News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1889-09-12

INTERNATIONAL LESSON FOR
SEPTEMBER is.
Lesson Text: David SparinS Saul,
1 Sam. xxiv.,ss4-17-Golden
Text: Rom. xii. I'll
Commentary.


1 Sam. f7-Golden
Text: Rom. xii. 81
Commentary.
4. And the men of David said unto him.
Behold the day, of which the LORD salu unIo
thee" Saul, who perslstently sougnI
Davids life is now completely in DaVlds
power and his men seem to suggest that now
be slay him: but as David himself had cried,
BE merciful unto me, God De IN ne 1ro,,1d
unto me' FPS. Ii, 1 and Title, SO he would
show mercy even to Saul. and is content 10
Law no hand upon him, but simply cut OH the
skirt of his robe privily to show him after
ward that he had him in his power Jesus
our King could any moment overthrow ana
hanish Satan forever from this earth, and
He will do it i'll due time, but He is content
to wait patiently, and permit His people and
His earth to groan little longer.
g. ''David'S heart smote him because he
had cut off SauIs ikirt." Even for asserting
this slight token of his power, he feels con-
demned His enemy was off his guard and
unable to defend himself and David would
rather meet an enemy, If he must be met, as
he met the lion and the bear and Goliath,
in open fight that the power of God might be
manifest. There is nothing of the Spirit OF
Christ in secret sayings or dolngs which Will
| not bear the light.
G. 1.-THE Lord forbid that | should do this
thing unto my Master, the Lords anoin ted"
| Here is another view of the case; Saul was
not acting like the anointed of the Lord
| should act his life did not testify In that oil
| rection but as to his Office he was "the
anointed of the Lord and therefore respOn-
sible to God to act as such; and if he failed
it was for the Lord and mott for David to deal
| with him Two great practical thoughts
presented here: If we are children of God by
| faith of Christ Jesus, then we have received
| the Spirit, and are anointed kings and priests
! unto God, and are responsible every day to
! walk worthy of our High Calling; and on
A. har, 1Ch fol nd eli
may be manifest in the lives of the anointed
of the Lord, it is for their Lord and not for
their fellows to judge and chasten them.
Z. $50 David stayed his servants with
the cave and went his way" We may do
| very much by kind words and the manifesto
/ ton of Christ-like spirit to hinder others
! from speaking against or touching in any
| way the anointed of the Lord We should
remember that it is written, HE that touch
eth you tOucheth the apple of His eye"
| (Zech. il, 81 Every redeemed one, however
full of failure, is dear to God; even Israel, in
all her sins, He called 'the dearly beloved of
His soul" der. xii, ~ Saul, rising up
and going his way, unconscious of the loss of
part of his robe, reminds us that when we
are not in the Lords way may lose many
things and yet be unconscious of it:
s. David cried after Saul say
ing, My Lord the King = and stopped
with his face to the earth" Notwithstanding
David's fears and Outlines questionable con-
duct, here is a truly humble and forgiving
spirit. Whatever were his sins, his heart
was in the main right with God, and his fail
ures tell us the truth of that which he him
self wrote: Verify, every man at his best
estate is altogether vanity" FPS. xxx, 81
8. Wherefore nearest thou mems words,
saying, Behold David seeketh thy hurt~
Saul had turned deaf ear to the words of
God, and was giving heed to the lying and de-
ceitful words of men, and was therefore, far
from the way of peace. The only rest of
soul for man is upon the words and thoughts
of God; but how few, even among Chris
tians rest quietly there2 The words of this
or that man, what some one has said or re-
ported, is constantly needed, and there is,
therefore, such unrest, while all the while
the God of peace is speaking peace and long
ing to give peace to all who will hear Him.
As to the false reports that David sought
Saul's hurt, is it not commonly believed by
the unsaved that to be Christian would de
prive them of some happiness, or, in other
words, that Jesus is seeking their hurt?
10, II. Some babe me kill thee but mine
eve spared thee: vet thou huntest
my soul to take it." Here David recounts |
the incident in the cave, and displays as
proof of the truth of it the part of Sauls robe !
which he had cut off, thus testifying most |
Enthusiastically that there was no evil in his |
heart against Saul.
y. 1.-THE Lord judge between me and thee, |
and the Lord avenge me of thee; but my hand |
shall not be upon thee" This is beautiful on |
David's part; this is surely casting his burden |
upon the Lord. Oh, what resting place IL
is; we have not to fight our own battles, Tor
it is God who fighteth for us; we have not TO
defend our reputation, but commit all unto
Him: we have no revenge to take, but mas
much as whatsoever toucheth us toucheth the
apple of Gods eye just let Him see to 1t In
His own good time and way.
10 'tWickedneSs proceedeoh from the
wicked. but mine hand shall not be upon
thee If the boys of all our Sunday-schools
would act upon this principle, and remem,
bering that wicked words and deeds proceed
i-even, when injured by them, to lay hand |
upon them, it might be that some wicked |
hearts would be won by such spirit and |
learn of the new and clean heart which alone
can act in such a way. If men and women
who bear the beautiful name of Jesus would
in this respect show more of His .,irft how
many they might win to Him.
IA AFTER whom dost thou pursue? After
a dead dog, after fiea.' David was as
harmless to Saul as dead dog, for he had
no thought of doing him any injury; but
Saul, tempted by the evil spirit of envy which
had taken possession of him, fancied all
manner of things against David, and his
fancies were helped by the liars and
slanderers about him. How many wretched
people live to-day who imagine that evil is
surely coming to them from this or that
direction, while the truth is that the inn
aginary source of evil is as harmless as a |
dead dog flea.
Is 1.-The Lord be judge, and see
and plead my cause and deliver me out of |
thine hand" Judge nothing before the |
time, until the Lord Gomez 1--WE shall all |
stand before the Judgment seat of Christ |
Every one of us shall give account of him |
self to God" These are some helpful words |
! of the Holy Spirit upon this matter from the |
! New Testament.
16. Saul said Is this thy voice my son
| David? And Saul lifted up his voice and
wept." There are many such words and
tears nowadays, but they do not amount to
/ ANYTHING. That flpV did
from Saul at this time is evident from chap
XVI, where we see him as hotly as ever pur-
suing David to take his life. Saul had good
occasion to weep, for he had sinned greatly
against David and against God: and if his
tears had indicated true penitence, it had
been well for him; but he seems to stand with
Esau and Judas and others whose repentance
needed to be repented Of and whose sorrow
was not heart deep
II. And he said to David, Thou art
niore righteous than |, for thou hast reward
ed me good, whereas | have rewarded thee
evil These are true words from Saul's lips.
and II you read to the end of the chapter and
notice all he said, and especially the words
about David and the kingdom, and if this
was the last we ever heard of Saul, we might
say: 'Well, surely Saul is a changed man
for he could not otherwise talk this wayn
But alas for the wickedness of our incurably
deceitful hearts, his words were true words
but his heart was not right with Coolies
son Helper.
TIE electric street cars of Cam
bridge, Mass, have been furnished
with a plough. 1t isn't snow plough,
but its efficacy was shown the other
day when a newsboy, who had fallen
on the track ahead of car, was shov-
eled to one side speedily and without
any broken bones.
ISN'T Major Kirkland wise when he
recommends authors to use very small
foiios in preparing MS? When a
paragraph needs revision and rewrit-
ing, it would be easy to sacrifice slip
containing eighty or q hundred words,
whereas to rewrite larger number
would be weary task This seems
simple thing, but many careful authors
have apparently never thought of it.
REV. DIR. LYMAN ABBOTT, the sue
cessor of Henry Ward Beecher, at Ply
mouth Church, is a plain-looking man,
and his head seems top-heavy for his
slender figure. His forehead is high
and doine-like, and his nose long and