om the watch tower of Mahanaim, or from the chamber
between the walls, and give to it shape and interpretation after the
times in which we live. From the mouth of David it meant I think only,
Does Absalom still live? Is he not among the slain? We are not to
anticipate the revelation of later ages and say, as some have said,
that it was the thought of the future for his son after death which
moved the king of Israel so deeply. It was just the sorrow of another
father at an earlier time, also in the first throes of its bitterness:
"I will go down unto the grave unto my son mourning." And yet I think
that without anticipating any revelation, the man whose thoughts about
God and holiness were those which the Psalms of David disclose, cannot
have lost his best-loved son in the very act and deed of direful
guilt, without an aggravation of his anguish because of this sad
thing. If Absalom in the midst of upright walking and works of
righteousness had been stricken by disease and had died in his bed,
the tidings of this when it reached the father might and would no
doubt have moved him to deep sorrow. But I think we should not have
heard that wail of grievous lamentation from the roof of the chamber,
"O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom, would God I had died for
thee, O Absalom, my son, my son!"

We sometimes hear of the world growing old. Brethren, the world can
never grow old. If by the world is meant the generations of men, it
can never grow old. Its seed is in itself; while it decays it
germinates; as it withers, it grows. The elders fall off, but their
place is filled and more than filled. The world is and must be while
things remain as they are now, for ever young. But of what kind is
its youth? That is the awful and tremendous question. Shall the
Absaloms abound? or the Josephs and the Josiahs?

The elders have much to say to this. We bring no charge against the
father of Absalom. He was not fortunate indeed as to any of his sons,
of whom any record remains. Even of Solomon it can only be said that
he began well. But the ways of an Eastern court are past our knowledge
and judgment. We have to do with English homes. The youth of the
world, that which is now its youth and is keeping it from growing old,
of what kind is the influence upon it which they are bringing to bear
with whom the influence lies? And not the influence only, not that
only which comes from example and (as it were) unconscious agency, but
from cou