of the Lord filling the Temple, and saw the heaven-sent flame upon the altar, they prostrated themselves upon the ground and worshipped. Again the trumpets sounded, again music and song pealed forth, and the priests chanted: Praise the Lord, for He is good, for His mercy endureth for ever!'

In the solemn silence of the night following the day of dedication, Solomon was again favoured by a vision of the Lord. I have heard thy prayer and thy supplication that thou hast made before Me,' said the voice of God; 'I have hallowed this House which thou hast built, to put My name there for ever; and My eyes and My heart shall be there perpetually.' Divine help and glory would belong to the chosen people and to the Temple as long as the ruler and the subjects walked in the fear of God; but if they forsook His commandments, ruin would fall upon them and upon that Temple at which they now gazed with so much pride and delight.

Thus the Temple was instituted as the only legitimate place of public devotion in the whole kingdom. No other was on any account permitted or tolerated. Purity of faith was to be secured through unity of worship controlled by watchful priests. And what was the form of that worship? Did it merely consist of endless sacrifices of oxen and sheep, the sprinkling of blood, and clouds of incense? Was the large and magnificent structure indeed nothing but a huge slaughter-house? Assuredly not. Sacrifices formed indeed the principal and most essential part of the ceremonial. They were the visible expression of reverence and awe, of joy and gratitude, of contrition and atonement. They were significant symbols helping to convey the worshipper's feelings and aspirations. But considering the large number of singers and musicians appointed for the service of the Temple, we may well suppose that music and song formed a pro

minent feature in the ritual of the Temple. The last Psalm alone is decisive: Praise God in His sanctuary, praise Him in the firmament of His power. . . . Praise Him with the sound of the trumpet, praise Him with the psaltery and harp. . . . Praise Him with stringed instruments and organs.' And when we recollect the so-called Psalms of degrees' composed to be sung whilst the priests were ascending and descending the steps of the altar, we naturally conclude that music was the handmaid of the highest order of religious poetry. We may therefore also infer that prayers, the more earnest and the more heartfelt because they were spontaneous and not yet fixed in unalterable formulas, were commonly offered up by the priests and the people, when the victims were presented or burnt upon the altar.

103. SOLOMON'S DECLINE AND DEATH.

[1 KINGS IX.-XI.; 2 CHRON. VIII. IX.]

The magnificent Temple was not the only great work of king Solomon's reign. His own palace, the building of which lasted thirteen years, was in its kind equally grand and remarkable. It was of imposing dimensions. It rested on four lines of pillars of cedar wood which bore beams of the same material. The outer walls were hewn out of massive stones from the quarries, whilst the inner chambers were all of cedar wood. In front of the palace stood the famous Porch of Judgment,' the whole floor of which was covered with cedar-wood. Here was the king's great ivory throne, ornamented with gold; six steps led up to it, and on each side were six golden lions crouching at the feet of the monarch. Behind this porch was the house of the forest of Lebanon,' 100 cubits long, 50 wide, and 30 high, and built on a similar plan as the palace.

There hung glittering and blazing upon the walls two hundred golden targets and three hundred golden shields. Within the palace were banqueting chambers with massive drinking vessels of pure gold; for in Solomon's reign gold was not accounted of, and silver was considered in Jerusalem as stones." A splendidly-arrayed retinue added to the luxury of the household, and the joyous strains of musicians and singers rang through the vast courts and chambers.

Solomon's queen, the Egyptian princess, had her separate palace, built probably in the same gorgeous style as his own. The city of Jerusalem was not only embellished and enlarged, but fortified by ramparts and a strong wall, upon which rose towers and fortresses. Walled towns, storehouses, and granaries were built in all parts of the land from Jerusalem to Mount Lebanon.

In return for the large supplies of cedar and cypress trees received from Hiram, king of Tyre, Solomon gave him twenty cities in Galilee, upon which Hiram sent to the king one hundred and twenty talents of gold. Those portions of the original inhabitants of Canaan who had not before been subdued, as the Amorites, Hittites, and Jebusites, were forced by Solomon to work as labourers and artisans, whilst he employed Israelites only to serve him as soldiers and officials of every kind and grade.

Thus the empire of Solomon became more and more famous for wealth and power, and the king's name was heralded abroad in distant countries for extraordinary wisdom and genius.

The queen of Sheba, hearing in her Arabian home of the wonderful monarch, so gifted and so prosperous, journeyed to Jerusalem to test him with difficult riddles. She came followed by a long train of camels laden with spices and gold and precious stones. She appeared before Solomon, and put to him all the hard questions she had

prepared. He readily answered them all. Then she gazed with wondering eyes upon the magnificence of his palace and the splendour of his household, and exclaimed with fervour It was a true report that I heard in my own land of thy acts and of thy wisdom. But I did not believe the words until I came, and my eyes had seen it; and behold, the half was not told me; thy wisdom and thy wealth exceed the fame which I heard. Happy are thy men, happy are these thy servants, who stand continually before thee and hear thy wisdom!' But generous in spirit, like Solomon himself, she presented him with one hundred and twenty talents of gold, and of spices very great store, and precious stones: there came no more such abundance of spices as these which the queen of Sheba gave to king Solomon.' Her visit was followed by that of other rulers and chieftains, who, also attracted by the growing fame of Solomon's court, came to pay him homage and to offer him costly gifts.

It is sad to turn from the account of so much wisdom and power to traces of decline and dissolution which are unmistakeable in the last years of the monarch's reign. The sacred narrative, as if unwilling to dwell on the cheerless picture, ceases to be full and detailed, becomes broken and abrupt, passes over that period rapidly and almost hurriedly, and refers for further information to the Acts of king Solomon,' a work which is unfortunately lost. A well-governed and flourishing commonwealth seems suddenly changed into a kingdom menaced both by foreign and internal foes, and tainted by the grossest idolatry. The stately and imposing figure of the king becomes pitiable on account of weakness and wavering indecision, and the peaceful and apparently unassailable security of the nation is disturbed by wild feuds and bitter warfare.

When Solomon had arrived at the height and fulness of

earthly might and glory, 'he did evil in the sight of the Lord, and his heart was not perfect with the Lord his God.' He took many wives-we are told a thousand-idolatrous maidens of Moab, Ammon, and Edom, of Canaan and Phoenicia, and they infested Jerusalem with their own superstitions. The pure faith of the Hebrew king and his people was sullied. Instead of the one service in the Temple, offered to the one true God, Solomon bowed down before the most hideous idols. He tolerated the licentious worship of Astarte; he burnt incense to Chemosh, the god of the Moabites; and he sanctioned the detestable rites of Milcom and Molech, the deities of the Ammonites, in whose honour children were burnt. So entirely did Solomon forget the visions of the Lord, and the pledges he had given on the height of Gibeon and in Jerusalem, in his youthful zeal and fervour!

His mind became harassed by doubts and fears. His spirits, once so buoyant, were depressed and gloomy; the clear serenity of his judgment was clouded by the mists of morbid despondency. Life had become to him a burden, a strange riddle, an unintelligible' mystery, and he exclaimed, 'Vanity of vanities, all is vanity!' Whereever he looked he found only vexation of spirit:' the porch of cedar, the ivory and gold-covered throne, the splendid retinue, the musicians and singers, all his wealth and magnificence, were empty vanity.' Moreover, he began to be troubled in his kingdom. He was threatened and perpetually attacked by Hadad, the Edomite prince, who was eager to avenge the disastrous defeat which the Edomite army had sustained in the time of David. He was made uneasy by a serious rebellion of Jeroboam, one of his own officers, who evidently relied on influential support. At last, in the midst of apprehension, strife, and disorder, he died after a reign of forty years, unhappy and pitiful.