All Scripture combines in teaching us our need of constant watchfulness and dependence upon God, if we are to be here for Him in a true way, and of any real service to others.

The Lord's people so often think (or appear to) that they know better ways of serving His interests, they easily turn aside to their own way, only, alas! to prove in the end the bitter misery of it. This only betrays where we really are, and how far and how fast we depart at times from the way of faith and patience and true waiting upon God.

Absalom had sinned (2 Sam. xiii). He had sinned with deliberate and wicked purpose; and, as a consequence, was outside the privileges of Israel, and away from all the happy associations of his father's presence. He dwelt in Geshur, among a judged people, (i Sam. 27:8.) His sin was against the throne of David, as well as against his brethren; yet David's heart was toward him,-open, we may surely say, clay and night, for the repentance and return of the self-willed wanderer. This was right, and like God Himself, so far as it was a desire for a return upon a basis that should be for the glory of his throne, and the real blessing of Absalom as well as for the whole people.

Joab now conies before us as one who would fain help to right things, but being evidently a man without faith,- though with remarkable natural energy, which at times appeared to carry him on in such a path,- and having no wisdom from God, he works for a restoration that would be a dishonor to David's throne, and which would, in its turn, surely work – except the mercy of God intervene – its destruction, as well as that of David and Absalom too. In the carrying out of his scheme, through the wise woman of Tekoah, the basis of righteousness which sustains the throne of God is wanting; and David, failing to maintain this, opens the door to Absalom's return to Jerusalem. It is only a very distant and very partial restoration. There is much still wanting, for he is not permitted to see the king's face. Does this not evidence there is more than a doubt in the king's mind ?

Absalom, in whom there is no realization of his sin, cannot long remain satisfied with this. He has now a record of five years and more since the day of his judgment, and there has been no continuation of the sin for which he had been excluded. The blot in the past is there all unjudged, as well as the state of soul that produced it. But his present record,- what about that ? And so he must appear as one fully justified, and must stand in all the favor of the king. The unjust knoweth no shame, and he un-blushingly asks, Where is my sin ? " Let me see the king's face, and if there be any iniquity in me let him kill me." There is profusion of apparent humility, "and the king kissed Absalom." It was, indeed, a fatal kiss. How much for the sinning one, and all concerned, as well as the Lord's name, is involved in having the true mind of God in such circumstances. David had not been watching, 'and he slips easily into the fault of having too open a heart, and too much tenderness for one under a righteous sentence.

Perhaps it was pressed upon David that a change had come over Absalom; that the five years that had elapsed had not been marked by any distinct outbreak of the flesh, in what any mere natural judgment would distinguish as wicked. Any way he is at length restored to the fullest enjoyment of all the privileges of the court, as well as the favor of David; and this without one word of acknowledgment of his guilt, or judgment of his past.
The sequel shows the result of this lack of loins girt about with truth. " It came to pass after this." These words are full of meaning. " After this " Absalom exalts himself, and becomes a great man in his own thoughts. He will become popular also, evidencing, in the way he goes about it, the awful lack of principle that displays as surely his corrupt state as his original unveiled sin, although to the uncircumcised eye he is the opposite – everything that is good. But the moral condition is there, betraying not only that there is no wisdom and no fear of God, but also that there is a moral obliquity that infects others, corrupting and blinding them to what should seem to call for little eyesight to see. He flatters and kisses, and would be the friend to them that David is not; and at last he stole the hearts of the men of Israel.

One step leads on quickly to another. Many become defiled and an easy prey to the conceit and deceit of Absalom. Ahithophel comes forward to assist in a way kindred to Absalom's own; and now David suffers the consequences of his unwatchfulness and lack of salt in his dealings with Absalom. Who can estimate the far-reaching results of such a lack in ourselves as David shows ? Those judging by the sight of their eyes might point to the years of agreeableness which Absalom had shown, and the diligence which marked him in every good work and kindness to others; and if they at all acknowledged at length that blot in the remote past, by the later years they would judge and pass it all over. So David, but not so God. He cannot overlook that unjudged past; and in a fuller way this lesson is taught us in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Men may forget, or attempt by many ways to blot it out of the world or the mind of the world. Centuries may roll away, but for God and for the faith of His people that cross still stands, and speaks as surely of coming judgment as of present grace for every repentant soul. And if David be overtaken in a moment of unwatchfulness, God will take care of him and restore him again, but the results of his unfaithfulness fall more heavily on Absalom, whose cup is at length full, and who now brings down upon his own head the judgment of an accumulated lifetime of scheming and of sin.

David's grief has poignancy added to it (has it not ?) by the remembrance of his own failure in relation to one who was very near and very dear to his heart; by the remembrance, too, of what might have been, if he had been firm in the moment of testing, even though it should be thought by the Joabs and others that he was narrow and severe and lacking in love.

God's principles remain always the same, from beginning to end; and these scenes, drawn by the finger of God, are there for our warning; but also, in His goodness, "that we, through patience and comfort of the Scriptures, might have hope"; and He is "the God of Hope." So we may take fresh courage,-looking for a bright end, but remembering the journey is not yet over. Shall we not, then, earnestly seek to be not too fast and not too slow, but only and always to be imitators of God as dear children, walking thus in line toward one another and toward all. This love will be according to truth, and magnify God, and result in our truly serving the interests of Christ in His people here.

We need hearts as well as heads, perhaps even much more; and to let patience have her perfect work. The Lord helps us in these graces that we may abound in them, and that we judge not according to appearance, but judge righteous judgment. W. B.