Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1896-12-03
THE SUNDAY SCHOOL.
THOUGHTS WORTHY OF CALM
REFLECTION.
A Pleasant, Interesting, and INSTRUCT
I've Lesson, and Where 1t May BE
FONDA Learned and Concise Re-
view Of the Same.



Lesson for December q.
Golden Text.-'Let him that thinketh
he standeth take heed lest he fall.
!. Cor, 10: IL.
This lesson Is found in ]. Kings, H.:
Alb. The downfall of Solomon was not
sudden one. like that of his father.
David. The degeneration had begun in
his young manhood, in the years of power
and fame that came after the building Of
the temple. In contracting foreign ALI
ance by marriage he went contrary to the
whole spirit of Hebrew national life; and
the idolatry into which his wives led him
was an almost inevitable result. The
sin of polygamy, in itself, is not expressly
condemned in the Biblical account, any
more than in the case of David; but it is
to be judged by its fruits, which were
uniformly evil.
Explanatory.
when Solomon was old:" History
repeats itself; David in his old age was
the victim of scheming women. and now
Solomon follows the same path.-.IIis
heart was not perfect with the Lord his
God, as was the heart Of David his faith
err" Having sinned he did not repent
and return to the Lord as David had
done.
"Went not fully after the Lord, as did
David his father" 1t is evident that the
writer of the history speaks of David as
having perfect heart" with the Lord
and going fully after the Lord by way
of contrast with the deeper sins and un-
repentant heart Of Solomon.
"ChQmogb.v tho hn ffla-Unu of tho Moa h.
ties. On the famous Moabite stone,
which bears an inscription describing the
campaign of Ahab against the Moabite
king Mesha. the latter speaks about his
god Chemosh; "Chcmosh said unto me,
Go, carry Nebo over Israel And
went up by night, and L fought against
the city even from dawn until noon, and
l took il. and l dedicated 0he captives)
unto Ishtar-Chemosh. And l carried
away from thence the Ariels of Jehovah,
and / dragged them on the ground be.
fore the face of Chemosh," etc. The
stone is dedicated to Chemosh. 1t was
found in the land of Moab, east Of the
Dead Sea, in 1868.
Some of the wives probably worshiped
other gods than those mentioned, for in
stance, those of Egypt. The condition Of
Solomon's conscience, when he could al
low the worship of a dozen different
heather deities after the clear view Of
the one true God that he had had in his
youth, can hardly be adequately stated.
1t certainly shows long descent from
he dcdicatory prayer that we studied
four weeks ago.
(Which had appeared un,o him twice:"
and many times besides through the
warnings of conscience, and probably Of
God-fearing counselors as well. But the
two appearances named, at Hebron Il.
Kings, 3: u and at Jerusalem Il. Kings,
o: were the most striking, and should
have been sufficient TO keep off this dis
graceful fall.
II will surely rend the kingdom from
thee" the following verse shows what is
meant; not that the kingdom should be
taken from Solomon personally, but from
his family, to which, the succession had
been promised.
For David thy fathers sake Many
times in the Bible the punishment of one
man is postponed for the sake of anoth-
er. Not only microscopy prayer, but
microscopy living, if the phrase may be
allowed, is illustrated in the Scriptures.
TT will rend it out of the hand of thy
SON." how terrible blow to the father,
if he only realized the meaning of the
doom pronounced.
The promise was fulfilled in the faith
fulness of Judah to the Davidic kings,
while the rest of the nation was ruled by
different dynasties of usurpers.
Teaching Hints.
Here we leave Solomon-"fallen from
his high estate" through disobedience. 1t
is sad ending to the life of power and
riches and fame; sad proof Of the fulfill
ty of wisdom" practical worldly wis
dom, to preserve men from ruin. With
this lesson we pass also from the Old
Testament Excepting the next lesson in
Proverbs). If the wisest Of kings ended
his life thus. surely we need to turn to the
gospel for the means by which sinful men
may escape from sin.
One sin leads to another. Inordinate
ambition led Solomon TO desire to extend
his empire beyond the territory of the He
brews this led to his foreign alliances,
and those to his many marriages; his
wives led him into idolatry. So 1t is in
our own lives.
Some pupil is likely to raise the question
whether Solomon went to heaven or to
hell. 1t will be unwise to attempt to
prove the former, simply because of Sol
omon's being ''in the Bible" All that can
be answered is, we do not know. He
certainly left the world without any as
surance of triumphant entrance" into
heaven. The important thing for us to
be sure of is our own future.
The thing to be emphasized is that
Solomon sinned against light, knowing
full well the consequences. Just i'm pro-
portion to the enlightenment that we
have will be our punishment. Young peo-
pie who are constant attendants at
church, belong to Christian families and
are familiar with the Bible, should know
that they will not be so lenicntly judged
for shortcomings as the ignorant convict
who has never known anything but crime.
Solomon was king of Israel, but not
king of himself. He took cities, but did
not rule his own spirit. He knew all
wisdom except the wisdom that refuses
to do evil that good may come. If only
he had known less and practiced more Of
what he knew, we should not have this
lesson to study.
The Lord appears more than twice to
us. Every day of onr lives there is some
warning or some promise that is sent to
us IL we are ready TO bear it. Yet we are
sometimes as deaf as Solomon to the call.
Primary teachers will have to dwell
chiefly on the fact that Solomon allowed
his wives to worship idols, though he
knew that there was but one God. The
idols that children may worship can be
brought outline clothes, "a good time"
etc. The teacher should refer to the les
son about Solomon's wise choice and then
ask why ho did NOT sticl 70 Tho Ahiua ho