The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Chronicles — Section 140

raised his people to independence and to power. But he was disobedient to the voice of the seer, he was unfaithful to the cause of the God who raised him to eminence and invested him with theocratic authority; and he reaped the bitter harvest of disobe- dience and unfaithfulness. To some position, with some vocation the Author of our life has called each one of us. Not only kings and rulers, pastors ~nd Church officers but all Christians, in every station of life, have committed to them a peculiar and sacred trust. Let each ask-How is this trust fulfilled? III. 'l'here is exemplified here the possibility of TRUE RELIGION BEING KNOWN AND TET FORSAKEN, In bis early life, Saul had put within him another heart, and became another man. But there are signs that be came under heathen influences. Certainly one of the last acts of his life was indicative of superstition, when he sought unto the witch of Endor, instead of looking to Jehovah for counsel and encouragement. He " inquired not of the Lord." It was a. grievous defection; he, whose religious life commenced so brightiy under the guidance of Samuel, came to grovel before a.n i<>norant necromancer I A lesson this of human instabilty, frailty, and fickleness. "Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall!" Alas! how often has the bri<>ht promise of youth been clouded in maturer years, and the sun which rose in splend~ur sunk beneath the gloomy clouds I It is a solemn warning which none should disregard. IV. We a.re informed that THE FALL OF THIS FIRST KING OF ISRAEL WAS A DIVINE JlJDGMENT. "Saul died for his transgression which he committed against the Lord." We are seldom at liberty authoritatively and confidently to pronounce calamity a judgment from the Lord. But in the case before us we are expressly warranted in doing so. Saul had violated the Divine Law. He had directed sacrifice to be offered without the permission of the prophet. He had spared Agag, and appropriated the spoil. He had displayed, again and again, a. rebellious and ungodly disposition; had given way to impulses of anger, envy, jealousy, and fear. He had too often despised God's Word, persecuted God's servants, trusted in himself, and forgotten that Jehovah had called him to be the leader of his people in righteousness. Now at length the long-delayed retribution came upon the guilty monarch. "The Lord slew him." A warning to the impenitent, this terrible fate of Saul should summon the sinner to repentance, and (thank God!) to" repentance unto life."-T. Vers.1-10.-Understanding the end. The psalmist(Ps. lxxiii.)wae much perplexed and perturbed in spirit" when he saw the prosperity of the wicked." He was disposed to think that he had "cleansed his heart in vain," and in vain "washed his hands in innocency" (Ps. lxxiii. 13). But on further and deeper thought, he arrived at a sound con- clusion. When he" went into the sanctuary of God," i.e. when he looked a.t the matter in the light of Divine truth, then he" understood their end." If any one should wonder :it Saul's continued prosperity, should wonder where God was that a man whose hands were so stained with blood should so long be seated on a throne, he would only have to wait and see the end to know that "verily there is a God that judgeth in the earth." We learn from these verses- I. THAT WE CANNOT TELL WHETHER BUMAN LIFE WILL PROVE TO DE ENVIABLR TILL IT IS CONCLUDED. The ancients said, "Ca.II no man happy till he is dead." Tho epigram was the outcome of the fact, finding frequent illustration, that men who were supposed to be most enviable proved, after all, to be those with whom few would willingly exchange conditions. In the heyday of Saul's power and prominence the~e must have been many Israelites who wished that such happy fortune had been th~1rs; that the kingly lot had fallen on their tribe, on their family, on _themselves (1 Sam. x. 20, 21). But who now would wish to have been the first Krng of Israel, to have run h18 checkered cou:se, to have been driven to such sad and guilty shifts, and to have terminated a career in such rui!!OUH dishonour as that which closed his clouded life? To be miserably beaten, to be utterly routed in battle (ver. 3), to be driven to suicide in order to avoid the worst a.busel! (ver. 4), to know, before he died, that his house we.s perishing with him (ver. 5), to be dishonoured by the ene.my a.tter death (ver. 9), to have his body taken and exposed in the temple of an idol (Yer. 10),-all this was the last extreme of humiliation and disaster. Envy not those whose outward career seems enviable. Who knows what miseries are within; what madness reclines at the royal hea':th; what wretchedness reposes under the princely roof; what jealousy drives in the OJI, X. 1-14,) THE FIRST BOOK OF THE CHRONICLES. 131