What is murder? It is hatred in the heart, cherished and unpardoned, unconfessed to God, which ends in a cruel deed.
If we find in our own hearts an unforgiving spirit—a grudge against any one—a wish, perhaps, to do them harm or pay them back—let us beware!
Our Lord says: "When ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have aught against any one!"
Now I am going to tell you about a murder, which was a very sad one.
David, as you know, loved God very much; but he had grown very rich and powerful, and he had begun to value earthly things more than God's Commandments.
Uriah, in the forefront of the battle.
He wanted to get rid of one of his soldiers, who was at the war fighting for him. Why did he want to get rid of him? Because David had taken from him something which that soldier valued beyond all other things! I will tell you what that thing was afterwards.
So David told his great captain, Joab, to set this soldier, called Uriah, in the forefront of the battle, and then to retire from him, so that he should get killed. So Joab, who was an unscrupulous, untrustworthy man, did as the king commanded him. Then he sent back word to David at Jerusalem about the great battle, and mentioned that Uriah was killed.
"But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord."