The Philistines had for a long time oppressed the land, so that men who were their neighbours hid themselves in caves, thickets, and rocks.  They were not armed, for the Philistines had forbidden the working of iron, lest their slaves should have anything wherewith they might defend themselves.  Having defeated the Ammonites, Saul went up to Gilgal, and a great crowd came after him trembling.  He waited there seven days for Samuel, and meanwhile the people began to slip away from him.  What was he to do?  He could wait no longer, and he commanded the burnt-offering to be brought to him.  Just as he had made an end of the sacrifice, Samuel appeared, and Saul went out to meet him and take his blessing.  But Samuel turned upon him and doomed him, because he had meddled with the priest’s office.  He was to be cast out from his kingship, and another was chosen in his place.  That was the root of all my lord’s trouble, as we shall afterwards see—­the seed of the madness which made his life worse than death.  What had he done?  Nothing, but set fire to that miserable beast.  Had he slain a man, or robbed the widow or the fatherless, or defrauded those who came to him for judgment, his punishment would have been just; but that he should be deposed because, in his extremity against the Lord’s enemies, he had taken upon him to do what Samuel neglected to do, was a strange sentence from the Lord.  Would you or I deal so with our friends? would we give them no place for repentance? would we let the penalty endure when, the heart is changed and forgiveness is sought?  The Lord’s ways are wonderful.  But it was Samuel’s doing.  If it had not been for Samuel, the Lord would have shown mercy.  Samuel was ever the priest, and had no compassion in him.  He had been chosen as a child, and he never forgot he was the Lord’s selected servant.  He hated Saul because Saul was king, and he loved to show his power over him.  Before that day in Gilgal, he had called down thunder and lightning from heaven to show that Jehovah listened to him, and to prove that Jehovah resented the request that the people should have some one to command them other than the sons of Eli.  He hated Saul because the people obeyed him and fled to him when they were in danger.  Who could help obeying him; who was there who knew him who did not love to obey?  However, he was cursed—­cursed for a ceremony of the Law; and that dancing David, the man who took Uriah’s wife and basely murdered Uriah, was said to be the man after God’s own heart.

Soon afterwards the evil spirit fell upon my lord.  Samuel had commanded him to smite the Amalekites, and to spare not men or women, infants or sucklings, oxen or sheep, camel or ass.  Saul gathered his soldiers together and lay in wait in the valley.  In his mercy, for he was ever tender-hearted, he warned the Kenites that they might escape.  He then smote the Amalekites from Havilah to Shur, but he took Agag alive, and spared some of the spoil.