of rcgnining his child is worthy of notice. "He eball not return to me." H reminds us thRt when our friends a.re dead all opportunity, not only of enjoying their presence and society, but of benefiting them, and otherwise doing our duty to them, is gone. A cause for regret and penitential sorrow if we have failed in our duty to them; and a reaAon for great-0r care in dotng our duty to those that remain, :md for seeking their forgiveness while we may for any wrong we have done to them. 'l'here ie consolation too, in reference to those who have been taken from us, that they cannot return, who~ we have good assurance that they are in heaven. We cannot wish them to return from heaven to earth. We thank God for their complete deliverance from sin and sorrow and all liability to those edls. 4. He expressed his own expectations as to the future. "i shall i::o to him" (ver. 23). Whither? 'l'o the grave? to Sheol (equivalent to Hades)? or to heaven? 'l'he precise thought of David in these words is hardly ascet'tainable. He may have intended to say only that he must join the child in the region of death. Probably, however, he expressed a hope of conscious reunion in the future wodd; and the Christian, taking up the words, can express by them a fuller and more confident hope of rejoining his little children and Christian relatives and friends in a state of blessedness than was possible to Old Testament believers, though glimpses of the glorious future were at times enjoyed by them. "Not lost, but gone before" is a thought that is daily comforting thousands. A.nd it is felt how much better it is that the desire for reunion should be fulfilled yonder rather than here-that we should go to our departed friends into that world of perfection and joy, not they come back to us into this world of imperfection and trouble. Only let us take care so to live that such hopes may be reasonable. Think how terrible the thought," I shall go to him," as cherished by one impenitent sinner in respect to another who has gone to his doom! How dreadful the reunions hereafter of those who have lived together in ungodliness and sin here, and encouraged and helped each other in the practice of them I Better to have died in infancy! !letter not to have been born !-G. W.
EXPOSITION. to the conclusion the.t Amnon might se.fely CHAPTER XIII. gratify his lusts. The name Te.mar men.us Yer. 1.-After this. This phrase, ns we "pa.Im tree," and both sho and Absalom have seen ou eh. x. 1, has little chronological were remarkable for their personal beauty. force, but the date of the sad event which Ver. 2.-Amnon was so vexed, that he fell formed the second stage in David's pnnish- siok. The Hebrew literally is, and it was ment can be settled with considerable cer- narrow to ..4.mnon, even to becoming Biel,. To tainty. Tam8l' was the daughter of Mo.acah, an Oriental a feeling of narrowness means a prinoess of Geshnr, and David's marriage distress, while in joy there is a sense of with her, while still at Hebron, is mentioned 18l'gcness and expe.nsion. Our words for as a proof of his growing power, e.nd conse- distress have lost this picturesque force. quen tly some time must have elapsed after That Amnon thong'!lt it hard does not mean his a.ppointment as king before this alliance that he had any feeling for his sister's dis- took place. .AB A.bse.lom was apparently grace, but that he knew that his attempt was older the.a Te.mar, if she were now fifteen or difficult. He did not see how he could get Hixteen years of age, David would have been Tamar into his power, and feared the conse- king of all Israel at least thirteen or fourteen quences. The wives had ea.eh her own years, and would have reached the summit dwelling, and the daughters were kept iu of his glory. His wars would be over, strict secIusion. Rabbah captured, and his empire firmly Ver. 3.--Jonadab, the BOil of Bhimeah. He established. For twenty more years he is called Shammah in 1 Sam. xvi. 9, and is mDBt sit upon his throne, but as a culprit, there described as Jesse's third son. A and bee.r the many BOrrows resulting from brother of Jonadab, named Jonathan, is men- his sin. .A.muon was David's firstboru, the tioned in eh. xxi. 21 as e. valiant soldier BOD of Ahinoam of Jezreel; and probably he who slew one of the Philistine giants. would never have commiUed his shameless Subtil is not used in a bad sense, but means crime had not David's own sin loosed the clever, ready in devising means. bonds of parent&I e.uthority. As it was, he Ver. 4.-Why art thou, being the kiDg'a hesitated, but was encouraged to it by his IIOD., lean T The Hebrew is, Why, 0 son of cousin, who we.a too subtle a man not to the king, dost th-Ou pine away morning by weigh De.vid's character well before coming mqrning? There wu probably a gathering CIJ, XIII, 1-39,) THE SECOND BOOK OF SAMUEL. 325