Faith and Superstition—Expediency and Principle.
By Rev. T. C. Jerome
TWO HUNDRED years before the battle in which Saul was slain, another leader of Israel had stood upon that same battle-range of Gilboa. A like innumerable hostile array was encamped below, or upon the opposite slope of Little Hermon. But Gideon, to meet the enemy, had only three hundred men; Saul had "all Israel," certainly three hundred thousand. Gideon's band was armed with trumpets, pitchers, and lamps; Saul's host was panoplied with all approved equipments of war. Gideon was unknown heretofore, his family "poor in Manasseh," and he "the least in his father's house." Saul had been forty years a king. Yet Gideon made ready for the onset, hopeful and stout-hearted, while Saul "greatly trembled," because Gideon's sword was also "the sword of the Lord," while from Saul the Spirit of God had long since departed. Within twenty-four hours preceding either battle, both these chieftains had taken brief excursions from their camps. Both were attended by only one or two retainers. Both stole away by night clandestinely. Both went where it was peril to go: Gideon within the enemy's lines, Saul into a witch's den. Yet Gideon returned exultant, while Saul "fell all along on the earth, sore afraid," because Gideon went where God had sent him; Saul, against God's express statute. Gideon was the greatest of the judges, notable even among those heroes as a man of faith and of principle. In every step, he sought counsel or encouragement directly from God, and then did precisely what God said. Saul was weakest of kings, notable, even among the many of Israel's wicked rulers, as a man of superstition and of expediency. He appears often very religious, eager to worship. At Gilgal, he could not wait for the high priest to come, but must needs usurp the sacerdotal office. At Bethaven, he builded an altar; or, as the margin reads, "began to build." This, like most of his good resolutions, seems to have been abandoned soon after the beginning. Saul had a rare taste for sacred music. Days together, he listened to David's harp and David's psalms. Doubtless he would have sighed devoutly under the trills of a prima-donna in a modern quartette choir. But none the less the javelin sped swift from his hand towards David's heart. He prophesied, and slaughtered the prophets. He put away the wizards, and traveled ten miles to consult a witch. To be sure, Saul had always pious and plausible excuses for disobedience. "Neither by Urim nor by dreams had the Lord answered me." "The best of the sheep and the oxen the people spared for sacrifice." "The Philistines were advancing, and my forces deserting; so I forced myself to offer the sacrifice before the battle." All has the appearance of signal piety, but really it is signal presumption, self-will, "stubbornness, and rebellion." "I have sinned," said Saul, over and over. "I have played the fool," he says again. "Is this thy voice, my son, David?" But, with all, he never radically changed his course. Even at the moment when he had received at Samuel's mouth his sentences of final, irremedial rejection, with the next instant he could but still implore the seer's prayers as a measure of policy: "I have sinned, yet honor me now before the people, and turn with me to worship." As written in Hosea, "Israel hath forsaken his Maker and buildeth temples." Men may be most solicitous for the forms of godliness, when they have most denied its power. They will then make gain of godliness. Saul, alas! considered himself the architect of his fortunes, strangely unmindful that he peculiarly, patently beyond all men, had been anointed king by God alone, and that only God could crown him with success. And still, Saul's career is not exceptional. Rather is it a most vividly detailed, inspired picture of the natural human heart. A sadly tragical picture, also, since Saul evermore chose as the ruling purpose of life his own way rather than God's ways. Handel found no biography more mournful, and to-day the step to which funerals tread is the "Dead March" in "Saul." Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice. By faith the elders obtained a good report. If ye love me, keep my commandments.—Rev. T. C. Jerome, in S. S. Times.