side, which, from a neglect of the remedies usually applied in such cases, terminated fatally. I saw him but a short time previous to his decease, when he was perfectly sensible, and recognized all his friends. At that time he breathed with great difficulty, but he was quite resigned to his fate, and tranquillity had evidently taken possession of his mind. He seemed to be peacefully enjoying the pleasures so beautifully described in the hymn, "While some in folly's pleasures roll, And seek the joys which hurt the soul, A peaceful conscience to the last. * With this companion in the shade From six o'clock in the evening till half-past nine, when he breathed his last, he appeared to be in an easy and composed sleep; not a muscle was agitated, and he expired without a sigh or a groan. Indeed, so perfectly easy and gentle was his passage to eternity, that those who were attending him were not aware that the "silver chain was loosed" till some moments after his decease. I have been thus particular in describing the events which immediately preceded his death, because it is sometimes said that "a Unitarian cannot die in peace." If those who make this rash and unfounded assertion (and there are many who do mistakingly avow this to be the case, but if such persons) could have been present when William Cowley breathed his last, I trust they would not only have banished the erroneous conviction from their hearts, but would even have had pious and virtuous feeling sufficient to tempt them to exclaim, "O may I too die the death of the righteous, and may my last end be like his!" My deceased friend was borne to the grave on the morning of Wednesday following, by eight members of the congregation to which he belonged, at the hour of eleven, the curate of the parish having refused to comply with the wishes of his surviving family to attend at an earlier hour. He is now "Where the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest.” Thus lived and thus died William Cowley, upwards of thirty years one of the trustees of the Unitarian Chapel, Totnes, in the county of Devon, ROBERT LAMPEN. CORRESPONDENCE. Communications have been received from Mr. Worsley; N.; &c. THE Christian Reformer. No. CXXXIX.] JULY, 1826. [Vol. XII, Essay on the History and Character of David. DAVID was the youngest son of Jesse, an inhabitant of Bethlehem, whose sheep he tended; having the entire care of them, while his brethren were serving in Saul's forces against the Philistines. He possessed great personal beauty, agility and strength; and his pastoral life, in a country comparatively wild and uninclosed, gave scope for the exercise of his active and courageous habits. To these accomplishments he added skill in the instrumental music of the times; and such qualifications recommended him afterwards to Saul, of whom he was made the armourbearer. Thus much we know of his youth, previously to his being introduced into public life. God having determined that the descendants of Saul should not fill the kingly office, Samuel went to the house of Jesse and anointed David, in token of his being destined to occupy the throne, whenever it became vacant, Men who are conscious of being marked out for a post of great dignity and power, and of being endowed with the talents requisite for obtaining and preserving it, usually burn with a desire of placing themselves as soon as possible in so elevated a station. David, however, was remarkably free from this fever of ambition; and we cannot but admire the singular modesty of his deportment in circumstances which commonly puff up inexperienced youth with vanity and pride: how unassuming were his language and behaviour in every part of his successful combat with Goliah! How modest was he, when honoured with the applauses of the Israelitish army, and with substantial tokens of his sovereign's approbation! Nothing equals his humility, except his collected fortitude: though confident of victory, he derives his confidence from faith in God, rather than from reliance on the skill and bravery which his manner of life had cherished. A stripling, a shepherd-boy, he conquered, with his single arm, the champion, from whom the boldest warriors of Israel had retired in dismay: and he conquered him with the simple implements of a sling and a stone. The fight was remarkable, not merely for the combatants, but for its conse quences. Present safety was ensured to the Israelites, and further stability to the throne; while David was taken into the family of Saul, with whose son Jonathan he soon contracted the friendship of a congenial mind. The caprice, nevertheless, of the reigning monarch, his envious jealousy and tyrannical disposition, quickly made it requisite for David to escape from the palace, to wander in the most uncultivated parts of the country, and even to seek refuge in the territories of the Philistines. Saul's conduct towards him, in this period of his history, was uncommonly treacherous and cruel, and the fugitive was repeatedly placed in situations which tried the strength of his moral and religious principles. In these circumstances, he behaved with a forbearance and generosity of which there are not many examples, and twice spared the life of his relentless persecutor, when he had him in his power. On the death of Saul and of Jonathan, he ascended the throne, not, however, without a harassing opposition from the family and adherents of the deceased sovereign. Here again, as well as in the provision which he made for one of Jonathan's descendants, we see him giving proof of great moderation and goodness of spirit. It was evidently his aim to avoid the use of violence: he did not procure or maintain his sceptre by spilling innocent blood; and, though, for a large portion of his reign, he was engaged in wars with the surrounding nations, he was not eager to take up the sword, or unwilling to return it to its scabbard. I shall not pass over his conduct towards Bathsheba and Uriah: this was a combination of two most aggravated offences, which no individual, except an Eastern monarch, could well have the power of committing. Nathan, by a most apposite and touching parable, roused David's conscience from its slumbers, and filled him with remorse and penitence the appeal was, in every view, honourable to the prophet, whose courage and fidelity were fully equalled by the skill and eloquence of his reproof; and it was, at the same time, honourable to the king, who listened with an obedient ear to this wise reprover. Sacred History, uniformly impartial, has recorded the guilt of David, and his contrition: it has related, too, his heavy punishment. Disunion and wickedness prevailed among his children: a favourite son excited and headed a rebellion against him; driving the unhappy prince from his palace, but finally losing his own life in this unnatural attempt to gain pos session of the crown. By these events David was deeply humbled and afflicted; yet his spirit and his language were those of perfect resignation; and never perhaps did his character shine forth with so bright a lustre. Even his declining age was scarcely permitted to enjoy repose: his dying pillow was disturbed by the murmurs of sedition and the shouts of treason. He had destined Solomon to succeed him in the government; and, apprehending the evils of a disputed succession, had caused him to be anointed king during his life-time. Adonijah, however, another of his sons, became a competitor for the sceptre; gaining over to his interest some of the chief persons in the realm, Happily the revolt was soon quelled, and Solomon, to whom the expiring monarch confided the execu tion of some important designs, which he himself was not. permitted to accomplish, reigned over all Israel. If we survey David as a man, we shall perceive that, with considerable talents for active life and public business, he united dispositions which, in the main, were just, ber nevolent and pious, and a strength of moral and religious principle which had an almost uniform ascendancy over his deportment. No slight evidence of his devotional taste is furnished by the number of the compositions, still extant, in which he breathes the very soul of pious reverence, gra titude, resignation, trust, desire, hope, and joy; these he framed in different spots and circumstances; and, for variety, grandeur, elegance and impressiveness, they maintain, and will always maintain, a high place in the regard of every sincere and fervent worshiper of the true. God. Nor would it be difficult to produce examples of the compassion to a prostrate foe, of the long-suffering amidst unprovoked injuries, and of the wise regulation of the pas sions, which David manifested. As a sovereign, he would have been happier if the course of his reign had been less marked by turbulence; and more respectable, had circumstances enabled him to cultivate, like Solomon, the arts of peace. But, if the characters of princes are to be read in the condition and affections of their subjects, what should restrain us from bestowing on David's memory the praise of a beneficent and righteous king? With the exception of those whom treason drew over to the standard of Absalom, the hearts of the people were knit to David: he found the nation disunited, and he left it in a state of concord; he found it weak, depressed, and in danger of being totally overrun by its enemies; and he left it strong, triumphant and secure, enjoying, without molestation, the regular administration of justice and exercise of religion. The feelings of David were at once powerful and tender, and his kindness as a father could not be surpassed; though candour and impartiality require us to admit that it might have been more enlightened. He indulged Adonijah; he indulged Absalom; and each of them resisted: his authority and wishes, and traitorously aspired to his throne. But whose heart, if not that of a parent, in nearly the same circumstances with his, can conceive of his agony on hearing of the death of Absalom ? The shouts of victory are drowned in the loud exclamations of grief which refuses to be comforted; the triumphant warrior is forgotten in the deeply afflicted father. It cannot, I think, be reasonably denied, that David was a prophet. The harp of this sweet singer of Israel occasionally vibrates to a more than mortal touch; its notes rise in majesty as they utter the sound of those gladtidings of great joy, which had the ministry and the gospel of Jesus Christ for their subject. All things," says our Lord, "must be accomplished, which are written in THE PSALMS Concerning me." On reading this declaration, can we harbour a doubt whether the Psalms contain predictions of the Messiah? Not that, like some professors of Christianity, we can discover him in nearly every verse of them: this is the other and a very injurious extreme. Still the son of Jesse has not been totally silent concerning the founder and the glories of the Christian dispensation." David, in spirit," under the special impulse of the Deity, "calls" our Saviour "Lord." highly poetical genius which elevates and delights us by its descriptions of the wonders of creation, which melts our hearts by its elegiac strains over Saul and Jonathan, and which engages our sympathy with its possessor, when he is forced into dens and caves of the earth, and when he bewails his absence from the sanctuary of his God, this same lofty genius sometimes delineates evangelic scenes, and speaks in hallowed accents of far the most illustrious of the posterity of David. The In the judgment both of Jews and Christians, David was, on several accounts, one of the most memorable persons whom the world has, at any time, seen. But some of the friends of revelation, not less than many of its enemies, have been unjust in their estimate of him. I am |
