how it must say it--said this, "Not my will be done;" and acrain, "It is finished "-a signal for the awful sacrifice to go on to its solemn end. 2. 1'he stricter typical principle of sacrifice was led up to, and an instance of it exhibited. Blood flows for sin, and the blood of those who were so far forth innocent was now flowing for sin. And this doubtless, though it fell on the innocent, was the punishment of sin. But we see David acknowledge the principle that sacrifice may avail to stay the punishment. He, however, viewed, and justly viewed, himself as the guilty, and there/ore as the one who ought to suffer. He does not come before us as an instance of the innocent pro- posing to suffer in the place of the guilty. The issue is that the sacrifices of the Law were offered in great abundance. 3. By auguries memorable and solemn an altar of sacrifice and a place of worship were designated. They became consecrate for the service of a thousand years at one stretch, and for what more to come we know not. Though we must fail to realize what seemed to David and to Israel greatest in this, yet analogies of the most intrinsic kind guide us in the same direction. Meantime not the grandest building we may raise and dedicate to the worship and glory of God, to the love and service of Jesus, need mean either more or less to us than that site and that altar meant to David and Israel. And, on the other hand, it may with equal truth be said that the humblest building, the least pretentious schoolroom for the service of Christ, means more for knowledge, for heavenly light, for real beauty, than David and the temple, and Solomon and" all his glory.n
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Ver. 1.-.A king's pride. The Scripture historians do not conceal David's faults. Though they represent him as the man after God's heart, they faithfully recC1rd bis grievous defections. He was evidently a man in whom the ordinary principles of human nature were unusually vigorous. There was, accordingly, warmth in his piety, and his sins were those peculiar to an ardent and passionate nature. His warlike impulses led him into cruelty, his amatory passions into adultery, his violence into murder, his self- confidence into the act of regal pride which is condemned in this passage. Accus- tomed as we are to a periodical census, and indeed to statistics of all kinds, it jg difficult for us to understand how blamable was David's conduct in numbering tho people. I. Observe AT WHOSE INSTIGATION the king acted. Althou11:h in Samuel we are told that the Lord's anger with Israel was the deepest reason for the act and the explana- tion of all that followed it, pur text refers the conuuct of David to "an adversary." Whether this enemy was human, or, as is generally supposed, superhuman, di11bolical, is not material. A tempter, an adversary, suggested the sinful motive and the dis- obedient action. II. Observe TRE MOTIVE which led to this act. It was a motive often influenti11l with the prosperous and the powerful. It was vanity, confidence in his own greatness, in the number of his soldiers, in the resources of his subjects. David had been a warrior whose arms had been attended with remarkable success, and, like many such, he doubtless deemed himself invincible. Ill. Observe DAVID'S PEBBEVERANOE IN SPITE OF WARNING. Many sins are com- mitted heedlessly. Not so this; for Joab, who was by no means a counsellor always to be trusted, warned his master against this act of folly, which he saw was "a cause of trespass to Israel." David was not to be deterred, and perhaps resented, as such characters are wont to do, any resistance to his will. Temptation from without, evil passions from within, are often enough to overcome the calmest and the wisest counsels and admonitions. A lesson this of human fra.ilty. A summons also to penitence and to humility.-T.
Ver. 8.-Contrition. David was a man who both sinned grievously and repented bitterly. If we have nowhere more striking examples than in his life of human lrailty, we have nowhere more than in his recorded experience an example of anguish and of 336 THE FIRST BOOK OF THE CHRONICLES. [cH, XXI, 1-30
penitence for sin. Witness the state of mind manifested in the fifty-first psalm. We have in this most touching verse- I. CoNFESSION OF SIN. This language may be regarded as a model of sincerely uttered confession. 1. It was offered to God. "David said unto GoJ." So in Ps. li. ".Against thee, thee only, have I sinned." Not against society, not aaainst the state: but against the Searcher of hearts and the Judge of all. 2, It was a t~kina to himself of the guilt. " 1 have sinned." Instead of laying the blame upon anotb:r the kin a accepted it for himself. It is a sad thing when men take excuses into the presence of God. 3. David had a just sense of the heinousness of his sin. He felt that he had sinned greatly. It was not in his view a light thing of which ho had been guilty. How can we, as Christians, regard sin as a light matter, when we remember that sin brouaht our holy Saviour, the Lord of glory, to the ignominious cross? 4. The folly oi ~n was very apparent to David's mind when he poured out his soul in contrite confessions before the Lord. "I have done very foolishly." II. ENTREATY FOR PARDON. It would be a sad case, indeed, if, when the sinner acknowledged his errors and faults, be did so with no hope or expectation of "race 0 and forgiveness. But David knew that God was a God delighting in mercy and ready to forgive. Accordingly he added to his confession this entreaty: "I beseech thee, do away the iniquity of thy servant.n What abundant encouragement have we to present a prayer like this! The revelation of God's character, the provision of a Divine Redeemer, the pro:nises of a welcollle gospel, all alike induce us to come unto God in the attitude, not only of sinners, but of suppliants, beseeching of him a favourable reception, and the extension to us as sinners of his clemency and grace.-T.