ing, while the brook afforded him water to quench his thirst; but after awhile the brook dried up, because there was no rain in the land, and then the Lord commanded Elijah to go to a city called Zarephath or Sarepta, where a widow woman was to sustain him.

So Elijah went to Zarephath in obedience to the command of the Lord. There he found a poor widow woman. She was gathering sticks to make a fire that she might bake a cake of the last remnant of flour in her barrel for herself and son. She had nothing left but this small quantity of flour and a little oil. But, by the miraculous power of the Lord, this flour and this oil were made to last until the famine was at an end. Elijah said to the widow: "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." Thus for a long time Elijah dwelt with this poor widow, and the Lord provided for them so that they never suffered want. But after some time the son of the widow fell sick, and his sickness increased until he died. The poor widow was inconsolable at her loss, and she said to Elijah, "O thou man of God! art thou come to call my sin to remembrance, and to slay my son ?" Then Elijah carried the dead body of the boy up into a loft, and

laid it upon his own bed. And he prayed very fervently to God, begging that the Lord might be pleased to restore the poor widow's son to life. And the Lord heard the prayer of Elijah His servant, and the child revived. Then Elijah took the child and brought him down out of the chamber into the house, and delivered him to his mother, saying, "See, thy son liveth." And, overjoyed that her darling was thus restored to her, the grateful mother cried out, "Now by this I know that thou art a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in thy mouth is truth."

Ahab, the wicked Ahab, was sorely troubled when he found what a grievous famine had come upon Israel; but, unrepentant and hard-hearted, he never thought of his own sin, but studied only how he might take revenge upon Elijah who had prophesied this famine; and he caused the prophet to be sought for everywhere, but without success. Jezebel his wife also slew all the prophets of the Lord whom she could find; but the steward of Ahab's house, Obadiah, a good and righteous man, hid a hundred prophets in a cave, and fed them with bread and water, to protect them from the anger of the wicked queen. At last Ahab and Obadiah wandered forth in search of a green place, where the horses and mules might still find pasturage, in spite of

the great drought; and then it was that Elijah was commanded by the Lord to meet Ahab, and to tell him that the Lord would send rain upon the land again. When Ahab saw Elijah, he said to him, “Art thou he that troubleth Israel?" But Elijah replied, "I have not troubled Israel, but thou and thy father's house, in that ye have forsaken the commandments of the Lord and followed Baalim." Then Elijah boldly proposed that the prophets of Baal and he should try which of them worshipped the true God. At his request all the prophets of Baal were gathered together at Mount Carmel, and he said to the people, "How long halt ye between two opinions? If the Lord be God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him." So an offering was prepared upon an altar by Elijah, and another by the priests of Baal; and it was agreed that the sacrifice upon which fire descended from heaven should be looked upon as offered to the true God. Then the priests of Baal prayed to their idol to send fire upon the offering; and they cried aloud, and cut themselves after their manner with knives and lancets till the blood gushed out upon them; but no answer came to their prayers. But when Elijah prayed to the Lord God of Israel, there came down fire from heaven and consumed his burnt offering. And when the

people saw it, they fell on their faces and cried, "The Lord He is the God, the Lord He is the God." And Elijah said to them, "Take the prophets of Baal; let not one of them escape." And they took them; and Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishon, and slew them there.

'Mid pleasure, plenty, and success,

Freely we take from Him who lends;
We boast the blessings we possess,
Yet scarcely thank the One who sends.

But let affliction pour its smart,

How soon we quail beneath the rod!
With shattered pride and prostrate heart,
We seek the long-forgotten God.

ELIJAH AND ELISHA.

And it came to pass, when they were gone over, that Elijah said unto Elisha, Ask what I shall do for thee, before I be taken away from thee. And Elisha said, I pray thee, let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me. II. Kings, ii. 9.

WHEN the power of the Lord God had been thus openly shown before all Israel, and the great drought with which Israel had been afflicted was also to cease, Elijah announced to Ahab that there was a sound of abundance of rain. And, accordingly, a little cloud, not bigger than a man's hand, rose out of the sea, and grew and swelled until the whole face of the heavens was black. And there was a great and abundant rain as King Ahab rode in his chariot to Jezreel.

When Ahab told Jezebel his wife how Elijah had slain the prophets of Baal, the wicked queen was very angry, and sent to Elijah to let him know that she would surely take his life in revenge. Thereupon Elijah fled for his life into the wilderness.

There an

angel appeared to him as he slept under a juniper tree, and comforted him. And the word of the Lord came to him, and commanded him to anoint Jehu, the son of Nimshi, to be king in place of the wicked Ahab, as