But this congratulatory strain of the queen of Sheba may be applied to the Christian age, and to "a greater than Solomon." Jesus Christ is "king in Zion," and happy are his servants which stand continually before him, to hear his wisdom; happy they who have "the glorious Gospel" in their possession, and, by means of the evangelical historians of the New Testament, witness the actions and hear the words of this divine Instructor! The intelligence that distinguished the king of Israel was but a single beam of light from the "Sun of Righteousness," by whom all spiritual knowledge is communicated to the world--who is the fountain of all wisdom, and whose glory will for ever irradiate and beautify a redeemed universe. When believers ascend above this inferior state of existence into the presence of God and the Lamb, notwithstanding all the communications of inspired penmen in the sacred page--owing to the imperfection of human language, and the circumstances of man, which, in some cases, render further instructions _impossible_, in others _improper_--such will be their discoveries of the glory of Jesus Christ, that the language of the queen of Sheba will prove peculiarly descriptive of their feelings, "behold, the half was not told me." And even here experienced piety exclaims, "whom having not seen we love; in whom, though now we see him not, yet believing, we rejoice with JOY UNSPEAKABLE AND FULL OF GLORY." The queen of Sheba did not return to her country till she had given Solomon a hundred and twenty talents of gold, besides a great quantity of spices and precious stones; a present, for which the king made suitable acknowledgments, by giving her "all her desire; whatsoever she asked, besides that which Solomon gave her of his royal bounty." Harmer remarks, "this appears strange to us; but is perfectly agreeable to modern Eastern usages, which are allowed to be derived from remote antiquity. "A reciprocal giving and receiving royal gifts has nothing in it strange; but the supposition of the sacred historian, that this Arabian queen _asked_ for some things she saw in the possession of king Solomon, is what surprises us. However, the practice is very common to this day in the East--it is not there looked upon as any degradation to dignity, or any mark of rapacious meanness. "Irwin's publication [39] affords many instances of such a custom, among very considerable people, both in Arabia and Egypt, though not equal in power to the queen that visited king Solomon. They demanded from time to time, such things as they saw, and which happened to please them; arms, vestments, &c. What the things were that so struck the queen of Sheba, as that _she asked_ for them, and which Solomon did not before apprehend would be particularly pleasing to her, the sacred historian has not told us, nor can we pretend to guess.