t be so; the loving, yearning mother exclaimed no, rather let
the other have the child. Solomon wisely decided the matter, directing
the attendants to give the unconscious object of controversy to her to
whom it belonged.

But this rich and popular monarch was led into sin by his unbounded
prosperity, and indulging in forbidden pleasures. Afterwards he bitterly
mourned over his folly and shameful weakness, in departing from the
living God. This varied and, much of it, wasted life, led the king, in
his sober years of declining age, to write the Book of Proverbs and
Ecclesiastes, so full of the profoundest knowledge of mankind and wisest
counsel. It is said that the Scotch are preeminently discerning and
intelligent, because they are so familiar with the Scriptures,
especially the proverbs of Solomon.

There were no more such monarchs in Israel, after David and Solomon, and
the kingdom became divided and weakened, until the Jews were conquered
and enslaved by their enemies. The expensive magnificence and luxury of
Solomon's reign, and his departures from God into idolatrous worship,
awakened the divine indignation.

A prophet was commissioned to tell the wise, yet foolish monarch that
the kingdom should be rent in twain, and the grandeur of his empire
depart before the revolt of the ten tribes from Judah, which had
absorbed the small tribe of Benjamin. Solomon was about sixty years old
when he died. He had ruled forty years, and was buried nine hundred and
seventy-five years before the advent of Christ. Rehoboam, the son of
Solomon, was made king over Judah, and Jereboam, an Ephraimite, became
sovereign of the ten tribes, who were called Israel.

How interesting and instructive the history of the Hebrews, at this
period!

They got tired of the sovereignty of God, visible only in written rules
of conduct, family government, and the prophet-judges, and desired to
imitate their pagan neighbors in the pomp and power of royalty. Under
their second monarch they quarrelled among themselves, engaged in civil
strife, and became divided, rival kingdoms. During the five hundred
years which followed, the successive kings of the two realms had, the
most of them, brief sovereignty. Some of them were excellent kings, but
the greater part were wicked and oppressive.

Pre-eminent in crime was Ahab, whose wife, Jezebel, was a fit companion.

Their names live in the world's history with a bad preeminence, like
those of Herod, Nero,