The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Samuel — Section 462

which would not have happened but for the sin which created the sorrow. The que~tion of the precedence of Jude.h in the matter of his restore.tion was the distinct formulRtion of a jee.louey and sectionRl inte1·est which subsequently resulted in 8 schism of the kingdom, and this question would not have arisen but for the chastise- ment for sin in the form of a son's rebellion. Likewise the ultiml\te dooth of Amnsa came through David's having, probably because Joab had been insult.ing and because a complete amnesty we.a deemed desirable, displaced Joe.b in his favour. These bitter streams all flowed into the remoter ramifications of life from the fountain of trouble opened by the fall of David. Hereon we may observe- r. THE FORGIVENESS OF SIN MAY COEXIST WITH THE ONWARD FLOW O'P' SOME OJ' IT8 OONSEQUENCES. There is a certe.inty that David's great guilt was covered (eh. xii. 13). The prayer of the fifty-first psalm had been fully answered, and privately he had been able to rejoice again in the God of his salvation. But we have in this history the spectacle of a pardoned, reconciled ma.n, confident in his personal salvation, and the onward flow of a stree.m of social and material evils which, so far at least as they were related to him, sprang from his sin. The prediction of Nathan did not establish an arbitrary relation between his conduct to Bathsheba and Uriah, and the whole mental and moral condition implied therein, and the rebellion of Absalom and the perplexities of the situation after its suppression. There was an organic connection between the spiritual fall and the civil troubles. The spiritual element in us is the centre of our composite nature. A change for the worse in it radiates through the entire being, and as the outward relations are affected by the condition and direction taken by our various powers, so the inmost change is the spring of manifold and ever-flowing consequences. The deteriorated influence on others, consequent on a period of spiritual declension, cannot but act dynamically as a wave long after we have by repentance and faith been restored to God. The personal condemnation is gone, but the injury done on society is not gone. The intricate mass of materi11l and social evils now afflicting the world is the outcome of deviation from the perfect will of God, and though some who thus deviated are now blessed in heaven, the quota they contributed by their former sins ii; still somewhere in the tangled mass. IL SIN IS A DISTURBER OF MANY RELATIONS. David's sin affected his relation to God and to his own family and people. It touched his personal influence among friends, his admiuistration, and indirectly, through the rebellion, the lives and deareHt interests of multitudes. The distress e.nd uncertainty at Mahanaim after the defeat of Absalom and the hesitancy of the tribes to welcome him back, were traceable to what he had formerly done. Who can describe the manifold disturbances in the order of things prodnced in our world by the sin of Adam ? The ramifications of the wave of dis- turbance created by any one sin are more than can be numbered. It is in the more conspicuous acts of transgression that we get visible traces of a widespread disturbance similar to what is caused by every inconspicuous act. A rebellious son in a home, a dishonest deed in business, a vicious habit,-th.ese reveal a manifest series of troubles in private, social, e.nd public connections. No sinner sins to himself. Moral evil gives colour and form to all things. It infuses an element of defect, if not of positive evil, into every bodily, mental, and moral relation sustained by the sinning man. liL THE DISTURBANCE CAUSED BY SIN FLOWS ON INTO THE REMOTE FUTURE. The great moral shock involved in David's great sin produced effects which for years flowed on, e.nd which. in fact, are flowing on now. The great storm in mid-ocean sends the under swell into far-distant bays, and long after quietude has been restored at the centre the sullen roll falls on the beach. The whole subsequent course of Hebrew history was modified by the deed of evil done in secret. In so far as the power of David over the world is less, and different in kind. from what it would have undoubtedly been he.d he kept himself pure, so far his sin is still at work shaping the destinies of men. We can never call ba.ck the waves of pernicious influence we send forth in a. single sinful act or feeling. It is the law of the universe that they go on. The supposed counteraction of them by sn bseq uent. repentance and amendment only means that we modify the influence previously sent forth,-we make the world somewhat better than it would have been had the sinrul influence gone out alone. We cannot annihilate it any more than we can annihilate force. 'l'he future is the sum of all the influene&11 of the past. OB. XIX.. 1-43,] THE SECOND BOOK OF SAMUEL, 473