own sake, their career was less triumphant. But they never suffered greater persecution than under king Ahab. He had no mercy upon them. Whereever they strove to execute the duties of their office they were summarily dealt with; and indeed, had his orders been obeyed to the letter, the prophetic order must have been rooted out in his day.

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Fallen as Israel was, there were yet a few good men left,- seven thousand knees," as we read, "which had not bowed to Baal," and more than one person of rank and wealth belonged to the number. One of these is especially mentioned in the Bible," Obadiah, the steward of the king's household," as having saved above a hundred of God's prophets, by hiding them in caves, and feeding them with bread and water.

Ahab was in the full career of his guilt, when from the town of Tishbi in Gilead, of the tribe of Gad, there went forth to reprove him, and to be God's instrument in the punishment of his people, one of the most illustrious prophets of whom mention is made in the Bible. Of the family and early career of this remarkable man nothing on which we can depend has been told. We know only that his name was Elijah, a word signifying "the Lord my God is he," and that the spirit of God rested upon him in larger measure than upon any other of the Lord's servants since Moses. But to the reproofs of Elijah Ahab paid no regard, and more than reproof followed. Nowise daunted by what he heard of the king's cruelties, the prophet sought him out; and in the presence of his courtiers thus addressed him "As the Lord God of Israel liveth, before

I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these rs, but according to my word."

the manner of the prophet awed

ELIJAH THE PROPHET.

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She

the king. Doubtless, too, God took care of his servant; but no sooner was Elijah withdrawn from Ahab's presence, than the necessity of escape and concealment became manifest to him. He fled into the wild country near the Jordan; and, in a cave beside the brook Cherith, found shelter. Here he dwelt many days, drinking of the brook and eating the morsels of bread and flesh, which flights of ravens brought away every morning and evening from innumerable out-of-door altars on which sacrifices to Baal were continually smoking. At last, however, the brook dried up; and Elijah, by God's directions, descended to the plains. He travelled to Zarephath, a town within the territories of Sidon; and met at the gate a widow woman, of whom he besought food and lodging. The poor woman assured him that all her food was expended. had nothing except a handful of meal in a barrel, and a single cruse of oil within her doors, and she was then looking for a few sticks, that she might dress the morsel for her son and herself, and that having eaten it, they might die. The prophet desired her to dress first for him, and assured her that she should never want. She did so, and received him into her dwelling; and "the barrel of meal wasted not, neither did the cruse of oil fail, till the Lord sent rain upon the land." Nor did God's blessing end there. After Elijah had been about two years her guest, her only child died suddenly, and the poor woman, in the agony of her grief, said bitter things to the prophet. But he resented them not. On the contrary, he prayed that the child's soul might return, and his prayer was heard.

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B. C. 907. Meanwhile, there was extreme distress throughout Israel. Rivers, streams, fountains,

all dried up. The cattle died for lack of pasture, and bread to sustain human life failed, when, at the end of about three years, Elijah received a command from God to go and show himself to Ahab. He went, and being met on the road by the good Obadiah, he directed him to arrange a meeting with the king, and assured him that he would not fail to be at the place appointed.

The meeting took place, for Ahab at once sought out the prophet. It was a stormy one at first; but it led to an agreement that the question of the divided faith of the nation should be submitted to a fair trial. Elijah challenged the prophets of Baal to meet him on Mount Carmel. Each party was to make ready there an altar and an offering; though neither should be permitted to apply fire to the pile; and the God who answered by consuming his own sacrifice, would at once be accepted as the God of Israel. Four hundred prophets of Baal came to the place appointed, and the king, with an immense multitude followed, to watch the result. Altars were built, wood strewn, bullocks slaughtered, divided, and laid on the pile, and for six long hours Baal's priests prayed, without receiving an answer. Elijah mocked them as they cried and cut themselves with knives and lancets: "Your God is asleep, you must awake him; he is on a journey, you must call him back ;" and then his turn came. He waited till the time of the evening sacrifice, and, to make security doubly sure, he caused many buckets of water to be poured on his altar and his sacrifice. Then he prayed, and immediately fire fell from heaven and consumed the whole. There was no resisting evidence like this; so the multitude exclaimed, with one accord, "The Lord, he is God, the Lord, he is God." But Elijah was not satisfied

BENHADAD INVADES SAMARIA.

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with so barren a triumph. He caused the whole of Baal's prophets to be slain on the spot, and then told the king that he should have rain. It came in torrents, and Israel was saved.

Though the people were satisfied, Jezebel the queen was not. A bigoted idolater, she made no secret of her intention to slay Elijah, whenever he might fall into her hands; and he was compelled again to flee for his life into the desert. There God made himself manifest to his worshipper by various signs; and commissioned him to perform various acts of service. But for these the times were not yet ripe, so Elijah dwelt apart, and no one had intercourse with him.

CHAP. XXXI.

FIRST BOOK OF KINGS AND SECOND BOOK OF CHRONICLES-continued.

NABOTH'S VINEYARD.

DEATH OF AHAB.

B.C. 901.-WHILE Elijah thus dwelt alone with God, war broke out anew between Israel and Syria, and Ben-hadad, advancing with a great army, placed Samaria in a state of siege. His want of vigilance seems, however, to have been as gross as his habits were brutal; for he permitted himself to be surprised when carousing in his tent, and his troops were cut to pieces. Ahab does not appear to have followed up his success with vigour, so Ben-hadad returned in the following year, and was again defeated. Not even yet had the king of Israel learned, that leniency is misplaced where public enemies lack honour. He consented unwisely to a peace on the sole condition that Ben-hadad would

restore to him the frontier cities which he had taken, and among the rest Ramoth-gilead, a place of considerable strength and much political importance. But Ben-hadad never entertained the idea of fulfilling this part of his engagements. Ramoth-gilead was valuable to him as well as to Ahab; and from day to day, on one pretext or another, he deferred withdrawing his garrison from it. Meanwhile other events befell of a more domestic character, which demand notice.

In the district of Jezreel, not many miles from Samaria, Ahab had a palace; and near it lay a vineyard belonging to a person called Naboth, which the king greatly desired to purchase and inclose. Naboth, however, refused to part with the inheritance of his family; and Ahab did not dare to take it from him by force. For corrupt as Israel had become, the forms of law were still respected in its courts, and the king would have provoked a rebellion had he set them at defiance. Under these circumstances, his wife Jezebel persuaded him to suborn false witnesses; and Naboth being convicted on their testimony of blaspheming God and the king, was carried outside the city, and stoned to death. Hereupon Ahab secured the vineyard as a forfeited estate and attached it to his own grounds.

B. C. 899. He had gone down to look at his newly acquired property, and was walking in the vineyard, when Elijah suddenly confronted him. Their meeting was brief and stern: "Hast thou found me, oh mine enemy?" demanded the king. "I have found thee," was the reply: "Where the dogs licked the blood of Naboth they shall lick thine; and by dogs also shall Jezebel be eaten, near the wall of Jezreel." Terrified at the bold and solemn manner