V.-ELIJAH AND OBADIAH

'He must increase, but I must decrease," was the language of John the Baptist to his disciples, as he perceived, with the greatest concern, that they placed him above Jesus, and with mistaken attachment clung to him, instead of attaching themselves to that "Greater than he," whom John had only preceded as herald and harbinger with the trumpet of repentance. "My children," cries he, "what are you attempting." "He that hath the bride is the bridegroom, and the bridegroom is Christ. I am only the friend of the bridegroom. My office is to announce to the spiritual bride the arrival of her beloved, and to direct her attention to him. When the beloved is come, and the bride hath found him, then is my office at an end. Then the friend of the bridegroom, who standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom's voice. This my joy therefore is fulfilled. He must increase, but I must decrease," John 3. 30.

The Baptist compares his master to the great luminary which makes the day; but himself to the lesser light, or to a planet, which is visible only so long as the sun is not in the heavens, but then pales its ray, retires into darkness, and vanishes altogether. And he wishes to be nothing more than such a faint star, or a moon in full day, and would gladly drive all his followers who surround him by force from him, that they might fall at and embrace the feet of the Saviour. Gladly would he stand forsaken, and no more regarded, did he but see the sheep resting in the fold of the great Shepherd, and partaking of that salvation which could alone be found there. "He must increase, but I must decrease." The Baptist meant, that he must decrease not merely in personal reputation, but also in regard to his office. His office was only preparatory. It was his duty to prepare the way for the spiritual Bridegroom, by preaching the law unto repentance, and to be no more than a "school

master unto Christ," as Moses; only that he drew Sinai and Calvary near together, and blended the trumpet notes of the law with the sweet harp-tones of the gospel.

That the Messias should come to bring help and salvation to sinners, the disciples of John well knew; yet many so viewed the matter, as if the repentance which they were now displaying, and the life of rigour and poverty which they were passing in the wilderness, as well as the fasting, self-denial, and prayer, which John enjoined, had in itself some atoning virtue, or must at least be laid in the balance as works of merit, which they hoped would outweigh the evil of their sins, and the threatened curse of the law. This was, however, utterly to confound the offices of John and of Christ, and to make a very strange mixture of grace and works. The zealous men had not yet been baptized deep enough in the Jordan. "No, no," exclaimed the Baptist with vehemence, "this will not suffice; you must die unto yourselves yet far more thoroughly. Sink deeper into free grace. I must decrease.' All that I have enjoined, the sorrow for sin, the crucifying of the flesh, the fasting and the prayer, must lose all worth in your eyes as a means of reconciliation with God. In Christ must ye seek this, and in Christ alone. He must increase.'"

Now, in this declaration of the Baptist, the whole mystery of godliness lies wrapped up. Does any one ask what he must do to be saved, "Friend, thou must decrease, and Christ must increase; and thus thou shalt be saved." Does another ask, "Wherein consists the sanctification of the believer?" What shall we reply? It consists in this, that Christ increase, and that the believer decrease. Would another seek to know a certain sign that he is advancing in the life of grace? We should only need to say to him, "Test yourself by this, whether Christ increase in your eyes, and

you yourself decrease." By nature, we are great and Jesus little; we are strong and Jesus is weak. So long as we cannot allow Him to be the only Saviour, the Alpha and the Omega, we find the power in our own hands, not in his; the light in our own reason, not in his word; the salvation

in our own acquired merits, not in the blood of the Lamb. Suddenly the lightning of divine illumination falls on our benighted heart, and the case is at once reversed. The strong has in a moment become weak; the weak has become strong. The Sun of Righteousness rises in full view before us with healing under his wings, and our poor lunar light grows dim, and sinks with all its blaze of glories, virtues, and moral powers into darkness. As poor debtors we lie weeping on the steps of the throne of grace, and, O, what would we not give if He, the adorable, the only Saviour, would with one beam of grace, with one glance of love, revive our downcast hearts. Then the sinner has decreased, and Jesus has increased before his eyes.

We might, at first, suppose that one who has once been heartily and thoroughly humbled in repentance, would never all his life long be able to lift up his head in pride. But experience teaches us often a very different lesson. If the old man were dead within us, it might be so; but he lives still, although dying as a malefactor on the cross; and not unfrequently he revives, even in the regenerate, with such sad influence, that we are forced to take up the language of complaint regarding them, "Alas, Christ decreases, and they increase." One increases by his ascetic exercises, another by the enlargement of his knowledge, another by his good works, and another by the devoutness of his frames; and I know not all besides. In these they increase, and are in a little become so pious and holy that they stand erect on their own footing, and rest in their own righteousness, and leave the throne of mercy an unfrequented place. With the sense of guilt, the conviction of helplessness departs, and hence Christ and his blood decrease in their eyes.

Are we not then to increase in sanctification? Yes, truly! Grow as the palm tree, but, in thy feeling and consciousness, thou must remain like the hyssop on the wall, and become daily less and weaker, and more dependent on an outward prop that bears thee, or thy course is not the right The children of God must grow "up unto Him in all things, who is the head, even Christ." Behold, when thou

one.

art from day to day more in thy own sight "as nothing," and Christ becomes to thee more literally "thy all;" when thou feelest thyself daily poorer, and embracest more eagerly the riches of thy High Priest; when thou findest thyself ever emptier of true virtues, and the righteousness of thy Surety becomes to thee more and more precious; when thou seest more deeply thine own impotence, and placest thyself as the beggar at the rich man's door; when thou canst offer with thy whole heart the prayer, "Yea, Lord, but the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from the master's table:" then is this thy decrease a true prospering in grace, and thy poverty and debility in thyself is a growing rich and strong in thy God. I must decrease, is the language of the Baptist. It is a law of Christ's kingdom. Whom the Lord loveth, he leadeth from one descent to another. The spectacle of such a spiritual decrease, that Christ may increase, our present narrative presents to us in the example of Obadiah.

1 KINGS xviii. 1-16.

"And it came to pass, after many days, that the word of the Lord came to Elijah in the third year, saying, Go, show thyself unto Ahab; and I will send rain upon the earth. And Elijah went to show himself unto Ahab; and there was a sore famine in Samaria. And Ahab called Obadiah, which was the governor of his house: (now Obadiah feared the Lord greatly: For it was so, when Jezebel cut off the prophets of the Lord, that Obadiah took an hundred prophets, and hid them by fifty in a cave, and fed them with bread and water:) And Ahab said unto Obadiah, Go into the land, unto all fountains of water, and unto all brooks: peradventure we may find grass to save the horses and mules alive, that we lose not all the beasts. So they divided the land between them, to pass throughout it. Ahab went one way by himself, and Obadiah went another way y himself. And as Obadiah was in the way, behold, Elijah met him; and he knew him, and fell on his face, and said, Art thou that my lord Elijah? And he answered him, I am : Go, tell thy lord, Behold, Elijah is here. And he said, What have I sinned, that thou wouldest deliver thy servant into the hand of Ahab, to slay me? As the Lord thy God liveth, there is no nation or kingdom, whither my lord hath 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 Lord, 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 shall slay me; but I thy servant fear the Lord from my youth. Was it not told my lord what I did, when Jezebel slew the prophets of the Lord, how I hid an hundred men of the Lord's prophets by fifty in a cave, and fed them with bread and water i

And now thou sayest, Go, tell thy lord, Behold Elijah is here: and he shall slay me. And Elijah said. As the Lord of hosts liveth, before whom I stand, I will surely show myself unto him to-day. So Obadiah went to meet Ahab, and told him: and Ahab went to meet Elijah."

Now that we have dwelt for a while with the prophet under his vine and fig-tree, we are called again to accompany him to the stormy theatre of public life. We have here, I. The manner of his departure from Zarephath; II. The occurrences at the same time in the court at Samaria; and III. The meeting of Elijah and Obadiah.

I. The prophet had now been two years and some months at Zarephath. "After many days," is the language of scripture. To the prophet they may have seemed only a few; yet certainly, when compared with the ordinary course of God's dealings with his children, it was a long time. To lie for two years and some months in succession as it were at anchor in a haven of rest; to have for two years and more a perpetual Sabbath, an unclouded sky, if we except a few passing shades of trouble, and to remain in a state of unbroken peace, with the assaults of the devil and the world shut out, is the lot of few of God's servants. Our stay at Zarephath can in general only be reckoned by hours and days, not by months and years. Perhaps Elijah would have gladly lingered a little longer. His had been a happy time, and still more delightful in its latter end than in its beginning, for the cloud of trouble had left much dew and blessing behind on this quiet hill of Zion. The widow had now become to him a real sister in the Lord, in the deepest and holiest sense of the word. And who can tell what work of grace may have passed in the widow's son, that Elijah recalled from the dead, and whether from that moment his true life may not have begun. But the word of the Lord came, "Arise and depart." At the brook Cherith, where the wish to leave may naturally have arisen, the command was, "Thou shalt dwell here;" and now at Zarephath, where he would gladly have tarried longer, he receives the call, "Go, show thyself unto Ahab." Thus must our will and