True Words for Brave Men

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"O eternal God who alone spreadest out the heavens, and rulest the raging
of the sea; who hast compassed the waters with bounds, until day and
night come to an end; be pleased to receive into Thy Almighty and most
gracious protection, the persons of us Thy servants, and the fleet in
which we serve. Preserve us from the dangers of the sea, and from the
violence of the enemy, that we may be a safeguard unto our most gracious
Sovereign Lady Queen Victoria and her dominions, and a security for such
as pass on the seas upon their lawful occasions; that the inhabitants of
our island may in peace and quietness serve Thee our God, and that we may
return in safety to enjoy the blessings of the land, with the fruits of
our labours, and with a thankful remembrance of Thy mercies, to praise
and glorify Thy holy name; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen."

Then, as I stood upon that deck, and heard that solemn appeal to God,
before each man went about his appointed duty for the day, said I to
myself, "The ancient spirit is not dead. It may be that it is sleeping
in these prosperous times. But it is not dead, as long as this nation by
those prayers confesses that we ought at least to believe in a God who
hears our prayers, by land and sea. Those grand words were perhaps
nothing but a form to most of the men who heard them. But they were a
form which bore witness to a truth which was true, even if they forgot
it--a truth which they might need some day, and feel the need of, and
cling to, as the sailors of old time clung to it. Those words would
surely sink into the men's ears, and some day, it might be, bear fruit in
their hearts. In storm, in wreck, in battle, and in the hour of death,
and in the day of judgment, these words would surely rise in many a brave
fellow's memory, and help him to do his duty like a man, because there
was a living Lord and God above him who knew his weakness and would hear
his prayers."

And we, my friends, here safe on land, we have a national prayer, or
rather a series of prayers, to Christ as God, which ought to remind us of
that noble truth which the 107th Psalm is meant to teach. You hear it
all of you every Sunday morning. I mean the Litany. That noble
composition, which seems to me more wise as a work of theology, more
beautiful as a work of art, the oftener I use it--That Litany, I say, is
modelled on the 107th Psalm; and it expresses the very heart and spirit
of our forefathers three hundred years ago. It bids us pray to be
delivered from every conceivable harm, to Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
And then it prays for every conceivable blessing, not only for each of us
separately, but for this whole nation of England, Great Britain, and
Ireland, and for all the nations on earth, and for the heathen and the
savage.

Of course, just because it is a National prayer, and meant for all
Englishmen alike, all of it does not suit each and every one of us at the
same time. Each heart knows its own bitterness. Each soul has its own
special mercy to ask. But there is a word in the Litany here, and
another there, which will fit each of us in turn, if we will but follow
it. One may have to pray to be delivered from pride, vain-glory, and
hypocrisy--another to be delivered from foul living and deadly
sin--another to be delivered, or to have those whom he loves delivered,
from battle, murder, and sudden death. Another to be delivered from the
dangers of affliction and tribulation; another from the far worse danger
of wrath; but all have to pray to be delivered from something. And all
have to pray to the same deliverer--Christ, who was born a Man, died a
man, and rose again a man, that He might know what was in man, and be
able to succour those who are tempted, seeing that He was tempted in all
things like as we are, yet without sin.

But there is a part--the latter part--of that Litany which, I think, many
do not understand or feel. Perhaps they have reason to thank God that
they do not understand or feel it; yet, the day may come--a day of
sadness, fear, perplexity, sorrow, when they will understand it, and
thank God that their forefathers placed it in the prayer-book, for them
to fall back upon, as comfort and hope in the day of trouble; putting
words into their mouths and thoughts into their hearts, which they,
perhaps, never would have found out for themselves.

I mean that latter part of the Litany which talks of the evils which the
craft and subtilty of the devil or men work against us, that they may be
brought to nought, and by the providence of God's goodness be dispersed,
that we may be hurt by no persecutions--which calls on Christ to arise
and deliver us, for His name's sake and His honour, which pleads before
God the noble works which He did in the days of our forefathers; and
which continues with short prayers, almost cries, which have something in
them of terror, almost of agony. What have such words to do with us? Why
are they put into the mouths of us English, safe, comfortable,
prosperous, above almost all the nations upon earth?

Ah! my friends, those prayers, when they were first put into our prayer-
book, were spoken for the hearts of Englishmen. They were not prayers
for one afflicted person here, and another there,--they, too, were
National prayers. They were the cries of the English nation in agony--in
the time when, three hundred years ago, the mightiest nations and powers
of Europe, temporal and spiritual, were set against this little isle of
England, and we expected not merely to be invaded and conquered, but
destroyed utterly and horribly with sword and fire, by the fleets and
armies of the King of Spain. In that great danger and war our
forefathers cried to God; and they cried all the more earnestly, because
they felt that their hands were not clean; that they had plenty and too
many sins to be "mercifully forgiven," and that at best they could but
ask God "mercifully to look upon their infirmities," and, "for the glory
of His name, turn from them those evils which they most righteously had
deserved." But nevertheless they cried unto God in their great agony,
because they had the spirit of the old Psalmist, who said, "They cried
unto the Lord in their trouble, and He delivered them out of their
distress."

And what answer God made to their prayers all the world knows, or should
know. For if He had not answered their prayer, we should not be here
this day, a great, and strong, and prosperous nation, with a pure Church
and a free Gospel, and the Holy Bible if he wills, in the hands of the
poorest child. Unless prayer be a dream, and there be no God in heaven
worth calling a God--then did God answer the prayers of our forefathers
three hundred years ago, when they cried unto Him as one nation in their
utter need.

But some will say--this may be all very true and very fine, but we are in
no such utter need now. Why should we use those prayers?

My dear friends, let me say, if you are not now in utter need, in terror,
anxiety, danger, if you have no need to cry to Christ, "Graciously look
upon our afflictions; pitifully behold the sorrows of our hearts," how do
you know that there is not some one in any and every congregation who is?
And you and I, if we have said the Litany in spirit and in truth, have
been praying for them. The Litany bids us speak as members of a Church,
as citizens of a nation, bound together by the ties of blood and of laws,
as well as self-interest. The Litany bids us say, not selfishly and
apart, Graciously look on _my_ afflictions, but on _our_ afflictions--the
afflictions of every English man, and woman, and child, who is in
trouble, or ever will be in trouble _hereafter_. Oh, remember this last
word. Generations long since dead and buried have prayed for you, and
God has heard their prayers; and now you have been praying for your
children, and your children's children, and generations yet unborn, that,
if ever a dark day should come over England, a time of want and danger
and perplexity and misery, God would deliver them in their turn out of
their distress. And more; you have been teaching your children, that
they may teach their children in turn, and pray and cry to God in their
trouble; and thus this grand old Litany is to us, and to those we shall
leave behind us a precious National heir-loom, teaching us and them the
lesson of the 107th Psalm--that there is a Lord in heaven who hears the
prayers of men, the sinful as well as the sorrowful, that when they cry
unto the Lord in their trouble, He delivers them out of their distress,
and that men should therefore praise the Lord for His goodness, and
declare the wonders which He doeth for the children of men.

XII. WILD TIMES, OR DAVID'S FAITH IN A LIVING GOD.

"David therefore departed thence, and escaped to the cave Adullam: and
when his brethren and all his father's house heard it, they went down
thither to him. And every one that was in distress, and every one
that was in debt, and every one that was discontented, gathered
themselves unto him; and he became a captain over them: and there were
with him about four hundred men."--1 SAM. xxii. 1, 2.

In every country, at some time or other, there have been evil days--days
of violence, tyranny, misrule, war, invasion, when men are too apt, for
want of settled law, to take the law into their own hands; and the land
is full of robbers, outlaws, bands of partizans and irregular
soldiers--wild times, in which wild things are done.

Of such times we here in England have had no experience, and we forget
how common they are; we forget that many great nations have been in this
state again and again. We forget that almost all Europe was in that wild
and lawless state in our fathers' times, and therefore we forget that the
Bible, which tells man his whole duty, must needs tell men about such
times as those, and how a man may do his duty, and save his soul therein.
For the Bible is every man's book, and has its lesson for every man. It
is meant not merely for comfortable English folk, who sit at home at
ease, under just laws and a good government. It is meant just as much
for the opprest, for the persecuted, for the man who is fighting for his
country, for the man who has been found fighting in vain, and is simply
waiting for God's help, and crying, "Lord, how long? how long ere Thou
avenge the blood that is shed?" It is meant as much for such as for you
and me; that every man, in whatever fearful times he may live, and
whatever fearful trials he may go through, and whatever fearful things he
may be tempted to do, and, indeed, may have to do, in self-defence, may
still be able to go to the Bible, there to find light for his feet, and a
lantern for his path, and so that he may steer through the worst of times
by Faith in the Living God.

Again, such lawless times are certain to raise up bold and adventurous
men, more or less like David. Men of blood--who are yet not altogether
bad men--who are forced to take the law into their own hands, to try and
keep their countrymen together, to put down tyrants and robbers, and to
drive out invaders. And men, too, suffering from deep and cruel wrongs,
who are forced for their lives' sake, and their honour's sake, to
escape--to flee to the mountains and the forests, and to foreign lands,
and there live as they can till times shall be better. There have been
such men in all wild times--outlaws, chiefs of armed bands, like our
Robin Hood, whose name was honoured in England for hundreds of years as
the protector of the poor and the opprest, and the punisher of the Norman
tyrants: a man made up of much good and much evil, whom we must not
judge, but when we think of him, only thank God that we do not live in
such times now, when no man's life or property, or the honour of his
family was safe.

Such men, too, in our fathers' days, were the Tyrolese heroes, Hofer and
the Good Monk who left, the one his farm and the other his cloister, to
lead their countrymen against the invading French; men of blood, who were
none the less men of God. And such is, in our own days, that famous
Garibaldi, whose portrait hangs in many an English cottage, for a proof
that though we, thank God, do not need such men in peaceful England, our
hearts bid us to love and honour them wherever they be. There have been
such men in all bad times, and there will be till the world's end, and
they will do great deeds, and their names will be famous, and often
honoured and adored by men.

Now, what does the Bible say of such men? Does it give any rule by which
we may judge them? any rule which they ought to obey? Can God's blessing
be on them? Can they obey God in that wild and dark and dangerous
station to which He seems to have called them--to which God certainly
called Hofer and the Good Monk?

I think if the Bible did not answer that question it would not be a
complete book--if it spoke only of peaceful folk, and peaceful times;
when, alas! from the beginning of the world, the earth has been but too
full of violence and misrule, war and desolation. But the Bible _does_
answer that question. A large portion of one whole book is actually
taken up with the history of a young outlaw--of David, the shepherd boy,
who rises through strange temptations and dangers to be a great king, the
first man who, since Moses, formed the Jews into one strong united
nation. It does not hide his faults, even his fearful sins, but it shows
us that he _had_ a right road to follow, though he often turned aside
from it. It shows us that he could be a good man if he chose, though he
was an outlaw at the head of a band of ruffians; and it shows us the
secret of his power and of his success--_Faith in the Living God_.

Therefore it is that after the Bible has shown us (in the Book of Ruth)
worthy Boaz standing among his reapers in the barley field, it goes on to
show us Boaz's great-grandson, David, a worthy man likewise, but of a
very different life, marked out by God from his youth for strange and
desperate deeds; killing, as a mere boy, a lion and a bear, overthrowing
the Philistine giant with a sling and a stone, captain of a band of
outlaws in the wilderness, fighting battles upon battles; and at last a
king, storming the mountain fortress of Jerusalem, and setting up upon
Mount Zion, which shall never be removed, the Throne of David. A strange
man, and born into a strange time. You all know the first part of
David's history--how Samuel secretly anoints David king over Israel, and
how the Spirit of the Lord comes from that day forward upon the young lad
(1 Samuel xvi. 12). How king Saul meanwhile fell into dark and bad
humours. How the Spirit of the Lord--of goodness and peace of mind--goes
from him, and an evil spirit from the Lord troubles him. Then how young
David is sent for to play to him on his harp (1 Samuel xvi.), and soothe
his distempered mind. Already we hear of David as a remarkable person;
we hear of his extraordinary beauty, his skill in music; we hear, too,
how he is already a man of war, and a mighty valiant man, and prudent in
matters, and the Lord is with him.

Then follows the famous story of his killing Goliath the Philistine (1
Samuel xvii.). Poor, distempered Saul, it seems, had forgotten him,
though David had cured his melancholy with his harp-playing, and had
actually been for a while his armour-bearer, for when he comes back with
the giant's head, Saul has to ask Abner who he is; but after that he will
let him go no more home to his father.

Then follows the beautiful story of Jonathan, Saul's gallant son (1
Samuel xviii.), and his love for David. Then of Saul's envy of David,
and how, in a sudden fit of hatred, he casts his javelin at him. Then
how he grows afraid of him, and makes him captain of a thousand men, and
gives him his daughter, on condition of David's killing him two hundred
Philistines. And how he goes on, capriciously, honouring David one day
and trying to kill him the next. While David rises always, and all
Israel and Judah love him, and he behaves himself more wisely than all
the servants of Saul. At last comes the open rupture. Saul, after
trying to murder David, sends assassins to his house, and David flees for
his life once and for all. He has served his master Saul loyally and
faithfully. There is no word of his having opposed Saul, set himself up
against him, boasted of himself, or in any way brought his anger down
upon him. Saul is his king, and David has been loyal and true to him.
But Saul's envy has grown to hatred, and that to murder. He murders the
priests, with all their wives and children, for having given bread and
shelter to David. And now David must flee into the wilderness and set up
for himself, and he flees to the cave of Adullam (1 Samuel xxii.); and
there you see the Bible does not try to hide what David's position was,
and what sort of men he had about him--his brethren and his father's
house, who were afraid that Saul would kill them instead of him, after
the barbarous Eastern fashion, and among them the three sons of Zeruiah,
his sister; and everyone who was discontented, and everyone who was in
debt, all the most desperate and needy--one can conceive what sort of men
they must have been. The Bible tells us afterwards of the wicked men and
men of Belial who were among them--wild men, with weapons in their hands,
and nothing to prevent their becoming a band of brutal robbers, if they
had not had over them a man in whom, in spite of all his faults, was the
Spirit of God.

We must remember, meanwhile, that David had his temptations. He had been
grievously wronged. Saul had returned him evil for good. All David's
services and loyalty to Saul had been repaid with ingratitude and
accusations of conspiracy against him. What terrible struggles of rage
and indignation must have passed through David's heart! What a longing
to revenge himself! He knew, too, for Samuel the prophet had told him,
that he should be king one day. What a temptation, then, to make himself
king at once! It was no secret either. The people knew of it. Jonathan,
Saul's son, knew of it, and, in his noble, self-sacrificing way, makes no
secret of it (1 Samuel xx.). What a temptation to follow the fashion
which is too common in the East to this day, and strike down his tyrant
at one blow, as many a man has done since, and to proclaim himself king
of the Jews. Yes, David had heavy temptations--temptations which he
could only conquer by faith in the Living God. And, because he masters
himself, and remains patient and loyal to his king under every insult and
wrong, he is able to master that wild and desperate band of men, and set
them an example of patience and chivalry, loyalty and justice; to train
them to be, not a terror and a scourge to the yeomen and peasants round,
but a protection and a guard against the Philistines and Amalekites, and,
in due time, his trusty bodyguard of warriors--men who have grown grey
beside him through a hundred battles, who are to be the foundation of his
national army, and help him to make the Jews one strong and united
prosperous kingdom.

All this the shepherd lad has to do, and he does it, by faith in the
Living God, and so makes himself for all ages to come the pattern of
perfect loyalty. And now, let us take home this one lesson--That the
secret of David's success is not his beauty, his courage, his eloquence,
his genius; other men have had gifts from God as great as David's, and
have misused them to their own ruin, and to the misery of their fellow-
men. No; the secret of David's success is his faith in the Living God;
and that will be the secret of our success. _Without_ faith in God, the
most splendid talents may lead a man to be a curse to himself and to his
neighbours. _With_ faith in God, a very common-place person, without any
special cleverness, may do great things, and make himself useful and
honoured in his generation.

XIII. DAVID AND NABAL, OR SELF-CONTROL.

"And David said to Abigail, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, which
sent thee this day to meet me: And blessed be thy advice, and blessed
be thou, which hast kept me this day from coming to shed blood, and
from avenging myself with mine own hand."--1 SAMUEL xxv. 32, 33.

The story of David and Nabal needs no explanation. It tells us of part
of David's education--of a great lesson which he learnt--of a great
lesson which we may learn. It is told with a dignity and a simplicity,
with a grace and liveliness which makes itself understood at once, and
carries its own lesson to any one who has a human heart in him.

"And there was a man in Maon, whose possessions were in Carmel"--the park
grass upland with timber trees--not the northern Carmel where Elijah slew
the prophets of Baal, but the southern one on the edge of the desert.
"And the man was very great, and he had three thousand sheep, and a
thousand goats: and he was shearing his sheep in Carmel. Now the name of
the man was Nabal; and the name of his wife Abigail: and she was a woman
of good understanding, and of a beautiful countenance: but the man was
churlish and evil in his doings; and he was of the house of Caleb." Caleb
was Joshua's friend, who had conquered all that land in Joshua's time.
Nabal, therefore, had all the pride of a man of most ancient and noble
family--and no shame to him if he had had a noble, courteous, and
generous heart therewith, instead of being, as he was, a stupid and
brutal person.

"And David heard in the wilderness that Nabal did shear his sheep. And
David sent out ten young men, and David said unto the young men, Get you
up to Carmel, and go to Nabal, and greet him in my name: And thus shall
ye say unto him that liveth in prosperity, Peace be to thee, and peace be
to thine house, and peace be to all that thou hast. And now I have heard
that thou hast shearers: now thy shepherds which were with us, we hurt
them not, neither was there ought missing unto them, all the while they
were in Carmel. Ask the young men, and they will show thee. Wherefore
let the young men find favour in thine eyes: for we come in a good day:
give, I pray thee, whatsoever cometh to thine hand unto thy servants, and
unto thy son David. And when David's young men came, they spake to
Nabal, according to all thee words of David, and ceased."

Nabal refuses; and in a way that shows, as his wife says of him, how well
his name fits him--a fool is his name, and folly is with him. Insolently
and brutally he refuses, as fools are wont to do. "And Nabal answered
David's servants, and said, Who is David? and who is the son of Jesse?
there be many servants now-a-days that break away every man from his
master. Shall I then take my bread, and my water, and my flesh that I
have killed for my shearers, and give it unto men whom I know not whence
they be?"

"As slaves break away from their master." This was an intolerable
insult. To taunt a free-born man, as David was, with having been a slave
and a runaway. It is hard to conceive how Nabal dared to say such a
thing of a fierce chieftain like David, with six hundred armed men at his
back; but there is no saying what a fool will not do when the spirit of
the Lord is gone from him, and his own fancy and passions lead him
captive.

So David's young men came and told David. "And David said to his men,
Gird every man on his sword. And they girded on every man his sword; and
David also girded on his sword: and there went up after David about four
hundred men; and two hundred abode by the stuff."

That is a grand passage--grand, because it is true to human nature, true
to the determined, prompt, kingly character of David. He does not
complain, bluster, curse over the insult as a weak man might have done.
He has been deeply hurt, and he is too high-minded to talk about it. He
will do, and not talk. A dark purpose settles itself instantly in his
mind. Perhaps he is ashamed of it, and dare not speak of it, even to
himself. But what it was he confessed afterwards to Abigail, that he
purposed utterly to kill Nabal and all his people. David was wrong of
course. But the Bible makes no secret of the wrong-doings of its heroes.
It does not tell us that they were infallible and perfect. It tells us
that they were men of like passions with ourselves, in order that by
seeing how they conquered their passions we may conquer ours.

Meanwhile, Nabal's young men, his servants and slaves, see the danger,
and go to Abigail. "One of the young men told Abigail, saying, Behold,
David sent messengers out of the wilderness to salute our master; and he
railed on them. But the men were very good unto us, and we were not
hurt, neither missed we any thing, as long as we were conversant with
them, when we were in the fields: They were a wall unto us both by night
and day, all the while we were with them keeping the sheep. Now
therefore know and consider what thou wilt do; for evil is determined
against our master, and against all his household: for he is such a son
of Belial, that a man cannot speak to him. Then Abigail made haste, and
took two hundred loaves, and two bottles of wine, and five sheep ready
dressed, and five measures of parched corn, and an hundred clusters of
raisins, and two hundred cakes of figs, and laid them on asses. And she
said unto her servants, Go on before me; behold, I come after you. But
she told not her husband Nabal."

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