The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1916-08-10
THE BOY DAVID

Minneapolis Journal.-Devid, the
darling King of the Israelitish people,
lived at about the time of Homer in
the early twilight of history. when
men and gods, facts and fiction mingle
in all narratives outside Of Holy Writ.
But Of David we have a picture so
clear, so thoroughly human, that we
know we have in 1t the portrait Of a
real man. No other Bible character
before Christ has been so fully de-
lineated. He is familiar to every well
reed person in Christendom. Probably
few know as much OF their own ances-
tors dead but a hundred years as they
do OF David, who lived three thousand
years ago.
The character of David, the youth, Is
worth study. 1t has In 1t a high but
attainable degree those qualities that
make a man eminent today. He was a
farm lad and his work was chiefly
keeping sheep. This work gave him
time enough to mediate, and it gave
him labor enough to keep him active
and alert.
The typical sheep-herder is said to be
like a tree, "all dead but pushing over"
Watching sheep is at best a dull bust
ness. But David did not find ii so. 1t
was not a large job for him. He lar
ried two side lines, a harp and a sling.
Most sheep-herders play with their
side lines. David played with his to
a purpose-probably not because
he was deadly serious in his
character, but from pure 1xuberance
of spirit and physical vitality. No
man, alone by himself, becomes a skill
ed musician and an expert shot, who
has not immense initiative, uncom-
mon staying qualities and overlooking
spirits.
David was probably about eighteen
when he came on the firing line in his
first battle. But at that age he had
fairly well developed all the qualities
that made him a great King. Most
mems characters are shaped at eigh-
teen. David had then he'd two success
full fights of major proportions. These
were with wild beasts in defense Of
his locks and in those he was not only
successful in killing the beasts, but in
saving the lambs they attacked. Such
a feat comes only from quick judg-
ment and a high degree of alertness,
qualities that shone out in David's
after life as partisan leader and king.
Few short stories Of human action
contain more Of human interest or
give a clearer picture of human char
acter than does the story Of David's
first days fighting in the Battle of the
Valley of Elah. His soft answer to
tho rot gh rebuke of his older brother,
L;r uynrI1 - nLnnr 70 tho friuhtnnnd
soldiers, his indignation that the wor-
shipper Of a dead god should defy the
armies Of the living God, his defiance
of the overgrown Philistine, all show
a youth with a youths fresh faith in
himself and in his God.
His careful choice of abundant am
munition, his trick of carrying a club
as a weapon when his intent was to
use a sling, thus throwing his enemy
off his guard; his running directly to-
ward his enemy instead of maneuver-
ing for position, were all matters of
skill and not Of presumptuous reliance
on supernatural power. His faith gave
him a cool head, but his skilled hand
was the result Of drill. drill and more
drill through the dull days in the sheep
pastures.
The story Of David and Goliah is no
story of Jack the Giant Killer. There
is nothing Of the supernatural about
it. 1t could all have been naturally
done by the characters engaged in it.
And so human and probable is it that
few stories ever told may be made so
wholesome a moral stimulus to a grow
ing boy. God never gives skill-only
the opportunity to acquire it. And no
boy will ever become eminently great
who cannot from pure love of his work
hold himself to long accurate drill.
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