SAUL AND THE WITCH OF ENDOR.

WHEN Saul was menaced by the Philistine army, encamped at Shunem, a city belonging to the tribe of Issachar, fearing the issue, and apprehending, from his numerous delinquencies, that God had abandoned him, the dejected king adopted a singular expedient to ascertain the result of a conflict with the enemy. He had assembled his forces upon Mount Gilboa, whence he could overlook the encampment of the foe. Losing his confidence at the sight of their prodigious numbers, he determined to consult a celebrated sorceress living at Endor, a small town belonging to the tribe of Manasseh, and about eight miles from that part of Mount Gilboa where the army of Israel was encamped. In conformity with this resolution, Saul visited Endor in disguise, accompanied only by two attendants upon whose fidelity he could rely. Coming by night to the woman's house for the better security against surprise, Saul desired her to raise up him whom he should name unto her. Having assured her of indemnity against punishment for the exercising of her unlawful calling, he commanded that she should call up Samuel. This she immediately did, and learnt from the spectre that it was Saul who had commanded her to raise the dead prophet. "And the king said unto her, What sawest thou? And the woman said unto Saul, I saw gods ascending out of the earth. And he said unto her, What form is he of? And she said, An old man cometh up, and he is covered with a mantle. And Saul perceived that it was Samuel, and he stooped with his face to the ground, and bowed himself." This fully explains the picture: The apparition inquiring why he was raised, was answered by the trembling king that he was about to be attacked by the Philistines, and being deserted by God in his distress, he desired to know of Samuel what he should do. The answer was wofully prophetic he was told that the next day his army should be outed by the enemy, and he and his sons slain. The prediction was accomplished.

DAVID FINDETH SAUL ASLEEP IN THE

TRENCH.

SAUL, having learned from the Ziphites where David had concealed himself in order to escape his vengeance, took with him three thousand men, and encamped in the neighbourhood of Hachilah, a hill among the defiles of which David and his men had sought refuge from the royal tyranny. Anxious to ascertain the strength of Saul's army, "David arose, and came to the place where Saul had pitched his teuts; and David beheld the place where Saul lay, and Abner the son of Ner, the captain of his host: and Saul lay in the trench, and the people pitched round about him." David was accompanied upon this occasion by his nephew Abishai, who, when he found that Saul and all his host were wrapped in sleep, proposed putting the king to death at once, and thus securing his uncle's future safety; but to this David objected, considering it a crime of the highest enormity to slay the Lord's anointed. In order, however, that he might prove his forbearance at a suitable time, he desired Abishai to remove to their secret abode in the mountain, a cruse of water and a spear, which were placed at Saul's head. Then David, having retired to a distance, ascended an eminence, and in a loud voice upbraided Abner for his remissness in leaving his master exposed to the sword of an enemy. Upon which Saul, hearing his voice, rose, and perceiving the peril from which he had escaped through the generosity of the man whom he had so long and grievously wronged, invited his approach in accents of kindness and encouragement. David then expostulated with him much in the same manner that he had done after Saul's escape from the cave, adding to what he had formerly said, that by obliging him to quit the land of his nativity, the king had forced him to associate with heathens and idolators, by which he had reduced him to the necessity of joining in their unholy rites. Saul immediately acknowledged his error, charged himself with cruelty, applauded David's generosity, and gave him his most solemn assurance that he would never again make any attempt upon his life.