"There are two books," says Sir Thomas Browne, "from whence I collect my divinity. Besides that written one of God, another of bis servant nature, that universal o.nd public manuscript that lies expansed unto the eyes of all.'' A.nd is not every tree, every leaf, in its way a mute witness for God and purity ? It is remarkable that the greatest crimes and brutalities are committed in those districts of this country where men can have neither nature n~r solitu_de-in: th~ dens of Liverpool, a.mid the cinder heaps of the Black Country, m the dingy pit villages of Durham. It is only in quiet, under the silent stars, amid the purple heather, by the murmuring brook, or in the inner chamber, that we can know ourselves and our God. The "Ancient Mariner's" conception of his "wide, wide sea"- " So lonely •twas, that God Himaelf Scarce seemed there to be,"
fine though it is, contradicts the experience of the saints, who have found tho.t it is precisely the profoundest solitude that is instinct with His presence. And now let us consider how God calls us all in turn to a brook Cherith. (1) He calls us to separation from sin. The Church is _a 9herith. Baptism is a "water ~f separation," the token and pledge of our renunciation of world and flesh and devµ, of our admission into the family of God. While in the world, we may not be of 1t. Our calling is to holiness (1 Pet. i 15; 1 These. iv. 7; 2 Tim. i. 9). We are to be sacrifices (Rom. xii 1), and the root idea both of holiness and of sacrifice is a sepa- ration to God. (2) Sometimes He calls us to a chamber of sickness, sometimes to the very " valley of the shadow of death." How often is bodiir sickness for ~he soul's health I That vale of separation becomes a vale of blessmg; the Ohcrith leads t.o a. BerGChah (2 Chron. u:. 26; cf. Pea. lxxxiv. 6). What a school of the CJII. X'VU. 1--24.] THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. 898
heart has that enforced solitude often proved I Bee Homiletics, p. 18. (8) Nor must we forget here the Retreat-those opportunities for meditation and prayer, happily revived amongst ue of 111.te years. The name may possibly be Romieh, but the thing is sensible and scriptural enough-a voluntary retirement for e. short period from the world that we may hear and think only of the things which make for our peace. The saying still holds good, "He goeth before you into Galilee"- a retired mountain place it wa.s (Matt. xxviii. 16)-" there shall ye see him.'' 8. Elijah's retirement was for the ultimate welfare of Israel. So long ae he remained amongst them, the people would have looked to him as the author o1 their calamities, or would have cried to him to avert them. His disappearance afforded them leisure to examine themselves and face their sins, and left them only God or Baal to cry to. It is sometimes well that the prophet should keep silence. Deus habet suas moras. It is not always that He stretches out his hands all day long to the disobedient and gainsaying. Having spoken by Elijah to Ahab and Israel, now He and His prophet must withdraw into the darkness, and the drought must do its silent work. And there are times, too, when Christ's ministera must be silent. When the Gadarenes besought our Lord to depart out of their coasts, He straightway took them at their word (Matt. viii. 34; ix. 1 ; cf. eh. xxiii. 88, 39). The apostles were to shake off the dust of their feet agaiust the city that received them not, and to depart from it (Matt. x. 14), and they did so (Acts xiii. 61). When the Jews counted themselves unworthy of eternal life, Paul and Barnabas turned to the Gentiles (Acts xiii. 46). When the churches of Asia fell and repented not, their candlestick was removed out of its place (Rev. ii 5). Their lose is our gain. "These things were written for our admonition." Vere. 4-7 .-The Food of the Saints. We have just seen the prophet in his solitude. Let us now consider the manner in which he was sUBtained there. His needs were supplied in two ways, partly by natural, partly by supernatura.l mea.ns. No miracle wa.s wrought to give him wa.ter. He must make his home in the wady and drink of the rivulet that flowed past his feet. It was there, and he must help himself to it. But with his food it wa.s quite different. He could not find that, and so it was brought to him ; it was provided him by God. For even if it was not la.id at his feet morning and evening by ravens-and we have seen reason to think that it was not-even ifit was furnished him by the villagers of Orbo, his tribesmen a.nd friends, or by the loyal e.nd hospitable Ara.ha who roamed over the a.djoining region, still it was supplied by the ordering and special Providence of God. For it is as much a supernatural work to oontrol, by a.n unseen Power, the minds of men as tlie instincts or habits of birds. If we get rid of the ravens we do not get rid of the miracle. It is clear, consequently, that he we.a sustained in part by natural, in part by superhuman agency. Now our food, like his, is, though in a different wa.y, natural and supernatural. We use the terms in the popular sense, for who shall sa.y tha.t a.ll food is not supernatural. True, it comes to us by what we call " natural processes,'' in what we call the "order of Nature;" but it is obvious that the so-called "laws of Nature " e.re only " statements of the observed course of Nature, or the uniform results of known physical causes ending in some primo cause or causes not merely physical" (Sir E. Beckett," Origin of the Laws of Nature"). Nature only means what is fixed, settled, uniform (Bp. Butler). But, using the words a.s they are used in common parlance, fart of our sustenance, the supply of our bodily wants is, for the most part nature. ; and another part, the satisfaction of our spiritual necessities, is for the most part supernatural. Our needs, that is to say, aro supplied something like Elijah's were. Let us trace the resemblanoe a little more in detail, and let us see first how it holds good of our I. BODILY SUSTENANCE. We learn from this history- 1. That we must UB6 the means within our reach. Not even for His elect messenger, the greatest of the prophets, does God work e.n unnecessary miracle. "Dieu n'agit pns par des volontes particulieres '' (Malebranche). No doubt Goel could have supplied hie driukjuet as easily as his daily bread, in an extraordinary W[l.Y, but He would not. No; in e. valley debouohing into the Jordan was a stream, fed THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. [ OH. XVII. 1-24.