The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Kings — Section 22

(eh. i. 7). There is no greater unkindness and injustice to e. child than over-in} dl~lgence.. The chil~ i~ the fat~er of the _JI).&n. Th«: boy w~o bas all bis own way will certe.mly want 1t m after life, and will not get 1t, to bis own disappointment and the unhappiness of all around him. He that loveth bis son chastenetb him betimes. David was probably so engrossed with public cares and duties that his first care, after God-his family-was neglected. How unwise are those parents who devolYe the care of their children at the most critical and impressionable time of life on domestics, who are often ill-suited or unequal to the charge. One of the first duties a child demands of its parents ia that it should be corrected and conquered. The will must be broken in youth. The sapling may be bent, not so the trunk. David's unwise indulgence, his sparing the rod, prepared a rod for his own and Aclonijah's back. It was the sin of Eli that "his sons me.de them- selves vile and he restrained them not." And one sin of David was that be.had not checked and " displeased" this wilful son. II. HE WAS ENDOWED DY NATURE WITH A DANGEROUS PROPERTY. "He also was a very goodly man." Gifts of form and feature, much as all admire them, and much as some co,et them, are frequently a. snare to their possessor. Perhaps, upon the whole, personal beauty has oftener proved a cw·se than a blessing. " For the most part,'' says Lord Bacon, "itma,keth a, dissolute youth.'' Oftener still it spoils the character. The conceit of the Platonists, that a beautiful body loves to have a, beautiful soul to inhabit it, is unhappily not borne out by facts. "A pretty woma.n," it has been said, and it is often true, "adores herself" (Eugenie de Guerin). The natural tendency of this possession is to. engender pride, selfishness, conceit, ambition. A striking exterior has often cost its possessor dear. It did both Absalom and Adonijah no good. It is worthy of notice tha.t it we.a David's "goodly" sons conspired against him, and it was bis "fair'' daughter Tamar was diEhonoured. Adonij ah's face was an important factor in his history : it contributed to his ruin. It favoured, perhaps it suggested, his pretensions to the throne. He thought, no doubt, "the fust in beauty should be first in might." Had he been blessed m.tb an insignificant appearance he would probably ha.ve saved bis head, AE it was, courted and admired, he thought the fairest woman of her time was alone a fit match for him ; and pride whispered that a man of such a presence was marked out for a king, and so urged him to bis rnin. Let us teach our children to covet only " the beauty of the soul" III. HE WAS CURSED WITH AN INORDINATE AMBITION. "I will be king." "Cursed," for it has cursed and blighted many lives. Like the ignia fatuua, it has lured men to their destruction. It has been well called " a deadly tyrant, an inexorable master." "Ambition," says the most eloquent of divines, "is the most troublesome and vexatious passion that can afflict the sons of men. It is fall of distractions, it teems with stratagems, and is swelled with expectations as with a tympany . . . . It is an infinite labour to make a man's self miserable; he makes bis days full of sorrow to acquire a three years' reign." Wha.t a striking illustra- tion of these words does Adonijah's history supply. If he could but have been content to fill the second place he might have lived honoured, happy, and useful. But ambition soured and then cut short bis life. How much of the misery of the world is caused by despising " that state of life unto which it has pleased God to call us" and stretching out after another for which we are not fitted. Adonijah's history teaches this lesson-Solomon may have partly drawn it from bis life and death-" Pride goeth before destruction," &c. IV. HE STOOPED TO UNWORTHY.MEANS To ATTAIN HIS OBJECT. "Chariots," "horees, fifty men to ran before him." It is much like the Roman device, "Pa.nem et circenses." History repeats itself. But these things were almost innocent compared with the measures he took when these failed. The smooth intrigue of a marriage, the employment of the king's mother e.e hie tool, the plausible words, the semblance of resignation to the Divine will-and all this to overthrow a brother who had generously spared bis life. And all this was the outcome of ambition-ambition which makes men trample on the living and the dead. Alas I we never know to what base courses we may be reduced if we once embark in immoral enterprises. CH, I, 1-58.] THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. 15