fellows.

The young man who was destined to become king was generous to his
enemies. Saul stood head and shoulders above his fellows, physically
speaking, but in his mental and moral stature he was less than
knee-high to the man who followed him upon the throne. When he heard
the women singing David's praises, "Saul was very wroth--the saying
displeased him and he eyed David from that day forward."

When the king saw the fine friendship between his own son Jonathan and
the rising David his heart became as bitter as gall. "Thou son of a
perverse, rebellious woman," he cried to the Crown Prince, "thou hast
chosen this son of Jesse to thine own confusion." And when David
increased year after year in stature, in wisdom, and in favour with God
and men, Saul tried repeatedly to kill him. His soul cried out, "Let
me feed fat the ancient grudge I bear him."

It is not easy for any man, especially a young man with hot, red blood
in his veins and the sense of injustice rankling in his heart, to stand
up in the face of hatred and malice and keep sweet about it. "Love
your enemies. Bless them who curse you. Do good to them that hate
you. Pray for those who despitefully use you." If you are struck upon
the cheek take a second blow upon the other cheek rather than strike
back in resentment. If a man compels you unjustly to go a mile with
him, go two miles rather than seek to be avenged. Take the rules of
action constantly from within, from the best instincts of your own
heart rather than have them furnished to you by the evil behaviour of
wrong-doers. Allow no man's meanness to master you--allow rather your
own nobility to overcome that evil with good.

How easy it is to say it, but to do it--aye, there is the rub! It is
so divinely hard to put these fine principles into practice. The soft
answer may turn away wrath, but the hot retort comes more readily to
the lips. The humane return of good for evil points the way of
spiritual advance, but the desire to pay every man back in his own coin
with a tip thrown in for good measure is often more natural. The more
honour then to the man who has learned that greater is he that ruleth
his own spirit than he that taketh a city.

When David had Saul within his power he refused to strike. There were
months when the young man was hunted through the hills of Judea by the
hirelings of the wicked king, as if he had been a mad dog. There came
a night when Saul was sleeping i