*"And it came to pass after this, that the King of the Children of Ammon died, and Hanun, his Son, reigned in his stead. Then said David, I will shew kindness unto Hanun, the Son of Nahash, as his Father shewed kindness unto me.' And David sent to comfort him by the hand of his Servants for his Father. And David's Servants came into the Land of the Children of Ammon. And the Princes of the Children of Ammon said unto Hanun, their Lord, Thinkest thou that David doth honour thy Father, that he hath sent Comforters unto thee? hath not David rather sent his Servants unto thee, to search the City, and to spy it out, and to overthrow it?' Wherefore Hanun took David's Servants and shaved off the one half of their beards, and cut off their garments in the middle, even to their buttocks, and sent them away. When they told it unto David, he sent to meet them, because the Men were greatly ashamed. And the King said, Tarry at Jericho, until your beards be grown, and then return!' And when the Children of Ammon saw that they stank before David, the Children of Ammon sent and hired the Syrians of Beth-rehob, and the Syrians of Zoba, twenty thousand Footmen, and of King Maacah a thousand Men, and of Ish-tob twelve thousand Men. And when David heard of it, he sent Joab, and all the Host of the mighty Men. And the Children of Ammon came out, and put the battle in array at the entering in of the gate and the Syrians of Zoba, and of Rehob, and Ish-tob, and Maacah, were by themselves in the field. When Joab saw that the front of the battle was against him before and behind, he chose of all the choice Men of Israel, and put them in array against the Syrians; and the Rest of the People he delivered into the hand of Abishai, his Brother, that he might put them in array against the Children of Ammon: and he said, If the Syrians be too strong for me, then thou shalt help me! but if the Children of Ammon be too strong for thee, then I will come and help thee! Be of good courage, and let us play the Men for our People, and for the Cities of our GOD! And The LORD Do That, Which Seemeth Him Good!' And Joab drew nigh, and the People that were with him, unto the battle against the Syrians; and they fled before him. And when the Children of Ammon saw that the Syrians were fled, then fled they also before Abishai, and entered into the City. So Joab returned from the Children of Ammon, and came to Jerusalem. And when the Syrians saw that they were smitten before Israel, they gathered themselves together; and Hadarezer sent and brought out the Syrians that were beyond the River; and they came to Helam : and Shobach, the Captain of the Host of Hadarezer, went before them. And when it was told David, he gathered all Israel together, and passed over Jordan, and came to Helam. And the Syrians set themselves in array against David, and fought with him. And the Syrians fled before Israel; and David slew the Men of seven hundred chariots of the Syrians and forty thousand Horsemen, and smote Shobach, the Captain of their Host, who died there. And when all the Kings, that were Servants to Hadarezer, saw that they were smitten before Israel, they made peace with Israel and served them. So the Syrians feared to help the Children of Ammon any

more."-2 Sam. x.

Gratitude to GOD, as The FOUNTAIN of all Good, is not inconsistent or incompatible with gratitude to Man, when a willing Instrument, in GOD'S Hand, for the furtherance of good. David had been assisted in the season of need; and in the time of prosperity he was not unmindful thereof. Nahash, the King of the Ammonites, though the mortal Foe of Saul, had yet been friendly to David (as it seems from his own acknowledgment, no particulars thereof appearing); and though death had placed out of the consciousness of David's evidencing, when he had the power, an active spirit of thankfulness, yet in the nobleness of his heart, was he unwilling to refrain from attentions to the Son. But how often are the best aims and efforts of our Nature thwarted and perverted by the suggestions of the Spirit of evil. and the weakness and viciousness of Man's heart in yielding to them.

Whatever

grounds there may have been for suspicion as to the real intention of David from this Embassy, owing to the jealousy prevailing between the Children of Israel and those of Ammon, yet indignities so gross as were offered to the Representatives of a King, could not but greatly aggravate the offence of suspicion; but the error into which a depraved heart led Hanun was fatal to him; and he is an instance of the blinding infatuation of worldly views. Had he sought the friendship of David with half the zeal he exerted to bring him and his Nation into contempt, all the power of Syria could not, with the alliance and assistance that David would have afforded him, have approached to hurt him. If destruction befel Them, that warred against the Friend of GOD, what less than Everlasting Confusion and Disgrace can await Those, who pertinaciously war against the Omnipotence of HEAVEN! Let the fate of Hanun be a warning not to yield to the admonitions of evil Counsellors, and the still more pernicious dispositions of our own uncontroled and unspiritualized imaginations! And, with David, Let The LORD be our Strength and our Shield; and when He is Willing to Shew us a Kindness, which indeed is in every instant of our Lives, if we duly consider the Great Works of Creation and Preservation, and the Wonderful Means of Redemption and Sanctification, let us not reject Such Goodness, but accept It as becomes such helpless and dependant Creatures, that It may be Continued to us here and Extended to us in that World, which is without end; and Where, to be without It, is not to be only deprived of the perfection of Spiritual Happiness, but to be the Victim of interminable remorse, despair, and unutterable woe!

David's continuance of Joab as the Captain of his Host, or Generalissimo of his Forces, notwithstanding the offence he had committed in the murder of Abner; or Joab's continuance of such command after the public humiliation, to which, on that account, he had been exposed, may seem extraordinary. But as there is every fair ground to conclude David ignorant of the malicious design of Joab ere it was perpetrated, it is but fair also to conclude that David considered the general weal of his People, by retaining in the command of the Armies a General of pre-eminent talent; and as he had in a degree publicly atoned for his crime, David would not cherish individual resentment, or be extreme in the measure of chastisement he Indeed, Joab's resignation to The DIVINE Will, his patriotism, his loyalty, his Brotherly affection, shew him to have been a Man of predominating worth, independently of his professional skill; and David, though hitherto himself the example of upright conduct, was not so Pharisaically proud of his own righteousness as to withhold all allowance for the occasional failings and infirmities of Others.

The narrative from the Chronicles is thus :-"Now it canie to pass after this, that Nahash, the King of the Children of Ammon, died, and his Son reigned in his stead. And David said, 'I will shew kindness unto Hanun, the Son of Nahash, because his Father shewed kindness to me.' And David sent Messengers to comfort him concerning his Father. So the Servants of David came into the Land of the Children of Ammon to Hanun, to comfort him. But the Princes of the Children of Ammon said to Hanun, Thinkest thou that David doth honour thy Father, that he hath sent Comforters unto thee? Are not his Servants come unto thee for to search, and to overthrow, and to spy out the Land?' Wherefore Hanun took David's Servants and shaved them, and cut off their garments in the midst hard by their buttocks, and sent them away. Then there went Certain, and told David how the Men were served. And he sent to meet them; for the Men were greatly ashamed. And the King said, Tarry at Jericho until your beards be grown, and then return.' And when the Children of Ammon saw that they had made themselves odious to David, Hanun and the Children of Ammon sent a thousand talents of Silver to hire them chariots and Horsemen out of Mesopotamia, and out of Syria

:

maachah, and out of Zobah. So they hired thirty and two thousand chariots, and the King of Maachah and his People; who came and pitched before Medeba. And the Children of Ammon gathered themselves together from their Cities, and came to battle. And when David heard of it, he sent Joab, and all the Host of the mighty Men. And the Children of Ammon came out, and put the battle in array before the gate of the City; and the Kings, that were come, were by themselves in the field. Now when Joab saw that the battle was set against him before and behind, he chose out of all the Choice of Israel, and put them in array against the Syrians and the Rest of the People he delivered unto the hand of Abishai, his Brother; and they set themselves in array against the Children of Ammon: and he said, 'If the Syrians be too strong for me, then thou shalt help me: but if the Children of Ammon be too strong for thee, then I will help thee! Be of good courage, and let us behave ourselves valiantly for our People, and for the Cities of our GOD; and let The LORD Do That Which is Good in His Sight!' So Joab and the People, that were with him, drew nigh before the Syrians unto the battle; and they fled before him. And when the Children of Ammon saw that the Syrians were fled, they likewise fled before Abishai, his Brother, and entered into the City. Then Joab came to Jerusalem. And when the Syrians saw that they were put to the worse before Israel, they sent Messengers and drew forth the Syrians, that were beyond the River: and Shophach, the Captain of the Host of Hadarezer, went before them. And it was told David; and he gathered all Israel, and passed over Jordan, and came upon them, and set the battle in array against them. So when David had put the battle in array against the Syrians, they fought with him. But the Syrians fled before Israel: and David slew of the Syrians seven thousand Men, which fought in chariots, and forty thousand Footmen, and killed Shophach, the Captain of the Host. And when the Servants of Hadarezer saw that they were put to the worse before Israel, they made peace with David, and became his Servants: neither would the Syrians help the Children of Ammon any more."-1 Chron. xix.

In all its important bearings the Narrative is the same; the agreement as to the success of the Israelites, as to the holy confidence and resignation of their Generals, both David and Joab, and as to the complete discomfiture of the Syrians and their Allies, is obvious; the only variance in the histories is that which in the one account states the chief loss of the Syrians to have been in Cavalry, and in the other of Infantry. This, however, may have arisen from an indifference in one of the pious Historians to such minutiæ in military annals, his principal object being directed to the recording a further Deliverance of the Chosen People of GOD from the hand of their Enemies, because Some of those Enemies put their trust in horses and Some in chariots; while the People of Israel trusted in The Living GOD.

***And it came to pass after the year was expired, at the time when Kings go forth to battle, that David sent Joab, and his Servants with him, and all Israel; and they destroyed the Children of Ammon, and besieged Rabbah. But David tarried still at Jerusalem. And it came to pass in an evening-tide, that David arose from off his bed, and walked upon the roof of the King's house; and from the roof he saw a woman washing herself; and the woman was very beautiful to look upon and David sent and inquired after the Woman. And One said, 'Is not this Bath-sheba, the Daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah, the Hittite?' And David sent Messengers and took her; and she came in unto him, and he lay with her; for she was purified from her uncleanness; and she returned unto her house."-2 Sam. xi. 1 to 4.

Faithful to his Narrative, the sacred Historian draws not a veil over the disgusting features of his otherwise amiable and exemplary Hero. All is here

set forth, and the Well-Beloved of GOD is for a season sunk, by the violence of his passion, to the depth of the lowest Incubus of Hell. Much as the natural Man may urge in extenuation of the offence-its unpremeditatedness-the prospect, forced as it were upon him, and set forth with such insinuating attractiveness-the ready yielding of the fair One to his corrupt wishes, and, strange as it may seem, the forwardness of the mind (when not submissively surrendered to the Guidance of GOD) to feed the worst passions of the heart, and to pervert even Scripture to its destruction, as is instanced by the remark here made of the Woman's compliance with the ceremonial Law of outward purification of the flesh, as if that could justify its subsequent impurity, or be any extenuation of the corruption of the heart by yielding to the sin of adultery. Yet the Spiritual Man, though indisposed to visit with the severity of judgment the failings of Others in this respect, finds no excuse for such failings in himself; he knows that with every temptation, wherewith his Soul is tempted to exceed the bounds of temperance, soberness, and chastity, as well as other Laws of his GOD, in the Spirit as well as in the Letter, there is Made a Way, by the ever Ready Grace of That GOD, for his Soul to escape withal. In the instant, therefore, of any cause presenting itself for giving rise to any illicit passion, whether of flesh or of Spirit, he, distrusting his own powers, flies to GOD for Refuge, and asks of Him to take away the power of evil from within him, and to Save his Soul alive by giving him that Power from Above, Which will effectually Enable him to resist the pressing temptation, and to bid the storm of passion, arising within him, to cease and be still. However tempting may be the bait that the Author of all evil sets before the pious Man, he considers that it has within it the venomed barb that brings with it destruction to the Soul's possession of present peace, and to its hope of sharing that exalted Spiritual Union and Perfection of Delight, Which in the Everlasting Mansions of Heaven shall be the Portion of Those who, for GOD's Sake, have here denied themselves indulgences, which His Law or His SPIRIT, Acting on their reason and conscience, Forbid; they resist the evil which, yielding a momentary gratification, a hasty guilty joy, would leave for ever on the Soul the sting of remorse and the pain of selfloathing. The Same Scriptures, however, Which thus hold out to us one act to be avoided in the example of a Man of general piety, exhibit to us also, as an example for imitation, and as a proof of the full sufficiency of SPIRITUAL Support, when appealed to under every temptation, and amidst the two-fold influence of importunity and opportunity, the conduct of Another, in the character of Joseph, whose heart was not overcome of evil, though beset with not less temptation.

And it came to pass, that after the year was expired, at the time that Kings go out to battle, Joab led forth the power of the army, and wasted the Country of the Children of Ammon, and came and besieged Rabbah. But David tarried at Jerusalem. And Joab smote Rabbah and destroyed it."-1 Chron. xx. 1.

The continuation of this history of the war against the Ammonites is given opposite to the corresponding account of it in the xiiht. of the 2nd of Samuel; but the parenthetical and distressing account of the heinous offences of David in his adulterous seduction of Bath-sheba, and the consequent murder of her Husband, is not given in the Chronicles.

"And the Woman conceived, and sent and told David, and said, 'I am with Child.' And David sent to Joab, saying, 'Send me Uriah, the Hittite!' And Joab sent Uriah to David. And when Uriah was come unto him, David demanded of him, how Joab did, and how the People did, and how the war prospered?' And David said to Uriah, 'Go down to thy house, and wash thy feet!' "And Uriah departed out of the King's house, and there followed him a mess of meat from the

King. But Uriah slept at the door of the King's house with all the Servants of his Lord, and went not down to his house. And when they had told David, saying, Uriah went not down unto his house,' David said unto Uriah, Camest thou not from thy journey? why then didst thou not go down unto thine house?' And Uriah said unto David, The Ark, and Israel, and Judah, abide in tents, and my Lord Joab, and the Servants of my Lord are encamped in the open fields; shall I then go into mine house, to eat, and to drink, and to lie with my Wife? as thou livest and as thy Soul liveth, I will not do this thing.' And David said to Uriah, 'Tarry here to-day also, and to-morrow I will let thee depart.' So Uriah abode in Jerusalem that day and the morrow. And when David had called him, he did eat and drink before him, and he made him drunk: and at even he went out to lie on his bed with the Servants of his Lord, but went not down to his house. And it came to pass in the morning, that David wrote a letter to Joab, and sent it by the hand of Uriah: and he wrote in the letter, saying, 'Set ye Uriah in the forefront of the hottest battle, and retire ye from him, that he may be smitten and die.' And it came to pass, when Joab observed the City, that he assigned Uriah unto a place where he knew that valiant Men were: and the Men of the City went out and fought with Joab: and there fell Some of the People of the Servants of David, and Uriah, the Hittite, died also."-2 Sam. xi. 5 to 17.

What an awful career of deliberate and desperate sinfulness is here without reserve portrayed! The effect of this unhallowed union becoming obvious to One of the Parties, an apprehension arises in the mind of the Other that as the Husband had been, perhaps, long absent, his suspicions would, on his return, be awakened to the evil done him. David, therefore, adopts the expedient of endeavouring to bring the Husband and Wife immediately together, that he, at least, might be lulled into unsuspectingness of his Wife's unfaithfulness. But finding him possessed of so much of the noble spirit of a Soldier, as not to accept of indulgences, that were not alike open to his Commanders and Fellow-Warriors, David attempts to subdue his magnanimity by the generally seductive influence of wine. Still stedfast to his principles, even intoxication, though so naturally tending to excite the sensual passions towards a Woman of peculiar loveliness, and lawfully accessible to him, and notwithstanding he had the King's permission, and even his direct encouragement to go down to her as his own Wife, Uriah could not be prevailed to abandon his sense of military integrity. And yet so noble a character in a Soldier, and, what was infinitely more valuable in him as a Man, the veneration in which he held the honour and service of GOD, in refusing the comforts of a home, because the Ark, as representing the Presence of The LORD, and Israel and Judah, as constituting His People, abode in Tents, could not save him from being destined to destruction by One, for whom he was willing to devote himself honourably to any sacrifice, even of life itself. But such is the fatal influence of sin, that, when once yielded to, it hurries on its Victims from one crime to another by the deluding sense of a false worldly shame, and forgetfulness that, though the World may not know or ignorantly overlook it, yet The LORD Seeth in Secret, and that there is Knowledge in The MOST HIGH of all the workings of the heart. That a mind, habitually conscious of an Overseeing as well as Overruling PROVIDENCE, could thus be the miserable Dupe of a momentary gratification of illicit passion, and, after the commission of the heinous crime of adultery, could deliberately plan and order even the murder of the Man so grievously injured, is a crying instance of Human weakness and wickedness, when withdrawn from the Controling Grace of GOD. Let not this instance of a holy Man's so dreadful departure from his GOD, lead or justify us to triumph over his failings, though saddening indeed is the contemplation of them; but rather let it excite in us an apprehension, that, however pure we may seem in our own eyes, and however incapable we may sup