forgiving and magnanimous, sparing the life of his deadly enemy,
unstained by a single vice or weakness, and soothing his stricken soul
with bursts of pious song unequalled for pathos and loftiness in the
whole realm of lyric poetry. He is never so interesting as amid caverns
and blasted desolations and serrated rocks and dried-up rivulets, when
his life is in constant danger. But he knows that he is the anointed of
the Lord, and has faith that in due time he will be called to
the throne.

It was not until the bloody battle with the Philistines, which
terminated the lives of both Saul and Jonathan, that David's reign began
in about his thirtieth year,[3]--first at Hebron, where he reigned seven
and one half years over his own tribe of Judah,--but not without the
deepest lamentations for the disaster which had caused his own
elevation. To the grief of David for the death of Saul and Jonathan we
owe one of the finest odes in Hebrew poetry. At this crisis in national
affairs, David had sought shelter with Achish, King of Gath, in whose
territory he, with the famous band of six hundred warriors whom he had
collected in his wanderings, dwelt in safety and peace. This apparent
alliance with the deadly enemy of the Israelites had displeased the
people. Notwithstanding all his victories and exploits, his anointment
at the hand of Samuel, his noble lyrics, his marriage with the daughter
of Saul, and the death of both Saul and Jonathan, there had been at
first no popular movement in David's behalf. The taking of decisive
action, however, was one of his striking peculiarities from youth to old
age, and he promptly decided, after consulting the Urim and Thummim, to
go at once to Hebron, the ancient sacred city of the tribe of Judah, and
there await the course of events. His faithful band of six hundred
devoted men formed the nucleus of an army; and a reaction in his favor
having set in, he was chosen king. But he was king only of the tribe to