e wife of David, and shares his fortunes and
his dangers in the wilderness.

Now, what may we learn from this story? Surely what David learnt--the
unlawfulness of revenge. David was to be trained to be a perfect king by
learning self-control, and therefore he has to learn that he must not
punish in his own quarrel. If he must not lift up his hand against Saul,
on the ground of loyalty, neither must he lift up his hand against Nabal,
on the deeper ground of justice and humanity.

But from whom did David learn this? From himself. From his own heart
and conscience, enlightened by the Spirit of God. Abigail gave him no
commandment from God, in the common sense of the word. She only put
David in mind of what he knew already. She appeals to his known
nobleness of mind, and takes for granted that he will hear reason--takes
for granted that he will do right--and so brought him to himself again.
The Lord was withholding him, she says, from coming to shed blood, and
avenging himself with his own hand. But that would have been of no avail
had there not been something in David's own heart which answered to her
words. For the Spirit of God had not left David; and it was the Spirit
of God which gave him nobleness of heart--the Spirit of God which made
him answer, "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel who sent thee this day to
meet me; and blessed be thy advice, and blessed be thou which hast kept
me this day from shedding of blood."

Though Abigail did not pretend to bring a message from God, David felt
that she had brought one. And she was in his eyes not merely a suppliant
pleading for mercy, but a prophetess declaring to him a divine law which
he dare not resist. "It has been said by them of old time," our blessed
Lord tells us, "an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth; thou shalt
love thy neighbour and hate thine enemy." This is the first natural law
which a savage lays down for himself. There is a rude sense of justice
in it, mixed up with the same brute instinct of revenge which makes the
wild beast turn in rage upon the hunter who wounds him. But our Lord
Jesus Christ brings in a higher and more spiritual law. Punishment is to
be left to the magistrate, who punishes in God's name. And where the law
cannot touch the wrongdoer, God, who is the author of law, can and will
punish. "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord." Yes! if
punishment must be, then let God punish. Let man forgive. I say unto
y