2 Samuel 2:8

"Handfuls of Purpose"

For All Gleaners

"But Abner the son of Ner." 2 Samuel 2:8 .

Eccentric men there will always be in society. The word "But" marks Abner as taking a course of his own, and doing that which was pleasing in his own sight. He did not take the common course. Whilst David was being made king at Hebron, Abner the son of Ner, captain of Saul's host, took Ish-bosheth and made him king over Gilead, and over the Ashurites, and over Jezreel, and over Ephraim, and over Benjamin, and over all Israel. The local limitations of the text are evident, but the moral suggestion is applicable to a large sphere of life. Eccentricity is not always to be blamed. There are some great enough, or small enough, to differ from everybody; they must always have their own course, their own idea, their own way of doing things. Let all workers go on together or separately, as may appear best to them, always remembering, however, that the judgment is at the end, and that the judgment is with God. Sometimes eccentricity is a great blessing in the Church; it destroys monotony, it stimulates inquiry, it rebukes the spirit of infallibility. In the end we shall know who is right and who is wrong. Much time is often wasted by those who differ from the general judgment, and yet that time, though lost, may not be wholly wasted. The majority should sometimes think of its own fallibility. Men are not necessarily right simply because they are parts of an overwhelming multitude. Sometimes the solitary thinker is entrusted with divine stewardship. Often, indeed, the minority has been right in history, and the majority has been wrong. Men should not be eccentric merely for the sake of singularity. That would be mere frivolity, sheer folly, and would end in mischief and disaster. No individual conscience contains the whole sense of righteousness. Conscience, like reason, is the better for friction. There is a quality of righteousness, there is a quality of wisdom, there is a quality of strength, and this quality can only be realised by intercommunion, by frank and generous interchange of thought and feeling.