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whole service. The preacher put his hand on the fellow’s head and said, “ Young man, ‘Be not deceived, God is not mocked; for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap’.” A month from that time this young man pushed his bride off the precipice at Niagara Falls. Six months later he was electrocuted as a murderer. The preach er’s words became true because they were God’s words. Y. 1. David numbered the people. These were the people who remained true to him. They chose to suffer with him. David had a personal interest in each of them. COMMENTS FROM Something l i k e MANY SOURCES this must he the Keith U. Brooks meaning of Matt. 10:13. Those who remain true to . Christ must suffer with Him.— Eliott. v. 2. I will go forth with you. Christ has promised to be with His disciples and though it is not in bodily presence, yet they who know Him know that He is with them just the same (Matt. 28: 20). Sent forth a third part. Like Absalom, the antichrist the false Mes siah, will gather his armies against the greater David and against Jerusalem (Rev. 19:19). From the beginning there has been a conspiracy against God’s Christ, the covenant King. (Matt. 3:1; Lk. 4:28, 29; Matt. 22:15; Lk. 20:20; Matt. 26:14-16; 28:11-15). At last this conspiracy will reach the height of au dacity when the devil incarnating him self in the man of sin, shall set himself up in the rebuilt temple at Jerusalem and demand the world to receive him. (2 Thess. 2:3, 4; 1 Jn. 2:22).-^Halde- man. v. 3. Thou shalt not go forth. It is not always necessary to be at the post of danger to do real service.— Sel. Thou art worth ten thousand of us. Of Him who according to the flesh is the Son of David, we say, “ He alone is worthy.”— Gaebelein. v. 5. The king commanded. David knows he is going to conquer as well as he knew it when he went against the giant. The confidence which is breathed in the third Psalm is apparent here. Faith saw his enemies already defeated. -—Blaikie. Deal gently with Absalom.
We see how bad a child may be to the best of fathers and how good a father may be to the worst of children.— S. & W. The praises of a mother’s love are often sung but this chapter teaches us that a father can be just as passionate and unreasoning.— Gray. This charge proceeded not only from his affection but from his consciousness that this rebel lion was the chastisement of his own crimes, Absalom being only an instru ment in the hands of retributive provi dence.— J. F. & B. How many a weep ing father or mother has made this same plea to some human court of justice. In this case David was both father and plaintiff. So Christ advocates for us guilty ones at the court of divine justice. — Echoes. It is only a faint shadow of that love which moved the eternal and holy God to love such as we were, to love us while we were dead and corrupt in trespasses and sins (Eph. 2 :1 ).—Hal- deman. A thankless child brings more suffering than a serpent’s tooth.— Cook. v. 7. There was a great slaughter. The overwhelming victory was a type of the final victory that shall end our David’s conflict with His foes. (Rev. 19: 11-21; 2 Thess. 2:8).-—Torrey. v. 8. The wood devoured people. God is not tied down to human means. Nature fights for us if we are in God’s will.— Brooks. The thickness of the wood, its swamps and precipices, etc., militated against the fugitives and in creased the slaughter.— Dummelow. v. 9. Absalom rode a mule. He was no longer riding in a chariot with horses and fifty men to run before him, (15:1) but on a mule with his men running away from him.:—Torrey. Mule went under thick boughs. It was necessary to be continually on guard against the branches of trees and when the hair is worn in long -locks, any thick boughs interposing in the path might easily dis lodge a rider from his seat.— Hartley. His head caught. His hair was his hal ter. First he lost his head over his hair (14:26) and now by reason of his hair he loses his head (Prov. 16:18).—Mc Neill. Some think that the sacred his torian points not so much to the hair as to the head of Absalom, which, being caught while running between two branches, was enclosed so firmly that he could not disengage himself nor make use of his hands.— Jamieson. He was taken up. He had been seeking exalta tion, now he got it. He was at the same time brought down (v. 17).— Pet- tingill. Many a man has been taken up
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