The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Chronicles — Section 145

Saul, immediately on his accession to the kingdom, that it was saved from the cruel fate which Nahash the Ammonite intended and seemed able to inflict. When shame, grief, a tender memory of the service rendered by Saul in the days of his youth rise up within them, they resolve that, whatever risk has to be faced, whatever dan"'erous eminence their very success may make for them, they will do honour to the dead. If they cannot save his life, they can risk their own to give him a worthy burial. And so not tarrying, they rise up by night, and by the morning the dead bodies of Saul and hi~ heroic sons are in a friendly city. All the honour that can be shown is given in the decent burial and the week of fasting. The poor, spiteful triumph of the Philistines is curtailed, and the nation, beginning to sink in despondency, wakes up to feel there are still heroic spirits in its midst, that can beard the enemy even when flushed with victory. Several things are noteworthy here. I. DEATH IS NOT ALTOGETHEII. LOSS. It ended Saul's life, but it increased his influence. Yesterday criticized, censured, object of apprehension ; to-day he is revered even in his deepest failure. All now is forgotten of visitations of evil spirit, envy of David, unfortunate division which lost them the help of David in this time of their nation's need. Instead of which they remember him as he delivered Gibeon and con- quered the Philistines; how sometimes he prophesied; how no family in the land had shown itself more brave than his; how, when he was really himself, none was manlier or more generous. And now Saul, dead, takes his place once more in the heart of a nation's love. And as David forgot all his injuries to celebrate his praise, so Jabesh- cilead forgets her weakness and the absence of all help, to rise and do him honour. Mark Antony spoke wrongly when he said- .. The evil that men do lives after them ; The good is oft interred with their bones." It is the good men do lives after them, and all their faults are buried in their graves. Remember the canonizing touch of death; how it rounds off the memory of the life, softens ill feeling, lets the better nature have its proper influence over others. II. DEEDS OF KINDLY SERVICE ARE LONG REMEMBERED. It is nearly forty years since Saul had saved Jabesh-gilead from the hand of Nahash. Most of those then saved from the ignominy and mutilation which were to be the terms of capitulation, had died. It was another generation that had risen, and you would hardly have been surprised if they had felt no particular gratitude for so remote e. favour. But with all its defects, human nature ;is not so void of finer feelings as some would paint it. In estimating the deficiency of gratitude, it has to be remembered how exaggerated some- times are our estimates of service rendered, and how we exped shillings' worth of service to be requited by pounds' worth of gratitude. We must remember, too, how often the service is mixed with disservice; the graciousness of the act of help destroyed in the way of rendering it; a gift is accompanied with a scold, or with a threat, or with an intimation of the reluctance with which it is done, or with a degree of patronage that humiliates the receiver. In such cases grateful return is hardly due. The persons rendering help h:rve taken out their payment for it in self-complacency or superiority. Rut when these faults do not mar the graciousness of help, is gratitude so rare? Kindly natures, whose experience is most large, are never found complaining of ingrati- tude. They rather agree with the poet, who reports that the !(Tatitude of men bad oftener left him mourning. The true benefactors of e. nation, what gratitude invests their memory! The kiudly natured have a reward which they at least feel far surpassing all their merits. Lin an humble position, love flows forth toward them for their modest offices of neighbourly affection, they-are honoured by the confidence of men, and their character is that which their fellows copy. If in somewhat higher position, how docs the reverence and kindly feeling of a whole city invest the life of honourable kindness I Here this distant act of Saul's is remembered. And a sort of service which one would fancy would follow with soothing influence the spirit of the dead, is the beautiful fruit of their grateful recollection. Nor is this the only fruit; for you will observe that, in the subsequent history, the house of Saul has nowhere more devoted adherents than the inhabitants of Gilead. Do not fenr your good will ever be unrequited. Say neither to God nor mnn, "'l'hou art a hard master, and thercforo I bury my talent in the earth ; " for the world is froward to the froward, honournblc to tho honourable, grateful to tho 136 THE l<'IRST IlOOK m' THE CHRONICLES. [oH, x.1-14.