curred, but rather, only, that those they had were oftener exercised. The judge was the popular chieftain; yet the lesson taught in the laws was not forgotten, and obedience to the earthly ruler was still regarded as submission to Jehovah. An artful leader, it seems, might then have become the tyrant of the pious or the superstitious nation; but it is a proof of their free spirit, that, though often erring and often humbled in these years of warfare, they were not enslaved. An hour which Moses had foreseen arrived at last. Aware, apparently, that the people, or their posterity, whom he left behind, were too restless to persevere in the ways of their religion or the simple institutions of their government, he is reputed to have composed some ordinances concerning the future monarch, in order that the change thus long prepared might be too easy, at length, to shake the principles, or even the forms, on which the work of his hands and of his heart was founded. One "whom the Lord their God should choose" was then to be appointed king; and as the choice of the new ruler was made independent of the merely popular will, so, on the other hand, he was himself enjoined to keep the laws inviolate, and forbidden to "lift his heart above his brethren." 56 The elders, as is well remembered, came to Samuel, the venerable priest and judge, who was at that time governing the nation with his sons. "Behold, thou art old," said the elders, "and thy sons walk not in thy 56 Deut., XVII. 14-20. ways now make us a king to judge us like all the nations." The old judge was displeased, perhaps regretting his own loss of authority, but more probably persuaded that the nation was rejecting the government of God in seeking an earthly sovereign. Foretelling with unavailing earnestness the sorrows that would be brought upon his race through its monarchs, Samuel was interrupted by the people, who were gathered round him:-" -"Nay; but we will have a king over us; that we also may be like all the nations; and that our king may judge us, and go out before us, and fight our battles."57 Such were the demands on the one hand, in contradiction to the forebodings on the other; the fulfilment of both being still to be read in the election of Saul, and in his lurid reign, which seems like flame enkindled in a broken forest. Samuel was again employed to anoint a successor to the yet living, but unfaithful, monarch on whom his first choice had singularly fallen. The boy who kept his father's sheep grew up through battles and persecutions, while Saul declined in piety and in authority; and when David came to the throne, at last, it was as though the better spirit amongst his race had triumphed over the iniquities which lay in wait against its safety. The character of David hardly seems to be that of a single individual, so widely does it expand with graces, temptations, abilities, and errors. Its lighter and its darker lines describe, on one side, the failings to which the national character 57 See Chapter VIII. of 1 Samuel. was exposed, and, on the other, the powers with which it was, at any time, endowed; in such comprehensiveness, indeed, that he who seeks to understand the history of the Jews, whether in respect to their freedom or their faith, will always retrace the devotion, the wisdom, and, it must needs be added, the passion, which mark the psalmist, the monarch, and the erring man. No greater bravery, no higher intellect, no deeper piety, than David's were animated in all antiquity. The Christian repeats the longings, the praises, and the prayers that came from him, as he feared, confided, obeyed, inquired, and implored. The scholar finds in his poetry the beacon-fires which shine from the wide and the fervid mind alone; and the child exults in the gallantry which laid Goliath prostrate and spared the cruel Saul when bloodshed was more natural than mercy. One of the happier hours which David knew-happier though in the midst of perils, as it seems, by which the shepherd was beset before he became the king-gave life to the psalm that, more than any other, describes the greatness and the goodness of its author: "The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures; He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul; He leadeth me in righteous paths For His name's sake. Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil; for Thou art with me; Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me In the presence of mine enemies; Thou anointest my head with oil, My cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me, all the days of my life, It is not the author only who is perceived in such a In the This view of David's character may be extended farther, in more direct illustration of the principle to which this history is devoted; for, in the absence of any other instances as clear, we may return to him, to his rise from a low estate, and to his grandeur of spirit, in seeking after the traces of Jewish liberty. None would presume to doubt that the strong influences he obeyed were those of the religion rather than of the freedom of his country; but without changing our view of the faith he professed in God, or detracting in any degree from the full measure of inspiration he thence derived, it will not be thought a misplaced reflection, that he would not have been what he was under a despotism or amongst a degraded. people. Nor is there any contradiction to be raised from the fact that David was a monarch, and therefore able to engross the liberty of his nation, which His could itself still be oppressed beneath him. highest powers appear to have been exerted in the season of his humility and peril; without which, indeed, he would never have attained to any thing more than a temporal grandeur. It is true that he was a great king; but it was because his people were elevated as well as he he seemed, indeed, to have brought a blessing upon them. The territories of the nation were extended; the old institutions of the desert were partially remodelled 58 to bear the wider interests dependent upon them, and some new offices 59 were created to maintain the dignity of the power now supreme; while the conveyance of the ark, "with shouting," to the new city of Jerusalem appeared to prove that the piety of the king and of his people was still unchangeable. But the evil day succeeded; and David sank, like some of his own psalms, into maledictions and unworthy passions, by which the darker nature of his race is mournfully revealed. The moment of their fall was close to that of their king's, nor could his repentance avail to save them when he was departed. Solomon was the first hereditary monarch, and such royal majesty was bestowed upon him "as had not been on any king before him in Israel." But after praying for an understanding heart, and building a temple, with an inner shrine, to the worship he was 58 As in the case of the priesthood, 1 Chron., Ch. XXIII. 59 As in those of the royal household. 1 Chron., XXVII. 25 et seq., XXVIII. 1; and 1 Kings, 60 2 Samuel, VI. 15. |