"How are the mighty fallen!"--_2 Samuel 1:19._
[Illustration]
THE last thing that has to be told about Saul is very sad. You know he
would not do as God bade him, but chose to go his own way. Then God
forsook him, and left him to grow worse and worse. Then his enemies,
the Philistines, came up against him, and his army came together on the
hills to meet them.
But God was not with Saul, so his men could not fight, and he was
beaten back step by step up into his own hills, close to his home; and
there, when he found he could go no further, and that the Philistines
would soon be upon him, he did the saddest thing of all--he threw
himself on his own sword, that they might not take him alive.
He did not quite kill himself; and when a young robber came by, trying
to get garments and weapons from the dead bodies, the unhappy king
begged for a death-blow as he lay. The robber gave him the last stroke,
and then took the crown from his helmet, and his bracelets, and brought
them to David, to show that he was dead.
The robber thought he should have a reward, but David put him to death
for having dared to strike the king: and David grieved and mourned for
Saul, who had been a great and noble king once. But he had come to this
miserable end because he would have his own way and will.
[Illustration: THE DEATH OF SAUL.--1 Sam. 31:4.]
[Illustration: DAVID ANOINTED KING OVER ISRAEL.--2 Sam. 2:4.]
Then, when Saul was killed, David was anointed to be king; and he was a
very good man, and served God with all his heart. So God blessed him,
and made him great and powerful.