The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-07-25
 INTERNATIONAL SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSON
 Copyright, W. Clark)
 
Copyright, Davis W. Clark.)
Save for my daily range

Save for my daily range
 Among the pleasant fields of Holy Writ, I might despair. -Tennyson. nThIrd Quarter: <: Lesson W; Samuel
 XIV, 1928. July 26, 1903.
 Saul Rejected as King.
 The pslendid military genius of Saul adds another victory to long and bril- liant role. The ancient and inveterate enemy of Israel who disputed his first ap- proach to Canaan Is now annihilated. Moses's victory at Rephidim has its complement in the long battle line which reaches from Havilah to Shur. The con- kuering hero returns. The Amalekite king In chains graces his triumph. Spoiis and booty are in the train. Arriving at historic Gilgal, a monumental trophy Is erected there. Two hundred thousand victors chant the pean. It is a happy hour in the nations history. There Is truce to war. The vine may now be cultivated and the sheep folded without the apprehension of invasions of Amale- kite banditti.
 But a dead fly causes the ointment of victory to stink. Saul, the conqueror. has himself more in view than the Lord. He has now fairly broken with the theo- cratic idea of Israel. He is asserting his will against that of Jehoviah, whose vice gerent he is. By this well-planned and spectacular triumph, he hoped to settle his tottering throne and in spite of the explicit prediction of the prophet, secure it to their heir apparent. The ruling pas sion of the sovereign asserts itself; he will preserve his dynasty at all hazards.
 Nemesis in the person of the prophet stands directly in the path of the kings triumph Samuel's career as a prophet began as the bearer of such evil tidings Ia thA GP xnyhA haa rd them jingle, when as a child he so regret fully revealed to his foster-father Eli the disgraceful end of his prlestly line. Now at the close of his long, honorable, useful course he Is the messenger of such evil portents as have burned in him and made him an earnest, though unsuccessful. in tercessor for a whole night.
 Sadly. but fearlessly, he stands in the kings way, to deliver his terrible mes sage with answering fidelity. He calls halt to the triumph. At the sound of his voice the jubilate dies. The ovation to the victor is suddenly metamorphosed | into a funeral ovation to the victor is sud- denly metamorphosed into funeral train. For that moment Saul dies to God and to his better self How is the mighty fal- len! Conscience has made him a coward. There Is no need of an accuser. It Is a pitiful sight. A fulsome greeting Is tele- scoped, with an extravagant asseveration, to which evem dumb brutes give the lie. The man of valor. like an arrant coward shifts the responsibility. He makes a scapegoat of his army.
 Right valantly does prophet confront | d king flushed with victory in the pres ence of an army laden with sSols He | cites him to his humble origin, and to the | providential character of his eXaltaEfon' | He calls him to witness the well known l oP hi tSS | the Amalekites. He drives and ciiuches | the charge of diso5edience. Saul makes 1 one more pitiful effort at evasion. The | spoil was reserved for sacrifice The prophet shivers to atoms this refuge Of lies. His ethical discrimination falls ike | a triphanImPr upon the re"reant king 2 | last shelter. Offerings tainted with in- sincerity and disobedience are an onel z | to Jehovah. Nor can the tint elude his | omniscience. The witch-hunter Is detect | cd in a greater sin-the assertion of his
 own will against that of God. The cru
 sader against idolatrv IS, in view of his | better advantages, convicted of d more
 heinous offense; namely the stubborn es-
 serton of his own selfhood agalnst the | word and person Of Jehovah.
 l All the brave banners trail in the dust | The pean changes 10 the dead md.rai | and Saul begnS his descent to hell I here
 Is moment of strong compunction. II | IS a JuulCldl repentance III NleM II the | pain and penalties impending. In T par,
 oxysm of grief the king grasps the pr roph
 ct s mantle with such desperate clutch | that 1t Is torn. The seer makes tho rent
 robe the emblem of the kingdom torr | from Saurs gra p. The last piteaus ap-
 peal of thea humbed monarch Is pitchet
 to the key of his ruling passion. wh.n h, | cries. Honor me before the elders mS
 people and before Israel" Saul's doc.
 was sealed. He was rejected There as
 no second probation fo~ him. All gertr.
 ous, humane, patriotic impulses left him He was possessed of a murderous jeal.
 ousy. Having no further access to Cod
 he resorted to those base creatures V hon
 in his better days he had sought to rid tn, l nation of. so desperate was his desire tC | know the particulars of his fate. 'rht
 bloody denouement came G iSESth Tn the
 irretrievanle defeat at lGSlM4 Gilboa