"Give me now wisdom and knowledge."--_2 Chron. 1:10._
WHEN King David died, Solomon was still almost a boy. But God spake to
him in a dream by night, and said, "Ask what I shall give thee." Then
Solomon said he was but young, and knew not how to rule over this great
people that God had given him; and therefore he prayed, above all, that
God would give him a wise and understanding heart.
And God was pleased with Solomon's choice, and said that because he had
cared for wisdom most, and had not asked for riches, or long life, or
to put down his enemies, that therefore, besides wisdom, God would give
him all the rest--riches, and honor, and length of life--and he should
be wiser, and greater, and richer, than any king ever was before him,
or should be after him.
All this was because he had cared so much to have a wise and
understanding heart to know good and evil. That was first with him, and
so God gave him all the rest. So it will be with all those who seek
first of all to be good. God does not make us wise all at once like
Solomon, but if we care about it, He will help us to get wise by little
and little if we really try, and then He will bless all we do.