In

man who had lifted his sword against the Lord's anointed. friendship and love, and also in domestic affection, he was not less notable than in heroical endowments, and in piety to God he was most remarkable of all. He had to flee from his bedchamber in the dead of night; his friendly meetings had to be concerted upon the perilous edge of captivity and death, his food he had to seek at the risk of sacrilege; for a refuge from death he cast himself upon the people of Gath, to counterfeit idiocy, and become the laughing-stock of his enemies. And who shall tell of his hidings in the cave of Adullam, and of his wanderings in the wilderness of Ziph-in the weariness of which he had power to stand before his armed enemy with all his host, and by the generosity of his deeds, and the affectionate language which flowed from his lips, to melt into childlike weeping that obdurate spirit of King Saul, which had the nerve to evoke the spirits of the dead! King David was a man extreme in all his excellencies—a man of the highest strain, whether for counsel, for expression, or for action, in peace and in war, in exile and on the throne. That such a warm and ebullient spirit should have given way before the tide of its affections, we wonder not. We rather wonder that, tried by such extremes, his mighty spirit should not often have burst control, and enacted right forward the conqueror, the avenger, and the destroyer. But God, who anointed him from childhood, had given him store of the best natural and inspired gifts, which preserved him from sinking under the long delay of his promised crown, and kept him from contracting any of the craft or cruelty of a hunted, persecuted man. And adversity did but bring out the splendour of his character, which might have slumbered like the fire in the flint, or the precious metal in the dull and earthly ore.

But to conceive aright of the gracefulness and strength of King David's character, we must draw him into comparison with men similarly conditioned; and then we shall see how vain the world is to cope with him. Conceive a man who had saved his country, and clothed himself with gracefulness and renown in the sight of all the people by the chivalry of his deeds, won for himself intermarriage with the royal line, and by unction of the Lord's prophet been set apart to the throne itself; such a one conceive driven, with fury, from house and hold, and through tedious years deserted of every stay but heaven, with no soothing sympathies

of quiet life, harassed for ever between famine and the edge of the sword, and kept in savage holds and deserts; and tell us, in the annals of men, of one so disappointed, so bereaved and straitened, maintaining not fortitude alone, but sweet composure, and a heavenly frame of soul, inditing praise to no avenging deity, and couching songs in no revengeful mood, according with his outcast and unsocial life; but inditing praises to the God of mercy, and songs which soar into the third heavens of the soulnot, indeed, without the burst of sorrow and the complaint of solitariness, and prophetic warnings to his bloodthirsty foes, but ever closing in sweet preludes of good to come, and desire of present contentment. Find us such a one in the annals of men, and we yield the argument of this controversy. Men there have been driven before the wrath of kings to wander outlaws and exiles, whose musings and actings have been recorded to us in the minstrelsy of our native land. Draw these songs of the exile into comparison with the Psalms of David, and know the spirit of the man after God's own heart; the stern defiance of the one, with the tranquil acquiescence of the other; the deep despair of the one, with the rooted trust of the other; the vindictive imprecations of the one, with the tender regret and forgiveness of the other. Show us an outlaw who never spoiled the country which had forsaken him, nor turned his hand in self-defence or revenge upon his persecutors, who used the vigour of his arm only against the enemies of his country-yea, lifted up his arm in behalf of that mother, which had cast her son, crowned with salvation, away from her bosom, and held him at a distance from her love, and raised the rest of her family to hunt him to the death; in the defence of that thankless, unnatural mother country, find us such a repudiated son lifting up his arm, and spending its vigour in smiting and utterly discomfiting her enemies, whose spoils he kept, not to enrich himself and his ruthless followers, but dispensed to comfort her and her happier children. Find us among the Themistocles and Coriolani, and Cromwells and Napoleons of the earth, such a man, and we will yield the argument of this controversy which we maintain for the peerless son of Jesse.

But we fear that not such another man is to be found in the recorded annals of men. Though he rose from the peasantry to fill the throne and enlarge the borders of his native land, he gave

himself neither to ambition nor to glory; though more basely treated than the sons of men, he gave not place to despondency or revenge; though of the highest genius in poetry, he gave it not license to sing his own deeds, nor to depict loose and licentious life, nor to ennoble any worldly sentiment, or attachment of the human heart, however virtuous or honourable, but constrained it to sing the praises of God, and the victories of the right hand of the Lord of Hosts, and His admirable works, which are of old from everlasting. And he has dressed out religion in such a rich and beautiful garment of Divine poesy as beseemeth her majesty, in which, being arrayed, she can stand up, before the eyes even of her enemies, in more royal state than any personification of love, or glory, or pleasure, to which highly gifted mortals have devoted their genius.

The force of his character was vast, and the scope of his life was immense. His harp was full-stringed, and every angel of joy and of sorrow swept over the chords as he passed; but the melody always breathed of heaven. And such oceans of affection lay within his breast as could not always slumber in their calmness. For the hearts of a hundred men strove and struggled together within the narrow continent of his single heart. And will the scornful men have no sympathy for one so conditioned, but scorn him because he ruled not with constant quietness, the unruly host of divers natures which dwelt within his single soul? Of selfcommand, surely he will not be held deficient, who endured Saul's javelin to be so often launched at him, while the people without were willing to hail him king; who endured all bodily hardships and taunts of his enemies, when revenge was in his hand; and ruled his desperate band like a company of saints, and restrained them from their country's injury. But that he should not be able to enact all characters without a fault, the simple shepherd, the conquering hero, and the romantic lover; the perfect friend, the innocent outlaw, and the royal monarch; the poet, the prophet, and the regenerator of the church; and withal the man, the man of vast soul, who played not these parts by turns, but was the original of them all, and wholly present in them all-oh! that he should have fulfilled this high priesthood of humanity, this universal ministry of manhood, without an error, were more than human! With the defence of his backslidings, which he hath himself more keenly scrutinized, more clearly discerned against,

and more bitterly lamented than any of his censors, we do not charge ourselves; but if, when of these acts he became convinced, he be found less true to God and to righteousness; indisposed to repentance, and sorrow, and anguish; exculpatory of himself; stout-hearted in his courses; a formalist in his penitence, or in any way less worthy of a spiritual man in those, than in the rest of his infinite moods, then, verily, strike him from the canon, and let his psalms become monkish legends, or what you please. But if these penitential psalms discover the soul's deepest hell of agony, and lay bare the iron ribs of misery, whereon the very heart dissolveth; and if they, expressing the same, in words which melt the soul that conceiveth, and bow the head that uttereth them-then, we say, let us keep these records of the Psalmist's grief and despondency, as the most precious of his utterances, and sure to be needed in the case of every man who essayeth to live a spiritual life.

Essay on the Psalms.

THEORY AND PRACTICE.

JANE TAYLOR.

ONE evening during the vacation, Frank, a tall school-boy, amused his younger brother Harry, by reading an essay which had gained him the first prize at school. The subject was Self-denial. Frank was a clever lad, and had acquitted himself very well. He represented his subject in so striking a light, that it made considerable impression on the mind of his young auditor; who, as soon as it was finished, thanked his brother for his good advice, and expressed a determination of endeavouring to profit by it. "I am afraid,” said he, "I have never learned to deny myself as I ought; but I hope, brother Frank, that I shall not forget this lesson of yours: I wish now you would be so kind as to give me some more good hints on the subject."

Now Frank, not considering this the best possible compliment that could be paid to his composition, felt disappointed that, instead of commenting upon the force of his arguments, or the graces of his style, he should begin gravely to moralize upon it; and it confirmed him in a favourite opinion of his, that his brother Harry had not a spark of genius, nor ever would have.

Harry repeated his request; but, finding his brother more inclined to discuss the merits, and relate the success of his essay, than to draw a practical improvement from it, he contented himself with his own private resolutions. "To-morrow," said he to himself, “ to-morrow morning I will begin.” But why not begin to-night? The clock had just struck, and Harry recollected that his mother had desired them not to sit up a minute after the clock struck nine. He reminded his brother of this order. "Never mind," said Frank, "here's a famous fire, and I shall stay and enjoy it." “Yes,” said Harry, “here is a famous fire, and I should like to stay and enjoy it; but that would not be self-denial, would it, Frank?" "Nonsense!" said Frank, "I shall not stir yet, I promise you." "Then good-night to you," said Harry.

Now, whether his brother was correct in his opinions of Harry's want of genius, we shall not stay to inquire; indeed, it is a question of very little importance, either to us or to him; since it cannot be denied, that his reflections, and his conduct, on this occasion, displayed good sense, good principle, and strength of character; and these are sterling qualities, for which the brightest sparks of genius would be a poor exchange.

Six o'clock was the time at which Harry was expected to rise; but not unfrequently since the cold weather set in, he had indulged an hour longer. When it struck six the next morning, he started up; but the air felt so frosty, that he had a strong inclination to lie down again. "But no!" thought he, "here is a fine opportunity for self-denial ;" and up he jumped without further hesitation.

"Frank, Frank," said he to his sleeping brother-" past six o'clock, and a fine star-light morning." "Let me alone," cried Frank, in a cross, drowsy voice. “Very well, then; a pleasant nap to you,” said Harry, and down he ran as gay as a lark.

After finishing his Latin exercise, he had time to take a pleasant walk before breakfast this morning; so that he came in fresh and rosy; with a good appetite; and, what was still better, in a good humour.

But poor Frank, who had just tumbled out of bed when the bell rang for prayer, came down, looking pale, and cross, and cold, and discontented. Harry, who, if he had no genius, had some sly drollery of his own, was just beginning to rally him on his forlorn appearance, when he recollected his resolution. "Frank does