making them suddenly, gives a savage energy to many, and fills the mind with anxiety and care, destructive to happiness and health. The boasting bills which cover the walls with declarations, scarcely half-true, announce how much fraud has vitiated the left foot.

When people become sensible of their weakness and imperfections, real Mephibosheths, they will be on the way to gain strength. The word Mephibosheth signifies a confession of shame. And a sincere confession is the way to repentance. When men can be induced to rise out of the rut of old ways, and ask not what men have taught, but what does the Lord, the living Lord our Saviour, teach now, teach to us, teach to me, we shall find the lame man will not only be comforted, but be filled with strength and joy. "Then shall the lame man leap as a hart, and the tongue of the dumb shall sing" (Isa. xxxv.). The day has come when the lame can be healed. Divine truth is given in abundance to strengthen the weak hands and confirm the feeble knees. The lame can take the strength the Lord has provided, and none need say I am sick. The great Saviour has promised, and He is now fulfilling it. "I will assemble her that halteth, and I will gather her that is driven out, and her that I have afflicted. And I will make her that halteth a remnant, and her that was cast afar off a strong nation: and the Lord shall reign over them in Mount Zion from henceforth even for ever.”

David's kind feeling towards the lame son of Jonathan represents the tenderness of the spiritually-minded Christian to the weaknesses of the erring. Stern uncharitable men are harsh, hard, and forbidding, but the real Christian is tender and very pitiful. He desires to help the weak, and not to discourage them. He knows his own struggles, and his own shortcomings, and he sympathizes and desires to console and to cheer. His heart, inspired by the infinite love of the Lord Jesus, is ever asking if there be any weak one whom he can aid, and, when he finds a Mephibosheth, he is ever ready in loving kindness to encourage the weak to become strong. He never forgets the charity that hopeth all things and believeth all things, and with his kindly cheer the prodigal will sometimes come home to his father, the crooked will become straight, and the rough places plain.

SERMON XXII.

NATHAN'S PARABLE.

"And the Lord sent Nathan unto David: and he came unto him, and said unto him, There were two men in one city; the one rich, and the other poor.

“The rich man had exceeding many flocks and herds; but the poor man had nothing, save one little ewe-lamb, which he had bought, and nourished up; and it grew up together with him, and with his children: it did eat of his own meat, and drank of his own cup, and lay in his bosom, and was unto him as a daughter.

"And there came a traveller unto the rich man; and he spared to take of his own flock and of his own herd, to dress for the way-faring man that was come unto him; but took the poor man's lamb, and dressed it for the man that was come to him.

And David's anger was greatly kindled against the man; and he said to Nathan, As the Lord liveth, the man that hath done this thing shall surely die: and he shall restore the lamb four-fold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity. "And Nathan said to David, THOU ART THE MAN."-2 SAM. xii. 1-7.

THE exquisite wisdom, faithfulness, and tenderness of this parable have been the admiration of every age from the time it was given. How delicately, yet clearly, the prophet showed the erring king his sin, and led him to condemn himself. With what force did the faithful words come home to the powerful offender, Thou art the man. Such is the office of Divine Truth always, and it never fully accomplishes its saving purpose until it produces in the consciences of weak and offending men the healthy and penitent conviction that leads to godly sorrow and a true amendment: "Thou art the man.”

David had much altered from the days of his innocent youth. He was ingenuous, modest, frank, brave, and devoted to piety in his early years. He was called a man after God's own heart. But, he became far from a man after God's own heart when prosperity and power put self-indulgence within his reach. It avails nothing to say he wrote psalms in his mature and later days. People can write poetry, and religious poetry too, who are very bad men. And evil is evil when committed by a poet, as well as when it is done by less gifted men. Indeed, the more a person is gifted, the more blameable is he when he debases himself in his conduct to the level of the sensual, the brutish, and the ignorant.

David became a polygamist, which is utterly

contrary to the pure laws of heaven, and was only permitted to the Jews, when, for the hardness of their hearts, they were allowed laws which were not good, and judgments by which their souls should not live (Ezek. xx. 25). David also became extremely revengeful and cruel, and treated the people he conquered with excesses quite impossible to a good man (2 Sam. xii. 31). And nothing could be worse than his treachery to Uriah, a noble servant, subject, and soldier, who was bravely hazarding his life in the dangers of war for him, while the king was gratifying his lust, and covering himself with the infamy of adultery and murder.

The scenes of his dying bed were such as to take away all pretence of supposing David in any sense to be a saint: they exhibited revenge and uncleanness, and, while righteousness is eternal, and not a thing of change by time or place, we must confess it to be impossible to account David after his youthful virtues had passed, as anything but an exceedingly bad man. It redounds to the wonders of mercy displayed in the Divine providence that David could be made use of as a type of the spiritual man and of the Lord Jesus, and as the medium through whom those Divine Psalms could be given, which have served the Jewish and the Christian Churches as the daily food of piety, the songs of the regenerate life, and the expression of the joys and sorrows of the struggling soul, wherever the Word of God is known. David was the poet by whose heaven-inspired imagination these glorious gifts to the Church of all ages have been embodied and presented; but we must ever bear in mind they are God's Psalms, not David's. David was but the instrument, the Author was Divine.

Regarding the king in the parable before us, we must have no palliation of his grievous faults under the idea of his being a sacred personage. He was simply and atrociously bad. He was the rich man. Uriah was the poor man. His beloved and only wife was the ewe lamb, who ate of his meat, drank of his cup, lay on his bosom, and was everything to him. The traveller who came to the rich man, meant the wandering lust which had actuated the king, and led to his guilty behaviour. And here we may remark the tendency there is in Scripture, and indeed in the human mind, to personify principles as personages, which has led sometimes to serious errors. The Holy Spirit of the Lord is spoken of as he, the Divine Wisdom as she, and some have imagined that therefore they must be treated as distinct persons. Just as well might we designate

David's unclean passion a person, because it is called a traveller who came to him.

The prophet stands nobly out, confronting the king who condemns his crime severely when he judged it as the wickedness of another, and who quailed before his faithful corrector when it was brought with all its force upon his own conscience. We could wish that mighty sinners had always faithful Nathans to stand before them, to tell them of judgment to come. We should never forget all hearts in due time will be revealed, all books opened, and we shall all be judged even more faithfully than Nathan condemned his guilty master. The prophet unfolded in his parable the exceeding guilt of the rich and powerful, when they oppress the poor. The wealthy have many enjoyments, many distractions, many varieties of good. The rich man had exceeding many flocks and herds. The poor man had nothing save one little ewe-lamb. The lowly of the earth have few things upon which to pour out their wealth of affection, but those are very dear. They love intensely, and he who touches the beloved object, touches the apple of their eye. They have but few joys, but to the good poor man those few are all in all. His wife, his children, his business, his religion, and his God form the circle of his life, and he who injures these is guilty of no common crime, and will surely be found out by his sin. "Woe to the wicked, it will be ill with him; the reward of his hands will be given him” (Isa. iii. 11). David had to expiate his crime in dust and ashes, to lose the child of his crime, to be driven from his capital by his favourite son, and to learn by bitter experience that the Judge of all the earth will do right to the powerful as well as to the weak. The Most High ruleth among the children of men, and giveth to each, surely, sooner or later, the reward of his doings.

Let us turn now to the inner lesson contained in this interesting parable, and in the circumstances to which it alludes. Viewed in this respect it will remind us of the rich man and the poor man in the Gospel. The members of the Church are rich, because they have an abundance of heavenly wealth. The Gentiles are poor, because they lack all mental treasure respecting eternal things. Yet, what little good they have, they love tenderly, and love intensely. It is the want of consideration and charity displayed sometimes by the members of the Church towards those who are poor in divine things, that is here unfolded to us in the Spirit of the Word. Uriah and his wife were Hittites, or as they are often called, children of Heth.

They were a gentle and good people that inhabited the middle and south of Judah. They are brought before us in the history of Abraham, who obtained from them the cave of Machpelah where Sarah was buried, and which became the place of burial for Isaac, Jacob, and their wives: a sacred spot pointed out and jealously guarded to this day.

The Hittites are represented as friendly with the Israelites, and aiding them on various occasions. Uriah was a Hittite, Abimelech was a Hittite, and both were evidently leading men with David; Bathsheba, the mother of Solomon, was probably of the same nation. They were amiable, courteous, friendly, and good; though they were not Israelites. They represent such as are moral, and cultivate goodness in their lives, although they have little relish for spiritual attainments, or spiritual knowledge.

There are people who are kind, gentle, orderly, and upright in their conduct, who yet do not advance to the conviction of spiritual truths, with any degree of firmness or clearness. They are good neighbours, kind friends and just people, and yet confine themselves to doing their duties in this world socially and politically, as the whole duty of man, at present. These are often people of great talent, very estimable, very virtuous, and very serviceable to mankind. They are not unfriendly to religion, not opposers of spiritual truth, but they are obscure and doubtful about it. They are mentally dim-sighted probably, generally from hereditary causes, and sometimes from having been repelled by the faults and shortcomings of religious people. Judged by the Lord's standard, "those who are not against us, are on our part," the considerate spiritually-minded man will deal very kindly with this class of persons. Moral good is all they have, but they cherish that tenderly. It eats of their bread, and drinks of their cup, and lies in their bosom. They would not do a wrong thing or descend to any false or dishonourable proceeding for the world.

It is their meat and drink to do right in external things, and they are often tender, considerate and benevolent. The feelings of kindness and rectitude are to them a species of religion. "It is unto them as a daughter." They do no harm to any one, but are ready to join in virtuous and useful works. They are convinced that morality is a good thing of itself. Justice, truth, honesty, chastity, brotherly-kindness, diligence, intelligence, faithfulness, truthfulness, and sobriety are virtues they know to be above all price for this world, if there were not