Ver. 23.-God's promises checking man's wilfulness. The impulse on David leading him to number Israel has never been adequately explained. Probably there were some peculiar national conditions which a.re not detailed. 'l'he connection of the reference to the "numbering," which is made in this verse, intimates that it was a. part of some military arrangements which the king was advised to make. Possibly in order to fix the amount of his standing army, he desired to know the number of men in his kingdom who were above the age of twenty, the age from which military service was required. Eastern writers give curious illustrations of the Oriental prejudice against numbering possessions. " 'l'he apprehension of a Nemesis on any overweening display of prosperity, if not consistent with the highest revelations of the Divine nature in the Gospels, per- ,·adcd all ancient, especially all Oriental religions. David's act implied a confidence and pride alien to the spirit inculcated on the kings of the chosen people." What does come prominently out in the narrative is that David was wilful in the matter, but that God kept his very wilfulness under some limitations and restraints. David was kept from taking a complete census, because he felt it irreverent to attempt to count what God was understood to have promised should be countless. David's owu heart, as well as Divine judgments, brought to him the cor.viction of his wilfulness and sin. Apply to modern phases of religious life and religious work. In both we are so keen to observe, and so anxious to reckon up and boast of, the results of our work. 'rhe individual Christian wants to count and value the steps of his personal spiritual growth ; and the Christian worker, in his varied spheres, despairs if. he cannot show the actual fruitage of his toil, thinking there will be no harvest from his seeding if his own hand does not bind the sheaves. Much may be said, and much may be said severely, of the almost mania that possesses some Churches for .. numbering the people,'' and counting up the net !(ains of Christian work. In both spheres God's promises should check this desire to count. I. .APPLY TO PERSONAL RELIOIOUB EXPERIENCE. God has promised to "bring us off more than conquerors;" to "perfect that which concerns us;" to Efive us "more grace;" to ensure us "all sufficiency in all good things;" and to be "with us always;" so there is no need for constantly testing our own spiritual state, and trying to gain assurance by counting the steps upward which we may have made. Our best help is the _(1) _faith that daily keeps "looking off" unto Jesus; (2) the prayer that keeps us mmdlul of, and ever pleading, the promises; and (3) the "work" for Christ which so thoroughly absorbs us that we have no time to think about our own feelings. II. APPLY TO CHRISTIAN LABOURS IN THE CHUBOH AND IN THE WORLD. Ood has promised abundant fruitage as the result of faithful Christian toil: a wondrous harvest- home and not one sheaf missing. .lt is enough. Why should we trouble about results, and c~unt up converts? Let them be as many as ever God wills, and let us be satisfied with the joy of our working, and the smile of our Master which surely rests upon us in the doing. Still, as in the older days of David, there is grave reason to fear that numbering results tends to nourish human pride and conceit, and sets men u~,on boasting of the "great Babylon which they have builded." The most essential qual_ity of Christian wurk is the meekness of self-forgetfulness, that will be wholly amazed if, one wo11drou~ err. xxvuL 1-21.] THE FIRST BOOK OF THE CHRONICLES. 415
day, God should point to sheaves eafe in his garner, and say, "These were gathered in by thee." True and humble hearts learn to leave all the "numbering" work to God, and to the great revealing day.-R. T.
Vere. 25-31.-The trust of riches. In these verses eome of David's wealth is enumerated, especially that portion which consisted in estates, herds, and flocks. Accepting life on the earth as the sphere of our "probation," or "moral trainincr," we need to see that all things which bear their influence upon us may be, and inde~d are, used by God as agencies in this gracious work over which he prebides. Riches, there- fore, may be a Divine trust committed to 50me men with a distinct view to their culture through this trust; and it is precisely this view of riches which needs to be more generally taught and apprehended, so that it may become a most solemn thing for any man to have thie trust, and all wbo have it may be much more impressed with the responsibility of it than with the advantage and privilege of it. We easily take up with two imperfect notions. 1. We say that riches are tokens of Divine favour. But this may not be assumed as a universal fact. Riches may be a token of Divine wrath and judgment, and the very agency of a man's punishment. And riches may be a sign of God's anxiety about our moral state, and the need for subjecting us to some severe moral testing. To some natures no more searching test could be found than the trust of prosperity and wealth. 2. Or we say that riches are the rewards of virtue, and assume that men must be acceptable to God because they are rich, and that others must be out of acceptance, seeing that they are poor. But then we must face the difficulty which the Psalmist Asaph felt so bitterly (Ps. lxxiii.)-the wicked are often the rich, and the righteous are among the down-trodden poor. It is evident that no general rule will fit all cases, and that, in wise Di vine orderings, wealth and poverty are arranged for the highest good of the individual and the permanent good of the whole. Did we know all, we should never envy those to whom God entrusts the riches. Neither of these conceptions is sufficiently true to be accepted without due consideration of certain other and important representations, such as (1) that riches may be Divinejudgments; (2) that riches may be Divine trials; (3) that riches always are Divine trusts, of which due account will presently be required. Then attention needs to be directed to three things in relation to our riches: (1) '1.'he wise care of them, as:not ours, but God's; (2) the faithful use of them, as not given to us/or our sake, but for the sake of others, whom we may bless by means of them; and (3) the watcbful culture of the soul'a life while in the enjoyment of them, seeing that the precise peril of them is that they tend to nourish a self-confidence which is fatally injurious to the soul's health and life. Illustrate from the parable of the farmer who was getting over-rich, and had no storehouses large enough for bis harvests, but who was not rid1 toward God. And see the coun~els given to the rich by the Apostle James.-R. T