IV.]

THE PASSING AWAY OF OPPRESSORS.

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his

way,

because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass. Cease from anger, and forsake wrath; fret not thyself in any wise to do evil. For evil-doers shall be cut off ; but those that wait upon the Lord, they shall inherit the earth. For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be: yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be. But the meek shall inherit the earth; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace."

SERMON V.

THE WISE KING.

LINCOLN'S INN, 4TH SUNDAY IN ADVENT.-DEC. 21, 1851.

I KINGS, IV. 6-9.

And Solomon said, "Thou hast shewed unto thy servant David, my father, great mercy, according as he walked before Thee in truth and in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart with Thee: and Thou hast kept for him this great kindness, that Thou hast given him a son to sit on his throne, as it is this day. And now O Lord my God, Thou hast made Thy servant king instead of David my father; and I am but a little child; I know not how to go out or come in. And Thy servant is in the midst of Thy people which Thou hast chosen, a great people that cannot be counted or numbered for multitude. Give therefore Thy servant an understanding heart to judge Thy people, that I may discern between good and bad; for who is able to judge this Thy so great people?" THE seventy-second Psalm, part of which I read to you last Sunday, because it contains, if not the last words, yet the habitual wishes, the inmost heart of David, speaks of a son in whose days there should be abundance of peace, to whom should be given of the gold of Arabia, whose name should remain among the posterities. That these words were fulfilled in the peaceful and glorious reign of Solomon, most readers believe. That there are other words in that

Serm. V.] DESIRE OF FOUNDING A FAMILY.

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Psalm which speak of blessings far beyond any which came upon Israel or upon the earth then, or perhaps have come upon it since, they also believe. How are we to connect the different passages together; which may we assign to the immediate successor, which point to some distant, unrealised future?

Though this enquiry concerns the sense and interpretation of all the Psalms, nay, the very nature of Prophecy itself, I propose to speak of it only as it bears upon the subject which comes under our notice this afternoon. There can be no doubt, I conceive, that the dream of transmitting his kingdom to a child of his own had often visited the mind of David. We should naturally conclude that he fixed upon the favourite Absalom as his successor. His rebellion was a sad mockery of that expectation. But it was not only a mockery. It was the severest part of that discipline, so regular and consistent, which taught David that the kingdom was not his, that another than he ruled it, that it was established in his hands not for his own sake, but for the sake of God's people Israel. It was as much a falsehood in the king to think of giving it away according to some choice or fancy of his own, as it was a falsehood in the people to desire a king who should merely lead their armies and make them like the other nations. But just as the self-willed and sensual longing which caused Samuel so much sorrow was the perversion of a divine instinct which in due time was to be satisfied, so did it prove in this case also. The desire to advance a beloved child had much of selfishness in it; the passion for founding a family though it was of nobler kind, clung too closely to the mere individual who cherished it. But the paternal impulse and the power of looking onwards into another age when the father

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THE CHILD OF BATHSHEBA.

[Serm. and perhaps also the child should both have left the earth, these do not belong to the earth or to David; they belong to humanity; their root is in God. To keep them alive had been a main part of all the wonderful education of Abraham and of his descendants. The mystery of fatherhood and of birth had been that which the old patriarch had learnt while he dwelt in the open plain of Canaan, apart from the corrupted cities. The desire for offspring which seemed to be accomplished in Ishmael, the long waiting for Isaac, the sight at last of the child of laughter and joy, these had been the main springs of his life; upon these all his knowledge of other higher truths-of death, of sacrifice-depended. The continuousness of the history, the links of hereditary sympathy by which the parts of it are bound together, we all feel, whether we are able to explain the fact to ourselves or not, are one secret of our interest in it, are internal tokens and pledges of its divinity.

It was a son of Bathsheba who was to teach David, in circumstances grievously unfavourable one would have thought to such learning, this truth which had been imparted, by a like experimental method, to the first fathers of his race. Birth, became, associated with death, and with his own sin as the cause of death. Shame, repentance, the desire to do justice to one whom he had bitterly wronged, bound him to this wife with more real affection than he had, perhaps, ever felt for any other. The child who was born after the one for whom he had prayed and fasted was taken must have had a mysterious worth in his eyes; he must have looked upon it as especially given to him; he could not claim any right over it; it was God's. This child he was taught to connect with the permanence of the kingdom. The thoughts which were awakened in him as he

V.]

DAVID'S VISION OF A SON

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recollected all that had been and might have been in his days, and of all that should be in his son's days were not through some wild exaggeration, not through some artificial arrangement but by an eternal necessary law, wider, deeper, higher than any, even the most brilliant series of outward events, could accomplish. Such events he was sure there would be; a heap of corn on the earth higher than the hills; the kings of Tharsis and the Isles would bring presents; the kings of Arabia and Saba would offer gifts. He trusted also that the blood of the poor would be dear in Solomon's sight. But the hope which those last words expressed, rested upon the assurance that there was an inward sympathy and communion between the king and the poorest of his subjects, an actual relation between them which had been realised and understood in some measure by David and his people; which might be realised more perfectly in the son who was to follow him; which must be realised perfectly some day. The power of the prophet, his inward security that his thoughts and anticipations would prove true, did not depend upon his knowledge of times and seasons; but upon the intimation which he had of the mind and purpose of the Most High; upon his confidence that He and not the evil spirit would prevail and that the triumph of the Creator must be the triumph of His creatures. This blessed conviction had enabled David to struggle with hosts of enemies, with his own sin and despair; it came forth now in strong, close alliance with his family life as it had always been in alliance with the life of his nation. A son of David must be the deliverer of the poor and needy, a son of David must have dominion from the flood unto the world's end.

In what sense then, I shall be asked, did David expect