The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Chronicles — Section 146

good; a sort of mirror, in which we find the face we bring to it. With this difference, however, that God working on the side of all that is good, the reward of any goodness is always vastly larger than the retribution of any ill. Covet the beautiful rewards of kiudness. Scores of years after they have been rendered they will return with a blessing into your bosom. Ill. A DEED OF HONOUR ALWAYS BEARS SOME FRUITS OF GRAND ADVANTAGE, Judas thought there was no reply possible to his question of cynical utilitarianism. And some like him in Jabesh doubtless asked, Cui bono t and protested that the project was rash ; that the dead were not bettered by any attentions shown them; that they should rather look after the substantial advantages of their wives and families than risk their lives in sentimental expeditions. But if some argued thus, the event might convince even such that the project was not quite so unwise as it seemed. What were the results? They were at least these. 1. .An increase of their own self-respect. Self- respect is as valuable as self-esteem is weakening. It is a force daily lifting men hi a her in purpose and in action, a restraint on what is unworthy, a stimulus to all that is g~od. These people had approval of their own hearts. Their act saved them from self-con- tempt; set a pattern for them which they would copy and excel, Never lower yourself in your own esteem, nor do that for which you will have to excuse yourself to your- self. Your deeds of honour will raise your self-respect, and by doing so will raise your whole future character. 2. It had another result in the good esteem in which all Israel held them. All the tribes honoured them for their faithfulness; David solemnly blessed them for their nobility; a kindly reverence moved all hearts towards them, and an enduring fame. Even the Judases can appreciate such an advantage, only they stickle al ways at the way that leads to it, because the fame cannot be guaranteed beforehand. We are members one of another. So act that the esteem of your fellows shall be ;yours. Only second to God's approval is that of your fellow-men. 3. This act inspired Israel with fresh power to resist the Philistines. The spirit and success of this act took the gilding off the great victory; made the Philistines feel that the end was not quite so absolute as they had thought. The inspiration of the noble deed crept into innumerable hearts; invigorated and nerved them for the task of undoing the mischief wrought; permitted the feeble to breathe more freely, and the brave to make their plans for further struggle. Such are some-not by any means all-of the services of this deed of honour. Are they not very high and noble? "Go and do thou likewise," In your action towards your Saviour, do all that honour bids you; and in your action towards yonr fellow-men, let honour rather than advantage be the principle of all your actions.-G. Vers. 13, 14.-The danger of spiritualism. "So Saul died for his trans~ession which be committed against the Lord, even against the word of the Lord, which he kept not, and also for asking counsel of one that had a familiar spirit, to inquire of it; and inquired not of the Lord." Consider not the many and grievous faults of Saul, but one, and that bis last. In modern language, the witch of Endor was a "medium,'' and Saul's act simply one of those acts of consulting the dead which many believe to be at once practicable and proper. It is not part of my province to defend what some deem the severity of the Mosaic laws against all manner of witchcraft in all its forms. I only remark that a defence of the law which inflicted death upon such might be made by men of tenderest charity; that such would only need to indicate the universal tendency of magic to become "the black art "-a means of revenge, prolific in murder and in crime-to justify the severest measures necessary to repress it. It is easy for the sorcerer to destroy, difficult for him to save life. So in all ages and lands, from the astrologers of Europe, in the Middle Ages, down to the Obea-men of the West Indies to-day, the sorcerers have been the instruments of revenge, at once ready to commit and able to conceal the greatest crimes. Even the English law, with its nineteenth-century indifferentism, finds it necessary to punish the common and vulgar forms of fortune-telling. I prefer to take not the forensic but the personal side of this question; and to deal with it, not in its darker phases, in which it would appear as a superstition, enslaving the mind, tempting to by offering facilities for crime, investing life with awful horrors, but rather in the lighter form, in which it 5eems harmless, in which a few years ago in this country and .America, 0B, J:, 1-14.] THE FIRST BOOK OF THE CIIRONICLE3.