Saul's Declension
James Ebenezer Batten
Table of Contents
Saul's Declension: Part 1
It is a homely and daily picture that this 1 Sam. 9 supplies of a man like Saul, dwelling with his father Kish, a Benjamite, a mighty man of power. Another point of similar interest is, that Saul found his occupation in pursuing the objects which this circle produced; until Samuel was commissioned to declare the purpose of God respecting him, and “to anoint him as captain over the Lord's inheritance.” Nor should this link of connection between the two, however different from each other, be overlooked, as affording sonic moral lessons of great moment to a servant of God.
There is considerable beauty in what Samuel said to Saul, when this link of association was severed by his exaltation to the throne of Israel and his heart was lifted up by the favor of God. Then Samuel said, “When thou wast little in thine own sight, vast thou not made the head of the tribes?” &c. A fallen nature, because it is such, always uses the mercies of God for self-exaltation, and therefore against the giver; and these are some of the lessons presented in the history of Saul, when invested by God with kingly power, and seated on the throne of Israel. While he was “little in his own eyes,” every relative duty that sprung up around him was of more importance and consideration than himself. Thus the asses of his father, which were lost, served him for an object as readily as when a few years after the Lord sent him to smite Amalek, and better done.
Indeed the sketch given of Saul as “a choice young man and a goodly, who from his shoulders and upward was higher than any of the people” falls singularly on the mind in connection with his diligent search after “his father's asses” through the land of Benjamin, except as we remember the secret, “when thou wast little in thine own eyes.”
The father was a rule to Saul in abandoning the pursuit as much as in undertaking the search in obedience. So when they were come to Zuph, Saul said to his servant, “Let us return, lest my father leave caring for the asses, and take thought for us.” “Little in thine own eyes” stands thus connected with ready obedience to the will of another and in self-denying devotedness of heart, be the occasion small or great, the missing asses of Kish, or Agag the king of the Amalekites.
But God had His own intentions respecting Saul and makes the object of Saul's search a link of introduction to the prophet Samuel for the establishment of kingship in the earth. The details of this and the following chapter are remarkable as spewing him how entirely God holds every one and all the circumstances in His own hand, so that His will is the controlling power over Samuel and the sacrifice in the high place. Saul and his servant, and the young maidens going out to draw water—all are truly great by being little in their own eyes, and God everything and everywhere, from the prophet downward, for the Lord had told Samuel in his ear the day before about Saul. “Then Samuel took a vial of oil and poured it upon his head and kissed him, and said, Is it not because the Lord hath anointed thee to be captain over his inheritance?”
More remarkable still are the instructions given to this first king, the anointed of the Lord, to suit him for the place and responsibilities into which he had been inducted; and this is in truth always the way of our God to us in the varying character of His grace.
Saul's first lesson was “when thou art departed from me [Samuel] to-day, then thou shalt find two men by Rachel's sepulcher, in the border of Benjamin by Zelzah.” As pertaining to the tribe of Benjamin, this should have been an open volume to Saul, for what was Rachel and what her sepulcher to the instructed heart but the “place of the mother's sorrow” Ben-oni; yet the birth-place of Jacob's hope, and therefore his father called his name Benjamin, or “the son of my right hand?” Like Abraham, who from the altar on Mount Moriah received his son Isaac back again from the dead in a figure, as a type of the true son in death and resurrection; so here, in Ephrath, Jacob and Rachel do but give out the two names which make up the person of Christ, who by His own cross and the empty sepulcher was the Man of sorrow and the Son of the Father's right hand. What deep but precious lessons were those for the first king over Israel to learn in communion with the ways of God till the true anointed one, great David's greater Lord, should come! Not merely as to kingship were these secrets whispered forth from Rachel's sepulcher, but also as to the redemption of the people, over whom Saul was to reign in figure, till the promised and covenanted blessings should be established in Jerusalem the city of the great king, and the “whole world be filled with the glory of God.”
Samuel's next instructions to Saul were “thou shalt go on forward from thence, and come to the plain of Tabor, and there shall meet thee three men going up to God to Bethel.” The Lord was thus setting Saul in the ways of His own steps, that he might learn who the God was with whom he had to do, and see that all His paths drop fatness. What should Bethel have been to a true Israelite, the descendant of Jacob, to whom God appeared when he fled from the face of his brother Esau—that memorable night when Jacob took of the stones, and put them for his pillow, and lay down in that place to sleep—that night, when he received the directions for his faith by the ladder set up on the earth, but whose top reached to the heavens, and on which the angels of God were seen ascending and descending? What unmistakable signs were these, and links of connection too, between the heavens and the earth by angelic agencies thus made known to Jacob, and bound up in his person! Beyond all this however was the Lord Himself, who stood above it, and said, “I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac, the land whereon thou liest to thee will I give it, and thy seed.” Jacob thus becomes the heir of promise, and with the assurance that “in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed;” confirmed too by the declaration “I will not leave thee till I have performed that of which I have spoken to thee.” Connected by grace with such promises and blessing, what could Jacob say in accordance with the Lord's mind but “this is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven?” Perfectly in keeping with the occasion was the further act of the patriarch, when he awoke early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put for his pillow and changed it into a pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it. To crown all, he changed the name of the city Luz, or “separation” (guided by faith), into that of Bethel, or the house and meeting place of God.
All seemed to promise fair with Saul at the first, as be traveled over these paths, and halted at these resting places of grace and of the veiled but promised glory to the land and people through the seed. Moreover, “men were going up to God to Bethel, and were carrying three kids, and another three loaves of bread, and another a bottle of wine. Besides this they were to salute Saul, and give him two loaves of bread. The oil which Jacob poured out upon the pillar has gained additional significance by these sacrifices; and the kids, with the bread and the wine, were the suited confession on the part of the godly that the people, who had commenced their history across Jordan at Gilgal in the book of Joshua, had been since met by the angel of the Lord at Bochim, or the place of failure and weeping, in the book of Judges. Nevertheless this confidence is maintained to faith by Bethel, and the God of Jacob, who cannot deny Himself, and these confessions of the conscience are met by the assurance to the heart, thou “art the same, and thy faithfulness endureth throughout all generations.”
Samuel had likewise told Saul, “after that thou shalt come to the hill of God where is the garrison of the Philistines.” Nothing is more valued by the soul which has been led along the highway of Jehovah, God Almighty, in olden times, or in the new revelation which He has made of Himself to us, as the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, than to find ourselves associated with His purposes, and moreover by grace “workers together with God” now in the ways by which He is accomplishing them. Saul was thus carried outside himself and his father's house, and the strayed asses which he diligently sought in the land of Benjamin, and became identified with the sepulcher of Rachel, and the vastness of God's thoughts in the son born, the Ben-oni and the Benjamin, if he can only read these lessons aright, with the prophet Samuel, and the Jehovah of Israel.
The plain of Tabor, and the three men going up to God to Bethel, had been crossed by Saul, and became the living witnesses to him that there was the same unchangeable God for to-day, as had been known by their father Jacob at Bethel. Moreover, they saluted Saul, and further associated him with themselves by act and deed in the gift of the two loaves of bread, which he was to receive at their hands. We may remark here that all these steps were previous to Saul's arrival at the hill of God, where the Philistines lay in garrison; and were the requisite strongholds for faith in communion with God, by which alone a successful conflict with the enemy could be maintained.
These principles are the same for Christian conflict with “the wicked spirits in the heavenly places,” however different the objects of our faith and communion may be, and assuredly are, in the Father and the Son, by the Holy Ghost, It is a wonderful word to us in Eph. 6, “finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.” And again, as to the panoply for the Christian champion, “put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.” The will of our God is entirely different too, “for we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in the heavenlies.” Still, whatever the range of the enemy's power, whether larger or smaller, or whatever the varying character of the conflict before Christ came, or since His exaltation into the heavens at the right hand of God, the enemy is the same, and the watch-word of the entire army of the faithful is “our sufficiency is of God.” “The Spirit of the Lord shall come upon thee” was the word of Samuel to Saul, and “go in this thy might,” whether to him or to Gideon, was only to prove that God would make a way for Himself through the thickest or the mightiest of His foes, and for the faith that followed Him.
Besides the sepulcher of Rachel and the plain of Tabor and the hill of God with the garrison of the Philistines, a company of prophets coming down from the high place were to meet Saul, having a psaltery, and a harp, and a tabret, and a pipe before them; and they were to prophesy. With these also Saul was to be identified; for Samuel had said “the Spirit of the Lord shall come upon thee, and thou shalt prophesy with them, and shalt be turned into another man.” It is at this point, and not till then, that Samuel could say, “let it be, when all these signs are come unto thee, that thou do as occasion serveth thee, for God is with thee.” We may note here that the principles of God since the fall of man are the same, however different in their application, or varied in their character. In the world that now is God called out Abram, the head of the family of faith, to walk with Him, and Bethel was the place of the altar where the Almighty God appeared to him; just as the mount was the meeting place between the Lord and Moses, or Gilgal in the days of Joshua, and mount Zion in the time of David.
In the instance of Saul (the first king between Jehovah and His people), it is important to see that three great ends were reached in reference to himself personally: he was turned into another man, the Spirit of the Lord came upon him, and God was with him. All that God could then do, short of effectual calling perhaps, had been done for Saul and a marvelous catalog it is! He had been instructed in “the matter of the kingdom,” and anointed as the king of Israel, led about and taught the sources of strength for a man of faith in “the living God;” had a view of the enemy's garrison where it ought not to be, and by the Spirit of prophecy guided, with others that prophesied, to look into the bright future of Jehovah's ways, with the Israel whom He loved. It is not till grace and goodness have done their utmost that responsibility begins, whether as to the kingdom or this king. “What more could have been done for my vineyard than I have done? wherefore, when I looked for grapes, brought it forth wild grapes?” Grace in fact creates our responsibilities, whether then or now, and supplies what is needful for their fulfillment, so that there need be no discouragement as these increase, provided the flesh in us is kept under the death which has passed upon it judicially by God at the cross of Christ. The Spirit of the Lord upon Saul, or in a David—Jesus Himself with the disciples—men full of the Holy Ghost at Pentecost, or a man in Christ now, show plainly enough the manner and the measure of the grace of God through Christ, and the increasing responsibilities, as knowing “that our body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which we have of God;” so that “ye are the epistle of Christ, known and read of all men.” But Saul's responsibility, and how he acquitted himself, is our present subject of study, and instruction. God had done what His prophet had spoken, “and it was so, when he had turned his back to go from Samuel that God gave him another heart: and all those signs came to pass that day.” Saul, who had been thus identified with the interests of Jehovah and His people, and the company of prophets, was to be further associated with Samuel who was the link between God and the nation of Israel; if he could walk with Him in this character.
Samuel said to him, “thou shalt go down before me to Gilgal; and behold, I will come down unto thee to offer burnt offerings, and to sacrifice peace offerings; seven days shalt thou tarry till I come to thee and show thee what thou shalt do.” The place of Samuel before God, as well as his relation to the people was to be respected, nor is another to intermeddle therewith, though this other be the king of Israel. The Lord had early called Samuel to Himself, and had used him as the reprover of Eli the high priest, in the days when the ark was taken captive by the Philistines and the glory was departed. At Mizpeh he had gathered all Israel together, and Samuel prayed for them to the Lord. And as he was offering up the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to battle against Israel, but the Lord thundered with a great thunder on that day upon them, and discomfited them, and they were smitten. So when Saul and his servant were directed by the young maidens of the city to the high place that they might find Samuel, and ask the seer about the lost asses, they were told “the people will not eat until he come, because he doth bless the sacrifice: and afterward they eat that be bidden.” What pertained to Samuel was made plain and clear to Saul; and the less had been anointed and blessed by the greater. He was to tarry seven days at Gilgal, till “Samuel came to sacrifice to the Lord.”
“And some of the Hebrews went over Jordan to the land of Gad and Gilead. As for Saul he was yet in Gilgal, and all the people followed him trembling.” “And he tarried seven days.... but Samuel came not, and the people were scattered from him.” Here is the moment of trial for Saul: can he own the real link between Jehovah and Israel to be in Samuel; and leave all his new anxieties and cares there—or will he step out of his own place by intruding into Samuel's, and incur the displeasure of God? How easily is the line of individual responsibility traversed! “Wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them? and Jesus said, ye know not what spirit ye are of.” “And Saul said, Bring hither a burnt offering to me, and peace offerings: and he offered the burnt offering. And it came to pass that as soon as he had made an end, behold, Samuel came and said, What hast thou done?” Saul attempts to give a good reason for doing a bad thing; and this in truth is what disobedience always demands where the thing in question is not confessed as a sin. He excuses himself upon the ground which fallen nature must take (the seeing of the eye), and regards only the people, his misgivings respecting Samuel, and his fears concerning the Philistines: and these are the three things which carry him away from God. “Therefore said I, The Philistines will come down upon me to Gilgal;” and this is the conclusion of the natural heart when guided by its own fears. Another thing comes to light, which accompanies such a condition of soul, “I have not intreated the face of the Lord: I forced myself therefore, and offered a burnt offering.” What is this lesson to us, but a proof that the active restlessness of human nature, whether by the reasonings of the mind or the hopes and unbelief of the heart, unsettle faith, and prevent Saul from waiting upon the God of Israel, as the newly appointed king, in the hour of danger; or waiting for Samuel to offer the sacrifices appointed between Jehovah and his people? Then “Samuel said to Saul, Thou hast done foolishly: thou hast not kept the commandment of the Lord thy God, for now would the Lord have established thy kingdom upon Israel forever.”
How often the hour for the establishment of the proffered blessing is lost through inadvertence, and becomes the moment of forfeiture and defeat, and of Satan's power! At this very point it is, when the kingdom and the king were about to be confirmed by burnt offerings and peace offerings forever, that Saul breaks down and like the first man Adam, who gave place to the last Adam, so the first king must be set aside to make room for the Second or true David. Sorrowful words follow from the lips of Samuel, who (instead of being in the place of offering, and blessing the sacrifices, and the people, and their king) becomes the prophet of woe to Saul: “but now thy kingdom shall not continue: the Lord hath sought him a man after his own heart, and the Lord hath commanded him to be captain over his people, because thou hast not kept that which the Lord commanded thee.”
(To be continued)
Saul's Declension: Part 2
(Concluded from page 237.)
We have thus an example in Saul of a man who though little in his own sight at the onset, allowed his nature to turn everything round, which should have glorified God to his heart and conscience (and faith too, if he had it), for his own advantage and self-importance. The illustrious spots in this world's history, along which the Lord had led him, from Bethel to Gilgal, and the transformation which, by the power and grace of God, had already passed upon him, to the astonishment of the people, so that they said “what is this that has come to the son of Kish?” should have made him truly great by keeping him “less than the least” in his own eyes. But it was otherwise; and Saul, ceasing to be this, does what is right in his own eyes, and is again as one of the common people. Nor let us fail to remember the way in which he accounts for his degradation to Samuel: I had “not made supplication unto the Lord; and I forced myself therefore, and offered a burnt offering.”
In one of our church epistles, it is very instructive to notice that “pray without ceasing” is set in order, and jeweled by “rejoice evermore” on one side, and by “in everything give thanks” on the other; and it is added “for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus, concerning you.” The thing which is effectually excluded from this enclosure is that very flesh to which Saul fell a prey (“I forced myself”), when in the moment of real exaltation by grace his heart was lifted up within him. Our rejoicings as well as our thanksgivings should never part company with the word of admonition “pray without ceasing” lest the flesh should connect itself with our mercies, and escape in this way from under the consciousness of its worthlessness in any real service for God. Indeed the judgment of our flesh is of the greatest consequence in a walk with God; as we may plainly learn in the early lesson of Jacob and the angel and their wrestling at Peniel, when the sinew shrank and the name of the patriarch was changed into Israel; or yet more distinctly at the cross, where, instead of wrestling, God condemned sin in the flesh “that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.” The journeyings of Saul had this character, as well as that he might have confidence in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as the God of Israel; but the flesh escaped and rendered Saul personally unfit for his anointing; he became of consequence in his own esteem, by the distinguishing bestowments conferred upon him “by grace,” which should have witnessed to him only of the goodness and greatness of the Giver.
If however the faithfulness of God in the ancient chronicles gives us the record of a faulty man as a warning of the way in which human nature may clothe itself with all that the Lord bestows and turn it round for self-exaltation instead of for His own glory, He will not leave Himself without witness, nor us without an example of the right sort. The closing days of Elijah's life may supply this to us; for, as Samuel gave faith's directory to Saul, so the prophet Elijah takes his successor Elisha with him on that remarkable journey which terminated in his being taken up into heaven; and a double portion of His Spirit descending upon Elisha as the witness for God on earth. Their starting point was Gilgal, and from thence to Bethel, where the sons of the prophets met them. And Elijah said unto Elisha, “Tarry, I pray thee, here, for the Lord hath sent me to Jericho. And he said, As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. So they came to Jericho.” From thence the prophet went on to Jordan, and so would Elisha, perfecting himself for his future place in Israel and work for God by thus acquainting himself with the spots on earth which were of greatest moment between the departing one and the God of Israel, ere the whirlwind which waited to carry him up into heaven did its work. So identified were these two in every way, that the link on which the blessing of Elisha depended was this, “if thou see me when I am taken from thee, it shall be so unto thee; but if not, it shall not be so.” Places of strength and witnesses of divine power on earth had been visited; and now the sources of sovereign grace in the heavens were to be the rule of faith's observance; and true in its own simplicity and singleness of eye Elisha cried “my father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof. And he saw him no more.” Moreover, he took hold of his own clothes and rent them in two pieces; and he took up also the mantle of Elijah, that fell from him, and went back and stood by the banks of Jordan, and smote the waters and said, Where is the Lord God of Elijah? The waters parted hither and thither, and Jordan gave forth the man upon whom “the double portion” of his master's spirit rested, for the work which lay before him. He “entreated the Lord” and wrought marvelously, “forcing himself” into obscurity and nothingness.
A greater than any of these has since come into this world, and lighted up a new pathway for faith and the communion of our souls. A sword pierced through the mother's heart at His birth, as Simeon told out the mysterious history of the Jehovah's Christ to those around, and to Mary. Ben-oni and Benjamin were familiar names to her, as regarded her son and her Lord, when she stood at His cross weeping, or was the glad witness of His resurrection to the right hand of the Father. The life of Christ during those three and thirty years on earth, and what they unfolded to the anointed eye, are to us what the Bethel, and the plain of Tabor, and the hill of God should have been to Saul; or what Gilgal, Jericho, and Jordan really were to Elijah at his departure, and to Elisha who was left to glorify God in the midst of His people below. Elisha “saw Elijah no more,” but our departed One is the coming Lord; and, instead of an Elisha, we have the Holy Ghost, come down from the Father and the glorified Son of man, to abide with us as the Paraclete while Christ is absent.
There is another stage in Saul's declension and departure from God, which may yet be examined for our profit, on whom “the ends of the ages are come.” Samuel also said unto him “the Lord sent me to anoint thee to be king over Israel; now therefore hearken thou unto the voice of the words of the Lord.” At the beginning of Saul's action in this commission to smite Amalek and utterly destroy all they had and spare them not, he promised fair, and gets a thought from the heart of God, who in judgment remembers mercy, though the Amalekites were to be utterly consumed. The Lord of hosts said, “I remember what Amalek did to Israel, how he laid wait for him in the way when he came up from Egypt.” And Saul came to a city of Amalek, and laid wait in the valley. If God would utterly destroy “the Hers in wait,” surely He would remember the Kenites who showed them kindness; so “Saul said unto the Kenites, Go get you down from among the Amalekites, lest I destroy you with them; for ye sheaved kindness to all the children of Israel, when they came up out of Egypt.” Of old, when Sodom was to be consumed by fire and brimstone, Abraham made intercession with God upon the footing on which Saul was now acting, “this be far from thee to slay the righteous with the wicked, and that the righteous should be as the wicked: shall not the judge of all the earth do right?” This was not the hour of Saul's temptation, though it was close at hand; he “smote the Amalekites from Havilah, till thou comest unto Shur.” But Saul and the people spared Agag the king, and the best of the sheep and oxen, and all that was good; “but everything that was vile and refuse, that they destroyed utterly.”
Here it is the first king falls a second time: first, intruding into Samuel's place by offering the burnt sacrifice; and now, in not maintaining his own place as “captain of the Lord's inheritance” in obeying the commandment of God. Again, he allows his nature to guide him, and is betrayed by the seeing of the eye, and the hearing of the ear, and by the reasoning of his mind; till at last self governs his actions, and he becomes separated from the thoughts of God, and thus loses the link of connection between the Lord and what Amalek did to Israel when they came up out of Egypt. How easily we may use whatever God may have given us outwardly, or in the Church, in a natural way, and so make another pedestal for self (like the Corinthians) and lose sight of the glory of God!
The Lord repented that he had set up Saul to be king, and Samuel was grieved, and cried unto the Lord all night; but not Saul, for he had gone his way. Again, Saul has himself and his doings to excuse or to defend, so that Samuel confronts him by asking, “Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.” The spring of this disobedience is thus traced to ignorance of God, and in what He delights; or in self-will, which is rebellion. And Samuel said, “Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, he hath also rejected thee from being king.”
“And Saul said unto Samuel, I have sinned;” but neither his confession, nor the exercise of his conscience and heart under sin, is in the presence of God and His holiness. On the contrary he betrays the fact, that his own great desire is to stand fair in the eyes of the people, and would even make Samuel subservient to this end, just as he had used the advantages of place and position which God had given him as king, for the like purpose.
He excused himself to Samuel for his disobedience of God, “but he feared the people, and listened to their voice;” as did Pilate when he delivered Jesus to their will to be crucified. But Saul cannot rise higher than himself, and would make use of Samuel to recover the reputation which he had lost. “Now therefore pardon my sin, I pray thee, and turn again with me that I may worship the Lord. And Samuel said, I will not return with thee, and as Samuel turned about to go away Saul laid hold of the skirt of his mantle and it rent; and Samuel said, The Lord hath rent the kingdom of Israel from thee, and given it to a neighbor of thine that is better than thou.” All that God gave him is forfeited and the kingdom gone, and Saul pursues his downward course rapidly to the witch of Endor, and fatally to Mount Gilboa, where he perishes under the Philistine army.
A few words upon the sin of Saul in destroying the vile and refuse, and sparing the good, may be of service. How could anything be good which was bound up with Amalek? And yet, if this principle be applied to the flesh and the world, which Saul failed to carry out according to the mind of God upon Agag and the land of the Amalekites, how common does Saul's sin appear in this day! Where is the unsparing judgment as to the flesh which accepts the declaration, “so then they that are in the flesh cannot please God,” and where the deep knowledge of oneself that returns the answer, “I know that in me, that is in my flesh, dwells no good thing?” Where is the unsparing hand that, like Samuel, hews Agag in pieces, come he ever so delicately, that takes part with God in the judgment of sin in the flesh, and accepts the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raiseth the dead?
As to the world (like everything in the land of the Amalekites) how few of us have really learned the lesson “love not the world, nor the things that are in the world; if any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him!” Will any cast a stone at Saul for sparing the good and the best for sacrifice unto God, and destroying the refuse and the vile? What is the religion of to-day, but Saul's? “For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life (and these were the things that guided Saul and were his overthrow) is not of the Father, but of the world.”
“And Samuel came to Saul, and Saul said unto him, Blessed be thou of the Lord: I have performed the commandment of the Lord.” Solemn words for today; and equally so was Samuel's reproof: “what meaneth then this bleating of the sheep in mine ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I bear?”
“And Saul said, The people spared the best of the sheep and oxen, to sacrifice unto the Lord thy God, and the rest we have utterly destroyed.”
May the Lord give the needed grace to apply all these principles to ourselves, in close self-judgment in His own presence; that so His holiness, and the cross of Christ, may not only be the rule of our faith, but of a more severe line between the Amalekites and the children of God now, and between Agag and the Spirit!
“But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.” And again, “God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world is crucified to me, and I unto the world.” For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.
J. E. B.
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