She gladly acknowledged the truth of all that she had heard. “It was a true report that I heard in my own land of thy acts and of thy wisdom.” It was not mere learning, the answering of hard questions, the solution of metaphysical problems, but his works, appointments, the sitting of his servants, and the attendance of his ministers, the civil officers who sat at the royal table, convinced the queen of his great wisdom, in which she recognized the working of a peculiar power and grace imparted by God. It was also a practical or life-wisdom, such as Solomon himself describes, “a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her, length of days is in her right hand, and in her left hand riches and honor.” Such wisdom, which rests upon the foundation of the knowledge and love of God, “is more precious than rubies, and all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared unto her.” But the queen was not content with the words of praise and thanks. She makes proof of her gratitude by means of great and royal gifts. “She gave the king an hundred and twenty talents of gold, and of spices very great store, and precious stones.” The presents which she made consisted of those articles in which her land most abounded, and for which it was most famous. The spices were principally the celebrated Arabian balm, which was largely exported, and the shrub of which is said to have been introduced into Palestine by the Queen of Sheba. How high the significance which has always been attached to this visit of the Queen of Sheba to Solomon is shown by the fact that the remembrance of it has been preserved outside of Palestine for thousands of years, and that two ancient peoples, the Arabians and Abyssinians, regard her as the mother of their line of kings. And when the Lord, from out the treasure of the Old Testament history, chooses this narrative, and presents it for the shaming of the Pharisees and Scribes, this presupposes that it was known to and specially esteemed by all other nations. Sheba was reckoned to be the richest, most highly favored and glorious land in the ancient world, and therefore was given the unique name of “The Happy.” Now when the queen came with a splendid retinue to visit this distant land, and from no political design, but merely to see and hear the famous king; and when she, the sovereign of the most fortunate country in the world, declared that what she had seen and heard exceeded all her expectations; this surely was the greatest homage Solomon could have obtained. The visit of the Queen of Sheba marks, therefore, the splendor and climax of the Old Testament Kingdom, and marks an essential moment in the history of the covenant as well as of Solomon, and when our Lord said, “The Queen of the South shall rise up in the judgment with this generation and shall condemn it; for she came from the uttermost part of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold a greater than Solomon is here,” He