Should we seek for the cause of David’s fall, for that easy descent in the path of rectitude,—­may we not find it in that fatal custom of Eastern kings to have more wives than was divinely instituted in the Garden of Eden,—­an indulgence which weakened the moral sense and unchained the passions?  Polygamy, under any circumstances, is the folly and weakness of kings, as well as the misfortune and curse of nations.  It divided and distracted the household of David, and gave rise to incessant intrigues and conspiracies in his palace, which embittered his latter days and even undermined his throne.

We read of no further backslidings which seemed to call forth the divine displeasure, unless it were the census, or numbering of the people, even against the expostulations of Joab.  Why this census, in which we can see no harm, should have been followed by so dire a calamity as a pestilence in which seventy thousand persons perished in four days, we cannot see by the light of reason, unless it indicated the purpose of establishing an absolute monarchy for personal aggrandizement, or the extension of unnecessary conquests, and hence an infringement of the theocratic character of the Hebrew commonwealth.  The conquests of David had thus far been so brilliant, and his kingdom was so prosperous, that had he been a pagan monarch he might have meditated the establishment of a military monarchy, or have laid the foundation of an empire, like Cyrus in after-times.  From a less beginning than the Jewish commonwealth at the time of David, the Greeks and Romans advanced to sovereignty over both neighboring and distant States.  The numbering of the Israelitish nation seemed to indicate a desire for extended empire against the plain indications of the divine will.  But whatever was the nature of that sin, it seems to have been one of no ordinary magnitude; and in view of its consequences, David’s heart was profoundly touched.  “O God!” he cried, in a generous burst of penitence, “I have sinned.  But these sheep, what have they done?  Let thine hand be upon me, I pray thee, and upon my father’s house!”

If David committed no more sins which we are forced to condemn, and which were not irreconcilable with his piety, he was subject to great trials and misfortunes.  The wickedness of his children, especially of his eldest son Amnon, must have nearly broken his heart.  Amnon’s offence was not only a terrible scandal, but cost the life of the heir to the throne.  It would be hard to conceive how David’s latter days could have been more embittered than by the crime of his eldest son,—­a crime he could neither pardon nor punish, and which disgraced his family in the eyes of the nation.  As to Absalom, it must have been exceedingly painful and humiliating to the aged and pious king to be a witness of the pride, insolence, extravagance, and folly of his favorite son, who had nothing to commend him to the people but his good looks; and still harder to bear was his