for we have added to all our sins this evil, to ask for a king. And Samuel said to the people: Fear not; you have done all this evil: but yet depart not from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart. And turn not aside after vain things, which shall never profit you, nor deliver you, because they are vain. And the Lord will not forsake His people for His great name's sake: because the Lord hath sworn to make you His people. And far from me be this sin against the Lord, that I should cease to pray for you, and I will teach you the good and right way. Therefore fear the Lord, and serve Him in truth and with your whole heart; for you have seen the great works which He hath done among you. But if you will still do wickedly, both you and your king shall perish together.

CHAP. II. The rejection of Saul. His Wars with the Philistines and the Amalekites.

SAUL had scarcely reigned two years, when he was called to wage war upon the old enemies of his race, the Philistines. Unhappily for himself, he had scarcely commenced the war when he brought upon his own head the condemnation of God, and the rejection of his family from the throne of Israel. A certain day had been appointed by Samuel for the offering a solemn sacrifice to the Lord, in order to draw down His blessing upon the approaching conflict. For seven days, at the end of which Samuel was to have come to the camp where Saul was with his army, Saul waited for the prophet; but when Samuel did not then appear, a panic began to seize upon the troops, and they deserted their posts in great numbers. Saul, therefore, preferring to take the matter into his own hands rather than delay any more, himself offered the sacrifices, though totally unauthorised by the divine law thus to take upon himself the priestly office. Scarcely had he made an end of offering when Samuel came. He severely condemned the rash haste of Saul, and assured him that as he had

been thus faithless and disobedient in the moment when God was trying his fidelity, the kingdom should be taken from him, and given to one whom the Lord would choose after His own heart. Thus saying, he left the monarch to march against his foes.

During the battle which ensued, Saul was so eager to follow up the victory which God gave him, that he forbade any of the people to taste food until the evening. Jonathan, his own son, however, a youth of noble character and great bravery, and much beloved by the people, not knowing what his father had done, tasted some honey which he found in a wood. The next day his error was discovered; and his father would have put him to death but that the people interfered, and would not suffer the cruel punishment to be inflicted.

Saul's next war was with the people of Amalek, whom a divine command enjoined him utterly to destroy, for their sins against Israel; sparing neither man, woman, nor child, nor the cattle of the field. He attacked the Amalekites therefore, and smote them with a terrible destruction; but captivated with the richness of the spoils, he saved some of the most valuable, and also spared the life of Agag, the Amalekite sovereign.

And Samuel came to him, as he was offering sacrifice to the Lord from these forbidden spoils; and when the prophet came near, Saul greeted him and said: Blessed be thou of the Lord: I have fulfilled the word of the Lord. And Samuel said: What meaneth then this bleating of the flocks, which soundeth in my ears, and the lowing of the herds, which I hear? And Saul said: They have brought them from Amalek : for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the herds, that they might be sacrificed to the Lord thy God but the rest we have slain. And Samuel said to Saul: Suffer me, and I will tell thee what the Lord hath said to me this night. And he said to him: Speak. And Samuel said: When thou wast a little one in thy own eyes, wast thou not made the head of the tribes of Israel? And the Lord anointed thee to be king over Israel: and the Lord sent thee on the way, and said:

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Go, and kill the sinners of Amalek: and thou shalt fight against them until thou hast utterly destroyed them. Why then didst thou not hearken to the voice of the Lord; but hast turned to the prey, and hast done evil in the eyes of the Lord? And Saul said to Samuel: Yea, I have hearkened to the voice of the Lord, and have walked in the way by which the Lord sent me; and have brought Agag the king of Amalek: and Amalek I have slain. But the people took of the spoils sheep and oxen, as the first-fruits of those things that were slain, to offer sacrifice to the Lord their God in Galgal. And Samuel said: Doth the Lord desire holocausts and victims, and not rather that the voice of the Lord should be obeyed? For obedience is better than sacrifices; and to hearken rather than to offer the fat of rams. Because it is like the sin of witchcraft to rebel; and like the crime of idolatry to refuse to obey. Forasmuch therefore as thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, the Lord hath also rejected thee from being king. And Saul said to Samuel: I have sinned, because I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord, and thy words, fearing the people, and obeying their voice. But now bear, I beseech thee, my sin; and return with me, that I may adore the Lord. And Samuel said to Saul: I will not return with thee, because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord; and the Lord hath rejected thee from being king over Israel. And Samuel turned about to go away, but he laid hold upon the skirt of his mantle, and it rent. And Samuel said to him: The Lord hath rent the kingdom of Israel from thee this day; and hath given it to thy neighbour who is better than thee.

And Samuel commanded the idolatrous and cruel king of the Amalekites to be brought forth; and there on the spot he was slain, because of his bloodthirstiness and idolatries. And Samuel came no more to see Saul till the day of his death.

CHAP. III. David anointed to be the future King. He slays

Goliath.

THE prophet, who was thus God's instrument in pronouncing His judgments upon Saul, yet mourned a long time for the fate of the disobedient monarch. At length the Lord bade him anoint the chosen one who was to ascend the throne of Saul when Saul should die. He sent him to seek for David, the youngest of the seven sons of Isai, or Jesse, the Bethlehemite. And when the youth came before the prophet, he was ruddy and beautiful to behold, and of a comely face. And Samuel took a horn of oil, and poured it upon David's head in the midst of his brethren; and the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward.

Saul, meanwhile, grew harsh and miserable upon his royal throne. An evil spirit troubled him, and afflicted him with a melancholy approaching to madness. It was found, however, that the strains of sweet music lulled his pains, and refreshed him, so that he could rouse himself to his ordinary occupations. His servants, therefore, sought for some skilful musician to play upon the harp before him; and learning that the young David was an accomplished player, they brought him to the wretched king. And when the evil spirit was upon Saul, David took his harp and played, and Saul was refreshed, for the evil spirit left him.

The Philistines at this time took courage to attack the Israelites again, perhaps hearing of Saul's melancholy state of soul, and thinking he would be easily defeated. They advanced, therefore, and encamped in the Israelites' territory. In their army was a man of gigantic stature, Goliath by name, eight or nine feet high, and of enormous strength. This man came out, and challenged the Hebrew army to find one of their own number to fight him in single combat, with an agreement that whichever of the two should slay his adversary, to his countrymen dominion should be given over the countrymen of the defeated champion. But none dared meet him, and for forty days he defied the armies of Israel and the God of hosts.

At this time David was sent into the camp by his father to carry refreshments to his brothers, who were fighting men, David himself being a shepherd, and hitherto a man of peace. And when he heard the story of Goliath, inspired by the guidance of Almighty God, and notwithstanding the sneers of his brothers against his youth and presumption, his heart was filled with indignation against the blaspheming Philistine. words so struck the men who heard him, that they carried him to Saul, who, when he saw him, had forgotten him.

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And when he was brought to the king, he said: Let not any man's heart be dismayed in him: I thy servant will go, and will fight against the Philistine. And Saul said to David: Thou art not able to withstand this Philistine, nor to fight against him: for thou art but a boy; but he is a warrior from his youth. And David said to Saul: Thy servant kept his father's sheep, and there came a lion, or a bear, and took a ram out of the midst of the flock: and I pursued after them, and struck them, and delivered it out of their mouth and they rose up against me; and I caught them by the throat; and I strangled, and killed them. For I thy servant have killed both a lion and a bear: and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be also as one of them. I will go now and take away the reproach of the people for who is this uncircumcised Philistine, who hath dared to curse the army of the living God? And David said: The Lord who delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, He will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine. And Saul said to David: Go; and the Lord be with thee. Saul clothed David with his garments, and put a helmet of brass upon his head, and armed him with a coat of mail. And David having girded his sword upon his armour, began to try if he could walk in armour: for he was not accustomed to it. And David said to Saul: I cannot go thus, for I am not used to it. And he laid them off. And he took his staff, which he had always in his hands: and chose him five smooth stones out of

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