The narrative goes on to mention, that after his 20 leaving Samuel "God gave him another heart," and on meeting a company of prophets, "the Spirit of God came upon him, and he prophesied among them." Upon this, "all that knew him beforetime" said, "What is this that is come unto 25 the son of Kish: is Saul also among the prophets? ... therefore it became a proverb." From this narrative we gather, that his carelessness and coldness in religious matters were so notorious, that, in the eyes of his acquaintance, there was 30 a certain strangeness and incongruity, which at once struck the mind, in his being associated with a school of the prophets. Nor have we any reason to believe, from the after history, that the Divine gift, then first imparted, left any religious effect upon his mind. 5 At a later period of his life we find him suddenly brought under the same sacred influence on his entering the school where Samuel taught; but, instead of softening him, its effect upon his outward conduct did but testify the fruitlessness of 10 Divine grace when acting upon a will obstinately set upon evil. The immediate occasion of his rejection was his failing under a specific trial of his obedience, as set before him at the very time he was anointed. 15 He had collected with difficulty an army against the Philistines; while waiting for Samuel to offer the sacrifice, his people became dispirited, and began to fall off and return home. Here he was doubtless exposed to the temptation of taking 20 unlawful measures to put a stop to their defection. But when we consider that the act to which he was persuaded was no less than that of his offering sacrifice--he being neither priest nor prophet, nor having any commission thus to interfere 25 with the Mosaic ritual--it is plain "his _forcing himself_" to do so (as he tenderly described his sin) was a direct profaneness--a profaneness which implied that he was careless about forms, which in this world will ever be essential to 30 things supernatural, and thought it mattered little whether he acted in God's way or in his own.