Be Ready Always

1 Pet 3:15
Be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear
How could David be called “a man after God's own heart,” when he was a murderer and adulterer, and died with vindictive words in his mouth towards Shimei, Joab, and others?                                                                                                                                               -A. B.
Answer .-A “man after God's own heart” is a man who answers to the definition given by God Himself: “To this man will I look, to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word .”-( Isaiah 66:2 .) David answered exactly to this description. God's word in anything commanded his profoundest reverence and regard; and when convinced of wrong-doing, he was penitent to the utmost abasement. He would not sanction the killing of Saul by Abishai, because Saul was the Lord's anointed.-( 1 Sam. 26:9-11 .) He made instant confession and reparation in the matter of Uriah the Hittite. Towards God he was “as a little child,” while, towards man, he was “a mighty man of valour.” When he sinned, he confessed and forsook his sins. Thus he was a man after God's own heart. In considering his directions to Solomon concerning Shimei, Joab, &c., it must be remembered that David sat in the seat of judgment for God, and that the men in question had sinned against God in the several matters of their offence. If David had been personally vindictive, he would not have spared them as he did. As absolute monarch of Israel, under God, he had the power to take away their lives, which he would have done if characterised by the disposition suggested in the question. Instead of that, he allowed them to live so long as he himself was alive, but left the judicial punishment of their crimes to the wisdom of Solomon.

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".... Tell brother Wallis that we had an eccentric colonel in this country,
killed in this war I believe, David Crockett by name, who used to say,
' Be sure you're right, and then go ahead.'

Brother John Thomas
in a letter to brother Roberts

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The Resurrection of Animals
M.M. Your extracts anent the subject of the resurrection of animals, are to hand. We thank you for the trouble you have taken to put us in possession of what you regard as serious evidences of this extraordinary proposition, but cannot add that we coincide in your judgment on the matter. Our regard for the evident sincerity of your conviction alone deters us from speaking of the idea in terms of riducule. The whole subject of resurrection, must, as it seems to us, be radically misapprehended before such an idea could enter a man's mind. Resurrection is the reproduction of dead persons with reference to moral accountability sustained in a previous state of existence. Man in certain circumstances is responsible to his Maker and will therefore “rise again” for the reckoning arising out of his moral relationship; but beasts are not responsible and could not be made so by a resurrection, since by resurrection they would still be beasts. If a resurrection made them any thing else than beasts, it would not be a resurrection but a new creation. The destiny of the undiscerning brute-placed in varied shape upon earth for the service oi the present economy, is, to pass away with the ephemeral order of things of which they form a part; and with them will go myriads of Adam's rebellious race who have “no preeminence above a beast.” Eccles. 3:18 , 19 . For it is written “Man that is in honour and understandeth not is like the beasts that perish. Like sheep they are laid in the grave , death shall feed on them and the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning. They shall go to the generation of their fathers, they shall never see light .” ( Psalm 49:14 , 19 , 20 .) “The wicked shall perish, the enemies of the Lord shall be as the fat of the lambs , they shall consume; into smoke shall they consume away ( Ps. 37:20 .) “He shall perish for ever like his own dung, he shall fly away as a dream, and shall not be found, yea, he shall be chased away as a vision of the night. ( Job 20:7 , 8 .) “They are dead, they shall not live , they are deceased, they shall not rise , therefore hast thou visited them and destroyed them, and made all their memory to perish.”
 ( Isaiah 26:14 .)“ As natural brute beasts , they shall utterly perish in their own corruption.” ( 2 Peter, 2:12 .)
The Christadelphian 1865