“And David sent and communed with Abigail.”
THIS whole picture of Abigail shows how God hides things from the wise and prudent, and reveals them unto babes. How else did she know that David was the Lord’s anointed, that the anointing oil had been poured upon his head? To all outward appearance David was despised and rejected, in sore want in the wilderness, without a home, and without a kingdom. How did she know that his house was “a sure house,” and that though now in rejection he was yet to reign in a kingdom of his own? Even David himself, it would seem, kept it a secret. Some vessels, as another has said, have to hide as well as to hold their treasure, as Joseph did before he made himself known to his brethren, and as the Lord now does before a world ignorant of Him. David seems to have veiled his glory till this daughter of Israel, by faith, had owned it. But well did she know it, and by faith treasured it up in her heart. She believed in the Lord’s anointed one. She knew that after his present sufferings there would be the glory. And how do we know but as God hath revealed to us by His Spirit? “for the Spirit searcheth all things, even the deep things of God.” Blessed knowledge―the knowledge of God, of Christ! Oh, to what a height of wonder are we raised when God’s own knowledge, His own exhaustless mind, has been communicated to us Vessels are we of His ways, His thoughts. How has He disclosed to us the secrets of coming days―His judgments on the earth, His purposes in Christ, of grace here, of glory hereafter.
Let us now, for a little, pursue this history. “David was in the wilderness” ―cut off for the present from receiving anything as to his kingdom― “when he heard that Nabal did shear his sheep.” Nabal signifies “folly,” or “fool” ―suggestive of his character, which answered to his name; for though his was a wealthy place, he was mean and selfish, and knew not his true interest, as indicated by his reply to the messengers of David.
How different was it with Abigail! ―her name signifying “gift of the father,” which truly she was. For who gave her to David? and at such a time when, as we shall see, she was beyond all price to him; for was she not his solace in trouble, yea, partner with him of his sorrows, and then exalted to reign with him in his kingdom, and to share his glory? Suggestively, we are the “gift of the Father.” You remember Him who hath said, “Those whom Thou gavest Me have I kept.” Ah! who of us can tell the value of the Church to Christ, and at such a time when in His foreknowledge He saw His rejection, yea, saw that as Messiah He was cut off, and, as to His kingdom, received nothing. Crucified, cut off from the kingdom by men, but received by God into heaven, He is there our Head; and we who own Him in this the day of His rejection are members together of His body, being of His flesh and of His bones.
Say, do we, as believers, enter into our place thus? Are we happy in that love of His in which we specially are, and from which nothing can separate?
Abigail, moreover, we are told, was a woman of “good understanding;” she had divine knowledge. She knew David was the Lord’s anointed; and although for the present it was all dark, yet that he would have the morning without clouds―that soon he would ascend to honor, happy and blessed, coming in his kingdom. “We,” suggestively again, “have the mind of Christ” (1 Cor. 2:1616For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ. (1 Corinthians 2:16)). We know who and what He is. We know Him as one who is despised by the world, but loved by the Father. The long night which hangs over His path as Messiah does not prevent our seeing the day which is at hand. We know His purposes; we know His patient, long-suffering grace; we know His plans. Are they not all here in His Word? And are we not thereby made partakers with Him of His knowledge, having the anointing, an unction from the Holy One, whereby we know all things.
Besides this, Abigail “was of a beautiful countenance.” For the most part all the brides of Scripture are represented as beautiful. Fair, lovely is she of the Canticles. Rebekah “was fair, comely to look upon.” Lovely beyond all telling is that golden Salem―New Jerusalem, the Lamb’s Wife, the True Bride. The Church in the glory will be all perfectness; for the Lord will present us to Himself without spot or wrinkle. There will be no spot; that is, there will be no sin, no assoilment, no tears. And there will be no wrinkle; that is, there will be no mark of age, no decay. The angel on the morning of the resurrection, sitting in the tomb of Jesus, seen by the disciples as “a young man,” was doubtless ages of ages old! How significant of our own wondrous, eternal Life amid the eternal years! Beautiful! glorious!―undecaying life! undecaying strength! No marvel, forecasting such a state, He who loves us is not ashamed to call us brethren. And why not ashamed? Is it that lie condescends to what is poor or mean? No indeed! It is because He who sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one. We shall be invested with His own perfectness, conformed to His own image; with nothing more for Him to desire, nothing more to be added, all being according to His own wisdom, His own love. Say, Do we indeed understand this? Are we in the sweet sanctifying power of this? Do we, sometimes at least, look at our true selves as from all eternity Christ has seen us in and like Himself? Do we forecast the happy, glorious consummation? For all, as to our personal glory, will be consummated in resurrection, when we who have borne the image of the earthly, shall also bear the image of the heavenly!
“Then we shall be what we should be;
Then we shall be where we would be;
Things which are not now, nor could be,
Then will be our own.”
Truly there was a sweetness, a preciousness, in such knowledge as Abigail’s. And there is a sweetness and preciousness in our knowledge of the Lord’s anointed. She had come to know the value of David. Often might she have said, her soul being in fellowship with the Lord’s mind, “Others do not know, but I know.” She knew that his house would be a sure house. How or by what means she knew is not said. Had she been among the daughters who sang “Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands?” or did she know, through a personal intercourse with the prophet Samuel. David had no attractions for Nabal. Few knew as Abigail knew. Her heart, doubtless, was with those who were with him in the wilderness. These few had cast in their lot with David, and preferred being homeless, in a mere cave with him, than being with Saul in his palace. They would rather suffer with him than reign without him. How it all personates the greater than David, who is rejected, despised, and for the present distant from His kingdom, having gone to a far country to receive it, and whose glory accordingly is not yet! David, as we have said, veiled his glory until this daughter of faith had owned it. Till then she had locked it up as a treasure in her heart, even as a jewel in a casket, which, when revealed to David, was, to change the figure, a cup of joy, refreshing to his lips. I must repeat it, there was a sweetness, a preciousness, in such knowledge as Abigail’s! Favored Abigail! Yea, favored thus are all His saints. Blessed Christ! The world knoweth Thee not, but we know Thee. Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. Oh, how sweet to His heart, which beats with deepest love to us, to know that thus “the secret of the Lord [His own secret] is with them that fear Him!” (Psa. 25:1414The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him; and he will show them his covenant. (Psalm 25:14)).
You will observe, Abigail does not open this treasured casket to Nabal. What was treasure to her was, in his esteem, fit only to be despised. She could have no fellowship with him as to the Lord’s anointed. There can be no fellowship between Christ and Belial; for whatsoever is not of the Father is of the world. She could readily reveal all to David; she could tell all to him. Think what a solace such a one was to David. Think of her faith and joy in forecasting the hour of his coming glory; the letting out, so to speak, the secret of her heart to him, telling him of the “sure house,” and his being ruler over Israel. Oh, how one covets this heart for the Lord which Abigail had for David!―the keeping of the secret for the time, when being told out was greatest joy conceivable, as it gave promise of greatest glory to David. Observe how he held her in his heart ever after; nay, how it was the way for her to his heart, to his home, and to his throne. Who told her? he might have said; how did she know? “The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him.”
How all this is applicable to us, we understand; for of such secret is our communion with Him whose glory is not yet. Often is it a cup of joy to Him, the forecasting in our hearts the time when He will reign, the time when His house will be the one great reigning house, to rule over all, blessed for evermore. Abigail was, as to Nabal’s house, in the scene of abundance and of worldly greatness; but whenever she thought of David it was of one who for the present was rejected of men. And even after Nabal’s death, in being outwardly joined to David, she had to leave her position in the wealthy place, and go down with him into the wilderness. But whether in her wealthy place, or when with David in the wilderness, the secret of her heart was what David liked.
See now how different as to this picture is it between David and Nabal. “And David sent out ten young men; and David said unto the young men, Get you up to Carmel, and go to Nabal, and greet him in my name: and thus shall ye say to him,... Peace be both to thee, and peace be to thine house, and peace be unto all that thou hast. And now I have heard that thou hast shearers: now thy shepherds which were with us, we hurt them not, neither was there ought missing unto them, all the while they were in Cannel. Ask the young men, and they will show thee. Wherefore let the young men find favor in thine eyes; for we come in a good day: give, I pray thee, whatsoever cometh to thine hand unto thy servants, and to thy son David.”
What a day was this for Nabal! a day of no ordinary opportunity, a day for laying up a good foundation for the time of David’s glory. It was a day meet for one who was a descendant of the house of Caleb, which Nabal was. But he knew not David; he knew not the anointed one. He had to ask, “Who is David? and who is the son of Jesse? there may be many servants nowadays that break away every man from his master” (1 Sam. 25:1010And Nabal answered David's servants, and said, Who is David? and who is the son of Jesse? there be many servants now a days that break away every man from his master. (1 Samuel 25:10)). Thus he rejected David; he rejected his message; he rejected the messengers. Their way of peace and the time of his opportunity were alike hidden from his eyes. He knew not the time of his visitation. Alas for Nabal alas for all who reject the Gospel For this is the way the Gospel comes to the sinner, and is presented for his acceptance, “Peace be to thee.” And it is God who presents peace; not God as a Judge, but God as a Saviour. Yet in a sense even as a Judge can He speak peace. For how wonderful―I often meditate how since the cross we can rest as well in His justice as in His grace. And why? Because as Judge He has nothing more to judge or to impute to us. He passed the punishment due to us upon Christ. So as Judge He says, I have no more charge. Sin has been punished; sins are put away; nay, are forgotten, no more to be remembered forever! As a righteous Judge, He can receive all who believe. What grace! what love! Instead of judgment, peace. He loved the sinner, would have the sinner in His presence, saved, happy, holy, blessed there. But He could not have him in his sins; these were all judged in Christ, and instead of sins, PEACE. But alas! how often, Nabal-like, does the sinner reject this peace! Note, if Nabal had but received peace at the hand of the young men, and ministered to. David in his rejection, he might have sat with him in his kingdom. Like Nabal, man still rejects the only opportunity he will ever have of ministering to Him who is now despised and rejected; but who, by and by, will come and inherit the kingdom. Oh, who does not take a melancholy interest in Nabal? And who with a love for souls does not take the same in the Christ-rejecting sinner? It wanted the anointed eye to see what Nabal did not see, but which Abigail saw, and kept as a jewel of preciousness in the casket of her believing heart; namely, that David was the anointed of the Lord.
To the sinner we can say, the Gospel now comes to you just as these ten men came to Nabal. Eternal happiness is presented in Christ Jesus. One look at HIM, one confiding look, and pardon, peace, life, light, and heaven, are yours! See that you reject not this Gospel as Nabal did the messengers of David! The Lord bring you to a knowledge of yourself, a condemned, lost sinner! And the Lord bring you to a knowledge of Him, who is love―God is love―and of Christ, who died for you; so that you need not die, need not be lost. How happy thus to know God, to know Christ, for this is life eternal, to know Him “the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom He hath sent.”
But the world does not know. Just as Nabal answered, “Who is David?” so the world is ignorant of Christ, blind as to His beauty, saying, “What’s the good?” turning their back madly upon that which alone can satisfy the heart and save from everlasting misery. And yet (for this is of present moment) how near is the knowledge of God to every one of us. If Nabal had only gone to Abigail, he might have known even as she did; and from how much would he have been delivered. But he remained ignorant of David; and being ignorant, rejected his messengers.
Now mark the selfishness of the world, the selfishness which characterized Nabal through all his history, when he speaks of “my bread, my water, my flesh, my shearers.” All self, self, self. Thus it is with man. Self his center, self his aim, self his end. God is not in all his thoughts. It is all self. What shall I eat, or what shall I drink, or wherewithal shall I be clothed? It is not God, not Christ, he wants, but the indulgence of self, the world, its desires and its pleasures. And alas! with what result, for here indeed the true darkness of this picture now begins.
“So David’s young men turned, and went again, and told David also those sayings.” They turned, they went again; but not as they had come. They came with a message; they went back rejected. Oh, I repeat it, what a lost opportunity, and how dreadful! how dreadful for sinners! how dreadful for the world! for we know that Christ will yet reign. But He will judge first, when those who refused Him must give an account. At the now despised name of Jesus, when this day of grace is past, every knee shall bow; every eye shall gaze on Him whom they have pierced. Now are His saints a wall of protection to the world, a wall which keeps back the tide of desolation, that which “lets” and hinders the coming indignation. These men were a wall of protection to Nabal. As long as they were with him, there was no sudden destruction. Thus in this present time the Church is the light of the world; once taken away, the world will be left in darkness. The Church too is the salt of the earth; but take away the salt, and all will culminate in corruption; and “then cometh the end,” yea, “sudden destruction cometh upon them, and they shall not escape”(1 Thess. 5:33For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. (1 Thessalonians 5:3)). Meanwhile Abigail intercedes. There is yet a space in which God can be dealt with in behalf of the world before destruction.
“Then Abigail made haste, and took two hundred loaves, and two bottles of wine, and five sheep ready dressed, and five measures of parched corn, and an hundred clusters of raisins, and two hundred cakes of figs, and laid them on asses. And she said unto her servants, Go on before me; behold, I come after you. But she told not her husband Nabal.” As we have already said, no fellowship could she have with him. He knew not the value of David; his eye was not on the coming glory of the Lord’s anointed; he was ignorant of what was the treasure of Abigail’s heart. Nabal was churlish, and evil, and rejectful in his doings.
Abigail now meets David. “And, behold, David and his men came down against her; and she met them.” Like as it was with Rebekah and Isaac, you can never go out to meet your beloved Lord, but He comes to meet you. “And when Abigail saw David, she hasted, and lighted off the ass, and fell before David on her face, and bowed herself to the ground, and fell at his feet, and said, Upon me, my lord, upon me let this iniquity be; and let thine handmaid speak in thine audience, and hear the words of thine handmaid.” Mark how she approaches him, and calls him “my lord.” What! David a fugitive, an outcast, and yet “my lord?” She had long since known him as lord, and now her eye seeth him. See how preciously she shows her estimate of him! “This blessing,” she says, “which thine handmaid hath brought unto my lord, let it even be given to the young men which follow my lord.” “The blessing” must be “for the young men that follow him.” Her love for them was great, because of her love for him? We know Him who hath said, “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these, ye have done it unto Me” (Matt. 25:4040And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. (Matthew 25:40)).
Mark how the treasure is being unfolded, and how she revealed David to himself. She showed that the long, long night which hung over his pathway had not prevented her from discerning in him one whom the Lord had chosen. Taught by him, she was not of the night, but of the day, and saw clearly that the time was at hand, and the morning for him would be without clouds. Ah, willingly, how one lingers over and over again upon this! She had made him, in her own retirement, the deep theme of her meditative heart. It was only such as Abigail could understand David. And it is only a Christian indeed, an anointed one, who can understand the true David. It is only one taught by the Word who can know the secret of His long rejection, or, by the eye of faith, penetrate into the day of His coming glory.
But imagine David needing an intercessor, such a me as Abigail. No type can ever be as the antitype. She was as a babe in her own estimation, yet how timely are her words! How they “fall as oil on the troubled and revengeful heart of David!” She reminded him that a day of vengeance would assuredly come; but that grace now became him as one whom the Lord has so signally blessed. She told him that he souls of his enemies should finally be slung out as in the middle of a sling, but that his soul should bound in the bundle of life with the Lord his God. How beautiful, how timely are her words, “And it shall come to pass, when the Lord shall have done to my lord according to all the good that He hath spoken concerning thee, and shall have appointed thee ruler over Israel, that this shall be no grief unto thee, nor offense of heart unto my lord, either that thou hast shed blood causeless, or that my lord hath avenged himself; but when the Lord shall have dealt well with my lord, then remember thine handmaid!” One can almost hear, from the lips that uttered these words, the rehearsal of that sweet utterance on the cross, “Lord, remember me when Thou comest into Thy kingdom” (Luke 23:4242And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. (Luke 23:42)). For she knew he had a kingdom. She knew he would come to that kingdom. She knew that then his joy would be full. And what faith she exercised in her own connection with that joy― “When the Lord shall have dealt well with my lord, then remember thine handmaid!” And do you not see that as the utterance on the cross was a cup of joy to the Lord in the moment of His rejection and death, so these words, spoken by this daughter of faith, must have been a solace to the rejected one of Israel?
Little did she know how he would remember her; how that already her words had made a way for her into his heart―into the joy of him whose kingdom it was. And now as David heard her words, anger faded from his mind. He said: “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, 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 hands.” How beautiful! this woman of meekness taking the place of counselor, and now getting such recompense for her faith. Truly, “the meek will He teach His way.” Here indeed was reward for Abigail, a recompense of blessing, to be ever after a solace in her heart of sorrow. How true is it that “provision for the heart is the dearest thought we can entertain;” and this provision lies deep down in our own hearts now. Jesus is now the rejected One, and it is sweet to own Him, sweet to tell of Him! But this same Jesus is soon coming in glory. He is not long to be without His kingdom. Oh, how we shall love to own Him as King of kings, and Lord of lords! Then every eye shall see Him. We shall be “eye-witnesses of His majesty,” and one with Him in His glory! We shall reign with Him, yea, sit down with Him on His throne, as He is now seated on the Father’s throne. Bright, glorious moment of manifestation when our Lord Jesus shall be owned by all, seen by all, loved by all, when there will be no more death, but this “corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, and the saying shall be brought to pass which is written, Death is swallowed up in victory!”
Note here especially how the charm of David’s character was, that he left all with God. Blessed example for Christians! to whom is the word, “Avenge not yourselves” (Rom. 12:1919Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord. (Romans 12:19)). He did not avenge himself of Saul. To have done so with Nabal would have been a blot on his name. It was to prevent this that Abigail interposed.
“So David received of her hand that which she had brought him, and said unto her, Go up in peace to thine house: see, I have hearkened to thy voice, and have accepted thy person.” Having ministered in her intercession to David, fruit of her love to him, and because she knew the secret of him which had been hid from others, she now retires to the place of her sorrows again. But for all her ministry David had ministered blessing in return. Sweet words! How they lingered on her ears― “Go up in peace!” David had hearkened to her voice, had accepted her person, and had spoken to her of peace. Precious truth! when the sinner owns Jesus as Lord, the person is accepted, the countenance comely; he is “accepted in the Beloved” (Eph. 1:66To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. (Ephesians 1:6)), and truly this is peace.
But judgment, though long in coming, would be sure. “And Abigail came to Nabal; and, behold, he held a feast in his house, like the feast of a king; and Nabal’s heart was merry within him, for he was very drunken: wherefore she told him nothing, less or more, until the morning light.” Dark and dreadful is the shadow which falls upon our history here. The night of the feast had passed, and the day come, when Abigail must tell him of David. To find that the rejected David is both lord and judge, was anguish to Nabal. The whirl of pleasure was now past. Well do we know that its joy gives no satisfaction, it only intoxicates! Nabal was merry― he was “very drunken.” Soon the night of the world’s intoxication will be past! soon its pleasures will be gone―gone forever! Its last glow-worm glimmer will go out as the day of eternity breaks over the lost. Awake, O sleeper the night is far spent; surely it is high time for thee to awake! Eternity cometh! The soul and conscience will then be laid bare before the all-searching, all-seeing eye. When that wonderful “morning without clouds” shall arise, and others shall give thanks for their great deliverance, every Nabal-like heart will quail and perish forever. There is no wine in hell no cheerfulness, no surfeiting in hell! Alas for the sinner! there will be no loss of reason, no forgetfulness in hell! What a future! Oh, that men would consider, ere it be too late, and the cry is heard, “The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and I, am not saved!” (Jer. 8:2020The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved. (Jeremiah 8:20)). Think, ye worldlings, the night of your pleasures will soon be at an end, and then the first glimpse of the Son of Man in His majesty and glory will take hold upon you as pain upon a woman with child, and you shall not escape; your hearts, like the heart of Nabal, will become as a stone! For “his heart died within him, and he became as a stone; the Lord smote Nabal, that he died” ―smote him where he was, and just as he was. It will be living beings on this earth, when the Lord comes, who will go down as they are, alive, into hell. Those who have not trusted Jesus, but have rejected Him, will be cast into that lake of fire alive. “This world will be caught in its living action by the appearance of Christ, caught in its advancement and progress, saying, ‘Peace, peace!’ Men will be arrested by the coming of Christ whilst in their occupations, their pursuits, their vices, their sins; and when once the thunders of His approach roll around this world, there will be no hope, no Gospel, no escape for those who have heard of Jesus, have had their Bibles and neglected them, saying, ‘Tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow! A little more of the world, a little more of self-indulgence, a little more present thing!” Oh, terrible manifestation! dreadful day There will be no deception then. It will be sudden destruction! It will be wrath and fiery indignation―it will be the wrath of God; yea, the dreadful and eternal wrath of the Lamb!
Suggestively, it will be after the day of vengeance that He will comfort those that mourn. It was after Nabal was dead that now Abigail becomes united to David. Suggestively again, it is when the world, and self, and our own wills, and our vile flesh, have all, as it were, died―lie in abeyance, mortified―that our souls find such rest in Jesus. Here begins the true blessedness of Abigail. She is become David’s bride; to be with him over that “sure house” of which she had so beautifully spoken. In this he told out to her the measure of his love, and in this we see the joy of relationship which, as in the Song of Solomon, entitles to fullest love. She has no longer to say, “Oh, that he were my brother!” He is more. He is her beloved. She is now his beloved―a partner first of his sorrows, and then subsequently with him on his throne. But her sorrows were those she had never known, but for David. Her joys too, in like manner, were because of him. Abigail can now leave all for David. A change had come over her lot, her affections, as with Paul when he could count all as dross for Christ; and as with those now who can sing―
“Sweet hope! we leave without a sigh
A blighted world like this,
To bear the cross, despise the shame,
For all that weight of bliss.”
And if we suffer with Him, we shall reign with Him; if we suffer with Him, we shall be glorified together. Co-sufferers, co-heirs, co-glorified, are the wondrous words by which we are designated in Paul’s letter to the Romans. Thus in principle was it with this child of faith. Hence it was that she could count all her own loss, in leaving her wealthy place in the house of Nabal, as nothing, compared with her gain. She could join herself to David while in his rejection. And she would take the lowest place. What I his spouse, his beloved, does she speak of herself thus? “Behold,” she says, “let thine handmaid be a servant to wash the feet of the servants of my lord.” Love can do anything for its object. The Lord Himself, in His love, is as one who serves. Though it seems the lowest, it is the very highest place a child of God can take; “for whosoever among you would be chiefest, let him be servant of all” (Mark 10:4444And whosoever of you will be the chiefest, shall be servant of all. (Mark 10:44)). Thus the thoughts of her heart were not on herself, but on David. And yet how little she knew, though he knew, what would be her glory, and how all this would be seen when seated with him in his kingdom; like as it was with another, the half had not been told her. Such honor have all His saints. It ought to teach us that these hearts of ours should be jealous, not for our own, but for His glory. Now the desires of her heart, all her foreknowledge of David, all her delight in his person, character, and ways were met; yea, far more than met, when, like another Rebekah, she hasted, and “went after the messengers of David, and became his wife.” The sweet thought drawn from the love of David comes to my mind in the words of one, who is now with the Lord: “God’s capabilities of patience are seen not so much in His abstaining from ridding Himself of His enemies as in keeping silence as to the revelation of His love. Should not we, if we loved anyone with the infinitesimal part of His love for us, desire, yea, long, to disclose to its object the passion of our heart? What a moment will that be when, robed in honor and glory, worthy of Himself and His house, the long-loved ones will be His forever! What a moment when He will present us faultless in the presence of His glory with exceeding joy!”
Blessed portion have we with Him by and by. Our cup of love will be full from His own hand, a cup of love from His own lips; for every sight of His love in those wounds which will remain unworn away throughout that bright and long “forever,” will inspire afresh our own. And then we shalt be forever holy, forever restful, forever happy, forever satisfied. How free then from the evil and restless will! how free from the vile flesh, from what Bunyan calls this “villain self!” Oh, for more and more of that sweet value of the Person of Jesus, which Abigail had for David; then what a surprise! How his grace overwhelmed her!