"The wisdom of God was in him, to do judgment.--_1 Kings 3:28._
HERE is a story to show how wise and clever King Solomon was. One day
when he was sitting on his throne two women came to him: one with a
live baby, the other with a dead one, both boys, and just of the same
age. They said they had been living alone together in the same house,
each with her little baby, till one night one of the women rolled over
her child in her sleep and smothered it, so that she found it was dead.
But each woman said it was not her baby but the other's that was dead,
and that the mother of the dead one had put the little corpse down by
the other sleeping woman, and taken her living child out of her bosom
to herself. How was it to be known which was right?--for nobody out
of the house knew the two little ones apart, and each of the women
declared that she was the mother of the live child, not of the dead. So
they came to the king to judge between them.
[Illustration: THE BUILDING OF SOLOMON'S TEMPLE.--1 Kings 6:11-14.]
And what plan could Solomon take to find out the truth? He sent for the
executioner, with a sword, and said that as the women could not agree,
both the children should be cut in two, and each woman should have the
two halves. One woman was content to have it so, but the other only
cried out in grief and dread, "O my lord, give her the living child,
and in no wise slay it."
Then Solomon saw in a moment which was full of mother's love, and which
was full of hatred and jealousy; so he said, "Give _her_ the living
child, and in no wise slay it: she is the mother thereof." And so
the true loving mother had her child safe and well, and the other was
disappointed in her spite.