Chunk 5

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2026-01-26T19:09:17.321Z

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525 It was not always easy to keep that sacred bond in mind. David, hunted by his friend’s father, was tempted more than once to forget what was due to his king, even when the King was crazed and maddened by jealousy. And Jonathan must have often seen that if he could forget what he owed to his vow of friendship to David, it would be easy, by betraying him into the hands of his father, for a time at any rate, to bring again peace to Israel and honor to himself. But neither of them was shaken from his steadfastness. The time came when David, a fugitive from the face of Saul, was hiding by the stone of Ezel. Crouched under the huge rock, the solitary thing in the vast plain, he waited for the signal agreed upon <!-- [Page 114](arke:01KFXV1NHWCXRJK8KT01PNBR6G) --> 526 100 527 528 between Jonathan and himself. Presently it came in the arrows shot one after another beyond his hiding-place, and he knew that the King, more angry than ever, had determined that he should die. Nothing remained but to fly for his life. But before he does so, he comes out of his hiding-place into the open, prostrates himself three times before his friend, and then “they kissed one another, and wept with one another.” 529 530 The last meeting was far away in the forest of Ziph. The illustration, with its careful adherence to the scenery and costumes of the time, tells us how it may have been. David had become the commander of an army—small indeed, but determined. Pursued by King Saul and his troops, he has intrenched himself and his followers in the strongholds of the wood, high up on a hill whose summit, clothed with thick foliage, at once screened him from observation and gave him easy command of the surrounding country. Hither it is that Jonathan follows him, and pledges <!-- [Page 115](arke:01KFXV1NKXZ4888A439YTN24N7) --> 531 101 532 533 himself to him once more in words of undying constancy. They were words that David sorely needed to hear, for the army of the King had already wellnigh surrounded him, and he seemed caught as in a trap. It is at such a moment that Jonathan fearlessly seeks him in the forest of Ziph, and reassures him as to the future. His father, he bids David believe, would not overtake him. “Fear not: thou shalt be king over Israel, and I shall be next unto thee; and that also Saul my father knoweth” (1 Samuel, xxiii. 17). 534 535 The first part of that prophecy was soon to find fulfilment. But not so the rest. In a little while Jonathan fell, splendidly fighting, at Gilboa, and David sang that elegy which will live in the hearts of men as long as they can own and honor loyal and unselfish friendship. And today, as the feet of the modern traveller stand where once stood the woods of Ziph, two names will spring unbidden to his lips—the names of young men mem- <!-- [Page 116](arke:01KFXV1NPMWEWVY7WWG7M5ZS5C) --> 536 102 537 538 orable for courage and patriotism, but, most of all, dear and beautiful for their heroic and unswerving constancy to one another. <!-- [Page 117](arke:01KFXV1NGA56V6F2AM4XDQRZFD) --> 539 Esther and Abasuerus 540 541 By 542 Robert S. 543 Mass. Attorney 544 &amp; A. <!-- [Page 118](arke:01KFXV1NGQSX4FVBG3GTQZ8JAQ) --> 545 ^{}[]

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Chunk 5