No. 79.] THE PENNY SUNDAY READER. [Vol. IV.

July 3, 1836.-Fifth Sunday after Trinity.

MORNING PRAYER-FIRST PROPER LESSON. 1 Samuel, 15.

SAUL'S faith is again tried, and found wanting. Samuel had come to him with a message from God, announcing that the time was at hand for the fulfilment of that sentence which had been pronounced against the Amalekites, (Exodus xvii. 14,) for their attack upon Israel; and that Saul was commissioned to see it executed to the very letter. The prophet is imperative and precise in his instructions. He tells Saul that the Lord has commanded him to destroy them utterly and save nothing belonging to them (verse 3). Saul accordingly attacked, and defeated Amalek, and destroyed all the people. But he took Agag, the king, alive; and, either to please the people, or from his love of riches, he spared all the best of the cattle, and destroyed nothing but what was vile and refuse.

This deed, and the fatal consequences of it, were reported by the Spirit to Samuel; and that holy man, in grief at Saul's weakness, cried unto the Lord all night; "shewing," as Wogan observes,

an example of that perseverance with which every good minister—indeed, every Christian, ought to pray for sinners." In the morning, Samuel proceeded to the camp, and Saul, with hypocritical officiousness, comes to greet him, and says, I

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have performed the commandment of the Lord." The stern question of the prophet (ver. 14) searches the guilty soul of Saul; and he attempts to shuffle off the guilt upon the people-that they had taken the best, as he pretends, to sacrifice to God, and then he says "the rest we have utterly destroyed." This mean evasion would not deceive the prophet, who solemnly (verses 16-19) calls upon him to listen to the consequences, and upbraids him with his want of faith and his ingratitude. Saul again, writhing under the reproof, tries to prevaricate; he dwells upon those points, in which he had obeyed the Lord, and he attempts to soften down and colour even those things in which he had broken the command; and again professes that the people were to blame, and had constrained him. This is the usual practice with sinners; and we should do well to apply Saul's case to ourselves. We are too unwilling to cast ourselves down at the footstool of mercy as miserable sinners; we try to deceive our conscience, which, like Samuel, reproaches us, and to dwell upon those things which we have done, instead of those we have left undone. How often do God's ministers meet with this folly and self-delusion, when, like Samuel, they press the sinner's guilt upon him, and call on him to repent and flee from the wrath to come. One says, "I am not worse than other people;" another says, "I was tempted;" another, If I have been guilty of this or that, yet I always went to church, when I could," another, "I was obliged to do as others did,” or, My family or my necessities compelled me,' and so on. These are all much the same sort of self-deceptions and pretences as Saul set up. But Samuel (verses 22-23) puts the matter in its true light, and affirms that obedience is better than

sacrifice, and that, because he had rejected the word of the Lord, the Lord had rejected him from being king.

Saul, driven from all his pretences, confesses his guilt, and prays Samuel not to leave him. But Samuel repeats his denunciation, and, Saul laying hold of his garment to detain him, it is torn. Samuel tells him that this action is an emblem of what is to happen to him—that his kingdom shall be torn from him, and given to a neighbour that is better than he was. Saul entreats him, at least, not to disgrace him in the sight of the elders of Israel by departing, and asks him to turn and worship God with him. Samuel complies. And then fulfils the command of the Lord in destroying Agag. This was Samuel's last visit to Saul.

EVENING PRAYER-FIRST PROPER LESSON. 1 Samuel xvii.

SAMUEL had, by the command of God, (see chap. xvi)., anointed David, and the Spirit had descended upon him. He is the person pointed out in the prophet's declaration to Saul, that God would give his kingdom to one better than he was. In the present chapter David is brought publicly forward, under circumstances likely to direct the attention of the people towards him. This is a subject quite familiar to our readers, and we shall make but few remarks upon it. We must, however, observe the importance of David, not only in the kingdom of Israel, but also as the person, from whose line, according to the flesh, Jesus was to descend. His victory over the Philistine is one of the incidents which is impressed

on our memories from our youthful days, and is a noble instance of those triumphs which the feeblest may achieve over the mightiest, if the Lord be on our side. The immense strength of this giant may be estimated by the following account given of the weight of his arms and

armour:

Coat of mail, at 5,000 shekels, at ounce per

shekel, was

Spear's head, 600 shekels of iron,

lb.156 01

18 0

Greaves, target, &c. added, made the whole about 2001b. weight.

A burden greater than another man could well bear.

When we read of this mighty and terrible champion defying the armies of Israel, daunting all her warriors who trusted in their sword and strength, and then overcome by a stripling shepherd, with no other arms than his staff and his sling, do we not trace, in all those circumstances, a beautiful emblem of our own Church, and the triumph of her faithful sons ?* In the fierce and vaunting champion of Gath, may we not imagine the furious exulting enemies of the Church of Christ, eager for her downfall, and calling her armies to come out and fight with them? To the shrinking warriors of Saul, we may liken those who, trusting to human might and expedients, and measuring things by human considerations only, are frightened at the audacity and power of the Church's enemies, and dare not encounter them. In David we may figure to ourselves those whose faith is fixed on God-who know that, however dark the present aspect of affairs may be, and whatsoever outward evils may afflict the

* See Vol. II. pp. 35, 36.

Church, God will never leave her, or forsake her. These, the enemy and oppressor can never subdue, or terrify. They meet him, trusting " in the living God." Therefore, feeble and despised as they now seem, they will triumph through Christ Jesus.

ON THE SLING.

"THIS gives us occasion to speak of the uses of the Sling, which did good service in the wars of old time, as we are assured by historians of the best reputation. And though it may seem to us but a trifling instrument, and we cannot conceive how it could carry a stone with any certainty, which was discharged by the swing of the arm; this is because it is grown into disuse, and we want to be informed by experience, what it will do. But when it was practised, we know there were Slingers who were able to do very certain and very distant execution. The author of the book of Judges writes, chap. xx. 16. that in the Tribe of Benjamin, there were seven hundred left-handed Slingers, who could hit a mark at a convenient distance to a hair's breadth, and not miss. And to make this probable, commentators observe, that when the Philistines had disarmed the Israelites of swords and spears, as we read they did, it made the oppressed so much the more diligent in the exercise of the Sling, which could not be taken from them. It is reported of the Baleares, the ancient Inhabitants of Majorca and Minorca Islands, belonging to the crown of Spain, that they bred their children to this exercise from their cradle; and that their mothers set up their victuals every day as a mark which they suffered not the children to eat of, till they had hit it. Philostratus, in the life of Apollonius Tyaneus, Book ii. Chapter 12. tells of certain Indian Slingers, who had as sure a hand as the Benjamites before mentioned, for they would strike the hair of a child's head, and never hurt the head itself. Xenophon, in his history of the wars be tween the Persians and Greeks, observes, that on the Grecian side there was a band of Slingers from the Isle of