Article October 22, 1904 Issue

Elijah

REV. ARTHUR REEVES VOSBURGH.

Among the whole procession of worthies whose history the Old Testament records, none stands forth with more dramatic interest and meaning than does the Prophet Elijah. His career comes to a focal point and a climax of significance in the experience on "Horeb, the mount of God," where he had fled from the consuming wrath of Jezebel. Here, on ground consecrated by the older revelation to Moses, Elijah is met by the question from Jehovah, the challenge of Truth, "What doest thou here, Elijah?" To see the significance of this question at this time, we need to see how Elijah came to be there.

This prophet's record is that of a wonderful career. Many of Jesus' miracles have their prototype in his work, and among these was not only the bringing of the dead back to life, but the final triumphant consummation of his own earth-experience when he himself passed hence, not through the gateway of death, but through the opening portals of eternal Life. The event which directly preceded Elijah's flight to Horeb was the memorable one on Mt. Carmel, when, in the presence of assembled Israel, Elijah challenged the prophets of Baal to prove the power of their God by the fire consuming the sacrifice, and gained this manifestation of power from Jehovah, when the worshiper of Baal had entirely failed.

We need not dwell on the details of this picture as it is given in graphic strokes in the Bible narrative, but we note its result in the awakened and reclaimed conviction of the people and the shout of acknowledgment: "The Lord, he is the God; the Lord, he is the God!" Faintly we may imagine the relief and joy of this stern prophet of Jehovah when, after years of patient waiting in the midst of a people turned back to heathen customs, after years of hiding for his life, he sees this baneful spell broken, and his people turned back again to God.

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