OBADIAH AND THE SEARCH FOR PROVENDER.

ELIJAH had come to the lowly dwelling where still he tarries—a homeless Jewish prophet-an unbefriended stranger. Now, we have good reason to suppose, he was regarded, alike by mother and son, as an angel of God-a Heaven-sent messenger of mercy,-who had "delivered their souls from death, their eyes from tears, and their feet from falling."

We know not how long he continued at his adopted home after the miraculous raising of the child. But be the time long or short, he quietly waits the Divine will regarding his departure. As we have already noted, in speaking of the place of his former seclusion at Cherith, so still more on the present occasion might he have been disposed, with his ardent impulsive spirit, to fret under this long withdrawal from active public work. Three of the best years of his life spent in inaction! He who could exercise (as we shall find afterwards) an almost magic power over multitudes, why should he be pent up for this protracted period in a cottage of Gentile Phoenicia, when he might have been doing mighty deeds amid the many thousands of Israel? Why should so noble shadows in the har

a vessel be left lazily sleeping on its bour, when, with all sail set, it might have been out wrestling with the storm, conveying priceless stores to needy hearts? But it was enough for Elijah, now as formerly, to feel assured

that it was part of the Divine plan. He felt that he was glorifying his God,-just because he was occupying his assigned and appointed place for the time,-as much in that humble habitation as he did on the heights of Carmel. The Christian poet represents those angels in heaven who "only stand and wait," as "serving,"--doing their Lord's will,—as truly as the swift-winged messengers who carry to and fro the behests of His pleasure: and of the Church militant on earth, "Thus saith Jehovah," by the mouth of His prophet, "In returning and rest shall ye be saved: in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength." We can serve God in rest and in quietness,—in the noiseless tenor of an uneventful existence, as well as in the feverish bustle or prominent position of an active one. Let this be the comfort of those whose lot may be lowly, obscure, uninfluential. They are accepted according to what they have, not according to what they have not. The domestic servant in her kitchen; the mechanic with his begrimed hands at his daily toil; the weaver at his shuttle, the cobbler at his stall; the ploughman at his team, the lone sick one on his or her couch of languishing;-these being each in the way of duty, or necessity, may, in their peculiar sphere and work, as truly glorify their Maker and Redeemer, as the philanthropist at his desk solving great social problems, or the minister of the gospel in his pulpit, swaying thousands by his words! Elijah, however, did not love for its own sake inglorious ease. So long as it was his Lord's will, he remained seated under this pleasant vine and fig-tree. But, like a true soldier, he was prepared at the bugle note to start from his pillow, assume his armour, and rush into the fight. That summons in due time was heard. "After many days

the word of the Lord came to Elijah in the third year, saying, Go, shew thyself unto Ahab, and I will send rain upon the earth." He did not hesitate. With cheerful alacrity he grasps his pilgrim staff, flings the hermit mantle once more around his shoulders, and crosses into the valleys of Samaria.

How his spirit must have been bowed with sadness as he traversed the famine-stricken land! Wherever he looked, the scourge of God-the scourge of sin met his eye. The green pastures and the still waters, of which the great Hebrew poet sang, gleamed no longer under the joyous sunshine. Hushed were the notes of the shepherd's pipe, and the bleatings of the flocks. The sickles hang rusting on the closed granary doors A hundred skeleton forms flitted with glazed eyes across his path; the vintage shoutings had ceased; the fig-tree no longer blossomed ;-there was no fruit in the vine ;—the labour of the olive had failed; the fields yielded no meat. Oh, what a comfort, amid these scenes of misery, to repose on the word of the living Jehovah, "I will send rain upon the earth;" knowing that what the Lord had spoken he would faithfully perform; that perhaps but a few brief days would elapse, ere the funeral pall should be rolled aside, and the shadow of death turned into the morning.

But a new character here reveals himself in the sacred narrative in the person of Obadiah, the prime minister or steward of Ahab's palace. We are called to witness in him. another wondrous instance of God's sovereign grace. We have had occasion, in a recent chapter, to refer to a signal example of that sovereignty in the case of a heathen widow -a votary of Phoenician Baal. We have now a miracle and monument of divine mercy in the court of a wicked and

licentious king of Israel-for "Obadiah feared the Lord greatly."

How, we may ask, could a worshipper of Jehovah reside in the midst of so much degeneracy, idolatry, and crime? How could the lily rear its head amid these thorns-this sheep of the fold survive in the midst of ravening wolves? We answer-just in the same way as divine grace, in the earlier part of this century, moulded and quickened and sustained such men as Wilberforce, Fowell Buxton, and others, in the midst of the lax, irreligious society, and the dissolute, licentious court-life of England. Ay, and just as, in the midst of much obloquy and derision in the present day, there are those in the high places of the land, who are able boldly to take up their cross, and who count this the brightest gem in their coronets "We serve the Lord Jesus." The natural influence of the corrupt moral atmosphere of Ahab's court, would be to rear, in the person of the chief officer, a cruel, unscrupulous tyrant-the creature and myrmidon of Ahab and Jezebel-who would climb to power and favour by his severity against the prophets of the God of Israel. If Obadiah had been a base time-server, his life aim would have been to second and stimulate the diabolical designs of the royal persecutors. But the grace of God and the fear of God were in his heart, and he knew no other fear. Under the insolence of oriental rule, he might well have dreaded the combined influence of the queen and the idolatrous priests on the despot's will, in compassing his degradation and ruin; but, sustained by the power of religious principle, this righteous man was bold as a lion. He gave one specially unmistakable proof of his heroism and true moral chivalry:

for when Jezebel was involving the prophets of Jehovah* in an indiscriminate massacre, Obadiah hid and sheltered them by fifties in a cave, and fed them on bread and water. It is easy for us, in an age of fashionable profession, to espouse the Christian name, and subscribe the Christian creed, and call ourselves worshippers of the Lord God of Elijah. But it was no ordinary test of spiritual courage to stand alone, a witness for Jehovah in the midst of a godless palace;—to rear a solitary altar-a solitary protest on the side of insulted Goodness-when polluted incense was rising from Baal's shrines all around, and the very people of the land were in guilty accord with their monarch, ignoring their great heritage-the truth bequeathed to them in sacred trust" Jehovah liveth!" Obadiah, moreover, is a remarkable testimony to that singular respect which sterling character and worth command, even from irreligious men. Uprightness, purity, consistency, honesty of purpose, have always an irresistible influence and charm even to base natures. Bloated vice stands rebuked and abashed in the presence of virtue. The wretched slave of sin and pollution respects the purity which degrading habit forbids himself to practise. Herod—the parallel of Ahab in the gospel history-hated John's religion and that of his Master; but he could not help admiring and respecting his honesty, self-sacrifice, self-denial, and boldness. "When a man's ways please the Lord, he maketh his very enemies to be at peace with him." As it was with Joseph in the court of heathen Pharaoh, or Daniel in the palace of heathen Babylon, Obadiah's piety, worth, and goodness exalted

These were probably "the sons of the prophets"—or those taught in the prophetic schools or colleges; of whom more hereafter