Words in Season . BIBLE THOUGHTS . 1 SAM . XVI . 14-23

Words in Season . BIBLE THOUGHTS . BY THE EDITOR . 1 SAM . XVI . 14-23 . Or Saul we may say , ' Thou didst run well , who hath hindered you ? He began well , but ended ill . His first days and works were better than his last . So with Demas ; so with the church of Ephe- sus ; so with the Jews , whose following Jehovah at first was belied by their last apostasy . So is it still with souls , churches , nations , ages . I. Saul's sin . For the root of all was sin . This sin was simply disobedience to a command of God . He was bidden slay Agag and his people . A cruel command , some would say , to which the disobedi- ence was better than the obedience . But it was a divine command , whether the wisdom , or the justice , or the mercy were visible . God had his reasons for it , and that was enough . Saul's sin was not misrule , nor oppression , nor wickedness , but simply disobedience to a command which some might call arbitrary , if not harsh and stern . Such stress does God lay on obedience , simple obedience , unreasoning obedience . His will must be done ; for He is Sovereign , and He is the God only wise . Saul's sin was the preference of his own will and wisdom to God's . Let our consciences be tender as to this ; and let us beware of acting on our own reasons or ideas of fitness , or doing our own will . ' To obey is better than sacrifice . ' II . The consequences .- ( 1 ) His crown is taken from him ; he is rejected from being king . ( 2 ) Samuel leaves him ( 1 Sam . xv . 35 ) . But the two special things mentioned here are these : ( 1. ) The Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul.- I do not take up the question as to whether Saul were a true child of God ; this passage does not determine the point . He might be so ; and these words might be like Paul's : ' Whom I have de- livered unto Satan , that they may learn not to blaspheme ' ( 1 Tim . i . 20 ) ; ' deliver unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh ' ( 1 Cor . v . 5 ) . But certainly ' the Spirit which departed from Saul ' was good , not evil . It was the reversal of what is said : ' God gave him another heart , ' - a heart for governing , which He now takes away . The good Spirit is grieved , and departs . Saul's last act of disobedience has quenched Him ; he is left without heavenly guidance . ( 2. ) An evil spirit from the Lord troubles him.- He is not left alone ; for as one Spirit departs , another enters . a . He is troubled . - His soul is now the abode of darkness and fear . He becomes moody and sad ; he is vexed , perplexed , despond- ing . This is the fruit of sin ! b . He is troubled by an evil spirit . The clean spirit goes out , and the unclean spirit comes in , comes in to torment , and sadden , and vex . c . He is troubled by an evil spirit from the Lord . - God lets loose Satan upon him . The unclean spirit returns with others more wicked than himself , and his last state is worse than his first . These words are very awful : ' I will choose their delusions ; and , ' God shall send them strong delusion ! ' Thus is his chastisement double - negative and positive ; a departure of the good , and the arrival of the evil . And this infliction is Jehovah's doing . Not chance , nor disease , nor natural depression of spirits , but a visitation from God : judgment for disobedience ; judicial punishment . III . Human appliances . - Here it is music , re- ligious music , the music of the harp , the harp of David . This was soothing ; but it did not reach the seat of the disease . It is something human , something external , something that man can origi- nate and apply . It is effectual to a certain extent ; it drives away the evil spirit , and restores temporary tranquillity - thus possibly deceiving its victim . In like manner we find the human spirit afflicted in every age , sometimes more and sometimes less . And in all such cases man steps in with his human and external appliances . I do not refer to the grosser forms of dispelling gloom , drunkenness and profligacy , in which men seek to drown their sense of want , and make up for the absence of God . I refer to the refined appliances - those of art , science , music , gaiety , by which men try to minister to a mind diseased . What is Romanism and ritualism , but a repetition of Saul's minstrelsy ? The soul needs soothing . It is vexed and filled with the world ; its conscience is not at ease ; it is troubled and weary . It betakes itself to forms , - something for the eye and ear ; to chants , and vestments , and postures , and performances ; sweet sounds and fair sights ; sentimental and pictorial religion ; which is all a mere refined form of worldliness . By these the natural man is soothed , the spirit tranquillized ; the man brought to believe that a cure has been wrought , because his gloom has been alleviated by these religious spectacles , these exhibitions , which suit the unregenerate soul so well . They but drug the soul , filling it with a sort of religious delirium . IV . The results . A partial and temporary cure . It is said that the evil spirit departed , but not that the good Spirit returned . Saul's trouble was alle- viated , but not removed . The disease was still there . The results of David's harp were only superficial and negative . So is it with a soul . There are many outward applications , which act like spiritual chloroform upon the soul . They soothe , and calm , and please ; but that is all . They do not reach below the surface , nor touch the deep - seated malady within . Men try rites , sacraments , pictures , music , dresses , and the varied attractions of ecclesiastical ornament ; but all these leave the spirit unfilled , and its wounds unhealed . They cannot regenerate , or quicken , or heal , or fill with the Holy Spirit . They may keep on the self - satisfaction and self - delusion of the soul , but that is all . They bring no true peace , nor give rest to the weary . They do not fill ; they merely hide our emptiness . Our age is full of such appliances , literary and religious , all got up for the purpose of soothing the troubled spirit of man . Excitement , gaiety , balls , theatres , operas , concerts , ecclesiastical music , dresses , performances , - what are all these but man's appliances for casting out the evil spirit , and heal- ing the soul's hurt , without having recourse to God's one remedy ? These pleasant sights and sounds may take the prisoned soul and lap it in Elysium ; ' but what of that ? They do not bring it nearer to God ; they do not work repentance , or produce faith , or fix the eye on the true cross . They leave the soul still without God , and without reconciliation . The religion thus produced is hollow , and fitful , and superficial , and sentimental . It will not save nor sanctify . It may produce a sort of religious inebriation , but not that which God calls godliness ; not that which apostles pointed out as a holy life , a walk with God .

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