SERMON V.

ELIJAH REPROVED.

I KINGS Xix. 9.

What doest thou here, Elijah?

As one star differeth from another star in glory, so do the characters of the saints of old. Each has its own lustre, which speaks the glory of him who has made them what they are. But some

have more spendour than others. Elijah was an illustrious servant of God. As a prophet, no man ever sustained the office with greater glory. He was bold, intrepid, and faithful. He stemmed alone the torrent of impiety and idolatry. Though God had reserved to himself many secret ones, unknown to Elijah, who thought that he was a solitary worshipper of the true God, yet he did not shrink from the arduous duties of his prophetic character and conspicuous station.

We read also, and we may trace the proofs of it in his life, that he was a man of like passions with ourselves. His natural character appears throughout his history, in its defects, as well as its excellencies. There is everywhere a peculiar display of that natural disposition

by which he was so well adapted to the duties to which he was called. Divine grace does not destroy the affections it finds, however gross the violation of them may have been, but it applies them to higher and nobler ends. Though there is an uniformity as to the main features of the christian character, produced by "that selfsame Spirit dividing to every man severally as he will;" yet there are traits of it, belonging to individuals from natural temperament, or peculiar disposition, which are not lost in that uniformity, but rather strengthened. The energies of true religion destroy not the natural character, while they purify and enlarge it. This should induce us to cultivate, with a more correct view of their tendency, the graces of the Spirit. There is to every one a character more peculiarly his own, which may be corrected and matured by grace; and we should see more of this, if the religion of the gospel were cultivated with more simplicity. Where there is not simplicity, there is, to a certain degree, a want of sincerity, which tends to obscure and pervert, rather than to unfold the natural disposition.

Elijah was raised up, as a prophet in the kingdom of Israel, at a time when the people had grievously departed from the worship of the true God. This happened under the government of Ahab; of whom it is recorded, that he "did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel to anger, than all the kings of Israel that were before him.” In the first account we have of Elijah, he is introduced as denouncing the judgment of God

against this wicked king, and his people: "As the Lord God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word." Such confidence in God did he possess, and with such courage did he deliver his message. It required no common share of faithfulness to execute a commission by which the Lord would judge the nation for their sins.

How frequently do we read of the calamities inflicted on them for their rebellion, and but little of their repentance. This drought lasted three years and six months, and yet they were at the end as hard in heart, and as prone to idolatry as ever. Afflictions of themselves, however severe they may be, are never of any lasting benefit, unless they are sanctified, and made effectual towards humiliation, by the Spirit of God.

During the famine, which was occasioned by the want of rain, the prophet was concealed from his enemies-who would have taken vengeance on him, as if he had been the cause of the calamityand was preserved from hunger in a miraculous manner, by the goodness of God, in a secret place in the wilderness. At the expiration of the three years and a half, Elijah was commanded to go and show himself unto Ahab. That this was a severe trial of his faith, we cannot doubt: as he knew that both the king and the nation were exceedingly enraged against him. Without hesitation, however, he complies: and God, in whom he

trusted, not only preserved him from injury, but was pleased to afford a miraculous evidence of his own authority, as the God of heaven and earth, and of the divine commission of his prophet.

During the famine, they had not abated any of their attachment to idolatry, and probably had sought for relief in their distress from the false gods, whom they had admitted to a share in their religious worship. Elijah therefore proposes to decide the question between the worshippers of God and the worshippers of Baal by a public sacrifice, and "the God," says he, "that answereth by fire, let him be God." Fire descended on the sacrifice of Elijah, and consumed it, and the very stones of the altar: while the prophets of Baal called on their God from morning until noon, but "no voice was heard, and there was not any that answered." This was surely sufficient to have convinced them, who was the true God. The impression produced on their minds seems to have been very lively and powerful. "The people fell on their faces, and said, the Lord, he is God: the Lord, he is God." Some degree of zeal accompanied this conviction; for they assisted and countenanced Elijah in slaying the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal.

Ahab also seems to have had a momentary conviction of the justice of the cause of the prophet: for it does not appear that he opposed Elijah's measures, but that he had given him some reason to hope that he would second his desire of a re

formation, in bringing back the worship of the true God. This hope, it has been observed, added lightness to Elijah's spirit, and wings to his feet, when he ran before Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel.

Scarcely, however, had he arrived there, before a new trial awaited him. Ahab no sooner returned home, than he communicated to his wife, Jezebel, what Elijah had done. All hopes of his seconding the prophet's plans were now overturned. This "wicked woman," whose reign was a heavy curse to the nation, and who had obtained a most pernicious ascendancy over her husband, joined to her attachment to the idolatry of her own country, a bitter hostility to true religion. Bad as Ahab's character was, it is probable he would not have proceeded to the excess of impiety, of which he is charged, had it not been for the instigations of Jezebel. He himself told her all that Elijah had done, and withal how he had slain all the prophets with the sword. On hearing this statement she was so enraged, that, unable to keep her own counsel, she sent a messenger to tell him with horrid imprecations, that in less than four and twenty hours his life should be as the life of one of them. Elijah was so intimidated by this message, that he immediately took to flight, and went to Beersheba, in the kingdom of Judah, where he left his servant, and then secreted himself in the wilderness, in a cave in the mount Horeb. While in this situation, "the word of the Lord came to him, and he said unto him: What doest thou here, Elijah?"