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were there no poor folk in his glen? Was there no Naomi in yon cottage in the town? Did not one single Ruth come out to glean when the tidings travelled of that amazing harvest? If the bosoms of the poor had been his barns, he would have been welcomed at the Throne that night. O selfish and ungrateful!—but halt, have I been selfish this last week? There are few follies in the whole wide world like the folly of the selfish man.

THEN, lastly, think-and we have partly travelled on

this ground already-think how very foolish the man was. Had he said, 'Body, take thine ease, eat, drink, be merry!' there might have been some shadow of reason in it. But to think that a soul that hungers after God was ever to be satisfied with food-is there any folly that can equal that? 'The world itself,' says James Renwick, 'could not fill the heart, for the heart has three corners and the world is round!' Let us so live, then, that when our soul is summoned, we shall say, 'Yea, Lord! it has long been wanting home.' And to this end let us seek first the kingdom. For where our treasure is, there will our heart be also.

I

TWENTY-FIRST SUNDAY

Morning

SAUL'S VICTORY

Passage to be read: 1 Sam. xi. 1-15.

N this chapter we are introduced to a scene of border warfare. We are taken from the shouting crowds of Gibeah to the loneliness of an outlying fortress. Jabesh-Gilead lay across the Jordan; it was exposed to the attacks of these old and bitter enemies of Israel, the Ammonites; and in the opening of our passage we find it besieged, and very sore bestead, by Nahash, the king of Ammon. So hopeless indeed did things look for Jabesh that the citizens were on the point of yielding, and from this fatal step they were only saved by the barbarity of the terms proposed by Nahash. On one condition only would he make terms with them. They were all to be blinded in their right eyes. And it was on hearing that that the elders of Jabesh pled for a week's respite. Nahash granted it. He deemed it impossible that Israel should rally to the rescue in seven days; but he had not reckoned with the newlyproclaimed king-he was ignorant that there was a new head and a new heart in Israel. Long before the seven days were over, thanks to the swift resourcefulness of Saul, the Ammonites were flying in disaster, and JabeshGilead was free.

ONE

NE of the first things that strikes us in the story is how little Nahash knew what he was doing. He was quite unconscious of the greater wheel within which

his little wheel was circling. Nahash had been a fighter all his life. There were old scores between his tribe and Israel that he had pledged his honour to wipe out. It was along the line of his own kingly purpose that he had marched his armies to the walls of Jabesh. But God had a wider purpose in it all. It was Heaven's opportunity to Saul to reveal the true kingship of his character. It was the hour when God's anointed declared himself king in nature as well as in name. Into that larger purpose of Jehovah this onset of the Ammonites was brought. And Nahash little dreamed in his besieging how surely he was the instrument of the Almighty. We are all instruments in nobler plans than we have thought. Our lives have a larger setting than we guessed. It redeems my present from being quite ignoble when I remember that in the providence of God it is working out issues I am not permitted to discern. In the story of all strong lives, as in this tale of Nahash, we feel how little the man knows what he is doing.

NOTE, too, how this first summons to kingly duty

came to Saul at his day's work. One would have thought that the anointed king would have said farewell to the labours of the farm. But in the simple spirit of these early days, Saul seems to have gone back to the farm work again. He had been out in the field with the herd all day, we read. He had been ploughing, perhaps. And he is leading his team homewards in the evening, when suddenly there rings on his heart this call of God. I gather from that that the doing of humble duty will never deaden us to the voice of Heaven. I gather that the gate of noblest opportunity opens off the path of lowly tasks. It is not when we idle and dream and dwell on our anointing, that the call to kinglier service ever comes. It is when we yoke the oxen in the morning and determine, God helping us, to plough well to-day.

'I go a-fishing,' said Simon Peter, and it was on that day he saw the risen Lord. 'I go a-ploughing,' said Saul, and that was the evening on which the Spirit of the Lord inspired him.

THREE kingly features in Saul's character stand out pre-eminent in this incident. The first is his promptitude in action. As he came wearily home from the field that evening the first sound that fell upon his ear was weeping. The messengers from Jabesh-Gilead had reached Gibeah, and the city was dissolved in tears. Saul saw in a moment it was no time to weep. It was a time to work; it was a time to serve he acted with a swift decision which was regal. His lowing oxen, who had ploughed for him all day, stood by. There must be no sparing in an hour like this. He hewed them in pieces, sent out the pieces, like a fiery cross, throughout the tribes to summon them, and long before the seven days had fled, a vast army was on the road to relieve Jabesh. Israel instinctively felt that this was their king. It was for a leader who would lead that they were craving. Dissolute, disunited, powerless-there was the dawning of hope in this heroic promptitude.

THEN mark his generous and forgiving heart. It is the promise of this golden morning that makes the after-history of Saul so sad. When Saul was proclaimed king, a section of the people had refused to acknowledge him. Now that his kingship was established by victory, it might have seemed fitting to take revenge on these. That was the view the people took of it; they began to clamour for the death of the malcontents. But in his victory Saul is every inch a king. He refuses to sully his triumph with revenge. 'There shall not a man be put to death to-day, for to-day the Lord had wrought salvation in Israel.'

L

ASTLY, observe Saul's true humility. There is not a touch of pride about this story. From the hour when he comes homeward from the field to the hour of rejoicing and sacrifice at Gilgal, Saul's conduct is noble in its true humility. It is he who sends abroad the fiery cross; but he couples the name of Samuel with his own. It is he who directs the battle against Nahash; but he gives all the praise of the victory to God. Self is still low and God still high with Saul, and that is the secret of genuine humility. Saul did not shirk this sudden call to leadership. It is never true humility to do that. But in all he was called to he saw God so clearly, that there was no room at all in his heart for pride.

TWENTY-FIRST SUNDAY

Evening

THE GREAT SUPPER

Passage to be read: Luke xiv. 15-24.

T the table of the chief Pharisee, where Jesus was

AT reclining when He spoke this parable, the guests

were almost without exception His enemies in disguise. But there was one man among them who was favourably inclined to Jesus. He had been impressed, spite of his prejudices, by the lofty teaching of the young prophet. So strong, indeed, had the impression been that to the great amazement of his fellow-guests he cried out, when Jesus had finished speaking, 'Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God.' Now there can be no doubt that the speaker was blessing himself. It never occurred to him to question for a moment that he would share in the feasting of the kingdom. Christ

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