Jordan, or unfolded as a veil hid the mourning face of the prophet.

From Gilead came Elijah to king Ahab with these tidings: As the Lord God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, except according to my word.'

Having uttered this decree, the prophet quietly retired to the brook of Cherith near the river Jordan, and remained in that secluded spot at the command of the Lord. 'And the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening, and he drank of the brook.' But in time the severe drought dried up the springs, and the brook of Cherith gave no more water. Then the Lord bade Elijah arise, and go to Zarephath, one of the northern towns belonging to Zidon, where a certain widow would sustain him. Obedient to the summons, Elijah journeyed northwards, and came to the gate of the city, where he beheld a woman gathering sticks, and he called her, and said, 'Fetch me, I pray thee, a little water in a vessel, that I may drink.' As she was going to comply with his request, he called her again, and said, 'Bring me, I pray thee, a morsel of bread in thy hand.' Then the poor widow answered, 'As the Lord thy God lives, 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 a few sticks, that I may go in, and dress it for me and my son, that we may eat it, and die.' And Elijah said to her, Fear not; go and do as thou hast said; but make me thereof a little cake first and bring it me, and after that make for thee and thy son. For thus says 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 sends rain upon the earth.' The widow did all that Elijah told her, and he dwelt with her for many days. The barrel of meal did not waste, and the cruse of oil

did not fail, according to the word of the Lord which He had spoken through Elijah.' Suddenly the son of the poor widow fell dangerously ill, and his life was despaired of. The mother came to the prophet in an agony of grief. What have I to do with thee, O thou man of God?' she exclaimed; 'art thou come to me to call my sin to remembrance, and to slay my son?'-Give me thy son,' was Elijah's answer; and he took the child out of her arms, and carried him up into a loft where he himself slept, and laid him upon his own bed. And he cried to the Lord, and said, 'O Lord, my God, hast Thou also brought evil upon the widow with whom I sojourn, by slaying her son?' Then he stretched himself three times upon the child, and cried to the Lord, and said, 'O Lord, my God, I pray Thee, let this child's soul come unto him again.' His supplication was heard, and the child recovered. He then took him down to his mother, and said, 'See, thy son lives.' And the widow exclaimed with reverence, 'Now, by this I know, that thou art a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in thy mouth is truth.'

112. ELIJAH AND THE PRIESTS OF BAAL.

[1 KINGS XVIII.]

For three years no rain fell in the land of Samaria, and grievous was the famine occasioned by the drought. The grass and the crops were burnt up, and the cattle were starving for want of food. Now Obadiah, the governor of the royal household, was a pious and Godfearing man; during the fierce persecutions of queen Jezebel he had defied her wrath by hiding a hundred true prophets in two of the numerous mountain retreats, and had there supplied them with food and drink. He revered and loved Elijah, whom he longed above all to shield from

Jezebel's relentless vengeance. Both met unexpectedly in the land of Samaria. The interview probably took place in the vicinity of Jezreel; for Ahab had commanded the faithful Obadiah to go forth in all parts of the country and find some plot of fresh grass where the starving cattle might graze. Obadiah fell on his face before the prophet, exclaiming, Art thou that my lord Elijah?' 'I am,' was the answer; 'go, tell thy master, Behold, Elijah is here.' Obadiah trembled at this command, and he said, 'What have I sinned, that thou wouldst deliver thy servant into the hand of Ahab, to slay me? As the Lord thy God lives, there is no nation nor kingdom, whither my lord has not sent to seek thee; and when they said, He is not there, he took an oath of the kingdom and nation that they found thee not. And now thou sayest, Go, tell thy master, Behold, Elijah is here. And it shall come to pass, as soon as I am gone from thee, that the Spirit of the Lord shall carry thee whither I know not; and so when I come and tell Ahab, and he cannot find thee, he will slay me: but I thy servant fear the Lord from my youth.' Yet at last, urged by the prophet, he returned and told the king of his interview with Elijah. Ahab set forth at once to meet him. As he saw the prophet, he exclaimed, ‘Art thou he that troubles Israel?' Elijah answered, 'I have not troubled Israel, but thou and thy father's house, because you have forsaken the commandments of the Lord, and thou hast followed Baalim. Now, therefore, send and gather to me all Israel to Mount Carmel, and the prophets of Baal four hundred and fifty, and the prophets of Ashtarte four hundred, who eat at Jezebel's table.' Ahab complied with the request. Upon one of the eminences of Mount Carmel, where the eye wanders over a mass of sea and sand, of wood and plain, near an ancient altar of Jehovah, an extraordinary scene was to be enacted.

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Thither thronged the Israelites, the inhabitants of the northern kingdom; there were gathered the prophets of Baal and the priests of the high places, and Ahab the king appeared in his royal splendour, and there came the prophet Elijah, the messenger and servant of the Lord. Towering above all others, he faced the people, and asked sternly, 'How long do you halt between two sides? If the Lord be God, then follow Him; but if Baal, then follow him!' The people heard these words in remorseful silence. Again rang forth the voice of Elijah: 'I, even I only, remain a prophet of the Lord, but Baal's prophets are four hundred and fifty men. them, therefore, give us two bullocks, and let them choose one bullock for themselves, and cut it in pieces, and lay it on wood and put no fire under it; and I will dress the other bullock, and put no fire under it. And call ye on the name of your gods, and I will call on the name of the Lord; and the God that answers by fire, let him be God.' And all the people answered, 'It is well spoken.' Then Elijah bade the prophets of Baal choose the bullock and prepare it for the sacrifice. So the animal was slain, cut in pieces, and laid on the altar. The priests called upon their god Baal. From early morning until the heat of the midday they cried continually, 'O Baal, hear us!' But there was no sign of an answer. As was their custom on similar occasions, they leaped round the altar while repeating their prayers and invocations. Elijah could not refrain from bitter irony. Cry aloud,' he said, 'for he is a god! Either he is meditating, or he is gone aside, or he is on a journey, or peradventure he sleeps and must be awaked.' Then the priests cried louder and louder, and in their frantic excitement they cut themselves with knives until the blood gushed forth from their wounds; and they shouted and called and leapt wildly from the hot noon until the day faded into evening. But there

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was yet no sign of an answer. Then Elijah said to the eager people, Come near to me.' Taking twelve stones, according to the number of the Hebrew tribes, he erected an altar, round which he ordered a wide trench to be made. Then he arranged the wood on the altar, and, slaying the bullock, he prepared it for the sacrifice. Thrice were four barrels of water poured out, so that the offering, and the altar, and the deep trench were completely filled with the water. It was in the last glow of the waning daylight that Elijah drew near to the sacrifice, and pronounced this prayer: 'Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that Thou art God in Israel, and that I am Thy servant, and that I have done all these things at Thy word. Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that this people may know that Thou art the Lord God, and thus turn Thou their hearts back again.'

He had hardly uttered these words when the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt-sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench.' At that sight the amazed multitude prostrated themselves, and exclaimed, "The Lord He is God, the Lord He is God.' But terrible was Elijah's vengeance on the false priests of the idol. Take the prophets of Baal,' he commanded the people, and let not one of them escape!' The people rushed upon them, and at the bidding of Elijah they led them down to the brook Kishon, which runs winding at the foot of Mount Carmel, and there they slew them all.

Then Elijah said to the king, 'Get up, eat and drink, for there is the noisy sound of rain.' So Ahab went up to one of the heights of Carmel, where the repast was spread, while the prophet Elijah went to a solitary place on the mountain for meditation and prayer. Meantime his servant stood upon the ridge of the elevation, and looked forth over the blue waters of the Mediterranean. As at