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w # h e n D a v id w a s a fugitive from Saul, he shared * * his adventurous days with a band o f men whose names and exploits are listed in the Scrip tures. These lists cover several periods and I am not now concerned with arranging them. One thing marks this hardy company; they were comrades in a common venture. They endured hardness as good soldiers bound by one central purpose. They were out to crown David king. It was a rough road to that goal but they reached it together. Jesus Christ is the Son of David. He came to earth and offered Himself as King to the Jews but they refused Him. He is King of kings and Lord of lords but this world will not have this Man to rule over it. He is a rejected King but, like David, while He may be in exile, His coronation is coming. In the meantime, He gathers around Him a band of followers who bear His Name and are out to crown Him King. There were certain characteristics that marked David’s band and they also identify, in their spirit ual application, the comrades o f our Christ. David gathered his men in the Cave of Adullam. Many of God’s great men through the ages have had such shelter. We are reminded of the heroes of faith who abode in caves and dens of the earth (Heb. 11:38). It is not a very cheery setting for such a glorious undertaking as crowning a king but the way to the throne often has led from a cove. Our Lord Jesus was despised and rejected o f men. He had nowhere to lay His head. He spent many a night in the solitudes, on the mountain or in the wilderness. True Christianity has been a despised faith and is well acquainted with dungeon, fire and sword. When it wears the garb o f the age and is popular in the courts of this world, it is not run ning true to form. When we wear our crown down here, likely we will wear no other. There is some thing in the Gospel cause that is akin to the cave. Its message is foolishness to this world and its messengers are o f necessity to the world fools. The early church was a fellowship o f the cata combs — o f the caves — and an underground move ment. But when it wore gay robes and sat in the Colosseum, when it exchanged its reproach for
riches, then it joined Saul instead of David and forgot what it started out to do. There gathered around David all who were dis tressed, in debt and discontented (I Sam. 22:2). Distress, Debt and Discontent! What strange con ditions to produce comrades for a king! But are we not driven to Christ the King in a state very similar? What distress is greater than conviction of sin, our lost estate, our fear of judgment? Are we not all eternally in debt to Him who died for us ? “Jesus paid it all; All to Him I owe.” And in most of the faces you see you will read dis- content. Money, pleasure, success, learning all these are ashes in the mouth — and we are restless until we rest in Him. Has there ever been a gen eration as distressed, as deeply in debt, as discon tented? Alas, so few o f them go to David’s Son and join the band around the Coming King! There is a pompous and showy ecclesiastical super-corporation that calls itself the church but the true ecclesia is more like this miscellaneous aggregation that rallied around David. The pattern of the true church always has been more in keep ing with the cave of Adullam. God’s people are pil- grims and strangers in this world. This vale of tears is our passage and not our portion. There may be some millionaires and people in high sta- tion who belong to this despised band but they are poor in spirit. Not many mighty and noble are called. The exceptions prove the rule. God hath chosen the poor of this world, rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom. Every great revival move ment has started in a cave of Adullam. From the days when the common people heard our Lord gladly, plain people have made up most of His church. Rowland Hill spoke of Wesley’s “ lay lub- bers,” his “ ragged legion o f preaching tinkers, scavengers, draymen and chimney sweepers.” Vachel Lindsay pictured General Booth leading a motley throng into heaven: “Walking lepers followed rank on rank, Lurching braves from the ditches dank,
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THE KING'S BUSINESS
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