Absalom s murder of his brother was doubtless as capable of plausible defence as most of the duels, assassinations and murders of our times, and yet it was a wicked and a bloody affair. David greatly erred in not treating it as a murder, to be condignly punished. When parents and grandparents protect their offspring in crime, they are showing no real kindness to the guilty and are laying up stores of wretchedness for themselves. The murderer countenanced by his father became his rival and sought his life. But David was a magistrate also.
Magistrates are as much bound to punish murder capitally as they are to rule in mercy.
Absalom is one of thousands of instances of the danger of high places. The higher he rose, the more giddy he became, until, tottering on the brink of ruin, his feet slipped and he sunk to rise no more. Lowly places in life are commonly the safest. To all right moral feeling ambition is a deadly foe, and yet some make it the mainspring of all their actions. To it constant appeals are made, rivalships are encouraged, competitions are commended.