gold to be as plenteous as stones, and “cedar trees as the sycamore trees that are in the vale for abundance." He obtained a wife from Egypt (his first downward step), and this opened up the treasures. and traffic of that country to Solomon. And thence he drew his fourteen hundred chariots, at six hundred shekels of silver a piece; and his twelve thousand horses, at one hundred and fifty shekels each; besides horses for presents to neighbouring kings, and four thousand to fill the stalls which belonged to himself. Thence, also, were obtained the supplies of linen, by means of merchants. Solomon had still the promise of his father to fulfil, and to this he turned all the energies and riches of the country. Artificers and materials were obtained from foreign as well as home sources. Gold, silver, cedar, and all precious substances were lavished upon that house of the Lord, which should be the joy and delight of every son of Israel. Under the persevering will of Solomon, the gorgeous fabric silently grew in its splendour, and was, indeed, worthy to be called the Temple of the Lord. When completed, the noble building was dedicated to the purposes of religion, with such unwonted display as Solomon only could have produced. The animals sacrificed were almost numberless; and Solomon, and all Israel with him, held a feast for "seven days and seven days, even fourteen days." But this building was not the only one that Solomon took in hand. He built a house for Pharoah's daughter; he built, also, his own house in thirteen years; he built a house in the forest of Lebanon; and he built "a porch of pillars," and a porch where he might judge. All these were of costly stones, “sawed with saws, even from the foundation unto the coping."

And now Solomon's power was at its highest. He was at peace with all the hereditary foes of his land. The Temple was finished The king's palaces were completed. His trade to Egypt, to Tyre and to the Red Sea was great. The land appeared full of riches, of chariots, and of horsemen; and, to complete the picture of prosperity and happiness, God again renewed his covenant to the king, -"If thou wilt keep my statutes and judgments, I will establish thy throne for ever." Solomon's fame continued to spread; the Queen of Sheba came to behold his magnificence, and to prove his wisdom with hard questions. Tribute flowed in from many quarters; "They brought every man his present, vessels of silver, and vessels of gold, and garments, and armour, and spices, horses and mules, a rate year by year."

"But Solomon loved many strange women." And when he was old, they turned away his heart from God to serve the idols of the neighbouring nations,-Ashtaroth, and Milcom, and Chemosh, and Molech; Threatenings

and so he did evil in the sight of the Lord.

came from God, and trouble and rebellion from among his people. "The Lord stirred up an adversary unto Solomon, Hadad, the Edomite." "God stirred him up another adversary, Rezon, the son of Eliadah," who abhorred Israel. And yet another, Jeroboam, who lifted up his hand against the king, and then fled to Egypt. These were some of the troubles that came upon Solomon in his old age. With the threat, "Because thou hast not kept my covenant, I will surely rend the kingdom from thee," ringing in his ears, he could see his people ripe for rebellion, and his hands too feeble to suppress it. He could see his son quite unfit to govern so great a people, and Jeroboam ready at any moment to come up out of Egypt, and rend the ten tribes, at least, from his vain son's grasp. What a humiliation! Solomon, the magnificent and the wise, had made his kingdom famous through the earth, had established his throne, as he thought, for ever; and now, as his hands waxed feeble, his kingdom began to show signs of instability. The wise man had a fool to his son, who, though he had been determined to fulfil God's threatenings, could not have acted in a manner more calculated to bring about rebellion and division. Solomon died. He slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city of David, his father. This is all we know. Did he repent of his great sin? Did he abolish the idols which were in the land? Did he die "in sure and certain hope?" We cannot tell, and we dare not surmise. To us the grave is too hallowed for erring man to question too closely of the condition of the souls of our brethren departed. It concerns We may surely learn a

us to look to ourselves and the living. lesson when we look at Solomon. His glory, his wisdom, his riches, his power preserved him not from idolatry. Had he not committed that first sin of intermarrying with idolators, his life would have been truly great, and his latter days peace. "Righteousness exalteth.... but sin is a reproach." These are his own words, and we cannot do better than read those Proverbs of his, as we read his life. Whether Solomon wrote the book called Ecclesiastes, we cannot decide, perhaps not, but whoever may have been its author, it must always be studied as a commentary on the life of him whose name is so often linked with it.

I. M. C.

[We are sorry to be obliged to differ in one respect, and that an important one, from the writer of this very interesting and admirable paper on the life of Solomon; for while the career of the wise king is, indeed, a melancholy one to contemplate, yet we do not think he is to be regarded, as the author would seem to imply, as altogether an apostate. He had unlimited means of gratifying his luxurious desires, and he used them so immoderately and unwisely as to be led fearfully astray. But the Book of Ecclesiastes is, as we think truly, ascribed to

him; and the confessions in that book (chap. ii. 1-10) are concluded by expressions which plainly indicate that the author of it had not fallen away from the true faith, but that he returned from all his vain searches after pleasure, and a bitterly disappointing experience of the vanity of earthly enjoyments, to find the forgiving love of God, and in it the true and only source of happiness.

There seems no reason to doubt that Solomon was the author of the book which gives us this insight into his recovery from his grievous fall. The first verse distinctly describes the Book of Ecclesiastes as "the words of the preacher, the son of David, King of Jerusalem," and the description contained in it of the wisdom, riches, writings, and works of the author, is applicable only to him. The concurrent testimony both of Jewish and Christian tradition, corroborate this internal evidence; and it was only by a few critics of the last century that doubts were suggested as to its authenticity. The period of his life at which Solomon wrote the book is determined by the nature of its contents; for it was the fruit of the discovery of his own errors, and his deep penitence for his guilt and folly which led him to assume the office of the Preacher.-EDITORS.]

THE PREPARATION OF A LESSON.

"PREPARE thy work without, and make it fit for thyself in the field, and afterwards build thy house." Prov. xxiv. 27.

The principle involved in these words is of wide, if not of universal application. Unless you would have your work a failure, and your labour very weariness, then ere you begin, not only count the cost, but get ready the materials to your hand.

Most emphatically is it true in reference to Sunday-school teaching. An unprepared teacher in his class is no wiser, nor likely to be more successful, than a builder who should have to go in search of bricks, or tools, or mortar, each time the need of them occurred in his work. Since the era at which a Sunday-school literature began to exist, so much has been said and written on the subject of the preparation of lessons, of its necessity, its influence, and its value, that it would seem presumptuous to attempt to throw additional light upon it, or to press its importance by any additional motive upon those whom it concerns.

Yet as actual experience is never utterly worthless, the suggestion of plans which have been pursued, with occasional modifications, for more than ten years, and with some encouraging measure of success, may possibly not be unacceptable to younger teachers, who fully admit the duty of the preparation of lessons, but are often at a loss how to commence it. Let me then at once remark, that what I have to say refers exclusively to the private preparation of a teacher. And this, not because I undervalue either a mutual, or what may be

Ꭰ

called a ministerial preparation, but simply because it has never happened to me to share the advantages of either; and also because I believe, that to make such opportunities really a blessing, they must be the stimulant to, and not the substitute for, the individual study and preparation of the lesson by the teacher.

Perhaps it may be useful to arrange the subject thus:

I. What is it we have to do?

II. How are we to do it?

And

I. What is it we have to do? It is to prepare a lesson. what is a lesson in a Sunday-school sense? It is not a sermon, still less an essay; it is not an oration, nor a string of amusing anecdotes; but it is to take a portion of the truth of God, generally directly from his Word, but occasionally embodied in a collect or hymn, and to seek by patient effort, combined with earnest prayer, so to present it to the children of our classes, as that it may instruct their minds, interest their feelings, and affect their hearts. Of course the form of a lesson must be more or less varied, according to the age and attainments of the children or young people, who are to receive it; but it should be ever borne in mind in preparation, even for the most advanced, that the office of a teacher, especially of a female teacher, is not the authoritative announcement of Divine truth, but rather the mutual search, in dependence on the teaching of the Holy Spirit, for the will and mind of God, as revealed in his Word. With this brief description of "what it is we have to do," let us pass to our more immediate topic for consideration,

II. How are we to do it? in other words, What is it to prepare a lesson? In answering this enquiry, by reference to the plan which has been tested by myself, and found to work successfully, I must plead, in apology for the egotism, the difficulty of narrating a personal history in general terms, and the greater directness the first person singular gives, to what shall be a simple record of facts "from the teacher's own experience."

I look then upon the preparation for my Sabbath work, as general and particular. The general preparation is on this wise. Very early in the week, seldom later than Monday morning, I take the lesson for the following Sunday as my private Scripture reading. Then, asking for the Holy Spirit's guidance, I try to find out what is its message to me, and to enquire what God would teach by this portion of his Word. The next day, still as a part of private devotional exercises, I look prayerfully at the passage with reference to the class I have to teach. I think of their abilities, their characters, and any peculiarity in the circumstances of any of them, which may be known to me, and seek out what leading lesson the passage brings before the mind, and how it may be made available for their instruc

tion. Thus I have the subject worked, as it were, into my mind, and thoughts, illustrations, and anecdotes, met with in daily life, are questioned as they pass, to see if they are likely to be useful.

The more definite and particular preparation, is usually the work of Thursday. Then for the first time, I consult Notes, Commentaries, Geographies, and other helps, and arrange the information I have gained, and the illustrations I wish to use. On Saturday, the whole is gone over, and is, as a rule, so made my own as to preclude the necessity for using notes during the delivery of the lesson, and if no one else is benefited by the result of the entire process, I have at least myself gained sufficient advantages to compensate me for the time and thought I have devoted to it, and am enabled thankfully to acknowledge, week by week, that my labour, if such it may be called, has "not been in vain."

Probably, the thought of many minds on reading the above, would be, "how much leisure time that teacher must have, to give to her lesson," and I freely confess, that my circumstances in this respect, are very different from those of many others, and that having more, of me there may be justly more required. And yet in practice, it would not be found to occupy so large a portion of time, as it appears to do in the narration. A considerable portion of the preparation, and that by no means the least important, forms a part of the retirement for devotional purposes, which every Christian must secure, if he would have his soul prosper and be in health. And were the prayerful consideration of the lesson for the teacher's own soul's benefit, and for the children's good, regularly attended to in the early part of the week, and borne in mind throughout it, the more definite preparation need not necessarily occupy a large amount of time, inasmuch as the higher and spiritual lesson having been grasped by prayerful meditation and constant mental reference, the drapery and form of the lesson might comparatively soon be attained. "In all labour there is profit," but in none so much as in the search for wisdom as for "hid treasure," not for selfish enrichment, but for mutual benefit and glad distribution. And should a teacher ever be tempted to think that the lesson he has to teach is so familiar, that preparation is not needed, he is sacrificing his personal interest, just as much as his relative duty. It is related of the late Dr. Arnold, that when remonstrated with by a friend, for continuing the study of Greek, he replied, "I read not because I think I have not enough of water to supply my pupils' wants, but because I consider it much better for them that they should drink out of a running stream, than out of a stagnant pool." And though we may possibly have sufficient information on any particular passage and be endowed with sufficient readiness to bring that information into