the harp, he tried to nail him to the wall. David happily escaped the stroke, and fled from the king's presence. Jonathan, who felt for both his father and his friend, used every effort to bring about a reconciliation; he reasoned and expostulated with his father upon the injustice of his conduct towards an innocent man who had done him no injury; he urged every argument that the tenderest affection for his friend, and the most dutiful respect for his father could suggest; but all to no purpose. In the night time Saul sent a guard to surround David's house, and to kill him as soon as he should make his appearance in the morning. But Michol, who loved David as much as her father hated him, was upon the watch, and defeated the cruel design by secretly letting him down from a window. To engage the attention of the soldiers while her husband escaped, and to make them believe that he had not yet risen, she dressed up a statue, which she laid upon his bed, and covered with some clothes. The ingenious device was successful. David went off unpursued, and succeeded in safely reaching Samuel's house in Ramatha, where, under so venerable a protector, he considered himself safe from the pursuit of the king.

Saul, when he learned how his scheme had failed through the contrivance of his own daughter, called her to an account for what she had done, and despatched his messengers to seize on David, even in the prophet's house. The messengers found a troop of prophets standing before Samuel; they grew inspired at the sight, and beginning themselves to prophesy, forgot their errand. Saul thereupon sent other messengers, who returned prophesying in like manner; and as the same thing happened a third time to others of his men, he resolved, in a transport of anger, himself to go to Ramatha. The spirit of the Lord came upon him also, as he went along, and in spite of his premeditated malice, he continued prophesying and singing with the rest all that day and night: from whence arose the proverb, Is Saul too amongst the prophets?

From these facts it appears that the potentates of the earth have no other power but that which they hold from God, who either indulges or restrains them in the exercise of it as He pleases. He it is who raises them, and casts them down; He suffers them to reign no longer than is conducive

JONATHAN AND DAVID.

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to His designs: He laughs at their feeble efforts, and in His own good time He rescues from their hands whomsoever He decrees to save.

A.M. 2944.] Jonathan and David.—1 Kings, xx. [A.c. 1060.

David, perceiving the obstinacy of Saul's malice against his life, began to think of fleeing from the country. But before taking this step, he obtained, probably by Samuel's advice, a secret interview with Jonathan. Jonathan was in the deepest concern for the safety of his friend, and being unwilling to be severed from his company, begged of him not to condemn himself to banishment before being thoroughly informed of the king's disposition, which might perhaps have undergone a change under the influence of the events at Ramatha. A solemn festival was near at hand, when the king was to dine in public with his officers: David's seat would be vacant, and the demeanour of the king on noticing this might be taken as an indication of his feelings. Jonathan also suggested an expedient by which the result was to be made known to his friend. After three days, David was to lie concealed behind a stone which stood in a certain field; Jonathan, under pretence of coming to shoot at a mark, would come thither with a bow and arrows; he would then shoot his arrows near the stone, and his words to the boy whom he would send to pick them up, would convey to David the desired information.

On the appointed day David took his place behind the stone. In due time Jonathan appeared; his words to the boy intimated to David that no hope of safety remained, but in flight. David, therefore, when the boy had gone to carry back the bow and arrows to Gabaa, came forth from his hidingplace to take his leave of Jonathan. The two friends tenderly embraced each other before parting, and with many tears, renewed their promise of mutual friendship as long as life should last.

David, now reduced to the condition of an outlaw, thought he could nowhere be so secure as among the ministers of God's

altar; he retired, therefore, to the sacerdotal city of Nobe,* to the house of Achimelech, the High Priest. Achimelech expressed great surprise at seeing him come alone. David disarmed the suspicions of the priest by pretending to be engaged in some secret mission from the king, which required great expedition, and which had prevented his bringing any provisions with him. Achimelech had none to offer but the sacred loaves of Show-bread,† of which none but priests were allowed to eat. David's distress, however, was urgent; and convinced that his necessity exempted him from the obligation of that precept of the ceremonial law, he took the holy bread, and ate of it; and Jesus Christ in His gospelt has approved his conduct. He also took for his defence the sword of Goliath, which had been placed as a trophy in the safe keeping of the High Priest. Achimelech, moreover, with a kindness which afterwards cost him his life, gave the fugitive every other assistance that lay in his power.

David, however, felt that he was no longer safe in the dominions of Saul; he resolved, therefore, to flee for refuge into the country of the Philistines. Soon after his arrival, however, at the court of Achis, king of Geth, which was the city of Goliath, he was recognised as the conqueror of that mighty champion, a discovery which would infallibly have cost him his life, if he had not, with great presence of mind, counterfeited madness, and thus obtained his release.

The holy Fathers consider the counterfeited madness of David, on this occasion, as a figure of that imaginary folly which the Gentiles once imputed to the cross of Jesus Christ, but which, according to St. Paul, surpasses all created wisdom. The true followers of Jesus Christ have never been ashamed of bearing such an imputation from a self-conceited world. It is enough for them to be accounted wise by God, whatever they may pass for in the opinion of men. By experience they know how frequently it happens, that what is accounted folly by worldly men, is in the eyes of God, the highest wisdom, and that the conduct pursued

* At this time the Tabernacle had been transferred from Silo to Nobe; the Ark, however, was still at Cariathiarim. See Notes, pp. 161, 196. See Note, p. 119.

Matt. xii. 3, 4.

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even by the wisest of the wicked, is in His sight little better than the most senseless folly.

A.M. 2945.] David pursued by Saul; Massacre

[A.C. 1059. of the Priests; David and Abigail.-1 Kings, xxii.-xxv. David's situation had now become truly deplorable, and his life most wretched. In constant danger of being betrayed or assassinated, he was driven from the society of men, and obliged to take shelter in the woods and mountains. Closely pursued by an implacable and active enemy, he wandered from wilderness to wilderness, finding shelter only in caverns and in the dens of wild beasts.

His first retreat after escaping from the hands of the Philistines, was a cave in the neighbourhood of Odollam.* Here he was joined by the members of his own family, who doubtless felt that in this mountain stronghold they would be more secure from the vengeance of Saul than in their home at Bethlehem. Here, also, a multitude of men, influenced by various motives, some from distress, others fleeing from the demands of creditors, others seeking in the excitement of a wandering life relief from the pressure of some private sorrow, threw in their lot with David's, so that he now became the chief of a band of about four hundred men.

Having conveyed his father and mother, for greater security, into the land of Moab, he retired with his followers into the forest of Haret. The next incident recorded of him is his relief of the town of Ceila, which the Philistines were besieging. After defeating them with great slaughter, and entering the town in triumph, he was joined there by Abiathar, the son of his former benefactor, the High Priest Achimelech, bearing intelligence of the sad fate that had befallen that venerable Pontiff.

*The city of Odollam (or Adullam, as it is marked on the map of the Holy Land in the Bible Atlas) was situated in the great plain which lay to the west of the mountain range of Juda. But there is no reason to suppose that the Cave of Odollam," in which David took refuge, was in the neighbourhood of the city of the same name. The cave most probably was in the mountainous country to the east, in which David usually found shelter during his life as a fugitive, and from which he could easily pass, as narrated in the text, into the land of Moab. See Kitto's Cyclopædia, art. ADULLAM.

One of Saul's officers, named Doeg, an Idumean by birth, who happened to be present in Achimelech's house on the occasion of David's visit thither, informed the king some time afterwards of all that had occurred on that occasion. Saul in his rage sent for Achimelech, whom he accused of high treason, as having conspired with David against his life. The virtuous priest, conscious of having done nothing but what charity and a due respect for the king's son-in-law had prompted him to do, began to plead in defence of his own innocence, and spoke freely in commendation of David's honour and fidelity to his prince. But Saul, now transported with rage, so far from being appeased by the words of the High Priest, ordered that not only Achimelech himself, but also the eighty-five priests of his line who accompanied him, clad in their priestly vestments, should be put to instant death. Their sacred character, however, inspired the soldiers of the guard with such respect that they refused to execute their master's orders; and Doeg was the only man hardy enough to imbrue his hands in the blood of those venerable priests of the Lord. This execution was followed by the ruin of the city of Nobe, in which Achimelech had dwelt, and the slaughter of all its inhabitants, even the women and the infants being included in the general massacre.

Henceforward, Abiathar, who had brought with him the Ephod of the High Priest, remained with David, to whose cause he was enabled to give material aid by consulting the Divine oracle on all occasions of difficulty and danger.

David's presence in the walled town of Ceila seemed to present a favourable opportunity for effecting his capture. Saul, therefore, proposed to lay siege to it; but David, having consulted the Divine will as to his future movements, became aware of the danger that threatened him, and left the town with his men, just as the townspeople were preparing to betray him into the hands of the king.

From Ceila, he passed into the desert of Ziph, where Saul, who pursued him with unwearied energy, was unable to discover his hiding-place. Jonathan, however, succeeded in seeking out his friend, and at a secret interview the covenant of friendship between them was once more ratified; then they parted, never to meet again.