operate as inducements to fidelity and diligence in the service of our God ? Does not every favour bestowed upon us address us, as it were, in the words of Samuel, " Only fear the Lord?" Does it not bind us also, according to the ability and oppor- tunities afforded us, to teach others " the good and the right way?" Instead then of making our situation an occasion for carnality, or an excuse for lukewarmness, let us endeavour to " render to the Lord according to the benefits he has conferred upon us."]
2. The spiritual —
[As the most signal mercies imparted to the Jewish nation were typical of far richer benefits reserved for the Christian Church, we should but ill consult the scope of the text, and still less the advancement of our eternal interests, if we should omit to mention our obligations to God for spiritual blessings. "Consider" then that stupendous act of mercy, the gift of God's dear Son : consider that he was given up to death, even the accursed death of the cross, for us sinners, for the recovery of our souls from death and hell, and for the restoration of them to the divine favour ; how unfathomable the mystery ! how incomprehensible the love ! The terms too upon which God will accept sinners ; how easy, how simple, how suited to our lost and helpless nature ! We have only to " believe in Christ, and we shall be saved'." Can any thing be more encouraging ; or lay us under greater obligations to obe- dience? Consider further, the benefits tve receive by believing: we are instantly brought into the family of God ; we enjoy sweet " fellowship with the Father and the Son ;" we have the sting of death taken away ; and we have an eternal inheritance in heaven : shall all this love have no constraining influence ? shall it not cause us to present ourselves as living sacrifices to God, that we may both live to him who died for us, and glo- rify God with our bodies and our spirits which are his'^? Yes ; such were the sentiments of an inspired Apostle ; nor can any rational being controvert or doubt such self-evident deductions. Let us then apply them in confirmation of the text, and fix them on our minds as motives to serve God with all our hearts. Let us put away that worldliness and sensuality, which are the bane and curse of our souls. Let us discard formality, that bhnding, that deluding sin. Let us also abhor hypocrisy, that basest of all sins. Let us serve our God, not with a few outward ceremonies, but with the inward devotion of our hearts^. Let us not study how we may contract our regards to him into the smallest possible space ; but how we may glorify
' Acts xvi, 31.
i^ 2 Cor. v. 14. Rom. xii. 1. 1 Cor. vi. 20. • 1 John iii. 18.
295.] Saul's impatience. 175
his name, and advance his interests. And while we thus cvil- tivate the fear of him in our own hearts, let us, with Samuel, laboiu' to the utmost, that he may be feared and served by all around us™.]
™ Here, if it were judged proper, the connexion of our piety with the prosperity of the nation, as marked in the words following the text, might be urged as an additional, though inferior, motive to zeal and diligence.
ccxcv.
Saul's impatience.
1 Sam. xiii. 11 — 13. And Samuel said, What hast thou done? And Saul said, Because I saw that the people were scattered from me, and that thou earnest not within the days appointed, and that the Philistines gathered themselves together at Michmash ; therefore said I, The Philistines will come down now upon me to Gilgal, and I have not made supplication unto the Lord: I forced myself therefore, and offered a burnt- offering. And Samuel said to Saul, Thou hast done foolishly.
IN a reply which Ehhu made to Job, it is confi- dently asked, " Is it fit to say to a king. Thou art wicked; and to princes. Ye are ungodly''?" To this I answer, that doubtless respect and deference are due to rank ; but not to such an extent as to com- promise fidelity to God, and fidelity to the souls of men. If a Herod take his brother's wife, a servant of God must tell him plainly, " It is not lawful for thee to have her." And if a Saul violate openly, before all, an express command of God, a Samuel does well to interrogate him, " What hast thou done 1" and to tell him vdth an authoritative tone, " Thou hast done foolishly." Even a young minister, in cases of a more flagrant nature, must consider himself as God's ambassador, and must '' rebuke with all authority ^"