The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Samuel — Section 411

conec!ousn~ss that he ,~·as a guilty man, that the judgment pronounced wae just, and that, rn spite of all ,nshes, hopes, and efforts to the contrary, the dreaded doom ~·ould come. In such a state of mind he saw messengers of justice and supplanter& of his position 'ld1ere others saw only blessings to Israel. A prudent act for purposes of self-defence against cruel persecution became to him a formidable attack on hie throne. The secrets of a holy friendship were the plottings of unfaithful men, and the want of sympathy on the part of upright men with bis malicious designs against an honourable man and public benefactor, he construed into conspiracy against him- self. This tendency of the mind to clothe all tliings with its own moral colouring ia ttniversal. As the 11oly and the wise see occasions for joy and confidence in every• thing except the sins of men and their natural effects, so the guilty and foolish see occasions for trouble and fear in what to others is the expression of goodness and <•f righteousness. It is a slight circumstance for a policeman to walk the street, but tl1ere are men who quail at the sight. The bare mention of a name or incidental reference to a transaction will cause agitation in the minds of evil-doers. The appearance among men of the holy Saviour caused trembling in the heart of the guilty Herod (Matt. ii. 3; xiv. 1-3). A man like Saul carries within him all the elements of a hell. Small things become instruments of self-inflicted torture. In snch a moral mood a man becomes an Ishmaelite indeed by reason of the quickness of his fears and the strength of his suspicions. If, beyond this life, this state of mind is intensified in the wicked by the complete dominion of sin and absence of present mitigations, it is not difficult to conceive the imperfection of language to indicate the future of the lost. Ill. IT PROMPTS TO NEW EXPEDIENTS FOR RELIEF FROM SELF-CREATED DIFFICULTIES. The circumstances which caused fear to Saul were the product of hie transgression ; for had he not disobeyed there would have been no need for a David to be brought out from the sheepfold as a conqueror of Goliath and chosen supplanter of his line, and hence no suspicious friendship and no cave of Adullam; but now that the fears bred of these circumstances were heavily upon him, the old resistance to God mani- fests itself in fresh contrivances to extricate himself from trouble. He addressee the leading men of Benjamin, seeking for Joyal support. He works on the feeling of clanship. He appeals to their lust for promotion and wealth. He claims their pity in bis sorrows, and suggests that they, as loyal men, should avoid the suspicion of con- niving at a conspiracy between his son and the son of Jesse. There is here a strange blending of hardihood and cowardice, defiance of God's will and sense of weakness, distrust of his friends and hope of assistance from them-a fair index of the mental confusion out of which spring all devices for warding off the certain doom which the guilty conscience sees to be approaching. Generally very much energy and skill are spent by men in seelcing to avert the necessary consequences of their past lives. No mental operation is more universal than that which assqciates evil consequences, remote or near, with wrong-doing. B11t a guilty man's repugnance to sufl:ering, com- bined with a determined spirit of rebellion against the moral order, induces an inces- sant strain of energy and skill to evade the inevitable. It is possible for men to look on Saul's appeals to Benjamites, and his stratagems for nullifying the words of Samuel (eh. xv. 28, 29), as vain and foolish as would be an attempt to prevent the action of the law of gravity, while in their own sphere they may be pursuing a similar course. All who live in hopes of a fnture blessedness while not laying a foundation for it in purity of nature and personal fellowship with Christ are practically lilrn Saul ; for no law is more unchangeable than that the pure in heart alone can HL'<· God. History relates bow men of abandoned lives have, in later years, under a dreud of future consequences, become precise in formal acts of worship, and ?ountiful 111 use of wealth, without the slightest perception of the need of a radical love of holiness, hoping by such external means to break open the door that bare the entrance into the kingdom of God of whatever defileth. A ealva.tion from uneasiness 3:nd pain men are eager for, not a salvation which consists in holiness of nature and JOY • in God. IV. IT IB BURE TO FIND SOME ABETTORS OF ITS STRIFE WITH GoD. It is probable that the more sober of the Benjamiteg had begun to distrust their king, and a.I though they may Ml have known all his dread secret (eh. xv. 28, 29), they could not but en. XXII. 1 - 2 3 . ) THE FIRST BOOK OF SAMUEL. 417