2 Samuel 1:25

2 Samuel 1:25

This poem owes much of its admirableness to the fact that it combines the passionate love of country and the true love of a friend. If ever a man was born for friendship it was David the king. Once and once only during his long eventful life did he find a man he could love with the multitudinous energy of his heart; and this man was the king's son, the darling of the nation, the "beauty of the forest" they called him, as like a gazelle he bounded from crag to crag in the mountains or dashed through the thickest of the wood. The homage paid by the poet to the beauty and the strength and the glorious prowess of his friend must be supplemented by the homage we know that he paid to the noble generosity of his friend. Such was David's in memoriamto the one personal friend of his life. He delighted to think of his friend's brilliancy, his strength, his courage; he was the champion of Israel, the protector of his countrymen against the natural enemy, and now the enemy was triumphant and the young hero was slain. The poem suggests some thoughts on friendship.

I. If any one of our friends were to die to-morrow, could we find anything in him which has ennobled our life, anything worthy of the stately name of friendship? If not, if the bond was unholy or unprofitable, what shame, what grief will be ours as we think of our departed friend.

II. Let us remember that the grave is not the only teacher though it is one of the most bitter. We are able now, at this moment, while we can still grasp our friends' hands, and see them and walk with them, to see what true friendship is. Like the great Emperor Marcus Aurelius, we can tranquilly set down that we owe that to this friend, and something else to a second and a third; a kindly encouragement, a noble idea implanted, an enthusiasm, a painful duty carried out.

III. And then we can hope to be not only receptive, but to have been able to give back something which our friends have used well. Such a satisfaction as this is worth living for and worth praying for.

H. M. Butler, Contemporary Pulpit,vol. v., p. 99.

Reference: 2 Samuel 1:25. A. P. Stanley, Good Words,1873, p. 641.