14 THE SEED OF THE PROPHET. [SERM. is to be the beginner of a race, though not of one which is to be propagated like that of the kings. It was a race which would include like the other a number of evil and degenerate children, who would turn their gifts to worse uses, who would more directly blaspheme the source of their gifts, than the civil rulers were able to do. There is no charm in any ordinance whatever, in the succession of son to father, or of pupil to teacher, to prevent such results as these. If there were, we should fall down and worship institutions and arrangements, instead of worshipping God. He pours contempt upon the best devices,— upon those which bear most the stamp of His own wisdom, when they exalt themselves against Him. The wise father has not to shed more bitter tears over the foolish son, than the godly self-sacrificing teacher has over the disciple who turns his truest words into falsehoods, his most faithful acts into excuses for sin. But under the guidance of a living God, the seed of the prophets became the blessed counteracter of the evil, the interpreter of the good which was to come from the seed of the kings. As the first of them trampled upon the hereditary charm of the priesthood that he might assert the glory of Him who had appointed the priests, so his successors were to break through the hereditary charm and tradition of royalty, that they might declare that covenant which was the foundation of royalty;-the Giver of the covenant from whom royalty derived its primary sanction, His continual claim upon the obedience of His subjects. This work was never to become extinct, till it had obtained its perfect fulfilment ;-no, not to become extinct then, for the revelation of a perfect Prophet, a perfect Priest, a perfect King, would be but the commencement of a new and 1.] THE LESSON FOR ALL TIMES. 15 universal society, grounded upon the fact of His appearance, as all previous society had been upon the belief of His reality and the hope of His manifestation. How prophets and kings accomplished their respective missions, how each explained the mission of the other, how much was learned by their errors and imperfections because there was a higher ruler and teacher than either, -I may, if God permit, consider in future sermons. We may find that the great ultimate objects which the divine ministers were to keep in sight do not in the least prevent them from suggesting to us innumerable hints, and discovering the deepest principles, for our guidance in the commonest transactions of our lives. The more earnestly we desire to understand God's ways to us, and how we may walk in His ways, the more light will these records afford us. One glimpse of such light, I think, you may have obtained from the subject which has occupied us this afternoon. You may have seen how possible it is in our dealings with our fellow-creatures to fight too obstinately with their wilfulness, because we do not thoroughly appreciate the evil of it. We fancy that we can resist it by strengthening certain mud banks which had a real worth when they were formed, but which were intended for a purpose that has been fulfilled. If we saw how mighty the flood was, what it was likely to sweep away, we should feel that we needed some diviner and more permanent defence. That we may bring forth deep and eternal principles into fuller manifestation, we should not scruple to concede that for which we have a strong personal affection; we should acknowledge that the sins of rulers must lead to changes we cannot contemplate without fear; 16 SELF WILL AND GOD'S WILL. [SERM. I. we should even adopt names and titles of which we have a reasonable dread. Our best maxims, our dearest heirlooms are worthless and dead if they do not bear witness of the Living God. He may sanctify and consecrate that which seems most opposed to them. This lesson I think is one of frequent and various application in our individual and national experience. There is another still more precious, that we should never despair when a people appears to be most bent on mischief, not even when all powers, civil and spiritual, are conspiring with it. Samuel had, more than once or twice in his life, an excuse for thinking that all these influences were leading to the ruin of his land. Yet deliverance came through the very acts which these evils made necessary. And this was one of a series of instances in which selfwill was found to serve the purposes of a high and gracious Will. The last of that series explained the meaning of all that went before. "Of a truth," said the little band of disciples who were gathered in the upper room of Jerusalem-"Of a truth, against thy holy child Jesus,-whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together, for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done." Oh, that while we lay to heart this consolation we may also join in the prayer which followed it: "And now, Lord, behold their threatenings: and grant unto thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak thy word, by stretching forth thine hand to heal; and that signs and wonders may be done by the name of thy holy child Jesus." SERMON II. THE LIFE OF SAUL. (Lincoln's Inn, 23rd Sunday after Trinity.-Nov. 23, 1851.) 1 SAMUEL Xix. 24. Wherefore they say, "Is Saul among the Prophets?" THIS question, which became proverbial, is referred in the Book of Samuel to two different incidents in the life of Saul. He is said to have met a troop of prophets before he was chosen king, when he was known only as the son of Kish the Benjamite, and to have been suddenly seized with their spirit. He is said in the latter and degenerate period of his reign, when he was persecuting David, to have gone down to Ramah in search of his son-in-law," and the Spirit of God was upon him also, and he went on, and prophesied until he came to Naioth in Ramah." It is the fashion of our times to suppose that these must be two versions of the same fact preserved by different chroniclers, and brought together by some careless compiler. I venture to think that that solution of the difficulty is not a necessary one, not even the most probable one. I believe that there occur in most of our lives events, often separated by many years, which look C 18 HOW EVENTS REPEAT THEMSELVES. [SERM. as if one was the repetition of the other. I fancy that those who reflect, may discover in such recurring incidents very striking, often very sad, memorials of what they have been and of what they are; very awful witnesses of their own identity, amidst all the changes that have befallen them, and the more terrible changes that have taken place within them. As it sometimes' assists a man's meditations to walk amongst the same trees under the shade of which he walked, or to watch the sea from the same point from which he watched it, twenty or thirty years before; so these startling revivals of past experiences, these relapses into states of feeling that have been unknown for a long season, must be more powerful revelations to him respecting the unity of the past and present in his inward history. And if so, a faithful biographer will be careful to record such pairs of events. He will find them especially useful in making the life of his hero intelligible. They will give his reader, though he may not know why, a sense that he is meeting with an actual man, not merely with a man in a book. We shall understand better how this observation applies to Saul's history, if we trace it as it is delivered in the Bible. There is a way of presenting what is called the rationale of the Bible narratives, stripping them of their mystical and theological adjuncts, which I do not profess to follow. If I did, I should have to tell you that Saul was chosen by the people of Israel, because he was the tallest and strongest man among them; that while the novelty of royalty lasted, he retained his popularity; that he lost it partly through the influence of the prophet Samuel, who feared that he was breaking loose from his influence and taking a course of his own, and who therefore re |