n his barricade of wagons. He had
around him the three thousand soldiers whom he had led into the
mountains in his mad effort to capture David. The young man had been
pursued until he had felt that there was only a step between him and
death.

That very night, accompanied only by his armour-bearer, David stole
under cover of the darkness into Saul's camp. He presently stood in
the tent of the sleeping giant. Here was his enemy lying helpless at
his feet! His armour-bearer, knowing the history of that enmity,
whispered, "Let me smite him with one blow to the earth! I will not
smite the second time." One blow in the dark would suffice to end that
murderous career.

And it ought to be remembered that this was in a day when "an eye for
an eye and a tooth for a tooth" was the law of the land. It was
esteemed the law of God. The atmosphere was not one of
forbearance--the popular heroes were men like Samson and Gideon, women
like Deborah and Jael, who did not hesitate to strike down their foes.
"Let me smite him," came the whisper in the dark. "One blow will
suffice."

But peace hath her victories no less than war. Mercy has its trophies
no less than force. Here was a man who would not avenge himself--he
would give place unto wrath knowing that vengeance belongs to God. He
was ready to make the bold adventure of undertaking to overcome evil
with good.

David would not strike his enemy even though that enemy had been in hot
pursuit of him. "Destroy him not," he whispered to his
companion-in-arms as he felt him clutching the sword which hung at his
side. David's greatest victory was not over Goliath, the Philistine
giant--it was over himself, over that spirit of revenge which might so
easily have ruled his heart in that dark, hard hour.

He had in splendid measure the quality of mercy which the poet sings.

"The quality of mercy is not strain'd,
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest;
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.
'Tis mightiest in the mightiest: it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown;
We do pray for mercy,
And that same prayer doth teach us all to render
The deeds of mercy."

We are discovering those qualities which entitled this young man to be
crowned as king.

Finally, he was a man of genuine piety. We read in one place that he
was "a man after God's own heart." The statement has been a puzzle to