Page:Legends of Old Testament Characters.djvu/348

326 additional reproach, and he wept still more. It is said that during the ensuing forty days and nights David shed more tears than Adam and all his descendants had, and will, shed from the day of the Fall to the day of the Resurrection.

Then God sent Gabriel to him again, and Gabriel said, "The Lord salutes thee!" But David lifted his tearful face and said, "O Gabriel, what will Uriah say to me on the day of the general Resurrection?"

Gabriel answered, "The Lord will give him so great an inheritance in Paradise, that he will not have the heart to reproach thee."

Then David knew that he was pardoned, and he rejoiced greatly. But he never forgot his sins. He wrote them on the palm of his hand, that he might have them always before him; therefore he says, "My shame is ever before mine eyes."

Nevertheless David's heart was lifted up with pride, when he considered that he was a king, a prophet, and a great general. And one day he said to Nathan, "I think I am perfect, I have everything."

"Not so," answered Nathan, "thou exercisest no handicraft."

Then David was ashamed, and he asked God to teach him a craft; and God made him skilful in fabricating coats of mail of rings twined together; his trade therefore was that of an armourer, and his disgrace was wiped away.

After his judgment between the two angels, David had no confidence in giving sentence in cases pleaded before him; therefore God sent him, by the hand of Gabriel, a reed of iron and a little bell, and the angel said to him, "God is pleased with thy humility, and He has sent thee this reed and this bell to assist thee in giving judgment. Place this reed in thy judgment-hall, and hang up the bell in the middle, and place the accuser on one side, and the accused on the other, and give sentence in favour of him who makes the bell to tinkle when he touches the reed."

David was highly pleased with this gift, and he gave such righteous judgment, that men feared, throughout the land, to do wrong to one another.

One day, two men came before David, and one said, "I left a goodly pearl in the charge of this man, and when I asked for it again, he denied it me."