good that thou hast done. As the Lord
liveth, ye are worthy to die, because ye have not kept watch over your
lord, the Lord's anointed. And now, see where the king's spear is, and
the jar of water that was at his head."

And Saul knew David's voice, and said, "Is this thy voice, my son
David?"

And David said, "It is my voice, my lord, O king." And he said,
"Wherefore doth my lord pursue after his servant? for what have I
done? or what evil is in mine hand? Now therefore, I pray thee, let my
lord the king hear the words of his servant. If it be the Lord that
hath stirred thee up against me, let him accept an offering: but if it
be the children of men, cursed be they before the Lord; for they have
driven me out this day that I should not cleave to the inheritance of
the Lord, saying, 'Go, serve other gods.'

{409}{410}

[Illustration]
A SHEPHERD NEAR DAVID'S HOUSE LEADING HIS FLOCK OVER THE JUDEAN
HILLS.

Copyright by Underwood & Underwood and used by special permission.
[End illustration]

The principal business and the greatest interest of the people in
the hill country of Judea was connected with the flocks.

"If, as we have seen, the prevailing character of Judaea be
pastoral, with husbandry only incidental to her life, it is not
surprising that the forms which have impressed both her history and
her religion upon the world should be those of the pastoral habit.
Her origin; more than once her freedom and power of political
recuperation; more than once her prophecy; her images of God, and
her sweetest poetry of the spiritual life, have been derived from
this source. It is the stateliest shepherds of all time whom the
dawn of history reveals upon her fields--men not sprung from her own
remote conditions, nor confined to them, but moving across the world
in converse with great empires, and bringing down from heaven truths
sublime and universal to wed with the simple habits of her life.
These were the patriarchs of the nation. The founder of its one
dynasty, and the first of its literary prophets, were also taken
from following the flocks. The king and every true leader of men was
called a shepherd. Jehovah was the Shepherd of His people, and they
the sheep of His pasture. It was in Judaea that Christ called
Himself the Good Shepherd, as it was in Judaea also that, taking the
other great feature of her life, He said He was the True Vine."
[End illustration]