of earthliness, yet still retaining its identity with all the parts and members of the same wherein we have lived here,-just as the body of Christ, though glorious and incorruptible, retained the lineaments of his former humanity, after his resurrection (John xx. 20, 27).

We conclude our confession with stating our belief "in the life everlasting," a necessary consequence of the preceding article, but one which includes the final and eternal state of every man, of the condemned in hell, as well as of the blessed in heaven; and implies that on the one hand the wicked and miserable shall for ever suffer under the Divine anger, and that on the other, the godly and blessed shall for ever live in the perpetual enjoyment of pure and undisturbed happiness. But if we be faithful in our profession of Christ, true in our service of the Lord, and constant in our love and obedience to God, we may indeed contemplate this closing article of the Creed with joy, for life everlasting will be the sum of all our hopes, the fulness of all our privileges. Here we know little, there in the kingdom of our God we shall know as we are known; and that which now the heart of man cannot conceive will there be

fully revealed. (1 Cor. ii. 9). Heaven is a perfect and glorious place, and its inhabitants, the angels and saints, are also perfect in communion with Christ Himself, the glorified head of this blessed company. (1 Pet. iii. 22. Rom. vii. 16, 17). Surely it is an end to be desired, that when our earthly course is closed, we should feel assured of an entrance into our Father's kingdom, there eternally to dwell where we shall be perfectly loved by God and by each other, and perfectly pleasing to Him and to one another: and where we shall enjoy a peace and blessedness which no mortal tongue can worthily declare.

Amen, is the solemn declaration by which we reiterate our assent to all we have already confessed of faith in the being of God our Father, of Christ our Redeemer, and of the Holy Ghost the sanctifier of mankind. Let it be the teacher's care to impress these vital truths on the minds of his scholars: first convincing them of the reality of the great truths of our holy faith, and then impressing upon them the practical duties it involves, and the privileges which they will possess here, and which will be conferred on them hereafter if they will abide in Christ's love (John xv. 4 -5, and continue stedfast unto the end (Rev. iii. 10-12).

WI. S.

ELIJAH THE TISH BITE.

ONE of the most striking characters of Old Testament history is Elijah the Tishbite, as he appears suddenly before us to deliver his message of sorrow and woe, to Ahab, king of Israel. Unlike many other Scripture characters, of Elijah's early days we learn nothing. We are not told under what circumstances he was called to the prophetic office, if called before his first appearance to Ahab; nor do we know how he passed the previous years of his life. In times of great trouble or great events, remarkable men are always raised up to guide, under God, the surging masses of mankind, -to act as leaders, or to act as beacons, to warn men from dangerous paths. Elijah's mission appears to have been one requiring undaunted courage and unlimited self-denial. He was not sent to prophecy of peace, and happiness, and prosperity, but to denounce all God's sore judgments upon a people who had rejected Him, and sold themselves to do all manner of evil. Elijah's first public act seems to have been to stand before Ahab, who, for eight years had done “ more to provoke the Lord to anger than all the kings of Israel that were before him." Prophets had been sent to rebuke kings before, but Elijah's mission was more perilous than all. Samuel had been sent to pronounce judgment upon Saul, because he had not obeyed the word of the Lord in the matter of the Amalekites; Nathan had caused David to condemn himself, and then foretold the many miseries that should follow on his sin; Shemaiah had appeared to Rehoboam when at the head of the hosts of Judah and Benjamin, and commanded him not to go up nor fight against his brethren, the children of Israel; the man of God, from Judah, had cried against the altar in Bethel, as Jeroboam stood before it to burn incense; and Ahijah was sent with heavy tidings to Jeroboam's wife. All these kings

acknowledged the God of Jacob, and were prepared, more or less, to receive his messengers; but Ahab surpassed all that were before him. "He took to wife Jezebel, the daughter of Ethbaal, king of the Zidonians, and went and served Baal, and worshipped him. And he reared up an altar for Baal, in the house of Baal, which he had builded in Samaria." And not only did this gross idolatry prevail in the court of Ahab, but the people worshipped Baal, too; and to such an extent was this the case, that Elijah's mournful complaint was,-" The children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left." What a picture of sin does this unfold! Elijah thought he alone was left; and so hateful had

he, the servant of God, become, that they sought his life to take it away. It was to this people then, or, rather, to their king, that the prophet was sent as the herald of vengeance. Famine was to scourge the land. For three years and a half the heavens were to be as brass, and the earth as iron. They might sow, but they should not reap. They might plant vineyards, but they should not eat the fruit thereof; the staff of life was to be taken away. There was to be neither dew nor rain, but according to the prophet's word. Elijah's first mission was fulfilled, and he turned to the Lord in this wide scene of desolation for his support. The king's anger was roused against him, but the word came, "Hide thyself by the brook Cherith, and it shall be, that thou shalt drink of the brook; and I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there." In deepest solitude God has often disciplined his servants for great works. Moses was in the solitude of Horeb forty days and forty nights previous to receiving the tables, "written with the finger of God;" and our blessed Lord spent the like time in the wilderness, when about to commence his public ministry on earth. And so here Elijah, in the silence of the valley through which Cherith ran, and afterwards in the almost equal silence of the Zidonian's house, was communing with his God, and preparing himself for the great events in which he was to take so prominent a part. But solitude seems, at times, to serve another purpose than that of preparation-when the work is complete, the instrument is withdrawn from human sight, that the work may appear (as it is) only of God. So was it afterwards with Elijah. When the wondrous scenes on Carmel were accomplished, the prophet was withdrawn. From Beer-sheba, through the wilderness to that same Horeb where Moses was, no human being seems to have crossed his path, until he was again called to work for God. How long Elijah remained by Cherith we are not told, only in process of time the brook dried up. This, probably, would not be very long, as a mountain torrent in a warm country soon fails, and Cherith was no more. From Cherith, when its waters were dry, Elijah journeyed to Zarephath, and was commanded to dwell there. I need not pause upon the circumstances of his introduction to the widow, but remark that she may be taken as an example of those who give only a cup of cold water to a disciple, and do not lose their reward. In her house, the prophet, fed by a continual miracle, lived many days. When the widow's son fell sick and died, and with a mother's anguish she called her sin to remembrance, and believed the child was taken as a punishment, the prophet was ready to aid and to comfort. "Give me thy son ;" and in the privacy of his own chamber, with not a step between him and death, did he pour out the earnest prayer which brought the child's soul into him again. Elijah was pre-eminently

a man of prayer. No great act of his life was undertaken without it. "He prayed earnestly that it might not rain; and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit." Again, when all Israel was gathered together, at Carmel, to make the great decision required by the prophet, we hear him proclaiming to the assembled thousands, "I will call on the name of the Lord," and at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, his short but solemn prayer arose," 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. Hear me, 0 Lord, hear me, that this people may know that thou art the Lord God, and that thou hast turned their heart back again." Who shall tell the wrestlings of his heart, as silently he bowed himself, with his face between his knees, on Carmel, when praying for rain? Bowed down with sorrows, and Jezebel under a vow to put him to death, the prophet flees from Jezreel, by the way of Beer-sheba, to the wilderness, and utterly overcome, beneath the juniper tree, he offers up one more prayer. How different the Elijah on Carmel, before all the prophets of Baal, from the Elijah in the wilderness! There, bold as a lion in the cause of his God, here weak as a child, requesting for himself that he might die, and praying "It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life." And this prayer also was answered, not, indeed, as the prophet wished, but as the Lord saw fit. He was not taken from the troubles of this life, but strength was given him to bear more. "And as he lay and slept, behold an angel touched him, and said, Arise and eat; because the journey is too great for thee." So it was in the garden of Gethsemane, where He prayed, "Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me; nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done." The cup could not pass from Him, except He drank it, but there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him. The promise is very old, "As thy days, so shall thy strength be."

After

Events in the life of Elijah rapidly succeed one another. he had raised the widow's son to life, by which act she seems to have been convinced that he was a prophet of the true God, the word of the Lord came to him again,-" Go, shew thyself to Ahab; and I will send rain upon the earth." It seems that Ahab had sought Elijah in every place, but could not find him, and now he was to seek Ahab. At this, their first meeting after the famine in Samaria, Ahab accused Elijah of being the troubler of Israel, but the charge was retorted undauntedly by the prophet, who laid bare to the king's gaze the causes of the calamities under which the people suffered, and commanded him to gather all Israel and the prophets of Baal

together, at Carmel, that he might testify to all that the Lord had sent him. The sacrifices were offered, the fire from heaven consumed Elijah's, and the prophets of Baal were slain at the brook Kishon, that ancient river which, four hundred years before, had swept away the enemies of Israel, and now received the blood of those who had become enemies of God by their idolatry. After the death of these prophets Elijah passed rapidly to Jezreel, but instead of entering that city he turned suddenly southward, to Beer-sheba, distant about eighty miles. From Beer-sheba to Horeb is a distance of about two hundred miles, and this was traversed by the prophet, alone, upon the strength of the bread and water provided by an angel. Fear of Jezebel seems to have urged him to take this course, but, as we have said, it subserved other purposes,—it withdrew him from the terrible scenes of Mount Carmel, and at Horeb the Lord re-assured him for further work. The still small voice which he heard at the entering in of the cave, gave him directions as to what he should do, and comforted him with the assurance that there were yet in Israel seven thousand men who had not bowed the knee to Baal, and whose mouth had not kissed him. So Elijah left Horeb, to pass towards Damascus. On his way, at Abel-meholah (about ten miles west of Bethabara), he passed Elisha, his destined successor in the prophetic office, and cast his mantle upon him. Elisha immediately followed him, and thus commenced a career no less remarkable than Elijah's own. Elijah appears not to have visited the wilderness of Damascus, as commanded at Horeb, for Elisha declared to Hazael that he should be king over Syria (2 Kings viii. 12, 13), while a young man, sent by Elisha, anointed Jehu king over Israel (2 Kings ix. 1-3), both of which events took place after Elijah's translation.

Ahab still went on adding sin to sin. Ben-hadad, whom God had appointed to utter destruction, was permitted to go free, and Naboth was stoned to death at the instigation of Jezebel, and his vineyard taken possession of by the king. But, in his fancied security, when the last desire of his heart is fulfilled, the prophet again stands before him, and for the last time. His message now is not of famine, but of death-death to king and queen in its most terrible form. "In the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth shall dogs lick thy blood, even thine;" and "The dogs shall eat Jezebel by the wall of Jezreel." Ahab had good grounds to fear Elijah. At their first meeting famine was foretold; at their second all Baal's prophets were slain, and now the sentence is against himself. People, prophets, and king, alike receive their just punishment from God. The former two had received theirs, and well might that bitter cry," Hast thou

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