Amy Steedman

“ Now it happened that one day while David was, as usual, out in the fields that a sudden stir of excitement awoke in the little town of Bethlehem. Men gathered round the city gate, and with anxious, fearful eyes looked down the long white road that led up from the plain below. And yet there seemed nothing there to make them look so terrified and anxious. Only an old feeble man was slowly climbing up towards the town. He was driving a heifer before him, and carrying what looked like a horn in his hand.
[folio 7]
An old feeble man was slowly climbing up towards the town. ”

“ I defy the armies of Israel this day. Give me a man that we may fight together.”
A great silence fell after the champion had shouted his last words of defiance. There was no answer from the Israelites. No man had courage enough to dream of accepting the challenge.
David looked round him in amazement, and his cheeks burned with shame. What were the people doing to allow this boasting heathen Philistine to defy the armies of the living God? Eagerly he turned to the men around him and began to ask them what it meant. ”

“ The fierce Philistines had come up with their great armies to try and conquer the land. Every man in Israel who could fight was called [folio 17] up to protect his country. Already David’s three elder brothers had joined Saul’s army, which was preparing to fight the enemy.
Jesse sends David to the camp.
On either side of a narrow valley, divided by a stream which ran along over smooth stones, the two armies faced each other. There they were encamped, [folio 18] like wild beasts ready to fly at each other’s throats. At any moment the fight might begin, and that stream be stained red with blood. ”

“ No, there was no one who dared to go forth and fight Goliath. The king had promised great rewards to any man who would kill the giant. But no one had dared to try.
David’s elder brothers heard his questions, and seeing [folio 21] how amazed he was, they began to grow angry. Did he mean to reproach them? Perhaps he thought of offering himself to fight the champion. It was time that this shepherd boy should be put in his proper place. So his eldest brother turned to him with a sneer.
While he kept his father’s sheep he had often to defend them from wild beasts. ”

“ He loved music, and he taught himself to play on the harp, practising so carefully and patiently that his [folio 14] fingers grew most wonderfully skilful. Then he made songs to go to the music, some of the most beautiful songs that ever have been made in all the world. Almost every child to-day knows his beautiful song about the Good Shepherd: “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.” ”

“ Choose you a man for you, and let him come down to me. If he be able to fight with me and to kill me, then will we be your servants; but if I prevail against him and kill him, then shall ye be our servants and serve us. ”

“ The first to come was Eliab, Jesse’s eldest son, and when Samuel saw him he felt sure that this was the man who was to be anointed king. He was a splendid young man, tall and strong and handsome, looking almost as kingly as Saul himself. ”