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I. EVERY NEW OPPORTUNITY DEMANDS A PECULIAR CHOICE. "Good" and "bad" are not changeable terms, yet in every new personal or public responsibility the sacred words seem to be spoken, "Ask what I shall give thee." As king, Solomon must make a new choice, differing from any he had hitherto made. In civil life this law everywhere obtains. The responsibilities of the judiciary differ widely from those of the executive, and these in turn from the legislative. The same question comes to each; but each case must call forth a peculiar answer. So, likewise, consider the different factors of society. No two persons can make the same reply. Each day's duties differ from all that have preceded, hence every day we must give answer to Him who speaks. The importance of our choice is emphasised by our power for good or evil.

II. EVERY CHOICE INVOLVES CHARACTER. We are known by what we choose. A defective choice means a defective character. The choice of Solomon was good as far as it went; but it had relation merely to his kingly work, and only incidentally to himself. In some respects Israel's wisest king was the saddest of all scriptural characters. Notwithstanding his visions from God, his history is largely secular. At the beginning of the Homeric age in Greece, this greater than Homer made Palestine the centre of art and the treasury of wisdom. The mines of the known earth were delved for their riches to adorn the Temple, to whose beauty every forest contributed. He symbolised in these visible splendours the invisible God, only at last to become a worshipper of idols. The incense that floated in the clouds from the Temple in Jerusalem was mingled over Olivet with that from the altars of Phenicia and Moab, and above all with that of Moloch — the altar of human sacrifices — and all under his reign. His dream depicts him as praying for right dealings towards and among the people; and yet his later years inflicted an unbearable tyranny on that same people.

III. THE HIGHEST CHOICE IS WISDOM. His choice marked a new epoch. Before his time all kingly power was marked by standing armies, by riches and pomp. Each ruler was thought to need a long life to ensure the success of his plans; but here was a strange request. Under his reign was demonstrated for the first time the power of the brain in the conquests of nations and men. His was the golden age of Jewish literature, himself the founder. If intellectual power could save an empire, the trial was being made, but worms were eating at the roots. All nations owned his intellectual greatness — wiser than their wisest men. Phenicia, proud mother of letters, was dumb in his presence. Tyre spread her purple over his throne. India minted him her gold. We speak of our Linnaeus; but Solomon, the first great botanist, "spake of trees, from the cedar tree that is in Lebanon to the moss that springs out of the wall." We boast of our Cuvier; yet Israel's wise king, the first great naturalist, spake "of beasts, and of fowl, and of creeping things, and of fishes." Upon his wise words Aristotle based all that was best of Grecian philosophy. The Wordsworth of Jewish poets, he laid all nature at our feet. Wisdom, however, means more than knowledge. Many a learned man is not wise. Knowledge is the apprehension of facts or relations; wisdom denotes "the use of the best means for attaining the best ends." Wisdom is never shown in choosing what is always to remain exterior to self.

IV. THE HIGHEST WISDOM IS EVIDENCED IN MOST COMMON THUGS. The wisest men use the simplest speech. The smallest children speak largest words. Simplicity of construction is the secret of the best invention. God's mightiest forces are uncomplicated. The rattling shuttles of a mill are a wonder; but more wonderful still that noiseless, shuttleless weaving of the lily, whose fashioning none of us has ever seen. There is no book so full of thoughts for practical everyday life as the Book of Proverbs, yet that very simplicity is Divine.

V. UNSOUGHT BLESSINGS ARE GIVEN THE TRULY WISE.

(Monday Club Sermons.)

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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."