The Bible teaches very explicitly that the highest wisdom consists in rendering obedience to God's commands, and the greatest folly in transgressing them. One of the most striking of Solomon's proverbs was to this effect: "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; but fools despise wisdom and instruction.' In other proverbs he gives us the reason. He tells us its philosophy, as it were. Thus, in one place, 'The fear of the Lord is to hate evil;' in another, 'In the fear of the Lord is strong confidence; and his children shall have a place of refuge. The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, to depart from the snares of death;' and in another, 'By humility and the fear of the Lord are riches, honour, and life.' Is not this the religion of common sense and reason? Admitting that God exists; that He is the sole Creator and Ruler of all things; is it not the acme, the essence of sound, practical wisdom, to obey his laws, and thus to secure his love and fatherly care? And is it not the height of folly to dishonour and disobey Him, seeing we thus deliberately cast away from us the best and surest--nay, the only means of securing prosperity and happiness, either temporal or eternal? The words of the Lord to Moses are as fully applicable to us now as they were to the Israelites of old: 'Behold, I have taught you statutes and judgments. . . . Keep, therefore, and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding.'

Thirty-second Week-Second Day.

SAUL'S TRANSGRESSION.-I SAMUEL XIII. 4-15.

WHEN Saul 'blew the trumpet throughout all the land, saying, Let the Hebrews hear,' he had a right to expect that they would hear. The alacrity which had been evinced by the tribes in following him to the relief of Jabesh-gilead, evinced a degree of spirit and zeal on which he had reason to calculate. But he was mistaken. There was a sentiment in that affair which was wanting in this. Then, the transaction to which their attention was called was in the highest degree stimulating; and the people against whom they marched on that occasion, were those whom they had more than once signally defeated in battle. But in the present case, the people gene

nesses.

rally were filled with terror when they heard that the Philistine garrison had been smitten. By the Philistines they had repeatedly been brought low in battle, and to them they had long and often been under subjection. As a dog which has dared in a moment of irritation to snap at the hand of his master, cowers in terror or flees from the look of punishment-so cowered, so fled, the Israelites when they heard that Saul had drawn his sword against the Philistines. Many of the people fled for safety to the land beyond the Jordan, which river the Philistines had never yet crossed. Others abandoned their houses, and hurried off to the mountains and rocky wilderSome resorted to the caverns in which certain parts of the country abound; some retired to the woods, and many even sought shelter in pits, that is, in the capacious cisterns prepared to hold rain-water for the use of the inhabitants, and which are often in a dry state, either from not having been filled in the last season of rain, or from the preserved waters having become exhausted. They may also have been subterranean granaries. In both the orifice was small, and might be easily closed. We have one instance of this in the cistern wherein the messengers sent to David from Jerusalem-when that city was in the power of Absalom-were hid from their pursuers by a friendly woman, who covered the mouth with corn, so that the existence of this refuge was unsuspected.

The rendezvous was at Gilgal, and to that place some men did repair, albeit with heavy hearts and misgiving spirits. In fact, the Philistines were already in the field with an immense army, the presence of which filled the Israelites with dismay; and even the more stout-hearted men who had come to Gilgal, began gradually to steal away from the camp. The king beheld this with dismay, and it seemed to him that all would be lost unless he took some decided steps before he was altogether deserted. This he was precluded from doing by the absence of Samuel, who had promised to be there within seven days, and had intimated that nothing was to be done before he came and offered the proper sacrifices. As he could not but know that Samuel would be able to make known to him the will of the

Divine King, whose viceroy he officially was, and as he had no reason to doubt that from that source counsels and aids equal to the greatest emergency would be provided, it was the duty of Saul to await patiently the arrival of the prophet; and although his men did leave him, it behoved him to evince the same noble and pious confidence which Gideon had manifested under the like circumstances, who was content that the Lord should have all the glory, by the inadequacy of the means employed, and who contentedly beheld his men go away from him by thousands, knowing that it was the same to the Lord to save by many or by few. He had his reward; and Saul would not have failed of his, had he profited by this great example. This was, in fact, a test of his obedience to the principles on which he had accepted the crown; and it was doubtless to render it such, that Samuel delayed his coming to the very close of the period he had appointed. Saul, however, looked at these matters merely in a human point of view. He looked at them as a king and a soldier, and not as 'an Israelite indeed.' It must not be concealed that he was a vainglorious man, covetous of military renown, and, from the exercise of autocratic power, impatient of restraint. There is reason to suspect that he was far more desirous that the power of his own arm, the success of his own combinations, should be evinced in this transaction, than the might of the Lord's right hand; and there is cause for more than a surmise, that he was jealous that the Lord should possess, or too manifestly share, the glory of Israel's deliverance. That he was a patriot king, after a certain blind fashion of his own, cannot be denied; and as little can it be doubted, that self was so mixed up with his patriotism, that Israel's deliverance would scarcely have been a joy to him— certainly not an unmingled joy-unless he had the whole credit of its accomplishment. This view of his temper, which is derived from the whole of his career, may well be brought forward now to illustrate his position under the present cir

cumstances.

To the faithful servant of Jehovah, which Saul was officially required to be, this trial ought not to have been a hard one.

It would not have been so to David, who was great in that very reliance upon Jehovah wherein Saul so signally failed. It must be admitted, however, that the trial was a hard one to flesh and blood. It was hence hard to Saul. But it was most important that he should be subjected to it. He was the first king, and his acts would form precedents for his successors. The very nature of the kingly authority in Israel depended upon his conduct. It was therefore essential that his way should be hedged about, and his steps determined, whether willingly or not, according to the conditions of the monarchy. He was either to be forced into the proper position belonging to him, or, by refusing to fill it, to subject himself to the high penalties of disobedience. The people would then know that his measures were not to be taken as the precedents of the Hebrew regal constitution, seeing that they were employed in known contrariety to the will of Jehovah, as declared by prophet and by priest. Saul might have done well enough (for he had some fine heroic qualities) in a line of hereditary kings, under whom the principles of the government had been established; but he was unfit for the responsibilities attached to the founder of a kingdom, whose acts required to be weighed with regard to their influence on the political rights of unborn generations. Samuel had promised to join the king in seven days. The seventh day had commenced, and he was not yet come. Seeing, probably, that many of his men had taken their departure over the night, and that not more than six hundred men remained to him, Saul determined not to lose another day in waiting for Samuel, who might not arrive till the evening. He himself offered the sacrifices; not only burnt-offerings, but peace-offerings. This was a twofold offence: it was not only disobedience to the word of the Lord, and the act of an independent king, but the mode of proceeding was in itself a crime. Among the nations, kings indeed offered sacrifice, combining the offices of priest and king, but it was not to be so in Israel. Priests only might offer sacrifice; the only exception being in the case of the prophets, who occasionally claimed that right for the honour of God, by whose Spirit they were moved. This, therefore, was

another assumption of autocratic power, of a nature most offensive and dangerous under theocratical institutions. The priesthood formed the constitutional check, on behalf of Jehovah and the people, upon the power of the crown; and to assume the most important of their functions, was nothing less than with a high hand to cast down the barrier which the wisdom of God had reared up to secure the safety of the chosen people against the encroachments of regal ambition. It has been said, indeed, that Saul did not himself offer the sacrifice, but ordered a priest to do so. It has, however, all the appearance of a personal act, and the character of Saul suggests that he would be likely to take the opportunity of indicating his possession of the same functions as belonged to other kings. 'Bring hither a burnt-offering to me, and peace-offerings; and he offered the burnt-offering.' There even seems to us to be an emphasis in the last clause, the burnt-offerings being wholly consumed on the altar, and the holiest of all sacrifices-this, even this, he offered-leaving, perhaps, the peace-offerings to be offered by other hands.

Samuel came before the sacrifices were completed. He evinced the deepest concern and displeasure; and although received by the king with respect and attention, he plainly told the latter, that by this deplorable failure of obedience, by this utter forgetfulness of his true position, he had placed his crown and dynasty in peril.

Thirty-second Week-Third Day.

HONEY AND BLOOD.-I SAMUEL XIV.

ABOUT seven miles north by east from Jerusalem, is a steep precipitous valley, extending east and west. North of this valley, which is called in 1 Sam. xiii. 23 'the passage of Michmash' (now Wady es-Suweinit), lay the Philistine host, which had established a garrison, or advanced post, upon the high promontory or angle formed by the intersection of another