The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Kings — Section 422

China, and Melanesia, and Turkey the sword is still whetted against the Christian, can we find among them all a. more truculent persecutor than Jezebel, a more savage and unprincipled inquisitor than Tigellinus. Ilut we cannot pretend that our sufferings are anything like theirs. No longer are the prophets hunted like par- tridges ; no longer are they clad in the skins of wild beasts, or dipped into cauldrons of pitch; no longer do we hear the sanguinary cry, Ohriatianos aa leones. And yet, despite those terrible mockings and scourgings, those agonies in the amphi- theatre, those privations in the caves, religion, in Samaria. and in Rome alike, held its ground. In Israel, seven thousand true-hearted confessors would neither be tempted nor terrified into bowing the knee to Baal. In Italy, the blood of the martyrs was the seed of the Church; neither Nero, nor Decius, nor Diocletian could hinder the onward march of Christ's baptized host, and now it is matter of history how one day the empire woke up to find itself Christian. 5. If men could, be saints in Ahab's wnd, Nero's palace, they may be saints any- where. How constantly do men plead the adverse circumstances in which they are placed as a reason why they cannot serve God. Sometimes it is a godless street or wicked hamlet; sometimes it is an irreligious hoUBehold or infidel workshop; or their trade is such, their employers or associates a.re such, that they cannot live a godly life. But the example of Obadiah, the example of those saints of the Praeto- rium, convicts them of untruth and of cowardice, They cannot have greater temptations or fiercer persecutions than befell those Roman Christians. If they proved steadfast, and lived in sweetness and purity, which of llB cannot do the same wherever we may be placed ? 6. The saints of Ahab's and, Nero's courts shall rise up in judgment with this generation, and, shall condemn it. In a wicked city, in an impure court, through fire and blood, they kept the faith. Christianity is now established in the land. liings are its nursing fathers. Its holy rites are celebrated freely and openly. Yet how many dishonour or deny it I how many are ashamed of their religion I With what shame will they meet the brave confessors of the past I They will need no condemnation from their Judge (Matt. xii. 41; John v. 46). Vers. 17-20.-The King wndhia Master. For three and a half years king and prophet have not met (Luke iv. 25). For three and a. half years, forty and two months, twelve hunched and sixty days (Rev, xi. 2, 8; xii. 6; xiii. 5; Dan. vii 26), the mystical period of persecution and blasphemy, the plague of drought has afilicted the land. But now the time-God's "fulnese of time "-has arrived for its removal. The time to favour Israel is come, and king and prophet meet again. It we.a an anxioUB moment for each of them. It we.a a critical moment in the history of the Church. Let us mark their words; let us observe how they bear themselves; we shall surely learn something from their carriage and discourse. I. The king goes to meet the prophet. Elijah would seem to have wo.ited in the place where Obadiah left him until Aho.b appeared. He is not going to take the plo.ce of a suppliant. Subject though he is, he is Ahab's superior. He has o. commission higher and nobler than the king's. It is his task to reprove the king; hence, in a mitnner, he summons him before him. The proud monarch who has scoured all lands in sen.rch of him must now humble himself to go before the prophet. "Behold Elijah." II. Ahab fears to meet Elijah. It is true he is the first to speak, and accuses the prophet of troubling the land; but we may well believe tho.t, despite I.Lis brave words when Jezebel was at his side, and the cheap couro.ge he manifested when he had the cow·t and the priests of Baal at his back, he must hn.ve looked forward to this meeting with something like dismay. He had good cause for misgivings and fears. First, he wo.s to encounter a. true prophet, and one vested with supernatural powers. Of one thing he could have no doubt, as to the" sure word of prophecy" in Elijah's lips. No less than the Sareptan, he ho.cl proved that the word of the Lord in Elijah's lips was truth (eh. xvii. 24). "He spake o.nd it was done," He had denounced 11, drought, and it had come to pass, o. drought beyond all precedent, a. drought which still oursed the country, a.Ild was 11,t that ruoment taxing its resources l KINGS. j F (84 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. (oa. xvm. 1-48.