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1 KINGS xix. 8.

"And he arose, and did eat and drink, and went in the strength of that meat forty days and forty nights unto Horeb the Mount of God."

HAVING thus far traced the covenant, as revealing Father, Son, and Spirit, in a baptism of the world from sin, and a resting in Jehovah, the true ark of our salvation; in the manifestation of the kingdom in Christ; and in the blessing of righteousness in the Spirit of the Son; we now approach a very interesting and instructive portion of the sacred history, wherein we may see clearly the faithfulness of a covenant God, and how that all things work together for good to them who obey the covenant, and so are called according to grace.

Paul, setting forth the mercy of God, draws a marked distinction between God casting away His people, and their falling away. He could attest that although the nation had its position and honour, as outwardly witnessing to the covenant which it failed to know, God had not cast them off, as he, Paul, a murderer, persecutor, and injurious, was of the remnant according to the election of grace. God has elected all men to walk before Him, according to the covenant, in holiness and righteousness all the days of their life, and if they, despite their privileges and advantages, reject it, they, de facto, fall away, and so God does not cast them off; but if there be some-a remnant-who do realise and live according to this election of grace, they attest the truth.

In Elijah, who comes before us without any introduction by way of parentage or extraction, and whose name is composed

of two Hebrew words signifying "my Eloh is Jehovah,” we see a man of like passions with ourselves, who yet, in the habit of his life, was not only identified with the covenant, but abided in it, desiring its blessings in a hungering and thirsting after righteousness. Whatever may have been the errors or failings of Elijah in respect to this experience, it is, however, with regard to the covenant that the Lord here reveals Himself. In Elijah we behold one realising the covenant, honouring the Father, walking in the Kingdom, doing His will, and jealous of His honour. He serves not Baal, but is the servant of Jehovah, before whom he stands. He reproves the wicked king and the children of Israel, and shuts up the heavens, that they should not give rain but according to his word. So long as they were hardening their hearts, serving Baalim, this sign of redemption was withholden, and the heavens became as iron. They had forsaken a merciful Jehovah, thrown down His altars, slain His prophets with the sword. They followed and worshipped Baalim, and the long drought had no effect in bringing them to a right mind. The prophet presents himself before the king; denounces him, with his house, as the great troubler of Israel; and challenges him to assemble the priests of Baal at Mount Carmel that he might there prove who is the one and true God. Elijah vindicated the covenant before all Israel. In that awfully solemn act he placed all Israel as offering its holocaust that Jehovah might manifest Himself. Then the priests of Baal are put to the sword, and there is an abundance of rain. By the holocaust, and the slaying of the priests of Baal, he taught them redemption, to which the abundance of rain also witnessed. Then was Ahab to arise, eat and drink, implying redemption; that is, realise the truth, of which these outward gifts would be the expressive sign.

The king, on his coming to Jezreel, told Jezebel all that the prophet had done to the priests of Baal. This wicked woman, whose heart was rancorous with hatred against the cause of God, maddened with disappointment and revenge, threatens the life of Elijah. And when he heard of it, he arose for his life and came to Beersheba. Thence he went into the wilderness, desiring to die that the Lord would take his life from him, as it was not better than his fathers'. Here we see a man of like passions with ourselves, impatient, indeed, of the providence of God because his cherished hopes appeared frustrated, the desire of his heart deferred.

A witness to this impatience may be discovered even in the very character of the Lord's providential dealings with him. At the brook Cherith he was taught, not only God's continual and unceasing care in sending him his daily food by birds of prey, which seemed to forget their natural instinct, and in giving water by a stream that had not dried up, but also what was the important truth to which, in the blessing of the covenant, he had to witness. However, by its singularity, it is forced upon our notice and claims consideration.

It is not for us, by any means or in any degree, to justify our wrong-doing by the failings of any holy man of God; but to thank God for His mercy, and then learn through him how, independently of such, the covenant stands and reveals its nature and its claims.

Elijah learned, even as we may, that, by the ravens' carrying the flesh and instinctively hungering for it, and the parched earth bearing the water, yet thirsting for it, how we, in the patience of a perfect providence, should hunger and thirst after the kingdom of righteousness. And lest the truth taught by this providential care of Elijah should, by the regular continuance of the supply, be lost sight of, its form

is changed. Here we may behold how a gracious Father, in His covenant relation to us, is ever dealing with us. Elijah is now to go to one who is not of the stock of Israel, and apparently a stranger to the covenant of grace— and under the most trying circumstances conceivable, for to all appearances she and her child have been forgotten in their desolation and privation by the one Father,—and require of her to forget her mother's love, her natural affection for her only child, and make for him, a stranger, first, out of that scant store, a cake before she and her child make for themselves their last meal, partake thereof, and die. Did she not, in her extremity, require and desire this meal and oil? But she possessed the reality, and showed how she could cast her two mites into the treasury of the Lord, how she could part with life and its dearest relationships, and hunger and thirst after the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and so in patience live in entire dependence on Him; wherefore the barrel of meal and the cruse of oil, even as the true bread of heaven and the true anointing, faileth not until He sent rain upon the earth. Again, while under the roof of the widow it was still necessary, for the strengthening and supporting of the prophet's faith, that there should be another manifestation of the truth. Her child dies, and to the woman her sin is brought to her remembrance. What this was does not appear: however, her earnest desire is that it may be put away and the life restored. So are we saved by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost-that is, from faith to faith. In this threefold manifestation there is a progressive development of the desire, of the Christian experience. The act of Elijah is expressive of such earnest desire, as he stretches himself on the child three times and the life returns.

Herein we again learn that there can be no stock of faith; but a continual dependence on God. We must cast away self, and realise our dwelling in Jehovah in a continual lusting of the Spirit against the flesh, when it will be truly said, "I know that thou art a man of God, and that the Word of Jehovah in thy mouth is truth." As such, Elijah stood before the assembled hosts of Israel, to turn them from idols to the one true and living God, and with holy and undiminished fervour to prosecute the work of reformation. He had stood in the power and Spirit of the Lord; he had borne the testimony, and his fondly cherished hope of restoring Israel seemed to be about to bear its full fruition. But a single event begets in his sensitive mind a feeling of despair. He quails under the threatenings of a wicked woman, who has full power over the will of her weak and vacillating husband, and flees for his life. Impatient, he complains of the people's unfaithfulness and his own desolateness.

However exalted the position, however blessed the occupation, the most honoured of God's servants show that they are men: that they are not always free from the infirmities of a common nature. We might here turn to the Baptist, who was in the same power and Spirit as Elijah, and see another instance of impatience of the providence of God; but space will not admit.

The Lord knows how to vindicate his own honour. If we possess his righteousness, we shall hunger and thirst after it, not only in doing his will, but doing it despite all adverse power. How then does God deal with Elijah? How should he, but according to the truth? The prophet goes a day's journey into the wilderness; heart sick, he sits down under a juniper tree, and requests for himself that he may die. As he sleeps, an angel touches him, and says unto him, "Arise,