CHAPTER IV.

DAVID AND GOLIAH.

IN the days of Samuel the Prophet, some five hundred years subsequent to the Exodus of the Children of Israel from Egyptian bondage, when "the Philistines gathered together their armies to battle at Socoh, and Saul and the men of Israel were gathered together, pitched in the valley of Elah, and set the battle in array against the Philistines; and the Philistines stood on a mountain on the one side, and Israel stood on a mountain on the other side: then went out a champion of the Philistines, named Goliath, of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span. And he had a helmet of brass upon his head, and he was armed with a coat of mail; and the weight of the coat was five thousand shekels of brass. And he had greaves of brass upon his legs, and a target of brass between his shoulders. And the staff of his spear was like a weaver's beam; and his spear's head weighed six hundred shekel's of iron: and one bearing a shield went before him. And he stood and cried unto the armies of Israel, and said unto them, Why are ye come out to set your battle in array? Am not I a Philistine, and ye servants to Saul?

Choose you a man for you and let him come down to me. If he be able to fight with me, and to kill me, then will we be your servants, but if I prevail against him, and kill him, then shall ye be our servants, and serve us. And the Philistine said, I defy the armies of Israel this day; give me a man that we may fight together."

Here again the battle is set. Israel, however they may have erred in individual and domestic character, proclaimed the name of the Lord Most High. Him they adored. They bore the ark of the covenant. God had chosen them from the nations of the earth, and set them apart, a people through whom to record his law; and unfold his merciful manifestations to man through whom the Messiah should appear. Therefore in defying the armies of Israel, the Philistine defied the Divine Spirit whom the Israelites worshiped as the living God.

Again, then, the wicked spirit sought to defeat the purposes of the Divine Being, by cutting off the chosen people, thereby preventing the fulfillment of the promise made to Abraham, saying, "In thee and in thy seed shall all nations of the earth be blessed." Through the House of Israel, the Stronger was promised. Even the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, the bright and Morning Star, the Conqueror. Hence the evil spirit foresaw that through the

seed of Abraham God had determined the manifestation of THE SPIRIT, in the person of Jesus. Nor did he fail to exert his power and device to destroy the children of Israel, and by their extermination defeat the Divine Purpose. In the person of Goliath the chosen people, and in them, their God was defied. How frail is man! how weak his faith! God had saved Israel by his power in every emergency, and yet, "When Saul and all Israel heard those words of the Philistines, they were dismayed, and greatly afraid."

Upon the mountain the Spirit had been fitting a shepherd boy, by and through whom this external medium of evil should fall. Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord. Therefore, to reveal his Glory, the trained hosts were permitted to feel their weakness, to tremble and be afraid before the bold blasphemer; and a lad bearing a sling and shepherd's bag, containing five smooth stones from the brook, was inspired to enter the alarmed camp.

"And

The Philistine drew near morning and evening, and presented himself forty days. David rose up early in the morning, and left the sheep with a keeper, and took, and went as Jesse had commanded him; and he came to the trench, as the host was going forth to fight and shouted for the battle. For Israel and the Philistines

had put the battle in array, army against army. And behold, then came up the champion, the Philistine of Gath, Goliath by name, out of the armies of the Philistines, and spake according to the same words: and David heard them, and said, Who is this uncircumcised, that he should defy the armies of the living God? And he said to Saul, Let no man's heart fail because of him; thy servant will go and fight with the Philistine. And Saul said, thou art not able. And David said, Thy servant when attacked by both the lion and the bear, slew them; and this uncircumsized Philistine shall be as one of them, seeing he hath defied the armies of the living God. The Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the jaw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine.

"And he took his staff in his hand, and chose him five smooth stones out of the brook, and put them in the shepherd's bag, (vessel) and his sling was in his hand: and he drew near to the Philistine. And the Philistine came on and drew near unto David: and the man that bare the shield went before him. And when the Philistine saw David he disdained him, for he was but a youth; and said, Am I a dog, that thou comest to me with staves? And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. And said, Come to me, and I will give thy flesh to the

fowls of the air, and to the beasts of the field.

"Then said David to the Philistine, Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of Hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied. This day will the Lord deliver .thee into my hand: and I will smite thee, and take thine head from thee; and I will give the carcasses of the hosts of the Philistines this day unto the fowls of the air, and to the wild beasts of the earth; that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. And all this assembly shall know that the Lord saveth not with the sword and spear: for the battle is the Lord's, and he will give you into our hands."

SO.

In this history the two principles are clearly manifested. Nothing could render them more Goliah is the chosen medium for the conflict, and proudly defies the people through whom God had covenanted to bless the world; and the issue was brought at a period when Israel manifested little of the spirit and power of Godli

ness.

The Hebrews gathered upon an eminence over against the Philistines, in warlike manner, stood as the external representatives of the Spirit of Truth. Goliath defied; Israel trembled. Days and weeks passed lingeringly away, bring