osea vi. 3.

SERMON III.

The Trial of Saul.

"_And Saul said, Bring hither a burnt offering to me, and peace
offerings. And he offered the burnt offering._"--1 Samuel xiii. 9.

We are all on our trial. Every one who lives is on his trial, whether
he will serve God or not. And we read in Scripture of many instances
of the trials upon which Almighty God puts us His creatures. In the
beginning, Adam, when he was first created, was put upon his trial. He
was placed in a beautiful garden, he had every thing given him for his
pleasure and comfort; he was created innocent and upright, and he had
the great gift of the Holy Spirit given him to enable him to please
God, and to attain to heaven. One thing alone he was forbidden--to eat
of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; this was his trial. If
he did not eat of the fruit, he was to live, if he did, he was to die.
Alas, he did eat of the fruit, and he did die. He was tried and found
wanting; he fell; such was the end of _his_ trial.

Many other trials, besides Adam's, are recorded in Scripture, and that
for our warning and instruction, that we may be reminded that we too
are on trial, that we may be encouraged by the examples of those who
have stood their trial well and not fallen, and may be sobered and put
on our guard by the instances of others who have fallen under their
trial. Of these latter cases, Saul is one. Saul, of whom we have been
reading in the course of this service[1], is an instance of a man whom
God blessed and proved, as Adam before him, whom He put on his trial,
and who, like Adam, was found wanting.

Now the history, I say, of this melancholy and awful fall is contained
in the chapter which we have been reading, and from which the text is
taken; and I will now attempt to explain to you its circumstances.

Saul was not born a king, or the son of a great family; he was a man of
humble birth and circumstances, and he was raised by God's free grace
to be the ruler and king of His people Israel. Samuel, God's prophet,
revealed this to him, anointed him with oil, and after he became king,
instructed him in his duty: and, moreover, put him on his trial. Now
his trial was this. God's people, the Israelites, over whom Saul was
appointed to reign, had been very much oppressed and harassed by their
enemies round about; heathen nations, who hated the true God and His
worship, rose and fought against them; and of these nations the
Ph