ground that they wore required for purposes of defence. The hilly country of Palestine does not admit of their being deployed therein. It was partly because they could only be employed in aggressive warfare that they were forbidden. Whatever unction, therefore, he might lay to his soul as to his accumulation of gold, he could hardly think, if he thought at all, that his horses and chariots involved no sin. But they were necessary, he persuaded himself, to the state of so great and puissant a monarch, and he would have them. And so hardened was he, so careless of the commandment, that he actually established a market for horses on his southern frontier and supplied them to neighbouring kings, who presently employed them against the people of the Lord. And yet, grave as was this disregard of law, it was but a worm that was at work in his soul-only self-love and self-confidence (cf. Isa.. nx. 1); only the lust of tho eye and the pride of life. He is still the Lord's anointed: his lips distil know- ledge ; he still offers hecatombs, but his "heart is not right,'' &c. And so the years passed by. To all outward appearance his glory and magni- ficence increased. It is very suggestive to consider how hollow was that prosperity which was the marvel of the world, and how that wisdom which was so renowned was foolishness with God. The court became more splendid, more voluptuous, more dazzling, but the man became year by year poorer and meaner and baser. It only needed one step more-and apparently he was not long in ta.king that-to complete his defection. The other monarchs of his time had their seraglios. It was necessary that he too should have an establishment of this kind, and be must have it even greater than theirs. He knew that the law fore bade the multiplication of wives, but what of that'! He bad violated the law already: be might just as well do it again. An obsolete precept, he may have argued, suited to primitive times, must not stand in the way of his pomp or his pleasures. And so the Lord's anointed gathered round him in the holy city a thousand strange, immodest women. His fleets and merchants brought him mistresses from every land. And they brought with them their foreign rites, and the effeminate king was taken captive by their charms, and they had their way, and nothing would suffice them but be m11St tolerate their religion, and what he did for one he must do for all, and-and so the end of sin and shame is reached, and the decline becomes a fall, and " the darling of Jehovah," the wisest of men, the representative of Heaven, the builder of the temple, the type of our Lord, builds altars to the " abominations " of Moab and Ammon "in the bill that is before J erusn.lem " (eh. xi. 7). This mournful history is full of admonition and instruction. It m11St mffice to indicate the following lessons:- 1. .A man may preach to others and yet be a castaway (1 Cor. ix. 27). Solomon's Pr11yer (eh. viii.), Psalm (Psa. cxxvii.), and Proverbs should be studied in the light of his fall. "Thou therefore which teachest auother, teachest thou not thyself'! " (Rom. ii. 21). Compare vers. 22, 23 with Prov. v.-vii. ; and remember the con- stant references to the "111w '' in the dedication prayer. 2. "Nemo repente turpissimus juit." "He thatdespiseth little things shall fall by little and little." "It is the little rift within the lute That by and by ehall make its music mute." 8. "Out of the heart of men proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornicat-ionlJ," &c. (Mark vii. 21). It was not to an as,ault from without, it was to treachery within that Solomon yielded-Solomon who had said, " Keep thy heart with all diligence," &c. 4. " The love of money is the root of all evil'' (1 Tim. vi. 10). May wfl not eay," Behold two kings stood not before him: how thon shall we stand?'' (2 King~ x. 4). "Children, how hard it is for them that trust in riches," &c. (Mark x. 24). " T"ke heed, and beware of covetousness " (Luke xii 15), " which is iuol11try " (Col. iii. 6). 6. The course of sin is downhill. Vires acqitirit eundo. The sinner is on an inclined plane; and the gradient at first is almost imperoeptible, Let us learn, too, •• the deceitfulness of sin.'' THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. [011. XI. 1-18.
8. Woman, made to be man's helpmeet, too often becomes his snare. It is seldom the.t a man is ruined but a woman has had a share in it. 7. Solomon wa., old at the time of hia fall, &o. (eh. xi. 4). Hot youth has its de.ngers and temptations ; but matura age has them also. Da'rid was not less than fifty when he fell, See p. 225. EXPOSITION.