In these circumstances, oh for the wisdom of her who showed herself on the city walls in the thick of the assault, crying to Joab, "Hear, hear, come near hither, I pray you, that I may speak with thee!" A woman's figure there, her voice sounding above the thunder of the captains and the shouting, suspends the attack. Assailants and assailed alike rest on their arms; and as one marked as a leader by his plume and bearing, covered with the dust and blood of battle, steps forward, she bends over the battlements to ask, "Art thou Joab?" "I am he," is the reply. "Then hear the words of thy handmaid," she cries; "I am one of them that are peaceable and faithful in Israel: thou seekest to destroy a city and a mother in Israel!" He solemnly repudiates the charge. "Far be it from me," he answers, "that I should swallow up and destroy. The matter is not so: but a man of Mount Ephraim, Sheba, the son of Bichri, hath lifted up his hand against the king, against David: deliver him only, and I will depart from the city." She accepts the terms; and saying "Behold, his head shall be thrown to thee over the wall"--vanishes. Prompt in action as wise in counsel, she goes to the people, deals with them, sways the multitude to her will; and ere the last hour of the brief truce has closed, a bloody head goes bounding over the wall. It rolls like a ball to the feet of Joab; and in its grim and ghastly features they recognise the face of the son of Bichri. So Joab blows the trumpet, and the host retires from the walls, every man to his own tent. So let men deal with their sins. Let them die with the son of Bichri: they have "lifted up their hand against the King." Why should we spare them, and lose our souls? By His precious blood Jesus has opened up a way to peace. He has come, but not "to swallow up and destroy." Blessed Lord, He came to save, not to destroy. "O earth, earth, earth," cried the prophet, "hear the word of the Lord;" and be it known to the world's utmost bounds that God willeth not the death of the sinner, but rather that he would turn to Him and live. With her flaming sword, red with the blood of men and angels, Justice holds to us no other language but that of Joab, "Deliver up your sins only, and I will depart!" and, inspired of God with the wisdom that chooseth the better part, and maketh wise unto salvation, let us say, "Better my sins die than I; better Satan be cast, than Jesus be kept out of it; better strike off the heads of a thousand sins that have lifted up their hands against the King, than that I should fall--sparing my sins to lose my soul!" _PART V._