4. The proneness of the Lord's holy people to falsify, and deceive is well illustrated in the case of Laban, who, after Jacob had by a fair contract, labored seven years for him for his daughter Rachel, would not let him have her, but forced his older daughter Leah upon him; and, when Jacob complained he told him he must serve seven years more if he got Rachel; and his love for her prompted him to accept the terms. But he seems not to have been well compensated for his fourteen long years of toil for these two sisters. Their subsequent conduct indicates that he "paid dear for the whistle;" and one month's labor ought to have paid for both, even at ten cents a day, for they both turned out to be failures. They were, however, a fair specimen of the race. Rachel stole her father's images; and, when pursued and overtaken by him, she hid them, and told him a falsehood to conceal the act. The circumstance of her father _having_ images, and of her _stealing_ them, is an evidence that both were idolaters (Gen. xxxi.). 5. It is easy to see, from the foregoing facts, from what source the Jewish proclivity to idolatry and also to falsehood was derived. The latter was practically manifested by four hundred prophets at one time. It is true the Lord was charged with putting the lie in their mouths (1 Kings xxii. 22). 6. We are told, that, on a certain occasion, "the sons of Jacob answered Shechem, and Hamor his father, deceitfully" (Gen. xxxiv. 13); by which it appears the spirit or propensity to fraud and deception was still transmitted to their posterity. CHAPTER XXX.--CHARACTER OF DAVID-HIS NUMEROUS CRIMES. Here is one of the illustrious Bible characters who has been held up to the world for several thousand years as the "sweet singer of Israel," and "the man after God's own heart;" whose life is stained by the commission of a long list of crimes of the blackest character, some of which would send him to the State prison for life if committed in this morally enlightened age. 1. One of his first acts of moral delinquency was that of turning traitor to Achish, King of Gath. After the king had kindly given him a rulership over the city of Ziklag, he manifested his ingratitude by waging an unprovoked war for plunder upon the king's friends and relatives, to rob them of their cattle (1 Sam. xxvii.). 2. David, with an army, committed a similar act of aggression and spoliation upon the rights and property of Nabal, to attain his cattle by robbery (1 Sam. xxv.). 3. David at one time turned traitor to his own nation by joining the army of Achish to fight them (1 Sam. xxix.). 4. David obtained possession of the kingdom of Ishboshett by bribery and intrigue, after acknowledging him to be a righteous man (2 Sam. iii.). 5. David robbed Mephibosheth, the son of his bosom-friend Jonathan, and a poor cripple, of one-half of his estate, upon the plea that might makes right (2 Sam. xvi.).