DAVID AND GOLIATH.

(1 SAMUEL XVII.)

DAVID, “the man after God's own heart," and "the sweet psalmist of Israel,” was the youngest son of Jesse, and the great-grandson of Boaz and Ruth. His early days were spent in the rural occupation of a shepherd. Thus, indeed, was he employed when Samuel the prophet came to Bethlehem, by the Divine command, to anoint one of the sons of Jesse king over Israel in the room of Saul, who had disobeyed the commands of Jehovah.

The shepherd with his crook appears a very unlikely person to be chosen to wield a sceptre. But the Almighty seeth not as man seeth, nor worketh as man worketh. In the psalmist's own words, which are the fruits of his experience—

He raiseth up the poor out of the dust,
And lifteth the needy out of the dunghill;
That he may set him with princes,

Even with the princes of his people.

Psa. cxiii. 7, 8.

Eliab, the eldest son of Jesse, stood before the prophet, and observing his noble bearing, Samuel exclaimed, “Surely the Lord's anointed is before him." He was soon undeceived. The Spirit of inspiration taught him that God looks not on the countenance or the stature of a man, but on the heart. So Eliab was rejected, and Jesse causing six other warlike sons to pass before the prophet, they were rejected likewise. Apparently perplexed, the prophet inquired whether these were all the sons of Jesse. Being informed that the youngest was with the sheep, he sent for him, and when the youth appeared, at the command of God, Samuel took the horn of oil, and poured it upon his head in the sight of all his brethren.

After this act, significant of his future greatness, David returned to the plains of Bethlehem to tend his father's sheep, and to sing the high praises of his God, as he swept the chords of the life-cheering harp, according to his usual wont. But David did not long continue in retirement. Those inveterate foes of Israel, the Philistines, invaded his country, and Saul collected his forces and marched against them. The two armies encamped over against each other on the sides of opposite hills, leaving the valley of Elah, signifying an oak, or terebinth tree, between