and idolatry,” for they go not unpunished. How strikingly was this exemplified in David's family, with regard to Absalom, Amnon, and Adonijah! Destitute of love towards one of the most affectionate of parents, they rioted in lust and rebellion, disinherited themselves of their birthright, brought themselves to an untimely death, to public execration for artifice and a criminal act, and even to sue for life to a junior brother. Whereas, had they considered their ways, and been wise to observe the statutes and commandments of God, if not called to fill the throne of Israel, God's blessing, which is better than honour, would have rested on them, and honour and glory would have awaited them! Solomon, as we are informed by the sacred historian, “was strengthened in his kingdom; that the Lord his God was with him, and magnified him exceedingly." Being a servant of the Most High, and intent on the honour of God, he now sought his blessing. He felt as he ought to have felt, that while called to rule over a people who were “ like the dust of the earth in multitude,” supernatural aid was indispensable. He, therefore, commenced his reign by assembling the captains of thousands, and of hundreds, with the judges, and governors of all Israel, and the chief of the fathers, to repair with him to Gibeon, where was the tabernacle of the congregation of God, which Moses the servant of the Lord had made in the wilderness. The ark of the tabernacle had been by David removed to Jerusalem, where worship to God was offered. But Solomon, influenced by correct feelings, preferred repairing to Gibeon, although the distance was greater, that he might, on the commencement of his reign, worship God in his holy tabernacle. On erecting the brazen altar, which Bazaleel, the son of Uri, the son of Hur, had made before the Lord, all the congregation sought unto it, when king Solomon offered a thousand burnt offerings thereon. How forcible are the words that Samuel addressed to Eli, when he said, “him that honoureth me will I honour,” and how applicable to Solomon on the present occasion. He being filled with heavenly ardour, and desirous of being crowned with heavenly blessings, sought not his ease by worshipping at Jerusalem. Nothing less will satisfy him than repairing to God's holy tabernacle at Gibeon, regardless of the expense and the fatigue. The worldly and the formalist would have been satisfied with worshipping at Jerusalem, but not so Solomon; -and how was his sacrifice received ? Was it requited like Cain's sacrifice, to which God had no respect; or the sacrifices of the priests of Baal ? No: it was received as an offering well pleasing to God. Further, it is recorded, “that very night did God appear unto Solomon, and said unto him, “ Ask what I shall give thee.” O what condescension on the part of Jehovah, to stoop to commune with sinful man, and be willing to grant his request, whether it be honour, riches, or length of years! God does not say, this and this I will give thee; but says, “ Ask what I shall give thee.” The supplicant's powers of mind must be exercised. Solomon must consider what he needed, and thereby comprehend the extent of his helplessness and weakness; having done so, then make his request known. Solomon acted thus: he asked not for extent of territory, for power over his enemies, for success in war, and the obtaining of great and splendid victories. He felt as all great and good men have ever felt, his weakness, and aptness, as regards national affairs, to err; therefore, calling to mind God's past kindness to David, his father, he thus prayed unto God: “ Thou hast showed great mercy unto David, my father, and hast made me to reign in his stead. Now, O Lord God, let thy promise unto David my father be established : for thou hast made me king over a people like the dust of the earth in multitude. Give me now wisdom and knowledge, that I may go out and come in before this people: for who can judge this thy people, that is so great ?" (2 Chron. i. 8-10.) Here was true wisdom !-wisdom exceeding all the knowledge that he afterwards acquired. Man, know thyself, is a heathen maxim: Solomon had discovered this; the discovery led him to see his inability to govern, of himself, such a multitude of people, whose interests and views clash one against the other, producing strife, revolutions, and wars. parent he had not forgotten his father's instruction, “Wisdom is the principal thing; with all thy gettings get understanding." God, who had set him on the throne, seems to have winked at the folly of his brethren, and says to him, since thou fillest the honoured post, to which thy brothers foolishly aspired, “Now ask of me what I shall give thee, to enable thee to govern righteously." Happy would it be for the reader if, in seeking those things which pertain to this life, his choice be that of king Solomon. Let us hear the Lord's reply: “ And God said to Solomon, “Because this was in thy heart, and thou hast not asked riches, wealth, or honour, nor the life of thine enemies, neither yet hast asked long life, but hast asked wisdom and knowledge for thyself, that thou mayest judge my people, over whom have made thee It is ap king: Wisdom and knowledge is granted unto thee ; and I will give thee riches, and wealth, and honour, such as none of the kings have had that have been before thee, neither shall there any after thee have the like;" and if thou walk in my ways, to keep my statutes and my commandments, as thy father David did walk, I will lengthen thy days. On this gracious announcement of God, what must have been Solomon's feelings! He found, notwithstanding his great acquirements, that to govern so great a people he stood in need of wisdom and knowledge; this God had not only granted him, but was about to crown him with riches, wealth, and honour, such as had not, nor should fall to the lot of any other monarch. Oh! how good is God to the upright, how abundant in mercies is he to them that keep his covenants. The admonition is, “Ask, and it shall be given to you;" and we add, "good measure pressed down, and shaken together, and running over :" thus Solomon found God's blessing during his splendid reign. How delightful it is to contemplate that Solomon not merely asked God to grant him wisdom and knowledge, but that he applied himself to possess it. The book of Nature, and of Providence must have unfolded to him many an interesting and sublime subject, which must have filled him with awe, as well as given him august conceptions of the Divine Being, and prepared him for discharging the important office of king of Israel, while the whole religious service, with its sacrifices at the tabernacle, tended to strengthen his piety. On Solomon's return from Gibeon to Jerusalem, he immediately entered on the important duties of king of Israel; and, according to the First Book of in Kings, the first popular incident of his reign was his judgment between two women, respecting a living child. In the narrative, these women are described as harlots; but Jewish writers, who are good authority regarding the import of words and phrases, consider them to be the wives of innkeepers, whose husbands were absent from home on business. One of the women, addressing the king, said, “O my lord, I and this woman dwell in one house; and I was delivered of a child with her in the house; and it came to pass the third day after, that the woman was delivered also; but her child died in the night, because she overlaid it. In the night she arose, and took my son from beside me, while thine handmaid slept, and laid it in her bosom, and laid her dead child my bosom. When I rose in the morning to give my child suck, behold it was dead: but when I considered it, behold it was not my son which I did bear.” The other woman said, “Nay, but the living is my son, and the dead is thy son;" and they recriminated one another. The king, seeing the difficulty of identity in so intricate an affair, and the determined obstinacy of the women each to maintain that it was her child, said, saith, This is my son that liveth, and thy son is dead: and the other saith, Nay, thy son is dead, and my son is the living one." The king, addressing his attendants, said, “Bring me a sword.” And they brought a sword before the king, when he commanded them to “divide the living child in two, and give half to the one, and half to the other.” The woman who was the mother of the living child, cried out in an agony unto the king, for her bowele yearned upon her son, and said, “O my lord, give her the living child, and in nowise slay it !" But the other said, “Let it be neither thine or mine, The one |