"Then said Samuel, Bring hither to me Agag, the king of the Amalekites; and Agag came unto him delicately. And Agag said, Surely the bitterness of death is past. And Samuel said, As thy sword hath made women childless, so shall thy mother be childless, among women. _And Samuel hewed Agag in pieces before the Lord in Gilgal._" Agag's delicacy could not deceive one who was taught of God. How remarkable to find him hewing Agag in pieces _at Gilgal_! Gilgal was the place where the reproach of Egypt was rolled away from Israel;[10] and, in tracing their history, we find it associated with much power over evil. Here it was, then, that this Amalekite came to his end by the hand of righteous Samuel. This is most instructive. When the soul is blessed with the realization of its full deliverance from Egypt, by the power of death and resurrection, it is in the best position for obtaining victory over evil. Had Saul known anything of the spirit and principle of Gilgal, he would not have spared Agag. He was ready enough to go thither to "renew the kingdom," but by no means so to crush and set aside all that savored of the flesh. But Samuel, acting in the energy of the Spirit of God, dealt with Agag according to the principles of truth; for it is written, "The Lord hath sworn that the Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation." _The king of Israel ought to have known this._ [10] It was at Gilgal, upon their crossing Jordan, that Israel was circumcised after the forty years' uncircumcision in the wilderness; and to this place Joshua oft led them back after their victories. The meaning of this for us Christians is given in Phil. iii. 3--no self-confidence.--[Ed.] CHAPTER I DAVID ANOINTED We now come to our theme--our rich and varied theme--the life and times of David, king of Israel. In looking through Scripture, we observe how wonderfully the blessed God has ever brought good out of evil. It was Israel's sin to reject their King, Jehovah, and seek to set up a man over them; and in that man, who first wielded the sceptre over them, they had learnt how vain was the help of man. The Lord was now about to bring blessing to His people out of all their evil and folly.