Earlier text: THE FOURTH COMMANDMENTTHE OVERCOMER’S PORTION.
By Geo. Emory
Of all that the Bible contains, there is nothing that impresses us more with a sense of the wonderful goodness of our loving heavenly Father than the numerous promises of reward to “him that shall endure to the end.” This does not necessarily refer to those who have been all their lives “faithful.” God is a Saviour of sinners. He calls many, even at the “eleventh hour,” and many of these are painfully aware that they have accomplished but little in toiling for the Master. But such should not lose sight of the encouraging fact that at the close of the day’s labor, when the Master reckoned with His servants, with amazing grace and kindness, He was willing to bestow as much wages upon those that came in at the “eleventh hour” as upon those who came early, and had “borne the burden and heat of ‘the day.’” In Prov. 16:32 we read: “He that is slow to anger is better than ‘the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city.’” How abundant indeed, then, must be our Lord’s resources, that He can bestow rewards for ministrations that in themselves even seem trifling. The giving of a cup of cold water, even, in His name, is not unnoticed by Him, and has its reward. So for the overcomer there awaits untold blessings, not only in “the life that now is,” but more especially in “that which is to come.” For the encouragement of those who are called upon daily to battle with self, in warring with those “principalities” and “powers” that wage a continual warfare within, what glorious things are in store for those who gain victories through the precious blood of Jesus. The first reflection, and one which is probably in mind more than any other, is, what about my standing on the record books of heaven, now that by the grace of God this, that, or the other weakness has been put away? Listen to the message from the inspired page: “He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not ‘blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name ‘before My Father, and before His angels.’ For the sin that you have committed, confessed, and forsaken, your name may have been dropped from the church books; utterance of it may even be withheld and hushed upon the lips of your once dear friends, and some overzealous shepherd may class you among the “missionaries of Satan;” but take heart, dear tempest-tossed soul, whom Satan has desired to have, that he might “sift you as wheat.” If you have surely forsaken the sin that has bound you all these years, the promise of Jesus is that your name is still retained on “the page white and fair” of heaven’s record books. Praise the Lord! This blessing alone is incalculable, but it is only a drop in the bucket, so to speak, in comparison with the many which follow. The overcomer is such a delight to our dear Lord that He is especially anxious that all heaven shall know that the penitent is a member of His kingdom. Therefore He proceeds to make the fact clear to all beholding: “Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in ‘the temple of My God, and he shall go no more out; and I will write ‘upon him the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God, ‘which is New Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from My ‘God; and I will write upon him My new name.” Rev. 3:12. What more authoritative insignia could one desire than this, known, recognized, and honored by every inhabitant of heaven? A greater honor could not be bestowed than for the overcomer to have written upon him the “new name” of our Saviour, before whom all angels bow the knee. Then, that the overcomer may share further in the honors, a beautiful, precious stone, of dazzling whiteness, is presented to him by the Saviour Himself. “And in the stone a new name written, which no ‘man knoweth saving he that receiveth it.” Now that he has been duly registered upon the heavenly records, gloriously clad in white and shining raiment, adorned with golden bands bearing such honored names, he is given to eat of “the tree of life, which is in the midst of ‘the paradise of God;” and also of the “hidden manna.” The next honor to be conferred is the assignment of the place or position, which has already been prepared and is in waiting. “To him ‘that overcometh will I grant to sit with Me in My throne, even as I ‘also overcame, and am set down with My Father in His throne.” Most wonderful condescension indeed! infinitely beyond all human comprehension, and yet how very like the love of our dear Saviour! So take courage, dear tried souls, who may have nothing to your credit save being an “overcomer.” By these scriptures you may know that the most priceless treasures of heaven await your entrance at the gates of pearl; and by no means the least of these is a shining, glorious crown, which our Saviour has promised to all who await and love His appearing. Is it not written: “And when the chief Shepherd ‘shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away”? It may not have been your lot to work in foreign lands; you may not have led in any great missionary enterprise, or won an imposing army of converts in evangelistic effort; you may not have reared many places of worship in the land; still, if in Jesus’ name you have laid aside the “sin which doth so easily beset” you, and are earnestly striving every day to be a conqueror of all sin, then rest secure, without an anxious care, upon the precious promises to the overcomer, contained in the Word of God, which standeth forever; and in that hope which is an anchor to the soul, you will not be disappointed. Praise His holy name! The Mind and Belief in God
The smaller the mind—the more primitive the brain in which dwells the soul—the greater reluctance to acknowledge God and His goodness. The low savage knows no God, only devils. The ape knows not even devils. The brain must find within itself the inspiration to seek and to find proof of God's existence, wisdom, and kindness. If you declare yourself an atheist, you declare your soul a barren soul, and your mind a fatuous vacuity.—San Francisco Examiner. The Creator Within Eternal Laws
By Schiller
The great Creator we behold not; He vails Himself within His own eternal laws. The skeptic sees their operation, but he beholds not Him. “Wherefore a God?” he cries. “The world itself suffices for itself,” and the piety of no Christian has praised Him more than does this skeptical blasphemy.—Schiller. The Choice Between Blindness and Reason
PLATO knew and proclaimed that there could be no compromise, and that men must make their choice whether in this universe they were living in the grasp of a blind, delirious giant, or holding, as a child, the gracious hand and looking up in the clear eyes of infinite right and reason.—James Martineau. AN ESSENTIAL OF THE TRUE.
Of Andrew, when he found the Anointed of God, it is said: “He first findeth his own brother Simon, and saith unto him, We have found the Messiah (which is, being interpreted, the Christ). And he brought him to Jesus.” John 1:41, 42. There is not alone the lesson of the missionary spirit here manifest; but the text teaches another lesson of even more vital importance. That lesson is the self-effacement of the human, the exaltation of the divine. Andrew had no thought of credit to himself. He had no message of authority to bear as coming from himself. He did not exalt himself in any way as one qualified to be the Messiah’s messenger, as worthy of honor because he knew the Divine One. The one object which he wished to set before Simon was that the Messiah had been discovered, and that Simon should see Him and believe, and therefore “he brought him to Jesus.” Never has a soul with the true religion, actuated with the spirit of that religion, borne any other message. Never has he exalted the man, and so hidden God. The apostle Paul expresses the thought in these words, “We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake.” 2 Cor. 4:5. Christ as Lord, we as servants, that is the attitude of the true messenger of God, whatever his position among men. False teachers, false religions, and sometimes the ignorant but well-meaning souls, invariably exalt the human, and so hide from the seeker the divine. In the earliest manifestations of heathenism, the king or the prophet must be honored as the god he represented, himself a demi-god. The same kind of zeal characterized Joshua at one time. Moses, at God’s command, set apart seventy elders, and when they came before the Lord’s sanctuary, His Spirit rested upon them, and they prophesied. Two men remained in camp—Eldad and Medad—and the Spirit of God rested also upon them, and they prophesied. A young man comes hastily with the news. Joshua tells Moses. He feels that the only one to prophesy in the camp is Moses. He pleads, “My lord Moses, ‘forbid them.’” But not so Moses. He replies, “Enviest thou for my sake? Would God that all the Lord’s people were prophets, and that the Lord would put His Spirit upon them.” Num. 11:24-29. “Let God be glorified,” was the language of his heart. “O that the people might all know God,” was his prayer. When Elijah came before king Ahab, it was not to preach himself, but Jehovah. His message was prefaced with, “As the Lord God liveth before whom I stand.” He himself was but the messenger, the servant, of God, to do His bidding. When John the Baptist came, the greatest of all prophets, Jesus tells us, he took no credit to himself. He boasted neither his nationality, his tribe, his family, nor his work. He declared that he was not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor that prophet. “Who art thou?” is repeated; and he replies, “I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Isaiah.” He was “not worthy to unloose” the shoe’s latchet of the One he heralded. John 1:19-27. People must not look to him, but to Christ. In apostolic days unconverted men and women exalted the men instead of the Lord. They went to shouting, “I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ.” They were “yet carnal.” Their descendants are legion, and so we have men and women all down the ages looking to the pope, to Emanuel Swedenborg, to Joanna Southcote, to Joseph Smith, to Mary Baker G. Eddy, to Alexander Dowie, saying, as did the deceived of old concerning a man who gave out “that himself was some great one,” “This man is the great power of God.” Acts 8:9, 10. The great Gospel lesson is little understood. God’s voice says, CRY. But what shall we cry, Lord? List to His answer: “All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field. . . . The grass withereth, the flower fadeth; but the word of our God shall stand forever.” Isa. 40:6-8. All preaching which exalts the human instead of the divine is not of God. “Who, then, is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man? I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase.” Therefore exalt Him. Praise Him for all He gives through others; honor them duly as His messengers, but give Him the glory. Know Him, minister of God, and bring others to Jesus. Let them see Him, and hear Him, and know Him; for the soul who brings others to Jesus thereby gets nearer the blessed Master than he otherwise could. “Lift Him up.” CROSSING THE RED SEA.
By G.
The children of Israel had started out by faith in God, but faith that is not continually exercised soon becomes weak, and will not bear sudden or unusual strain. Faith that stops to regard outward appearances will not endure to the end. It is necessary that faith be often tested, that the individual himself may know where he stands. “My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.” Like many others since their day, the Israelites soon came to an obstacle which past faith could not surmount. Failing to seek a new supply, they fell into a terrible state of discouragement. The king of Egypt and his counselors soon regretted letting their servants go, and feeling remorse because of their defeat and the defeat of their gods, determined to retrieve their lost honor, and recover their lost property. So Pharaoh headed an army, and followed the departing host. The Lord had led His people by way of the sea, and now they were camped in what appeared to be a most unfavorable location in case of attack. The mountains and sea confronted them and bounded them on either side, and, behold, the Egyptian army approached from the rear! Sudden terror created a panic, and instead of trusting in God, the most of the people began to chide Moses. “It had been better for us to serve the Egyptians, than that we should die in the wilderness,” was their selfish plea. But we must not condemn them; they were young in the faith, and had not yet learned that the honor of God is properly the Christian’s first consideration. The Lord had before told Moses that the Egyptians would follow them, and had said, “I will be honored upon Pharaoh, and upon all his host; that the Egyptians may know that I am the Lord.” Now was the Lord’s opportunity, but the poor undisciplined, inexperienced, terrified emigrants were unable to see anything but their own apparent danger. Moses reassured the people, telling them to fear not, but to “stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will show to you to-day; for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to-day, ye shall see them again no more forever. The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace.” If all the people of God in our day would heed this counsel, it would save them from many unnecessary worries, and from many futile attempts to fight their own battles, as well as from many an ignominious surrender to their former masters or to newly-discovered enemies. The calm, faithful counsel of Moses had the effect of quieting their murmurings for the moment, and the Lord gave them another opportunity for exercise of faith. Repeating His promise to Moses, He told him to “speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward.” Then, for their further encouragement, as well as for the discomfiture of their enemies, “the Angel of God, which went before the camp of Israel, removed and went behind them.” Thus the cloud which enshrouded the Angel “came between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel; and it was a cloud and darkness to them, but it gave light by night to these.” Evidently the faith of the people was greatly revived, for they at once prepared to go forward, right into the sea, at the command of the Lord through Moses. Anything but faith would have shrunk from this as being a worse prospect than meeting the Egyptians, who only wanted to make them return. The Word tells us that “by faith they passed through the Red Sea as by dry land.” Heb. 11:29. Of this scene David says: “Thy way was in the sea, and Thy paths in the great waters, and Thy footsteps were not known. Thou leddest Thy people like a flock, by the hand of Moses and Aaron.” Ps. 77:19, 20, R.V. In the confusion of darkness and the blindness of their zeal, the Egyptians pursued Israel into the midst of the sea. But the Shepherd who led the flock had also an eye on the enemy, and He continued to discomfit them. David further describes the awful visitation: “The clouds poured out water; the skies sent out a sound; Thine arrows also went abroad. The voice of Thy thunder was in the heaven; the lightnings lightened the world; the earth trembled and shook.” The lightning revealed to the Egyptians their true situation, and to add to their perplexity their chariot wheels came off, thus further impeding their progress. Realizing when too late that the God of Israel was again contending against them, the Egyptians attempted to retreat. Then the Lord told Moses to stretch forth His hand again, and when He did so the sea returned upon the host of Pharaoh and destroyed them all. “There remained not so much as one of them,” and Israel saw the dead bodies of their enemies as they were washed to the shore. The people were now very jubilant over their deliverance from bondage, and Moses led them in that most wonderful tribute of song recorded in Ex. 15:1–19. Then Miriam the prophetess took a timbrel, and led all the women in songs of praise to the Lord. All this, thrilling as it is to contemplate, is but a type of the great deliverance yet to be experienced by the Lord’s people when the King shall come to take them to Himself; when He comes “in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.” 2 Thess. 1:8. The lesson of the Red Sea was written for our learning. “Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples [margin, ‘types’];” and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.” 1 Cor. 10:11. THERE was at least one time when it was more important to be a home missionary than to travel about the country in company with the Lord. Jesus and His disciples crossed the Sea of Galilee to Gadara. There they met a man possessed of devils, and Jesus commanded them to come out of him. The devils asked permission to go into a herd of swine near by. Jesus told them to go, and when they had entered into the swine, the whole herd ran into the sea and were drowned. When the people saw the destruction of their property, they besought Jesus to depart out of their country. There was nothing to be gained by staying where He was not wanted, so Jesus went away. The man out of whom the evil spirits were cast felt so thankful for his restoration that he desired to accompany Jesus in His labors. He thought it would be an excellent thing for him to be with Christ personally all the time. No doubt it would have been very gratifying to him to be constantly in such company and under such instruction. But the Lord had a work for him to do right at home. Jesus knew that there were people there who would accept the truth when the excitement was over, and they had time to reflect on the power and goodness of the One whom they then rejected. This man could do a work, by simply showing himself and relating his experience, which the Lord Himself could not do under existing circumstances. So He quietly went on to other fields, and left the new disciple to do some home missionary work, until the time was propitious for Him to return. When this man desired to go with Jesus, the Lord said to him, “Return to thine own house, and show ‘how great things God hath done unto thee.’” This new disciple showed his faith by his obedience, and “went his way, and published throughout the whole ‘city how great things Jesus had done unto him. ‘And it came to pass, that, when Jesus was returned, ‘the people gladly received Him; for they were all ‘waiting for Him.’” Luke 8:39, 40.7 This was a most remarkable reversion of sentiment, and it came through the home-missionary work of a man whose very presence was dreaded by the people prior to the first visit of Jesus. Lessons: (1) One can be a missionary without going away from home. (2) “To obey is better than sacrifice.” (3) Personal testimony as to benefits received from Christ is often more effectual than a sermon. (4) The visible presence of Christ in missionary work is not as important as the assurance that we are laboring where He would have us, and doing the work that He would have us do, be it ever so humble. In this way we may know by faith that He is with us to bless and to strengthen. G. THE DANGER NOT PAST.
By S.
A WRITER in a recent issue of a religious journal declares that— The world has nothing to fear from Romanism; its day of power is past; it is doomed by prophecy to decadence until that hour when it will feel the destructive power of our Lord’s advent. It is true that at our Lord’s advent that power will be destroyed; but it can not be truly said that the world has nothing to fear from Romanism, or that the day of its power is past. The Bible does not so teach. That power is rather represented as accelerating than as diminishing, and that almost up to the very time of the advent. Rev. 17:12–17. This scripture indicates that the power of Romanism reaches its climax just before the Lord visits the earth to cut off the wicked and reward the righteous. So great will be the increase of that power’s influence, that the kings of the earth will give to it “their power and strength.” For a short space of time they reign with that power over the people of earth. It is even declared that they will “give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled.” Verse 17. God declares of that power that “his deadly wound [the destruction of its temporal power] was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast. And they worshiped the dragon which gave power unto the beast; and they worshiped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him? . . . And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life.” Rev. 13:3–8. This certainly does not show a decadence of the power and influence of that institution. With “all the world” wondering “after the beast,” and all worshiping the beast except only those whose names are in the Lamb’s book of life, it is very clear that the danger from that institution is very far from past; neither can the day of its power be truly said to be past. That danger is not past as long as that power is able to turn a single soul from the path that God approves, and can cause men to worship a power that is not of God. To claim that the danger from that institution is past is to blind the eyes of men to the danger that lurks in the last great deception. Such a claim is one of the most dangerous peace-and-safety cries that has yet been given. The battle is on, and until the victory is complete and the enemy bound, there can be no peace, no safety, no moment when we can rest on our arms, and declare the danger past. God’s forces will triumph; but we will not share in the triumph, if we throw ourselves open to the deceptions of the enemy by declaring the danger past at a time when that enemy is working as he never worked before. S. SPIRITISM AND TELEPATHY.
By G.
For fourteen years the Society of Psychical Research has been experimenting with a Mrs. Piper, who, the members believe, is a “medium” controlled by the spirits of dead people. At least she goes into trances, and talks while in that condition. She claims not to know anything about her condition while in trance, or to know what she says, only as she is told by others after regaining consciousness. She disclaims being a Spiritist, and says she never had anything to do with mediums or Spiritism. She does not believe that she has any communication with the dead, but is utterly unable to account for the phenomena which are manifested through her agency. Her expressed opinion is that her revelations are the result of telepathy, the influence of one mind upon another at a distance, without direct communication through the senses; in other words, it is thought transference from one living person to another without ordinary expression or physical contact. The members of the society who have used her, as she says, “simply as an automaton,” for scientific research, do not accept her theory, but insist that she is a remarkable spirit medium, and that her trance talks are revelations of departed spirits. They maintain that Mrs. Piper, being unconscious of her condition or of what she says when in trance, is not competent to judge of the source of her revelations. Mrs. Piper says that she “can not see how it can be ‘scientifically proved that we can hold communication with the so-called spirit world.’” To this the secretary of the society replies that “telepathy is no more of an explanation than is Spiritism.” From the standpoint of human science, Dr. Hodgson is correct; the one theory is just as difficult of solution as is the other. But from a Biblical standpoint the case is quite different. Mrs. Piper has good ground for the negative side of her argument, that it can not be scientifically proved that we can hold communication with the dead; for the Bible, which is the repository of true science, says plainly that “the dead know not anything;” that “their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished; neither have they any more a portion forever in anything that is done under the sun.” Eccl. 9:5, 6. On the other hand, while telepathy is equally unexplainable by human science, the Bible reveals a means of accounting for it. The Scriptures reveal to us that Satan, the “prince of the power of the ‘air,’” the leader of a great host of invisible accessories, is able to work “with all power, and signs, and ‘lying wonders;’” and that he is able to “appear as ‘an angel of light,’ working with ‘all deceivableness of unrighteousness.’” He is able, as shown in the history of the work of Christ on earth, to control at his will the words and actions of those over whom he can gain an influence. He is, as Paul tells us, “the spirit that now worketh in the children of ‘disobedience.’” He is invisible, yet he works in a certain class of people unconsciously to themselves. His working is a clear case of telepathy. Satan is the great adversary of Christ, and the great deceiver of mankind. He is prolific of inventions to deceive. Spiritism is his grand delusion; but he has others that accomplish the same purpose in people who do not accept Spiritism, and yet will not “keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.” When Mrs. Piper placed herself in the hands of the Society for Psychical Research, to become an automaton for men who were endeavoring to establish by a false idea of science the Satanic delusion of Spiritism, she placed herself on Satan’s ground just as verily as tho she had accepted the doctrine of Spiritism. For years before she became connected with this society, she had been doing the same work that the professed spirit mediums did, only she claimed for it a different process. The power that works wonders through her is the same as that which produces like phenomena in the name of Spiritism. While she knows by reasonable logic that she does not receive her communications from the dead, she does not know that she is influenced by the same power as are those who believe that they do receive intelligence from that source. The opposing theories held by Mrs. Piper and the society with which she has been so long connected, have caused her to withdraw, but that will not lessen the effect of the evil that will no doubt be continued by both; the separation will most likely be the means of spreading the mediumistic work under the two theories. G. “Because iniquity shall abound,” says our Saviour in speaking of the last days, “the love of many shall wax cold”. Matt. 24:12. The text indicates that there would be backsliding among the people of God, a manifest coldness and lethargy in religious things. The result of such a course on the part of the church would, in the nature of the case, be loss of influence religiously. Has the church lost influence? This is what President Charles William Eliot of Harvard University has to say on the subject, in a recent speech in Boston before the Twentieth Century Club. His subject was: “A Survey of Conditions of American Education, with Some Accounts of Its Successes and Its Failures.” Here is what is reported:— Neither our courts, our legislatures, nor our churches have improved and gained a greater hold on the people in the last thirty years. . . . The efficiency of legislatures and the respect in which they are held unquestionably have declined. The courts are, as a whole, less efficient and less respected to-day than they were a generation or two generations ago. Reverence for law is not maintained at its old level. The church and its ministers can not be said to have risen in public estimation since the Civil War. The church in some places clings to morbid poetic images, or turns in others to pomp and ritual. On the whole it shows little willingness to rely on the humanistic and fundamental teachings of Christ. It has no influence whatever on millions of our nation. And does not this witness speak truly? And the reason is intimated, the church has departed from Christ and His Word. In many cases she has done more; she has destroyed faith in the Bible. But so the Word tells us it would be in the last days. The coming of the Lord draweth nigh. It is our Lord’s rebuke to Herod. The word “fox” is used to show the king’s character,—artful, deceptive, sly, tricky. The verse looks forward to Christ’s death. As the Parthians never came under the Roman yoke, why are the Romans called a “world power”? C. H. H. But the Parthians did come under the Roman yoke during the reign of Trajan, A.D. 115–117. After this Parthia won her independence, but she could never be considered in any other light than a barbarous nation at the best, having no molding power in the world. So China was not subject to Rome. Yet Rome was the great world power, world-wide in its fame, its power, its influence. 1198. Why Was the Serpent Cursed?
Why was the serpent cursed at the fall of Adam? Had it been a person, we could see some reason for it; but it was only used as a medium, and was not a rational or moral being, and therefore not responsible. The circumstances show that the serpent was a creature which could be greatly used by the devil, and the Lord so changed the creature that it could not be so employed. It was not to punish the serpent as a creature, but to thwart Satan and help man. 1199. The Revised Version.
Why does the Revised Version use the term “meal offering” instead of “meat offering”? It seems as tho the translators of King James’ time and those at the present time differ materially in some places even to the omission of whole verses in several places in the New Testament. Please explain this. 1. Because “meal offering” is better than “meat offering.” “Meat” is understood generally as meaning flesh, and there was no flesh in the offering in question. The principal material used was meal. 2. Differences in translation may be classed under the following heads: (a) Uniformity. The renderings of King James’ Version are much more varied than those of the Revised Version. Sometimes the Hebrew or Greek word is translated by from ten to twenty English words: while several original words are translated by the same English term. The Revised Version is much more consistent and uniform in this respect. (b) Words change. Some English words in King James’ day meant just the opposite of what they do now. For instance, “prevent” now means to hinder; it formerly meant to go before. See its use in the common version and the substitutes adopted in the Revision. (c) King James’ Version was translated from late Greek copies, not by any means the best, and under certain restrictions. Since then various Greek manuscripts of the New Testament, dating back to almost the first century, have been discovered. The Revision has based many of its changes on these. The omissions noted are those not found in these earlier manuscripts. Some of them may be genuine; some, for instance 1 John 5:7 were introduced first evidently as a gloss, and by later copyists incorporated in the text. How can David say that “Saul and Jonathan were lovely and pleasant in their lives,” when we know that the Lord had departed from Saul, and that he, Saul, had for a long while been seeking David’s life? Surely there was nothing very pleasant about that, or lovely either. That doubtless was generally true in all their best days. We know the great mistakes of Saul and their sad consequences, but we know little of the general every-day life. Occasionally we get glimpses. See 1 Sam. 16:21; 20:2. Why did David show such a bloodthirsty spirit in 1 Kings 2:9 when in 2 Sam. 16:10 he says the Lord told Shimei to curse David? We must judge of men’s characters in a measure by the times in which they live. Shimei’s crime was great, even tho David felt so humbled because of his mistakes that he was willing to suffer anything at the Lord’s hand; but, when restored to God’s favor, he felt that it was due to the dignity of law and divinely ordained authority that Shimei’s crime should be recognized. This he did not even undertake to do himself, lest it should be thought he desired personally to avenge himself; but he left it to the wisdom of Solomon, and he truly was merciful. As compared with rulers in his day, David was one of the most merciful of kings.