friendship of which we have been speaking: a firm friend, a constant friend, a friend that giveth good counsel, a friend that will never leave us or forsake us, a friend who has given that greatest mark of friendship, the sacrifice of Himself for us, who so loved us that He has laid down His pure, spotless, faultless life on our behalf.

That is the friend above every friend: the friend of the friendless: in whom are met all the qualities of the truest and strongest friendship. O! that our souls were knit to His. O! that He dwelt in us, and we in Him. O! that "we might be able to comprehend "—of our own experience—" with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height, and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, that we might be filled with all the fulness of God."

SERMON XVI.

DAVID'S SIN IN THE NUMBERING OF THE PEOPLE.

I CHRONICLES XXI. 13.

"And David said unto Gad, I am in a great strait: let me fall now into the hand of the Lord, for very great are His mercies; but let me not fall into the hand of man."

SUCH were David's words, when he heard from God's messenger, the prophet Gad, the things that should shortly befall him. A very terrible alternative had been put before David. "Thus saith the Lord, Shall seven years of famine come unto thee in thy land? or wilt thou flee three months before thine enemies, while they pursue thee? or that there be three days' pestilence in thy land? Now advise, and see what answer I shall return to Him that sent me.

And David said, I am in a great strait: let me

fall now into the hand of the Lord, for very great are His mercies, and let me not fall into the hand of man."

David elected to be punished directly by God, and he was so punished heavily and instantly. "The Lord sent a pestilence upon Israel, a pestilence of three days duration, from the morning, even unto the time appointed, and there died of the people seventy thousand men. And when the Angel-the Angel of Death-stretched out his hand upon Jerusalem to destroy it, the Lord repented of the evil, and said to the destroying angel, it is enough, stay now thy hand. And David lifted up his eyes, and saw the angel of the Lord stand between the earth and the Heaven, having a drawn sword in his hand stretched over Jerusalem. Then David, and the elders of Israel who were clothed in sackcloth, fell upon their faces. And David built there-on that spot-an altar unto the Lord, and offered burnt offerings, and peace offerings, and called upon the name of the Lord. So the Lord was entreated for the land, and the plague was stayed from Israel."

Let us now enquire what instruction this memorable history has for ourselves. And first you may wish to ask what was David's sin in the numbering of the people? Why was David so severely punished for it? We ourselves every tenth year number our people, and yet no punishment falls upon our Queen

or ourselves for so doing. What then was there so peculiar in David's position as to subject him and his people to so heavy a punishment from God?

The sin of David was self-confidence, pride in his own strength, and forgetfulness of the source of all his strength-even of God. David and his people were unlike every other people; they were the chosen people of God. They were selected before all other nations to be God's favourite nation. The Lord Himself, by tokens manifold, had revealed Himself to them as their Upholder. He had taught them to lean not on their own arm, but on His, for the victory. David himself confirmed this, when he said in the forty-fourth Psalm, "I will not trust in my bow; it is not my sword that shall help me; but it is Thou that savest us from our enemies, and puttest them to confusion that hate us. We make our boast of God all the day long." And again, "God is our hope and strength." "There is no king that can be saved by the multitude of an host, neither is any mighty man delivered by much strength."

Now David, when he gave orders for the numbering of the people, had forgotten this; he was lifted up with pride, and bent on asserting his own might independently of God. Yes! that was David's sin for which he and his people were made to suffersuffer so terribly. Pride, self-confidence, the putting God out of sight, and trusting to his own resources.

It was the greater sin in him because he had had such marvellous, such visible witnesses of God's love. and care and guidance. For what people ever had God so nigh unto them? What people ever had such success against their enemies? What people were brought safely through such perils as were the Israelites? Where in the whole world did there exist a race of men whose history shewed so plainly the presence of the Lord God among them? whose history shewed that it was not their own arm, but God's right hand, and God's arm that helped them and saved them, and that His favour towards them did not come from any natural superiority that they had over other people? The "Lord did not set His love upon you nor choose you because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all people; but because the Lord loved you, and because He would keep the oath which He had sworn unto your fathers." Therefore it was that He did these great things for them; brought them out with a mighty hand, and redeemed them out of the house of bondage, and from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt.

On that account then David's sin was the greater, because it was done in the face of that past experience which might have taught him better: should have taught him, that his strength was not in himself, but in his God. And it is recorded for our learning: for