" [Footnote: 1
_Samuel_ iv., vii.] But, sooner or later, the time must come when a
soldier is absolutely necessary, both to fight foreign enemies and to
enforce obedience at home; and then some chief is set up whom the clergy
think they can control: thus Samuel anointed Saul to be captain over the
Lord's inheritance. [Footnote: 1 _Samuel_ x.] So long as the king is
submissive to authority all goes well, but any insubordination is promptly
punished; and this was the fate of Saul. On one occasion, when he was in
difficulty and Samuel happened to be away, he was so rash as to sacrifice
a burnt offering himself; his presumption offended the prophet, who
forthwith declared that his kingdom should not continue. [Footnote: 1
_Samuel_ xiii.] After this the relations between them went from bad to
worse, and it was not long before the priest began to intrigue with David,
whom he presently anointed. [Footnote: _Idem_, xvi.] The end of it was
that Saul was defeated in battle, as Samuel's ghost foretold, for not
obeying "the voice of the Lord;" and after a struggle between the houses
of Saul and David, all the elders of Israel went to Hebron, where David
made a league with them, and in return they anointed him king. [Footnote:
2 _Samuel_ v.].
Thenceforward, or from the moment when a layman assumed control of the
temporal power, the Jewish chronicles teem with the sins and the disasters
of those rulers who did not walk in the way of their fathers, or who, in
other words, were restive under ecclesiastical dictation.
Pages:
456
457
458
459
460
461
462
463
464
465
466
467
468
469
470
471
472
473
474
475
476
477
478
479
480