"And the woman had a fat calf in the house; and she hasted and killed it, and took flour and kneaded it, and did bake unleavened bread thereof." "And she brought it before Saul, and before his servants, and they did eat; then they rose up and went away that night." * All that was prophesied by the mysterious intelligence of this woman, or witch, came to pass; Saul, with his three sons, and Israel were overthrown. But Saul, though "sore wounded of the archers," fell by his own sword. Victorious even in defeat, he wrenched the glory of his death out of the hands of his enemies, and died with all the courage of a hero, and in all the majesty of a king! "One who saw him fall" (and lyingly boasted to David that he had killed him), " brought the crown that was on his head, and the bracelet that was on his arm, to his rival and successor. David did not reject the royal insignia; but he smote the parasite who brought them "till he died;" smote him for having " slain the Lord's anointed," the first anointed king of Israel! Already David thought like a king, though he felt like a man; and punished the supposed regicide who had invaded the holy sanctuary of a royal life, while he profited by the treason by which himself was raised to the throne of Israel. * I Samuel, Chapter xxviii, Verse 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25. The instant death of the vain-glorious Amalekite was followed by that outburst of sorrow and indignation-that sublime requiem over the "mighty fallen," the "swifter than eagles," the stronger than lions," the beauty of Israel," the "lovely and pleasant in their lives who in their deaths were not divided," - which must ever be considered as the highest poetry - poetry in all its intensity, gushing from the deepest sources of sensibility and of passion by which the heart of man can be stirred, affection and remorse. David loved Jonathan with a "love passing that of woman," as "Jonathan loved him as his own soul;" and he might have felt, that if "the mighty was fallen," it was he- the son and subject, - he who had been set over the men of war" by Saul, - he, "the stripling,"* whom the king had taken into his own family, it was he, David, who had struck the first blow, that laid the Lord's anointed in the dust. The elevation of David to the kingdom of Judah * I Samuel. followed close upon the death of Saul. To this high dignity the son of Jesse had been called (as he himself said) by the men of Judah ; " for your master, Saul, is dead, and the men of Judah hath anointed me king over them." But, though David had won the good will of Judah, the great conquest was yet to be achieved: for the army, and Abner, its General, had raised the surviving grandson of Saul, the unfortunate Ishbosheth, "to the throne of all Israel"(the infant son of the brave and beautiful Jonathan having been saved and carried away " by his nurses.") The civil wars, which ensued between the adverse tribes, were carried on with relentless cruelty and base treachery, such as scripture has recorded as characterizing the hostilities of the Hebrews among each other. These horrors ended in the assassination of Ishbosheth, "while he slept;" and in the elevation of David to his throne and power; "for the elders of Israel made a league with him (David), and anointed him king over all Israel." CHAPTER IX. The Hebrew Women under the Monarchy Continued Their Social Condition-Abigail - Michal - Bathsheba. SAUL, the single-minded, the brave, spirited, and impetuous Saul, the founder of the Jewish monarchy, was succeeded by one whose temperament and character differed in every thing from his own, though his origin was the same, and his election, (humanly considered,) was based on the same qualities, and governed by the same expediency. David, when introduced to Saul by his bravery, having become the idol of the people, and the instrument of the hierarchy, fled from the not unjustifiable wrath of the king; and, at the head of a little band of six hundred desperate men, led a stealthy and predatory life, " abiding in the strong holds of the wilderness, and in the Mountain of the Desart of Zeph," until, "having found grace in the eyes of Achish," king of the Philistines, he became a subsidiary to the enemy of Saul, and begged the little territory of Ziklag, from whence he made many incursions on the surrounding tribes, " which secured him the protection of Achish." But the Philistines suspected David; their princes " disallowed him;" they considered him as a spy on their movements, and " a deserter from his master, Saul:" for, when the lords of the Philistines passed on by hundreds and by thousands, and "David and his men passed in the rearward with Achish, they asked, What do these Hebrews here? Make this fellow return to his place, and let him not go down to battle with us; lest in battle he should be an adversary to us: for wherewith should he reconcile himself to his master, Saul? Should it not be with the heads of these (our) men?" His royal protector was obliged to yield to the opinion of his military chiefs; and David, returning to his territory at Ziklag, found that in his absence with the army, his home had been spoiled, and his two wives taken prisoners by a neighbouring tribe, the Amalekites.* * A natural reprisal, as David had smote their land, and left neither man, nor woman, nor alien; and took away the sheep and |