1 Chronicles 21:1-30

3. The struggle offers an undesigned but fine example of an intelligent acknowledgment of the essence of the principle of sacrifice. When the scene is gone a little further, and the angel with drawn sword is beheld, David in an agony of pleading is heard beseeching that "the innocent" may be spared. He proclaims who are the innocent (so far, at all events, as his act is concerned); he begs that the guilty one may suffer, and proposes himself and his father's house as the justly designated resource for sacrifice. The "altar and the wood," ay, and the knife too, are there, and they shall not want the sacrifice. It seems possible, probable, that not merely

IV. THE RESULTS TO WHICH ONE MAN'S SIN AND AN IMMENSITY OF CONSEQUENT SUFFERING WERE NOW OVERRULED. (Verses 26-30.) Some of these results were of special significance in the then time of day, and for the people of Israel. Others am of significance for all ages.

1. For the thousandth time were shown forth these things—the loving fatherly heart of God, the hand that forbore, the yearning pity that "repented" because of its own tenderness of even the most deserved chastisement. Touching indeed is the language of 2 Samuel 24:15. So in older time the Lord himself to the angel, and the angel to Abraham, had cried," Forbear; it is enough." But not so when that dreader scene gathered in its fulness over Jerusalem. Though twelve legions of angels looked on, and might have come to the rescue, no voice said "Forbear;" and the only voice that did then speak as with authority—authority notwithstanding what it must say and how it must say it—said this, "Not my will be done;" and again, "It is finished"—a signal for the awful sacrifice to go on to its solemn end.

2. The stricter typical principle of sacrifice was led up to, and an instance of it exhibited. Blood flows for sin, and the blood of those who were so far forth innocent was now flowing for sin. And this doubtless, though it fell on the innocent, was the punishment of sin. But we see David acknowledge the principle that sacrifice may avail to stay the punishment. He, however, viewed, and justly viewed, himself as the guilty, and therefore as the one who ought to suffer. He does not come before us as an instance of the innocent proposing to suffer in the place of the guilty. The issue is that the sacrifices of the Law were offered in great abundance.

3. By auguries memorable and solemn an altar of sacrifice and a place of worship were designated. They became consecrate for the service of a thousand years at one stretch, and for what more to come we know not. Though we must fail to realize what seemed to David and to Israel greatest in this, yet analogies of the most intrinsic kind guide us in the same direction. Meantime not the grandest building we may raise and dedicate to the worship and glory of God, to the love and service of Jesus, need mean either more or less to us than that site and that altar meant to David and Israel. And, on the other hand, it may with equal truth be said that the humblest building, the least pretentious schoolroom for the service of Christ, means more for knowledge, for heavenly light, for real beauty, than David and the temple, and Solomon and "all his glory."

1 Chronicles 21:1.-A king's pride.

The Scripture historians do not conceal David's faults. Though they represent him as the man after God's heart, they faithfully record his grievous defections. He was evidently a man in whom the ordinary principles of human nature were unusually vigorous. There was, accordingly, warmth in his piety, and his sins were those peculiar to an ardent and passionate nature. His warlike impulses led him into cruelty, his amatory passions into adultery, his violence into murder, his self-confidence into the act of regal pride which is condemned in this passage. Accustomed as we are to a periodical census, and indeed to statistics of all kinds, it is difficult for us to understand how blamable was David's conduct in numbering the people.

I. Observe AT WHOSE INSTIGATION the king acted. Although in Samuel we are told that the Lord's anger with Israel was the deepest reason for the act and the explanation of all that followed it, our text refers the conduct of David to "an adversary." Whether this enemy was human, or, as is generally supposed, superhuman, diabolical, is not material. A tempter, an adversary, suggested the sinful motive and the disobedient action.

II. Observe THE MOTIVE which led to this act. It was a motive often influential with the prosperous and the powerful. It was vanity, confidence in his own greatness, in the number of his soldiers, in the resources of his subjects. David had been a warrior whose arms had been attended with remarkable success, and, like many such, he doubtless deemed himself invincible.

III. Observe DAVID'S PERSEVERANCE IN SPITE OF WARNING. Many sins are committed heedlessly. Not so this; for Joab, who was by no means a counsellor always to be trusted, warned his master against this act of folly, which he saw was "a cause of trespass to Israel." David was not to be deterred, and perhaps resented, as such characters are wont to do, any resistance to his will. Temptation from without, evil passions from within, are often enough to overcome the calmest and the wisest counsels and admonitions. A lesson this of human frailty. A summons also to penitence and to humility.—T.

1 Chronicles 21:8.-Contrition.

David was a man who both sinned grievously and repented bitterly. If we have nowhere more striking examples than in his life of human frailty, we have nowhere more than in his recorded experience an example of anguish and of penitence for sin. Witness the state of mind manifested in the fifty-first psalm. We have in this most touching verse —

I. CONFESSION OF SIN. This language may be regarded as a model of sincerely uttered confession.

1. It was offered to God. "David said unto God." So in Psalms 51:1-19; "Against thee, thee only, have I sinned." Not against society, not against the state; but against the Searcher of hearts and the Judge of all.

2. It was a taking to himself of the guilt. "1 have sinned." Instead of laying the blame upon another, the king accepted it for himself. It is a sad thing when men take excuses into the presence of God.

3. David had a just sense of the heinousness of his sin. He felt that he had sinned greatly. It was not in his view a light thing of which he had been guilty. How can we, as Christians, regard sin as a light matter, when we remember that sin brought our holy Saviour, the Lord of glory, to the ignominious cross?

4. The folly of sin was very apparent to David's mind when he poured out his soul in contrite confessions before the Lord. "I have done very foolishly."

II. ENTREATY FOR PARDON. It would be a sad case, indeed, if, when the sinner acknowledged his errors and faults, he did so with no hope or expectation of grace and forgiveness. But David knew that God was a God delighting in mercy and ready to forgive. Accordingly he added to his confession this entreaty: "I beseech thee, do away the iniquity of thy servant." What abundant encouragement have we to present a prayer like this! The revelation of God's character, the provision of a Divine Redeemer, the promises of a welcome gospel, all alike induce us to come unto God in the attitude, not only of sinners, but of suppliants, beseeching of him a favourable reception, and the extension to us as sinners of his clemency and grace. T.

1 Chronicles 21:13.-Falling into the hand of the Lord.

There is something very simple and touching in this expression. "The hand of the Lord" is, for the most part, mentioned in Scripture as the emblem of God's protecting, upholding, preserving power. Here it indicates chastisement. How truly submissive and filial was the spirit which was manifested in this petition! Whether God's hand was raised to deliver or to smite, his servant was content—so that it was God's.

I. THE LORD SOMETIMES CHASTENS EVEN REPENTING OFFENDERS. Some unthinking persons may wonder why, if the sinner be penitent and the sin forgiven, there should be any necessity for punishment at all. But facts cannot be explained away. The great Lord and Judge of all does Sometimes, as in the instance before us, permit the sinner to endure temporal consequences of sin, although his anger is turned away from the repentant heart. God thus avenges his own Law, upholds his own authority, shows himself a righteous Sovereign and Ruler.

II. THERE ARE REASONS FOR MEEKLY SUBMITTING TO DIVINE CHASTISEMENT. An alternative of punishment is not God's usual offer to repenting sinners. There is much to commend in the choice which David made when Gad, at the Lord's command, permitted the king to elect one form of penalty rather than another. David referred the matter wholly into "the band" of a wise and merciful God. There are many reasons why we should thus submit when the Lord chastens.

1. God is the All-merciful. For this reason his people may well be content to "fall into his hand." "Very great are his mercies." He is "merciful and gracious, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin." His character, his promises, and especially his "unspeakable gift," should encourage us to lay aside all rebellion, murmuring, and fear, and to submit with patience, and "endure chastening." It is, no doubt, in his power to punish with far greater severity than any human enemy is capable of doing. But whilst "the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel," the mercy of God is boundless as his nature.

2. God knows, not only the sin, but the repentance by which it it followed. He reads the heart, and hears the sighs, and marks the tears of every contrite penitent. He sees when a deep impression of the sinfulness of sin has been produced. He knew that though David was a great sinner, he was a sincere, submissive, and lowly penitent. He makes a distinction between the punishment which is a mark of his righteous displeasure with the sin, and that which is needed to bring the offender to a just sense of his ill desert.

3. God tempers his chastisements with Divine consolations and support. He does not desert his children, even in their deserved distresses. He is with them in the furnace. When they are ready to sink beneath their merited sorrows, lo! his everlasting arms are found to be underneath them.

4. God designs, by all his chastening, to secure his people's spiritual good. He afflicts, not for his pleasure, but for our profit. His purpose is that we may "bring forth the peaceable fruits of righteousness." Men may wreak malicious vengeance; God's discipline is that of a holy and compassionate Father.—T.

1 Chronicles 21:15.-God's repentance.

How often, in the Scriptures, are human emotions attributed to God! The charge of "anthropopathy" has, in consequence, sometimes been brought against what we hold to be Divine revelation. The truth is that objectors do not truly believe in the personality of God. The Bible does teach us to think of God as a Person—a living, conscious Being, with moral attributes and purposes. It even speaks, as in the text, of God's repentance.

I. THIS IS NOT THE REPENTANCE OF ONE WHO HAS DONE WRONG. This is the usual application of the word, but it obviously has no place here. The penalty inflicted upon David was a just and deserved one. "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?" As a Ruler of inflexible righteousness, the Lord demands our reverence and confidence in all the proceedings of his providence.

II. IT IS THE REPENTANCE OF PITY. We find a satisfaction in attributing to the Lord the emotions of pity, of long-suffering, and of love. The spectacle of the suffering nation, and the humbled, afflicted, contrite king, was one which deeply affected the Divine and fatherly heart. Repentance arose upon the perception that the chastening had now answered its purpose in rousing the sense of sin, in bringing the sinner low before the feet of a justly offended Judge and Lord. When the Lord saw this result, his heart relented and his wrath assuaged.

III. IT IS REPENTANCE ISSUING IN SALVATION. Then "he said to the angel that destroyed, It is enough, stay now thy hand." Pity may be sincere, but ineffectual. Not so with the Divine King. He utters his fiat, and" in the midst of wrath remembers mercy."

PRACTICAL LESSONS.

1. Adore and gratefully praise the forbearance and forgiving mercy of God.

2. Consider the gracious terms.upon which clemency is offered.

3. Recognize in the gospel of Christ the supreme illustration of the principle exemplified in the incident recorded in the text.—T.

1 Chronicles 21:17.-Sin taken home.

It is a most pathetic scene. The angel of the Lord, who had smitten with his destroying sword "throughout all the coasts of Israel," was passing by the threshing-floor of the Jebusite. His drawn sword was stretched out over Jerusalem; yet it fell not, for he was bidden to "stay his hand." The king and his princes and counsellors, clad in sackcloth, were prostrate in penitence and supplication before the vision—before the Lord. And David was taking the sin to himself, and invoking the penalty upon himself, as he bowed low before the righteous Judge and Avenger. We observe in David's language —

I. A SPIRIT DIFFERENT FROM THAT OFTEN OBSERVABLE IN MEN'S CONFESSIONS. There is no sign of:

1. A disposition to shift the sin upon others.

2. Or of a willingness that others should bear the penalty of the sin,

3. Or of a tendency to extenuate the guile of sinful action. We observe —

II. A FRANK AND FULL CONFESSION OF PERSONAL GUILT. This includes:

1. An acknowledgment of his own offence.

2. A submission to the Divine wisdom and justice. He is willing that the hand of God, that is, the chastening and afflicting hand, should fall upon him and inflict the strokes which he is well aware he merits.

III. COMPASSION AND INTERCESSION FOR THE UNOFFENDING SUFFERERS. How truly is this David's language! Under the influence of deep emotion he speaks, as men are wont to do in such circumstances, the language of his youth. His poor subjects are, to his view, like guileless, helpless sheep, scattered and smitten. He implores that in compassion it may please the Lord to save them.

IV. THE RECOGNITION BY THE LORD OF THIS SPIRIT AND LANGUAGE. David's attitude was pleasing to the Lord. Reconciliation ensued. An altar was built, and sacrifices offered and accepted. And the angel of the Lord "put up his sword again into the sheath thereof."—T.

1 Chronicles 21:24.-Cheap sacrifice disdained.

It is a scene of historical and of sacred interest. Upon the threshing-floor of the old Jebusite chieftain, the son of Jesse, by his repentance and prayer, secured the cessation of the pestilence which was desolating the land. The Divine command enjoins that on this spot where the plague was stayed, an altar shall be reared to Jehovah in acknowledgment of sparing mercy. The site is the property of Ornan, who with his four sons is threshing wheat. When David approaches, the Jebusite bows before him with reverence. The representatives of "the old order" and "the new" meet together. The scene is truly Oriental. The king asks for the site; the chief offers it as a gift; the king refuses to accept it upon such terms; and an agreement is entered into that the site shall become David's in exchange for six hundred shekels of gold. Thus is acquired the land upon which an altar is built, and which is to become hereafter the site of the splendid temple of Solomon. David's conduct and language convey a general principle of universal validity, viz. that it does not become man to offer, and that God will not accept, a gift or sacrifice which costs the giver nothing.

I. OUR GOD HAS A RIGHT AND CLAIM TO ALL THAT WE CALL OURS. We call it ours, but our possession is derived from and is subordinate to his creative bounty, his providential goodness. What have we that we did not receive from him? Our property, and our powers of body and of mind, we have from him and owe to him. That we cannot enrich him by our giving, this is certain. But we can please him and can advantage ourselves by giving to his people and to his cause.

II. GIFTS AND SACRIFICES THAT COST US NOTHING ARE CONTEMNED AND REJECTED BY GOD. David felt this, and expressed it in noble and memorable language, when he said, "I will not take that which is thine for the Lord, nor offer burnt offerings without cost." Every sincerely religious mind must sympathize with the spirit here displayed. We are reminded that the widow's mite was approved and accepted by our Lord Jesus. It is not the magnitude of the gift, but the proportion of the gift to the giver's means, and, above all, the spirit of self-denial displayed in the act of giving, which meets with the approbation of the Searcher of hearts.

III. THERE IS PLEASURE AND PROFIT IN SELF-SACRIFICE FOR THE CAUSE OF GOD, The King of Israel found this to be so in his own experience, and the experience of all who in this have followed his example coincides with David's. Our Lord has said, "It is more blessed to give than to receive."—T.

1 Chronicles 21:26.-Accepted offerings.

The site of Ornan's threshing-floor, once secured, was without delay consecrated to the appointed purpose. The altar was reared, the priests were summoned, the victims were prepared, the prayers were offered; and then the favour of the Most High was manifested, and the nation was spared.

I. THE OFFERINGS. Those which were presented on this occasion were of two kinds. The burnt offerings were typical of the consecration of the worshipper, body, soul, and spirit, to the God of Israel. The peace offerings were expressive of reconciliation and fellowship with Heaven. The appropriateness of both in the case before us is manifest.

II. THE OFFERER. In David's offering we remark as characteristic of himself:

1. His obedience. As appears from 1 Chronicles 21:18, he was acting in literal and immediate compliance with the direction he had received from the Lord through the angel. He had learned from Samuel the seer that "to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams." In this case the sacrifice and the obedience were one.

2. His prayer. David called upon the Lord. He was emphatically a man of prayer, and it was in answer to his prayer that the plague was stayed. We learn that his sacrifice was not merely a ceremonial act, but that it was accompanied with spiritual desires and acknowledgments.

3. His humility and submission. The king clothed himself in sackcloth and fell upon his face; and the man who in such a spirit sought to avert the Lord's anger would certainly accompany his offering with contrition and submission.

III. THE ACCEPTANCE. This was apparent in two ways.

1. God answered him from heaven by fire, thus showing that the sacrifice and the worshipper were not rejected.

2. "The Lord commanded the angel, and he put up his sword again into the sheath thereof." His wrath was laid aside, his mercy was manifested, the people were spared.

PRACTICAL LESSONS.

1. The spirit of David is an example to every suppliant sinner who deprecates the wrath, and would be delivered from the condemnation, of the righteous Judge.

2. The offerings of David are a symbol of the one Offering, Christ Jesus, provided by God himself.

3. The acceptance of David is an encouragement to every true penitent to approach the Lord with confidence, coming in God's own appointed way, and in the spirit God approves.—T.

1 Chronicles 21:1-8.-Human action.

Probably there will always remain a measure of mystery about this act of numbering the nation. We shall always be more or less uncertain as to the precise elements of wrong which God saw in it, and which brought down so terrible a condemnation and penalty. There are, however, some features of the whole transaction which are certain and which are instructive. We see —

I. THAT THE SOURCES WHICH CONTRIBUTE TO ONE HUMAN ACTION ARE MANIFOLD.

1. We see by the narrative in 2 Samuel 24:1-25. I that God at least permitted it to occur. "He moved David… to say, Go, number," etc.

2. We see (2 Samuel 24:1) that Satan incited David to the act.

3. The king's own feeling and judgment had most of all to do with it; this was the source of the evil. David persisted in it against better counsel (2 Samuel 24:3, 2 Samuel 24:4).

4. It may be fairly contended that the condition of the people helped to account for it. We may infer from 2 Samuel 24:1 that God was displeased with Israel, and that his displeasure accounted for the absence of the Divine intervention which would otherwise have held back the king from his folly. Our acts are seldom, if ever, so simple as they seem; usually, if not always, more sources contribute to them than are seen upon the surface. They spring from hidden habits which have long been rooting and growing in the heart; they are the consequence of our own volition at the moment; they are the result of the agency of others who surround and influence us; they are affected by unseen forces which play upon us from below and also from above. We are sure of this, yet we are equally sure —

II. THAT WE ARE ALL RESPONSIBLE FOR THE ACTIONS WE COMMIT. "God was displeased with this thing" (2 Samuel 24:7). He saw in it that which was sinful and wrong, worthy of Divine condemnation, calling for Divine retribution. Moreover, David owned to himself and confessed to God his personal guiltiness: "I have sinned greatly, because I have done this thing," etc. (2 Samuel 24:8). No analysis of the forces which are at work upon and within us can affect the question of responsibility.

1. God "will not hold us guiltless" if we break his laws, if we wrong our neighbours, if we injure ourselves.

2. Nor shall be able to acquit ourselves. It will be long before sin will so harden us that we shall not suffer keenly from the reproaches of our own conscience, and then it will not be long before that fire within is rekindled by the hand of God, and its terrible flame will burn up all sophistries of the soul.

3. Nor will our fellow-men exonerate us; they will condemn us freely, and we must suffer the sting of their censure.

III. THAT THE RECTITUDE OR WRONGNESS OF AN ACTION DEPENDS MAINLY ON THE MOTIVE by which it is inspired. The act of numbering the people was not intrinsically wrong (see Exodus 30:12, Exodus 30:13). When the census was taken in order to ascertain what was due to the service of Jehovah or of the state, it was positively good and commendable. But on this occasion, when it was done, as we must presume, in a vain-glorious spirit, in order that the king might boast of the increasing number of his subjects, or else in a faithless spirit, that the king might know on what he could rely—forgetting that his confidence was not in the arm of flesh, but in the living God—then it became sinful, condemnable, disastrous. Almost everything is in the motive of our deeds. The fairest actions in the sight of man may be hollow or utterly corrupt in the sight of him who looketh on the heart (1 Samuel 16:7). The simplest and smallest actions may be great and noble in the estimate of him who measures with heavenly scales each human thought and deed.

IV. THAT THE GOOD OR EVIL OF A HUMAN ACTION IS NOT DETERMINED BY THE CHARACTER OF THE AGENT OR HIS JUDGES. Usually the good man does the good thing, but not invariably. Usually the man of lower excellence takes the wrong view when he differs from the man of greater worth; but not necessarily. Evidently a Joab may be right when a David is wrong. It was antecedently likely, in a high degree, that if these two men differed in any point, David would take the true and Joab the false view. But here it was otherwise (2 Samuel 24:3, 2 Samuel 24:4). On this occasion the better man might have learned from his spiritual inferior. We do well to expect good deeds from good men, and, when they seem to be wrong, to suspend our judgment until we have searched everything through. But we must not trust blindly to the reputed worthies of our day, or we may he following a good man when he is in error; or we may he simply putting ourselves into the hands and walking in the steps of scribes and Pharisees. With the help of God's Word and his Spirit we are to "judge of ourselves what is right' (Luke 12:57).—C.

1 Chronicles 21:8-13.-The human and the Divine in the hour of penitence.

We have illustrated here —

I. THE HUMAN APPROACH TO GOD in the hour of penitence. "David said unto God, I have sinned greatly, because I have done this thing: but now, I beseech thee, do away the iniquity of thy servant," etc. (1 Chronicles 21:8). Here is, what there ever should be,

II. THE DIVINE OVERTURE TO MAN. God met the attitude of his penitent servant with forgiveness and a penalty. Thus he met David's penitence before. "David said… I have sinned against the Lord. And Nathan said unto David, The Lord hath put away thy sin; thou shalt not die. Howbeit … the child shall surely die" (2 Samuel 12:13, 2 Samuel 12:14). On the present occasion God offered David his mercy (not, indeed, expressed, but clearly understood), accompanied by a penalty in respect of which he might exercise his own judgment. In the choice which Jehovah thus offered David there was something exceptional. In his dealing with mankind God does, indeed, give us the one alternative of going on in sin with utter ruin at the end of it, or repentance and forgiveness with some penalty to be paid for past offences; but this is the only option he gives us. If we come to him, like David, penitently and trustfully, owning transgression, and pleading for mercy through Jesus Christ, he will reinstate us in our forfeited position, he will pardon and accept us as his reconciled children, and he will require of us that we suffer the necessary and inevitable consequences of our past misdeeds. If we have wasted our youth in folly, he gives us a regenerated and holy manhood and age, but he condemns us to go forward with a sense that we have lost for ever a large portion of the opportunity of life. If we have injured our health, enfeebled our intellect, and impaired our moral and spiritual force by guilty indulgences, he grants us his mercy and a cleansed and purified future, but he sends us on our way with a lessened manhood and talents reduced that should have been multiplied and enlarged. If we have thrown away the esteem and affection of the wise and holy, he receives us, when penitent, into the embrace of his Divine affection, but he makes us pay the penalty of our folly by climbing slowly up the steeps of regained reputation and of renewed confidence and love. Forgiveness, not unattended with inevitable penalty,—that is the overture of God to the repentant sinner. In the penalty we pay there is no choice allowed us. The moral laws of the universe are simply not inverted or annulled; they do their work upon and within us: only with his pardoning love comes his Divine grace to enable us to endure, and to give us the victory in the strife.

III. THE HUMAN RECEPTION OF THE DIVINE OFFER. The spirit of David was one of holy submission; he said, "Let me fall now into the hand of the Lord; for very great are his mercies" (1 Chronicles 21:13). In the acceptance of the overture and in the choice which he made, David expressed a devout and obedient disposition. This is to be our spirit also. We are

1 Chronicles 21:13.-Tolerable and intolerable troubles.

These are not only —

I. THE LESSER AND THE LARGER TRIALS OF OUR LIFE. Those, on the one hand, which cause temporary inconvenience, or slight annoyance, or little regret; and those, on the other hand, Which upset all our plans, or remove that which nothing can restore, or cut to the quick our lacerated and bleeding hearts, Not only these: as thus regarded, but also —

II. THOSE WHICH ARE UNATTENDED AND THOSE WHICH ARE ACCOMPANIED WITH REMORSE.

1. When our troubles come upon us as the consequence of our fidelity and devotion, the source of them is a positive alleviation of our pain of mind.

2. When they arrive as the consequence of forces with which we have nothing to do, our mental pain is neither soothed nor aggravated by their source.

3. When we have to reproach ourselves as the authors of our own miseries, our souls smart with a keenness of suffering which makes us feel that "our punishment is greater than we can bear." But our troubles are divided into the tolerable and the intolerable (or the less tolerable) when, as suggested by the text, we view them as —

III. THOSE WHICH ARE OF DIVINE AND THOSE WHICH ARE OF HUMAN INFLICTION. David uttered a sentiment which is common to every pious heart when he said, "Let me fall now into the hand of the Lord; … but let me not fall into the hand of men." When the evils which are oppressing us, when the sorrows which are saddening us, are embittered by the feeling that they are due to the heedlessness and heartlessness of men, especially when due to the inconsiderateness of those whose relation to ourselves calls for peculiar thoughtfulness and attention—and still more, when they are inflicted on us by the positive malignity of our fellows, who find a cruel and horrible satisfaction in our losses and griefs, then our trouble is at its very heaviest, and seems to us quite intolerable. But when, as in unaccountable sickness, or in unavoidable loss, or in inevitable bereavement, we can feel that the hand of God is upon us, that we have "fallen into the hand of the Lord, and not into the hand of man," then we are not tempted to add the bitterness of resentment to the heaviness of disappointment or to the poignancy of grief. It is well for us to remember:

1. That even those troubles which seem to be wholly of human origin are yet to be borne as evils permitted of God. If David had chosen defeat in war, that would have had the Divine as well as the human in its origin and infliction. In our very worst distress, in the most cruel aggravations we can experience, we should "be in subjection to the Father of spirits, and live." He allows them to come; he would have us be patient and docile under them; he will bring us out from under them; he will overrule them for good in his own time and way.

2. That we have reason to be thankful when the trouble that comes to us is such as we can readily ascribe to the Father's hand. We must all pass through tribulation on our way to the heavenly kingdom: only by the waters of chastisement can we hope to be cleansed from some sins which beset us. It is well for us when the sorrow through which the Divine Father makes us t,o pass is of such a kind that we have no difficulty in referring it to his wisdom and love, and when, feeling that we have "fallen into the hands of God," we can

1 Chronicles 21:14-27.-The arrested hand.

The hand of Divine wrath was stretched out, and dire calamity ensued. "The Lord sent pestilence upon Israel, and there fell… seventy thousand men" (1 Chronicles 21:14). And God sent an angel of destruction to Jerusalem: this terrible messenger stood with drawn sword (1 Chronicles 21:16) over the city of David, and commenced the dread work of death there (1 Chronicles 21:15). But suddenly the hand of God was arrested, the sword of the angel was sheathed, the ravages of the pestilence ceased, Jerusalem was saved. Whence this salvation? It is clear —

I. THAT GOD'S DIRECT DEALINGS WITH ISRAEL HAD NO SMALL PART IN THE MATTER. The king was vastly more responsible than any other individual in the realm for the coming of the visitation, and he was more concerned in its departure than any other. But the people of Israel were not irresponsible for the one, nor were they without a share in the other. It would have been impossible for us to believe that the multitudes of Israel would suffer as they did for this sin of David, absolutely irrespective of their own deservings; that would have been manifestly unjust. And, similarly, we should have found the greatest difficulty in believing that Divine compassion had nothing to do with the cessation of the plague. But the Scriptures sanction the conclusion of our judgment, if they do not suggest or even affirm it—that the coming and the going of the pestilence were partly due to the direct relations of God to Israel, Respecting its coming, we read that, the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he moved David' against' them," etc. (2 Samuel 24:1).. "Respecting its going, we read that" the Lord beheld, and he repented him of the evil, etc. (1 Chronicles 21:15); i.e. the pity of the Lord was stirred, and he stayed his hand. We may learn here the lessons that God has direct dealings with nations, approving their piety anal their purity, condemning their ingratitude and disobedience, rewarding the one and punishing the other.

II. THAT IT WAS LARGELY DUE TO THE KING'S INTERCESSION, (1 Chronicles 21:16, 1 Chronicles 21:17.) Though it is not positively stated that the withdrawal of the angel's hand was owing to the attitude and action of the king and the elders, yet we may safely assume that in large measure it was so (1 Chronicles 21:27). There was everything in David's spiritual posture to draw down a Divine response.

1. He was penetrated with a spirit of penitence; he freely and frankly owned that the sin was his: "It is I that have sinned and done evil."

2. He was filled with a pure compassion for his people: "These sheep, what have they done?… not on thy people," etc. (1 Chronicles 21:17).

3. He was animated by a spirit of noble self-renunciation. No doubt the desire of founding a royal dynasty had grown strong and intense with years of sovereignty, and must have struck very deep root in David's heart; yet he offers to resign all his hopes if the people may be spared. "Let thine hand… be on me and on my father's house." When intercession is thus humble, compassionate, and self-renouncing, it is likely to prevail with God.

III. THAT IT WAS SUITABLY ATTENDED WITH SACRIFICE, (1 Chronicles 21:18-26.) David was instructed by Gad to "set up an altar unto the Lord in the threshing-floor of Ornan" (1 Chronicles 21:18). After the usual Oriental ceremonies, the king purchased the site and reared the altar: there he offered sacrifices of propitiation, dedication, and gratitude; there he presented burnt offerings and peace offerings (1 Chronicles 21:26); and Jehovah signified his acceptance of the penitential and sacrificial spirit of his servants by "answering from heaven by fire upon the altar" (1 Chronicles 21:26). There are times when we renew our return unto the Lord, and he renews his acceptance of us. Such a time is the hour when we have sinned and have suffered. Then it becomes us to return once again unto the Lord,

Verse 28-ch. 22:5.-Divine overruling and human service.