4<\/strong>. a day’s journey into the wilderness<\/em> ] The wilderness here spoken of is the desert of Paran, through which the Israelites had of old wandered from Egypt toward the promised land.<\/p>\n under a juniper tree<\/em> ] The LXX. merely represents the Hebrew name by a transliteration . The plant is one of the broom kind. It was stout enough to be used for fuel (Psa 120:4<\/span>), and in time of famine its roots could be eaten (Job 30:3-4<\/span>). The last quoted passage marks it as a tree growing in the wilderness. The Hebrew says literally ‘ one<\/em> juniper tree,’ and thus depicts for us the desolate country just on the borders of the wilderness.<\/p>\n that he might die<\/em> ] The prophet had probably had some hope that Ahab would disown the idolatrous worship after the scene on Carmel and the destruction of the priests. Now he sees that the influence of Jezebel is as strong as ever, and the result is deep despondency and a longing to be removed from the struggle.<\/p>\n I<\/em> am not better than my fathers<\/em> ] Elijah had probably reached a ripe age, and thinking his labours all fruitless, prays for removal. While there was work to be done, and as he thought, hope of success, he was a willing servant. It is only in the dark moment of seeming failure that his natural feeling of having wrought no reform, such as he longed for, wrings from him the cry in the text. We must not deem Elijah to blame for this feeling. The way in which God sent him comfort and sustenance shews us that the prophet’s conduct was not such as to merit rebuke. See a noble sermon on ‘Elijah’ by the late F. W. Robertson. Sermon VI. Second Series<\/em>.<\/p>\n Elijah did not feel himself safe until he was beyond the territory of Judah, for Ahab might demand him of Jehoshaphat 1Ki 18:10<\/span>, with whom he was on terms of close alliance 1Ki 22:4<\/span>. He, therefore, proceeds southward into the desert, simply to be out of the reach of his enemies.<\/P> A juniper-tree – <\/B>The tree here mentioned <\/span> rethem<\/I> is not the juniper but a species of broom (Genista<\/I> monosperma<\/I>), called rethem by the Arabs, which abounds in the Sinaitic peninsula. It grows to such a size as to afford shade and protection, both in heat and storm, to travelers.<\/P> Requested for himself that he might die – <\/B>Like Moses and Jonah (marginal references). The prophets depression here reached its lowest point. He was still suffering from the reaction of overstrained feeling; he was weary with nights and days of travel; he was faint with the suns heat; he was exhausted for want of food; he was for the first time alone – alone in the awful solitude and silence of the great white desert. Such solitude might brace the soul in certain moods; but in others it must utterly overwhelm and crush. Thus the prophet at length gave way completely – made his prayer that he might die – and, exhausted sank, to sleep.<\/P> I am not better than my fathers – <\/B>i. e., I am a mere weak man, no better nor stronger than they who have gone before me, no more able to revolutionize the world than they.<\/P> <\/p>\n 1Ki 19:4<\/span><\/p>\n It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n Elijahs singular request<\/strong><\/p>\n These words every way are remarkable. They proceed from a certain state of the mind, which is not common. The words are remarkable, considering the person who uttered them. They were uttered by the bold and brilliant Elijah. If we consider further the time the words were uttered, they are equally remarkable. It was just after the extraordinary manifestation of Carmel. One would have thought, after such a manifestation of the Divine presence and decided triumph, that he never would have been so shorn of courage, and cast down into such deep depression. These words, though spoken in ancient days, and come down to us through many ages; yet they contain certain pictures in human thought and feeling, which are found more or less everywhere. They are true expressions of the human soul in certain conditions, and our business here will be to mention some of the things which are common to all ages, and more or less to all people.<\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>The soul seeks solitude in the pangs of disappointment. We are born to disappointments–all meet them, only some are more sensitive to their point and bitterness than others. We are often either too confiding, or lofty in our wish, or sanguine in our expectation, that disappointments cannot but come. They come from foes and friends–from prosperity and adversity.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>The soul often sighs for the solitary in life, when deeply convinced of the vanity and falsehood of society; when the soul sees and feels the faults and follies of the world, it often feels a wish to live in some place where they are not seen or heard.<\/p>\n 3. <\/strong>The absence of congenial society not unfrequently turns the face of the soul towards solitude. There may be times when our companions are too numerous, as well as too few. The soul wishes to shake itself from them and be free, and often goes beyond civilisation for this freedom it longs for so anxiously. This is often the case from superior refinement, advanced piety, nobler aspirations than those of neighbours and friends.<\/p>\n 4. <\/strong>The soul often sighs for the solitude in life under the influence of religious feeling. The danger is for the thing that is right in itself to become a blind sentimentality.<\/p>\n 5. <\/strong>The soul is apt, in a condition of great sorrow, to sigh after solitude.<\/p>\n 6. <\/strong>This feeling may and sometimes does proceed from a morbid state of mind.<\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>Sometimes this state of despondent depression comes upon the soul from a sense of its own sinfulness.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>The thought of our own individual insignificancy has a tendency to the same result.<\/p>\n 3. <\/strong>The conscious vanity of the surroundings of our present existence is another depressing element in life.<\/p>\n 4. <\/strong>The darkness and uncertainty surrounding human life has a tendency to make us despondent. The simplest things are lost in mystery; the clearest things are covered with uncertainty.<\/p>\n 5. <\/strong>Failure in realising our noblest plans and most cherished wishes is another depressing element which often presses us below the level of right standing.<\/p>\n 6. <\/strong>The ills that men are subject to is another frequent means of human depression.<\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>A sense of self-depreciation takes hold of the mind when it is filled with the conception of the Divine Majesty and His presence.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>The feeling of self-depreciation pervades the soul in the presence or recollection of some higher examples in matters of life and ambition. An artist of sensitive appreciation of superiority in the presence of a genuine piece of art depreciates to the dust his own performances. A poet with a true poetic sense, when he reads or hears some grand poetry like Paradise Lost, <\/em>feels very low in his own view. So is it in other things in life.<\/p>\n 3. <\/strong>The same feeling takes hold of the mind of man often when comparing himself with the material universe and its different creations in his outward form and physical capacities.<\/p>\n 4. <\/strong>This sentiment also proceeds frequently from a review of the past conduct of ones own life.<\/p>\n 5. <\/strong>Self-depreciation is often the depressed language of the soul, when persecuted and cast out of society.<\/p>\n 6. <\/strong>Once more, when the ills and miseries of life are calmly and seriously viewed, we ourselves being subjects of the same, the little we have done, or can do to diminish them, tends to self-depreciation.<\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>When a person thinks that his work is done in this life, and he cannot be of much use any longer.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>When an individual becomes helpless, and requires the time and attention of others to attend to him, he feels he is in the way, and cannot compensate for the least done to him.<\/p>\n 3. <\/strong>When, by his close communion with the Divine and the heavenly, the soul is more at home from the world than in it.<\/p>\n 4. <\/strong>When it is submitted, as in the case of Elijah, to the hand and will of God. (T. Hughes.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The Order of the Juniper tree<\/strong><\/p>\n Some while ago in passing through Edinburgh we noticed the procession of a friendly society whose banner declared it to belong to the Order of the Juniper tree. Many of us belong to that order, and it may prove useful to consider the suggestive contrast established by these two texts. In the one, the prophet sinks in despair; in the other, he is carried triumphantly into heaven. What has this to do with us? It presents in a dramatic form the experience of Gods people in an ages.<\/p>\n 1. <\/strong>It is only through discipline that we are fit for glorification. Cars of fire, horses of fire, a path beyond the stars, luminous diadems! we are presumptuous enough to think that at any time we are ready for these. But we are not ready. The perfection that qualifies for high places comes only through some form of suffering.<\/p>\n 2. <\/strong>Only God knows when we are fit for glorification. It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life. Are we sure about this enough? When you chastise a child, you find that his opinion and yours wary considerably as to what is enough.<\/p>\n Verse 4<\/span>. A day’s journey into the wilderness<\/B><\/I>] Probably in his way to Mount Horeb. See 1Kg 19:8<\/span>.<\/P> <\/P> Juniper tree<\/B><\/I>] A tree that afforded him a shade from the scorching sun.<\/P> <\/P> It is enough<\/B><\/I>] I have lived long enough! I can do no more good among this people; let me now end my days.<\/P> <\/p>\n Into the wilderness; <\/B>the vast wilderness of Arabia. He durst not stay in Judah, though good Jehoshaphat reigned there, because he was allied to Ahab, and was a man of an easy temper, whom Ahab might circumvent, and either by force or art seize upon Elijah. <\/P> For himself, <\/B>Heb. for his life, or his soul<\/I>, that it might be taken away from his body. Or, with his soul<\/I>, as it is Isa 26:9<\/span>, i.e. he desired it heartily or fervently. Which he did, not only for his own sake, that he might be freed from his great fears and troubles; but especially from his zeal for Gods glory, which he saw was and would be dreadfully eclipsed by the relapse of the Israelites into idolatry, and by Elijahs death, if it should be procured by the hands of Jezebel, or of the worshippers of Baal; and therefore he wished to die in peace, and by the hand of God. <\/P> It is enough; <\/B>I have lived long enough for thy service, and am not like to do thee any more service; neither my words nor works are like to do any good upon these unstable and incorrigible people. <\/P> I am not better than my fathers, <\/B>that I should continue in life, when other prophets who have gone before me have lost their lives by Jezebel, or other persecutors. <\/P> <\/p>\n 4-18. went a day’s journey into thewilderness<\/B>on the way from Beer-sheba to Horeba wide expanseof sand hills, covered with the retem (not juniper, but broomshrubs), whose tall and spreading branches, with their white leaves,afford a very cheering and refreshing shade. His gracious God did notlose sight of His fugitive servant, but watched over him, and,miraculously ministering to his wants, enabled him, in a better butnot wholly right frame of mind, by virtue of that supernaturalsupply, to complete his contemplated journey. In the solitude ofSinai, God appeared to instruct him. “What doest thou here,Elijah?” was a searching question addressed to one who had beencalled to so arduous and urgent a mission as his. By an awfulexhibition of divine power, he was made aware of the divine speakerwho addressed him; his attention was arrested, his petulance wassilenced, his heart was touched, and he was bid without delay returnto the land of Israel, and prosecute the Lord’s work there. Toconvince him that an idolatrous nation will not be unpunished, Hecommissions him to anoint three persons who were destined inProvidence to avenge God’s controversy with the people of Israel.Anointing is used synonymously with appointment (Jud9:8<\/span>), and is applied to all named, although Jehu alone had theconsecrated oil poured over his head. They were all three destined tobe eminent instruments in achieving the destruction of idolaters,though in different ways. But of the three commissions, Elijahpersonally executed only one; namely, the call of Elisha to be hisassistant and successor [1Ki19:19<\/span>], and by him the other two were accomplished (2Ki 8:7-13<\/span>;2Ki 9:1-10<\/span>). Having thussatisfied the fiery zeal of the erring but sincere and pious prophet,the Lord proceeded to correct the erroneous impression under whichElijah had been laboring, of his being the sole adherent of the truereligion in the land; for God, who seeth in secret, and knew all thatwere His, knew that there were seven thousand persons who had notdone homage (literally, “kissed the hand”) to Baal.<\/P><\/p>\n But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness<\/strong>,…. Of Paran, which began near Beersheba, and was the wilderness of Arabia, in which the Israelites were near forty years; this day’s journey carried him about twenty miles from Beersheba southward, as the above writer reckons:<\/p>\n and came and sat down under a juniper tree<\/strong>; Abarbinel supposes that Elijah chose to sit under this tree, to preserve him from venomous creatures, which naturalists say will not come near it; and Pliny o indeed observes, that it being burnt will drive away serpents, and that some persons anoint themselves with the oil of it, for fear of them; and yet Virgil p represents the shade of a juniper tree as noxious; hence some interpreters take this to be a piece of carelessness and indifference of the prophet’s, where he sat:<\/p>\n and he requested for himself that he might die<\/strong>; for though he fled from Jezebel to preserve his life, not choosing to die by her hands, which would cause her prophets to exult and triumph, yet was now desirous of dying by the hand of the Lord, and in a place where his death would not be known:<\/p>\n [it is] enough, now, O Lord, take away my life<\/strong>; intimating that he had lived long enough, even as long as he desired; and he had done as much work for God as he thought he had to do; he supposed his service and usefulness were at an end, and therefore desired his dismission:<\/p>\n for [I am not] better than my fathers<\/strong> that he should not die, or live longer than they; but this desire was not like that of the Apostle Paul’s, but like that of Job and of Jonah; not so much to be with God and Christ, as to be rid of the troubles of life.<\/p>\n o Nat. Hist. l. 24. c. 8. p “Juniperi gravis umbra—-” Bucol. Eclog. 10. ver. 76.<\/p>\n <\/span>ELIJAH DOWN-HEARTED<\/strong><\/p>\n 1Ki 19:4<\/strong><\/span>.<\/strong><\/p>\n But he himself went a days journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree: and he requested for himself that he might die; and said,<\/em><\/p>\n It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers (1Ki 19:4<\/em><\/span>).<\/em><\/p>\n DR. FREDERICK W. ROBERTSON calls attention to the fact that strong men often experience a most signal failure at the very points of character in which they were supposed to be most remarkable. He reminds us that Moses was the meekest of men, but it was Moses who spake unadvisedly with his lips.<\/em> St. John was the Apostle of charity, yet in his endeavor to call down fire from heaven, he showed himself to be religiously intolerant. Peter was proverbially an Apostle of courage, yet twice he proved a craven. Elijah was a man of like passions with these great Apostles of the faith. If there was any respect in which his behavior was most brilliant, it was that of daring. Like John the Baptist, he dared to rebuke his sovereign; like Paul, he dared to counsel his judge; and like that Apostle, also, he dared to meet a multitude of adversaries and taunt them as weak and characterize their gods as impotent in the presence of his Tehovah.<\/p>\n And yet, the text tells us that this strong man fails at his strongest point. This man who had dared to face kings is filled with alarm by the threat of a wicked Queen; this man, who had defied 450 of the priests of Baal, and on Mount Carmel discomfited them, flees at a word from a weak woman, and apparently forgets both his own accomplishments and his Gods power. Like Napoleon, he experiences his Waterloo when the odds against him are much smaller than those he has many a time overcome and conquered. And, since this is true for so many lives, it would seem a sensible study to inquire into the causes that led the flaming Elijah into this fit of despondency; to watch his behavior while in this state, and also to inquire into the way he was delivered out of it, for who of us can tell when the greatest exigency of life will be on, and who has no need to prepare against possible failure? The text presents<\/p>\n THE CONQUEROR CAST DOWN<\/strong><\/p>\n The causes of this despondency are not far to seek. Going back into the eighteenth chapter, we find Elijah leading an unusual life, and doing unusual things. When he meets Obadiah, he sends word by him, Go, tell thy lord, Behold, Elijah is here,<\/em> as if he had no fear whatever of Ahab. And when Ahab learns of his presence and goes forth to meet him, and asks, Art thou he that troubleth Israel?<\/em> he boldly answers, I have not troubled Israel; but thou, and thy fathers house, in that ye have forsaken the commandments of the Lord, and thou hast followed Baalim.<\/em> No sooner does he finish this reproof of Ahab than he sends a challenge to the 450 prophets of Baal, and the 400 prophets of the groves; and, in one day he has both proven these prophets false and slain them at the brook Kishon.<\/p>\n That was a great day, but great days are often succeeded by little days. Brilliant days are often succeeded by dark days, and so immediately we find this successful prophet in despair, requesting far himself death, and assigning a reason why the Lord should take away his life. What is wrong with him? Well; a number of things.<\/p>\n For instance, he may be physically exhausted. <\/strong>There are many services, which are positively exhilarating at the time, which leave one utterly exhausted when they are finished. That is particularly true of preaching, and especially when the Prophet of God is turning the white light of truth upon the bad behavior of men, as Elijah did upon the life of Ahab; or when he is combating dangerous and soul-destroying errors. There are only two classes of preachers that have any right to blue Monday those who fail and those who succeed. The man who fails ought to feel such chagrin as to exhaust him; and the man who succeeds must expend so much of himself, so much of his body, so much of his mind, so much of his spirit, that it requires hours after in which to recuperate and become himself again. The middle man, the mediocre man, ought to be as hopeful one day as another, and as vigorous one day as another.<\/p>\n But this prophet passed from the exhaustion of preaching to that of practical battle, for he acted, at least, as general in seeing to the slaying of every prophet of Baal. While engaged about it he would feel all the enthusiasm, all the unnatural strength that a faithful soldier feels when taking part in heavy firing. But when it had passed, like the soldier, whose hour of battle is over, he will be utterly exhausted and his physical weakness will effect despondency.<\/p>\n Science has long recognized the fact that the mind has power over the body. She is equally compelled to admit that the body has power over the mind. It is not an unusual thing to find some faithful servant of God, stricken with disease, falling into despondency; not unusual for the best men and best women, under circumstances of great physical suffering, to become skeptical, and question their own loyalty to the Lord, and Gods love of them, and the value of Gods promises to them.<\/p>\n On Sunday I went with a deacon of my church to see a dear woman who for more than seventy years had served God, for more than seventy years had loved God, for more than seventy years had believed that God loved her, and had been able to say, I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him.<\/em> And yet on that Sunday she doubted, doubted her own conversion, doubted that she had been a subject of Divine affection, doubted that she would be accepted even now; doubted everything! Why? Because physically exhausted; because suffering had obscured her vision and deadened her faith. It is the same reason that made John the Baptist send from his dark prison to question Jesusthe very Jesus he had pointed out as the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the worldArt thou He that should come? or look we for another?<\/em> It was the reason why Christ, when on the Cross, cried, My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?<\/em> And yet, God was never nearer to Christ than at that hour, and God was never nearer to John the Baptist than when he was in prison and in despair, and God was never nearer to Elijah than when Elijah sat under this juniper tree, and requested for himself that he might die; and many a saint who, in sickness and suffering, fears that he has lost the Fathers favor, has only lost his physical health, and his mental sanity.<\/p>\n When the great Dr. Lyman Beecher was an old man, his mind became clouded, and one day after his son Henry Ward had finished a stirring sermon, the old father made his way up into the pulpit and attempted to speak, but wandered in his thoughts. The famous son laid his hand tenderly upon his fathers shoulder and said to the audience, My father is like a man who, having long dwelt in an old house, has made preparations for entering a new and larger home. Anticipating a speedy removal, he sent on beforehand much of his soul furniture. When later, the day of removal was postponed, the interval seemed so brief as to render it unnecessary to bring back his mental goods. In those beautiful words Beecher sharply distinguished between the failing of faith and the failing of the physique. God grant us ever to be able to do the same.<\/p>\n Again, Elijah was not occupied now as was his wont. <\/strong>He has been a prophet, indeed, accustomed to speak for God, but now he is silenced; his much-loved occupation is gone. There is no change that comes into life that proves such a crucible of a mans faith as that which takes him out of wonted employment. The man who loves work, and who has been faithful in labors as opportunities have offered, but has come upon a time when there is no place open for his employment, is put to one of severest tests known to this life. I confess to you that when such a man keeps his faith in God, and keeps his courage touching the future, and keeps his affection for his friends, and keeps his character unspotted from the world, I reckon him unquestionably one of Gods very own. The quaint Jeremy Taylor said, Avoid idleness and fill up all the spaces of thy time with severe and useful employment, for lust easily creeps in at those emptinesses where the soul is unemployed, and the body is at ease; for no easy, healthful, idle person was ever chaste, if he could be tempted! But of all employments, bodily employment is the most useful, and is the greatest benefit for driving away the devil.<\/p>\n That is what Robertson meant when he said, The law of life is, In the sweat of thy brow thou shalt eat bread. No man can evade that law with impunity. Like all of Gods laws, it is its own executioner. It has strange penalties annexed to it. Would you know them? Go to the park, or the esplanade, or the solitude after the night of dissipation, and read the penalties of being useless in the sad, jaded, listless countenances; nay, in the very trifles which must be contrived to create excitement artificially. Yet these very eyes could, (dull as they are,) gleam with intelligence. On many of those brows is stamped the mark of possible nobility. The fact is that the capacity of ennui<\/em> is one of the signatures of mans immortality. It is his very greatness which makes inaction misery, and the greater the man, the nobler the man, the greater his misery when unemployed, and the greater likelihood of his despair.<\/p>\n Suicide is not always a sign of weakness. While it is a sin, it may yet be a sign of greatness plunged to despair, for I do believe that to the noble man oblivion were preferable to endless inaction, to continuous want of employment. And as I study the social fabric of the state, I am more and more impressed with the thought that if we had statesmen instead of politiciansmen who thought more and talked lesswe would have some provision made for the adequate and honest employment of every man who honestly wishes to serve his generation.<\/p>\n Again, Elijah discovered that his victory had to be won over again.<\/strong> Yesterday when he saw Ahab reproved; yesterday when he saw the false prophets overthrown and their altars deserted; yesterday when he heard Jehovah acknowledged as the only God, he vainly imagined that he had won a victory which was final, that falsehood was overthrown once for all, and idols were dethroned forever. Today he discovers that the victory of yesterday only necessitates another battle. If Ahab is successfully reproved, Jezebel is stirred up; and if the false prophets are slain, the queen has determined to take the head of the true prophet; and if Jehovah was worshipped for one short hour, the images of Baal will surely be brought back again. It is a discovery to take the heart out of him, and yet it is an illustration of a historical truth.<\/p>\n The battle is ever to be fought over again. There is never a point in life at which a man can say, My success is perfect. Even Jesus Christ could not cry, It is finished,<\/em> until He did so with His expiring breath, and the Apostle Paul never reckoned his successes sufficiently final to make mention of them until the time of his departure was at hand. Then he said, I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.<\/em> One of the common mistakes of men is about this very matter. We fix our heart upon the accomplishment of some definite thing, and we live for that purpose and long for that event, and half persuade ourselves that when it comes to pass our struggles will be at an end, and beyond that day we will walk among the flowers of ease, and in the fields of perfect content. But all of that is a mirage.<\/p>\n Disraeli, the young Jew, a genius of a despised people, aspired to office in the British Parliament, and with his eye on that goal he wrought and wrought until one day he was successful, and for one moment in the first flush of victory felt that his ambitions were fully realized. But not so! Tomorrow, when the Parliament assembles, he will want to speak, and he expects to sway even the older men with his matchless eloquence. But when he stands up to give expression to his thought the words will not come; memory fails him, and in confusion he hears the cries, Sit down! Sit down! Some men would have despaired and been ready to die, but Disraeli realized that he had just begun the battle of life, and so he answered them, I will sit down now; but the time will come when you will hear me. And it did come, as all the world knows, and he mastered the very men that did that day make fun of him. But it was only by battle after battle, and battle after battle.<\/p>\n Gladstone was disturbed by the same dream, and one day found himself suddenly elevated to this office. But, alas, that honor was not the end! He had to fight a battle with himself to overcome his Tory education. He had to fight a battle with himself against his Conservatism, and when at last he had made a Liberal of himselfa friend of the common peoplehe had only commenced. He had yet before him battle after battle against Protection, against High-Churchism, against social aristocracy, against the oppression of the weak. And when at last the Grand Old Man attempted to retire from political activity, there were crying needs that made him restive in his endeavor at rest.<\/p>\n Paul also expressed this same thought and had doubtless learned from experience his lesson, when he said,<\/p>\n Brethren. I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,<\/em><\/p>\n I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.<\/p>\n Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded (Php 3:13-15<\/em><\/span>).<\/em><\/p>\n Going back to the text, there is another suggestion to which I want to call your attention. It is this:<\/p>\n <\/span>THE PROPHETS FAITHLESS PRAYER<\/strong><\/p>\n He requested for himself that he might die; and said,<\/em><\/p>\n It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers (1Ki 19:4<\/em><\/span>).<\/em><\/p>\n <\/span>He speaks as one who expects nothing good from God.<\/strong> Strange that a man so favored as Elijah should ever feel so. Strange that he should ever forget how God had called him to his prophetic work, how God had cared for him by the widows cruse, how God had used him to reprove Ahab, and to overcome false prophets, how God had sent down fire from heaven to consume the burnt sacrifice, etc. But not more strange than your experience and mine. I have had hours, and you have had hours, when, in our great desire for some coveted good, we said to God, Only grant us this, and we will believe Thee; only answer this prayer and it will prove to us forever that Thou art personal, and that all power is with Thee, and that Thou dost hear Thine own, and God has answered us and after a short time we have come into another strait and are as unbelieving, as despairing, as though God had never put forth His hand in our behalf. It ought not so to be. Answered prayer provides a good foundation for faith, and the man who does not believe God more firmly for what God has done, is guilty in his unbelief.<\/p>\n Shortly before Mr. Spurgeons death, W. T. Stead asked him, Have you modified in any way your views as to the efficacy of prayer? And Mr. Spurgeon cheerily replied, Only in my faith growing stronger and firmer than ever. It is not a matter of faith with me, but of knowledge, and everyday experience. I am constantly witnessing the most unmistakable instances of answers to prayer. My whole life is made up of them. * * I could no more doubt the efficacy of prayer than I could disbelieve the law of gravitation. Look at my Orphanage! They keep it going at an annual expenditure of ten thousand pounds. Only one thousand four hundred is provided for by endowment; the remaining eight thousand pounds come to me regularly in answer to prayer. We ask God for the cash and He sends it. That is a good solid material fact, not to be explained away. It is one characteristic of the men of great faith that they do not forget what God has done.<\/p>\n Again, Elijahs prayer expresses human despondency and not Divine promise.<\/strong> He seems to have forgotten all the promises and to have taken counsel only with his own feelings. It is difficult for a man to do worse than that. No man who proceeds upon the basis of feeling can hope to succeed. No man who trusts the promises can possibly fail. If one turns to the eleventh chapter of Hebrews, to the history of Old Testament worthies, the honor of each of them is that he believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness. You remember Paul says, after mentioning Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Sarah, and others, These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them.<\/em> And that were Elijahs better part, and ours as well.<\/p>\n The prayer was faithless also because the Prophet was willing to accept the common lot. <\/strong>It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers.<\/em><\/p>\n No man who believes in God has any right to die until he is better than his fathers. No child of this generation has any right to live without making improvement on the generation past. It is our business, I believe, to be better than our fathers. One of the sad things we are compelled to see is the degenerate children of great fathers. One of the pitiful things, as somebody has suggested, is that first families are often like potato vines, their better part is underground. One of the occasions for commending the worlds truly great exists in the fact that they have improved upon their progenitors, have excelled even their noble fathers in virtue and wisdom. Every son in the land should strive to so live that when the time Divinely appointed for his death shall come, his own father may say of him, as the Duke of Ormund said when he stood beside the coffin of his talented and noble boy, I would rather be the father of that dead son than of all the living sons in England.<\/p>\n Elijah was truly greater than his father, but this faithless prayer does not bring out that fact. It was, therefore, one of his worst hours. He shall have better hours, and so I invite you to another suggestion of this Scripture.<\/p>\n GODS ANSWERS ARE IN GRACE<\/strong><\/p>\n I think the impression sometimes prevails that God never hears a faithless petition. But it seems to me that the Scriptures are quite clear upon the fact that God seldom hears a believing petition. For Him to find with men faith as great as a mustard seed is a marvel, and he will remove mountains at the request of it. Undoubtedly, the pitiable condition of a man often pleads with God effectively in spite of his faithless prayers. See how God answers Elijah!<\/p>\n First, He feeds and refreshes him.<\/strong> <\/strong><\/em>And as he lay and slept under a juniper tree, behold, then an angel touched him, and said unto him, Arise and eat<\/em> * *. And went in the strength of that meat forty days and forty nights (1Ki 19:5<\/em><\/span><\/em>; 1Ki 19:8<\/em><\/span><\/em>).<\/em><\/p>\n God knows where to begin when He would build up a man. Hunger must be appeased before hopefulness can be excited. I do not believe myself that food and clothing, without the Gospel, do a man much good. But I do know that the man, made physically comfortable, is in the best state of mind to receive the Gospel of Christ.<\/p>\n God answered also by ending his oppressive solitude. <\/strong>He called him out of the wilderness and he called him out of the cave, and he swept him about with the wind, and shook him with an earthquake, and alarmed him with a fire, and having brought him back into sensitive touch with the natural world, He spoke to him by a still small voice. Every mans solitude is broken when God speaks. No matter if it is Moses in the land of Midian, or Paul in the Arabian desert, or Elijah upon the Mount, the loneliness is gone when God comes, and they hold a communion, never to be forgotten, and have visions which will never fade.<\/p>\n You remember that Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, in her volume, A Singular Life, speaking of Bayards isolation in Windover, says, Solitude is the final test of character. And I dont know but that is true. The man who goes into it without God would find it so oppressive that he will perish; but the man who has it broken up by the voice of God, will bring out of it a wider vision, a richer experience, and a riper character. I have little doubt that that is why Christ prescribed the closet of secret prayer.<\/p>\n Finally, God called him forth to crown him with success.<\/strong> He made him a minister to anoint Hazael king over Assyria, and Jehu king over Israel, and Elisha, prophet in his own room. And he told him how the enemy should be slain, and how thousands of knees remained unbowed before Baal, and thousands of lips unsullied by the idols kiss. A man never likes to feel that his life has been a failure. A man is Divinely inspired, indeed, when he gets from God assurance of success in his undertakings. Elijah had at one time imagined that the great victory on Mount Carmel was the climax of life, but it proved only an incident of Divine intervention and blessing. The crown of life is in the accumulated results, and the count is not all in until the last breath is going from the body and the last earthly blessing has been bestowed, for after all the biggest about life is God with us!<\/p>\n (4) Juniper tree.<\/strong>A sort of broom, found abundantly in the desert. It has been noted that its roots were much prized for charcoal, the coal <\/em>of 1Ki. 19:6<\/span>.<\/p>\n I am not better than my fathers.<\/strong>The exclamation is characteristic. Evidently he had hoped that he himself was better than his fathers as a servant of Godsingled out beyond all those that went before him, to be the victorious champion of a great crisis, he, and he alone (1Ki. 18:22<\/span>; 1Ki. 19:10-14<\/span>). Now he thinks his hope vain, and sees no reason why he should succeed when all who went before have failed. Why, he asks, should he live when the rest of the prophets have died?<\/p>\n 4<\/strong>. <\/strong> A juniper tree <\/strong> “A species of the broom plant, Genista roetam <\/em> of Forskal. The Hebrew name , rothem, <\/em> is the same as the present Arabic name. The Vulgate, Luther, English Version, and others, translate it wrongly by juniper. <\/em> It is the largest and most conspicuous shrub of the deserts of Sinai, growing thickly in the watercourses and valleys. The roots are very bitter, and are regarded by the Arabs as yielding the best charcoal. This illustrates Job 30:4<\/span>, and Psa 120:4<\/span>. Our Arabs always selected the place of encampment, if possible, in a spot where it grew, in order to be sheltered by it at night from the wind; and during the day, when they often went on in advance of the camels, we found them not unfrequently sitting or sleeping under a bush of retem <\/em> to protect them from the sun.” Robinson. <\/p>\n <\/em><\/p>\n Requested for himself that he might die <\/strong> Literally, besought his soul to die. <\/em> See note on 1Ki 17:22<\/span>. <\/p>\n It is enough <\/strong> I have lived long enough and seen sorrows enough. From this some infer that Elijah was now advanced in years. <\/p>\n Take away my life <\/strong> “Strange contradiction,” says Kitto. “Here the man who was destined not to taste of death flees from death on the one hand, and seeks it on the other.” <\/p>\n Not better than my fathers <\/strong> With all the Divine power and glory revealed in me, I am still as fallible and weak as they, and deserve to live no longer.<\/p>\n 1Ki 19:4 But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree: and he requested for himself that he might die; and said, It is enough; now, O LORD, take away my life; for I [am] not better than my fathers.<\/p>\n Ver. 4. But he himself went a day’s journey in the wilderness.] As not holding himself sufficiently safe in the land of Judah, because of the great correspondency that was betwixt Ahab and Jehoshaphat. Kings have long hands, and can despatch at a distance. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Came and sat under a juniper tree.<\/strong> ] The shadow whereof driveth away serpents, saith Pliny, so that he might the more safely sleep there. The berries of this tree are hot, strong, and effectual to warm the stomach, &c. Talis est zelosus,<\/em> saith one. Such is the true zealot, of whom that proverb of the Arabians is verified, Praestat granum piperis (vel iuniperi) decem peponibus,<\/em> One corn of pepper is far beyond ten melons. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n And he requested for himself that he might die.<\/strong> ] He who so much feared to die by the hand of a woman, lest she and her chimney chaplains should triumph over him and the cause he defended, beggeth now to die by the hand of God, as having no longer joy of this mortal and miserable life. This showed that “Elias was a man subject to like passions” with others. Jam 5:17 The holiest saint upon earth hath his qualms, his outbursts, as had Job, Jonah, Peter, Luther, &c. And how many such are there at this day that sit under Elias’s juniper, willing and wishing to lay down that heavy burden imposed upon them by the Almighty! <\/p>\n <\/p>\n O Lord, take away my life.<\/strong> ] Lest Jezebel take it from me. Little thought Elias now that he should one day be bodily translated into heaven. God of his goodness so provided for his servant, that neither Jezebel, nor death, which devoureth all men, should have power over him.<\/p>\n himself = his soul. Hebrew. nephesh. App-13. <\/p>\n sat down: 1Ki 13:14, Gen 21:15, Gen 21:16, Joh 4:6 <\/p>\n he requested: 1Ki 19:3, Num 11:15, 2Ki 2:11, Job 3:20-22, Jer 20:14-18, Jon 4:3, Jon 4:8, Phi 1:21-24 <\/p>\n for himself: Heb. for his life <\/p>\n better: Amo 6:2, Nah 3:8, Mat 6:26, Rom 3:9 <\/p>\n Reciprocal: Gen 27:46 – I am Gen 30:1 – or else I die Exo 4:13 – send Exo 5:22 – why is it Num 14:2 – Would 2Sa 24:16 – It is enough 1Ch 21:15 – It is enough Job 3:21 – long Job 6:9 – that it would Job 7:16 – I loathe it Job 10:1 – My soul Job 40:4 – Behold Ecc 2:17 – I hated Isa 15:4 – his Jer 8:3 – death Jer 20:9 – I will Jon 4:2 – he prayed Luk 4:1 – wilderness Rev 12:6 – that<\/p>\n TIRED OF LIFE<\/p>\n He requested for himself that he might die; and said, It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life.<\/p>\n 1Ki 19:4<\/p>\n I. The wish for death, the weariness of life, is a phenomenon extremely common, and common because it arises from a multitude of causes; but those causes all run up into this, that, as Scripture expresses it, man is born to sorrow, as the sparks fly upward. Rebuke this feeling as you will, you must deal with it as a fact, and as an experience of human life. The sense of failure, the conviction that the evils around us are stronger than we can grapple with, the apparent non-atonement for the intolerable wrongthere are hours when, under the incidents of these trials, even the noblest Christian finds it hard to keep his faith strong and his hope unclouded. Take any man who has spoken words of burning faithfulness, or done deeds of high courage in a mean and lying world, and the chances are that his lifes story was clouded by failure or closed in martyrdom.<\/p>\n II. In this chapter we have Gods own gracious way of dealing with this sad but far from uncommon despondency.Elijah had fled into the wilderness, flung himself down under a juniper tree, and requested that he might die. How gently and with what Divine compassion did God deal with his despair! He spread for Elijah a table in the wilderness, and helped him forward on his way; only then, when his bodily powers had been renewed, when his faith had been strengthened, does the question come, What doest thou here, Elijah? The vision and the still small voice may have brought home to the heart of Elijah one reason at least why he had failed. He had tried taunts and violence in the cause of God; he had seized heavens sword of retribution, and made it red with human blood. He had not learned that violence is hateful to God; he had to be taught that Elijahs spirit is very different from Christs Spirit. And when God has taught him this lesson, He then gives him His message and His consolation. The message is, Go, do My work again; the consolation is, Things are not so bad as to human eyes they seem.<\/p>\n III. Those who suffer from despondency, should (1) look well to see whether the causes of their failure and their sorrow are not removable; (2) embrace the truth that when they have honestly done their best, then the success or the failure of their work is not in their own hands. Work is mans; results are Gods.<\/p>\n Dean Farrar.<\/p>\n Illustrations<\/p>\n (1) No doubt Elijah felt that his work was over, and prayed God to take his life away. And that only goes to show that now he was acting under the influence of a higher will than his own, and that if he had consulted his own inclination he would have stayed to die, for what did it matter by what death he entered into the presence of God? No doubt, also, he needed encouragement, but it was just to find the opportunity of giving it that God sent him out into the wilderness.<\/p>\n (2) Something may have been due to physical overstrain. There had been the strain of anticipation of that day on Carmel, the nervous tension of the day itself, the destruction of the priests of Baal, whose blood encrimsoned the Kishon River, and all these exhausting fatigues had culminated in the courier-run of eighteen miles ahead of Ahabs chariot, the token of his willingness to show deference to the head of the nation. All these strenuous efforts were bound to have a natural reaction, in which probably his whole nature was involved, for there is a mysterious union between soul and body. The one reacts on the other, and depressed spirits are often directly attributable to the depressed condition of our physical health. At times, when we are conscious of overstrain, we should be more than ever on our guard against the attack of the great enemy of souls.<\/p>\n (3) Scripture does not flinch from telling us of the failure of its most representative characters. The Word of God holds the mirror up alternately the weakness or sinfulness of the saints, and then to the redeeming love and mercy of God, that the one may set forth the exceeding greatness of the other. Gods greatest heroes are but men at the best, and if there is a break, though only for a moment, in the union between them and the Lord, they will become weak as others. It is only by the grace of God that they are what they are.<\/p>\n 1Ki 19:4. He went a days journey into the wilderness The vast wilderness of Arabia, wherein the Israelites wandered forty years. He durst not stay in Judah, though good Jehoshaphat reigned there, because he was allied to Ahab, and was a man of an easy temper, whom Ahab might circumvent, and either by force or art seize upon Elijah. He requested for himself Hebrew, for his life, or his soul, that it might be taken away from his body. Or, with his soul, as it is Isa 26:9, that is, he desired it heartily or fervently; which he did, not only for his own sake, that he might be freed from his great fears and troubles; but especially from his zeal for Gods glory, which he saw was and would be dreadfully eclipsed by the relapse of the Israelites into idolatry, and by his death, if it should be procured by the hands of Jezebel, or of the worshippers of Baal; and therefore he wished to die in peace, and by the hand of God. And said, It is enough, now, O Lord I have lived long enough for thy cause, and am not likely to do thee any more service; neither my words nor works are likely to do any good upon these unstable and incorrigible people. I am not better than my fathers That I should continue, when other prophets who have gone before me have lost their lives.<\/p>\n 19:4 But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree: and he requested for himself that he might die; and said, It is enough; now, O LORD, {c} take away my life; for I [am] not better than my fathers.<\/p>\n (c) It is so hard to control our impatience in affliction, that the saints could not overcome the same.<\/p>\n ELIJAHS DESPAIR<\/p>\n 1Ki 19:4-8<\/p>\n “So much I feel my genial spirits droop, <\/p>\n My hopes all flat, nature within me seems <\/p>\n In all her functions weary of herself, <\/p>\n My race of glory run, and race of shame, <\/p>\n And I shall shortly be with them that rest.”<\/p>\n – Samson Agonistes.<\/p>\n WHAT are the causes which may drive even a saint of God into a mood of momentary despair as he is forced to face the semblance of final failure?<\/p>\n 1. Even the lowest element of such despair has its instructiveness. It was due in part, doubtless, to mere physical exhaustion. Elijah had just gone through the most tremendous conflict of his life. During all that long and most exhausting day at Carmel he had had little or no food, and at the close of it he had run across all the plain with the kings chariot. In the dead of that night, with his life in his band, he had fled towards Beersheba, and now he had wandered for a whole day in the glare of the famishing wilderness. It does not do to despise the body. If we are spirits, yet we have bodies; and the body wreaks a stern and humiliating vengeance on those who neglect or despise it. The body reacts upon the mind. “If you rumple the jerkin, you rumple the jerkins lining.” If we weaken the body too much, we do not make it the slave of the spirit, but rather make the spirit its slave. Even moderate fasting, as a simple physiological fact-if it be fasting at all, as distinguished from healthful moderation and wise temperance-tends to increase, and not by any means to decrease, the temptations which come to us from the appetites of the body. Extreme self-maceration-as all ascetics have found from the days of St. Jerome to those of Cardinal Newman-only adds new fury to the lusts of the flesh. Many a hermit and stylite and fasting monk, many half-dazed hysterical, high-wrought men have found, sometimes without knowing the reason of it, that by willful and artificial devices of self-chosen saintliness, they have made the path of purity and holiness not easier, but more hard. The body is a temple, not a tomb. It is not permitted us to think ourselves wiser than God who made it, nor to fancy that we can mend His purposes by torturing and crushing it. By violating the laws of physical righteousness we only make moral and spiritual righteousness more difficult to attain.<\/p>\n 2. Elijahs dejection was also due to forced inactivity. “What doest thou here, Elijah?” said the voice of God to him in the heart of man. Alas! he was doing nothing: there was nothing left for him to do! It was different when he hid by the brook Cherith or in Zarephath, or in the glades of Carmel. Then a glorious endeavor lay before him, and there was hope. But<\/p>\n “Life without hope draws nectar in a sieve, <\/p>\n And hope without an object cannot live.”<\/p>\n The mighty vindication of Jehovah in which all the struggle of his life culminated, had been crowned with triumph, and had failed. It had blazed up like fire, and had sunk back into ashes. To such a spirit as his nothing is so fatal as to have nothing to do and nothing to hope for. “What did the Marechal die of?” asked a distinguished Frenchman of one of his comrades. “He died of having nothing to do.” “Ah!” was the reply; “that is enough to kill the best General of us all.”<\/p>\n 3. Again, Elijah was suffering from mental reaction. The bow had been bent too long, and was somewhat strained; the tense string needed to have been relaxed before. It is a common experience that some great duty or mastering emotion uplifts us for a time above ourselves, makes us even forget the body and its needs. We remember Jeremy Taylors description of what he had noticed in the Civil Wars, -that a wounded soldier, amid the heat and fury of the fight, was wholly unconscious of his wounds, and only began to feel the smart of them when the battle had ended and its fierce passion was entirely spent.<\/p>\n Men, even strong men, after hours of terrible excitement, have been known to break down and weep like children. Macaulay, in describing the emotions which succeeded the announcement that the Reform Bill had passed, says that not a few, after the first outburst of wild enthusiasm, were bathed in tears.<\/p>\n And any one who has seen some great orator after a supreme effort of eloquence, when his strength seems drained away, and the passion is exhausted, and the flame has sunk down into its embers, is aware how painful a reaction often follows, and how differently the man looks and feels if you see him when he has passed into his retirement, pale and weak, and often very sad. After a time the mind can do no more.<\/p>\n 4. Further, Elijah felt his loneliness. At that moment indeed he could not bear the presence of any one, but none the less his sense that none sympathized with him, that all hated him, that no voice was raised to cheer him, that no finger was uplifted, to help him, weighed like lead upon his spirit. I only am left. There was awful desolation in that thought. He was alone among an apostatizing people. It is the same kind of cry which we hear so often in the life of Gods saints. It is the Psalmist crying: “I am become like a pelican in the wilderness, and like an owl that is in the desert. Mine enemies reproach me all the day long, and they that are mad upon me are sworn together against me”; {Psa 102:6-8} or, “My lovers and my neighbors did stand looking upon my trouble, and my kinsmen stood afar off. They also that sought after my life laid snares for me Psa 38:11-12.” It is Job so smitten and afflicted that he is half tempted for the moment to curse God and die. It is Isaiah saying of the hopeless wickedness of his people, “The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.” It is Jeremiah complaining, “The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so: and what will ye do in the end thereof?” {Jer 5:31; Jer 29:9} It is St. Paul wailing so sadly, “All they of Asia have turned from me. Only Luke is with me.” It is the pathos of desolation which breathes through the sad sentence of the Gospels, “Then all the disciples forsook Him, and fled.” The anticipation of desertion had wrung from the Lord Jesus the sad prophecy, “Behold, the hour cometh, yea, is now come, when ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave me alone: and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me.” {Joh 16:32} And this heart-anguish of loneliness is, to this day, a common experience of the best men. Any man whose duty has ever called him to strike out against the stream of popular opinion, to rebuke the pleasant vices of the world, to plead for causes too righteous to be popular, to deny the existence of vested interests in the causes of human ruin, to tell a corrupt society that it is corrupt, and a lying Church that it lies; -any man who has had to defy mere plausible conventions of veiled wrong-doing, to give bold utterance to forgotten truths, to awake sodden and slumbering consciences, to annul agreements with death and covenants with hell; every man who rises above the trimmers and the facing-both-ways, and those who try to serve two masters-they who swept away the rotting superstitions of a tyrannous ecclesiasticism, they who purified prisons, they who struck the fetters off the slave-every saint, reformer, philanthropist, and faithful preacher in the past, and those now living saints, who, walking in the shining steps of these, endeavor to rescue the miserable out of the gutter, and to preach the gospel to the poor, know the anguish of isolation, when, because they have been benefactors, they are cursed as though they were felons, and when, for the efforts of their noble self-sacrifice, the contempt of the world, and its pedantry, and its malice can find for them no words too contemptuous or too bitterly false.<\/p>\n 5. But there was even a deeper sorrow than these which made Elijah long for death. It was the sense of utter and seemingly irretrievable failure. It happens often to the worldling as well as to the saint. Many a man, weary of lifes inexorable emptiness, has exclaimed in different ways:-<\/p>\n “Know that whatever thou hast been, <\/p>\n Tis something better not to be.”<\/p>\n That sentiment is not in the least peculiar to Byron. We find it again and again in the Greek tragedians. We find it alike in the legendary revelation of the god Pan, and in the Book of Ecclesiastes, and in Schopenhauer and Von Hartmann. No true Christian, no believer in the mercy and justice of God, can share that sentiment, but will to the last thank God for His creation and preservation and all the blessings of this life, as well as for the inestimable gift of His redemption, for the means of grace, and for the hope of glory. Nevertheless, it is part of Gods discipline that He often requires His saints as well as His sinners to face what looks like hopeless discomfiture, and to perish, as it were,<\/p>\n “In the lost battle <\/p>\n Borne down by the flying, <\/p>\n Where mingles wars rattle <\/p>\n With the groans of the dying.”<\/p>\n Such was the fate of all the Prophets. They were tortured; they had trials of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment; they were stoned, were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword; they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, they hid in caves and dens of the earth, being destitute, afflicted, tormented, though of them the world was not worthy. Such, too was the fate of all the Apostles set forth last of all as men doomed to death; made a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men. They were hungry, thirsty, naked, buffeted; they had no certain dwelling-place; they were treated as fools and weak, were dishonored, defamed, treated as the filth of the world and the off-scouring of all things. Such was conspicuously the case of St. Paul in that death, so lonely and forsaken, that the French skeptic thinks he must have awakened with infinite regret from the disillusionment of a futile life. Nay, it was the earthly lot of Him who was the prototype, and consolation, known or unknown, of all these:-it was the lot of Him who, from that which seemed the infinite collapse and immeasurable abandonment of His cross of shame, cried out: “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” He warned His true followers that they, too, would have to face the same finality of earthly catastrophes, to die without the knowledge, without even the probable hope, that they have accomplished anything, in utter forsakenment, in a monotony of execration, often in dejection and apparent hiding of Gods countenance. The olden saints who prepared the way for Christ, and those who since His coming have followed His footsteps, have had to learn that true life involves a bearing of the cross.<\/p>\n Take but one or two out of countless instances. Look at that humble brown figure, kneeling drowned with tears to think of the disorders which had already begun to creep into the holy order which he had designed. It is sweet St. Francis of Assisi, to whom God said in visions: “Poor little man: thinkest thou that I, who rule the universe, cannot direct in My own way thy little order?” Look at that monk in his friars dress, racked, tortured, gibbeted in fetters over the flaming pyre in the great square at Florence, stripped by guilty priests of his priestly robe, degraded from a guilty Church by its guilty representatives, pelted by wanton boys, dying amid a roar of execration from the brutal and fickle multitude whose hearts he once had moved. It is Savonarola, the prophet of Florence. Look at that poor preacher dragged from his dungeon to the stake at Basle, wearing the yellow cap and sanbenito painted with flames and devils. It is John Huss, the preacher of Bohemia. Look at the lion-hearted reformer feeling how much he had striven, not knowing as yet how much he had achieved, appealing to God to govern His world, saying that he was but a powerless man, and would be “the veriest are alive” if he thought that he could meddle with the intricacies of Divine Providence. It is Luther. Look at the youth, starving in an ink-stained garret, hunted through the streets by an infuriated mob, thrust into the city prison as the only way to save his life from those who hated his exposure of their iniquities. It is William Lloyd Garrison. Look at that missionary, deserted, starving, fever-stricken, in the midst of savages, dying on his knees, in daily sufferings, amid frustrated hopes. It is David Livingstone, the pioneer of Africa. They, and thousands like them, have borne squalors and shames and tragedies, while they looked not at the things that are seen, but at the things that are not seen; for the things that are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. Might not they all have said with the disappointed Apostles, “Master, we have toiled all the night and have taken nothing”? Might not their lives and deaths-the lives which fools thought madness, and their end to be without honor-be described as one poet has described that of his disenchanted king:-<\/p>\n “He Walked with dreams and darkness, and he found <\/p>\n A doom that ever poised itself to fall, <\/p>\n An ever-moaning battle in the mist, <\/p>\n Death in all life, and lying in all love, <\/p>\n The meanest having power upon the highest, <\/p>\n And the high purpose broken by the worm.”<\/p>\n “Yes; the smelter of Israel had now to go down himself into the crucible.”<\/p>\n But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree: and he requested for himself that he might die; and said, It is enough; now, O LORD, take away my life; for I [am] not better than my fathers. 4. a day’s journey into the wilderness … Continue reading “Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Kings 19:4”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commentary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9403"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9403\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
I. <\/strong>The souls sigh in the search after solitude. Sometime or other all sigh for solitude; you cannot destroy the feeling, it is planted deeply in the human soul. There are certain circumstances in life which develop this feeling, until it becomes strong and all-powerful, governing the whole soul. It is possible to allow this sentiment to grow wild and overleap its natural limit; but in itself, and within its proper limit, it is right and necessary. Before men can be strong they must be much with God and themselves; before they can be rich and mature, they will have to live much in the garden of their mind to weed and manure it. The conditions under which solitude is sought are various.<\/p>\n
II. <\/strong>The souls time of despondent depression. There is a shade sometime or other to cross every flowery bed, and a gloom to cover every sunny path. There are occasions in the history of most men when life, the most precious and the first to be desired, is a burden. In this state of the soul all power of enjoyment is gone, and all power and courage have taken their departure. The horizon of the soul is obscured with darkness, so that there is neither beauty nor prospect in view anywhere.<\/p>\n
III. <\/strong>The souls depreciation of itself. Some people constantly depreciate themselves, and they are thought sincere and humble persons, whereas it may be nothing more than a habit, or worse, an affected self-depreciation, that others may have occasion and scope to raise them on high.<\/p>\n
IV. <\/strong>The souls weariness of life, and its special desire to be released from its burden. In many cases life is a burden, but it is a rare thing, nevertheless, to wish to get rid of the burden by being relieved of life. There are cases where it appears almost natural and religious for men to wish to die, which appear almost beyond the suspicion of wrong.<\/p>\n
I. <\/strong>The sharp contrast in these texts is worthy of being remembered in days of worldly adversity. Times of misfortune and disaster not uncommonly induce the mood expressed in the first text. Having suffered the wreck of our circumstances, schemes, happiness, and hopes, we court the shade of the juniper tree and pour out bitter lamentations. What is there to live for? We are failures, and the sooner we are out of the way the better.<\/p>\n
II. <\/strong>We may remember the strong contrast of these texts in days of spiritual despondency. Times of deep depression come in our spiritual history. Wesleys new life began in glorious experiences in Aldersgate Street, yet within a year of these glowing feelings we find that he suffered sad relapses into darkness and doubt; he even wrote, I am not a Christian now. We feel worsted in the spiritual conflict, losing confidence and hope. These sad days of humiliation and despondency need not be lost upon us. They bring home the lesson of our personal unworthiness and helplessness. I am not better than my fathers.<\/p>\n
III. <\/strong>We may remember the strong contrast of our texts in days when we are disappointed by the results of our evangelical work. Elijah was smitten with despair about Gods cause. The scornful, scorching words of the wicked and wrathful queen unmanned him. All his grand hopes for his nation and race were to expire at the juniper tree. And very often do the strongest and best of men entertain similar misgivings. Yet Elijah was wrong. God works strangely, He works silently, He works slowly, but He works surely. The funeral was not to be that of Elijah. The one thing we must resolve upon is not to reason and question, but confidently to follow out all the lines and leadings of God in spiritual life and evangelical toil It is the fashion with some modem novelists to finish their stories in the most atheistic and despairing manner–the mystery and struggle of life ending in unconsoled sorrows, unrequited sacrifices, uncompensated wrongs, unanswered prayers and strivings; the palpable moral of such treatment being that there is no law, government, or purpose in human life. We know otherwise. We believe in the programme of God, so wise, so true, so good; and in our best moments we are confident that His programme cannot fail. (W. L. Watkinson.<\/em>)<\/p>\nFuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible <\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: The Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist by Riley<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Expositors Bible Commentary<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"