children of Judah the use of the bow: behold, it is written in the book of Jasher.)

an excellent judge of human nature, being told that a soldier wept at a moving scene in his Cato, said, 'He will fight never the worse for that; it is a sign he is a brave man.'-Orton.

V. 17-18. A compassionate temper is not a contemptible weakness; the poem before us, compared with the whole of David's conduct, shows it. The celebrated Mr. Addison, who was 19 The beauty of Israel is slain upon thy high places: how are the mighty fallen! 20 Tell it not in Gath, publish it not in the streets of Askelon; lest the daughters of the Philistines rejoice, lest the daughters of the uncircumcised triumph.

pose on occasion of the death of Saul, which was such a matter of triumph to them, and to sing in the public places of Gath, and in the streets of Askelon.-Harmer.

How many graceless men make sport at that which should be the ground of their humiliation! As all sin is a work of darkness, so it should be buried in darkness. The report of sin is oftentimes as bad as the commission; for it can never be blazoned abroad without uncharitableness, seldom without infection.-Bp. Hall.

V. 20. It is customary among the Arabs, after a victory, to make songs and sing them to celebrate the warlike deeds of their chiefs. Niebuhr tells us, in his Travels, that an Arab tribe so thoroughly defeated a pasha of Bagdad, that the Arab poets made a song upon the victory, which became so common as to be heard in Bagdad itself. Here we see the genius of the Eastern people leads them to compose verses on public occasions, and it evidently appears, that the Hebrew poet is speaking of songs, that he supposed the Philistines would be ready to com21 Ye mountains of Gilboa, let there be no dew, neither let there be rain, upon you, nor fields of offerings: for there the shield of the mighty is vilely cast away, the shield of Saul, as though he had not been anointed with oil. 22 From the blood of the slain, from the fat of the mighty, the bow of Jonathan turned not back, and the sword of Saul returned not empty. 23 Saul and Jonathan were lovely and pleasant in their lives, and in their death they were not divided: they were swifter than eagles, they were stronger than lions.

In this pathetic oration which David pronounces over Saul and Jonathan, he does not wreak his vengeance on the memory of his enemy, now that he is in his grave; but like a good man, and a man of honour, he conceals his faults and celebrates his excellencies. Charity teaches us to make the best we can of everybody, and those we can say no good of, to say nothing of, especially when they are gone. We ought to deny ourselves the very satisfaction of making personal reflections upon those who have been injurious to us, much less of drawing their character from thence, as if every man must of

necessity be a bad man that has done evil to us. Let the corrupt part of the memory be buried with the corrupt part of the man-earth to earth, ashes to ashes, let the blemish be hid, and a veil drawn over the deformity.-M. Henry.

On the accession of Paul Petrovitz to the Russian throne, he caused the dead body of his predecessor Peter III. to be exhumed, and brought to his palace, in order to be interred with the ashes of his mother, the licentious Catherine II., who had voluntarily abandoned her husband Peter, in his lifetime, in order to give the reins to her un

governable passions. Similar honours were paid to both the illustrious dead, and while the imperial crown was placed on the coffin of Peter, the following inscription in Russian was placed over them both, Divided in

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life, united in death.'-Univ. Hist.

Thus all contentions cease in the grave. Death, like some able daysman, lays his hand on the contending parties, and brings all their differences to an amicable conclusion.-Hervey.

24 Ye daughters of Israel, weep over Saul, who clothed you in scarlet, with other delights, who put on ornaments of gold upon your apparel. 25 How are the mighty fallen in the midst of the battle! O Jonathan, thou wast slain in thine high places. 26 I am distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan: very pleasant hast thou been unto me: thy love to me was wonderful, passing the love of

women.

V. 26. The soul of woman lives in love. Mrs. Sigourney.

There is in the heart of woman such a deep well of love, that no age can freeze it.-Bulwer Lytton.

Oh, the love of woman! How high will it not rise! and to what lowly depths will it not stoop! How many injuries will it not forgive! What obstacle will it not overcome, and what sacrifices will it not make, rather than give up the being upon which it has

been once wholly and truly fixed. Perennial of life, which grows up under every climate, how small would the sum of man's happiness be without thee! No coldness, no neglect, no harshness, no cruelty, can extinguish thee! Like the fabled lamp in the sepulchre, thou sheddest thy pure light in the human heart, when everything around thee there is dead for ever!-Carleton.

27 How are the mighty fallen, and the weapons of war perished!

'How are the mighty fallen !-Happening to cast my eye upon some miniature portraits, I perceived that the four personages who occupied the most conspicuous places were Alexander, Hannibal, Cæsar, and Bonaparte. I had seen the same unnumbered times before, but never did the same sensation arise in my bosom, as my mind hastily glanced over their several histories. Alexander, after having climbed the dizzy heights of ambition, and with his temple bound with chaplets dipped in the blood of countless nations, looked down upon a conquered world, and wept that there was not another world to conquer-set a city on fire, and died in a scene of debauch! Hannibal, after having, to the astonishment and consternation of Rome, passed the Alps,-after having put to flight the armies of this mistress of the world, and stripped three bushels of gold rings from the fingers of the slaughtered knights, and made her very foundations quake,-was hated

by those who once exultingly cried his name to that of their god, and called him 'Hanni Beal,' and died at lastby poison administered by his own hand, unlamented and unwept, in a foreign land! Cæsar, after having conquered 800 cities, and dyed his garments in the blood of one million of his foes,-after having pursued to death the only rival he had on earth, -was miserably assassinated by those whom he considered his nearest friends, and at the very place, the attainment of which had been the greatest aim of his ambition! Bonaparte, whose mandate kings and princes obeyed, after having filled the earth with terror of his name,-after having deluged Europe with tears and blood, and clothed the world in sackcloth,closed his eyes in lonely banishment, almost literally exiled from the world, yet where he could sometimes see his country's banner waving over the deep, but which would not or could not bring him aid. Thus, those four men who,

from the peculiar situation of their portraits, seemed to stand as representatives of all those whom the world called 'great,'-those four who severally made the earth tremble to its

centre, severally died, one by intoxication, the second by suicide, the third by assassination, and the last in lonely exile!' How are the mighty fallen!" -Anon.

CHAP. II.

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AND it came to pass after this, that David enquired of the LORD, saying, Shall I go up into any of the cities of Judah? And the LORD said unto him, Go up. And David said, Whither shall I go up? And he said, Unto Hebron. 2 So David went up thither, and his two wives also, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail Nabal's wife the Carmelite. 8 And his men that were with him did David bring up, every man with his houshold: and they dwelt in the cities of Hebron. And the men of Judah came, and there they anointed David king over the house of Judah. And they told David, saying, That the men of Jabesh-gilead were they that buried Saul. 5 And David sent messengers unto the men of Jabesh-gilead, and said unto them, Blessed be ye of the LORD, that ye have shewed this kindness unto your lord, even unto Saul, and have buried him. "And now the LORD shew kindness and truth unto you: and I also will requite you this kindness, because ye have done this thing. 7 Therefore now let your hands be strengthened, and be ye valiant : for your master Saul is dead, and also the house of Judah have anointed me king over them. 8 But Abner the son of Ner, captain of Saul's host, took Ish-bosheth the son of Saul, and brought him over to Mahanaim; And made him king over Gilead, and over the Ashurites, and over Jezreel, and over Ephraim, and over Benjamin, and over all Israel. 10 Ish-bosheth Saul's son was forty years old when he began to reign over Israel, and reigned two years. But the house of Judah followed David. 11 And the time that David was king in Hebron over the house of Judah was seven years and six months. 12 And Abner the son of Ner, and the servants of Ishbosheth the son of Saul, went out from Mahanaim to Gibeon. 18 And Joab the son of Zeruiah, and the servants of David, went out, and met together by the pool of Gibeon: and they sat down, the one on the one side of the pool, and the other on the other side of the pool. 14 And Abner said to Joab, Let the young men now arise, and play before us. And Joab said, Let them arise.

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V. 14. By this expression Abner seems to have meant, not that they should fall upon and destroy one another, but merely that they should practise a little their military exercises; in the same manner as the gladiators anciently did at Rome, and as our

modern pugilists, whose object is not to kill one another, but merely to amuse the spectators-a practice this, which is equally unbecoming the character of rational beings and of Christians.-Anon.

Ambitious and bloody men often

consider the trade of war, and the slaughter of their fellow-creatures, as a mere diversion; and the lives of millions have been trifled away, out of an irrational point of honour, to the great gratification of Satan, that first great murderer of the bodies and souls of men. From age to age, numbers are ambitious of venturing their lives

and souls, for the empty hope of being celebrated as valiant men, after they are dead! And from the same motive, they mingle the blood of their brethren with their own; though they bear them no resentment, and have received no provocation from them: but what can be more senseless and infatuated than such conduct!-Scott.

15 Then there arose and went over by number twelve of Benjamin which pertained to Ish-bosheth the son of Saul, and twelve of the servants of David. 16 And they caught every one his fellow by the head, and thrust his sword in his fellow's side; so they fell down together wherefore that place was called Helkath-hazzurim, which is in Gibeon. 17 And there was a very sore battle that day; and Abner was beaten, and the men of Israel, before the servants of David. 18 And there were three sons of Zeruiah there, Joab, and Abishai, and Asahel: and Asahel was as light of foot as a wild

roe.

19 And Asahel pursued after Abner; and in going he turned not to the right hand nor to the left from following Abner. 20 Then Abner looked behind him, and said, Art thou Asahel? And he answered, I am. 21 And Abner said to him, Turn thee aside to thy right hand or to thy left, and lay thee hold on one of the young men, and take thee his armour. But Asahel would not turn aside from following of him. 22 And Abner said again to Asahel, Turn thee aside from following me: wherefore should I smite thee to the ground? how then should I hold up my face to Joab thy brother? 23 Howbeit he refused to turn aside: wherefore Abner with the hinder end of the spear smote him under the fifth rib, that the spear came out behind him: and he fell down there, and died in the same place: and it came to pass, that as many as came to the place where Asahel fell down and died stood still.

V. 18-23. Observe here, 1. How death often comes upon us by ways that we least suspect. Who would fear the hand of a flying enemy, or the butt end of a spear? yet from these Asahel receives his death wound. 2. See how we are often betrayed by the accomplishments we are proud of. Asahel's swiftness, which he presumed so much upon, did him no kindness, but forwarded his fate; and with it he ran upon his death, instead of running from it.-Henry.

The Christian must keep on his way to heaven, in the midst of all the scandals that are cast upon the ways of God, by the apostasy and foul falls

of false professors. There were ever such in the Church, who by their sad miscarriages in judgment and practice, have laid a stone of offence in the way of profession, at which weak Christians are ready to make a stand, as we here read they did at the bloody body of Asahel; not knowing whether they may venture any further in their profession, seeing such, whose gifts they so much admired, lie before them, wallowing in the blood of their slain profession; of zealous professors, to prove, perhaps, fiery persecutors; of strict performers of religious duties, irreligious atheists, no more like the men they were some years past, than

the vale of Sodom, now a bog and quagmire, is to what it was, when for fruitfulness compared to the garden of the Lord. We had need have a holy resolution to bear up against such discouragements, and not to faint; as Joshua, who lived to see the whole camp of Israel, a very few excepted, revolting, and in their hearts turning back to Egypt, and yet with an undaunted spirit maintaining his integrity; yea, resolved, though not a man beside would bear him company, that yet he would serve the Lord.Gurnall.

Many persons who are really Christians, decline at times from holiness of life so greatly, and so long, as to excite not only the sneers and contempt, but the just censures also, of those who are not Christians; and the extreme regret, and the Christian discipline, of those who are. Other men, in cases of this nature, frequently question or deny the very existence of religion. Christians do not indeed go

this unwarrantable length; but they cannot avoid recollecting, that, frequently, the persons who have thus declined, were in their view better than themselves; and feeling the hopes which they have entertained of their own piety greatly lessened. They are compelled to doubt of the religion of these men, and almost irresistibly question the reality of their own.Dwight.

To a young infidel, who scoffed at Christianity, on account of the misconduct of some of its professors, Dr. Mason once said, 'Did you ever know an uproar made, because an infidel went astray from the paths of morality?' The infidel admitted he had not. 'Then,' said the doctor, don't you see that you admit Christianity is a holy religion, by expecting its professors to be holy; and that thus, by your very objection, you pay it the highest compliment in your power?'— Anecdotes.

24 Joab also and Abishai pursued after Abner: and the sun went down when they were come to the hill of Ammah, that lieth before Giah by the way of the wilderness of Gibeon. 25 And the children

of Benjamin gathered themselves together after Abner, and became one troop, and stood on the top of an hill. 26 Then Abner called to Joab, and said, Shall the sword devour for ever? knowest thou not that it will be bitterness in the latter end? how long shall it be then, ere thou bid the people return from following their brethren ? 27 And Joab said, As God liveth, unless thou hadst spoken, surely then in the morning the people had gone up every one from following his brother. 28 So Joab blew a trumpet, and all the people stood still, and pursued after Israel no more, neither fought they any more. 29 And Abner and his men walked all that night through the plain, and passed over Jordan, and went through all Bithron, and they came to Mahanaim. 30 And Joab returned from following Abner: and when he had gathered all the people together, there lacked of David's servants nineteen men and Asahel. 31 But the servants of David had smitten of Benjamin, and of Abner's men, so that three hundred and threescore men died. 32 And they took up Asahel, and buried him in the sepulchre of his father, which was in Beth-lehem. And Joab and his men went all night, and they came to Hebron at break of day.