The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-11-08

serts itself. He puts the natural har. Ter or the Jordan between himself and | .he reoef army. He enscouces bimsalf m the splendid fortress of MahanoIn, when the battle impends. he chooses ,.e une neid where his bushwhaclSine guer- 'as VIII nave every advantage, know | Ing that the wood could deyour more people than the sword" The uncompro- missing protest of his troops is ali that restraints his lion-heart from taking the neid Tn person With the undyfng nm. Quenchabie affection of the pateruoI heart. he has enjoined it upon the com mandant Of each division that they deal | gently with the young man." Now, upon the very site of his fore- rather Jacobs wrestling David enters into an agony of soul. The king, like the patriarch. has brought his grief and peril upon himself by his own misdeeds. The points of contrast are that David is In gate. instead of a glade: 1t is day ume' instead of night: and 1t is a son mat approaches In hostile mien. instead or brother, as in Jacobs case Unfilial treason receives it's deserts that day. There Is defeat, with slaughter. Absaloms vanity forestails his escape and insures his doom. His ambrosial locks identify him, as does the very beast l that bears him.
 Nature herself, furnishes a gibbet for
 
 | perhaps, serves as the black-cap of the ! hangman. Suspended between heaven and earth, he gazes into the phenomenal chasm at his feet as into the very mouth Of hell. gaping to receive him. Into that pit, moment later, his dishonored corpse | is cast.
 The last picture in the somber gal l iery Is drawn by a masterhand. It is true to the life. In pathos and natural- ness. nothing in literature surpasses it. l Up the stone steps to the chamber over | the gate goes the chastened monarch. crying in piteous grief. We can look into the depths of a broken heart It is a rev. eiation of parental tenderness. forgive ness, and disappointed ambition.
 The Teachers Lantern.
 Carlisle says of Burns: "The canary signs sweetest when it has been longest trained in darkened cage" So David learned in suffering what he taught in songs. Psalms iii. iv, xl, lv, lxix, cix, are attributed to this period
 Ahithophel was Davids Judas Iscariot. He portrays his treason in the words: Tt was thou. man. mine equal, my guide, and mine acquaintance. We took sweet counsel together, and walked unto the house of God in company" Words that remind us of Caesars. And thou, Bru- tus!"
 Yet the sting of 1t was that Ahithophel was Justified in his desertion of David. It is enough to say that Bathsheba was his granddaughter.
 Absalom's revolt Is a type of the sim ner's revolt against God In both in- stances 1t is deliberate, unreasonable. di- rected against paternal goodness. If per- sisted in, there will be the same outcome shame and death. | What more could David have done, that he did not do, to save Absalom's life? He expressly commanded the captains. in nearing of the army. to spare his son The soldier who discovered Absalom's sorry plight, showed a tender regard for the kings request. At the same time he had an eye to his own interest; for, as he intimated, had he dispatched Absalom. Joab would have made a scapegoat of him. But the killing of Absalom was a mili- | tary necessity. It was a legal execution The rebel prince had four times over for I feited his life.
 Absalom's burial was like that of q common malefactor. He had reared for himself an imperial mausoleum where he expected to be laid with royal obseouies: but his disnonored corpse was tossed into | a ditch.
 David's lament for his son is a pathetic dirge. But perhaps if he had lived more for the boy. he would not have needed to wish to die for him. Absorbed in the pleasures of his palace and in the affairs of State. in foreign war and in plans for building a temple, there was precious lit tie time left for a son at the very period when he desperately needed attention and discipline. The sting of 1t, too, was that the fathers example had not always been beyond reproach.
 Sharper than serpents tooth Is a thankless son. The fang fastened in Da- vsd's very heart. Other insults, treach- cries and losses were small affairs with | this