we be alone. What did Barzillai care for
Absalom's popularity? David is my king, and he shall have the best I
have: Sooner or later the king will have the opportunity of rewarding the
faithful. The king kissed Barzillai when parting from him; he had
pressed his friend to go back with him to Jerusalem, but

II.--WE SEE A BEAUTIFUL ILLUSTRATION OF CONTENTMENT.--They had come down
together after the great battle, and David said, "Come thou over with me,
and I will feed thee with me at Jerusalem." It was worthy of them both,
and we cannot but feel touched at David's gratitude; he would fain have
the patriarch spend his last days with him. "With me," said he, "I will
see thou hast everything thou canst want." "Nay," said the old man, "I
will see thee safely over the river, and then I will return to the green
fields I love, and when the time comes for me to die I will be laid by
the side of my father and my mother."

When will men learn that it is not their surroundings but themselves that
make a place comfortable or not? Paul could say, "I have learned in
whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content," and he said this in a
letter he wrote to the town where he had sung praises in the jail! Some
people would have jumped to have had this chance of going to live in a
palace, but this farmer said, "Give me my farmhouse and my quiet grave
beside my mother." Elevation may undo us. A sparrow could only chirp
even though in a golden cage. Barzillai felt, "A rustic, like I am,
seems all right among my ploughs and cattle, but I should not fit a
palace." Many a man has made himself a laughing stock because he left
the place he was fitted for, and so looked like a dandelion in a
conservatory.

III.--We have in Barzillai's words AN OLD MAN'S VIEW OF EARTHLY
ENJOYMENT. As though he had said, "I have lost hearing, sight, and
taste; what are all these things to me? I am soon to be in my grave,
what do I want away from home?" It would be well for most of us to weigh
these words, "How long have I to live?" To judge from the way we see men
toil to get houses and land, you would think they were going to live for
ever. Watch them how they are scraping the money they have; they have
none to spare to feed the hungry and clothe the naked; they have poor
relatives, but they cannot help them. Are they not going to be rich,
live in a splendid house, be grand folks some day? Aye, but death cannot
be bribed. I was passing through