arly in life he manifested
an earnest, conscientious and religious spirit. He was prayerful and
sought above all else wisdom and that for the good reason that he
might be able to rule well. He built the temple and thereby magnified
the worship of Jehovah.

His prayer at the dedication of this temple were not only humble and
fervent but were expressive of the very highest loyalty to Jehovah as
the one supreme God and to all the high purposes of the divine will in
Israel. But in spite of all this he put upon the people such heavy
burdens of taxation as to crush them. He trampled under foot the
democratic ideals of the nation and adopted the policy of oriental
despots which tended to make free-born citizens mere slaves of the
king. He lived a life of the basest sort of self-indulgence. He
depended upon foreign alliances rather than upon Jehovah to save his
nation. He married many strange wives and through them was led to
establish in Israel the worship of strange Gods. I K. 11:1-8. On the
whole his reign was such as to undo what had been accomplished by
David and proved disastrous. Although counted the wisest he proved to
be in many ways the most foolish king that ever ruled over Israel.

His Policies. As a ruler it is easy to think of his policies under
three heads, (1) _His home policy_. This was one of absolution. He
became a despot and robbed the people of their freedom and put them
under a yoke of oppression by imposing upon them heavy burdens of tax
that he might carry out his unholy plans for selfish indulgence. (2)
_His foreign policy_. This was a policy of diplomacy. By means of
intermarriage, by the establishment of commercial relations and by the
adoption of the customs and religions of other nations he bound them
in friendly alliance. (3) _His religious policy_. This was a policy of
concentration. He built die temple and, through the splendor of its
worship, tried to concentrate all worship upon Mount Moriah. This
desire may also have contributed to his erection of altars to foreign
deities.

Solomon's Building Enterprise. The greatest of all his building
accomplishments was the temple. It is almost impossible to conceive of
its magnificence. According to the most modern computation the
precious materials, such as gold with which it was embellished,
amounted to something like six hundred million dollars. Next in
importance was his palace, which in size and time of construction
surpassed that of the temple.