irnclty, they trentcd the men of Jahesh- looked to the comrng of One who shoul,l per- Gilead with almost er1ual violence, on the fect this ideal, anrl insteacl of staining it pretence of their not having taken part in with sin, as Solomon did, should raise it to the war, but really to provide the remaining the full and vast dimensions of Israelite Benjamites with wives. Now, both at the thought. Most painful must it have been beginning an.I end of this narrative, it is to the nation that each one of its first three carefully pointed out that all this crime and kings, though rising every one far above the cruelty was the result of the state of anarchy level of ordinary men, yet fell so very far which everywhere prevailed. " In those days abort of their ideal And then came tha there was no king in Israel : every man did rent in the kingdom, and an ideal king wu that which was right in his own eyes" (Judges possible no longer. xxi. 25). There was no regular administra- But the prophets kept the thought ever tion of justice, no person whose business it alive in the hearts of the people, and in the was to maintain law and order, no one whose fulness of time the Messiah came. Mean- authority kept malefactors in awe, and who, while the establishment of the earthly when a crime had been committed, would monarchy was an essential condition for the punish it in a regular manner, and with the sccwity, the continuance, and the develop- general approval of all parties ; and so every ment of Israel. Without a king Israel could species of villainy could be practised with never have performed its work of preparing impunity, until the patience of the com- - for Christ. Even the organisation of prophecy munity was exhausted, and it visited the was delayed till there was a king, because offenders with II violence so summary as to when a nation has to fight for its very exist- make it repent afterwards of its own cruelty. ence there is no room for a literary aud The position of these three chapters, im- educated _order of men. Learning would mediately preceding in the Hebrew the Books have died out in the middle ages had there of Samuel (for the insertion of the Book of not been cloisters into which men who loved Ruth is a modern attempt at a chronological mental culture might re tire. Still it was arrangement), seems intended to point out not this which made the people cling so that the king was as absolutely necessary for tenaciously to the.}iope held out to them by the well-being of the Hebrew commonwealth Moses, but the daily vexation of Philistine as he was essential for the perfecting of the misrule. And what the Philistines were to- Messianic iclea. It is in Christ's kingdom them now all the neighbouring nations had that the theocracy becomes a realised fact, previously been in turn. Throughout the and Christ is above all things a King. Now Book of Judges we find a s~ate of things in Israel the King was emphatically the described from which all thoughtful men Anointed One, i. e. the Messiah or Christ (eh. must have desired deliverance, and the few ii. 10, 35 ; x. 1 ; xii. 3, &c.). True it is that exceptions, as when they flourished for m in Christ all offices must be united, and he time under the strong ha.nd of Gideon, only must be a Priest to make atonement and 11 served to bring out the contrast more clearly Prophet to teach o.s well as a King to rule ; between times when they had m ruler and yet we find in Israel, as the type of Christ's times when they had none. We need not kingdom, that priest and prophet stood o.t wonder, therefore, ot the persistency with the king's beck. In Solomon we have the which the people urged their demand, oven delineation of Israel's king in his full power 11.fter the dark pictures which Samuel had and glory ; and we find him thrusting out drawn of what a king might become if he Abiathar from being high priest (1 Kings ii. degenerated into a tyrant. But our admira- 27), appointing the order of service for the tion is due to the patriotism nnd generosity priests and Levites (2 Chron. viii. 14), and which made this noble-minded man gr:i.nt having the prophets in attendance upon him their request, though he knew that he there- to record his noble d~eds (ibid. ix. 29). To by limited his own powers, and gave his Solomon's reign the Israelites over looked sons an inferior place. So also had Moses back 0.9 giving the ideal of what their done before. While he gave Aaron high and "anointed one" should be, and onward they perpetual office, he let his own family fall. 142 THE FIRST DOOK 01<' SAMUEL. (ell. Vlll, 1-22.
bnck into the position of ordinRry Israelites. Saul and his heroic son in the "Song of tho And, moreoYcr, the king whom Samuel Bow" (2 Sam. i. 19-27): "mighty" thr.y chose ,ms a gmnd lwro, though, like so many were, nnd "the beauty of Ismel," though men giftc<l with great powers of command, he Saul mitmid his glory by great and l'\linous fell through 'thnt self-will which is the be- faults. With Saul, then, the rest of tho book :sotting sin of ruling natures. Few men can is occupied, nnd it divides itself. into two rn,lurc the t1fal of the possession of absolute pnrts-(1) the founding ancl establishment of power, and ieast of all those endowed with Saul's kingdom (chs. viii.-xv,); nnd (2) its an energetic and resoluto temperament. It gradual decay nnd final full (chs, xvi.-xxxi. ). is a noble testimony that David bears to