king!' Well did the king know that voice. A thunder-clap could not have struck him more. He looked up; and David bowed himself very low, in becoming obeisance to his king. He spoke. In a few rapid and strong words, he told what had happened—he described the urgency he had resisted—he held up the skirt in proof how completely had been in his hand the life he spared-saying, 'I have not sinned against thee; yet thou huntest my life to take it. The Lord judge between me and thee; and the Lord avenge me of thee: but mine hand shall not be upon thee.' Behold, now that stern heart is melted. The hard wintry frosts thaw fast before the kindly warmth of this generous nature. Saul weeps; the hot tears, the blessed tears, fall once more from those eyes, dry too long. Thou art more righteous than I,' he cried, in the agony of his self-conviction; for thou hast rewarded me good, whereas I have rewarded thee evil.... The Lord reward thee for the good that thou hast done unto me this day.' Nor was this all. In the presence of the man whom he recognised as worthier than himself, his proud heart yielded for the moment to acknowledge him as destined to inherit his crown, and he humbled himself to ask of David to make him swear, that in the coming time he would spare Saul's family, and not doom it to extirpation. This request painfully reminds us of the antiquity of the eastern custom, which has subsisted to our own time, of a new ruler destroying all those of the previous family, whose claims might, by any possible circumstances, be brought into rivalry with his

own.

Although relieved from the immediate pursuit of Saul, David was too well acquainted with his character to forego the safeguards which his present mode of life afforded. Nor had he miscalculated; for, after an uncertain interval of time, during which occurred the affair with Nabal, we find the king again upon the track of David, in a different part of the wild region towards the Dead Sea. This relapse of Saul into his old inveteracy, this forgetfulness of that noble forbearance which had once so deeply impressed him, would have thrown many men-even right-minded men-off their guard of patience and

moderation. It was a hard test, but David stood it. He lost not one jot of heart or hope, and would not consent that the wrong of Saul should make him wrong also. An opportunity was again afforded him of showing the invincible truth of his character, and his immeasurable superiority to the man who hunted his life through the mountains.

Having received from his scouts certain intelligence of Saul's movements, David went down one night to the place where the royal party had bivouacked, accompanied by two faithful friends, one of whom was his nephew, Abishai. They found the whole troop sunk in sleep-the king in the midst, with Abner and the men round about him. The position of the king was clearly marked in the dimness of the night to the visitants, by the spear stuck into the ground,—a practice by which the tent of the chief, or his place in the open air, is still marked among the Arabians. This precluded all mistake as to the person, and Abishai begged David's permission to pin Saul's body at once to the earth on which he lay. I will not,' he whispered, with ferocious significance, 'smite him a second time.' But David withheld his hand. There was, beside the spear at the king's head, a pitcher of water within his reach, from which he might drink, if he awoke athirst. These things-the pitcher and the spear-David was content to remove as proofs of his visit. When they had got to the top of a hill at some distance, David shouted to Abner by name, and taunted him for the lax watch he had kept over the king's safety, telling him to look for the spear and the pitcher which had stood at the king's head. David had not declared himself; and in the darkness and distance his person could not be recognised. But the king knew his voice, and called out, with returning admiration, 'Is this thy voice, my son David?' By this David knew the frame of mind to which he had been brought, and remonstrated with equal force, but with even more tenderness and respect, than on the former occasion. He delicately supposed that all this persecution was owing to the malicious misrepresentations of others; he demanded to know what evil he had done, and appealed to the undoubted proofs he had given of his respect

for the king's life and person. Saul was greatly impressed. Pride and hatred fled his heart for the time, and his confession of wrong-doing was most humble: Behold, I have played the fool, and have erred exceedingly.' He also promised that he would no more do him harm; and said, finally, Blessed be thou, my son David; thou shalt both do great things, and also shalt still prevail.'

His prophecy was true.

How great the pity that the beams which now and then penetrated thus through the rents of his ruined spirit, had no abiding for light or warmth in the darkened chambers of his heart!

Thirty-fifth Week First Day.

CUSH THE BENJAMITE.-PSALM VII.

If we turn to the seventh Psalm, we find from the superscription that it was composed or sung by David unto the Lord, 'concerning the words of Cush the Benjamite.' This person is not mentioned in the history, nor are his words recorded. But from the Psalm it may be collected that this man, having won the confidence and friendship of the unsuspecting David, used these only to entrap him into the power of Saul, whose then slumbering hostility he roused by misrepresenting David's motives and intentions to the king. There is indeed so much similarity between the words which David addressed to Saul in the last interview with him, under the circumstances recorded yesterday, and those of this Psalm, as to show that this sacred song belongs to that occasion. This Cush, then, was the person to whom he alluded as having by his treacherous malignity incited the king to this renewed pursuit. It may also not be difficult to collect that the purport of his unjust accusation was that David sought the life of the king, in order to clear his own way to the throne. Hence the special value of the opportunity of practically refuting this calumny which had been afforded to him. Seeing the frame of mind to which Saul had been thus brought, we shall not feel prepared for the step David next took-of going over again to the Philistines, in the apprehension that he should yet one day perish by the hand of Saul, unless we add the conduct of Cush the Benjamite to the influences which worked his mind up to this course. Indeed, this was the primary influence; for, in his words to Saul, he indicates it as a conclusion already for that reason formed: 'If the Lord hath

1 The authority of the titles to the Psalms is a matter of some doubt, but there is no reason to distrust the one which the present Psalm bears.

stirred thee up against me, let Him accept an offering; but if they be the children of men, cursed be they before the Lord; for they have driven me out this day from abiding in the inheritance of the Lord.' It was therefore not so much the blind fury of Saul which led David to take this step, as the chilling effect upon a confiding spirit like his, of the feeling that his worst enemies contrived to worm their way into his confidence, and that he was betrayed and calumniated by those he trusted most. In the open violence of Saul there was something he could meet and understand; but throughout his career there was never anything that grieved his generous spirit, and crushed it down, so much as the treachery and ingratitude of those he loved and trusted. His own open-heartedness rendered this exquisitely painful to him. Here he was all nerve; and it was here that he was most often wounded.

The case being as stated, it becomes deeply interesting to contemplate that full development of his feelings which the seventh Psalm affords. His sense of the wrong done to him is very keen, and his repudiation of the accusations brought against him becomingly warm and indignant. He did not feel it to be any part of his duty to rest under such imputations, without an attempt to clear his character. It is necessary that the character of the servant of God should, for his Master's honour, be free from even the appearance of evil.' His faith does not require him to lie passive under injurious imputations. He will do all that becomes him to clear his character, but he will not be over-anxious respecting the result, knowing that his character is in God's keeping, and that a great day of unclouding is coming, when his righteousness shall in these matters be made manifest to men and angels. Those clouds that hang darkly upon the horizon now, shall presently, when the sun arises, be lit up with unutterable glory; and that which seemed a spot in the face of heaven, become a radiance and a renown. It is under the influence of such feelings that David speaks: 'O Lord my God, if I have done this, if there be iniquity in my hands; if I have rewarded evil to him that was at peace with me (yea, I have delivered him that without cause is mine