The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Samuel — Section 190

where thoee characteristics find exercise. The future bleesedneae of the BRinte is the outgrowth of the individue.l che.racter acquired during the earthly period of trial. Continuity, order, and, in proper sense of the term, ne.ture, characterize the succession of events in individUAl and Church experience from first to le.et. III. THE ASSURANCE OF FINAL SUCCESS HELPS A TRUE MAN TO rrs REALIZATION, The promise of 11. "house" 11.nd 11. permanent "kingdom" would not excite vanity and presumption in David, be011.use he was e. true man of God. There is an adaptation in the assurance given to the tested character of the man. It was to David as the w11rm sun and gentle dew to the good seed hidden in good ground. A true heart responds to God's love and bounteous gifts by increased devotion. Thus the e.ssurance bas a natural tendency in a trne heart to fulfil itself. Wherever other tendencies 11.ppoar, it is evidence that the heart is not right, and that the assurance is not intendod for the individual. The free grace of God and abounding assurances that he will keep his people from falling are never abused except by those who are not children of God (Rom. vi. 14, 15; 2 Cor. v. 14, 15). The bumdi-ng of~ tempONl and the ei,erna.l. The prophecy in vers. 12-16 is not to be regarded as a sudden and isolated revelation of the purpose of God, which burst upon the mind of oDe who had no previous conceptions of a great purpose being wrought out in the line of human history. All along David was aws.re of his being used for more then ordinary issues in relation to the gre11.t promise made to Abraham. The Aurora Borealis seems, to ignorant men, a disconnected unaccountable phenomenon, but others know it to be a natural occurrence in a beautiful order of things correlated to all else in the material world. In like manner, we now know that this prophecy is part of en order of revelation, coming in at just the right time, and interpretable on principles well ascertained. The temporal and eternal are blended- L IN THE llATEBIAL O'RDER. The results of research into the constitution and order of material things show that the visible, changeable forms of matter coexist with a permanent something which works in and through them. They vary; it abides. They prepare the way for others of kindred nature and form; it uses up the old and the new and marks out its eternal course by means of them. Men call it force. Possibly, probably, there is a persistent something answering to that name-the correlative of our exertion of will-power-but it, at all events, is only the mode in which the Divine purpose worl!:s itself out into visible forms and changes. The temporal and eternal are ever blended. IL IN THE OONBTITUTION OF MAN. The changeful form, the visible appearance, is ever associated with the perma.nent invisible spirit; the one exists for the other, and is used by the other for expressing its thoughts and purposes. "Mortal and immortal" may be written of man. He comes forth and passes away: he abideth' for ever. Paradox is trne, because the perishable and imperishable coexist and work one through the other. III. IN THE PEBsoN or JEsus CmnBT. Our Sariour was frail, subject to death; and yet the strong, unchangeable, deathleBB Son of God. The temporal aud eternal were most mysteriously united in him, and the visible and perishable were the vehic.le through which the unseen and eternal worked out our redemption. There is language by which men, if they will, can prove.his Bimple humanity, and other language by which they can prove his true Divinity. lt is the ignoring of this blending of the temporal and eternal which accounts for certain heresies and perversities of thought. IV. IN THE PBOGREBB or REVELATION. The revelation which God is pleased to give of his will concerning our redemption is intended for the entire race, and adapted in matter and form to the progressive character of the race. It was not given once for all in concise abstract form; nor was its matter and form given to suit the later ages of the world only; it ran along the line of hist.ory from the very first, and was suited as time went on to men of diverse ideas and eonditions. But from first to last the Divine imperishable truth was blended with the tem,poral history of men. The ,natural develop- ment of families and nations was the vehicle through or along which, as occasion required, the one unchangeable purpose gradually marked itself out into the clear light that shone in ·the face of Christ. v. b TBE PBOPllETlO REFEl!ENCES f'I) THE MEBSIAll, 'l'he duality of temporal and nu. vu, 1-29.) THE SECOND BOOK OF SAMUEL, 195