unto all that thou hast! And now I have heard that thou hast Shearers: now thy Shepherds, which were with us, we hurt them not, neither was there ought missing unto them all the while they were in Carmel. Ask thy young Men! and they will shew thee wherefore let the young Men find favour in thine eyes for we come in a good day; give, I pray thee, whatsoever cometh to thine hand unto thy Servants, and to thy Son David!'"-1 Sam. xxv. 1, 8. The testimony paid by all the People of Israel to the memory of Samuel, as the Chosen Minister and Accredited Prophet of The LORD, should have additionally influenced Saul to renew within himself a right spirit, by turning his disobedient heart to the wisdom of the Just, that though his Kingdom might depart from him in his lifetime, or from his House after his death, yet he might save his Soul alive and wear a crown of Immortality. Such lessons, when offered, should be eagerly and zealously embraced; and the testimony borne to the memory of Those, who have counselled us in their life, or by their writings, to the ways of purity and piety, should be hailed and improved by us, as further Efforts of DIVINE Grace and Favour to Bring back our steps to the ways of pleasantness and of peace. David's continued separation from Saul, the dictate of prudential self-consideration, was a proof, however, that such an influence was not produced on the heart of Saul by the death of him, who had been the Gracious Instrument of HEAVEN in rendering Saul the Anointed of The LORD, and had offered and pressed upon him that counsel which, had he followed, would have made his Election as well as Calling to a Spiritual and Everlasting Kingdom sure.

The

The forbearance of David respecting the property of Nabal, whose disposition was so unfriendly, and when David must occasionally have been much distressed for money and provisions, is a proof of the high principle of rectitude that religiously swayed his breast; and instructs us not to abuse the possession of power, nor, when persecuted ourselves, to follow up such oppression by our robbery of Others; but to guide our own steps in a perfect way, whatever calamity may overtake us. salutation of David to Nabal is inimitable in point and in beauty. From the head of a band of Warriors it was most graciously condescending; such submissiveness could hardly have been looked for: and the preservation that David had notoriously afforded to Nabal, as well as all Israel, by the destruction of Goliath, gave him a just claim to offices of hospitality on the part of Nabal.

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"And when David's young Men came, they spake to Nabal according to all those words in the name of David, and ceased. And Nabal answered David's Servants, and said, 'Who is David? and who is the Son of Jesse? there be many Servants now a days, that break away every Man from his Master: shall I then take my bread, and my water, and my flesh that I have killed for my Shearers, and give it unto Men, whom I know not whence they be?"-1 Sam. xxv. 9, 11. It was not that Nabal did not know who David was. He meant contemptuously to shew his sense of David's insignificance by the language which he used; and he then artfully goes on to mask his avariciousness under the cloak of loyalty, by intimating that David and his Followers had deserted the service of their respective Masters, and thrown off their allegiance to their King; and thus excusing himself, as upon seemingly honourable and praiseworthy motives, from giving of his substance for their subsistence. How doubly iniquitous in the Sight of GOD, Who Knoweth the secrets of all hearts, must an evil deed be when hypocritically attri buted, as by Nabal, to good principles; and how carefully should we watch the movements of our heart to save it from the like offending!

"So David's young Men turned their way, and went again, and came and told him all those sayings. And David said unto his Men, Gird ye on every Man his sword!' And they girded on every Man his sword, and David also girded on his sword: and there went up after David about four hundred Men; and two hundred abode by the stuff. But One of the young Men told Abigail, Nabal's wife, saying,

'Behold, David sent Messengers out of the Wilderness to salute our Master; and he railed on them: but the Men were very good unto us, and we were not hurt, neither missed we anything as long as we were conversant with them, when we were in the fields: they were a wall unto us both by night and day, all the while we were with them keeping the sheep. Now, therefore, know and consider what thou wilt do! for evil is determined against our Master and against all his Household: for he is such a Son of Belial, that a Man cannot speak to him.""-1 Sam. xxv. 12, 17. David seems here to have departed from the forbearant principles he had previously acted upon, and to have given way to those feelings of resentment at the ungrateful and ungracious conduct of Nabal, which that conduct was but too much calculated to excite, and which, from the weakness of our Nature, where the strengthening Influence of The HOLY SPIRIT is not studiously sought, is but too general in the World. David, it is to be inferred, prepared himself and his Followers to take by force what had been denied to entreaty. It is true that Nabal had been the richer on their account; for not only, as his own Servants testified, did David's Men withhold from taking of Nabal's store, but they watched over it by night, as well as by day, and saved his sheep folds from the wolf of the evening, and from all surrounding Enemies. But though it was Nabal's duty from principles of humanity as well as gratitude, and even justice, to have requited such offices of kindness and assistance with reciprocal dealing, yet as on the part of David they were voluntary, and no compact for their performance subsisted between him and Nabal, it was not in Human ordinances perhaps to say that David had the right to repay himself; and it would have been more conformable to the principles, that should actuate a Character professing to live in love of GOD and Man, not to have given place to wrath, nor by violence, at least, to have sought even his own : but it was not till The Gospel Light Shone upon us, through JESUS CHRIST, that These Principles were fully understood, for That DIVINE PERSONAGE Said, "A New Law Give I unto you: Bless thine Enemy! do good to them that persecute and shamefully use you! bless and curse not!" And in This Light, Shining around us in the fullest Lustre, it behoves us to walk.

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"Then Abigail made haste, and took two hundred loaves, and two bottles of wine, and five sheep ready dressed, and five measures of parched corn, and an hundred clusters of raisins, and two hundred cakes of figs, and laid them on asses; and she said unto her Servants, ‘Go on before me! behold, I come after you.' But she told not her Husband, Nabal. And it was so, as she rode on the ass, that she came down by the covert of the hill; and, behold, David and his Men came down against her, and she met them. (Now David had said, Surely in vain have I kept all that this Fellow hath in the Wilderness, so that nothing was missed of all that pertained unto him: and he hath requited me evil for good: So and more also Do GOD unto the Enemies of David, if I leave of all that pertain to him by the morning light any Male.') And when Abigail saw David, she hasted and lighted off the ass, and fell before David on her face, and bowed herself to the ground, and fell at his feet and said, 'Upon me, my Lord, upon me let this iniquity be! and let thine Handmaid, I pray thee, speak in thine audience, and hear the words of thine Handmaid! Let not my Lord, I pray thee, regard this Man of Belial, even Nabal; for as his name is, so is he: Nabal is his name, and folly is with him; but I, thine Handmaid, saw not the young Men of my Lord, whom thou didst send : now, therefore, my Lord, as The LORD Liveth, and as thy Soul liveth, seeing The LORD hath Withholden thee from coming to shed blood, and from avenging thyself with thine own hand, now let thine Enemies, and they, that seek evil to my Lord, be as Nabal! And now this blessing, which thine Handmaid hath brought unto my Lord, let it even be given unto the young Men that follow my Lord! I pray thee, forgive the trespass of thine Handmaid! For The LORD will certainly

F

Make my Lord a sure House; because my Lord fighteth the Battles of The LORD; and evil hath not been found in thee all thy days. Yet a Man is risen to pursue thee, and to seek thy Soul: but the Soul of my Lord shall be bound in the Bundle of Life with The LORD thy GOD; and the Souls of thine Enemies, them shall He Sling out, as out of the middle of a sling! And it shall come to pass, when The LORD shall have Done to my Lord according to all the Good That He hath Spoken concerning thee, and shall have Appointed thee Ruler over Israel, that this shall be no grief unto thee, nor offence of heart unto my Lord, either that thou hast shed blood causeless, or that my Lord hath avenged himself: but when The LORD shall have Dealt Well with my Lord, then remember thine Handmaid!' And David said to Abigail, Blessed be The LORD GOD of Israel, Which Sent thee this day to meet me; and blessed be thy advice, and blessed be thou, which hast kept me this day from coming to shed blood, and from avenging myself with mine own hand! for in very deed, as The LORD GOD of Israel Liveth, Which hath Kept me back from hurting thee, except thou hadst hasted and come to meet me, surely there had not been left unto Nabal, by the morning light, any Male.' So David received of her hand that which she had brought him, and said unto her, Go up in peace to thine house! see, I have hearkened to thy voice, and have accepted thy Person." -1 Sam. xxv. 18, 35. This history is interesting as it shews the opinion entertained by Abigail, a Woman of great judgment and discretion, of the character and principles of David, that he was a Man of truly generous sentiments, of pious affections, and that he had really deserved a very different treatment at the hands of Nabal, than that which he received. The sweeping vengeance which David meditated, that of visiting universal destruction on the Family and Servants of Nabal, was unwarrantable and cruel. Had he not been Providentially restrained, he would have sacrificed the Innocent and Guilty indiscriminately, even the very Shepherds, who bore willing testimony to David's forbearance and kindness, and, perhaps, in the indiscriminate onslaught, even the lovely Abigail herself; when the utmost measure of retributive justice should seem to have been the taking by force that portion of provision which was necessary for his and his Followers' maintenance for a season at least, and what had been denied to his reasonable and respectful application. But it is the province of example to be useful in the lessons it conveys to us, of what we should forbear to do, as well as to direct and encourage us in the way wherein we should walk; and the failings of great and generally good Men, should incite us the more earnestly to pray, without ceasing, for the Enlightening and Helping Grace of GOD to check, on all occasions, the uprisings of our evil passions, lest they lead us on to destruction. Violent, however, as was the anger of David, and dreadful as was the resolution he engrafted on it, yet we see that his was not an unrelenting cruelty, but that on the submission of Abigail he not only spared the Innocent, and checked his resentment against the despicable Nabal, but even acknowledged himself bound in the deepest gratitude to GOD for having made the Wife of Nabal instrumental to the changing the sanguinary purposes of David's heart, and softening it into forbearance amidst the possession of power (humanly speaking), and the provocation and defiance so naturally calculated to excite its inflictive exercise. And in the still small voice of conscience, as the Dictate of The HOLY SPIRIT, a more than Abigail is found to Admonish us to bridle our passions, and to prompt us, if we "be angry, to sin not," Guiding our hearts unto meekness and the unwearied exercise of passiveness, even under the endurance of positive wrongs, that the peace of our Soul no Man may take from us.

"And Abigail came to Nabal; and behold, he held a feast in his house like the feast of a King; and Nabal's heart was merry within him, for he was very drunken; wherefore she told him nothing, less or more, until the morning light:

but it came to pass in the morning, when the wine was gone out of Nabal, and his Wife had told him these things, that his heart died within him, and he became as a stone. And it came to pass about ten days after, that The LORD Smote Nabal, that he died. And when David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, 'Blessed be The LORD, That hath Pleaded the cause of my reproach from the hand of Nabal, and hath Kept His Servant from evil! For The LORD hath Returned the wicked ness of Nabal upon his own head.' And David sent and communed with Abigail, to take her to him to wife. And when the Servants of David were come to Abigail to Carmel, they spake unto her, saying, 'David sent us unto thee, to take thee to him to Wife.' And she arose, and bowed herself on her face to the earth, and said, 'Behold, Let thine Handmaid be a Servant to wash the feet of the Servants of my Lord!' And Abigail hasted, and arose and rode upon an ass, with five Damsels of hers, that went after her, and she went after the Messengers of David, and became his Wife."-1 Sam. xxv. 36, 42.

Self-gratification was Nabal's prevailing passion: No bounds were set to its indulgence, and for that object riches were sacrificed in wanton profusion. For the entertainment of Others in sensuality and festive folly, no expense was spared, though they, with all their smiles and blandishments, like the beautiful motes that peopled the sun-beam, when the sun's influence was withdrawn, would have looked gloomily and indifferently upon him in the instant that any reverse of fortune had overtaken him; whereas, only a small part of the superfluous treasures of his table, if given freely to David, would have secured to him a continuance of that protection and support, which had already been the occasion of their increase, and would not have failed him in the fearful time of still greater danger. But such is the folly of the wisdom of this World. It was Abigail's judicious gift to David, that turned away the destruction suspended from David's hand over Nabal; and yet so strangely perverted was the mind of Nabal by the love of riches, and so blinded was he by that miserable infatuation, that the very thought of that gift, prudential and salutary as it obviously was with a view to Nabal's vital interest, gave a death-blow to his fancied peace, and sunk his Soul in anguish. It is from such instances as these, that, shunning such delusions, and walking in the Light That The SPIRIT of GOD, through CHRIST JESUS, Sheds upon us, we should make to ourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness by a discreet, and honest, and charitable direction of such as are in our power, regarding them as only Committed to us as a trust, and using them accordingly, as good Stewards of the Manifold Goodness and Mercies of GOD, that in the Life to Come He may Give us That Treasure, which fadeth not away, but is Eternal in the Heavens.

Had Nabal lived, he would probably have endeavoured to have followed up his contempt of David by persecution, and have sought from Saul assistance towards his destruction. The suddenness of his death, whereby David's deliverance was effected from such an Enemy, was, therefore, attributable to, and was acknowledged to be the Effect of DIVINE Interposition; and the sacrifice of a grateful heart was freely offered up in return for It. The instant that David could, consistently with the then usages of Society, which sanctioned Polygamy, seize the opportunity of seeking an union with Abigail, he did so. Struck, as he must have been, by the fascinating appearance and attractions of that Female, he yet respected the sacredness of the nuptial tie, and embraced not the occasion of sacrificing Nabal under any, however plausible, pretext, for the sake of possessing One, whom he so obviously desired as the Partner of his bosom and his bed. On this occasion at least, however we may sorrow for his disregard of the same virtuous principle of forbearance and restraint in the "sad matter" of Uriah, subsequently recorded, we must give him credit for the chastity of his heart. "David also took Ahinoam of Jezreel, and they were also Both of them his Wives."

-1 Sam. xxv. 43. The plurality of Wives had so prevailed in the Jewish polity, that it is difficult to consider David as censurable for giving in to the practice. But the Gospel Dispensation has discouraged, if not disallowed it, and the law of our Land has come in aid of a regulation highly salutary in its effects, as destroying the root of much Family jealousy and schism.

"But Saul had given Michal, his Daughter, David's Wife, to Phalti, the Son of Laish, which was of Gallim."-1 Sam. xxv. 44. David had, doubtless, still kept up his secret communication with his Friends around the Court of Saul, and been, therefore, made acquainted with this harsh and cruel act of his own Father-in-law, in severing him irrecoverably from the Wife of his earliest affections, by devoting her to the embraces of Another. But for such unnatural separation, David might have cherished her through life as the only Sharer of his conjugal love.

"And the Ziphites came unto Saul to Gibeah, saying, 'Doth not David hide himself in the hill of Hachilah, which is before Jeshimon?' Then Saul arose, and went down to the Wilderness of Ziph, having three thousand chosen Men of Israel with him, to seek David in the Wilderness of Ziph: and Saul pitched in the hill of Hachilah, which is before Jeshimon, by the way. But David abode in the Wilderness; and he saw that Saul came after him into the Wilderness: David, therefore, sent out Spies; and understood that Saul was come in very deed.”—1 Sam. xxvi. 1, 4. Such is the effect of a hollow repentance; and this of Saul is an instance of a repentance to be repented of. The light of truth had shewn him his error, and he confessed it; but what can confession profit, unless the heart goeth and sinneth no more! The first chidings of conscience should be promptly acted upon, being seized and retained with not less avidity, than a hand stretched out to save when sinking in the deep waters with no other means of salvation before To a mind thus instructed in the way of its peace, what hope remaineth when the means of attaining it are obstinately rejected? This it is which exemplifies the having put the hand to the plough and, afterwards, turning back therefrom; or, in less metaphorical description, after being dispossessed of an evil Spirit, the taking unto Oneself seven Others, and becoming ten times more wicked than before. For all our past offences, and whenever, henceforth, we are suddenly overtaken with a fault, let ours be a godly sorrow, instant, and active, and continual, and such as operates through the Grace of GOD (Which Worketh all in all) that change of feeling and purpose in the heart, which in life and in death will be full of Consolation in The LORD through faith in CHRIST as our SAVIOUR.

us.

"And David arose, and came to the place where Saul had pitched; and David beheld the place where Saul lay, and Abner, the Son of Ner, the Captain of his Host; and Saul lay in the trench; and the People pitched round about him. Then answered David, and said to Ahimelech, the Hittite, and to Abishai, the Son of Zeruiah, Brother to Joab, saying, Who will go down with me to Saul to the camp?' And Abishai said, I will go down with thee.' So David and Abishai came to the People by night, and behold, Saul lay sleeping within the trench, and his spear stuck in the ground at his bolster; but Abner and the People lay round about him. Then said Abishai to David, 'GOD hath Delivered thine Enemy into thine hand this day: now, therefore, let me smite him, I pray thee, with the spear, even to the earth, at once, and I will not smite him the second time.' And David said to Abishai, 'Destroy him not! for who can stretch forth his hand against The LORD'S Anointed, and be guiltless?' David said furthermore, 'As The LORD Liveth, The LORD shall Smite him or his day shall come to die; or he shall descend into battle, and perish: The LORD Forbid that I should stretch forth mine hand against The LORD'S Anointed! But I pray thee, take thou now the spear, that is at his bolster, and the cruse of water; and let us go!' So David took the spear and the cruse of water from Saul's bolster; and they gat them away; and ne