WE must notice here first it was God who gave Solomon these gifts which meant so much to him in his career as king. His wisdom and understanding were not simply the results of his own study, thought, and experience. Of course, men get wisdom through experience. Study and reading give men knowledge of books and develop their mental power. But we must remember that whatever gifts of mind or heart we possess have been bestowed upon us by God Himself.

We should always think of Him as the owner of our life, with all its powers and possibilities. This should inspire in us gratitude to God. Then it should lead us to use all our faculties and powers in the service of God. So long as Solomon did this he was blessed. It was through the influence of luxury that his heart was drawn away from God and he began to fall. No sin can be more terrible than the perversion of great gifts from right to wrong uses.

EVENING: THE LARGENESS OF DUTY

DUTY is always too great for earnest souls. No one can do all that he knows he ought to do or that he wants to do. When we have done our duty, however, day by day, faithfully and earnestly, according to the light and the wisdom given to us at the time, it ought not to cause us regret afterward if it appear that we might have done it with more wisdom or with greater skill. We cannot get the benefits of experience until we have had the experience. We cannot have manhood’s ripe wisdom in the days of our youth. We can always see when a day is done how we might have lived it better. We should bring to every hour’s work our finest skill, our best wisdom, our purest strength, and then feel no regret even if it does not seem well done. Perfection is ever an unreached goal in this life. Duty is always too large for us to do more than a fragment of it.

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