s body-guard,--composed chiefly of foreigners, after the custom of
princes in most ages. His most trusted counsellors were the prophets Gad
and Nathan. Zadok and Abiathar were the high-priests, who also
superintended the music, to which David gave special attention. Singing
men and women celebrated his victories. The royal household was
regulated by different grades of officers. But David departed from the
stern simplicity of Saul, and surrounded himself with pomps and guards.
None were admitted to his presence without announcement or without
obeisance, while he himself was seated on a throne, with a golden
sceptre in his hands and a jewelled crown upon his brow, clothed in
robes of purple and gold. He made alliances with powerful chieftains and
kings, and imitated their fashion of instituting a harem for his wives
and concubines,--becoming in every sense an Oriental monarch, except
that his power was limited by the constitution which had been given by
Moses. He reigned, it would seem, in justice and equity, and in
obedience to the commands of Jehovah, whose servant he felt himself to
be. Nor did he violate any known laws of morality, unless it were the
practice of polygamy, in accordance with the custom of all Eastern
potentates, permitted to them if not to their ordinary subjects. We
infer from all incidental notices of the habits of the Israelites at
this period that they were a remarkably virtuous people, with primitive
tastes and love of domestic life, among whom female chastity was
esteemed the highest virtue; and it is a matter of surprise that the
loose habits of the King in regard to women provoked so little comment
among his subjects, and called out so few rebukes from his advisers.

But he did not surrender himself to the inglorious luxury in which
Oriental monarchs lived. He retained his warlike habits, and in great
national crises he headed his own troops in battle. It would seem that
he was not much molested by external enemies for twenty years after
making Jerusalem his capital, but reigned in peace, devoting himself to
the welfare of his subjects, and collecting materials for the future
building of the Temple,--its actual erection being denied to him as a
man of blood. Everything favored the national prosperity of the
Israelites. There was no great power in western Asia to prevent them
founding a permanent monarchy; Assyria had been humbled; and Egypt,
under the last kings of the twentieth dynasty, had lo