AIDS to the Devout Study of Criticism
by Thomas Kelly Cheyne (9781459023444)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. THE CHARACTER OF DAVID (eontinued). l Sam. xlii. 14.?Jehovah hath sought him a man after his heart, and Jehovah hath appointed him to be prince over his people. An eminent cathedral preacher of our time uses these striking words,' We will be loyal ... to our high Christian pedigree, that knits us up to king, and saint, and martyr of old heroic days ; yes, loyal to it, even though there be woven into its tale scandals as terrible as Tamar's, memories as unhappy as those of Bathsheba and Rahab.'' The preacher is exhorting the congregation not to neglect or disavow their religious connexion with the past on account of the many blots upon the fair fame of the Church. The history of the Church is not in all respects what we could wish, and yet we will not, we must not too severely judge our spiritual ancestors, but will look out for those better,those nobler elements in them which we can sympathize with and reverence. Such too will, I think, be our right attitude towards the history of David. This great king's moral errors must in themselves be repugnant to us, but our blame for all but the worst of them will be neutralized by a comprehension of David's historical position, and even for his terrible fall reflexion enables us to make some charitable allowance. And we shall make it a point of conscience to search diligently for any features of his character which may justify a reverent affection for him on our part. ' II. S. Holland, In Beha1f of Belief, p. 207. Certainly David himself inspired a boundless affection in most of those who knew him. ' All Israel and Judah loved ' him, we are told (1 Sam. xviii. 16); he was in fact a born charmer. In proof of this let us appeal, not to the fickle Michal, nor to the faithful Jonathan, nor to David's ' three mighty...

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