unboasting conquest; whilst his minstrelsy in the court of Saul, his marriage with that monarch's daughter, the first and last days of his friendship with the princely Jonathan, his chivalrous generosity of spirit in contrast with the cold, mean, settled hatred of his persecutor, suggest a thousand pictures to the heart and imagination. Examine him then in his wanderings, and in his subsequent prosperity as king of Israel;-you will find the heroic traits still strong upon his character. Observe his forbearance under injuries, which, united with power to avenge them, was unexampled as opinions and manners were then constituted. Mark his readiness to acknowledge the merit of an opponent, proved by his expressions concerning Saul, Abner, and Ishbosheth; his recollection of kindness long since past-witness his embassy to Hanun;-his munificence of spirit and complete freedom from sordid selfishnesswitness his law, that all who tarried by the stuff should share like those that went down to the battle; his sending, from his private portion of the spoil of the Amalekites, presents to all whom he "and his men were wont to haunt ;" and his anxiety to prevent Ittai the Gittite joining him in his flight from Absalom, because he "was a stranger and an exile." His refusal to drink the water, which, prompted by his urgent desire, the three mighty men brake through the host of the Philistines to draw from the well of Bethlehem, is another fine instance of generous selfdenial; finer even than that recorded of Sir Philip Sydney, because connected with noble contrition for his former want of self-government. "He poured it out to the Lord, and said, My God forbid it me, that I should do this thing shall I drink the blood of these men that have put their lives in jeopardy? for with the jeopardy of their lives they brought it. Therefore he would not drink it." Perhaps, however, the instance in which David manifested the loftiest spirit, that which combined in itself most of the elements of true greatness, was the kingly offering he made out of his own proper goods to the service of that temple he was forbidden to build, renouncing at the same moment all credit for his munificence. "Who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able to offer so : willingly after this sort? for all things come of thee, and of thine own have we given thee." But David was not merely a "mighty man of valor;" he possessed qualities it was impossible any heathen could possess, and which were his, solely by virtue of his knowledge of the true God. It is this remarkable union of contrary endowments which renders his heroic character so perfect. Comparing him with other heroes of old, though acknowledging all their bravery and all their force of mind, we may alter the words of Manfred, and say, that David had "Not these alone, but with them gentler powers; I must confess for myself, that the historical books of the Old Testament are so exquisitely interesting, that I almost think I gather more instruction from the perusal of them, than from parts more immediately abounding in precept. In this respect I am a child. They have too, as histories, one point of interest peculiar to themselves. Doubtless the passions, the miseries, and the strifes of earth, are therein recorded in their most painful forms; but still they are continually relieved by incidents and characters of a contrary nature, which breathe around them a soothing and heavenly influence, like that which the harp of David produced upon the mind of Saul. It may be only a simple casual occurrence which appears to drop by accident from the writer's pen—as that Jehoiada the priest was buried "in the city of David, among the kings, because he had done good in Israel, both toward God, and toward his house "-or that David, when an outcast in the wilderness, said to the king of Moab," let my father and my mother, I pray thee, come forth and be with you, till I know what God will do for me;" or that Jacob, when arranging his household to go forth to meet Esau, placed, with the providence of the heart, "Rachel and Joseph hindermost." It may be some slight and single touch, like the same patriarch's dying allusion to the death of his unforgotten Rachel, "when yet there was but a little way to come unto Ephrath ;" some fact fraught with pathos, like Rizpah's watching the dead bodies of her sons, suffering neither "the birds of the air to rest on them by day, nor the beasts of the field by night;" or some trait of loyal love, some proof of grateful constancy, like that of the noble Jabesh-gileadites, who mindful only of former favors, arose by night, rescued from the hands of the Philistines the mutilated remains of Saul and of his sons, and then buried them under a tree in their own land, with fasting, and with tears. These may appear slight things to mention, but they are not therefore unworthy of notice; they refresh the feelings, suggest reflections, give momentary glimpses of the treasures hidden in the human heart, cold, and dark, and earthly as it is. A thousand such are scattered through the sacred volume, without effort, without design; the seedpearls of truth, the diamond dust of nature. My remarks have however extended themselves so far, that I must reserve the conclusion for another letter. Believe me, meanwhile, Fondly and faithfully yours. |