  SOLOMON IN ALL HIS GLORY. FIRST READING.
Solomon. THE last thing King David did was to have his son, young Solomon, anointed to reign, and then to show him to the people, and charge them to help him build the Temple for the Lord God. For he said Solomon was still very young, and the work was very great; so he begged the people of the tribes to bring their offerings; and so they did. They brought gold, silver, brass, iron, and beautiful stones, or the wood of oaks and cedars, according to what they had or could give; and when David saw it he was very happy and glad, and offered it up to God, and prayed that God would give unto his son Solomon a perfect heart, that he might serve God and keep His laws. Then there was a great feast all round Mount Sion, all the people eating, and drinking, and rejoicing, and praising God, who had delivered them from all their enemies. QUESTIONS.
SECOND READING.
WHEN King David died, Solomon was still almost a boy. But God spake to him in a dream by night, and said, "Ask what I shall give thee." Then Solomon said he was but young, and knew not how to rule over this great people that God had given him; and therefore he prayed, above all, that God would give him a wise and understanding heart. And God was pleased with Solomon's choice, and said that because he had cared for wisdom most, and had not asked for riches, or long life, or to put down his enemies, that therefore, besides wisdom, God would give him all the rest—riches, and honor, and length of life—and he should be wiser, and greater, and richer, than any king ever was before him, or should be after him. All this was because he had cared so much to have a wise and understanding heart to know good and evil. That was first with him, and so God gave him all the rest. So it will be with all those who seek first of all to be good. God does not make us wise all at once like Solomon, but if we care about it, He will help us to get wise by little and little if we really try, and then He will bless all we do. QUESTIONS.
THE JUDGMENT OF SOLOMON.—1 Kings 3:26, 27. THIRD READING.
HERE is a story to show how wise and clever King Solomon was. One day when he was sitting on his throne two women came to him: one with a live baby, the other with a dead one, both boys, and just of the same age. They said they had been living alone together in the same house, each with her little baby, till one night one of the women rolled over her child in her sleep and smothered it, so that she found it was dead. But each woman said it was not her baby but the other's that was dead, and that the mother of the dead one had put the THE BUILDING OF SOLOMON'S TEMPLE.—1 Kings 6:11-14. And what plan could Solomon take to find out the truth? He sent for the executioner, with a sword, and said that as the women could not agree, both the children should be cut in two, and each woman should have the two halves. One woman was content to have it so, but the other only cried out in grief and dread, "O my lord, give her the living child, and in no wise slay it." Then Solomon saw in a moment which was full of mother's love, and which was full of hatred and jealousy; so he said, "Give her the living child, and in no wise slay it: she is the mother QUESTIONS.
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