ABIGAIL'S VISIT,

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have dealt well with my lord, then remember thy handmaid."

David was struck with the beauty and dignified aspect of the female who thus addressed him. He could not but admire the ingenuity, and feel deeply the touching eloquence of her appeal. She spoke too to his conscience, and convinced him of the folly and the guilt of seeking to gratify his resentment for the insult he had received. His reply shows that he had acted under the sudden impulse of passion, and that his sense of duty could thus be moved to regain its empire in his breast.

"Blessed be the Lord God of Israel," said he, "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." He then went on to say that as surely as the Lord lived, who had thus interposed to keep him back from the accomplishment of his purpose, if she had not hasted to meet him on his way, not a male among the attendants of Nabal would have been left alive to behold the light of the coming day.

David, after receiving from Abigail the presents which she had brought him, courteously took leave of her, telling her to go up in peace to her house, for her expostulation with him had prevailed.

On her return she found her husband in the

midst of a sumptuous feast-like the feast of a king-carousing with his guests, and in a state of deep intoxication. She was too prudent, under such circumstances, to say any thing to him of her interview with David. In the morning, when he had come to his senses, she informed him of it. He was struck with horror at his narrow escape from the catastrophe which threatened him; and the shock was so great that "his heart died within him, and he became as a stone." His malady, whatever it was, made such rapid progress, that the Lord smote him about ten days after, and he expired. It was a striking judgment, brought by divine Providence upon this besotted man, and coming upon him too as the just and natural consequence of his own meanness, folly, and wicked

ness.

The Lord knows how to overtake sinners in their iniquity, and to cause them to reap the bitter fruits of their own doings. He can easily so direct and overrule the most common events, as to make them conspire, in a sure and often wonderful manner, to accomplish the designs of his justice. Beware, my young friend, lest your sins, if not repented of and forsaken, thus overwhelm you with disgrace and ruin. They may already be ripening for this result. Be not like the foolish Nabal, but hasten, as did Abigail, to avert the impending evil.

MARRIES ABIGAIL.

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CHAPTER XV.

DAVID MARRIES ABIGAIL, AND ALSO AHINOAM. DAVID AGAIN SPARES SAUL'S LIFE, WHO BLESSES DAVID, AND RETURNS HOME. DAVID FLEES TO GATH, AND DWELLS THERE SOME TIME.

THE news of Nabal's death soon reached the ears of David, who now rejoiced more than ever that he had been restrained from imbruing his hands in the blood of one whom God himself. had thus seen fit to punish in so exemplary a manner. "Blessed be the Lord," he exclaimed, "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 wickedness of Nabal upon his own head."

Not long after this event, for such was the custom of the times, David sent a message to Abigail, to see if she would become his wife. She consented, though with much diffidence, distrusting her fitness to be the companion of one who was destined to fill so exalted a station as she knew awaited him. She arose to receive the messengers, "and bowed herself on her face to the earth, and said, Behold, let thy handmaid be a servant to wash the feet of the servants of my lord." Returning with them, accompanied by five of her female attendants, she reached the place

where David was, and with the usual marriage ceremonies they became husband and wife.

But she was not his only wife. His first wife indeed, Michal, had been given by her father Saul to Phalti, to cut off all pretensions of David to the throne. But he had still, as it would seem, another wife, Ahinoam of Jezreel, when he married Abigail. He was tolerated in this by the Mosaic law; but it was not in accordance with the original institution of the marriage relation, and was a custom which produced great evils in domestic life. The followers of Christ are taught their duty by him in this respect in the most explicit manner; and it is enjoined by an apostle, "Let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband."

How long David continued in the wilderness of Paran is uncertain, perhaps a few months, when he went again to his former haunts in the neighborhood of Ziph. The inhabitants of that city once more sent messengers to Saul at Gibeah to let him know this, and with three thousand chosen soldiers he went in pursuit of David. Coming to the hill of Hachilah, they pitched their tents, waiting for more certain intelligence with regard to the object of their search. In the meanwhile, David, who was secreting himself with his men in the retired holds of the wilderness, was informed by his spies of Saul's approach and of the place of his encampment. He came with two attendants, Abishai his nephew, and Ahimelech, a

A NIGHT VISIT.

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Hittite, to reconnoitre the spot; and got near enough, unobserved, to notice the position of Saul as he lay asleep, and also of Abner his principal commander. Waiting till the deeper darkness of the night afforded more security, David inquired which of the two would go with him into the very camp of Saul. It was a perilous adventure, and by making this inquiry he wished to ascertain on whom he could rely to attend him with a ready and unflinching courage.

Abishai immediately offered to go. They advanced cautiously to the place where Saul was sleeping; his spear being stuck in the ground by the bolster on which his head reclined, and a cruse of water near it. Abishai was eager to make a speedy use of so favorable an occasion to despatch the inveterate persecutor of David. Accosting the latter in a low tone of voice, he said, "God hath delivered thine enemy into thy 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."

"Destroy him not," whispered David: "for who can stretch forth his hand against the Lord's anointed, and be guiltless? 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 my 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."