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Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · May 20, 1913

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 40, No. 20.

Schedule for the Week Ending May 24, 1913

Sunday | May 18 | 1 Kings 11, 12 Monday | " 19 | " 13, 14 Tuesday | " 20 | " 15, 16 Wednesday | " 21 | " 17, 18 Thursday | " 22 | " 19, 20 Friday | " 23 | " 21, 22 Sabbath | " 24 | Psalms 35, 36

Our readings continue with the Kings, beginning with chapter 11 and closing with chapter 22. We are told, in the very beginning of the lesson, of the great mistake that Solomon made in multiplying wives to himself. No wonder that they turned away his heart! It seems as tho a man that divided his heart among a thousand different women did not have very much left for God; and yet it seems that in the last days he repented of all this, when he penned Ecclesiastes. Because of his mistakes the kingdom was divided,—two and a half tribes in Judah, ten tribes in Israel; and from that time on there was war and strife between the two divisions.

Solomon's son Rehoboam was a deplorably weak king; and Jeroboam, the strong young man who induced Israel to revolt, was in some respects a much stronger king. His great mistake was in setting up altars against the altar of God; and the 13th chapter records the prophecy of God against his altar, by the unknown prophet who disobeyed. Then follows the reign of Abijah in Judah, and Asa; and in the kingdom of Israel we have Nadab, and Baasha, and Elah, and Zimri, and Omri, and the wicked Ahab. We have Elijah, God's great and mighty prophet. Devoted and earnest in God's work, he under God could slay the prophets of Baal—which Israel in themselves ought to have done—and still pray that God would send the rain, and the Lord answered his prayer: and yet we read that even this prophet, great as he was, overcome by weariness, became discouraged. Yet God translated him. Psalms 35 and 36 close our reading for the week,