If I were to ask you now who was the wisest man that ever lived, you would say “Solomon.” Often you have heard one person say of another, “he is as wise as Solomon.” I cannot stop here to tell you of the way in which Solomon showed this wonderful gift. But his knowledge was not that of books, because there were not a great many books then for him to read. It was the knowledge which showed him how to do _right_, and how to be a _good ruler_ over his people. And because he chose such wisdom, the very best gift of God, God gave him besides, riches and everything that he could possibly desire. His horses and chariots were the most beautiful and the strongest; his armies were famous everywhere for their splendid arms and armor. He had vast numbers of servants to wait upon him, and to do his slightest wish. Presents, most magnificent, were sent to him by the kings of all the nations round about him. No king of Israel before or after him was so great and so powerful. And, greatest honor of all, God permitted him to build a temple for him――what his father David had so longed to do and was not allowed, God directed Solomon to do. David’s greatest desire before he died was to build a house for God. The ark of God had never had a house to rest in, and David was not satisfied to have a splendid palace to live in himself, and to have nothing but a _tent_ in which to keep God’s ark. But God would not suffer him to do that, although he was the king whom he loved so much. No, that must be kept for his son Solomon to do. David had been too great a fighter all his life; he had been at war; he had driven back his enemies on all sides, and had made God’s people a nation to be feared by all their foes. So David was a “mighty man,” and while Solomon was growing up he must have heard every one talking of the wonderful things his father had done from his youth up――the adventures he had had when he was only a poor shepherd lad keeping his flocks on the hills about Bethlehem. And how often must he have been told that splendid story, which we never grow tired of hearing, of his fight with the giant Goliath; and when he was shown the huge pieces of armor, and the great sword and spear, he surely knew what it was for a man to be “mighty” and “great.” And when his old father withdrew from the throne and made him king, he found himself surrounded on all sides with the results of his father’s wars and conquests, and soon knew that he also was “a mighty man.” There is not a boy here who does not want to be “great.” Every one of you wants to make a name for himself, or have something, or do something, that will be remembered long after he is dead.