Custer County Republican. (Broken Bow, Neb.) 1882-1921, 1908-02-27

of more concern than any reward
which selfdenial might claim in the
future.
Pleasure is cneTvating, and offers
productive soil in which the seeds Of
trouble may grow. Solomon with his
growing love for the case and pleas
ures of life became more and more
pctulant and cXacting with those upon
whom rested the administration Of the
affairs of the kingdom. There was a
constantly increasing extravaganza In
maintaining the royal household, for
with the multiplying of to high-places
to the gods Of the many princesscs of
/ the harcm. had come the luXurianCe
and righteousness attendant upon
/ the ceremonies and festivities. This
! placed an additional burden upon the
! people, for from them must be raised
! the increasing amounts needed by the
! king. The collectors of the tribute
were forced to be more eXacting, and
! all manner Of corrupt methods were
countcnanced so long as the required
amount was forthcoming. This must
naturally lead to discomfort on the
part of the people and undercurrents
of murmuring began to be heard upon
every hand.
Whether these murmurlngs of dis
content reached the ears of the king
or not certain 1t IS that they spread
to the surrounding nations so that
liadad the Edomite heard of it in
Egypt whittier he had fed years be
fore to escape the unrelenting ven
geance which Joab, the captain Of
Dayids army, had inflicted upon his
fathers house and his fathers people
And way to the north TO the city of
Damascus came tidings of these things
and were as sweet music in the ears
of Recon, the son of Eladah, for said
he:
Now, perchance / will be able to
repay Solomon for all the evil which
his father David did unto my master
! HadadeZer when he destroyed
Iobah and killed the people thereof"
Secretly, therefore, Recon sent
emissaries into the land of Israel. and
they found no difficulty in reaching to
the very heart of the royal city of
Jerusalem, for the open relations
which Solomon had established with
all the nations about had made of
Jerusalem a perfect thoroughfare for
those of other lands, and as one after
another the high places were set up
and the gods of all the nations about
were openly honored and served, these
foreigners came to feel quite at home
Thus 1t was that the spies of Recon
found it an easy task to remain at
Jerusalem and to follow the trend of
affairs, and enable their king to make
incursions into the northern part of
the kingdom. And when the army of
Israel was sent TO intercept and pun.
ish these marauding bands, these
same spies in Jerusalem were able to
keep Recon informed of every move
of the advancing army.
Thus 1t was that Recon became a
sharp thorn in the flesh to Solomon
and brought to him days and nights of
) anxiety and distress. And we'll ii
would have been If these periods of
trouble had driven the king from his
sinful pleasures and the following of
the strange gods back to the true God :;
but, instead, Solomon sought to drive
away his troubled thoughts and to
stifle his uneasy conscience by plung-
ing yet deeper into the whirl of fes.
tivities and pleasures which marked
this period Of his reign. Not q day
but what some one of the many, many
high places was the scene of a gor-
geous and gay assemblage, and often
there were half n dozen festival oc.
casions in full play simultaneously
and to these idolatrous celebrations
Solomon suffered himself to be drawn
by his wives.
So it came to pass that the sins OF
Solomon offered the opportunity to
his enemies of troubling the king
dom and bringing distress upon the
people. And while Recon served as a
menacing hand at the north, Hadad
returning from Egypt, where he had
won great prestige and power with
Pharaoh, having married the sister OF
: the wife of Pharaoh came into the
; south country and was not long il
; stirring up trouble for the king there
who is this Hadad that would
; dare to narrow the borders of Israel? p
demanded the king one day, petulant
ly, as report reached his ears of thu
increasing power of a band of mel
: who had come into the south country
| and were extending their influenc,
over the people there.
l And when the king was told that h,
5 was the son of the Edomite king whom
Joab the captain of his fathers army
| had slain. he was troubled, and wheI
9 he learned further that he had jus
E come from Egypt and was in specia
y favor with Pharaoh the powerful
V ruler of Egypt, he feared greatly, say
o ing:
g Shall we indeed suffer the loss O
e our Kingdom to the south? Now i
S coming to pass that which the prophe
e Ahijah declared should be-"
n Yea, but did not he say that