Nathan said to David, "God has been very kind to you, and made you king. Why have you disobeyed his commandments? God will punish you for your wickedness. Your children shall fight each other, and kill each other, and behave very wickedly to you as long as you live."

David was very sorry, when he heard that God was angry with what he had done, and he said, "I have sinned against the Lord." Then Nathan said, "God has forgiven you, you shall not die.”

David was really sorry for what he had done. He was not like Saul, who only cared for the punishment: he was most sorry because he had displeased God.

David sang a very sad psalm on his harp, and he gave it to the singers to sing near the ark.

He asked God in his psalm to wash out his sins. These were some of David's words. “Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me."*

*Ps. li.

You see that David prayed to God to forgive him, and God did forgive him. God would not send David to hell, but he would forgive him, because Jesus had promised to die for him some day upon the cross. Yet still God would punish David while he was alive, that all people might know that God hated wickedness.

I hope, dear children, that you will often pray to God to keep you from Satan: but whenever you have done a naughty thing I hope you will feel sorry, and that you will ask God to forgive you, and I know he will forgive you, because Jesus died on the cross. for sinners.*

If you do not feel sorry, then you should ask God to make you feel sorry for it is God's Spirit that makes people sorry for their sins.

Can this be David-this the man,
Whose course in piety began ?——
Whose ways the holy God approved,

And whom he call'd his son belov'd?

* If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, even Jesus Christ the righteous: and he is the propitiation for our sins, 1 John ii. 2, 3.

Ah! see him take the lamb away
That in Uriah's bosom lay;

And see Uriah at his word

Perish beneath a heathen sword.

Has he forgot God's love of old,
When first he took him from the fold,
And how with grateful heart he swore
To serve this God for evermore?

Why have his feet gone thus astray?
Ah! surely he forgot to pray :
For God will never leave to fall,
Those who on Him for succour call.

CHILD.

Satan's nets are thickly spread
On every path my feet shall tread :
But they shall ne'er entangled be,
If, Lord, I fix my eye on thee.

CHAPTER LV.

DAVID, OR THE PUNISHMENT.

2 Samuel xv. xvi. xvii.

You remember, my dear children, that God

said he would punish David, though he had forgiven him.

David had a great many children, and some of them were very wicked when they grew up. I cannot tell you about all his bad children, but I will tell you of one called Absalom. He was a very proud young man; he was very handsome, and he had beautiful hair, and he was very vain of his beauty: he also told lies, and he even killed one of his brothers, who had offended him. When David heard how Absalom had killed his brother, he was angry with him for a long time, and would not see him; but at last he let him come to his palace, and kissed him, and forgave him. David ought never to have allowed Absalom to come to Jerusalem again after he had killed his brother: but David was too fond of Absalom.

Yet Absalom did not love his father David. He wished to be king instead of David, and so he behaved very kindly to all the people in Jerusalem, that they might love him better than they loved his father, and make him king. He used sometimes to kiss the poor

people that he saw, and tell them that if he were king he would be very kind to them.

This kind way of behaving made the people love Absalom; for they thought that he really cared for them. How very sly and deceitful Absalom was! God did not love him.

When Absalom saw that many of the people loved him, he asked David's leave to go from Jerusalem into the country. And David gave him leave. David did not know what a wicked plan Absalom had made. This was the wicked plan.

Absalom had desired a great many men to wait till they heard the sound of a trumpet, and when they heard it, to cry out, "Absalom is king." So when Absalom had left Jerusalem, and come into the country, he desired the trumpet to be blown, and a great many of the people called out, "Absalom is king," and came to Absalom to be his soldiers.

Poor David was in Jerusalem, and a messenger came, and told him that Absalom had made himself king.

How grieved David was to hear this news! He could not bear to think that his son was