p. 159Ladies and Gentlemen,—
You are well acquainted with the story of David. Perhaps you think there is nothing in the nature of that story to afford the kind of argument that I have employed in the cases already submitted to your attention. Let us see. I think we shall find it even richer in the materials and the kind of argument in question, and all the more cogent from the world-wide notoriety of such a case.
The argument will be that it is impossible to account for the existence of such a story as a story except on the principle that the things narrated did really happen; that none of the ordinary feelings, motives, or impressions that lead men to write untrue stories, could by any moral possibility operate to the production of this story: that, therefore, it is a true story, and that being a true story, it collaterally involves the truth of other p. 160 things that bring with them the truth of the entire scheme of revelation as embodied in the Bible.
First of all, you have Samuel sent to Bethlehem to anoint David in the room of Saul, who was rejected because of his imperfect compliances with the will of God. Samuel did not know David. He went to Bethlehem to find the house of Jesse, under the general assurance from God, “I have provided me a king among his sons” (1 Sam. xvi. 1). When he found the place and the man, he arranged for a muster of the family, which consisted of seven sons. Samuel did not know which of the sons was the chosen one. When he looked at the eldest (tall and handsome), Eliab, he said to himself, “Surely the Lord’s anointed is before him.” Samuel had before his mind the precedent of the choice of Saul, who was “head and shoulders above all the people,” and evidently expected a similar sort of man to be chosen on this occasion. “But the Lord said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart” (1 Sam. xvi. 7). Here we have to note a divergence of Divine and human rules of judgment, and a discrepancy between Samuel’s impressions and God’s intentions, which could not have become manifest in a recital of human conceptions. Samuel is exhibited as in ignorance of the matter, which a fictitious story would have been sure to have avoided. Then Jesse calls the next—Abinadab. The word of God to Samuel was, “Neither hath the Lord chosen this.” The third was called, with a similar result. The whole seven are passed in review with a like negative result. Samuel said to Jesse, “The Lord hath not chosen p. 161 these.” Samuel is nonplussed. God had said there was a future king of Israel among Jesse’s sons, and here, apparently, were the whole of them rejected. “And Samuel said to Jesse, Are here all thy children?” The fact was, the youngest had not been called on account of his youth and insignificance. Jesse said there was one more, but he was with the sheep in the field. Samuel demanded his instant attendance. He was sent for. As he entered the room—(ruddy, and of a beautiful countenance)—the Lord said to Samuel, “Arise, anoint him, for this is he.”
Thus the youngest is chosen, and this in opposition to Samuel’s prepossessions, and on the declared ground that “Man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.” Ladies and Gentlemen, any dealings you may have had with men must show you that such a feature as this could not be a human invention.
Then you have the treatment that David afterwards received at the hands of Saul, whose envy at his popularity compelled David to seek safety in flight. After a time, Saul follows him with a considerable body of soldiers, and tries in vain to find him in various parts of the land. David has to shift from place to place of concealment. Saul’s vigilance increasing, David flees to Gath to escape him. Here he is identified by the servants of Achish, the king of the place, whose fears on his account are aroused. To lull his fears David “changed his behaviour and feigned himself mad and scrabbled on the doors of the gate, and let his spittle fall down upon his beard.” This only made the fears of Achish more acute, and after a time David departed thence and escaped to the case of Adullam, where he was joined by “every one that was in distress, and every one that was in p. 162 debt, and every one that was discontented.” Over these he becomes a kind of guerilla captain. While his affairs are in this posture, he hears that the Philistines are attacking Keilah, a city of Judah, and feels moved to go against them. He enquires of the Lord if he will do so. The answer is “Yes.” But David’s men are afraid of the enterprize. They said, “Behold we be afraid here in Judah, how much more if we go against the armies of the Philistines?” So David enquires of the Lord, and the answer is (unlike the vague so-called oracles of the Greek priestesses), “Arise, go down to Keilah: for I will deliver the Philistines into thy hand.” So David and his men went to Keilah and fought with the Philistines successfully, and remained with the inhabitants of Keilah, whom they had saved. Saul hears that David is at Keilah, and resolves upon a military expedition against the place to catch David and his men. David is perplexed what to do. If he could be sure that the report is true and that the men of Keilah will be faithful to him, he would stay and resist the siege to which Saul would subject the place; but he could not be sure. He calls for Abiathar the priest to bring the ephod. He then addresses to God these pointed practical words, “O Lord God of Israel, thy servant hath certainly heard that Saul seeketh to come to Keilah to destroy the place for my sake. Will Saul come down as thy servant hath heard? And will the men of Keilah deliver me up into his hand?” And the Lord said (again so unlike the pretended oracles of Greece), “Saul will come down, and the men of Keilah will deliver thee up” (that is, if David stays), “So David and his men arose and departed out of Keilah.”
Would a fictitious narrative have represented a p. 163 great king of Israel in so humiliating a plight? And would such a narrative, on the supposition of David having delivered Keilah from the Philistines, have represented them as so ungrateful that they would betray their deliverer at the first pinch of fortune?
Saul continues his chase of David, and the two come into accidental proximity, in the same cave on the rocks at Engedi at night. David discovers the presence of Saul, and that Saul and his men are asleep. David’s men advise David to seize his opportunity and despatch his enemy. David refuses, saying, “The Lord forbid that I should do this thing unto my master, the Lord’s anointed, to stretch forth my hand against him, seeing he is the anointed of the Lord.” But he went so far as to steal over and cut off Saul’s skirt, and leave the cave with the mutilated garment in his hand. From a safe place he afterwards shouts to Saul and holds up the garment to him. “See the skirt of thy robe in my hand: for in that I cut off the skirt of thy robe and killed thee not, know thou and see that there is neither evil nor transgression in my hand. . . . The Lord judge between me and thee, and the Lord avenge me of thee, but mine hand shall not be upon thee.” Saul was naturally much moved at this incident, and weeping, said, “Is this thy voice, my son David? Thou art more righteous than I. . . . If a man find his enemy, will he let him go well away? Wherefore the Lord reward thee good for that thou hast done unto me this day. And now behold, I know well that thou shalt surely be king, and that the kingdom of Israel shall be established in thy hand. Swear now therefore unto me by the Lord that thou wilt not cut off my seed after me, and that thou wilt not destroy my name out of my father’s house. And David sware p. 164 unto Saul. And Saul went home: but David and his men gat them up unto the hold.”
But Saul came out again in a few months, the two met again in a similar way, and the meeting ended with similar friendliness, as the result of David’s self-restraint. But David began to be distrustful of the future. “David said in his heart: I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul. There is nothing better for me than that I should escape into the land of the Philistines” (1 Sam. xxvii. 1). So he went to Achish, King of Gath, who assigns him a town of residence at Ziklag, where David and his men lived for sixteen months. At the end of that time, during their temporary absence from Ziklag, on an expedition, a band of the Amalekites fall upon the place, seize everything, and the wives and the children, and the goods, burn the place down, and march away. When David and his men return and find the place a smoking desolation, “David and the people that were with him lifted up their voice and wept, until they had no more power to weep. . . . . And David was greatly distressed, for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters. But David encouraged himself in the Lord his God.” He calls for Abiathar, the priest, and the ephod, and enquires of God, “Shall I pursue after this troop, and shall I overtake them?” God answers: “Pursue, for thou shalt surely overtake them, and without fail recover all.” So David and his men start at once. They come upon the Amalekites encamped. They attack and overpower them, and rescue all the captives and the booty, and return to Ziklag.
I submit, Ladies and Gentlemen, that every feature p. 165 of these narratives is stamped with the impress of evident truth, and that their invention is “inconceivable.” I had hoped to have spoken of other features of David’s story, but I must leave them till our next meeting.