phet! And a yet more affecting instance of divine favour confirmed her confidence in the God of Israel :-this son, her only child, fell sick and died, and was restored to the sorrowing mother on the prayer of Elijah !

Meanwhile the famine raged with desolating sweep throughout the land of Ahab, and yet no symptom of penitence had invoked the mercy of the righteous Judge. The violent temper of the queen, on the contrary, exasperated into madness, and determined to reach Elijah, the innocent predicter of the calamity, directed her servants to destroy all the prophets in Israel! But, happily for them, Obadiah, the governor of the royal household, was amongst a few, who, in the worst of times, remained untainted by the prevailing corruptions, and he contrived to preserve the lives of many, by concealing them in caves, and secretly sustaining them with bread and water.

FANNY. Your words, mother, would imply a considerable number of these inspired messengers; but I do not remember to have read of many at any one period?

MRS. M. The term here, and in other places of Scripture, is to be understood of the disciples of the more eminent prophets; or the pupils of those seminaries that were founded by Samuel. They appear to have lived together in societies, retired in some measure from the world, although not wholly exempted from labour, but chiefly devoting themselves to the study of the sacred books, and the instruction of the public. By exterminating the whole body, the queen would not only be revenged on the principal object of her malice, but would remove an impediment to the universal adoption of her vile religion. A well educated and active ministry must ever be a powerful restraint upon vice.

Elijah, however, eluded the search of Jezebel, and, at the conclusion of the appointed three years, was directed to shew himself openly to the king-to foretel an approaching rain, and, by working a miracle in his presence, and in the presence of the people, to convince them of the fallacy of their lying oracles, for whom they had abandoned the God of their fathers.

Three years, without fresh supplies, had emptied the granaries of Samaria;* and a drought, uninterrupted even by the moisture of a scanty dew, had burnt up every herb, and dried every fountain of the exhausted earth; when Ahab began to tremble at the frightful sentence that seemed to have gone out against every living creature. Instead of being humbled before the just Avenger, he rather followed the presumptuous suggestion of expiring hope, that the lives of his cattle might yet be redeemed by the discovery of grass and water, in some favoured spot; and in search of these sequestered treasures, he would explore his dominions!-Taking one section to himself, he dispatched Obadiah into another but not far had the latter proceeded, when he was met by the prophet; who told him to go back, and tell his master where Elijah might be found. This step, in the eyes of the pious governor, was no less than transferring to himself the fate denounced upon Elijah. The omnipotence of Jehovah would interpose for the preservation of his faithful servant whilst he should himself be sacrificed to the disappointment of Ahab! But Elijah assuring him that he would follow him to the presence of the king, Obadiah consented to return; and the prophet, in a short time, was brought to his defence against the charge of having

*The capital of the ten Tribes.

occasioned all the calamity of his country! Confident of the event, he boldly denied the reproach; and challenged the king to gather all his wicked counsellors, the ministers of his false gods, and he should see who had brought upon him and his people the chastisement they had suffered. The heroic offer to oppose himself singly to the host of Baalim's priests, was not to be refused. On Mount Carmel, therefore, four hundred retainers of Jezebel's court, and four hundred and fifty of a meaner class of priests, were collected, to try the efficacy of their incantations against the inspired messenger of Heaven. Each party having prepared his sacrificial victim for the great experiment, Elijah called upon the people to arouse from their guilty indecision, and enlist under the banner of him who should prevail. "If the Lord be God," said he, "follow him— but if Baal-then follow him." Elijah then waited patiently from morning to noon, whilst the profligate ministers of Baal cried aloud to their patron, gashing themselves all the while, after their savage manner, till they were covered with blood-but Baal was not to be conciliated! "Call aloud," said Elijah, with cutting irony, his pious indignation now excited by their horrible superstitions, "for he is a god: either he is talking-or he is pursuing -or he is on a journey—or, peradventure, he sleepeth, and must be awakened." Vainly, however, were their impious invocations continued till the time of the evening sacrifice. At that hallowed hour, the divinely-commissioned agent, turning to the assembled people, invited their attention, whilst, with twelve stones, alluding to the twelve tribes of Israel, he rebuilt an altar, which, in better days, had stood on Carmel, and made a deep trench around it. Then laying his sacrifice on the consecrated pile, he bade them to drench it with water until the trench should

structure.

be filled; and malice herself should find no room to accuse him of concealing one particle of fire in any crevice of the All this being finished, he called upon the Lord God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Israel, to testify, that he had commanded the things which. His servant was now doing in his name. But he called not on a god, who was to be idly importuned the whole length of a day. Fire instantly falling from heaven, and consuming the sacrifice, the altar, and every thing adjacent, extorted the unwilling confession from the whole assembly, who, falling on their faces, repeated, "The Lord, he is the God!-the Lord, he is the God! Here was an argument not to be eluded by any artifice of the impostors. The people were convinced; and they promptly obeyed the command of Elijah, to seize them every one, and inflict the death their mischievous practices had merited.

When this severe expiation was concluded, a small cloud, almost imperceptible, arising from the sea, Elijah sent his servant to hasten the king from Mount Carmel, lest he should be overtaken by the rain; and encourage him to go home and eat and drink without fear, for abundance should again bless the land. Immediately the firmament blackened with heavy clouds-the wind blew, and torrents of rain confirmed the word of the prophet!

FANNY. Jezebel herself certainly could not escape the conviction which this seasonable miracle was calculated to produce?

MRS. M. Alas, my dear! the Scriptures afford many instances of the inefficacy even of miracles to impress the heart that has been hardened by a false religion. The death of her ministers only provoked the vile princess to inform their executioner, that he should not behold the

setting sun of another day! Well acquainted with her atrocious character, he thought it prudent to retire to the wilderness of Beer-sheba, in Judah, where, throwing himself down at the foot of a juniper tree, he prayed to be delivered by death from her unrelenting persecution! But his dejected spirit was revived by an angel, who brought him provisions, and commanded him to proceed to Mount Horeb. The journey might, perhaps, have been performed in four or five days-but Elijah was forty days on the way, without further sustenance. Whilst he reposed in one of the caves of this eminence, already consecrated by the most stupendous scene that ever met a mortal eye-the same terrible emblems of Omnipotence, which had astonished the children of Israel when they came out of Egypt, again announced the presence of the Almighty! Tempestuous winds swept the face of Mount Horeb-the earth trembled, and fires bursting from the cleft rocks, preceded "a still small voice," re-animating the fainting prophet in his arduous work, by the assurance, that there were still seven thousand left in Israel who had not bowed the knee to Baal-for whose sake, and for the sake of their faithful ancestors, Israel was to be spared yet a little longer time. The end of his conflict, however, approaching, he was commanded to anoint Elisha, the son of Shaphat, to be his successor in the prophetical office; and, also, to anoint Hazael to be the king over Syria, and Jehu to be the king over Israel, who would between them cut off the house of wicked Ahab, and chastise Israel for their sins. Neither miracles nor mercies had yet affected the king of İsrael any more than his abandoned queen; yet mercies were not withheld; for the Syrians not long after, with thirty-two confederate kings, and an immense army, be