myself unto him to-day." And Obadiah went to find Ahab; and he came to meet Elijah.

It was

a wonderful meeting, as we shall find if we read the next story.

QUESTIONS.

1. What did Elijah want Ahab and his subjects to see and feel?

2. Who alone can give rain and dew?

3. Who can help us when no other can ?

4. Of what should we never despair?

5. What does Dr. Watts say of our devoting our youth to God?

6. How was it evident that Obadiah feared the Lord ?

7. What is the promise of the Lord to his servants?

8. What did Obadiah do for a hundred of the Lord's prophets?

9. What did Obadiah not say?

10. What will Christ say to his servants on the great day?

STORY XIX.

ELIJAH AND THE FALSE PROPHETS.

WHEN Obadiah saw the prophet, he bowed with his face towards the ground, and said, " Art thou my lord Elijah?" But Ahab's address was very different: "Art thou he," said he sternly, "that troubleth Israel?" We may soon know whether persons love God or not, by what they say of his people and ministers.1

Elijah was no enemy, but a friend to the king, and to his people; for, if they had done what he wished them, they would have been kept from those sins which had brought down the judgments of God. Wicked men cannot bear the faithful reproofs of the servants of the Lord; and, instead of being thankful, they hate and slander them.

And the prophet told Ahab plainly who it was that had troubled Israel, and brought a famine on the land. "I have not troubled Israel," said he, "but thou and thy father's house." Sin does trouble people; it makes the man who commits it wretched; it makes families unhappy, and nations miserable. It has brought a dreadful flood of evil upon the world.2

And Elijah talked a long while with the king. At last, that it might be seen whether he was right, or the false prophets and Ahab, he wished them to be sent for to Mount Carmel, on the top of which they now were. And Elijah proposed, that the priests of the idol Baal should build an altar, and put a quantity of wood on it, and lay a bullock, cut in pieces, upon the fuel, and that he would do the same; and that they should cry to their god Baal, whilst he would call on the living and true God, and that the God which should answer prayer, by sending fire to burn up the bullock, should be owned as the living and true God. And Ahab sent for the false prophets.

Now there were many of the people who were sometimes for Baal, and sometimes they spoke as if they would serve the Lord; they had not settled it in their mind what they would do. So Elijah said to them, "How long halt ye between two opinions? If the Lord be God," if he alone be the Creator, Preserver, and Benefactor of all; if he alone can give rain, and fruitful seasons, why, then, own him as such,―obey, and "follow him !" But if Baal can do these things, then "follow him." They who are not with the Saviour, are against him. Every one should say, as Joshua

did, "Choose ye whom ye will serve; but as for

me," I have made up my mind, that " I will serve the Lord!"*

Mark the courage of Elijah; he stood alone; there were four hundred and fifty priests of Baal, the king, and the queen, most of the great men, and nearly all the people, against him. God's cause is not shown by the number of voices that are lifted up on its behalf. If it had been now put to the vote, the idol god Baal, only fit to be

burnt, or to be cast to the dunghill, would have been preferred to the Creator of the heavens and the earth. Though the multitude will not go with us to heaven, we must not go with them to hell. Though the great, and the rich, and the mighty, contemn God, and refuse to obey him, we shall perish with them if we do not love and serve him."

So, as it has been told you, Elijah said that he and the priests of Baal should lay a bullock on the altar, and that the God who should send fire from heaven to consume it, should be owned as the true God. And all the people said, "The word is good." And as they were for it, the priests did not dare object. So they prepared their altar, and laid the pieces of the bullock on the wood, "and they called on the name of Baal from morning even until noon, saying, O Baal, answer us: but there was no voice, nor any that heard ;" and they at length became quite wild, and leaped up and down in their rage upon the altar.

When at noon they had quite tired themselves,