IV. But all was not bright in the reign of Sol'o-mon. We must notice
also =His Sins=, for they wrought great results of evil in the after
years. 1. That which led to all his other sins was his _foreign
marriages_ (1 Kings 11. 1-4). These were the natural and inevitable
results of his foreign relations, and were probably effected for
political reasons as well as to add to the splendor of his court. 2. His
_toleration of idolatry_, perhaps actual participation in it (1 Kings
11. 5-8). We cannot overestimate the harm of Sol'o-mon's influence in
this direction. At once it allied him with the lower and evil elements
in the nation, and lost to him the sympathy of all the earnest
souls.[13] 3. Another of Sol'o-mon's sins, not named in Scripture, but
referred to in many legends of the East, may have been a _devotion to
magical arts_. He appears in Oriental traditions as the great master of
forces in the invisible world, engaging in practices forbidden by the
law of Mo'ses (Lev. 19. 31; Deut. 18. 10, 11).