season than the present. To be consistent, you must be Christians, or atheists. You must acknowledge the Son of God and obey him, and this is to be Christians; or you must deny him and disobey him, and this is to be atheists. There is no stopping short of one of these two extremes. And this is a point which surely ought to be decided without delay.

And we moreover admonish you that this very acknowledgment of your obligations will at last condemn you. If you refuse to become Christians, you shall stand speechless at the Bar of God. Out of your own mouth you will be condemned, because now, and then, and for ever thereafter, you must confess that you ought to have become Christians. When will ye be wise? Reason— conscience-interest-honor-consistency-time -eternity-death-heaven-hell-God the Lawgiver-Jesus the Redeemer-the Holy Spirit the Sanctifier-all combine in urging you to break off your iniquity by righteousness and your transgressions by turning to God.

11

CHAPTER X.

aul.

HE first king of Israel was selected from the

THE

smallest of its tribes, and from the most abject family in that tribe. Yet were there traits of courage and enterprise in this obscure family. Abner, Saul's uncle, was made the general of his armies after he came to the throne, and Saul himself was a courageous and brave king. He was a young man of commanding person; "a choice young man, and a goodly; and there was not among the children of Israel a goodlier person than he." When he first made his appearance to the assembled tribes, "Samuel said to all the people, See ye him whom the Lord hath chosen, that there is none like him among all the people!"

It was an interesting period in the history of the Hebrew state when he came to the throne. Samuel was the prophet of Israel, and the last of those judges, or chiefs, who presided over the republic from the days of Moses until the change in their government, from the republican to the

monarchical form.

The dynasty of the Judges

had been marked by oppression and invasion from the surrounding nations; by the wickedness and idolatry of Israel; by great and frequent internal changes and convulsions; and by signal expressions of God's justice and mercy. The prophet Samuel was now an old man; and his two sons, to whom he intrusted the administration of the government, instead of walking in the steps of their father, "turned aside after lucre, and took bribes, and perverted judgment."

This was the specious pretext to the people for a change in the form of their government. It was not the most welcome thought to this venerable man, that, after he had been for forty years the faithful servant of this people, he should be thus rejected on account of the infirmities of age. Beside the ingratitude toward himself, it was an important change in the government which they proposed; a measure of very doubtful expediency, and one fraught with manifold evils. Nor could the prophet do otherwise than spread the whole matter before the Lord.

The government of Israel had hitherto been a theocracy; the great peculiarity of their political state was, that God himself was their King, their civil Head and Ruler. They had no other. God's royal palace was in the midst of them; there was the visible symbol of his presence; there they

were to inquire for the intimations of his will; and thence he gave forth those oracles which decided all their internal and foreign policy. With him alone was the prerogative of making and, repealing their laws, of establishing their religion, of imposing their taxes, of constituting their tribunals of justice, of declaring war and making peace. Whatever human responsibility existed in carrying into execution the measures of the government, the final appeal in all doubtful and disputed matters was to God alone. He himself directed all their invasious upon the surrounding nations, and commanded them what and when to spare, and whom and what to destroy. They never went into battle without his direction, but they suffered defeat; and when, in the conduct of their battles, they disregarded it, it was not with impunity. Even the tenure of their property, and the most important regulations which affected it, were prescribed by him.

Under this wise, watchful and energetic theocracy the nation flourished in the wilderness during the presiding power of Joshua, and through all the revolutionary period of the Judges. No other nation was ever thus governed. It was the simplest government, the least oppressive and exacting, the least ostentatious and extravagant, the most equitable, and the most free. The characacter and habits of that people, and the age in

which they lived, required some severities on the one hand, and some indulgences on the other, which none could so wisely introduce into their system of legislation as the great King and Monarch of the Universe. For that people this was the wisest and the best government.

When, therefore, they proposed a change from the theocratic to the monarchical form God himself was displeased. The insult was not offered so much to Samuel, as it was indignantly cast upon the God of Israel. "They said, a king shall reign over us, when the Lord their God was their king." They had a secret panting after the usages and even the idolatry of the pagan world. Their imagination was dazzled by the power, and pomp, and splendor of the surrounding empires; and though it was an act of rebellion against their own celestial Prince, to whom they had so often bound themselves by sworn and covenanted allegiance, they insisted on this change. And God gave them their request. "And the Lord said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee; for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected ME, that I should not reign over them." In obedience to God's command, the prophet expostulated at length with them on the folly of the proposed change; he even entered his solemn protest against it, and advised them in strong terms of