The Tribune. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1951-19??, 1952-09-27

the glory were not S1eekxs&E& o. AS&&
what they seemed Dr.. Foreman
to be. Beneath the
glittering surface of things, the
foundations were rotting away.
Glory. personal Or national, is
brittle thing.
Bang! Want the Empire
you do not have to poke about
in large volumes Of history to
find this out. For a small sum you
can buy book that tells the story
OF the most famous nation of all
time,-namsly. the Bible. giving the
history of the nation called Israel
Israel was remarkably
short-lived nation. Three kings
reigns spanned its whole his
tory from beginning to end. Aft
er, that, Bang! II split into two
pieces, indeed into more than
two. For not only did 1t divide
into the two kingdoms of the
north and Of the south, but II
disintegrated everywhere.
All the conquests Of David were
undone. The Empire Of Israel for
empire it was) simply went to pieces
at every seam. What had been, for
time, the greatest and only en-
pire between the Nile and the Eu-
pirates, fell to pieces fearfully fast.
sAnd all that crash occurred immedi-
ately after the death of Solomon,
that king whose reign Is still re-
membered for Its wealth, glamor
and magnificance. How could such
things be?
GlsmOr for the Few
DART OF the answer is that the
glory didn't spread around very
far. There was no middle class, and
the gap between Solomon and his
crowd at the top, and the peasants
on the bottom. was enormous.
Solomon's only known son, Reho-
boam, told mass-meeting of citi-
zens shortly after Solomon's death,
my father beat you with whips"
Rehoboam was not trying to black
en- his fathers memory; he was
stating a simple fact. The common
man had indeed taken beating
under Solomon.
To build the kings great pub
lie works cost money, and need
ed lin those non-mschanical
days. armies Of labOrers. There
was the immensely costly Tenn
pie, and then th6re was the
royal palace, larger than the
Temple, requiring nearly twice
as long to build and no doubt
correspondingly ex pensiv
there were other temples, pub
lie buildings, pools, water
works, Notifications. royal sta
bles at Negiddo and what not.
King Solomon found IL neces-
gary TO work thousands Of his
people, without pay, one month
out o. every three.
The fact that about nine tenths
of the people were ripe for rebel
lion within months after Solomon's
death, shows that, to say the least
they were not centented and happy.
Nations often do die, or blow up,
just after periods Of prosperity"
but it will generally be found that
the prosperity was quite badly dis
tributed. There is little true glory
in a nation where few grow rich
upon the poverty of the many.
High Income Bracket
pUT THAT Is not the whole story.
~ Even IL every one in the country
were equally wealthy, it might not
be good. Strange as it seems, the
Bible is full OF warnings, not so
often against poverty as against
wealth.
The truth about Israel Is not
that Solomon and his friends
pTospered while the rest Of the
nation decsyed; the fact is,
Solomon and his set were decay
ing too, not In spite of their
wealth but because Of 1t.
The kings annual income has
been computed at some nineteen
million dollars of our money. We
hear that he built temples to other
gods besides the true God, all be-
cause Of his wives influence II he
had been a poor man, he could not
have married those expensive i'm
ported princessss. A man with ex-
cess income will often nis-spend 1t,
IL
and Solomon was not the hundredth
man.
Today in America every dollar
spent on drink. on gambling, is a
surplus dollar, an uneasy dollar Not
that you can in any way wipe out
sin by eliminating excessive wealth;
but you might remove a lot OF
temptations.
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