the Book of Proverbs, was led away into sin and
eternal disgrace. In fact, it matters not what we know, if we are not
led of the Spirit we shall come to grief. The more deeply a ship is
laden, if she gets aground, the more likely she is to become a wreck. It
takes the wisest of men to make the fool Solomon became. Perhaps the
most serious aspect of this story is, that it was not while the king was
young, but when grey-headed, that he wandered from God, and this leads me
to say that

THE WORST CASES OF BACKSLIDING ARE AMONG THOSE WHO ARE NO LONGER YOUNG.

We should not have been surprised if Solomon had been led away by
youthful passion or indiscretion, but we are shocked to find that it was
when he ought to have been venerable that he became vicious--"When
Solomon was old." We should have expected history would have told us of
the power he exerted over the people; how the nation saw in his silver
locks the crown of glory he had spoken of in his book. It would have
seemed natural to have read of great gatherings of the people of
different nations, listening to his wondrously wise words. Instead of
this, the news spread far and wide that the wise king had stooped to
folly of the worst degree.

My brothers! what sort of old men shall we make? If we are allowed to
remain among our fellows, shall we live the life that shall make men
thank God for our length of days, or will they wish we had died in our
youthful prime? There are men whose youth was like the mountain stream,
which cheered everything it touched. Born among the mountains, and
wedding other brooks and streamlets, uniting them in a river, clear and
lovely, along whose banks children loved to play. But later on, as it
became broad and deep, taking in pollution and garbage, until the clear
and joyous river is changed into a great sewer, filling the air with
noxious smells, and defiling the face of nature with its liquid
blackness. Such is life to some men--Solomon was one, perhaps the worst.

One is ready to ask--Can this be the man to whom God spake in large
promise? Is this he whose prayer brought into the temple the manifested
presence of the Almighty? Can it be possible that this hoary idolater
had been the favourite of Jehovah? Alas! it is only too true. More than
once we have known men whose prayers could bring heaven to earth, and
lift earth to heaven, but who have lived too long, and ere they fell into
a dishonoured grave, brought shame t