“JONATHAN,” it is said, “spake good of David unto Saul his father, and said unto him, Let not the king sin against his servant, against David; because he hath not sinned against thee, and because his works have been to thee very good” (1 Sam. 9:44And he passed through mount Ephraim, and passed through the land of Shalisha, but they found them not: then they passed through the land of Shalim, and there they were not: and he passed through the land of the Benjamites, but they found them not. (1 Samuel 9:4)). Jonathan was a genuine man. “He delighted much in David,” it is said (19:2); and he delighted in thinking well of David. “Love,” it is written, “thinketh no evil.” Sometimes people think evil, but have more sense than to utter it, in case the utterance of it may come back in evil upon themselves: but love does not even think evil of a brother—love “covereth a multitude of sins.”
My brother! is this your way? If a good construction can be put upon another’s act, do you prefer to construe it favorably? If any one’s work is commended, does it give you as much joy to hear him commended as if you had been yourself the doer of it? Jonathan had everything to gain by fanning the flame of Saul’s envy; but no, he would not listen to his evil surmisings.
How little you must have of the love of Christ in your heart my friend, if you do not love a brother in spite of what is naturally angular and ungainly! And are you content to see good done by another? or, have you some unhappy “but” to throw in, as a drawback to his worth?