ruthless enterprise against the house of Nabal. Never does "the man after God's own heart" give clearer evidence of bis spiritual adoption and sonship, than when at the head of his armed and vengeful followers he stood self-convicted and repentant at the expostulation of a feeble woman, and burst forth into thankful praise to that God whose over-ruling providence had sent this messenger of mercy to save his soul from sin. There is no hesitation as to the line of conduct which he ought to pursue-no debate as to whether it were safe to stay his men now that their minds were bent on spoil and violence : one glance at the Great First cause, saved a world of bewildering sophisms. "The Lord hath withholden thee," said the pious Abigail, "from coming to shed blood, and from avenging thyself with thine own hand," and the lips of David responded, "blessed be the Lord God of Israel, which sent thee this day to meet me."

It is not the seemingly accidental combination of circumstances on which the mind of the believer rests, when he finds himself suddenly checked in any course on which he had unwarily entered; it is neither to the strength or weakness, wisdom or folly of the instruments employed to turn him from his purpose, on which he looks; but to the unseen hand that builds a barrier before him, and fences his way, so that he cannot pass on to his hurt. The wild and trackless elements; the mute irrational creation; the friends or enemies of God may be the means employed to do him this service, and he sees the hand of God alike in all but sweet indeed it is, when on the point of falling into one of the many pit-falls of the wilderness, we find that the arm which has been sent in mercy to uphold the sliding footstep is that of a

believing brother or sister. Then, as in the language of David, after having ascribed praise to God the Preserver, we can turn a grateful look on the human instrument, and say, "Blessed be thy advice, and blessed be thou!"

We leave the humble and repentant David on his return to "6 sojourn in Mesech, and to dwell in the tents of Kedar,” (1 Sam. xxv. i.)—to bear perchance with the scoffs and jeers of the ungodly among his followers, or to still the tumult of those who, when he 66 was for peace, made ready for battle "-while we follow Abigail on her homeward way, after having been dismissed with the fraternal benediction, •Go up in peace to thine house; see, I have hearkened to thy voice, and accepted thy person.”

There are few perhaps who have not felt the response which the aspect of external nature gives back to the heart, whether in joy or grief, in gladness or depression; so that the same scene shall be made to speak a totally different language to the soul, when viewed under different states of feeling. As Abigail and her attendants retraced their road to Maon, divested of the anxieties and fears which had attended their onset, how perfectly in unison with the joyful yet chastened sense of that great deliverance must have been the bright yet calm decline of that eventful day. Before them were the wooded heights of Hachilah, bathed in the purple of evening, and towering majestically above all the plains of Maon, so lately the lurking-place of him from whom they had just parted; the scene of his last interview with the generous and devoted Jonathan, and of his memorable deliverance from the hand of Saul. (1 Samuel xxiii. 19, 26, 27.) If Abigail's companions were

like-minded with herself, (and from the circumstance of their being so entirely at her disposal it seems probable they were,) it would not have been in silence that they pursued their peaceful way through the solitary places of the wilderness. Their late wonderful preservation from danger-the trials and vicissitudes of David, who now, since the death of the holy Samuel, dared no more to linger even in the wilds and fastnesses of his native soil, but was become an exile in the lands of the heathen-the prophecies which had gone before concerning him, and the seeming improbability of their present fulfilment ; -pity for his misfortunes-admiration of his generosity, and gratitude for his forbearance; these, and such like themes, would occupy the minds of the little party who had so courageously stood in the breach to effect the rescue of their companions. It was night when they reached Maon, and there, what a spectacle presented itself to the eyes of Abigail! Her husband was 66 very drunken". -so utterly degraded below the level of reason, that she could not even communicate to him the joyful news of his own deliverance from a bloody and violent death. If ever the sight of another's sin could lawfully move to anger, the present state of him whose mean and despicable conduct had been the cause of so much alarm and danger to the well-disposed among his household, might have excited this feeling; and such it would have assuredly produced in the natural mind. But the heart of Abigail was disciplined by divine wisdom, and filled with that charity which "beareth all things." She did not break in upon the intemperate mirth of that unholy feast with keen reproaches or resentful expostulations. She "kept

her mouth with a bridle, while the wicked were before her," and chose a more auspicious season to reason with her husband of "temperance, righteousness, and judgment to come." In the lassitude and feebleness of body which succeeds the phrenzy of intoxication, in the bright purity of the morning light which scares away the foul and delusive visions that sport in the glare of the midnight revel, the warning voice of Abigail, speaking to her unhappy husband of mercy and of judgment, was heard, and her words were "with demonstration of the spirit and of power." If it was not so, whence the extraordinary effect which they produced, when Nabal's "heart died within him, and he became as a stone?". The mere escape from his late jeopardy would not have so affected this evil and obdurate man. Many have been dragged from the very jaws of destruction, and have risen up to curse anew their preservers, and to blaspheme the name of their God. Neither was Nabal's emotion a slight and transitory impression, leaving a record of alarm and dread upon the sandy heart, to be swept away by the next wave of temptation, for "the heart of Nabal became as a stone within him:" it died to all that had power to excite or ruffle it before. Whether his was that godly sorrow which worketh repentance," or "the sorrow of the world which worketh death," cannot be gathered from the brief record which is afforded us of his last days on earth. It may be, that his eyes was now first opened to behold the folly of those who trust in "uncertain riches," who have "made gold their hope, and said to the fine gold, thou art my confidence." It may be, that in self-condemnation he now felt the woe pronounced on him "that

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buildeth his house by unrighteousness, and his chambers by wrong; that useth his neighbour's service without wages, and giveth him not for his work :" and it may be, that in the short interval of ten days, which intervened between the terror of his arrest, and his being summoned to judgment, he sought and found mercy at the hands of Him who proclaimed himself to Israel, as "the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, and forgiving iniquity, and transgression and sin:" but a curtain is drawn around that death-bed, through which we cannot penetrate to discover whether "the wicked is driven away in his wickedness," or whether the pardoned and justified sinner "hath hope in his death." Enough, however, remains for warning, for reproof, for correction and instruction in righteous

ness.

LYDIA.