his murder, she would not have given him warning of it, and that the reference to twenty-four hours as the limit of his

life must rather have been intended to induce Elijah to immediate flight. And she succeeded in her purpose - not,

indeed, from fear on the part of the prophet,18 but from deep disappointment and depression, for which we may in some

measure find even a physical cause in the reaction that must have followed on the day after Carmel.

Strange as it may seem, these felt weaknesses of men like Elijah come upon us with almost a sense of relief. It is not

only that we realize that these giants of faith are men of like passions with ourselves, but that the Divine in their work is

thereby the more prominently brought out. It deserves special notice that Elijah proceeded on his hasty journey without

any Divine direction to that effect. Attended only by his faithful servant, he passed without pausing to the farthest

boundary of the neighboring kingdom of Judah. But even that was not his final destination, nor could he in his then

mood brook any companionship. Leaving his servant behind, he went into the wilderness of Paran. In its awful solitude

he felt himself for the first time free to rest. Utterly broken down in body and in spirit, he cast himself under one of

those wide-spreading brooms,19 which seemed as if they indicated that even in the vast, howling wilderness, the hand of

the Great Creator had provided shelter for His poor, hardly bestead wanderers.

There is something almost awful in the life -and-death conflicts of great souls. We witness them with a feeling akin to

reverence. The deep despondency of Elijah's soul found utterance in the entreaty to be released from work and

suffering. He was not better than his fathers; like them he had vainly toiled; like them he had failed; why should his

painful mission be prolonged? But not so must he pass away. Like Moses of old, he must at least gain distant view of

the sweet land of beauty and rest. As so often, God in His tender mercy gave His beloved the precious relief of sleep.

And more than that - he was to have evidence that even there he was not forsaken. An angel awakened him to minister

to his wants. God careth for the body; and precious in His sight is not only the death, but also the felt need of His

people. The same great Jehovah, Whose manifestation on Carmel had been so awful in its grandeur, condescended to

His servant in the hour of his utmost need, and with unspeakable tenderness, like a mother, tended His weary child.

Once more a season of sle ep, and again the former heaven-given provision for the journey which he was to make - now

in the guidance of God.20

The analogy between Moses, as he through whom the Covenant was given, and Elijah, as he through whom the

Covenant was restored, has already been indicated. There is, however, one great difference between the two. When

Israel broke the Covenant which Moses was about to make, he pleaded for them with the most intense agony of soul

(Exodus 33 -34:9). When once more Israel broke the Covenant on the morrow of Carmel, Elijah fled in utter

despondency of spirit. In both cases God granted light to His servants by such manifestation of Himself as gave deepest

insight into His purposes of grace and anticipation of the manner in which they would be ultima tely realized in all their

fullness through Jesus Christ. And hence it was in this respect also fitting that Moses and Elijah should be with Jesus on

the Mount of Transfiguration. But Elijah had not been like Moses; rather had he been like the children of Israel. And

therefore, like them, must he wander for symbolic forty days in the wilderness, before liberty and light were granted,21

to learn the same lesson which God would have had Israel learn during their forty years of wandering. And so he came

ultimately unto "the mount of God," to "the cave"22 - perhaps the very "clift of the rock" where Moses had first been

permitted to hear the glorious revelation of what Jehovah was and of what He purposed.

It was a wondrous place in which to spend the night,23 and to hear amidst its silence the voice of Jehovah.24 The one

question - afterwards repeated in different circumstances - "What doest thou here, Elijah?"25 was intended to bring his

state of mind clearly to the consciousness of the prophet.

In tender me rcy, no reproach was uttered, not even reproof of the rash request for release from seemingly hopeless,

burdensome toil. But was it really hopeless? Did Elijah rightly apprehend God's final purpose in it; did he even know

what in God's Providence would follow that seeming defeat of the prophet on the day after his great victory: how God

would vindicate His cause, punish the rebellious, and take care of His own? What then had brought Elijah thither; what

was his purpose in coming? Although the same question was twice asked and the same answer twice returned, it seems

in each case to bear a somewhat different meaning. For the words of Elijah (vv. 10, 14) imply two things: an accusation

against the children of Israel and a vindication of his own conduct in flee ing into the wilderness. The first of these

seems to have been the meaning of his reply before the special manifestation of God (Romans 11:2, 3); the second, that

after that revelation of God which the vision conveyed. This manifestation, so deeply symbolical, appears to us to have

also wrought an entire change in the prophet.