came upon him.
The people he had gathered together to fight against the Philistines
were far inferior to them in military qualities. They were not even
soldiers; they were country-people brought together, rising against a
powerful enemy, who was used to rule, as they were used to subjection.
And, as I have already observed, they had no regular arms: "It came to
pass," says Scripture, "in the day of battle, that there was neither
sword nor spear found in the hand of any of the people that were with
Saul and Jonathan." No wonder, under these circumstances, that many
did not come to Saul's army at all; many hid themselves; many fled out
of the country; and of those who joined him, all were in a state of
alarm, and numbers began to desert. "When the men of Israel," says
Scripture, "saw that they were in a strait, then the people did hide
themselves in caves, and in thickets, and in rocks, and in high places,
and in pits. And some of the Hebrews went over Jordan to the land of
Gad and Gilead; as for Saul, he was yet in Gilgal, and all the people
followed him trembling. And he tarried seven days, according to the
set time that Samuel had appointed; but Samuel came not to Gilgal, and
the people were scattered from him."

What a great trial this must have been! Here was a king who had been
made king for the express purpose of destroying the Philistines; he is
in presence of his powerful enemy, he is anxious to fulfil his
commission; he fears to fail; his reputation is at stake; he has at
best a most difficult task, as his soldiers are very bad ones, and are
all afraid of the enemy. His only chance, humanly speaking, is to
strike a blow; if he delays, he can expect nothing but total defeat;
the longer he delays, the more frightened his men will become. Yet he
is told to wait seven days; seven long days must he wait; he does wait
through them, and to his great mortification and despair, his soldiers
begin to desert; day after day more and more leave him: what will be
the end of this? Yet does he govern his feelings so far, as to wait
all through the seven days. So far he acquits himself well in the
trial; he was told simply to wait seven days, and in spite of the risk,
he does wait. Though he sees his army crumbling away, and the enemy
ready to attack him, he obeys God; he obeys His prophet; he does
nothing; he looks out for Samuel's coming.

At length the seven days are gone and over, those weary wearing days,
that