ereign himself. The King is fair, with superhuman his sword is on his thigh1 — he

The King

beauty rides in his chariot, or on his warhorse; his archers are behind him, his guards are round him; his throne is like the throne of God; his sceptre is in his hand. He wears the crown, which, as still in Eastern marriages, his mother placed upon his head in the day of his espousals; he is radiant as if with the oil and essence of gladness; his robes are so scented with the perfumes of India or Arabia that they seem to be nothing but a mass of myrrh,2 aloes, and cassia; out of his palaces comes a burst of joyous music, of men-singers and women-singers, the delights of the sons of men, musical instruments of all sorts.

The Queen, probably from Egypt, the chief of all his vast establishment of wives and concubines, and Queen. themselves the daughters of kings, was by his side, glittering in the gold of Ophir; one blaze of glory,5 as she sat by him in the interior of the palace; the gifts of the princely state of Tyre are waiting to welcome her; her attendants gorgeously arrayed are behind her; she has left her father and her father's house; her reward is to be in the greatness of her descendants.

Such is the splendor of Solomon's court, which, even down to the outward texture of their royal robes, lived in the traditions of Israel. When Christ bade His disciples look on the bright scarlet and gold of the spring flowers of Palestine, which "toil not, neither do they spin," He carried back their thoughts to the great King, "Solomon," who, "in all his glory was not

1 Ps. xlv. 3. Like those of his attendants, Cant. iii. 8.

2 Ps. xlv 8 (Perowne).

3 Ps. xlv. 9 (Perowne).

4 Eccles. ii. 8.

5 Ps. xlv. 13 (Perowne).

"arrayed like one of these." He had no mightier com parison to use; He Himself—we may be allowed to say so, for we feel it as we read His words-was moved by the recollection to the same thrill of emotion which the glory of Solomon still awakens in us.

1 Matt. vi. 29.

NOTE TO LECTURE XXVII.

In the following LECTURE on the TEMPLE, the authorities are:

1 Kings vi.—viii.; 2 Chr. iii.—vii.; Ezek. xl.—xlvi.; Josephus, Ant. viii. 8 and 4; and (though chiefly relating to the second Temple) the Tract Middoth in the Mishna.

The modern works on the subject are too numerous to cite. But I wish to express my obligations for the oral assistance given me by Professor Willis of Cambridge, in the general idea of the Temple; and also by a former pupil, the Rev. W. H. Lowder, particularly in regard to the illustrations to be derived from the descriptions in Ezekiel.