ry with my groaning; every night make I my bed to swim. I water
my couch with my tears." The similar phrase, too, in psalm fifty-one,
"The bones which Thou hast broken," may have a similar application.
Thus, sick in body and soul, he dragged through a weary year--ashamed
of his guilty dalliance, wretched in his self-accusations, afraid of
God, and skulking in the recesses of his palace from the sight of his
people. A goodly price he had sold integrity for. The bread had been
sweet for a moment, but how quickly his "mouth is filled with gravel"
(Proverbs xx. 17). David learned, what we all learn (and the holier a
man is, the more speedily and sharply does the lesson follow on the
heels of his sin), that every transgression is a blunder, that we never
get the satisfaction which we expect from any sin, or if we do, we get
something with it which spoils it all. A nauseous drug is added to the
exciting, intoxicating drink which temptation offers, and though its
flavour is at first disguised by the pleasanter taste of the sin, its
bitterness is persistent though slow, and clings to the palate long
after that has faded utterly.

Into this dreary life Nathan's message comes with merciful rebuke. The
prompt severity of David's judgment against the selfish sinner of the
inimitable apologue may be a subtle indication of his troubled
conscience, which fancies some atonement for his own sin in stern
repression of that of others; for consciousness of evil may sometimes
sting into harshness as well as soften to lenity, and sinful man is a
sterner judge than the righteous God. The answer of Nathan is a perfect
example of the Divine way of convincing of sin. There is first the plain
charge pressed home on the individual conscience, "Thou art the man."
Then follows, not reproach nor further deepening of the blackness of the
deed, but a tender enumeration of God's great benefits, whereon is built
the solemn question, "Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of
the Lord, to do evil in His sight?" The contemplation of God's faithful
love, and of the all-sufficient gifts which it bestows, makes every
transgression irrational as well as ungrateful, and turns remorse, which
consumes like the hot wind of the wilderness, into tearful repentance
which refreshes the soul. When God has been seen loving and bestowing
ere He commands and requires, it is profitable to hold the image of the
man's evil in all its ugliness close up to his eyes; and s