SUNDAY READING.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 16875, 23 October 1920, Page 10

SUNDAY READING.

A Sermon preached in the Whiteley Memorial Church by tlie Rev. J. Napier Milne. WAS DAVID A SAINT? Acts 13, 22. — "He raised up David to be their King; to whom also He bare witness, and said, I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after my heart.” Some years ago I had a nodding acquaintance with a man who had as intimate a textual knowledge of the Scriptures as any man I have ever met. Ho was an out-and-out sceptic. I never saw his Bible, but had I been permitted to examine it, I feel certain that our text would have been on© of the marked passages. In the armoury of unbelief no weapon has been more frequently handled. Many a timid, halfinstructed follower of the Lord lias been grievously wounded by those who have wielded it. Pointing to the frailties and follies of David, men have said, “There’s your man after God s own heart.” , What reply are we to make to the sitter in the seat of the scornful? How shall wo turn the taunt away? Well, 1 do not think. It will help us to ar-' gue that the eulogium is no more than the admiring, pious praise of an all too charitable historian. No doubt there is always a temptation when great nien pass into the shadow to magnify their excellencies and throw a veil over their excesses. It is deemed little short of a scandal when a biographer drags into the light of open day the worst that can be said of the man about whom he writes. Had there been a disposition to place David on a pedestal of perfection, unapproachable by ordinary human mortals, it would hardly have surprised us. He was Israel’s ideal monarch. His career splendidly illustrated the modern saying that truth is stranger than fiction. The story of his elevation to the throne was one of the most romantic in the annals of the Hebrew race, and never failed to evoke the warmest patriotic feelings. He had been taken from tending his Father’s sheen in the quiet fields of Bethlehem, and the toiling masses claimed him as their representative. He was endowed with the power of uttering the noblest roll- 1 gious sentiments of the people in strains of loftiest poetry. He knew how to command an army. Ho was a man ot war who could lead forth his troops to battle with great dash and courage. What has been said of a General of a later day could bo said of him—his ?rosence on t*h© Ixvttlcfield was worth 0,000 men. There was every temptation to idolise such a man and to suppress everything which might bo supposed to reflect upon his character. But this has not been done. It is anything but a one-sided picture that we get. Like Cromwell, he is there, warts and all. The worst side is recorded as well as the best. Side by side with the statedent in the Old Testament that he is a man after God’s own heart, incidents are to be found showing how ho played the fool and gathered foulness about his soul.

Nearly all who have criticised tho Divide verdict on David have overlooked one very important fact. They have absolutely failed to note that the praiseful description is limited to a certain period of David’s life. It was not at the end of his days that God spoke this word concerning his servant; it was at the beguming. The phrase occurs only in the first hook of Samuel, the 13th chapter and the 14th verso, from whence it is quoted by St. Paul in tho text. Saul, you remember, had transgressed the Divine commandment and God hod rejected him from being Kingdom,” said Samuel, “shall not continue, the l/ord hath sought Him a man after His own heart. David, the chosen, whs then an unspoiled, uncorrupted youth. Ho possessed in eminent degree the necessary qualifications for a ruler of God’s people. When, at the challenge of tho champion of Gath, the men of Israel fled. David went forth to meet the nnoircumcised, and made a noble reply to his taunting words. It is to this chapter of David’s career that the S’ io in question has reference. The nowhere claims that he was in every incident of his life an ideal saint. On tho contrary, it frankly and sadly acknowledges that there were times when he was anything hut n mnn after God’s own heart. M e are told that a defamer once wrote to the late Mr. Spurgeon; saying that unless he received from him within two flays a specified sum of money he would publish certain things that would go far to destroy the great preacher’s hold upon tho public estimation. Mr. Sturgeon wrote, back upon a postcard, ‘ I X oil and your like are requested to publish all von know about me across the Heavens.” It was a brave, splendid and silencing challenge. That eminent servant of God could look the world in the face, and had nothing to fear from any truthful revelation that might be made concern nig him. But there are men who would not have dared to write that postcard. They would have paid the. money required and counted the pledge to secrecy cheap at the price. I can imagine David calling for the rocks and hills to fall upon him, had certain things in his life been written in vermilion acrqss tho sky. He knew of a higher moral standard than he always practised. The cruelty of his foreign ware shows that he did not entirely rise above tho level of tho barbarous age ill which ho lived. He sometimes stooped to mean and treacherous ways; to sms of sensualism ; to cowardly methods of removing from his path any who ; tood between him and sell gratification. Who is that roaring, “Blot out ray transgression; wash mo thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse mo from my sin?” It is David, tho prodigal son of tho Old Testament. His nature is a bundle of contradictions. He is capable of a pure and spiritual friendship like that which knit his soul with the soul of Jonathan, and ho can descend to the most despicable gloating of sensuous love. To-day, he is,so modest and retiring that ho has no confidence in hia own will and will do nothing without tho Eternal. Tomorrow lie acts as though bis throne were established by his own .strength and he boasts of tho number of Tiis fighting men. To-day ho spares the life of Saul his foe ; to-morrow ho smites in the back, Uriah, his friend. Today his deeds are an offence to high Heaven; to-morrow his heart cries out adoringly. “I love Thee, O Lord, my Strength.” What a picture of tho mixture of life—its risinet.and fallings of passion, its occasional prayers, its dealer aad gujcfloasfr

The best of men are only men at the best. Others besides David with the root of the matter in them have manifested tendencies on occasion which were not according to godliness. In a book, published a year or two ago, entitled, “My life in four Continents,” Colonel Long gives an interesting account of his association with General Gordon in 1874. It is astonishing to read of the hold over him of his morbid depression and quick temper, and of the extent to which ho was* unable to get on with anyone “whom he could not kick.” Colonel Long relates the story of a native sortie at Lado when the hatchetflag at the door of Gordon’s tent announced that he was not to bo disturbed. He went in however and found him calmly seated at a table on whicn were an open Bible and a bottle of sherry. He told him of the situation to which he made the abrupt answer, “You are the commander of the camp.” It should be added that he apologised handsomely next day and excused himself on the ground that ho was feeling very low. It is a tragedy when those professing godliness give way to outbursts of passion, or turn aside to folly, but lot not their deviation from truth and righteousness once bo charged against their faith. David was decidedly not a man after God’s own heart when he committed adultery, and refused to forgive his greatest General. It was not religion that made Gordon lose his temper and treat a man occasionally as if he were filth beneath his feet. Peter and James were followers of the Lord and misrepresented their Master. But in that hour of misrepresentation they ceased to be His disciples and became hypocrites. Charge the sins and follies of men to the men who perpetrate thorn. The time lias gone forever for men to plead the bigotry and bad lives of religious people against tbo religion they profess. We are Christian only in so far as we translate the teaching of Christ into our daily lives, and walk worthily of the great Christian vocation.

One thing still remains to be said. Though David was by no means an ideal saint, yet in tho great desire and purpose and trend of ids nature ho was a godly man. If he knew the meaning of sin, lie knew also the meaning of repentonee. “My tears have been my meat day and night; against Thee, Thee only have I sinned and done this great evil in Thy sight,” Tho Psalms he composed, full of tho breath of religious aspiration, testify to the habitual dovoutnesa of his heart. No tribute to his character could be more eloquent than that of the charm he exerted on ail who had anything to do with him. * . A lady who had been awakened in one of Mr. Moody’s meetings, said ono day to the American evangelist, “How am I to know 1 am converted, Mr. Moody?” “Ask your servants,” was tho apt reply. David would have stood that test. The exploit of the three mighty men, who, at tho risk of tfioir lives, fetched him water from the well of Bethlehem, is but ono instance of the passionate attachment of his soldiers for tiicir loader and King. His life was marked by many acts of signal generosity. He executed justice and judgment to all his people. And even in tho record of Ids sins his better qualities come out. For a ruler he receives a rebuke with great humility. He is sincerely contrite when the evil of his doing is brought home to his conscience. Never, O never gather yourself up in Pharisaic perpendicularity and pronounce a man reprobate because you have discovered some frailty, some moral blot in his career. “Who art thou that judgest thy brother?” God passes his verdict on the whole life, not upgn one isolated, unrelated act in it. At certain moments we know ourselves to bo deserving of the sentence of hell. But no judgment must be founded upon a moment. Life is not a moment; it is a course, a career, a purpose, a programme. When character is under consideration, it is bettor to fall into the hands of God than into tho hands of men. If you are determined to go round in the spirit of criticism, let this bo tho tone of your judgment: “If they are so frail and infirm and lacking in nobleness with Christianity, what would they bo without it?”

“God takes us at our host,” says a writer, "so lot us take each other at our nest. When we are infirm, and when our whole course is deflected, when our very speech Is blurred/wane ing in distinctness, and our prayers reel because charged with selfishness, do not judge one another then. When there is a deed of nobleness done, a word of kindness spoken, - an indication that the soul wants to attain a higher level, say concerning each other, There, that is the man.”