ew
materials for thought when he went back to his humble task.
Responsibility, or the prospect of it, makes lads into men very quickly.
Graver meditations, humbler consciousness of weakness, a firmer trust in
God who had laid the burden upon him, would do in days the work of
years. And the necessity for bidding back the visions of the future in
order to do faithfully the obscure duties of the present, would add
self-control and patience, not usually the graces of youth. How swiftly
he matured is singularly shown in the next recorded incident--his
summons to the court of Saul, by the character of him drawn by the
courtier who recommends him to the king. He speaks of David in words
more suitable to a man of established renown than to a stripling. He is
minstrel and warrior, "cunning in playing, and a mighty valiant man,"
and "skilled in speech (already eloquent), and fair in form, and the
Lord is with him." (1 Sam. xvi. 18.) So quickly had the new
circumstances and the energy of the Spirit of God, like tropical
sunshine, ripened his soul.

That first visit to the court was but an episode in his life, however
helpful to his growth it may have been. It would give him the knowledge
of new scenes, widen his experience, and prepare him for the future. But
it cannot have been of very long duration. Possibly his harp lost its
power over Saul's gloomy spirit, when he had become familiar with its
notes. For whatever reason, he returned to his father's house, and
gladly exchanged the favour at court, which might have seemed to a
merely ambitious man the first step towards fulfilling the prophecy of
Samuel's anointing, for the freedom of the pastoral solitudes about
Bethlehem. There he remained, living to outward seeming as in the quiet
days before these two great earthquakes in his life, but with deeper
thoughts and new power, with broader experience, and a wider horizon,
until the hour when he was finally wrenched from his seclusion, and
flung into the whirlpool of his public career.

There are none of David's psalms which can be with any certainty
referred to this first period of his life; but it has left deep traces
on many of them. The allusions to natural scenery and the frequent
references to varying aspects of the shepherd's life are specimens of
these. One characteristic of the poetic temperament is the faithful
remembrance and cherishing of early days. How fondly he recalled them is
shown in that most pathetic incident o