St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1908-03-07

the harem, had come the luxuriance
and Voluptuousness 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
countenanced 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 murmurings of dis
| content reached the ears of the king
or not certain it is that they spread
to the surrounding nations so that
Hadad 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
David's 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 Eliadah, for said
| he:
Nov, perchance / will be able to
repay Solomon for all the evil which
his father David did unto my master
| Hadadezer when he destroyed
Zobah 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 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 it 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 it was that Recon became
sharp thorn in the flesh to Solomon,
and brought to him days and nights of
anxiety and distress. And well it
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
stif1e his uneasy conscience by plung-
ing yet deeper into the whirl of fes-
tivities and pleasures which marked
this period of his reign. Not a 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 q dozen festival oc-
casions in full play simultaneously,
and to these idolatrous celebrations
Solomon suffered himself to be drawn
by his wives.
So 1t 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 in
stirring up trouble for the king there
Who is this Hadad that would
dare to narrow the borders of Israel?'
demanded the king one day, petulant-
/ ly, as report reached his ears of the
increasing power of a band of men
who had come into the south country
and were extending their influence
over the people there.
And when the king was told that he
was the son Of the Edomite king whom
Joab the captain of his fathers army
had slain, he was troubled, and when
he learned further that he had just
come from Egypt and was in special
favor with Pharaoh, the powerful
ruler of Egypt, he feared greatly, say
ing:
Shall we indeed suffer the loss Of
our kingdom to the south? Now liz
coming to pass that which the prophet
Ahijah declared should be-"
YEA, but did not he say that it
should not be during thy days, but
during the days of thy son when he
should come to the throne?" asked one
of So1omon's advisers, reassuringly.
Verify / believe thou art right" ex-
claimed the king, with a sigh of re.
lief, and at that moment courtier
announced the departure of the COM
| pany for the festivities to the god Che
mosh, and King Solomon arose and
went with them.