A GOD-INTOXICATED MAN. 195 



people on account of his personal beauty, and as he 

 belonged to the poorest family of the poorest tribe in 

 Israel, Samuel hoped that he would be able to pre- 

 serve the real power in his own hands. But it so 

 happened that Saul was not only a brave soldier and 

 a good general, he was also at times a " god-intoxicated 

 man," and did not require a third person to bring him 

 the instructions of Jehovah. He made himself the 

 Head of the Church, as well as of the State, and 

 Samuel was compelled to retire into private life. It is 

 for this reason that Saul's character has been so bit- 

 terly attacked by the priest-historians of the Jews. 

 For what, after all, are the crimes of which he was 

 guilty ? He administered the battle-offering himself, 

 and he spared the life of a man whom Samuel had 

 commanded him to kill as a human sacrifice to Jeho- 

 vah. Saul was by no means faultless, but his charac- 

 ter was pure as snow when compared with that of his 

 successor. David was undoubtedly the greater general 

 of the two, yet it was Saul who laid the foundations of 

 the Jewish kingdom. It was Saul who conquered the 

 Philistines and won freedom for the nation with no 

 better weapons than their mattocks, and their axes, 

 and their sharpened goads. Saul's persecution of 

 David is the worst stain upon his life ; yet, if it is true 

 that David had been in Saul's lifetime privately an- 

 ointed king, he was guilty of treason, and deserved to 

 die. But that story of the anointing might have been 

 invented afterwards to justify his succession to the 

 throne. 



At first David took refuge with the Philistines and 

 fought against his own countrymen. Next he turned 

 brigand, and was joined by all the criminals and out- 

 laws of the land. The cave of Adullam was his lair, 



