David, King Of Israel.

DAVID , KING OF ISRAEL .

An Address by Rev . James Byron Munay Grand Chaplain , before the Grand Chapter of Royal Arch Masons of New York , 3 rd Febmai-y 1886 .

BEFORE Homer sang his great song by the iEgean Sea , and Grecian temples rose , the wonder and

inspiration of art , or Rome became the representative of dominion and law , on the hillsides of Judea David sang his songs , the voice and utterance of a world-wide

humanity . He was the poet ofthe spiritual man , whether the

soul sinks under the burden of misery , or tosses on the flames of passion , or rises in exultation of victory over wrong . Homer , in his exquisitely carved lines ; Shakespeare , in the richly wrought architecture of his drama , present the physical and mental aspect of their age . Its special thought , its activities , its intellectual forces , its

struggles arise before the eye , touched with the beauty of

genius , instinct with the emotions , and breathing with strong pressure of the time and place . But the separate , personal individuality of the poets is lost in the grandeur of the work they wrought . History , with its variety of

detail ; man , in the travail of labour and of thought , what he said , what he did , are mirrored in their writings , as the mountain and cloud and splendour of sunset are mirrored jn a tideless or many . waved sea . They were prophets with

a message for their age and country ; and in the movements of mind and deed , which they crystallize into immortality , they speak with impressive voice , lessons for all ages and conditions of men . But the lessons are so

inwrought in their subject , that it is only by a fine sensibility the mind can separate them from the numberless incidents of the humanity which they have presented with such intensity of colour , or touched into life with a master hand .

With David , the age and its movements are on a different plane . He reflects them as they relate to the spiritual and moral in man . His power and place in history was special and peculiar . He was one of those rare gifts to

men ; one of those centres of influence which send forth influence to cease only with the mortal life of mankind . Possessed by the spirit of the seer and teacher ; gifted with the large and generous emotion of the poet , all the faculties

of his being are gathered into one burning flame , which gives fire and light to the utterances of his spirit . In his verses all the stormy and lurid passions of man ; all his raptures of devotion ; his hopes , shames , hates , loves

penitence , moral defects , moral victories , have broken into manifoldness of colour , as the burning touches , the calm beauty of a day of heat or day of quiet , have wrought themselves into the massed richness of a sunset .

Inspiration seizes him and guides his manhood , until from the full heart , the thousand voices that speak for all man ' s nature pour themselves forth in immortal expression . In burning words , in gentler tones , he laid his hand upon his

heart and spoke to tbe heart of humanity . But though his Psalms have all this variety ; though they reflect , in their clearer or darker depths , man ' s higher and lower nature ; though they unveil in delicate lines his spiritual and moral

being ; though they glow as with the flame of the morning with profound and warmer sympathies , he is not lost in his subject , or drawn from his purpose . And by this variety he is no longer a man of one race , but of all races . His

words are therefore the words of the ages : " Lord , I cry nnto Thee ; make baste to help me . Thou art my strong

rock and my castle . In thee do I put my trust . I will sing unto to the Lord , because he bath dealt lovingly with me . How say ye then to my soul that she should flee as a bird unto the mountains . I do not fear what man can do

nnto me . The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear Him , and delivereth them . Wait on the Lord and let thy heart be strong . The Lord is my light and my salvation ; whom , then , shall 1 fear ? Oh , that I

had wings like a dove , for then should I flee away and be at rest . As the mountains stand round about Jerusalem , so the Lord standeth round about his people from this time forth , for evermore . The moon and the stars , which Thou

hast ordained . Praise the Lord , 0 my soul ! Let every

thing that hath breath praise the Lord . " So he speaks for humanity , whether man moans in darkness or rises in light ; whether he walks halt and lame in his weakness , or moves in the royalties of his powers ; whether he lies crushed and bleeding under his broken faiths , or in the

David, King Of Israel.

victory of faith treads with imperial steps the stardusfc of the heavens .

Without the splendid gifts and intellectual resources of Plato and the cultured thinkers of Greece , David was a philosopher and statesman . He saw with a truer glance and clearer intuition than most men the underlying moral

aud social elements which were integral parts of a nation and which affect its destiny . He laid bare with finer insight the traditions and movements which clustered

around Israel and lifted it to a moral grandeur in the history of the world . In the unseen nature of man , he reached out with the vision of a prophet to comprehend those highest interests and forces which act and react with unceasing

influence for the growth or decay of humanity . With august power , with emotions strong and deep as the earth ' s central fires , he puts forth every faculty of his being to tbe unfolding of those principles which would in any way

contribute to the progress and moral culture of men . Iu the great temple of spiritual thought he touched sancitified things which no other hand had touched . He saw into tbe deeper realities , the far-reaching responsibilities , the

everlasting forces which live and move behind the outward aspects of this felt-visible life . And out of this knowledge and prophetic vision he assured mankind that the life for

individuals and nations was the life of righteousness and morality , and that this life would be blessed with increasing power and the sight of Him whose presence will transform all being into immortality .

As a teacher , he is directed in his teaching by a divine inspiration . As a seer , his visions are shaped by poetry , to come near the masses of men and vivify them . As one commissioned by God to elevate man , his lips are aflame

with sacred messages , and he touches all with tbe grace and lustre of a sanctified imagination . Teacher , seer , herald—he is a threefold man , yet a monarch in each man . hood . Into this high estate in history David came , not

alone by the working of his own powers , but by a power and design more grand than his . He was one chosen for a special purpose—to be the founder of a school of higher thought , and the expressed voice of the voiceless emotions

that are shrined in the deeper recesses of the heart . He was an appointed one to bring man face to face with the passions and hidden movements of his own spirit . And in a large measure this grew out of the position which he

occupied , and his nation occupied , as the expression of a plan of God in His dealings with men . In the nation was contained the seed which was to grow and fill the earth , and be for all times and races the revealing of His glory and law . For his nation had been drawn into close and

particular relationship with God as its ruler and authority . The movements , therefore , of one who represented this authority and ruled because God designed him to rule , would , of necessity , be regarded as bearing in them a

divine force and influence . Upon this special thought David rested unshaken , yet swept by all the impulses and passions that overwhelm the soul , and lifted up by the aspirations that make life a consecration and power . His

life , therefore , was a typical life of whatever the spirit suffers or needs , of whatever delight and whatever sorrow it feels . He ascended to heights of rapture ; he descended to depths of agony , such as only the most sensitive spirits

can know . Centuries of humanity were unfolded before his prophetic gaze , and he would be their voice . And this was an element of his power . Hence all the grandest desires of the soul ; all the yearnings of the weak and

humble ; all the tears and griefs that master nature can enter into his words and inspirations and claim them for their own . Standing in this attitude he saw that which others did not see , and became the interpreter of that marvel of marvels , the human soul .

He dipped into the future , father than the human eye could see , Saw the vision of the world and all the wonders that would be . Among those , therefore , who have led men in spiritual power and impressed their own spirit as a hand on the

centuries and moved in the inner destinies of men , David King of Israel , is of the highest . In the moralities of life , in the solemnities of religion , his Psalms have been a treasure-house of devotion . His name has been a name of

marvellous force . It has opened to the mind a vast field of reflection ; it has suggested the most sacred subjects , and molded to itself a literature of sad and earnest , of dark

and splendid thought . David , Poet and King , is not , therefore , a dead man of the dead past . But in these grand sensibilities of our common nature ; in these interplays ot