The hour of victory is a more severe moral test than the hour of defeat. Many a man can brave the perils of adversity who succumbs to the seductions of prosperity. He can stand the cold better than the heat! He is enriched by failure, but “spoiled by success.” To test the real quality of a man, let us regard him just when he has slain Goliath! “David behaved himself wisely”!
He was not “eaten up with pride.”.. He went among his friends as though no Goliath had ever crossed his way. He was not for ever recounting the triumph, and fishing for the compliments of his audience. He “behaved wisely.” So many of us tarnish our victories by the manner in which we display them. We put them into the shop-window, and they become “soiled goods.”
And in this hour of triumph David made a noble friend. In his noonday he found Jonathan, and their hearts were knit to each other in deep and intimate love. It is beautiful when our victories are so nobly borne that they introduce us into higher fellowships, and the friends of heaven become our friends.
(Copied)If we had the attitude of David we would fear no enemy, lose no battle, boast of no victory, and lack no friends of the right kind. That sounds like an example we ought to follow. Regardless of what happens in your life today things will turn out better if you behave yourself wisely.
