Solomon the Wise Man

Part I

Let us ascend the stream of time, and transport ourselves to Jerusalem some three thousand years ago. Its most characteristic features now are mean and ignoble buildings; silent streets; signs of decay and oppression and squalid poverty; and a miserable remnant of its ancient race, haunting its walls like ghosts, and filling the air with their plaintive wails. Unlike Rome, or Athens, or Thebes, Jerusalem hardly retains, even in its ruins, a vestige of departed glory. But at the date I speak of, it was a picturesque and magnificent city. The mountains around it were clothed with gardens, and cornfields, and fat olive-groves, and terraced vineyards, and clumps of feathery palms; its streets were the abodes of luxury and ease, or filled with the hum of business and crowds of traffickers, who brought to its markets the varied products of distant climes — Egypt’s finest fabrics and India’s costliest wares; and with the royal palace — a building at once of great magnificence and prodigious strength — crowning the heights of Zion, and looking over the city, with its sparkling fountains, and gardens, and net work of streets, and stately edifices, to Moriah, where the temple rose, dazzling the eye, and glittering, as the smoke of early sacrifice ascended in the calm blue air, with gold in the beams of the morning sun; city of the living God, Jerusalem was then, as the Jews proudly called it, the “‘ perfection of beauty, the joy of the whole earth.”

Having transported ourselves there. we mingle with a crowd that waits before the palace. Its gates at length are thrown open; the throng divides like a parted wave, making way for a stately chariot which advances, drawn by splendid horses, carpeted with the costliest tapestry of the ioom, and bedecked with silver and gold and purple. Around it is a bodyguard of chosen men, the tallest and bravest of the land: each arrayed tn purple, with his long black locks sprinkled with gold dust; in his hand a drawn sword, and on his left arm a golden shield. A proud array! and in che centre of it, seated in his chariot, is the object the people crowd and push and stand on tiptoe to see — the cynosure of all eyes. His raiment is white as snow: health blooms on his ruddy cheek: adown his broad shoulders fall bushy locks, dark as the raven’s wing; with features cast in the finest mould, eyes of the brightest blue, intellect beaming

in his look, grace and fascination in all his bearing,

he sits there a king of men, “every inch a king”” — - to copy the description of the sacred writers, his lips were full of grace; his countenance was as Lebanon; his soul was anointed with the oil of gladness; without a peer or rival, he was fairer than the sons of men. Followed by a splendid retinue, and attended by kings, who had come in regal pomp and with costly gifts “to hear the wisdom that God had put into his heart,” this was Solomon. Thus, like a comet sweeping through the sky with its long train of brilliant light, Solomon, as we gather from Josephus, as well as from the sacred records, was wont to appear in public; thus he went to dispense justice in the hall of judgment, or pass his leisure with a train of female beauties in his enchanting garden at Etham — his paradise, as it was called.

Of all the kings of the earth, none during his life ever attracted so much notice as Solomon, or left behind him at his death such a wide-spread and immortal memory. Not the queen of Sheba only, who, on hearing “of his fame concerning the name of the Lord, came to prove him with hard- questions,” but many others, to whose kingdoms his fame had reached, repaired to Jerusalem — curious as Moses when, amazed to see a bush burning without being consumed, he said, ‘‘I will turn aside -and see this great sight.” The splendor of his reign, like all earthly greatness, has passed away as a theatrical pageant from the stage. Its very theatre, indeed, is now a melancholy ruin. The plowshare of war has gone over Jerusalem, nor left any traces of the glory it enjoyed under Solomon but a few great stones, where the dispersed of Israel, aliens in their fatherland, weep as mourners at the graves and by the monuments of the dead. Not only so; but our Lord, taking away that glare about the state of kings and pomp of wealth that is so dazzling to the weak eyes of mortals, has given us the true measure of Solomon’s glory. A flower of the meadow his text, and his

sermon the shortest but most impressive eve preached on the verdict, ‘“‘ Vanity, vanity, all is vanity,” Jesus said to his disciples, ‘‘ Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin; and yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.”

That is true; and three thousand years have passed since he died — sweeping millions into oblivion, obliterating the footprints of kings and conquerors, ‘and crumbling their proudest tombstonesintodust. Yet the fame of Solomon survives. He still lives in many an eastern story; and where dusky forms beneath a sky sparkling with stars, sit round the lonely tent fire, they while away the night with strange legends of his wisdom, and glory, and greatness.

Those who are conversant with the literature of Persia tell us that he is one of its most frequent and famous characters. It records nothing of David, but countless stories of his son: one, called the ‘“‘Saluman-Nameh,” occupies no fewer than eighty books. The Persians also show a tomb at Shiraz, which they pretend to be Bathsheba’s; and not to any of their own kings, but to Solomon belongs the honor, according to the common legend, of having built the once magnificent city of Persepolis.

A more important place still belongs to Solomon in the hoary traditions of that country, amid whose mountain fastnesses our army, by endurance, valor in the fight, and clemency in the victory, lately crowned itself anew with laurels. Abyssinia claims him as the founder of its imperial dynasty! and in Theodore holding the pass single handed, deserted of all but his own lion-like courage, fell, according to the traditions of the country, a descendant of Solomon and the queen of Sheba. The story goes that she bore a son to him, and took the boy with her to her own country, where he lived to become the ancestor of a long line of kings; and that from the thousands of Hebrews who accompanied her on her return, sprung the large body of Jews who are now found in Abyssinia, and whose conversion to Christianity was the object of that enterprise of Stern, the missionary, which formed one at least of the causes of the late Abyssinian war. As many cities contended for the honor of being the birthplace of Homer, other countries besides Abyssinia — Arabia, for instance — have claimed the queen of Sheba for their sovereign, and Solomon for the father of their kings.

Nor has his name been preserved only in the historic legends and oral traditions of those countries, like Arabia, Persia, and Ethiopia, that bordered on his own dominions, or were allied to him by some closerconnection. The remotest corners of Europe

had legends of Solomon; and equally among Jewish,

Christian, and Mahometan nations his name forms a nucleus around which have gathered the strangest and most fantastic fables. No man ever left so broad and deep a mark on the world as the subject of this chapter. The Peak of Teneriffe stands 14,000 feet above the level of the sea; and sailors tell us at what an enormous distance it is descried, and over how many leagues of ocean, with its feet below the waves and its head above the clouds, it flings its long shadow. Such a place Solomon filled ir. the world. Those who never heard of Cyrus, or 24 “Alexander, or the Czsars, have heard of him. His name belongs to more tongues, and his shadow has fallen farther, and over a larger surface of the earth, than any other man’s. ’

And to what is this mainly due?

He was, no doubt, a great monarch, in the ordinary acceptation of the term — among the greatest that ever filled a throne. Other empires have embraced a larger surface of the earth than his; yet, the fruit not of his own wars but of his father’s, his dominions were of vast extent. They reached from Egypt, and the borders of the Philistines, eastward to the Euphrates, and southward as far as the head of the Red Sea. The most powerful of the existing dynasties were his allies — the Pharaohs who occupied the old throne of Egypt, and also the sovereigns of that enterprising Phenician race, whose ships braved the dangers of unknown seas; whose merchants, like our cwn, were princes, and whose traffickers were the honorable of the earth. Under the lofty dome of St. Paul’s we read these words of its architect: “If you seek my monument, look around;” and in Jerusalem Solomon had such a monument of his greatness. It was said of Augustus Cesar, that he found Rome brick, and made it marble; but Jerusalem — and the country as well as its capital — owed still more to the enterprise and vigor of Solomon. He threw a wall around it of - prodigious height and strength; and the city that wall defended he adorned with the most magnificent edifices. He built a palace for himself of such splendor and dimensions that, though he had thousands of workmen, in the Canaanites whom he pressed into his service, it took thirteen years to construct. He built a second palace, which formed the hall of judgment, and was called, probably from the enormous quantity of cedar used in its construction, the House of the Forest of Lebanon; and another still for Pharaoh’s daughter, her, the chief of his too numerous wives, whom he married on succeeding to the throne. Besides these, after designs and with treasures left by his father David — who, because he was a man of blood, one whose life, in other words, had been spent in wars, was denied the privilege of raising a house to the God of peace — he built the Temple. That sacred edifice, which he began in the fourth, and finished in the eleventh year of his reign, was of unrivalled splendor; for its size the costliest which wealth and piety ever raised to the worship of God. It is calculated that the talents of gold and of silver which are recorded as having been left by David for this purpose were equal in value to the eight hundred millions that form the national debt of our country. No wonder that a building on which such treasures were lavished should have excited more of the world’s attention than all the temples of India or Egypt, of Greece or Rome; cast a flood of glory on the reign of Solomon; and is recalled to this day by Jews in every quarter of the world with mingled feelings of pride and sorrow.

Nor was it only palaces, or even cities — such as Tadmor in the desert, afterwards called Palmyra, whose lonely and beautiful ruins still attract the steps and excite the admiration of travellers — that Solomon built. In alliance with Hiram, king of Tyre, the capital of Phenicia, he built ships; combining the merchant with the prince. With the exception of the “glorious gospel of the blessed God,” commerce has done more to preserve the peace of the world, and promote the civilization and happiness of its inhabitants, than any other influence. whatever. Though some affect to despise it, there is no pursuit more honorable; and deeming it worthy not of nobles only but of kings, Solomon built mercantile navies at Elath and also at Eziongeber. These were ports on the coast of Edom, a country subdued by his father’s arms and the power of prayers like these — ‘‘ Who will bring me into the strong city? Who will lead me into Edom? Wilt not thou, O God, go forth with our hosts? through God we shall do valiantly; for he it is that shall tread down our enemies.”

From these harbors, lying on the Atlantic Gulf of the Red Sea, Solomon’s ships sailed to the coasts of Arabia, India, Ceylon, returning with rich freights — gold and silver and precious stones; nard, aloes, sandal-wood, and ivory; apes and peacocks. Nor did his greatness appear only in naval enterprises conducted in that quarter of the world. He launched his vessels on the waters of the Mediterranean. His and Hiram’s ships made voyages to Tarshish, a region lying somewhere on the coasts of Spain; and farther still. Bold sailors, the Phenicians pushed their way through the Gates of Hercules, as the Straits of Gibraltar were then called. Braving the terrors of the Atlantic, they steered for the south-west extremity of our own island, which was regarded by them as a group of islands, and called the Isles of the Cassirides. They came to Cornwall for tin — the metal which combined with copper formed the bronze so largely used by the ancients both for armor and domestic purposes, and so often mentioned in their writings, both sacred and profane, under the name of brass. This composite metal entered largely into the furniture of the Jewish temple; and while there was thus a very old and interesting connection between our own country and the land of God’s chosen people, to me it imparted additional interest to the bold headlands and picturesque bays of Cornwall, to think that its hills and streams supplied materials for the house of God, and that Solomon’s ships ploughed the very sea that swelled and broke in foaming rollers at our feet.

In this commerce which Solomon carried on we have one of the sources of the enormous wealth which contributed materially to his fame, and led to the saying that ‘‘King Solomon passed all the kings of the earth in riches.” But he had other, and no less productive, sources of revenue: First, for instance, the tax he raised on the products of the East, as they passed, which they required to do, through his territories — one caravan travelling by Edom to Egypt, the other by Tadmor in the desert to Asia Minor and Europe; secondly, the tribute paid by princes, who held their provinces at his pleasure, or by independent sovereigns, who purchased his countenance and alliance with costly gifts — ‘‘all the kings of the earth,” it is said, ‘‘sought the presence of Solomon, and they brought every man his present, vessels of silver and vessels of gold and raiment, harness and spices, horses and mules, a rate year by year;” and thirdly, the taxes hz impos. d on the property and commerce of his subjects and how heavy these became, at least in the latter years of his reign, may be inferred from the circumstance that they bred rebellion, and were the chief causes of the revolt that rent the kingdom asunder in the days of his son Rehoboam. Besides all these sources of revenue, Solomon succeeded to enormous treasures, over and above those expended on the Temple; the fruits and spoils of his father’s wars. Josephus tells us that wealth of incredible value was stored up in David’s sepulchre; where, since it was neither exhausted by the lavish expenditure of his son nor by the plundering hand of Hyrcanus, who, according to that historian, robbed it of three thousand talents of gold, it may yet be found — if any are so fortunate as to discover what has been often sought, but always in vain, the dust and tomb of David.

It is impossible now to form a correct estimate of the wealth of Solomon; but certain details which are recorded in Scripture, and recall the fabulous magnificence of Mexican and Peruvian kings, help us to fancy how great it was, and how fully God made good his promise, that since Solomon had asked neither wealth, nor long life, nor conquest over his enemies, but wisdom, He would give him that and these besides. Take these as examples. The walls, the doors, the very floor of the Temple, were plated with gold, furnishing gorgeous imagery for John’s description of heaven. It appeared everywhere else in munificent profusion. Two hundred targets and three hundred shields of beaten gold blazed on the arms of the stately guard that lined the way when Solomon repaired to the Temple, or to the House of the Forest. His throne, constructed of ivory, was overlaid with plates of pure gold, as were the steps that ascended it. Throwing into shade and meanness the proudest dispiays of modern palaces on high days of festival, — ‘‘all the drinking vessels of Solomon were of gold, and all the vessels of the House of the Forest were of pure gold — none were of silver;” as to it, it was so common in his days that ‘it was nothing accounted of,” says the sacred writer — ‘‘the king made silver to be in Jerusalem as stones.” To hear some pale preacher, whom his people leave to struggle with straitened circumstances, depreciating what he never possessed, discoursing with touching eloquence on the worthlessness of wealth, and how unfit riches are to satisfy either the aspirations of an immortal or allay the terrors of a guilty soul, may not impress us; but, in taking leave of Solomon’s greatness and wealth, let me observe that here isa scene which should. What more striking than the spectacle of this royal preacher, rising up amid scenes of the most imposing grandeur, surrounded by everything the world desires, and pronouncing over them all this sweeping, this solemn, this mournful verdict: ‘“‘ Vanity, vanity, and vexation of spirit!” How should that lead us to set our affections on things above, and iend our ears to another voice — to Him, the Amen, the Faithful and the True Witness, who, freely offering pardon, and peace through his own precious blood, addresses us, saying, “I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich!”

Surpassing all the kings of the earth in riches, it was not these which made Solomon famous “A man shall be commended,” says the proverb, “accerding to his wisdom;” and his own fame presents the best possible illustration of that, his own proverb. Cabinets of natural history possess specimens of insects that lived, probably, ages before the creation of man; and there I have seen them, inside a piece of transparent, fragrant, golden amber, as perfect in every limb, feeler, silken wing, and member of their delicate forms, as on the day they died. The amber in which Solomon’s memory has been embalmed was his unrivalled wisdom. It is for that he is remembered, and his name preserved in the many thousand eastern legends that history has written and oral tradition tells concerning him.

It may interest, if not instruct, my readers to have some specimens of these. Here is a sample of the sack. He could interpret the speech of beasts and birds; and was acquainted with the hidden virtues of gems and herbs. He knew spells to cast out demons, and charms to cure disease — and some of these, attributed to Solomon, are used to this day in the East. He was possessed of a ring which revealed to him the past, the present, and the future; and when this was stolen by Ashmedai, the king of the demons, he fell, it is said, into great sorrow, and wandered throughout all the land of Israel, weeping and crying, ‘‘I, the preacher, was the King of Jerusalem.” He was acquainted with the arts of magic; and by these obtained such power over evil spirits that they became his slaves, and transported from India, among other and more important services, those rare trees that adorned his famous garden at Etham. He built the splendid city of Persepolis by the aid of certain demons, called Jinns; while he conquered another and retellious class, named Afreets, after a long struggle, and imprisoned them in the depths and dark caves of the sea.

Other legends, like the Bible story of the two “women who disputed for possession of the living child, present illustrations of his sagacity; of the promptitude and profundity of his wisdom — how it stood every test, and triumphed in every trial. On one occasion, for example, a band of fair boys and stout girls, of one size and age, and all dressed alike, were brought to him; and, to test his skill, he was required to say which were boys and which girls. He broke in a moment through the maze. Ordering water to be brought, he directed them all to wash; and observing, as they washed, how one class vigorously scrubbed, while another, careful of their beauty, but gently stroked their faces with the water, he solved the enigma — unhesitatingly and instantly pronouncing the first to be boys, and the second girls. On another occasion, one who came, like the Queen of Sheba, to prove his wisdom as well as to see his glory, brought some flowers, requiring him to say whether they were real or artificial. If they were works of art, the imitation of tint, of size, of color, and of form, was so perfect as to deceive the sight, and defy all ordinary means of detection. But no art could baffle Solomon’s sagacity. It suggests an unerring test. He desires the flowers to be placed on the ground. The air is filled with the hum of bees as they flit in search of honey from flower to flower. He watches the course of one as it approaches the

flowers that were to put his wisdom to the proof

It brushes their leaves, but passes by on careless wing, nor stays its flight for a moment to hover over them. Satisfied with this test, he pronounces them false; leaving the maker of the flowers and the spectators of the trial, in their ignorance of his shrewd, though simple, test, amazed at his sagacity.

Such, as we find them in the traditions, oral or written, of the East, are the many thousand legends of which the subject of this chapter is the hero; and it will be observed that wild, extravagant, and even ridiculous as some of them appear, they all turn on his wisdom. His wisdom is the foundation on which the superstructure stands, however puerile and fantastic it may be; and this, ] may remark, presents a phase of human nature which is creditable to it, and sheds some faint rays of glory on the ruins of our humanity. Though fallen, men are not fallen so low as in their calm and unbiased judgment to esteem the possession of wealth above that of wisdom; or think that riches gives any one a title to their respect while he lives, or to their remembrance when he dies. While mere wealth wins no respect for its possessor, and leaves his memory to rot and sink into the oblivion of the grave, Solomon’s wisdom survives in these legends, and bearing his name over all the East, has floated it down to successive generations. There was no ground therefore for his gloomy forebodings, his complaint, “As it happeneth to the fool, so it happeneth even unto me; and why was I then more wise, seeing that which now is in the days to come shall all be forgotten?” This wisest man, as well as greatest enigma in history; this weakest of mortals, who yet filled the world with his fame; this type of Jesus Christ — the peace, and riches, and glory of whose kingdom were symbolized by his — who yet in the matter of his salvation offers doubts divines have never solved, is not forgotten. His fame remains forever embalmed in the memory of his unrivalled wisdom. That we shall discuss in our next chapter; only observing, meanwhile, that his strange and inconsistent conduct, the gross sensuality that stained his life, and the dark cloud that in consequence hangs above his tomb, are singularly instructive. It is natural for us to regard with respect great intellect and practical wisdom; penetrating sagacity and boundless stores of knowledge; all those mental qualities which command admiration, and secure a place for their possessor in the temple of fame. Yet how does Solomon’s history teach us that the wisdom which maketh wise to salvation and to win souls to Christ, that the wisdom which esteems the knowledge of God himself of greater value than the profoundest know ledge of his works, that the wisdom which in many an unlettered peasant has aspired to this blessed and lofty attainment, ‘‘ Acquaint thyself with God and be at peace,” is that of which it can be most justly and emphatically said, “‘ With all thy getting, get wisdom — the merchandisé of it is better than the merchandise of silver, and the gain thereof than fine gold.” What shall it profit a man though he were as wise as Solomon, and rich as Crcesus, though he should gain the whole world, if he lose his soul?