DAVID.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2104, 1 February 1908, Page 2 (Supplement)

DAVID.

(.By William Arthur Gill in “ Munsey's Magnzi e. )

It is uot surprising that, David should bo the supreme national hero ol the Jews. Does the i maple of Fame of any other people eontain his equal in splendid variety of ■ achievements? lie . seems more like a constellation of famous men than a single star. lie cannot be lifted into any one category of greatness. Ho ranks with the noblest poets of the world; but it is not enough to say that. He is also one of the greatest soldiers, greatest em-pire-builders, and greatest religious leaders. What causes produced this prodigy? David himself said it was the Lord God who imparted wisdom to liis heart and song to his lips; who gave his hands strength to snap a bow of steel as well as skill to play SO sweetly on the harp; who shielded him in danger and scattered his enemies. And no one can doubt that his fan itseal faith in supernatural guidance and support was iu fact the most powerful influence in shaping his ends. In his own eyes David was a “man of destiny." Like Napoleon, lie trusted in his star—however much it differed in magnitude from the Corsican's. As confidently as the Maid of Orleans, the Lion of Judah held himself to be the instrument of a divine purpose. In his youth the sensitive imaginion of a poet received a special stamp which never left it. David was educated iu the schools of _ the prophets. From them he learned music*, literary art, and also something that had still greater influence hs>,. on his -career—the prophetical view 2j,-. of the vocation of Israel. He beLheld the past and future of the people through those zealous eyes, iu! he always retained the vision. THE SHEPHERD- BOY OF BETHLEHEM. When his schooling was over, he went to work as his father's slit >- herd. In those fields about Beth's-, hem, where other, shepherds wire abiding by their flocks when the star came to guide them to the holy manger, he “followed the ewes great with young,” whistled to liis dogs, and dreamed. It is recorded of li’r.i by later writers that lie lunlerste 1 the language of birds and beast;.:; and certain it is that those solitary hours brought him very near to na '.- ure. His poems prove it. Tiny are full of delight in natural hearties for their own sake, and also manifestations of something beyond. To David, the clouds were God ’3 canopy; the earth, His footstool; tin thunder, His voice, at which the hil.s clapped their hands. Like Joan dreaming in the French countryside, the shepherd-boy saw visions iu those days. There were witnesses, cohorts about me to right and left, powers, the unuttered, unseen, the alive, the aware. The stars of night beat with emotion "fjfrigled and shot Out ill.fire tho strong pain of pent knowledge; but I fainted not, For the hand still impelled mo. And one may suppose that when a servant came running out of tlio town to tell that the great seer, Samuel, was waiting for him at his father’s house with .a horn of sacred oil, the lad felt less surprise than X. grave expectancy.

As he entered the court, clad in his shepherd’s frock, the sight of his beauty gladdened Samuel’s eyes, for oil him who was set apart there must be “neither spot nor blemish.” Of the middle height, David was not only strong, but lithe and “nimbelo as a roe.” His widely, face was burned to bronze; golden hair fell about his shoulders; and there was a brightness in ;his eyes which tradition describes as even “fierce.” Silently the seer ■"motioned to the lad- to approach, and then and there anointed him King over Israel. THE ANOINTED OF THE LORD. The ac.t was full of danger. Another king was then reigning, and Samuel feared death for himself, andi for. the boy too, no doubt, if Saul should get wind of the pretender being set up against him. So iW -anointing was done secretly; and after it, till the hour was ripe, everything went on as before. Samuel roturn,ed to Ram all, and David to liis sheep. £But the “spirt of the Lord came lUpon David' from that day forward.” He needed that spirit, for the flask laid on his young shoulders wary gigantic. Tlis mission was nothing •less than to create the nation of Israel. Though they -lnd come out

•of Egypt into -Canaan, the Jews were , ' still far from possessing the Premia 3sed Land. They were subject® to '■.the Philistines, and, worse, they we. o becoming mixed with their heathen neighbors, .and losing their identity ,nnd religion. - They had no centre for politics or worship—mo capital. aK> settled dynasty, no permanent foundations of any sort on which a national life might be .built up. The first king appointed to achieve these cuds had failed, and David was summoned to Ivit the mark that Ban hud missed. .Not only must the Philistines and other heathen pat- ■ ions round about he conquered and umbdued, so that “the. people might tdwell in a place of their own, and emove no more” ; the scatteied fkiik :must be bound together through coming ages by the establishment of .the City of David and “David t> ■royal line.” Only thus could the aoul of Israel be developed and find ■expression in high thought and literature, ami .at last bestow the Messiah on the world. David’s mission began in sunshine Sent one day by his father—accidentally t as it seemed —to carry food to Ins elder brothers, who were then with the army facing the Philistines, he reached the camp just as the mighty Goliath Stalked out from the white tents on the apposite side of the valley and demanded for the fortieth time that Jews should “give bun a V m an” to come out and fight him. 'For the fortieth time the Jews trembled, and none of them stirred-none. that is, except the newly arrived sliepJ herd boy. Burning with the secret ..of his mission, and indignant as the Philistine’s defiance of the living Goo, ■ David caught eagerly at the elmFicnge, and no sooner had the king -.given him leave than lie hurried dbjvn. L.L-,Liaintol,tlm-.vallev.: ---i ——- •

THE NATIONAL HERO OF THE JEWS. How a Shepherd Boy Became Ruler of a Great Nation.

What followed was a victory of mind over matter. It ' Vl, s as much by the sagacity for which he was afterwards celebrated as by his daredevil courage that David triumphed that day. When the eleven-fool gmul, all clad iu mail, a flashing helmet 011 his head, and a spear like a wear 01 s beam in his hand, and saw the stripling cross tlio river-bed and come up the slope, seemingly unarmed, he ordered hi:- shield-bearer aside ami advanced with lace uncovered. Vi hat had ho to fear from missiles, since the boy lacked even bow and arrow? But, coiled in his left hand, David carried a deadly enough weapon, and in the wallet that he carried he had the necosnry ammunition. Running in quickly to close range, and concealing his sling to the last moment, ho let- fly and hit- his enemy dn the lorehead. Then as the giant fell stunned to the ground, the boy leaped astride are tinge body, and, plucking Goliath s own sword from its sheath, slew him with it, and hacked tho head from the shoulders, “to show that there was a God in Israel.”

The Philistines broke and fled. Saul embraced David, took him to court and would not part from him. The women came out from the cities, dancing and singing, to glorify the .young hero. He was made captain of tho king’s bodyguard, married tlio king’s daughter, Miclial, and Jonathan, the heir apparent, “loved him as his own soul.” Before long, lie gained other famous victories, and showed himself, like the Maid of Orleans, as wise in council as he was brave iu war.

DAVID’S YEARS OF WANDERING But all this time a cloud lay on the horizon. In secret David was tile Young Pretender. His heavenly errand—and no personal feeling ever made him swerve from that: in latter days the “sweet singer of Israel” proved himself as ruthlessly "thorough” as Cromwell—-called on him to supplant this king and this king’s son, who loved him and whom he loved. Saul presently began to suspect tho truth, and one evening as David was harping before him bo flung his javelin at the youth. The son of Jesse slipped away unhurt; but when he went home, Miclial, who loved him, warned him that lie house was watched by her father’s men, who would surely kill him if ho tarried there another day. Let down at night from a window, David fled for his life, and from that time till Saul’s death lie was a. hunted outcast.

This long suspension of his special work is a peculiar feature of David’s mission. Joan entered at once on hers; but David, anointed at seventeen or so, was thirty before 110 controlled even part of the nation; thirty-seven before he ruled over the whole of it. And in this long intcival, instead of delivering his people, he was forced into hostility to them, and at. last, to save his life, had to go over, like Coriolanus, to the ancestral foe. PSALMS WRITTEN IN THE . WILDERNESS. His flight was crowned with incidents romantic to read about, but to him those were bitter years. David in his outlawry did not “fleet the time carelessly,” like tho refugees in the Forest of Arden, or Robin Hood and his Merry Men. The poems of his wanderings contain no gentle lovesongs, or swashbuckler lyrics. They have been called “the most comfoiting of all written words” ; and their consoling power is not more due to their unfaltering faith than to the deep sorrow which have inspired them. “A very present help” they have proved to many in like case—to Alfred, to Wallace, to the Cevennese martyrs, and to the Scottish Covenanters. . .

David afterwards spoke of this period as “the tomb”; and, indeed, for a man of his inclinations and abilities it was nothing less than burial. He who loved culture and art; who was an “inventor of instruments of music” ; who was so passionately fond of .home' that bo let three of his men risk their lives through the enemies’ lines to fetch him water from the beloved well by - the gate of Bethlehem in whom fatherhood proved afterwai ds to be an all-powerfui affection ; who was so ardent a patriot—must live from band to mouth among the barren bills', “with no place to lay his bead”; must remain childless till after liis thirtieth year—an extraordinary delay in' that state of soc-■ iety; must, at last abandon his countTHE REFUGEES OF ADULLAM. During the first part of his flight David was almost alone; but gradually venturesome spirits, debtors and other distressed folk, came and joined him, till he was captain over a band of lour hundred. They found shelter for a while in the cave Adullam, near Bethlehem —a series of huge caverns in the hillside, capable, of lodging all these and many more. Driven further afield David sought refuge in the cliffs of Masada, and then in the forest of llarOth. Afterwards, hotly pressed by Saul with three thousand men, he retreated to the wilderness of Zipli, overlooking the Dead Sea, Tliero Saul limited him “like a partridge.” seud'ng swarms of men to beat the bushes and drive him into the open. One day David found himself hemmed in on a tall rock, sloping to the plain on one side, but breaking off behind in a sheer precipice. Saul, drawing his cordon closely round the accessible side, hurried up to captuic him at last. But us he was approaching the crest, lie saw Dai id disappear over the precipice, which ho miraculously descended, and so escaped. Long afterwards the place was still known as the Cliff of Divis-

ions. .. ft was at this time also that David with his supreme confidence m divine protection, ventured one night into Saul’s camp, stood over the sleeping king in the trenches, and refusing him, retired with the .spear and cruse from beside his holster. Had David been merely an ambitious adventurer, seeking his own ends, ho must have taken Saul’s hie that night; but lie was hound on a different errand. Saul was tlio anointed of the Lord; it was not- for David to touch Him. “The Lord shall, smite him' ” he said, “or his day shall come

to die; or ho shall descend into battle, and perish. Tho Lord forbid Mint 1 stretch forth milio hand against tho Lord’s anointed.” In His own time, the wanderer felt, God would clear his path.

, As soon as if was light, ho hailed Saul from a hill-lop at a sale distance, holding up tho spear and cruse, and greeting his 100 with all respect as “my lord, tho king.” And how ingenuously iu the conversation that, passed hot ween fliem, David revealed his entire absorption in bis mission I Now, el course, there was no socrot about bis prof,:mleiship, Act lie cried reproachfully to Saul: "Wherefore doth my lord thus pursue alter his servant? For what have 1 done? Or what evil is in my hand? II the Lord have stirred thee up against me, lot, Him accept- an offering; but if it, be the children ol men, cursed bo they bolero tlio Lord.” Ho could not explain tlio other’s hostility. If he was to supplant the reigning house on Ihe throne, was it not by God’s will? Why did Saul resist God? Ho could not understand his oppressor’s blindness to vvliat was so clear to his own eyes. DAVID, KING OF ISRAEL. At last Saul and Jonathan fell 011 Mount Gilboa, defeated by the Philistines. Then David’s own tribe of Judah invited him to como back to bo their king. Islibosheth, Saul’s sou, ruled over tho rest of the nation, but- on his throne at- Hebron David waxed stronger every year, and on tho assassination of Islibosheth the whole of Israel acknowledged his authority. And now the fulfilment of David’s mission broadened out like a nvci. First he subdeud tho surrounding nations—the Philistines, Moabites, Ammonnites —till lsael was so'curo. Then ho proceeded to the no less diliicult task of" uniting the people at home. Tho ancient heathen fortress of Jehus, taken by storm, was changed into Jerusalem. . He made it the capital of the nation, built his royal palace there, and thither, oil what lias been called "the greatest day ot lii.s life,” be brought the Ark, the symbol of the national religion, and installed it on Mount Zion with gorgeous pomp and pageantry, with singing and dancing, David himself, atattired in the priestly costume, and giving the people his benediction. In Jerusalem, the City of David, lie established a lasting centre for Israel. Ho created a regular government there; appointed ministers of finance, of war, of justice; a- cabinet of advisers ; an. ecclesiastical heirarchy and liturgy; and a standing army, the nucleus of which consisted of tho faithful followers of his wanderings. THE TROUBLE OF HIS LATTER DAYS.

But even yet David had work to do, and his mission only ended with his life. Internal dissensions broke out again in Israel. liis own sons headed rebellions, anil his heart, divided against itself, hardly sustained him in resisting his beloved Absalom. It has sometimes been said that David relaxed his singleness of purpose after tho climax of his career, and that liis later troubles were punishments for this. Tho crime to which lie was led by his love for Bathsheba, tho wife of Uriah, tlio Hittite, is alleged as a proof of the cnfceblement of his moral will. He is pictured as descending the vale of years an archangel tarnished. But this seems aii exaggerated view. David was in impetuous man of strong passions. ' Undoubtedly 110 sinned in the matter of Bathsheba ; but, on the other hand, this, so far as we know, was the only time when he allowed .passion to get the better of dutJftfiaiiAll his other alliances strength cried his hands in his mission ; Bathsheba? alone weakened them. And as for his sons’ rebellions, - the still unquelled rivalries among the ' tribes provided enevitable opportunities for those. They were offences that must have arisen though David had been a flawless saint. •

This much, at least, cannot be denied him—that the taftk to which ho was summoned as a boy was fulfilled in tho tiind'bf his grey hairs. Tho nation of'lsrael had been created'when David, after a reign of forty years —seven years at Hebron and tliirtythere at Jereusalem —went the way of all the earth; and by its creation the advent of the Messiah was mado possible.

It was David who “lifted up tho gates that King of Glory might come in.” The “light and splendor if Israel” was an antitype of the Light of the World by his self-sac-rifice and sufferings and also by his triumphs. David planted and fenced about the ti*ee of which Christ was to be- the supreme fruit.