Homilist 1 Kings 3:5-15 In Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream by night: and God said, Ask what I shall give you.… I. THAT FIRST STEPS IN KNOWLEDGE AND IN HOLINESS MUST BE TAKEN BY OURSELVES. Solomon gave his heart to seek and search out all things under heaven. When a choice of gifts was afterwards placed in his power by God, he had acquired intelligence enough by his previous industry to be enabled to choose aright, and to select wisdom. Like the youth told of in American story, we must fix our eyes upward, and scale the scarped rock slowly by cutting clefts for our hands and feet in its steep side, each foothold that we cut helping us to reach onward to cut another. To gain some knowledge helps us to acquire more; to learn to distinguish between the jewel truth and all the worthless spangles of falsehood, enables us to discern that "pearl of great price" which sooner or later God offers to every man. II. THAT IF WE SEEK THE HIGHEST GOOD, GOD WILL IN HIS BOUNTY GIVE US, AS OUR NEED MAY REQUIRE, LESSER BLESSINGS ALSO. (Homilist.) Parallel Verses KJV: In Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream by night: and God said, Ask what I shall give thee.WEB: In Gibeon Yahweh appeared to Solomon in a dream by night; and God said, "Ask what I shall give you." |
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