“So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a
stone.”—1 Samuel xvii. 50.
These words, which are taken from the chapter which you heard read
just now in the course of the Service[1], declare the victory which
David, the man after God's own heart, gained over Goliath, who came out
of the army of the Philistines to defy the Living God; and they declare
the manner of his gaining it. He gained it with a sling and with a
stone; that is, by means, which to man might seem weak and hopeless,
but which God Almighty blessed and prospered. Let no one think the
history of David's calling, and his victory over Goliath, of little
importance to himself; it is indeed interesting to read for its own
sake; it raises the mind of the Christian to God, shows us His power,
and reminds us of the wonderful deliverances with which He visits His
Church in every age; but besides all this, this history is useful to us
Christians, as setting before us our own calling, and our conflict with
the world, the flesh, and the devil; as such I shall now briefly
consider it.
David, the son of a man in humble life, and the youngest of his
brethren, was chosen by Almighty God to be His special servant,—to be
a prophet, a king, a psalmist; he was anointed by Samuel to be all
this; and in due time he was brought forward by Almighty God, and as a
first act of might, slew the heathen giant Goliath, as described in the
text. Now let us apply all this to ourselves.
1. David was the son of a Bethlehemite, one among the families of
Israel, with nothing apparently to recommend him to God; the youngest
of his brethren, and despised by them. He was sent to feed the sheep;
and his father, though doubtless he loved him dearly, yet seems to have
thought little of him. For when Samuel came to Jesse at God's command,
in order to choose one of his sons from the rest as God might direct
him, Jesse did not bring David before him, though he did bring all his
other children. Thus David seemed born to live and die among his sheep.
His brothers were allowed to engage in occupations which the world
thinks higher and more noble. Three of them served as soldiers in the
king's army, and in consequence looked down upon David; on his asking
about Goliath, one of them said to him in contempt, “With whom hast
thou left those few sheep in the wilderness?” Yet God took him from the
sheepfolds to make him His servant and His friend. Now this is
fulfilled in the case of all Christians. They are by nature poor, and
mean, and nothing worth; but God chooses them, and brings them near
unto Himself. He looks not at outward things; He chooses and decrees
according to His will, and why He chooses these men, and passes over
those, we know not. In this country many are chosen, many are not, and
why some are chosen, others not, we cannot tell. Some men are born
within the bounds of holy Church, and are baptized with her baptism;
others are not even baptized at all. Some are born of bad parents,
irreligious parents, and have no education, or a bad one. We, on the
contrary, my brethren, are born in the Church; we have been baptized by
the Church's ministers; and why this is our blessedness, and not the
blessedness of others, we cannot tell. Here we differ from David. He
was chosen above his brethren, because he was better than they. It is
expressly said, that when Samuel was going to choose one of his elder
brethren, God said to him, “I have refused him; for the Lord seeth not
as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord
looketh on the heart[2];” implying, that David's heart was in a better
state than his brother's whom Samuel would have chosen. But this is not
our case; we are in nowise better by nature than they whom God does not
choose. You will find good and worthy men, benevolent, charitable,
upright men, among those who have never been baptized. God hath chosen
all of us to salvation, not for our righteousness, but for His great
mercies. He has brought us to worship Him in sacred places where His
saints have worshipped for many hundred years. He has given us the aid
of His ministers, and His Sacraments, and His Holy Scriptures, and the
Ancient Creed. To others, Scripture is a sealed book, though they hold
it in their hands; but to us it is in good measure an open book,
through God's mercy, if we but use our advantages, if we have but
spiritual eyes and ears, to read and hear it faithfully. To others, the
Sacraments and other rites are but dead ordinances, carnal ceremonies,
which profit not, like those of the Jewish Law, outward forms, beggarly
elements, as they themselves often confess; but to us, if we have
faith, they are full of grace and power. Thus all we have been chosen
by God's grace unto salvation, in a special way, in which many others
around us have not been chosen, as God passed over David's seven
brethren, and chose him.
2. Observe, too. God chose him, whose occupation was that of a
shepherd; for He chooses not the great men of the world. He passes by
the rich and noble; He chooses “the poor, rich in faith, and heirs of
the kingdom which He hath promised to them that love Him[3],” as St.
James says. David was a shepherd. The Angel appeared to the shepherds
as they kept watch over their sheep at night. The most solitary, the
most unlearned, God hears, God looks upon, God visits, God blesses, God
brings to glory, if he is but “rich in faith.” Many of you are not
great in this world, my brethren, many of you are poor; but the
greatest king upon earth, even Solomon in all his glory, might well
exchange places with you, if you are God's children; for then you are
greater than the greatest of kings. Our Saviour said, that even the
lilies of the field were more gloriously arrayed than Solomon; for the
lily is a living thing, the work of God; and all the glories of a king,
his purple robe, and his jewelled crown, all this is but the dead work
of man; and the lowest and humblest work of God is far better and more
glorious than the highest work of man. But if this be true, even of
God's lower works, what shall be said of His higher? If even the lilies
of the field, which are cut down and cast into the oven, are more
glorious than this world's greatest glory, what shall be said of God's
nobler works in the soul of man? what shall be said of the dispensation
of the Spirit which “exceeds in glory?” of that new creation of the
soul, whereby He makes us His children, who by birth were children of
Adam, and slaves of the devil, gives us a new and heavenly nature,
implants His Holy Spirit within us, and washes away all our sins? This
is the portion of the Christian, high or low; and all glories of this
world fade away before it; king and subject, man of war and keeper of
sheep, are all on a level in the kingdom of Christ; for they one and
all receive those far exceeding and eternal blessings, which make this
world's distinctions, though they remain distinctions just as before,
yet so little, so unimportant, in comparison of the “glory that
excelleth,” that it is not worth while thinking about them. One person
is a king and rules, another is a subject and obeys; but if both are
Christians, both have in common a gift so great, that in the sight of
it, the difference between ruling and obeying is as nothing. All
Christians are kings in God's sight; they are kings in His unseen
kingdom, in His spiritual world, in the Communion of Saints. They seem
like other men, but they have crowns on their heads, and glorious robes
around them, and Angels to wait on them, though our bodily eyes see it
not. Such are all Christians, high and low; all Christians who remain
in that state in which Holy Baptism placed them. Baptism placed you in
this blessed state. God did not wait till you should do some good thing
before He blessed you. No! He knew you could do no good thing of
yourselves. So He came to you first; He loved you before you loved Him;
He gave you a work which He first made you able to do. He placed you in
a new and heavenly state, in which, while you remain, you are safe. He
said not to you, “Obey Me, and I will give you a kingdom;” but “Lo I
give you a kingdom freely and first of all; now obey Me henceforth, for
you can, and you shall remain in it;” not “Obey Me, and I will then
give you the Holy Spirit as a reward,” but “I give you that great gift
in order that you may obey Me.” He first gives, and then commands; He
tells us to obey Him, not to gain His favour, but in order not to lose
it. We are by nature diseased and helpless. We cannot please Him; we
cannot move hand or foot; He says not to us, “Get well first, and I
will receive you;” but He begins a cure in us, and receives us, and
then says, “Take care not to go back; take care of yourselves; beware
of a relapse; keep out of danger.” Such then is your state, my
brethren, unless you have fallen from Christ. If you are living in His
faith and fear, you are kings—kings in God's unseen and spiritual
kingdom; and that, though like David, you are but keeping sheep, or
driving cattle, or, again, working with your hands, or serving in a
family, or at any other lowly labour. God seeth not as man seeth. He
hath chosen you.
3. Next, observe God chose David by means of the Prophet Samuel. He
did not think it enough to choose him silently, but He called him by a
voice. And, in like manner, when God calls us, He does so openly; He
sent His minister, the Prophet Samuel, to David, and He sends His
ministers to us. He said to Samuel, “Fill thy horn with oil, and go,
and I will send thee to Jesse the Bethlehemite; for I have provided Me
a king among his sons.” God was looking out for a king, and sent Samuel
to David. And so, in like manner, God is looking out now for kings to
fill thrones in His Son's eternal kingdom, and to sit at His right hand
and His left; and He sends His ministers to those whom He hath from
eternity chosen. He does not say to them, “Fill thy horn with oil,” but
“Fill thy font with water;” for as He chose David by pouring oil upon
his head, so does He choose us by Baptism. So far, then, God chooses
now as He did then, by an outward sign. Samuel was told to do then,
what Christ's ministers are told to do now. The one chose David by
means of oil, and the other choose Christians by means of water. In
this, however, there is a difference. Samuel could choose but one. He
was not allowed to choose more than one; him, namely, whom God pointed
out; but now Christ's ministers (blessed be His name!) may choose and
baptize all whom they meet with; there is no restriction, no
narrowness; they need not wait to be told whom to choose. Christ says,
“Compel them to come in.” Again, the Prophet says, “Ho, every one that
thirsteth, come ye to the waters.” Now every one by nature thirsteth;
every soul born into the world is in a spiritual sickness, in a wasting
fever of mind; he has no rest, no ease, no peace, no true happiness.
Till he is made partaker of Christ he is hopeless and miserable. Christ
then, in His mercy, having died for all, gives His ministers leave to
apply His saving death to all whom they can find. Not one or two, but
thousands upon thousands are gifted with His high blessings. “Samuel
took the horn of oil, and anointed” David “in the midst of his
brethren.” And so Christ's ministers take water, and baptize; yet not
merely one out of a family, but all; for God's mercies are poured as
wide as the sun's light in the heavens, they enlighten all they fall
upon.
4. When Samuel had anointed David, observe what followed. “Samuel
took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the midst of his brethren;
and the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward.” And
so, also, when Christ's ministers baptize, the Spirit of the Lord comes
upon the child baptized henceforth; nay, dwells in him, for the
Christian's gift is far greater even than David's. God's Spirit did but
come upon David, and visit him from time to time; but He vouchsafes to
dwell within the Christian, so as to make his heart and body His
temple. Now what was there in the oil, which Samuel used, to produce so
great an effect? nothing at all. Oil has no power in itself; but God
gave it a power. In like manner the Prophet Elisha told Naaman the
Syrian to bathe in Jordan, and so he was healed of his leprosy. Naaman
said, What is Jordan more than other rivers? how can Jordan heal? It
could not heal, except that God's power made it heal. Did not our
Saviour feed five thousand persons with a few loaves and fishes? how
could that be? by His power. How could water become wine? by His power.
And so now, that same Divine power, which made water wine, multiplied
the bread, gave water power to heal an incurable disease, and made oil
the means of gifting David with the Holy Spirit, that power now also
makes the water of Baptism a means of grace and glory. The water is
like other water; we see no difference by the eye; we use it, we throw
it away; but God is with it. God is with it, as with the oil which
Samuel took with him. Water is something more than water in its effects
in the hand of Christ's Minister, with the words of grace; it does,
what by nature it cannot do; it is heavenly water, not earthly.
5. Further, I would have you observe this. Though David received the
gift of God's Holy Spirit, yet nothing came of it all at once. He still
seemed like any other man. He went back to the sheep. Then Saul sent
for him to play to him on the harp; and then he went back to the sheep
again. Except that he had strength given him to kill a lion and a bear
which came against his flock, he did no great thing. The Spirit of the
Lord had come upon him, yet it did not at once make him a prophet or a
king. All was to come in good time, not at once. So it is with
Christian Baptism. Nothing shows, for some time, that the Spirit of God
is come into, and dwells in the child baptized; it looks like any other
child, it is pained, it frets, is weak, is wayward, like any other
child, for “the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh at the
outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.” And “He who
seeth the heart,” seeth in the child the presence of the Spirit, “the
mind of the Spirit” “which maketh intercession for the Saints.” God the
Holy Ghost leads on the heirs of grace marvellously. You recollect when
our Saviour was baptized, “immediately the Spirit of God led Him into
the wilderness.” What happened one way in our Saviour's course, happens
in ours also. Sooner or later that work of God is manifested, which was
at first secret. David went up to see his brothers, who were in the
battle; he had no idea that he was going to fight the giant Goliath;
and so it is now, children are baptized before they know what is to
happen to them. They sport and play as if there was no sorrow in the
world, and no high destinies upon themselves; they are heirs of the
kingdom without knowing it, but God is with those whom He has chosen,
and in His own time and way He fashions His Saints for His everlasting
kingdom; in His own perfect and adorable counsels He brings them
forward to fight with Goliath.
6. And now, let us inquire who is our Goliath? who is it we have to
contend with? The answer is plain; the devil is our Goliath: we have to
fight Satan, who is far more fearful and powerful than ten thousand
giants, and who would to a certainty destroy us were not God with us,
but praised be His Name, He is with us. “Greater is He that is with us,
than he that is in the world.” David was first anointed with God's Holy
Spirit, and then, after a while, brought forward to fight Goliath. We
too are first baptized, and then brought forward to fight the devil. We
are not brought to fight him at once; for some years we are almost
without a fight, when we are infants. By degrees our work comes upon
us; as children we have to fight with him a little; as time goes on,
the fight opens; and at length we have our great enemy marching against
us with sword and spear, as Goliath came against David. And when this
war has once begun, it lasts through life.
7. What then ought you to do, my brethren, when thus assailed? How
must you behave when the devil comes against you? he has many ways of
attack; sometimes he comes openly, sometimes craftily, sometimes he
tempts you, sometimes he frightens you, but whether he comes in a
pleasing or a frightful form, be sure, if you saw him himself with your
eyes, he would always be hateful, monstrous, and abominable. Therefore
he keeps himself out of sight. But be sure he is all this; and, as
believing it, take the whole armour of God, that you may be able to
stand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Quit you like
men, be strong. Be like David, very courageous to do God's will. Think
what would have happened had David played the coward, and refused to
obey God's inward voice stirring him up to fight Goliath. He would have
lost his calling, he would have been tried, and have failed. The
Prophet's oil would have profited him nothing, or rather would have
increased his condemnation. The Spirit of God would have departed from
him as He departed from Saul, who also had been anointed. So, also, our
privileges will but increase our future punishment, unless we use them.
He is truly and really born of God in whom the Divine seed takes
root; others are regenerated to their condemnation. Despise not the
gift that is in you: despise not the blessing which by God's free grace
you have, and others have not. There is nothing to boast in, that you
are God's people; rather the thought is an anxious one; you have much
more to answer for.
When, then, Satan comes against you, recollect you are already
dedicated, made over, to God; you are God's property, you have no part
with Satan and his works, you are servants to another, you are espoused
to Christ. When Satan comes against you, fear not, waver not; but pray
to God, and He will help you. Say to Satan with David, “Thou comest
against me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield; but I
come to thee in the name of the Lord of Hosts.” Thou comest to me with
temptation; thou wouldest allure me with the pleasures of sin for a
season; thou wouldest kill me, nay, thou wouldest make me kill myself
with sinful thoughts, words, and deeds; thou wouldest make me a
self-murderer, tempting me by evil companions, and light conversation,
and pleasant sights, and strong stirrings of heart; thou wouldest make
me profane the Lord's day by riot; thou wouldest keep me from Church;
thou wouldest make my thoughts rove when they should not; thou wouldest
tempt me to drink, and to curse, and to swear, and to jest, and to lie,
and to steal: but I know thee; thou art Satan, and I come unto thee in
the name of the Living God, in the Name of Jesus Christ my Saviour.
That is a powerful name, which can put to flight many foes: Jesus is a
name at which devils tremble. To speak it, is to scare away many a bad
thought. I come against thee in His All-powerful, All-conquering Name.
David came on with a staff; my staff is the Cross—the Holy Cross on
which Christ suffered, in which I glory, which is my salvation. David
chose five smooth stones out of the brook, and with them he smote the
giant. We, too, have armour, not of this world, but of God; weapons
which the world despises, but which are powerful in God. David took not
sword, spear, or shield; but he slew Goliath with a sling and a stone.
Our weapons are as simple, as powerful. The Lord's Prayer is one such
weapon; when we are tempted to sin, let us turn away, kneel down
seriously and solemnly, and say to God that prayer which the Lord
taught us. The Creed is another weapon, equally powerful, through God's
grace, equally contemptible in the eyes of the world. One or two holy
texts, such as our Saviour used when He was tempted by the devil, is
another weapon for our need. The Sacrament of the Lord's Supper is
another such, and greater; holy, mysterious, life-giving, but equally
simple. What is so simple as a little bread and a little wine? but, in
the hands of the Spirit of God, it is the power of God unto salvation.
God grant us grace to use the arms which He gives us; not to neglect
them, not to take arms of our own! God grant us to use His arms, and to
conquer!
[1] Fifth Sunday after Trinity.
[2] 1 Sam. xvi. 7.
[3] James ii. 6.