under the cloak of friendship; but especially his dissimulation in the case of the Amalekites, prove the insincerity of his disposition. When Samuel charged him with unfaithfulness in the discharge of his mission, he persisted that he had fulfilled the Word of the Lord, and declared that the people had saved the best of the flocks for the purposes of sacrifice, whereas the whole tenor of Samuel's reproofs shows that it was done out of covetousness, with a desire to increase his own wealth.

But

4. Disobedience was the great offence with which Saul was especially charged. It was manifested on more occasions. than one. Disobedience is so comprehensive a term that it includes every sin. The execution of sin assumes various forms, but it invariably derives its origin from disobedience to the Divine command. The sin of our first parents consisted in this. Adam was especially commanded not to eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. He ate of it in direct violation of that command. This was his offence. This drew upon him and his posterity the just displeasure of God. Every sin, whether of commission or omission, from the fall of Adam to the end of the world, partakes of the same origin, hence the equal evil of all sin in the sight of God. When we examine the catalogue of human offences we recognize both a civil and moral gradation of evil, and are surprised why some offences so trivial in our estimation are so severely punished by the Almighty, whilst others of an aggravated nature go almost unpunished; for instance,

fifty thousand, three score and ten men" of Bethshemesh were slain for merely looking into the ark; Uzzah was struck dead for putting his hand to the ark, with the good intention of steadying it when shaken by the movement of the oxen; and seventy thousand of the men of Israel were slain by the pestilence for David's offence of numbering the people; whilst the same David was passed over with a little more than a censure for the awful crimes of adultery and murder. But "God seeth not as man seeth :" looking into the ark, or

touching it with an unhallowed hand, was so much a violation of a Divine command, as adultery and murder; and, under the circumstances, interfered more with the honour of God, which accounts for the treatment of the offenders. You may regard the sin of Saul a trivial sin, but God regarded it a great sin, because it was a sin of disobedience to a direct positive command. There are many sins which we may look lightly upon, but let us remember that the least sin is disobedience; therefore, equally punishable with crimes of the darkest dye.

We notice

II. The serious consequences arising from Saul's offences. Samuel says, "But now thy kingdom shall not continue; the Lord hath sought him a man after his own heart, and the Lord hath commanded him to be captain over his people: because thou hast not kept that which the Lord commanded thee." Saul was a man after the people's heart; therefore, he was unworthy of the honour conferred upon him. The next king was to be a man after God's heart; therefore, his kingdom should be established. That this man was David is sufficiently clear from the sequel, but in what sense was he a man after God's heart, since in his moral character he was rather inferior than superior to Saul? Some infidels have ridiculed the revelation of God when comparing the conduct of David with this declaration, forgetting that in reference to his private moral conduct the phrase is never used. But he was so in the strict attention which he paid to the law and worship of God, in admitting that God was king over Israel, and regarding himself merely as His vicegerent-in never attempting to change any of those laws, or in the least to change the Israelitish constitution. In all his public conduct he acted according to the Divine mind, and fulfilled the prescribed will of his Master. It was in this sense alone he was "a man after God's own heart."

Saul lost his kingdom

1. Because his disobedience was a practical denial of the

authority of God, and of the obligations of his subjects to obey His commands, and submit to His will. When Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, was commanded to release the Hebrews, he denied the authority of the Almighty, saying, "Who is the Lord that I should obey his voice, to let Israel go? I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go." The same principle actuated the mind of Saul when he set his own will in opposition to the will of God. It was in fact making himself supreme subject to no other power, acknowledging no higher authority. This, in effect, is the conduct of every impenitent sinner. "The carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." It denies His authority, setting up his own will against His. Will not God punish for this? Did He not punish Adam and all his race for one act of disobedience? Did He not punish the old world? Did He not punish the Sodomites? Did He not punish the Egyptians? Did He not punish the Israelites? Did He not punish the house of Eli? Did He not punish Saul? Did He not punish thousands besides, perhaps for acts of disobedience far less aggravated than we have been guilty of? We thus dishonour him, and He will discard us.

2. Saul's loss of the kingdom became irretrievable through his continued disobedience. If you notice particularly, the sentences in this passage do not at all bear the character of a final decision. It seems more by way of warning, telling him that if he disobeyed, his kingdom should not continue, for after this he is given another chance of retrieving God's favour; and it was after the second trial in the case of the Amalekites, Samuel said to him, "I will not return with thee, for thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord hath rejected thee from being king over Israel." Is it not thus He treats every sinner? He never strikes without warning; but if by persisting in a course of impenitent disobedience, the final sentence be allowed to go forth, no power in heaven or earth can change the decision of God. "For what is a man profited if he gain the whole world, and lose

his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" And remember, brethren, in conclusion, that our loss, if finally rejected, will involve infinitely greater consequences than the loss threatened in the text. To Saul it was but the loss of an earthly throne, of a kingdom that must sooner or later fall into decay; but ours will be the loss of a throne of eternal glory, of a kingdom which shall endure as long as God Himself. Feeling this, "what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godli

ness?"

VOL. II.

82

The Fifth Sunday after Trinity.

MORNING SERVICE.- First Lesson: 1 Sam. xv.

Verse 32.-" And Agag came unto him delicately.
Agag said, Surely the bitterness of death is past."

And

HAVING entered fully into the character of Saul on last Sunday evening, we need now but refer merely to the special mission which he received to destroy the Amalekites, and how he discharged it. God had a quarrel against the Amalekites for their base conduct towards His people in their passage through the wilderness when they were delivered from Egypt. We have the story in the seventeenth chapter of the Book of Exodus, which is repeated in an aggravated form in the twenty-fifth of Deuteronomy. God says to Israel, through Moses, "Remember what Amalek did unto thee by the way, when ye were come forth out of Egypt; how he met thee by the way, and smote the hindermost of thee, even all that were feeble behind thee, when thou wast faint and weary; and he feared not God. Therefore it shall be, when the Lord thy God hath given thee rest from all thine enemies round about, in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee for an inheritance to possess it, that thou shalt blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven; thou shalt not forget it." God then swore that He would have "war with Amalek from one generation to another," and then in process of time He would "utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek." This was the work which Saul was now appointed to execute. The iniquity of the Amalekites was now full, and he is expressly commanded to slay and destroy all before him; out of pity he was not to spare either man or woman, infant or suckling; out of covetousness he was not to save either ox or sheep, camel or