The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-03-09
TODAY'S. BIBLE TALK
By GEORGE LEWIS BALES

designate. some of them as runners and messengers; he will set some of them on horses and call them mounted orderlies, and make others of them to drive his chariots. He will take yet others from your hearthstones to work in his fields and in his shops where they shall make implements and weapons of war. He will require the best of your fields and farms. He will require the best fruit and grain from your orchards and fields, and he will take your daughters to cook for him. and to serve him and the parasites with which he shall sur round himself in the palace: He will be your master and you shall be his servants. The time will come when you will rue the day that you voted for monarchy" But the people were not impressed with Samuel's advice, and clamored all the more that they might have a king. Let us have a king to reign over us so that we may be like other nations and our king shall be our judge and shall lead us out to war;"
 Then later Samuel called all the peo- pie together in the town of Mizpeh where he himself had set up the tri- umphat arch after his celebrated vic tory over the Arabs, whom he had driven from the country in the days of hi: young manhood. After certain ceremonies and formalities Saul. the great, tall, handsome, modest country boy, was brought forward and stood be- side Samuel in the midst of the assem- blaze. and Samuel designated Saul as the man who had been chosen king of the people, and they all shouted, Long live the king
 A Gnnd Rao;uu;uu
 A strange thing happened. A newly anointed king returned home and went mOdestly on with his duties about his fathers plantation. But one day a messenger came running to announce that the Ammorites had invaded the country and had established camp at Jabesh. Saul immediately killed the oxen he was driving. cut them into twelve pieces in the presence of other messengers whom he sent with drums and bugles, calling the men of fighting age in Israel to war. He established his camp at Bezek. The following day Saul led his forces against the Ammor- ties led by their king Nahash. The battle waged hot for an hour, when the invaders were slaughtered and routed so that no two men among their troops could be found offering organized re- sistance.
 The Wrong Road
 After two years, Saul gathered his armies again, this time to do battle against Israel's oldest and strongest enemy, the Philistines. Saul demon strated now the fact that he had un- dergone a considerable change during the two years that had passed. He was no longer the modest, unassuming coun- try boy. There had been a moral breakdown.
 Samuel had told him not to proceed on the march, until he should come to offer sacrifice and seek aid from Is reals real king. But Samuel delayed coming, and Saul grew impatient. De clining to wait longer. he offered sac rifice himself. usurping the office of priest. While the offering was still smouldering on the altar, Samuel ar rived. Sdrrowful but frankly. Samuel said to him, You have done wrong, you have not kept the commandments. If you had obeyed and trusted, you would have been kept in safety. But now Jehovah will find another to be king in your stead.
 Now came Saul's second chance. The time came for the fullment of the warning against the Amdlckites. Again Saul declared war and summoned his forces to the field. At the conclusion of the conflict, Samuel again came to Saul to say, Have you kept all the com mandments of Jehovah, to utterly de stroy every man of tho enemy and to take no spoils?" Saul answered, II have done what the Lord commanded me to do.'
 Then Samuel said, If you have obey ed these commandments, what is the meaning of this bleating of sheep and the believing of oxen that 1 hear:'
 The Great Asset
 Every word of Sauls reply laid bare his real self, and showed his lamentable lack of kingly character. "They have brought them from the Amalekites, for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen to offer in sacrifice to the Lord your God. All the rest we have utterly destrOyed,' he offered in excuse. It was not only less than king ly. it was less than manly to seek eX- cuse by placing the blame upon the people.
 It was then that Samuel answered. II will tell you what God said to me last night. When you were humble in your own sight, He chose you to be king Of Israel. He Set task before you and assigned you mission. This you have failed to perform. Your offering of sacrifice is as nothing. Is the Lord as well pleased with offerings as He iS with obedience? Would that you, my son. had remembered that to obey is better than sacrifice! Then, as he turned to leave the young king, who would have restrained him, he answered, "I will not go with you, for God will refuse you as king. Even as my gar ment has torn in your hand, so has the kingdom been torn away from you to be given to another that shall be obe- dient and worthy of trust"
 Perhaps the most important applicn- ton by which this lesson can he brought right down to the present day to one x own town. to ones own self. his situa- tion. and the work he K doing. iS by the story of Israels first king to teach that there can he no genuine achievement that isaa't founded on character. One,