The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-10-18
Save for my daily range Among the pleasant fields of Holy Writ might despair. ..-Tennyson. : Fourth Quarter. Lesson III. Palm
 Ii, 1-l7. October 1S, 1903.

Fourth Quarter. Lesson III. Palm
 Ii, l-17. October 19, 1908.
 David's Confession. | The fidelity of the Bible in the portrayal of character Is terrible. There is no var nish or veneer. It pictures its heroes as they really are. Incidentally, here Is ev- idence of inspiration. Interested writers Of book of religion would certainly have given us a series of ideally perfect saints. The Bible gives us men of like passions with ourselves. If the characters of the Scriptures were a galaxy of impeccabiy holy persons, the Bible might make good reading for angels; but it would be of comparatively small account to men. On the contrary. it shows us our fellows striving and failing, shining, repenting, believing. We see men in the process, on the way to holiness. We have in the Bi- | be the evolution of the saint That is the very thing that makes 1t the helpful Book It is. Yet, in its perversity, infidel- ity has always considered this the most vulnerable point in the Bible. It irra- tionally demands that the characters of Holy Writ shall be impeccable.
 The character of David is a fine exemp- lifcation of the principles just stated His career is as fascinating as that of any knight of chivalry. He was the founder of a civilization before that of Greece was born. For twenty years the trend of his life was upward in glory and good ness.
 But in an evil hour this most brilliant man in Hebrew history buried his glo- ries in nocturnal shame" From the Dit in which he had fallen, we hear. as it were, his own voice in solemn warning Let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall"' George Herbert in some qpaint lines expresses the thought that though the Lord has begirt Us round with care. yet all these fences one cum ming bosom sin blows clean away.
 God called David to repentance. He warned before he struck. He warned in order not to strike. Some one quaintly says, He sends his preacher before his executloner." Every sinner has his Ma than. Alas! Every sinner does not heed his Nathan.
 The sincerity of David's repentance is absolute. He makes no plea of previous great services to God and religion. He does not claim that reasons of State make 1t impolitc If not impossible. for hlm to go down to the mourners' bench. Down ? he goes in sight of all his subjects.
 His confession is explicit. He deals in no platitudes, no irane generaltites. He cries, My transgression," My iniquity," My sim This evil" My blood d-guilti- ness"
 His penltence is not judicial. It is not compunction in view of penalty There arc no judicial penalties for an Oriental despot. Murder and adultery on the part of king are mere piccadillos of which society does not take cognizance, much less the law. David stands in no awe of Judicial consequences of his deeds.
 He was, far and away, ahead of the ut- ter spiritual obtuseness of the world three thousand years ago. He had an evangel- ical conception of the nature of sin. He knew what constituted the essence uf it, what made sin so exceedingly sinful. It was In that 1t was done against the per- son and holiness of God. He was quite up to the New Testament idea of sin when he cried, Against thee, thee only, have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight"
 As he felt his sin directed against God. so he felt the necessity of Divine for giveness, and was correspondingly happy when he received 1t. Back of the specific sin, also, he knows there Is perverted state of the heart which has made that sin possible. The redemptive process stops not with forgiveness. He cries. Create in me a clean heart. O God!' This is evangelical regeneration The uprightness of his heart now causes him to shout for joy. and the blessed work of conversion is consummated.
 The Teachers Lantern.
 In sermon on "The Sin of Sins" pr. McClintock says: '"rhe Holy Spirit is