and Joab, unwilling to take from the king the credit of its capture, sent for David, who in due time reduced it.

The spoil was immense -among it the royal crown of Ammon, we ighing no less than a talent of gold,301 and

encrusted with precious stones, which David took to himself.

The punishment meted out to those who had resisted was of the most cruel, we had almost said, un-

Israelitish character, not justified even by the terrible war which the Ammonites had raised, nor by the

cruelties which they seem to have practiced against helpless Israelitish mothers (Amos 1:13), and savoring

more of the ferocity of Joab than of the bearing of David - at least before his conscience had been hardened

by his terrible sin. And so David returned triumphant to his royal city!

A year had passed since David's terrible fall. The child of his sin had been born. And all this time God was

silent! Yet like a dark cloud on a summer's day hung this Divine sentence over him: "But the thing that

David had done was evil in the eyes of Jehovah" (2 Samuel 11:27). Soon it would burst in a storm of

judgment. A most solemn lesson this to us concerning God's record of our deeds, and His silence all the

while. Yet, blessed be God, if judgment come on earth - if we be judged here, that we may "not be

condemned with the world!" (1 Corinthians 11:32). And all this time was David's conscience quiet? To take

the lowest view of it, he could not be ignorant that the law of God pronounced sentence of death on the

adulterer and adulteress (Leviticus 20:10). Nor could he deceive himself in regard to the treacherous, foul

murder of Uriah. But there was far more than this. The man whom God had so exalted, who had had such

fellowship with Him, had sunk so low; he who was to restore piety in Israel had given such occasion to the

enemy to blaspheme; the man who, when his own life was in danger, would not put forth his hand to rid

himself of his enemy, had sent into pitiless death his own faithful soldier, to cover his guilt and to gratify his

lust! Was it possible to sink from loftier height or into lower depth? His conscience could not be, and it was

not silent. What untold agonies he suffered while he covered up his sin, he hims elf has told us in the thirty-

second Psalm. In general, we have in this respect also in the Psalter a faithful record for the guidance of

penitents in all ages - to preserve them from despair, to lead them to true repentance, and to bring them at

last into the sunlight of forgiveness and peace.

Throughout one element appears very prominently, and is itself an indication of "godly sorrow." Besides

his own guilt the penitent also feels most keenly the dishonor which he has brought on God's name, and the

consequent triumph of God's enemies. Placing these Psalms, so to speak, in the chronological order of

David's experience, we would arrange them as follows: Psalm 38, 6, 51, and 32302 - when at last it is felt that

all "transgression is forgiven," all "sin covered."

It was in these circumstances that Nathan the prophet by Divine commission presented himself to David. A

parabolic story, simple, taken from every -day life, and which could awaken no suspicion of his ulterior

meaning, served as introduction. Appealed to on the score of right and generosity, the king gave swift

sentence. Alas, he had only judged himself, and that in a cause which contrasted most favorably with his

own guilt. How the prophet's brief, sharp rejoinder: "Thou art the man" must have struck to his heart! There

was no disguise now; no attempt at excuse or palliation. Stroke by stroke came down the hammer -each blow

harder and more crushing than the other. What God had done for David; how David had acted towards

Uriah and towards his wife - and how God would avenge what really was a despising of Himself: such was

the burden of Nathan's brief-worded message. Had David slain Uriah with the sword of the Ammonites?

Never, so long as he lived, would the sword depart from the house of David. Had he in secret possessed

himself adulterously of Uriah's wife? Similar and far sorer evil would be brought upon him, and that not

secretly but publicly. And we know how the one sentence came true from the murder of Amnon (2 Samuel

13:29) to the slaughter of Absalom (18:14), and even the execution of Adonijah after David's death (1 Kings

2:24, 25); and also how terribly the other prediction was fulfilled through the guilt of his own son (2 Samuel

16:21, 22).

The king had listened in silence, like one staggering and stunned under the blows that fell. But it was not

sorrow unto death. Long before his own heart had told him all his sin. And now that the Divine messenger

had broken through what had hitherto covered his feelings, the words of repentance sprang to his long-