Does not this teach us that we should simply do the right thing, and trust God at any cost?  When you do this, you will find that, in hundreds of ways which you never thought of, “the Lord is able to give thee much more.”  The trial comes in many different ways.  One may be tempted to hurry over prayer and Bible, because there is something else that she very much wants to get done before breakfast, and she is afraid of not having time enough.  Another shuts up her little purse when a call comes to give something for God’s work, because she is afraid she will not have enough left for another purpose.  Another is tempted to look at a key, or to glance over another’s shoulder at a lesson, because without it he would not get the marks he is trying for.  Another is tempted not to tell the exact truth, or to conceal something which he ought to tell, because he would lose something by it.  Oh, resist the devil, and do what you know is right, and trust God for all the rest!  For “the Lord is able to give thee much more than this,” whatever your “this” may be.  And His smile and His blessing will always be “more than this,” more than anything else!

    “Be brave to do the right,
      And scorn to be untrue;
    When fear would whisper ‘yield!’
      Ask, ‘What would Jesus do?’”

13.  Thirteenth Day.

The Doings of the King.

   “Whatsoever the king did pleased all the people.”—­2 Sam. iii. 36.

David had been giving a proof of his love for one who had long been his enemy, but whom he had received into friendship; and he had been giving a proof of his tender-heartedness and sympathy with the people, by weeping with them at the grave of Abner.  “And all the people took notice of it, and it pleased them:  as whatsoever the king did pleased all the people.”

This was because they loved their king.  They watched him, not as the wicked Pharisees watched the Lord Jesus that they might find something against Him; but with the watching of admiration and love, taking notice of the kind and gracious things he did and said.  Do you thus take notice of what your King does?  Does it please you to hear and read of what He has done and what He is doing?  It must be so if He really is your King.

But the “whatsoever” is a little harder; and yet, if it is once really learnt, it makes everything easy.  For if we learn to be pleased with whatsoever our King Jesus does, nothing can come wrong to us.

Suppose something comes to-day which is not quite what you would have liked; heavy rain, for instance, when you wanted to go out,—­recollect that your King Jesus has done it, and that will hush the little murmur, and make you quite content.  Ask Him this morning to make you so loving and loyal to Him, that whatsoever He does, all day long, may please you, because it has pleased Him to do it.  I think He loves us so much, that He always gives us as much happiness as He can possibly trust us with, and does what is pleasantest for His dear children whenever He sees it will not hurt them; so, when He does something which at first does not seem so pleasant, we may still trust our beloved King, and learn by His grace to be pleased with whatsoever He does.