33<\/strong>. lamented<\/em> ] See note on ch. 2Sa 1:17<\/span>.<\/p>\n Died Abner as a fool dieth<\/em> ] Lit. As dies a fool should Abner die<\/strong>? Was this ignoble death, befitting a fool, to be the fate of so brave a warrior?<\/p>\n Lamented – <\/B>i. e. composed and sang the funeral dirge which follows (compare 2Sa 1:17<\/span>).<\/P> Died Abner … – <\/B>i. e. The great and noble and valiant Abner had died as ignobly and as helplessly as the meanest churl!<\/P><\/p>\n 2Sa 3:33<\/span><\/p>\n Died Abner as a fool dieth?<\/em><\/p>\n <\/em><\/p>\n The fools death<\/strong><\/p>\n There are two or three different renderings of our text. Some take it thus–Died Abner as a wicked man? And then the answer is, No, he did not. He fell by the foul hand of deliberate and deceitful murder. Others render the text–Shall Abner die like a fool? That is, Shall he be unpitied? Shall his fall be unsung? Shall his murder be unrevenged? There is a good deal to show for this rendering; because David, directly afterward, pronounces an awful imprecation on the house of Joab. But the third rendering, which we prefer, and which we shall take, is the one which we have here in our text: Died Abner as a fool dieth? That is, Can it be true that such a man as Abner, with all his mental power and all his martial prowess–can it be true that Abner, of all men, died like a fool? The next verse, you will see, explains the reference. His hands free, his feet, unfettered, and yet Abner the warrior falls down before the spear of Joab. Died Abner as a fool dieth? I think we may generally take for granted that in young manhood there is always a love of honest dealing. In fact, if any one who calls himself a man objects to plain, straightforward dealing, the sooner he changes his name the better. Surely no young man in his senses here will differ from us in the statement that no matter how successful a man may be in many aspects, yet his life is an utter failure if at the end he dies a fools death. We recognize the fact that die we must. And I take it that, a true young man would far sooner face a fact like this, and would far sooner hear the preacher boldly deal with it, than attempt the foolish task of escaping an unpleasant subject by not referring to it. What was the mark of folly about Abners death?<\/p>\n Verse 33<\/span>. The king lamented over Abner<\/B><\/I>] This lamentation, though short, is very pathetic. It is a high strain of poetry; but the measure<\/I> cannot be easily ascertained. Our own translation may be measured thus: – <\/P> Died Abner as a fool dieth?<\/P> Thy hands were not bound,<\/P> Nor thy feet put into fetters.<\/P> As a man falleth before the wicked.<\/P> So hast thou fallen!<\/P> <\/P> Or thus: –<\/P> <\/P> Shall Abner die<\/P> A death like to a villain’s?<\/P> Thy hands not bound,<\/P> Nor were the fetters to thy feet applied.<\/P> Like as one falls before the sons of guilt,<\/P> So hast thou<\/I> fallen!<\/P> He was not taken away by the hand of justice<\/I>, nor in battle<\/I>, nor by accident<\/I>: he died the death of a culprit by falling into the hands of a villain.<\/P> <\/P> This song was a heavy reproof to Joab; and must have galled him extremely, being sung by all the people.<\/P> <\/p>\n i. e. As a wicked man; for such are oft called <\/P> fools<\/B> in Scripture. Was he cut off by the hands of justice for his crimes? Nothing less; but by Joabs malice and treachery. Or did he die by his own folly, because he had not wisdom or courage to defend himself? Ah, no. The words may be thus rendered: Shall<\/I> or should Abner die like a fool<\/I>, or a vile contemptible person<\/I>? i.e. unregarded, unpitied, unrevenged; as fools or vile persons die, for whose death none are concerned. Or, How is Abner dead like a fool<\/I>! pitying his mischance. It being honourable for a great man and a soldier to fight, if met with by an enemy, and not (having his arms at liberty) stand still like a fool to be killed, without making any resistance or defence; which, by this treachery of Joab, happened to be his case. <\/P> <\/p>\n 33, 34. the king lamented overAbner<\/B>This brief elegy is an effusion of indignation as much asof sorrow. As Abner had stabbed Asahel in open war [2Sa2:23<\/span>], Joab had not the right of the Goel. Besides, he hadadopted a lawless and execrable method of obtaining satisfaction (seeon 1Ki 2:5<\/span>). The deed was an insultto the authority, as well as most damaging to the prospects of theking. But David’s feelings and conduct on hearing of the death,together with the whole character and accompaniments of the funeralsolemnity, tended not only to remove all suspicion of guilt from him,but even to turn the tide of popular opinion in his favor, and topave the way for his reigning over all the tribes more honorably thanby the treacherous negotiations of Abner.<\/P><\/p>\n And the king lamented over Abner<\/strong>,…. Delivered an elegy or funeral oration, which he had composed on this occasion, as Josephus u suggests: for he had cried and wept before, but now he expressed something as follows:<\/p>\n and said, died Abner as a fool dieth<\/strong>? the meaning of the interrogation is, he did not; the Targum is<\/p>\n “did Abner die as wicked men die?”<\/p>\n no, he did not; he did not die for any wickedness he had been guilty of; he did not die as a malefactor, whose crime has been charged and proved in open court, and sentence of condemnation pronounced on him righteously for it; but he died without anything being laid to his charge, and much less proved, and without judge or jury; he was murdered in a clandestine, insidious, and deceitful manner; so the word “fool” is often taken in Scripture for a wicked man, especially in the book of Proverbs; the Septuagint version leaves the word untranslated,<\/p>\n “died Abner according to the death of Nabal?”<\/p>\n no; but it could hardly be thought that David would mention the name of any particular person on such an occasion.<\/p>\n u Ut supra. (Antiqu. l. 7. c. 1. sect. 6.)<\/p>\n <\/span>DYING LIKE A FOOL<\/strong><\/p>\n 2Sa 3:33<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n THERE are two occasions when we are in sympathy with the claims of Scripture that David was a man after Gods own heart. The one is when we read his penitential psalms and hear him pour out his soul in confession of sin, and pleading for pardon, restoration to Divine favor, and the return of religious joy and spiritual power. Infidelity points to Davids sinful relations with Bathsheba, and his murderous disposal of Uriah and asks, Is that your man after Gods own heart? Christianity points to the fifty-first Psalm and says, No! But there on his knees, confessing his faults, and begging forgiveness, and promising faithfulness, is our man after Gods own heart! And Christianity is right. The meanest hour of a mans life can never be a just measure of a mans soul. The noblest hour is much nearer such a measure.<\/p>\n Again, we appreciate that David is a man after Gods own heart when we read how he treats his enemies. There is no better basis of judgment for a man than his temper toward enemies furnishes. The basest men and women can be kindly toward their friends and show them some generosity; but when you find a man who is just and generous toward his enemies you have found one in whom the Spirit of God is.<\/p>\n In his treatment of Saul David, discovered a soul as generous and great as Sauls was small, sneaking and despicable. In his relations with rebellious Absalom he never forgot a fathers love, and preferred death to himself rather than harm to this son who sought his throne and life. And now in dealing with Abner, how free from hatred and revenge and advantage? In that, he was like God, who when manifest in Christ never rejoiced over His defeated enemies. Joseph Parker was right in saying of Christ, We cannot point to a single instance in which He was glad when evil befell His foes. It was Davids greater Son who said, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;<\/em> and David himself showed his greater soul in the practice of that noble precept.<\/p>\n But we turn from the man to his words. They are his lament over the murder of an enemy; and they are full of suggestion to all who foolishly expose themselves to destruction, And the king lamented over Abner, and said, Died Abner as a fool dieth?<\/em><\/p>\n We learn some things from the Kings speech.<\/p>\n BE AFRAID OF THE MAN WHO IS TOO FAMILIAR<\/strong><\/p>\n He is often flattering you to stab you. I used to know a certain professor who when he wanted to say some of the sharpest things to students who had displeased him, paved the way by some smooth and pretty speeches. I have known not a few men in business who flattered their fellows into becoming customers, and fleeced them afterward. I have known the saloon, gambling den, and bagnio, emissaries of the devil, to employ the same method, under the pretense of love, to effect the downfall of the fools that trusted them. Truly Shakespeare was right when he put into Othellos lips this language:<\/p>\n When devils will their blackest sins put on,<\/em><\/p>\n They do suggest, at first, with heavenly shows;<\/p>\n and right again when he makes Banquo to say:<\/p>\n And oftentimes, to win us to our harm,<\/em><\/p>\n The instruments of darkness tell us truths,<\/p>\n Win us with honest trifles, to betray us,<\/p>\n In deepest consequences.<\/p>\n At the Chicago Worlds Fair there was a striking picture entitled, Temptation. A young man of lustful look leaned over the edge of a great stone and whispered love into her young ear who sat on a stone projection just below him. His meaner motive was masked by the pretense of honest affection, but the artist had interpreted all by the pictured serpent that twisted itself about the limbs of each; and so binding them together, had drawn back its head and raised its fangs and stood ready at the instant she yielded, to strike deadly venom into her veins. When we think of the fiends incarnate who flatter our young men and women, pretending friendship and love, while planning their ruin, we would that God would open the ears of the tempted to hear in honeyed words the hiss of hells adder and know that to yield to lust, or drink or gaming, is to go down to moral death.<\/p>\n Have a suspicion of the man who wants to speak to you aside. Honest purposes are not afraid of public interest. I used to see a poor degraded vagabond hang about the street in the vicinity of the Y. M. C. A. and Willard Hall, Chicago. He would wait until some speaker came to address himself to a philanthropic subject and when he had finished this fellow met him at the door, and said with a mysterious air, My friend, I was greatly interested in what you said, and I would like to speak to you privately. Once alone with you, he made no further pretense of an important message but unmasked himself and began to beg. He managed by that means to rob from his fellows in private, money and meals that he was ashamed to ask in the presence of those who knew his blackened character and indolent life.<\/p>\n The most dangerous villains seek to call their victims aside. They will not propose in the lighted parlor what they find it easy to speak in the screened saloon. They know that in the gates of private interview they may voice what they dare not speak in the palace, and the public crowd. Some years since I started to my home in answer to a telegram that told of my fathers serious illness. At Madison, Ind. I was delayed by low water, and waited for a steamer until the midnight. Then, in my impatience, I started for a livery to hire a horse and buggy to drive the remainder of the way overland. Two suspicious looking fellows followed me from the hotel, and overtaking me, proposed to join me in the trip and pay part of the buggy hire. I looked them over under the feeble light of a lamp from the nearest post and said, No, gentlemen! I am not afraid of you here for there are people about us; but I dont care to risk my life alone with you.<\/p>\n Young men and women, I warn you against him, and against her who seeks to see you outside the gate of public view. He is tempting death by his folly; and she is, who accepts an invitation to see Satans emissaries aside. Behind the screens and in the deeper shadows that cover the plague spots of a great city souls are lost every night, of whom the King of Heaven is compelled to say, Died those souls as fools die.<\/p>\n That was a foul murder that took place the other day in a certain Chicago apartment. It took the seclusion and shadows of a basement to make such bloody work possible. So it takes the seclusion and shadows and screens of our cities moral sinks for Satan to carry on his work of slaying immortal souls. Those who enter them often die as fools die.<\/p>\n But again,<\/p>\n A MAN SHOULD NOT BE BLIND TO THE SOURCES OF ASSISTANCE<\/strong><\/p>\n Abner had a number of such sources and employed none of them. That was foolish and all who die like him are guilty of kindred folly.<\/p>\n The good men who would have been his body guard.<\/strong> The place was full of such men at this time. That is why Joab called him aside. How foolish to forget that safety is with such men. How many have been, and are being lost by leaving good company. It is one of the great evidences of the ignorance of youth that it doesnt appreciate the guardianship of good company. The average boy, when he reaches sixteen, seems to be possessed to associate with typical toughs. Many is the mother whose heart is lead because her boy is making friends of some fellows of shady character. She does well to be solicitious; and she has reason to be sad. Evil communications do indeed corrupt good manners.<\/p>\n The prodigal son sank as low as he did because he was so foolish as to leave the pure friendship of his fathers house and flock with harlots. Blenner-hasset, the sweet-tempered, strong-minded man, was safe so long as he lived among the godly neighbors on the banks of the Ohio; but when he left them to consort with Aaron Burr he commenced the downward course that ended in imprisonment, scattered fortune, ruined family, and brought disgrace and death. If sinners entice thee<\/em>, consent thou not, <\/em>Who thinks of Major Andre but to shed a tear of sadness over his sorrowful fate. But who is ignorant of the folly into which Andre fell when he quit good company to counsel with the traitor Benedict Arnold? A mother came to me and asked, Do you know about the character of Mr. C? My boy goes a great deal with him. I wish he would make his companions of your Christian young men. That mother knew the sources of assistance. She had lived long enough to see that good companions are a guard to body and soul alike.<\/p>\n Young men! Young women! What of your best friends? Are they clean or unclean; full of Gods spirit or foul with the spirit of sin? If the first, you are safe. If the latter, death is marking and a fools end is awaiting you. Goethe was right, Tell me with whom thou dost company and I will tell thee who thou art. Only he might have gone farther and said, Tell me your friends, and I will forecast your destiny.<\/p>\n But better than good friends is the kings favor.<\/strong> Abner might have had that for the asking. David would have compelled Joab to sheath his dagger had Abner appealed to him. You say, He was very foolish then not to do it? What of your action in failing to appeal to the King of kings to save your soul from Satans hand? There are men here tonight who will testify that all human friendships failed to save them and they were fast falling into Satans hands, never to escape, when they cried to Davids greater Son, and He saved them.<\/p>\n I know there are some men here tonight who want to be saved. Start up my friends, I have good news for you! The King of Glory, Gods Son, can save you from every enemy, and He will if you ask Him. I know there are some men and some women here who are held by love of sin in some form and are ready to perish in the folly of it. Let Gods Son come to your assistance and be saved tonight. The gates of the City of Refuge are open tonight and beyond them is a safe retreat. David condemned Abner for not using his natural powers in making his escape. He said, Thy hands were not bound, nor thy feet put into fetters. How true that always is. People say to me, Oh, I did want to rise tonight but I couldnt! That is false! You could! You were not in chains or fetters. The spiders web of cowardice, the single thread of fear, held you. You could have burst them assunder had you really willed it; but you were not ready! You were not sensible of your danger; you were not sufficiently alive to the folly of dying at the devils hands. If someone should shout into that door, The church is afire! you would get your powers of muscle at once. Why not rise tonight and step into the Kingdom of Gods grace and be saved? You could! You can! Will you? I am waiting for your answer. Angels are waiting for your answer. God is waiting for your answer. Satan is saying, Dont give it.<\/p>\n Who shall win tonight, Satan or Gods Son? Hell or Heaven? Dr. Talmage said, I have read that when the Declaration of Independence was being made in Philadelphia in 1776 the people were so anxious to know the exact moment when the document was completed that they placed a man at the door of the hall where the delegates were assembled, and another man on the stairs leading to the lower, and another man with his hand on the bellrope, and then, when the last signer of the Declaration had affixed his name, the man at the door shouted upward, Ring! and the man on the stairs heard it and shouted upward Ring! and the man with his hand on the bellrope heard and sounded the tidings out over the city. If, tonight, in the strength of Christ, you would make your declaration of independence from the power of sin there would be great rejoicing on earth and in Heaven. Some spirit would cry upward to the angels poising in mid-air Ring! and they to those standing on the battlement of Heaven, Ring! and those on the battlements to the dwellers in the mansions, Ring! and all Heaven would ring and ring at the news of a soul redeemed; and the shouts of your sainted wife, and of your sainted sister, and of your sainted brother, and of your sainted child, would burst the celestial confines and fall upon your happy, heaven-opened ear.<\/p>\n <\/span>GLADSTONE, THE GREATEST<\/span> STATESMAN<\/strong><\/p>\n Sermon preached in the First Baptist Church, Minneapolis, May 29th, 1898, immediately following Mr. Gladstones decease.<\/p>\n Know ye not that there is a prince and a great man fallen this day in Israel (2Sa 3:38<\/em><\/span><\/em>).<\/em><\/p>\n THE words of our text were the words of David on the occasion of the death of Abner, the mighty warrior.<\/p>\n Since they were first uttered they have never had profounder occasion for employment than when William E. Gladstone fell. In fact, their first utterance did not lend to them the weight that is in them when employed with reference to the Prince who has just breathed his last in Hawarden Castle, for Abner was no match for the grand old man.<\/p>\n He is gone then! The good old man is gone. We shall never see his snowy locks again, nor his placid countenance, nor his old horse and gig jogging by. Peter Cooper is dead! Parton says that these words of a neighbor expressed the feelings of all the people of New York city and state, when Cooper died. Flags were placed at half-mast from the Hudson to the Great Lakes, and from the St. Lawrence to the Allegheny, and a nation mourned because the good old man was gone.<\/p>\n But every nation of the earth has occasion to put its flag at half mast now, for he was not only one of Englands greatest statesman, but, as we believe, one of the worlds greatest Christians. His death is not a national loss only. It is a loss to all nations the earth around.<\/p>\n For ninety years, lacking one, this individuality has been in the world; and for almost seventy years of this time a colossal figure calling the attention of all nations to himself.<\/p>\n It is marvellous what great names that single life touched. Sir Robert Peel, Lord Melbourn, Lord Russell, Palmerston, Earl of Shaftsbury, old King William the 4th, John Bright, Charles Spurgeon, Cardinal Manning, Disraeli, Lowe, Cobden, and scores of others of his own nation, while the Williams of Germany and Prince Bismarck; Napoleon of France and Gambetta; Garibaldi and Mazzini of Italy, and the whole early line of American statesmen and presidents, with men of letters and of science known the world around; and yet Gladstone was the Saul of all this periodfrom his shoulders and upward, greater than his contemporaries.<\/p>\n It cannot be profitless then for us to study some of the secrets of his success.<\/p>\n In reading contributions from many pens touching his noble name, four things impressed me, and I put them in order before you, for reflection.<\/p>\n <\/span>HIS NATIVE ABILITY<\/strong><\/p>\n Brain power was his birthright. He was fortunate in his fathera man of no mean attainments, through whose veins there coursed pure Scotch blood; and we are agreed that the world has known little better than this same blood.<\/p>\n Dr. Lorimer, who was himself a Scotchman, in an address said that the Scotch were a fine people and they themselves appreciated it; and illustrated by a story of an old Scotchman who was reminding a friend of his that Scotland had produced more than her share of the worlds greatest men. The friend, somewhat irritated by the comparison, said, If you Scotch are such an excellent people, why dont you all go back to your own land and make it what you would like to have it become? Ah, weel, said the Scotchman, that would be veri gude for Scotland, nae doubt; but it would be mighty hard on the rist of the world.<\/p>\n The elder Gladstone, Williams father, was a famous Liverpool merchant, who himself sat for some years in Parliament, honored by his confederates. There may be good luck in store for some people, but the child born to honorable and vigorously thoughtful parents has in his nativity the best luck that will ever befall him, and that luck will likely be wrapped up in the baby brain.<\/p>\n Somebody asked a great painter, whose colors and touches were the fascination of art critics, and the envy of competitors, With what do you mix your paints? and he instantly answered, With brains.<\/p>\n At Eton and at Christ Church, Oxford, Gladstone discovered his inheritance to his associates, and we are told distinguished himself greatly as a speaker in the Oxford Debating Society; wrote so well in the Eton Miscellany that some of the productions still live; and graduated from Oxford in 1931 as a double first class.<\/p>\n This morning I said that Charles Spurgeon did not squander his youth. He was not among those foolish youths who fling away the best period of life, sowing wild oats, and expecting to reap good grain. This can be equally claimed of William E. Gladstones early life. He was no patron of wine rooms. He was no associate of lewd women. He was no frequenter of gambling houses. He was no social beau whose evening engagements with the belles left little or no opportunity for self-improvement. He was no cigarette fiend whose self-indulgence was destroying his physical and mental manhood, and so undermining both as to unfit him for war.<\/p>\n On the contrary, young Gladstone gave himself early to the serious things of life and proved the truth of Scripture, It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth (Lam 3:27<\/em><\/span><\/em>).<\/em><\/p>\n Never would he have lived 89 years had he spent his early days as some young men are now spending theirs. Never would he have had the physical endurance, nor the mental acumen, that made three hour and even five hour speeches possible. Never would he have been the master of a dozen professions, the author of many volumes, the executor of Englands finance, the Premier of Englands politics, and the power above the throne, had he wasted his youth by self-indulgence and debauch.<\/p>\n Sometime ago I read that not less than fifty abandoned wrecks were drifting about in the track of trans-Atlantic travel, endangering the vessels that go from continent to continent, and the paper went on to suggest that every evil habit formed in youth becomes such a threatening hulk, and though it may remain largely submerged in unconsciousness, never ceases to be a danger to passing immortals.<\/p>\n The godless youths of this hour will never be Gladstones. But that boy who, by his birth, has come into good brain, and by his conduct is conserving his energies and consecrating them to noble ends has a right to hope for promotion to the pedestal of honor. But every drink of the intoxicating cup drowns the prospect. Every gratification of the lusts of the flesh digs for that prospect a grave; and every dishonorable act of youth prophesies an ignoble age.<\/p>\n Gladstone came early into office and honor. <\/strong>He was but 22 when he contested the Burgh of Newark in the Conservative interest, and was elected; and seven years later, when but 29, Macauley described him as the rising hope of the stern and unbending Tories. The rule is that the man destined to office and honor comes at least into the earnest of both early in life. If by the time we are thirty we have wrought little or nothing, the future for us is dark enough.<\/p>\n We have heard that Socrates learned music late in life; that Plutarch began to study Latin when past seventy, and Cato Greek at 80, and Theophrastus commenced his greatest work on philosophy at 90. But even these men had made their mark in other lines while young; and the world will not forget that Alexander came to the throne at 20; that Raphael was an illustrious painter at 17; that Michael Angelo had called the attention of Lorenzo the Magnificent to himself at 16; that Byron wrote his Hours of Idleness at 19, and Pope his Essay on Criticism at 21, while Bryant was famous at 22 and Pitt was Prime Minister at 24, and Macauley was in Parliament before he was 30, and Napoleon Bonaparte commanding the army of Italy before he reached 27; that Whitefield, Wesley and Spurgeon were great preachers before their beards were grown and that the worlds greatest geniuses were dead before they came to the forties, including Raphael and Poe, and Keats and Shelley, Alexander the Great and Robert Burns, and Byron; and our lamented Prof. Henry Drummond scarce past that middle point when the end came; while Christ Himself, Gods Son, saw but thirty-three summers.<\/p>\n If the life of Gladstone has in it any inspiration to noble living its first suggestion is this, Let no man despise thy youth.<\/em> Redeem the early days, bear the yoke now, for a serious youth means a sweet old age; a sensible employment of the early time gives promise of honor in the later life.<\/p>\n But a second thing that impressed me was<\/p>\n <\/span>HIS TIRELESS ENERGY<\/strong><\/p>\n It seems to have been the energy of conviction. No man can put all into life without entertaining with reference to it a profound conviction.<\/p>\n W. T. Stead used to speak of the might of Gladstones convictions, as amounting to almost a faith in his infallibility, and talked of him as being controlled by the consciousness of an absolute moral rectitude. No man ever amounted to much who did not entertain the same consciousness. No man can utilize his hours in thought and labor, as every hour ought to be utilized, until he becomes convinced that life is a serious business, and that for the same, he must render an account.<\/p>\n Gladstone felt, as our great Dr. Judson expressed himself, that he had but one life to live and that he must make the most of that; felt as great men commonly feel, if we may judge them by what they do.<\/p>\n It is reported that a younger, and in some respects, more talented brother of Burkes, after having listened to one of that statesmans great speeches in Parliament, said to a friend, I have been wondering how Ned contrived to monopolize all the talents of our family, but then I remember, when we were at play, he was always at work.<\/p>\n Gladstones energy was also the energy of custom. He laid his plans to work. Labor was no haphazard experience with him. About fourteen hours out of every twenty-four he gave to unremitting toil.<\/em><\/p>\n In talking with W. T. Stead he said that seven hours sleep was his fixed allowance, and added with a smile, I should like to have eight. I hate getting up in the morning, and hate it the same every morning. But one can do everything by habit, and when I have had my seven hours sleep, my habit is to get up. How many men might have known greater success in the world, but for yielding to indolence, who can tell!<\/p>\n Young Americans have learned from our own Edison what consecration to work can accomplish. Twenty-one hours out of the twenty-four he often works, when occasion demands it. Years ago, according to the Ladies Home Journal, he was called to Chicago, and after taking the train at Jersey City, he set himself to the solution of one of his problems, and was soon in a deep study. The next thing he heard was the voice of the porter crying out, Chicago. Edison turned to a fellow-passenger with the remark that the porter must be joking, but it proved to be no joke for the twenty-four hours had gone by. The other people had slept eight or nine hours while Edison was so absorbed in the solution of his problem that he had not seen his fellow-travellers retire or arise, nor noticed that they had eaten three meals.<\/p>\n We do not use this illustration to endorse it as the custom of life. With most men, such habits would injure their health. But we do employ it to impress, if possible, this thought, that the great geniuses of this world are simply men whose custom it is to work. Jesus Christ Himself said, I must work the works of Him that sent Me.<\/em> There was a holy necessity, arising out of the profoundest conviction, that expressed itself in the Masters custom of work; and even Mr. Edison, in his habit of missing meals and forgetting to sleep, has the great Masters example for his defense, for the Son of God often did the same.<\/p>\n While, as we have said, William E. Gladstone was born with good brain power, the genius that has made him at once philosopher, theologian, author and statesman, is the genius of hard work.<\/p>\n Stead said, Mr. Gladstone was one of the most tireless of workers; the coil of that tremendous energy never seemed to run down.<\/p>\n You see your lesson young man!<\/p>\n HIS MORAL COURAGE<\/strong><\/p>\n More than any other statesman, he consulted conscience and God. Our own Abraham Lincoln is said to have spent each day much time in prayer to be guided through the stormy scenes of the civil war. But in times of peace, as well as in the hours of conflict, prayer was Gladstones custom. And what Gods Spirit seemed to suggest marked the line by which he steered his life. Enemies have accused him of being hypocritical and self-seeking, but after 89 years were gone the common people throughout England and America, if not throughout the world, have come to believe that he was a conscientious man.<\/p>\n Napoleon was great, but unprincipled; Webster was great, but selfishly ambitious; Gladstone was greater than either, because his courage was moral; it found its first risings in conviction of right, a conviction to which he was faithful at whatever cost. He said himself, No man has ever committed suicide so often as I. What he meant was, when all things seemed to be against certain propositions, he had championed them, because he believed them to be right; and when his personal popularity depended upon his taking a certain course, his conscience had driven him, scores of times, in exactly the opposite direction.<\/p>\n One consequence of this was many changes of view.<\/strong> Truly Gladstone was the mugwump of his century. He commenced his political career a Conservative of the Conservatives, a Tory of the Tories; he finished a friend of the common people, a Liberal of the Liberals. He commenced his political career a Protectionist; he finished it a Free Trader, having convinced his country that such a commercial policy was right in itself and for the common good. He commenced his career a High-churchman; he finished it as the noblest friend of the Non-conformists. He commenced his career as a member of the social aristocracies; he concluded it as the champion of the oppressed. Whatever may be the opinion of others, I cannot refrain from expressing a profound conviction that in every one of these points his change marked his progress into larger light and truer human fellowship, and stronger loyalty to his Lord.<\/p>\n In speaking of these changes he said, I was educated to regard liberty as an evil. I have learned to regard it as a good. That is a formula which sufficiently explains all the changes of my political convictions.<\/p>\n In Chicago, I knew a man who used to be a member of the Illinois State Militia, and at that time he was unregenerate and godless. There were strikes that came in the time of his service, and he said to me, I stood forth, gun in hand, ready to shoot down those rebels against the social order; and not a few times I said to the boys, being a sergeant, Line up here now, and put your finger on the trigger, and if these men do not be quiet, lay them low. They are common cattle anyhow. The life of one office man yonder is worth more than twenty such as these. Now that he is a Christian, and consecrated, his views are altogether changed. In every man, he sees the immortal; in every bosom there beats the heart of his brother, and he would die more quickly for the oppressed than for aristocrats.<\/p>\n That is the change that came over Gladstone, and that is a change that accompanies progress in the Christian life, the final end of which is principle versus party.<\/strong> It was a serious thing for Gladstone to leave his party, but it was a step in the counsels of God. It was a thing of great sacrifice when Wendell Phillips walked away from the tenets of slave-favoring New England and declared for abolition, but it was a thing of moral courage, and of such absolute right that the angels in Heaven rejoiced as much as his parents mourned, and his old aristocratic associates sorrowed. One of the lessons that the favored of this world are indisposed to learn is Burns line, A mans a man for a that.<\/p>\n We are familiar with the story of Creon, the Greek slave who worshipped beauty, and out of a marble block chiseled a group of figures that appeared in the Art Exhibit at Athens, in the Agora. Pericles presided and Aspasia sat at his side. Phidias, Socrates, Sophicles and other renowned men stood near him, and all agreed upon this group, for whose creation no author was named. At last they dragged Cleone, sister of the slave into their presence, and tried to compel her to tell who<\/em> the author was, and when she would not, ordered her to the dungeon. Then Creon came forward and said, Oh, Pericles, forgive and save the maid. She is my sister. I am the culprit. The group is the work of my hand, the work of a slave. The crowd jeered and cried, Send him to the dungeon then, to the dungeon, for he had no right to surpass his masters. But Pericles rising said, As I live, no! Behold that group! Apollo decides by it that there is something higher in Greece than an unjust law. Not to the dungeon, but to my side bring this young man. And that day the Athenians learned that among the lowly the great may be found, and when Aspasia placed the crown of olives on Creons brow, and tenderly kissed his affectionate sister, they saw the meaning of Burns line, A mans a man for a that. Of all the traits of Gladstones character that made him great, few stand forth so prominently today as his justice to the lowly, as well as the high; the strength of his convictions for all mankind.<\/p>\n We tell, with pardonable American pride, of how President Lincoln took off his hat and bowed to a colored ex-slave in Richmond, Va., but we forget to practice the virtue we have approved. Most of us have not the moral courage to count the girl in the shop, in the kitchen, the sister she is, our equal; and the most of us have not enough Christian grace to see in the girl in the slums, or the poor staggering sot of the saloon, the sister and brother that by our help they might become.<\/p>\n Gladstones greatness was gentle. His politics rested upon the base of principle, and his religion resulted in his eloquent pleas for the oppressed of all lands.<\/p>\n HIS CHRISTIAN FAITH<\/strong><\/p>\n This, of course, is the sublimest of the elements that entered into the man. In it is found the climax of his character, the secret of his conduct, the surety of his temporal or eternal success.<\/p>\n His faith was simple in statement. <\/strong>He was no self-appointed philosopher seeking to befog the intellect of his fellows and impress upon them that he was some superior one. He had no sarcasm for the sacred Scriptures, no jest about Jesus the Son of God, no graceless speeches concerning the great God of the universe. The Bible was the Book of his counsel, Jesus Christ his Saviour from sin, the Holy Ghost his guide, and God his eternal Father, the embodiment of eternal love.<\/p>\n Years since, in Denver, Colorado, a smart young fellow said to Dr. Kerr Tupper, The greatest intellects do not believe in the Bible, nor accept Jesus Christ as Gods Son, and when Pastor Tupper asked him who were the greatest intellects, after much straining of his mind he remembered Gladstone, and was surprised to hear that Gladstone was a Christian. In order to convince him perfectly, Dr. Tupper wrote to Mr. Gladstone and told him the story of this young man, and forthwith there came a reply from the great statesman saying, All I am, all I have, all I hope for the future is indissolubly bound to my faith in Jesus Christ as Gods Son.<\/p>\n This faith was also strong in sentiment. <\/strong>It dominated the thought of Gladstone. It determined his daily conduct. It furnished the foundation to his character.<\/p>\n W. T. Stead states that Mr. Gladstone is unshaken in his assent to what he regards as the eternal verities; and his faith is firmer than that of all the bishops in all the churches.<\/p>\n If the statement was too strong, it stood for what Mr. Stead had seen illustrated in the life of Gladstone, his country-man, for were not his books expressions of his faith, almost every one? When he wrote The Impregnable Rock of the Holy Scriptures, he voiced only what he felt. And how far the faith of this greatest man influenced the thought of the civilized world, Christward, who can tell? Huxley and Darwin he handled with ungloved fingers, showing that what they called the precision of science failed before the verities of Gods holy Scriptures, and that they shall vanish away but Gods Word will stand.<\/p>\n It is no small thing that the weakest and most buffeted Christian in all the world is able now to point to that grandest man of the last century and say, Know you not that Gladstone believed God, accepted Jesus Christ His Son as Saviour from sin, and the Bible as the Book inspired from cover to cover, making eternal foundation for the faith of man?<\/p>\n That faith was sublime in its effect.<\/strong> The man Gladstone himself was its first result, and his future state its final consequence. What he was, we know. What he is no mortal mind can conceive. But we have found exceeding comfort in what he felt just when the great change that swept him from time into eternity was coming on. Over his bed for years there had hung a motto, Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee. <\/em>Every morning for years he has spent some time in Bible study and prayer. Every Sabbath for years, he has given up to worship and service, often preaching himself to great audiences. When his son entered the ministry, it was the fathers joy. When his family became Christians, one by one, there was rejoicing in Hawarden akin to that joy they had in Heaven, and when the time of his death drew on, he said sweetly to those who drew about the place of his rest, This is only a final test, beloved, before my triumph. A little while afterward, when the end was nearer, he turned to those about him and said, It is well, the way grows brighter, brighter! The great man was going from the scenes of earth-life, where he had served so sweetly, and been crowned with such incomparable success toward the scenes of the Heaven-life, where he was to receive a crown of life and enter once for all into the eternal light.<\/p>\n I told you once the story of the old pilot who passed away not long since in Boston. Like Gladstone, he had lived a long time and for nearly years he had held a pilots commission, and in all that time had been piloted by Jesus Christ. As he was passing away, his face brightened and he started up with the expression, I see a light! His friends thought he was wandering, and that he imagined himself at sea, and they asked, Is it the Highland light? No. Is it the Boston light? No. Is it the Minot light? Oh, no, he said, it is the light of glory. Let the anchor go, and the anchor slipped, and the old pilot stood before Him, who took him into His arms and presented him without spot and blemish before His Father, saying, See, here is one washed in My Blood! I claim the Light of Life for him.<\/p>\n 33<\/strong>. <\/strong> The king lamented <\/strong> A beautiful and touching dirge, which should be rendered thus:<\/p>\n As dies a fool should Abner die?<\/p>\n Thy hands not bound, <\/p>\n And thy feet unto double fetters were not brought nigh. <\/p>\n As one falls before the sons of wickedness thou hast fallen.<\/p>\n <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n As a fool <\/strong> In Scripture the impious, dissolute, and profane are called fools. Compare 2Sa 13:12-13<\/span>; Psa 14:1<\/span>. Such a one might perish in any foul way whatever, and no one would care.<\/p>\n 2Sa 3:33 And the king lamented over Abner, and said, Died Abner as a fool dieth?<\/p>\n Ver. 33. Died Abner as a fool dieth?<\/strong> ] Sept., As Nabal died? Was this a fit death for so gallant a man, to be thus basely butchered? Est interrogatio indignantis.<\/p>\n Died . . . ? Figure of speech Erotesis. App-6. <\/p>\n a fool dieth: i.e. running into needless danger. <\/p>\n as a fool dieth: That is, as a bad man, as the word frequently signifies in Scripture. 2Sa 13:12, 2Sa 13:13, 2Sa 13:28, 2Sa 13:29, Pro 18:7, Ecc 2:15, Ecc 2:16, Jer 17:11, Luk 12:19, Luk 12:20 <\/p>\n Reciprocal: 1Sa 26:5 – Abner Jer 22:18 – Ah my brother Eze 32:16 – General<\/p>\n 2Sa 3:33-34. Died Abner as a fool dieth? That is, as a wicked man. Was he cut off by the hand of justice for his crimes? Nothing less; but by Joabs malice and treachery. It is a sad thing to die as a fool dieth, as they do that any way shorten their own days; and indeed all they that make no provision for another world. Were not bound Thou didst not tamely yield up thyself to Joab, to be bound hand and foot at his pleasure. Joab did not overcome thee in an equal combat, nor durst he attempt thee in that way, as a general or soldier of any worth would have done. Wicked men By the hands of froward, or perverse, or crooked men, by hypocrisy and perfidiousness, whereby the vilest coward may kill the most valiant person. It is justly observed by Dr. Delaney, that this short lamentation of David over Abner is truly poetical, and evidently appears so in the most literal translation. He renders it as follows:<\/p>\n As dies the criminal, shall Abner die? <\/p>\n Thy hands not bound,<\/p>\n Nor to the fetters were thy feet applied.<\/p>\n As is their fate that fall Before the faces of the sons of guilt,<\/p>\n So art thou fallen.<\/p>\n For he was killed as a traitor; but had he been really so, he should have died in chains and fetters after a fair trial. And all the people wept again over him At the recital of these words by the king, which were so mournfully spoken, the grief became universal, and the whole people wept anew.<\/p>\n 3:33 And the king lamented over Abner, and said, Died Abner {n} as a fool dieth?<\/p>\n (n) He declares that Abner died not as a wretch or vile person, but as a valiant man might do, being traitorously deceived by the wicked.<\/p>\n And the king lamented over Abner, and said, Died Abner as a fool dieth? 33. lamented ] See note on ch. 2Sa 1:17. Died Abner as a fool dieth ] Lit. As dies a fool should Abner die? Was this ignoble death, befitting a fool, to be the fate of so brave a warrior? Fuente: … Continue reading “Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 2 Samuel 3:33”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commentary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8126"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8126\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
I. <\/strong>His strange simplicity and wonderful credulity. I do marvel at Abner–certainly David did–that he, of all men, should have been so easily gulled, for we know no other word that so exactly conveys the thought of our mind. Abner had been continually by the kings side. He must have known, therefore, that the art of political speaking is to conceal your thoughts, and that nature only gives courtiers tongues to shroud by language the intentions of the heart. Strange that a man like Abner, who had passed through such a school as two courts, should have so readily believed the message which Joab sent him. Now, is it not marvellous how unsuspicious men are of sins designs? They are shrewd enough in other things. I have no doubt that many of you are sharp, keen, acute men of business. Your books will testify that you do not make very many bad debts. You can see through a man as quickly as most; yet how strange it is that often those who are shrewdest in other things are most deluded as to the nature of sins designs! As Homer describes in his Odyssey, there are the sirens on the rocks, who sing so sweetly that, if a Ulysses is to be kept from running his craft right on their rugged brows, the men must lash him to the mast and ply their oars with desperate earnestness, for the music of the sirens makes a deadly calm, and leaves no breath of air to fill the sails and take the vessel from her danger. And so sin seems to sing like an enchantress; and the shrewdest and the cleverest men are irresistibly, almost imperceptibly, drawn toward it; and they who would see through a deception of another sort in a moment seem, like Abner, utterly blinded in this respect, What Satan raves to accomplish is to be revenged on God through Gods creatures. Is it likely, then, that such a Joab as this can have any good intent when he says to thee by some sin, Come, let us talk quietly in the gate? And yet how willingly a man will turn aside with any sin! A man is both ruined and saved through faith. I confess that when first I heard that statement I was rather startled. I did not at first see its force, and I said, Stay! There is a mistake. You mean that a man is saved through faith and is ruined by unbelief. The answer I received was: That is true; so also is it that a man is either saved or lost by faith. If the faith be in God, through Christ, then that faith saves; but, on the other hand, if it is the faith which a man places in the representations made by Satan and sin, that faith damns him. It was our first parents faith in the words of the serpent that spread ruin over Gods new-made world. And so I doubt not that there are many here concerning whom it may be said, as it was of Abner: Shall that man die as the fool dieth? So keen in everything else, shall he be credulous enough to be led by so simple a snare as that set by the enemy? Yet so is it.<\/p>\n
II. <\/strong>Now note the next thing in his folly–his unusual advantages. I think David specially thought of these when he burst out into the cry, Died Abner as a fool died? You glean this from the 34th verse, Thy hands were not bound, nor thy feet put into fetters. Abner was a prisoner to nobody but himself. No cord bound those mighty arms of his; no iron fetters were upon his feet; and yet he might us well have been born without hands or feet for all the good they were to him. Hands unused, feet unemployed, he stands still like a fool to be killed. Oh! is it not so with many? I ask you, have not your advantages been unused? Let me ask thee, if thou weft to die and be lost wouldst thou not have to acknowledge that, in this respect, thou hast certainly played the fool, for thy, hands are not bound nor thy feet in fetters? You are not bound with ignorance. It may be that there are some of you here who know the story of the gospel as well as the preacher. It may be that there are others of you here who could stand on this platform and run through all the main doctrines of the Word. What, and will you, with all this knowledge of the truth, yet die as the fool dieth–with unfettered feet and hands at liberty? I know not your history, but it would be a strange thing if there are not hundreds here who have been armed by holy precept. Your Bible may be at the bottom of your box now, just as it was thrown in three years ago, when you left your home in the country. Not a few of you have been armed by noble examples. Have you not had a holy, noble, heavenly example in her who gave you birth, and who, perhaps, is at this moment before the throne? Then let me ask you, why die as a fool? It your hands be not bound, and you know the difference between right and wrong, if you have been armed by holy precept, and if you have been blessed with a heavenly example, why shall it ever be said of you, Died Abner as a fool dieth? As Caesar Borgia lay dying fast he looked up, and, with clenched hands, muttered through his teeth the words, I have provided for everything throughout life except death. And, doubtless, there are many here who can take up Caesar Borgias words as describing their own mad folly. Then, I ask you, if you die without hope, may it not be said as a requiem over you, <\/em>Died Abner as a fool dieth?<\/p>\n
III. <\/strong>Now note, next, that his very position made the folly of his death the greater. Oh, Abner, if you had refused to speak to Joab outside the city gates and insisted on entering them first, even Joab would not have dared to violate the sanctity of that citadel. Thou wouldst have been safe. I may be mistaken, but I think I am not. As far as my own feelings are concerned, the nearer a person is to safety when he dies the sadder is his death. It is sad enough for the sailor to go down in mid-Atlantic, when there are only the winds to howl his requiem, and when no eye looks down upon his struggles but that of the seagull whirling round and round upon the wings of the hurricane. It is sad enough to sink down with only the shriek of the sea-bird in your ear; but, I think, it is sadder far to go down just outside the harbours mouth, with a thousand eyes upon you and a thousand hands ready to help if they can. Sad enough for the traveller in the desert, parched with thirst and pinched with hunger, to lay him down in the burning dust to die, with only the vulture hovering over him in air which quivers with intensity of heat. But when we read some time back of one being literally starved to death in the great metropolis, when there were wealth all round, food in abundance and a thousand persons ready to vie with each other as to who should go to his rescue first, it seemed to me the climax of horror to die in the midst of plenty. Died Abner as a fool dieth–credulous, with advantages unused, and on the very threshold of safety? God save us from such folly. Shall yonder Abner, who has been the child of prayer for thirty years, die a fools death? Said a godly mother to a son who used to worship in this place, and is at the present time at the other end of the world, Ah, my boy, if ever you get into perdition, it will be over ten thousand mothers prayers that she places in front of you as barriers. It may be that there are some here who, though most deeply sunk in sin, yet know full well that there is no night nor morning but the cry goes up to heaven, Lord, save my boy! And shall Abner, the child of so many prayers, die the fools death? (A. G. Brown.<\/em>)<\/p>\nFuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
<\/P> Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible <\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: The Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist by Riley<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: The Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist by Riley<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"