"How sharper than o. serpent's tooth it is 'fo ho.vo e. thankless child I " (' King Lear.') 2, '!'heir misfortune (ver. 19). 3. Their disappointment of his hopes; his consternation, trembling anxieties, exaggerated fears (ver. 30); his bereavement by death (ver. 32) and by enforced exile through crime (ver. 34); his son a. fratricirle, like Cain, alive yet dead. What o. heavy burden of trouble was thus laid upon David! It i~ not sur- prising that it was followed by serious and protracted bodily ajfiiction, favomable to the designs of his enemies o.nd conducive to still deeper distrei;s (eh. xv. 4, 30), a.s several psa.lmH seem to indicate (Ps. xxxviii., xxxix., xii., Iv.). 0 Jehovah, rebuke me not in thine anger, Nor chasten me in thy hot displeasure. For thine arrows stick fast iu me, And thy hand presseth me sore," etc. (Ps. xnviii. 1, 2.) Il. SoMETIMEB DUE TO BIB OWN FAULT. 1. His sinful example. Children are more ready to imitate their father's vices than his virtues. 2. His defective discipline. "David's failure in the government of his family was due in part to the excessive, even morbid, tenderness of his feelings towards his children, especially some of them. He may also have thought of his family circle as too exclusively a. scene for relaxa- tion and enjoyment; he may have forgotten that even there there is a call for much vigilance and self-denial" (Blaikie). "By this example we see that children whom their parents spare to correct will in the end be a grief unto them" (Willet). "Chastisement without love is an outrage; no father is at liberty to plague or torture his child ; but a. love that cannot chastise is no love, and reaps a. poor rewa.rd. A child tho.t does not at the proper time feel the father's rod becomes at last a. rod for his father" (Schlier). "Oft times the child whom the father loves most (as David did Amnon) becomes his greatest grief by too much indulgence" (Guild). 3. His culpable clemency it;l the case of a great crime (ver. 21). Even if David did inflict some punishment on Amnon, as it has been supposed (Chandler), yet it was altogether inadequate t.o the offence. The sorrows of a father over the sins and sufferings of his children are intensified by the knowledge that they a.re, in some degree, the result of his ow11 errors and transgressions. " A paren1l can have no sharper pang than the sight of his own sin reappearing in his child. David sa.w the ghastly reflection of his unbridled passion in his eldest son's foul crime (and even a gleam of it in his unhappy daughter) and of his murderous craft in his second son's bloody revenge" (Maclaren). III. NoT WITHOUT MERCIFUL ALLEVJATION. 1. The occasion of trouble is less calamitous than it might have been; less than it was feared to be (ver. 32). 2. Grief is assuaged by the lapse of time (vers. 37, 38). 3. It is vain to mourn over what is irreparable (ver. 39; eh. xii. 23; xiv. 14). 4. These afflictions a.re chastisements from the heavenly Father's hand, and should be endured with patience and hope (Ps. xxxix. 7, 9; xxxviii. 15). 6. They a.re mingled with tokens of Divine favour (eh. rii. 13, 25; Ps. xii. 1-3; Isa. xxvii. 8). 6. Their purpose is morally beneficial (Heh. xii. 11). "It may seem strange to say it, but it is most true, that the tears which flo\v from the eyelids of a man are as needful to the fruitfulness of his heart as the dews which descend from the eyelids of the morning are to the thirsty ground" (E. Irving),-D.
Ver. 3.-A diabolical friend: a homily /<YI" young men. This chapter contains a dreadful story. The unnaturo.l lust of Amnon, the vile counsels of Jone.dab, the unsuspiciousness of the king, the confidin~ innocence of Tamar, her unav&ili.ng remon- stmnces and resistance, tho hardened villainy of hor half-brother, his hatred and cruel expulsion of his innocent victim, her bitter anguish and lamentations, the unjust leniency of David towards the offender (e.lthough "very wroth"), the vengeance so quietly prepared and so sternly executed by Absalom, the king's lamentations over the deo.th of Amnon, his subsequent lono'in" 11ftor the fugitive Absalom,-present a picture of horrible wickedness, of helpless ~i;cry, of weak negligence, of fierce and deadly revenge, which moves us with alternate detestatiou auJ. pity, as well 11s wonder that so THE SEOOND BOOK OF SAMUEL. [en. xnr. 1-30.