Jasper County Democrat, Volume 18, Number 7, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 May 1915 — THE FAITH OF ONE PERSECUTED [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

THE FAITH OF ONE PERSECUTED

1 Samuel 19.— Man t. Saul’s Jealousy of David—Attempts to Injure Him—Frequent Deliverances Superhuman—Satan, Our Great Enemy, Seeks Our Injury—Devotion to God and Righteousness Secures Us Deliverance —Why Such Experiences Are Permitted of God. ,r Whoso putteth his trust in the Lord shall be I v safe.’’—Proverbs 29:25. '■ ARS with the Philistines confl fl I tinning, David was made a regular soldier, with command over a regiment and closely in touch with King Saul. Victory came wherever David was engaged, and King Saul saw the people’s admiration turned from himself to David. The sentiment reached a climax when, on the return from a victory, the women came forth singing, “Saul hath slain his thousands, But David his tens of thousands!” Jealousy took full possession of the king, and thenceforth his one purpose seems to have been to destroy David. It was a secret withheld from him that David was already anointed to be his successor. He merely knew that Samuel the Prophet had told him that in consequence of his failure to carry out

the Divine instructions regarding the Amalekites, the kingdom would be taken from him and his family and given to another. Jealousy is the bitter fruit of selfishness. It unbalances reason, extinguishes happiness, and subjects its possessor to horrible melancholy. It is.

the most terrible, and the most foolish, manifestation of selfishness. Everyone recognizing it in himself should seek victory through vigilance and prayer.

J* Saul’s Jealousy Was Crafty. When under control of jealousy, King Saul is described as having an evil spirit from the Lord—more properly, an evil spirit opposite from the Lord’s Spirit of kindness, justice, love. Sometimes David could soothe him by skilful playing on a harp; yet he knew the king’s treacherous mood, and on two occasions Saul from throwing at hfm a Javelin.

Intent upon drawing him into a quarrel, the king promised David his elder daughter to~wife, and then gave her to another. David, however, discreetly commented that he was neither of a sufficiently noble family nor financially able to expect such honors. Another trap was to betroth to him the king’s younger daughter, Michal. David again told of his unworthlness and his lack of wealth, whereupon Saul stipulated that her dowry should be the evidence of the killing of a hundred Philistines. No doubt he hoped that David would lose his life; but instead. David killed twice the number and received Saul’s daughter. Finally the king told Jonathan and his courtiers that David must die. Jonathan’s sentiment was as loving and brotherly as his father’s was cruel, jealous, selfish. It was Jonathan who would lose by David’s 1 attainment of the throne. Hence the love of Jonathan has become a proverb.

Jonathan interceded with his father for David. The plea was successful. David again became a member of the royal household, but only for a time. The king was not without noble sentiments, but they were not deep enough to control his life. He was under control of a selfish spirit, which is opposite from the Spirit of God. Ere long, in a jealous fit the king threw his javelin with deadly aim; but David quickly dodged it David went to his room; but a guard had been stationed there. Instructed that upon coming forth he was to be killed. His wife assisted him to escape by letting him down out of a window. Two Hundred Lives For a Wife. Let us now inquire how David’s course in killing two hundred human beings for a wife squares with the principles of justice, which the Bible everywhere maintains. First, we must

have in mind the difference between being a Jew under the Law Covenant and being a Christian under the headship of Christ. Second, we must remember that the Bible teaches that the penalty of sin is death—not torment after death; that this penalty

■was justly inflicted upon Father Adam because of his wilful sin; and that his family die because the seeds of death are in us from our birth. From this viewpoint, ours is a world of convicts under death-sentence. This accounts for God's permitting various death-dealing circumstances to control —famine, pestilences, cyclones, etc. When we come to see that the’ same God who Justly condemned all through one man’s disobedience has made provision for the justification of all through Christ’s obedience unto death, we see things in a new light. David must be judged by the Law under which his nation was placed at Mount Sinai. The Israelites were in-

formed that the Canaanites had allowed their cup of iniquity to come to the full, and that Israel was given that entire land. David, therefore, was carrying out the Divine instruction.

Saul Throwing Javelin.

David Escaping Saul.