joined their voices with the deep tones of the harp, and

sung the following

HYMN TO JEHOVAH.

I.

Come worship Jehovah, the holy, the high,

Whose hand formed the ocean, the earth, and the sky;

The boundless creation arose at his word;

Hosanna! hosanna! aloud to the Lord.

II.

'O sun, speak his praise in the firmament bright;
Ye far distant stars, speak his praises by night;
Let earthquakes and tempests rehearse his great name,
And lightnings and thunders his grandeur proclaim.

III.

'O man, thou art formed his blest image to bear:
The stamp of his own immortality's there.
Ye nations, look up, from the field, from the flood,
And sing hallelujahs aloud to your God.

IV.

'The heathenish idols, how senseless and vain!
They're rudely and stupidly fashioned like men;
What folly to yield them our worship or love, -
Their tongue cannot speak, and their feet cannot move.

V.

'Shall rational man put his confidence there?

Can dull, wooden ears hear the language of prayer?
Can eyes that are blind see when dangers are nigh?
Can hands that are motionless help when we cry?

VI.

'Come worship Jehovah; to him let us pray,
Whose blessings surround us by night and by day.
How rich is the promise his mercy hath given
Of pardon on earth and salvation in heaven!

VII.

His word, like the mountains, stands stable and sure;
The sun and the moon not so long shall endure.
Hail, hope of redemption from death and the grave;
Hail, promised Messiah! thou mighty to save!'

"Ittai departed for the night, but often repeated his visits; and read, under the direction of Abiathar, the five books of Moses, the books of Joshua and Judges, and soon became a believer in the religion of Israel, and a worshipper of Jehovah.

"I discovered," said Belial, "that things were going very differently indeed from my first anticipations. There is enormous difficulty in drawing that man into idolatry, or any kind of vice, who punctually and firmly maintains the ordinance of family worship. Instead of David and his men falling in with the religion of Dagon, they were leading the Philistines to embrace the service of Jehovah; and I determined that as speedily as possible this whole business should be broken up.

"I set all my forces to work, brewing war with Israel through all the country of the Philistines. I saw, with the clearness of demonstration, that this would throw around David mountains of difficulty from which there could be no escape. To the war he must go; as commander of the life-guards, there was no avoiding it. If he turned traitor to Achish, who had so nobly befriended him in the day of his deep calamity, it would blast his name and memory forever, where truth and honor are regarded; and on the other hand, if he fought with the Philistines, under the banner of Dagon, against his own people, who were fighting under the banner of his God, infamy, black as the night of Egypt, must over

whelm his character among them, and fatally blight all his hopes of reaching the throne. My prospect of success here was brilliant, and my hopes were high. It was by far the best snare I had yet been able to set for David. Escape appeared impossible. I looked upon his overthrow as certain. Every thing succeeded admirably. War was declared. Achish mustered his numerous armies and marched to the battle. David, as commander of the life-guards, was summoned to attend. He and his men had been newly and elegantly equipped for this great expedition. When marching along with King Achish, their appearance was exceedingly fine; the unrivalled discipline and beautiful array of the lifeguards was the theme of remark through the whole army. I may observe here that Achish himself was now very favorably disposed towards the Jewish religion, if he had not actually embraced it in his heart: he speaks of the angel of God' as you might expect a pious Jew to speak, and appeals to Jehovah, and swears by his name, as no Philistine had been known to do.

"And now the crisis approached. The battle was nigh, and David must either fight against his own people, or turn traitor to the hospitable Achish. Look which way he would, disgrace and ruin seemed inevitable. But just at this critical juncture, whether it was chance, or whether it was providence, I never could learn; I have since strongly suspected it was by some adroit manœuvre of that unaccountable Ahithophel, who was now with David as his counsellor : all at once the lords of the Philistines became jealous, angry, outrageous against David and his men. They came up in a body to King Achish. What do these Hebrews here?

Is

not this David, of whom they sung, "Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands." Make him return, lest in the battle he be an adversary to us. For wherewith should he reconcile himself unto his master? Should it not be with the heads of these men?' King Achish, finding that the lords of the Philistines were jealous of David, commanded him to return early the next morning to Ziklag, expressing, at the same time, in the strongest terms, his own unshaken confidence, and commending the conduct of David all the while he had been with him. (1 Sam. xxix. 1-11.)

Thus," said Belial, "all my fine stratagems were swept away like the smoke of the traveller's tent before the wind of the desert."

"But you should tell," said the Philistine demon, now rising again, and seeming not to be altogether pleased with the version of the story as it had been related, "you should tell how the battle went."

"The battle," said Belial; "O, the Philistines gained the battle a decided victory."

"Yes," said the demon, "and a glorious victory it was, and the men of Israel fled, notwithstanding all you have said of the valor of Joab and Abishai."

"Joab and Abishai were not there," answered Belial : "they were with David, and returned to Ziklag, when David was sent back by King Achish. But the victory of the Philistines was complete. King Saul was slain, and his three sons, and, indeed, the flower of his army."

CHAPTER XII.

ZERUIAH AND SAMUEL.

"It is now necessary," said Belial, "to notice more particularly some circumstances in the history of the family of Jesse, the father of David. The residence of this family was at Bethlehem, on the lot of land that fell to Salmon, one of the princes of Judah, when the inheritance in Canaan was divided among the tribes by Joshua. Salmon was renowned among the ancestors of the house of Jesse. He was one of the two spies that Joshua sent to search out Jericho, who were saved from the wrath of the king of Jericho by Rahab, who hid them among some stalks of flax upon the roof of her house, and then sent them in safety away. Salmon afterwards married Rahab, and she became the mother of Boaz, whose history is so particularly detailed in the book of Ruth.

"The family estate on which Jesse resided, having been, during a number of generations, occupied by the princes of Judah, was improved, adorned, and beautified in a very high degree. The house of Jesse was one of the favorite resting-places of the prophet Samuel, while he travelled as a circuit judge, administering the laws among the people of Israel. And the members of the family had thus enjoyed the privilege of forming inti