exaggerated the amount of the national contribution for the building of
the Temple or not, we yet are impressed with the vast wealth which was
accumulated in the lifetime of David; and hence we infer that the wealth
of his kingdom was enormous. And it was perhaps the excessive taxation
of the people to raise this money, outside of the spoils of successful
wars, that alienated them in the latter days of David, and induced them
to rally under the standards of usurpers. Certain it is that he became
unpopular in the feebleness of old age, and was forced to abdicate
his throne.

David's premature old age presented a sad contrast to the vigor of his
early days. He was not a very old man when he died,--younger than many
monarchs and statesmen who in our times have retained their vigor, their
popularity, and their power. But the intense labors and sorrows of forty
years may have proved too great a strain on his nervous energies, and
made him as timid as he once was bold. The man who had slain Goliath ran
away from Absalom. He was completely under the domination of an
intriguing wife. He showed a singular weakness in reference to the
crimes of his favorite son, so as to merit the bitter reproaches of his
captain-general. "Thou hast shamed this day," said Joab, "the faces of
all thy servants; for I perceive had Absalom lived, and all of us had
died this day, then it had pleased thee well." In David's case, his last
days do not seem to have been his best days, although he retained his
piety and had conquered all his enemies. His glorious sun set in clouds
after a reign of thirty-three years over united Israel, and the nation
hailed the accession of a boy whose character was undeveloped.

The final years of this great monarch present an impressive lesson of
the vanity even of a successful life, whatever services a man may have
rendered to his country and to civilization. Few kings have ever