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BW*!IBIlU|

ELIJAH

THE PROPHET.

BY THE

REV. WILLIAM M. TAYLOR, D.D.,
'II ~
MINISTER OF THE BROADWAY TABERNACLE, NEW YORK CITV,
AUTHOR OF "DAVID, KING OF ISRAEL."

to1^

V

NEW YORK:
¦*.
HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS,
FRANKLIN SQUARE.
1876.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1875, by
Harper & Brothers,
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.

PREFACE.

TO read a part of the Old Testament in the light of the
New, and to discover in it, when thus treated, not only
a portion of the history of the past, but also the explanation
of much that is in the present, and the prophecy of more
that is in the future, is the aim of this book.
The story of Elijah is one of thrilling interest There is
a shadow of mystery, and yet a mien of majesty, about the
hero which so affects every reader that he is almost apt to
forget that the Tishbite was, after all, "a man subject to
like passions as we are." I have endeavored, by setting the
prophet amidst the surroundings of his age and comparing
him with the reformers of other days, to bring him so near
to us that we may hear the throb of his great heart, and
catch the inspiration of his life. I have not attempted to
conceal his failings, but have sought everywhere to draw
from his conduct the lessons most appropriate to our mod
ern circumstances.
The kind reception given to " David, King of Israel," has
encouraged me to send forth this new work; and if it shall
awaken any to earnest study of the Word of God, or give
direction and support to any perplexed or fainting spirit, I
will be devoutly thankful.
Broadway Tabernacle, Z'?fi'7«&?- 2,d, 1875.

CONTENTS.

PAGE
I. The Startling Message  7
II. By the Brook  23
JIl. The Barrel and the Cruse  38
IV. Death and Resurrection  52
V. Re-apfearance  69
VI. The Conflict on Carmel  87
VII. Prayer and its Answer  loi
VIII. Under ihe Juniper-ti-ee  116
IX. Abel-meholah  133
X. Naboth's Vineyard  147
XI. Fire from Heaven  164
XII. The Ascension  179
XIII. Elijah on the Mount  195

ELIJAH THE PROPHET.

I.
THE STARTLING MESSAGE.
I Kings xvii., i.
"TSRAEL was at this time in a most deplorable condition.
-'- Its rulers had caused the nation to err; and as one king
after another disappears from the scene, his character and
history are summed up by the sacred chronicler in the
words, " He did evil in the sight of Jehovah after the man
ner of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin."
This is the sad refrain continually recurring in the national
annals, and each time it is repeated it reveals a blacker depth
of wickedness than before. Of Omri it had been said that
" he did worse than all that were before him ;" but it was
reserved for Ahab to inaugurate a new species of iniquity,
more revolting than any which the ten tribes had committed
since the date of their rebellion against the son of Solomon.
This monarch was by no means the weakling he is com
monly supposed to have been. Now and again, indeed, his
whole nature seems to have been, for the time, paralyzed un
der the operation of what Maurice has described as "a trou
blesome conscience, checking an evil will ;"* but in general
he manifested those qualities which have secured for other
* " The Prophets and Kings of the Old Testament," by F. D. Maurice,
p. 129.

8 Elijah the Prophet.
kings the title "great" He was brave and successful on
the field of battle. Once and again he vanquished the army
of the proud Ben-hadad ;* and at last he met his death while
fighting valiantly, though in disguise, at Ramoth-gilead.f
This personal prowess was combined in him with a love of
art and a desire to promote the commercial prosperity of his
people. He made streets for himself in the great trading
city of Damascus. f He reared for himself a palace of ivory,
and was, besides, the founder of several cities.§ But all this
outward magnificence was dimmed by a darker shadow of
iniquity than that which fell on the glory of any of his pred
ecessors. Thus it is written concerning him : " It came to
pass, as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the
sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, that he took to wife Jez
ebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of theZidonians, and went
and served Baal, and worshiped him. And he reared up an
altar for Baal in the house of Baal, which he had built in Sa
maria. And Ahab made a grove ; and Ahab did more to
provoke the Lord God of Israel to anger than all the kings
of Israel that were before him."||
There is thus a clear distinction drawn between the sin of
Jeroboam and that of Ahab. It is intimajed that, as the son
of Nebat took a new departure from the worship at Jerusa
lem, when he set up the golden calves at Dan and at Bethel ;
so the son of Omri took a new departure from the practice
of Jeroboam, when he built a temple and set up an altar to
Baal. The act of Jeroboam was, in the main, political. He
foresaw that Jf the tribes who had chosen him to be their
king continued to go to Jerusalem to attend the three great
annual religious festivals, the spiritual union would speedily
overcome the political division. So he established separate

* I Kings XX., 21, 29. t Ibid., xxii., 34. J Ibid., xx., 34.
§ Ibid., xxii., 39 ; Amos iii., 15. || Ibid., xvi., 31-33.

The Startling Message. 9
centres of worship at Bethel and Dan ; and knowing the crav
ing of the heart for some visible emblem of the divine glory,
he set up the Egyptian symbol of the calf He could not
have the real shechinah, but he did set up an outward rep
resentation ; and his particular selection of the calf may be
traced to the influence upon him of Egyptian ideas conse
quent upon his long residence as an exile in that land. But
he had no desire to give up the covenant claim ofthe people
on Jehovah. Indeed, he would not have admitted that he
had ceased to serve Jehovah. His view ofthe case was that
he was serving Jehovah under the symbol of the golden calf;
and therefore the sin which he committed was not a viola
tion ofthe first commandment, but ofthe second. He had
not a thought of worshiping any other god than Jehovah ;
but he guiltily made tJ himself and to his people an outward
symbol to represent Jehgffi^j, That was bad enough ; but
the guilt of Ahab was .greatly more heinous, for he abjured
Jehovah altogether, denying his exclusive claim to deity, and
repudiating any thing like a covenant relationship between
him and Israel.
He thus dethroned Jehovah, and on the vacant seat he
placed Baal and Ashtaroth, the two divinities of the Zido-
nians. These were the deities of the old Canaanites, for
their homage to which these ancient tribes were driven out
to make way for the descendants of Abraham. Hence, the
adoption of their worship by the ten tribes was a total apos
tasy from Jehovah, and a return to the ancient idolatry ofthe
land. It was not merely a violation of the second command
ment, in that there was an image of Baal in stone, and of
Ashtaroth in wood j but it was also a breaking of the first
commandment, in that it involved the repudiation of Jeho
vah, and the adoption of another god in his room. And so
Ahab, who introduced this new sort of idolatry, did worse
than all that had gone before him.
T*

10 Elijah the Prophet.
Now, these two deities, Baal, the male, and Ashtaroth, the
female, represented the, fertilizing and productive principle
in nature, and their worship was that of power. To the
more cultivated and refined, it was simply a species of Pan
theism ; to the multitude, it was what one has called "the
worship of deified abundance, under a splendid and sensu
ous ceremonial ;"* or, as Maurice has put it, " The worship
of Baal was the worship of power as distinguished from right-
eousness."t Hence, the apostasy of Ahab in giving up the
personal Jehovah, the covenant God of Israel, and the cre
ator and preserver of all things, and preferring Baal, was
analogous to, if not, indeed, precisely identical with, the mod
ern heresy of those who discard a personal God, and refuse
to believe in him who is a loving father, while they deify nat
ure under the name of law. Thus this old history has a
special appropriateness to the preUnt time, and we may prof
itably ponder for a little the record of the manner in which
the efforts of Ahab were counteracted and neutralized.
The introduction of Baal-worship into Israel was part of a
deliberate plan on the part of Ahab. He wished to strength
en himself to the fullest extent against his Syrian enemies,
while, at the same time, he developed the material resources
of his country by an alliance with the Zidonians, who' held
the sea-board. If he could only succeed in welding Israel
and Zidon together, he felt that he could defy the dynasty
of Damascus, and look forward to a time of great prosperity
from a participation in the unrivaled commerce of the Phoe
nicians. But there is no unifying influence so strong as that
of religion. Hence he determined to carry the nation over
bodily into the Zidonian worship ; and, as the first step in
that direction, he allied himself to the royal house of Zidon,
Y- * "Elijah." Four University Sermons, by Walter W. Shirley, M.A.,
Oxford, p. 20.
t "The Prophets and Kings ofthe Old Testament," p. 128.

The Startling Message. ii
by marrying Jezebel, the daughter of Ethbaal, king of the
Zidonians. Thus, if I have read the record aright, his worship of Baal
was not the result of his marriage with Jezebel, but his mar
riage with her was the consequence pf his determination to
establish Baal-worship throughout his dominions. For po
litical reasons, Jeroboam set up his calves ; and now again,
for political reasons, Ahab determines to convert the nation
into worshipers of Baal. In this effort he found Jezebel
a most efficient and unscrupulous assistant She was the
daughter of one who, being himself a priest of Baal, had, as
Josephus* tells us, murdered his own brother in order to gain
the crown ; so that he was both priest of Baal and king of
Zidon. She inherited both the religious fervor of the priest)
and the unscrupulous cruelty of the man. She united in her- 1
self the strongest intellectual powers, the fiercest passions,
and the fieriest will, while her moral sense was hardened al
most into insensibility. With her, "I dare not" never wait
ed upon " I would ;" and, no matter what stood in the way of
the attainment of her designs, she would trample down every
obstacle, and press forward, even through " a mire of blood,"
to the object of her ambition. She may be regarded as the
Lady Macbeth of history ; only, as it seems to me, there was
less of "the milk of human kindness" in her breast than the
great dramatist has put into that of his striking creation ;
and Jezebel would not have come back, shivering, with the
dry dagger in her hand, saying, " Had he not resembled my
father as he slept, I'd done it." Without the least misgiving
she would have pluiiged it into the sleeper to the hilt ! With
such an ally, the Baal mission made great progress. The
people, indeed, were largely ready for such idolatr\'. Their

* "Antiquities," viii., 13, i ; contra Appion, i., 18. In the latter cita
tion we identify Ethb.ial with Ithobalos.

12 Elijah the Prophet.
hearts had long been set on outward magnificence and pow
er ; and so, in accepting Baal for their god, they only gave
their outward homage where they had long been giving their
inward adoration ; and the mass of the community made no
complaint when they s.aw well-nigh a thousand priests sup
ported from the royal funds.* A nation which could see
unmoved the rebuilding of Jericho in defiance of the curse
pronounced by Joshua upon him who should again set up its
gates,t had evidently swung very far from its allegiance to
Jehovah, and would not hesitate to follow the example of the
court ; for, as all colors are alike in the dark, so any religion
is indifferent to him who cares nothing for religion at all.
There were, indeed, some faithful among the faithless ; for
even after a bloody persecution, seven thousand remained
who had not bowed the knee to Baal, and among these were
a hundred prophets who had hidden themselves in a cave.$
But the rnajority — belonging to that class so well described by
M. Prochet§ as "having the religion of 'I don't care,'" and
as having this characteristic, that, while they would not erect
the gibbet or the scaffold for others, they would by no means
face either for themselves — followed the court, and saw with
out remark the emissaries of Jezebel go through the land,
overturning the many altars which had been erected to the
one true God, and hunting down the stern old covenanters
of their day, who would not give homage to the Zidonian
deity. So, on the whole, the transition had been made with ease
and success ; and Ahab and Jezebel might be sitting in their
Jezreel palace of ivory, congratulating themselves on the skill
which they had shown, when, sudden and terrible as a clap
of thunder from a cloudless sky, there swept in before them
* I Kings xviii., 19. t Ibid., xvi., 34. t Ibid., xviii., 4; xix., 18.
§ In his address at the Evangelical Alliance, New York, October, 1873.

The Startling Message. 13
a weird-looking man, with long, flowing hair, a mantle of
sheep -skin round his shoulders, and a rugged staff in his
hand ; and before they could ask him who he was, or why
he had come thither, he had flung the gage of defiance at
their feet, and said, "As Jehovah the God of Israel liveth,
before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these
years but according to my word." Then, this message given,
he vanished like an apparition. " It was," as Wilberforce
has said, "like the flash of the lightning, sharp as a blazing
sword in its sudden vividness, but not tarrying for a moment,
revealing every thing, and gone as it reveals it"* Who was
this strange, uncourtly, and defiant visitor? All we know of
him up till this time is expressed in the words, "Elijah the
Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead." No flourish
of trumpets ushered him into the presence of royalty ; and,
in like manner, no herald precedes him on the sacred page
to proclaim his parentage, or tell the story of his early life.
He is the " Melchizedek " among the prophets, "without fa
ther, without mother, having neither beginning of days nor
end of life, abiding a prophet continually." And all this is
in keeping with his rugged .character, his abrupt and start
ling appearances, and the stern work he had to do. We
know something of the early history of Moses at the court
of Pharaoh, and we read with'interest the narrative of little
Samuel's sojourn at the tabernacle in Shiloh ; we have a
glimpse of Elisha at the plow, and of Amos following his
herd, ere yet they were called to carry the message of the
Lord to the people of the land. But the boyhood and youth
of Elijah are unknown. He comes here as suddenly into
view as if he had just descended from the clouds, and clothed
himself with their thunder as he came ; or we might almost
fancy that he had at that moment alighted from the chariot
* " Heroes of Hebrew History," by Samuel Wilberforce, D.D., p. 328.

14 Elijah the Prophet.
of fire, which, tarrying for him in the heavens, was to bear
him ultimately from the earth.
In the absence of all other details, we are glad to make
the most we can of his name and designation. Elijah means
" My god is Jehovah ;" and this, whether given him by his
parents or assumed by himself, was in striking accord with
the mission on which he was sent The very mention of it
was a solemn protest against the Baal-homage of Ahab and
his court ; and every repetition of it would be to the prophet
himself a new reminder of the truth which he had to pro
claim, and of the strength by which he would be upheld.
He is called also "the Tishbite." This is supposed by
some, rather artificially, as I think, to mean "reformer;" by
others, it is thought to be derived from the jjlace of his res
idence or of his birth. But we do not know certainly that
there was such a place as Thisbe ; and if there ever was, it
is now impossible to identify it, so that here again we are in
the dark. The probability is that his youthful days were
spent in the obscurity of some mountain village, and in the
humble lot of poverty. But this is not unusual in the his
tory of God's most distinguished servants. We have spoken
already of Amos and Elisha; can we forget in the same con-
M M nection a higher than either, even the Lord Jesus himself,
I who was for a time a Galilean carpenter? The strongest
' trees are found, not in sheltered nooks, but in the most
exposed places, where sweeps the full fury of the storm;
the hardiest flowers grow, not in the hot-house, but on the
1 mountain - side, in close proximity to the glacier and the
, snow ; and God's grandest heroes are taken, for the most
part, not from the lap of luxury or the home of affluence,
but from the dwelling of penury, and the abode of obscuri
ty. Their very struggles have developed strength ; and the
difficulties which they have been forced to encounter have
'¦ quickened inventiveness and inspired resolution.

The Startling Message. 15
But Elijah was "ofthe inhabitants of Gilead." And this,
too, may have had some influence in producing that rugged '
strength which we discern in his character ; for, surely, the
scenery on which one daily looks has much to do with the
formation of the man. There is a difference between the
hardy Swiss and the effeminate Italian ; and in the grizzly
visage and patient endurance of the Scottish Highlander we
can see something of the heath-clad granite of his native
hills. Now, Gilead, on the eastern side of the Jordan, was a
land much like theirs. " It was," says Mr. Grove, " a coun
try of chase and pasture, of tent-villages and mountain-cas
tles, inhabited by a people, not settled and civilized, like
those who formed the communities of Ephraim and Judah,
but of wandering, irregular habits, exposed to the attacks of
the nomad tribes of the desert, and gradually conforming
more and more to the habits of those tribes. To an Israel
ite of the tribes west of the Jordan, the title Gileadite must
have conveyed a similar impression, though in a far stronger
degree, to that which the title Celt does to us. What the
Highlands of Scotland were a century ago to the towns of
the Lowlands, that, and more than that, must Gilead have
been to Samaria and Jerusalem."*
Such a one, then, was Elijah, as he stood before Ahab.
He wore no court dress ; he spoke in no polished phrase ;
but, like a sturdy Quaker, he refused to give any reverence,
and, with his thees and his thous, his faithful warnings and
his awful threatenings, he struck terror into Ahab's soul.
He was such stuff as iconoclasts are made of, and he com
bined in himself many of the distinctive excellencies of the
chief reformers of the sixteenth century. The courage of
Luther, the plainness of speech of Latimer, the devoutness
of Calvin, and the "perfervid" impetuosity of Knox, were all
* Smith's " Dictionary of the Bible ;" article Elijah.

1 6 Elijah the Prophet.
united in the character of this man of God. Yet was he "a
man subject to like passions as we are."* There were deep
springs of tenderness in his soul, and there were shadows of
weakness cast even by the greatness of his strength. Still,
take him for all in all, he stands alone among the prophets,
overtopping them all in the rougli vigor of his manhood and
the unflinching courage which his faith in God inspired.
But now let us look at his first utterance before Israel's
king. Every clause of it is significant, and as each came
out, it must have cut keenly into Ahab's soul. "As Jeho
vah the God of Israel liveth." This is an oath, and in the
mouths of many men it would have been simply and only
profane ; but Elijah is very far from taking the name ofthe
Lord in vain. His words had a peculiar appropriateness to
the circumstances of the hour. "Jehovah liveth." Ahab
was a worshiper of Baal, the abstract representative of pow
er, an impersonal attribute, a blind principle ; and, in oppo
sition to all that, Elijah declares that "Jehovah liveth," ay,
and that he liveth as " the God of Israel." The king had
repudiated the covenant which the Lord had made with Is
rael. He had chosen to affirm that there was no Jehovah,
and, by consequence, that there was no covenant ; and now
Elijah, in the first words he utters, gives the flattest contra
diction to all these notions : " Jehovah the God of Israel liv
eth ;" " Before whom I stand " — here is another statement of
the personahty of God. It is not only that Jehovah exists
in some far-away corner of the universe, where he takes no
interest in the affairs of men or in the operations of nature,
so called, but that he is here, and that I am now in his pres
ence, delivering his message, sustained by his strength, and
protected by his power. He has sent me hither ; he is with
me here ; he will accompany me hence. Think not, there-
* James v., 17.

The Startling Message. 17
fore, to follow me with thy spying minions ; dream not of
putting me to death by force or stratagem. I stand before
Jehovah, and I wear a charmed life until my work is done."
"As Jehovah liveth, there shall not be dew nor rain these
years but according to my word." He thus perils the proof
of the existence of God and of his covenant relationship
to Israel on the coming of drought and its continuance, un
til he spoke the word for the return of rain. It was a terri
ble judgment which he thus denounced ; but it was one that
would come home to every inhabitant of the land, and would
prepare every heart for yielding to the truth that the provi
dence of Jehovah extends to all the operations of nature and
all the events of history, and thus would strike at the very
root of that idolatry which had become so dominant among
them. Ahab believed in Baal and Ashtaroth, which, in the
very loftiest view that could be entertained regarding them,
were an ideal representation ofthe productive powers of nat
ure; but Elijah would show him, and his people with him,
that those powers which Baal symbolized were effective only
through the personal operation of Jehovah. God would for
the time withhold his hand, to let them see that it was by his
constant agency that the dew and the rain did come ; and
thus he would teach them to confide in himself as the per
sonal, living, loving Jehovah, "who upholdeth all things by
the word of his power," who is above all, and over all, and
in all. By a terrible privation he would teach them the
doctrine which Jesus sought to impress upon his hearers by
his loving words : that Jehovah is the director of all things,
great or small ; that a sparrow can not fall to the ground,
or a rain-drop descend from the clouds, or a globule of dew
form upon a blade of grass, without him ; and so he would
lead them from the worship of mere external force in the
material universe to affectionate trust in the Divine Father.
By miracle, in the sense of a break-in upon the regularity of

1 8 Elijah the Prophet.
nature, he would lead them up to the perception of that con
tinuous miracle, that constant agency of the personal God,
by which even the ordinary processes of nature are carried'
on. Thus the question in dispute between Elijah on the one
hand, and Ahab on the other, was the same as that which is
in many quarters in debate to-day. It was the personal ex
istence of Jehovah and his covenant relation to his own peo
ple, as opposed to that cold materialism which refuses to rec
ognize any thing but force, or law, or power, and which re
pudiates all special providence. In the name of the living
as against the lifeless ; in the name of the personal as op
posed to the impersonal ; in the name of the loving Father
as distinguished from inexorable and impassive law, Elijah
proclaims that there should be neither dew nor rain, and he
hinges the truth of his assertions as to Jehovah on the ful
fillment of his prophecy. Let the present generation give
good heed to the result 1 For the Lord God of Elijah liveth
yet, and he will not be mocked or repudiated with impuni
ty. Men slight the Old-Testament Scriptures, and when we
preach to them from these ancient records, they sneeringly
bid us remember that we are living in the nineteenth centu
ry ; but, lo ! in these venerable annals we find " the inter
pretation of modern facts,'' and the antidote to modern er
rors. The naturalistic philosophy of to-day, which makes so
much of laws and forces, and refuses to acknowledge God, is
but a variety of the Baahsm of Ahab ; and it, too, will find
its Elijah to repeat its demolition.
But now, leaving the prophet to the guidance of Jehovah
as he passes out from the presence of Ahab, let us linger a
few minutes longer to gather up one or two practical lessons
from the history which we have thus rapidly reviewed.
Let* us remark, in the first place, how insidious is the
growth of sin, whether it be in the heart of an individual or
in the history of a nation. Behold the idolatry of Israel,

The Startling Message. 19
full-fledged and unblushing, in the Baalism of Ahab. But
how did it begin ? Away back in the time of the Judges,
there was an Israelite, named Micah, who engaged a wan
dering Levite to become his priest, and set up a private
chapel in his house, with images, and an ephod, and all the
accessories of worship. When the Danites came to spy out
the land, that they might choose a place in which to colo
nize, they visited Micah, and got his Levite to consult his
oracle for them ; and then, some months after, when a whole
company of emigrants went from the South, they took this
priest and his images with them, and carried them away to
Dan.* Thus the people of that city became accustomed to
image-worship ; and so, when Jeroboam revolted from Solo
mon's son, and desired to set up separate religious centres
for his subjects, he chose Dan for one of them.
For sixty years that state of things had existed, and the ten
tribes had repaired to Bethel and to Dan, instead of going,
as formerly, to Jerusalem. But the change of ritual wrought
a disastrous change in the people. It weakened their, spir
itual perception ; it lowered their moral tone ; it deadened
their consciences. Hence, they were just in a condition to
be drawn away by the gorgeous worship and licentious and
immoral rites of Baal and Ashtaroth, and so they fell an easy
prey to Ahab's schemes. That which their fathers would have
strenuously opposed in the days of Jeroboam, they meekly ac
cepted in the days of Ahab. But it is ever so. The nature
of evil is to increase. Hence, alike as individuals, as con
gregations, and as communities, we should withstand the be
ginnings of iniquity. Indulgence in one sin blunts the con
science, and prepares the way for another which at first would
have been sternly resisted, and that, in its turn, makes the
soul ready for yet another. "A little leaven leaveneth the
* Judges xvii., xviii.

20 Elijah the Prophet.
whole lump." The admission of one sin into the heart is
like the reception of the Grecian horse into the Trojan city.
It brings with it the germs of many more. Its name is
" Gad " — a troop cometh. One evil tolerated in a church will
soon generate many others. One disreputable thing permit
ted or sanctioned in the state will speedily produce a numer
ous progeny. All sins are near akin, and wherever one en
ters, communication is opened with all the rest. The little di
vergence from rectitude which is begun as a policy, because
it seems to be required for. some important end, will, by-and-
by, develop into more heinous iniquity. So, if we would pre
serve ourselves from yielding homage to Baal, we must resist
the worship of the golden calf. Mammonism prepares the
way for materialism. The deification of worldly success by
our mercantile Jeroboams leads on to the worship of law by
our philosophic Ahabs. This was the course of things in
ancient Israel ; and he who cares to look around him may
see the same leaven working at this hour.
Let us observe, in the second place, how, when God has a
work to do, he finds a fitting agent to do it If all men were
alike, there could be no special adaptation in any man for
a particular work ; and no one individual could have the
power of molding or influencing his age by his intellectual
or spiritual force. On the other hand, since men are not
thus alike, if there were no superintending Providence, the
right man might not always come at the right time, or be
sent to the right place. As Wilberforce has said, "A great
poet might be produced when a great general was wanted,
or a wonderful financier might be given to a horde of sav
ages."* But there are no such mistakes made 'in the provi
dence of-God. When the hour strikes, the man is ready, ay,
even though it may have taken many years to fit him for the .
* " Heroes of Hebrew Monarchy," p. 319.

The Startling Message. 21
work. Elijah was prepared when it was time for him to ap
pear. When the Gospel was to be given to the Gentiles,
Paul, whose whole early training had been an unconscious
preparation for his special mission, was called for the pur
pose ; and when the fullness of the time had come, Luther,
already fitted for the work by his experiences, sprung up to
nail his theses to the church-door of Wittenberg, and chal
lenge Rome to do her worst. Nor is this all. The man who
has the work to do is the right man to do it Had Elijah
been one who wore soft raiment and dwelt in kings' palaces,
he could not have roused Israel as he did. Had John the
Baptist been begloved and fashionable, dealing in silken
speech and soft attire, he would never have stirred the men
of his generation to repentance. His mission, like that of
Elijah, needed a fearless, blunt, undaunted man, who was not
afraid to call things by their common names, and such a
man God made him in the desert We often hear slighting
remarks on the great Reformers, as if they had been too stern
and rugged in their bearing ; and Knox especially has hard
ly been forgiven by the readers of romance because he made
Queen Mary weep. But in their days men had stern work
to do, and a woman's tears are not so costly as a nation's
blood. We had not been as we are to-day if it had not
been for their sternness. True, their manner would not have
suited our age ; but they were not sent to our age ; and they
were made, not only for their work, but by it God needs
his Luthers as well as his Melancthons ; his Pauls as well
as his Johns ; his Latimers as well as his Leightons ; and
we may as well find fault with the sweet-brier in the hedge
because it is prickly, and because it is not the violet in the
garden border, as complain because God's people in one
age and in one department of his work are not so polished
and refined as those in another. The carpenter has tools
of various fineness and with different edge. The plane

22 Elijah the Prophet.
would be as useless for felling trees as the axe would be for
smoothing the surface of some valued piece of wood. Each
is best for its own work ; and so in the great providential
and gracious work of the advancement of God's Church,
each agent is most admirable for the work he does. In
stead, therefore, of criticising the harshness of the Reformers,
let us endeavor to find out what our particular mission is,
and let us give ourselves to that with all our might.
Finally, let no one be deterred from doing what he believes
to be his duty because he is alone. As we shall see, up to
the time when Elisha was called, Elijah was for the most
part without any coadjutor. He dwelt apart He stood by
himself Yet God was with him, and he did valiantly. Had
he waited until he could persuade some fellow-man tcr go
with him into Ahab's palace, I do not think that he ever
would have entered it But he. went in God's strength, and
he spoke his message with all boldness. Let no one be dis
mayed, therefore, because he is only one ; for one man with
God in him and with him is " multitudinous above all human
majorities," and will and must succeed. Not that the might
is in himself — he is only one — but he furnishes a medium
through which the might of God, which is omnipotence, may
come in contact with the evils of his age. Thus he is
"mighty through God to the pulling- down ofthe strong
holds" of iniquity. If, therefore, there be any stirrings in
any one to-night toward the doing- of some needful work, let
him not wait for some fellow-man to accompany him ; but
let him go forth to it himself alone, taking with him this gra
cious promise : "One man of you shall chase a thousand, for
the Lord your God, he it is that fighteth for you, as he hath
promised you."

II.
BY THE BROOK.
X Kings xvii., 2-6.
HAVING delivered his startling message in the audi
ence of Ahab, Elijah left the royal presence as abrupt
ly as he had at first appeared. We have no record of what
occurred after his departure, between the monarch and his
courtiers ; but we may suppose that though for the moment
they were awed into solemn silence by the prophet's weird
aspect and dreadful words, they would, at his exit, break out
into a shout of laughter at the whole affair ; for it is the man
ner of such men to pass from the extreme of terror to that
of derision. The first emotion of the king was, perhaps,
that of indignation, forming itself into the purpose to thrust
Elijah into the dungeon, as, in after-days, he did with Micai-
ah ;* but the rapid movement of the prophet rendered any
such design abortive ; and so, baffled in his intended ven
geance, he would affect to look upon the whole thing with
contempt " Tush !" he tnight say ; " 'tis but some maniac
who has broken loose," and in a few days the occurrence
would be forgotten. But when the rainy season came, and
the sky above continued cloudless, blazing like burnished
brass with the red glare of the fiery sun ; when, month after
month, no dew-drop sparkled on the withered grass ; when
the fountains refused to flow, and the rivers dried up intheir
beds, and grim, gaunt Famine began his desolating march
* I Kings xxii., 26, 27.

24 Elijah the Prophet.
across the land ; then Ahab and his court would think upon
the Tishbite, and recall his awful words.
At first, indeed, there might be little feeling of alarm, for
hope is ever strong in human breasts. Though the rain was
long in coming, the people would still expect it in its sea
son, and now and again some aged man would calm their ris
ing fears by telling them of some similar occurrence in his
younger days, when, after all, the rain came at as late a date
as that, and the harvest was as good as usual. But when the
whole rainy season had gone by, and no right shower had
fallen to refresh the thirsty land ; when the grass had become
blackened and destroyed, as if some prairie-fire had passed
over it with its scorching breath, then the cry awoke in the
palace, and was echoed in every quarter of the land, " Where
is Elijah the Tishbite?" They sought him east and west,
and north and south ; they sought him in the towns and in
the desert, on the mountain-sides and in the lonely valle3's ;
in Gilead and Judea, in Israel and Zidonia ; yea, wherever
they heard that any one answering to his description had ap
peared, thither Ahab sent a messenger,* in the hope that he
might prove to be the prophet But all search was vain, for
the Lord had hidden him ; and not until it was time for him
to strike another blow, would Ahab be permitted to look
upon his face. '?
Even as he left the palace of the king, " the word of the
Lord came unto him, saying. Get thee hence, and turn thee
eastward, and hide thyself by the brook Cherith, that is be
fore Jordan." It is almost impossible now to identify the
locality which is here described. Three opinions have been
held by scholars regarding it. Some place it on the eastern
side of the river Jordan, and suppose that it was one of the
" Wadys" of Elijah's native Gilead. Others believe that it
* I Kings xviii., lo.

By the Brook. 25
vvas the valley of one of those brooks which run into the Jor
dan from the range of hills upon its western side ; and of
those who are in favor of this opinion some prefer the Wady
Fasael, some the Wady Kelt This last is that which Rob
inson and Porter think to be the valley of the Cherith; and
as, whether they are correct or not, the valley in which the
prophet was concealed must have been one not unlike the
Wady Kelt, I shall quote to you the description which Por
ter has given of it " No spot in Palestine is better fitted
to aiford a secure asylum to the persecuted than the Wady
Kelt On each side of it extend the bare, desolate hills of
the wilderness of Judea, in whose fastnesses David was able
to bid defiance to Saul. The Kelt is one of the wildest
ravines in this wild region. In some places it is not less
tlian five hundred feet deep, and just wide enough to give
passage to a streamlet like a silver thread, and to afford
space for its narrow fringe of oleanders. The banks are
almost sheer precipices of naked limestone, and are here
and there pierced with the dark openings of caves and grot
toes, in some one of which Elijah may have lain concealed.
It opens into the great valley ; and from its depths issues a
narrow line of verdure into the white plain ; it gradually
spreads as it advances, until it mingles, at the distance of a
mile or more, with the thickets that encompass Riha, the
modern representative of Jericho."*
Into this valley, or a valley like it, Elijah went. But let
no one suppose that he went thither because he was afraid
of any consequences that might come upon him, for the bold
message which he had carried in God's. name to Ahab. He
went to Cherith because God sent him thither ; and, in taking
up his abode in his rocky cavern, he was serving his Master
as faithfully as he was when he entered the palace of Jezreel

* Alexander's " Kitto's Encyclopasdia," vol. i., p. 484.
2

26 Elijah the Prophet.
to confront the king, or when he stood upon the summit of
Carmel and put to shame the worshipers of Baal.
Here is a lesson which we may well take to ourselves. In
this busy, bustling age, we Christians, catching somewhat the
spirit of the times, are apt to imagine that God can be served
only by public labor. We talk so much about " working for
Christ" among the poor and ignorant and degraded, that
sometimes, I fear, the sentiment of despondency is awakened
by our words in the hearts of those who, by some cause or
other, are for the time uiiable to exert themselves thus pub
licly in advancing the Redeemer's kingdom. But God has
different departments of service, and sometimes he may send
us to a place of solitude, just that we may render to him the
homage of quiet waiting and loving patience. Jesus was
pleasing the Father, and advancing the great work of our sal
vation, as really during his forty days' sojourn in the wilder
ness as when he taught in the Temple courts, or preached to
the multitudes upon the mountain -side. John the Baptist
was "fulfilling his course "as truly when he was in the des
ert as after he had shown himself unto Israel. Paul was
serving his Divine Master as faithfully when he was in prison
as when, in Ephesus, he taught in the school-room of Tyran-
nus ; and so when, in the providence of God, we ar« sepa
rated from our fellow-men, either by space or by that which
is just as thorough an isolater — peculiar personal experiences
— let us not, therefore, imagine that we are not doing our Fa
ther's will. Not now, indeed, does Jehovah speak to us, as
here he did to Elijah, and none of us may pretend that he
has heard the Lord saying to him, " Go here," or " Go there;"
but yet he leads us as really by his providence as he directed
Elijah by his word ; and when we are laid aside from active
usefulness, and consigned to the solitude of a sick-chamber,
let us not fret ourselves with the thought that we are there
by disqualified for working for his glory. Our work, then, is

By the Brook. 27
to be quiet, and to manifest patience under his hand. Into
such a Cherith valley, all rugged and dreary, God sent John }
Milton when he sealed his eyes in blindness ; yet the poet
was not thereby led to think that he could do nothing for (
his Lord. Nay, for out of the darkness of his trial he sung,
like the nightingale, his song of trust and peace — after this
fashion :
" When I consider how my light is spent
Ere half my days, in this dark world and wide,
And that one talent which is death to hide,
Lodged with me useless, though my soul more bent
To serve therewith my Maker, and present
My true account, lest he, returning,"chide ;
' Doth God exact day labor, light denied .''
I fondly ask. But Patience, to prevent
That murmur, soon replies : ' God doth not need
Either man's work, or his own gifts : who best
Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best ; his state
Is kingly ; thousands at his bidding speed.
And post o'er land and ocean without rest ;
They also serve who only stand and wait.' "
Yes, thou son of sanctified genius, we thank thee for the f
words, "They also serve who only stand and wait" Who- '
soever thou art, therefore, whom God has sent into some
lonely Cherith, take to thyself the comfort of these noble
lines. Wait ; and as thou waitest, drink of the brook that
is purling at thy feet ; for though thou canst not do much
now, thy waiting will discipline thee, and so prepare thee to
do more hereafter.
Thus, at least, it was with Elijah here ; for we may not cut
off this period of his history from that by which it was suc
ceeded, and we must believe that he was fitted, in a large
measure, for his after-work by the meditations and devotions
to which he gave himself in this solitary place. It is in se
cret that God performs his mightiest works. No eye has

28 Elijah the Prophet.
looked into the great laboratory of Nature, wherein are min
gled those elements that go to produce the effects which are
constantly appearing; and it is in solitude, away from the
busy haunts of men, that Jehovah works the greatest won
ders of his grace. When Jesus sought to open a blind man's
eyes, he " led him aside from the multitude ;" and when, in
the instance before us, God conducted Elijah to this lonely
valley, be sure that he opened his servant's eyes to many
things which before had been invisible to him. We may
not err, perhaps, if we affirm of him at this time what a liv
ing writer has said of the true poet :
" He saw thro' life and death, through good and ill,
He saw thro' his own soul.
The marvel ofthe everlasting will.
An open scroll,
Before him lay."*
In any case, we may surely declare that, in his long sojourn
in this rocky retreat, Elijah drank from another stream than
that which rippled at his feet, even from the river of the wa
ter of life, that flows from beneath the throne of God. He
was never alone. Every thing, around him talked to him of
God, and God himself communed with his soul. Thus was
he strengthened and trained for the work that was before
him ; and if we would ever succeed in doing aiiy thing great
for Christ, we must seek often to be " alone with God." In
deed, if God through us intends to do something signal for
the glory of his name and the good of our fellows, he will
somehow contrive to have us for a long while with himself,
that he may shape to us distinctly the high ideal which he
means us to realize. It was thus he did with Moses and
with Paul, with Elijah and with John ; and thus will he dis
cipline for special usefulness those whom he will yet employ.
* Tennyson.

By the Brook. 29
Only let us notice this : it is not solitude alone that fits the
soul for. service, but solitude filled and brightened and dis
pelled by fellowship with God. The man that is alone with
himself has, probably, the worst of all companions ; he who
is alone with God has certainly the best; and when he joins
his fellow-men, they see on his very countenance the reflec
tion of the glory on which he has so long been looking.
But let us pass on, to look at the promise which God gave
to Elijah in connection with the command to proceed to Che
rith. "And it shall be, that thou shalt drink of the brook ;
and I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there." The
Master whom Elijah served "sendeth no man a warfare on
his own charges." If he set one out on a pilgrimage, he will
put a staff into his hand, and will support him in the way.
If he call one to suffer for his sake, he will sustain him by
his grace, and cheer him by his favor. And so in regard-
to temporal matters as well as spiritual, if he require one of
his children to do a certain thing, he will provide for him
those resources which are needed for the doing of it Hence,
having ordered Elijah to Cherith, he promises to provide for
his wants. It might be that there was no miracle in the
continuance of this mountain torrent; and, indeed, it seems
clear that there was none, for by-and-by it failed ; but there
was the miracle oi prescience, in the assurance here given to
Elijah, inasmuch as it implied, on the part of him who gave
it, foreknowledge that the brook would continue to flow long
after the others were dried up. Nor was this all : the care
ful observer of the ways of Providence will not fail to note
the fact that the stream which ran so long was in a hid
den retreat where no one would think of seeking for the
prophet. "Whoso is wise, and will observe these things,
even they shall understand the loving-kindness of the Lord."*'
* Psalm cvii., 43.

30 Elijah the Prophet.
But more wonderful is the latter part of the promise : " I
have commanded the ravens to feed thee there." So won
derful, indeed, is this pledge on the part of God to his serv
ant that many have staggered at the words, and have attempt
ed to bring another, and, to them, less improbable, meaning
out of them. It happens that the term here translated
" ravens " is rendered by the word " merchants " in Ezekiel
xxvii., 27, and some have wished to take it in this sense here.
Others, changing the vowels ofthe Hebrew word — which, with
in certain grammatical limits, they may do, if it be imperative
ly required, since they are not of any higher authority than
that of the Masoretes in the fourth century — would take the
term to be Arabs, or inhabitants of a town called Arabah,
whose existence and location, however, are purely hypothet
ical. But neither of these opinions can be rested in for any
length of time by the intelligent Bible-student; and it is not
without considerable amazement that I find one of them
advocated by a writer who has done so much for the illus
tration of the Scriptures as Dr. Kitto. Still, the term can
not here be understood as " merchants," since the site of the
Cherith must have been far removed from the course usually
followed by caravans or traveling companies. Neither can it
mean inhabitants of Arabah, since, in accordance with all He
brew analogy, if such people had been intended, they would
have been called, not " Orebim," as the word is here, but
"Arabaim." But the most serious objection to all these views remains
yet to be stated. The great purpose of God in sending Eli
jah to Cherith was to conceal him for the time from Ahab,
and the people of Israel. Now, to provide for him by mer
chants, or by the inhabitants of a town, was to peril that con
cealment A secret may be safe in the keeping of one or
two ; but when it comes to be known to companies, or the
people of a city, it is sure to be divulged by some one. Espe-

By the Brook. 31
cially would it be certain to leak out when, as in this case,
the personal interests of all the inhabitants ofthe land seemed
to be involved in its publication. We can understand the
stories told in Scottish glens of the shelter given to the Cov
enanters, even by those who did not quite agree with their
principles ; for though they ran a certain risk thereby, they
did not directly lose any thing by screening them. But here
the whole nation was suffering from drought and consequent
famine ; and according to the statement of him who threat
ened them in God's name with these calamities, they could
not be removed until he again gave the word. Hence, ev
ery inhabitant of the land had a personal interest in dis
covering and making known his retreat. To suppose, there
fore, that in these circumstances companies of merchants, or
the dwellers in a certain town, could keep the secret of it
to themselves, in face of the particular reward offered for the
prophet's discovery, and the general advantages to be reaped
from his re-appearance, is to accept that which is to me a
far greater improbability than that the birds ofthe air brought
food lo the prophet of the Lord.
No doubt it is objected that ravens were unclean accord
ing to the law, but we may reply in the words of Dr. Eadie :
" The law did not prohibit any one from using food that had
been borne on the back of a camel or horse, both of which
were unclean for food, according to the law. Now, these
creatures performed for Elijah the same service that beasts
of burden did to people in ordinary circumstances. Though
God says to Elijah, ' I have commanded the ravens to feed
thee,' it is not meant that he would in any way so affect their
natural disposition that they should bring food, and deposit
it solely for the prophet's use, but simply that Elijah should
be fed through their instrumentality ; that they, following
their natural habits, would bring food for their own use, or
for the support of their young, of which Elijah could easily

32 Elijah the Prophet.
avail himself"* Thus understood, it is far more natural to
take the word as describing ravens, than to view it as im
plying human agency. Of course, in either case, the hand
of God would be acknowledged by all parties ; but, in the
circumstances of the prophet at the time, the agency of birds
is even more natural than that of men, while, as a learned
writer in Smith's "Dictionary" says, "There is no escape
from the plain meaning of the words, occurring as they do
in a passage otherwise displaying no tinge of the marvelous,
or from the unanimity of all the Hebrew MSS., and of all
the ancient versions and Josephus."t
Such, then, was the promise of the Lord to Elijah : water
from the brook, and food from the ravens. " Poor enough
fare," one may say ; yet it was superior to that of multitudes
in Israel, and it was all the prophet needed. " Having food
and raiment, he had learned therewith to be content" He
knew the meaning of "enough." Alas! how few of .us do!
He did not care for hoarding; but, living a day at a time,
he was content with a day's .food each day. Happy ward
of Providence ! more to be envied in thy simplicity than
the wealthy millionaire, with his pistol beneath his pillow !
But we are anticipating; for now we turn to contemplate
vthe prophet's obedience to the divine command. "So he
I went and did according unto the word of the Lord ; for he
went and dwelt by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan."
Perhaps there was an effort needed on the part of the proph
et to carry out this command of God's. Naturally, as I judge,
he wis fond of danger. I have heard a distinguished gener
al say that he was never so cool, composed, and self-possessed
anywhere as he was upon the field of battle ; and that, apart
from the horrors that were inseparably connected with such a

* Eadie's " Cyclopjedia ;" article ElijaJi.
t Smith's " Dictionary ;" ?l\\\c\c Elijah.

By the Brook. 33
scene of strife, there was something in its stimulus and excite
ment which he felt to be intensely exhilarating. So I conceive
it was with Elijah and the great moral struggle in which he
was engaged. Like the war-horse so magnificently described
in the Book of Job, " he scented the battle afar off", he mocked
at fear and was not affrighted, neither turned he back from
the sword. He saith among the trumpets. Ha ! ha !"* He
was in his congenial element when he was in the thick of the
spiritual conflict which God had commanded him to inaugu
rate and carry on ; and so it would be a trial to him to tell
him to go into seclusion, especially since it might leave him
open to be misjudged by his fellows. He might have been
inclined to say with Nehemiah, on a memorable occasion,
'• Should such a man as I flee ?"t But God's word must
not be gainsaid, and so he stood not to ask, " What will they
say of me in Jezreel and throughout Israel ?" or, " Could not
I be engaged elsewhere in some active work ?" Neither did
he inquire, in hesitating unbelief, " How will the brook be
maintained ?" or, " What certainty have I that the ravens will
feed me ?" or, " How can I prepare the food they bring to
me ?" He asked no questions. His was not " to make re
ply," his was not "to reason why." God had spoken: that
was sufficient ; and he went his way up that lonely valley,
trusting in God as truly as he did when he entered into
Ahab's presence. Brethren, let us imitate Elijah here ! We
may not be called to bear witness for God before princes,
and may have no occasion to clothe ourselves with the thun
der of his power ; but we may be called, yea, I doubt not
some of us have often been already called, to go into circum
stances of privation, and to trust to God's promises for our
temporal support Let us do so as implicitly as did the Tish
bite here. Let us rest assured that if we love the Lord, and
* Job xxxix., 22-25. t Nehemiah vi., 1 1.

34 Elijah the Prophet.
are in circumstances of necessity, he will take care of us, and
make provision for us. Let us wait on him in earnest prayer
for this very thing ; for as we listen to the purling of Che-
rith's brook, and see the heavy flight of the raven across the
valley with its supply for the prophet, we seem to hear again
the words of ancient promise : " The Lord will provide."
" Thy bread shall be given thee, and thy water shall be sure."
" Trust in the Lord, and do good ; so shalt thou dwell in the
land, and verily thou shalt be fed." " Seek first the king
dom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall
be added unto you." For the prophet, leaning upon God,
was not put to shame. Jehovah stood to his word, and " the
ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning, and bread
and flesh in the evening, and he drank of the brook." Ev
ery thing was as God had told him. " Hath he said it, and
shall he not do it? hath he spoken, and shall he not make
it good ?" " He is faithful who hath promised." But " the
Lord God of Elijah " liveth yet, and is as faithful to his word
as he ever was. He will keep his promises in regard to spir
itual matters ; and when his people are in a land of drought
and famine, then, in his own Son, he gives them bread and
flesh to eat, and in his Word there is a perennial fountain
from which they may always drink.
But we must not forget that he is faithful also to his prom
ises as to temporal things. We are apt, indeed, to think that
food and raiment, and other such material blessings, are too
secular and small to trouble him with, and so we all too sel
dom tell him about our temporal difficulties. That is a great
mistake. He wishes us to be without anxiety. He encour
ages us to go to him with every care, and he assures us that
either he will remove the cause of our perplexity, or strength
en us under it, to glorify his name. More frequently than
we wot of does he supply his people's wants, even yet in
ways apparently as extraordinary as that by which he pro-

By the Brook. 35
vided for Elijah. Let me tell you of one or two. The good
Krummacher, in commenting on this very passage, relates the
following incident, as one well known to all his hearers :*
"Who else was it," says he, "but the God of Elijah, who,
only a short time ago, in our neighborhood, so kindly deliv
ered a poor man out of his distress, not, indeed, by a raven,
but by a poor singing-bird. You are acquainted with the
circumstance. The man was sitting, early in the morning,
at his own house-door ; his eyes were red with weeping, and
his heart cried to heaven, for he was expecting an officer to
come and distrain him for a small debt And while sitting
thus with a heavy heart, a little bird flew through the street,
fluttering up and down, as if in distress, until at length, quick
as an arrow, it darted over the good man's head into his cot
tage, and perched itself on an empty cupboard. The good
man, who little imagined who had sent him the bird, closed
the door, caught the bird, and placed it in a cage, where it
immediately began to sing very sweetly ; and it seemed to
the man as if it were the tune of a favorite hymn, ' Fear
thou not when darkness reigns ;' and as he listened to. it,
he found it soothe and comfort his mind. Suddenly some
one knocked at the door. 'Ah ! it is the officer,' thought
the man, and was sore afraid. But no ; it was the servant
of a respectable lady, who said that the neighbors had seen
a bird fly into his house, and she wished to know if he had
caught it 'Oh yes!' answered the man, 'and here it is;'-
and the bird was carried away. A few minutes after the
servant came again. ' You have done my mistress a great
service,' said he. ' She sets a high value upon the bird,
which had escaped from her. She is much obliged to you,
and requests you to accept this trifle, with her thanks.' The
poor man received it thankfully, and it proved to be neither
* Krummacher's " Elijah the Tishbite,'' on this passage.

36 Elijah the Prophet.
more nor less than the sum he owed. So, when the officer
came, he said, ' Here is the amount of the debt Now leave
me in peace, for God has sent it me.' "
Take this other, which is intimately associated with the his
tory of a beautiful German hymn : About two years after the
close ofthe Thirty Years' War in Germ.any, George Neumarck
lived in a poor street in Hamburg. Obtaining a precarious
livelihood by playing on the violoncello, after a while he fell
sick, and was unable to go his usual rounds. As this was his
only means of support, he was soon reduced to great straits,
and was compelled to part with his instrument to a Jew, who,
with characteristic sharpness, lent him on it a sum much be
low its value for two weeks, after which, if it were not redeem
ed, it was to be forfeited. As he gave it up, he looked lov
ingly at it, and tearfully asked the Jew if he might play one
more tune upon it. " You don't know," he said, " how hard it
is to part with it For ten years it has been my companion ;
if I had nothing else, I had it ; and it spoke to me, and sung
back to me. Of all the sad hearts that have left your door,
there has been none so sad as mine." His voice grew
thick ; then, pausing for a moment, he seized the instrument
and commenced a tune so exquisitely soft that even the Jew
listened, in spite of himself A few more strains, and he
sung, to his own melody, two stanzas of his own hymn, " Life
is weary ; Saviour, take me." Suddenly the key changed ; a
few bars, and the melody poured forth itself anew, and his
face lighted up with a smile as he sung, " Yet who knows the
cross is precious." Then, laying down the instrument, he
said, "As God will, I am still," and rushed from the shop.
Going out into the darkness, he stumbled^ against a stranger,
who seemed to have been listening at the door, and who said
to him, " Could you tell me where I could obtain a copy of
that song? I would willingly give a florin for it" "My
good friend," said Neumarck, " I will give it you without the

By the Brook. 37
florin." The stranger was valet to the Swedish embassador,
and to him the poet told the story of his trials. He, in his
turn, told his master, who, being in want of a private secre
tary, engaged Neumarck at once, and so his troubles ended.
But with his first money he redeemed his instrument, and,
on obtaining it, he called his landlady and his friends and
neighbors, to hear him play on it again. Soon his room
was filled, and he sung, to his own accompaniment, his own
sweet hymn, of which this is one stanza :
" Leave God to order all thy ways,
And hope in him, whate'er betide ;
Thou'lt find him, in the evil days,
Thine all-sufficient strength and guide.
Who trusts in God's unchanging love
Builds on the rock that naught can move."*
But what need I more ? If it were lawful for me to bring
out narratives which I have received in confidence from
some whom I have visited in their distress, I could unfold
illustrations, equally striking, of the great truth that God
careth even for his people's temporal wants. So let our
parting word for this evening be, " Trust in the Lord, and
do good ; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou
shalt be fed."
* See " Lives and Deeds Worth Knowing About," by Rev. W. F. Ste
venson, p. 132; also "Evenings with the Sacred Poets," by Frederick
Saunders, pp. 1-77-179.

H

III.
THE BARREL AND THE CRUSE.
I Kings xvii., 7-16.
OW long Elijah dwelt in the valley of the Cherith we
are not precisely informed ; for the phrase " after a
while," even if we adopt the more literal rendering in the
margin, " at the end of days," is quite indefinite, and furnishes
no data on which we can found any opinion. AVe may, per
haps, conjecture that he remained in his retreat for a period
not shorter than four or five months, and not longer than a
year ; and in any case, during the later portion of his sojourn,
his faith must have been put to a very severe test, " for the
brook began to fail." Each day, therefore, he would mark
that the waters had receded, and laid bare another portion
of the shingly channel over which they flowed, until at lengtli
he might require to make little artificial pools, into which,
after a time, a proper supply might percolate. In such cir
cumstances, if his faith had not been securely fixed in God,
his heart might have failed just as the brook declined ; and
even with his strong confidence in Jehovah, the receding riv
ulet must have had a saddening influence upon his spirit
Sight does and must affect us more or less, so long as we are
in the body, and sight here must have done much to depress
Elijah. He was like one immured in that terrible dungeon
which the cruelty of the Inquisition devised, and which grad
ually, day by day, narrowed in upon its victim, crushing him
at last in its fatal embrace. He was like the man whom

The Barrel and the Cruse. 39
John Foster has so graphically described in one of his lect-
.ures, who had only a certain supply of water in a cistern,
and who, each time he took a draught therefrom, felt that he
was lessening the resources of his life. Here was the brook
drying up, until there was nothing left but a little rippling
thread. What was he to do when it should be entirely gone ?
It is impossible to conceive that this question would not
force itself into his thoughts, and, ever as it came, there would
be a fight between faith and sight. Nor let any one suppose
that the ordeal was not severe, for, as John Kitto has well
remarked, " it is such slow processes that try faith most of
all. Many possess the faith for sudden great heroic deeds,
for one who can maintain his faith unshaken in the midst of
such slow trials as this."* But Elijah stood the test God
had sent him to Cherith ; and until God sent him elsewhere,
he would remain there, sure that he would somehow be sup
ported. Be it that the brook failed, was not God still his
God ? and could not he provide for him as easily without the
brook as with it? So he would stay till God should bid him
thence. This is the highest form of obedience — to remain
at our post, even though we may be unable to see why we |
are kept there, and may have to endure considerable hard
ship while we continue there. It is told of General Have-
lock's son, that one day his father, having some business to
do in the neighborhood, left him on London Bridge, and bid
him await his return there. Having finished his business,
which required longer time than he had calculated, the gen
eral remembered another engagement for which he was then
due, and, forgetting his son, pushed on to keep his appoint
ment - Thus it was with him all through the afternoon, and
he reached.his home about eight o'clock in the evening. As
he was putting on his slippers, his wife said to him, " Where's

* " Daily Bible Illustrations," vol. iv., p. 241.

4° Elijah the Prophet.
Harry ?" " Dear me !" said he, " I quite forgot ; he is on
London Bridge, and has been there for the last eight hours.
I must go and relieve him." So, putting on his boots again,
he hastened to the bridge, and there he found his son pa
cing to and fro, like a sentinel, along its pavement Now, why
is it that we admire such conduct as that of the young sol
dier in such a case ? Why is it that our hearts thrill, and our
eyes moisten, as we read Mrs. Hemans's well-known lines on
the noble Casablanca? Is it not because we see in them
both the highest form of obedience — that which can wait
through suffering, and, it may be, also through death, at the
post of duty, even if there be no clear comprehension of the
reason why such delay is required? Now, it was quite simi
lar with Elijah here. God had spoken ; and till God should
speak again, he would abide where he was, no matter though
the brook was failing. The Israelites in the desert moved
when the pillar of cloud moved and went before them ; and
when it rested, they rested. To Elijah's view, the cloud was
still resting in the valley of the Cherith, and not until it rose
and led him elsewhere would he leave his lonely cave.
At length, however, the word of the Lord came to him, and
came in such a form as to furnish a new trial to his faith ;
for it said, "Arise, get thee to Zarephath, which belongeth to
Zidon, and dwell there : behold, I have commanded a widow
woman there to sustain thee." Now, obedience to this com
mand required that he should cross the entire tract of Israel
lying between Jordan and the coast of the Mediterranean
Sea ; that he should go to the territory of Eth-baal, the idol
atrous father of the vindictive Jezebel ; and that even there
he should be cast upon the support of a woman, whose nat
ural bread-winner and protector had been stricken from her
side. It did not seem a very inviting prospect ; but it was
God that gave him the command, and so " he arose and went
to Zarephath." We have no account of his journeyings across

The Barrel and the Cruse. 41
the country. Probably they were performed at night, when
he could hope to keep himself hidden from the people's
view ; certainly, they were done in secret ; and so far from
thrusting himself into the busy haunts of men, he would seek
the solitude of the most hidden paths.
The town of Zarephath was situated on the sea-coast, be
tween Tyre and Zidon, but rather nearer the latter than the |
former. Its modern representative is Surafend, which seems,
however, according to Dr. Thomson,* to have been built after
the twelfth century, since at the time of the Crusaders the
city stood upon the shore. Dean Stanley! thus writes re
garding it: "The identity of Surafend with Sarepta is un
questioned. It is a village seated aloft on the top and side
of one ofthe hills, the long lines of which skirt the plain of
Phoenicia, conspicuous from afar by the white domes of its
many tombs of Mussulman saints. It throws no light on
the story of Elijah, beyond the emphasis imparted to his visit
by the complete separation of the situation from the Israel
ite territory on the other side of the hills."
The fact that the prophet was sent out of the land of Is
rael has thus been commented on by our Lord, in his ad
dress in the synagogue at Nazareth: "I tell you of a truth,
many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the
heaven was shut up three years and six months ; but unto
none of them was Elias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Si-
don, unto a woman that was a widow."t Now, it has been
usual with many to look upon this as an illustration of the
divine sovereignty, and, of course, I readily admit that God
has a right to do as he pleases in the government of the
world, and in the dispensation of his grace. I admit, also,
that there are many of his actions for which, though we are
* " The Land and the Book," p. 161.
t " Sinai and Palestine,'' p. 271.
J Luke iv., 25, 26.

42 Elijah the Prophet.
sure that he has himself good reason, we can give no account
but this, "Even so, Father, for so it seemeth good in thy
sight." But this of sending Elijah to Zarephath is not one
of these ; and the Saviour, in the discourse from which I
have quoted, very clearly, as it seems to me, unfolds the rea
son of the divine procedure in the matter. You observe, he
is illustrating the proverb that "A prophet is not accepted in
his own country."* Let us look, therefore, at the whole his
tory in the light of these words. Israel had cast off alle
giance to God. There were still a few, indeed, who had nev
er bowed the knee to Baal, but the vast majority of the peo
ple had broken the divine covenant They would have none
of God, or of his prophet Therefore God, when he had the
special blessing of deliverance in time of famine to confer,
would not bestow it upon any of them. He would give it to
a Zidonian widow, to teach the Israelites of that day that, if
they forsook God, he would forsake them, and to forewarn
the Jews of after-generations that if they rejected the mercy
of God, he would pass them by, and give salvation to the
Gentiles. Now, the point of the reference made to this in
cident by Jesus lies in this : the men of Nazareth rejected
him ; they said, " Is not this Joseph's son ?" and he, by re
calling the two memorable passages in the history of Elijah
and Elisha, plainly indicates that for their rejection they
would be passed by, and that the blessing which they had
despised would be handed over, first, to other portions of
Israel, and then to the Gentiles ; and it was their perception
of this that so enraged the men of Nazareth that they took
the Lord, and led him " to the brow of the hill whereon their
city was built, that they might cast him down headlong."!
Thus the mission of Elijah to Zarephath was not merely
an act of punishment to the Israelites of his day, because
# Luke iv., 24. -f ibid, iv., 29.

The Barrel and the Cruse. 43
they had rejected God, but it was a historical prophecy of
the calling ofthe Gentiles consequent upon the rejection of
the Gospel by the Jews, and the rejection of the Jews by the
Lord. It is a solemn thing to undervalue either the Gospel
or its messengers. The Gospel shall not cease to bless, and
the messengers shall not cease to proclaim it ; but the bless
ing shall descend on other lands, and the message shall be
proclaimed in other ears. Therefore, if we would not forfeit
the high privileges which God has conferred upon us, it be
comes us to value and improve them to the uttermost
If it be asked, again, why, of all the inhabitants of Za
rephath, Elijah was sent to a poor widow, then I answer
that, had he gone to some of the great ones of the place,
he could not so readily have kept himself concealed from
the knowledge of the authorities of the land ; while, again,
it was the design of God that he should sojourn with some
one whom he could benefit, and for whose sake the divine
power might be signally manifested. Nor is this all. There
might be some feeling after the Lord of Israel in the heart
of the poor woman herself; for she says to Elijah, "The
Lord thy God," and she seems to have had faith enough to
grasp at once the promise which the prophet repeated in his
name. I know not, indeed, that she was a real heart-wor
shiper of the true God, but these things seem to indicate
that her face was in the right direction ; and so, on the prin
ciple of the promise that " to him that hath shall more be
given," this poor woman, who had so much knowledge of Je
hovah, was to get more. Just as to Cornelius, the devout
man, Peter was sent to help him on to Christianity, so, per
haps, to this woman Elijah was sent to perfect her in the
knowledge of Jehovah. God says, "I have commanded a
widow woman there to sustain thee." This does not mean
that the word of the Lord came to her as it did to Elijah
himself, but simply, as we explained a similar mode of speech

44 Elijah the Prophet.
in the case of the ravens, that God would sustain the proph
et through her instrumentality. In the course of divine prov
idence Elijah would be supported by a widow in Zarephath.
But how was he to know to whicli of all the widows of the
city he was sent ? It does not appear that any information
was given him on this point until he reached the gate of the
town ; but as he approached the entrance into the city, he
saw a woman gathering sticks, and (guided, as I doubt not,
by the suggestion of the Holy Spirit) he made up to her, and
asked if she would kindly " fetch him a little water in a ves
sel, that he might drink." He had walked probably a long
way ; it was a time of drought, and he was exhausted with
his journey. It was natural, therefore, that he should make
such a request But water was a scarce commodity just then,
and the woman might have been excused by many if she had
declined to comply with the wishes of a stranger. Still she
went to do as he had asked ; but, while she was going, he
called after her and said, " Bring me, I pray thee, a morsel
of bread in thine hand." This, however, seemed almost more
than she could bear ; so she made reply, revealing a terrible
depth of distress by her words : " As the Lord thy God liveth,
I have not a cake, but a handful of meal in a barrel, and a
little oil in a cruse : and, behold, I am gathering two sticks
that I may go in and dress it for me and my son, that we
may eat it and die." Here, indeed, is extremity of misery.
"Surely," might the prophet have said, "this is not she to
whom I am sent ;" but he did not say that He saw in her
the very person for whose deliverance he had so opportune
ly come. So he said to her, " Fear not ; go and do as thou
hast said : but make me thereof a little cake first, and bring
it unto me, and after that make for thee and for thy son. For
thus saith the Lord God of Israel, The barrel of meal shall
not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail, until the day that
the Lord sendeth rain upon the earth." " Make me there-

The Barrel and the Cruse. 45
of a Hide cake first :" as the woman heard these words she
might be disposed to say, " Well, you are amazingly cool !
Here have I left only a meal for myself and my son ; and
you, an entire stranger to us both, have the face to ask that
I should make a cake for you before I do any thing for our
selves." Truly Bishop Hall is right when he says, "-Some
sharp dame would have taken up the prophet, and have sent
him away with an empty repulse : ' Bold Israelite, there is
no reason in this request Wert thou a friend or a brother
even, with what face couldst thou require to pull my last bite
out of my mouth.' "* But the promise with which the proph
et closed his petition wiped out any apparent impertinence
in the supplication itself It was a matter of reciprocity.
Elijah said, virtually, " If you make ir.e this cake according
to my entreaty, God will give you all through this terrible
drought the material to make as many cakes as you need."
And, believing in God's ability and willingness to keep his
promise, she closed at once with the prophet's offer, and went
and did as he had said. And God kept his word ; for "the
barrel of meal wasted not, neither did the cruse of oil fail,
according to the word ofthe Lord, wliich he spake by Elijah."
Now here let us pause, and glean for ourselves a few les
sons from this touching narrative.
The first thing that strikes us is the minuteness of God's/"'
daily providence. We knew before that God cares for allj
things, and especially for his own children, but having read
attentively over this portion of his Word, and having studied
it in all its bearings, we see that truth set in a clearer light
than we commonly behold it The Redeemer himself has
said that "a sparrow can not fall to the ground without our
Father ;" but, somehow, as we read his words, the very mag-
* "Contemplations on the Historical Passages of the Old and New
Testaments," by the Right Rev. Joseph Hall, D.D., p. 281.

46 ' . Elijah the Prophet.
nitude of the truth which they convey staggers our intellects ;
and it is only when we have it exemplified in a case like that
before us, that we thoroughly understand all that it implies.
Behold at what subtle points, all unknown to ourselves, our
histories touch each other ; and how, by the prearrangements
of God's care, he works out his purposes of mercy, even
through the agency of our own free-wills ! This woman had
no thought of meeting God's prophet at the gate of Zare
phath. She went out with a sad heart to gather fuel for her
last meal, and, lo ! she meets one who was destined to turn
her mourning into gladness. Nor is this a solitary instance.
The woman of Samaria, going out for her daily supply of wa
ter, meets the Lord, who bestows upon her salvation. The
two disciples go to find a place wherein to eat the passover,
and they meet a man with a pitcher of water, whose only
thought was to take home that which was needed for his
family's wants. A similar thing happened when other two
went for the colt whereon Jesus rode into Jerusalem. Lydia
finds her way to the Jewish place of prayer by the river-side
in the outskirts of Philippi, thinking, no doubt, ofthe God
of Israel, and the privileges of the people of his choice, and,
lo ! Paul is there, and, Hstening to his word, she is converted
to the Lord. But this minute providence is not confined to
the ages of which we read in Holy Writ. It is the same still.
Scoffing men call its manifestations mere coincidences ; but
it is as true now as it ever was, that God is in all, and over
all, ahd through all things. He is " not far from every one
of us." He is on every side of us. His providence encir
cles us with his protection, and guides us by his wisdom, al
beit at the moment we feel only that we are doing according
to our choice. What a comfort there is in the assurances
that God is with us and that God is for us, so that each of
us can sing with David, " I am poor and needy, yet the Lord
thinketh upon me.''

The Barrel and the Cruse. 47
But, in the second place, we learn here that, no matter
how small our resources may be, we can still do something
for God, if we have but the will. This poor woman could
scarcely have been in more destitute circumstances. She
was at the point of starvation, and yet, by her unselfish liber
ality with what she had, she was honored of God to sustain
his prophet for, perhaps, two years. But have we not seen
similar things often in the history of God and of his Church ?
No matter how feeble the instrument we use, when God is
behind it he can make it mighty. An ox-goad in the hand
of Shamgar ; a bone in the hand of Samson ; lamps, pitch
ers, and trumpets in the hands of Gideon's tl^ree hundred ;
a sling and a stone in the hand of David, have all done great
things in overthrowing God's enemies. A few loaves and
fishes put by a lad into the Saviour's hand have fed thou
sands on the mountain-side. And' it is so still. I read
some years ago, in the Sunday Magazine, of a common milk
man, who, out of his own earnings, bought a house, in which
he sustained and educated and trained to some useful trade
a dozen orphans picked off" the streets of London. He be
gan with the little that he had, and God opened up his way
before him to that, for him, great result Let no one, there
fore, be discouraged, or say that he can do nothing. A few
drops of water rightly utilized by the hydraulic crane may
lift the heaviest weights, and the scantiest resources, if there
be but faith and resolution, may work wonders in the world.
Admirably here has MacDuff remarked : " It is worthy of
note that this power of littles is specially illustrated in Holy
Writ in connection with two widows, the one in the Old Tes
tament, and the other in the New. The widow of Sarepta
giving the last handful in her drained barrel ; the widow at
the Temple treasury casting in her two mites. Never let
any one say, ' I am of no use in the world ; I can do no
good ; I can exercise no influence. God has clipped my

48 Elijah the Prophet.
wings. I am like a chained bird. I would soar, but I can
not — this cage of poverty and sickness so keeps me shut up
from the elements of society, activity, and usefulness.' "* Ah !
no. When God has no more for us to do here, he will take
us hence ; but so long as he keeps us on earth, he has work
for us, no matter how scanty our resources, or how feeble our
power. Nay, if we will only view it rightly, our weakness will
be our strength, so that, like Paul, we shall say, "When I am
weak, then am I strong."
> We may learn here, thirdly, that our doings for God should
go before our devotion to ourselves. The world's maxim is,
" Take care of yourself first ;" the Christian principle is to
merge self in Christ. God requires the first-fruits. It will
not do merely to serve ourselves and give the surplus to him.
We must serve him, and help his servants, and advance his
cause, even if we should be required, like this woman here,
to eat a smaller cake ourselves, and to give a smaller portion
to our families. There is no faith in giving to God only
what we can spare after we have served ourselves. Faith will,
like the poor widow at the treasury, give all, if need be, to
God, and look to him for a supply. The dying Sidney caused
the water which was brought for him to be given to a soldier
who seemed to need it more than he. There was the true
spirit of Christ, who yielded up himself that sinners thereby
might be saved. Selfishness is the essence of sin. Love is
the essence of salvation. The haughty Cain stands by and
says, "Am I my brother's keeper?" The meek follower of
the Lord Jesus will share his last comfort with his brethren
in wretchedness and want This is a hard thing to the men
of the world ; but when once we thoroughly understand and
appreciate what Jesus has done for us, it becomes easy.
We may learn, fourthly, that in giving thus to God we are
* " Th5 Prophet of Fire," by J. R. MacDuff, D.D., p. 61.

The Barrel and the Cruse.

49

taking the surest means to get more from him. He will be
no man's debtor; and what he gets from us, through his
children, he repays again with an abundant increase. This
woman gave one meal to the prophet, and God sustained her
for two years. Christ gave himself for sinners, and, lo ! God
has exalted him to the throne of mediatorial dominion, and
is even now satisfying his heart by letting him see of " the
travail of his soul." This is ever the divine law : we get f
by giving. We must sow if we would reap ; we must open!
our hearts in love to others, if we would have God's love
shed abroad in our own souls. It will not do, however, for
us to have regard to the reward. We are to " do good and
lend, looking for nothing again ;'' and then it is that our re
ward shall be great, and "we shall be the children of the
Highest" Nor is it only in the giving of supplies for the bodies of
men that this principle holds good. It is as true of the la
bors which we engage in for their spiritual benefit " He
that watereth others, shall be watered also himself" Hence
when we find our piety at a low ebb, or our happiness dimin
ishing, the way to increase it is to go and try to make others
better and more joyous. Very beautifully has this lesson
been sung for us by the authoress of " The Schonberg-cotta
Family " in these lines :
" Is thy cruse of comfort failing .' Rise and share it with another,
And through all the years of famine it shall serve thee and thy brother.
Love divine will fill thy store-house, or thy handful still renew ;
Scanty fare for one will often make a royal feast for two.
For the heart grows rich in giving ; all its wealth is living grain ;
Seeds which mildew in the garner, scattered, fill with gold the plain.
Is thy burden hard and heavy ? Do thy steps drag wearily ?
Help to bear thy brother's bu^n ; God will bear both it and thee.
Numb and weary on the mountains, wouldst thou sleep amidst the snow?
Chafe that frozen form beside thee, and together both shall glow.
3

5o Elijah the Prophet.
Art thou stricken in life's battle ? Many wounded round thee moan :
Lavish on their wounds thy balsam, and that balm shall heal thine own.
Is the heart a well left empty ? None but God its void can fill ;
Nothing but a ceaseless fountain can its ceaseless longings still.
Is the heart a living power ? Self-entwined, its strength sinks low ;
It can only live in loving, and by serving love will grow."*
We may learn, fifthly, that God's doings for us are often
delayed till the very last, to teach us that, when relief comes,
it comes from him. Not till the brook was quite dried up
did Jehovah make provision for Elijah ; and the widow was
preparing her last meal when Elijah came, an apparent bur
den to her, but yet a real helper. " Man's extremity is God's
opportunity." It is not till things "are at the worst" that
they " begin to mend." Thus even the world's proverb rec
ognizes this principle of the divine procedure. It was in the
fourdi watch of the night, when they were worn out by their
long toil in rowing, that Jesus came walking over the sea
to his disciples' assistance. It was after Lazarus had been
buried that the Lord came to help his friends at Bethany ;
and though Jairus cried, " Come down, ere my child die," he
let the child expire before he went Let us not despair,
therefore, no matter how dark may be the outlook. " In the
mount the Lord will provide," and at the very moment of
sacrifice a ram will be substituted for our Isaac. It were a
sad thing to be in perplexity with no God to fall back upon ;
but while we have him saying to us, " I am thy God," all is
well. The deepest agony is not that of the Christian when
he is in extremity, for he knows that God is as omnipotent
then as ever, and will take care of him ; but, oh ! it is sad, in
effably sad, when a man has nothing but earthly things to
sustain him. The day will come when for him, too, the brook

* " The Women of the Gospels, and other Poems," by the author of
"Chronicles ofthe Schonberg-cotta Family," p. i8i.

The Barrel and the Cruse. 51
will fail, and the barrel become empty ; and what shall he
do then without a God ? Let the godless before me ponder
well the question.
I can not conclude without directing attention here to
God's care for the widow. He might have sent Elijah to
some other poor household ; but he chose a widow, to re
mind us, among other things, of his tenderness for those who
have been thus bereaved. He is the judge of the widows.
He takes them under his peculiar care. These are his pre
cepts to his ancient people : " Ye shall not afflict any wid
ow, or fatherless child. If thou afflict them in any wise, and
they cry at all unto me, -I will surely hear their cry."* He
commanded that sheaves should be left for them upon the
harvest -field, and gleanings from the olive-trees and from
the vintage were to be reserved for them.t Go read anew
the story of Naomi and Ruth, two widows in one home.
Ponder well the teachings of this history which has been to
night before us. Think why, of all bereaved ones, Jesus
chose to raise the son of the widow of Nain, and then say
if we are not thereby taught to deal kindly with those who
have been left to the dreariest loneliness the earth can know.
And you, ye solitary ones, whom God has thus bereft of your
beloved companions and protectors, hear ye not again to
night these words of promise, intensified by the story of my
text? — "Leave thy fatherless children. I will preserve them
alive, and let thy widows trust in me."
* Exodus xxii., 22, 23. t Deuteronomy xxiv., ig-21.

IV.
DEATH AND RESURRECTION.
I Kings xvii., 17-24.
ELIJAH must have sojourned with the widow of Zare
phath for two years, during which he and his hostess
were provided for by what seems to have been a regularly
recurring miracle. The meal in the barrel was always just
on the point of being exhausted ; and the oil in the cruse
was always just on the point of failing. Yet neither ever
entirely gave out. There was never at any time in the house
a store of either ; yet as each new day dawned, the woman
discovered that she had still enough for that day's necessity.
Thus while she and her guest had always a sufficiency, they
were at the same time always kept on the very confines of
want ; and so they were preserved from either sinking into
despair or rising into- presumption. God wished them both
to depend directly and immediately upon himself, and there
fore he allowed no reserve to accumulate in their hands lest
they should confide in that, rather than in him. He gave
them "day by day their daily bread." And though now such
miracles as that performed for the widow are no longer
wrought by him, we must neither forget nor despise the one
great, constant miracle of his providence by which his uni
verse is sustained and his people upheld. Is there not, in
this regard, still too much ground for the appeal of the
Christian poet when he says ?
" What prodigies can power divine perform
More grand than it produces year by year,

Death and Resurrection. 53
And all in sight of inattentive man ?
Familiar with the effect, we slight the cause.
And, in the constancy of nature's course,
The regular return of genial months,
And renovation of a faded world.
See naught to wonder at. Should God again,
As once in Gideon, interrupt the race
Of the undeviating and punctual sun,
How would the world admire ! But speaks it less
An agency divine, to make him know
His moment when to sink and when to rise.
Age after age, than to arrest his course ?
All we behold is miracle, but, seen so duly,
All is miracle in vain."*
This witness is true. The hand that supplied our wants this
morning is the same as that which provided for the widow
of Zarephath and her exile guest ; yet how little gratitude
do we feel for this regularly recurring kindness from the
Lord, as compared with that which would thrill our souls if
some miracle were wrought for our behoof! Let us never
forget, however, that what men call natural and what they
call supernatural are both alike from God : only the natu
ral represents his constant operations, the supernatural his
occasional variations from his common plan. For the one,
therefore, as really as for the other, he deserves, and should
receive, our loving thanks.
How Elijah was occupied during his sojourn at Zarephath
does not appear ; but the fact that he was, as it were, under
hiding from Ahab, renders it, in a manner, certain that he
was not engaged in any public effort for the spiritual benefit
ofthe people of the place. Hence his attention must have
been given almost exclusively to the duties of the closet and
of the home. Much of his time would doubtless be given to
devotional retirement; but he would also take the liveliest
* Cowper's " Task," book ii.

54 , Elijah the Prophet.
interest in his hostess and her son. His life before them
would be a constant sermon, preaching to them of holiness
and peace and cheerfulness, and communion with God ; and
it is likely that, in his conversation with the widow, he would
seek to instruct her in the knowledge of Jehovah, whose per
sonal existence, almighty power, and sovereign mercy, were
all so vividly made manifest in the miracle by which they
were supported. I can not help thinking, however, that the
brightest feature of Elijah's life at Zarephath would be his
companionship with the widow's son. We are not informed,
indeed, what the age of this child was ; but we think, from
certain expressions in the narrative, such as those which
speak of him as being in his mother's bosom, and as lifted
by Elijah and carried up to his chamber, that he must have
been very young. Now, knowing how interesting the prattle
of an intelligent little boy is, and how much there is, even in
the questions which he is continually asking, that tends both
to instruct and to amuse an older mind, I feel certain that
this child must have been a continuous source of delight to
the prophet ; for it is a common thing for those with stern
natures like his to have a soft and tender enjoyment in do
mestic life, and in fellowship with the young. The rock
which on its seaward side stands abrupt, perpendicular, and
bare, ready to meet and to repel all the assaults of ocean,
does, on its landward side, hold out its arms to the soil, and
carries on its bosom the soft moss, the beautiful lichen, or
the blooming flower ; so the reformer who, before kings and
emperors and princes, stands unbending and unabashed,
does yet at home open his heart to all the tender affections
of the family, and delights especially in children. What can
be more charming in its playful abandon, its happy cheerful
ness, its childish love of sport, than the home-life of Martin
Luther? And they who know only the determined attitude
of Knox before Queen Mary will hardly be prepared to find

Death and Resurrection. 55
that in his home he was genial, and fond of pleasantry.* So,
I think, we shall do Elijah injustice if we regard him as all
rugged, hard, and cold. There were fountains of love with
in him deep and fresh, and I picture him to myself at Zare
phath with this little boy between his knees or in his arms ;
now amusing him and instructing him at one and the same
time with the rehearsal of some old Hebrew story ; and now,
again, in his turn, amused and instructed by the queer com
ments which the child made upon them, and the suggestive
questions which he asked regarding them. Of course, it is
a fancy ; but I like to portray to myself the Tishbite, with
his hairy garment and his stern aspect, fondling this wid
ow's son, and telling him some one of those beautiful histo
ries which have been the special favorites of children in ev
ery age and in every land. And if, as Eastern tradition de
clares — not very trustworthily, I admit — this boy grew up
to become the prophet Jonah,t I can see how these early
years must have been among the happiest and most profit
able of his life ; and in any case, whatever his after-history,
the stories of Joseph, and Moses, and Samuel, and David
must have been doubly dear to him from their association
with Elijah, from whose lips he had first heard them.
But in the midst of all this enjoyment, a terrible trial, se
vere in itself, yet rendered intensely more so from its un
expectedness, fell upon him and his hostess. " It came to
pass, after these things, that the son of the woman, the mis
tress of the house, fell sick, and his sickness was so sore that
there was no breath left in him :" that is to say, he suddenly
sickened and died ; for there is no foundation whatever for
the idea — which I am surprised to find countenanced by
such a commentator as Lange — that he merely swooned.
* See M'Crie's " Life of Knox," period viii.
t Stanley's "Jewish Church," vol. ii., p. 299.

56 Elijah the Prophet.
Death is always a sad thing, but there were here some pe
culiar elements of sorrow. It was the death of a child.
We expect the old to die ; but our hearts cling tenderly to
the young, while we almost refuse to contemplate the possi
bility of their being taken from us. Their winning ways,
their unsophisticated simplicity, their undisguised affection,
and their childish prattle endear them to our souls ; and,
untaught by the experience of others, we will look forward
to the time when they shall grow up to help us in the busi
ness of life, and sustain us in our old age. But their death
dashes these hopes to the ground, and robs us of the hap
piness which we so highly prized. Hence, even though we
have the perfect assurance of their eternal salvation, we
can not but be filled with sadness by their removal. The
very silence of our dwelling becomes oppressive to us ; and
wherever we turn our eyes, we meet some little plaything or
some tiny shoe that is indissolubly associated with the hap
piness ofthe past, so that we cry out in anguish,
"Dear as remembered kisses after death.
And sweet as those by hopeless fancy feigned
On lips that are for others ; deep as love.
Deep as first love, and wild with all regret,
O Death in Life — the days that are no more !"*
But this boy thus unexpectedly removed was, so far as ap
pears, an only child. When this woman's husband died, we
may suppose that her son did something, even by his very
weakness, to reconcile her to her sorrow, and that as she
clasped him to her bosom, she would say, " Sweet, my child,
I'll live for thee ;" but now she is alone. There is no other
little one to stand by her knee, and draw her thoughts away
from herself, and solace her by those nameless and inde
scribable attentions by which a child can endear itself to a
* Tennyson's " Princess."

Death and Resurrection. 57
parent Bereavement, indeed, is always painful ; and even
in a family of patriarchal size, the absence of one will make
a blank which every member of the household will feel. Yet
while others are left, there are duties to be performed, and
plans to be forecast ; and these will not allow us to sit down
and nurse our grief. But there was no such mitigating cir
cumstance in this woman's condition, for she had no other
child ; and this new sorrow would have additional bitterness,
because it opened up the old wound of her husband's death,
and made it bleed afresh.
Besides, there were certain other considerations which
gave an aspect of mystery to this dispensation. Some time
before she had looked death in the face, and was in a man
ner prepared to meet it When Elijah first .came to her,
and made that singular request to her for bread, she had no
other thought than that, after eating their last meal, she and
her son would die ; and, so far as appears, she was then sto
ically-reconciled to her fate. But since then God had been
miraculously providing for her, day by day, and it did seem
most perplexing that, at the very moment when he was work
ing a miracle to save them all from starvation, he should al
low death in another form to come upon her child. Was not
this as if he were casting down in a moment that which for
months he had been sustaining ? And if this were so, why
should he have begun to sustain her at all ? Had the blow
fallen at the time when she was feeling the famine, she could
have understood it ; but that it should come now, while Je
hovah was still graciously providing for her, this was incom
prehensible. Hence she was driven into despair. She could
not understand God's dealings with her. But as the proph
et had been the instrument through whom her own life and
her son's had been preserved, she imagined that he now
must be somehow connected with the coming of this calam
ity ; and she went to him, crying, in passionate grief, "What

58 Elijah the Prophet.
have I to do with thee, O thou man of God ? Art thou come
unto me to call my sin to remembrance, and to slay my son ?"
That is to say, "What is there in common to us two — to me,
a sinful woman, and to thee, a man of God — that we should
thus be brought together to my harm ?" But Elijah was ap
parently as much amazed and distressed as she was, and her
bitter upbraidings must have fallen painfully upon his heart
Yet he indulged in no recrimination. He saw the mother's
heart was broken, and he would not harshly judge her for a
hasty word spoken in such bewildering circumstances. He
simply said, " Give me thy son ;" and, taking him out of her
bosom, he carried him up to the upper room,* which, as an
honored guest, he occupied, and laid him upon his own bed.
But what did-he mean by taking the dead body of the dear
boy thither? A great thought, a grand purpose had taken
possession of his soul. Already by his prayers he had seal
ed up the dew and the rain ; what should hinder, therefore,
that, by his prayers, he should raise the dead ? It needed di
vine power to do the one ; it required no more than divine
power to do the other. True, it had been heretofore unheard
of in the history of the race ; yet " was there any thing too
hard for the Lord?" He would ask that the child might
live ! He would take hold of Jehovah's strength, and bring
* " Our translation makes Elijah live in a loft, but not very accurately.
In I-Iebrew it is 'alliyeh, and this is the common Arabic word for the up
per rooms of houses; The 'alliyeh is the most desirable part ofthe es
tablishment, is best fitted up, and is still given to guests who are to be
treated with honor. The women and servants live lielow, and their apart
ment is called ardiyeh, or ground-floor, in common parlance simply heit,
or house. We may infer several things from this word : that the mode
of building in Elijah's time and tlie custom of giving the 'alliyeh to the
guest were the same as now ; also, that this widow woman was not orig
inally among the very poorest classes, but that her extreme destitution
was owing to the famine which then prevailed.'" — The Land and the
Booh, p. 1 60.

Death and Resurrection. 59
that to bear upon the distress of his hostess. " The king
dom of heaven suffereth violence ;" he would be violent, and
" take it by force." So he cried, and said, " O Jehovah, my
God, hast thou also brought evil upon the widow with whom
I sojourn, by slaying her son ?" Then, stretching himself
three times upon the child, he called upon the Lord, and
said, " O Jehovah, my God, I pray thee, let this child's soul
come into him again." It was God who had inspired this
desire into his servant's soul, and he granted the request, for
the soul of the child came to him again, and he revived. So,
descending with him to his mother's chamber, the prophet
had the unspeakable satisfaction of restoring him to her em
brace ; and who may attempt to describe the ecstasy of that
moment in her exiDerience, as, with every lingering suspicion
banished from her mind, she said to him, " Now I know that
thou art a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in thy
mouth is truth ?"
It is impossible for us now, with the New Testament in
our hands, to read the account of this miracle without being
impressed with the fact that we have here an anticipation of
the Christian doctrine ofthe resurrection ofthe dead. This
miracle was also a prediction. It would have been impossi
ble to grant the prayer of Elijah here, had it not been, in the
foreknowledge of Jehovah, an absolutely certain thing that
Jesus Christ should, in the fullness of time, die for human of
fenses, and rise again, not only for the justification of believ
ers, but also as " the first-fruits of them that sleep." Even
as the blessings which came to the pious Israelite through
his regular offering of sacrifices were pledges of the bless
ings which should flow from the true and inflnite atonement
which was yet to be made, so the raising again of this dead
child was a foretaste and earnest of the general resurrection.
Neither this partial and individual resurrection in Elijah's
day, nor the general resurrection at the last, could have been

6o Elijah the Prophet.
possible except on the ground of the resurrection of Christ.
True, in the one case Christ's resurrection was still in the fut
ure, and in the other it will be a long way in the past Yet
it is alike connected with them both ; and this incident in
ancient history was thus not only an assurance that Christ
should rise from the dead, but also a prediction of the day
when "all that are in their graves shall hear the voice ofthe
Son of man, and shall come forth." We do not look our last
upon our believing friends, or on our beloved little ones,
when we lay their remains in the grave. We shall see them
again, and our hearts shall rejoice. " If we believe that Je
sus died, and rose again from the dead, even so them also
who sleep in Jesus will God bring with him." Then, again,
the child shall be restored to the mother, the friend to the
friend, the brother to the brother, and they shall be " forever
with the Lord." Truly, in view of this revelation, we may
exclaim, " Our Saviour, Jesus Christ, has abolished death,
and brought life and immortality to light through the Gos
pel." Let the bereaved among us, therefore, be comforted.
For good and sufficient reasons, the resurrection of our loved
ones has been delayed ; but it will take place, and the reun
ion between us will be all the sweeter because of the bitter
ness of the separation that has gone before.
Further, we can not read this history, wherein the great
ness of Elijah comes so prominently out, without being im
pressed with the peerless pre-eminence of the Lord Jesus
Christ Elijah strives after this miracle with exhaustive ef
fort ; but when Christ raises the dead, it is with inflnite ease.
Elijah was a servant, Christ was the Son, of God. Elijah
wrought with delegated power ; Christ wrought with his own
might Elijah wrought through prayer, securing thereby that
Jehovah should put forth his omnipotence; Jesus wrought
by commanding, in the majesty of his own inherent divinity.
Elijah strained after this miracle like one, who, standing upon

Death and Resurrection. 6i
tiptoe, seeks to reach something that is far above him ; Jesus,
when he raised the widow's son, or the daughter of Jairus, or
the brother of Mary, did so with the ease of one who is stoop
ing to do something that is quite within his power. The wom
an of Zarephath said to Elijah, when she received her son,
" Now I know that thou art a man of God ;" but when Jesus
came forth, in the royalty of his own might, from the tomb
of Joseph, he was powerfully " declared to be the Son of
God." Elijah was great, but Jesus was pre-eminently great
er ; and when, upon the Mount of Transfiguration, the voice
from the excellent glory made proclamation, " This is my be
loved son, in whom I am well pleased: hear ye him," Elijah
himself was forward to do Jesus homage. While, therefore,
we do honor to the servant, let us not forget to do still great
er honor to the Lord. Elijah is a man of God ; Jesus is the
God of man, yea, the God-man, the Alpha and the Omega,
the First and the Last, who alone can say, " I am he that
liveth, and was dead ; and behold, I am alive for evermore,
Amen ; and have the keys of hell and of death."
But now, leaving the miracle to speak for itself, let us
group under a few observations the practical lessons from
this whole subject.
Let us learn, in the first place, that no circumstances in
sure exemption from disturbing unsettlements in God's prov
idence. The members of this household in Zarephath might
without any presumption have supposed that they were, for
the time, under the special protection of Jehovah. Elijah
had been sent thither by the express command of God, with
the promise that he should be sustained. His support had
come to him through the kindness of a widow, who had been
rewarded for her benevolence by God's continued and mirac
ulous provision, and it was still essential that he should be
for some time longer an inmate of her dwelling. Hence, if
one may ever be warranted to believe that all evil will be

62 Elijah the Prophet.
warded off" from himself and those connected with him, sure
ly Elijah might have so believed in the case before us. But,
lo ! even at such a time we have an illustration of the great
law that God's people are ever liable to providential disturb
ances and dislodgments, for just then the child of this wid
ow suddenly expired. Now, if we have such a thing as trial
coming here in such uncommon circumstances, how much
more may we expect it in our ordinary lives ? We talk of
being comfortably settled ! Alas ! we know not what we say.
We might as well speak of a ship as settled in mid-ocean.
Ever as we think that, like Elijah here, we have got into
some quiet resting-place, there comes some unlooked-for
trouble, that puts our faith to the proof, and dissipates all
our fondest imaginations of permanency. When we are be
ginning to feel comfortable, and saying to ourselves, now we
shall have a breathing- time, some singular combination of
circumstances, the possibility of which we had not foreseen
or even conceived of, comes and deranges all our plans, as
it says to us, " Ye have tarried long enough in this arbor of
ease : arise, and go forward ; for through much tribulation
you must enter the kingdom."
Thus we are sent through the experience which the Psalm
ist describes in these familiar words : " In my prosperity I
said, I shall never be moved ; Lord, by thy favor thou hast
made my mountain to stand strong : thou didst hide thy face,
and I was troubled." We are never exempt from trouble.
Yea, even in circumstances when it might almost seem that
we could calculate on continuing as we are, it is sometimes
the case that our sorest trials come upon us. Herein is that
saying true, "It is the unexpected that happens ;" and nev
er, so long as we are upon the earth, dare we count upon im
munity from calamity. Neither character, nor privilege, nor
the commission of God to do some great work in his service
will insure us against tribulation. Something will evermore

Death and Resurrection. 63
come to shake us out of our security, and to make us feel
that we know not what a day may bring forth.' We may have
deliverance from some great evil which for long we have been
anticipating, even as this woman and her son were saved from
death by famine ; but in some new form, and in some un
looked-for manner, affliction will come upon us " to humble
us, and to prove us, and to know what is in our hearts, wheth
er we will serve the Lord or no." Thus we are kept ever on
the watch to teach us entire dependence upon God himself
He is the unchangeable rock ; they who build on him shall
never be moved. But if we seek to raise our Babel tower of
permanent happiness on any earthly foundation, we shall soon
be put to confusion. It were as wise to found a house on the
seamy side of Vesuvius, with the constant danger of being
shaken by the upheavings of the mountain, or buried beneath
the fiery lava and the burning ashes, as to attempt to build
abiding felicity on an earthly thing, or to hope for undis
turbed settlement in this fleeting world. " They build too
low who build beneath the skies."
Let us learn, in the second place, that these providential
unsettlements reveal us to' ourselves, by placing us face to
face with God. When this child died, his mother cried to
the prophet, "Art thou come to bring my sin to remem
brance, and to slay my son ?" Clearly, therefore, there was
some sin-stain upon her conscience; and though we dare
not say that the iniquity caused the death of her child, yet
God, through that dispensation, opened her eyes to her guilt
and danger. All through her experience of famine, with
death daily coming nearer, her conscience, so far as appears,
was asleep ; nor was it roused to action by her experience
of God's goodness in sending her deliverance through the
visit of Elijah. But now there comes upon her a new trial,
.severe in the proportion in which it was unexpected, and she
cries, " I am a sinner."

64 Elijah the Prophet.
Nor is this any singular experience. It is by such sudden
and unsettling providences yet that God reveals us to our
selves. The strain of the storm makes manifest the weak
point in the vessel, and stirs up the mariner to have it
strengthened. So the tension of trial shows where the char
acter is defective ; and if we wisely learn the lesson, we will
seek at once to have it renewed. How often has the care
less sinner been aroused, first to agony and then to conver
sion, by the coming on him of some unlooked-for calamity !
Had things continued to go smoothly and prosperously with
him, his conscience would have slumbered on, and no salva
tion would have been sought by him ; but trouble has re
vealed need, and need has impelled to prayer ; and the an
swer to the prayer has been the new and higher life ofthe
soul. Thus unbroken prosperity is not by any means a blessing
to the sinner. The Psalmist has put this thought most sug
gestively when he says of some, "Because they have no
changes, therefore they fear not God ;" and, in the same
connection we all remember that Jeremiah says of Moab,
" He hath been at ease from his youth, and he hath settled
on his lees, and hath not been emptied from vessel to vessel,
neither hath he gone into captivity : therefore his taste re
mained in him, and his scent is not changed." An English
poet has said that " we rise on stepping-stones of our dead
selves to higher things;" but only by calamity such as that
which came upon this woman are our evil selves revealed
and slain ; that is, if we learn its lesson rightly. Therefore,
to those who improve it properly, beneath the rough and out
er rind of the trial there is a kernel of sweet and wholesome
nutriment. But remember : to have the blessing, we must renounce
the evil which the calamity reveals, and turn from it unto
the Lord. How has it been with you, my brethren, "when

Death and Resurrection. 65
these unsettlements have come upon you ? Have you been
benefited by them ? Have they drained off from you the
lees of iniquity in which you had been settling? Happy
they who have been shaken out of themselves, no matter at
what cost, if only they have found the Lord ! But if we have
refused to learn from God's dislodging dealings with us, we
may expect yet heavier sorrows ; and if these be disregarded,
then, heaviest of all, we may prepare for everlasting doom.
You know how you shuddered before God as he came to
you in your earthly trial ; but if that were so, how will you
stand aghast as you meet him before his awful throne of
judgment ! In mercy God has sent these minor trials be
fore the last and severest of all, that from the knowledge
of ourselves which they have given us we may be stirred up
to prepare for that which is still before us. But if we could
not endure the lighter, how shall we bear the heavier? "If
thou hast run with the footmen, and they have wearied thee,
then how canst thou contend with horses ? and if in the
land of peace, wherein thou trustedst, they wearied thee, then
how wilt thou do in the swelling of Jordan ?"*
Notice, thirdly, that these unsettling providences only fur
nish the believer with a new errand to God's throne of grace.
Behold how calm Elijah was all through this trying season !
He felt the child's death keenly : deeply, too, he felt the moth
er's recrimination ; yet he is not shaken out of his faith by
the shock. Nay, rather his confidence in God is only stimu
lated to new boldness, as he carries the body up to his cham
ber, and beseeches God that the soul may come into it again.
Our affliction is sanctified to us when it sends us more ear
nestly to our knees. Had Elijah been moved to sa}', "To
what purpose is all my earnestness in Jehovah's service, if
those who befriend me are to be thus distressed ?" or had
•* Jeremiah xii., 5.

66 Elijah the Prophet.
he determined that he would abjure his allegiance to Jeho
vah, then he would have shown that his zeal had not been
rightly rooted or deeply cherished. But when, in the hour
of his perplexity, he goes straight to God, we have a new
proof of the genuineness of his piety. Tell me where a man
goes first in the hour of sorrow and unsettlement, and I will
tell you his character. You can not hesitate about Hezeki-
ah's piety, when you see him spread Rabshakeh's letter be
fore the Lord ; you can have no doubt about that of Nehe
miah, when you read of his praying to God while yet his mas
ter's cup was in his hand ; nor can you have any uncertainty
about that of Paul, when you observe that his thorn in the
flesh sent him to his Lord. Whither did you go in trouble ?
On whom did you call for deliverance ? To whom did you
cling for support? Answer these questions honestly, and )'ou
will know whether or not you are the children of God ; and
if haply you find that you are not yet numbered among his
sons, give no sleep to your eyes until you have secured the
priceless blessing of adoption through faith in Him who died
for our sins, according to the Scriptures.
Finally, observe that the deliverance which God gives to
his people in the time of their unsettlement, and in answer to
their prayers, leads them to a more assured confidence in him
self This woman had a firmer faith in Elijah than ever after
she had received her son alive at his hands ; but Elijah him
self had more confidence than ever in his God. Indeed, if we
will consider it rightly, we shall see that it was by such ex
periences as this that Jehovah was training his servant up
fo that sublimity of faith and courage which he evinced on
Mount Carmel, when he confronted Ahab and the priests
and prophets of Baal. You perhaps at first are disposed to
marvel at the boldness ofthe proposals which he made that
day. I confess I have often done so ; but now, when I think
of his bearing on that memorable occasion, in its connection

Death and Resurrection. 67
with the antecedent incidents in his history, my wonder dis
appears. Elijah would not have dared to make such pro
posals to Ahab, or to offer such prayers to Jehovah as he
then did, had it not been for the fact that God had heard
and answered prayers of similar boldness which he had al
ready presented. It was easy for him to ask fire to come
down and consume his sacrifice, after he had seen God re
store a dead child to life in response to his entreaty. Take
his procedure on Carmel by itself, apart from all the other
chapters in his life, and it does seem marvelously strange ;
but look at it as the last and highest of a series of experi
ences of the power of prayer, and it seems perfectly natural.
By the triumphs of his former faith he had ascended to that
confidence which he manifested on the great occasion which
proved to be the highest tide-mark of his career.
But it has been so with all the great ones in the peerage
of faith. Look at Abraham ; and as you see him ascend
ing Moriah to sacrifice his son, you wonder at the calm sub
limity of his heroic obedience. You think it almost super
human. You can not understand how he attained to it
But when you go back over his previous history, the whole
thing is explained. He could not have reached this altitude
by one bounding leap, but by all those unsettlements and
trials which came upon him from the day when he left the
far land of Ur; and by the grace which brought him through
them all, God had led him up, step by step, to this last and
terrible ordeal, which was also his crowning triumph. His
experience, oft repeated, and each time wifh added elements
of grace, of God's faithfulness on occasions of necessity, en
abled him to overcome in that supreme moment of uttermost
extremity. So, again, with Paul. Look at his calmness as,
confronting death, he said, " I am now ready to be offered,"
and you will find that it is the natural result of the experi
ences of his life. In his many perils Jesus had been beside

68 . Elijah the Prophet.
him. Amidst the dangers that beset him in Corinth ; in the
prison at Jerusalem ; on the deck of the drifting ship, ere yet
it went to pieces on the Maltese shore ; before magistrates
and judges and imperial governors, Christ had been his
faithful friend, and had fulfilled to him his word of promise.
Therefore he could trust him thoroughly once more, and say,
" I know whom I have believed."
Thus, while unsettlements reveal the soul to itself, they also
reveal the Saviour to the soul ; and he who has been supported
through them by his grace in the past can look forward with
calm assurance to the future, feeling that every thing will be
well. The God who, in answer to prayer, did not refuse to re
store the child to life, would not, Elijah was sure, leave him
dishonored before Baal's priests on Carmel ; and he who has
been with us in the checkered scenes of life will not forsake
us when we come to die. Each new deliverance he gives us
is a new stimulus to faith ; and the more numerous such ex
periences are, the more heroic does our faith become. The
result is glorious, though some stages of the process may be
bitter. This " now I know" of the woman, in its clear assur
ance, was worth the agony of the trial through which she at
tained it ; and while we are feeling the heaviness of calami
ty, we may solace ourselves with the thought that .our expe
rience under it will remain with us, for stimulus and support,
through every after-affliction. Thus the riddle of Manoah's
son repeats itself In the carcass of the slain lion there is a
precious honey-comb. " Out of the eater comes forth meat,
and out of the bitter comes forth sweetness."

T

V.
RE-APPEARANCE.
1 Kings xviii., 1-19.
HE opening verse of this chapter contains two marks
of time — the one indefinite, in the phrase " after many
days ;" the other somewhat precise, in the clause " in the third
year." The former of these refers, in my judgment, to the
duration of Elijah's sojourn at Zarephath; the latter to that
of the drought throughout the land. This view of the case,
indeed, iavolves a slight appearance of discrepancy between
the statement here made and that which is repeated twice
in the New Testament, as to the time during which the fam
ine lasted ; for it will be remembered that both our Lord
Jesus himself and the apostle James have spoken of the
drought in Elijah's days, as having continued for " three years
and six months."* Some have attempted to remove this dif
ficulty by alleging that the words translated "in the third
year " might with equal propriety be rendered " after the third
year ;" but as I have not been able to verify this assertion
by any incontrovertible instance, I prefer the explanation
given by Dr. Jamieson, which is to the following effect : " The
early rain in Palestine fell in our March, the latter rain in
our October. Though Ahab might at first have ridiculed
Elijah's announcement, yet when neither of these rains fell
in its season, he was incensed against the prophet as the
cause of the nation's suffering, and compelled him to consult
* Luke iv., 25 ; James v., 17.

7o Elijah the Prophet.
his safety by concealment Now, this might have been six
months after the king had been told that there should be
neither dew nor rain ; and from this period the three years
in this passage may be computed, whereas the three years
and six months of the New Testament may be reckoned
from the date when Elijah first confronted Ahab."* In any
case, toward the end of three years and six months after his
former visit to the king, " the word of the Lord came to the
prophet at Zarephath saying. Go, show thyself unto Ahab,
and I will send rain upon the earth."
With mingled feelings of sadness and of delight, we may
be sure that Elijah received this command. It enjoined him
to leave a home where,.for at least two years, he had been
retired and happy, and to bid farewell to his Gentile hostess
and her boy, both of whom had become objects of special
interest to him, and he could not part from them without re
gret But, on the other hand, if I have read his character
correctly, he delighted in activity, more especially when there
was added to it the exciting element of danger. Hence, as
the eager warrior hastens to the battle-field, Elijah was pos
itively attracted to the conflict that was before him, the rath
er as he recognized in it the opportunity of his life, when, as
the servant of Jehovah, he should be able to strike a decisive
blow at the Baalism of the court and the indifferentism of
the country. On the whole, therefore, while sorry to leave
his hostess and her boy, we may believe that he was rather
glad than otherwise to be recalled to public service, and that
he took his way toward Samaria, not only without dismay,
but with the earnestness of a man who felt himself" straight
ened," until his perilous work was accomplished.
But, alas! what a dismal prospect met his gaze at every

* " Commentary, Critical, Experimental, and Practical, on the Old and
New Testaments," by Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown, vol. ii., p. 352.

Re-appearance. 7 1
step of his journey ! In very deed, "the famine was sore in
the land." No waving corn-fields or leafy vineyards could
he anywhere perceive I Not even a patch of green appeared
to rest his eye with its refreshing verdure ! Nor was there
near any dwelling the barn-yard, with its store of plenty, as
of yore. All was brown and barren desolation. No sounds
of joy fell upon his ear. The harp of nature was for. the
time unstrung. The purling of brooks, the carol of birds,
the lowing of cattle, were heard no more. The song of the
reaper, the mirth of the vintage, and the joy of harvest-home
were things for the time unknown ; for " the Lord had caused
to cease from the cities of Israel and from the streets of Sa
maria the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice
of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, for the land
had become desolate." Again, as at the first, " the ground
was cursed for man's sake," and men were taught anew that
it is an evil thing and a bitter to forsake the Lord.
As the propliet went on toward the city of Ahab's resi
dence, he met a cavalcade under the leadership of the king's
steward, going forth to survey a wide tract of country, to see
\vhether any fountain of water could be discovered, or any
patches of grass, so that, if possible, the royal horses and
miiles might be preserved alive. Such an excursion is an
indication of the terrible extent to which the famine had
gone, especially when we take in connection with it the fact
that Ahab himself had gone forth with another party on a
similar errand, but in a different direction. It seems straiige,
indeed, to us that a king and his steward should have gone
personally on such missions ; but this is only one among
many illustrations that might be given of the primitive man
ners of Eastern magnates. Even at this day something. of
the same sort may be seen among the emirs of Arabia, and
the chiefs of Central Asia, for, according to Dr. Kitto, "none
of these high personages would think it in any way beneath

72 Elijah the Prophet.
their dignity to lead an expedition in search of grass or wa
ter. The matter is, indeed, regarded as of so much impor
tance that it is a sort of official duty in them to conduct the
search ; and success in it contributes very materially to their
popularity among their people, who are apt to ascribe the
happy result in a great measure, if not wholly, to the fortune
of their chief"*
It is another instance of the special providence of God,
that the steward Obadiah, with whom Elijah was now brought
into contact, was a sincere adherent to Jehovah. He was
not at all such a person as one would have expected to find
in a post of honor in Ahab's house. From his youth up he
had been a devout servant of the Lord. He had not seen
his way, indeed, to follow the example of those priests and
Levites and servants of Jehovah who, in the days of Jerobo
am, left their lands behind them, and went into the country
of Judah, in order that they might enjoy the privilege of wor
shiping the God of Israel according to the Mosaic ritual.f
But, still, he was a true servant of the Lord. Perhaps Ahab
overlooked his piety, because he valued his character as a
servant, and could ill afford to do without him. Probably,
also, Jezebel was deterred from urging his dismissal or his
death, because she knew how indispensable to his comfort
Ahab believed Obadiah to be. But, however it came about,
he was the steward of Ahab's house. Yet, though he held
that position, he was true to Jehovah, and his very presence
in the palace enabled him to do signal service to some of
his brethren. For when Jezebel had endeavored to destroy
all the schools of the prophets in the land, and had put to
death most ofthe young men who were students at these in
stitutions, Obadiah was the means of sheltering and feeding

* "Daily Bible Illustrations,'' vol. iv., p. 252.
t 2 Chronicles xi., 13-17.

Re-appearance. 73
no fewer than one hundred, whom he had concealed " by fif
ties in a cave." Thus, though this good man had not himself
the martyr spirit of Elijah, he had the heart to help God's
servants ; and he used the position which he held in such a
way as to protect those who were in danger. He had faith,
but he had not added to it the highest degree of courage.
He had some courage, indeed ; for without that he would not
have dared to shelter the prophets, and feed them in the
cave ; but he had not such a kind and measure of courage
as to stand openly out and avow himself the protector of his
brethren, and one with them in faith. Or, perhaps, we may ex
plain his conduct in another way. It is possible that he felt
he could really do more to help forward the Lord's cause
where he was than he could elsewhere, and so he kept his
post in Ahab's house. At any rate, there he was, like " a lily
among thorns ;" and one can not but observe the providence
which brought him and Elijah together before the prophet
went to meet the king.
As soon as Obadiah saw him, he recognized him, and said,
"Art thou that my lord Elijah?", whereupon he answered, " I
am : go, tell thy lord. Behold, Elijah is here." This order
greatly disconcerted the timid Obadiah. He knew that Ahab
had hatred enough for Elijah to put him to death; but he
believed also that God loved his servant too well to allow
him to fall a victim to the royal violence. Hence he feared
that if he went to give Elijah's message to the monarch, God
would in some way or other take the prophet away; and
then the king, foiled in his anticipated revenge, would turn
upon him with the fury of a wild beast that has been robbed
of its prey. He was, therefore, most unwilling to do as Eli
jah had commanded, and he regarded the fact that he should
be asked to do any thing of the kind as an indication that
he had committed some special sin for which- some signal
punishment was to come upon him. Naturally, therefore, he
4

74 Elijah the Prophet.
rehearsed to the prophet, not in the way of vainglory, but as
an indication of his true-hearted sincerity, how he had pre
served from the intolerance of Jezebel no fewer than a hun
dred of the sons of the prophets. His touching appeal elic
ited from Elijah a most solemn asseveration that he would
really confront Ahab ; and, so fortified, Obadiah went and
told his master, who speedily came to meet the prophet
As he drew near, determined to have whatever of advan
tage the first word might afford, the king, with much swagger
and show of indignation, said, "Art thou he that troubleth
Israel ?" He had no word to say of his own sin ; he forgot
the iniquity of the people of the land, of which he had been
the instigator, and in which he had been the leader ; he took
no note of the hand of Jehovah in the calamity which had
come upon his kingdom, and spoke as if the whole matter
had been a mere personal difference between him and Elijah.
He traced the drought only to the prophet He cast the en
tire blame of it upon him. Much as if one suffering under a
painful disease should blame the doctor for producing it,
because, knowing the habits of the patient, he had predicted
that it would come. But Elijah was not the man to be brow
beaten into silence by the words' of an angry monarch; and
so, with no mere vulgar recrimination, but with the calm dig
nity of the faithful preacher who desired to send the arrow
quivering into his hearer's heart, he made reply, " I have not
troubled Israel ; but thou, and thy father's house, in that ye
have forsaken the commandments of the Lord, and thou hast
followed Baalim." And then he proposed that a solemn as
sembly of the people should be convened on Mount Carmel,
when, in the presence of Israel's thousands, the controversy
between Jehovah and Baal might be settled by Elijah as the
representative of the one, and the four hundred and fifty
prophets of Baal as the partisans of the other. To such a
proposal the king could make no plausible objection. So

Re-appearance. 75
they parted to prepare for the dread encountfer, Elijah in the
solitude of communion with God, Ahab in the palace of Jez
reel, surrounded by Jezebel and her favorite priests.
There let us leave them for the time, while we dwell a
while on some practical reflections which are suggested by
the history which we have now rehearsed. We have here
three characters : first, a godly man, Obadiah ; second, an un
godly man, Ahab ; and, third, the servant of the Lord, Elijah,
dealing with each of the others according to his character.
Let us look, first, at the godly man. As I have already
hinted, he is found where we should scarcely have thought
of seeking for him. He is in the service, yea, in the very
house, of the idolatrous Ahab. Yet even there he is seeking
conscientiously to do God's work. Now, this is by no means
an unusual thing. Commonly we think of the army as a
profession in which religion is at a discount ; and when one
hears of a youth enlisting, he is apt to fear that he is going
all astray. Yet Cornelius was an officer in a Roman legion,
and some of Paul's most interesting converts belonged to
j:he barracks of the Imperial City. So, in more modern
times, the names of Cromwell, Gustavus Adol^hus, Gardner,
Havelock, Vickers, Howard, and a host of others will imme
diately occur to us as illustrations of the fact that most de
voted Christians may be found among military men. Similar
ly, there are certain localities into which one would scarcely
go with the expectation of discovering an ardent follower of
Jesus. There are streets in all large cities which have such
an evil reputation that you would no more think of entering
them to look for a Christian than you would of going to seek
for a tropical plant within the arctic circle. Yet every dis
trict visitor will corroborate me when I say that sometimes,
even in these uninviting neighborhoods, you will come upon
such specimens of faith, of integrity, of cheerfulness, and of
purity, as will gladden your heart, and encourage you in the

76 Elijah the Prophet.
work you are attempting to perform. If the question, " Can
there any good thing come out of Nazareth ?" had been per
mitted to weigh with him exclusively, Nathanael had not rec
ognized even the Lord Jesus Christ So we must beware of
coming to a hasty judgment of a man's character from the
simple consideration of the place in which we have found
him, and of the circumstances by which he is surrounded.
But there is another department in which we may apply
this lesson. It is most instructive to us in its bearing on ec
clesiastical matters. We must distinguish, for example, be
tvveen the Roman Catholic. Church as such, and many of
those who may be found, so to say, in its house. It would
be unjust as well as uncharitable in us to suppose that, at the
era ofthe Reformation, Luther had no friends or sympathiz
ers, who yet for reasons, which to themselves, at least, were
sufficient, never left the Church in which they had been
reared. "We honor, indeed, in the highest degree the great
Reformer as a second Elijah ; but vi'e must not forget that
Christ had even then many Obadiahs who remained within
the Church of Rome. Just as in this old history, this royal
steward had neither gone to Judah, like the priests and Le
vites who had left their lands in Jeroboam's day, nor had
publicly identified himself wiih Elijah, while yet he was a sin
cere friend of God's servants, and a devout worshiper of the
Lord himself; so I can imagine a guileless, timid soul re
maining, even in the excitement of controversy, within the
Roman Catholic Church, under the idea that he could do
more for Christ and for his servants there than he could do
elsewhere. Of course, we all see that if every believer in
the doctrine of justification by faith alone had acted on this
principle, there would have been no Reformation ; and we
instinctively feel that the prudence or pohcy of those who
did so act had overshadowed their courage. Yet we may —
nay, must — admit that they were sincere followers of God up

Re-appearance. 7 7
to the measure of their light ; nor can we forget that at differ
ent eras there have been men in that Church like Bernard,
and Lyra, and F6n6\ou, and Pascal.
I might easily illustrate the same principle by other historic
cases. Thus, it would be wrong to declare that all the good
and faithful ministers left the Church of England on that black
Bartholomew-day when the two thousand non-conformists left
their parishes, their pulpits, and their parsonages for Christ
So again, in Scotland, we can not help sympathizing, both po
litically and ecclesiastically, with the noble stand made by the
Covenanters — a stand which did more than many things to
win civil and religious freedom for Great Britain ; but neither,
on the other hand, can we unqualifiedly condemn the good
Leighton, who was induced to accept a bishopric under the
idea that in such a position he might do something to heal
the divisions of his native country. No one can read his
commentary on first Peter without discovering that its au
thor was a heavenly minded man ; and though he was in the
house of Ahab when he was Bishop of Dunkeld, still he was
a godly man there, and is not to be ostracized without mercy
for his mitre's sake. Again, in more recent times, it is with
in the knowledge of the present generation that the contro
versy which resulted in the formation of the Free Church of
Scotland was mainly carried on between those who were
decidedly evangelical, and those who were cold moderates,
who dealt in moral essays, and passed the Gospel "by on
the other side ;" yet it would be absurd to maintain that all
the good people and all the evangelical ministers left the
Scotch Church at the disruption. We must distinguish be
tween the character of the man and the place in which we
find him. He maybe in what we consider a house of Ahab,
but he may be an Obadiah still.
But passing from this aspect of the subject, let us go a
step further, and say that the godly man may serve Jehovah

78 Elijah the Prophet.
in almost any circumstances. Obadiah managed to keep a
good conscience, even in Ahab's house, and he used his po
sition to render a kind of service to Jehovah's cause which
even Elijah himself could not have given. I do not suppose
that there was another man at that time in the country who
could, without suspicion and with thorough security, have pro
tected the prophets of the Lord save himself, and he did it
admirably. He might have made his office an excuse for
doing nothing ; but, instead, he made it the means of accom
plishing a great deal. And in other things he acted consci
entiously. He never bowed the knee to Baal ; and he kept
himself clear of the national apostasy. No doubt this might
cost him the favor of Jezebel ; but that he did not regard.
He rendered unto Ahab the things which were Ahab's, and
unto God the things which were God's. Now, this may teach
us that we should never allow our circumstances to keep us
from doing what we believe to be right Nehemiah could
serve God in a Persian palace ; Daniel and his three friends
could retain their integrity in a Babylonian college ; and Paul
could turn the tent-maker's shop, wherein he labored at Cor
inth, into a school for Christ
You often hear it said, as an excuse for one's lack of ear
nestness in the Christian life, or for his falling into positive
sin, "You must remember the exposed position in which he is ^
placed, and make allowance for his circumstances." The ar
tisans whose daily craft takes them into the roughest places
ofthe city are apt to say, "Just think ofthe temptations that
confront us everywhere all along these rivers, and of the sort
of people we are continually meeting." The sailor will ex
claim, " How do you suppose we can maintain a Christian
character on shipboard ? You don't know what a swearing
lot surrounds us, or if you did, you would understand at once
that it's useless trying to be religious at sea." Nor are these
the only classes who would thus apologize for their conform-

Re-appearance. 79
ity to the world. In our counting-rooms and stores, in Wall
Street, and on the floors of our exchanges, there are not a few
who say, in effect, words like these : " Religion is all very well
for the fireside and for the church, but we can not be regu
lated by its maxims in business ;" and who give us to under
stand that if they were to act in their daily callings on the
principles of the Sermon on the Mount, they would soon find
themselves in the bankruptcy court. But is it so ? Is it, in
deed, the case that men can not serve God ia the workshop,
and in the ship, and in the store ? So much the worse, if
it be so, for these occupations ; for if we can not honor God
in them, then they must be in and of themselves sinful, and
must be given up. But is it so ? Have there been no emi
nent Christians among cur successful merchants, or our skill
ed operatives, or our noble seamen? There have; and I
fearlessly assert that if our business or trade be not sinful,
as' playing on the credulity of men, or ministering to their
vices, we may serve God in it, whatever it be, or whithersoev
er it takes us. Nay, the more difficulties we have to contend
against, the greater ultimately will be our strength of charac
ter. Timid as he was, Obadiah was a more courageous man
in Ahab's house than he would have been elsewhere, for the
resistance which he there met with developed strength in
him. Like the palm-tree, the Christian character grows firm
er by being weighted, and becomes hardier by being exposed
to opposition.
I have somewhere read the following incident in the life
of a distinguished botanist Being exiled from his native
land, he obtained employment as an under-gardener in the
service of a nobleman. While he was in this situation, his
master received a valuable plant, the nature and habits of
which were unknown to him. It was given to the garden
er to be taken care of, and he, fancying it to be a tropical
production, put it into the hothouse (for it was winter), and

So Elijah the Prophet.
dealt with it as with the others under the glass. But it be
gan to decay. He brought his master to look at it They
thought it dying, and, as a last resort, were going to put it
in a yet hotter chamber, when the strange under-gardener
asked permission to examine it As soon as he looked at it
he said, "This is an arctic plant: you are killing it by the
tropical heat into which you have introduced- it." So he took
it outside, and exposed it to the frost, and, to the dismay
of the upper-ga'rdener, heaped pieces of ice around the flow
er-pot ; but the result vindicated his wisdom, for straightway
it began to recover, and was soon as strong as ever. Now,
such a plant is Christian character. It is not difficulty that
is dangerous to it, but ease. Put it into a hot-house, separate
it from the world, surround it with luxury, hedge it in from
every opposition, and you take the surest means of killing it.
But take it out into the frost, let it meet and overcome temp
tation in the way of daily duty, let it come into contact, as it
seeks to do its work, with the icy spirit of the world ; in a
word, let it have to contend with difficulty, and you thereby
nurture it into strength.. Do not I speak truth in all this?
Where will you find nobler, manlier, or more admirable spec
imens of Christianity than among our merchants, our sea
men, and our artisans ? When they are truly Christ's, they
are also nobly and magnificently his. Tell me not, therefore,
that you can not serve God where you are. You know bet
ter. You know you can, if you will. Be it that you are in
the house of Ahab ; then you may yet be like Obadiah there,
and keep yourself unspotted from its idolatry.
But now we turn to the contemplation of the ungodly man,
Ahab ; and the first thing we see about him in this affair is
the utter selfishness by which he was actuated. He went
himself in one .direction, and sent Obadiah in another, to
scour the country for supplies ; but for what ? that he might
feed the famishing multitudes of Israel? No; but that he

Re- appearance. 8 1
might save his horses and mules alive ! TIius the animals
that contributed to his dignity, or ministered to his ease,
were of more importance to him than the lives of his sub
jects. Heartless man! you say; and yet how much ofthe
same sort of thing there is even in this so-called Christian
land ! What extremes of luxury and misery meet and touch
each other in this city ! Within the home of affluence, you
will see, beneath the lustre of many lamps, the throng of
beauty and fashion, attired in dresses of the richest fabric
and the fairest hue. They enjoy themselves to the utter
most with music and dance, and then adjourn to the feast of
plenty ; while outside, in the chill darkness, within hearing
ofthe mirth that falls like hailstones on her heart, sits on a
door-step a poor child of shame, shivering in the frost, and
pining with hunger ! Alas ! alas ! is it not true of too many
among us that they pet their horses, and pamper their lap-
dogs, while they forget the misery of their fellow-men ? With
what scathing scorn has Miss Procter exposed this sore evil
in her native land ! and, as to some extent it is true also of
ourselves, I may be pardoned for introducing her lines here :
" It is cold, dark midnight ; yet listen
To the patter of tiny feet.
Is it one of your dogs, fair lady.
Who whines in the bleak cold street ?
Is it one of your silken spaniels
Shut out in the snow and sleet ?"
"My dogs sleep warm in their baskets,
Safe from the darkness and snow ;
All the beasts in our Christian England
Find pity wherever they go.
Those are only the homeless children
Who are wandering to and fro."
" Look out in the gustydarkness —
I have seen it again and again,
' 4*

82 Elijah the Prophet.
That shadow that flits so slowly
Up and down, past the window-pane.
It is surely some criminal lurking
Out there in the frozen rain ?"
" Nay, our criminals all are sheltered.
They are pitied and taught and fed :
That is only a sister-woman,
Who has got neither food nor bed.
And the Night cries, ' Sin to be living ;'
And the River cries, ' Sin to be dead !'
" Look out at that farthest corner,
Where the wall stands blank and bare:
Can that be a pack which a peddler
Has left and forgotten, there ?
His goods lying out, unsheltered,
Will be spoilt by the damp night air."
" Nay, goods in our thrifty England
Are not left to lie and grow rotten ;
For each man knows the value
Of silk or woolen or cotton,
But in counting the riches of England,
I think our poor are forgotten.
" Our beasts and our thieves and our chattels
Have weight for good or for ill ;
But the poor are only his image,
His presence, his word, his will :
And so Lazarus lies at our door-step,
And Dives neglects him still."*
" But what would you have ?" you say ; " must we have
nothing that we can do without, while others are starving?
Must we literally sell all that we have, and give to the poor ?"
To which I answer, " That certainly is not required of every
one ; and in matters of this sort it is not possible for any
man to draw a hard and fast line. These things must be left
* " A Chaplet of Verses," by Adelaide A. Procter.

Re-appearance. 83
to the conscience of each ; only let us seek to have our con
sciences enlightened by God's word and Spirit regarding
them. In general, however, this principle holds good that we must
not indulge ourselves in luxuries to the neglect ofthe claims
of God's cause or God's poor upon us. It is only after we
have discharged our consciences of all obligations under
which we lie to the poor, and to the cause of Christ, that we
are warranted to turn to our horses and our carriages and
our luxuries. Have you done your duty to the poor ? Have
you met the cries of distress that are rising on your ear?
Have you given as God has prospered you to the cause of
home and foreign missions, with which the glory of the Lord
is so inseparably connected ? " Have you done as much as
in you lay to lift that load of debt from a noble institution
that is doing daily service in the Master's cause? Then
enjoy your luxuries, take the benefit of your carriage, and
have, at the same time, the satisfaction that you are sharing
your happiness with many others.
Furthermore, I think this is also a safe and wholesome
rule : that with every increase in our expenditure upon our
selves, whether in house, or in dress, or in thanksgiving fes
tivities, we should make a corresponding increase in our do
nations to the cause of God and of the needy. We ought
to feel it to be a mockery of Jehovah to load ourselves with
ornaments, and surround ourselves with luxuries, while, when
we are asked to give to his cause or to his people, we say,
"We can not afford it" Can not afford it ! Then sacrifice
some glittering jewel, or some mantel-piece ornament, or give
a party less in the season, rather than make that humilia
ting confession. We are the stewards of God's bounty ; and
what will he say to us at last, when we declare that we spent
so much upon ourselves that we had nothing left to spend
on him ? Go, my brethren ; be warned by the selfishness of

84 Elijah the Prophet.
Ahab here, and take example rather from the poor widow of
the former chapter, who, though at the brink of starvation,
and about to prepare her last meal, gave the first portion to
a fellow-sufferer, and received in return a blessing from the
Lord. But we must remark, also, regarding Ahab's conduct here,
that the consequence of ungodliness is blindness.- See how
he comes up to Elijah with the greatest confidence, as if no
blame could be thrown upon himself, and the whole calam
ity were due to the prophet, "Art thou he that troubletii Is
rael?" His conscience had become blunted by continual
transgression, so that it ceased to record the evil which he
had committed, or to upbraid him for it There is a point
at which the mercury in the thermometer is itself frozen, and
marks no lower degree of cold ; and there is a point in the
sinner's career when his moral sense becomes torpid, and
takes no further note of guilt Ahab had, I fear, reached
that stage in reference to his idolatry, and so he charged
Elijah with causing that which was the result of his own sin.
My hearer, unconverted ! will you take warning from this
case ? If .you persist in your course, your heart will be hard
ened into impenetrability ; you will become " past feeling,"
and will meet every messenger of God as if he were a guilty
troubler of the community, while you are irreproachable.
Thus does the moral nature become positively perverted,
putting light for darkness and darkness for light, sweet for
bitter and bitter for sweet, good for evil and evil for good.
Oh, beware of sinning yourself into such a state ! Get a
good conscience through faith in Jesus Christ ; and keep a
good conscience by obedience unto him. Let the eye be
single, that your whole body may be full of light ; for, " if the
light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness !"
I have now time only for the merest glance at the manner
in which the servant of God dealt with each of these men,

Re-appearance. 85
according to his character. With Obadiah, the prophet was
considerate and tender, seeking even by an oath to remove
all cause of anxiety from his heart With Ahab, he was
stern and unbending, so that soon he who came with a swag
ger went away with a halt Thus, the true minister of Christ
will seek to have words in season for each, according to. the
disposition of those with whom he comes into contact With
some he will be "gentle as a nurse, cherishing her children ;"
others he will rebuke sharply. With some he will expostu
late tearfully ; others he will take by the hand and lead lov
ingly forward. What a perfect example in this, as in all oth
er respects, has our Lord Jesus left us ! He spake in one
strain to the sincere but timid Nicodemus, in another to the
hypocritical scribes and Pharisees. He dealt in. one way
with the woman at the well, and in another with the trem
bling one who came behind him, seeking almost to steal a
cure. He loved the young man who came to him inquiring
the way, but retired sorrowfully, not yet prepared to part with
his possessions ; but he replied with sternness to those who
sought to entangle him in his talk.
Brethren, "he that winneth souls is wise." Oh, may God
give us who are in the ministry grace and wisdom to say the
right thing to the right person at the right time ! When one
is thus wise as a preacher, he finds " acceptable words, even
words of truth," and as he utters them, they become like
"goads, or as nails fastened by the masters of assemblies."
Seek not to deal with every one after some unvarying meth
od. As the physician suits his prescription to the disease,
so let the Christian worker adapt his method to the charac
ter of him -with whom he has to deal. It is right sometimes
to be gentle, and it is right sometimes to be stern ; but wis
dom is needed to know when each is better. Had Jesus
spoken to Nicodemus as he did to those who devoured wid
ows' houses, and for a pretense made long prayers, we should

86 Elijah the Prophet.
never have heard of the ruler of the Jews again. Let him
who would be useful, therefore, study human nature as well
as the Gospel of the Lord, that he may know " to give to
each his portion of meat in due season." But when stern
ness and severity are required, let us be sure that underneath
there is a heart full of love to our fellow-sinner and of loyal
ty to the Lord whom we serve. The sternest things are then
the strongest when the tear-drop quivers in the eyes of him
who speaks them.

VI.
THE CONFLICT ON CARMEL.
I Kings xviii., 21.
ON the shores of the Levant, and immediately to the
south of Acre, there is a range of hills stretching out
for five or six miles, and terminating in a somewhat rugged
and precipitous promontory. The highest peak, resembling
a flattened cone in shape, rises about fifteen hundred feet
above the level of the sea, and is that which in Scripture is
more particularly called Mount Carmel. It is described as
the finest and most beautiful mountain in Palestine. Even
yet, though the land is lying under a curse, there are evident
traces of its former fertility; and in olden times it seems to
have answered exactly to its name, which signifies " a fruitful
field," or " a country of gardens and vineyards." At its base
flows " that ancient river, the river Kishon," and away to the
eastward stretches the magnificent plain of Esdraelon, ter
minating in the glory of Tabor and the mountains of Jordan,
while in the far distance northward we catch a glimpse of
the snowy peaks of Lebanon.
Turning round and looking toward the west, we see, far
as the eye can reach, the blue waves of the Mediterranean
shimmering in the sunbeam ; to the right lies Acre, far be
neath us ; and to the left we take in the ruins of Cesaraea,
the city on which Herod lavished his magnificence, and in
which Paul delivered those unrivaled defenses before Felix,
Festus, and Agrippa.
Wherever we look there is either some beauty to satisfy

88 Elijah the Prophet.
the eye, or some historical association to stir the heart Ev
ery name we mention brings up a memory with it, and he
has no true soul within him who can look on such a land
scape, in the light of history, without having his spirit roused
into enthusiasm, or kindled into rapture.
On that plain before us, what battles have been fought !
What questions, with the fate of nations trembling in the bal
ance, have been settled ! There Barak and Deborah van
quished the haughty Sisera; there Gideon overcame the
Midianites ; there the Philistines encountered Saul on that
melancholy day when he fled before them to Gilboa, and, to
escape their swords, fell upon his own ; there the banners of
the CTusaders have fluttered in the breeze, and the eagles
of Napoleon have been wetted by the evening dews. Here,
too, where we stand, on the inner side of Mount Carmel, and
near the eastern extremity of the range, in a noble, natural
amphitheatre, there was decided, in the most signal and sol
emn manner, the great question between God and Baal.
And, as we gaze upon the scene, we seem to see again the
assembled throng of Israel, and to hear anew the voice of
the valiant Elijah ringing out, clear and loud, as with the
notes of a trumpet, these pointed words : " How long halt
ye between two opinions ? if the Lord be God, follow him :
but if Baal, then follow him."
The exact spot where the events narrated in this chapter
occurred has been thoroughly identified, and preserves in its
name. El Muhrakah, "the sacrifice," a memorial ofthe event
I can not better describe it than in the words of Dr. Porter,
in his article on Mount Carmel, in Alexander's " Kitto :"
"At the eastern extremity of the ridge, where the wooded
heights of Carmel sink down into the usual bleakness of the
hills of Palestine, is a terrace of natural rock. It is encom
passed by dense thickets of evergreens, and upon it are the
remains of an old and massive square structure, built of large

The Conflict on Carmel. 89
hewed stones. This is ' El Muhrakah^ and here, in all prob
ability, stood Elijah's altar. The situation and environs an
swer in every particular to the various incidents in the narra
tive. A short distance from the terrace is a fountain, whence
the water may have been brought which was poured round
Elijah's sacrifice and altar. The terrace commands a noble
view over the whole plain of Esdraelon from the banks of
the Kishon, down at the bottom of the steep declivity, away
to the distant hill of Gilboa, at whose base stood the royal
city of Jezreel. To the eight hundred and fifty prophets
ranged, doubtless, on the wide upland sweep just beneath
the terrace, to the multitudes of people, many of whom may
have remained on the plain, the altar of Elijah would be in
full view, and they could all see in the evening twihghtthat
' the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt-offering, and
the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the wa
ter.' The people, then trembling with fear and indignation,
seized, at Elijah's bidding, the prophets of Baal, 'and Elijah
brought them down to the brook Kishon, and slew them
there.' On the lower declivities of the mountain is a mound
called Tell-el-Kusis, ' the hill of the priests,' which probably
marks the very scene of the execution. May not the pres
ent name of the Kishon itself have originated in this tragic
event, as it is called Nahr-el-Mokatta, ' the river of slaugh
ter ?' The prophet -w'ent up again to the altar, which is near,
but not upon the summit of the mountain. While he prayed,
he said to his servant, ' Go up, now, look toward the sea.'
The sea is not visible from the terrace, but a few minutes'
ascent leads to a peak which commands its whole expanse.
And the modern name of the whole range of Carmel is Jebel
Mar Elias, ' the mountain of St Elijah.' "*
And now, having obtained a clear idea of the topography
* Alexander's " Kitto ;" article Carmel.

go Elijah the Prophet.
of the scene, let us endeavor to reproduce the events which
were here enacted, and to gather up the lessons which they
furnish for the present time.
When the summons went forth for the national gathering,
the people anxiously speculated on the object for which the
assembly was convened ; and having learned to connect the
name of Elijah with the terrible drought from which they
had been suffering, they eagerly anticipated the appointed
day. As it drew near, companies from every quarter of the
land might be seen wending their way toward the spot ; and,
when the morning dawned, there stood upon the terrace and
the plain a moving multitude of men such as has been sel
dom witnessed on the surface of the earth. Ere long, at
tended by the members of his court, the king appears, and
passes on to the place of honor, marked by the spear fixed
upright in the ground, which had been reserved for him.
Again the crowd divides, and this time, whh all the pomp
and splendor of a stately procession, and arrayed in gorgeous
vestments, the eight hundred and fifty priests and prophets
of Baal march to their assigned position.
And now there is a pause. Men wonder if Elijah will in
deed appear. Perhaps he has conveyed himself away ; per
haps he has seen the pageant from a distance, and in de
spair has given up the contest " What ! think ye that he
will not come?" is now the question; when, lo ! across the
shoulder of the mountain, fresh from communion with Jeho
vah, the man of God appears ! He has the air of one who
has a solemn work to do. There is gravity in his deport
ment, firmness in his countenance, and lightning in his eye.
Unabashed by the myriad throng before him, undazzled by
the splendid garments of the idol-serving priests, unappalled
by the haughty mien of Ahab and his courtiers, he passes on,
and takes his place over against his powerful adversaries.
Alone he seems in that immense multitude, and yet he is not

The Conflict on Carmel. 91
alone, for God is with him. So, pausing for a moment
to survey the scene, he lifts up his voice like a trumpet,
and throws down the gage of battle in these burning
words : " How long halt ye between two opinions ? If '
Jehovah be God, follow him : but if Baal, then follow
him." To understand this appeal, we must remember that " the
mass of the people, ignorant, and strongly addicted to idol
atry, considered Baal as identical with Jehovah ; while the
v/orshipers of Jehovah, on the other hand, maintained his
exclusive title to divine honors. The controversy, therefore,
did not consist in a direct opposition between the worship
of Jehovah and that of Baal ; for the latter party, like the
heathen in general, tolerated the worship of other deities,
along with their own favorite idols ; but, as Hengstenberg
states it, 'the persecution was directed against those who,
like Elijah, bore powerful testimony against the union of what
was irreconcilable, and who loudly maintained that Jehovah
identified with Baal was no longer Jehovah. The proposal
which Elijah made from this point of view, that they should
see whether Jehovah was God or Baal, the priests of Baal from
their point of view understood to be, whether Jehovah-Baal
was God, or Jehovah in perfect exclusiveness. The ques
tion that he put before making his proposal plainly implies
that, in the popular opinion, these heterogeneous religious
elements were blended in one.' "*
They at first made no answer to his pointed appeal. But
as matters must be pushed to a decision, the prophet pro
poses that the whole thing should be settled by a sacrifice.
The idolatrous prophets are to take a bullock, cut it in pieces,
lay it on an altar, and put no fire under ; Elijah is to do the
same ; they are to call upon Baal to consume their sacrifice ;
* " Commentary, Critical, Exegetical, and Practical," vol. ii., p. 354.

92 Elijah the Prophet.
he is to call on Jehovah to consume his; "and the God
which answereth by fire, let him be God."
The point of the proposal lay in this, that fire was the ele
ment over which Baal was believed by his followers to have
peculiar power. It was a bold offer, and one which, had he
not been authorized of God, he would not have been justi
fied in making ; but in the estimation of the people it was
candid, fair, and honest, and they said, " It is well spoken."
The Baalites, we may suppose, would rather have backed
out of it if they could have framed a feasible pretext for do
ing so, for they were all unprepared for an emergency like
this. Their natural magic, their skill in sleight of hand,
their dexterity in deceit, were useless when they were taken
thus at unawares ; but Elijah knew what he was doing. He
had counted on all this, and he had committed them before
the multitude, just that they might have no opportunity to
deceive, while at the same time they might have no good
reason for asking delay. That nothing might be wanting
on his side, he gives them the foremost place. They choose
their bullock, dress it, lay it upon their altar, and wait the re
sult With loud cries they call upon their God, but " there
is no voice, neither any that regardeth."
The noontide hour has come, yet still there is no sign ;
and the sarcastic prophet, unable any longer to control his
biting irony, says to them, " Cry aloud : for he is a God ; ei
ther he is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is in a journey, or
peradventure he sleepeth, and must be awaked." Stung by
his words, they leap in frantic devotion upon the altar, they
cut themselves with knives and lancets till the blood gushed
out upon them ;* and so they carry on until the time of the
evening sacrifice, with no result
* In his recent interesting and valuable book on "Bible Lands," Dr.
Van-Lennep has the following passage illustrating the self-torture ofthe

The Conflict on Carmel.

93

Most evidently, therefore, they have failed ; but may it not
be the same with Elijah, too? It is now his time. Let us
see how he rises to the great occasion. Calling the people
to come near unto him, he repairs an ancient altar to Jeho
vah, setting up twelve stones (for in such a solemn time he
will not forget the essentia:l unity of all the tribes), he digs a
trench about it, puts the wood in order (mark, in order, for
he is serving God, and he will do it right), he cuts the bull
ock in pieces, and lays them upon the wood ; then three
times he causes them to pour four barrels of water on the
sacrifice, that it might be evident that there was no attempt
to deceive ; and when the time of the evening sacrifice is
fully come, he bends himself in prayer.
And what a prayer he offers ! brief, pointed, earnest, and
believing, concentrating into few'words the whole fire and
fervor of his heart : "Jehovah, God of Abraham, Isaac, and
of Israel, let it be known this day that thou art God in Is
rael, and that I am thy servant, and that I have done all
these things at thy word. Hear me, O Jehovah, hear me,
that his people may know that thou art the Jehovah God,
and that thou hast turned their heart back again."
The train had been fully laid ; every other preparation had-^
been made ; it needed only that it should thus be connect-
Baalitish priests : " Our modern dervishes indulge in these practices only
on special occasions, as, for instance, when a procession is organized and
proceeds to the suburbs of a town to pray for rain, or for deliverance
from some public calamity. They then exhibit some of their fanatical
performances, calling upon God, and cutting themselves yith knives and
swords so that the blood runs, or piercing their almost naked bodies
with wooden or iron spikes, from which they hang small mirrors. They
sometimes become so exhausted with pain and loss of blood as to faint
away, so that they have to be borne off." The same author gives two
drawings taken from life, which enable us to form some idea of the revolt
ing appearance of the priests of Baal on Mount Carmel. See " Bible
Lands," by Henry J. Van-Lennep, D.D., page 767.

94 Elijah the Prophet.
ed with Jehovah, and in a moment the fire descended, and
"consumed the burnt-sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones,
and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the
trench." Overawed by this manifestation of God's nearness to
them, the multitudes fell on their faces and engaged for a
brief space in silent homage ; then, rising to their feet, they
shouted again and again, " Jehovah, he is the God ; Jeho
vah, he is the God." Meanwhile, consternation sits upon the
countenances of the priests of Baal, and with bitter mortifi
cation in their hearts and fierce maledictions on their lips,
they are led down to the river and slain with the sword.
While Ahab is keeping the sacrificial feast, the prophet is
communing with God, and earnestly praying for rain ; nor
does he leave off until, after having been sent seven times,
his servant came to tell him that a little cloud no bigger
than a man's hand is rising out of the sea — the prelude of
the coming answer to his cry. Thereafter he sent a mes
sage to Ahab to make haste and prepare his chariot, so that
the rain might not retard his progress ; and he himself, hav
ing tightened his girdle, and gathered his flowing mantle
round his loins, ran on before the royal chariot, through the
pelting torrent, to the palace gate. So ended this memora
ble day in the annals of Israel and in the history of man.
And now for the practical bearing of all this on us.
Here, first, is brought before us the grand question which
faces every man: "Who is your God — Baal, or Jehovah?
sin, or the Holy One? self, or God? mammon, or Christ?"
This is the question which each one of us has to settle for
himself It is needless to disguise the matter, or to shut our
eyes to it, or to attempt to ignore it This is the question
which every man finds confronting him when he awakes to
moral consciousness and responsibility, and which every day
and every action calls upon him to solve. How have you

The Conflict on Carmel. 95
solved it ? I say, how have you solved it ? for we have all
given some answer to it already. Some have chosen to wor
ship wealth, and, in their homage to that, eVery thing else is
neglected, or thought of only as it has a tendency to heap up
gold. Some have chosen fame, and, at the sacrifice of ease
and comfort, yea, by the most unscrupulous means, they seek
to rise, and make for themselves a name among men.* Some
have said, " Intellect, be thou my God !" and they prostrate
themselves before originality, so called, leaving the pillar of
cloud and fire in revelation for the speculations of some
would-be philosopher.
Others have found their God in sin, and, as their worship
of it, have wallowed in the mire of sensuality and corruption.
These be our modern Baal priests, albeit they wear no sa
cred vestments, nor bow the knee to any fairly fashioned im
age. Oh for another Elijah to summon them to another
Carmel, that they may discover how miserably their gods
will fail them in their hour of need !
But there are others who have chosen Jehovah as their
God, and who, through good report and through evil report;
have endeavored to preserve their allegiance unto him.
Sometimes, indeed, they have been afraid to face the opposi
tion of the great ones of the people, yet they have never
bowed the knee before the popular Baal ; and if they have
erred at all, it has been by their silence, when they ought to
have spoken out for Christ Let them also come to Carmel,
and see how, "when a man's ways please the Lord, he
maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him." Let
them learn "to be strong, and play the man for God," as
sured that he will not forsake those that put their trust in
him. Others there are who, in fluctuating feeble-mindedness,
endeavor to combine the services of Baal and Jehovah.
When they are in one set of circumstances, as on the Lord's

96 Elijah the Prophet.
day, and in the church, they are for Jehovah. When they
are in another set of circumstances, as on week-days, and in
the transaction of their common business, they are for Baal,
in one or other of his many forms. Yet how foolish, how
weak, how vain, is an attempt like that! You might as well
try to combine the eternal snow of the poles with the heat
of the tropics, or to bring the East and the West together, or
to make the darkness of midnight blend with the brightness
of noonday, or to fill up that yawning chasm of infinite depth
which for ever separates heaven from hell, as to try to weld
together two such services as these. Na}', more, let all men
know that even the attempt to combine the two is, after all,
only serving Baal, and that in the meanest and most con
temptible fashion. Jehovah, looking upon such a one, says,
"I v/ould thou wert cold or hot;" and Satan, beholding him,
laughs at his simplicity, and inwardly chuckles at his own
dexterity in leading his victim to destruction, by flattering
him all the time that he is on the way to heaven.
If there be any such here, let me raise for them the old
shout that woke the Carmel echoes : " How long leap ye be
tween two opinions, as a bird leaps ever from twig to twig ?
If Jehovah be God, follov/ him : but if Baal, then follow him.
No man can serve two masters. Ye can not serve God and
mammon. Choose ye this day whom ye will serve !" And,
after what you have heard of his glory, who among you will
refuse to say, " I will serve Jehovah ?"
But we have here, secondly, the manner in which Jeho
vah manifested his claim to the sole allegiance of men. It
was by accepted sacrifice. No thoughtful person can read
this history without having vividly suggested to him a nobler
Sacrifice, by a nobler Prophet From the days of Cain and
Abel downward, God seems to have challenged men to de
cide between the true religion and the false by means of sac
rifice ; and these priests and prophets of Baal, waiting all

The Conflict on Carmel. 97
the day long, and crying, and cutting themselves with knives,
are but the representatives of universal heathendom, vainly
seeking, by sacrifices and penances, to propitiate their di
vinities. Jehovah, in the history of the human race, like his servant
here on this memorable day, allowed men to make their trial
first " But after that in the wisdom of God the world by
wisdom knew not God, it pleased God, by the

foolishness of preaching, to save them that believe."* When
the fullness of the time was come, and the hour ofthe world's
evening sacrifice had struck, " he sent forth his Son, made of
a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were un
der the lavsr, that we might all receive the adoption of sons ;"t
and he laid himself upon the altar in the room of sinners,
the Eternal Father manifesting, by his resurrection from the
dead, his acceptance of the offering which he made on men's
behalf, even as. here he showed his favor in the descending
fire. What need we, therefore, any further controversy on this
great matter? Is not the resurrection of Christ from the
dead the best attested fact in human history? And in the
light of that fact, is not the death of Christ a sufficient atone
ment for human sin ? Why need you bear the burden of
your sin longer ? See, it was already in the load which Je
sus " bore up to the cross, and left nailed to the accursed
tree. Why need you seek by sufferings, or obedience to
make amends for your iniquities, when he has borne your
griefs and carried your sorrows ?"
Here is the true, the only sacrifice for sin. It has been
accepted by God, it needs only to be believingly accepted
by you — as offered on your behalf; and then the Baalism
of your hearts will be slain as effectively by Jesus' love, as
« I Cor. i., 21. t Gal. iv., 4, 5.

98 Elijah the Prophet.
the priests were slaughtered here by Elijah's sword. Ah !
if you will only learn the real meaning ofthe cross of Christ,
and accept him as your Redeemer, there v/ill be no longer
any question in your hearts as to the service of Jehovah.
You will not be able to keep from serving him, for the im
pulse of your souls will be to say that j'ou are not your own,
but "bought with a price," and therefore bound to "glorify
him in your bodies and your spirits, which are his."
From Carmel, then, I lead you to Calvary, that in the sac
rifice offered thereon by Jesus Christ for the sins of men
you may see the atonement for your sins ; and that in the
empty sepulchre of Joseph you may see the pledge of your
resurrection to newness of life with Christ, and, at the last,
to glorified humanity with himself Oh, if, as he looked upon
the meek majesty of the Holy Sufferer, the Roman centuri
on was constrained to say, " Truly this was the Son of God ;"
if, as the doubting apostle beheld the print of the nails in
his hands, and the mark ofthe spear-gash in his side, he ex
claimed, in the startled ejaculation of adoring faith, " My
Lord and my God," surely, as we contemplate the whole
significance of that death upon the cross, and that resurrec
tion from the grave, we ought to cry, Jehovah-Jesus, he is the
God ! Jehovah-Jesus, he is the God ! Him will we serve,
and his voice will we obey.
Finally, let us observe, that the question as to who our
God shall be is one of immediate urgency. The appeal is,
"How long halt ye between two opinions?" Undecided
hearer, what are you waiting for? Are you wishing better
evidence than that which has been furnished }'ou ? Then
you will never receive any stronger testimony than that
which was given here, or on Calvary and in the garden ; and
if you reject that, we must say regarding you, neither will
you be persuaded if one came unto you directly from the
grave. If you think that insufficient, then there must be

The Conflict on Carmel.

99

some other reason than a lack of evidence that leads you to
be undecided. The cause may be a moral one, and there
may be some secret sin holding you fast in the meshes of its
invisible threads, or some hidden lust to which you are wed
ded, or some unseen idol that you are really worshiping;
and in that ca'se you have already, for all your apparent inde
cision, determined to reject God ; that is, you have, for the
gratification of your lusts, made up your minds to act as if it
were a settled thing that the Bible is a lie, and that God is
non-existent Or perhaps the cause may be intellectual, and you may
be insisting on a kind of proof which can not be furnished
to you on any moral question. The truth of the Bible can
not be established by a demonstration like that by which
you reach a conclusion in a mathematical problem. And to
insist upon evidence of such a sort in its behalf betrays on
your jjart a mental defect or an intellectual mistake. You
have to be content here with moral certainty ; you have to
accept here, not one abstract demonstration, but the sum to
tal of a great variety of separate testimonies, all of them con
verging to one point, and making, by their cumulative force,
an incontrovertible impression on the candid mind.
But there is a third possibility that presents itself Per
haps you are waiting, that it may be easier for you to declare
yourself That is, you will tarry till you discover which is
the popular side, and to that you will adhere. But how un
manly is a course like that ! What signifies it whether the
majority be with you or not; if only you are right, you are
always in the majority, for you have God on your side.
Shame on you to wait for personal considerations when truth
and right and God are concerned !
There is a battle raging on the earth between good and
evil, between God and Satan, between Christ and antichrist;
and it is cowardly in the extreme for you to linger on the

loo Elijah the Prophet.
outskirts of the field, shrouded in the smoke that is issuing
from the conflict, and waiting only till victory declares itself,
that then you may come down and claim the honors of a
triumph which you did nothing to win.
Come forth, and quit yourselves like men in this great
fight. Take the one side or the other ; and, oh, take the side
of the Lord Jesus Christ ! Fight the good fight of faith, and
so lay hold on eternal life. The matter is urgent Make
haste ; for, if you delay much longer, death may decide it for
you, and fix you everlastingly among the foes of God.
Wavering sinner, you are, so to say, in the twilight ; but it
rests with you to determine whether it shall be the twilight
of the morning, brightening into the full splendor of heav
en's own eternal noonday, or that of the evening, darkening
down into the blackness of hell's own endless night To
the one or to the other it must come at last. Halt no
longer, therefore, but decide for God through Jesus Christ
our Lord ; and by the help of his Holy Spirit, slay every
Baalitish principle within you.
" Then bright as morning shall come forth
In peace and joy thy days ;
And glory from the Lord above
Shall shine on all thy ways."

T

VII.
PRAYER AND ITS ANSWER.
I Kings xviii., 40-46.
HE slaughter of the prophets of Baal, at the command
of Elijah, immediately after his sacrifice on Mount Car
mel had been consumed by fire from heaven, has been by
many regarded as a high-handed proceeding, and the ene
mies of the Bible have not hesitated to cry out against it as
both immoral and inhuman.
In answer to all such allegations, however, it might be
enough to say that the destruction of the idolatrous prophets.
must be. taken in connection with the whole events ofthe
day. We are not warranted to view it by itself alone, but
we must look upon it as the sequel of the miraculous accept
ance of Elijah's sacrifice by fire ; which not only proved that
Jehovah was God, but also that Elijah was his duly accred
ited servant. Hence the order of Elijah .was virtually the
command of God, who has the right to take away the lives
which men by their sins have forfeited, whensoever and how
soever' he pleases.- If the reality of the miracle be dis
proved, then we may charge Elijah with cruelty, though in
that case it would be hard to see how he, acting alone,
could so move the people as to persuade them to carry out
his instructions. If, on the other hand, the reality of the
miracle be granted, we must hold that Elijah in issuing his
command was acting in the name and by the authority of
God. But this, in the estimation of some tender and sensitive

102 Elijah the Prophet.
spirits, may only seem to aggravate the difficulty. They
could conceive of Elijah, a man of like passions with other
men, acting after the fashion here described, for no prophet
was infallible in his character ; but they find it hard to be
lieve that God, who is, according to the apostle John, love
itself, should countenance and encourage, far less command,
such a proceeding as that which is here described.
But, in reply to all this, we would remind objectors that
love is by no means inconsistent with the execution of a
penalty on those who have violated a righteous law. Love
to the criminal in the remission of his sentence is cruelty
-and injustice to the nation. To pardon a thief, for example,
and let him loose upon society to renew his dishonesty,
might be regarded by some as kindness to him, but it is the
greatest unkindness to the community.
Now, in the nation of Israel, God was the real king, and
each occupant of the throne on earth was required to rule
in harmony with a certain written code of laws. These
laws are contained in the Books of Moses, and among them
are the most stringent statutes against idolatry. That among
the Israehtes was not merely an immoral thing, as it is and
must be everywhere, but it was also a crime ; that is, an of
fense against the, law of the nation, and a dishonor to him
who was its real king. These prophets of Baal, therefore,
by introducing a new divinity into the land, were guilty not
only of sin against the God of heaven, but also of high trea
son, and so as traitors they had forfeited their lives.
Besides, the idolatry which they were mainly instrumental
in producing brought as its punishment temporal calamities
upon the people ; and as these could be removed only by
the abolition of the idolatry, love to the nation as a whole
demanded that they should be destroyed.
This execution must be regarded as having occurred un
der a theocracy ; and when we so view it, we see at once

Prayer and its Answer. 103
how it was perfectly justifiable in such circumstances, while
it would be utterly unjustifiable in the times in which we
live. Idolatry was then a crime as well as a sin. Now, it is
a sin only, and as such, it is not within the province of any
government to deal with it; but the person who is guilty of
it must be held as answerable to God alone.
Nor has any ruler in the Christian church the right to
imitate Elijah here. He was a prophet of the old cove
nant, and as such was bound to act in accordance with the
laws of Moses. The office-bearer in the church is a ruler,
under the new covenant, of a spiritual society, and is under
obligations to rule only in accordance with the precepts of
Christ and the princijDles laid down by his apostles. Now,
among these there is no warrant for the use of the sword.
The power which the Christian office-bearer wields is that
of truth, and if the truth which he proclaims be by men re
jected, they must be left to be dealt with by God himself
It is important thus to distinguish between things that differ,
and to show how a vindication of Elijah here does not in
volve the approval of persecution now for religious or irre
ligious belief
After this terrible sentence had been executed in the val
ley beside the river Kishon, Elijah said unto Ahab, "Get
thee up ; eat and drink, for there is a sound of abundance
of rain ;" and the king, with the bitterness of defeat with
in his heart, re- ascended the hill, and sat down to the
feast which was always associated with the offering of sacri
fice. While he and his courtiers were thus engaged, Elijah,
with his servant, who now for the first time appears in the
narrative, went still farther up the mountain. Taking his
station in a fit place of retreat, the prophet gave himself to
pray, and sent his servant to the summit, to watch the result,
away. out on the Mediterranean Sea.

I04 Elijah the Prophet.
Now, concerning this supplication of Elijah's a few things
need to be said.
In the first place, it is somewhat remarkable that he offer
ed prayer at all. He had said to Ahab that there vi'as a
sound of abundance of rain ; he had also affirmed, three
years and a half before, that the rain would come at his own
word. What need, then, one is inclined to ask, for prayer at
all? Might he not have spoken the word just at the mo
ment? But no! Elijah knew, what it behooves us also to
remember, that the fulfillment of God's promises comes in
the way of answers to prayer. He knew that to every pre
diction of blessing the condition is annexed, "For this will I
be inquired of to do it for you ;" and so he gave himself to
prayer. He believed that to be a law of God's moral gov
ernment, as imperative and unchanging as any of those in
the physical universe, of which, in these days, so much is
said ; and therefore he set himself to earnest supplication.
Again, it is noteworthy that Elijah withdrew from all soci
ety when he prayed. He went up to be alone ; and he did
so in order that the full strength of his fervent soul might be
given to the work in which he was engaging. Yes, I say the
work; for Elijah's prayer was no mere form, neither was it
the calm musing of a meditative spirit ; but it was the ear
nest wrestling of one whose intellect, and heart, and will, and
conscience were all vigorously exercised for the production
of the result at which he aimed.
When, on one occasion, the Lord Jesus was praying, we
are informed that, when he ceased, his disciples came unto
him, and requested to be taught to pray. Now, the word
there rendered " ceased " literally means when he " rested,"
implying that prayer with Christ, as with Elijah, was a work
in which the whole soul was engaged. It was a saying of
Bishop Hamilton, of Salisbui-y, and is quoted by Canon Lid-
don, that "no man was likely to do much good in prayer

Prayer and its Answer. 105
who did not begin by looking upon it in the light of a work
to be prepared for and persevered in with all the earnest
ness which we bring to bear upon subjects which are, in our
opinion, at once most interesting and most necessary."* Ah,
how far from this is it too frequently with us ! We are list
less, indifferent, formal, cold. So far from having our whole
souls in active exertion, we are too frequently utterly unin
terested in our own devotions, using expressions by rote, and
going over petitions as mechanically as the little figures in a
Swiss clock go through their hourly exercises. Let us, Eli
jah-like, concentrate ourselves on the great work of suppli
cation ; and soon we, too, shall have answers such as those
which he enjoyed.
Further, we are impressed with the fact that Elijah here
had a definite object in view when he prayed. Too often
even professing Christians go to their knees with no distinct
purpose shaped within their souls. They have been taught
to believe that it is their duty to pray, and so they go into
their closets to perform a duty. They use certain stereo
typed phrases, which have come down, as it were, by tradi
tion from the fathers, and form part of all orthodox prayers ;
they ask for things which they ought to desire, rather than
for those which they really at the moment wish ; and thus
the exercises which were meant to be a joy and refreshment
to the spirit become a burden and a weariness. Let us see
to it, therefore, that we pause and consider what we are go
ing to ask before we begin to pray.
It would be a good thing, indeed, as helping to produce
this concentration of heart, if we were to write distinctly
down before our own eyes that which it was our intention
to ask from God. Elijah would not here have been taken
aback if he had been asked, " What did you request from
* " Some Elements of Religious Thought," p. 172.

io6 Elijah the Prophet.
God ?" His whole soul was bent on securing rain. He had
done all he could in the way of purging the land from idol
atry ; and he now turned to God to remove the curse which
for idolatry was resting on the land. He knew what he
wanted. Yet what confusion would often cover us, if, after
we have risen from our knees, some one were to ask us,
" What have you been praying for ?"
Look at the prayer offered by Elijah before the fire came
down and consumed the sacrifice ; look at the prayers offer
ed by Moses, by Daniel, by Nehemiah, and others, as they
have been preserved in this book, and see how definite they
were. They went to the object which the suppliants had in
view as straight as an arrow to its mark ; and we shall never
pray aright until we learn this definiteness.
If one, in his daily business, should go to a fellow-mer
chant, and present a request with the same circumlocution
which is too often used in prayer, or if he should indulge in
the same pointless generalities which are so common in our
petitions, he would be laughed to scorn, and would be count
ed any thing but earnest Brethren, let us reform this alto
gether, and be as natural and direct in our requests to God
as our children are in their applications to us.
Notice, again, how Elijah expected an answer to his prayer.
lie sent his servant to the summit to look out for its appear
ance. He regarded it as a certainty that the answer would
come ; and just as when you have written to a dear friend,
asking advice on some important matter, it never occurs to
you to doubt that he will answer, and you watch for the post
man every morning to see whether the reply has come, so it
never entered into Elijah's mind to doubt that his prayer
would be granted. The strangest of all things to him would
have been that his prayer should be unanswered. So he set
a watch for the coming of the answer.
Now, how different all this is from our procedure, I need

Prayer and its Answer. 107
hardly stay to show. Is it not true that we speak of answers
to prayer as almost unwonted things ? When one of our own
prayers is answered, we can not think enough of it ; and this
not so much because of God's kindness in giving it — for that
would be well enough — as because of its unusualness in our
experience. The wonder is to us that our prayer has been
answered at all.
Take up a book of religious anecdotes, and you will prob
ably see a section headed thus : " Remarkable Answers to
Prayer;" but what unbelief is there in the very title! Why,
that real prayer should be answered by God for Jesus' sake
is not a remarkable thing ; it is one of the laws of his spir
itual government that such prayer should be answered, and
the wonderful thing would be if, after the promises he has
made, he were to ignore our petitions. Is it, after all, so re
markable a thing that God should keep his promise? If he
were a frail, erring man, who had often broken his word, and
had obtained the reputation of being untruthful, it might be
something astonishing if, on one or two occasions, he should
keep his promise. But he is the faithful God, and the won
der is that we should be surprised at any manifestation of
his faithfulness.
Brethren, there is an immense amount of unbelief under
lying the common modes of speech even of professing Chris
tians on this subject It is not singular that God should
hear prayer ; but, oh ! it is singular that, with so many of
his promises plainly given us in his AVord, and with the man
ifestation of his love to us in the cross of his Son, before our
eyes, we should not calculate upon his answering our prayers
just as we do upon the response of a beloved friend to the
earnest letter which we have sent him for sympathy and ad
vice. Elijah would have been surprised if God had not answer
ed him ; we, alas ! in our unbelief, are surprised when he

io8 Elijah the Prophet.
does answer us ! Let us have done with all this ; and when
we direct our prayer unto God, let us look up, expecting
some result
I remark, again, that Elijah was importunate in his prayer.
Six times the servant whom he had stationed on the hill-top
returned with the reply, "There is nothing;" but that did
not dishearten the prophet. He kept on at his prayer ; he
knocked again and again, until the response was given.
Nor is this a solitary instance of believing importunity
in petition. Jesus, in Gethsemane, threw himself three times
upon the earth praying the same words. Paul besought the
Lord thrice that his thorn in the flesh might be removed.
The Syrophenician woman clung to Christ, and would not
let him go until the blessing came. From these cases let
us learn not to be disappointed if at first no answer comes.
Though it tarry, wait for it ; it will surely come — it will not
tarry ; " and of this let us be sure, that no true prayer is ever
lost" Either in spirit or in letter, it will be surely answered.
The God of heaven has promised to hear his children's cry,
and his throne shall totter, and himself cease to be the ruler
of the world, sooner than his word shall be falsified or his
pledge broken.
Finally, here, Elijah recognized the answer when it came,
for when the seventh time his servant came, saying, " Behold,
there ariseth a little cloud out ofthe sea, like a man's hand,"
he saw in this the response to his prayer, and sent a message
to Ahab to hasten his departure, lest the rain should hinder
his return to his palace.
Some have taken this as an illustration of the gradual
manner in which God often answers his people's prayers,
and sends his blessings ; but I confess that, to me, there is
nothing that suggests the gradual in the description that is
here given, for the fact that the king was bid to make haste
shows rather that the storm came on at once in all its force.

Prayer and its Answer. 109
But while I do not see that idea in the narrative before
me, I think we have here an indication of the fact that God
answers his people's prayers through the ordinary operations
of the laws of nature. There was nothing in the coming of
this storm different from the rising of those which are com
mon in the eastern portion of the Mediterranean. That this
is the case is clear from the statements made by modern
voyagers in the Levant
" Of several instances which occur tb us," says Dr. Kitto,*
"the most graphic is that given by Mr. Emerson, in his 'Let
ters from the ^gean.' He is at sea in a Greek vessel in
the Levant One morning, which had opened clear and
beautiful, it was announced that a squall might be expected.
No sign recognizable by European landsmen appeared ; but
on attention being properly directed, ' a little black cloud
was seen on the verge of the horizon toward the south, which
was every instant spreading rapidly over the face of the sky,
and drawing nearer to the vessel. Order was immediately
given to strike sail, and to prepare the vessel for scudding
before the hurricane. But scarcely an instant had elapsed
ere the squall was upon us, and all grew black around; the
wind came swishing and crisping over the water, and in a
moment the ship was running, almost gunwale down, while
the rain was dashing in torrents on the decks.' Mr. Emer
son adds that it is mainly the dread of- such sudden bour-
rasques that compels almost every vessel in the Levant to
shorten sail at the close of day, since it would be next to
impossible during the night to discern the cloud which an
nounces the approach of the tempest in time to prepare for
its reception, and to a ship with all her canvas spread the
effect might be terrific."
Thus, then, Elijah's prayer was answered through the op-
* " Daily Bible Illustrations," vol. iv., p. 272.

no Elijah the Prophet.
eration of God's ordinary laws for the regulation of the forces
of nature ; and so we have in this a triumphant reply to
those who assert that the hearing of prayer by God must in
volve an interference with the laws of nature which would
amount to a miracle. For there is no word here of miracle ;
and the storm came that evening precisely as storms come
in tliat region yet Hence we are shut up to the inference
that this prayer was answered through God's usual channels
of operation, and we must conclude that what men call ph3-s-
ical laws have been arranged by God with the view of his
carrying on through them the course of his providence, and
answering by them the prayers of his people. How this has
been accomplished, I can not tell ; that it is the case, I am
forced to conclude, not only from this narrative, but also
from many others in this sacred Book.
But some one may say: " Not so fast ! If this storm came
only as other storms come, through the operation of natural
laws, how can you hold that Elijah's prayer was answered by
its coming ? May there not be here only a coincidence ?"
Now, to this I reply that if we had nothing more before us
than the fact that a man prayed for rain, and the other fact
that the rain came just after he had prayed, we might say
that there was only a coincidence ; but we have more than
these two things to contemplate. We have to take in, be
sides, the truth that God has promised to hear prayer, and the
fact that Elijah offered his prayer in the faith of that prom
ise ; and when we include these, it is impossible any longer
to speak of coincidence.
A friend promises to another that, if he will let him know
when he is in need, he will be always ready to help" him.
The hour of need comes. He writes for help, and by the
first post thereafter, his friend, availing himself of the ordi
nary channels of communication, sends a letter inclosing
mone}'. Is this any the less an answer to prayer because

Prayer and its Answer. hi
the benevolent man used the regular means of transmitting
his gift, and did not send a special messenger with it by an
unusual route ? or does the recipient in such a case speak
of mere coincidence ? No ; but he sees the fulfillment of a
promise, and rejoices in the new assurance which he has re
ceived of the faithfulness of h'is friend. Just so here. We
must have regard to the promise of God, and the suppli
ant's faith in it, as well as to the coming of that which the
suppliant prays for ; and when we bring these in, it is the
merest absurdity to speak of a coincidence.
I know that just now it is the fashion, in certain scientific
quarters, to deny the possibility of prayers being ever an
swered, and to deride the very offering of it ; but these phi
losophers forget, on the one hand, the natural impulse of the
burdened heart to pray, and, on the other, the promise which
God has given to answer prayer. " There are more things in
heaven and earth'' than they have dreamed of, or can under
stand. When God created the world, he certainly did not
shut himself out of it ; and he who gave the universe its laws
can surely so employ them as to answer the entreaties of his
children through them. To suppose the contrary is to de
grade the Almighty below the level of a common artificer,
and to make him the slave, and not the master, of the ele
ments of nature.
Some time ago, being at Binghamton, in this State, I
went to see the machinery wherewith that city is supplied
with water. In a small house on the bank of the Susque
hanna, there is an engine, which goes night and day, pump
ing water into the mains. The demand for water acts as a
governor on the engine, and regulates its motion, so that the
more water is drawn off, th& faster the engine goes. Then,
when a fire occurs, an alarm-bell is rung, on hearing which
the engineer gears on some extra machinery, which causes
the engine to move more rapidly, and charges the ordinary

112 Elijah the Prophet.
mains to their fullest capacity, so that they can send water
through the hose to the top of the highest building in the
place. Now, if men can thus construct an engine whereby,
through ordinary and already existing channels, an emergen
cy of prayer may be met, why can not God do the same in
this machine which we call the' universe ? As we understand
the matter, it is thus he does proceed. He uses his natural
laws for the carrying forward of his purposes in grace, and
for the help of his believing children ; and, as Isaac Taylor
has suggestively said, " the greatest miracle of God's provi
dence is that it is carried on without miracle," while yet it
makes provision for the answering of prayer, and for the ac
complishment ofthe great purpose ofthe Divine Mind.
But I must hasten on to the conclusion of the narrative.
As the storm began, Ahab mounted his chariot and rode on
toward Jezreel, while Elijah, under a divine impulse, girded
his loins and ran before him to the gate of the palace. I
have seen no explanation of this apparently strange proced
ure at all equal to that given by Dr. Thomson in " The Land
and the Book ;'' and as it would only mar the beauty of his
statement if I were to attempt either to paraphrase or to
abridge it, I shall content myself with simply reproducing
his words :
" This," says that excellent writer, " has always seemed to
me most extraordinary conduct for a man of Elijah's age,
character, and office. And yet, when rightly understood, it
was beautiful and full of important instruction. Elijah, as
God's minister, had overwhelmed the king with shame and
confusion in the presence of his subjects. The natural tend
ency of this would be to lower him in their eyes, and lessen
their respect for his authority. It was not the intention, how
ever, to weaken the" government, nor to encourage rebellion.
The prophet was, therefore, divinely directed to give a testi
mony of respect and honor lo the king as public .and strik-

Prayer and its Answer. 113
ing as from necessity had been the opposition and rebuke to
his idolatry. The mode of doing honor to Ahab by running
before his chariot was in accordance with the customs of the
East even to this day. I was reminded of this incident more
than twenty years ago, at Jaffa, when Mohammed Ali came
to that city with a large army to quell the rebellion of Pal
estine. The camp was on the sand-hills south of the city,
while Mohammed Ali stopped inside the walls. The officers
were constantly coming and going, preceded by runners, who
always kept just ahead of the horses, no matter how furious
ly they were ridden ; and in order to run with the greater
ease, they not only girded their loins very tightly, but also
tucked up their loose garments under the girdle, lest they
should be incommoded by them. Thus, no doubt, did Eli
jah. The distance from the base of Carmel across the plain
to Jezreel is not less than twelve miles ; and the race was
probably accomplished in two hours, in the face of a tremen
dous storm of rain and wind. It was necessary that the
hand of the Lord should be upon the prophet, or he would
not have been able to achieve it."*
We have, all through this evening's lecture, set ourselves
to give a practical direction to the example of the prophet,
and so we may be the more readily excused if we shall, for
once, finish with a doctrinal deduction. In our last dis
course we spoke of the sacrifice on Mount Carmel as having
been, in some sort, typical of the greater offering by a great
er prophet on Calvary ; and it surely can not be unnatural
if we connect the prayer of Elijah, with its answer in the
wind and rain, with the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the
infant Church on Pentecost, in answer to the continuous
supplications of the first disciples.
The sacrifice of Christ, valuable as it was, was not all that
* " The Land and the Book," English edition, p. 4S5.

114 Elijah the Prophet.
was needed for the world's salvation. The descent of the
Spirit was just as needful as the offering of himself upon the
cross by Jesus. The one, without the other, would have been
of no avail. By the union of both, the salvation of the be
lieving soul is effected. The cross was the magnet, but the
Spirit is the hand that holds that magnet, and draws men's
souls to God. The cross is the great instrumentality by
which the soul is renewed and sanctified and made meet for
heaven ; but the Spirit is the agent who makes that instru
mentality effectual. Just as in the present instance, though
Elijah had overcome the idolaters in securing the acceptance
of his sacrifice, the land would still have remained parched
and barren had there been no rain ; so, even after the death
of Christ on Calvary, and his resurrection from the tomb of
Joseph, the world would have remained to a large extent un
blessed had there been no succeeding Pentecost
Thus we may see how much we owe to these hundred and
twenty suppliants in the upper room who continued instant
in prayer, until, vi-ith the sound as of a tempest, the Spirit of
fire descended on them, to purify and consecrate them for
the Master's work, and to clothe them with power from on
high for its prosecution.
Nor is this true only in regard of Christ's sacrifice as re
lated to Pentecost It is as true 3'et of the preaching of
Christ crucified and its relation to the conversion of men.
It is not enough that we have a faithful minister who sets
forth before the eyes of his hearers Jesus Christ, evidently
Crucified for them. That of itself will not convert them, and
cause the verdure of the new life to spring up within their
souls. The heavenly rain of the Spirit is required for that
as well as the preaching of the Cross.
Let us never forget this. Let the minister retire from his
pulpit as Elijah went here to his closet, and let the hearers
do the same ; let them together plead that God would send

Prayer and its Answer. 115
down his Spirit in rich effusion ; let them be earnest, believ
ing, and importunate in their prayers ; and then there will be
"a sound of abundance of rain." Souls will be converted, the
church will be revived, the neighborhood will be blessed, and
anew the old oracles will be fulfilled. " The wilderness and
the solitary place shall be glad for them ; the desert shall re
joice, and blossom as the rose." " Fie shall come unto us as
the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth." " He
shall come down like rain upon the mown grass, and as show
ers that water the earth." To your knees, then, my hearers,
to your knees ! Go, beseech God to pour out his Spirit upon
us all ; and who can tell but that from this evening service
there shall commence a blessing which shall be like a new
Pentecost to all our souls, and the effects of which shall radi
ate from us until all around are made to own the reality and
to feel the power of the Redeemer's grace ? Would to God
that it might be so, indeed !

VIII.
UNDER THE yUNIPER-TREE.
1 Kings xix., 1-18.
WHEN Ahab returned to Jezreel, and reported to Jez
ebel the proceedings on Mount Carmel, with their
disastrous issue for the priests of Baal, her rage knew no
bounds. She thought of Elijah^as her only adversary, and,
tracing the whole effect to some trickery or sleight of hand
of his, she sent to him a •message of revengeful import :
" So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I make not thy
life as the life of one of them by to-morrow about this time."
She refused to acknowledge the sovereignty of Jehovah, even
when proved by such convincing signs as those which Elijah
had given, and she vainly imagined that if she could only
destroy the prophet's life, she would also annihilate the
cause with which he was identified. She had not been her
self on Carmel, a spectator of the descending fire upon Eli
jah's sacrifice ; and, with the true spirit of the skeptic, who
will not believe the eyes of others, and, unless it suits his
own purposes, v>'ill not believe his own, she would not ac
knowledge that any miracle had been wrought " It was all
a delusion. By some premonitory indications, Elijah knew
that the drought was about to cease, and, calculating on the
coming thunder-storm, he thought he could make the peo
ple believe that the wood upon his altar was kindled by fire
from heaven, whereas it was only a flash of lightning ; and
as for the rain coming as the result of his prayer, that was
all a superstition — it was a mere coincidence — only that,

Under the Juniper-tree. 117
and nothing more ; and when the morning dawned, she
would turn the tables upon him, and make sure that he, at
least, would never again interfere with Ahab's plan for the
Baalizing of the kingdom of Israel."
Had she been merely fighting with a man, she might have
succeeded ; but Elijah was only the servant of Jehovah, and
though he were removed, Jehovah would remain as omnip
otent as ever. This is forgotten by all persecutors of the
faith ; and in reference to every kind of religious intoler
ance, the advice of Gamaliel may well be pondered by the
governments that practice it : " Refrain from these men, and
let them alone ; for if this counsel or this work be of men,
it will come to naught : but if it be of God, ye can not over
throw it; lest haply ye be found even to fight against
God."* When Elijah heard what Jezebel had said, a sudden panic
seized him, and he arose and fled for his life, resting not un
til he came to Beer-sheba, the southern extremity of Judah.
But he would not remain even in that utmost border of the
land ; for though the good Jehoshaphat was then king at Je
rusalem, his son had married the daughter of Jezebel, and, in
his paroxysm of terror, the prophet would not stay where any
ofthe kin of Ahab had any influence whatever. So, leaving
his servant at Beer-sheba, he went a full day's journey into
the wilderness, and flung himself at even-tide under the lee
of a shrub, here called a juniper-tree. " It was a white-blos
somed broom, abundant in Spain, Barbary, Syria, and the des
ert of Sinai, and known in British shrubberies as the Spanish
Broom. "t Dr. Bonar, in his account of his journey through
Sinai, describing a bush of this species, says : "It was under
this tree that Elijah sat down to take shelter from the heat.

» Acts v., 38, 39.
t Fairbairn's "Imperial Bible Dictionary," article Juniper-lree.

ii8 Elijah the Prophet.
and more tiian once did we do the same ; for some of these
shrubs are bushy and tall, perhaps eight or ten feet higli.
They formed a shadow, sometimes from the heat, sometimes
from the wind, and sometimes from the rain, both for man
and beast. It was about the best shadow that the desert
could afford, save when we could get under some great rock
or shaggy palm."*
Under such a broom-bush, then, in his fear, his weariness,
his self-reproach, and his despair, Elijah threw himself, and
requested that he might die, saying, " It is enough ; now, O
Lord, take away my life ; for I am not better than my fa
thers." Is this the man who had bearded Ahab in his court,
whose prayer had sealed and opened heaven, whose faith had
raised the dead, and who had put to confusion the prophets
of Baal on the brow of Carmel ? Is this he who heretofore
has never feared the face of man ? Is this Elijah the Tish
bite, fleeing from death, and yet with almost maniacal incon
sistency supplicating for death ? Alas, it is even so ! "The
best of men are but men at the best." Grand and noble as
he was, he was, after all, only " a man of like passions with
ourselves ;" and in this panic-stricken paralysis of his faith
there is as much to instruct us as in his bold denunciation
of the wrong, and manly struggle for the right It seems,
indeed, a strange collapse ; yet I am not sure but that most
of us will have more affinity with him as he lies here in his
dark depression than as he stood that other day in his re
forming might, calling the thousands of Israel to decision.
Paul, in his peculiar experiences, has taught us that when we
are weak, then we may be strong. To-night we may learn,
from the fugitive prophet under the juniper-tree, that where
we are strong, there we may be weak. Let us try if we can
in any degree account for this unusual conduct on Elijah's
* Bonar's " Sinai," p. 196.

Under the Juniper-tree. 119
part, and let us also carefully follow God's dealing with him
in the despondency out of which his conduct grew.
In speaking ofthe causes of Elijah's sudden depression, I
would, like Robertson, of Brighton — whose sermon on this
chapter* has well-nigh swept the whole field of thought on
the subject, and left the merest handful to all after-gleaners
— give prominence to the physical reaction which must have
followed upon the intense excitement of the previous days.
In our complex humanity there is a mysterious sympathy
between the body and the spirit When the mind is ear
nestly engaged, it gives, for the time, its vigor and energy
to the body ; so that we are not surprised to hear of John
Knox, that in his last days he had to be supported into the
puljDit by a servant on each side of him, and behooved to
lean upon it at his first entry ; but, as James Melville says,
"er he had done with his sermone, he was so active and so
vigorous that he was lyk to ding the pulpit in blads (knock
the pulpit to pieces), and flie out of it." But, on the other
hand, when, after long-continued tension, the strain is slack
ened, and the body is run down, it imparts its weariness to
the spirit.
In the heat of a man's enthusiastic devotion to some pur
suit, and while the absolute necessity for exertion is upon
him, he is not conscious of physical fatigue ; but when the
work is done, and the weight of responsibility removed, both
body and mind sink into a state of weakness which makes
every thought of exertion a distress. In such a condition
the slightest noise will seem to sound as with the report of
a revolver, and every call to attention will rasp upon the
nervous system with an agony, the intensity of which can
be understood only by those who have felt it The natural
equipoise of the system has been disturbed ; and as, when
* Robertson's " Sermons," Second Series, p. 95.

120 Elijah the Prophet.
you take a weight out of the one scale on the balance, the
other sinks at once to a depth corresponding to the height
to which the first rises, so when, by some anxious and har
assing exertion, a man has been -held long on a stretch, the
moment the work is finished there will come a rebound into
a state of weakness which is as far below the usual condition
of his system as his former strength was above it.
When a mother, or a sister, or a wife is watching by the
bedside of a dear one, a marvelous power of endurance is
evoked, sleep and rest seem almost unnecessary, and for the
time the nurse is a wonder to herself and all around her.
But when the danger is past, and the patient has recovered,
then there is a recoil, and the effects of the overexertion of
a few weeks tell for months, both upon the body and the
mind. The valley is as deep as the mountain is high. The
ebb of the .tide is proportioned to its height ; and is ever
greatest when the flood -tide has been at the spring. So
excessive tension of our bodily system will induce as excess
ive relaxation, and that, in its turn, will tell upon the tone
of the mind. This is the law of our human nature. We all
understand it ; we have all experienced it ; and we must
give Elijah here the full benefit of it Think what he had
gone through during these preceding few days of exciting
toil. After his challenge to the priests of Baal, there was the
earnestness of his prayerful preparation for the encounter ;
then there was the long day of actual conflict on the mount
ain ; then his wrestling with God for the rain ; and then his
rapid race before Ahab's chariot all the way from Carmel
to Jezreel. Now, all these coming one upon another must
have worn out even so muscular a frame as Elijah's ; for
observe there was much more than mere physical toil.
Every body knows that there is nothing so exhaustive as
deep emotion. Now, the conflict on the mountain stirred
the prophet's heart to its depths, and prayer like his must

Under the Juniper-tree. 121
itself have been a labor of the most fatiguing kind. Hence,
when the threat of Jezebel was repeated to him, and he saw
no attempt made by the people to rally round him, we can
easily understand how, in. the state of prostration to which
he was reduced, his faith failed him, and he turned and fled.
Had he better understood the demands of his o-wn frame
upon him, he might probably have struggled more manfully
against this physical reaction ; and might have reasoned
that Jezebel was no more dangerous to him now than she
had been before. But, in his ignorance of the cause of his
depression, he magnified the peril in which he stood, while
at the same time he forgot the faithfulness of that protector
who before had hidden him in the valley of the Cherith and
the cottage of Zarephath. Let us learn, therefore, from his
case not to mistake the lassitude of the body for the deser
tion of Jehovah. Many of our darkest hours are caused
not so much by spiritual evils as by physical derangements.
And not seldom we apply to God's ministers for religious
consolation, when we should repair to our physician for med
ical treatment
But another cause of Elijah's depression is to be found in
the fact that he had been thus far companionless. By this
I do not mean that he had stood alone in the land, without
the encouragement of knowing that at least seven thousand
had been faithful to Jehovah, but rather that he had found
no intimate human friend who could soothe him by personal
sympathy and affection. It is no doubt true that there is a
certain solitariness about every man, and that the greater
the man is, the greater is his loneliness. Nor do I forget
that when one can get access to God in prayer, the lack of
human confidential friendship is more than compensated.
Still, there is a craving in every heart for earthly companion
ship ; nay, more, there is a healing power in such fellowship
which tends to refresh our hearts and keep us from depres-
6

122 Elijah the Prophet.
sion. He who formed us said, " It is not good for man to
be alone," and in the companionship of a wife — when a man
has the wisdom to make her a companion, and not a mere
ornamental appendix to himself — there is great moral benefit
The beautiful myth of English history tells how Queen
Eleanor sucked the poison out of her husband's wounds;
and in a moral and spiritual sense this is what every true-
hearted wife seeks to do. She takes the poison from the
wounds which her husband receives in the daily battle of
life. This, also, in a lower degree indeed, but yet ip a very
great degree, is what a real friend does for his friend ; and if
Elijah here had but possessed such a companion, he might
have been saved from his flight into the wilderness. Up till
this time, however, his solitariness had been the great blank
of his life. He had been a Luther without his Melancthon ;
a Peter without his John; a Calvin without his Beza.
It is instructive to note how, almost in all ages and lands,
God has sent out his reformers as at first Christ sent his
evangelists, two by two, that the weakness ofthe one might,
in some measure, be supplemented by the strength of the
other. But Elijah had no one to consult with ; no one to
speak to him of his nervous prostration and exaggerated
fears ; no one to take for a moment, as it were, the lever
of his thoughts, and switch them off upon a different track ;
and so he ran away. Perhaps, during his past career, he
had undervalued human society, wrapping himself up in sol
emn exclusiveness, not courting or caring for a friend ; but
now he suffers for this lack ; and it is not without signifi
cance, as tending to confirm this view, that almost immedi
ately after, Elisha was associated with him as his coadjutor
and companion.
Let us learn from all this, therefore, to cultivate some spe
cial friendship which may prove a solace to us in time of
trouble. We do ourselves injustice, and prepare for our-

Under the Juniper-tree. 123
selves collapse and defeat like this of Elijah, when we keep
ourselves aloof, frowning down all advances on the part of
those who desire to be our friends, and determining to stand
alone. Ah, how have I seen the strong man bowed down
and lying wailing under the juniper-tree, because, by his ex
clusiveness and reticence, he had in former times so sur
rounded himself with chevaux-de-frise that no one could get
near him with sympathy and succor ! The wise man here
may well instruct us : " Two are better than one ; because
they have a good reward for their labor. For if they fall,
the one will lift up his fellow : but woe to him that is alone
when he falleth. And if one prevail against him, two shall
withstand him ; and a threefold cord is not quickly broken."*
Still another cause for Elijah's depression may, perhaps,
be found in the exaggerated expectations which h6 had been
cherishing in regard to the results of his work. That thrill
ing cheer which made the echoes ring on Carmel, when the
people shouted, " Jehovah, he is the God ; Jehovah, he is
the God," had been interpreted by him as meaning that the
subjects of Ahab would at once abjure idolatry, and rally
round him as the prophet of Jehovah. But now, when Jeze
bel tlireatened his life, and no voice is raised on his behalf,
he is disappointed, and seeks the wilderness. He imagines
that his work has been in vain, and that the purpose of his
life has been lost His labor, he thinks, has been like wa
ter spilled upon the ground ; and so, in deepest self-abase
ment, he comes to God, saying : " Why should I live any
longer ? I wanted to stem the torrent of idolatry, and be so
much better than my fathers as to destroy the evil which
they left unchecked in the land. But I have failed, and am
no better than they. Take away my life now." But had he
only known human nature better, this dying-down of enthu-
* Ecclesiastes iv., 9, 10, 12.

124 Elijah the Prophet.
siasra on the part of the people would not have surprised
him ; for nothing is more hollow and fluctuating than popu
lar applause. He forgot that the system which he was op
posing had human nature, worldly interest, and earthly fash
ion on its side, and that it was too deeply rooted to be over
turned by a " huzza." Grand as the Carmel triumph had
been, that was not the winning of the campaign : it was rath
er but the sounding' ofthe advance, or, at best, the achieve
ment of the first victory. The iniquity which he wished to
remove was not to be destroyed in a day. It needed that
the principles which he had announced, and the proofs which
he had given on the mountain, should be received into men's
minds, talked over in their homes, and prayed over in their
closets, before any general effect could be produced; and
for all these things time was required. Nay, it might even
be that his own martyrdom by Jezebel might have contrib
uted as much to the reformation as the scene on Carmel ;
even as the smoke of Patrick Hamilton's burning at the
stake was said to have infected all on whom it blew, and so
to have commenced the Scottish Reformation. In any case,
it seems to me that there was impatience, natural indeed,
yet in its essence unbelieving, manifested by Elijah. He
was looking for the harvest while yet the seed had but just
left his hand, whereas " the husbandman waiteth for the pre
cious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, till he
receive the early and the latter rain." Let us learn a lesson
here also.
Let us not be unduly elated by momentary success. It is
pleasing at the moment, but it may not last, and we must
discount a great deal from it when we come to call for self-
denying efforts for the Lord's cause. Not every one who
cheers on Carmel will rally round us at Jezreel, with Jezebel
denouncing death upon our head. There is much truth in
the words of Robertson here, though they be tinged a little

Under the Juniper-tree. 125
by the bitterness of his own expe'rience : " What is ministe
rial success? Crowded churches, full aisles, attentive con
gregations, the approval of the religious world, much impres
sion produced ? Elijah thought so ; and when he discovered
his mistake, and found out that the Carmel applause sub
sided into hideous stillness, his heart well-nigh broke with
disappointment Ministerial success lies in altered lives
and obedient, humble hearts, unseen worth recognized in
the Judgment-day."*
Let us beware, again, of falling into undue depression
when the favor of the multitude dies down. It is not right
to take that as a gauge of our real success or failure. There
are some things to the merchant better than a fortune;
there are some things to the minister more truly success than
overflowing audiences. His grandest success will not be
in immediate "hosannas," but rather in the gradual effects
of his teaching and his example, through a course of years,
upon those to whom he ministers. The tear-drop glistening
in the eye of one penitent, brought to Jesus' feet by his ten
der words ; the knowledge that some poor victim of evil
habit has broken asunder his chains under his influence ;
the perception of growth in steadfast holiness of character in
many of his flock — these, to him, ought to outweigh a thou
sand-fold the compliments of the crowd and the applause of
thronging multitudes ; and in the days when he finds him
self deserted, his truest solace will be the remembrance that
the truths which he has taught have taken living root in
many hearts, and are bringing forth fruit to the honor of his
Master. Let us be sure, therefore, that we put a right value upon
that which we have before we hanker after that which we
have not ; and, above all, let us be moderate in our expec-
* "Sermons," Second Series, p. 105.

126 Elijah the Prophet.
tations. Luther had to say to Melancthon once, when that
great scholar was under the juniper -tree, that "old Adam
was too strong for young Philip ;" and many an earnest work
er would be spared much distress, and be prevented from
running away from his post in despair, if he were more cor
rectly to appreciate the difficulties which he has to encount
er, and more wisely to estimate the character of those re
sults for which he is to look.
Finally, here, we may perhaps see another cause of Eli
jah's depression in the fact that he was giving too great
prominence to himself in the matter. On a memorable oc
casion in Samuel's life, when he was greatly distressed at the
thought that the tribes would not longer have him as their
judge, but desired a king, the Lord at once rebuked and
strengthened him by saying, " They have not rejected thee ;
but they have rejected me." So, when Jonah lay in anger
under the gourd, the great cause of his misery was that he
was thinking more of his reputation as a prophet than of
Jehovah's glory in the salvation of the Ninevites. In like
manner, I think I can trace in Elijah's somewhat self-com
placent rehearsal of his doings, when God questioned him in
Horeb, that he was suffering in some degree from wounded
self-conceit It is remarkable that those who are the loudest in their
complaints of want of success are often, also, those who
have the highest idea of their own powers. By a singular
law of compensation, they make up for the lack of apprecia
tion of them by others by an undue opinion of themselves.
I am very far indeed from saying that Elijah belonged to
that class ; yet I can not but feel that, in this one instance,
he was the victim of wounded pride. So just to let him see
what he would be, or, rather, what he was when left to him
self, God let him alone ; and he ran away.
Let us learn from all this to think more of God's glory

Under the Juniper-tree. 127
than our own reputation. The cause is of infinitely more
importance than any individual among us. When we begin
to fret over our own lack of recognition, we are in danger
of falling into some disgrace, and, by-and-by, may find our
selves under the juniper-tree in the saddest and darkest de
spair, crying, " I am aweary, aweary ; I would that I were
dead !" The humble man is ever the most patient, and the
most persistent in the service ofthe Lord.
But now let us follow the history, and note how Jehovah
dealt with his servant in his circumstances of depression.
And here you will observe, first, that he gave him rest and
refreshment He let him lie still and sleep, that by the re
storing influence of slumber his frame might recover its elas
ticity. He did not awake him by violence; but when the
time came that he should eat, he sent his angel to prepare
nourishing food for him, and gently to invite him to partake
of it A second time this was done for him, and he was ad-
inonished to eat heartily, because a long journey was before
him. Who can read this story without being reminded of
our Lord's treatment of the multitude when it was said that
" he would not send them away fasting, lest they should
faint by the way ?" Then, whether by divine direction or
of his own motive we can not tell, he arose and went to
Horeb, that amidst those bare and lonely peaks, where Je
hovah gave the law to Moses, he, too, might meet his cov
enant God.
Now, what considerate kindness have we in all this ! Of
a truth God " will not break the bruised reed, nor quench
the smoking flax." His servant had erred, yet he was just
then in no proper state to be admonished for his error ; so
God strengthened him, in order that he might bear reproof
As when a father has gone in search of a runaway son, and
finds him stricken down with a dangerous fever, he sits
down and nurses him with tenderness, saying no word of

128 Elijah the Prophet.
blame until he has been in some measure restored to health,
so the Lord here, will not put too heavy a load upon the
heart-broken prophet, but makes the most appropriate pro
vision for his comfort and support Behold the gentleness
of our God ; and whensoever we are lying under the juni
per-tree, let us recall with re-assurance this kindness shown
to Elijah, and rest in the conviction that in some similar
though non-miraculous way he will visit and sustain us.
But not less remarkable is the admonition, partly in words
and partly in supernatural symbol, which the Lord address
es to his servant ; nor can we read the account of it witli-
out having recalled to us a similar revelation made by Jeho
vah to Moses in the same locality. Both were immediately
consequent upon a signal execution of righteous judgment
Moses had come from the slaying of the idolaters ; Elijah
from the destruction of Baal's priests. In both there was a
clear and particular reference to the mercy and graciousness
of God ; but the one was given to strengthen a faithful serv
ant, the other to correct the false impressions of a sincere
though erring prophet. To Moses the Lord said, " My pres
ence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest ;" to Elijah
he said, "What doest thou here?" The question was em
phatic, and must have suggested far more than it expressed.
Thou, my appointed messenger and chosen champion, here !
so far from the scene of thy labors and the post of duty ! So
he probed the conscience of Elijah ; and so, not in the des
ert of Sinai, but in the highways of business, or in the by
ways of sin, or in the solemn assembly, he often probes ours.
Ah, how frequently have we heard, sounding in our secret
ears, these same words of searching inquiry. What doest
thou, a professed adherent of the Lord Jesus, here, in the
gambling- room, or haunt of sensuality or intemperance?
What doest thou, a real disciple of the Lord, here, among
those who make a mock at his name and a jest of his relig-

Under the Juniper-tree. 129
ion ? What doest thou, a selfish, godless man, here, at the
table of the Lord with those who truly love and serve him ?
Friends, when this stern voice is heard by us thus, let us wel
come it as the utterance of God, and resolve that by his help
it shall never again require to be addressed to us. " Faith
ful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy
are deceitful."
Then, after Elijah had attempted to vindicate himself, in
words that seem to reveal the wounded self-love to which I
have referred, saying: "I have been very jealous for the
Lord God of hosts : for the children of Israel have forsaken
thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy proph
ets with the sword ; and I, even I only, am left ; and they
-seek my life, to take it away." The Lord said : "Go forth,
and stand upon the mount before the Lord. And, behold,
the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the
mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord ;
but the Lord was not in the wind : and after the wind an
earthquake ; but the Lord was not in the earthquake : and
after the earthquake a fire ; but the Lord was not in the fire :
and after the fire a still small voice. And it was so, when
Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle, and
went out, and stood in the entering in of the cave. And,
behold, there came a voice unto him, and said. What doest
thou here, Elijah ?" And this new inquiry he answered after
the former manner.
Now, various interpretations of this spectacle have been
suggested, but to my mind it seems to be a symbolical delin
eation to the prophet of the nature of the work which he had
done, and a suggestion to him of that which had been want
ing in order to the attainment of the success on which his
heart had been set There had been about him much of the
whirlwind, the earthquake, and the fire. He had said and
done much to terrify and alarm. But he was to learn that
6*

13° Elijah the Prophet.
God was not in these things. These were but the awful out
riders of his majesty; but that majesty itself is gentleness.
Here, therefore, as it appears to me, a great principle was
unfolded to Elijah, and to all workers for God, and an. inti
mation is given that, while they may need to use the earth
quake and the fire, the secret of their power will ever be in
" love." It was as if Jehovah had said : " But half of thy
work is done, and that half the least profitable and powerful.
Thou hast used the terror of the whirlwind. Go back, and
try with men the still small voice of tenderness and compas
sion." Not John the Baptist, but Jesus, is the regenerator
of men ; and though John must go before Jesus, yet to ex
pect that he shall succeed in reforming the world is as ab
surd as to suppose that the plowshare and the harrow will
produce a harvest without the genial heat of the sun and .the
kindly rain of the clouds.
Then, having given Elijah this lesson, the Lord says to
him, "Yet have I left me seven thousand in Israel, all the
knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth
which hath not kissed him." Things were not so bad as to
the prophet's jaundiced eye they looked. However hardly
we may judge of matters, they are usually better than we
deem, and in any case we must not let ourselves complain
of lack of success until we have patiently exhausted all in
quiries, and can speak from fullest knowledge. Not in the
shout of the multitude on Carmel, but in the existence of
those hidden ones, must Elijah see the true results of his
faithful labors.
One thing, however, needs to be said here : God does not
excuse these seven thousand for their silence. They ought
to have declared themselves ; and if they had done so, per
haps Elijah's flight had never occurred. Ah ! how many
servants of God have pined in melancholy, because none
of those whom they have been the means of benefiting ever

Under the Juniper-tree. 131
came to say to them, " God bless you, you have done me
good." When Chalmers was in the very zenith of his popularity
in Glasgow, and crowds were gathering every Sabbath round
his pulpit, he was walking home one evening with a friend,
who told him of a soul who had been converted through the
instrumentality of a sermon which he had preached. Im
mediately the tear-drop glittered in the good man's eye, and
his voice faltered as he said : "That is the best news I have
heard for long. I was beginning to think that I had mis
taken the leadings of Providence in coming to your city ; but
this will keep me up." And how many similar cases might
be told ? Grumblers come often enough to the pastor, com-
f)lairiing that they have been neglected, or that things are
not just as they want them to be ; but the people who are
really upheld and comforted and blessed keep themselves
hidden, until, too often, with his energies broken and his
spirit crushed, the minister gives up in despair. Many an
Elijah who has fled to the wilderness might have kept his
post, if only those whom he had strengthened by his labors
had come to him and encouraged him by their affection.
Finally, observe that God gives the prophet here some
new work to do. He will take him out of himself by send
ing him on a new commission : " Go, return on thy way to
the wilderness of Damascus : and when thou comest, anoint
Hazael to be king over Syria ; and Jehu the son of Nimshi
shalt thou anoint to be king over Israel : and Elisha the
son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah shalt thou anoint to be
prophet in thy room." There are few ministries more heal
ing than that of work. A friend of mine in the pastorate,
who had lost his wife, once said to me that he had no true
comfort till he resumed his work. Kind counselors had
sent him to one place and another, assuring him that change
of scene would do him good ; but his first consolation came

132 Elijah the Prophet.
to him through his ministry for others. And .so it will be
with us. The standing pool breeds fetid weeds and harbors
croaking frogs ; the running stream filters as it flows, and
sings the while a happy song in the Creator's ear. Let us
seek to keep our happiness in keeping at our work, for by
the Gospel of Jesus labor has been transfigured into a means
of grace.
Thus have I sought to bring before you the practical in
struction of this chapter. Despondency may be on us now,
or it may come to us in the future ; but in either case let us
remember God's dealings with Elijah, and so the lesson of
this evening will be like God's own hand held down to us,
by grasping which we may lift ourselves up from our dejec
tion, and sing, " Why art thou cast down, O my soul ? Hope
in God, for thou shalt yet praise him, who is the health of
thy countenance, and thy God."

IX.
ABEL-MEHOLAH.
I Kings xix., 19-21.
AT the close of the last act of the stirring life-drama of
Elijah, the curtain fell before the desert-cave of Horeb,
where, after the passing-by of whirlwind and earthquake and
fire, we heard the still small voice, followed by the divine re
proof and admonition ; and now, by one of those rapid transi
tions for which this prophet's history is remarkable, the scene
is changed, and we look upon " the laughing brightness of a
river-bordered meadow," with happy plowmen following their
steers, and preparing the furrows for the precious seed. The
place is Abel-meholah, literally, " the meadow ofthe dance ;"
therefore, as we may believe, the chosen resort of the youth
ofthe surrounding districts in all their times of rural festival.
It was situated in the plain of Jordan, about ten miles south
of Beth-shean, and between that and Shechem. Long ago it
had been the refuge of the host of the Midianites when they
were pursued by Gideon ;* but now it is in the possession of
Shaphat, who, eager to take advantage ofthe favorable change
which the late rains have brought, has sent all his laborers
into the field to plow.
It is a, busy scene, for there are twelve plows at work, each
drawn by a yoke of oxen ; and with the last of the twelve,
bringing up the rear and superintending the movements of
all the rest, is the" beloved son of the farmer, who thinks it
¦* Judges vii., 22.

134 Elijah the Prophet.
not beneath him to engage in manual labor. But though
we are all familiar with such agricultural operations in our
own country, there are some things in the spectacle before
us which are quite peculiar, and which call for explanation.
The first is the shape and character of the plows employed.
They are, indeed, of the rudest description, and as far as pos
sible from equaling the elaborate implement which among
us is so denominated. They are each, in fact, little else than
a stout branch of a tree, from which projects another limb,
shortened and pointed ; and they are so. light that a man
may easily carry his own, and may guide it with one of his
hands. You observe, too, that the different plowmen are not
spread over the meadow, each working at a separate portion
of it, as would be the case with us ; but they are following each
other in line, and going over and over again the same fur
row, Elisha having the last yoke, as the place of honor. This
is owing to the fact that the plows are so insignificant and
slight that they merely scratch the soil.- Hence any num
ber of them may follow one another, each doing its own lit
tle share in turning up the earth ; and even after they have
all passed over 'it, the furrow will not be deep, so that they
may have sometimes to return along the same line, and thus
go back and forth until the work has been satisfactorily ac
complished. Plowing thus at Abel-meholah is a social thing. The men
can talk and joke and laugh as easily as upon the harvest-
field, and therefore you need not be astonished at the mirth
ful sounds that meet your ear as you look down upon the
happy company. It is no place this for private meditation ;
and yet, as we shall see, a holy heart may serve God as real
ly and as acceptably amidst the labor and the frolic of this
busy meadow as does the high-priest within the courts of the
Temple at the hour of evening sacrifice. Ay, and yonder
comes the token that this service is a sweet savor to the

Abel-meholah.

135

Lord. For, lo ! on his way from Horeb to Damascus, his
face yet saddened by the sorrow which his flight has caused,
and his gait a little less deflant than before, as if yet he scarce
ly felt restored to himself, Elijah steps all unheralded upon
the field ; and plucking his mantle from his shoulders, he
throws it over Elisha. That is all. He stays not to utter a
word, but passes on as if there were something in the future
beckoning him forward, and forbidding all delay.
It seems a strange proceeding ; and, to our AVestern eyes,
it looks as if the stern old prophet had so far relaxed as to
indulge in some practical jest at the young farmer's expense.
But no, it can not be a joke ; for he who is most intimately
concerned, leaving his plow midway in the furrow, runs after
the Tishbite, and meekly asks if he may go back and give a
farewell kiss to his parents ere he leave them. To this Eli
jah answers, " Go back again, for what have I done to thee ?"
That is, not as the cursory reader is apt to imagine, "Go
back, for I have done nothing to thee," but rather, " Return ;
see that you remain not with them, or delay beside them, for
you know full well the solemn significance of that which I
have done." And what was that significance ? Elisha, as
we must suppose, was well acquainted with the appearance
and office of Elijah. He knew him to be the prophet of the
Lord ; perhaps, also, he had heard, or, as one of the vast as
semblage on the plain beneath the brow of Carmel, he had
seen, what the Tishbite had done in honor of Jehovah ; and
the casting of this robe on him he knew to be the designation
of himself as his coadjutor and successor in the holy office.
Dr. Jamieson, in his " Eastern Manners," has given a full
explanation of this symbolic act He says : " This ceremony
has always been considered by Eastern people an indispen
sable part of the consecration to the sacred office. It is in
this way that the Brahmans are still invested with the priest
ly character, a yellow mantle being thrown across their shoul-

136 Elijah the Prophet.
ders, which is buckled round the waist with a sacred ribbon ;
and it is in this way, too, that the Persian Sufis are appointed.
The master, in anticipation of death, selecting one of his fa
vorite pupils, bequeaths his antiquated garment to the youth,
who by that act is publicly recognized as his successor, and
looked upon as inheriting along with the mantle the virtues
and powers of his venerable precursor. It was evidently
owing to the prevalence of the same Asiatic sentiments
among the Israelites that the succession to the prophetic
office was determined by the descent of his master's cloak
upon Elisha ; and so well was the action understood, as con
veying to the servant the spirit and authority of the master,
that he was universally acknowledged as the successor of
that eminent prophet, and the leading champion in his age
of the cause of God."
It was, therefore, because Elisha knew the meaning of
Elijah's act, and because he heard in it the voice of God
calling him to leave his father and mother, and give himself
entirely up to the work of Jehovah among his countrymen,
that he ran after Elijah and made the request he did. He
saw that, if he obeyed that call, he must forsake his home
and kindred, and he wished for an opportunity to say one
formal and affectionate farewell. Henceforth he was to put
his hand to another plow ; and that he might not be tempt
ed to look back after he had begun his new occupation, he
wishes now to go and say good-bye to his parents and his
friends. It was not, therefore, because he wanted to excuse
himself for not obeying the call, but rather because he de
sired with his whole heart to obey it, that he asked permis
sion to return ; and so we account for the difference between
the answer which Elijah gave to him, and. that which Jesus
gave to the man who presented a similar request to him.*
* Luke i.x., 61,62.

Abel-meholah. 137
The man who said to the Lord, " I will follow thee ; but let
me first go bid them farewell which are at home at my
house," was a waverer ; he was trembling on the verge of
decision, and was, by reason of the strength of his family
affection, in danger of deciding wrong. Hence Jesus said to
him, in language probably suggested by this very incident,
" No man, having put his hand to the plow, and looking
back, is fit for the kingdom of God." Elisha, however, was
already determined to obey the call, and so he readily ob
tained the permission which he sought.
But surely this is a strange way to say farewell. Here are
no tokens of regret No tears are shed on either side ; or if
they are, they are tears as much of joy as of sorrow, for Eli
sha is stepping upward to a loftier sphere than that which
heretofore he has filled. Hence he gives an extemporized
banquet to his family and companions. He parts from them
with gladness, not, indeed, because he is leaving them, but
because he is going to a nobler work, in the call to which
he sees the highest honor of his life. Like as when Mat
thew left his toll-booth to follow Christ, he gave a great feast
to his companions, so Elisha here makes a festival for his
associates ; then, hurrying from the joyous board, he hastens
after Elijah ; and as the curtain drops again, we see the
plowmen in the field, but Elisha is not there ; for he has
gone to work in the greater field of God's own church, and
henceforth he is to deal with human hearts, and to scatter
in them the seeds of God's eternal truth.
There is much in this history to give us encouragement
and direction. Let us linger a while to gather up its les
sons. Observe, then, in the first place, the care exercised by God
in securing a constant succession of teachers for his people.
He is always independent of any individual man. No one
person is indispensable to the carrying-forward of his gra-

138 Elijah the Prophet.
cious designs ; for as one after another disappears, it is in
variably found that his forerunning care has anticipated the
blank, and prepared already some other servant to step in
and fill it up. When Aaron was sent up Mount Hor to die,
he was commanded first to array his son Eleazar in the robes
of the high-priesthood, and to anoint him to the office which
he himself had held ; and before Moses began the ascent of
Pisgah, from whose summit he looked, for the first and last
time, on the land of promise, he had charged Joshua in Je
hovah's name to take his place. So, again, when David was
prevented from fulfilling the cherished desire of his heart,
and vi'as not permitted to build the Temple for whose erec
tion he had gathered so many materials, he was told that
Solomon, his son, a man of peace, would enter upon and fin
ish his beloved work. In like manner, in New-Testament
times, just as Stephen disappears from view, Saul, who was
afterward called Paul, comes in sight, and takes up the par
ticular department of work for the Christian church which,
in his address before the council, the protomartyr had al
ready made his own.
But so it always is ; Jesus has declared that the gates of
the grave shall n'ot prevail against his church ; and just as,
here, Elisha was ready to take Elijah's place, it will com
monly be found that when one servant of the Master is re
moved from earth, 'or is sent to another field of labor, there
has been, all unconsciously to himself perhaps, and to those
around him, another led, through a course of training, to
take the post which has been vacated.
The church does not depend on any man, or any set of
men; it rests on Christ; and from its ascended Lord it
receives, always according to its need, "some apostles, and
some prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors and
teachers, for the work of the ministry, for the perfecting of

Abel-meholah. 139
the saints, for the edifying of the body of Christ"* Individ
uals die, but the race abides ; believers die, but the church
remains ; ministers are removed, but the ministry continues ;
for at the head of all is the Lord Jesus, and he " is the same
yesterday, to-day, and forever." To him, therefore, let all ap
plication be made when churches need an under-shepherd.
" He walketh among the candlesticks, and holdeth the stars
in his right hand ;" and if he send one servant to work else
where, be sure that he will find another to take up the labor
which is left. Herein is that saying true, " One soweth, and
another reapeth." The seed which has been scattered un
der one minister has not all sprung up, when another, sent
by God, will come to quicken its growth, and to fill his bo
som with the harvest sheaves ; and there shall come a day —
the crown of all our days — when the work of each shall be
made apparent, and "he that soweth and he that reapeth
may rejoice together."
Observe, in the second place, here, the honor which God
puts upon industry in one's common daily work. Elisha
was not called while he was engaged at his private devo
tions, though, judging of his character from the ready re
sponse which he made at this time, we are warranted in say
ing that his. closet would not be neglected ; but it was while
he was following the plow that Elijah came upon him, and
threw his mantle over him. God would thus teach us that
we must not neglect our daily business, and that Jiis rich bless
ing will descend upon us while we are serving him, whether
that service be of a specially devotional sort, or of a more
common and ordiflary description. He is pledged, indeed,
to hear his people when they call upon him ; but he has oft
en, also, come to them while they were seeking to glorify him
by honest industry. Moses was keeping his fiither-in-law's
* Ephesians iv., 11.

140 Elijah the Prophet.
flock when God appeared to him in the burning bush and
commissioned him to conduct the exodus of his people from
the land of bondage. Gideon was found by the angel at his
threshing-floor when he was made the leader of his people
against their Midianite oppressors. David was sent for from
following the sheep in the fields of Bethlehem to receive the
anointing oil from Samuel's horn. Amos was taken from
tending his herd at Tekoali when he was sent to Israel with
a message from the Lord ; and in the early history of the
Gospel, if Nathanael was called to follow Christ from his se
clusion under the fig-tree, Peter and James and John were
taken from the fisherman's boat, and Matthew from the tax-
gatherer's office. God thus honors work, when work is done
faithfully and for him.
But some there are who think that this call is no honor.
They imagine that to be a prophet, or teacher, or apostle, or
a minister of Christ, is a smaller thing than to be a success
ful merchant or a great manufacturer; and so they deliber
ately refuse to obey the call. I willingly allow, indeed, that
there are many in the ranks of the ministry who have imag
ined that they heard God's call, whereas they are signally un
fitted for the office into which they have thrust themselves.
But it is just as true that there are multitudes in business
life who would have adorned the ministry, and who would
have been eminently successful in it, but who, when they
heard God calling them, dehberately preferred the gains of
the world to the honor which he had designed for them.
It is the complaint of all our churches that our young men
seem lacking now in that spirit of enthusRism and self-sacri
fice which would lead them to consecrate themselves to the
service of God in the ministry of the Gospel ; and it is fear
ed that the prizes of commerce prove a stronger attraction
than the happiness of winning souls. If this be so, let this
worldly spirit in our youth be solemnly rebuked by the nar-

Abel-meholah. 141
rative that has been to-night before us. There is no higher
honor God can put upon a man than to call him to the min
istry of his Son ; there is no greater joy the soul can know
than that of leading another soul to Christ ; and if the high
est angel might choose, "among all earthly occupations, that
which he would most delight in, it would be to tell again to
men, as of yore he told to the shepherds of Bethlehem, the
glad tidings, "that unto them is born a Saviour who is Christ
the Lord." All work is honorable ; and the followers of
Him who for many long years wrought as a common car
penter in Nazareth need never be ashamed of horny hands
and hammering toil. Christ has consecrated and ennobled
all such handicraft, and whoso sneers at that blasphemeth
him. . But yet, of all labor which the earth can furnish, that
is the most honorable vi^hich is put forth in the ministry of
the Gosjjel ; and he who, when the mantle of God's call fall
eth over him, declines to wear it, is refusing one of the no
blest, happiest, most useful, and most honorable positions
which the Lord can give. When God called Elisha, he said
to him, " Come up higher." "They that be wise shall shine
as the brightness of the firmament ; and they that turn many
to righteousness, as the stars for ever and ever."
Observe, in the third place, that special training is need
ed for special work. We saw that for the stern duties which
Elijah had to discharge, he was particularly fitted by the
solitude of his early life, and the rugged grandeur of the
scenes in the midst of which he dwelt Elisha, on the other
hand, was trained for the more peaceful and gentle ministry
on which he was sent, by the home-life of his father's house,
and the quiet influences of agricultural pursuits. Like many
another minister, his first college was his home ; and there,
as we are warranted in believing, from the readiness with
which they gave him up to his new work, his parents trained
him in the nurture of the Lord. Among the seven thousand

142 Elijah the Prophet.
who had not bowed the knee to Baal, as we believe they
were, they would speak with him often and long of Jehovah,
and the wonders which he had wrought of old in his peo
ple's behalf, thus all unconsciously preparing him for the
future which God had planned for him ; and when the call to
the prophet's office did come, they did not interpose, heap
ing difficulty upon difficulty, and doing every thing they
could to bar the way, but they generously gave him up, feel
ing that God had put the highest possible honor upon their
home-training by crowning it with his approval. Time was
when the office of the ministry was thus regarded by the fa
thers and mothers of our churches ; but now, alas ! they too
are poisoned by the atmosphere of the world ; and, to have
a ministry revived in numbers and in power, we must have
first a revival of the family life out of which the ministers of
the past did spring. Give us back the godly households of
the past, and we shall not lack a devoted ministry.
But this was not the whole of Elisha's training. For
seven years after the incidents which we have been consid
ering, he was the companion and friend of Elijah; and so
he was under the best of preparatory influences for his work.
In like manner, it is highly requisite that those who, in our
day, are to be the spiritual teachers of others should them
selves be specially instructed. I know, indeed, that many
have sneered at our colleges and theological seminaries, and
have styled the men that issued from them man-made minis
ters, while they have pointed us to the first preachers of the
Gospel who were unlearned and ignorant men. But they
who reason thus forget that the first apostles had the privi
lege, for three years and a half, of receiving the instructions
and taking on the impress of Him who. was emphatically
"the Great Teacher," and that, in addition to this advantage,
they enjoyed the special gift of the Holy Spirit, "to bring
all things to their remembrance, whatsoever Christ had said

Abel-meholah.

143

unto them." This was certainly a very special and peculiar
training ; and so far from its being an argument for no train
ing at all, the case of the apostles is one of the strongest
that can be cited in favor of the best system of educating
the ministers of the Gospel.
It has been alleged, again, that the secular studies of our
colleges have a tendency to deaden the piety of those who
prosecute them, so that they who have entered our semi
naries all aglow with zeal have often left them cold and
dead, and utterly unfit either to interest or edify their hear
ers. But this need not be the case if these studies be prop
erly pursued and rightly superintended ; and if the training
of the ministry is important at any time, it is specially so
now, when questions of criticism, science, and philosophy
are discussed by the propagandists of infidelity, with the
view of unsettling men's faith in the Word of God. There
will always be splendid exceptions to every rule, and in
every age you will find some of the noblest ministers who
have never been in a college in their lives ; but their cases
are no rule for others, and they themselves, from their own
experience, will be the most earnest in enforcing special
preparation upon others ; so that our young men who pre
sent themselves for the ministry need- not murmur if they
find that, as in Elisha's case, they have to reach the goal of
their desire through a seven -years' service at the side of
some Elijah.
Observe, in the fourth place, that God finds use for the
distinct individualities of his servants. There are " diversi
ties of gifts, but the same spirit" All God's ministers are
not made after the same pattern. There are individual feat
ures of character and disposition, as distinctive of each as
are the outlines of the face of each. John is quite different
from Peter, and Paul is distinct from both. What a con
trast do we find between Elijah and Elisha! It is impossi-

144 Elijah the Prophet.
ble to give it vividness without anticipating many of the
statements ofthe history; but you know enough of both al
ready to be convinced that I am speaking truly. Elijah be
gan his ministry with the announcement of a terrible calam
ity ; Elisha signalized the commencement of his public work
by the performance of a miracle of mercy. Elijah dwelt
apart in the desert, like John the Baptist ; Elisha abode in
the cities, and mingled with men in their homes and in the
streets, like him who was a guest at the feast of Cana, and
taught in the streets of Capernaum. Elijah dealt in denun
ciation, and called down fire from heaven to devour his ad
versaries ; Elisha's might was in his gentleness, and he went
everywhere carrying a blessing. Elijah with the plow and
harrow tore up the soil ; Elisha followed, casting in the
seed ; or, to go back to the parabolic miracle which was
last Lord's Day before our thoughts, Elijah was the whirl
wind, the earthquake, and the fire ; Elisha was the still small
voice. Each came in his own order ; each was excellent for
his own department The one could not do the other's
work, and both together were needed for the service of God.
So it is yet. There are diversities of aptitude and charac
ter among the servants of God ; but all who love him are
his servants, and the qualities of each, however diverse from
those ofthe others, are made subservient to the purposes of
Jehovah's grace. Each has his own beauty and excellence.
The rose is not the violet, neither the daffodil the primrose ;
but God has made them all, and has revealed his wisdom
distinctively in each. So in the members of his church there
is a variety in unity, and the effect is to manifest more won
derfully to men and angels his own " manifold wisdom."
Once more : the conduct of Elisha here furnishes us with
a beautiful example of the spirit and manner in which we
should respond to the call of the Lord Jesus Christ If
we have rightly represented his views as to the meaning of

Abel-meholah. 145
the act performed by Elijah on him, Elisha must have fully
counted the cost of the step which he was about to take in
responding to Jehovah's call. He knew that he must leave
his home. He knew, also, that with an Ahab on the throne,
a Jezebel in the palace, and an idolatrous population scat
tered over the country, the duties of the prophetical office
would be not only onerous, but dangerous. Yet he confer
red not with flesh and blood, but promptly and decidedly
arose and went after Elijah. Now, so it ought to be with us
and Christ He does not call every one of us now to the
office of the ministry, indeed, neither does he require us to
leave our father's house in every case ; but every man who
hears the Gospel is required to renounce himself and his
sins, to take Jesus for his Lord, and to follow him in the
sense of imbibing his principles and imitating his example.
No matter though it should entail pecuniary loss or person
al danger ; no matter though it should estrange us from the
closest earthly relatives, and separate us from our most cher
ished friends; no matter though it should demand the sac
rifice of pleasures dear to us as a right hand or a right eye ;
no matter though it should put us in peril of the prison or
the scaffold, we are required to "follow him." Here are the
terms : " Whosoever will be my disciple, let him deny him
self," i. e., renounce himself, " and take up his cross daily and
follow me." Once again, O sinner ! Christ has come to you
and made this solemn call. Let him not cast his mantle
over you in vain. Let no sin hold you back from his service.
Let no shame repel you from his allegiance. Let no fear
frighten you from the ranks of his followers. Rise and go
with him. The very obedience which you render to his call
will be itself within you a richer feast than that which Elisha
spread before his fellows when he left his home. Go after
him at once ; but as you go, remember that you must trust
in his strength, and not in your own. Be not heady and
7

146 Elijah the Prophet.
high-minded, like him who said, " Lord, I vifill go with thee
to prison and to judgment," and who, ere long, denied him ;
be steady, be resolute, be humble, like him who went right
forward into trial with these words upon his lips : " None of
these things move me ; neither count I my life dear unto
myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the
ministry which I have received of the Lord."

X.
NABOTHS VINEYARD.
I Kings xxi.
THE scene is in the city of Jezreel, where Ahab has his
ivory summer palace, and whither he has just come
from Samaria to take . possession of a vineyard which lay
contiguous to his park, and/which he meant to turn into a
flower-garden. He is in his royal chariot, and behind him*
are riding Jehu, the son of Nimshi, and his comrade and
subordinate, Bidkar — men destined, in after-days, to be the
executioners of Jehovah's righteous retribution on the house
of Jezebel, but now high in the favor of the reigning mon
arch. He is pointing out to them with pride the beauty of
"the situation, dwelhng especially on the rounded complete
ness which this new acquisition gives to his fair domain, and
unfolding to them the plan after which he means to lay it
out, when, with the lightning-like suddenness so character
istic of all his movements, Elijah, in his hairy garment and
leathern girdle, starts up before him, and rolls out the thun
der of "a new and terrible denunciation : " Thus saith Jeho
vah. Hast thou killed ? and also taken possession ? Thus
saith Jehovah, in the place where dogs licked the blood of
Naboth, shall dogs lick thy blood, even thine."
What means this dreadful interruption to Ahab's tour of
* 2 Kings ix., 25.

148 Elijah the Prophet.
inspection and admiration ? What has the king done to
provoke this fearful doom ? To answer these questions we
must go back a littie, and recount the particulars recorded
in the early part of the chapter which constitutes our sub
ject for this evening. Years have passed since that memo
rable night when Elijah, with his mantle girt about him, ran
from Carmel before the monarch to the gates of this very
palace, and they have not been either uneventful in them
selves, or entirely discreditable to Ahab ; for twice, by the
assistance of Jehovah graciously rendered, and gratefully re
ceived, he has overcome in battle his old Syrian enemy, Ben-
hadad. But this great prosperity only filled his heart with
pride and covetoiisness, and he desired to signalize his vic
tories by making some splendid additions to the park sur
rounding his ivory palace at Jezreel. As it happened, there
was a vineyard, the situation of which was hard by his land.
Indeed, it probably abutted in upon his grounds, making
what he cpnceived to be an ugly angle in his possessions.
What more natural, therefore, than that he should wish to
straighten his boundary? or what apparently more honest
than his offer to its o-\n'ner : " Give me thy vineyard, that I
may have it for a garden of herbs, because it is near unto
my house, and I will give thee for it a better vineyard than
it, or, if it seem good to thee, I will give thee the worth of it
in money." Perfectly fair, and in ordinary circumstances,
or in another land, one would have expected that Naboth,
to whom the vineyard belonged, would have been glad of an
opportunity of obliging his royal neighbor by complying with
his request But the tenure by which the Israelite held his
land was peculiar ; and there was another party to all such
transactions, of whom Ahab took no note. Throughout
Judah and Israel, Jehovah was the real owner of the soil ;
and every tribe received its territory and every family its
inheritance by lot from him, with this added condition, "The

Naboth's Vineyard. 149
land shall not be sold forever ; for the land is mine ;"* and
again, " Every one of the children of Israel shall keep him
self" (or, as in the margin, "cleave to") "the inheritance
of the tribe of his fathers."! It is probable, indeed, that in
such a time of wide-spread idolatry as that which Ahab had
introduced, this land-ordinance had been too generally dis
regarded ; but Naboth " feared the Lord." Though he was
Ahab's nearest neighbor at Jezreel, he was, as I think we
are safe in concluding, one of those who refused at the king's
command to bow the knee to Baal ; so now, with every dis
position in the world to oblige the king, he felt that he must
obey God rather than man, ahd therefore he declined to sell
his property. Had he been in debt to clamorous creditors,
he might have had some colorable pretext for accepting the
monarch's offer, though even then a reversion of the property
to his family at the Year of Jubilee would have been insisted
on. But he had not even this excuse to plead, and there
fore, with leal-hearted loyalty to the covenant God of Israel,
he made reply, " The Lord forbid it me that I should give
the inheritance of my fathers unto thee."
This answer utterly disconcerted Ahab ; so that, as on a
former occasion^ when he was reproved by a prophet for his
leniency to Ben-hadad, he went to his house "heavy and
displeased," or, as we should now say, stubborn and " in the
sulks." Like a spoiled child, who has been so much accus
tomed to his own way in every thing that he knows not how
to bear refusal, and lies down sprawling on the floor in the
impotence of rage and disappointment, the monarch was
actually so much affected that he took to his bed, and re
fused his food, at the same time declining to see or converse
with any of his courtiers. . He evidentiy had.no thought of
forcing Naboth' to yield to his desires, or of laying violent
¦* Leviticus xxv., 23. t Numbers xxxvi., 7. J i Kings xx., 46.

15° Elijah the Prophet.
hands either upon himself or on his property. But Jezebel
was not burdened with any such conscientious regard for
the rights of others ; and when she learned what the cause
of her husband's moping was, she bitterly taunted him with
his scrupulous timidity, and intimated that she would make
short work with Naboth and his inheritance. " What," said
she, "you the king of Israel ! and allow yourself to be thus
disobeyed and defied by a common yeoman ! You have
been altogether too courteous and considerate in the offer
you have made him. I will give you his vineyard, and pay
nothing for it either !"
So, taking the royal seal, she wrote letters to the elders
of Jezreel, intimating that some dreadful sin had been com
mitted in their city, for which it was needful that a fast
should be proclaimed, in order to avert the wrath of Heaven.
At the same time she named Naboth as the special object
of the king's displeasure, and commanded that two false wit
nesses should be obtained, who should declare that he had
blasphemed God and the king, for which, as she well knew,
the law condemned every convicted one lo death. To this
precious document she affixed the royal seal, and then trans
mitted it to Jezreel, and calmly waited the result
Nor had she reckoned without her host in the matter ; for
the rulers of Jezreel, either in dread of offending one whose
revenge they knew was terrible, or eager to do a service to
one to whom in temporal matters they were so largely in
debted, or moved with envy against Naboth, as one whose
piety had been a standing protest against their own iniquity,
carried out her instructions to the letter. They held their
religious service ; they went through the form of a trial ; and
then they took Naboth* and his sons to the common place
of execution, and stoned them to death, leaving their bodies
* 2 Kings ix., 26.

Naboth's Vineyard. 151
to be devoured by the wild dogs which prowled after night
fall in and around the city. Then they sent and told Jeze
bel that her orders had been obeyed.
She received the news with undisguised satisfaction. It
was nothing to her that God's name had been profaned ; that
religion had been dishonored; that justice had been out
raged ; or that, innocent blood had been shed. She had ob
tained her object ; for the property of those condemned to
death for blasphemy reverted to the crown ; and she hasten
ed to carry the good tidings to her husband. "Arise ; take
possession of the vineyard of Naboth, the Jezreelite, which
he refused to give thee for money : for Naboth is not alive,
but dead."
One might have thought that Ahab would have expressed
some condemnation of this awful conspiracy, culminating in
such a tragic horror ! But no. Like many in modern times,
though he was restrained by his conscience from committing
murder himself, he had no scruple in availing himself of the
results of such a crime when perpetrated by another. He
flattered himself that though he had no hand in Naboth's
death, he might, as well as another, " receive the benefit of
his dying." So, summoning Jehu and Bidkar to accompany
him, he drove down from Samaria to Jezreel, and was with
them in his newly obtained vineyard, when Elijah struck
terror into his heart by the words which v/e have already
quoted. When he heard the Tishbite's withering denunciation, fear
and trembling gat hold upon him. His conscience, never
fully asleep, woke into stinging activity, and he cried out, in
horror, "Hast thou found me, O mine enemy?" To vdiich
Elijah replied, with all his ancient valor, "I have found thee :
because thou hast sold thyself to work evil in the sight of
the Lord. Behold,.I will bring evil upon thee, and will take
away thy posterity, and will make thine house like the house

152 Elijah the Prophet.
of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and like the house of Baasha
the son of Ahijah, for the provocation wherewith thou hast
provoked me to anger, and made Israel to sin. And of Jez
ebel also spake the Lord, saying, The dogs shall eat Jezebel
by the wall of Jezreel. Him that dieth of Ahab in the city
the dogs shall eat ; and him that dieth in the field shall the
fowls of the air eat" These words, not forgotten for nearly
twenty years by Jehu, who merely overheard them,* sunk
like lead into the heart of Ahab, and took from him all the
joy of his new possession, so " that he rent his clothes, and
put sackcloth upon his flesh, and fasted, and lay iu sack
cloth, and went softly." There was yet some sense of jus
tice in him ; and these outward symbols of sorrow were not
hypocritical. He did not feign the feelings of which they
were the signs. He was humiliated. He was sad. If it
had been to be done again, he would not have allowed Na
both to be put to death. For so much let us give him credit
But though his repentance was sincere, so far as it went, yet
it did not go far enough. He feared the punishment of his
sin more than he hated the sin itself There was no word of
restitution. There was no change in the general current of
his life. Yet, to show his gentleness unto him, and to give
him another opportunity of coming to his full self, by return
ing wholly to his God, Jehovah said unto his servant, " Seest
thou how Ahab humbleth himself before me ? because he
humbleth himself before me, I will not bring the evil in his
days : but in his son's days will I bring the evil upon his
house." And the evil did come ! Let us complete the record by
noting how it came, and when. As to Ahab himself: en
tering into league with Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah and
father-in-law of his daughter, he met his old Syrian enemies
-•¦¦- 2 Kings i.x., 25.

Naboth's Vineyard. 153
at Ramoth- gilead, where, though he disguised himself, a
random arrow mortally wounded him, so that his chariot
was filled with blood. They took the body to Samaria. And
one washed the chariot at the pool of Samaria, and the dogs
licked up his blood.* As to Ahaziah, the son of Ahab, we
shall come upon the record of his death in our next lecture. f
As to Joram, the brother of Ahaziah, we read that Jehu,
immediately after his anointing by Elisha, conspired against
him, and went to Jezreel, where Joram lay sick of wounds
which he had received in battle ; that there, suspecting per
haps some evil, Joram rose and went out to meet Jehu in
this very vineyard of Naboth, where Jehu slew him. J As to
Jezebel, we learn§ that, immediately after the slaughter of
Joram, Jehu caused her to be thrown out of a window of
her ivory palace, so that she died ; and her bod)', being left
neglected, was eaten up by dogs. As to the seventy sons of
Ahab — we learn || that they, too, fell under Jehu's avenging
and relentless sword ; "for he slew all that remained of the
house of Ahab, in Jezreel, and all his great men, and his
kinsfolk, and his priests, until he left him none remaining."
There was much of human passion and cruel policy in all
this, for which Jehu himself, as a free agent, was condemned
and punished; but yet in. and through it all the Lord was
carrying out his own retributive providence, that men might
knovif that his justice slumbereth not The mill of God
grinds slowly, but it grinds to powder ; and though his judg
ments have leaden heels, they have iron hands.
There is much in this old chronicle of sin and doom
which it may profit us to ponder. Let me try to bring out
of it some present day lessons of warning and admonition.
We are reminded by the incidents which have been before
* I Kings xxii., 38. t 2 Kings i. J Ibid, ix., 14-27.
§ 2 Kings ix., 33. || Ibid. .^.
7*

154 Elijah the Prophet.
us of the important principle that happiness consists, not in
having, but in being. Here was Ahab on the throne of Is
rael, with every comfort and luxury which wealth and rank
could confer, yet hankering after more, and, when that was
denied him, filled with the bitterest mortification ! The
blessings which he already possessed were forgotten in the
misery which was produced within him by the refusal of Na
both to let him have his vineyard. His disappointment
over that one httie thing cast a shadow on all the great mer
cies which he already enjoyed, and this little dead fly made
the whole pot of his precious ointment unsavory. Nor is
this a solitary instance. See that haughty Persian in his
splendid house ! He has just come from the imperial palace
where he has been banqueting with the king and queen ;
and in the pride of his heart he has called his wife and
children round him, that he might recount to them the hon
ors with which he had been loaded. He tells of his riches,
and his promotion above all others at the court, and how the
queen had allowed no one to come with the king unto her
banquet but himself, and had given him a special invitation
for the following day. Then, as he thinks of his emergence
from the palace, and remembers that the stiff-backed Jewish
porter at the gate refused to make obeisance to him as he
passed, all the gladness vanishes from his countenance, and
a scowl of unutterable hatred darkens on his features as
he adds, " Yet all this availeth me nothing so long as I see
Mordecai sitting at the king's gate." How many even to
day are letting their lives be darkened because some Na
both denies them a vineyard, or some Mordecai will not sa
lute them ! They forget that, even if they had the things
which they so long for, happiness would be as far from them
as ever, and some new object would take the place of their
old grievance. They do lack one thing. But that one thing
is not external to them, but within them. They lack a new

Naboth's Vineyard. 155
heart, and until they get that they can have no abiding sat
isfaction. "Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst
again."* You may write these words over every fountain of
external possession. No matter what a man has, if he have
not a happy and contented spirit, he will be craving for some
thing else ; and as soon as he gets that, it will lose its charm
for him, so that he will sigh again for something more. But
this thirst is not so much a disease in itself as it is the symp
tom of that inner fever which is consuming the soul. To
gratify the thirst, therefore, will not at all touch the seat of
the malady. The soul must have peace imparted to it ; and
then the thirst will subside. Now, it is just this that Christ
promises to do for us and in us by his renewing Spirit
Hence he says, " Whosoever drinketh of the water that I
shall give him, shall never thirst, but the water that I shall
give him shall be in him a well of water springing up unto
everlasting life."t The renewed man shall have a fountain
of happiness -within himself; and will not depend on exter
nal circumstances or earthly possessions foi his joy. His
Lord will be to him better than a thousand vineyards ; and
-the approbation of Christ will be of more value to him than
the obeisance of any Mordecai. Perhaps there is here to
night some melancholy one, whose spirit is soured by reason
of some worldly disappointment, or some lack of that appre
ciation to which he fancies he is fairly entitled. Let me en
treat him not to misunderstand his own case. These feel
ings are but the cryings out of your heart and flesh for the
living God. They are the thirstings of your soul for that
which can be found alone in him. Turn, then, and seek
your all from him and in him. "Wherefore do ye spend
money for that which is not bread ? and your labor for that
which satisfieth not ? Hearken diligently unto him, and let
* John iv., 13. t John iv., 14.

156 Elijah the Prophet.
your soul delight itself in fatness : incline your ear and come
unto him ; hear, and your soul shall live."
But we are reminded here, also, of the evil of unhallowed
alhances. But for Jezebel, Ahab had not subjected himself
to this dreadful doom. In this scene, more than in any oth
er of their history, v/e see the distinctive character of each.
Ahab was ambitious ; he was brave ; he had in him many
elements of nobleness, and was not the weakling that many
have portrayed him. Where his conscience was clean, too,
he could be bold. But he was less daring and decided in
evil than Jezebel, just because he had more conscience than
she. This kept him both from the full enjoyment of the
world, and from the invention of such diabolic plans as
that which Jezebel laid on the present occasion. He was,
indeed, bitterly mortified by Naboth's refusal to grant his
request ; but there is no evidence that he would ever have
thought of murdering Naboth to get his vineyard ; while his
cry of anguish to Elijah, " Hast thou found me, O mine ene
my ?" shows that his conscience was quick to respond to the
admonition of the prophet Now, if, at the moment of his
disappointment, he had been blessed with a godly wife, she
would have led him to think of the comforts which he al
ready possessed, and, far from setting herself to acquire for
him the object of his desire by unlawful means, she would
have urged him to seek his happiness in something nobler
than the vineyard of his neighbor. As it was, however, Jez
ebel added the guilt of conspiracy and murder to that of
covetousness ; and so their names have come down to us
stained with the infamy of a deed which has few parallels
for cruel injustice and cold-blooded malignity. When he
wedded her, he thought only of the glory of his Zidonian al
liance, and the strengthening of his hands against his Syrian
foes ; but now she makes him participator in a crime which
drew down the curse of extermination on his house, and poi-

Naboth's Vineyard. 157
soned the happiness of his remaining years upon the earth.
Thus the very means which he used to secure the glory of
his kingdom and the permanence of his dynasty proved the
ruin of both.
How often, alas ! in humbler instances have similar results
followed a similar course ! Dazzled with the glitter of a fort
une, or the glare of an exalted position, a young person en
ters into the sacred alliance of matrimony with one who has
no moral stability or Christian excellence, and the issue is
certain misery, with the probable addition of crime and dis
aster. For in such an intimate union there can not but be
a constant influence exerted by the one upon the other ; and
if it should happen that the greater decision of character is
with the less scrupulous of the two, then both together shall
descend to depths of wickedness of which, at first, the more
worthy had not dreamed. For weal or for woe, for eternity
as well as for time, few things are more important in a man's
or woman's history than the matrimonial connection which
may be made ; and yet with what thoughtlessness and fri
volity too often is that connection formed ! It is a thing for
joking and buffoonery ; or, perhaps, a matter of worldly wis
dom or convenience ; whereas it ought to be entered into "only
in the Lord." Let the young people before me prayerfully
ponder this important lesson ; and let them resolve that when
soever they take this solemn step, it shall not be "lightly or
unadvisedly," but " soberly, discreetly, and in the fear of God."
We are reminded, thirdly, of the perversion which an evil
heart makes of religious knowledge. One can not read this
narrative without observing how minutely Jezebel was ac
quainted with the requirements of the Mosaic law. She
knew that blasphemy was punishable with death, and that
only at the mouth of two or three witnesses could any one
be condemned; and so, while professing great abhorrence
of the sin which she falsely imputed to Naboth, she used her

iS8 Elijah the Prophet.
knowledge of the Books of Moses for the purpose of putting
a fair judicial face on her murderous deed. As in modern
times we have seen men employ their knowledge of law in
such a way as to outwit the lav/ itself, so she complied with
the outward forms of justice, that she might give a righteous
color to her unrighteous proceeding ! And then, how sick
ening to think of her, a votary of Baal, proclaiming a fast
because some one had blasphemed God ! The' Spaniards
have a proverb somewhat to this effect, "When the serpent
straightens himself, it is that he may go into his hole." So
when the unscrupulous suddenly manifest some punctilious
regard for legal forms or for religious observances, you may
be sure that they are after mischief Some of the blackest
crimes that have ever been committed have been perpetrated
through the forms of law, or under the color of religion. Is
it not true that " the heart is deceitful above all things and
desperately wicked ?" and are we not forcibly impressed with
the fact that no one is so daringly defiant in wickedness as
he who knows the truth and disregards it ? Mere knowledge
never yet saved any one from ruin ; for if the heart be per
verted, every thing that enters the head is only made sub
servient to its iniquity. Your educated villains are all the
more dangerous because of their education ; and among god
less men they are the most to be dreaded who have an intel
ligent acquaintance with the Word of God. Let us not rest,
therefoi-e, in our knowledge of the contents of this book, as
if that were all that is required ; for, unless we believe its
statements and obey its precepts, our acquaintance with them
will only increase our wickedness and aggravate our guilt
The Bible believed will be to us the richest of blessings;
but disbelieved and disregarded, it will become to us the
blackest of curses. Take heed, therefore, lest it should be
to you as a millstone round your neck to sink you to the
lowest depths of perdition.

Naboth's Vineyard. 159
We are reminded, fourthly, of the price which we have to
pay for sin. What weighty words are these of Elijah to
Ahab, " Thou hast sold thyself to work evil in the sight of
the Lord." They imply not only that Ahab had given him
self entirely over to iniquity, but also that he had done so
at the price of himself The great German poet has elabo
rated this thought into that weird production wherein he
represents his hero as selling his soul to the mocking Meph-
istopheles. And it were well that every evil-doer laid to
heart the moral of his tragic tale. That which the sinner
gives for his unhallowed pleasure or dishonest gain is him
self Consider it well. O drunkard ! you thought that you
paid for your dissipation when you laid out your money on
the counter of Boniface ; but, bad as that was, there is an
other and far longer reckoning behind. You sold your
senses into inactivity; your intellect into stupidity; your con
science into insensibility ; your character into weakness ;
your business into bankruptcy; nay, if you continue in your
dreadful habit, you will sell your life on earth, and your
everlasting salvation, too. The bill may be drawn at a long
date ; but it will come due, and when it comes, you will be
held inexorably to your bond. All this is the price ; and for
what? oh, for what? For a temporary exhilaration, to be
followed by a degradation to a level lower than that of the
brutes that perish !
O sensualist ! when you left the haunt of wickedness, you
fancied that you had done with cost ; but no ! You sold
the purity of your nature, the honor of your manhood, the
tenderness of your conscience, the health of your body, and
the life of your soul. In one express word, you sold yourself,
and that self, if yourepent not, for eternity. All these were
in the bond you sealed when you entered on your course
of iniquity; and if you persist in it, no Sliylock will hold
you with a more remorseless grasp than he to whom you

i6o Elijah the Prophe'I'.
have given it Hear it, too, thou dishonest trader ! who
thinkest to enrich thyself by preying upon others. In the
cant phraseology of an unscrupulous age thou boastest that
thou hast sold thy victims ; but thou hast only sold thyself
Only thyself! Ah, but that is every thing. Thou hast
given thy character, thy reputation, thy time, thy talents,
thy soul's salvation, all for a few glittering coins, which,
after all, thou must leave behind thee when thy body dies !
And this thou callest a shrewd, sharp transaction ! Oh,
how thou art outwitted by the cunning Mephistopheles, who
laughs at thine undoing ! Go to, ye blinded dupes ! and
seek to unlearn this false philosophy, this unequal barter,
this suicidal folly. You are selling yourselves in the mar
ket of iniquity for the veriest trifles, even as the savage bar
ters whole islands for a few glittering beads. If ye will
make commerce of yourselves, then sit down first and count
the cost, as you try to solve this infinitely momentous ques
tion, " What shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole
world, and lose his own soul ? Or what shall a man give in
exchange for his soul ?"
We are reminded here, fifthly, of the curse which attends
ill-gotten gains. Jezebel thought that by her cunning man
agement she had obtained Naboth's vineyard for nothing ;
but it cost her very dear. It entailed upon her the loss of
her husband and of her sons, and resulted ultimately in her
own destruction. God is not indifferent to evil, though he
do not interfere by miracle to prevent its commission. It
might have seemed, indeed, that his moral government was
a delusion when such a one as Naboth was permitted to be
slain by the emissaries of Jezebel's malignity ; and one can
sympathize as he looks on such injustice with the complaint
of Asaph: " Behold, these are the ungodly who prosper in the
world ; they increase in riches. Verily I have cleansed my
heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency." But

Naboth's Vineyard. i6i
when we widen our range of observation, we discover that
for all such dishonesty and oppression there is, even in this
life, a terrible retribution. The gains of ungodliness are
weighted with the curse of God ; and, sooner or later, that
will be made apparent Let no one think that because this
record is in the Bible, and the fearful doom upon Ahab and
his house was pronounced by Elijah, therefore there must be
a difference between it and any modern instance of deliber
ate wrong-doing and injustice. For the moral government
of God to-day is administered on the same principles as
those which we find underlying this narrative. True, the
dishonest man now pursuing his purposes in secret may have
no Elijah sent to him, with the special commission to declare
to him the sort of punishment which shall overtake him ;
but Elijah's God is living yet, and one has only to open his
eyes, and mark the progress of events from year to year to
be convinced that " sorrow tracketh wrong, as echo follows
song — on, on, on." He who holds gain by injustice will,
sooner or later; come to ruin ; and, if no restitution is made,
they who inherit from him his blood-stained gold will be
made sharers of his calamity. Let a man rudely trample
upon the weak, and take by violence that to which he has
no right, and it will cost him much ; for the judgment of
God is already on the way to him, and though it tarry long,
it will fall heavily when it comes. Let a nation covet its
neighbor's territory, and by force or fraud annex it to its
own, then, though no Elijah come specifically to denounce
it, the issue must be disastrous, and may be fraught with evil
to many generations. " Be sure your sin will find you out,"
said Moses, on a solemn day, to the two and a half tribes
that remained on the other side of Jordan ; and it seems to
me that few truths need to be more faithfully proclaimed in
the ears of this generation. They dwell with much unction
on the love and tenderness of God ; and if they but took in

i62 Elijah the Prophet.
the whole truth, they could not dwell too much upon it ; but
they forget the judicial aspect of Jehovah's character, and
the awfully terrible nature of some of his retributions. It
is no kindness, however, to keep these things out of view.
God's government is retributive, and the wrong- doer must
one day confront the wrong that he has done ; nay, must
confront the avenging God, who comes to reckon v,'ith him
for the v/rong. He may meet him in some desolating stroke
of his providence ; but he must meet him on his judgment-
throne ; and if the sight of the servant of Jehovah so ap
palled Ahab that he cried out with trembling, " Hast thou
found me, O mine enemy?" need we wonder if, as he gazes
on the great white throne, he is impelled to cry to the mount
ains and rocks, " Fall on me, and hide me from the face of
him that sittetji on the throne, and from the wrath of the
Lamb, for the great day of his wrath is come ; and who shall
be able to stand ?"
Finally — for I may not conclude in this terrific strain —
we are reminded here of the tenderness of God toward the
penitent Ahab was filled with bitter regret at what had
been done, and God, who will not break the bruised reed or
quench the smoking flax, said that the evil should not come
in his day. He thus gave him another opportunity of be
coming truly repentant This, so far as appears from the
narrative, Ahab did not improve ; still, that God should have
given it to him is an encouragement to the real penitent to
come to Jehovah's feet ; while the fact that he did not really
and truly repent, after all, is a warning to the trembling pro-
crastinator that, unless he avail himselfof his present tender
ness of feeling, he may never attain salvation. If God were
so considerate of Ahab, the idolater, the murderer, the thief,
will he not regard thee, O thou tearful one ! who art be
moaning the number and aggravation of thy sins ? Go, then,
to him ; and let this be thine encouragement : " Let the

Naboth's Vineyard. 163
wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his
thoughts : and let him return unto the Lord, and he will
have mercy upon him ; and to our God, for he will abundant
ly pardon." But go at once ; for if, after all this feeling on
Ahab's part, his repentance was yet only temporary, and he
perished at. last, how knowest thou that it may not be so
with thee if thou delay? Felix trembled before Paul, as
Ahab did here before Elijah ; and yet he, too, went no fur
ther. Agrippa was almost persuaded ; but the " almost " nev
er became the " altogether." Let these beacons on the roar
ing reef of procrastination warn thee of tliy. danger. Let the
feeling of this moment stiffen into the principle of thy life.
Let thy repentance be no mere regret for sin, but a loving
and immediate acceptance of the Lord Jesus Christ as the
Saviour of thy soul and the Lord of thy life. " To-day, if
thou wilt hear his voice, harden not thy heart"

XI.
FIRE FROM HE A VEN.
2 Kings i.
BETWEEN Elijah's interview with Ahab in the vineyard
of Naboth, and his intercepting of Ahaziah's messen
gers on their way to Ekron, a period of at least three or four
years must have elapsed. During that interval several events
of national importance occurred. In particular, Ahab, form
ing a league with Jehoshaphat, attacked the Syrians at Ra-
moth-gilead; but the result, as Micaiah had foretold, had
been fraught with disaster ; for Ahab was slain, and the Syr
ians were left masters of the field.
The death of Ahab had been followed by the accession of
his son Ahaziah, who had proved himself to be the inheritor
of his father's character as well as of his position ; for " he
did evil in the sight of the Lord, and walked in the way of
his father, and in the way of his mother, and in the way of
Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin ; for he
served Baal, and worshiped him, and provoked to anger the
Lord God of Israel, according to all that his father had
clone." He came to the kingdom when it was weakened, and the
people were dispirited, by the recent Syrian defeat ; and the
first thing he had to do was to encounter a rebellion of the
Moabites, who took advantage of the national exhaustion,
and broke away from the bondage of tribute under which
they had been held by Omri and Ahab. Under the brief
reign of Ahaziah, they were not able completely to regain

Fire from Heaven. 165
their independence, but they thoroughly effected their eman
cipation in the days of Jehoram, his brothe'r and successor,
as described at length in the third chapter of 2 Kings. Very
recently an interesting light has been thrown on this chapter
of ancient history by the discovery of the Moabite Stone,
which was found by the Rev. F. A. Klein, in 1868, at the en
trance to the ruined city of Dibon, and which was a monu
mental record of the successful rebellion of Mesha, king of
Moab, against the king of Israel after a forty years' oppres
sion by the house of Omri.
In neither of these times of war, however, does Elijah
come into prominence. His mission had not to do so much
with the relation of Israel to the surrounding nations as with
the reformation of the tribes themselves. The department
of work which had been committed to him was religious
rather than political. He was more concerned for the char
acter of the people than for the extent of the nation's ter
ritory or the amount of tribute paid by its dependencies.
Hence all his appearances had for their object the destruc
tion of some prevailing iniquity, like the worship of Baal ; or
the denunciation of some flagrant wrong, like the robbery
and murder of Naboth. There were other prophets in the
land who took note of the doings of the king or of the peo
ple in their conflicts with other nations. Thus, when Ahab
let Ben-hadad slip out of his hands, an unnamed messen
ger was sent to rebuke him ; and when, again, he was to be
warned of his danger at Ramoth-gilead, Micaiah was com
missioned for that special purpose. Nor is it without sig
nificance, as an incidental proof of the effect which Elijah's
ministry had produced, that there were now in the land men
of God who were willing to go to prison, or even to death,
rather than prophesy lies in Jehovah's name. But still,
,when sin in high quarters was to be exposed, or sentence
against evil executed, Elijah was the minister to whom such

1 66 Elijah the Prophet.
work was intrusted. Thus we account for his appearance
on the occasion described in the chapter which now lies be
fore us for exposition.
Ahaziah, while walking on the roof of his palace, leaned
incautiously on the frail banister of wicker-work which form
ed its only protection on the inner side, and as that gave
way under his weight, he was precipitated to the court be
neath, and seriously injured. In his weakness and alarm,
he sent some of his servants to Ekron, the most northern of
the five Philistine towns, where Baal-zebub, the god of flies,
was worshiped; and where, in connection with that idol's
temple, there was one of those oracles which, in response to
the inquiries of libera'l devotees, gave out " flattering ambi
guities " that, from their double or doubtful meaning, could
not be falsified by any event This action of Ahaziah's was
a contemptuous ignoring ofthe claims of Jehovah upon him,
and an evidence that he had withdrawn conclusively from
the service of him from whom, as the King of Israel, he de
rived his authority, and to whom the whole allegiance of his
heart and life was due. But as, when Saul went to consult
a familiar spirit, God sent Samuel himself to confront him,
to the dismay both of the witch herself and of the abandon
ed monarch, so now again, when Ahaziah sends to Ekron,
the Lord commissions Elijah to intercept his messengers,
and to give them an answer to their inquiries, not in vague
and oracular phraseology, but in words of unmistakable
meaning and tremendous force : " Is it not because there is
not a God in Israel that ye go to inquire of Baal-zebub, the
god of Ekron ? Now, therefore, saith Jehovah, Thou shalt
not come down from that bed on which thou art gone up,
but shalt surely die." This message given, the prophet, with
characteristic suddenness, disappeared ; and the servants of
the king, deeming their journey to Ekron now unnecessary,
returned and reported the Tishbite's words to their master.

Fire from Heaven. 167
When he heard their account, accompanied with a de
scription of the appearance of him who had so strangely in
tercepted him, the king knew at once that Elijah had been
;with them ; and his heart was filled with bitterest enmity
and fiercest rage. One might have supposed that after he
had learned on such authority that he was so soon to die, he
would have begun " to set his house in order," and would
have given some serious thought to the future life on which
he was about to enter. But no ! His sole concern seems
to have been to get Elijah into his power, that he might de
stroy him for what he deemed to be his impertinent inter
ference with his messengers to Ekron. He fell into the mis
take of supposing that he had to do v^ith Elijah, rather than
with Elijah's God, and flattered himself that if he could only
silence the Tishbite, he had no one else to fear. Therefore,
instead of turning in penitence to Jehovah, he turns in fury
against the prophet. As the heathen Xerxes is said to have
scourged the Hellespont, because its waves, in the violence
of a storm, swept away his bridge ; forgetting that he had
to do with Him whom the winds and the sea obey ; so
Ahaziah took no note of Jehovah, whose servant Elijah was.
The matter seemed to him to be only between him and the
Tishbite, and not at all between him and the omnipotent
God. And yet the means which he took for the apprehen
sion of Elijah indicate that he feared him more than he did
an ordinary man ; for he sent a company of fifty soldiers,
with their captain, to take him. We are not a little sur
prised at this, for, as Bishop Hall has pithily remarked, " If
he had not thought Elijah more than a man, what needed a
band of fifty men to apprehend him ? and if he did think
hiuT such, why would he send to apprehend him by fifty ?"*
The probability is, however, that he looked upon the prophet
* " Contemplations," as before, p. 304.

1 68 Elijah the Prophet.
as belonging to the class of wizards, or magicians, who had
hidden resources of power which rendered them dangerous
to single adversaries, and so he took this plan of overmas
tering him by a formidable array of numbers. But if this
were so, he had miserably miscalculated ; for when the mili
tary company were ascending the hill at the top of which Eli
jah had his retreat, and the captain called jeeringly to him,
"Thou man of God, the king hath said. Come down!" he
made reply, " If I be a man of God, then let fire come down
from heaven, and consume thee and thy fifty ;" and forthwith
they were destroyed by the flaming bolt of the divine venge
ance. No one of them survived to tell what had happened to
the rest ; but, somehow, either by report spreading out from
the immediate neighborhood, or by the result of inquiries
which he himself had caused to be made, the king learned
vv'hat had happened ; and, instead of humbling himself at this
new manifestation of the power of God, he sent another com
pany of fifty with another captain, who were also consumed
in like manner. Undeterred even by this repetition of the
disaster, he sent a third company with a third captain. But
this time the messengers were not in sympathy with their
message ; for, instead of approaching with a contemptuous
sneer, and cynical defiance, as the others had done, this
officer and his men drew near with reverence. When they
called Elijah a man of God, they recognized the dignity that
belonged to his office, and the protection that encircled it ;
and their leader made this humble request : " O man of God,
I pray thee, let my life, and the life of these fifty, thy serv
ants, be precious in thy sight. Behold, there came fire down
from heaven, and burnt up the two captains of the former
fifties : therefore let my life now be precious in thy sight"
This was a different spirit from that which the former com
panies had manifested ; so at the suggestion of the angel of
the covenant, who had been mj'steriously present with him

Fire from Heaven. 169
as his guardian all the while, the prophet went with the sol
diers to the palace, and was ushered into the bed-chamber
of the king.
But the presence of monarchy did not in any way discom
pose Elijah, or cause him to abate one iota of the message
which he had already delivered to his servants. It was a
singular occasion, and the whole scene stands out before the
eye of the imagination with weird and wonderful distinct
ness. There lies the wounded monarch, writhing in his pain,
and cowering before the fiery glance of the stern Tishbite's
eye. Fie could send his soldiers to take him prisoner, but
he could not meet that gaze. Around him are his courtiers
and his counselors, all amazed at the undaunted courage
of the unarmed prophet, who comes to introduce into that
presence the grim enemy who is not only the king of terrors,
but also the terror of kings. He has no word of counsel ;
no message of consolation ; no prophecy of deliverance.
He stands, like Daniel, reading off from the wall the dread
handwriting of remorseless doom : " Thou shalt not come
down from off that bed on which thou art gone up, but shalt
surely die ;" and then, ere yet any one has recovered from
the startled awe which his words produced, he passes out
from the palace, never again to be seen within its portals.
Nor was his denunciation vain ; for it came to pass as he
had said, and Ahaziah died, the second of that long list of
victims who fell before the march of God's justice in its
course of retribution for Jezebel's murder and robbery of
Naboth. This portion of the sacred narrative, like those over which
we have already passed, is rich in suggestive lessons which
are full of living interest and- present importance, and we
shall do well to pause a while, and gather them up for our
warning and instruction.
Observe, then, in the first place, that we do not escape
8

170 Elijah the Prophet.
from God by running away from him. Ahaziah perhaps
imagined that, by betaking himself to Baal-zebub, he was
taking sure means to evade all danger from Jehovah. It
was easy for him, comparatively speaking, to shut God out
of his heart, and to cut himself off from the number of those
who professed to believe in him, and render him obedience ;
but he could not thus put himself beyond the pale of God's
government, or place himself outside of the sphere of God's
providence. If he will send his messengers to Ekron, the
Lord has his Elijah ready to confront them with his sentence
of doom. The sinner can not get anywhere away from God.
This is as true to-day as it was in the times to v/hich this
history refers. Men may repudiate all faith in these sacred
books ; they may deify natural laws ; they may worship phi
losophy or science ; they may even adopt the dark negation
of the atheist's creed ; but they can not, after all, eliminate
themselves from the domain of his government, or the circle
of his providence. True, he has no miraculously commis
sioned prophet now to intercept them in their foolish at
tempts, as the stern Tishbite turned back the servants of
Ahaziah ; but he confronts them still in ways at once nu
merous and striking. There is conscience, that Elijah in the
breast, to whose voice of expostulation and reproof he gives
point and power. There is temporal calamity, with its les
son of arrest, as it brings men up, and makes them think of
something mightier than mere natural law or human skill.
There is family bereavement, as it turns them back from all
their cherished purposes and cunning schemes, and bids
them forecast the future of this earthly life. There is per
sonal affliction, as it lays its subduing hand upon them, and
makes them pause midway in their earthly pursuits, and
compels them to reflect upon the time when they shall be
taken away from every thing that interests and occupies
their minds in this present state of being. There is death,

Fire from Heaven. 171
that mysterious visitant that comes ever unbidden, and tears
them away from all their occupations, no matter how unfin
ished they may be, or how much they may desire to con
tinue at them. These are God's Elijahs now, coming often
upon men with the lightning swiftness that characterized the
Tishbite's appearances, and thundering in their ears words
of doom as awful as those which the prophet hurled at the
heads of Ahab and his son. No captain and his fifty can
apprehend these agents of God's government and provi
dence. No money can bribe them into harmlessness ; no
power can bind them into impotence ; no eminence can over
awe them into subjection. The sinner can find no place on
this wide earth where he will be exempt from their intrusion.
Go where he will, he can not go where God is not He may
shut his eyes to the truth of his existence ; but he can not
thereby secure himself from the visit of his messengers. He
may occupy his thoughts with other subjects, but he does
not thereby deliver himself from liability to the afflictive dis
pensations of his providence.
These things come upon the unbeliever as on other men.
The only difference is that the believer, when they'n;ome
to him, sees in them, not the messengers of judgment, but
the ministers of grace ; and is. supported under them by the
strength of unfaltering trust in him who has declared that
"all things work together for good to them who love him
who are the called according to his purpose." To the child
of God these dispensations come as Elijah did to the widow
of Zarephath, and they end in making him praise anew the
mercy which kept the handful of meal from wasting, and the
cruse of oil from failing. To the ungodly they come as Eli
jah did to Ahab, when, in the vineyard of Naboth, the king
cried out, " Hast thou found me, O mine enemy ?" But to
both, these Tishbites come sooner or later. Behold, then,
how foolish the unbeliever is ! He does not, he can not,

i73~ Elijah the Prophet.
get rid of trouble. The utmost he accomplishes is to deprive
himself of that divine alchemy within the soul which changes
trial into blessing. He has the ache of conscience, but
he will not accept that Saviour who alone can remove that
stinging pain. He has the endurance of temporal calamity,
but he will have none of him, who, in time of money panic
and bankruptcy, can sustain him with the assurance of his
support He has the bitterness of bereavement, but he will
not accept the tender ministrations of that divine Redeemer
who says, "Weep not. I am the resurrection and the' life."
Fle has to taste of death, but he shuts his soul against the
entrance of him who alone can enable him to say, " O death,
where is thy sting. O grave, where is thy victory ?" What,
then, is the gain of running away from God ? Gain ? ah !
it is tremendous loss. O ye, who are worshiping at the
shrines of the world's Baal-zebubs, bethink ye what ye do
when ye thus turn your backs upon Jeho-vah-Jesus ; and let
me to-night, in mercy to you, intercept you on the way to
Ekron. Is there no God here, that you should seek to fill
your souls with unsatisfying husks, which can give you no
delight ? What will philosophy, or science, or wealth, or
honor, or position do for you in the day when these great
agonies to which I have referred are on you ? Turn ye, turn
ye, from that cheerless path, and seek your life and joy in
him who is the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ
Observe, in the second place, that terrible judgment is
sure to overtake them that persistently and defiantly reject
the Lord. I refer here not so much to. the circumstances of
Ahaziah's death (though, taken in connection with Elijah's
prediction to Ahab, they, too, might illustrate my position)
as to the destruction by fire from heaven of the two captains
with their fifties. It has been supposed, indeed, that the Sav
iour's reference to this portion of the Tishbite's history, when,
in answer to the question of James and John as to the Sa-

Fire from Heaven. 173
maritans, "Wilt thou that we command fire to come down
from heaven and consume them even as Elias did ?" he said,
"Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of;'' and added,
" The Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to
save them,"* was a virtual condemnation of the course pur
sued by the prophet But this is an entire mistake, and
arises from a superficial perusal, both of the history on which
we have been commenting, and of the words of the Lord
which I have just quoted. For, in the first place, though the
fire came at the word of the prophet, it was Jehovah that
sent it ; and we can not suppose that Jesus would brand any
thing which the Eternal Father did with his reprobation.
Further, the words, " Ye know not what spirit ye are of,"
are not a condemnation of Elijah, but a reproof addressed
to his disciples. He did not mean to say that the Tishbite
was actuated by an improper spirit ; rather he wished the
sons of Zebedee to understand that the disposition by which
they were animated was very different from that which char
acterized the prophet As if he had said : " You think that in
making the proposal which you have just put before me, you
are acting in the spirit of Elijah, but in reality you are moved
by a very different impulse. Elijah was very jealous for the
Lord God of hosts. He lived and labored to promote the
honor of Jehovah, and it was solely on that ground that he
called for the fire which came with its destructive stroke at
his bidding ; but you are only jealous for yourselves. It is
wounded pride that is speaking now in you : it was righteous
zeal for the glory of his Lord that flashed forth in the com-.
mand of Elijah."
Others, however, while honestly believing that there is no
condemnation of Elijah in the words of our Lord, have sup
posed that the whole difference between him and the apos-
* Luke ix., 52-56.

174 Elijah the Prophet.
ties is to be accounted for from the fact that the prophet be
longed to the sterner economy of the law, while they were
under the milder system of the Gospel. And they base this
opinion on the Saviour's words, " The Son of man is not
come to destroy men's lives, but to save them." Now, though
almost every commentator has taken this view, I confess that
it does not commend itself to my judgment, inasmuch as I
can not see that God's dealings with hardened and defiant
sinners are anywise different under the Gospel from that
which they were under the law. To them who receive it
the Gospel brings peace ; but to those who, against light and
entreaty, persistently reject it, there is judgment In the one,
the Gospel minister is to God a savor of life unto life ; in
the other, a savor of death unto death ; and we can not get
rid of the fact that to those who trample underfoot the Son
of God, the darkness of Calvary is a thousand -fold more
terrible than were the thunders of Sinai. The Samaritans
who would not accept Jesus had only then for the first time
heard of him ; and their rejection of him was the result of
ignorance. , It was no time, therefore, to move for their de
struction ; but when the Jews refused, with determined per
tinacity, to accept the Lord, and would have none of his sal
vation, what happened to them? Read the prediction of our
Lord upon the Mount, then peruse the account of its fulfill
ment in the destruction of Jerusalem, as that is given by Jo-_
sephus, and tell me if it is not vastly more appalhng in its
aspect of judgment than the description given here of the
striking-down of these two captains and their fifties. Yet
all that was under the Gospel dispensation. Therefore the
death of these men is not to be explained merely by the
fact that they lived under the so-called stern economy of
the law.
The simple truth is, that they were hardened and defiant
in their rejection of Jehovah as the covenant God of Israel.

Fire from Heaven. 175
They knew better than to have sneered at Elijah as they
did. It was not so very long since the day of the Carmel
controversy, and they could not have forgotten the issue of
it, not only as regards Elijah, but also as regards Jehovah.
But, like Ahaziah, they had steeled their souls against con
viction, and stiffened their hearts against submission, and so
they were destroyed, not from any rage in the prophet, but
in righteous retribution for their stubborn refusal to bow be
fore Jehovah. But, my hearers, the same law of God's gov
ernment hold^s under the Gospel ; and gracious though it be,
if we harden our hearts against its acceptance, the same ret
ribution, only in a more terrible because eternal form, will
come upon us. We may not be punished by temporal judg
ments, as Israel was with drought and famine ; but if we re
pent not, the result will come in "everlasting destruction from
the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power."
Read the parable of the pounds in the nineteenth chapter of
Luke's gospel, and say what inean these words : " But those
mine enemies which would not that I should reign over them,
bring hither, and slay them before me." Peruse the epistle
of Paul to the Thessalonians, and tell me what interpretation
you can put on such expressions as these : " The Lord Jesus
shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, in
flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God,
and obey not the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ" Yea,
fathom for me, if you can, the significance of these words in
the Book of Revelation, " the wrath of the Lamb." Are not
all these illustrations of the same law of retribution which
we have seen to-night at work in the destruction of these sol
diers ? And do they not all alike declare that if we despise
the gracious privileges of our present time of probation, and
refuse to accept of the salvation which comes through be
lieving submission to Jehovah, we, too, shall be destroyed ?
I delight not to dwell on this awful theme ; but love to you,

176 Elijah the Prophet.
as well as faithfulness to my Master, demands that I set it
fully before you, and beseech you prayerfully to ponder it
Observe, in the third place, the mercy that is shown by
Jehovah to those who penitently and sincerely seek it The
third captain and his fifty were spared. Why ? Surely here
we can not say because they were under the stern dispen
sation of the law ; and the right consideration of their case
will, I think, demonstrate that I am correct in my explana
tion of the destruction of the others. They were spared, be
cause, convinced that Elijah was really a man of God, and
that Jehovah was the true God, they came acknowledging
his authority and suing for mercy. Now, blessed be God's
name, this law of his government holds still. If we come in
penitence and faith to him through Jesus Christ, we shall be
saved. They that truly seek him shall ever surely find him.
Hence, if the fate of the former fifties be fraught with sol-
emnest warning, the mercy shown to this captain and his
men is full of the richest encouragement, and bids us im
prove our opportunities of salvation by securing now for
giveness and renewal. No matter though we have held out
against the Lord till the present moment, if now we come
to him in faith, "he will in no wise cast us out." Oh! the in
finite grace of these precious words, " I will in no wise cast
out." They mean, " I will receive ; I will retain ; I will eter
nally bless." My hearer, let their attraction draw you to a
speedy acceptance of the grace they offer.
Observe, finally, the prophet in the chamber of the dying
monarch ; and notice, by way of contrast, the blessedness of
the Christian minister at the sinner's death-bed. MacDuff
and others have drawn a historical parallel between this visit
of Elijah to Ahaziah, and that of the good Bishop Ken to the
dying profligate, Charles II., of England, so graphically de
scribed in the pages of MacauLiy ; but, after all, every Chris
tian minister, though required faithfully to unfold the guilt

Fire from Heaven. 177
and danger of the sinner, is commissioned to proclaim par
don to the penitent, even though he be standing on the very
threshold of that world where probation is unknown and
only retribution rendered. Elijah, however, does nothing but
read out his sentence of doom. There is no urging to re
pentance, as in the case of Daniel's appeal to Nebuchadnez
zar. The stern, unbending terror of the announcement of
the monarch's death is unrelieved by a single qualification.
God be thanked, it is different now with the minister of
Christ With the case of the thief on the cross before him,
he feels himself warranted at every dying sinner's couch to
preach Christ and his salvation. No matter how degraded
the poor victim may be; no matter how aggravated may
have been his guilt, or how terrible his iniquity, "Jesus
Christ is able to save unto the uttermost all that come unto
God by him ;" and while the day of grace lasts, and the day
of life endures, it is the duty, as it is the privilege, of the min
ister to point the dying one to the Lamb of God that taketh
away the sin ofthe world. I say not this to induce you to put
off your penitence until your dying hour. I say it rather to
magnify the riches ofthe grace of God ; and having done that,
I turn to reason with you in this wise. You admit that faith
in Jesus Christ, and the peace which flows therefrom, are de
sirable things to die with. Let me ask, is it any too soon to
secure them now? If they are so valuable for the expe
rience of a death-bed, they can not but be useful in the exi
gencies and emergencies of daily life. Besides, how know
you that you shall have a death-bed at all ? You see from
Ahaziah's case how brittle is the thread of human life.
Some frail breastwork of lattice may give way with you, and
the issue may be, not a season of pain and weakness, fol
lowed, as in his case, by death, but death upon the spot A
thousand contingencies there are, the occurrence of any one
of which would end your life and your probation in a mo-
8*

178 Elijah the Prophet.
ment. Is it safe, then, to trust to that which, after all, may
never be yours ?
Moreover, though you may have a death-bed, it may be
one of mental unconsciousness ; or, worse still, it may be
one of spiritual insensibility ; and the repentance which you
thought would come at your call may still be far away from
you. I glory to preach the Gospel to a dying sinner ; but I
would not have you to trust to a death-bed. There is one
case in the Scriptures of a soul saved just ere the twelfth
hour struck ; one — that no one, even at that late season, may
despair — but only one, that no man in health should presume
on such a contingency for himself To-night, therefore, let
those who are yet unconverted submit their hearts and lives
to the Lord Jesus Christ, and then their experience will be
blessed, and their deaths will be safe. Let your motto hence
forth be, " My life for Christ— my life for Christ !" and then
you will have no need to fear Death, come when he may.
"It matters not at what hour o' th' day
The Christian falls asleep. Death can not come
To him untimely who is fit to die.
The less of this cold earth, the more of heaven ;
The briefer life, the earlier immortality."

w

XII.
THE ASCENSION.
2 Kings ii.
E have a false idea of the work of Elijah if we
suppose that it was restricted to such public appear
ances as that which he made on Carmel, or such denuncia
tions of iniquity in high places as those which he uttered in
the vineyard of Naboth and the palace of Samaria. In the
history of a nation it has often been noted that the periods'
of its highest prosperity are those which furnish fewest ma
terials for the public annalist ; and similarly in the life of a
minister of God, the years of his most potent influence and
most enduring work are frequently those concerning which
his biographer can find least to say.
Controversy, Jike war, is noisy and demonstrative, and
forces itself on the attention of the chronicler ; but growth
is a thing of quietness, and is withal so gradually manifested
that it eludes the observation of the historian. I say not
this by way of undervaluing controversy, for it has its own
place and importance ; and he who shrinks from it when the
honor of Christ's name or the purity of Christ's church is
concerned, is as much to be condemned as is the man who
is an ecclesiastical Ishmaelite, with his hands against every
one, and every one's hands against him. After all, however,
the benefit of controversy is only temporary. It is an expos
ure and defeat of error for the time ; but unless it be followed
up by the adoption of some measures for the permanent con
servation of the truth, the evil will come back, and the whole

i8o Elijah the Prophet.
battle will have to be fought over again. Therefore, though
less note' may be taken of their quiet exertion.s, those who,
after times of strife and debate, have sought to erect and
maintain educational institutions for the perpetuation of lib
erty and truth, have done a work as needful and as impor
tant as that of the valiant hero who, in the hour of battle,
stood forth as the champion of the Lord.
Now, it is an evidence of the real greatness of Elijah that
he rendered both of these kinds of service to his country.
For the reason which I have alre'ady assigned, there is less
said of the educational than of the controversial portion of
his work by the historian. Yet, from sundry incidental al
lusions, we are led to the conclusion that much of the Tish
bite's labors, especially in the later years of his life, were
given to the superintendence of the education of the sons
of the prophets throughout the land. The first mention in
Scripture of " schools of the prophets " is in the history of
Samuel, and it is probable that he was himself the founder
of that at Naioth. It is likely, too, that David bestowed con
siderable attention on these important seminaries, but, dur
ing the years that intervened between Solopion and Ahab,
we have no. reference made to. them in the sacred books.
And it is not unreasonable to conclude that in the wide
spread defection of the tribes, both in Judah and Israel,
from the Lord, they had fallen into neglect But, after the
stirring controversy of his earlier ministry, Elijah seems to
have set himself to the fostering, if not indeed to the re-
founding, of these establishments. Either he himself set up
such schools at Gilgal, at Bethel, and at Jericho, or, finding
them existing there in a languishing condition, he labored
to give them prosperity and permanence. These ancient
colleges were under the superintendence of a recognized
prophet, who was called ths father, vihile the students were
styled his children, or sons. They were places of retire-

The Ascension. i8i
ment adapted for study and devotion ; yet they were not
monasteries, as we now understand the word, for the stu
dents were permitted to marry. They seem to me to have
resembled rather the seminary of the ancient Culdee church,
the ruins of which still awaken the interest of the traveler
in the island of lona, and which was not a place of educa
tion merely, but also a great missionary centre from which
laborers went forth in every direction to do the work of the
Lord. The subject of study at these institutions was the
law of Moses ; and along with that, but subsidiary to it, at
tention was given to music and sacred poetry, yvhile, alike
for purposes of recreation and preparation for after-useful
ness, the young men were trained in various handicrafts, like
those who to-day are in the seminary of the venerable Spit-
tier, near Basel, on- the edge 'of the Black Forest
In going to ahd fro among these schools, Elijah found the
labor and the happiness of his later years. His form was
familiar to the students, and they cherished for him a pecul
iar affection, which was as warmly reciprocated. So, when
the close of his sojourn on the earth drew near, and it was
intimated to him that he should be taken up to heaven by a
whirlwind, it was natural that he should wish to pay a fare
well visit to those interesting institutions in which were
gathered the young men who were the nation's hope. In
deed, from the narrative before us, it would seem that he
was already at Gilgal when he said to Elisha, who had been
for years his constant attendant, " Tarry here, I pray thee,
for the Lord hath sent me to Bethel." But a similar inti
mation, to that which had been given to Elijah had been
vouchsafed to the son of Shaphat, and he, resolved to abide
by his master to the last, replied, "As the Lord liveth and
as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee." So they went both
down to Bethel. , As they approached the site of the sacred
seminary, the well-known form of the man of God was recog-

1 82 Elijah the Prophet.
nized by the students, to whom also a knowledge of what
was about to happen had been divinely communicated, and
they came forth in a body to meet him with a greeting
which was all the more tender because they knew it was
their last. In response, we may imagine that he gave to
them a few earnest counsels, bearing on their character and
work; but he said no word of that which was most heavy on
their hearts ; and eager to talk to some one on the subject,
they whispered to Elisha, " Knowest thou that the Lord will
take away thy master from thy head to-day ?" But he was
as reserved as his master, and merely indicated that he was
aware of what was about to take place, while he enjoined
them to be silent, out of respect to the feelings of Elijah.
When they were about to depart from Bethel, the prophet
renewed his request that Elisha should remain behind. It
is difficult to account for this earnest wish of the Tishbite to
be alone in the last and most glorious incident of his career.
Perhaps its very solemnity made him desire to go apart from
his fellows and his friends. We know that extreme agony
or severe anxiety produces in the soul this longing for soli
tude, and it may be that at the other end of the scale the
same law holds good, and that the highest raptures of
triumph isolate a man from others as really as do the deep
est trials. Or the prophet may have been prompted by a
laudable modesty, and may have shrunk from seeming to
make that a spectacle to others which was so full of honor
to himself Or, as in the case of Jesus, with the earnest
suppliant, he may merely have designed to test and stimulate
the faith of Elisha, so that at the critical moment he might
be ready to receive the valuable legacy which he wished
to leave him. But, whatever may have been his motive for
asking Elisha to stay, his request was earnestly deprecated ;
and so they went on together to Jericho, where the incidents
which had occurred at Bethel were substantially repealed.

The Ascension. 183
Again the students spoke privately to Elisha of his master's
departure, and received an answer identical with that which
he had given to their brethren. Again Elijah desired him
to remain behindhand the former reply was given with deep
er and more earnest emphasis.
So out from Jericho they two went on. Fifty students
followed them till they came to an eminence which overlook
ed the Jorcian, and there they remained "to view afar off."
But the two pilgrims wended their way on toward the river,
and when they reached the bank, Elijah, taking his mantle
from his shoulders, and wrapping it up into a roll, smote the
waters with it, and immediately they were parted hither and
thither, so that they went over on dry ground. Up from the
opposite bank they still held on their way ; and now, break
ing the sacred silence which they had both maintained con
cerning that which was yet so vividly before their minds,
Elijah said, "Ask what I shall do for thee, before I be taken
away from thee ;" to which Elisha made reply, " I pray thee,
let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me."
How wisely, how divinely taught the son of Shaphat was !
He seeks not riches, nor worldly honor, nor power, nor any
thing that is in its nature earthly. He desires a double por
tion -of his master's spirit A double portion — the expres
sion is peculiar. It does not mean that Elisha wished to be
twice as great a prophet as his master had been. It is the
formula which is used in the law to denote the portion of
the first-born son in the family ; and its employment here by
Elisha is very much as if he had spoken after this fashion :
" Thou hast been visiting, at Gilgal, at Bethel, and at Jericho,
thy spiritual sons ; let me be as the first-born among them.
Let me be, indeed, thy successor, the inheritor of thy spirit,
and the continuer of thy work."
To this request Elijah made reply: "Thou hast asked a
hard thing : nevertheless, if thou see me taken from thee, it

184 Elijah the Prophep.
shall be so unto thee ; but if not, it shall not be so." And
still they went on and talked : how we wish we had known
the character of their discourse, as thus they walked so
consciously on the confines of the unseen J Perhaps it was
on high and heavenly themes ; or, just as likely, it was on
some simple topic of daily life : we know not Nor is it
an uninstructive feature in the narrative that we are not in
formed concerning it ; for nothing — no, not even^his parting
words— must interfere with the impression produced upon us
by the manner of the prophet's going hence. So, while they
spake one with another, a whirlwind came rushing up, a
sudden change passed over the heavens, and, lo ! in the bo
som of the cloud there was, as it were, a chariot of fire and
horses of fire :
"The drivers v/ere angels on horses of whiteness.
And its burning wheels turned upon axles of brightness ;
¦ A seraph unfolded its doors bright and shining,
All dazzling like gold ofthe seventh refining :
On the arch ofthe rainbow the chariot is gliding.
Through the paths of the thunder the horses are riding."*
And so, " caught up to meet the Lord in the air," Elijah
went up into heaven, while Elisha was left exclaiming, " My
father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen
thereof!" -Then, gathering up the mantle which had fallen
from his ascending master, he slowly retraced his steps ; and
when he came to the river, he smote the waters with the offi
cial garment, crying, "Where is the Lord God of Elijah?"
As he called, the river was again divided, and he went over.
This was a sign to the students, who were still standing on
the hill of Jericho, that he had succeeded to Elijah's dignity,
and they went forth to meet him, and bowed themselves be
fore him. * Hyslop's " Cameronian's Dream."

The Ascension. 185
So much occurred on the earthly side of that storm-cloud
which parted the Tishbite from his faithful follower ; but
who can adequately imagine, much less describe, all that
transpired on the heavenly ? In a moment, in the twinkling
of an eye, the body of the prophet underwent that change
which shall come upon the living at the day of Christ's ap
pearing, for " flesh and blood can not inherit the kingdom of
God, neither doth corruption inherit incorruption." Then,
with every demonstration of welcome, he is ushered into the
presence of Him whom he had served so lovingly upon the
earth. And as he is led on to his place of honor by the side
of Enoch and of Moses, there swells from the attendant
throng the glorious chorus, "Well done, good and faithful
servant ! enter into the joy of thy Lord.^' Thou man of
God, enjoy thy longed-for and well-earned repose ! Well
for thee that thy Lord took thee not at thy word, when thou
didst cry for death beneath the juniper-tree of the wilder
ness ! Bravely hast thou foughtthe battle of thy earthly life,
and gloriously hast thou been taken, not through death, but
over death, to wear " the crown of pure and everlasting and
passionless renown !"
The history over which to-night we have come, unparal
leled as it is in some respects, has yet in it material for prac
tical applications that bear upon our modern life. We may
learn from it, in the first place, the importance ofthe schools
of the prophets in our land. Elijah paid no farewell visits
to the great and noble of Israel ; but he could not leave the
world without one more interview with the youths vs'ho were
prosecuting their education at Gilgal, Bethel, and Jericho ;
and that not simply because they were dear to him person
ally, as Timothy was to Paul, but because he recognized the
momentous results to the nation at large of the work which
lay before them in the coming years. They had in their
hands much ofthe making ofthe character ofthe people for

1 86 Elijah the Prophet.
the next generation. And so, after having lovingly superin
tended their seminaries during the riper portion of his life,
he went to say to them some memorable and impressive
words, which would ever connect themselves in their minds
with his translation to heaven. Now, from all this, we should
be stirred up to take a deep, affectionate, and personal inter-.
est in the colleges and theological seminaries of our country.
Those who to-day are the inmates of these institutions are to
mold the thoughts and actions of the coming age. In the
Harvards and Yales and Princetons of the present, you will
find, sitting side by side, in the soft and plastic period of
their youth, those who are to be the legislators and jDhiloso-
phers and ministers of religion in our land, a few years hence,
and who, when the present generation has passed away, will
be the leaders of the community, giving it its intellectual,
moral, and spiritual tone. There are, therefore, few institu
tions which have stronger claims upon our patriotism than
the colleges of the land. Let them be liberally supported
and generously endowed by the wealth of our merchants ;
and let the foremost men among us in every department
count it the greatest honor that can be given them when
they are asked to labor in such promising and important
fields. Some time ago, it was my privilege to visit Oberlin,
Ohio, and to preach to the assembled students of the col
lege at that place. There were gathered together some
twelve or fourteen hundred young people, and I have sel
dom been so deeply moved as when I rose to address them.
I felt that there were very few places whence one.'s words
would radiate farther, or sound longer, than from that pulpit ;
and I prayed that God might enable me to say something
that would minister to his gloi"y and the good of souls.
But if such be the importance of the words of a casual
visitor, how much greater must be that of the teachings of
their constant instructors. Surely, the best men in the land

The Ascension. 187
should be secured for the position of professors ; and when
secured, as I believe they very largely are, they ought to be
liberally supported. Yet in this last respect the colleges of
our country are greatly below the requirements of the age,
and the salaries given to the professors, even in our oldest
and most eminent institutions, are miserably inadequate. Let
our men of wealth in the great cities look to this immediate
ly; for the vigor of our educational institutions has a very
intimate connection with the stability of our political consti
tution and the prosperity of our commercial enterprises. It
gladdened the heart of Agassiz when one of our own citizens
gave a whole island for the prosecution of his scientific pur
suits ; and though he did not live long to enjoy the gift, we
feel thankful now that it was not delayed until it would have
been too late.* Let others imitate this noble example; for
education elevates and refines the nation, and our colleges
are the true centres of influence in the land.
But if it be important for our citizens to look after our
colleges, it is even more so for our churches to give- heed to
the theological seminaries of the land. It is true, indeed,
that the Christian people help very largely to make the min
ister who comes among them by the tone and temper of their
daily lives ; but it is also a fact that the minister does much .
to make the church by his teaching and example. Now, our
theological seminaries are making the ministers of the fut
ure. From them are to come forth the men who shall by-
and-by occupy our pulpits, who shall lay the foundations of
our churches in the new districts of the West, and who shall
take up and carry forward the labors of our foreign mission
aries. The mantles of our present pastors and preachers

* I have recently heard that the Penikese experiment has failed, for
the time. 'Will no one step into the breach, and carry the enterprise
into permanent prosperity ?

1 88 Elijah the Prophet.
are ere long to fall on the shoulders of those who are to-day
the students of our seminaries. Surely, therefore, it well be
comes us to give the most fostering care to these interesting
and noble institutions. Let us get for them the ablest men
on whom we can lay our hands ; let us give liberally, so that
the occupant of a chair shall not feel that he is a whit behind
the very chiefest of our city pastors in emolument ; and let
us statedly and steadily remember them in our prayers,that
God may pour upon them his richest benediction. There
are few nobler positions on the earth than that occupied by~
him who trains the ministers of the Church of Christ ; and
so when we have seen lately one of the most honored and
successful of the ministers* of this city, after a pastorate of
forty years, consecrating the maturity of his experience, the
wealth of his resources, the culture of his intellect, and the
reputation of his life, to the work of the professorial chair,
we have felt that it was all that was needed to give the or
namental capital to the polished pillar of his public life.
May God preserve him long in his new and noble sphere,
and may the influence of this act of his give to our theo
logical seminaries throughout the land a firmer hold on the
minds and hearts of the members of the Christian church !
But, in the second place, we may learn from this history
that there is commonly a correspondence between the gen
eral character of a life and the nature of its close. Elijah
did not see death; but though we might not have antici
pated for him such a termination of his earthly career as that
which we have to-night attempted to ¦describe, we yet can
see a special fitness in it as the close of such a life as his.
His history was one of storm. He came in before Ahab, at

* These words were written just after the acceptance by Dr. "William
Adams of the Presidency of Union Theological Seminary, and I delight
in this opportunity of weaving my little " mount.iin daisy " into the chap-
let that adorns his brow.

The Ascension. 189
first, as with the rush of the hurricane ; and in the divine
symbolism of the Horeb vision, we might describe his minis
try as consisting successively in whirlwind and earthquake
and fire. Fitly, therefore, did such a one go up in a whirl
wind to heaven. Now, of course, in so far as his departure
from the earth was a translation, it was exceptional, and, save
in the case of Enoch, it has had no parallel ; but in so far as
this sort of close to his life was appropriate to the general
character of the work he did on earth, it was only .another
instance of the fact that the nature of a man's death is de
termined by the kind of life which has preceded it Your
Great-heart, who has gone through the world vanquishing ev
ery foe in the might of the Lord Jesus, finds the Jordan dry
when he goes over, and has not so much a death as a trans
lation. Your Hopeful, who has been walking all along his
pilgrimage in the sunshine of God's countenance, is of good
cheer also when he goes into the river. In the rich old lan
guage of John Bunyan, he "feels the bottom, and it is good."
While your timid Christian, who has all along been troubled
with quivering misgivings, and has had to go shuddering
through many a valley of shadow, will be full of anxiety
when he is in the article of death, and will be thankful for
any word of promise which a brother may whisper in his
ear. But you do not think any the less of him because of
that ; nor do! you imagine. that there is, on that account,'any
less hope in his death. You are sorry for his own sake, be
cause you wish he had more peace and, indeed, some tri
umph ; but you recollect what has been the character of his
experience throughout, and you begin to see that the manner
of his departure is taking the same hue. We must have the
life of an Elijah, if we are to have a translation at its close ;
and it is noteworthy that, so far as we know any thing of it
from the fragment of Jude, Enoch's was just such a life of
struggle and protest against abounding iniquity as that of the

190 Elijah the Prophet.
Tishbite. Paul could say with ease, " to die is gain," after
he had been able to say, "to me to live is Christ." So if we
wish to have an experience of peace and hope and triumph
in the hour of our departure, we must get out of our despond
ency now, and begin to " live Christ " in the cheerfulness of
his happiness as well as in the purity of his holiness. In
any case, just as the river takes with it to the sea the color
which its waters have contracted from the soil over which it
has flowed throughout its course, so our death experiences
v/'Al partake of the character, be it sombre or cheerful, which
our lives have had. There may be exceptional instances,
when, after long-continued despondency, there comes light at
evening-time ; but these are exceptional. The best means
of having light at death is to walk in the light through life.
Try this, my brethren, and you will find that He who met
Elijah with his chariot of fire will not be far from you when
you close your eyes on this sublunary scene.
We may note, in the third place, the connection which sub
sists between strong faith in the invisible life and the power
of a public ministry. When Elisha requested a double por
tion of Elijah's spirit, his master made reply, " Thou hast
asked a hard thing ; nevertheless, if thou see me when I am
taken from thee, it shall be so unto thee ; but if not, it shall
not be so." That is to say, the securing of that on which Eli
sha's heart was set depended on his seeing Elijah's ascension.
Now, have you thought on the reason of that appended con
dition? Where the record is silent, we may conjecture; but
we must not dogmatize. It is with diffidence, therefore, that
I venture to suggest an explanation. Still the suggestion
may itself be profitable, whether or not you accept the theory
on which it is based. The sight of Elijah's ascension gave to
his servant a firmer and more vivid faith in the reality ofthe
unseen life than he ever had before. Had Elijah simply
died like another man, no more lively sense of the invisible

The Ascension. 191
would have been given to Elisha than that which he had
received at the death-bed of any other friend. But when
he saw the prophet taken from his side alive, he felt as he
had never felt before regarding the other state of existence.
Wherever he had gone, the prophet was living, and if he had
gone, as he was sure he had, to Jehovah, then a new erapha-1
sis was given to the words which used to be so often on his
lips, "Jehovah liveth," and in that faith in Jehovah as the
living one lay the power ofthe spirit of Elijah. He did not
think of the prophet as one thinks, in spite of himself some
times, of a near relative who is dead. He thought of him as
alive, and that gave new reality in his soul to his belief in
the living Jehovah. Hence it was with no misgivings, and
not at all as an experiment to see how he would succeed,
but in the strongest faith that he cried out, "Where is the
Lord God of Elijah?" And the po-wer which he then re
ceived continued with him throughout his entire career.
We- have a similar thing in the history of the Christian
apostles. Their sight of the Lord's ascension gave life and
power to their labors in his cause; No doubt the Spirit came
down upon them on Pentecost, but their prayer for the Spir
it derived life and earnestness from their knowledge of the
fact that Jesus had gone alive into heaven ; and you can
not read, in even the most cursory manner, the first chapters
of the Acts of the Apostles without feeling how vivid was
their sense of the fact that Christ was living. This it was
that gave life to their prayers, earnestness to their discourses,
and energy to their characters. Their devotions were no
mere pious meditations, but they were like letters sent by
one to another whom he knows to be interested in his doing;
and all their references to him in public were to one who
was very real and very near to them. Thus on them also
the Spirit of power came down through their faith in the un
seen, quickened and focalized as that was by their sight of

192 Elijah the Prophet.
their Lord in the act and article of his ascension. Now, if
we would have more power, we must aim first at securing
this faith in the invisible. It was said of one that as he
prayed he spoke as if God was so near, and talked with him
so really and confidingly, that those who were beside him
found themselves almost looking round to see where God
was. It was said of another that he preached as if the Lord
Jesus were standing just by his side. Brethren, when we
have this faith in the real, living nearness to us of the un
seen Jehovah, we, too, shall have the Spirit of power, and
find upon our shoulders — shall I make bold to say it? —
the mantle, not of a prophet or apostle, but of the ascend
ed Christ himself
Let us learn, in the fourth place, the value of a good man
to his country. Elisha called his master "the chariot of
Israel and the horsemen thereof," implying that he was the
true national defense, better to Israel than all the pomp and
circumstance of a military host And that this was no ex
aggerated estimate, we may learn from the valuable services
which Elisha himself rendered to the ten tribes when they
were sorely menaced by the Syrian hosts. But though his
gift of prophecy and miracle made Elijah peculiarly service
able to Israel, it is as true to-day as it was in his time that
the real strength and rampart of a nation are the good men
that belong to it Character is power ; and, therefore, that
is the strongest nation that has most of purity and morali
ty and nobleness in the lives of its people. " Providence,''
said Bonaparte on one occasion, somewhat sneeringly, " is
generally on the side of the strongest battalions." Be it so ;
but has not the moral character of the soldiery much to do
with the strength of the battalion which they form ? And
even, apart from military prowess altogether, are not the
prayers of the people of God more powerful than all the en
ginery of war. " There was a littie city, and few men with-

The Ascension. 193
in it ; and there came a great king against it, and besieged
it, and built great bulwarks against it Now there was
found in it a poor wise man, and he by his wisdom deliver
ed the city ; yet no man remembered that same poor man.
Then said I, Wisdom is better than strength : nevertheless
the poor man's wisdom is despised, and his words are not
heard."* Thus spake Solomon thousands of years ago, and
the world has not yet learned the lesson of his words. Wis
dom is better than strength. Character is the noblest
strength. Oh that the men of this land to-day would but
give good heed to this neglected truth ! It is not armies
or navies, or diplomacy or wealth, that is to defend us from
attack without, or from perfidy within. It is character that
is a nation's real grandeur and true palladium. But what
makes the noblest character? Is it not belief in and obe
dience to the Lord Jesus Christ ? Thus piety is the loftiest
patriotism, and the army of Christian men and women are
more to our land than all earthly soldiery or military defense.
Finally, let us learn that though men are removed from
earth, God remains to strengthen and bless his people. Eli
jah ascends, but God, through Elisha, is as gracious as be
fore. So when statesmen and ministers of religion are taken
away, the Lord is still left to the state and to the church.
They did not take Jehovah with them when they left the
earth, and we can still sing, " God lives ; blessed be our
Rock, and let the God of our salvation be exalted-." Nor is
the application of this truth restricted to national or eccle
siastical life. It is true in our homes as well as in our
churches. The head of the household may be removed.
But the God of Elijah remains, who fed his servant by the
ravens, and made provision for the widow and the orphan in
the home of Zarephath. Therefore he will provide for and
•
 » 
* Ecclesiastes ix., 14-16.
9

194 Elijah the Prophet.
comfort the bereaved who put their trust in him. Haply
there may be some one here to-night mourning over some
such loss, and crying, not in the assurance of firm faith, but
in the sadness of despondency, " Where is the Lord God of
Elijah?" Let such a one take courage from the bearing
of Elisha here, and go forward. True, the river of some
great difficulty may lie before thee, and. thou mayest fear to
advance ; but Jehovah will open up thy way. He who ten
derly fed his desponding servant when he lay beneath the
juniper-tree will not forsake thee. He is near to all that
call upon him — that call upon him in truth.- Therefore, call
upon him in the day of trouble : " he will deliver thee, and
thou shalt glorify his name."

XIII.
ELIJAH ON THE MOUNT.
Luke ix., 30, 31.
AN Alpine traveler has told us how, one day, he set out
from Geneva, in a dense and dripping fog, to climb
one of the hills in the range of the Grand Salfeve ; and how,
after ascending for some hours, he came out above the mist,
and saw the cloudless sky above him, and around him on ev
ery hand the snowy battlement of the glorious mountains.
In the valley lay the fog, like a waveless ocean of white va
por ; and as he stood on the overhanging crags, he could
hear the. chime of bells, the lowing of cattle, and the sounds
of labor coming up from the villages that lay invisible be
neath ; while now and then, darting up out of the cloudy sea,
there came a bird, which, after delighting itself a while in
the joyous sunshine, and singing a glad song to greet the
unexpected brightness, dived down again , and disappeared.
Now what that brief time of unclouded radiance was to the
bird which had left the drizzling dullness of the lower world
beneath it, that was the .experience of the transfiguration to
our Lord Jesus. His earthly life, as a whole, was spent in
the valley, beneath the clouds of suffering and sorrow ; and
it was only at rare intervals that he emerged above it, and
stood on the mountain-top in the glorious majesty of his na
tive Godhead. Of such occasions, that of the transfiguration
was, by far, the grandest There was, indeed, nothing pre
cisely like it in his whole earthly career. It stands alone,
even among the marvels of his history, rising above them

196 Elijah the Prophet.
with as much magnificence as does the mountain on which
it took place above the surrounding plain.
And yet, because it was singular, we are not to conclude
that it was the most marvelous incident of his life ; for when
we remember that he was divine, nothing will seem more nat
ural than that his glory should be thus transcendent View
ed from the heavenly and divine side of his nature, his trans
figuration was indeed the least surprising thing in his expe
rience. There is nothing astonishing in the idea that God
should be surrounded with light as with a garment : but that
he should have taken human nature ; that he should have
lain in the cradle of infancy, and wrought at the carpenter's
bench, and been crucified on a malefactor's cross — these
are the marvels. Accordingly, the glorified saints who were
with him on the Mount expressed no surprise at seeing him
"pavilioned with splendor ;" but they conversed with him on
the decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem as qn
the thing which was at once most amazing to them and most
interesting to him.
But we must not anticipate, or begin to expound the mean
ing of the transfiguration, until we have endeavored to set it
in its true perspective by placing before you its antecedents
and surroundings. Some six or eight days before, Peter had
made his noble confession of faith : " Thou art the Christ,
the son of the living God ;" and almost immediately there
after the Lord made formal annoupcement to his followers
of his approaching death and resurrection. This took them
all by surprise ; for though, with his accustomed impulsive
ness, Peter was the first to speak, he was yet only giving ut
terance to the sentiments of them' all when he said, "That
be far from thee, Lord ; this shall not be unto thee." But,
to their still greater amazement, this response of the son of
Jonas, which seemed to them so full of kindness, was met
with perhaps the severest reproof that ever came from the

Elijah on the Mount. 197
Master's lips : "Get thee behind me, Satan; thou art an of
fense unto me : for thou savorest not the things that be of
God, but those that be of men."
This conversation, peculiar as it was, both in its theme
and in its manner, must have been still fresh in the memory
of the disciples, when about a week after, at the close of a
day spent in the service of humanity, the Lord sought rest
of spirit in fellowship with his Father. For this purpose he .
betook himself to a mountain, and, leaving nine of his dis
ciples in the valley, he took with him those three who were
always chosen by him for special privilege or arduous duty.
When they reached the summit, it would seem that night
had darkened down upon them, and Jesus gave himself to
prayer, while his companions, worn out by the fatigues of
the ascent, were " heavy with sleep." But having had for
mer experience that, when they were thus selected from the
others, something unusual was sure to happen, they bravely
battled with their drowsiness and kept awake (for the word
rendered "when they were awake" properly means "having
kept awake "). Nor was their watchfulness unrewarded, for,
as Jesus "filled the silent night" with his supplications, a
wondrous transformation passed upon him. "His face did
shine as the sun," and "his raiment became shining, exceed
ing white as snow ; so as no fuller on earth can white them."
This light was not reflected upon him from without, but it
was radiated from the divinity that dwelt within him ; it was
the breaking through ofthe glory, which commonly was veiled
by the flesh of his humanity. But as they looked on, and
their dazzled eyes became accustomed to the shining splen
dor, they saw that their Master was not alone. " There ap
peared with him two men," wearing the garb of glorified hu
manity, whom, by some peculiar indications, they identified
as Moses and Elijah, and they talked with him on the sub
ject of his death upon the cross. What a theme for such

198 , Elijah the Prophet.
high converse ! How we long to have but one golden sen
tence from that glorious triumvirate on such a subject ! Lit
tle wonder that Peter, as he listened, desired that the pre
cious privilege should be indefinitely prolonged, and said, as
he saw the celestial deputation about to depart : " Lord, it is
good for us to be here : if thou wilt, let us make here three
tabernacles ; one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for
-Elias." But, after all, his request was one of ignorance.
There was a world to be redeemed and converted ; there
were sufferers in the valley waiting to be relieved ; there was
work to be done, which needed the self-sacrifice and exer
tion alike of his Lord, of himself, and of his apostolic com
panions ; and so, even as he spake, there came the mystic
shechinah cloud, the emblem of Jehovah's presence, wherein
he was in part revealed, and in part also concealed, and over
shadowed them. As it settled down upon them, they were
filled with holy reverence, and there came to them a voice
from the excellent glory, " This is my beloved Son, in whom
I am well pleased ; hear ye him." Then, as it passed away,
and the clear shining of the silent stars was seen by them
once more, Jesus was found alone ; and when the day broke
they descended to the valley, with a new and deeper adora
tion of him who had called them to be his followers.
Now, if I were to attempt to expound the full significance
of this remarkable event in the Gospel history, there are
many methods which I might adopt I might look at it in
its relation to the Saviour, to the glorified beings who stood
by his side, to the apostles, and to the church at large ; or I '
might take it as furnishing one of the most striking proofs
of the deity of Him who came into the worjd to save sin
ners ; or I might regard it as establishing the reality of the
unseen state of existence, and the fact that the inhabitants
of heaven are deeply interested in the progress of the cause
of Christ upon the earth. But, coming upon it as I do now,
t

Elijah on the Mount. 199
in connection with our study of the life and times of Elijah
the Tishbite, I am compelled to narrow the range of my ob
servations, and look at it from that point of view which will
best enable us to understand the presence of Elijah with
Moses on the occasion. This, however, will be no disadvan
tage in the end, inasmuch as, by so doing, we shall grasp
the central significance of the scene, which, while it was truly
historic, was also designed to be parabolic and instructive.
Now, if we will attentively consider it, we shall discover
that the central truth of the transfiguration was this : Christ
glorified in connection with his death. The disciples, in
their ignorance and prejudice, had supposed that it would
be a dishonor to their Lord to be put to death ; and they
looked upon such an event as a virtual extinguishing of
the hopes which they had permitted themselves to cherish.
They fancied that their Master had come to establish an
earthly kingdom, wherein they should hold places of pecul
iar honor ; and so, when they heard him speak of his de
cease, they accounted that he was preparing for defeat, and
that they were about to be covered with confusion. Hence
they preferred to hear no more about it ; the subject was
one which was full of pain and grief to them. So far from
wreathing him with glory, the death of their Master, in their
estimation, would darken him with dishonor, in which, as his
chosen companions, they would have to share. But here,
as he speaks with Moses and Elijah on this very topic, his
countenance is radiant with brightness, and they show an
intensity of interest in its accomplishment which furnishes a
remarkable contrast to the hasty deprecation in which Peter
had indulged. Thus there was given to the disciples a new
view of that decease, from the very thought of which they
had so revolted at the first, and they were taught to connect
it, not with shame, but with honor.
Let us learn the lesson with them. AVe can not compre-

200 Elijah the Prophet.
hend the transfiguration if we dissever it from Calvary ; for
the glory that radiated from Jesus on the Mount was but
the first faint foretaste of that celestial honor which would
be conferred on him when he should ascend from his com
pleted work, and take his seat on the right hand of the Maj
esty on high.
Tell us, ye who would have us believe that the death of
Jesus was a mere martyrdom, like that of Stephen, why here
Christ is so glorified as he speaks concerning it, and why
these great ones, so long the denizens of heaven, should ap
pear on earth to talk with him of its accomplishment Why
did they not rather discourse of the morality he taught, of
the holiness he manifested, or of the originality of the doc
trines which he promulgated? Rest assured, my brethren,
that, wherever the cross of Christ may be undervalued and
the sacrifice of Christ ignored, it is not in heaven ; and the
very same motive that urges the redeemed before the throne
to sing " Worthy is the Lamb that was slain," impelled these
two representatives of the church triumphant here to speak
with Jesus of the "decease which he should accomplish at
Jerusalem." That death upon the cross was not a mere personal mat
ter, concerning only Jesus Christ himself It involved in it
the dearest interests of saints already in heaven, and of sin
ners down to the last hour of time. It was, indeed, the most
important event in the history of the universe; the great
central fact in the annals of humanity ; the meeting-place
of the two eternities. By it Jesus consummated his sacrifi
cial work ; satisfied the law and justice of God in the room
of sinners, triumphed over all his adversaries, and laid the
foundation of that kingdom which is to be universal in its
extent and eternal in its duration. AU this, of course, would
not appear, at first, in connection with it AVhen men saw
him hanging on the cross, and heard him cry, in heaviness

Elijah on the Mount. 201
of spirit, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" it
might seem to them, it did seem to them, that he was van
quished ; but when he rose from the tomb on the morning
of the third day, he was declared a conqueror, and was seen
to be the deliverer of his people from sin and death.
This, I doubt not, was the view which Moses and Elijah
got of it as thus they stood in glory, and spake of it with the
transfigured Christ ; for there is a peculiarity in the original
expression that is, to my mind, singularly suggestive. Liter
ally rendered, Luke's words are, " They spake of the exo
dus which he should accomplish at Jerusalem." It may be
a mere fancy, indeed ; yet as that is the term which, in the
Greek version of the Old Testament, even as in our own
English Bible, is the name of the Second Book of Moses, that
tells of the leading-forth of the tribes of Israel from their
house of bondage, I can not help thinking that these two an
cient worthies had come to regard the death of Christ as a
grander exodus than that of which Moses was the leader ;
and whether they had or not, there is no doubt whatever
that such was really the fact . That of Moses delivered from
the bondage of the Egyptian task-masters, whose lash galled
only the body ; this of Jesus rescues from the slavery of sin,
whose chains of habit are coiled around the soul. That of
Moses was achieved by the destruction of Pharaoh and his
host ; this of Jesus by the overthrow of Satan and his legions.
That of Moses was accomplished by the mere attribute of
power, through the instrumentahty of his wonder-working
rod ; this of Jesus was wrought out by love, which sacrificed
itself for the good of sinners on the cross of Calvary. That
of Moses emancipated but one nation ; this has introduced
a great multitude, whom no man can number, out of all peo
ples, and kindreds, and ages, into " the glorious liberty ofthe
children of God." Hence, if it be true, as Bunsen says, that
" history itself was born on- the night when Moses led forth
9*

202 Elijah the Prophet.
his countrymen from the land of Goshen," it is no less true
that a new era in the annals of humanity was introduced at
Calvary when our Great Deliverer cried, not in weakness,
but in triumph, " It is finished !"
The bush burned, but it was not consumed ; yea, in the
midst of the flame, its green leaves kept their verdure, in
tensifying the wonder of the spectacle, whereon Moses gazed
with rapt reverence and in unsandaled feet. But here is a
wonder greater still ; for while the fire played round the
man Christ Jesus, the divinity within him still kept its inde
structible features, and gave to the spectacle at once its mys
tery and its majesty.
Brethren, there are two transfigurations : that ofthe Mount,
and that of the cross ; and it is impossible to understand ei
ther, save in the light ofthe other. He who was on the Mount
was still the Man of Sorrows, and he who was on the cross
was still the Divine Son. The death on the cross gave its
glory to the mountain scene ; the declaration on the Mount
makes the death all -radiant with triumph, in spite of the
blackened heavens and the hooting multitude. To the heav
enly hosts the scene upon the Mount was natural, and that
on the cross was the transfiguration ; to us the death was
human, and the mountain scene divine ; but, in reality, the
two are one, or, rather, they are but opposite sides of the one
great mystery of godliness, God manifest in the flesh ; and
both alike are transcendently glorious.
But I must pass on to remark, in the second place, how
Christ, glorified through his death, reflects back a radiance
on Moses and Elijah. At flrst sight we are disposed to
wonder that, out of all the glorified ones in heaven, these
two should have been chosen to be present on this great
occasion ; and, doubtless, had the selection been made on
merely personal grounds, it might have fallen upon others,
such as Abraham, the father of-the faithful, or Daniel, the

Elijah on the Mount. 203
man greatiy beloved. But the delegation was sent for pub
lic rather than personal reasons ; and in the official position
which these two had held on earth we find the explanation
of their appearance here. Moses is inseparably associated
with the law which was given to Israel through his instru
mentality; while Elijah (as we have seen) was distinguished
for his zeal in reforming his countrymen, and bringing them
back to the observance of the precepts which Moses had
commanded, but which Ahab and the people had disre
garded. It has been supposed by many, indeed, that Elijah was
here as the representative of the prophets ; but though, in
the broad sense of speaking in the name and by the inspi
ration of God, Elijah was certainly a prophet, yet there is
a clear distinction between him and Isaiah, or Ezekiel, or
Daniel, or Zechariah. These last all looked forward, and
had much to say of the great coming Deliverer, and the king
dom which he was to establish on the earth. But the work
of Elijah was not so much a preparation for the future as an
earnest effort for the restoration of the past It was with
him through all his public life, as it was that day on Carmel,
when he repaired the altar which had been broken down.
During his whole public ministry he was seeking to build
up a ruined altar, and to bring back again the nation to its
observance of the Mosaic ritual.
Thus it was most fit that he should stand by the side of
Moses, especially when now, as the result of Christ's death,
the necessity for the perpetuation of the Mosaic economy
was about to cease, and a new and better, because more
spiritual, dispensation was to be introduced. They were
here to do homage to the Lord Jesus as the new king ; they
were here to set an example to the Jews of confidence in
the Christ who had come to abrogate the law by " the bring-
ing-in of a better hope."

204 Elijah the Prophet.
But observe that they were here in glory. Now, that of
cohrse was a literal fact They came wearing the nature of
the blessed immortals in the heavenly vi'orld. Of that there
can be no doubt Yet this glory had also a parabolic sig
nificance, and we see in it the illumination which is given to
the whole system of Jewish worship by the death of Christ
Nothing can well be more unmeaning or enigmatical than a
transparency when you put it upon a mantel-shelf, or hang
it against a dark background. But take it up, and look at it
with the bright sunshine behind it, and what a transfigura
tion ensues ! Forthwith some exquisite work of art comes
into view, and lines of beauty and significance, which you
would never otherwise have thought of, force themselves
upon your attention.
Now is it not just so with the whole history and economy
of Moses ? In themselves considered, the Books of Exodus,
Numbers, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy are not the most in
teresting in the Scriptures ; but take them and read them in
the light of Christ, and what a new world of meaning is there
then revealed ! Peruse the Book of Exodus in the light of
the Gospel history and of Christian experience, and say if
Moses is not made thereby a sharer in the glory of the trans
figured Christ ? Egypt, Marah, the manna, the wilderness,
the water from the rock, the serpent of brass, the parted Jor
dan, the long-desired Canaan, with its milk and honey, all
acquire a new significance, and the book is henceforth an old
edition of the " Pilgrim's Progress," in black-letter, and with
quaint engravings, such as strike us more than the finished
pictures of a modern artist
So, again, with the ritual which Moses introduced : take
Christ for a background to that transparency, and you have
the Epistle to the Hebrews, so marvelous in its beauty and
so matchless in its glory. The tabernacle, with its furniture ;
the festivals, with their peculiar surroundings ; the ark, with

Elijah on the Mount. 205
its cherubim continually gazing on the blood-stained mercy-
seat, as the angels desire to look into the sufferings of Christ
and the glory that should follow — all are irradiated with
new lustre, a lustre reflected from the face of Christ
Take one example : In the ordinances prescribed for the
great Day of Atonement, we find that two goats were to be
designated by lot ; the one was to be slain, and the other,
bearing sin on its devoted head, was to be led by. the hand
of a fit man into the wilderness. It seems a singular and
unmeaning thing; but when you look at the whole in the
light of Christ, these two goats, like the two pictures in the
modern stereoscope, blend into one finely relieved and beau
tifully distinct image of " the Lamb of God taking away the
sin of the world." So it is with all the others.
And so do we find it also with Elijah. You have wonder
ed, as, indeed, I have myself, at the deeply suggestive lessons
for modern life which we have received from this old history
of the Tishbite ; but here is the explanation as we read it
with the Son of Righteousness for a background. Nothing
can well be duller or more dingy than the appearance of
a cathedral window to one who is looking on it from the out
side of the building ; but vvhen you enter, and gaze at it from
within, the whole is aglow with beauty.
Now, most people read the history of Elijah much as they
would that of some old hermit, and they get little out of it
We have tried to read it in the light of the Gospel, and, as
we have done so, we have seen that Elijah is a sharer of the
glory ofthe transfigured Christ A'Ve saw Calvary from Car
mel ; in the still small voice which we heard at Horeb we
discerned the merciful accents of Him whom the Magdalene
recognized when, at the door of the sepulchre, he said unto
her " Mary !" And in the ascension of the faithful prophet
we descried a far-off prediqtion of the day when to those on
his right hand the Judge shall say, " Come, ye blessed of my

2o6 Elijah the Prophet.
father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foun
dation of the worid." Thus the glory of Christ illuminates
Moses and Elias ; and as we read their pages, so irradiated,
we are to ourselves as if we stood with the privileged three
on the Mount of Transfiguration, and we, too, are constrain
ed to say, " It is good for us to be here."
But now, advancing another step, behold how, as Moses
and Elijah are thus glorified by Christ, they retire from
view, and give place to him. When the vision v/as past, the
disciples saw no man, save "Jesus only;" nay, when the two
were in the act of departing, the cloud came down, and a
voice from the midst of it proclaimed, " This is my beloved
Son, in whom I am well pleased." Thus the servants fall
back before the Son whom the Father solemnly introduces
to the world, and commends to its attention, saying, in effect,
" Ye have heard Moses and Elijah, and ye did well to hear
them ; for they were my servants. But now a greater than
either has come to you, even mine only begotten and well-
beloved Son ; therefore hear him."
Thus Moses and Elijah, when rightly understood, lead up
to Christ, and leave us with him. Their function was peda
gogic, or educational, and it is over when men come to
Christ The moment the Mosaic ritual is seen in its true
bearing on the Gospel, it ceases to be binding on the con
science, and men are enjoined to take the law at the Re
deemer's lips. Hence this vision, rightiy understood, was
designed to make the transition from the law to the Gospel
easy for the disciples and their earliest converts among the
Jews. But in this last "Hear him" there are a breadth and an
intensity of injunction that concern us also. Hear him !
My brother, have you opened your ears to any of his words ?
Have you listened to his faithfuj warnings, his tender ex
postulations, his gracious invitations, his precious promises,

Elijah on the Mount. 207
his consoling utterances ? Is it so that you have an ear
for the classic dramatist, or the political orator, or the sci
entific lecturer, or the concord of sweet sounds that came
first from the heart and brain of some Beethoven or Mozart,
while yet you will not listen to the Son of God ? Go back to
the days of his flesh, and be reproved by the words which
fell from the lips of the officers sent by his enemies to ap
prehend him, as they said, " Never man spake like this man.'"
Go back, and learn from the masses of his own day how
much you miss in turning away from him ; for " the common
people heard him gladly." Even as artistic productions, hi^
discourses are unrivaled in the literature of earth. Where
will you find such fertility and beauty of illustration, wedded
to such simplicity of style and massiveness of thought?
Who so original as the prophet of Nazareth ? Who so au
thoritative with the authority of truth ? Who so sympathetic
as he who bore our griefs and carried our sorrows ? But
that is a low ground on which to ask your attention to his
words. He is the Son of God, and his utterances concern
you. " Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." Im
penitent sinner, hear that ! " Except a man be born again,
he can not see the kingdom of God." Hypocrite, with th&
fair show and the false heart, hear that ! " God so loved the
world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever
believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."
Despairing sinner, you who fear that God has cast you off,
hear that "whosoever," and grasp it, and by it lift yourself
up to the "whosoever believeth." " Him that cometh unto
me, I will in nowise cast out" Doubting sinner, hesitating
whether you will be received if you come, hear that ! " Let
not your heart be troubled, ye believe in God, believe also
in me." . Desponding Christian, who art carrying the burden
of some sore sorrow, hear that ! " I am the Resurrection
and the Life : he that believeth in me, though he were dead,

2o8 Elijah the Prophet.
yet shall he live ; and he that liveth, and believeth in me,
shall never die." Bereaved Christians, hear that ! Take the
Sermon on the Mount, all ye who are seeking for a directory
for life, and as you read it forget not these closing words :
" Whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them,
I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon
a rock : and the rain descended, and the floods came, and
the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not:
for it was founded upon a rock. And every one that heareth
these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened
unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand :
and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds
blew, and beat upon that house, and it fell : and great was
the fall of it."
I have, to-night, but one thought for my closing lesson.
See here the reality of the future life. Elijah was with
Christ more than eight hundred years after his translation,
and Moses more than twelve hundred after his burial in
" Nebo's lonely mountain." As Elijah did not die, we know
that he appeared in glorified humanity; and as it is said
that two men talked with Jesus, we infer that the body of
Moses had been raised in anticipation of the general resur
rection. If this view be accepted, then it may help to ex
plain an obscure passage in the Epistie of Jude, where we
read that " Michael the archangel contended with the devil,
disputing about the body of Moses." But however that may
have been, here are two men living hundreds of years after
the death ofthe one and the translation ofthe other.
Here, therefore, we have one of the most striking proofs
of the reality of the world unseen. We must either give up
our faith in the historic verity of this narrative, or we must
accept it as an incontrovertible evidence of the fact that
there is a life beyond this. Now, I vvill not argue here. I
know you believe that there is such a state. But what pro-

Elijah on the Mount. 209
vision are you making for it? Where will you be in it?
Here, centuries after the finishing of their earthly course, we
find Moses and Elijah in such circumstances as warrant us
to believe that they were happy in the presence of their God.
In a short time each of us shall be as they, with the mystery
of death behind us ; but shall we be as they also, joyful in
the heavenly inheritance ? The first moment after death —
that will settle it all. What will that be ? Nay, I am wrong.
We are settling even now what that first moment shall be.
How are you settling it, my hearer? If you are living in
sin, you are settling that, when you leave the body, the first
and continued experience of your soul shall be that of per
dition : if you are living in Christ, you are settling that,
when your spirit leaves its fleshly tabernacle, you shall have
" a building of God ; a house not made with hands, eternal
in the heavens." Which is it?
Now the God of Peace, that brought again from the dead
our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through
the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in
every good work to do his will, working in you that which is
well pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be
glory for ever and ever. Amen.

INDEX,

Abel-meiiolah, situation of, 133 ; plowing at, described, 134.
Adams, Rev. Dr. "William, 188.
Ahab, character of, 7, 8 ; guilt of, as distinguished from that of Jerobo
am, 8, 9 ; motive of, for the introduction of Baal-worship into Israel,
ip, II ; Elijah's first interview with, 12-18; searches for Elijah, 24;
meeting of, with Elijah, 71-74; selfishness of, 80; on Mount Carmel,
90 ; ride of, from Carmel to Jezreel, 112 ; in the vineyard of Naboth,
147 ; story of his covetousness, 148 ; sick from disappointment, 149 ;
acquiesces in Jezebel's policy, 151 ; confronted by Elijah, 151 ; partial
repentance of, 152; death of, 152.
Ahaziah, sickness of, 164, 166 ; sends his servants to Ekron, 166 ; orders
the apprehension of Elijah, 167 ; visited by Elijah in his death-cham
ber, 169.
Alliances, unholy, evil of, 156.
Answers to prayer to be expected, 106, 108; come through the ordinary
operation ofthe laws of nature, 109; should be recognized when they
do come, 108-112 ; are not mere coincidences, no.
Ashtaroth and Baal, their worship characterized, ic, 11; inconsistency
of their worship with that of Jehovah, 91.
Atonement, great day of, services on, 205.
Authoress of the " Chronicles of the Schonberg-cotta Family," quoted
from, 49.
Baal and Ashtaroth, their worship characterized, 10 ; manner in which
Elijah met the worship of, 17; relation of, to present controversies,
18; priests of, on Carmel, go, 93, loi, 103.
Banquet given by Elisha, 137.
Benevolence, principles of, 83.
Bernard and others, position of, in Church of Rome, 77.
" Bible Lands," by Dr. "Van-Lennep, quoted from, 93.
Blindness of ungodliness, 84.
Bonar's, Dr. H., "Sinai," quoted from, 118.
Botanist, story of a, 79, 80.

212 Index.
Calvary, sacrifice on, related to that on Carmel, 97 ; and to the trans
figuration, 200.
Carmel, Mount, described, 87 ; modern name of ridge, 89 ; historical
associations connected with, 88; gathering of the people to, 90;
appearance of Elijah on, 90; sacrifice on, 93; relation of, to Cal
vary, 97.
Chalmers, Dr. Thomas, anecdote of, 131.
Cherith, probable situation of, 24, 25 ; brook failed, 38.
Children, death of, 56.
Christ, miracles of, greater than those of Elijah, 60, 61 ; transfiguration
of, 197 ; death of, 200, 202 ; the only ruler in the Gospel dispensation,
206.
Circumstances no excuse for declining to serve Christ, 78.
Colleges, importance of sustaining, 185-187.
Companion, value of a faithful, 121.
Cowper's " Task," quotation from, 52, 53.
Curse attending ill-gotten gains, 160.
Death of children, 56.
Decision for God, urgency of, 98.
Definiteness in prayer enforced, roj.
Dervishes, modern, cut themselves, like the ancient priests of Baal, 93.
Despondency often due to merely physical causes, 119.
Diversity of gifts in different servants of God, 143.
Double portion of Elijah's spirit, meaning of, 183.
Eadie's " Cyclopasdia," quoted from, 32.
Ease more dangerous to piety than difficulty, 79, 80.
Effects of physical exhaustion on spiritual experience, ng.
Eleanor, Queen, story of, 122.
Elijah, first appearance of, 12 ; meaning of his name, 14 ; character of,
15, 32, 54; first utterance of, 16; sent to Cherith, 24; search for by
Ahab, 24 ; fed by ravens, 29 ; faith of, tried at Cherith, 38 ; sent to
Zarephath, 40 ; meeting of, with the widow, 44 ; how occupied at Zar
ephath, 53, 54 ; tenderness of, 55 ; raises the widow's son to life, 58,
59; miracles of, contrasted with those of Christ, 60, 61; training of,
for Carmel, 66, 67; re-appearance of, 69 ; feelings of, on return to Is
rael, 70, 71; meeting of, with Obadiah, 71, 72; with Ahab, 74; ap
pearance of, on Carmel, go, 91 ; proposal of, to the people at Car
mel, 91; preparation for sacrifice by, 93; prayer of, 103-115; run
ning before 'Ahab, 112-115; flight of, from Jezebel, 117; causes of
despondency of, 1 19-124; vision of, at Horeb, 129, 130 ; visit of, to
Abel-meholah, 135; contrast between, and Elisha, 144; confronts
Ahab in Naboth's vineyard, 151 ; mission of, not so much political as
religious, 165; intercepts the messengers of Ahaziah, 166; calls for
fire from heaven upon his adversaries, 168 ; visits Ahaziah upon his

Index. 213
death-bed, 169; relation of, to the sons of the prophets, 180 ; visits
Bethel, Gilgal, and Jericho, 180-182 ; ascension of, 184; presence of,
on the Mount of Transfiguration, 202, 203.
Elisha at the plow, 134 ; called by Elijah, 135 ; feast given by, 137 ;
training of, under Elijah, 142 ; contrast between, and Elijah, 144 ;
last request of, to Elijah, 183 ; lifts the mantle of Elijah, and divides
the Jordan with it, 184.
El Muhrakah, description of, 88.
Emerson's "Letters from the ^gean" quoted from, 109.
Emotion, exhaustion caused by, 120.
Esdraelon, plain of, historical associations connected with, 88.
Exaggerated expectations, evil of, 123-125.
Fairbairn's "Imperial Bible Dictionary" quoted from, 117.
Faith, manifested by waiting obedience, 39.
Famine, description of, 24, 71.
Fenelon, position of, in Church of Rome, 77.
Friendship, value of, 122.
Future life, reality of, 208.
Gentleness to be combined with sternness in dealing with men, 85.
Gilead described, 15.
Giving increases getting, 49.
God's care ofthe widow, 51.
 care of his church, in maintaining a succession of teachers, 13S,
193-
 claim on men established in connection with sacrifice, 96-98.
. delay to help, reason of, 50.

God served by patience in retirement as'well as by activity in public life,
26, 27.
God's training of his servants, manner of, 14, 20, 21, 66-68.
•Growth of sin insidious, ig, 20.
Good man, value of, to his country, ig2.
Good men sometimes found in unexpected places, 75-77.
Hall, Bishop, quoted from, 45, 167.
Hamilton, Bishop, referred to, 104.
Happiness consists not in getting, but in being, 154.
Havelock, General, and his sop, anecdote of, 39, 40.
Heart, the, chooses its own God, 94, 95.
Holy Spirit, relation ofthe work of, to that of Christ, 113, 114.
Homeless poor, the lines on, by Miss Procter, 81.
Honor put by God on industry in daily life, 139.
Horeb, Elijah's vision at, 129.
Hymn by George Neumarck, story of, 36.
Hyslop's " Cameronian's Dream," quotation from, 1S4.

2 14 Index.
Ill-gotten gains, curse of, i6r.
Impossibility of combining the services of God and mammon, 95, 96.
Indecision, causes of, 98, 99 ; danger of, 100.
Isolation, danger of, 122.
Israel, condition of, under Ahab, 7 ; character of the people, 12, gi ; peo
ple of, gathered on Carmel, 90 ; Elijah's appeal to people of, 91.
Jamieson's " Commentary," quoted from, 70, gi.
 " Eastern Manners, illustrative ofthe Old Testament," quoted
from, 135.
Jebel-Mar-Elias, 8g.
Jeroboam, guilt of, as distinguished from Ahab's, 8, 9.
Jezebel, character of, 11 ; rage of, after the sacrifice on Carmel, 116 ; un
dertakes to obtain Naboth's vineyard for Ahab, 150; unscrupulous-
ness ofthe measures employed by, on that occasion, 150; punish
ment of, for that and other crimes, 153.
Josephus quoted from, 11.
Juniper- tree, 117.
Kelt, "Wady, described, 25.
Kishon, modern name of, connected with the history of Elijah, 89.
Kitto's "Bible Illustrations," quoted from, or referred to, 30, 3g, 71, 109.
 " Encyclopedia," edited by Dr. "W. ."L. Alexander, referred to, 25,
89.
Knowledge of the right sometimes employed in an endeavor to defeat
the right, 157, 158.
Knox, John, sternness of, vindicated, 21 ; home life of, 54, 55.
Krummacher's " Elijah the Tishbite," quoted from, 35.
Laws of nature the means by which God answers prayer, no.
Leighton, Archbishop, position of, referred to, 77.
Life's end like the life that ends, r88.
Luther, Martin, home life of, 54; saying of to Melancthon, 126.
Lyddon's, Canon, " Some Elements of Religious Thought," quoted from,
105.
M'Crie's "Life of Knox" referred to, 55.
MacDuff 's " Prophet of Fire " referred to, 47.
Mantle, casting of, by Elijah on Elisha, 135, 136.
Marriage, importance of, 157.
Maurice's, Rev. F. D., " The Prophets and Kings of the Old Testament,"
referred to, 7, 10.
Meal, miracle ofthe unfailing, 38.
Milkman, usefulness of a, 47.
Milton, John, sonnet of, on his blindness, 27.
Ministry of the Ckispel, honor ofthe, 140; importance of training for the,

Index. 215
142, 143 ; difference of, from that of Elijah, 176; power of, depends
on the minister's faith in the invisible, 190.
Miracles of Elijah contrasted with those of Christ, 60.
Moderates ofthe Scottish Church referred to, 77.
Moses and Elijah glorified by Christ, 204, 205 ; lead up to Christ, 205.
Naboth refuses to sell his vineyard to Ahab, 148, 149 ; is unjustly ac
cused and put to death by Jezebel, 150.
Nahr-el-Mokatta, the river of slaughter, 89.
Natural and supernatural equally related to God, 52, 53.
Neumarck, George, hymn of, 36.
Obadiah, kindness of, to the sons of the prophets, 72 ; character of, 73 ;
meeting of, with Elijah, 73 ; position of, in Ahab's household, lessons
from, 75-80.
Oil, miracle of the, 38.
Omri, character of, 7.
One man, pov/er of, when God is with him, 22.
Pentecost, relation of, to the cross, 114; power of, 191.
Piety revealed by the resort of the soul in trouble, 66 ; may be met in
unexpected places, 76-78 ; is endangered more by ease than by diffi
culty, 79, 80.
Plowing at Abel-meholah described, 134.
Poor, homeless, lines on the, by Miss Procter, 81.
Prayer the complement of promise, 104 ; a work producing exhaustion,
104 ; should have a definite object, 105 ; should look for an answer,
106 ; should be importunate, 108 ; is answered through the usual
operations of the laws of nature, log ; relation of to preaching, 114 ;
answers to, not mere coincidences, no.
Price of sin, the, 159.
Priests of Baal cutting themselves on Carmel, 92 ; frantic doings of, typ
ical of the vain efforts of men to find God, 97 ; put to death by Eli
jah, 94, 101-103.
Principles of benevolence, 83.
Procter, Miss A. A., quoted from, 81.
Prosperity, unbroken, not good for a man, 64.
Providence of God, minuteness of, 45, 46 ; the unexpected happens in,
62 ; discipline in, 67.
Ravens feeding Elijah, 29 ; reasons for holding by the received opinion
regarding, 30, 31.
Reformers vindicated from modern objections, 21 ; often characterized
by tenderness as well as strength, 54.
Rejection of God punished, both under the Gospel and the law, 172-175.
Resurrection of Christ, relation of, to the raising of the widow's son, 59, 60.

2i6 Index.
Retribution, certainty of, under God's government, 152, 153.
Robertson's, Rev. F. W., sermons, referred to, 119, 126.
Sacrifice of Elijah, relation of, to that of Christ, 96.
Sailors and soldiers, piety among, 78.
Saunders's, Frederick, " Evenings with the Sacred Poets," referred to, 37.
Selfishness of the ungodly, 80.
Self-prominence, evil of, 126.
Selling one's self to work iniquity, I59, 160.
Servant of God must deal with men according to their characters, 85.
Shirley, Rev. "W. W., quoted from, 10.
Sidney, Sir Philip, an illustration of benevolence, 48.
Sin, growth of, insidious, 18, 20 ; price of, 159.
Sinners can not run away from God, 170.
Slaughter ofthe priests of Baal vindicated, loi.
Smith's " Dictionary of the Bible," quoted from, 15, 32.
Soldiers and sailors, piety of, 75.
Solitude, value of, 27, 28.
Special training needed for special work, 141.
Spirit, double portion of Elijah's, meaning of, 183.
Stanley, Dean, quoted from, 41, 55.
Stevenson, Rev. W. F., quoted from, 37.
Sunday Magazine, incident from, 47.
Taylor, Isaac, referred to, ri2.
Tell-el-Kusis, hill of the priests, 89.
Temporal things provided by God as well as spiritual, 34.
Tenderness of God, 127, 162, 176.
Tennyson, Alfred, quoted from, 28, 56.
Theological seminaries, importance of, 187.
Thomson's, 'W. M., D.D., " The Land and the Book," quoted from, 41,
58, 112.
Transfiguration, the, exceptional in the history of Christ, 195, ig6; rela
tion of, to Christ's previous conversation with his discijjles, ig6, 197 ;
central truth of, 199.
Trial a training for triumph, 66-68.
Ungodly, selfishness of the, 80, 81 ; blindness of the, 84.
Unsettlements in life to be expected, 61, 62 ; reveal us to ourselves, 63 ;
give us a new errand to the throne of grace, 65 ; lead us ultimately to
stronger confidence in God, 66.
Urgency of decision for God, 98, 99.
¦Van-Lennep's, Dr. H. J., "Bible Lands," quoted from, 93.
Vindication of the slaughter of the priests of Baal, 101.
 ofthe Reformers for their sternness, 21.

Index. 217
Wady Kelt described, 25.
Waiting, a service of God equally with working, 26.
Widow, God's care for the, 51.
Widow of Zarephath, distress of, 44 ; faith of, 43, 45 ; why selected to re
ceive Elijah, 43 ; son of, an object of interest to Elijah, 54 ; death of
son, 55 ; elements of mystery in trial of, 57 ; resurrection of son, 58,
59 ; result on, of this discipline, 66 ; leaving of, by Elijah, 70.
Wilberforce's, Bishop, " Heroes of Hebrew History," quoted from, 13, 20.
Wisdom needed for the winning of souls, 85.
Work for God, not rendered impossible by the smallness of our re
sources, 47 ; should take precedence of our care for ourselves, 48 ; re
warded by God, 49 ; we must i-iot cherish exaggerated expectations
as to results of, 123.
Workman, the, ready when his work is to be done, 21.
Zarephath, description of, 41 ; why Elijah was sent to, 41, 43 ; widow
of, selected to receive Elijah, 43.

the end.

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