THE LAST R.rNG OF UNITED ISRAEL. SOL9MON. We pass from the deathbed of King David to a scene of almost dazzling splendour. The few detailed narratives that have come down to us of events in the reign of Solomon are enough to show us that : and fresh from the abundance of information preserred for us respecting David, we are perhaps surprised that comparatively so little is told us about the son who succeeded to all, and more than all, his grandeur. The fact of this almost sudden check in the full stream of the history is evidence of one thing at any rate-that, whatever may have been the opinion of his own age with regard to Solomon, later generations did not find the picture of his reign so delightful to dwell on as that of his father's era: and it was they, and not the con- temporary writers, who had to decide what should be preserved and wh11t not of the· annals of those times. It was pleasant to remember Solomon's miracles of wisdom, the treasures he accumulated, the splendour of his court, and the extensiveness of his co=erce. His temple, his palaces, and his public works remained as lasting e,idence of all this magnificence. But at the same time men had come to know by profound experience how dearly the magnificence had been bought. Israel through- out long generations was paying the cost of Solomon's glory. Limitation of liberty and heavy taxation at the time, followed in the next reign by a permanent schism; this was the heavy price. It might be worth while for Jude.hand Benjamin, who had this magnificence and its accompanying expenditure in the midst of them, to submit to some loss of freedom and to taxes which came baok to them in trade; but what had Ephraim and the other tribes to gain by it all? Moreover, not even in Solomon's day had the kingdom beeu preserved in its full integrity. Contrary to the law (Lev. xxv. 13-34), he had given away a portion of the inheritance of Israel· to Hiram, king of Tyre (1 Kings ix. 11). These considerations will explain to us why our materials for the reign of Solomon are comparatively so scanty. No doubt there are higher co.uses still. In making their compilations the sacred historians were guided to the preservation of what was of pennanent value for the history of the kingdom of God. Mere worldly opulence and splendour has little instructiveness about it. A prolonged narrative of Solomon's magnificence and power would have had scarcely a higher moral ve.lue than the "Thousand and One Nights." Enough is told us to enable us to ap- JOSHUA TO Nl!:HEMIAit. xxxvii
preciate God's bounty to the young man who deliberately preferred wisdom to wealth and power, and to see the powerlessness of mere wisdom and culture, even of tLe highest kind, when dissevered from the fear and love of God, against human pas- sion and human pride. Under Solomon the star of Israel continues still to rise for a tinle, and under him the zenith of the nation is reached. Yet his reign is not on that account greater than his father's, which was a continual growth from first to last. On the contrary, it is the la.mentable distinction of Solomon's reign that with him, and largely in consequence of his faults, kgina a decline which was never really arrested and which in the end proved fatal. The lesson of his life is to a large extent that of Samson's and of Saul's combined : miraculous powers neutralised by self-indulgence; great natural gifts rendered baneful by desertion of God. There- fore a few scenes of splendour, the canker, and its consequences, are all that are needed to be told. The remainder, however flattering to himself and his age, has little instruction for us. Solomon seems to have been one of those men who try to serve God with one hand and themselves with both. The one hand soon becomes weary of its double duty, and the end is devotion to self alone. Unlike his father, he was born in the purple, and had never known the bracing influences of clifficulty or adversity. Brought up in thci constant society of his mother, of whom we know much evil and no good, and in expectation of a glorious crown, we can hardly wonder that his character does not bear the strain of the possession of enormous wealth and power. Nothing had occurred to prove to him his entire dependence on God. His prayer at Gibeon, high and noble as it was, and "pleasing to the Lord,'' was not the highest. It is the prayer of the Stoic rather than of the saint, of one who seeks to be self-sufficing rather than of one who feels that dependence on God is his only hope and stay. Wba.t would David have asked for had he had the choice? His psalms leave the answer scarcely doubtful : to be delivered from his transgressions, to have a clean heart and a right spirit, to hold fast by God; or, in one word, holi- ness. The widest range of wisdom without that was worthless, not only in God's eyes but for bringing peace to the heart. This truth, Solomon, with all his varied knowledge, did not know; and had to learn it through a dreary round of the bitterest disappointments. Solomon began well. He " loved the Lord, walking in the statutes of David his father" (1 Kings iii. 3), and almost his first ea.re is to accomplish the desiJ:e, inherited from his father, of building "the house of the Lord,'' for which Dand had long since been collecting mo.terials. But even at this early date, when all seems so fan:, the germs of evil are not wanting. There is something astounding in fimling that one of his first acts was to seek a wife out of Egypt, the house of bonclnge. Since the Israelites "spoiled the Egyptians" there had been no intercourse between the two nations. Solomon's marriage was probably a, diplomatic one, to gnin the o..icl of Pharaoh against Edom, or at least to withhold him from helping Edam. It was the beginning of those many unions with strange wives who in the end led him into abominable idolatries. But he is nowhere saicl to have built altars to any Egyptian god, so that we may perhaps conclude that Pharaoh's dn.ughter became a proselyte, and that for this reason the man-iage was not specially condemned. But the con- nexion with Egypt, if it did not leacl to iclolatry, !eel to another violation of the law. In direct contravention of Dent. xvii. 17, Solomon had horses brought out of Egypt (1 Kings x. 28). Again, the oppressive slave-work to which not only the surviving Canaanitea, but even free-bom Iaraelites, were subjectecl in builcling the XXXYiii IKTRODUCTION TO THE HISTORICAL 13OOKS •