wil\ be safer f~r you to travel the unknown road by God's moonlight or starlight, than to have a blazing gleam thrown round you, which comes you know not whence and leads you know not whither. III. THERE IS MANIFOLD INJURY m HAVING RECOURSE TO SUCH, 1. There is injury to the bo1Y· ~here are few whose nervous systems can stand either real or imaginary commumon with the unseen world. Converse with fellow men and women has no exciting element; but spirits either find or leave the nerves unstrung. Fancy takes reason's throne. Man lives in two worl<ls, instead of in one bright with the presence of God and man. There can hardly be enjoyment of the friendship without solicitude as to the enmity of the spirits ; so that calmness of nerve ~nd ~hat fine physica! ~~Ith which fu~-thers all good growth is generally seriously 1mpa1red. 2. There is inyury to the mind. The proper self-reliance which dia-nifies and develops man is interfercJ. with by this reference of all things to a mysterious oracle. The faculties grow strong by being trusted. Judgment inspired and bright- ened by God, the more it is used the more it grows. Subordinate it to mysterious oracles, and the whole mental energy deteriorates and slackens. Above all: 3. The soul suffers. We cannot well have two izuides-two oracles. We can leave God, and be guided by the dubious light which mediums may find for us; or we may leave them, and take God's light and God's darkness as he sees fit to give it; but we cannot very well have both. Even the devoutest we imagine will find the simplicity of their dependence on God somewhat impaired by resorting to other guides; and their simple acceptance of the Saviour's teaching impaired by their sitting at the feet of those whose suggestions do not always concur with his. So the writer speaks of Saul's act as of a backsliding, pointing the despair into which he had sunk. Keep your heart free of all that enfeebles it and of all that divides it from the Lord. Poor Saul got nothing but a deeper despair that drove him to his doom. Take Isaiah's exhortation, therefore, to the spiritualists of his day: "When they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, •.. should not a people seek unto their God?" (Isa.. viii. 19).-G. Vers. 2, 14.-Saul and David. The portion of the Book of Chronicles referring more particularly to the genealogy of Israel ends with the thirty-fourth verse of the ninth chapter. With the following verse commences the real history of the people. 'l'he history of a nation is the history of its head or king; a.nd we commence that history with the history of Saul and David. They both appear on the scene in the following verses. We must not forget, in reading this history, that these two personages are representative characters. They a.re eminently typical. In Saul we must not omit to see the head of the great world-power, or that which is antagonistic to the kingdom of the Son of God. In David, likewise, we must see One greater than David, even the true David, the Lord Jesus Christ, Saul and David are from beginning to end in opposition. Saul's history comes first. He is the people's choice, the man of the world. His entire course is enmity against David. Hatred, opposition, a.nd bitter persecution are the results of this enmity. The end of the world-power, as represented in him, is defeat a.nd failure, ruin and death. Thus will this world's rule end also. Never- theless, all this opposition and enmity are most needful to David and his few faithful followers. It disciplined a.nd trained him for the kingdom for which he had been anointed of God. So this world's misrule a.nd enmity a.re most needful for the Lord's anointed ones. David and his followers under Saul were strangers and pilgrims indeed. So Christ and his people are now. But their time is at hand when the weeds of sorrow shall be exchanged for the laurels of victory. I said Saul's history comes first. It is always so. Whether in the history of individuals or nations, whether in nature or in grace, in everything the dark background comes first, and then the lines of the picture of grace can be seen. The tenth chapter of this book is man a.t his best estate. It is the dark background. One chapter is enough for it. The eleventh chapter begins with the God-man, David, who is the type in it of a "Greater thau David." It ~oes on unfolding chapter after chapter. It ha.s not en<lcd yet, for in the history ol David's Son-the Lord Jesus Christ-it is still going on. The chapters are still unfolding him, a.nd will throughout eternity, for he is "the everlasting God," the "I am that I am,"" which is, a.nd which was, and which is to com11, the Almighty."-W. OJI, X, 1-14,] TBE FIRST BOOK OF TRE CHRONICLES. 130
Ver. 4.-Saul's character. Saul was not an atheist. He was a religious mas in his way. This chapter shows it. Saul calls the Philistines the "uncircumcised ones." Circumcision distinguished him, and he evitlently prided himself on it. It bad placed him on a pedestal so that be could look on all others and exclaim, " Stand aside; for I am holier than thou." Thus he bad the "form of godliness;" but where was the •• power" 1 Was there one iota of what circumcision was intended to represent about him? None. He rested in the ordinance. The meaning of that ordinance had in him no adequate expression. Are there not many now who pride themselves on bap- tism? But what has baptism in them in its true meaning? Are they dead and buried with Christ? Are they risen with Christ? Are they alive unto God and dead indeed unto sin? Where is the crucifixion of them to the world and the world unto them, which baptism signifies? Alas! they have none of it. The,,.-may look with disdain upon the" unbaptized" ones, as Saul did upon the "uncircumcised" ones; but well would it have been for him, and well would it be for them also, if they had never had it.-W.