The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-02-06
THE SINS OF DAVID
An Able Discourse BY Doctor Will
liam Paden.
POLYGAMY HIS PRACTICE
BUT THE PSALM-SINGER WAS
NOT A KAKIsTocRAT.
Abhorrent Events In His Life-His
Mode of Repentance and Tragic
End-Fen Into Iniquity at the
Prime of Life-The Mercy of God
Man After Gods Own Heart.


and David said unto Nathan, I have
sinned against the Lord: and Nathan
said unto David, The Lord hath put
away the in.''-Samuel xii 1S.
Above is the text of most interesting
discourse by the Rev. William Paden. de-
livered last evening at the First Presby-
terrain church. The sermon was eloquent,
and bore sufficient historical narration to
make II very instructive and entertain
ing DR.: Paden said, in part:
we have a feeling that we would
crimes OF cur heroes. The majority of us
have this feeling as we talk of David 5
character. His faults and failures are to
US the faults and failures of a friend; his
vices and crimes are as the vices and
crimes of q father. No good son cares to
dwell on the sins of mis- father. however
Migrant those sins may be. This is es-
peclally true when the father has con-
1esSed his sins and lived the last years
OF his life as a penitent. Under such cir
cumstances, flial affection throws the
covering of charity over paternal misdo-
ings, and the more shameful the father 5
departures from virtue. the more ready
the son win be to bury them in silence.
mere are times, however. when sin S
tragic consequences are sins most search
ing condemnation. We must perfect our
chart of dangerous shores by carefully
noting the rocks and shoals upon which
our fathers were wrecked or from which
they were saved through much tribula-
ton.
so this evening we are to study the
tragedy ana tragic closing years of the
life of David. 1t would be more agreeable
to review the days of his youth. when
the blemishes on his reputation We're
mere spots on the sun. but our line Of
thought during the past weeks has made
II necessary for us TO face the fact that
there came time when David's sun went
into an eclipse, whence il never entirely
emerged. For the clouds which settled
over David's latter life were never en-
tirely lifted. He died, as we say, under
cloud.
las is the case with many a strong
man, Davids outbreak of iniquity did
not come until late in life. He was some
% years old when he fell. He was at the
very zenith of his glory. His enemies
had been defeated and the affairs of his
Kingdom We're in a prosperous condition.
His capital was becoming one of the most
luxurious centerS of the ancient world.
1t was then he succumbed to the soft
pressure of ease and idleness. In the
narrative which describes the war which
was going on at this time. it is said that
while the armies of Israel went forth to
battle, David remained at home in his
house. While Joab and the soldiers Were
besiesfng Rabbah, the once warrior king
was lettering at ease on the roof of his
tans opportunity and David's richly
laden craft was all but wrecked while
swinging lazily in a perilous harbor.
His temptation came to him at his
weak point. His nature was warm and
emotional and his ease and power gave
him unlimited opportunities for self-in-
diligence. The sensual license of the
seraglio The had at this time at least six
wives and twice as many concubines) had
undermined his respect for womanhood
and unleashed his passions. He had lost
his self-cOntrol and polluted his con-
science by the practice of polygamy.
Moreover, his despotlc power had made
him careless He had the means and the
power to do as he pleased. Almost any
other Oriental despot of his times would
have added Bathsheba TO his harem with
out qualm of conscience or a wOrdy eX-
cuse- The Oriental despots seraglio like
his wealth, is built up by a species of
robbery. The poor mans one wife or
fiancee is not safe in the land where the
rich man may add women to his harem
as he adds wealth to his Golfers; The
greediest and most cruel OF all kakis-
tocracies is that in which the kakistocrat
claims the right to all the women he
wants and can support David at his
worst was not such a kakistocrat.
Once, however. he succumbed to the
besetting sin of those who multiply wives
or unleash their lusts in seraglos then
began q course of crime to cover crime.
The rich man murders the poor man
whose home he has invaded, and openly
appropriateS the widow few days after
cency, immortality and wickedness of the
whole episode in all its details is enough
to indicate the moral degradation which
lies in wait for the man who keeps a
seraglio or the woman who is willing to
form part of such an establishment. 1 do
not care to say anything in palliation of
the murderous spirituality of David or
the selfish immortality of Bathsheba. I'M
less it be that both were victims of the
low marriage code which prevailed in and
under the shadow of the Oriental des-
pots seraglio.
.'At first. as is quite often the case,
David's conscience does not seem to have
troubled him. There are times when. after
d great sin, the conscience seems to be
stunned or paralyZed as If struck down
by a terrible blow, or, to change the fig
ure as if it had been scared over with a
hot iron and so had lost all feeling. SO.
for awhile DaVid's conscience does not
seem to have been active. His spiritual
nature was like a dusty desert covered
with flint stones. His harp was silent.
He was in no mood TO write psalms. As
we read of the part he took at the sur
render of Rabbah we feel that he is try
ing to smother any remaining twingeS of
conscience by unwonted activity. His
deafness of heart is also evident in his
cruelty towards those whom Joab had
Conquered. He had them sawn asunder.
bruised under harrows. and put to death
by the most cruel tortures that a cruel
age could suggezt. 1t is one of the in
consistencies of human nature that it
becomes cruel to enemies under the bur-
den of it's own sin. Men are never so
censorious irritable and cruel in their
judgments of sin as when restless under
hidden sins of their own. Sometimes 1t
seems as if they tried to atone for their
own wickedness by wreakinS vengeance
on the wickedness of others.
From this terrible condition David was
awakened as if by flash from heaven.
That flash came in the parable of the
eve lamb which L have read to you. In
this parable you will remember that
David was brought to give the severest
judgment in a case exactly parallel to his
own, declaring that the offender was
worthy of death. It was then that the
prophet turned upon him with the fierce
words: Thou art the man. The rebuke
went home TO David'S heart. He saw in
an instant the vileness and blacknesS of
his sin and David-like made full confess
sion of it.
las in the case of Augustine, we chief
ly know of David's crime through his own
confessions None ever condemned men
more severely than he condemned him.
self You all know the thirty-first psalm.
There is no such confession of sin else
where in the annals of the human race.
No confession so direct, so complete, so
full of the sense of sin unfixed and mex
cusable. DaVid's meanness, selfishnesS
and blood outlines seems to have whit
ened his soul like flood. and he turns
TO God with penitent abandon and pleads
for Gods spirit and mercy. The Eternal.
in his mercy. heard the cries of David's
broken and cOntrfte heart, forgave him,
stood by him and helped him make the
best of sad consequences.
For. as / said here the other evening
'Hot-blooded acts have cold -blooded con-
not so far as this life is concerned, carry
with il the remission of consequences
Gods holy love does not interfere with
his holy law. So Nathan told David that
his sin would bring upon him unutterable
woe. As far as | can see, the difference