remembrance; and orders him to go and smite the sinners the Amalekites, men, women, and children: and utterly to destroy every thing belonging to them, whether ox or sheep, camel or ass. Saul assembles his armies, and exterminates the Amalekites; with the exception, however, of their king Agag, whom, for the purpose of exhibiting him in triumph through the land of Israel, or from some other worldly motive, he presumes to reserve alive. Nor was this transgression the extent of his disobedience. Saul and the people spared the best of the sheep, and of the oxen, and of the fatlings and of the lambs, and all that was good; and would not utterly destroy them: but every thing that was vile and refuse, that they destroyed utterly.' The ungrateful monarch, stubborn in rebellion against the will of his heavenly Benefactor, is now decisively informed, that God has rejected him. [1 Sam. xxviii. 18.] At first, with daring falsehood he steadily avers to Samuel, that he has obeyed the commandment of the Lord. Then he charges the disobedience upon the people. Then he pretends, that the sheep and oxen have been saved for the purposes of sacrifice. Driven from evasion to evasion, he can no longer dissemble his guilt; but is constrained to confess, that he has flown upon the spoil; that he has feared the people instead of God; that he has obeyed their voice, instead of the voice of God. The extreme solicitude with which, after this confession, he importunes Samuel to turn with him and honour him before the elders of the people, demonstrates, that the respect of men is still the darling object of his heart. To the conduct of Saul throughout the whole of this transaction, can a name more appropriate than folly be ascribed? Can any fact be ascertained more clearly, than the identity of folly and sin?

The

Saul is now an outcast from the divine favour. He is permitted to retain the kingdom during his life: but judgement in its most terrible form delays not to overtake him. Spirit of the Lord departs from him.' The support of divine grace is, in a great measure, withdrawn; and in a proportion, precisely corresponding, he is judicially abandoned to his natural depravity. In proportion, too, as he has removed himself from the guidance of the Most High, he falls under an opposite control. From time to time, an evil spirit from the Lord,' an evil spirit exercising its malignity under the permission

You wonder not, under remainder of his days You wonder not to see

of Almighty God, troubles him.' these circumstances, to behold the darkened with calamities and crimes. him, pursuing, year after year, the life of David; aiming his javelin at the heart of his own son Jonathan; massacring the priests of the Most High with their wives and children; prying into his own destruction by consulting a woman with a familiar spirit; closing a long period of private and public misery by an attempt at self-murder; and finally by imploring and receiving death from the hand of an Amalekite, a surviving fugitive of that very nation, with respect to which he had disobeyed the probationary mandate of his God.

How shall the life of Saul be summarily described? I have sinned: I have played the fool: I have erred exceedingly.' Whose are these words? The words of Saul himself in his latter days. Do you require stronger testimony to the identity of folly and sin?

II. From the foregoing history, several important observations may be derived.

1. We learn, in the first place, not to repose blind and premature confidence on some few promising appearances as to piety. Remember the difference between the first transactions in the public life of Saul, and the general tenor of his subsequent proceedings; and learn to guard your willing hopes from degenerating into sanguine credulity. Conceive not, that examples of religious consideration on some particular occasions are proofs, that religion is firmly and durably established in the bosom. Gold is not known to be genuine, until it has stood the test of fire. The crop is not estimated by the blade, but by the harvest. Wait until religion has, for some time, been tried by the temptations of life, before you pronounce on its reality. Wait until the man has habitually shown himself disposed to sacrifice interest and pleasure, evil tempers and evil practices, for the sake of Christ, before you decidedly aver him to be a servant of Christ. Cherish, in judging of others, the warmth and the tenderness of Christian charity : but recollect that Christian charity requires not, that you cast away caution, and disregard the instruction of experience. Above all things, beware of being deluded by the contemplation of scattered tokens in your own conduct, of love to God, into a confident opinion respecting yourself, as though your

Your trials as yet may

Christian character were matured. have been slight. Others, far more formidable, may be on their way, may be at hand. Let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall.' Be humble; be watchful; shun-temptation; resist temptation. In the midst of your most earnest exertions, look for success wholly through supplication for the grace, which is in Christ Jesus.

2. Consider, in the second place, the guilt of impatiently endeavouring to attain a present good, by departing from the way of God's commandments. The Deity would not accept a burnt-offering from Saul, when presented in a manner contrary to his appointment. Are you involved in difficulty or trouble? Are you persuaded, not only that you could extricate yourself, but that you could accomplish some purpose good in itself and highly desirable, by departing only as it were a hair's breadth from the divine law? Do it not. Todo evil that good may come,' is declared by St. Paul to be an utterly unchristian doctrine. Look back on the disobedient king of Israel. Remember, that your Lord is putting you to trial. He is proving your patience, your submission, your faith. Abide thou in the track of righteousness: wait thou the time of the Most High; and, in his own time, and by the track of righteousness, the Most High shall guide thee to peace and to salvation.

3. Behold, thirdly, the guilt of rash resolutions and vows. Whenever, like Saul, a person forms a determination, or fetters himself by an engagement, under the precipitate impulse of passion,-seldom shall a considerable time elapse, before he perceives reason for deep and lasting regret. Or he shall discover that his promise cannot be carried into effect without sin and either shall add to his offence by performing it; or by conscientiously declining to fulfil it, shall excite clamour, suspicion, hatred, and scorn. Would you determine wisely? Would you see the path of duty distinctly? Resolve with deliberation. Ponder all your plans, fix all your purposes, with a cautious regard to the commandments of God: and bind not yourself to any step of importance, until you have reverently and impartially examined, according to the degree of attention required by the nature of the case, and with a mind humbly lifted up to God, whether you are not plunging into temptation, or entangling yourself in transgression.

4. Fourthly, mark the heinousness of fearing man rather than God. What sin is more general? How often do they yield to intemperance, to extravagance, to dissipation, to fashionable follies or fashionable crimes, lest they should be ridiculed by their companions, or lose, in the opinion of the neighbourhood, some portion of modish repute! How often, when religion is sneered at or misrepresented, do they shrink, through false shame and carnal fear, from speaking the truth in its vindication! Remember the guilt of Saul: tremble to imitate it. Who art thou that art afraid of a man that shall die, and of the son of man which shall be made as grass; and forgettest the Lord thy Maker? Let the Lord be your dread. Fear him, who can cast both body and soul into hell. Fear him, who has declared that, unless you confess him upon earth, he will not confess you at the day of judge

ment.

5. Lastly: Let the example of Saul admonish you to frequent meditation on the consequences of disobeying God. Thou shalt know, like that unhappy king, that in every respect thou hast done foolishly, whenever thou hast not kept the commandment of the Lord. Thy worldly projects which thou hopest to forward by transgressing the rule of duty, shall, by that very step, be defeated. Or if, for a time, they appear to have been promoted by thy sin, ere long thou shalt find, that they have been promoted to thy sorrow and confusion. But are these the heaviest effects of obstinacy in transgressions? Prepare thyself for severer judgements. Prepare thyself for the departure of the holy Spirit of God. When the Pharisees refused to listen to the Son of God, he directed his instruction to the publicans. When his countrymen at Nazareth persisted in unbelief, he no longer wasted his miracles upon them. When the Jews at Antioch rejected the preaching of St. Paul, the Apostle turned, under the guidance of the Holy Ghost, to the Gentiles. Behold, in these examples, the established course of the divine counsels. Grace, perseveringly neglected and abused, is withdrawn. If God shall withdraw his grace from thee, thou shalt become, like Saul, the servant of another master. An evil spirit, that evil spirit who is the author of sin and misery, shall seize Then who shall break thy chains? Enslaved to Satan, thou shalt perform his pleasure here; thou

thee as his prey.

shalt fulfil his work, adding iniquity to iniquity; and into his kingdom shall death remove thee, there with him to be tormented for ever and ever.

[REV. T. GISBORNE, Prebendary of Durham.]

SERMON LXXXIX.

FIFTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY.

DAVID AND GOLIATH.

1 SAM. xvii. 4.- -And there went a champion out of the camp of the Philistines, named Goliath.

[Text taken from the First Evening-Lesson.]

FORTY days together had the Philistines and Israelites faced each other; they pitched on two hills, one in the sight of the other, nothing but a valley was betwixt them. Both stand upon defence and advantage: if they had not meant to fight, they had never drawn so near; and if they had been eager to fight, a valley could not have parted them. Actions of hazard require deliberation; not fury, but discretion, must be the guide of war.

So had Joshua destroyed the giantly Anakims out of the land of Israel, that yet some were left in Azzah, Gath, and Ashdod; both to show Israel what adversaries their forefathers found in Canaan, and whom they mastered; as also, that God might win glory to himself by these subsequent executions. Of that race was Goliath, whose heart was as high as his head, his strength was answerable to his stature, his weapons answerable to his strength, his pride exceeded all: because he saw his head higher, his arms stronger, his sword and spear bigger, his shield heavier, than any Israelite's, he defies the whole host; and, walking between the two armies, braves all Israel with a challenge; Why are ye come out to set your battle in array? Am not I a Philistine, and you servants to Saul? Choose you a man for you, and let him come down to me. Give me a man that we may fight together.' Carnal hearts are carried away with presumption of their own abilities; and, not finding matches to