ancient world. The Queen had come, scarcely daring to hope that Eastern exaggeration had not led her to

expect more than she would find. It proved the contrary. Whatever difficulty, doubt, or question she

propounded, in the favorite Oriental form of "riddles,"  155 "whatever was with her heart,"  156 "Solomon

showed (disclosed to) her all her words"157 (the spoken and unspoken).

And here she would learn chiefly this, that all the prosperity she witnessed, all the intellectual culture and

civilization with which she was brought into contact, had their spring above, with "the Father of lights." She

had come at the head of a large retinue, bearing richest presents, which she left in remembrance and also in

perpetuation of her visit - at least, if we may trust the account of Josephus, that the cultivation of balsam in

the gardens of Jericho owed its origin to plants which the Queen had brought (Jos., Ant. 8. 6, 6). The notice

is at least deeply symbolical. The spices of Sheba, so sweet and strong that, according to ancient accounts,

their perfume was carried out far to sea, were to be brought to Jerusalem, and their plants to strike root in

sacred soil (Psalm 72:10, 11; Isaiah 60:6). But now the balsam-gardens of Jericho, into which they were

transplanted, are lying bare and desolate - for "the Queen of the South" hath risen up in judgment with that

"generation;" and what further "sign" can or need be given to the generation that turned from Him Who

was "greater than Solomon?"