and he goes away to weep. "And the king was much moved, and went up to the chamber over the gate, and wept; and as he went, thus he said, O my son Absalom! my son, my son Absalom! would God I had died for thee, O Absalom, my son, my son!" The people catching the spirit of their king and taking his tone, mourn with him. "The victory that day was turned into mourning unto all the people: for the people heard say that day how the king was grieved for his son; and the people gat them by stealth that day into the city, as people being ashamed steal away when they flee in battle." Joab, consummate politician as he was, fears the result of this, and remonstrates with the king. But how apparrent in what he says is his total want of sympathy with the feelings of the king, and with the true character of that day's victory. It was the victory of grace, delivering David out of the hands of his wilful, rebellious son; but delivering him in such a way as to speak most loudly and distinctly to his heart, that it was for chastisement on his own sin that all this had been permitted to take place. But what is all this to Joab? His heart has not been softened and broken and moulded by restoring grace; and so he can taunt the heart-broken parent with his grief. "For this day I perceive, that if Absalom had lived, and all we had died this day, then it had pleased thee well," David makes no reply to his reproaches; but for the people's sake he arises and sits in the gate. The people strive with each other as to who shall have the honour and the joy of bringing the king back. "So the king returned, and came to Jordan. And Judah came to Gilgal, to go to meet the king, to conduct the king over Jordan." There he is met by Shimei of Bahurim. Not that Shimei's heart was changed, or that he had any more love for David than when he had cursed and cast stones at him as he went. No; he was one of those whose conduct changes with the change of circumstances. He went with the stream. When David was fleeing for his life, he would heap reproaches and curses upon him. Now that he is returning in safety and triumph, he crouches at his feet, and sues for mercy. "Let not my lord impute iniquity unto me, neither do thou re

member that which thy servant did perversely the day that my lord the king went out of Jerusalem, that the king should take it to his heart." Abishai would fain have him put to death. But what says the king? "What have I to do with you, ye sons of Zeruiah, that ye should this day be adversaries to me? Shall there any man be put to death this day in Israel? For do not I know that I am this day king over Israel?" Have we not here two precious secrets as to the spring whence flow the forgiveness of injuries, the long-suffering, the forbearing one another in love, which are so largely enjoined on us in the New Testament. David was here acting on principles altogether beyond the dispensation under which he lived. His personal need and failure had made grace everything to him. And if there was a triumph that day it was the triumph of grace. And shall he celebrate the triumphs of the grace that had delivered him out of the pit which he had dug for himself, and was now restoring him to Jerusalem and the sanctuary and the throne from all which his own sin had banished him-shall he celebrate the triumphs of restoring grace like this by avenging his own quarrel and executing justice on Shimei? His heart recoils utterly from the thought. "Shall there any man be put to death this day in Israel!" Besides, what need? Is it questionable whether David is to wield the sceptre and fill the throne? If it were still a disputed point, there might be some ground for proceeding to extremities with one like Shimei. But when God has fought our battles, we surely have no need to fight them ourselves. "Do not I know that I am this day king over Israel. Therefore the king said unto Shimei, Thou shalt not die. And the king sware unto him." Thus did the grace which had restored his soul, and the assured certainty of all the blessing which that grace had bestowed, become with David the ground on which to act in full grace to his now humbled and crouching adversary. It was not a question of what Shimei deserved, no, nor whether Shimei was really humbled. His deservings were evident enough, and his humiliation was sufficiently questionable. But was it for the one who owed all he

had twice over to the boundless grace of God, and who had all secured to him by the certainty of that grace, to avenge himself or enforce the claims of justice on another? The Lord grant us, beloved, to walk towards each other, and toward all, in the deep and abiding sense of what grace has done for us; not saving grace alone, but restoring grace as well.

But another scene invites our attention here. Mephibosheth, the son of Saul, whom David had taken into his house, and fed at his table, to shew the kindness of God to him, comes down to meet the king. Ziba, his servant, had belied him to the king. The provisions which Mephibosheth had prepared for the king when he was leaving Jerusalem, Ziba, his servant, had carried (taking advantage of his master's lameness), as though they were his own gift to the king, and, misrepresenting his master, had obtained possession of his master's inheritance. Now Mephibosheth comes out to meet the king. And it is the Holy Ghost, not Mephibosheth himself, that says, "he had neither dressed his feet, nor trimmed his beard, nor washed his clothes, from the day the king departed, until the day he came again in peace.' How affecting is this testimony! And what a specimen of what we should be, beloved, during the absence of Jesus. Rejected by his own people, and by the earth, as David was driven from Jerusalem, what joy can we, poor debtors to his love, find in anything here, till the moment of his return? "Can ye make the children of the bridechamber fast, while the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come," said Jesus, "when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them; and then shall they fast in those days." Surely this is the period of the Church's fasting; and to the heart that knows the Bridegroom's love, what joy can be afforded by the world that once crucified and still rejects Him? Would that we were more constrained by the love of Christ, Mephibosheth-like, to value nothing, care for nothing, attempt to satisfy ourselves with nothing, short of meeting the Bridegroom on his return with joy. Mephibosheth now had what satisfied his heart. He had the king back again. He makes no complaint of Ziba, save in answer

to the king's enquiry "Wherefore wentest thou not with me, Mephibosheth?" He says enough to explain the cause; but he leaves all in the king's hands. "He hath slandered thy servant unto my lord the king; but my lord the king is as an angel of God; do, therefore, what is good in thine eyes. For all my father's house were but dead men before my lord the king; yet didst thou set thy servant among them that did eat at thine own table. What right, therefore, have I yet to cry any more unto the king." Blessed reasoning! All that Mephibosheth had to look for naturally at the hand of David, was death. But David had shewn him mercy. He had not only spared his life, but set him at his own table, and treated him as though he had been his own son. What right then has he to complain, or to cry any more to the king? Nothing slays the disposition to assert our rights and defend ourselves, but the knowledge of the grace which, when we had no right to anything but death and perdition, placed us amongst God's children at our Father's table. But there is something more blessed still. Not only does the sense of the degradation of his own natural condition, reconcile Mephibosheth to forego any vindication of himself; his joy, his delight in the king's presence, leaves him no motive for self-vindication, no wish for anything but what he has. The king says, "Thou and Ziba divide the land; and Mephibosheth said unto the king, Yea, let him take all, forasmuch as my lord the king is come again in peace unto his own house." Oh that there were more of this spirit in each of us, beloved. When Jesus actually returns, and we meet him in the air, how insignificant will all those things appear about which so many are so anxious now. And what is the province of faith, but so to realize in the present, what we know will be in the future, as to be enabled to act as though it were existent now. The Lord grant us all that deadness to the world, that weanedness from its pleasures and its cares, which we should feel became us, if we were actually present with Jesus, and beholding His glory. He is as really ours, and His love should be as distinctly the one satisfying portion of our hearts, as though these eyes had actually beheld Him, and these

ears heard His shouts of gladness, as He descends into the air to take His ransomed to Himself. Who are they that will participate of His joy in that day? Who but they that like Mephibosheth, have been waiting, with world-weaned affections, and longing eyes, and breaking hearts, for His return. Surely to such, that return will leave nothing to desire or ask.

One scene more is opened to us in this scripture to crown the triumphs of grace. David, in his exile, had not only a Mephibosheth behind him, whose love made him a stranger to all joy till he returned; he had those, who with equal love, ministered to his refreshment, and that of his followers, when they had crossed the Jordan. "And it came to pass, when David was come to Mahanaim, that Shobi, the son of Nahash of Rabbah, of the children of Ammon, and Machir, the son of Ammiel, of Lo-debar, and Barzillai, the Gileadite of Rogelim, brought beds, and basons, and earthen vessels, and wheat, and barley, and flour, and parched corn, and beans, and lentiles, and parched pulse, and honey, and butter, and sheep, and cheese of kine, for David, and for the people that were with him, to eat; for they said, the people is hungry, and weary, and thirsty, in the wilderness" (chap. xvii. 27-29). Before this, when the king was just setting out from Jerusalem, Ittai, the Gittite, came after him. "Then said the king to Ittai, the Gittite, wherefore goest thou also with us? Return to thy place, and abide with the king; for thou art a stranger, and also an exile. Whereas thou camest but yesterday, should I this day make thee go up and down with us? Seeing I go whither I may, return then, and take back thy brethren; mercy and truth be with thee." But Ittai could not be dissuaded. His attachment to David was independent of circumstances. It was an attachment to his person that made him covet a share in his sorrows and his toils, as much as in his honours and his joys. "And Ittai answered the king, and said, As the Lord liveth, and as my lord the king liveth, surely in what place my lord the king shall be, whether in death or life, even there also will thy servant be" (chap. xv. 19-21). What does all this remind us of, beloved. Surely there are lessons for us