Drief Thoughts ^
For Busy Teachers
International Sunday School Lessons By J. H. Sammis Comment "Pith and Pivot" By T. C. Horton
Lesson for March 5, 1911
THE LAST DAYS AND LAST DAY OF ELIJAH. 2 Kings 2:1-18. I. THE LAST DAYS OF ELIJAH. 1. Their Number. 1. Twenty years of ser- vice are recorded. Six lie between the last and our present lesson. 2. Their Occupation. (1) Elijah would be about the King's busi- ness. (2) He was Head Master of the School of the Prophets at Gilgal, Bethel and Jeri- cho. Agreat personality, he made men. Like Azassiz, Dr. Arnold, Mark Hopkins, he would be a whole university himself. (3) His great pupil was Elisha. (4) One such prod- uct were worthy a life's toil with that "worst class" teacher. Humphrey Davies' "greatest discovery" was Michael Faraday. (6) Elijah's godliness, power in prayer, un- tiring zeal and fearless faithfulness are our examples. 3. The Message to Ahaziah. (1) Israel's Kings were incorrigible. (2) The Mt. Carmel miracle made but a superficial and transient impression. (3) The fate of Ahad did not deter his .son, who "walked in the way of his father, and of his mother, and of Jeroboam who made Israel to sin, for he served Baal," 1 kgs. 22:52, 53. "Be careful, father, for I'm following," cried a boy in a perilous climb. (4) Ahaziah "fell;" "was sick;" sent to a pagan oracle to learn his. fate. (5) The Lord by Elijah sent his embassy back with a death warrant, Chap. 1:3, 4. (6) Yet so-called Christians apply to clairvoyants, spirit mediums, fortune tell- ers and "Christian Science!" (7) Two "fif- ties" were dispatched to seize the prophet and cremated by heavenly fire. Note: 1. "God Is love," yet He "is a con- suming fire," Heb.' 12:29. "It is a fearful thing ta fall into the hands of the Living God," Heb. 10:31. 2. Elijah was, chiefly, a "minister of wrath," 2 Cor. 3:7. His times refused mercy, and served judgment. 3. Distinguish dispensations. Ours is an age of grace, theirs of law. God's times differ. The law was a covenant. Israel voluntarily agreed to it, Ex. 19:8. Death was the as- signed penalty of idolatry—(1) High treason, (2) the breaking of the whole moral code. 4. The "fifties" owned Elijah as "the man of God," yet would make him prisoner. Then "f God's man," said Elijah, "let fire come down." The third fifty humbled them- selves; they found mercy, and he went with them. Thus by "Are" and "grace" It was proved that God was God and Elijah His prophet. 5. Rev. 11:5 shows what the en- emies of Christ and His prophets may ex- • pect in the future. 6. The slaughter of
B °?' s , Prophets, 1 Kgs. 18: and the death of idolaters under Asa, 2 Chron. 15:13 were not religious persecutions, but legal execu- tions. Wwhen jailing thieves and hanging murderers become "persecution," then onlv can we condemn those Bible records 7 But what was execution in that age would be persecution in this. II. THE LAST DAY OF ELIJAH. 1. It was divinely fixed "when the Lord would take up Elijah," v. 1. A man of like passions, he was a man of like destiny with us, Jas. 5:17. God numbers our days times our deathfl or our translation, Matt. 24:36. z. Elijah knew his day. John Wesley when asked what he would do if it were his last day, sketched the program already planned for the morrow. Elijah made his circuit of his flocks, from Gilgal to Jericho. 3. Every day's business should be as our last day's business; and o\ir last day's business as every day business. 4. Lord grant that we may do business up to our last day 5 Tarry here, I pray thee." Elisha knew his last day with his master. Elijah or Jehovah may have told him. (1) We all would wish to keep close to the beloved if n e knew it to be our last day with them. (2) He may have had intimation that the succession to the office and spirit of the great man de- pended on cleaving to him to the l»st "He coveted the best gifts," 1 Cor. 12:3i. (3) That "tarry" tested him. Had he the grace of "stick-to-it-iveness? Matt. 24:13. 4. "So they carrte down to Bethel:,' "?o they came to Jericho." All the- prophets were in the secret that day; "The Lord will take away thv master from thy head today?" "Yes I know, hold ye your peace." Perhaps they marked him, already, for the succession His natural ability was manifest; but he needed the call and enduement. 5. He would not discuss the sad event with them. Nor would we stay to talk, but oleive affection- ately to the departing one. Let us cleave as closely every day as if the last d-v. "Tomorrow and all after life for tears; Today and ail eternity for love," said a good wife to her dying husband. 6. "And they two went on." Stop a bit wiHi the sons of the prophets and gaze sfte*- them. Pleasant and profitable, yes, and painful, too, that last stage of the journey. 7. "On Jordan's 'stormy' banks they stand." God "smites Death's threatening wave be- fore them," Elijah's mantle, symbol of his office, as the living word of God, parts the stream; they pass dry shod. The BObk Is the bridge. We pass In peace by the Word of Promise. 5. Elijah's parting prop-
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