Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1915-04-02
WHAT DOES JEHOVAH
REQUIRE OF NATIONS?
In All Lands Thoughts Are Called
Back to the Supreme Being
by Crisis
SAUL'S HEAD WAS TURNED
International S. S. Lesson Is Saul
Rejected by the Lord,
| Sam, Ch. IS.
SAUL'S HEAD WAS TURNED
(By William T. Ellis)

10y WHllaIH Il. Ems
Not for a generation have people
been so ready as to-day to consider
the dealings of God with nations.
In all lands the thoughts of mankind
are being called back by the present
crisis to the elemental truth of Su-
preme Being, whose purposes are
somehow being worked out in human
history. This lesson story of a royal
tragedy in old Israels life will be
read with unwonted interest. For
we now are all eager to learn the les
sons which God has written in the
past for the present. What does Je-
hovah require to-day of nations and
their rulers?
A handsome big king had the Jewst
got for themselves, in order TO be in
the fashion of the times. Head and
shoulders above his fellows was Saul
but the head was easily turned.
The son of Kish, who at his election
was so modest that he hid himself
among the baggage. had become a
thorough convert to the doctrine of
divine right of kings. He felt him
self competent to revise the mandates
of Gods prophet, and the will of the
Lord Himself. Probably Saul would
have found our own times congenial
for we are nowadays particularly fond
all of the law of God which does not
please our fancy. A popular pastime
is to sit in easy judgment upon the
judgments Of Jehovah.
When the Powerful Patronizc God
The Golden Text of the Old Testa-
ment, found in this chapter. is the
key to the whole story: Behold, to
obey is better than sacrifice. Many
men in our day are patronizing the
Lord of Hosts, paying Him compli-
ments, making gifts to His causes,
endorsing the church. and speaking
favorable words about the Bible
but not for n moment yielding their
own lives in obedience to Gods re-
Vealed will. They have fallen into
the blunder of King Saul being, like
him, so sclf-fnflated that they fail to
perceive the arrogance and insolence
of their assumption that God can re-
ceiVe compliments from such as they.
Over many a public subscription to
a righteous cause from a goddess man;
over many a benevolent institution or
foundation similarly established. may
be written these burning words spoken
by Samuel, Behold, to obey is better
than sacrifice" Nobody can do any
acceptable service to God until he has
first yielded Him obedience. To at
tempt to honor by word or deed the
great God whom we refuse to honor
by word or deed the great God whom
we refuse to honor by discipleship is
insufferable presumption.
Would that the image Of foolish,
vain and oVerthrown Saul might
stalk amid the rich and self-compla-
cent nonChristian patrons of religion
in this generation; and would that
the heroic figure of the prophet Sam
uel, repudiating with blazing scorn
such insults to the Almighty, might
arise before the eyes of all the syco-
phantic and time-serving leaders in
the church who fawn for favors upon
a n n fsrI,H ~ TT,N.I
has yielded himself to the Lord. the |
Lord wants nothing from him. Verify, |
this old story is pertinent to our own !
times.
The King Who Did Not Do His Errand
The popular pastime of revising
the program of God is not new. The |
men who would eliminate hell from |
religion and justice from Gods deal |
ings with man, making the ACreator
and Ruler of the universe merely a |
sort of incarnate Good Nature, whom |
nobody is bound to obey or respect or |
fear are in line with some Old Testa- |
ment figures, of whom King Saul is n |
conspicuous sample.
Even our poor wisdom can see rea-
son and justice in the divine COM
mand to Israel to eXterminate the
Amalekites, those first prosecutors of |
the children of Israel. The same |
spirit of large justice which dooms a |
murderer to the electric chair may
decree the punishment of a nation. |
AS a sacred duty, Saul was ordered
to destroy the Amalekites, making
them and their possessions a de
voted" thing. That is, no spoil was to
be taken and no prisoners captured. /
This was not a mere military foray. to
be- rewarded by loot and triumphal |
professions. The expedition belonged |
in the high realm of the execution of |
q holy decree of Jehovah.
But Saul thought he know better;
even as there are thousands of our
fellow countrymen who are to-day re-
vising the Decalogue, so far as their
own personal conduct goes. The old
fogey notion of Gods lust DEGREES
by sRch wise and liberal and mighty |
monarch as Saul! So he blue-penciled
and interlined his instruction from
God. He would obey so far as com
ported with his own pleasure and dig
nifty and discretion. Therefore he re-
fused to slay Agag, the Amalelzite
king, reserving him to grace as pris-
oner his own triumphal return to his
capital AS for the spoils of war,
why, it was most impractical of Je-
hovah to require that all be destroyed;
so Saul would have the best for him
self and the people. He would make
a sacrifice of a portion, of course. but
e.
that the full glory of his exploit might |
appear to all.
When the Doom Fell
So it was n very self-complacent
Saul who greeted condescendingly
the man who had made him king. |
81 have performed the command
ment OF jehovah" he said, thinking
of himself, doubtless, ''of course, /
found it necessary TO revise the or
ders given me; but then, you know.
the practical worldly wisdom of the
laity and of the successful man of
must supersede the absurd
liberalism of you old-fogey preachers
and your rather out-of-date God"
What meaneth then this bleating
of the sheep in mine ears, and the low
ing of the oxen which I hear?" The
stern mein of the prophet, and this
query, must have pene-
trated even the thick shell of Saul's
pride and egotism. For bis roYal hiph=