spised reproof, and have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me.

SECTION III.

Saul's words are the language of unavailing repentance and utter despair. No two characters can present a greater contrast than those of Saul and David, and a reference to their conduct will throw light on the crimes of Saul. They were kings, chosen, not by the will of the people, but by special providence of God. They held their crowns as tributaries to Jehovah, and the tribute he expected was an unremitting obedience to his laws; and "as long as" they "sought the Lord, the Lord made " them "to prosper."

When therefore Saul sinned against God, Samuel reproved him with "thou hast done foolishly, thou hast not kept the comInandment of the Lord thy God, and now thy kingdom shall not continue." On a subsequent occasion his rebellion was reiterated. "Then the word of the Lord came unto Samuel saying, It repenteth me that I have set up Saul to be king, for he is turned back from following me." He did once follow me, but " he hath left off to be wise and to do good," In conveying these melancholy tidings said the prophet," Behold to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, he hath also rejected thee from being king. The Lord hath rent the kingdom of Israel from thee this day, and hath given it to a neighbour of thine that is better than thou, and also the Strength of Israel will not lie," or change his purpose. Having rent asunder the ties which bound him to the crown, what was his duty? surely as an honest man to abdicate that throne to which he had no longer a divine, or legal right. And being solemnly assured that God had that day rent the kingdom from him, and given it to another; to resign his power and office into the hands of God from whom he first received them. But while his duty was obvious, his conduct then, and in after life, indicated the fixed determination of a stubborn heart, to retain them and to transmit them to Jonathan his son. Saul was the self-willed sinner: the daring reckless rebel. Was it to be expected that a man could prosper, who hardened himself against

God?

When David offended with reference to Uriah, God denounced, "I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house, and the

sword shall never depart from it; because thou hast despised me." Which vindictive prediction began to receive fulfilment when Amnon fell by his brother's hand, and was more fully accomplished when Absolom drew the sword against his father, and seized on the kingdom. Not knowing but that God had deposed him from that elevation, the forfeited splendours of which he had tarnished with adultery and murder, David at once adverted to Absolom as king; Return,', said he to Ittai, and " abide with the king;" while to the priests who accompanied him in his exile he added, “Carry back the ark of God, If I shall find favour in the eyes of the Lord, he will bring me again, and shew me both it and his habitation; but if he say thus, I have no delight in thee; behold here am I; let him do to me as seemeth good to him :" and he ascended mount Olivet," and wept as he went up, and had his head covered, and he went barefoot," in testimony of his deep contrition. "A more moving spectacle surely was never exhibited to mortal eyes! A king venerable for his years and victories; sacred in the characters both of his piety, and prophecy; renowned for prowess and revered for wisdom! reduced to the condition of a fugitive! to a sudden and extreme necessity of fleeing for his life from the presence of his own son:" and that son, one who had imbued his hands in a brother's blood. David was the humbled penitent. Pierced with contritition, and penetrated with a sense of his unworthiness, he tenders the resignation of his crown into the hands of God. How great the contrast between the conduct of Israel's two first monarchs in circumstances not altogether dissimilar!

The deposition of Saul from his regal authority affected not his eternal destiny. But being solemnly assured that God no longer acknowledged him as sovereign, a dejection and melancholy arising from the consideration preyed upon his mind, and when he apprehended that David was the man of God's election to the vacant throne, his gloom and melancholy engendered the viprous passions of jealousy, suspicion, envy, hatred, perfidy, and malice; and then the crimson thoughts, and resolutions of murder: or as it is expressed in Scripture," an evil spirit from the Lord troubled him." By this "evil spirit" of vengeful tempers and destructive purposes, he was urged on to his ruin. Yea, till he, who was disowned of God as king, was also rejected of him as a probationary being for eternity.

The shades of despair were gathering upon him thick and fast. The evening of his days had set in. The last moments of his life

were near. In this late period he enquired of God-not for grace to fit the immortal spirit for its final struggle-but into the issue of a war with the Philistines. Could infatuation itself expect that God would vouchsafe any extraordinary communications to a child of guilt and crime, whose life and reign, some few bright weeks excepted, exhibit an unvarying series of rebel acts against him? accordingly God answered him not:-then Saul "was sore distressed." Yet even then, if he had humbled his stubborn heart, and repented sincerely of his sins, have we not every reason to believe, that "the good will of him who dwelt in the bush," would have been determined towards him? But alas! deeply as he was involved in sin, he plunged deeper still. Witches were supposed to hold infernal demons at command, whose agency, brought into operation by some potent spell and incantation., threw open the mysteries of time and eternity; or raised the apparitions of the dead, to reveal events buried in the abyss of omniscience. That witches and magicians, or the demons whom they invoked, possessed these powers can never be admitted. For what man, or angel, or fiend can wrest the keys of hell and of death, from the hands of his Almightiness, to whom all power is given; and who alone with authority commandeth the unclean spirits? Absurd were these magical arts; and impious as absurd. Their necessary insinuation was that devils were rivals in power and wisdom to Jehovah, and that like him, they possessed a controlling authority over the destinies of the world. And while this notion destroyed all confidence in God as possessed of almighty power to protect, to punish, and to reward; and of unerring wisdom to direct the passions and prejudices of men to the best end; it destroyed all friendly feeling between man and man. Nay, in dread of such appalling power lodged in the command of a malicious neighbour, "thy life shall hang in doubt before thee, and thou shalt fear day and night, and shalt have none assurance of thy life. In the morning thou shalt say, Would God it were even! and at even thou shalt say, Would God it were morning! for the fear of thine heart wherewith thou shalt fear, and for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see." To the present hour, such are the withering effects of the wizard's spell on African happiness and African life, as detailed in that interesting periodical the Monthly Notices of the Wesleyan Missions. "In dread of the magic power of their sorcerers, the Caffrarian tribes are oppressed with a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind," till death comes as the last of all

terrible evils. The necessary tendency of the magicians' incantations being the destruction of spiritual happiness, and human life, together with the deification of Satanical power; we perceive reasons for the command, "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live." Yet to one of these unhallowed characters Saul applies for help. Deserted of God, he solicited aid from the Devil himself." Divine, I pray thee, by the familiar spirit," by the demon whose thou art, "and bring me up Samuel." Scarcely are the words uttered, ere the shriek of the pythoness scares the solemn silence of midnight, and proclaims the presence, and overruling energies of Israel's God. There then stands the devoted sorceress as if spell-bound in her own infernal enchantments; her aspect wild, terrific, demon. like. For now the earth begins to heave ;-" slowly and slowly, like the rippling waves of a becalmed ocean it rises to the surface, divides and falls in crumbling heaps on either side. Then there ascends the venerable figure of an aged man," clothed in the mantle worn by Israel's seer. Terrified, affrighted, desponding Saul, bows to the earth before the god-like majesty of the apparition, and all his burning thoughts are thrown into words, few, but of fearful meaning, God is departed from me, what shall I do?

Ah! there is no anguish equal to that of being forsaken of God! Assemble all the evils which affliction, poverty, bereavement, desertion can accumulate, and pour upon the head, and the heart of an hapless sufferer, they bear no proportion to the misery of a man from whom God hath departed. Instigated by Popish priests and principles, James the Second laboured to re-establish the gloomy domination of Catholicism. When the Prince of Orange landed for the protection of the Protestant faith, all on a sudden James found himself a solitary man in the midst of millions; all forsook him; his people, his army, his navy, his clergy: nay, his own children joined the invader. He burst into tears when the last heavy intelligence was conveyed to him. Undoubtedly he foresaw in this incident the total expiration of his royal authority; but the nearer and more intimate concern of a parent laid hold of his heart; he found himself abandoned in his uttermost distress by a child, and a virtuous child, whom he had ever regarded with the most tender affection. "God help me," exclaimed the wretched father in the extremity of his agony," God help me, my own children have forsaken me."

Pungent as the sorrows of a parent neglected, deserted and oppressed by his children must be, they equal not the bitterness

of a soul forsaken of God. Other calamities may be borne with resignation. The loss of health with patience, and the death of friends with submission. Reason may suggest motives for fortitude, and religion may administer consolation. The feeling application of the atoning blood may elevate the hope of heavenly favour into the unshaded evidence of certainty; and the steady prospect of a better world, added to the maxim of inspiration, that "all things work together for good to them that love God," may place the sufferer in a situation to " rejoice evermore," and "in every thing to give thanks." But if God depart from him, every source of support is dried up. The powers of the soul are unstrung and all the mighty energies of the mind are transformed into the strongholds of anguish. "When an awakened conscience places before the sinner the just vengeance of the Almighty, the prospect is confounding; the danger is boundless. It is a dark unknown which threatens him. The arm that is stretched over him he can neither see nor resist. No wonder that the lonesome solitude, or the midnight hour, should strike him with horror. His troubled mind beholds forms which other men see not, and hears voices which sound only in the ear of guilt. His doom His busy memory brings all appears written wherever he turns. his sins to remembrance; while conscience holds them up to the eye of the affrighted soul, with this inscription written on them, God shall bring every secret thought into judgment. Hence the haggard look, and the restless couch. Days never free from bitterness and nights given up to remorse. bear! In that corroding agony of soul,

A wounded spirit who can what can the sufferer do?

Youth! neglect not the admonitions of thy God and Saviour. Turn not a deaf ear to the voice of thy Bible, and thy conscience. Despise not the counsel of thy friends and parents; lest thou also repent of thy follies when repentance will be fruitless; lest thou also wish for their instructions when their heads are in the silent grave; lest thou also wish to call them into existence again, to utter before them the sorrowful complaint, "I am sore distressed, for the Lord is departed from me, and answereth me no more."

PART THE SECOND: -The apparition confirms the worst fears and forebodings of the apostate king. Then said Samuel, wherefore then dost thou ask of me, seeing the Lord is departed from thee, and is become thine enemy. Moreover the Lord will deliver Israel