Page:Great Men and Famous Women Volume 3.djvu/44

 U STATESMEN AND SAGES ve have seen, Solomon made a treaty, and from whom he procured both work- men and materials for his great enterprise. The Temple was begun four hundred and eighty years after the exodus from Egypt. m tnc f urtri y ear f Solomon's reign, or 1012 B.C., and was completed in the twelfth year of his reign. Its site was Mount Moriah at the point where Araunah's threshing-floor had been, and where the angel met David at the time the plague was stayed. The house of the Lord finished, Solomon built his gorgeous palaces. And thirteen years after the completion of the Temple (991 B.C.) the people of Israel assembled on the occasion of its dedication. This occurred at the time of the Feast of Tabernacles, when a magnificent festival of two weeks' duration was held. The priests bore the ark into the "Holy of Holies" and deposited it under the wings of the cherubim. When they had retired the cloud of glory filled the whole edifice, and thus proclaimed the approving presence of Jehovah. Thereupon Solomon stood upon the brazen platform which had teen built for him and made his memorable prayer. He thanked God for helping him to build the Temple ; and prayed that He would hear the prayers that should there be made. Scarcely was his prayer ended when fire came down from heaven and consumed the sacrifice which had been laid on the altar, and the awe-stricken multitude bowed with their faces to the ground upon the pavement and wor- shipped and adored the Lord, saying, " For He is good ; for His mercy endur- eth forever." (2 Chron. vii. 3.) In keeping with the Temple were the gorgeous palaces on which for thirteen years Solomon lavished time and toil and money. In the " Tower of the House of David," as one of these was called, hung a thousand golden bucklers ; while in the great judgment-hall stood the far-famed throne of the great king, (i Kings x. 18-20.) Solomon's other buildings were beautiful gardens and pools, and aqueducts and a luxurious summer resort. He moreover, either established or built many important towns or fortresses, among others being Tadmor in the wilderness, afterward celebrated in history as Palmyra. Countless workmen and inestimable wealth were involved in the building enterprises of the great king, which included at the last, to his shame, rival temples to Moloch, and the other false gods of his heathen wives. Of course, Solomon's government, household, and buildings, as we have con- sidered them, involved the accumulation and expenditure of vast sums of money. But the king's ambition, energy, industry, and business talent rose to the height of these demands. From two sources he drew his vast wealth, namely, taxation and commerce. He received large revenues in the way of tributes from subject peoples, in addition to the increasingly heavy taxes which he imposed on the peo- ple of Israel. Besides taxation, the king increased his wealth by means of his great commercial operations in the desert, which was the highway between the Orient and the Occident, and by means of his two fleets, one on the Mediter- ranean and the other on the eastern arm of the Red Sea, which provided a waterway to both Southern Asia and Western Africa So rich did Solomon