wishing such words out of the Bible, we shall be glad to keep them
there, as testimonies to the moral government of the world by a God
and a Christ who will surely avenge the innocent blood; and as a
Gospel of comfort to suffering millions, when the news reaches them
at last, that they may call on God to deliver them from their
tormentors, and that he will hear their cry, and will help them.



SERMON IV. DAVID'S DESERTS



2 Samuel i. 26. I am distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan:
very pleasant hast thou been unto me: thy love to me was wonderful,
passing the love of women.

Passing the love of woman? How can that be, we of these days shall
say. What love can pass that, saving the boundless love of him who
stooped from heaven to earth, that he might die on the Cross for us?
No. David, when he sang those words, knew not the depth of woman's
love. And we shall have a right so to speak. The indefeasible and
Divine right which is bestowed by fact.

As a fact, we do not find among the ancient Jews that exalting and
purifying ideal of the relations between man and woman, which is to
be found, thank God, in these days, in almost every British work of
fiction or fancy.

It is enunciated, remember always, in the oldest Hebrew document.