A.M. 2863. established in the cities of the Levites, which were diffused through B.C. 1141. the different tribes for the sake of facilitating the plan of general instruction. In these seminaries the prophets devoted themselves to the study of the law, were taught the art of psalmody, and awaited the call into public life under the superintendence of one of the same class, venerable for wisdom or years. Age, however, relaxed the vigour of his administration; and Samuel, in consequence of appointing his two sons, Joel and Abiah, to exccute his office, soon found, by the complaints of the elders, that he had devolved A.M. 2884. it into unworthy hands. He was in consequence solicited to appoint B.C. 1120, a king over them, that they might enjoy a similar form of government to that of other nations. This was no doubt as offensive a request to Samuel, as it was an impious and ungrateful one toward their supreme Lord and benefactor. He at once, therefore, applied to God, in the exigency, who directed him to comply with their desires, after a solemn protest against their proceedings. Saul. A.M. 2909. The introduction of SAUL, the son of Kish, to Samuel, and the B C. 1095. several circumstances which attended his election to royalty, furnish remarkable illustrations of the ever active agency of providence; controlling every seeming casualty, and subordinating to its plans the most trifling coincidences. Saul and his servant were despatched in pursuit of his father's asses, which had strayed from home; and having arrived at Ramah, at the instigation of the latter, Samuel was inquired after for information respecting them. The prophet had been already prepared for the visit, and instructed how to act, by a divine intimation. Treating him accordingly with marked distinction and respect, he first held a conference with Saul in the evening, probably to explain the secret designs of providence, and in the ensuing morning, after sending the servant to a proper distance, proceeded to anoint him the future king of Israel, giving him prophetic information of some other events in which he would be personally interested. This appointment, it must be remarked, was now only a private transaction; but calculated to satisfy him with regard to the divine decision of the lot by which he was subsequently chosen at Mizpeh. To that place, whither the ark was conducted, Chosen by Samuel convened the people; and when the lot was cast, which successively pointed to the tribe of Benjamin, the family of Matri, and the person of Saul, his majestic appearance so well seconded the recommendatory speech of Samuel, that he at once gained, with few exceptions, the universal attachment. He very soon signalized himself by rendering prompt and effectual succour to the inhabitants of Jabesh-Gilead, who were besieged by the Ammonites, and on the very point of a surrender; a victory which, by enhancing his fame, gave him a triumph over his secret enemies. A general meeting was accordingly called by Samuel, at Gilgal, where the election of Saul was confirmed, with the accompaniment of public sacrifices and rejoicings. Having now wholly to resign the government into the lot. resigns the and asserts his integrity. hands of the person he had himself anointed for the office, Samuel A.M. 2909. concluded his more public life by an oration, truly characteristic of B.c. 1995. his integrity of principle and his piety of mind. He challenged the Samuel people to produce any instances of peculation or inequity during his government administration; recapitulated some of the facts of their past history, which were illustrative of the consequences of disobedience, and intimated the impropriety of their conduct in desiring a king; appealing to a miraculous attestation of the displeasure of God, by calling for a thunder-storm in that season of wheat-harvest, when it was so unusual; suggesting at the same time the goodness of God in determining not to forsake them if they did not finally renounce his authority. In the second year of Saul's reign, hostilities were renewed against A.M. 2911. the Philistines. The king having repaired to Gilgal, waited with B.C. 1093. impatience for Samuel to assist in presenting burnt-offerings, till at length, on the seventh day, the services were ordered to proceed before his arrival; which occasioned a severe rebuke from the prophet, and an assurance that his precipitation would ultimately prove subversive of his dominion. Shortly after this, another instance of A.M. 2917. Saul's disobedience occurred; he was commanded by God through B.c. 1087. Samuel, to destroy utterly the nation of the Amalekites, but under the pretence of offering sacrifice he spared the most valuable portion of the spoil, together with Agag, their king. This produced a Rebukes severe remonstrance from Samuel, who turned abruptly away from his excuses; and when Saul seized his garment, which rent in his hands, Samuel took occasion to declare, that the Lord had rent the kingdom of Israel from him, and had bestowed it upon another. The king's urgent solicitations, however, induced at length a compliance with his wish that Samuel would join him in a public act of worship; after which, the prophet slew Agag, and departed to Ramah, never Quits him more to hold any personal communication with Saul. Saul. finally. Still, however, he retained an affection for the king, and long, and A.M. 2941. deeply lamented his misconduct; till he was roused from unavailing B.C. 1063. grief by a message from heaven, desiring him to go to Bethlehem, and bestow the royal unction upon DAVID his distinguished successor, to whom we devote a subsequent article. After the lapse of a few years from this period, in which David A.M. 2942. was encountering the relentless malignity of Saul, we find Samuel B.C. 1062. still at Ramah, and accompanying David to Naioth, a school of the prophets, as a temporary asylum, where the Scripture narrative of his life closes. Samuel died about four years before Saul, upwards of ninety years A.M. 2944. of age, and in the year of the world 2944, deeply lamented by the B.C. 1060. whole nation. His remains were interred at Ramah, the place of his Dies. usual residence; but afterwards they are said to have been removed to Constantinople, in the reign of the emperor Arcadius. Jerome states that they were conveyed in a golden vessel, wrapped up in silk. S. H. A.M. 2944. Samuel was a character unquestionably of the very first class; of B.C. 1060. irreproachable integrity, undaunted fortitude, unabating zeal, unaffected and unblemished piety; sincere as a friend, gentle as a man, virtuous as a judge, and holy as a prophet. In the Chronicles, he is stated to have assisted in distributing the Levites appointed by David for the temple service, and as having enriched the tabernacle by spoils taken from the enemies of Israel. He is said also to have written the history of David, in conjunction with the prophets Nathan and Gad, which, of course, can be understood only of his early transactions. The first twenty chapters of the first book that appears under his name, are with the utmost probability ascribed to him by the Talmudists; and he was the first in the unbroken chain of prophets, that extended to the days of Malachi, and that "foretold,” Acts iii. 24. according to the testimony of St. Peter, "of" the final establishment and triumphs of Christianity. CHAPTER VII. DAVID. BORN, A.M. 2919; B.C. 1085.—Died, a.m. 2989; B.C. 1015. DAVID, the prince and poet of the Jews, during one of the most A.M. 2919. prominent and most glorious periods of their history, was the first B.C. 1085. of the Jewish kings, who fully united the choice of God and man in his claims to the throne; and is the first monarch of antiquity of whose reign we possess any authentic details. He is introduced to us, by the Scripture narrative, in his youth, as early as any indications of his future greatness can well be supposed to have appeared, and he remains with us to his latest age. Perhaps he is that monarch in the history of the world of whose public and private character we possess the most complete and finished portrait. The pretensions which have been urged by almost every nation of the globe to the honour of having once been divinely governed, were more than realized in the history of the ancient Israelites. The God of all the earth assumed the immediate direction of their affairs for several centuries, was consulted by their chiefs upon every important occasion, and suffered nothing of public consequence to be transacted without his direct commission. But when their capricious and idolatrous dispositions had broken down all the great moral distinctions between the surrounding nations and themselves, they felt that to be a restriction which God meant for a privilege: and as the chief design in the introduction of the THEOCRACY, that of a long-continued recognition of the Unity of God in their early history, had been accomplished, God granted them, in the first instance, a monarch of their own character, in the person of SAUL; and finally overruled and settled the change of their government, in subservience to his own purposes, under the administration of DAVID. SECTION 1.-EARLY PROSPERITY OF DAVID. This prince was born in the year of the world 2919, at the close His birth of 406 years after the Exodus of his countrymen from Egypt; he and family. was the son of Jesse, the son of Obed, the immediate offspring of the interesting Ruth. Of his earliest days we have no distinct account; but at the period of his first introduction into public life, and while very young, we have a remarkable character of him, from 1 Sam. xvi. the court of his rival Saul, as a mighty valiant man, a man of war, 66 18. Samuel's journey to Bethlehem. He A.M. 2941. prudent in matters," and of an eminently pious disposition. B.C. 1063. was "comely in his person" too, we learn from the same authority, and accomplished in his manners. The interesting scene in which we first meet with him at Bethlehem, though singularly contrasted with the character thus given of him, is no more a necessary contradiction to it than Samuel's continued grief at the rejection of King Saul was a proof of his indulging any sense of injustice in that measure. For when David must have attained to about the 22d year of his age, this venerable prophet was directed to go to Bethlehem, where Jesse and his family resided; amongst whom, he was informed, God would intimate to him His choice of a future king; an errand toward which Samuel manifested unusual reluctance. As an appropriate introduction to his commission, and an effectual security against his fears of Saul's interference, he was, therefore, commanded to call the town to a sacrifice, and especially to invite David's father and his brethren. Some have considered this circumstance as encouraging a MERE pretence of divine worship to accomplish ulterior and inconsistent views; or, at the least, to allow such a pretence as a cover for other and distinct objects. We presume that it is not fairly susceptible of either construction. That Samuel might not have received it as a part of his commission to call the family and neighbourhood to so suitable a service prior to the actual anointing of GOD's future servant, had he expressed no unwillingness towards that commission, is by no means to be gathered from the Scripture account; nor that, admitting it to be an expedient for his unwillingness, it was in any way inconsistent with one of the most eminent peculiarities of the Jewish church, reconciliation to God's will by sacrifice; while in the occurrences, as they actually stand narrated, an union of great interest and solemnity will be excited in every well-ordered mind. Jesse's sons passed in succession before Samuel. When he saw the eldest, a man of fine personal appearance, impressed forcibly, it is probable, with his similarity in this respect to Saul, "Surely," said he, silently, "the Lord's anointed is before him." A disclaimer of this construction, invaluable as a general principle of the ways of God, was immediately given— "Look not on his countenance, nor on the height of his stature, because I have refused him; for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh at the heart." A like intimation was afforded respecting all the other sons present-" Neither hath the Lord chosen this.' Samuel, who appears to have been brought into the house of this remarkable family, after the worship, and just prior to this scene, was now somewhat perplexed; until finding, on inquiry, that the youngest son of all was with the sheep in the field, he requested him to be sent for, and DAVID appeared. "He was ruddy, and of a beautiful countenance,' says the inspired penman, which would evidently imply, in connection with the preceding narrative, that he possessed |
