oursel_n•s. The escape from so awful a position is by fleeing now for refuge to Christ our Righteousness. The dumb consent of Saul to the truth of Samuel's worde is in keeping with the acquiescent silence wherewith, in the future life, the wicked are represented as bowing to the sentence of the Judge (cf. Matt. ,·ii. 21-23; xxv. 11, 12. _31- 46 ; Luke xvi. 23-25; xix. 22-26). , I. THE GREAT DISAPPOINTMENT OF LIFE. Saul certainly cherished hope to the hst that by some contrivance, some casual aid, he should avert the evil duet,, his iline. "'it\1 all the unreasoning energy_ of desperation he sought Samuel as a final resource; but mste~d of the hoped-for guidance of what he shall do, he meets with a declara- t10n of Ins d_oom. Sentence of death is passed by the very friend whose counsel is sought: Tins doubtless was the most grievous disappointment of his earthly life, and might well lay him low in the dust. Not instruction, but judicial utterance. Not delinrance, but destruction. There are bitter disappointments during the life of mo~t men, and the hear~ sinks in pain and dis~ay, but the great disappointment of some 1s at the end of their earthly course. Cbnst represents some as expecting to b,e received into heaven, and all_ t~e ~op,~s of years are blasted by the awful words, ' J?epart from me, ye that.work m1qmty. The par~ble of the Pharisee and publican pomts to the same fearful issue. Would that men did-but" ponder the path" of their feet, and by timely penitence and renewal of soul obviate that most calamitous of all disappointments I YII. SYMPATHY WITH FALLEN GREATNESS. There is an awful and instructive con- tra_st in this closing scene of Saul's career-between the calm, measured, though endently tender words of Samuel, followed by his return to the invisible world, leanng the wretched king prostrate and helpless on the ground, and the active com- passion of this evil woman for the distinguished sufferer at her feet. Samuel was still the true, loving man as of old ; but in the invisible sphere he saw things in a clear moral light, and was restrained by his judicial commission from manifesting ir. action sympathy for the fallen king. It is a question bow far a perfect perception of the enormity of sin, such as must be attained by the "spirits of the just made perfect," diminishes what we ordinarily understand as sympathy for those who receive "according to the deeds done in the body." Be that as it may, we cannot but note bow even those addicted to a life of sin, as was this woman, are touched by the presence of a great sorrow. There is something exquisitely beautiful in her conduct. For a time the old cunning and moral insensibility and cynicism are set aside, and the humane feelings of her soul find free exercise, as perhaps in the days of her youth-suggestive to us of the germ of true humanity that underlies the accre- tions of a guilty life, and of the power that may be exercised over even the worst, if only we knew the art of touching the hidden spring. Every reader of the narra- tive must enter into her gentle an<l respectful feelings towards the fallen monarch ; and we feel that had we been there we also should have sought to raise him from the earth, and provide generous nourishment for his exhausted frame. For sym- pathy with the righteous judgments of God does not extinguish pity for those who fall under them. In fallen greatness we see the majesty and the dishonour, the possibilities and the actualities, of our common humanity. It is as though a large part of ourselves had come to grief; and though we cannot but deplore the _sin, we feel disposed to weep over the lost one, and to render the last offices of kindness with a tender hand. So did our blessed Lord, the perfect Man, weep over the lost city when proclaiming with full acquiescence its righteous doom (Matt. xxiii. 37, 38; Luke xix. 41--44). General lessons :-1. The only safe course when sin has been committed is at once, after the example of Da;id and Peter, to !eturn to the Lord and ?ast ourselves entirely on his mercy. Saul s neff l~ct of th1~ was ~he. sec!et ?f bis subsequ~nt miseries. 2. There is great probability of chenshed sm 1ssumg m a state of mmd such that men shall imagine they arc seeking good of God when in reality they are seeking only the evasion of his righteous judgments. 3. It cannot _be too earne~tly and frequently impres?ed _on young. and old that moral chara~t~r 1s the govermng element in the determmation of the1r present and future cond1tion. 4. The occa- sional justification of God's apparently severe judgments recorded in Scripture may he regarded as foreshadowing the future moral solution of the dark and painful 1:11. XXY/11. 1-25.] THE FIRST BOOK OF SA:'vIUEL. 631
cYcnt8 connected with the history of the intelligent universe. 5. If we would bet prepnre<l to end life with a realisation of our hopes we must give heed to the re::t!ity of our oneness with the mind of God.