knowledge, but Solomon W!l,B distingnished in all. He could discourse with equal profundity of the cedD,r and the hyssop, of beast and bird. It was lofty, it was wide, it was deep. IV. IT WAS TRUE WISDOM. Not superficial, and not mere book learning. Book, worms are often mere pedants. Students often know little of the world and know less of themselves. But Solomon knew man (" The proper study of man.kind is man") knew himself. He needed not the charge, yvw0, aeavrov, He was not one of the µmwpoao</Mrai whom the Attic poet justly ridicules (Aristoph. Nub. 860). His writings proved that he had studied the world, and was familiar with the heart. V. IT WAS GOD•GIVEN WISDOM (ver. 29; cf. 3, 12, 28; Dan. ii. 21). Not "the wisdom of this world which is foolishness with God'' (1 Cor. iii. 8), and which " descendeth not from above " (James iii. 15), but that which the Supreme wisdom teacheth. (Cf. Prov. ii. 6.) Solomon was truly 0Eocioa.:ro~. VI. IT WAS GOD-FEARING WISDOM. " The fear of the Lord," he says, " is the beginning of wisdom." (Cf. Prov. i. 7; ix. 10.) There is a wisdom (falsely so called) which dishonours and despises God. This did not Solomon's. The Proverbs point men to the Lord. VII. His WISDOM STILL WARNS AND TEACHES THE WORLD. Some of the thousand and five songs (Pss. lxxii, cxxvi.) are still chanted by the Catholic Church. (It is significant, though, how few of this vast number remain to us. David was not as wise as Solomon, nor so prolific a writer, but his songs have survived in considerable numbers. They are among the greatest treasures of Christendom. Piety is before wisdom. " Knowledge shall vanish away," but " charity never faileth.") Some of his Proverbs are still read to the congregation. He still we.ms the young and the sensual (chs. ii.-vii.) He is fallen, but his words stand. Now turn we to (2) The causes of his fall. How came this wisest of men, without fellow before or since, whose wisdom was so profound, so real, so boundless, whose wisdom came from God and led to God, and who though dead yet speaketh, how came he of all men to go astray? Was it not- I. BECAUSE THE HEART WAS NOT KEPT, The intellect, i.e., was developed and cultivated at the expense or to the neglect of the spiritual life. " His wives turned away his heart." But how came one of so much wisdom to let his wives turn it away ? Because the wisdom had dwarfed and overshadowed the soul ; because the moral did not keep pace with the intellectual growth, and it became flaccid and yielding. It is dangerous for wisdom to increase unless piety increases with it. The higher the tower, the broader should be its foundations. If all the weight and width is at the top, it will come to the ground with a crash. Even so, if wisdom is not to destroy its possessor, the basis of love and piety must be broadened. " Knowledge bloweth up, but charity buildeth up." The head of a colossus needs the trunk of a colossus to sustain it. II. BECAUSE HIS OWN PRECEPTS WERE NOT KEPT. It W!l,S beca.use be leaned to his own understanding that this giant form fell prostrate. It was because he forgot his warnings against the strange woman that he fell a prey to strange women. The keeper of the vineyards did not keep his own (Cant. i. 6). He was not true to himself, and he soon proved false to his God. After preaching to others, he him- self became a castaway. A solemn warning this to every preacher and teacher that he should not do
" As some ungracious pastors do, Show men the steep and thorny road to heaven, While, like a puffed and reckless libertine, Himself the primrose path of dalliance tread And reeks not hie own rede."
!Il, BECAUSE PRIDE POISONED HIS WISDOM AND PERVERTED ms GIFTS, There was no decay of mental power ; th~ for_ce was unabate_d, but it was mis~eoted. Pride took her place at the helm. It 1s pnde, not sensuality, accounts for his army of wives and concubines. But if pride brought them, pleasure kept them. A.nd 80 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. [CH. IV, 20-84.
when he put his heart into their keeping, they tlll1led him about at their will (cf. James iii. 3, 4). The heart carries the intellect along with it, (Here again compare his own words, Prov. xvi. 18, and iv. 23; cf. Dan. v. 20.) Magnificent Solomon, unequalled in wisdom, bow art thou fallen from heaven I Aye, and if we could but draw aside the veil; if we could but visit the spirits in prison (1 Pet. iii. 19), we might perchance find among them one clothed of yore " in purple and fine linen" (Luke xvi. 19; cf. xii. 27), and who "fared sumptuously every day," and looking into the anguished face might find it was none other than the brilliant and illustrious son of David, the chosen type of the Messiah, the very wisest and greatest of mankind. "The wisest, greatest, meanest of mankind.'' We know of whom these words were spoken. But their true application is not to England's greatest chancellor, but to Israel's g1:eatest king.