been i;aid, the fact that l.t comes from a Father's hand, and the ben'lfita which it brings by (1) teaching patience in the trials of life; (2) moderating attachment to its bless• iDgB; (3) spiritualir:ing affection for those who are left; (4) intensifying desire for tho heavenly home. "Let us consider to whom they have gone, from what they have been taken, for what they have been taken, and how this bereavement will appear to ue when we come to die ourselves" (W. M. Taylor). " 'Tie sorrow builds the shining ladder up, Whose golden rounds are our calamities." D. Vers. 24, 25.-{JEBUBALEK.) The bfrtl1 of Solomoo. (Referenca: 1 Kings i.-xi.; 1 Chron. u:ii.-xxix.; 2 Chron. i.-ix.; Ps. lxxii.; Prov. i. 1; Eccles. i. 1; Cant. i. 1.) Where a while ago a dead child lay amidst signs of grief, there now lies a living child amidst signs of gladness. In him David sees a gift of God, nn answer to prayer which -med to be denied, "a pledge of pardon and a sign of hope." In him we see one who WBS destined to become the wisest of men, the most glorious of monarchs-Solomon (whose name occurs only here and eh. v. 14, in this book)- " The lofty light, endow'd With sapience eo profound, if truth be truth, That with a ken of such wide amplitude No second bath arisen." (Dante, • Par.,' x.) Notice: 1. Hu parentage. David, Bathsheba; from whom he inherited physical strength and beauty, mental and moral qualities, a piercing insight, large-heartedness, skill in ruling, sensuous susceptibilities, etc., royal rank and privileges. "The history of a man's childhood is the description of his parents' environment" (Carlyle). 2. His birth. Arter David's fall, repentance, and forgiveness, and the death of his unnamed infant (see, however, 1 Chron. iii 6); when Rabbah had fallen, peace was established, and prosperity abounded. The time was propitious. 3. His name. (1 Sam. i. 20.) '"And he called his name Solomon" (equivalent to "the man of peace," "pacific," Friedrich), " because he regarded his birth as a pledge that he should now become a partaker again of the peace of God" (Keil) ; or perhaps in allusion to the peaceful condition of the kingdom and "from the wish that peace might be allotted him as a gift of God, in contrast with the wars of his father's lite " (Erdmann; oh. vii. 12; 1 Chron. xx.ii. 9). "And Jehovah loved him," and spared his life, in contrast with that of the dead child. "And he [Jehovah] sent by the hand [through] Nathan the prophet; and he [Nathan1 called his name Jedid-jah [ Jedid equivalent to• David,"darli.ng;' 'beloved of Jab.,' his own name being combined with that of Jehovah], because of the Lord," who loved him; "a practical declaratioa on the part of Jehovah that the Lord loved Solomon, from which David could and was intended to discern that the Lord had blessed his marriage with Batbsbeba. J edidiah, therefore, was not actually adopted as Solomon's name" (Keil). "The pious father, in his happiness, entreated the oracle, through Nathan, to confer on the new-born child some name of lofty import, and Solomon, as his parents called him, received through the prophet the glorious additional name of Jedidiah. The sadness of the fate of his first child rendered the omens under which the ~eoond stepped into its place the more auspicious; and we can easily understand that of all his sons this one became the dearest" (Ewald). 4. Bis education; or the influences that went to form his character; of Nathan, to whom it may have been entrusted ; of David, during his declining years; of Bathsheba (eh. xi. 3); of a home and court where polygamy prevailtd; of all the learning of the age; of the revolt of Absalom, and other public events. "A shepherd-life, like his father's, furnished, we may believe, a better education for hie kingly calling. Born to the purple, there was the inevitable risk of a selfish luxury. Cradled in liturgies, trained to think chiefly of the magnificent 'palace' of Jehovah, of which he was to be the builder, there was the danger first of an iesthetic formalisru, and then of ultimate indifference" (Smith, •Diet.of the Bible'). 6. Bis :prospects, after the death of Absalom, if not even before (eh. vii.12; 1 Chron. xxii. 9; 1 Kings i. 13); his accession and eminence. 6. Bis closing years. 7. Bis pre- pgwrement, not w per110nal character but royal office, of "the Prince of Peace," " We cm. xn. 1-31.J 'l'HE SECOND BOOK OF SAMUEL. 317
must not confine our view to David's personal life and reign. After we h11ve seen him fo.llen and suffering for sin, we mu.~t see him rising O.(!;ain and revivina in a more glorious reign, in Solomon his son, who began to reign while David his father waa still alive, in order that the continuity might be more clearly marked. And above all, we must contemplate him as culminating upward and attaining the climax of bis alory, which God had revealed to him, and for which he yearned with devout aspirati~n, in Obrist, the Divine David and the Son of David, the Solomon, the Jedidiah, the Builder of the Church visible on earth and glorified in heaven" (Wordsworth).-D.