1 Samuel xv. 11.

"It repenteth me that I have set up Saul to be king: for he is turned back from following me, and hath not performed my commandments."

TH

SAUL REJECTED.

HIS is a decisive word, and a good reason is given for its being spoken. God is said to "repent" when, for moral reasons, he sets aside arrangements which he had appointed. The change is not in God, it is in man: all the government of God is founded upon a moral basis; when moral conditions have been impaired or disturbed, God's relation to the matter in question is of necessity changed; and this change, justified by such reasons, could not be more conveniently or indeed more accurately expressed than by the word repentance.

Saul hardly begins his reign when, somehow or other, he gets wrong. He seems to be unable to take hold of anything by the right end. There is a mist before his eyes which causes him to mistake distances and proportions; and there is a crookedness in his judgment which brings him to false conclusions whenever he tries the simplest process of reasoning. He was told to remain in Gilgal for seven days. As Samuel did not come within that period, Saul became impatient, and, by vehemence of self-will, sought to recover ground which he supposed himself to have lost. Samuel addressed him in language of terrible severity: "Thou hast done foolishly thou hast not kept the commandment of the Lord thy God, which he commanded thee: . . . but now thy kingdom shall not continue" (xiii. 14). The anger seems to be out of proportion to the offence. Saul was impatient, and therefore he lost his kingdom. Saul disobeyed upon a point which did not appear to be of vital importance, and therefore he was to be deposed. This was very summary; so much so, that we

feel inclined to rebel against it. We see something of the same thing in the life that is around us. Men are suddenly brought down from high and dignified positions. They are brought into desolation as in a moment; and yet we are at a loss to see cause enough for the angry visitation of God. No doubt they have been imperfect, but so are all men : no doubt they have sinned; but in this they have the example of the whole world to plead. The fact is, that we do not see the whole of any case. "Man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart." This is our confidence, that every stroke of divine judgment is proportioned to the guilt upon which it falls, and, though we cannot see the proportion now, God will cause us hereafter to see that his judgments have been true and righteous altogether.

We shall now see more deeply into the character of Saul than we have yet done. We have before us a detailed account of one transaction; sometimes into one act we put the quality of our whole character; and one day may sometimes be taken as a condensation of an entire lifetime. There are single acts which gather up into themselves the processes of many years. One cry of anguish may tell the tragic story of a wasted life. In this case, Saul was commanded to "go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass." Such was the commandment: what was the result? This: "Saul and the people spared Agag, and the best of the sheep, and of the oxen, and of the fatlings, and the lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them; but everything that was vile and refuse, that they destroyed utterly" (xv. 3, 9).

What are the lessons with which the narrative is charged?

1. The danger of mistaking partial for complete obedience. "Blessed be thou of the Lord: I have performed the commandment of the Lord."

(a) God requires literal obedience.

(b) God's language never exceeds God's meaning.

(c) Conscience is seen most clearly in minute obedience.

2. The possibility of giving a religious reason for an act of disobedience. "The people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen, to sacrifice unto the Lord thy God."

(a) One duty must not be performed on the ruins of another. It was a duty to sacrifice, but sacrifice must not be offered upon disobedience.

(b) God's commandment must not be changed by men's afterthought. Lucky ideas, sudden inspirations, and the like, mean ruin, unless well tested.

3. The danger of being seduced into disobedience by social clamour. "I have sinned: for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord, and thy words: because I feared the people, and obeyed their voice."

(a) The people who tempt are not the people who can save. (b) Where God has spoken distinctly, there should be no

human consultation.

4. The certain withdrawment of the best influences of life, as the result of disobedience. "And Samuel came no more to see Saul until the day of his death." Parents, ministers, friends, gone!

There are some incidental points of application :

(1) Sin discovers itself: "What meaneth then this bleating of the sheep in mine ears, and the lowing of the cattle which I hear?"

(2) Sin will be punished. Four hundred years elapsed before the sword fell upon Amalek (Deut. xxv. 17, 19). Time has no effect upon moral distinctions, or moral judgments.

PRAYER.

ALMIGHTY GOD, we have no fear, because thou art on the throne. Thy power is infinite, thy mercy endureth for ever. With our whole hearts' love we say, Thy will be done. Deliver us from all self-trust. Help us to put our whole confidence in the Living One, who was, and is, and who yet will come to judge the world. May this day be to us as the Sabbath of the Lord; a time of rest and spiritual refreshment. May our souls know themselves to be near the Lord, and according to our manifold wants do thou command thy blessing to rest upon us, through Jesus Christ our Saviour. Redeem us from all worldliness, all selfishness, all debasement, all fear. Establish us in thy holy love. Lord, increase our faith. Answer the cry of our heart when we appeal to thee for the pardon of our sins. We come to thee through the appointed way; we stand beside the holy cross; we look to the one sacrifice. Fill our hearts with joy whilst we tarry at the cross. The Lord hear us, and from the hill of heaven send us answers of peace! We pray evermore in the name of God the Son. Amen.

SA

1 Samuel xvi. 12.

"Arise, anoint him: for this is he."

DAVID ANOINTED.

AMUEL, the venerable and almost outworn prophet, would have made a mistake upon this occasion. When he looked upon Eliab, he said, "Surely the Lord's anointed is before him." It is clear, therefore, that even inspired and honoured prophets were not, in themselves, infallible. It would further appear that their inspiration was occasionally suspended. Now and again natural judgment interposed its opinion. Now and again the natural sense spoke first, without allowing the spiritual sense to lead the way. So when Samuel saw Eliab, he was struck by the natural nobleness and majesty of the young man's appearance, and said, "Surely this is the king of the Lord's choice." This notion of Samuel's is most instructive. He saw the king in Eliab's form, and he inferred that the kingliness of his stature came from the kingliness of his soul. It ought to be, surely, that outward greatness should be the expression of inward greatness;

otherwise how horrible a contradiction man may become! Evidently so. A man towering in stature, yet pining away in soul! A fine, noble, manly bearing, inspired, if inspired at all, by a spirit which has cut itself off from the divine and eternal ! The man thus becomes a living lie. He becomes, too, the occasion of many mistakes on the part of others. Young men, fascinated by his outward appearance, infer that it must be safe to follow the lead of such a noble. Unsuspecting men, looking upon his openness and candour of countenance, may say, "Surely this man was made to be trusted;" others may be caught by the same reasoning, and so a man of certain form and aspect may be unconsciously misleading and seriously injuring his fellows.

Appearances ought to mean something. If a man has a noble physical appearance, that appearance ought to carry with it some moral significance. If it does not, the man himself should retire into his own heart, and ask himself a plain question or two. Did God fashion palaces for dwarfs? The man should inquire whether God intended that his outward nobleness of form and aspect should be inconsistent with his inner and better life? Ought not the natural to be the expression of the spiritual? Ought a man to have a noble head, and nothing in it-great physical power, and no power of soul-an open, beautiful countenance, yet the heart of a hypocrite or the soul of a villain? As with personal appearance, so with social appearance. Our outward figure in society ought to mean something good; something according to the measure of its greatness, and the intensity of its splendour. Shall a man live in a great house, and be surrounded by all the signs of luxury and advanced civilisation, and yet that appearance fail to denote that the inhabitant of that house and the owner of that property is a man of the noblest charity, and that what is round about him is but a poor figure and dim emblem of the reality of his spirit, and the inexhaustibleness of his love? A man ought not to feel himself at liberty to be inconsistent, to exhibit a daily discrepancy between his appearance and his reality, whether it be his personal appearance or his social appearance. If he has been gifted, either in one way or another, with great and notable outward