rity,
commanding and forbidding; on the side of man the only question was
between obedience and disobedience. Moses was the Law-giver, and his age
was the age of law. In the time of the Judges the question concerned
national existence and national independence. The age of the Judges was
the heroic age of the Jewish nation. The Judges were men combining
religious faith with patriotism; they were religious heroes. Then came the
time of David, in which the nation, having become independent, became also
powerful and wealthy. After his time the religion, instead of being a law
to be obeyed or an impulse to action, became ceremony and pageant. Going
one step further, it passed into reflection and meditation. In the age of
Solomon the inspiration of the national religion had already gone. A great
intellectual development had taken the place of inspiration. So that the
Jewish nation seems to have passed through a fourfold religious
experience. Religion was first law, then action, next inspiration and
sentiment, afterward ceremony, and lastly opinion and intellectual
culture.

It is the belief of Herder and other scholars that the age of Solomon gave
birth to a copious literature, born of peace, tranquillity, and
prosperity, which has all passed away except a few Psalms, the Book of
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Solomon.

Solomon is personally a much less interesting character than David; for
policy is never so interesting as impulse, and the crimes of policy seem
worse than those of passion. The first act of Solomon was of this sort. He
put his brother Adonijah to death for his attempt to seize the throne.
Joab, who supported Adonijah against Solomon, was also put to death, for
which we do not grieve, when we remember his assassination of Abner and
Amasa, shedding the blood of war in peace. But the cold, unscrupulous
character of Solomon is seen in his ordering Joab to be slain in the
tabernacle while holding the horns of the altar, and causing Adonijah to
be taken by force from the same place of refuge. No religious
consideration or superstitious fear could prevent Solomon from doing what
he thought necessary for his own security. He had given Adonijah a
conditional pardon, limited to good behavior on his part. But after his
establishment on the throne Adonijah requested the mother of Solomon,
Bathsheba, to ask her son to give him for a wife the beautiful Abishag,
the last wife of David. Solomon understood this to m