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He teaches my hands to war, so that my arm draws the bow of steel. And Thou hast given me the shield of Thy salvation, and Thy compassion has made me great. Thou hast enlarged my steps under me, so that my feet did not slip. I have pursued my enemies and destroyed them, and turned not again until I had consumed them.. Thou hast also delivered me from the struggles of my people, Thou hast guarded me to be the chief of nations; many a people I knew not serve me. Strangers submit to me; hearing the report of my fame, they are obedient to me; strangers tremble in awe, and come forth in fear from their fastnesses. The Lord lives; and blessed be my rock, and exalted be the God of the rock of my salvation. It is God who avenged me, and who brought down the nations under me, and rescued me from my enemies; Thou also hast lifted me up high above my adversaries, Thou hast delivered me from the men of violence. Therefore, I will give thanks to Thee, O Lord, among the nations, and I will sing praises to Thy name. He makes glorious the salvation for His king, and shows mercy to His anointed, to David and to his seed for evermore.'

But there was yet trouble in store for the king, before death brought peace to him for ever. Probably desirous to prove his greatness to the world, he insisted upon numbering the people of his kingdom. This was deemed an act of vainglory and pride displeasing to God, and even the unscrupulous Joab advised him to abstain from it. But the king persisted in his resolution; the census was taken from Dan to Beersheba, when it was found that there were in the whole land 800,000 men able to bear arms, of whom no less than 500,000 belonged to the tribe of Judah. But no sooner had the command been carried out, than David felt that he had sinned, and he prayed to the Lord for pardon. Then came to him Gad the seer

with the Divine words: 'I offer thee three things; choose one of them, that I may do it to thee.' These three things were seven years of famine in the land, or three months' flight before the enemy, or three days' pestilence among the people. And David answered, I am in great distress! Let us fall, I pray, into the hand of the Lord, for His mercies are great, and not into the hand of man.' So the pestilence raged, causing fearful destruction, but sparing Jerusalem. It carried off 70,000 men. The angel of the Lord stayed in his fatal progress at the threshing-floor of Araunah, the Jebusite, and it was there, in accordance with the word of Gad, that David built an altar and offered up sacrifices.

The infirmities of old age now pressed more and more painfully upon David, and his uneasiness was increased by the sorrow and confusion in his own house. Haggith, the mother of Absalom, had another son called Adonijah, who, like his brother, was renowned for beauty and aspiring ambition. He set his heart upon succeeding to the throne of his father, and therefore sought to obtain the help of the influential Joab and of Abiathar, one of the chief priests; but he was strenuously opposed by the old warriors and others who remained faithful to the aged king, and among whom Zadok the priest, Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, and the prophet Nathan were the most distinguished. Irritated by this resistance, the impetuous youth resolved to hasten the execution of his plans. He prepared a great feast in the immediate neighbourhood of Jerusalem, and invited to it all the king's sons and all the men of Judah, but purposely omitted all those whom he knew to be friendly to David, and of course his half-brother Solomon, who, as was well known, had been appointed by his father heir to the throne. Nathan, wise and faithful, saw the great dangers of the moment, and he thought it his duty to impress

them on David's mind. He, therefore, requested Bathsheba, the king's favourite wife and the mother of Solomon, to go to her husband, to inform him of Adonijah's rebellious plans and proceedings, and to urge him to confirm the rights of her son. Bathsheba readily consented. She had hardly finished telling him of Adonijah's seditious schemes, and of the feast which he was then holding, when the prophet Nathan himself entered, to strengthen the impression produced by Bathsheba's words.

David had sworn that Solomon should be his successor, and he now repeated the promise to Bathsheba. Nay, he was determined that from that very day Solomon should be considered as king of Israel. He summoned before him the priest Zadok, the prophet Nathan, and the warrior Benaiah. To these three faithful subjects he entrusted his son Solomon; they were to mount him on his own mule, the sign of royalty, to lead him to Gihon, there to anoint him with the sacred oil, and to proclaim his consecration by the solemn blast of the trumpet. The commands of the king were carried out without delay.

Adonijah and his guests were suddenly roused at their feast by loud and incessant shouts of joy; it was as if the whole earth were rent by the tumultuous cries. But the sound of the trumpet startled the vigilant Joab. 'Wherefore,' he exclaimed, is the voice of the city in an uproar?' While he yet spoke, there entered breathless Jonathan, the son of the priest Abiathar. Joab exclaimed anxiously, and with the old eagerness that never forsook him, Come in, for thou art a valiant man and bringest good tidings!' Then Jonathan related what had just occurred, how Solomon had been anointed king over all Israel, and how the people greeted him with acclamations of homage. Hearing these ominous words, Adonijah and his followers, giving up all hope of success, separated in

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silence. Adonijah sought refuge at the horns of the altar, for he apprehended the king's just revenge. But Solomon bid him not be afraid, and promised that no hair of his head should fall, if he thenceforward remained loyal and peaceful; he then sent him home unharmed.

The long and eventful reign of David approached its end. The king lay feeble and stricken, awaiting the angel of death, and beside him stood the young king Solomon listening to his last behests. I go the way of all the earth,' said he, 'be thou strong, therefore, and show thyself a man.' Then he urgently impressed upon his son to walk in the ways of the Lord, and to follow the Divine commandments with all his heart. But, true to his age, his nature, and the custom of his country, he made Solomon the heir of his own feuds, and he bade him punish his enemies, to whom his death was to bring neither safety nor pardon. Joab had been unscrupulous and revengeful; he had insidiously murdered Abner and Amasa, against all usages of war and all rights of peace; he was therefore to die a violent death; the youthful and vigorous son was to execute that punishment which the aged king, awed by Joab's fierce valour and commanding influence, had not dared to inflict. Again, Shimei, who had so bitterly cursed David from the mountain-side when on his sad flight before Absalom, was to suffer the deserved retribution. On the other hand, the sons of Barzillai, that good and faithful old chieftain of Gilead, were to be loved and respected, and to receive the debt of gratitude which their generous father had declined. And thus mingling with his last breath gentle gratitude and implacable revenge, David sank to his eternal rest. -the undaunted warrior king, the master of undying song, the pride of his people, one of the great men of all times.

Good and evil were blended in David's character as

they were blended in few others of whom history bears record. His whole life is the story of a violent moral struggle incessantly carried on. It presents the ever-recurring transition from sin to repentance, from inward strife to inward peace. His repentance was so prompt, his self-accusation so complete, his cry for Divine help so eager, that he invariably wins first our sympathy for his sufferings, and then our admiration for the heroic struggle by which he strives to subdue them. His was a strong and impulsive nature, ready to succumb to temptation, yet as ready to battle with it. He was singularly clear in his perception of moral excellence, and unusually earnest in his efforts for moral improvement; yet he too often fell a victim to the delusions of ambition and passion, and to the snares of revenge and hatred. He was humble and obedient to the warnings of the prophets, and moved to submissive confession by a word of reproach. At such times he would cast aside his royal robes, sit in sackcloth and ashes, weep over the wrong he had done or intended, and repent with all the sincerity of his nature.

Of his valour and his courage, of his adventurous exploits, of his skill in battle and his promptitude in attack, the foregoing narrative gives ample proofs. But to all this was added a peculiar charm of person and manner, in which we must seek the true secret of his resistless power over his people.

That influence was not a little strengthened by his poetical genius. As he governed the nation by his strength and daring, so he trained and ennobled it by his song. He gained glory in war and affection in peace. He was endeared to every heart by manifold ties. His name is attached to a collection of poems unrivalled in the literature of the world. It contains, indeed, the productions of many authors and of different ages, but in

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