to both the spirit and the letter of the Racred writings. The king is for God, not God for the king. The king is for the people, not the people for the king. The voice of the people may not always be the voice of God, but the good of the people is always the will of God. 2. The test to which the king was now subjected was, like the former one, specific, and publicly applied. W onld he obey the Lord in the extermination of Amalek or no? And he disobeyed. If there was one of all the A.malekite race who deserved to forfeit his life, it was the king, Agag, a ruthless chief, whose sword, as Samuel expressed it, had II made women childless;" yet him Saul spared when he showed no mercy to others. It was not at all from a feeling of humanity or pity. To have scrupled about shedding the blood of a hereditary foe would not have occurred to any Oriental warrior of the period. But Saul would reserve the royal captive to grace his triumph, and be a household slave of the king of Israel. It was the pride of the chiefs and kings of that age to reduce the princes whom they had conquered to slavery in their courts. Adonibezek is said to have kept seventy such captives, whose hands and feet he had mutilated to unfit them for war, and who, as slaves, gathered from his table. Besides A.gag, the best of the sheep and cattle belonging to Amalek were spared by Saul and his army. They used their success to enrich themselves, and forgot that the sentence of God against that nation was the .:>nly justification of the war. 3. The Divine censure on the disobedient king was pronounced by .Samuel. The prophet was deeply grieved. He had loved the young. man on whose lofty head he had poured the sacred oil, and whose failure to fulfil the early promise of his reign had already caused him, if not much surprise, distress unfeigned. And Samuel was concerned for the nation. If the new govern- ment was so soon discredited, and Saul forfeited his kingly seat, what but anarchy could come upon Israel, and with anarchy, subjection, as before, to the Philistines or some other warlike nation of the heathen? The prophet fulfilled his commission, i10wever painful; gravely reproved the king, brushed aside his excuses and evasions, and refused, not without a touch of scorn, his offered bribe of animals for sacrifice. 4. Samuel took occasion to declare that II to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams." These words contain the very quintessence of the testimony of the prophets; not Samuel only, but Hosea, :Micah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and in fact all the g·reat teachers whom Jehovah sent to his ancient people. Sacrificial oblations could never be accepted in lieu of practical obedience, and a rebellious, wilful temper was as offensive to the Lord as any kind of idolatry. Priests and Levites were appointed for religious ceremonial, but the great function of the prophets was to maintain the supremacy of what is moral over what is ceremonial, and to lift up fearless voices for mercy and truth, judgment and righteousness,. integrity and probity, reverence for Jehovah, and obedience to his revealed will. Such was the testimony of the Lord Jesus himself, as the greatest of prophets. He recognised and respected the sacrifices appointed in the law, bnt did not in his conversations or discourses dwell on them. His aim was to cause men to hear the word of God, and do it. And such is the message or burden of all New Testament prophets, and of thoRe who know how to guide and teach Christians. To be lax and mdulgent on questions of moral conduct, while strict about services and offerir1gs to God and the Church, is the part of a false prophet. The true prophet, while wit- nessing to free forgiveness in the blood of Christ, will enjoin all who seek that forgiveness to cease to do evil and learn to do well, will faithfully decl,irc to them that they cannot be kept in the love of God if they are not obedient to bis word. 5. The behaviour of Saul under reproof betrayed a shifty, superficial character. He showed no real sense of sin, or desire of Divine forgiveness. D,wid, during his reign, committed a more heinous offence against domestic and social morality than anything that Saul as yet had done; but he was pardoned and restored because· when charged with the sin-"Thou art the man "-he confessed it, and excused not himself. And then he cried to God, "Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean." But Saul, when charged with disobedience, showed no shame or sorrow on its account. He at once put himself in a defensive attitude, stooped to subterfuge, laid the blame on others, bad no feeling but a desire to escape consequences. He would propitiate the Lord and his prophet by sacrifices; but his former religious eensibility was now almost quite gone from him, and he was becoming·, like Esan, a 294. THE FIRST BOOK OF SAMUEL. [en. XVI. 1-23.
"_profane person," hard and godless. It is pitiful to see that the king looked nf higher than t_o Samuel, and as!-~d n~ moi:e than_ that the prophet wou.ld pardon him. and favour !nm so far as to Jorn with hun wlule he publicly worshipped-the Lord Evidently his object was to have his credit upheld by the venerl\ted presence of S~muel; and, on his :epeating the. request, the prophet thought fit to yield to his wish, probably to avoid the weakemng of the royal influence, and the premature fall of the_ monarchy. 6. The rejection of Saul took no sudden effect. Oravely and sadly 1t was pronounced by Samuel ; but it brought about no immediate catastrophe None the less was it a sure and fatal sentence. \Ve know that Saul was not dethroned. He ha_d a long ~eign, and die~ on the b_attle-field. But the process w.as already begun which led !nm to dark G1lboa, wluch led one better than him to Hebron and to Jerusalem; and the remainder of this book is occupied in showing how the_ Di,ine rejection of Saul took effect, and how the Lord brought forward and tramed the son of Jesse for the kingdom. It is a thought full of solemnitjr1 that a rn~n may long keep his :place a!ld hold his own in Christian society who yet is reJ_ecte~ _by the Lo_rd, :i-nd 1s growmg at heart more and more profane, till at last the ~nl spmt rules him mstead of the good, and he dies W! one troubled and God- forsaken. The pro_cess may be Io!lg, hut it is none the Ie_ss tragical. May God lrnep us from the begmmngs of declens10n, and from all excusmg of our sins, or laying of the fault upon others I Lord, take not thy Holy Spirit from us 1-F. •
CHOICE OF DAVID TO BE ISRAEL'S KING, AND DECLINE OF SAUL'S KINGDOM. (CHS. XVI.-XXX!.)