The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Kings — Section 421

Anyhow, he waited and endm-ed, and at length the opportunity came. When Jezebel would exterminate the Lord's prophets, then the steward of the palace understood why be had been placed in that perilous and responsible position. It was that be might save much people alive (Gen. 1. 20). Then he did what, perhaps, only be could have done-took a hundred of the Lord's prophets, bid them in two caves, and fed them with bread and water. 2. The saints make the best servants. It is scarcely less strange to find Ahab employing Obadiah than to find Obadiah serving under Ahab. Some have seen herein a proof of the king's tolerance, but it is much more like a proof of his saga- city. Whether be knew of Obadiah's faith may be uncertain, but we may be sure that he had proved bis fidelity. It was because Obadiah was " faithful in all his house " that he was retained in this position. It was not to Ahab's interest to have a Baal-worshipper at the bead of bis retainers. Bad men do not care to be served by their kind. They pay piety and probity the compliment-such as it is-of en- couraging it in their dependants and children. They find, as Potiphar did, as Darius did, that the God-fearing bring a blessing with them (Gen. xxxix. 5). For if there is no special benediction of their basket and store, of their fruit and fold (Deut. urui. 4, 5), yet they are gunrded against peculation and waste (Luke xvi. 1). How many, like Ahab, have fonnd that those who share their sins or pleasures cannot be entrusted with their goods ; that if they would have faithful servants, they must have God-fearing ones. (See Krummacher, i. sees. 145-149.) 3. It is only the power of God could keep men holy in Ahab's or Nero's palace. Coleridge ha.s somewhere said that there are two classes of Christian evidences- Christianity and Christendom; the system in itself, its pure morality, its bene- ficent teachings, and its results, its conquests, and achievements in the world. For it is altogether beyond the power of human nature to work the moral changes which Christianity has wrought either to conve1·t men or to preserve them from falling. That a man who is notorious in his neighbourhood, the talk and ten-or of the country side, a. che.rtered libertine, an time dammee, or even like St. Paul, a per- secutor and injurious ; or like Augustine, or John Newton; that such an one should be suddenly stopped, transformed, ennobled, should preach the faith which he once persecuted-this is very difficult to account for on human grounds. And that men with every temptation to sin, everything to lose and nothing to gain by godliness, worldly interest, pride, passion, shame, everything combining against religion- that these should, nevertheless, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, live soberly, righteously, and godly (Titus ii. 12) in the Sodom a.round them-this is no less e. miracle of Divine grace. The influences that preserved an Obadiah, a St. Paul, a. Pudens, and Linus, and Claudia (2 Tim. iv. 21) must have been from above. We know only too well what human nature, unassisted by grace, is capable of. We know it tends inevitably, not to bear a rich crop of virtues, but, like the cereals, to degenerate, to run to seed. In Socrates and Seneca-" half-inspired heathens "- we see it at its best, and yet how wide the gulf between Nero's preceptor and the sabts of Nero's household. When we see our nature, planted in a hotbed of grossness and profligacy, nevertheless yield the " peaceable fruits of righteousness," then we know that the hand of the great Husbandman must, if silently and unseen, yet assuredly, ba¥e been at work. 4. If religion held its own in Ahab's or in Nero's court, it will hold its own and win ita way anywhere. How can we ever despair of our religion so long as we have such proofs that it is the "power of God unto salvation" 'i Society, both in England and on the continent of Europe, may be very godless ; it may be chang- ing for the worse; we may be preparing for an outbreak of Communism, Nilillism, Materialism, Atheism ; the masses in our large towns may be very brutal and Lesotted and animal, may be utterly estranged from religion in every shape; but, whatever England is like, and whatever Europe is like, its state is nothing like so desperate as was that of Rome under Nero. The savages to whom we send our miBsionaries, again, no douLt they are debased, sensual, apathetic, or even hostile to our religion ; but are they really worse, is their case more hopeless, than that of Ahab's or Nero's subjecta? And if the days of persecution are not ended; if in OB, XVIJI, 1--46.] THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. 488