SAUL OF THE OLD TESTAMENT.
By Joseph Clarke
We say Saul of the Old Testament, because there are many people so ignorant of Bible history that they do not know but the two Sauls of the Bible are one and the same person. Should any one read this article, who confounds the two Sauls in the same person, let him immediately inform himself on this point; for the difference between these two men is almost infinite. This Saul we are writing about was of the tribe of Benjamin (so was the modern Saul), and was a noble man as to his personal appearance, and had many excellent traits of character; but he very unfortunately possessed one hideous trait of character, which discolored and stained his whole life, public and private. This was his jealousy. True, he was selfish; but he might have escaped the snare of Satan if he had understood and appreciated the situation in which he was placed and the weakness of his character. It is the office of the Spirit of God to convict the sinner of his sin, and having pointed his attention to the true God for pardon through his Son Jesus Christ, to follow up this work by helping the convert to overcome all the evil traits of the carnal heart. Conversion is only a starting-point in the Christian life. It must be followed up closely with searching of heart and continued resistance of evil thoughts and words and acts, or it will wholly fail to regenerate the life, and apostasy will be the result. This was well understood by the good men of ancient times, and no doubt Saul the king was well instructed on this point by the prophet Samuel and others. It appears that Saul the king was a true convert, and often the power of the Holy Spirit rested upon him; but the difficulty with him was, he did not take care to search his own heart and life, and conform himself to the holy law of God. His pride and love of power and desire of the praise of men were great, and his love of God was weak if it did exist at all in his mind. This caused him to overlook the rights and feelings of his fellow-men when they seemed to clash with his own interests and feelings. Satan, aware of this weakness in the character of Saul, took the advantage, and spread out his snares for the jealous king with great skill. Saul became jealous of those around him, and especially of David, whose fame and merit aroused all the latent evil which had ever lurked in the heart of Saul. The demon of jealousy arose in fearful rage in his heart, and Saul became quite a maniac at times, when this trait of his character was called out by the circumstances in which he was placed; and Satan, taking in the situation, was always near, to fan the flame to a high degree of anger and vindictiveness. Had poor Saul the king taken care at an early period of his life and religious experience, to hunt out and resist and eradicate the evils of his carnal nature, it would have been an easy thing for him to see the ridiculous figure he was making of himself in sight of God and man, and what history would relate concerning him. At times he saw this; but it was only a momentary impulse, and he mentally relapsed into the old rut of malicious, blind jealousy, until it became impossible for him to break the fetters which bound him. Saul's remark to Jonathan, his noble son, when he suspected the cause of David was espoused by Jonathan (see 1 Sam. 20:30), shows conclusively, that jealousy had long been the bane of Saul's peace, and that others had felt the edge of his bitter, vindictive jealousy and hatefulness in days gone by, and that some one had arisen in indignation against it, and that Saul had still carefully nurtured the old grudge, probably as baseless as the fabric of an idiot's dream. No doubt, this trait in the character of Saul was understood and deprecated by his son Jonathan and other good people, and that he was fully warned of the danger of giving way to it; and it shows the character of Jonathan in a very beautiful light,—that he was so different from his father in this respect; and no doubt his heart was filled with sorrow and indignation to hear his good and noble mother called by dishonorable epithets, which she in no wise deserved. His large and noble mind comprehended the whole subject and the danger in which his father's blind passion placed his own interests and the interests of his family and people. From the conditions of the parties in this disagreeable affair, we may safely conjecture that Jonathan was the counterpart of his mother in all that was pure and lovely and noble, and that she had suffered an untold amount of sorrow and abuse from the same trait in her husband's character, which so terribly afflicted the early public career of David. Also we may suppose that Jonathan saw through the snare which Satan had woven so artfully for his father, king Saul, and had witnessed with pain the evil it had done in the domestic circle, and feeling keenly the dishonor and shame it entailed upon his father's family, with the deepest humility he resigns his own claim to the throne in favor of the youthful warrior whom God had evidently chosen to lead his people. From the evident allusion in this expression of Saul's concerning the mother of Jonathan, volumes of meaning may be safely inferred. A noble woman, allied to this terribly jealous king by marriage, after enduring every thing from her husband, who should have been her comfort and her support and her pride, but who, instead of this, became her slanderer and her bitter persecutor, is driven to throw off her allegiance to him, in order to protect herself and her offspring from the abuse of his cruel tongue. But out of this domestic feud, in which one side is represented by a noble, pure-minded queen, the other by a jealous, haughty, selfish king, we see that there comes forth a noble prince, who inherits his mother's love of God and of her country, and who is willing to waive his own claims to the throne for the public good; and thereby he settles forever the honor of his mother, whom no tongue could otherwise protect from the low, scurrilous influence of a jealous, cruel husband and father, who could so far forget his high position and dignity as to slander those who were a greater honor to him than all his crowns, honors, wealth, and trophies. Jonathan manifested in his excellent example, the training he had received from his mother; and in his forgetfulness of self, his devotion to truth and duty, and his really dutiful conduct to his father, he showed that in him were found the graces in their beauty and strength. And here, too, we are inclined to give great credit to the influence of that good mother, whom the cruel Saul named rebellious. But what shall we say of this dreadful demon, which separates friends and families, and feeds the flames of discord, and creates perpetual unhappiness, shame, and disgust, consigning noble minds to the grave of dishonor and the rest of oblivion? What shall we do with this shameless trait, which regards neither goodness, virtue, nor the Spirit of God? Is there a character so pure as to be a protection from this jealous influence? Is there a name so honorable or so elevated as to be outside of the suspicion of the jealous person? No! Jealousy has an armor of its own, manufactured by Lucifer, in the depths of infamy and shame. It has Evil Surmising for counselor, witness, and advocate, and Satan himself for a judge, and all his demon companions for jury and officers of court. Jealousy creates a liar from an honest man, or rather turns a once honest man into a liar. The jealous man lies first cautiously to himself, until he begins to believe his lies are the truth. Then he does believe them; and often such a man, like poor Saul the king, is given over to believe a lie. Reader, are you a little jealous inwardly? Beware! It is like dynamite, a dangerous plaything. Keep clear of it.