away from his home of plenty unfilled: but this ironhearted man, not content with the denial of David's request, added to his refusal words of contempt and mockery, reproaching David with the baseness of his condition, as though his own choice, and not the providential appointment of God, had made him an outcast and a runaway; thus adding to the severe privations of his poverty the woundings of contempt and derision.

The spirit of Nabal is still rife amongst us, and his temper and conduct that of multitudes at the present hour. Riches increase, and their hearts are set upon them, and upon the luxurious and sensual gratifications which follow in the train of wealth. They are at ease in the land, and dwell safely, unmindful that the very security of their much-loved possessions, arises from their proximity to a poor and despised company, the subjects of a prince whose sovereignty is yet in abeyance, but of whose future universal sway the sure word of prophecy hath distinctly spoken. Not many great, not many noble make common cause with the Son of David, but like the fugitives in the cave of Adullam, the needy and the outcast form, for the most part, the subjects of his rule (1 Sam. xxii. 1, 2). There is the spiritual debtor on whom the law's just claims pressed heavily, and who, when he had nothing to pay, fled to the stronghold for refuge. There is the mourner for sin, who could find no other hand skilful enough to heal the broken-hearted: and there are the children of sorrow, whose days were embittered by affliction, and who, when constrained to confess themselves strangers and pilgrims upon earth, turned to seek a better country. These, and such as these, alone are content to follow the foot

steps of Him whose kingdom "cometh not with observation," but whom they one day hope to behold reigning triumphantly in Jerusalem. This little band, though still abiding in the wilderness, is continually augmenting in numbers and strength. Meantime no visible miracle sustains them; no dew of heaven falls around their encampments, bestrewing the arid soil with radiant pearl-drops, and ministering to mortal need the food of angels. No rock is smitten to supply their thirst; but their own hands must minister to their necessities, or they must be content to receive at the hands of strangers" such things as are given." But when supplication is made at the rich man's threshold by the messengers of the Son of David, "Give, I pray thee, to the captain of our host and to his servants, that his cause may prosper, and his kingdom come"-do they not often meet with denial, and with upbraiding also? "Shall I then take my silver and my gold, and give it to men whom I know not whence they be? Shall I subtract from my luxury to forward the wild designs of those who base their hopes on the vague uncertain declarations of ambiguous prophecies; who compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and lavish a mine of wealth on a vain and fruitless chimera?" And so the rich man wraps himself in his raiment of purple, and sits down to fare luxuriously every day, leaving the cause of the Son of David to struggle on as best it may, unfostered by that mammon of unrighteousness which might well have befriended it. What matters it to him, that there are multitudes in the world's wide territory whose feet stumble upon the dark mountains, and who, looking to the land of light, eagerly exclaim, " Give us of your oil, for our lamps

are gone out." What matters it to him that there are millions perishing for lack of food, while he has enough and to spare of the bread of life, nay, while in indolent unconcern he neither gives God thanks for it himself, nor doles it out to the hungry. When the Saviour dwelt upon earth, and went about from city to city with the men of his counsel, who had left houses, and brethren, and sisters, and father and mother," that they might proclaim the gospel of the kingdom; it is recorded of "certain women," (and some of them of no mean degree,) "that they ministered to him of their substance." And wherewith would the warriors of the cross at this day, who go forth to the help of the mighty in dark and desolate places, in the waste howling wilderness, and in the wild uncultured districts of the earth, find supply for their exigencies, did not God open the heart of many an Abigail, to bring with willing speed the offering that a churlish Nabal would withhold? Yes! it is gratifying to know, that like the wise-hearted women of old, "whose heart stirred them up in wisdom,” the daughters of the Christian church have ever been foremost to offer for the service of the sanctuary; giving alms of such things as they have, and bringing down the divine blessing upon themselves and their household. "For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which ye have shewed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints and do minister. And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that ye, always having all-sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work, being enriched in every thing to all bountifulness, which causeth thanksgiving to God. For the administra

tion of this service, not only supplieth the wants of the saints, but is abundant also by many thanksgivings unto God."

"So David's young men turned and went their way, and came and told him all these sayings." The heart of David swelled high within him at the unjust and contemptuous treatment he had received. He felt the wrong done him, and felt too that he had power to avenge it: he summoned four hundred of his followers around him, and called upon his Maker to witness that the blood of Nabal and his household should pay the forfeit of his scorn and covetousness before the dawning of another day.

"And is this thy voice" David? Is this the man who when false witnesses laid to his charge things that he knew not, and heaped upon him reproach for the sake of the God of Israel, humbled his soul with fasting, and prayed for those that despitefully used him, and persecuted him, as though it had been for a friend or a brother? How was it that he who had trodden the slippery paths of honour and did not slide; whose feet never stumbled while he walked the dark valley of affliction, should, after all, hurt his foot against a stone in the way-an obstacle so small and unperceived, that one moment he thought within himself he stood, and the next was laid prostrate? It was the very meanness of the injury done him which exasperated the more the generous and elevated soul of David. He had been driven out "from the inheritance of God," by the king whom he had faithfully served; he had been forcibly separated from the wife whom he had valourously won, and from the friend whose love to him " was wonderful, passing the love of women;" he had been hunted

"as a partridge in the mountains;" had seen all who favoured his cause fall victims to the persecuting hate of Saul; and yet he possessed his soul in peace; and no deed of retaliative violence stained his hand; no wrathful word escaped his lips: but now this little injustice on the part of Nabal, moves him to expressions of ungoverned rage, and to resolutions of deliberate murder; and he, who will not injure one hair of a tyrant's head to gain a kingdom, will for the sake of a few loaves of barley-bread, devote a whole household to destruction. And this is human nature. In the greater trials of life, the soul contemplates their approach, and summons up its energies to meet them; the imagination finds solace in the greatness and importance of the objects involved, and becomes the willing adjunct of religion (if religion be there) in teaching the soul to bear its burden nobly. But in the petty disputes and contentions of human affairs, the mind is thrown off its guard, both by the suddenness and the littleness of its trials. Like the giant in the valley of Elah, it would guard itself carefully against the attacks of a more powerful adversary, but despises the small pebble, slung by a feeble hand, and so is wounded unto death. Where is the mind of any generosity which does not bear witness that it could, upon any great occasion, take joyfully the spoiling of its goods and wasting of its substance; while at the same time it is conscious of many a heart-burning on account of little over-reachings by which it was defrauded of its due; many a hasty word and retaliative deed for petty acts of injustice on the part of others with regard to its rights and privileges, or for scornful and humiliating epithets designed to throw contempt