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Miscellanies from the Oxford sermons and other writings
Miscellanies from the Oxford sermons and other writings Author:John Henry Newman Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: DAVID Saul was finally rejected for not destroying the Amalekites, Samuel was bid go to Bethlehem, and anoint, as future king of Israel, one of the sons of Je... more »sse, who should be pointed out to him when he was come there. Samuel accordingly went thither and made a sacrifice; when, at his command, Jesse's seven sons were brought by their father, one by one, before the prophet; but none of them proved to be the choice of Almighty God. David was the youngest and out of the way, and it seemed to Jesse as unlikely that God's choice should fall upon him, as it appeared to Joseph's brethren and to his father, that he and his mother and brethren should, as his dreams foretold, bow down before him. On Samuel's inquiring, Jesse said, " There remaineth yet the youngest, and, behold, he keepeth the sheep." On Samuel's bidding, he was sent for. " Now he was ruddy," the sacred historian proceeds, "and withal of a beautiful countenance, and goodly to look to. And the Lordsaid, Arise, anoint him, for this is he." After Samuel had anointed him, " the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward." It is added, " But the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul." David's anointing was followed by no other immediate mark of God's favour. He was tried by being sent back again, in spite of the promise, to the care of his sheep, till an unexpected occasion introduced him to Saul's court. The withdrawing of the Spirit of the Lord from Saul was followed by frequent attacks from an evil spirit, as a judgment upon him. His mind was depressed, and a " trouble," as it is called, came upon him, with symptoms very like those which we now refer to derangement. His servants thought that music, such perhaps as was used in the schools of the prophets, might soothe and restore him; and David was recomme...« less