Article January 30, 1943 Issue

Zarephath

ALICE MURIEL KNOWLTON

"Arise, get thee to Zarephath." So God commanded Elijah, the Tishbite, when the brook Cherith dried up and Elijah seemed confronted again with the problem of sustenance. Previously, while he was in the camp of Ahab, Elijah prophesied that because of Ahab's evil doings the land would be visited with drought of several years' duration, and he was led to save himself by hiding by the brook Cherith, near Jordan, where ravens supplied him with food and the brook supplied him with water for a time. Now he was instructed to make another change and go to Zarephath.

A young woman who was studying this passage wondered why Zarephath was chosen by God for Elijah's haven of refuge. As a result she was led to look up the translation of the name "Zarephath," hoping to learn something of the metaphysical meaning of the story. Zarephath, according to a dictionary, means "smelting place," or a place where metal is refined and completely purified, a place where all impurities are removed from metal before any attempt is made to use it.

How often, when hard pressed by some problem which tries to discourage and frighten us, we find that we are led to Zarephath; or, in other words, we find ourselves where we may purify our thinking by removing the errors of thought and replacing them with the truths of being in order to realize God's harmony, heaven. On page 123 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" Mrs. Eddy says, "Divine Science, rising above physical theories, excludes matter, resolves things into thoughts, and replaces the objects of material sense with spiritual ideas."