The Creation of God, Jacob Hartmann [e manga reader TXT] 📗

When his greatness had been established, many conquests made, great wealth accumulated, numerous victories gained, festivities were inaugurated. In order to honor God and the ark, David danced and jumped in complete undress before the Box, in a true half-civilized fashion.

We must not consider all these acts as faults. He simply followed the customs of the age. He was the highest representative type of the then struggling civilization. Samuel began, Saul developed, and David consummated a new era of this part of the world of human history—while other sections of the globe were keeping abreast in organizing and drilling the human race to a higher sort of culture, forming nations, establishing kingdoms, producing heroes, evolving lawgivers and poets, and advancing in the arts and war, etc.

David died seventy years of age, leaving a large and numerous family. Of his score of sons, there is none worth talking about, except Solomon, his successor. The immense wealth he amassed laid the foundation for the glory of Solomon, who spent it lavishly, luxuriously, freely.

All in all David was an excellent character. He preserved the Twelve Tribes, exalting the nation, consolidating the government, making it respected and feared without, and giving them by his valor peace and security and prosperity for the next ruler and for the nation.

This young gentleman, Solomon, however, had been fed with a golden spoon. His senses and his passions were prematurely ripe. He did not have to search for opportunity; his desires were easily accommodated and satisfied. His indulgences were many and frequent, and his authority and arbitrariness were soon made manifest.

He was surrounded with the best scholars of the day, and whatever facilities were then to be had were got, either in philosophical works or in other books. The higher studies consisted in close observance of moral conduct, and contemplation of the outer world without knowing anything more than the outward appearances. Science, art, and mechanics were little known.

The school of poesy had begun. Theological disputes were in fashion, and thus theological doubt furnished ample food for conjecture, hypothesis, and imagination. Men had already entered the field of controversy as to the falsity or the truth of the prevailing opinions.

King Solomon in all his glory was the greatest showman upon earth at the time he was living.

Let it be understood that it is not our purpose to write history. That has long since been exhausted; nothing new can be discovered. It may, however, be profitable to call attention to the fact that all these men that figure in the scripture were human, perfectly human. That they acted and spoke in accordance with the prevailing degree of intelligence and customs of nations. That in all their dealings and doings there is not one scintilla of evidence that they were anything else than perfectly natural. That they were struggling as a nation for a position among the family of nations. That their methods of warfare were no better than those of their neighbors. By good generalship, brave conduct, and hard fighting they gained influence, affluence, and prestige. By their conquests and victories they got into possession of a fair tract of land. By robbery and plunder they amassed an immense amount of wealth. By their continual successes under David’s brave leadership they secured peace from their enemies, their surrounding neighbors; while those nations were subdued and weakened, the Israelites became powerful and strong. A well-disciplined army, a strong and united nation, was the inheritance Solomon received.

He was the prince-royal—his father a clever king, and his mother the captain’s wife, Mrs. Bathsheba, later queen-wife of David. He was the first real prince that had ever ruled Israel—and also the one that caused their ruin, as a nation, by his extravagant and lascivious conduct.

The scriptural story begins in Kings, with the death of David. Solomon, the prince of the blood, was now king in his stead. He ascended the throne when he was twenty-one years of age, having received every educational advantage of a prince. He, after Moses, is the second ruler of Israel that had been instructed and prepared for the high position he was about to occupy. That is the only comparison that can be made between him and Moses. The latter was a giant of intellect, action, and determination, while the former was a luxurious debauchee and squanderer of his father’s patrimony.

Why there should be so much adoration and adulation poured out on this man, I fail to see. Because he built the temple and made profuse exhibition of his gold and silver? He could not have built it if his father had not plundered other nations, and given him, Solomon, the money to build with.

Because he had an immense number of chariots and soldiers, decked with costly trappings? The money was there to provide these with, and later the people were pretty heavily taxed for his extravagance.

The only real point of glory may perhaps lie in the fact that he had one thousand women to play with. We all know that he beats the record on that particular branch of human enterprise. There was truly none like him before or since.

And lastly, we have his purported writings, consisting of the Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Songs of Solomon.

No sooner was he seated on his throne than he began to remove all objectionable persons, those that were likely to be troublesome or dangerous. His elder brother, Adonijah, whose aspiration led him to great things, was dispatched by Benaiah, Solomon’s future general. Abiathar, the priest, he removed where he could do least damage. Joab, David’s general, who sought the altar of the temple for protection, Solomon ordered Benaiah to behead. Zadock he made high priest in place of Abiathar. Shimei was the next man on the list for death, and Benaiah received order to kill him. Having removed all dangerous or antagonistic men, Solomon settled himself firmly in his kingdom. Those that are curious may read all about the Temple, his house, the wall, cherubim, vessels and the like of gold, the royal palace, splendors, etc., etc. He became what is termed a glorious king, but luxury and women soon had their effect upon his judgment.

He had reached the zenith of Israel’s greatness. He had touched the highest point of its eminence. It was the golden age of the Hebrews—the age of pomp, pride, braggadocio, and exhilaration. Jerusalem became the great center of attraction. Everything obtainable was collected within its walls. No expense was spared. Indeed, the city became the center of luxury, extravagance, and licentiousness. And Solomon was surely, though slowly, paving the way for the destruction of the nation. The older he grew the worse he got. His reason gradually deserted him; he wasted his energy and his strength on his women, so that when he died he was despised, if not hated, by his people. And he left such a rotten condition of affairs that it tumbled to pieces almost before he was dead.

In the course of human events, certain results follow a given line of conduct in the affairs of man. The current of events depends upon our actions, whether good or bad, better or worse. Drain or waste of force and energy, of an individual or of a collective body as a community, state, or nation, slowly but surely weakens, undermining the natural healthy condition, and ultimately leads to a breaking down, and may bring about a final disintegration.

Solomon began his reign with an abundance. He had a plenty both of means and health; a most extraordinary opportunity, with an ample training and education; an immense, well-organized army; a stable, firm government, with a full quota of understanding or wisdom.

As a rule men get wiser as they grow older. They acquire greater deliberation, sounder judgment, better understanding, more skill in the management of affairs, of man and of state. They are generally more conservative in their actions, more cautious in their dealings, more abstemious in their desires. Their pleasures are restricted, their passions subdued, their wants few, and their pursuits in life so evenly regulated, their conduct so accurately adjusted, that a justice and a wisdom seem to guard every thought and every reflection.

Solomon’s course was like that of a balloon. He started chockfull of wisdom. He was a marvel, and made a prodigious show. He was a startling phenomenon, the wonder of the age. (You know he asked God for wisdom and God gave it to him; why did not God keep him wise?)

In old age he lacked wisdom. He had almost grown into a senseless imbecile. He was a squanderer of energy, a roué, a debauchee, a frivolous and licentious old man who frittered away his time and his brains on his women and their playthings.

When the pomp, pride, vanity, show, and bluster of his youth and manhood were exhausted, all there was left was the remnants of a glaring painted show. He had, as it were, danced and skipped and capered, sung and spoken his lines, in a blaze of glory and extravaganza on the stage of human affairs; the curtain drops, and alas, you behold, when the paint and gorgeous dress are removed, a simpering, brainless old image-worshiper.

But what a colossal church figure this man makes! What a miraculous personality he is made to be! What a wonderful creation of the Christians’ God! A pity some pope has not canonized him and manufactured him into a saint.

As to his writings—if he really wrote them, and they were not compiled or written for him—it is to be regretted that his conduct was not regulated by them.

A most astonishing perversion of truth is the attribution to the eight chapters of the Song of Solomon of the subject of the church’s love unto Christ.

The following are the chief interpretations:

Chapter i, verse 1: “The song of songs, which is Solomon’s.”

Meaning—The church’s love unto Christ.

Verse 5: “I am black, but comely, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, as the tents of Kedar, as the curtains of Solomon.”

Meaning—She confesseth her deformity.

Verse 7: “Tell me, O thou whom my soul loveth, where thou feedest, where thou makest thy flock to rest at noon,” etc.

Meaning—And prayeth to be directed to his flock.

Verse 8: “If thou know not, O thou fairest among women, go thy way forth,” etc.

Meaning—Christ directeth her to the shepherd’s tent.

Verse 9: “I have compared thee, O my love, to a company of horses in Pharaoh’s chariots.”

Meaning—And showing his love to her.

Verse 11: “We will make thee borders of gold and studs of silver.”

Meaning—Giveth her gracious promise.

Verse 12: “While the king sitteth at his table, my spikenard sendeth forth the smell thereof.”

Meaning—The church and Christ congratulate each other.

Chapter ii, verse 1: “I am the rose of Sharon and lily of the valley.”

Meaning—The mutual love of Christ and his church.

Verse 8: “The voice of my beloved! behold, he cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills.”

Meaning—The hope.

Verse 10: “My beloved spake and said unto me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away.”

Meaning—The calling of the church.

Verse 14: “O my dove, that art in the clefts of the rocks, in the secret places of the stairs, let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice; for sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely.”

Meaning—Christ’s care of the church.

Verse 16: “My beloved is mine and I am his: he feedeth among the lilies.”

Meaning—The profession of the church, her faith and hope.

Chapter iii, verse 1: “By night on my bed I sought him whom my soul loveth: I sought him, but I found him not.”

Meaning—The church’s fight and victory in temptation.

Verse 6: “Who is this that cometh out of the wilderness like pillars of smoke, perfumed with myrrh, and frankincense, with all the powders of the merchant?”

Meaning—The church glorieth in Christ.

Chapter iv, verse 1: “Behold thou art fair, my love, behold thou art fair; thou hast doves’ eyes