The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Kings — Section 228

Solomon's second vision (eh. ix. 6) bas come to be fnl:6.lled. He was forewarned of danger and yet has fallen into it. The splendour of royal circumstance remained the same, but how completely bas his true glory departed I " How is the gold become dim and the fine gold changed I " The smile of God that rested as glad sunshine on his head, has turned to "anger.'' The cause of the change is in the secresy of his own soul. The Scripture narrative is silent about the course of his inner life, the phases of thought and feeling through which he may have passed ; so that this sudden note of discord in the midst of the harmony strikes us with something of sad surprise. Enough, however, is said to show that it was a moral change in the man himself. The Lord God of Israel had not changed in His purpose or method; it is Solomon whose "heart is turned from him." How far this was a fatal change, a real apostasy, we know not. We need not attempt to solve the purely speculative question as to whether he ever recovered from his fall ; bis later writings suggest at least the hope that it was so. Enough for us now to note the facts, to trace the causes, and learn the lessons. Certain broad principles of moral life are here strikingly illustrated. L THE TREACHERY OF HUMAN NATURE. Beneath the fairest exterior there may be latent germs of evil that only need outward incentives to develop themselves into disastrous issues. Even the inspirations of the highest wisdom and the raptures of religious emotion may have underlying them tendencies to the grossest forms cf folly and the lowest deeps of sin and shame. Solomon was sincere enough in his earlier piety, bat too little alive to the slumbering forces of evil that he bore within him. His moral history confirmed the truth of his own proverb: " He th:it trusteth in his own heart is a fool" (Prov. xxviii. 26). An Arab tradition says that in the staff on which he leaned there was a worm which was secretly gnawing it asunder. That worm was the hidden cormption of his moral nature. It is a solemn lesson: " Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.'' We can look upon Ill? form of wrong-doing in others without being reminded that there is something akin to it in ourselves. Concealed in our own bosoms there is that which might possibly develop into similar issues. Our only security lies in the triumph of th::i,t gracious Divine power that can thoroughly purge the fountain of the he a.rt, and destroy there the very germs of evil. 11. THE BASE USES TO WHICH THE HIGHEST ADVANTAGES OF LIFE MAY DE PER· VERTED BY THE WAYWARD HEART. Solomon's greatness became the occasion and aggravll.tion of his fall His royal magnificence fostered" the lust of the eye ancl the lust of tile flesh, and the pride of life." His consciousness of power degenerated into tyranny (1 Kings xii. 4; 1 Sam. viii. 11). The wealth of his emotional nature took the form of illicit love and boundless self-indulgence. His studious interest in Nature induced the dream of occult mysterious powers in material things, o.nd the practice of magic arts. His intercourse with men of other nations led to his catching the infection of their idolatries, until at last the rival temples of Moloch, Chemosh, and Ashtaroth, with all their cruel and abominable rites, frowned da.rkl.v upon Olivet, over against the glorious house of the Lord on Mount Moriah. So fatally may the noblest personal endowments and the richest advanta.ges of life foster the evil tendencies of the heart when once it has surrendered itself to their control. If it be true that "there is a soul of goodness in things evil," it is equally !rue that nothing is so good but that the spirit of evil may transform it into an 1Dstrument of moral injury. The fascinations of outward life are full of danger when tha.t spirit lurks within. The wealth of a man's intellectual resources, the multitude of his possessions, the range of his influence, do but put into his hands the more abundant means of wrong-doing when his heart is not loyal to the good and true. " The fairest things below the sky Give but a flattering light; We must suspect some danger nigh, Where we possess delight." This _idea is not _t? be co.rri_ed too far. ~ife would be intolerable on the principle of umversal susp1c1on and distrust. The great Father of all would have His children  'tBE '.nRST Book. OF RINGS. [oil:. XI, 1-18