universal approbation and joy of the kingdom. In thus laying down the diadem before death could wrest it from him, we have cause to admire his truly heroic mind. But that which raised David above the bawbles of the world, and animated him in the sight of death, was the firm conviction of his interest in JEHOVAH, the covenant GOD of his salvation. "Although," says he, "my house be not so with GOD, yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure; for this is all my salvation and all my desire, although he make it not to grow." 2 Sam. xxiii. 5. The MESSIAH was all his hope, and all the ground upon which he built his expectation of redemption, though he was sensible that the advent of that glorious personage was yet at a remote distance.

This faith supported David in all the troubles of his life; it strengthened him in his sickness, and it enabled him at last to meet death without terror. What can be more triumphant than this beautiful declaration: "Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me?" Ps. xxiii. 4.

He died at the age of seventy years, forty of which he reigned over Israel.

In David's character we behold a mixture of excellences and defects, great virtues and lamentable failings. But though his infirmities were many, and his offences very enormous, yet we see him returning to his GOD with deep contrition of heart, and with sincere confession of his guilt. If then in his fall we have a warning set before us, in his repentance and amendment we behold an example which it will be well for us to imitate. We may not indeed be sinners exactly in the same way as David was, but sinners we are, and there is no other method of gaining the divine favor but by the means which this royal penitent obtained it, namely, by genuine humiliation of soul, and faith in the merits of the REDEEMER.

He had a very clear view of that divine Person who, "according to the flesh," was to descend from him, and in various psalms he celebrates his dignity, incarnation, voluntary humility, sufferings, resurrection, and ascension. Those sublime compositions are full of the MESSIAH, and of his work of redemption; and unless they are considered with this reference, they are, at least in many parts, confused, obscure, and perplexing. Even those which have a plain relation to the circumstances of David are not to be confined to them_only, but have a farther and more important illustration in the life and death of the REDEEMER. The book of Psalms is an exhibition of the great scheme of salvation throughout, and if the reader will only enter into the evangelical sense of them, his edification and comfort will be greater than any words of mine can express. But David was not only a prophet who foretold, under various striking characters and images, the coming of the Sun of righteousness; but he was himself, in many leading points, an illustrious type of that blessed object. In all respects, as a shepherd, prophet, priest, warrior, king, and mediator, we can trace the lines of perfect resem blance. David conquered Goliath, the enemy of Israel, when the hearts of all men failed for fear; thus did our spiritual David, when even the armies of Heaven shunned the contest, encounter the adversaries of our salvation, endure the wrath of divine justice, and bring in complete deliverance for us. The great enemy of mankind, possessed of gigantic faculties, and armed at all points, threatened us with certain destruction; but JESUS, who was "made lower than the angels," divested himself of all his celestial glories, "emptied himself and became of no reputation ;" and in our nature, met and vanquished the arrogant champion, by inflicting on him a mortal wound in the head, agreeably to the express words of the first prophecy on record.

It would be an easy and a profitable employ to pursue the parallel between David and the MESSIAH farther, by tracing the shepherd youth on through all the marvellous incidents of his life, amidst storms and persecutions, to the throne, and in connexion therewith to mark the humiliation, sufferings, and exaltation of the “king of Zion,” till his church shall be established in perfect glory.

But the limits of this volume will not allow me to perform what it would be a pleasure to execute. The reader, however, can easily mark the resemblance himself, especially if he will take as his companion and his counsellor, that inestimable work, Bishop Horne's "Commentary on the Psalms;" a book which no family, nor any pious Christian, ought to be without.

Egyptian Temple.

SOLOMON.

BORN IN THE YEAR OF THE WORLD, 2971; DIED, 3029.

LL Scripture history debases the pride of human glory, and exhibits, in each character we contemplate, sufficient cause for the deepest humiliation. The person whose life comes next in order, represents our nature at one time in a state of the highest advancement, and at another, reduced to extreme infamy. Here we behold a man who was raised above the level of his species, not only by his rank, but by the excellence of his understanding, who yet degenerated to a degree of folly and wickedness, which, in such an instance, we should have supposed impossible. Where, except in our first parents, have we met with a similar example; the most eminent wisdom disgraced by the basest apostacy?

It is indeed a mortifying reflection, that wis dom and holiness do not always meet in the same person. Men whose intellectual qualifications were of the first magnitude, stand exposed to perpetual reproach for weaknesses and vices which would disgrace the rude and uncivilized inhabitant of the forest, unacquainted alike with the precepts of revelation and the rules of social life. This establishes beyond a question the certainty of man's being in a degenerate state, fallen from original righteousness, and incapable by the exertion of his own powers of attaining any knowledge of God.

Human wisdom deserves all praise and encouragement; but unless it is sanctified by grace, and rendered subservient to the promotion of God's glory, and the renewal of the heart, it is most likely to prove a curse instead of a blessing. If the mental talent is not thus improved, a severe judgment will be passed upon the man who has abused it, since he cannot urge any plea of ignorance for his excuse in "not having fulfilled the commandments of his LORD."

In the life of Solomon, king of Israel, we see all that human wisdom can possibly do towards enriching the mind, or sanctifying the heart. In him it will appear that the most vigorous intellect is incapable of resisting temptation, and that the greatest extent of knowledge will not cleanse that moral corruption, or clear away that spiritual darkness, which debase the soul of every man born into the world.

This celebrated monarch was the son of that Bathsheba whose charms allured David to commit the foulest actions of his life. He was born in the year of the world 2971, and the expectation of his father concerning him was strongly raised by this prediction: "Behold a son shall be born to thee, who shall be a man of rest; and I will give him rest from all his enemies round about; for his name shall be Solomon, and I will give peace and quietness unto Israel in his days. He shall build a house for my name, and he shall be my son, and I will be his father; and I will establish the throne of his kingdom over Israel for ever." 1 Chron. xxii. 9, 10.

Though this prophecy was literally fulfilled in the person and reign of Solomon, yet it is manifest to us that "a greater than Solomon is here." The declaration had a plain reference to the son and successor of David, but it is only verified completely in the

person and reign of the Prince of Peace, who gives spiritual and eternal rest unto his people, who is the only begotten Son of the Father, full of grace and truth, and who is now perfecting that glorious edifice, the church of GOD, of which he is himself the chief corner-stone. On the birth of Solomon, Nathan the prophet was sent to David to inform him that the divine favor rested upon his son, who also received the distinguished appellation of Jedidiah," or beloved of the LORD." 2 Sam. xii. 25.

Concerning his infant years and education we know nothing; but it can hardly be supposed that the child of so much promise was neglected by such a man as David. We have, indeed, seen much to condemn in that great man's conduct to his other children, particularly to Absalom; but from Solomon's early piety and prudence it is to be presumed that he profited much by his father's instructions.

When David saw that his dissolution

drew near, and that a conspiracy was formed to place his son Adonijah on the throne, he caused Solomon to be invested with the royal robes, and resigned to him the sceptre in the sight of all Israel.

Several persons were put to death at the beginning of his reign, but there appears more of stern necessity than severity in these executions. Solomon acted by the counsel of his dying father in cutting off those men whose crimes had long merited punishment, and of whose fidelity he could have no security. In the administration of justice upon these traitors and murderers, he also gratified the inclinations of his people, and established the peace of his kingdom.

The early part of his reign was uncommonly brilliant. "The LORD magnified him exceedingly in the sight of all Israel,

SOLOMON'S THRONE.

and bestowed upon him such royal majesty as had not been before him on any king in Israel;" (1 Chron. xxix. 25;) and the ground of this eminent favor was, "that he loved the LORD, walking in the statutes of David his father." 1 Kings iii. 3.

Shortly after his accession he held a solemn festival before the tabernacle of Moses

at Gibeon. There, in the presence of all the elders of Israel, the young king paid his devotions to the Most High; and so acceptable was this service, that the same night a voice from heaven promised him whatever he should desire. The magnitude of the offer did not beget any improper desires in the mind of Solomon. He had no wish for enlarged dominions, extensive conquests, great riches, or for a long life of glory and pleasure. To a young and active monarch, some such objects would have been the most desirable; and even young persons in a far inferior station would, on such a proposal, immediately have fixed their wishes upon wealth, renown, or pleasure. But Solomon had a higher ambition, and was only

desirous of being truly a great king, by doing good to his subjects, and by being able to administer judgment to them with an equal hand. "Give me now," says he, "wisdom and knowledge, that I may go out and come in before this people: for who can judge this thy people, that is so great?" 2 Chron. i. 10. The petition of Solomon cannot be too seriously weighed and admired. He rightly judged, that in praying for such a degree of wisdom and knowledge as was necessary to the better government of his people, he was not only supplicating a blessing for himself, but for them. The nature of that wisdom which he desired is also worthy our particular notice. It was not a depth of scientific knowledge, a minute acquaintance with the hidden powers