down to Keilah to besiege David. Hearing of the mischief purposed against him, he asks counsel of God, through the priest. "Then said David, O Lord God of Israel, thy servant hath certainly heard that Saul seeketh to come to destroy the city for my sake. Will the men of Keilah deliver me up into his hand? will Saul come down, as thy servant hath heard? And the Lord said, He will come down. They will deliver thee up." "Then David and his men arose and departed out of Keilah, and went and abode in the strongholds in the wilderness of Ziph. And Saul sought him every day; but God delivered him not into his hand." While hunted through this wilderness by Saul, he received a visit from Jonathan, who strengthened his hand in God, and said, "Fear not; for the hand of Saul my father shall not find thee: and thou shalt be king over Israel, and I shall be next unto thee. And they renewed their covenant before the Lord."

The Ziphites could not be relied on. The power of the monarch was too great, and the fierceness of his wrath in the slaughter of the priests, too recent, for any one with safety to offer protection to David. On every side he met with the basest ingratitude and treachery. The Ziphites went to Saul with the welcome information that David concealed himself with them, and proposed to deliver him into the king's hand. Saul pronounces a blessing upon them, and bids them "return and search out more thoroughly the lurking places, and then I will go with you." They return to their land, and Saul and his men followed after them. In the meantime David has escaped and gone farther south, in the wilderness of Maon. Saul pursued after him, and nearly grasped his prey. "For Saul went on one side of the mountain, and David and his men went on the other side of the mountain, and made haste to get away; for Saul and his men compassed David and his men round about to take them."* Just as the infuriated monarch was about to lay his hand upon his foe, God interposed for his deliverance. "There came messengers unto Saul, saying, Haste thee, and come; for the Philistines have invaded the land.' Wherefore he returned from pursuing after David; and they called the place, Sela-hammah-lekoth, that is, rock of divisions; because, says the Targum, the heart of the king was divided to go hither and thither. David now went and dwelt in the strongholds of Engedi, west of the Dead Sea.

As soon as the state of his kingdom permitted it, and the king had returned from following his foreign enemies, he enters

*We have on record, in the 54th Psalm, the feelings of David in this trying experience which should be read in connection with the history, if we would reach any just notion of his faith.

again personally in the search for David. "He chose three thousand men out of all Israel, as a force which could crush every thing which looked like rebellion; and went to seek David and his men, "upon the rocks of the wild goats." It was here that Saul fell into the power of his foe, and had not David been a man of great piety, who feared God, and the powers ordained of him, there would now have been an end of the strife. "The men of David said unto him, Behold the day of which the Lord said unto thee, Behold I will deliver thine enemy into thine hand, that thou mayest do to him as seemeth good unto thee. Then David arose and cut off the skirt of Saul's robe, privily. And his heart smote him, and he said unto his men, The Lord forbid that I should do this thing unto my master, the Lord's anointed. So David stayed his servants with these words, and suffered them not to rise against Saul."

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Saul soon left the cave, and went on his way without any suspicion that he had fallen into the hands of his foe. David also followed, and bowed himself, saying, "My lord the king, wherefore hearest thou men's words, saying, David seeketh thy hurt?" As a proof against all these reports, and the suspicions of the king's own heart, he appeals to the fact that he had thus spared his life: and then calls upon God to judge between them. The Lord judge between me and thee, and see, and plead my cause, and deliver me out of thy hand." The magnanimity of David seems to have touched Saul's better nature, and, for the time, overcame the malicious purpose of his heart. And he said, "Is this thy voice, my son David? Thou art more righteous than I: for thou hast rewarded me good, whereas I have rewarded thee evil, and thou hast showed me this day how that thou hast dealt well with me. Wherefore the Lord reward thee good for that thou hast done unto me this day. And now, behold, I know well that thou shall surely be king, and that the kingdom of Israel shall be established in thine hands: swear now, therefore, unto me, by the Lord, that thou wilt not cut off my seed after me, and that thou wilt not destroy my name out of my father's house. And David sware unto Saul;" and Saul, for a time, seems to have ceased from his pursuit.* evident from this confession of Saul, that he must already have known that David was the person chosen by God to be his successor; and therefore that he was striving against God. It is equally evident from the Psalm written at this time, that David confidently expected the kingdom. He is not in haste, however. He waits until God's time. He takes no measures of

It is

*It was at this point in his history, that David, as we are told, composed the 57th and 63d Psalms; which show how intensely he suffered, and how earnest were his longings for the worship and communion of the sanctuary.

He

his own to secure that result, to which he looked forward. is never driven, even under the stress of a most unrelenting persecution, to an act of disloyalty.

In this brief moment of peace, the whole nation are called to mourn around the grave of Samuel. "And Samuel died; and all the Israelites were gathered together, and lamented him, and buried him in his house at Ramah." A simple notice for the end of so great a man, but one which shows how strong a hold Samuel had upon the heart of the whole nation.

While David was in the wilderness of Paran, he fell in with the shepherds and flocks of Nabal; a man of large wealth, but close and churlish. From the narrative, it appears that David and his men had protected Nabal's flocks while in the wilderness, and expected as their reward a supply of food. He sent, accordingly, his young men, but Nabal meanly denies their request, and adds insult to his denial. Provoked by this refusal, David arms his men, and in the heat and suddenness of his passion, threatens the whole house of Nabal with utter destruction. While on the way to execute his purpose of vengeance, he is met by Abigail the wife of Nabal; who, by a timely present, and a wise answer, disarms his rage, and averts his revenge. David, now sensible of the unreasonableness and sinfulness of his wrath, thanks God that he had been thus kept from carrying it into execution. He was strongly tempted to take vengeance into his own hand, and nothing but the providence of God had prevented him. But though Nabal thus escaped the wrath of man, he was soon visited for his sin, with the judgment of God.

Not long after the death of her husband, David sent "and communed with Abigail to take her to wife." In true oriental style the marriage contract is formed. "And she arose with her maidens and went after the messengers of David, and became his wife." David took also Ahinoam of Jezreel, and they were both his wives. Prior to this, during the flight of David, Saul had taken his daughter, David's wife, and married her to another; and this may be the reason why David felt himself at liberty to form another marriage. Saul's policy was to cut David off from any claim to the succession.

What time had passed since David's first flight from Saul we do not certainly know. Nor can we tell the length of this temporary peace. It does not appear, however, to have lasted long. The destruction of David was the ruling desire of Saul, and we soon find him again in his character as a persecutor. The men of Ziph again attempted to betray David into the hands of the king; and Saul eagerly avails himself of their offer. He marched out into the wilderness where David was concealed, and encamped with his men around him. David adopts the bold expedient of going over to the king's camp

with but one attendant. "So David and Abishai came to the people by night." A deep sleep, evidently more than natural, rested upon the whole band, both king and warriors; so that no one knew of their presence. Abishai said to David, "God hath delivered thine enemy into thine hand this day; now therefore let me smite him, I pray thee, with the spear, even to the earth at once, and I will not smite him the second time." But though thus strongly tempted, David stays the hand of his companion, and forbids him "to touch the Lord's anointed." Taking the spear and the cruse of water from the head of Saul, they departed, and stood on the top of a hill afar off. And David called again to the king, and appealed to him on the same grounds as before. Then Saul said, "I have sinned: return, my son David; for I will do thee no harm, because my soul was precious in thine eyes this day. I have played the fool, and erred exceedingly. Blessed be thou, my son David; thou shalt both do great things, and also shalt still prevail. So David went on his way, and Saul returned to his place."

Notwithstanding this assurance of Saul, and his present relentings, there was plainly no safety for David in his land. Even in the wilderness he had met only with treachery. Those whom he had delivered had plotted his destruction. Pressed on every side with the savage pursuit of the king, he, at last, as if in despair, forms the unbelieving and desperate resolution of joining the Philistines-the enemies of his God and people. And David said in his heart, "I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul: there is nothing better for me than that I should speedily escape into the land of the Philistines; and Saul shall despair of me, to seek me any more, in any coast of Israel." "And he arose and passed over, with the six hundred men that were with him, unto Achish, king of Gath." It is probable that the Gittites had heard of the rupture between David and Saul; and they no doubt hoped that David would now be as useful a friend as he had before been a dangerous enemy. He was therefore well received, although on a previous occasion he had been distrusted and feared. The break was so complete, that, in their view, there could be no reconciliation; and they therefore welcomed him to their land, and gave him Ziklag for a possession. David remained there a year and four months. During this time he received many additions to his followers; "men of might, and helpers in the war: whose faces were like the faces of lions, and men as swift as the roes on the mountains:" whose names are prominent in the subsequent history of David's reign. "From day to day they fell to him, to help him, until it was a great host, like the host of God."

SECTION IV.

DAVID'S WARS AT ZIKLAG-SAUL'S INTERVIEW WITH THE SORCERESS AT ENDORHIS DEATH AT GILBOA, AND THE LAMENTATION OF DAVID.

WHILE David was at Ziklag, he engaged in an exterminating warfare with the wandering bands lying south of Judah. "And David smote the land, and left neither man nor woman alive," lest they should bring tidings to Gath; took the spoil, and returned to the Philistine king. When asked in what direction his incursions were made, David so answers (without telling an absolute falsehood) as to deceive Achish, and led him to believe that he had plundered his own country. The credulous king believed David, saying, "He hath made his people utterly to abhor him; therefore he shall be my servant for ever."

The Scriptures tell us things as they are, they never cover up the defects or sins of kings, or prophets, or apostles. This whole flight of David has its ground (naturally enough to human nature) in a weak faith, and this particular transaction must be viewed as a blot upon his religious character. The wonder would be, however, (did we not know the power of God's grace,) that he had not fallen more sadly. On every natural principle we should find him acting far otherwise than he did. It was the grace of God only which kept him from utter despair, and from joining the enemies of his people, in truth as well as in form.

New accessions were constantly made to his power, from almost all the tribes of Israel; so that David now occupied the position of an independent prince.

Achish soon required the aid of his new ally. "And it came to pass in those days, that the Philistines gathered their armies together for warfare to fight with Israel. And Achish said unto David, Know thou assuredly that thou shalt go out with me to battle, thou and thy men." David, without giving a formal consent, replied, Surely thou shalt know what thy servant can do. On the marshalling of the Philistine forces, David joins in with the men of Achish. We know not what David designed to do:

Though the standard of moral rectitude is immutable, so that the same actions, attended with the same circumstances, are always good or evil; but the standard of morality as it exists in the minds of men varies from time to time. In some ages, the evil of certain immoral acts is not perceived, and the general sentiment and practice are erroneous. In such cases good men fall into the common current, and without scruple perform acts which in a more enlightened age are seen to be wrong. This seems to have been the case in regard to the sin of falsehood. In the early ages of the world, it seems not to have been thought wrong to utter a falsehood to deliver an enemy, or to save life, or to accomplish some great good. It is a good rule, therefore, that the actions of men in one age, as to their criminality, ought not to be judged of as if committed in another age, when the knowledge of the true standard of morals was more perfect.