Looking for the Black Side
W. Hoyt, D. D. 1 Samuel 18:9-30 And Saul eyed David from that day and forward.… And Saul eyed David — that is to say, cast an askance vision at him; thought mean things of him; was sure there was a black side in him, and steadily looked for it. Saul allowed this looking for the black side in David to become a settled habit of his life. How sad the habit! And the seat of it was a mean, miserable envy. Remember those wise words which the wise Lord Bacon said of envy: "Envy is the worst of all passions, and feedeth upon the spirits, and they again upon the body; and so much more because it is perpetual, and, as it is said, keepeth no holidays." And this looking upon the black side is not an altogether ancient failing. Some people steadily look for the black side in other people. This, as we have just been saying, became Saul's way. Saul therefore perpetually misinterpreted David. One is pretty apt to see what one is bound to see. "I have been in India for many a year, and I never saw a native Christian the whole time." So spoke a colonel on board a steamer going to Bombay. Some days afterward the same colonel was telling of his bunting experience, and said that thirty tigers had fallen to his rifle. "Did I understand you to say thirty, colonel?" asked a missionary at the table. "Yes, sir, thirty," replied the officer. "Because," pursued the missionary, "I thought perhaps you meant three." "No, sir, thirty." "Well, now, that is strange; I have been in India twenty-five years and I never saw a wild live tiger all the while." "Very likely not, sir," said the colonel, "but that is because you did not look for them." "Perhaps it is so," admitted the missionary; "but was not that the reason you never saw a native convert?" So it is, one sees pretty generally what one is bound to see, tigers or Christians; and if one is bound to see a tiger, even though there may be no tigers in his country, he can imagine one easily enough, and that, so far as be is concerned, amounts to the same thing. (W. Hoyt, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: And Saul eyed David from that day and forward. WEB: Saul eyed David from that day and forward.