what I eat or what I drink? can I hear any more the voice of singing men and singing women? wherefore, then, should thy servant be yet a burden to my lord the king?' He would, he said, go a little way beyond the Jordan with the king; but, he added, 'Let thy servant, I pray thee, turn back again, that I may die in mine own city, and be buried by the grave of my father and my mother.' This touch is affecting, and true to universal nature, but particularly to oriental nature. The tendency of our civilisation is to put us above-or perhaps below-these things; and in so far as it does so, it makes us less wise than we think. We do not say,

'Perish the lore that deadens young desire ;'

but we do say there is much in this modern atmosphere of ours which narrows life by deadening-or rather, by concentrating in the present that imagination which, in younger and more vernal times, extended the vitality of existence into both the future and the past.

Among the first to meet the king at the Jordan was Ziba, 'the servant of the house of Saul,' with his fifteen sons and twenty servants. This person had good cause to come. On David's retreat from Jerusalem, he had met him with an acceptable supply of bread, wine, and summer fruits; and when the king inquired what had become of his master Mephibosheth, he said that he had remained at Jerusalem in the expectation that the turn of events might lift him up as the heir of the house of Saul. On hearing this, David, stung by such ingratitude, told Ziba he might have for himself the estate he had hitherto farmed for Mephibosheth. This was a hasty step; and one cannot but feel that a little delay and inquiry would have become David in regard to the son of Jonathan. At Jerusalem, Mephibosheth soon presented himself before the king, who asked him sternly why he had not gone with him. In reply, he touchingly alluded to his lameness. He had ordered an ass to be saddled, on which to follow the king; but Ziba had interfered, and had gone and slandered him to David. Although he did not himself mention it, his haggard and forlorn appearance bore witness to the fact, that during the king's absence he

had passed his time as a mourner, and had not dressed his feet, nor trimmed his beard, nor washed his clothes. But, while he vindicated his character, and knew how the king had disposed of his property, he intimated his indifference to that part of the matter-Do what is good in thine eyes. What right

have I yet to cry any more unto the king?' Reluctant to think that he had been too hasty; having a royal aversion to admit that he could err, and had been duped; and being, in his present humour of overlooking and pardoning everything, indisposed to the task of calling to account a man of such influence as Ziba, who had been forward in his cause, when many tried friends forsook him; the king's answer was something less than generous, and much less than kind to the son of Jonathan: 'Why speakest thou any more of thy matters? I have said, thou and Ziba divide the land.' The injustice of this is obvious. If he disbelieved Mephibosheth, it was unjust to Ziba to deprive him of the land, which had been the reward of his fidelity when his master forsook what seemed to be a falling cause: whereas, if he believed Mephibosheth, escape from punishment had been sufficient grace for Ziba. The matter is not, however, perhaps so bad as it looks. The king reverts to what he had said, which carries the mind back to his first arrangement, which was, that Mephibosheth should be proprietor, and Ziba his tenant, dividing the produce of the land with him. It may therefore be, that the king meant to be understood as restoring this arrangement; thus depriving Ziba of the advantage which his treachery acquired, without ejecting him from his tenancy under Mephibosheth. Even this would be hard enough for the son of Jonathan, to be thus still connected with a steward who had betrayed him. But the student of history knows that at a restoration the rules of right and wrong are seldom strictly carried out, and that the king having two parties to satisfy, feels obliged to act upon compromises, which give to all something less than their due. Nothing can, however, excuse the tart manner of David in answering Mephibosheth. If he was not then at leisure to attend to his representation, why decide the matterand that to his disadvantage-before he had time to inquire

fully into the case? The tone of the afflicted man's reply to this sharp answer, gives us reason to fear that the worst interpretation of David's decision may be the right one: 'Yea, LET HIM TAKE ALL, forasmuch as my lord the king is come again in peace unto his own house.' Oh noble heart! Let us fain hope that David was touched by this, and could once more say, 'I am distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan.'

The various incidents connected with the rebellion of Absalom, the return of the king, and the suppression of the outbreak under Sheba, show the increasing weakness of David. He appears almost incapable of judging for himself, or of conducting public affairs so as to secure peace and harmony in the kingdom. He appears also to have well-nigh forgotten his allegiance to the God of Israel. Humiliated by a consciousness of guilt and sense of shame, harassed by open foes and domineering friends, he for a season forgot alike his dignity as a monarch, and his duty as the Lord's anointed. We do not read now of his asking counsel of God. Joab was at this period the master mind in Israel. His vast influence and commanding ability first saved the throne, and then saved the kingdom from being rent in twain. But his rough and rugged nature often grated harshly on the exquisitely tender sensibilities of David. David was afraid of Joab, and did not treat him well. He required his strong arm; he acknowledged the wisdom of his counsel; yet he tried all means, except that of open deposition, on which he would not venture, to displace him from his high office as commanderin-chief. It was a weak, almost cowardly, policy to attempt to supersede Joab by setting up a powerful rival. But Joab was equal to the emergency, and did not scruple to murder Amasa as he had murdered Abner. Joab knew well enough the king's feeling toward him—he saw through the duplicity of his master; yet there is one thing remarkable, almost unaccountable, considering the nature of the times and the character of the man-he never for a moment swerved from his allegiance. Unscrupulous in all besides; conscious of possessing almost paramount influence in the kingdom; of unequalled military skill; filled with towering ambition,-he nevertheless served David with undeviating fidelity. He did more : he never lost an opportunity of asserting, defending, and advancing his master's dignity as king of Israel.

VOL. III. 1

2 E

Thirty-ninth Week-Sixth Day.

FAMINE AND PESTILENCE.-2 SAMUEL XXI. XXIV.

WHEN Saul was disclosing to his courtiers at Gibeah his suspicions against David, he used these remarkable words: 'Hear now, ye Benjamites; will the son of Jesse give every one of you fields, and vineyards, and make you captains of thousands and captains of hundreds ?' 1 Sam. xxii. 7. That is-Whether they fancied that David would do for them what he had done, or meant to do? But the question comes, Where did Saul get lands and vineyards to distribute among his servants? Not by conquest from the neighbouring nations. The domains of the Amalekites were too distant, and it does not appear that he retained them in possession. At home all the lands were appropriated among the tribes and families of Israel, and could not be acquired even by purchase. This was the first reign in Israel, and there had been no treasons which could have placed at his disposal the forfeited estates of traitors. His own property does not seem to have been considerable; and he could hardly yet have ventured to take the private estates of his subjects by force from them. There was only one available source that we can see; and from what now transpires, it is likely that that he availed himself of it. The Gibeonites having filched a covenant of peace and safety from Joshua, were, out of regard to the oath that had been taken, secured in the possession of their towns and lands, on condition of their discharging, by certain of their number, all the menial services of the tabernacle. It would seem that Saul viewed their possessions with a covetous eye, as affording him the means of rewarding his adherents, and of enriching his family; and hence, on some pretence or other, or without any pretence, he slew large numbers of them, and, doubtless, seized their possessions. It is said that he did this ' in his zeal for Israel and Judah;' and this cannot be explained but on the supposition that the deed was done in order to give the tribes possession of the reserved territories of the Gibeonites.

And there is no doubt this would be, as it was designed, a popular and acceptable act. From the first, the people murmured greatly at the covenant that had been entered into, mainly, it would seem, because they were thus deprived of the spoil of the Gibeonites, and of cities and lands situated in the most desirable part of the country. This feeling in all probability strengthened as the population of Israel increased, and land, especially in this quarter, acquired increased value. As one of the towns of this people was in Judah, and three in Benjamin, when they were destroyed out of their cities, none but persons of those tribes could pretend to any right to them; and they, no doubt, originally had them, and in all probability willingly undertook the task of turning out the Gibeonites at the point of the sword. Thus Saul's zeal for Israel (Benjamin) and for Judah appears; and thus also, by their complicity in this gross breach of ancient covenants with a now harmless and faithful people, who for many ages had been Israelites in faith and practice, they laid themselves open to punishment from Him who abhors iniquity and broken faith, and to whom the innocent blood cries not in vain. It would seem that Saul's own family must have been active in this cruel wrong, and must have had a good share of the spoil; for we find them all, when reduced to a private station, much better off in their worldly circumstances than can else be accounted for, especially as Saul's own estate had gone with the crown, until assigned by David to Mephibosheth.

But the punishments of a just God for wrong-doing, whether in nations or individuals, though often delayed, come at last— often when, from lapse of time, the wrong-doers think that they are secure in the possession of their blood-stained gains, and that all danger is past. It was so in this case, if, as some suppose, the transactions which follow did not take place at an earlier period of David's reign, being set down here with other miscellaneous matters, as a sort of appendix, interposed before the account of the close of David's life.

There came a famine of three years' duration. If the time be indicated by the place which the chapter occupies, David