Then what is it we want to understand?

We want the "eyes of our understanding to be enlightened" (Eph. i. 18) before we shall know anything spiritual. “The love of Christ which passeth knowledge," "the peace which passeth understanding," the efficacy of the "blood of sprinkling,”—all these truths, and many more, will be unfolded to our understandings if we are indeed taught of God. Be not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is." (Eph. v. 17.) "This is the will of the Lord, even your sanctification." (1 Thess. iv. 3.) Oh, that we had more childlike faith, just to take God's Word and accept it as it stands! When we read, "Ask, and it shall be given you," let us kneel and pray:

Give me, Lord, that which Thou seest I need; give me heavenly wisdom that I may understand heavenly truths." Would not Jesus, if He were here now, say to us, as He did to the woman of Samaria, "If thou knewest the gift of God, thou wouldest have asked, and He would have given." Let us often pray: "Lord, open Thou the eyes of our understanding, that we may be filled with the knowledge of Thy Will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding." (Col. i. 9, 10.)

XIV.

QUEEN OF SHEBA.

1 KINGS X. 1-14.

THE fame of Solomon had spread far and wide. And who could wonder? God had given him not only the wisdom for which he had asked, but according to His promise He had bestowed upon him riches and honour, so that there was not any King like him in all the world. (2 Chron. ix. 22.)

Gold and silver and treasures of all kinds were brought to him from various parts of the world by the navy which he had built. This navy would also carry the tidings of his greatness over the seas, and would tell of the wisdom and glory of the King of Israel.

Amongst those who heard of Solomon and his glory was the Queen of Sheba, called in Matt. xii. 42, the Queen of the South. It is not exactly known where the land of Sheba was, but it was probably somewhere in South Africa, for the spices, the gold, and the precious stones which she brought with her are all products of the warm south latitudes.

Not content with hearing about Solomon, she

determined to come and find out for herself if all were really true that she had heard of him. A Queen, and rich, she was able to gratify her heart's desire, and with a great retinue she arrived in

Jerusalem.

Let us take each point of the narrative as it stands before us in this chapter, and by the light and teaching of God's Holy Spirit we may find a lesson in each. Our Lord speaks of Himself as One greater than Solomon. (Matt. xii. 42.) We may therefore justly take Solomon as the type of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Queen of Sheba as representing a seeking soul.

I. SHE COMMUNED WITH HIM OF ALL THAT WAS IN HER HEART. (Ver. 2.)

Doubtless the Queen of Sheba had perplexities in her government, and troubles in her administration, that she hardly knew how to meet, besides abstruse questions in religion or science, that none in her kingdom were clever enough to answer. She asked, and she obtained counsel and knowledge from Solomon; and in the wisdom given to him by God she could rest perfectly satisfied. She laid bare her heart to him, and all her difficulties vanished, and all her problems were solved as she communed with him.

Now you know we have a greater than Solomon" to whom we may go, and to whom we may tell the inmost depths of our hearts. He knows what is there, but He would have us tell Him all; and He

will not only guide us with His counsel, but He will satisfy us with His teaching. He invites us to come and commune with Him. Mary sat at His feet and heard His Word (Luke x. 39); and when we take the Bible and pray over it, we are doing what she did. We speak to Him in prayer: He speaks to us in His word. Sweet are the moments spent in His presence, when shutting the world out of our thoughts, and everything that would veil Him from our sight, we pour out our hearts before Him. Troubles, cares, doubts, all seem to lessen as we tell Him of them.

Solomon told the Queen all that she wanted to know about: no question was too hard for his wisdom to answer. The Lord Jesus is our Teacher. There are many things we cannot understand, both in the Bible and in our own hearts; let us ask Jesus "to open our understandings" (Luke xxiv. 45), and when we read the Scriptures He will give us His Holy Spirit. The promise is, "He will teach you all things, and will guide you into all truth" (John xiv. 26; xvi. 13); and the perplexities of our own hearts will all be cleared by that heavenly light. (Phil. iv. 6, 7.)

II. THERE WAS NO MORE SPIRIT IN HER. (Ver. 5.)

All that the Queen of Sheba saw, so far exceeded anything that she had ever heard of or seen in her own kingdom or elsewhere, that it produced this effect in her. The wisdom, the wealth, the greatness that she saw in Solomon and in his kingdom, made her feel her own insignificance. Just as the moon

pales, and the stars vanish out of our sight at the presence of the sun, so did her own royalty and grandeur sink into nothing before one so magnificent, so infinitely superior to herself in every way.

Our lesson is plain: when we learn what Jesus is, then we take a true estimate of ourselves. So long as we are in ignorance of the kingdom of heaven and of the character of Jesus, so long as we compare ourselves with one another, we take a false view of ourselves, because we have an imperfect light, and because we test ourselves by a wrong standard. Our own righteousness fades into nothing, shows itself to be but "filthy rags," by the side of the righteousness of Jesus. (Isa. lxiv. 6.) Our garments look all spotted and stained, as they are placed in the light of God's holy law. Job, in an imperfect light, says, "My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go." (Job xxvii. 6.) But when the full revelation of God came to him, he exclaims, "Now mine eye seeth Thee, wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes." Isaiah, when he saw the glory of the Lord, cries out, "Woe is me, for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips." (Isa. vi. 5.) Peter, at the miraculous draught of fishes, which displayed the power as well as the love of Jesus, says, Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord." (Luke v. 8.) And so it will ever be with us all the more we know of Jesus-of His character and of His power, the more shall we see our own sinfulness, our absolute nothingness before