would do, until the nation reached that height of prosperity which it attained under Solomon."

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"That is," said Martin, they were blessed in the city and in the field,-in the fruit of their bodies, and of the ground, of their cattle and their flocks; blessed in the basket and the store, in their coming in and going out; and what is more, their enemies fled before them, as we have just been seeing that they did, until they became the head and not the tail among the nations."

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CHAPTER XII.

THE GOLDEN AGE.

"I believed not until I came, and mine eyes had seen it."2 CHRON. ix. 6.

"A

ND it was David who raised the people to this height," Martin remarked, beginning the talk next evening; "or, as I suppose you would tell me I ought to say, he was the man whom God chose to build up this great monarchy. He found the kingdom. all in confusion, and left Solomon in possession of the whole country, from the river-that's the Euphrates, isn't it ? to the land of the Philistines, and to the border of Egypt, just about what had been promised to Abraham. I find that in 1 Kings iv. 21; and in the preceding verse it says that Judah and Israel were many, as the sand which is by the sea in multitude, eating and drinking, and making merry.' And in 1 Chron. xxvii. we read about his great army, four and twenty thousand men every month in the year under arms, turn and turn about; and about his captains too. He had some thorough old heroes among them, I should say.

"David must have been rich also in his later years, judging by the quantity of precious things that he stored up for the temple. By-the-bye, I never noticed that either before; but do you see how it says in the 28th of 1st Chron., verses 11 to 13 and 19, that he gave patterns and

written directions which he had received from God, shewing how the temple was to be built? Why now, I have always thought that Solomon did it all out of his own head, or else got clever men to design everything. So, after all, the temple was like the tabernacle in this respect; for Moses had the pattern shewn him in the Mount. What a lot of things one finds out from these books of Chronicles that are not in the Kings at all! But what I was just going to say was, that much as I have always admired that splendid King David, he is one of the greatest puzzles in the whole Bible to me, Mrs. Conway."

"Is he? why?" she enquired, looking all the while as if she knew.

"Oh! you know, people always call him a type of Christ; and then the Bible says, that he was a man after God's own heart; and yet what things he did!"

"We sometimes create difficulties for ourselves, Martin, by taking it for granted that expressions are in the Bible, which if we search we shall never find there. Now the Bible never calls David a type of Christ. It tells us that Christ was to be a son of David, that 'David should never want a man to sit upon his throne;' yes; and in one remarkable passage it speaks of our Lord reigning under the name of David; but the word type is never applied to the earthly king. We may apply it if we like, when we speak of his kingship as in many ways resembling that of his Mighty Descendant; but we need not make a difficulty of it.

"David in his private character had many faults; and being restrained by no human law, because as a sovereign he was above law altogether, and but very little by the influence of public opinion, because he lived in wild and lawless times, he fell, as we can scarcely conceive a servant of God could fall in our own times. But remember, the

His

punishment which came on him was tremendous. sin, though pardoned, yet found him out in its consequences. He never knew domestic peace afterwards.

"And after all, it was not, I think, in his private character, that he was pronounced to be a man after God's own heart. You must look at the way in which the words are used to understand them. He was chosen to supersede Saul and why? You may say that Saul never committed such a crime as David did. Well, many a time he tried to kill David, though he did not succeed. that is not the question.

Still

Saul forgot the

He forgot the

"As kings they were totally different. conditions under which he was to govern. peculiarity of the nation over whom he was to reign. He forgot that he was not an independent sovereign, but only God's vicegerent. He wanted to go his own way, and rule as he thought fit.

From the first he accepted
From the first in his

"David never acted thus. the throne as given to him by God. kingly acts he went to enquire of God; and throughout his kingly life he merely sought to carry out the will of the Most High, and to keep his people true to their Heavenly King."

"So you

think we must separate David the king from David the man," said Martin, thoughtfully.

"I think that there is no difficulty in understanding the expression a man after God's own heart,' if you keep in mind the occasion on which it was used," returned

Mrs. Conway. "That is all I mean. As a king, there are but few blemishes in David's character; and in intention he was perfect throughout. As a man, with many excellences, his character had many blemishes; and though probably from early youth he had learnt that God was his Shepherd and his King; though his piety was fervent, and his repentance deep and real; and though his spiritual

experience has been given by the will of God for the edification of the Church in all ages, yet we can all think of Scripture characters far more faultless."

Yes; why look at Jonathan; was there ever such a noble, unselfish fellow ?" cried Harry, "and so submissive to the will of God, too. It always seems so hard that he should have to suffer for his father's fault."

"One of the things that we can't understand as yet; and at the same time, one of the things that stamp the narrative as a true one and no fiction," rejoined his mother. "You cannot conceive a mere impostor introducing such a character; can you?"

"No, certainly not," returned Martin, emphatically; "at least, if he did, he would have made him get the throne at last. But now, we are getting away from the prosperity of Solomon's reign. Let me see, he began it very young. David says somewhere, I know, 'Solomon my son is still young and tender.' Yet it does not seem to have been long before his fame was spread among all the surrounding nations. I dare say now that many of the kings knew what wealth David had accumulated, and wondered what his young son would do with it."

"Yes," said Mrs. Conway, "David had conquered many very rich nations, especially the Edomites; and one writer, Dr. Prideaux, estimates the treasures which he left to his son at £800,000,000."

"Oh, mother, but that is inconceivable ! cried Harry. "I think not," said his mother. "Think of other eastern nations and their riches. Not only had these lands the great advantage of rich fertile soils, but they had also gold and silver and precious stones in abundance. You know, David had entered into an alliance with Hiram, king of Tyre. Think what Tyre was! The capital of Phenicia, which possessed the first merchants and most daring seamen in the world, and so drew its wealth