The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Chronicles — Section 58

permits in the matter of human circumstance, character, career, have always boon many; and though their number ceases not, they maintain the quality of thei1 force. II. THERE IS A CERTAIN SINGULARITY BROUGHT TO NOTICE IN THIS VERSE. A com- parison is distiuct!y instituted. It is an invidious one. Happily, thou"h 0 invidious it is a scriptural one. "Jahez was more honourable than his brethren." It is a c~m- parison the more pronounced in that it lies within the range of one family. 'l.'he defence of it is: (1) First and in part, that it was no doubt utterly true-probably sianally 0 true. Further, (2) that there was special, practical use in giving prominence to it. It was for the good of others, not for the satisfaction of individual pride or ostentation. And (3) that the simplest statement of it, free from any flattery and any enlar<rement was ser- viceable to gain a point of great moment. That point was one on a ve~y dilfe~ent scale and of very different magnitude from any mere ordinary occasion. It brinas into relief a contrast, and a very touching contrast, between the hasty verdict of pre~ent human feeling a.nd experience, a.nd the great, irresistible purposing and doings of the Divine mind in the midst of this lower scene of things. We a.re borne on a strong current we a.re whirled round on many a.nd frequent eddyings. '!'he cry of anguish and of anger, the murmur of discontent and of doubt, often break from our lips and rise on high. This the reason thereof-that we thanklessly forget that very thing, viz. that we are borne on a. strong current, that an irresistible hand is laid upon us, and a. sovereign purpose is Lord over us. We are not told how or in what respects "Jabez wa.s more honourable than his brethren." 'l'herefore that we are told the fact without the detail, argues that a general principle is offered to our notice, a.nd we a.re invited to grasp a.ud utilize it rather than linger a.mid the interest of mere detail. III. THE SHORT-SIGHTEDNESS OF A MOTHER IS DELICATELY BUT SIGNIFICANTLY HINTED in the very verse which has stamped the honour of her son. The family-her family -is known, a.nd known for good too, by one individual of it. But that individual is the child she marked evermore and signalized as the cause of special and exceeding suffering. But how soon wa.s that suffering over! How soon was it obliterated! How little was it worthy to be compared with the exceeding joy, which, if she lived to see it, the "honourableness" of her son was sure to have given her I The suffering was that of the body, the joy was that of mind and heart. What a comment we have here upon the utterances of human lips, whether ha.sty or not, whether true to the moment or not, whether not to be wondered at or censured sternly, or the reverse, and the issues that lie with God, the event which we may live to see, a.nd which shall be found to contrast so strangely, so sharply with our old feeling, impression, anticipation, or foreboding! 'l.'he man who rescues that mother's family from oblivion, and finds it a. place on the page of the Divine Word for ever and ever, is the child named of old- Jabez. This ha.be of old, of bitterer pains than usual, must needs therefore, by a loving mother's own act, be chartered to tell to the ends of the earth the tale of her suffering, rather than to bear a. testimony to the spirit of endurance a.nd hope and tru.st that were in her. So Heaven disappoints human calculations, sometimes as much by its undeserved beneficence a.s a.t other times by its just visitations of punishment. So Divine strength a.va.ils itseif of one method of showing its perfection in human weakness. So our Father's generous eye overlooks and forgiveB the suspicion that lurks in our eye. Ver. 10 (first part).-An example C!f earnest prayer for earthly things, to be imitated. "And Jabez . . . enlarge my coast." No syllable nor whisper is heard by us of tl. e child that cost the mother so much suffering in bringing into the world, from the tirr.e that he was named till he is now arrived a.t manhood. Then he is ngain introduced with this testimony, that he is" more honourable than his brethren." 'l'he probability is that this expression does not refer exclusively to honourableness of moral and religious character. It is an equal probability, cousidering the remarkably uniform usage of the word in a favourable 6ense, and the balance of its use in even a high 6cnse, that it <loes by no means exclude these elements. The intermediate time is left to our imagina- tion to fill up. It was not like that intermediate time of our Haviour's lifo, lit up (J]!ly bv the incident of the temple an<l the discussion with the doctors, when Jesus was 1,~t twelve years of age. We are warranted in permitting imagination to depict all that iuterrnl as one continuous growth of goodness and display of spotless ho.Li- on, 1v. 1-43.] THE FIRST :COOK OF THE CHRONICLES. 49