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THE K I N G ' S B U S I N E S S prayer and that solace and anchor of the troubled soul is wanting in all the dreary lands given up to idolatry. The melancholy persistence of the unan swered cries may stand as a symbol of the tragic obstinacy with which their devotees cling to their vain gods— a re buke to us with more enlightened faith. —•Maclaren. v. 30. The people came. It is only when everything else collapses that people are ready to listen to the God of the Bible.;—Torrey. Repaired the altar. That is exactly where to begin in every backslidden life and home. There aré many homes where there was once an altar but it has been broken down.— Biederwolf. v. 33. Barrels of water. He took away the possibility of all accusation of fraud or trickery. He sought to prove to a demonstration that the an-^ swer of fire really came from God.— Torrey. The burnt sacrifice. The burnt offering represents the devotedness of the individual offerer. In presenting it Elijah was not only claiming the blood of sacrifice as the ground of his ap proach to God, he was presenting him self and the people in the value of that blood as wholly belonging unto God. He was devoting himself and the peo ple to God. Compare 1 Cor. 6:20.— Haldeman. v. 37. Hear me, O Lord. One feeble man whose life is truly yielded to God and who is recklessly courageous in the carrying out of His bidding,, may turn an entire nation Godward. When ha speaks God will speak through him. When he pledges God in the terms of his own experience He will always verify His evangel. There is a baptism of fire which alone endues His servants for their Carmel. If we but seek and tarry for it, nothing shall be impossible in the carrying out of His purpose.^“ Holden, v. 38. The fire fell. His prayer brought fire from heaven because it car ried fire into heaven.— Frost. v. 39. Fell on their faces. When the fire falls from heaven people are brought to their knees (Acts 2:37).— Peterson. The Lord, He is God. Re member that Elijah’s name means “ Je hovah Is God.”— Sel. This is the strength and glory of Christianity: that living witnesses attest its power and proclaim its infinite sufficiency. Souls that had no life can say with thankful joy that Christ rekindled their lamp
have released from the torment of re morse?— Parker. v: 23. Let them choose. The man of faith is not afraid to risk his all on the honor of God (Heb. 11:17).—¡C H M. v. 24. The God that answereth by fire. Elijah does not say, “ the God that answers by water,” though that was the thing the country needed, but by fire, because the atonement was to be made by sacrifice before the judgment could be removed in mercy. The God, therefore, that has power to pardon sin and to signify it by consuming the sin offering, must be the God who can re lieve us against the calamity.— Sel. Call on, your gods. It was a great con descension in God that He would suffer so plain a case to be disputed and would permit Baal to be a competitor with Him, but thus, in this case, God would have every mouth to be stopped. God’s cause is so incontestably just that it need not fear to have the evidences of its equity searched into and weighed (Jn. 7:17). Elijah doubtless had a special commission from God to put this test.—Henry. It is well spoken. Note the priests were not consulted, nor is Ahab. The former would have had some excuse for shirking the sharp issue, but the people’s assent forced them to ac- . cept the ordeal— reluctantly enough, no doubt.—Maclaren. v. 25. Choose one bullock. Let op- posers who talk of the failure of Chris tianity do what it does.—Echoes. Er ror is unmasked by allowing a free op portunity to do its best.— S. & W. v. 27. At noon mocked. Noon was the hour of the sun’s greatest heat. Baal was supposed to be a solar deity and noon was the hour, if ever, when he would use his fiery beams to light the pyre. So Elijah’s taunts came when they were most biting.—Maclaren. y. 28. Cut themselves. They were sincere, but sincerity is dangerous when it is off the track. Saul killing Chris tians was as sincere as when he was working for Christ.— Davis. v. 29. There was no voice. The false religions are unable to transmit the Spirit of God. They cannot bring down that Spirit which, like a fire, con sumes the will, cleanses the heart and illumines the darkness of the natural man.—Haldeman. Nor any answer. On the one hand we hear the wild chorus echoing among the rocks; on the other we feel the dead silence in the heavens. False religions have no true
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