Blessed be ye of the Lord, that ye have shewed this kindness unto your lord, even unto Saul. — 2 Sam 2:5
We must remember how Saul had treated David, hunting him among the hills as if he had been a wild beast. Yet David never showed any resentment. Twice, at least, he had spared Saul’s life, when the king was in his power. Through all those days of bitter experience, David’s heart remained loving, free from resentment and bitterness.
When Saul died, David’s grief expressed itself in an elegy full of tender feeling. Now, when he learned of the honor shown by the people of Jabesh–gilead to Saul’s body, his heart was gladdened, and he was deeply grateful.
All this is evidence of a magnanimous spirit. It is the very spirit which Jesus commended, a thousand years later, as that which belongs to the kingdom of heaven.
The problem of true living is to keep the heart always sweet, and always to have warmth within, whatever the weather without. “Always keep sweet and go on shining,” is a good motto.