nt. He saw this huge
Goliath stalking up and down the picket lines between the armies. He
cried out in his resentment at the apparent cowardice of his own
countrymen, "Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy
the armies of the living God!" David was informed that even the
promise of high reward offered by the king had not induced an Israelite
to face the Philistine.

Then spoke out the voice of faith from the heart of unstained youth!
"Let no man's heart fail because of him--thy servant will go and fight
this Philistine." The king remonstrated with him. He pointed out the
folly of sending an untrained youth to meet the disciplined man of war.
But David insisted that his rough experiences with the lions and the
bears which attacked his flock had furnished him the necessary
training. The king then offered him his own armour, which would
naturally be the best suit of armour in the camp, that the stripling
might in some measure be protected. But after trying on this suit of
mail David put it aside. "I cannot go with these," he said, "for I
have not proved them." He refused the conventional modes of defense,
relying upon those weapons which had been tested by experience. He
took his sling and five smooth stones from the brook and announced that
he was ready for the combat.

It seemed a contest most unequal when the principals were put forth
with the Israelites and the Philistines ranged up on either side of the
valley to watch the outcome. Goliath was enraged when he saw the boy
they had sent against him. "Am I a dog?" he said. And then he cursed
David by all his gods and threatened to feed his flesh to the beasts of
the field before an hour had passed. Like many a modern combatant
Goliath was mighty with his mouth. His tongue was like a weaver's beam.

The young man was not disturbed. His weapons were taken from the
armoury of experience, and his courage came from the same reliable
source. "The Lord who delivered me out of the paws of the lion and the
bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine." The moral
triumphs of those early years when a boy keeps his life clean and
strong become the earnest of the larger victories he is set to win in
his mature manhood. The growing boy who disdains to lie or to cheat,
to stain his life with dirt or to show himself a coward, will know how
to bear himself when the harder tests of middle life assail him.

The young man's religious faith co