and is known to have in his youth performed memorable exploits for the protection of his flock. One of his exploits of this nature he himself related to Saul, in order to show that he did not altogether lack that experience of deadly strife which the king supposed, when he offered to fight the gigantic Philistine: Thy servant kept his father's sheep; and there came a lion and a bear, and took a lamb out of the flock; and I went out after him, and delivered it out of his mouth: and when he arose against me, I caught him by his beard (probably mane), and smote him, and slew him.'

Even in relating this incident, David evinced the difference between him and Saul, which constituted his fitness and Saul's unfitness to reign in Israel. Saul wished to appropriate the credit of everything to himself; David habitually, and in all the sincerity of a truly religious spirit, referred everything to the will and providence of God. So on this occasion he adds,

6

The Lord who delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, will also deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine.'

In this most engaging person, this pious man, this poet, this minstrel, this hero, this Israelite indeed, behold the anointed of the Lord, the man after God's own heart!

After Abraham and Moses, David stands out as the most prominent character in the Old Testament. It must therefore be both interesting and important to obtain as much information as possible regarding his early life and his early writings.

David's youth was passed as a shepherd-a mountain shepherd, amid the pastures of Bethlehem. His native city,—or rather village, for in size it is now, and must ever have been, but a village,—his native city stands on a rugged ridge, which projects eastward from the crest of the mountain range, overlooking and overhanging the wild, desolate wilderness of Judæa. The steep slopes beneath the village are carefully terraced, and covered, as of yore, with olives, vines, and fig-trees. Below the terraces are the little corn-fields, where Ruth and Boaz met; and beyond these is the wildernesswhite limestone hills, with yawning glens, and jagged cliffs, all naked and barren. Not a tree is there. Not a shrub can be seen.

Away far beneath, over the frowning rocks of Engedi, the Dead Sea appears, lying like molten lead in the bottom of the deep valley.

It was among these rugged hills that David was keeping his father's sheep when God called him to the throne. Such a country and such an occupation fitted well to nurse a warrior. David and his companions were thorough mountaineers, accustomed from childhood to vigorous exercise, inured to fatigue, and to all changes of heat and cold by day and by night. From around Bethlehem wild ravines descend eastward to the Dead Sea, and westward to the Philistine plain. Up these, robber bands were, as they still are, wont to come at all seasons; and in them lions and bears lurked of old, as panthers and hyenas do now. These were the perpetual enemies of the shepherds of Bethlehem, who were thus trained to constant watchfulness, and prepared at a moment's notice to meet danger, and fight with every kind of antagonist. In that wilderness, under that training, David learned to use the sling with such effect; and 'his mighty men,' the chief of whom were Bethlehemites, learned the use of sword and spear. When pursued by Saul, David was at home in 'the wilderness of Engedi.' Its ravines, and caves, and mountain paths were all known to him; and he was able to baffle alike the soldiers and the spies of the king.

The writings of David bear no dates. But there is something in the thoughts, and the style, and the imagery, to guide us with tolerable certainty to the period of his life when some at least of his noble lyrics were composed. The twenty-third Psalm is surely the natural tribute of praise rendered by an inspired shepherd to his God amid the wild hills of Judah. The opening verses of the nineteenth appear to have fallen from the lips of one accustomed to gaze on the glory of the starry skies during the wakeful nightwatches. Other Psalms, though manifestly of a later date, show, in their allusions to wild beasts, how vivid was the memory of early dangers and struggles (Ps. vii. 2, x. 9, xvii. 12, xxii. 13, 20, etc.). Many of them also, in what may be called the individuality of their character, being the free and full outpouring of the soul to God,the candid, unrestrained unfolding of joys and sorrows, hopes and fears, sins and struggles,—many of the Psalms thus bear the impress of a mind accustomed to solitude, alone with itself and with God. It is this which gives to the book of Psalms one of its peculiar charms. 'The patriarchs speak as the fathers of the chosen race; the prophets speak as its representatives and its guides. But the Psalmist speaks as the mouthpiece of the individual soul-of the free, independent, solitary conscience of man everywhere.'

Thirty-second Week-Seventh Day.

MUSIC.-I SAMUEL XVI. 15-23.

JESSE the Bethlehemite was one day astonished, and perhaps alarmed, to receive a somewhat peremptory command from the king: 'Send me David, thy son, who is with the sheep.' What could the king know of his son? What did he want with him? If Jesse knew—and if any one knew, he was the most likely to know it-the true purport of the anointing which that son had received, his first thought must have been, that the fact had come to the knowledge of Saul, and that this summons to his presence boded no good to David. However, as they say in the East, to hear was to obey. It behoved that the young man should not appear before the king empty-handed; and his father therefore provided a suitable present, in testimony of homage and respect. It consisted of a live kid, a quantity of bread, and a skin of wine. This was carried by an ass; and it is a pleasant picture, to conceive the future king of Israel stepping lightly along behind the animal, with his shepherd's staff and scrip, and entertained as he went by the gambols of the kid. His light harp was no doubt slung to his back; and it is likely that he now and then rested under a tree, and solaced his soul with its music. His fearless temper would not allow him to look forward to the result of his journey with misgivings; if a doubt crossed his mind, he found sufficient rest in his confidence in God.

or,

There was nothing really alarming when the facts became known.

When the king had leisure to reflect, the denunciation of Samuel sank deep into his soul. The more he thought of it, the more terrible that doom appeared. What, in comparison, mattered it to him, that he was still to reign, if the higher hope of leaving a race of kings to Israel was to be taken from him, from him who had sons well worthy to be kings? The Hebrew mind so linked itself to the future by the contemplation of

posterity, that it is scarcely possible to us, with our looser attachment to the time beyond ourselves, to apprehend in all its intensity the deep distress of mind with which any Hebrew, and much more a king, regarded the prospect that there would be no son of his succeeding.' Besides, there was ground for anxiety respecting his own personal safety. From the lapse of time, it might be inferred that his doom was not, as regarded himself, to be immediately executed. But who knew what might come to pass when the threatened rival should appear? Was he in his lifetime to yield up his kingly power to that rival; or was his sun to go down suddenly in blood, to make room for him?

The mind of this prince, not in his best fortunes strong, gradually gave way beneath the terror of these thoughts, the certainty of his doom, and the uncertain shapes in which it appeared. He sank into a deep melancholy, which being regarded as a divine judgment, it is said that an evil spirit from the Lord troubled him.' 'What more may be meant by this than that God, for Saul's hardened impenitence, withdrew his restraining and guiding grace, I cannot say,' observes Dr Delaney; this only I am sure of, that no man living needs a heavier chastisement from Almighty God, than the letting his own passions loose upon him. The consequence to the mind would, I apprehend, in that case, be much the same as it would be to the body, if the restraining pressure of the air were removed, and all the muscles, vessels, and humours left to the full freedom of their own powers and tendencies.'

6

After many other remedies had no doubt been tried, it was suggested that something might yet be hoped from music, the power of which over the diseases of the mind was well understood in times of old. The king caught eagerly at this idea, and directed that the services of some accomplished minstrel should be secured. It would seem, that although music was much cultivated, the profession of the musician did not exist; for if it did, some one of professional fame would no doubt

1 An Historical Account of the Life and Reign of David, King of Israel. Lond. 1745.

VOL. III.

have been named. This was not done; but some one present remembered that he had not long since seen 'a son of Jesse the Bethlehemite,' whom he then mentioned by that designation, not only as one 'skilful in playing,' but also a youth of great abilities and acknowledged valour; nor was his handsome person forgotten, nor the still more important fact, that 'the Lord was with him,'-a phrase denoting a religious man, whom the Lord seemed to have favourably distinguished in his providence and grace.

This was the cause which led Saul to summon David to his presence. The distance was not great, about ten miles; and the youth reached Gibeah the same day that he left his home. He delayed not to present himself before the king, who little thought, as he looked upon the comely youth who stood before him, that he beheld in him the unknown rival who haunted his repose, and the destined heir of his sceptre. It was, as we have stated, the faculty of David to win with unconscious ease the hearts of all who were brought within the sphere of his influence. Even the austere and troubled Saul was no exception. He loved him greatly,' and speedily sent back to Jesse the message: 'Let David, I pray thee, stand before me, for he hath found favour in my sight.' So David remained at court; and when one of Saul's fits came upon him, he took his harp and played before him, and gradually the king's spirit yielded to the sweet sounds which the master hand drew from the wires; and 'he was refreshed, and was well, and the evil spirit departed from him.'

This remarkable instance of the power of music over the mind, especially in soothing its perturbations and allaying its disorders, is in conformity with the experience of physicians, and with various intimations which may be found in ancient authors. So are those other scriptural instances, which evince the power of music over the moods of even the sanest minds, as in the case of Elisha, who called for the aid of a minstrel to bring his mind into the frame best suited to receive the impulses of the prophetic spirit. One would almost think that there was some power in ancient music, which has since been lost,