pleaded with him, after letting him escape from the cave; and he has
sworn to Saul that when he becomes king he will never cut off his
children, or destroy his name out of his father's home. Yet we find
Saul, immediately after, attacking him again out of mere caprice;
and once more falling into his hands. Abishai says--and who can
wonder?--'Let me smite him with the spear to the earth this once,
and I will not smite a second time.' What wonder? The man is not
to be trusted--truce with him is impossible; but David still keeps
his chivalry, in the true meaning of that word: 'Destroy him not,
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 go down into battle, and perish.
But the Lord forbid that I should stretch forth my hand against the
Lord's Anointed.'

And if it be argued, that David regarded the person of a king as
legally sacred, there is a case more clear still, in which he
abjures the right of revenge upon a private person.

Nabal, in addition to his ingratitude, has insulted him with the
bitterest insult which could be offered to a free man in a slave-
holding country. He has hinted that David is neither more nor less
than a runaway slave. And David's heart is stirred by a terrible
and evil spirit. He dare not trust his men, even himself, with his
black thoughts. 'Gird on your swords,' is all that he can say
aloud. But he had said in his heart, 'God do so and more to the
enemies of David, if I leave a man alive by the morning light of all
that pertain to him.'

And yet at the first words of reason and of wisdom, urged doubtless