fallen very freely to his share. He was, according to the Bible
record, "_a very great man_" (2 Sam. xix. 32), evidently a most
successful farmer, rich in flocks and herds, looked up and respected in
the district in which he lived. But after all, is it the universal, or
even the general, experience that wealth and power are associated with
simple cheerfulness and happiness? Could anything, for example, have
exceeded the bitterness and the boorishness of the other rich
flockmaster whom David's youths, with Eastern frankness, had asked,
"_Give, we pray thee, whatsoever cometh to thine hand unto thy
servants, and to thy son David_" "_Who is David? and who is the son of
Jesse_?" burst out Nabal in a fury. "_Shall I then take my bread, and
my water . . . and give it unto men whom I know not whence they be_?"
(1 Sam. xxv. 8, 10, 11). And even if that be an extreme instance, it
will not be denied that outward blessings in themselves, and considered
only by themselves, are apt to have a hardening rather than a softening
effect. It says much, therefore, for Barzillai, that amidst his great
possessions, he still kept the free, open, happy disposition of youth.


II.

_That he did so, is due amongst other reasons to the fact that he was a
generous man_.


His unsolicited assistance of David clearly proves this, while the very
length of the catalogue of articles with which he and his friends
supplied the fugitive's needs, proves that when he gave, he did so in
no stinted fashion, but freely and liberally.