thus, and you will go on your way to the end of it all the more gladly, and all the more cheerfully, because on the Sabbath you have observed the Sabbath's rest, and used the Sabbath's opportunities!

And more if you persevere in the good practice of attending public worship-attending it regularly, and, when you can, twice on the Sunday-you will, in time, realise the fulness of the blessing. You will find that it is indeed good for you to be here. You will feel as he felt who wrote the 84th Psalm, and you will make his beautiful words your own:-O how amiable are Thy dwellings, Thou Lord of Hosts! Blessed are they that dwell in Thy house: they will be always praising Thee. One day in Thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of ungodliness!

SERMON XI.

DAVID IN HIS YOUTH AN EXAMPLE TO
YOUNG MEN.

1 SAM. xvii. 58.

And Saul said to him, Whose son art thou, thou young man? And David answered, I am the son of thy servant Jesse the Bethlehemite.

WE have read again to-day the famous combat of David with the giant Philistine. And no page of the Old Testament is more familiar to us, no story better known, than the story of David and Goliath. It is a part of Holy Scripture rich in matter for our learning-for their learning, more especially, who are young men. For them, surely, above all others, has it been recorded how David, when a lad,-a mere stripling, untrained in the use of arms, did battle with the enemy of God's people, conquered and slew him.

In bringing then, the name of David before you to-day, I shall not attempt to give even an

outline of his whole life, but simply dwell upon what we have heard in the First Lesson of David's conduct when a young man; and from that draw some plain counsel for their guidance who are of the same period of life-striplings, lads, young men.

David was the son of Jesse, a man of some substance in his own tribe, and himself descended from Ruth the Moabitess and Boaz. Jesse had eight sons, and he was an aged man when that occurred which is related in 1 Sam. xvii. : He went among men for an old man in the days of Saul. Of these eight sons, the three eldest, Eliab, Abinadab, and Shammah, were soldiers, and followed Saul to the war against the Philistines. The hostile forces met in the territory of Judah, and pitched their camps on two opposite hills, with a valley running between them. For forty days they confronted each other without any engagement; and during that time, day by day, a huge Philistine, Goliath by name, out of one of the chief Philistine towns, Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span, came forth in complete armour and challenged the armies of Israel. Choose you a man for you, and let him come down to me. If he be able to fight with me, and to kill me, then will we be your servants; but if I prevail against him, then shall ye be our servants, and serve

F

us.

And the Philistine said, I defy the armies of Israel this day; give me a man that we may fight together!

None of the Israelites dared take up the challenge; and there was a sore panic throughout Saul's army. At this moment David appears upon the scene. While his three brothers were

serving as soldiers, he was kept at home in the humble occupation of a shepherd, tending the ewes great with young-feeding his father's flock upon the hills about Bethlehem.

But though a shepherd lad, he was at heart a soldier, a mighty valiant man, as he is called in 1 Sam. xvi., and a man of war . . . and the Lord was with him.

Already had he showed courage and strength, and great presence of mind, in his office as a shepherd. The lion and the bear that attacked the fold had both fallen beneath his hand. He had faced them alone and unarmed, and had caught them by the shaggy hair, and had slain them.

And now this bold, brave shepherd, was to try his prowess in another scene of action. His father Jesse, anxious for his absent sons, sent David with provisions for them to the camp. He went, no doubt, gladly on his errand: And he came to the trench as the host was going forth to the

fight, and shouted for the battle.

He saw the

martial sight, he heard the proud challenge of the Philistine, and he noticed how Israel quailed; and though Eliab, his elder brother, sought to keep him back, and rebuked him for coming, and taunted him with his humble shepherd's task,.. he rested not till he had obtained an interview with Saul, and got his permission to do battle with the Philistine.

Saul armed him with his own armour; but, unaccustomed to the use of such things, he soon put them off, and went wholly without defensive armour, bearing only his shepherd's scrip and sling, to meet Goliath. And with a sling and a stone he prevailed over him, and smote him, and slew him. And he ran and stood upon the fallen giant, and took his sword (for he had none of his own), and drew it out of its sheath, and cut off his head therewith. And when the Philistines saw their champion was dead, they fled. And the men of Israel and of Judah arose, and shouted, and pursued the Philistines, until thou come to the valley, and to the gates of Ekron. And the wounded of the Philistines fell down by the way to Shaaraim, even unto Gath, and unto Ekron. And David took

the head of the Philistine, and brought it to Jerusalem; but he put his armour in his tent.

It is at this point that scene occurs referred