And Saul saw and knew that the LORD was with David, and that Michal Saul's daughter loved him.

And Saul was yet the more afraid of David; and Saul became David's enemy continually.

Then the princes of the Philistines went forth and it came to pass, after they went forth, that David behaved himself more wisely than all the servants of Saul; so that his name was much set by.

COMMENT. The sense that God's favour was gone from him and was with David haunted the mind of Saul, but he durst not openly quarrel with the deliverer of all Israel; so, to remove him from his presence, he made him, instead of his chief armour-bearer, captain over a thousand men; but this great promotion, coming even while he was so young, did not puff him up; he behaved himself wisely, so that no offence could be found.

Now the slayer of Goliath had a right by Saul's own promise to marry his daughter, but the King's dislike to David made him unwilling to fulfil his engagement, and he laid on him the fresh condition that he should do further execution among the Philistines, hoping that thus he would meet his death; and though David fully did his duty as a warrior, the elder daughter was bestowed elsewhere.

Her sister Michal, however, personally loved the brave, beautiful young warrior-minstrel, her brother's friend, and Saul saw that the feeling of his family and the people at large would not permit a second breach of his promise. Saul evidently had some secret flatterers, enemies of David-probably Doeg the Edomite, and Cush the Benjamite, who is named in headings to the Psalms-and them he sent to whisper secretly to David that his poverty would be no objection to the marriage, provided he would slay a hundred Philistines. Two hundred were accordingly killed by the undaunted champion, who thus won his wife by brave deeds of arms, and forced from the King the reward of his victories. In vain the Philistine princes went forth to battle to avenge the slaughter David had committed; still the Lord was with him : he behaved himself wisely, and always was the victor; and if Saul hated him, he had the love of the people, the warm friendship of Jonathan, and the fervent love of Michal. Nor had he yet found out that Michal's was only love for his outward gifts of beauty and of bravery, not for those deeper and nobler gifts

that truly raised him above other men. Had Michal, to whom David's early love had been given, been more like her brother Jonathan than her father Saul, David's history and that of all his line might have been very different. The woman whom a great man loves has much to answer for.

LESSON LXIX.

DAVID'S FLIGHT.

B.C. 1062.-I SAM. xix. 1-17.

And Saul spake to Jonathan his son, and to all his servants, that they should kill David.

But Jonathan Saul's son delighted much in David: and Jonathan told David, saying, Saul my father seeketh to kill thee: now therefore, I pray thee, take heed to thyself until the morning, and abide in a secret place, and hide thyself:

And I will go out and stand beside my father in the field where thou art, and I will commune with my father of thee; and what I see, that I will tell thee.

And Jonathan spake good of David unto Saul his father, and said unto him, Let not the king sin against his servant, against David; because he hath not sinned against thee, and because his works have been to theeward very good :

For he did put his life in his hand, and slew the Philistine, and the LORD wrought a great salvation for all Israel: thou sawest it, and didst rejoice : wherefore then wilt thou sin against innocent blood, to slay David without a cause?

And Saul hearkened unto the voice of Jonathan: and Saul sware, As the LORD liveth, he shall not be slain.

And Jonathan called David, and Jonathan shewed him all those things. And Jonathan brought David to Saul, and he was in his presence, as in times past.

And there was war again: and David went out, and fought with the Philistines, and slew them with a great slaughter; and they fled from him.

And the evil spirit from the LORD was upon Saul, as he sat in his house with his javelin in his hand: and David played with his hand.

And Saul sought to smite David even to the wall with the javelin; but he slipped away out of Saul's presence, and he smote the javelin into the wall and David fled, and escaped that night.

Saul also sent messengers unto David's house, to watch him, and to slay him in the morning and Michal David's wife told him, saying, If thou save not thy life to-night, to-morrow, thou shalt be slain.

VOL. II.

So Michal let David down through a window: and he went, and fled,

and escaped.

And Michal took an image, and laid it in the bed, and put a pillow of goats' hair for his bolster, and covered it with a cloth.

And when Saul sent messengers to take David, she said, He is sick.

And Saul sent the messengers again to David, saying, Bring him up to me in the bed, that I may slay him.

And when the messengers were come in, behold, there was an image in the bed, with a pillow of goats' hair for his bolster.

And Saul said unto Michal, Why hast thou deceived me so, and sent away mine enemy, that he is escaped? And Michal answered Saul, He said unto me, Let me go; why should I kill thee?

COMMENT.-The frantic jealousy of Saul increased on him, and he spoke to Jonathan, as well as to his evil counsellors, of having David slain. He was, however, still so far accessible to reason, that when Jonathan calmly argued that David was not only innocent but had put his life in his hand—namely, had run into great danger that he might kill the Philistine-Saul listened, and took an oath that he should not be slain, and Jonathan brought him back once more to his post of honour about the King's person. But every success of David against the Philistines filled Saul with greater jealousy of him who had slain his ten thousands; and so when David returned from his next campaign the evil spirit again seized on Saul, and once more while David was singing he threw his javelin sceptre so fiercely that it stood quivering in the wall, while David slipped out of his presence.

And even when the frenzy fit had passed, Saul's deadly purpose remained, and he sent messengers to slay David at the house where he had retired, thinking, as before, that the javelin had only been aimed at him while the King was in his frantic state. They were to watch before the door, and kill him as he came out; but their purpose was made vain by the affection of his wife, Michal, who let him down by a cord through a window, and then, to give him time to make his escape, placed an image on his couch, laid a plaited coverlet of goat's hair beneath, to look like a man's hair, and threw his cloak over it, so that he might be supposed to be lying sick there. Her father sent to seize him in his bed, and then it was that her artifice was discovered, and she excused herself by pretending that he had forced her to aid his escape by threatening her life. The word used for image is "teraphim," and thus it seems that Michal had secretly

kept up some superstitious worship of these idols, as Rachel had done, and as it would seem only too many of the Israelite women did. After this parting, when she had saved him, she seems to have been taken back to her father's house, and to have seen the husband of her youth no more; and the heart that had not been whole towards God was not faithful enough to her husband to hold out against her father's rage.

LESSON LXX.

THE SCHOOL OF PROPHETS.

B.C. 1060.-I SAM. xix. 18-24; xx. I-10.

So David fled, and escaped, and came to Samuel to Ramah, and told him all that Saul had done to him. And he and Samuel went and dwelt in Naioth.*

And it was told Saul, saying, Behold, David is at Naioth in Ramah.

And Saul sent messengers to take David: and when they saw the company of the prophets prophesying, and Samuel standing as appointed over them, the Spirit of God was upon the messengers of Saul, and they also prophesied.

And when it was told Saul, he sent other messengers, and they prophesied likewise. And Saul sent messengers again the third time, and they prophesied also.

Then went he also to Ramah, and came to a great well that is in Sechu : and he asked and said, Where are Samuel and David? And one said, Behold, they be at Naioth in Ramah.

And he went thither to Naioth in Ramah: and the Spirit of God was upon him also, and he went on, and prophesied, until he came to Naioth in Ramah.

And he stripped off his clothes ‡ also, and prophesied before Samuel in like manner, and lay down naked § all that day and all that night. Wherefore they say, Is Saul also among the prophets?

And David fled from Naioth in Ramah, and came and said before Jonathan, What have I done? what is mine iniquity? and what is my sin before thy father, that he seeketh my life?

And he said unto him, God forbid; thou shalt not die: behold, my father will do nothing either great or small, but that he will shew it me: and why should my father hide this thing from me? it is not so.

And David sware moreover, and said, Thy father certainly knoweth that I have found grace in thine eyes; and he saith, Let not Jonathan know this, lest he be grieved: but truly as the LORD liveth, and as thy sou liveth, there is but a step between me and death.

*The dwellings or cottages.
↑ Royal robe.

+ Singing hymns.
Without his upper garment.

Then said Jonathan unto David, Whatsoever thy soul desireth, I will even do it for thee.

And David said unto Jonathan, Behold, to-morrow is the new moon, and I should not fail to sit with the king at meat: but let me go, that I may hide myself in the field unto the third day at even.

If thy father at all miss me, then say, David earnestly asked leave of me that he might run to Beth-lehem his city: for there is a yearly sacrifice there for all the family.

If he say thus, It is well; thy servant shall have peace: but if he be very wroth, then be sure that evil is determined by him.

Therefore thou shalt deal kindly with thy servant; for thou hast brought thy servant into a covenant of the LORD with thee: notwithstanding, if there be in me iniquity, slay me thyself; for why shouldest thou bring me to thy father?

And Jonathan said, Far be it from thee: for if I knew certainly that evil were determined by my father to come upon thee, then would not I tell it thee?

Then said David to Jonathan, Who shall tell me? or what if thy father answer thee roughly?

COMMENT. When David escaped out of his own house at Gibeah, by the contrivance of his wife, he fled to the aged prophet who had anointed him, and found a fit and suitable dwelling among the young men whom Samuel was training in the schools or colleges of the prophets-namely, the sacred preachers and minstrels. at Ramah. Here David laid aside the soldier and became the psalmist. One at least of the Psalms, called sometimes the fugitive psalms, seems to have been his entreaty at this period, namely, the 7th, the title of which declares that it was called forth by the words of Cush the Benjamite. It begins

O LORD my God, in thee do I put my trust:

Save me from all them that persecute me, and deliver me:
Lest he tear my soul like a lion,

Rending it in pieces, while there is none to deliver.

O LORD my God, if I have done this;

If there be iniquity in my hands;

If I have rewarded evil unto him that was at peace with me;
(Yea, I have delivered him that without cause is mine enemy :)
Let the enemy persecute my soul, and take it;

Yea, let him tread down my life upon the earth,

And lay mine honour in the dust.

But Saul viewed David as a rival raised up against him by Samuel, and was especially angered to hear of him as in the Naioth, or dwellings of the prophets, so he sent messengers to seize him there; but when they beheld the beautiful scene of all the youths