THE SUNDAY SCHOLARS' MAGAZINE. FEBRUARY, 1845. THE PROPHET ELIJAH. KING AHAB exceeded in ungodliness all his predecessors; and his wife Jezebel, a Sidonian printess, built a splendid temple in Samaria for the idols of Sidon. She maintained four hundred and fifty priests of Baal, the god of the sun, and four hundred priests of Ashtaroth, the goddess of the moon, who was worshipped in dark groves and with impure ceremonies. All who worshipped the God of Israel were persecuted, and his prophets were slain. There was, however, among the immediate attendants of Ahab, one who feared God in secret, named Obadiah, who gave refuge to a hundred of the Lord's prophets. He hid them in caves, and fed them with bread and water. Then the prophet Elijah stood forth before the king, and said, "As the Lord God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these three years, but according to my word." And famine came upon the land. The prophet hid himself by the brook Cherith, and there the ravens brought him bread and flesh every morning and evening, and he drank of the brook. And when the brook was dried up, the Lord said to him, "Arise, get thee to Zarephath, and dwell VOL. XXI. C there behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee." When the heavens had now been closed for three years and a half, the Lord said to Elijah, Go, show thyself unto Ahab; and I will send rain upon the earth." Ahab saw him coming, and cried out to him, "Art thou he that troubleth Israel?" "I have not troubled Israel," said Elijah; "but thou, and thy father's house, in that ye have forsaken the commandments of the Lord, and thou hast followed Baal." By the prophet's desire, the king called a general assembly of the people at Mount Carmel, at which especially the four hundred and fifty priests of Baal were to appear. "How long halt ye between two opinions?" said the prophet to the people. "If the Lord be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him." And the people answered him not a word. Then said Elijah unto the people, "I, even I only, remain a prophet of the Lord; but Baal's prophets are four hundred and fifty men. Let them therefore give us two bullocks; and let them choose one bullock for themselves, and cut it in pieces, and lay it on wood, and put no fire under it and I will dress the other bullock, and lay it on wood, and put no fire under: and call ye on the name of your gods, and I will call on the name of the Lord: and the God that answereth by fire, let him be God." And all the people answered and said, "It is well spoken." The priests of Baal slew their bullock, and laid it upon the altar, and danced after their manner around the altar, and cried from morning even until noon, "O Baal, hear us!" But there was no voice, nor any that answered. Elijah derided them: "Cry aloud," he said; "for he is a god: either he is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is in a journey, or peradventure he sleepeth, and must be awaked." Then they cried aloud with all their might, and they cut themselves with knives till the blood gushed out upon them. But there was no voice, nor any to answer. When the time of the evening sacrifice, according to the custom of the temple, arrived, Elijah built an altar; around the altar he had a trench dug, and he caused water to be poured upon the wood and upon the burnt sacrifice, until the trench was full of water. Then Elijah prayed, and said, "Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, let it be known this day that thou art God in Israel, and that I am thy servant, and that I have done all these things at thy word." Then the fire of the Lord fell, and consumed the sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench. And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces, and said, "The Lord, he is God! the Lord, he is God!" And Elijah said unto them, "Take the prophets of Baal; let not one of them escape." And they took them and Elijah brought them to the brook Kishon, and slew them there. : THE SQUIRREL. Ir is one of the greatest advantages arising from the benevolence of the present day, that it instils |