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among the rest, Jonathan and his two brothers. This served to dishearten the Israelites the more. They gave up all for lost.. A scene of universal dismay on their part, and of still greater slaughter by the Philistines, ensued. In the midst of the carnage the archers of the enemy pressed hard upon Saul. They marked their victim. Their aim was too successful, and he was grievously wounded by their arrows. Despairing of life, and mortified at the thought of falling by the hand of a Philistine, in the agony of despair he called upon his armor-bearer to despatch him. "Draw thy sword," he exclaimed, "and thrust me through therewith; lest these uncircumcised come and thrust me through, and abuse me." But the armor-bearer shrunk back with fear from complying with the request. He dared not be so presumptuous as to take the life of his sovereign, even when the latter commanded him to do it.

Saul felt that there was no alternative, and that he must perish by his own hand. He took the sword, as some think, of the armor-bearer, or as is more probable, his own, and falling upon it, expired. Sad close of a life marked with transgression, and ended by suicide. He lived the slave of violent and sinful passions. He died as the fool dieth.

Struck with horror at the sight, and driven to the madness of desperation, the armor-bearer followed the example of Saul, and falling likewise upon his own sword, put an end to his life.

"So Saul died, and his three sons, and his armor-bearer, and all his men"-his principal officers, and those who were immediately about his person and as we are told in another place, 1 Chron. 10:6, "all his house "-every branch of his family that followed him to the warthat same day together." He had reigned over Israel forty years.

The rout of the army of the Israelites, with the death of Saul and his sons, threw the whole surrounding country into consternation; and the inhabitants dwelling near the Jordan, on both sides of the river, fleeing in all directions, abandoned the cities belonging to them, which were immediately taken possession of by the Philistines.

The day after the battle, the conquerors came to obtain what valuable booty they could from the bodies of those who had fallen in the field; and to increase the joy of their triumph, they found the king of Israel and his three sons among the slain. In the spirit of barbarous exultation, stripping Saul of his armor, and severing his head from his body, they sent it round into all parts of their land, to have it exhibited in the temples of their idols as a trophy of their victory, and to publish the news of their success to their countrymen. It was placed at last in the temple of Dagon, and his armor in that of Ashtaroth. His body and the bodies of his sons they fastened, probably by means of iron hooks, to the wall of Beth-shan. This was a city in the tribe of Manas

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sch, afterwards known by the name of Scythopolis, seventy-five miles north of Jerusalem, and fifteen or twenty miles south of the lake of Tiberias, on the west of the Jordan.

On the east side of this river, in the half tribe of Manasseh, some fifteen or twenty miles from Beth-shan, was the city of Jabesh-Gilead, belonging to the Israelites, at the foot of the mountains of Gilead. Its inhabitants, it will be recollected, were rescued by Saul at the commencement of his reign, from Nahash the king of the Ammonites, and saved from the deep degradation which was about to be inflicted upon them by that cruel tyrant. They remembered this timely succor with the liveliest gratitude, and when they heard of the insult which had been offered to the bodies of Saul and of his sons, were filled with indignation at the authors of it. They resolved to wipe off this disgrace, and to pay the last tribute of regard to the remains of their late monarch and his offspring. A band of their most valiant men, taking advantage of the darkness of the night, marched to Beth-shan, and succeeded in bringing back with them the dead bodies.

It was now too late to embalm and bury them according to the usual custom. They were therefore burned; and the inhabitants of Jabesh-Gilead, after burying the bones and ashes under a tree, kept a solemn fast for seven days, in testimony of their respect for the deceased.

One short and striking epitaph, as it were, is

left on the pages of inspiration, to teach us the reason why Saul fell under the displeasure of God, and came to such an untimely and humiliating end. Let it serve to remind us that the divine justice is inflexible, and will, sooner or later, inevitably overtake those who persist, hardened and impenitent, in the ways of sin.

"So Saul died for his transgression which he committed against the Lord, even against the word of the Lord, which he kept not, and also for asking counsel of one that had a familiar spirit, to inquire of it; and inquired not of the Lord: therefore he slew him, and turned the kingdom unto David the son of Jesse."

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CHAPTER XIX.

DAVID'S FUNERAL SONG FOR SAUL AND JONATHAN. HE GOES TO HEBRON.

ON the third day after David's victorious return to Ziklag, and while he must have felt very anxious to learn the fate of the battle between the Israelites and the Philistines, a stranger arrived, "with his clothes rent, and earth upon his head," as tokens of grief at some great calamity, who prostrated himself before David, when brought into his presence, in the most respectful obeisance. On being asked whence he came, he replied that he had escaped from the camp of Saul.

"How went the matter?" asked David; "I pray thee, tell me.”

"The people are fled from the battle," was the answer, "and many of the people also are fallen and dead d; and Saul and Jonathan his son are dead also."

"How knowest thou that Saul and Jonathan his son be dead?" inquired David with great solicitude.

In reply the young man said that he happened by chance to be upon mount Gilboa, and saw Saul leaning upon his spear, while the chariots.