and courage having been manifested at their expense. In fact, he is rather liked the better for it.

Nevertheless, David found himself in an embarrassing position at Gath. It must have been obviously difficult for him and his men to be living there among idolaters without giving or taking offence; and there was constant danger lest, with so many brave and reckless men moving about among their old enemies, some affray might arise on religious or national grounds, which might have a fatal and ruinous termination. Besides, they lived under constant observation; and the mere presence of so many strong and daring men, would of itself be likely to suggest the employment of them against the Israelites, -a result which David regarded with such dread and apprehension, as probably left him little of the repose he had expected to find among the Philistines. He therefore at length ventured to ask the king to assign to him some town in the land, where he might live apart with his men; and where, as seems to be adroitly implied, they might provide for themselves, and be no longer burdensome as guests in the royal city. This was a large and bold request. But it was met in an open and generous spirit; and David was at once raised almost to the dignity of an independent prince, by having the fortified town of Ziklag assigned to him, in such absolute and free possession, that it remained attached to the house of David ever after.

Understanding the wishes of Achish, and being also desirous to maintain and exercise his men, he led them, from time to time, in forays against the neighbouring nations. But these nations were friends of the Philistines; and as he wished it to be believed, and indeed positively affirmed, that these expedi tions were against the Israelites, the troop made it their constant practice to put to death every living soul of the places they assaulted, that there might be none left to apprise the Philistines of the truth. The delight the king felt in the assurance that, by these alleged operations against Israel, David had made himself odious to his own people, and must therefore remain attached to his interests, clearly shows the nature of the danger he incurred by the step he had taken, and indicates the

deplorable error into which he had fallen, seeing that he could only evade the consequences by bloodshed, by falsehood, and by making a dupe of the confiding protector by whom he had been treated so generously. Bishop Hall, who excuses the slaughter, on the ground that these people were of the doomed nations, whom the Israelites held a commission from God to extirpate, yet finds no excuse for this dealing with king Achish: ‘If Achish were a Philistine, yet he was David's friend, yea, his patron; and if he had been neither, it had not become David to be false. The infirmities of God's children never appear but in their extremities. It is hard for the best man to say how far he will be tempted. If a man will put himself among Philistines, he cannot promise to come forth innocent.'

'Ah! what a tangled web we weave,
When first we venture to deceive!'

To some it may probably appear strange that, of all the cities of Philistia, David should have twice selected Gath as an asylum. Gath had suffered most severely from him in former days; and there, if anywhere, he might naturally anticipate a cold reception, if not hidden treachery or open violence. The solution of the difficulty appears to be this, that Gath stood upon the borders of the Jewish territory, just at the foot of the mountains, while the other royal cities were far out upon the plain. David wished to be close to his own country, that he might watch the current of events, receive refugees, and return to his native mountains whenever a favourable opportunity should offer. He felt, besides, that he would be safer near the border; he would be more free to act, and less exposed to the espionage and lurking hostility of the Philistines. Even though Gath was upon the border he was too wise to remain long in it. He asked for and obtained a town for himself; and he got one just where it best suited him to dwellon the southern confines of Philistia, and not far distant from Judah. Ziklag was, moreover, a frontier fortress from which raids and forays could be made at any moment upon the hereditary enemies of his country, the Amalekites.

A study of David's character and acts during the period in which he was outlawed, is calculated to leave a somewhat painful impression upon the mind. We cannot but feel that his sufferings

and his wrongs were very great. Driven from a court to which he had been invited; outlawed by a monarch whose honour and whose kingdom he had saved by his valour; beset and betrayed by those in whom he trusted,-one's heart bleeds for the poor, houseless, persecuted wanderer, as he reads those words of deep pathos and thrilling power, in which he depicts his trials and sorrows. And yet there is another side to the picture. There are words and plans and acts recorded which nothing can excuse. There are displays of passion, and purposes of revenge, and deeds of cruelty and blood. There are unworthy schemes, and deceptions, and barefaced falsehoods. These are all recorded, honestly recorded, by the sacred historian. They are never palliated. No attempt is made to excuse them. The life of David is written faithfully. His conduct is depicted truthfully. And in all this we have evidence, full and convincing, that the Spirit of God inspired the biographer. David is set before us as 'a man after God's own heart;' but still a man—a man of fiery passions, of many and heinous sins, yet a man redeemed at length from sin's curse and passion's slavery by the almighty power of divine grace. David's character and life are best sketched by his own pen in the fifty-first Psalm. In the words of an eloquent living author: 'David's life and history, as written for us in those Psalms of his, I consider to be the truest emblem ever given us of a man's moral progress and warfare here below. All earnest souls will ever discern in it the faithful struggle of an earnest human soul towards that which is good and best. Struggle often baffled-sore baffled -driven as into entire wreck; yet a struggle never ended, ever with tears, repentance, true unconquerable purpose, begun anew.”1

Thirty-fifth Week-Third Day.

REINFORCEMENTS.- I SAMUEL XXVII. 1-12; I CHRONICLES

XII. I-22.

AT Ziklag David's power received constant accessions. The position he now occupied, in a strong town on the frontier towards Judah, no longer a wandering exile, but a great lord, able to find rewarding employment for the swords of resolute

1 CARLYLE, Hero-Worship.

men, and the hopes of whose great future began to loom distinctly in the horizon, caused his force to be greatly increased by additions from various quarters. In 1 Chron. xii. 1-22, a long list is given of persons of more or less consideration in their tribes, who, through disaffection to the government of Saul, made themselves voluntary exiles, and staked all their prospects on David's cause. The list opens with members of the tribe of Benjamin, 'Saul's brethren,' at which we might wonder, did we not recollect that the influence of Samuel had been very strong in that tribe, and that the seat of Saul's government being within its territory, it had probably been more annoyed than more distant tribes, by some of his unpopular acts. This body of Benjamites were armed with bows, and could use both the right hand and the left in hurling stones, and shooting arrows out of a bow.' They were therefore invaluable for breaking and discouraging an enemy's force before coming to close quarters.

During the reign of Saul, the tribes beyond the Jordan had taken a very independent part, and had gained great accessions of power and territory by wars waged on their own account with the neighbouring nations. This, with their separation by the river from their brethren, and the greater separation effected by their pastoral habits, rendered very loose the connection between them and the agricultural tribes of the west, and it would seem that they acknowledged little, if any, subjection to Saul. Indeed, it may appear that there was something like a small harassing civil war between them and Saul; for a strong party of Gadites, who crossed the Jordan at the time of flood, and marched through the country to join David at Ziklag,' are described as having chased away the inhabitants of the river valley, on both banks, in their course. The names of their leaders are given, eleven in number, and they are described as captains of the host: one of the least was over a hundred, and the greatest over a thousand,'-not that they brought such numbers with them, but that they were such men as were, from their rank and military worth, entitled, when Israel was under 1 Compare I Chron. xii. 8-22, v. 11, 18–22.

VOL. III.

T

arms, to act as centurions and chiliarchs in the army.

That they were, notwithstanding, in considerable force, is shown by their exploit in the valley of the Jordan. It is said of these auxiliaries, that they were men of war, fit for the battle, that could handle shield and buckler, whose faces were like the faces of lions, and were as swift as the roes upon the mountains.' These were, then, trained and well-armed soldiers, of the kind most valued in ancient warfare, being most formidable in close action.

Not long after there came over to him a large number of men, headed by persons of distinguished valour, from the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. As this large force appeared before him, David was somewhat suspicious of their intentions, perhaps owing to the presence of the Benjamites, who might naturally be supposed to be attached to Saul, who was of their own tribe. He therefore went out to them, not only as an act of civility, but to ascertain their intentions before they were admitted into the fortress. This anecdote, found in an obscure place,1 is interesting, as everything is that illustrates David's position at this time, as the leader of a troop so variously composed, and so difficult to manage, except by the influence of personal regard and high military character. The words in which David addressed the newly-arrived force are striking, and well illustrate the kind of oratory by which he spoke to the hearts of men: 'If ye be come peaceably unto me, to help me, mine heart shall be knit unto you; but if ye be come to betray me to mine enemies, seeing there is no wrong in mine hands, the God of our fathers look thereon and rebuke it.' These words awoke the enthusiasm of the strangers, whose sentiments found expression in the voice of their leader Amasai: Thine are we, David, and on thy side, thou son of Jesse. Peace, peace, be unto thee, and peace be to thine helpers; for thy God helpeth thee.' They were then most gladly received-the

2 Perhaps the same as Amasa, son of David's sister Abigail-at a later period Absalom's general-in-chief, and designed by David to be his, but that he was slain by Joab.