for the people spared the best of the sheep, and of the oxen, to sacrifice unto the Lord thy God; and the rest we have utterly destroyed."

Then Samuel said to Saul, "Stay and I will tell thee what the Lord hath said to me this night. When thou wast little in thine own sight, wast thou not made the head of all the tribes of Israel, and the Lord anointed thee king over Israel? And the Lord sent thee on a journey, and said, Go and utterly destroy the sinners the Amalekites, and fight against them until they be consumed. Wherefore then didst thou not obey the voice of the Lord, but didst fly upon the spoil, and didst evil in the sight of the Lord?" And Saul answered, "Yea, I have obeyed the voice of the Lord, and have gone the way which the Lord sent me, and have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites. But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the chief of the things which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice unto the Lord thy God in Gilgal."

Then Samuel said, "Hath the Lord as great

delight in burnt offerings and obeying the voice of the Lord?

is better than sacrifice, and to

fat of rams.

sacrifices as in

Behold, to obey

hearken than the

Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, He hath also rejected thee from being king."

Then Saul said to Samuel, "I have sinned : for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord, and thy words: because I feared the people, and obeyed their voice. Now, therefore, I pray thee, pardon my sin, and turn again with me to worship the Lord." And as Samuel turned about to go away, Saul laid hold upon the skirt of his mantle, and it rent. And Samuel said, "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." Then Saul said, "I have sinned: yet honour me, I pray thee, before the elders of my people, and before Israel, and turn again with me that I may worship the Lord thy God." So Samuel turned again after Saul, and Saul worshipped the Lord.

After this Samuel returned to Ramah where

he dwelt.

"And he came no more to see Saul until the day of his death; nevertheless Samuel mourned for Saul. And the Lord repented that he had made Saul king over Israel.”

1 Samuel xv.

To repent, is to change the purpose of the heart; it is generally used to express the turning from evil to good. God is said to repent when His purpose towards men is changed. God speaks of Himself in Holy Scripture as if He were like men, in order that men may better understand His dealings with them. Thus it is said often that "God was angry," that "God was grieved," and that "God repented;" not that the Lord God of heaven can be really angry or sorry, or can change His mind as man ; but that these words best explain to us the way in which our conduct may cause God to change His purpose towards us. When it is said that God "repented that He had made Saul king over Israel," it is meant that Saul had not obeyed Him and done His will with a perfect heart, and did not deserve to have been made king, and that God would therefore take the kingdom from him and his family.

Chapter CEX.

THE CHARACTER OF SAUL AND THE NATURE OF

HIS SIN.

SAUL had now a second time failed under trial; he had again done wickedly, and disobeyed the

commandment of the Lord. Thus he finally lost God's favour, and forfeited his kingdom.

Had Saul truly repented of his old sin, and obeyed the Lord with an earnest heart and humble faith, when God again made trial of his obedience, he might have won mercy, and have been forgiven. But now that he had again rejected the Lord, by slighting His command, the Lord finally rejected him from being king over His people. The kingdom was to be taken from Saul and his family, and given to one that was better than him.

The sin of Saul was great in the sight of God, because he had been made king over Israel, and had had great gifts and power given to him, not that he might do his own will, but that he might do the will of God. Though he was ruler over the people of Israel, he was the servant of the Lord, and bound to use his power for God's glory. When God gave him a command, it was his duty to obey it strictly and at once. He had to do what God commanded, not what he himself thought to be best. To refuse thus to obey God,

was to rebel against Him, to reject Him from being his Lord.

Now Saul did obey the greater part of the command of God, who bade him go forth with his army, and destroy the sinners, the Amalekites, and all that they had. He had gone forth at once against them, and had destroyed them all, except only Agag their king; and he had destroyed all their cattle and their goods, except some of the best, which he kept to offer as a sacrifice to God. But in this was his sin, that he wished to serve God in his own way, and not in the way which God had commanded. He obeyed so much of the command as he thought right, and then he stopped short, and did something else instead, which he thought better. He thought that he had done enough, and therefore he said to Samuel, that he had obeyed the voice of the Lord. But Samuel said, that he had rebelled against God, and not obeyed Him: for such obedience was disobedience.

Such was the nature of Saul's sin; he did not openly rebel against God, and say that he would