sufficient to preserve the peace of the country.

Quite in accordance with these notices are the references both to the prosperity of Israel, and to the extent

of Solomon's dominions (1 Kings 4:20, 21). They almost read like an initial fulfillment of that promise to

Abraham, "Multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the

sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies" (Genesis 22:17).

And if, compared with the simplicity of Saul's and even of David's court, that of Solomon seems luxurious in

its appointments,85 we must remember that it wa s intended to show the altered state of the Israelitish

monarchy, and that even so the daily consumption was far smaller than at the court of the Persian monarchs

in the high-day of their power and glory.86

But the fame which accrued to the kingdom of Solomon from its prosperity and wealth would have been little

worthy of the Jewish monarchy, had it been uncombined with that which alone truly exalteth a nation or an

individual. The views of Solomon himself on this subject are pithily summed up in one of his own

"Proverbs" (3:13, 14), "Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that causeth understanding to go

forth; for merchandise (trading) with it, is better than merchandise with silver, and the gain from it than the

most fine gold."  87

All this the "wise king" exemplified in his own person. God gave him "wisdom" not only far wider in its

range, but far other in its character (Proverbs 1:7; 9:10)than that of the East, or of far-famed Egypt, or even of

those deemed wisest in Israel,88 "and understanding exceeding much, and largeness of heart, even as the

sand that is on the sea-shore" 89 (1 Kings 4:29). Not satisfied with the idle life of an Eastern monarch, he set

the example of, and gave encouragement to study and literature, the range of his inquiries extending not

only to philosophy and poetry,90 but also to natural science in all its branches.91 It must have been a mighty

intellectual impulse which proceeded from such a king; it must have been a reign unparalleled in that age, as

well as among t hat people, which Solomon inaugurated.