te and smitten, to win her sympathy and even love, than there was
in David the absolute, and so far as she was concerned, tyrannical
monarch, though surrounded with splendors, the favorite of God and man.
A few days since had he assayed the part of comforter, she would have
felt her heart revolt; but now repentant and forgiven, though not
unpunished by Jehovah, she can listen without bitterness while he speaks
of the mercy of the Lord which has suffered them both to live, though
the law could have required their death, and which sustains even while
it chastises.

* * * * *

Another message--by the hand of the prophet to David and Bathsheba--a
message of peace and tender consideration--a name for their new-born
child, the gift to them from his own hand. "Call him Jedediah--beloved
of the Lord."

"O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how
unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out."' In his
dealings with his sinful children how far are his ways above the ways of
men! "As the heaven is high above the earth, _so great_ is his mercy
toward them that fear him." He dealeth not with them after their
sins--he rewardeth them not according to their iniquities, but knowing
their frame--remembering that they are dust--that a breath of temptation
will carry them away--pitying them with a most tender compassion, he
deals with them according to the everlasting and abounding and
long-suffering love of his own mighty heart. Whenever those who have
known him best, to whom he has manifested his grace most richly, whom he
has blessed with most abundant privileges, fall, in some evil hour, and
without reason, upon the slightest cause, bring dishonor on his name and
give occasion to his enemies to blaspheme, and incur his just judgment,
behold how he treats them. Upon the first sign of contrition, the first
acknowledgment "I have sinned," how prompt, how free, how full is the
response, "The Lord also hath put away thy sin, thou shalt not die." No
lingering resentment--no selfish reminding of his wounded honor--no
thoughts but of love, warm and tender, self-forgetting love and pity for
his sorrowing child. Even when he must resort to chastisement, "his
strange work"--when he must for his great name's sake, raise up for
David evil out of his own house--when he must, before the sun and before
all Israel, show his displeasure at sin; with one hand he applies the
rod,