[Illustration: THE JUDGMENT OF SOLOMON.--1 Kings 3:26, 27.]
"The wisdom of God was in him, to do judgment.--_1 Kings 3:28._
HERE is a story to show how wise and clever King Solomon was. One day when he was sitting on his throne two women came to him: one with a live baby, the other with a dead one, both boys, and just of the same age. They said they had been living alone together in the same house, each with her little baby, till one night one of the women rolled over her child in her sleep and smothered it, so that she found it was dead.
But each woman said it was not her baby but the other's that was dead, and that the mother of the dead one had put the little corpse down by the other sleeping woman, and taken her living child out of her bosom to herself. How was it to be known which was right?--for nobody out of the house knew the two little ones apart, and each of the women declared that she was the mother of the live child, not of the dead. So they came to the king to judge between them.
[Illustration: THE BUILDING OF SOLOMON'S TEMPLE.--1 Kings 6:11-14.]
And what plan could Solomon take to find out the truth? He sent for the executioner, with a sword, and said that as the women could not agree, both the children should be cut in two, and each woman should have the two halves. One woman was content to have it so, but the other only cried out in grief and dread, "O my lord, give her the living child, and in no wise slay it."
Then Solomon saw in a moment which was full of mother's love, and which was full of hatred and jealousy; so he said, "Give _her_ the living child, and in no wise slay it: she is the mother thereof." And so the true loving mother had her child safe and well, and the other was disappointed in her spite.
1. Who was Solomon? 2. Who came before him? 8. What had happened to one baby? 4. What did both the women say? 5. What had Solomon to decide? 6. What did he command? 7. Did he really mean to kill the child? 8. But what did he want to find out? 9. What did one woman say? 10. What did the other woman say? 11. Which was the real mother? 12. What did Solomon command? 13. Would not the loving mother rather give the child away than have it killed?
"All the earth sought to Solomon, to hear his wisdom, which God had put in his heart."--_1 Kings 10:24._