duty would gain a permanent ascendency in his breast. "I have sinned!" he exclaimed, "return, my son David: for I will no more do thee harm, because my soul was precious in thine eyes this day behold, I have played the fool, and have erred exceedingly." : David, however, would not dare to trust himself in the hands of one who had before made similar promises only to break them. Requesting Saul to send one of his young men after his spear, David added these memorable words, showing his unshaken confidence in God, and his firm belief that the Judge of all the earth would maintain the course of truth and justice; "The Lord render to every man his righteousness and his faithfulness for the Lord delivered thee into my hand to-day, but I would not stretch forth mine hand against the Lord's anointed. And, behold, as thy life was much set by this day in mine eyes, so let my life be much set by in the eyes of the Lord, and let him deliver me out of all tribulation." Saul replied; " Blessed be thou, my son David: thou shalt both do great things, and also shalt still prevail!" Wonderful power of conscience, even in the breast of a very wicked man! What a contrast between the knowing of what is right, and the doing of it! O the depths of depravity in the human heart, when the sinful passions are so strong as to break loose, in their mad career, from the sober dictates of the judgment, and from the salutary restraints which their miserable victim feels that both duty and an enlightened self-interest should impose! No further attempt was made, at this time, to pursue David and his little band. He returned to his place of retreat, and Saul to Gibeah. "I shall now But David did not feel secure. perish one day by the hand of Saul," said he to himself; "there is nothing better for me than that I should speedily escape into the land of the Philistines; and Saul shall despair of me, to seek me any more in any coast of Israel: so shall I escape out of his hand.". He soon carried this purpose into effect, and fled, with his men, to Gath, a city of the Philistines, to put himself under the protection of Achish, the king of that country. He had been there, it will be remembered, once before, when he feigned himself mad, and escaped from the dangers which beset him. That Achish would receive him with favor, he doubtless had sufficient reasons for believing; and there had probably been some negociations between them on the subject. At any rate, he and his wives, Ahinoam and Abigail, and his six hundred men, with their households, were treated with great hospitality, residing in Gath for some time. It can hardly be questioned that David's course, in thus leaving the land of Judah and going to seek shelter among the enemies of God and of the Israelites was a wrong one, notwithstanding the appalling difficulties which he must evidently encounter if he remained. It does not appear that he sought the divine direction in this matter. That he felt his dependence on God, and looked to him for support, is indeed indicated in the one hundred and forty-first Psalm, which, it is thought, he composed just before his flight to Gath. He there begs of God grace, that he may not sin against him with his tongue, nor be drawn into any idolatrous practices by living among the Philistines. He expresses his reliance on the divine aid, and prays to be delivered from those who were seeking to destroy him. Such is often the weakness of faith even in good men. Such the undue influence of the fear of temporal evils, and the temptation to pursue some scheme of worldly policy for deliverance, rather than the course of fearless confidence in God in the way of an inflexible regard to duty, and of obedience to his commands. Pray, pray, my young friend, that you may be made strong to do what is right, in the strength of God, and by the energy of his grace. CHAPTER XVI. David and his men dwell at Ziklag. He destroys the Geshurites and Amalekites. The Philistines prepare to attack the Israelites. Saul assembles his forces to meet them, and inquires of the woman at En-dor, who has a familiar spirit. David's residence in Gath seems to have led Saul, certainly for the time, to abandon all thoughts of pursuing his victim, and subsequent events put this entirely out of his power, even if he formed any such purpose. In the meanwhile David was desirous of dwelling in some place by himself, with his followers and their families. He may have thought that he was imposing too heavy a burden upon the generosity of Achish, and, in addition to this, have felt the evils of being in habits of such constant and immediate intercourse with idolaters, without enjoying the unconstrained exercise of the forms and duties of the religion of his fathers. Whatever were the reasons, he did not hesitate to make his wishes known to the king. Achish was ready to comply with them, and assigned Ziklag as the future place of residence for David and his party. This was a city quite in the south ern part of Canaan, originally in the lot of the tribe of Judah, but afterwards assigned to the tribe of Simeon. Either it had never been subdued, or the Philistines, in some struggle with the Israelites, had made themselves masters of it, and it was now in their possession. It afterwards fell into the tribe of Judah again, and continued to be the property of the kings of Judah. From this city, where he remained a year and four months, David, with his armed men, made an excursion into the territory of the Geshurites, the Gezrites, and the Amalekites, lying south of Canaan. We are told that he "smote the land, and left neither man nor woman alive, and took away the sheep, and the oxen, and the asses, and the camels, and the apparel, and returned, and came to Achish;" probably to answer, in season, the inquiries of the latter before he should receive information from any other source. In reply to these inquiries, David concealed the truth; saying that the excursion had been made against "the south of Judah; and against the south of the Jerah-meelites," (in that tribe;) and against "the south of the Kenites," who dwelt west of the Dead Sea, extending themselves into Arabia Petroa, and whose lands were, also, in the lot of the tribe of Judah. David practised this equivocation, lest the king of Gath, knowing where he had been, and the great havoc he had made, should fear a similar |