in fear of him; yet fear gave place to
admiration. Never had a monarch more devoted servants and followers than
David in his palmy days; he was the nation's idol and pride for thirty
years. In every successive vicissitude he was great; and were it not for
his cruelty in war and severity to his enemies, and his one great lapse
into criminal self-indulgence, his reign would have been faultless.
Contrast David with the other conquerors of the world; compare him with
classical and mediaeval heroes,--how far do they fall beneath him in
deeds of magnanimity and self-sacrifice! What monarch has transmitted to
posterity such inestimable treasures of thought and language?

It is consoling to feel that David, whether exultant in riches and
honors, or bowed down to the earth with grief and wrath, both in the
years of adversity and in his prosperous manhood, in strength and in
weakness, with unfailing constancy and loyalty turned his thoughts to
God as the source of all hope and consolation. "As the hart panteth
after the water-brooks, so panteth my soul after Thee, O God!" He has no
doubts, no scepticism, no forgetfulness. His piety has the seal of an
all-pervading sense of the constant presence and aid of a personal God
whom it is his supremest glory to acknowledge,--his staff, his rock, his
fortress, his shield, his deliverer, his friend; the One with whom he
sought to commune, both day and night, on the field of battle and in the
guarded recesses of his palace. In the very depths of humiliation he
never sinks into despair. His piety is both tender and exultant. In the
ecstasy of his raptures he calls even upon inanimate nature to utter
God's praises,--upon the sun and moon, the mountains and valleys, fire
and hail, storms and winds, yea, upon the stars of night. "Bless ye the
Lord, O my soul! for his mercy endureth forever." And this is why he was
a man after God's own heart. Let cynics and critics, and unbelievers
like Bayle, delight to pick flaws in David's life. Who denies his
faults? He was loved because his soul was permeated with exalted
loyalty, because he hungered and thirsted after righteousness, because
he could not find words to express sufficiently his sense of sin and his
longing for forgiveness, his consciousness of littleness and
unworthiness when contrasted with the majesty of Jehovah. Let not our
eyes be fixed upon his defects, but upon the general tenor of his life.
It is true he is in war merciless and cruel;