advocacy of given questions, to put the question before society just as he pleases. But when he sits down, this word that searches the heart and goes through the life like a flaming fire says, "Now I will tell you what it is; you have made an excuse into a reason; you have lied, not unto me, but unto the Holy Ghost, unto God! Your case looks well. But I open thee now, I cleave through thee, I pour the sunlight through every fibre of thy leprous being, and I brand thee liar and blasphemer!" It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God!

See, for example, an individual who has a most excellent case. He goes to his minister, and says to him in a whine, which soft men may mistake for earnestness, "I really cannot remain here any longer, sir. I have seen so much inconsistency in the members of the Church; I have seen so much that has pained me; I have felt grieved at the inconsistency of professing Christians; therefore, I am going to turn over a new page, and I must withdraw from the Church." He was pained! What that poor creature carried in the way of other people's immoralities, no arithmetic can ever calculate, no poetry can ever dream! When he has told his tale, and impressed the poor minister, who believes well of everybody, in proportion as he does not know human nature, God says to him, "This is the case. That man would not care one farthing if all the Church were to prove traitorous to-morrow; that man, who has suffered so much pain, who has been so troubled about the inconsistencies of professing Christians, is now planning sin secretly in his soul; if I could show thee by taking off, fold after fold, thou wouldst see in his heart what he has never said to his wife or mother or child or friend; thou wouldst see there a determination to enjoy sin under some disguise. He wants to get clear of moral restraint, of social discipline; he wants to evade public opinion, that he may, in concealment and under such defence as secrecy may set up, enjoy sin as he has never enjoyed it before. Mark him, going away yonder, bearing the inconsistencies and immoralities of other people! He is now going to carry out the very first step of his plan-to enjoy the works of iniquity, sources of forbidden pleasure as he never partook of them before." So there are two judgments

in the world. Man makes out his own case, God comes with the explanation. Man cheats man with outside appearances; afterwards God holds the light over the case. All things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do!

Here is a minister of the Gospel, who says he is going to withdraw from the ministry and retire into private life. He has been so annoyed by circumstances which have arisen around him; he has been so fretted and chafed by a multitude of things, that he can no longer endure them; and now he is going to enjoy the retirement of private life. That is his statement. What does it amount to? He is going to run away because there are some difficulties in life. As if he ever could get into any sphere in this world where difficulty would not call upon him, and force its attention upon his reluctant soul! Has he told all the case? Has he not kept back part of the price? Is he not rather arranging his circumstances so that he can sin with larger license,—that he can do things in private life which he dare not do under the responsibilities of a public position? These words cut like daggers and search like fire! God forbid they should have any application to us!

The Lord told Samuel to make the people a king. "Hear them; do what they ask; hearken unto their voice: howbeit yet protest solemnly unto them, and shew them the manner of the king that shall reign over them." This is an instruction that we should do well to carry out in all life. There are times when we are pressed into certain courses; when all we can do is to protest. Sometimes when a man is weak then is he strong. The lifting, the half-lifting of a tremulous hand means-when interpreted by God's wisdom-battle, battle to the bitter end, protest, vehement opposition! It is a feeble sign: but the meaning of that poor, broken hand being lifted up is, that if the man could do that which is in his soul he would stem the torrent of the popular will and set up righteousness in the earth! The Lord instructed Samuel what to say. the elders of Israel :

Here is the specch which was made to

'And he said, This will be the manner of the king that shall reign over you: he will take your sons, and appoint them for himself, for his chariots,

and to be his horsemen ; and some shall run before his chariots. And he will appoint him captains over thousands, and captains over fifties; and will set them to ear his ground, and to reap his harvest, and to make his instruments of war, and instruments of his chariots. And he will take your daughters to be confectionaries, and to be cooks, and to be bakers. And he will take your fields, and your vineyards, and your oliveyards, even the best of them, and give them to his servants. And he will take the tenth of your seed, and of your vineyards, and give to his officers, and to his servants. And he will take your menservants, and your maidservants, and your goodliest young men, and your asses, and put them to his work. He will take the tenth of your sheep and ye shall be his servants. And ye shall cry out in that day because of your king which ye shall have chosen you; and the Lord will not hear you in that day" (viii. 11-18).

What then? When they heard the speech they said, "Nay; but we will have a king over us." Observe how men can fight their way, when so determined, through all the warnings that even God can send. We should have supposed that the elders of Israel, in whose heads was lodged the wisdom of the people,-the men of sagacity, penetration, and self-control,-on hearing these words from the Lord's prophet would instantly have said, "Then do we repent of the sin of our request: God shall continue, if his mercy will so incline, to be our King for ever." Instead of that, they hear the warning, they see the thunderbolts, the whole future is depicted to them in words which have not two significations. As the result of the whole, they lift up their voices and say, "We will have a king to reign over us." Do we condemn them? Let us not be ready with reproach; nor urgent in condemnation. We are doing a deadlier thing, it may be, than the elders of Israel did in this case. We are told that God is angry with the wicked every day; that the wicked shall be driven into hell, and all the nations that forget God. We are told that the liar shall have his portion in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, that no drunkard shall enter the kingdom of heaven, that anything that is unclean, defiled, or corrupt, shall not pass into the city of God's light; we are told that nothing remaineth for the sinner but a fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation. All the terrors of the Lord are thundered from time to time upon the people. What is the result? Men can go immediately from hearing or reading the most terrific statements concerning the future of the wicked, and can throw themselves with unbridled license into all the diabolical enjoyments which

stimulate but never satisfy the corrupt soul! By so much as we condemn Israel, we condemn the sinner. It may be that in pronouncing the elders of Israel foolish and criminal, we write ourselves worthy of the condemnation of God!

Observe, man can have his way. There is a point at which even God withdraws from the contest. "My Spirit shall not always strive with man." If we be, so minded, we can force our way through all solemn warning, all pathetic entreaty, all earnest persuasiveness on the part of friend, wife, husband, teacher, preacher, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost! We can go to hell if we will! So do not be discouraged, you can get there! Do not be discouraged, there is nothing before you but love, grace, mercy, tenderness, God. That is all. There is a grim ghastly cross,-hew it down! There is a way round it, a way through it, a way over it,-you can get there! Fool, coward!

"

See the childishness of the reasoning by which they supported their case. "That we," said the elders of Israel, also may be like all the nations; may be like other people." That is what the young man says when he is hard pressed. When he wishes to throw off family restraint, when he wishes to get away from family prayer, family reading of the Bible and domestic superintendence, he says, "I want to be as other men are; other young men of my age have this privilege and that privilege, and I just want to be like other men." That sounds very reasonable, but is that all? Be true to thyself, O young man; do not tell lies to thyself. If thou hast lies to tell, why not tell them aloud -tell them to other people; why tell lies to thine own heart? To say it is only this you want; whereas thou knowest well, in thy heart of hearts, that it is some terrible wickedness to which thou wishest to give way.

Where the disease is vital, the remedy must be vital too. Nothing will reach this disease but the mediation of God the Son. It is not a speck of dust which any hand can rub off. The disease is in the heart, the poison is in the blood. The death is in the life-this is no paradox, but an awful, grim, terrible truth.

What, then, will reach it? The blood of the Son of God, the agony of Gethsemane, the atonement of Calvary, the wondrous, unspeakable, glorious work of Jesus Christ, Son of God, God the Son! Nothing else can reach it. Every other remedy is cutaneous, is transitory. The remedy of Christ's cross, Christ's atonement, is vital, and is therefore eternal !

SELECTED NOTE.

The mustering of the Hebrews at Mizpeh on the inauguration of Samuel alarmed the Philistines, and their "lords went up against Israel." Samuel assumed the functions of the theocratic viceroy, offered a burnt-offering, and implored the immediate protection of Jehovah. He was answered with propitious thunder. A fearful storm burst upon the Philistines, who were signally defeated, and did not recruit their strength again during the administration of the prophet-judge. The grateful victor erected a stone of remembrance, and named it Ebenezer. From an incidental allusion (vii. 14) we learn, too, that about this time the Amorites, the inveterate foes of Israel, were also at peace with them-another triumph of his government. The presidency of Samuel appears to have been eminently successful. From the very brief sketch given us of his public life we infer that the administration of justice occupied no little share of his time and attention. He went from year to year in circuit to Bethel, Gilgal, and Mizpeh, places not very far distant from each other, but chosen perhaps, as Winer suggests, because they were the old scenes of worship (Real-Wört, sub voce).

"

In Samuel's old age two of his sons were appointed by him deputy-judges in Beersheba. These young men possessed not their father's integrity of spirit, but "turned aside after lucre, took bribes, and perverted judgment (viii. 3). The advanced years of the venerable ruler himself and his approaching dissolution, the certainty that none of his family could fill his office with advantage to the country, the horror of a period of anarchy which his death might occasion, the necessity of having some one to put an end to tribal jealousies and concentrate the energies of the nation, especially as there appeared to be symptoms of renewed warlike preparations on the part of the Ammonites (xii. 12), these considerations seem to have led the elders of Israel to adopt the bold step of assembling at Ramah and soliciting Samuel "to make a king to judge them." The proposed change from a republican to a regal form of government displeased Samuel for various reasons. Besides it being a departure from the first political institute, and so far an infringement on the rights of the divine head of the theocracy, it was regarded by the regent as a virtual charge against himself, one of those examples of popular fickleness and ingratitude which the history of every realm exhibits in profusion. Jehovah comforts Samuel by saying, "They have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me." Being warned of God to accede to their request for a king, and yet to remonstrate with the people, and set before the nation the perils and tyranny of a monarchical government (viii. 10), Samuel proceeded to the election of a sovereign. Saul, son of Kish, "a choice young man and a goodly," whom he had met unexpectedly, was pointed out to him by Jehovah as the king of Israel, and by the prophet was anointed and saluted as monarch. Samuel again convened the nation at Mizpeh, again with honest zeal condemned their project, but caused the sacred lot to be taken. The lot fell on Saul. The prophet now formally introduced him to the people, who shouted in joyous acclamation, "God save the king."

VOL. VI.

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