Page:Great Men and Famous Women Volume 3.djvu/38

 16 STATESMEN AND SAGES mother's knee, form part of every religious ritual of which the one God is the ci ntre, and voice the love and prayer and praise of every heart that seeks the Creator. With the intense adoration and trust of the Hebrew, we too exclaim, " The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want," and " God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in time of trouble." L' SOLOMON* BY REV. CHARLES F. DEEMS (1033-975 B.C.) COKING down the vista of the past ages we see standing conspicuous among men David, the fa- ther of Solomon. In Da- vid's case it is as if the all- wise God had constructed in one human being an or- gan with all the keys and stops possible to humanity, and as if the Holy Ghost had on that organ with those keys and stops played every tune of every song that all humanity may need to sing in life or death, or carry in memory from earth to heaven. When we remember who Solomon's father was we are helped to grasp the significance of the life and character of the son, who, narrower indeed than hi? father, was yet more brilliant and more intense. In 1033 B.C., shortly after the death of David's first child by Bathsheba, which was begotten in sin, a second child w r as born, whom David called " Solomon," or "peaceful," probably with reference to the peace be- tween God and David brought about by the latter's deep penitence for his sin against Uriah. But the Prophet Nathan, to whose wise and tender care he was early committed, called him "Jedediah," or, "The beloved of the Lord." If, as the best authorities are agreed, Solomon wrote the thirty-first chapter of Proverbs,
 * Copyright. 1894. by Selmar Hess.