turned to pain by the rejoicing of his people at their deliverance from this peril which had so lately hung over them. At first he seems to have shared the joy of the army, and when David was brought into his presence bearing the head of the fallen giant, no gift within his power seems to have been too great for the young hero. He even raised him to the supreme command of the national forces. But when the war was over, and he with his army returned to their homes, the plaudits of the women in celebrating the victory turned his admiration to hatred. How else is it possible to express the pitiable mental state of the poor king in so few words as does the Bible. When the women came out of the cities of Israel singing, "Saul hath slain his thousands and David his ten thousands," he said, "They have ascribed to David ten thousands and to me they have ascribed but thousands, and what more can he have but the kingdom? And Saul eyed David from that day."

It was but a short time after the return from the field of battle that the maddened king showed the bitterness of the hate that filled his soul.

While David was playing before him in the presence of the court, he sought to kill him by throwing a javelin at the young man, thinking to pin him to the wall and thus to rid himself of a dreaded rival. Nor was this a solitary instance of his animosity. He deliberately set himself to

work to ensnare David and to get him to compromise himself, that he might find some excuse to put him out of the way. For this pur

pose

he had recourse to means so contemptible that they would have been a disgrace to the meanest of men, even giving one of his own daughters to be the wife of his intended victim, in the hope that she would ensnare him and be the means of his undoing.

The sad picture of fallen greatness which Saul shows us at this time is relieved by the conduct of some of his children, and of the people of Israel as a whole. The scriptures tell us that while Saul was seeking to take the life of his son-in-law, his daughter Michel, braving the anger of her father, contrived the escape of her husband. It is a pleasing picture of true womanhood; and the story of the friendship of Jonathan, eldest son of the tyrant, is a tale of exalted devotion which few can study without profit to themselves. young man, who by natural right was the successor to the crown of Israel, fully aware that while David lived he himself could not come into the kingship, yet was his love for the anointed one so pure, so unselfish, that he would brave even death itself rather than pander to the insane jealousy of his own father.

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Finding there was no longer hope of safety for him so long as he was within the reach of Saul, David fled to Nob, a city of the Levites, where under the Mosaic law he

should have been secure from any molestation; but so vindictive was the hatred of Saul that there was no safety for the object of his dislike so long as he remained within the haunts of men.

The arrival of David at Nob, alone, was the cause of some uneasiness to Ahimeleck, the high priest, and as the events that followed showed, his fears were well founded.

After questioning David as to his reasons for being unattended, and appearing to be satisfied with the assurances he received, he gave the young man the sword of Goliath, which had been kept in the sanctuary behind the ephod. (The ephod was a kind of vest in the raiment of the high priest). He also gave him the shew bread for refreshment for himself and his company, whom, from the representation of David, he supposed to be in waiting for the latter at some appointed place. In all this Ahimeleck acted in the strictest good faith to the king; but alas for him and his house! when Saul was told by Doeg, one of his servants, how David had been received at Nob, he fell into an insane fury, and was guilty of a crime so appalling that if its like were to be perpetrated to day, even by a sable potentate of darkest Africa, it would shock the world and call aloud for speedy retribution. Ordering the high priest into his presence, he charged him with something akin to treason, and refusing to hear any de

fense commanded the killing of the hapless high priest, together with all his household, and the inhabitants of Nob.

It is to the credit of Israel that Saul could find no willing executioner of his vindictiveness except the sycophant Doeg, who had brought the report from the illfated town, and had doubtless given his story a nedlessly sinister

countenance.

From this time on David becomes an outcast from society, an outlaw, made such not for any crime or fault of his own but through the caprice of an irresponsible despot. Nor was this the worst, there was no safety in Israel for any one in whose veins the blood of Jesse flowed; so that David was compelled to find a refuge for his aged father and mother with the king of Moab, while with himself were gathered many of the unfortunate in the land. I use the language of the Bible, "And everyone that was in destress, and everyone that was in debt, and everyone everyone that was discontented gathered themselves unto him, and he became a captain over them, and there were with him about four hundred men."

Truly as Samuel had warned the people when they had clamored for a king, their condition was no better; in all likelihood it was even worse, under Saul than it had been under the rule of the judges.

The rest of the reign of Saul seems to have been spent in re

pelling an occasional raid of the Philistines, or in a bootless chase after an ever-eluding fugitive, and at least twice in that chase we see him in the power of the man he seeks to destroy, and see his life generously spared, because David is yet too devout to take the life of the Lord's anointed. So persistent is the chase of David that he is at length compelled to seek refuge with Ackish, king of Gath, among the very people whose champion he had himself destroyed; and strange as it may seem, he is generously treated by them, even being assigned the city of Zikleg for his abiding place. Nor does there seem to have been any discrimination against the fugitives until toward the close of the life of Saul. When the Philistines were planning an invasion of Israel, their chiefs refused to allow David to have any part in the enterprise, although their king had the fullest confidence in the Hebrew refugees. Even then their refusal appears to have been due less to any dislike of David and his men than to a want of confidence in them in the hour of peril.

Though turned back from the field of battle, David finds enough to engage his attention for some time. On his return to Zikleg he finds the place a smoking ruin, it having been raided in his absence by a band of raving Amalekites, the women, children and cattle having been carried off into captivity. In his distress he enquired of the Lord, and received the com

forting assurance that he should follow the spoilers and recover all that they had carried away. As for the poor unfortunate Saul, his troubles came upon him thick and fast. Samuel is dead and laid to rest with his fathers in Rameli. The face of the Lord is turned from the erring king, the enemies of his people are overrunning his country and there seems to be none to help. In vain does he cry to the Lord in his distress, and finding the heavens as brass, he looks for comfort to the powers of darkness. In his better days he had striven to rid Israel of those who had familiar spirits and practiced sorcery; he had put many such people to death, banishing others, and now we see him looking for one such to tell him what should be the issue of the fight with the host of of Philistia. Through his servants he finds a woman living in seclusion at Endor, but she is so afraid that it is only on the most solemn promise of secrecy, and in ignorance of the identity of his guest, that she promises to exercise her art. Having won her to his purpose, she practices her incantation and is permitted to call up a spirit whom Saul believes to be his friend Samuel; but there is no comfort for Saul.

Sternly the spirit demanded to know why it had been disturbed, and on being told by the poor king of his troubles, it informed him that through his own waywardness the kingdom was reft

from him and given to his neighbor David; that the pending battle should go against Israel; that ere its close the spirits of Saul and his three sons would have bidden good-by to earth. There was not one ray of hope held out to him in that dread interview, and it is small wonder that he was disquieted and that his attendants had to press refreshment on him, though he had fasted already a day and night.

With what a sinking heart must the wretched Saul have watched the sunrise on that fateful morning, and when the battle was joined and one by one the chiefs of Israel's host sank to rise no more, when Jonathan, his eldest, the most faithful and generous of

men, and his two remaining sons were slain, what a tempest of grief must have riven the soul of the man! And when all hope had fled and Israel's king stood alone but for the presence of his faithful armor-bearer, in his despair he called on that devoted follower to run him through with his sword, preferring death at the hands of a friend to death and dishonor at the hands of a foe. And when that friend refused to imbrue his hands in the blood of his master, the hapless monarch fell on the point of that blade which had so often served him well in happier times. Refusing to survive his lord, the faithful armor-bearer fell on his own blade, and the sun went down on this flodden of ancient Israel.

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