Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1920-08-14
SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSON
THE SINS AND SORROW OF
DAVID.
II Samuel, 1870; 1S.1-15.
Golden text: whatsoever a
man soweth that shall he also
reap."-Galatians 81.
ny REV. HUGH T. STEVENSON.

Humanity has tendency to idolize
Its heroes. England forgets the Duke
OF wellington. the man, in the great
conqueror contribution to her glory
Scotland has placed a veil over the
clouded life of Burns. who had many
things In common with David. in the
glory OF his poetic genius. Biogra-
piers gloss over the sins of the men
whose lives they are writing. The
Hebrew historians do not place halo
about the brow of Israels great men.
heroes of faith the story of their
faults, failures and folly. The scrip
lures have noted the waywardness.
w1ckedness and wrongs of men to
teach the folly of sin. In this lesson
we are called upon to follow the
trail of the serpent" in the life of
David and see in the kings sorrow
the results of his sin and the fruits
of his iniquity.
The detailed account of his low.
cowardly, vile and vulgar sin is given
In III Samuel, IL. While the Bible
does not give any extenuating cir
cumstances or explanation of David's
sin, he was. with the exception of
that great outstanding sin, on the
whole. better than his day He had
attempted to conceal his iniquity. but
ne could not escape the condemna-
lion or God. who sent the kings per-
sonal friend and biographer Nathan.
the prophet. to reprove David for his
SINS or immortality and murder. The
beautiful parable that the prophet
used to bring conviction to the king
is given in the opening verse of the
IZth chapter. from which the prophets
rebuke and prediction of the punish
ment of the king has been taken
Sin is ALWAYS Nv
DaVld's sorrows were the bitter con-
sequences of his despising Gods
word so that he committed evil in
the Lords sight. Broken laws of
nome. of state. or of God will bring
disaster. dishonor and death, for
whatsoever a man soweth, that shall
he also reap.
While David was a man. accord
ing to Gods own heart, his sins re-
veal that he was a man who was
o on human. He did not sin be-
cause OF being a man after Gods own
heart. but in spite of it. He proved
by his sincere repentance his better
nature. If he had not been in the
main a godly man. he would have
remained in his sin and made no eff
Tort to acknowledge his guilt or to
rise from the degradation into which
he had fallen. All men sin. The I'M
cody man when he falls into sin
continues therein and delights in his
immoral relations. The cody man
when he falls. repents. quits it and
seeks to overcome it by crying unto
God for peace, pardon and power. If
David failed then all are in danger of
failing aud shining against Gods law.
The cause of the kings fall can be
Paul calls the flesh. 1n every man
the flesh lusteth against the spirit
and the spirit against the flesh" His
iniquity was inbred Detestable as his
double sins were, let him be judged in
the light of his day and generation.
of an eastern monarch. The annals of
the east will furnish many another
as dark and mean sin as that of Da-
vid, who failed partly because of the
Prosperity had made the human
source Of his greatness his weakness.
His greatness as a ruler, his gener-
osity of heart. his strong feelings. his
rich emotional nature, his generous
impulsiveness. his brave and magnetic
personality made him a subject for
sins of q certain nature amid the lux
ury of the palace.
He had "tarried at Jerusalem" while
his men were engaged in battle.
There was no other reason for this
than that he preferred the palace
with its luxury and protection to the
hardship and peril of the camp. IT
he had been with his men at the front
he would not have been tempted. by
his environment. 1t was during Pc
palace upon a nearby scene that sin
found a place in his thought. He was
ut the age when men face their
greatest moral danger. His conscience
that had been bent by his polygamous
practices. his unbridled passions had
been fostered by his lawlessness and
RIGHTEOUSNESS that made it difficult
for him to resist the temptation.
There is no reason to condemn Bath
sheba, although she was contribu-
day by immodest dress may uncon-
sciousiy contribute toward the sin
A series of tragedies followed the
sin Of the king. who in his prosperity
forgot the God who had made him
to be the king over the united
kingdom. Following 1.-The trail of the
serpent" in the life of David one
sees how in spite of his repentance
he reaped what he had sowed, so
were fulfilled: Now. therefore. the
sword shall not depart from thine
house" The penal consequences of
his sins took the form of family
trials and national troubles that
crushed his spirit and made him a
changed man.
The memory of his own sin made
him a doting father who overlooked
the crimes Of his own children. The
newer of example and practice of the
father mold the life of a son like
that of a mother does the character
of her daughter. 1t is difficult for
one to punish a child for repeating
the offense of a parent. David's guilt
was repeated in the sin of Ammon
and his murder by the hand OF Absa-
lom. David's physical beauty ap-
pears to have especially descended to
his children by Macaah. the daughter
of the heather king, Talmai OF
Geshur; for it is said of Absalom
that "in all Israel there was none so
much to be praised for his beauty;
from the sole of his feet even to the
crown of his head there was no blem-
ish in him." and of his sister lamar
il is recorded that she was fair to
look upon. Her personal attractive
ness made her the object of an I'M
holy passion on the part OF her half
brother Ammon, who, having accom-
plished his purpose with the diaboli-
4 cal assistance of unprincipled MEM
hers of the court, sent her away dis
honored from his door. If David had
rebuked Tamar's wrong he might
have been spared the trials that fol-
lowed from Absalom, who took into
his hands the punishment OF Ammon:
Dayid's weakness as father, as we'll
as a king, is seen in the fact that
he allowed Ammon's death at the
hands of Absalom to go unavenged
He loved his children to that extent
. that he did not punish them for their
sins. especially when they were fol-
lowing in his own footsteps.
His weakness as father resulted
in his children growing up filled with
ingratitude and iniquity. His mis-