arbitration, in the settlement of international disputes between Great Britain and the United States; and, a much greater triumph, the end of slavery in his own country, though in a way and at a cost of blood that most deeply grieved his sympathetic heart. The best synopsis of his character was that he was himself a true Christian citizen, and, in being so, he blended in beautiful harmony the cardinal principles of piety and philanthropy, religion and humanity, love of God and love of man."

A. M. RANSOM.

UNSELFISH SERVICE.

AMONG the biographies of the Bible there is scarcely one that supplies us with a greater variety of lessons than that of David, from his first appearance, the boy keeping "the few sheep in the wilderness," so little accounted of that his absence passed without remark, till Samuel's question was asked,-to that last act of self-abnegation, by which his own command seated another on that throne for the possession of which he had fought and suffered so long. And not only have we the record of the outward life, busy and eventful in no common degree, full of loving service to God, full, too, of faithful service to man, and yet so often marred by mistake and failure; but side by side with it we may trace another and a deeper history, that of David's communion of soul with Him who was to him not only God but Lord; whose voice could stay him in his most impetuous moments, and the light of whose countenance was to him an actual necessity, without which nothing else had any value. We can in many cases more or less clearly connect the special event, and the outpouring of spirit to which it gave occasion; in others we can only trace general allusions, marked enough, however, to be very significant; while perhaps more blessed, more helpful still, is the tone of the whole human fears and forebodings, we know only too well what they are! driving like a cold mist across the Psalmist's soul, to be met and dispelled by the clear sunshine of his unshaken trust in the faithfulness of Jehovah, the certainty that what He decrees is the best for His servant, the unwavering conviction that sooner or later His wisdom and love will be justified.

66

True, we must not forget the duality of meaning in the Psalms. Even as an aid to their right comprehension, quite apart from its more direct importance, their prophetic character must never be neglected; but just at this moment we may look at them in their more limited aspect as a record of David's own soul-history, in which, as in water face answereth to face," we can so often see ours also; so often appropriate passages, or make the petitions our own, and, thanks be to Him who is "the same yesterday, to-day, and forever," take courage as the wave of faith lifts us also high above the sharp rocks of temptation, the quicksands of unbelief, and sends us on more than conquerors through Him of whom these psalms so clearly speak.

I have said that David's life supplies us with a variety of lessons; shall we seek the teaching contained in 1 Chron. xvii., xxii., xxviii., xxix. and their parallel passages

?

The first of these chapters opens on one of the few resting places to be found in his most toilsome career, when, sitting in his house, David perceived that the Divine promise had been made good; that the Lord had indeed established him king over Israel. Rest, too, had been given him from all his enemies round about; brief rest it proved to be, but sweet while it lasted, yet the strange luxury did not centre his thoughts on self. "Lo, I dwell in a house of cedars, but the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord remaineth under curtains," was his exclamation to Nathan; and the prophet, catching at the hidden idea, and carried away by circumstances, responded with natural words of encouragement. But the night brought other counsels. It was a hard and ungracious task to take back his own words: "Go, do all that is in thine heart;" and to give God's answer instead: "Thou shalt not build Me a house to dwell in!" Most gently as it was worded, -twice we find the phrase "my

servant David" used, the message must have been a painful one to both speaker and hearer.

Has the Lord any such errands for His servants now? We are none of us Nathans, sent with authoritative commands-" Do this," or, "Do it not," and yet where work for God is concerned, amidst the advice too lightly asked, too lightly given, far too lightly followed, are we not sometimes brought into somewhat of the same strait as the prophet? Does not our duty towards the Master and towards some eager, impulsive fellow-servant require us to check, rather than to urge forward-to say, "Not thou, but another," in reference to more extended work, fresh fields of labour, special efforts for God's glory? Fighting the battles of the Lord in pain and weariness; new enemies rising up just where the old have been cut off; hard and incessant toil, with few great victories to relieve the monotony ! Who can wonder, who that knows his own heart will dare to blame, if the Davids amongst us too often persevere for a time in their manifestly God-appointed career, and then, in some real or fancied pause in the combat, turn longingly to some other division of service, easier and more attractive to flesh and blood, and forget that “I will" is not always "Thou shalt"? Where are the Nathans, unaccredited, it is true, but, no less surely than he, messengers of the Most High, who, too clearsighted as regards His glory, too full of love to their brethren to shrink from reproach and suffering in the path of duty, will interpose that gentle, but effectual, "Thou shalt not," which shall be too really of God to be withstood by one in true fellowship with the Master? Self-appointed critics, doubters, cavillers, harassing instead of helping, adding to the confused babel of tongues amid which it is so sadly easy to mistake the false for the true,-who can number them? But let us never in our shrinking from the evil deny the

existence of the good; nor even, it may be, for it is of the Lord, not of man, to choose His messengers, refuse to act the part of a Nathan to some one of the many Davids of our day.

"And it shall come to pass, when thy days be expired that thou must go to be with thy fathers, that I will raise up thy seed after thee, which shall be of thy sons, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build me a house, and I will establish his throne for ever." "Thou shalt not"-" He shall." "He shall." We need not enter into all that is wrapped up in these two utterances; that much typical teaching is to be found in them we cannot doubt, but it lies apart from our present object. How did David receive them? When he and the prophet had parted, the latter had bidden him do all that was in his heart, and we can imagine how busy thought had been with the newlyformed project. It had been stamped, seemingly, with the Divine sanction; had not Nathan coupled with his encouragement the words, "God is with thee," speaker and hearer evidently seeing in them the same meaning? Now all was to be reversed. "Thou shalt not," God's own words this time, take the task, already doubtless in imagination well-nigh completed, out of those ready, loving hands, placing in them instead the far harder one of uncomplaining obedience. But the Lord is not a hard Master. "Go tell David, my servant," so the message began. It was a familiar word: "Thy servant," the Psalmist calls himself constantly, and all sense of hardness and distance must have vanished at the well-loved phrase, with its unspoken appeal to past trust and submission as a surety for the present. Nor was this all. Times of peace and blessing were spoken of as in store for Israel; after their years of oppression and wandering a sure dwelling-place should be theirs, and not theirs only; the house of David, from this time closely connected in the Divine counsels