Thus saith the Lord of hosts, I took thee from the sheepcote.
God in personal life
I. God elevates men from the lowest to the highest station in life.
II. God helps men to do the work for which they are elevated.
1. By His constant presence.
2. By continual victories.
III. God honours men for faithful performance of the work to which they are elevated.
1. Honoured in reputed life.
2. Honoured in peaceful death. (James Wolfendale.)
From the sheepfold to the throne
David is thus presented to our thought as the type of youths rising from lowly to lofty positions, and rising by virtue of conditions and qualities essentially the same. What are these conditions and qualities? To say that God chose David and put this high honour on him does not at all answer the question. Why did the Divine choice fall on him? God’s choice of agents and bestowment of honours are not made capriciously, without ground of personal merit in the subject. Our task is to study the human elements, to estimate the subjective factors in this problem of growth and greatness. David was the man after “God’s own heart,” not absolutely, but because he was the best of his nation and age for the work he was called to do.
I. There was in David a substantial ground of personal worth, of susceptibilities and tendencies upon which to build a life of greatness.
II. His life was swayed by a great purpose.
III. He had great courage.
1. Physical.
2. Moral.
IV. He exhibited, through all these years of preparation and development, great fidelity to trusts imposed.
V. He had great faith in God.
VI. All his estimable qualities were fed and fired by habitual and genuine religious devotion. (C. H. Payne, D. D.)
The remembrance of our early history should be a stimulus to gratitude
While many Americans are looking up their remote ancestors to provide themselves with a crest and coat of arms, a few follow the example of early English families and adopt some emblem which suggests a noteworthy incident in their own history. One millionaire, not ashamed of the source of his wealth, has a derrick engraved on his seal. Another family enriched by the manufacture of furniture has adopted a tree as a crest. The most interesting of these modern symbols, perhaps, is found engraved on the plate and books of a family of Pennsylvania Friends, who would probably be unwilling to call it a crest. It is a cat carrying a rabbit in its mouth. There is a legend to explain it. The first of a family to emigrate to this country was the father of eleven children. He sailed in the same year as Penn, and died on the voyage, leaving his wife to land alone with her helpless flock. She had a grant of land, but no money. They took refuge, as did many of the first emigrants to America, in a cave dug out of the side of a hill. Winter came on. Provisions failed. The widow saw her children grow pale and weak for want of food. The day arrived at last when there was not a grain of meal in the barrel. She fell on her knees and prayed in an agony of supplication. When she arose she smiled, her children said afterwards, as if she had seen an angel coming with bread. Going out she saw no angel, but the cat with a freshly killed rabbit in its mouth. The rabbit made a good meal, of which pussy, we may be sure, had a full share. The family, which has been a prosperous and influential one, preserves this symbol of their early history to commemorate their gratitude to God. (Daily Paper.)