We have no further interest in the dates of those men, but more in their acts and character. Being the rulers of God’s own chosen people—with Jehova for a pilot, protector, and guide—with the wooden Box, the ark, with all its mysterious secrets and its holy enchantments; priests, prophets, and sacrifices, with all their secret necromantic performances, these three men, with all their godly professions, were no better than they should have been, even for the age in which they lived.
They were brutal, gross, and licentious. Barbarous crimes were committed by them, with the sanction of their preposterous imaginary God—who is lauded at this present day to the very echo, but the most stupendous piece of folly that ever was palmed off on civilized humanity.
Saul, the first king, in exercising his terrible cruelty towards his enemies perhaps only followed the practices and customs of other nations. Why this bloodthirsty man caused 385 persons to be murdered; why he slaughtered all the inhabitants of Nob, men, women, and children, because Abimelech the priest supplied David with food, are some of those things that pulpit orators can best explain. The life of the priest was not sufficient to expiate the offense he had committed, but Saul had his whole family exterminated.
The ark was no longer available. Jehova had taken the juvenile David in hand. The priestly oracle refused to be consulted. He, Saul, had recourse to a fortune-telling woman of Endor, who was employed to call up the spirit of Samuel.
Saul’s jealousies, his quarrels with David, and all his misdeeds, as well as bravery, may be read by those that feel an interest in the matter. He finally committed suicide by falling on his own sword, and the next day the Philistines cut his and his sons’ heads off, and deposited them before their idols, Dagon, etc.
Where was God? Can it be possible that our Christian neighbors believe that the life and conduct of Saul was directed by any supreme power? That God directed Saul to do so many foolish, barbarous, and murderous acts?
We shall probably be more interested in David, the man after God’s own heart.
David, like Saul, was judiciously selected by Samuel. David’s acts and David’s conduct were no different from the acts and conduct of any other man in his position and possessing his characteristics. He combined a good deal of philosophy with his bravery; if the Psalms were written by him we have before us a higher type of brain culture, a mind that has undergone some training, is capable of analyzing its own feelings and giving expression to them. His comparisons never extend beyond that—beyond what he knows. He appeals to the higher qualities of men—their good acts, their virtues, their just conduct, their self-restraint, their passions, emotions, faults, and weaknesses. He recognizes them in others, and sees them reflected clearly in himself. His distress and his fears, his gladness and his joys, his trust in an unseen power, are all poetic, some sweet and sentimental. He speaks of his Lord, of his God, as of the pleasant recollections of a dream. Jehova had long since lost the stern reality of Moses, and had changed with the changes the nation had undergone. The formalities had been kept up, the priestly luxuries had increased, the ceremonies were more formal and business-like, but the central power, the centralized government of the people, the mantle of authority, had been shifted from high priest to king.
The God, Jehova, was no longer the guide, the power it had been. For twenty-two years after the death of Samuel, Saul had conducted his government and fought his battles without God, ark, or priest, and sought advice and counsel from other and human sources.
Skeptics even at this early period began to doubt the existence of a God, “The fool saith in his heart, There is no God” ([Ps. xiv, 1]).