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Duties of the Husband and the Wife
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seared, blackened, and crisped with selfishness and sin. When the
lust of the flesh controls the man, and the evil passions of the carnal
nature are permitted to rule, skepticism in regard to the realities of
the Christian religion is encouraged, and doubts are expressed as
though it were a special virtue to doubt.
The life of Solomon might have been remarkable until its close
if virtue had been preserved. But he surrendered this special grace
to lustful passion. In his youth he looked to God for guidance
and trusted in Him, and God chose for him and gave him wisdom
that astonished the world. His power and wisdom were extolled
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throughout the land. But his love of women was his sin. This
passion he did not control in his manhood, and it proved a snare
to him. His wives led him into idolatry, and when he began to
descend the declivity of life, the wisdom that God had given him
was removed; he lost his firmness of character and became more like
the giddy youth, wavering between right and wrong. Yielding his
principles, he placed himself in the current of evil, and thus separated
himself from God, the foundation and source of his strength. He had
moved from principle. Wisdom had been more precious to him than
the gold of Ophir. But, alas! lustful passions gained the victory. He
was deceived and ruined by women. What a lesson for watchfulness!
What a testimony to the need of strength from God to the very last!
In the battle with inward corruptions and outward temptations,
even the wise and powerful Solomon was vanquished. It is not safe
to permit the least departure from the strictest integrity. “Abstain
from all appearance of evil.” When a woman relates her family
troubles, or complains of her husband, to another man, she violates
her marriage vows; she dishonors her husband and breaks down
the wall erected to preserve the sanctity of the marriage relation;
she throws wide open the door and invites Satan to enter with his
insidious temptations. This is just as Satan would have it. If a
woman comes to a Christian brother with a tale of her woes, her
disappointments and trials, he should ever advise her, if she must
confide her troubles to someone, to select sisters for her confidants,
and then there will be no appearance of evil whereby the cause of
God may suffer reproach.
Remember Solomon. Among many nations there was no king
like him, beloved of his God. But he fell. He was led from God and