Page:Spiritual Reflections for Every Day in the Year - Vol 2.pdf/324

 forgiveness of injuries; overcoming evil with good; recounting only the noble qualities of the deceased; and setting an example, to all future sufferers, of that true nobility of soul which forgets injuries, and only remembers benefits. But when we consider spiritually the verse before us, and, from the persons, turn to the principles and qualitics which they represented, how are we reminded of David's Lord, of Saul's sword, in the potency of Divine Truth, and of Jonathan's bow, in the application of pure and sound doctrine! We are taught that the Lord was not only the offspring, but the Root of David; and thus David is himself a type of the Lord: and here is the true cause of David's magnanimity and forbearance. As David spares Saul, so does the Lord spare us; He is indeed long-suffering, sparing when we deserve punishment, and abundant in goodness and truth. But why are Saul and his son, with their weapons of warfare, brought so prominently before the readers of the Word? Simply because Saul and Jonathan were representative characters. Saul, as king of Israel, represented the Lord in the character of Omnipotent Truth; and of him it is said, "From the fat of the mighty, the sword of Saul returned not empty." Now this sword is representative of Divine Truth, being the "sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God;" and being wielded by Saul as the king of Israel, is representative of the potency of truth making war against all evil and falsehood; for, in the spiritual sense of the Word, every enemy of Israel, or of the Lord's church, is an enemy of the Lord; and against these the sword of the Spirit will never be at rest. The fat and the mighty, will denote the quality of the church's enemies, and be