Imatges de pàgina
PDF
EPUB
[ocr errors]

would wish to make, and which no man can make, without becoming happier and better.

May this, my brethren, be the case with us all! May the mighty scene which we are now permitted to see, exalt our minds to legitimate conceptions of "that "God who inhabiteth eternity, and yet "humbleth himself to behold the things "that are upon earth." And, while Heaven is pouring forth its bounty, and Nature rejoicing around us, may we lift our hands in humble adoration to the Parent of Existence, and feel, with the grateful transport of Job! "I have heard of "Thee by the hearing of the ear, but now

MINE EYE SEETH THEE."

SERMON III.

ON THE YOUTH OF SOLOMON.

1. KINGS, iii. 7, &c.

"And Solomon said: And now O Lord

my

God! Thou hast made thy servant king instead of David my father; and I am but a little child: I know not how to go out and to come in.

"Give, therefore, thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people, that

I

may discern between good and bad, for who is able to judge this so great à people?

"And the speech pleased the Lord, that Solomon had asked this thing."

THESE words are part of that celebrated prayer in which Solomon is represented as addressing himself to God on his accession to the Throne of Israel. The form of the book in which it is related, permits it only to be considered as a fact in the history of his reign, and necessarily leaves the sentiments and disposition which led to this beautiful address, to the imagination of the reader to supply. But in the apocryphal book of his wisdom, it is related at much greater length; and represents the feelings and character of the author, with a simplicity which is singularly affecting, and with an eloquence which cannot be too much admired. It opens with a very beautiful description of the character and effects of wisdom, and of the early admiration which it had excited in his mind.

"Now, when I-considered these things," says he," by myself, and pondered it in "mine heart, how that to be joined to "wisdom is immortality, and great pleasure in her friendship, and glory by communing with her, I went about seeking how I might take her unto me.

66

[ocr errors]

66

66

Nevertheless, when I perceived that I "could not enjoy her, except God gave "her me, I went unto the Lord and be

66

sought Him, and with my whole heart "I said,

"O! God of my Fathers, and Lord of "Mercy, who hath made all things by thy “word, and ordained man through thy "wisdom, that he should have dominion "over the creatures which Thou hast made, and govern the world according "to equity, and execute judgment with an upright heart, give me that wis"dom which sitteth by thy throne, and

66

4

66

put me not out from among thy child

«ren; and send her out of thy holy "Heavens, and from the throne of thy

66

Majesty, that she may dwell with me, "and that I may know what is pleasing "unto Thee. So shall my works be ac"ceptable, so shall I govern thy people "righteously, and be meet for my father's "throne."

There is not, perhaps, in the history of mankind, a more beautiful picture than that which is here represented:-A young man in the bloom of life, when every thing was gay and alluring around him,-in the moment of ascending to a throne, when pleasure and ambition were before him, and eastern servility, with its wonted adulation, told him, that all things were in his hand,-betaking himself thus humbly to his God, and imploring of Him that wisdom which might enable him to resist the temptations with which his situation surrounded him, and to fulfil the

« AnteriorContinua »