Our readings for this week open with an account of a warlike action on the part of Saul, tinctured with an indication of his rashness. Yet again in chapter 12, Samuel protests against the setting aside of the old order and the choosing of a king; but the people would have it so. Chapter twelve closes with an earnest exhortation of the old prophet to cleave to Jehovah, and fear Him only.
Chapter 13 records another rash act of Saul, and the pitiful conditions to which the Philistines had subjected Israel. Chapter 14 is the story of Jonathan's remarkable victory, and another instance of the foolish, growing rashness of Israel's king.
Chapter 15 is another sad record of the king, in which selfishness and obstinacy are manifest in express disobedience to God's command to execute just wrath upon the Amalekites, which were a curse to all the nations with whom they came in contact. This last act brought his rejection as king by the Lord, and the anointing of David, the son of Jesse, recorded in chapter 16.
The next two chapters—17 and 18—contain the story of David as the champion of God's people, the fierce, unreasoning jealousy of Saul, and the beginning of the friendship between David and Jonathan. Saul's enmity against David, and David's efforts to avoid the mad king by fleeing to the mountains and forests, from city to city, even to the Philistines, yet all the time refusing to retaliate against the ruler of his people, is the story continued throughout the whole lesson of the week. It was a noble spirit manifested by the young king, totally unlike Saul's rashness.
Especially helpful—the brief—are Psalms 111 to 117 inclusive. How clearly and mightily is the unchangeable perpetuity of God's law taught in Psalm 111; the blessing of remembering the poor in Psalm 112; the exaltation of the humble in Psalm 113; God's deliverance from Egypt in Psalm 114. How graphically is the power of God contrasted with false gods; and how emphatically are we assured that His power is exercised for the good of His people! How many thankful hearts have sung again Psalm 116, "I was brought low, and He saved me." Surely that soul who experiences Psalm 116 can join in the song of praise in Psalm 117.
The Indians and Whisky.—One of the greatest curses which ever came to white men is that of tobacco, received from the Indians of North America; but the white men have paid it back a thousand times in giving the Indians alcohol. For centuries the users of tobacco, they had prepared in their own physical natures a basis for the taste of alcohol; and the product of the white man's still is rapidly exterminating the red race. It is pitiful.
In July, 1907, twenty Indians from nine camps attended the Zayante Indian Council at Mount Hermon. These men stated the five great "Wants" of their people: "We want (a) lands for homes; (b) protection from the liquor traffic; (c) education; (d) field physicians; (e) legal protection."
In their appeal concerning liquor they say: "We want protection from the liquor traffic. In the early days we did not fight among ourselves and kill each other. But now, the white people have brought liquor to us, and it is ruining the Indians of California. We are told that there are laws for our protection against liquor, but we seldom get the benefit of these laws. The white man's whisky makes a bad Indian. We ask protection from the liquor traffic and the punishment of both parties, the white man who sells and the Indian who buys. We do not know of an Indian who keeps a saloon. We suffer from the white man's trade." It is a charge the ground of which every man among the whites should do his utmost to obliterate forever.
Five Thousand Suicides.—The London Morning Post is authority for the statement that there were five thousand suicides in the city of Rome during the year 1907. The Catholic Mirror in commenting on the fact expresses the opinion that this vast amount of self-destruction is occasioned by "the blasphemous papers and pamphlets which an anti-papal government and an anti-Christian municipality allow to be freely circulated." There are others who would take a very different view from that expressed by the Mirror, and they would have good ground for the view taken. But aside from the cause of the suicides, the fact remains that a vast amount of suffering and despair is indicated by this multitude of self-inflicted deaths. It is one of the striking conditions of this time that suicides are very prevalent everywhere. And the formalities of religion will not save men from it; they must have the real Gospel of the real Christ as He taught it Himself in order to possess the power of mind that will enable them to stand before the disappointments which are so keen in these days of superabounding greed and selfishness.