The position taken up in the version of 1 Samuel vii. viii. x. 17 seq. xii., presents the greatest possible contrast to this way of thinking.  There, the erection of the monarchy only forms a worse stage of backsliding from Jehovah.  There can be no progress beyond the Mosaic ideal; the greater the departure from it the greater the declension.  The capital sin of placing a human ruler on the throne of Jehovah makes even the period of the judges appear not quite black.  Dark as the colours are with which that period is generally painted, it held fast to the original form of the theocracy, and so appears somewhat brighter:  at last indeed, to heighten the contrast, it is represented as a splendid age.  Under the rule of Samuel, everything was as it should be.  Should we ask, how were things then? what was exactly the nature of the theocratic constitution? we receive, it is true, no satisfactory answer to the question.  We might draw conclusions with regard to the body from the head:  but what sort of an idea can we form of the position of Samuel?  As he appears in these chapters, we entirely fail to dispose of him in any of the categories applicable to the subject; he is not a judge, not a priest, not a prophet,—­if at least we use these words with their true historical meaning.  He is a second Moses?  Yes, but that does not tell us much.  So much only is clear, that the theocracy is arranged on quite a different footing from the kingdoms of this world, and that it amounts to a falling away into heathenism when the Israelites place a king at their head like other nations, and he keeps courtiers and ministers, officers and soldiers, horses and chariots.  It is accordingly a spiritual community:  the spiritual character of the regent places this beyond doubt.  Samuel admonishes the people to give up idolatry; he presides at the great day of repentance at Mizpeh, which forms an epoch in the sacred history; and Jehovah can refuse nothing to his prayers and cries (xii. 1 7).  “God forbid,” he says in taking leave of them (xii. 23), “that I should cease to pray for you and teach you the good way.”  Such is his position:  and the citizens of the theocracy have the corresponding duty of cultivating the worship of Jehovah, and not withdrawing themselves from the guidance of the representative of Deity.  They do not need to trouble themselves about means for warding off the attacks of their enemies; if they fast and pray, and give up their sins, Jehovah hurls back the foe with His thunder and lightning, and so long as they are pious He will not allow their land to be invaded.  All the expenses are then naturally superfluous by which a people usually safeguards it own existence.  That this view is unhistorical is self-evident; and that it contradicts the genuine tradition we have seen.  The ancient Israelites did not build a church first of all:  what they built first was a house to live in, and they rejoiced not a little when they got it happily roofed over