Now King David was old and stricken in years.
The Winter of Life
I. Overtakes men in the highest rank.
II. Chills the vital sources of the naturally robust. “And they covered him with clothes, and he gat no heat.”
III. Is but temporarily alleviated by the best considered human devices. The cherishing of Abishag was--
1. Advised by the court physicians. An expedient not unusual in similar cases, when internal cordials failed, and with the limited skill of the faculty in the use of warmth-creating potions.
2. Was innocent. Suggested for no other than purely medical reasons. Sophocles lauded old age as a deliverance from the tyranny of the passions, as an escape from some furious and savage master.
3. Suspended only for a brief season the inevitable progress of decay. Medical skill is no more efficacious for the monarch than for the humblest subject. David died within the year. A moment comes in the winter of life when the warm pulse is stilled, and the once stalwart frame is locked in the icy embrace of death. (J. Barlow.)