WE all love David,—the poet, musician, prophet, king! How frequently we use his words of prayer and praise, his immortal psalms! Not many, however, may remember that David was also, on more than one occasion, a healer. King Saul, we read, was at times troubled by an "evil spirit." What the particular manifestation of evil was, Holy Scripture does not say; we are simply told that "the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul." It is enough for us to know that the king for the time being evidently allowed the belief in evil to have dominion over him instead of being possessed by "the Spirit of the Lord."
The poet Browning has given us a description of the first of the occasions when David was sent for to heal Saul which is particularly interesting to Christian Scientists. Poets have often voiced marvelous truths, perhaps all unconsciously. We have only to think of Tennyson's oft-quoted words: "Closer is He than breathing," etc. So in Browning's "Saul" David gives the king what we might call scientific treatment. We have a charming picture of the young shepherd arriving in the camp where the king is. He is met by Abner, the captain of the host, who is greatly relieved to see him. The lad has picked some of the blue lilies from the fields and wound them. around the strings of his harp to prevent them from snapping in the noontide heat. He has come straight from keeping his sheep,—"God's child with His dew on thy gracious gold hair,"—and when he arrives he hears from the captain what is required of him.
We then read that he offers a short prayer and goes to the royal tent. The king is there alone; motionless, tall, clad in armor, with jeweled turban, he looms up a gigantic figure in the dimness, but David is not awed. He seats himself on the ground at Saul's feet, and commences by playing softly on his harp, probably to give himself time to collect his thoughts. This is the first time he has been called upon to turn to account the wonderful truths that have swept across his consciousness as he lay under the sky with the sheep feeding around him. What some of those thoughts were we know—they have been preserved for us in the Psalms. Everything spoke of God to David: the heavens, the stars, the rocks, the springs, even his own calling.—"The Lord is my shepherd." But now it must be no vague longings, no beautiful dreams; there stands the stem king, waiting to be helped, and he begins his treatment.
