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taken and reared up for himself a pillar, which is in the King's Dale: for he said, 'I have no Son to keep my name in remembrance: and he called the pillar after his own name and it is called unto this day, 'Absalom's Place.' Then said Ahimaaz, the Son of Zadok, 'Let me now run and bear the King tidings, how that The LORD hath Avenged him of his Enemies!' And Joab said unto him, 'Thou shalt not bear tidings this day; but thou shalt bear tidings another day but this day thou shalt bear no tidings, because the King's Son is dead.' Then said Joab to Cushi, Go tell the King what thou hast seen!' And Cushi bowed himself unto Joab, and ran. Then said Ahimaaz, the Son of Zadok, yet again to Joab, But howsoever, Let me, I pray thee, also run after Cushi!' And Joab said, 'Wherefore wilt thou run, my Son, seeing that thou hast no tidings ready?' But howsoever, said he, 'Let me run !' And he said unto him, Run.' Then Ahimaaz ran by the way of the Plain, and overran Cushi. And David sat between the two gates and the Watchman went up to the roof over the gate unto the wall, and lifted up his eyes, and looked, and, behold, a Man running alone: and the Watchman cried, and told the King. And the King said, If he be alone, there is tidings in his mouth.' And he came apace, and drew near. And the Watchman saw another Man running: and the Watchman called unto the Porter, and said, 'Behold, another Man running alone!' And the King said, He also bringeth tidings.' And the Watchman said, Me thinketh the running of the Foremost is like the running of Ahimaaz, the Son of Zadok.' And the King said, 'He is a good Man, and cometh with good tidings.' And Ahimaaz called, and said unto the King, All is well!' And he fell down to the earth upon his face before the King, and said, Blessed be The LORD, thy GOD, Which hath Delivered up the Men, that lifted up their hand against my Lord, the King!' And the King said, 'Is the young Man Absalom safe?' And Ahimaaz answered, 'When Joab sent the King's Servant, and me, thy Servant, I saw a great tumult, but I knew not what it was.' And the King said unto him, 'Turn aside, and stand here!' And he turned aside and stood still. And behold, Cushi came; and Cushi said,Tidings, my Lord, the King! for The LORD hath Avenged thee this day of all them that rose up against thee!' And the King said unto Cushi, 'Is the young Man Absalom safe?' And Cushi answered, The Enemies of my Lord, the King, and All, that rise against thee to do thee hurt, be as that young Man is!' And the King was much moved, and went up to the chamber over the gate, and wept and as he went, thus he said, 'O my Son Absalom, my Son, my Son, Absalom! Would GOD I had died for thee, O Absalom, my Son, my Son!'"-2 Sam. xviii. 16 to 33.

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The death of Absalom seems to have satisfied Joab; and he did not afterwards wantonly sacrifice the flying Israelites, but left Such, as to that period had escaped destruction, to seek their homes in safety calling off his Soldiers from any further pursuit; rightly deeming that the Head of the revolt being laid low, the Body and inferior Members of it would be harmless. The ambition of Absalom, in building a throne by treachery and blood, met with a well-merited fate; and the folly of such vanity as could induce him to rear a column to perpetuate his memory on Earth, instead of endeavouring to get his name Established in The Book of Life, and Written in The Records of Heaven, is recorded for our admonition. How often does the marble column, pointing to the skies, deck the tomb or commemorate the life of him, who never raised his eyes in gratitude to HEAVEN, nor Sought that Immortal Crown of Glory, which All who have not, must rue their forfeiture of, throughout a state of endless misery and remorse! Absalom had had three Scns, but all must have died in his lifetime.

It was, probably, the intention of Joab to break the subject of Absalon's death to David by degrees; and withholding written despatches for a time, to be conveyed. by Ahimaaz as a distinguished Messenger, to send Cushi, an inferior Officer, with

the oral intelligence. But Ahimaaz's importunity varied the purpose. In stating generally the Victory to the King, Ahimaaz rightly attributed the Good, which thereby befel David, to the free Gift of GOD; for indeed He is The GOD of Battles, and He alone Giveth the Victory; for with Him are Might, Majesty, and Dominion; for whom He Will He Saveth, and None, either in Earth or in Heaven, can resist the Arm of His Power, or escape the Sword of His Vengeance. The confession would have been more acceptable had it issued from the mouth of David; for, had not The DIVINE Succour been Interposed on his behalf, both he and the Choicest of his Followers might have been extirpated by their sanguinary Enemy; but so weak is the heart of Man, when left to its own influence, so much the Victim and Prey of its own prejudices and passions, that the Mercy of A Heavenly FATHER seems to have been scarcely heeded; and the foolish fondness of an earthly One for the most rebellious of Sons absorbed all other considerations. His first inquiry is for Absalom's fate. The answer he got to it was at first, it might seem, an evasive one, Ahimaaz, doubtless, knowing of his death, but fearing to announce it. The arrival of the second Messenger confirmed the predominant feeling and apprehension of David's mind. Again the fate of Absalom was the first thing inquired after; and the expression of sorrow, when assured of his death, led to the conclusion that all other thoughts were but secondary to it. If the fear that a Child of his own loins might be lost Everlastingly, and Condemned for his reprobacy to the Second Death, which is a Life of endless woe, pervaded the mind of David, some allowance may in charity be made for him in yielding to so immoderate a grief; for if St. Paul could wish himself accursed from JESUS CHRIST, for his Brethren and his Kinsmen's sake in the flesh, so might David not unreasonably or unnaturally have wished, that the utmost possible temporal calamity might have befallen himself and his cause, so as that his Son had been Saved, by a Season for repentance being Extended towards him, from that Spiritual Desolation, which, in the bitterness of anguish, awaits the Impenitent in the Life to Come.

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And it was told Joab, Behold, the King weepeth and mourneth for Absalom! And the Victory that day was turned into mourning unto all the People; for the People heard say that day, how the King was grieved for his Son! And the People gat them by stealth that day into the City, as People being ashamed steal away, when they flee in battle. But the King covered his face, and the King cried with a loud voice, O my Son Absalom! O Absalom, my Son, my Son!' And Joab came into the house to the King, and said, 'Thou hast shamed this day the faces of all thy Servants, which this day have saved thy Life, and the Lives of thy Sons and of thy Daughters, and the Lives of thy Wives, and the Lives of thy Concubines in that thou lovest thine Enemies, and hatest thy Friends for thou hast declared this day, that thou regardest neither Princes not Servants for this day, I perceive, that if Absalom had lived, and all we had died this day, then it had pleased thee well. Now therefore arise, go forth, and speak comfortably unto thy Servants! for I swear by The LORD, if thou go not forth there will not tarry One with thee this night: and that will be worse unto thee that all the evil that befel thee from thy youth until now.' Then the King arose, and sat in the gate. And they told unto all the People, saying, Behold, the King doth sit in the gate.' And all the People came before the King: for Israel had fle every man to his tent."-2 Sam. xix. 1 to 8.

Joab had given the wound that afflicted both David and his People; it was therefore, his duty to do what could be done towards healing it and wisely di he set about the work, establishing a character for soundness of judgment, as h had before possessed for military enterprise. The force and justness of hi reasoning brought David to a right estimate of character, and drew him from th

depth of his cherished sorrow to the contemplation of the Merciful Providence of GOD, and the value of Those who were Appointed His Instruments of Salvation. The high veneration in which David was held by his Followers, is observable by their readiness, individually, to do him homage, notwithstanding his total disregard of them at the first, even after they had hazarded their Lives in his

service.

*" And all the People were at strife throughout all the Tribes of Israel, saving, The King saved us out of the hand of our Enemies, and he delivered us out of the hand of the Philistines: and now he is fled out of the Land for Absalom: and Absalom, whom we anointed over us, is dead in battle. Now, therefore, why speak ye not a word of bringing the King back?' And King David sent to Zadok and to Abiathar the Priests, saying, 'Speak unto the Elders of Judah, saying, "Why are ye the Last to bring the King back to his house? seeing the speech of all Israel is come to the King, even to his house. Ye are my Brethren, ye are my bones and my flesh wherefore then are ye the Last to bring back the King?" And say ye to Amasa, “Art thou not of my bone and of my flesh? GOD Do so to me and more also, if thou be not Captain of the Host before me continually in the room of Joab.' And he bowed the heart of all the Men of Judah, even as the heart of one Man; so that they sent this word unto the King, 'Return thou and all thy Servants!' 2 Sam. xix. 9 to 14.

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How fickle and inconstant is Popular favour, and how weak, therefore, is it as a foundation for the hope of Human happiness! One day Absalom is their idol, another David; but however flattering to our interests the support of a Multitude may be deemed however gratifying to our pride to be raised as the Object of general admiration, yet it behoves us to consider that the height, to which we may be thereby raised, is a giddy one; and, ere venturing to set our heart upon its attainment, we should remember that pride goes before a fall, and that He, Who is above All, can Use the same Instrument of our elevation to pluck us down and trample us in the dust. Through the Merciful Interposition of PROVIDENCE the Subjects of David, who had arisen in arms, under Absalom's influence, to drive him from his throne, and to persecute him even unto death, are now clamorous for his return; the Tribe to which David belonged being the solitary exception. Still was this exception the occasion of manifesting the nobleness and magnanimity of David. In his victory over the Followers of Absalom, he was more than a Conqueror, having subdued in himself that natural impatience of opposition from a weaker Foe, to which success over a stronger generally gives rise. He might have pressed forward with his victorious Army to Jerusalem, and made the Men of Judah bow in confusion before him, and receive the pardon of their rebellion as an act of condescension and mercy. But David's chiefest aim was to be assured of the Returning Favour of his HEAVENLY KING; and in proof of the value he set upon Its attainment, and of his consciousness that meekness and gentleness are most Acceptable to GOD, he withholds his claims as a Conqueror, and seeks reconciliation by gentle expostulation offering even to the General of the discomfited Army (as a Member of their Tribe), the highest station in his own. Amasa indeed was near of kin to him, being, as it should seem, a Nephew as the Grandson [c. xvii. 25] of Nahash, which, according to the margin of our Bible, appears to have been but another name for " Jesse," the Father of David. But if the Mother of Amasa was the Daughter of Jesse, so was the Mother of Joab, Abigail and Zeruiah being Sisters; and it seems, therefore, difficult to account for the preference thus given to Amasa, since he was, next to Absalom, the foremost in military hostility against David: whereas Joab had been the constant and successful Asserter and Supporter of David's rights; and, excepting in the instance of his

assassination of Abner, and in his massacre of Absalom, had been faithful in every trust reposed in him, hazarding every thing valuable to him for David's interest and honour, equally against foreign and domestic Foes; and, for his sake, in the instance of Uriah, being accessory to the plotted death of a valiant Soldier and an inflexibly loyal Subject. David, doubtless, learnt that his darling Son Absalom might have been preserved to him, but for Joab; this might justify the dismissal of Joab from the high trust he held, owing to the direct infringement of the Royal injunction; but the policy, as well as justice of letting the traitorous Amasa supersede him, is fairly open to animadversion. The forbearance and humility of the King seem, however, to have had their just influence on the People of Judah; for on the knees of their hearts, and with the lips of their Souls, did they recal him to his Throne and to his beloved City, inviting, with himself, his Followers, without stipulation or condition.

*** So the King returned and came to Jordan. And Judah came to Gilgal to go to meet the King, to conduct the King over Jordan. And Shimei, the Son of Gera, a Benjamite, which was of Bahurim, hasted and came down with the Men of Judah to meet King David: and there were a thousand Men of Benjamin with him, and Ziba, the Servant of the House of Saul, and his fifteen Sons, and his twenty Servants with him; and they went over Jordan before the King. And there went over a ferry boat to carry over the King's Household, and to do what he thought good. And Shimei, the Son of Gera, fell down before the King, as he was come over to Jordan; and said unto the King, 'Let not my Lord impute iniquity unto me, neither do thou remember that, which thy Servant did perversely the day, that my Lord, the King, went out of Jerusalem, that the King should take it to his heart! For thy Servant doth know that I have sinned: therefore behold, I am come the First this day of all the House of Joseph to go down to meet my Lord, the King.' But Abishai, the Son of Zeruiah, answered and said, 'Shall not Shimei be put to death for this, because he cursed The LORD'S Anointed?' And David said, 'What have I to do with you, ye Sons of Zeruiah, that ye should this day be Adversaries unto me? Shall there any Man be put to death this day in Israel? for do not I know that I am this day King over Israel?' Therefore the King said unto Shimei, Thou shalt not die. And the King sware unto him."-2 Sam. xix.

15 to 23.

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Judah, though not before Israel in recalling David to his throne, was yet foremost to do him homage as a King, going forth to meet him on his journey, and rendering him, thereby, due honour as a King, and most effectually allaying all doubt in David's mind of the sincerity of their regenerated loyalty. On this occasion no voice of chiding for their ungracious desertion of him was uttered in the spirit of unmixed Parental affection, he receives his Subjects as Children, and in their honest return to duty he finds full occupation for his generous sentiments. But Judah had only deserted him: Shimei had openly and grossly insulted and traduced him in the moments of his bitterest sorrow and sorest humility. He too, whether actuated by an abject fear of punishment, or by a consciousness of the wrong he had done and an ingenuous desire to make atonement for it, by its early and public acknowledgment, throws himself upon David's mercy, asking him even to forget that injury, the grossness of which, in the recollection of it, stirs up the spirit of one of David's chiefest Captains to call for instant vengeance on its Perpetrator. But David sought peace and ensued it. His Soul was too generous to withhold pardon, when thus suppliantly sought; and moreover he remembered that Shimei was regarded by him as only an Instrument of but too justly-merited Chastisement in the Hands of Him, to Whom alone Vengeance Belongeth. The Natural Man and the Spiritual Man were, on this occasion, exemplified in contrast between David and Abishai; the Latter, in furtherance of the spirit of rigid and unsparing justice,

which is the offspring of pride and self-ignorance, stimulates to the punishment of death, obtruding the offer of himself as the Executioner, probably, as he had before done. But David, who, versed in the Law of his GOD, knew the need in which he himself stood of DIVINE Mercy, in his judgment thought upon mercy, and publicly reproved his blood-thirsty Counsellor, calling him as in a Spiritual sense he unquestionably was, his Adversary, for suggesting to an act, which, if perpetrated by David, would have been little short of warring against HEAVEN. The Peace of GOD had been Graciously Revisited upon himself, and he knew that it was but his bounden duty to be merciful, as his FATHER, Which was in Heaven, was Merciful. Recalled to that Throne, which he knew was dependant for Support on the Favour of his GOD, he knew also that the Kingly Office imposed on him, as the Vicegerent of GOD, the imitation of GOD's Favourite Attribute of Merey. How exemplary, therefore, was this conduct of David; and what just discrimination did he shew between good and evil, though the true line of distinction between them was lost sight of in the mind of his Counsellor!

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"And Mephibosheth, the Son of Saul, came down to meet the King, and had neither dressed his feet nor trimmed his beard, nor washed his clothes from the day the King departed until the day he came again in peace. And it came to pass, when he was come to Jerusalem to meet the King, that the King said unto him, Wherefore wentest not thou with me, Mephibosheth?' And he answered, 'My Lord, O King, my Servant deceived me: for thy Servant said, "I will saddle me an ass, that I may ride thereon, and go to the King:" because thy Servant is lame. And he hath slandered thy Servant unto my Lord, the King: but my Lord, the King, is as an Angel of GOD: do therefore what is good in thine eyes! for all my Father's House were but dead Men before my Lord, the King, yet didst thou set thy Servant among them, that did eat at thine own table. What right, therefore, have I yet to cry any more unto the King?' And the King said unto him, 'Why speakest thou any more of thy matters? I have said, 'Thou and Ziba divide the land!' And Mephibosheth said unto the King, Yea, let him take all ! forasmuch as my Lord, the King, is come again in peace unto his own house.' 2 Sam. xix. 24 to 30.

Though deprived of the body's perfect symmetry, Mephibosheth seems to have possessed the higher and far more estimable beauty of the Soul, and in the essential qualities of the Man to have been a worthy Offspring of his excellent Sire. In the instant he hears of David's expulsion from his Throne, his Soul disdains the idea that adversity should separate him from his noble Friend, and, regardless of the difficulties his lameness might subject him to in a precipitate flight from a furious insurrection, thinks only of testifying his devotion to David by his eagerness to share his fate: the treachery of his confidential Servant frustrates the intention, and his heart is, in consequence, so absorbed in grief, that he becomes entirely negligent of his Person, and refuses to be comforted, whilst he apprehends his beloved Master is in suffering. With that Master's return, joy returns to Mephibosheth's bosom, and he hastens to testify his continuing veneration for him. At his first interview with David, his thoughts are engrossed by the joy of David's presence; he approaches him with no other feeling; and notwithstanding the injustice done him by Ziba, does not originate a complaint against him. But when David expressly questions the sincerity of his professed attachment, he is driven to that vindication of himself, which truth required; and after stating the fact as it was, leaves, with the confi dence that uprightness imparts, his cause to the discerning judgment of the King; to whose bounty he gratefully acknowledges both his life and fortune were owing. And when the proffer of restitution is made to Mephibosheth, though confined to half of his estates, so far is he from being dissatisfied therewith, he willingly relinquishes all, contenting himself with the riches that flowed to his susceptible and amiablo

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