Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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The Call of the Cumberlands | By Charles Neville Buck With Illustrations from Photographs ot scenes i in the Play I (Copyright. (91). by W. J. Watt & Co) t SYNOPSIS. On Misery creek, at the foot of a rock from which he has fallen. Sally Miller finds George Lescott, a landscape painter. unconscious, and after reviving him, foes for assistance. Samson South and ally, taking Lescott to Samson's home, are met by Splcer South, head of the 1 family, who tells them that Jesse Purvy , has been shot. CHAPTER II?Continued. "I hain't a-wantin' ter suspicion ye, Samson, but I know how ye feels 1 about yore' pap. I heered thet Bud Snieoi. onma hv hvar vistlddv nlumb full of liquor an* 'lowed he'd seen Jesse an* Jim Asberry a-talkin' tergether Jest afore yore pap was kilt." He broke off abruptly, then added: ' H\e went away from hyar last night, an* didn't git in twell atter sunup?I Just heered the news, an' come ter < look ter ye." 1 "Air you-all 'lbwln' thet I shot them hoots from the laurel ?" Inquired Sam- 1 son, quietly. "Ef we-all hain't lowin' hit, Sam- 1 on, we're plumb shore thet Jesse 1 Purvy's folks will 'low hit They're 1 Jest a-holdin' yore life like a hostage fer Purvy's, anyhow. Ef he dies they'll try ter git ye." 1 The boy flashed a challenge about 1 the group, which was now drawing 1 rein at Spicer South's yard fence. His 1 eyes were sullen, but he made no an- ] wer. J 1 One of the men who had listened in 1 lieuce now bpokb. "In the fust place, Samson, we hain't 1 a-sayin' ye done hit In the nex' place, < ef ye did do hit we hain't a-blamin' I ye?much. But I reckon them dawgs I don't lie, an', ef they trails in hyar ' yoll need us. Thet's why we've done come." The boy slipped down from his mule and helped Lescott to dismount. He deliberately unloaded the saddlebags and kit and laid them on the top step of the stile, and, while he held his peace, neither denying nor affirming, his kinsmen sat their horsee and vftltod. ' """ n-vBu iu .Lebcou A was paipabie uitff some of them believed the young heir to clan leadership responsible for the hooting of Jesse Purvy, and that others believed him innocent, yet none the loss in danger of the enemy's vengeance. But, regardless of divided opinion, all were alike ready to stand at hie back and all alike awaited his final utterance. Then, in the thickening gloom, Samson turned at the foot of the stile ana tacea me garnering. He stood 1 rigid, and bis eyes flashed with deep < passion. His hands, hanging at the 1 seams of his Jeans breeches, clinched, ( and his voice came In a slow utter- * ance through which throbbed the ten- ' slty of a soul-absorbing bitternees. "I knowed all 'bout Jesse Purvy's 1 beln* shot. . . . When my pap lay 1 a-dyin' over thar at his house I was a little shaver ten years old . . . Jesse Purvy hired somebody ter kill him . . . an' I promised my pap ' that I'd find out who thet man wae, ' an' thet I'd git 'em both?some day. 8o help me, God Almighty, I'm a-goin' ter git 'em both?some day!" The boy paused and lifted one hand as though taking an oath. "I'm a-tellin' you-all the truth . . . * But I didn't shoot them shoots this mornin'. I hain't no truce buster. I gives ye my hand on hit. . . . Ef them dawgs come hyar they'll find me hyar, an' ef they hain't liars they'll go right by hyar. I don't 'low ter run away, an' I don't 'low ter hide out. I'm a-goin' ter stay right hyar. Thet's all I've got ter say ter ye." For a moment there was no reply, j Then the older man nodded with a gesture of relieved anxiety. "Thet's all we wants ter know, Sam- , Bon," he 6aid. slowly. "Light, men an' ( come in." CHAPTER III. j In days when the Indian held the ! Dark and Bloody Grounds a pioneer, < felling oak and poplar logs for the j home he meant to establish on the i banks of a purling watercourse, let his ax slip, and the cutting edge gashed ( his ankle. Since/to the discovered be- j longs the christening, that watercourse became Crippleshin, and so it is today j set down on atlae pages. A few miles f away, as the crow flies, but many i wearj- leagues as a man must travel, j a brother settler, racked with rheuma- j tism, gave to his creek the name of ] Misery. The two pioneers had come i together from Virginia, as their ances- < tors had come before them from Scot- t land. Together they had found one . of the two gaps through the mountain < wall, which for more than a hundred 1 miles has no other passable rift To- j gether. and as comradee, they had < made their homes and founded their 1 race. What original grievance had ] sprung up between their descendants ] none of the present generation knew? i perhaps it was a farm line or disputed i title to a pig. The primary incident was lost in the limbo of tbe past; but I for fifty years, with occasional inter- i / / I I vals of truce, lives had been snuffed j out In the fiercely burning hate of I these men whose ancestors had been I comrades. < Old Spicer South and his nephew t Samson were the direct lineal descen- 1 dants of the narner of Misery. Their ! kinsmen dwelt about them: the Souths, 1 the Jaspers, the Spicers, the Wileys, 1 the Millers and McCagers. Other fam- ' ilies, related only by marriage and I close association, were, in feud align- 1 ment, none the less "Souths." And i over beyond the ridge, where the 1 springs and brooks flowed the other ? way to feed Crippleshin, dwelt the 1 Hollmans, the Purvises, the Asberrles, the Hollises and the Daltons?men equally strong in their vindictive fealty to the code of the vendetta. By mountain standards old Splcer South wae rich. His lands had been claimed when iracts could be had for the taking, and, though he bad to make his cross mark when there wa!s a contract to be signed, his instinctive mind was shrewd and far seeing. The tinkle of his cowbells was heard for a long distance along the creek bottoms. His hillside fields were the richest and his covea the most fertile in that country. Some day, when a railroad should burrow through his section, bringing the development of coal and timber at the bead of the rails, a sleeping fortune would yawn and awake to enrich him. There were black outcroppings along the cliffs, which he knew rail deep in veins of bituminous wealth. But to that time he. looked with foreboding, for he had been raised to the standards of his forefathers and saw in the coming of a new regime a curtailment of personal liberty. For new-fangled Ideas he held only the aversion of deep?rooted prejudice. He hoped that he might live out his days and pass before the foreigner held his land and the law became a power stronger than the individual or the clan. The law was his ener.y, because it said to him, "Thou shalt not," when he sought to take the yellow corn which bruising labor had coaxed from scattered rockstrewn fields to his own maeh vat and still. It meant, also, & tyrannous power usually seized and administered by enemies, which undertook to forbid the personal settlement of personal quarrels. But his eyes, which could not read print, could read the signs of the times. He foresaw the inevitable coming of that day. Already he , be had given up the worm and mashvat, and no longer sought to make or sell illicit liquor. That was a concession to the federal power, which could no longer be successfully fought. State power was still largely a weapon in factional hands, and in his country the Hollmans were the office holders. To the Hollmans he could make no concessions. In Samson, born to be the lighting man,< reared to be the 5^p'-nwafrefa ravage,"' there had cropped out from time to time the restless spirit of the philosopher and a hunger for knowledge. That was a matter in which the old man found his bitterest and most secret apprehension. It was at this house that George Lescott, distinguished landscape painter of New York and the world at large, arrived in the twilight Whatever enemy might have to be met tomorrow, old Splcer South recognized as a more immediate call lpon his attention the wounded guest of today. One of the kinsmen proved .o have a rude working knowledge of sone setting, and before the half hour i lad passed Lescott's wrist was in a ' splint, and his injuries as well tended ; is possible, which proved to be quite well enough. While Spicer South and hie cousins lad been sustaining themselves or building up competences by tilling their soil the leaders of the other fac- , tion were basing larger fortunes on the profits of merchandise and trade. I 3o, although Spicer South could neither read nor write, his chief enemy, Mlcah Hollman, was to outward seeming an urbane and fairly equipped man af affairs. Judged by their heads, the ilansmen were rougher and more Illiterate on Misery, and in closer touch with civilization on Crippleehln. A , jeeper scrutiny showed this seeming to be one of the strange anomalies of the mountains. Micah Hollman had established him- \ self at Hixon, that shack %own which c tiad passed of late years from feudal c county seat to the section's one point c af contact with the outside world; a s town where the ancient and modern v orders brushed shoulders; where the s new was tolerated, but dared not be- i come aKRressive. Directly across the r street from the courthouse stood an ' t *mple frame building, on whose side wall was emblazoned the legend, t 'Hollman's Mammoth Department \ Store." That was the secret strong- g field of Hollman power. He had al- v ways spoken deploringly of that spirit i if lawlessness which had given the t mountains a bad name. t When the railroad came to Hixon it found in Judge Hollman a "public- r spirited citizen." Incidentally, the tim- i ber that it hauled and the coal that s its flat cars carried down to the Blue- n srass went largely to his consignees, s He hod so astutely anticipated coming g jvents that, when the first scouts of n :apital sought options they found h :hemselves constantly referred to p rudge Hollman. No wheel, it seemed, b :ould turn without his nod. It was latural that the genial storekeeper d should become th& big man of the i community and Inevitable that the one l: )ig man should become the dictator, v His inherited place as leader of the ii Hollmans in the feud he had seem- o ngly passed on as an obsolete pre- a ogative. r Yet, In business matters, he was t 'ound to drive a hard bargain, and e men came to regard It the part of ? 1 THE CHERAW CHI ?ood policy to meet rather than coinSat his requirements. It was essen:ial to his purposes that the officers sf the law In his country should be In sympathy with him. Sympathy soon pecame abject subservience, "Wlien a South had opposed Jesse Purvy In the primary as candidate for high sheriff fie was found one day lying on his face with a bullet-riddled body. It may have been a coincidence which pointed to Jim Asberry, the Judge's lephew, as the assassin. At all events, :he Judge's nephew was a poor boy, ind a charitable grand jury declined :o indict him. In the course of five years several South adherents, who had crossed Holman's path, became victims of tjje aurel ambuscade. The theory of concidence was strained. Slowly the rumor grew and persistently spread, hough no man would admit having 'athered it, that before each of these executions star-chamber conferences lad been held in the rooms above dicah Hollman's "Mammoth Department store." It was said that these exclusive sessions were attended by Tudge Hollman, Sheriff Purvy and cerain other gentlemen selected by reaion of their marksmanship. When )ne of these victims fell John South lad Just returned from a law school 'down below," wearing "fotched-on" ilothing and thinking "fotched-on" houghts. He had amazed the community by demanding the right to a* list' in probing and prosecuting the tffalr. He had then shocked the comnunlty into complete paralysis by revesting the grand jury to indict not tlone the alleged assassin, but also lis employers, whom he named as rudge Hollman and Sheriff Purvy. rhen he. too, fell under a bolt from he laurel. That was the first public accusation igainst the bland capitalist, and It car ied ite own prompt warning against 'epetltioq. The judge's high sheriff ind chief ally retired from office and vent abroad only with a bodyguard, resse Purvy had built his store at a crossroads 25 miles from the rati: oad. Like Hollman, he had won a eputation for open-banded charity, vas liked?and hated. His friends vere legion. His enemies were so numerous that he apprehended violence lot only from the Souths bat also 'rom others who nursed grudges In 10 way related to the line of feud cleavage. The Hollman-Purvy combllatlon had retained enough of its old ;>ower to escape the law's retribution ind to hold its dictatorship, but the efforts of John South had not bee* ikogetber bootless. He bad rfgpel iway two masks, and their erstwMp rearers could no longer bold thetepd lemblance of law-abiding Jesse Parry's hoa|^^^H| ibow place of the coujtf^^^^HIV jiodiwis verandas nclosure stood' the two frame bSW ngS of his Btore?for be, too. cfem lined merchandise with barohlfl lowers. But back of the price row he mountain side, on whifh Parry lever looked without dread. TlftCU ts impenetrable thickets hid Bpat >t lim. Twice he had recovered frojtt ,/M. Ef It Hain't AskirT Too Much, WJII Ye Let Me See Ye Paint One of Them Things?" vounds that would have taken a less :harmed life. And In grisly reminder ?f the terror which clouded the peace if Ma rinva etnnH tha ol ch t.fnnf Ina '* ?*10 \*IAJ U WbVVU VMV 4WWK ?Ut) itockade at the rear of the place, vhich the proprietor had built to ihield his daily Journeys between touse and store. But Jesee Purvy was lot deluded by his escapes. He knew hat he was "marked down." The years of strain were telling on lim. The robust, full-blooded face vas showing deep lines; his flesh was [rowing flaccid; his glance tinged vith quick apprehension. He told hie ntimates that he realized "they'd get ilm," yet he sought to prolong his erm of escape. Yesterday morning Jesse Purvy had isen early as usual, and, after a satsfylng breakfast, had gone to his tore to arrange for the day's busiiees. One or two of his henchmen, eeming loafers, but in reality a body ;uard, were lounging within call. A oarrled daughter was chatting with ier father while her young baby >layed among the barrels and cracker ioxes. The daughter went to a rear winiow and gazed up at the mountain, 'he cloudless skies were still in hidng behind a curtain of mist. The i-oman was idly watching the vanishrig fog wraiths, and her father cause ver to her side. Then the baby crijed nd she stepped back. Purvy himself emained at the window. It was. a hing he did not often do. It left him xposed, but the most cautiously uarded life has Its momenta of re j fl 1 i , poaslbnitv Hanson. too, - seemed wakeful, ani m the Isolation 1 of the dark room the two men fell Into ; conversation, which almost lasted out 1 the night. Samson went into the conTkln >.?? tha flr-of knmail tONICLE, CHERAW, S, C. taxed vigilance. He ?tood tt.er*. ,iu? sibly thirty seconds, then a sharp fu slllade of clear reports barked out am was shattered by the hills into a loni reverberation. With a hand claspei to his chest, Purvy turned, walked t< the middle of the floor, and fell. The henchmen rushed to the opei sash. They leaped out and plunge< up the mountain, tempting the assas sin's fire, but the assaesin was satis fled. The mountain was again aj quiet as it had been at dawn. Inside at the middle of the store, Jesse Purv; shifted his head against his daugfa ter's knee and said, as one stating ai expected event: "Well, they've got me." An ordinary mountaineer woul< have been carried home to die In th< darknees of a dirty and wlndowlesi shack. The long-suffering star of Jessi Purvy ordained otherwise. He migh go under or he might once more bea his way back and out of the quick sands of death. At all events, he wouh fight for life to the last gasp. * Twenty miles away in the core o the wilderness, removed from a rail road by a score of semi-perpendicula: miles, a fanatic had oner decided t< found a school. Now a faculty of ten men taugh such as cared to come such things aj they cared to learn. Higher up th< hillside stood a small, but model boa pltal, with a modern operating tabl< and a case of sargical instruments which, it was said, the state could no surpass. To this haven Jesse Purvy, the mm der lord, was borne in a litter carrta on the shoulders of his dependents Here, as his steadfast guardian sta: decreed, he found two prominent med leal visitors, who hurried him to th< operating table. Later he was rc moved to a white bed, with the Jun< sparkle In his eyes, pleasantly modu lated through drawn blinds, and th< June rustle and bird chorus in hit ears?and his own thoughts in hL brain. Conscious, but in great pain, Purr: beckoned Jim Asberry and Aaron Hoi lis, bis chiefs of bodyguard, to his bed side and waved the nurse back out o hearing. > "If I don't get well," he saM feebly "there's a Job for you two boys, reckon you know what it is?" They nodded, and Asberry whla pered a name: "Samson South?" "Yea," Purvy spoke In a whisper but the old vindictlveness was no smothered. "You got the old man,' reckon you can manage the cub. 1 > you don't he'll get you both one day.1 The two henchmen scowled. | "111 git him tomorrer," growled As i berry. "Thar hain't no sort of u* In a-waltln'." ^ "No!" For an instant Pnrry's voic< jjj^^^U^lta ^ we^ess Jo^jta ^ cd< ' what they are. That* my business If r dont ^ie, leave htm alone, until I give other orders. "It I get well and Samson South li killed meanwhile I won't live lonj eithdr. It would be my life for his Keep cldse to him. The minute yoi hear of my death?get him." H< paused again, then supplemented "You two will find something might] interestln' in my will." It was afternoon when Purvj reached the hospital, and. at nightfal of the same day, there arrived at bl' store's entrance, on stumbling, hard ridden mules, several men, followed by two tawny hounde whose long eari flapped over their lean jaws, anc whose eyes were listless and tired, bui whose black muzzles wrinkled ant sniffed with that sensitive lnstinci which follows the man scent. The ex sheriff's family were Instituting pro ceedlngs independent of the chief's or dere. The next morning this parti plunged into the mountain tangle anc beat the cover with the bloodhoundi in leash. The two gentle-faced dogs picket their way between the flowering rho dodendrons, the glistening laurels, th< feathery pine sprouts and the moss covered rocks. They went gingerlj and alertly on ungainly, cushionec feet. Just as their masters were de spairing they came to a place directs over the store, where a branch hat been bent back and hitched to cleai the outlook and where a boot heei had crushed the moes. There one ol them raised his nose high into the air, opened his mouth, and let out e long, deep-chested bay of discovery. chapTer iv. George Lescott had known hospital lty of many brands and degrees. He had been the lionized celebrity lc places of fashion. He had been the guest of equally famous brother artiste In the cities of two hemispheres, and since sincere painting had been hie pole star, he had gone where his art'e wanderlust backoned. He had fol lowed the lure of transitory beauty to remote sections of the world. The present trip was only one of many like it, which had brought him intc touch with varying peoples and dis tlnctive types of life. He told himsell that never had he found men at once so crude and so courteous as these hosts who. facing personal perils, had still time and willingness to regard his comfort. The coming of the kinsDien, who would stay until the present danger passed, bad filled the house. The four beds in the cabin proper were full, and some slept on floor mattresses. Lescott, because a guest and wounded, was given a small room aside. Sanson, however, shared his quarters in order to perform any service that an Injured man might require. It had been a full and unusual Cay for the painter, and its incidents crowded in on him In retrospect and drove off the J icODlUUai. x Alio nao tuc iaaov uuiuau being he had ever met to whom he 1 could unburden his soul. s 1 The thirst to taste what knowledge i- lay beyond the hills; the unnamed i- wanderlust that had at times brought 9 him a reetlveness so poignant as to i, be agonizing; the undefined attuning f of his heart to the beauty of sky and ! hill; these matters he had hitherto 3 kept locked In guilty silence. In a cove or lowland pocket, stretching into the mountain side, lay the 1 small and meager farm of the Widow b Miller. The Widow Miller was a b "South;" that is to say, she fell, by 9 i 'ii ^ 'r'S "I Couldn't Llvo Withouten Yo, |M? on. I Jest Couldn't Do Hit* . tie of marriage, under the protection of the clan head. She lived alone witft : her fourteen-year-old son and her >lz 1 teen-year-old daughter. The daughtoi I was Sally. J The aun rose on the morning aftei IOMoh arrived the mists lifted, and the cabin of the Widow Miller stood h revealed. A tousle-headed boy madi 9 his way to the barn to feed the cattl* I and a red patch of color, as brlgty 9 and tuneful as a Kentucky cardinal, 1 She made her way, carrying a bucket, to the spring, where she knell 1 down and gazed at her own. Image la the water. 1 Before going home she set down her l bucket by the stream, and, with a * quick glance toward the house to make 1 sure that she was not observed, ' climbed through the brush and wee > lost to view. She followed a path that 7 her own feet had made, and after a steep course upward came upon a bald 7 face of rock, which stood out storm 1 battered where a rift went through 1 the backbone of the ridge. This point ' of vantage commanded the other val' ley. Down below, across the treetops, 1 were a roof and a chimney from which 1 a thread of smoke rose In an attenu1 ated shaft. That was Spicer South'! 1 house and Samson's home. The girl ^ leaned against the gnarled bowl of the ' white oak and waved toward the roof ' and chimney. She cupped her hands ' and raised them to her lips like one 7 who means to shout across a great dls ' tance, then she whispered so low that 1 only she herself could hear: "Hello, Samson South!" ' She stood for a space looking down, " and forgot to laugh, while her eyes ' grew religiously and softly deep, then, ' turning, she ran down the elope. She r had performed her morning devotions. 1 That day at the house of Splcer ' South was an off day. The kinsmen ' who had stopped for the night stayed | on through the morning. Nothing war said of the possibility of trouble. The ' men talked crops and tossed hers* r shoes in the yard; but no one went to 1 work in the fields, and all remained 1 within easy call. Only young Ttmar rack Splcer, a raw-boned nephew, wore a sullen face and made a great show of cleaning his ride and pistol. Shortly after dinner he disappeared , and when the afternoon was well ad , vanced Samson, too, with his rifle ol . his arm, strolled toward the stile. , (TO BE CONTINUED.) | How Suckers Bite. One Sunday morning, on his way 1 to church, a deacon observed a boy industriously Ashing. After the lad had landed several, he approached and | said: "My son, don't you know it Is very wrong to catch Ash on the Sah ' bath day? And, besides, it is very cruel to impale mat poor, ueipieM beetle upon that sharp hook." Said 1 the boy: "Oh, say, mister, this is 1 only an imitation! It ain't a real ' bug." "Bless me!" replied the dea' 1 son. "Well, I thought it was a rea.' bug!" The boy, lifting a fine string of ' fish out of the water, said: "So did ' these suckers!" Friend of the Farmer. Dr. Marion Dorset, bi-chemist of the > federal bureau of animal industry, U the scientist who first Isolated the ' germ responsible for that farm scourge cholera in the hog\ That accomplish*! he perfected a scrum to combat it i protected his processes by patents aad Chen turned them over to tha publfe ' to bs used without ohaurf* KinraoNAL SfiMSOKE Lesson 3y E. O. SELLERS, Acting Director of Sunday School Course, Moody Bible Institute. Chicago.) LESSON FOR MARCH 7 I 8AUL ANOINTED KING. LESSON TEXT?I -Samuel 9:17-10:L / GOLDEN TEXT-Fear God. honor the king.?I Peter 2:y. ? Because of the acts of Samuel the people petitioned for a king (ch. 8:5). They are told plainly what to expect If a king is set in authority (ch. 8:19). God, however, granted their petition and spoke "in the ear" of Samuel, saying, "I will send thee a man," telling him of the work which this man is to undertake (ch. 9:15,16). | i. "Samuel Saw 8aul" w. 17-21. Sanl \ 'was a man to gaze at and to admire j(ch. 9:2). His fruitless search for his father's astes leads him to the/city wherein Samuel was residing. Tnere he is advised to consult the "man >of God" about his difficulty?a good suggestion .for us alL This experience (ch. 9:6-14) exhibits 8amuel in a hew light. The word "seer" indicates "one who sees," one who sees the things God makes manifest In dreams (Num. 24:4-16). While the word is similar to the modern term "clairvoyant" yet tile latter are not the'successors of these * Old Testament "seers" or "prophets."^^^J| They are rather the successors false prophets (Jer. 17:14), those who dealt with familiar (I Chron. 10:13-14; Isa, 8: 19-2(J^MH| Kings 21:1, 2, 6). Saul evidently did not know Samuel (w. 16-18). Samuel took Saul with him for the night to take bis mind oft his tether's asses and to prepare him to receive the word from God. Christians take far too little time to withdraw themselves and take their restless minds off the things of time and sense to be still and hear the word of God. What v ' /> were a few asses to Saul, to him "for '.J \ whom all that is desirable in Israel" ; (v. 20 R. V.)? Christians who are . heirs to the heavenly kingdom ought ' > not to set their affections on the poor possessions of earth (Col. 3:1,2; 2 Cor. 4:18). In response to Samuel's inforI raation, Saul disclaims any greatness; I indeed, is he not from, one of the least i of the families of one of the smallest , of the tribes (v. 21). Such humility * take i^j^i? ^flK ^:13'' ' ' II. "funnel Took 8Sur w. 22-24. Saul was then led Into the guest chamber and placed in the chief sdat Read our Lord's parable found in Luke 14:7-11. Samuel then bade the cook bring the thigh, which was a choice piece of meat especially reserved for thoce thus honored (Esek. 24:4). Bach a portion belonged to the priest (Ler. 7:32). That which did not belong upon the altar Saul was to eat (v. 24). Samuel and Saul may have had the preference and eaten before the other guests (v. 18), and Sauf is made acquainted with the special honor conferred upon him. Following the feast, they return to Samuel's home, where Saul is conducted to a couch upon the flat housetop (Acts 10:9). Here Samuel had private converse with Saul A (r. 25 R. V.). What that converse^?4| i may hare been we know not, are reminded of one such nocturnal conversation which cave to the world God's most precious summary of his love (John 3:M6). Samuel poured oil upon Saul's head. Prophets, priests, kings and cleansed lepers were so anointed, a type of the anointing by the holy spirit (I Kings 19:15, 16; Lev. 8:12, 14:2, 16-18; Isa. 61:1; I John 2:20 R. V.). This act was also a symbol of|entire consecration to God, and pointed forward to the coming king (Messiah, Anointed One) whom God himself would anoint (Ps. 45:7). Saul was anointed to be "a prince" and to save God's people (ch. 9:16; Acts 5:31). His ear is always open * *"*? L1- fVi/Ml oh 10 cue cry ui us pcu^io. umu they had sinned, and their sorrow was because of their own disobedience, yet God regarded their affliction (Pa. 106:43, 44). Only God's anointed ones can save (Isa. 61:1-3). Saul's selected task was to save Israel out of the hands of the Philistines (See Luke 1:69-71). God's eye sees the oppression of mankind and bis ear is always open to the cry of the poor and needy; of innocent children suffering because of the sins of parents; of men defrauded of justice. But the delivering remedy will not be brought by any earthly king. Mankind is today crying for a king (sometimes it is termed "democracy") and will not have God to rule over them. Heedless of his warnings, blessed by his bounty, they struggle and scheme to heal their own hurt Saul's humility rapidly gave place to pride and pride to ambition, ambition to oppression, and finally to an un* timely end, due to disobedience. When our king comes the skillfully constructed scheme of man's government, wherein graft and pride, ambition and lust, find such a prominent place, will be set aside for a kingdom wherein justice and love, equity and service, will be meted out to every man; one wherein Ideals will become realities.