136

ELIJAH'S FELLOWS AND SUCCESSORS.

[Serm. was comparatively still a novice when he sat down under the juniper tree. When he left the cave he was an initiated man. He had thought that the earthquake, the fire, the wind that rent the mountains, must be the great witnesses of the Lord. But he was not in them. Not they; but the still small voice had that awe in it which forced the prophet to cover his face with his mantle. What a blessed and a beautiful conclusion of all the past history! What an interpretation of its meaning! The glaring outward signs which the priests of Jezebel sought for, were feeble; the living power which spoke to the heart within-this only demanded and compelled reverence. He who could send bread to the women of Zarephath was indeed the God who answered by fire.

And now the prophet was prepared for two lessons of deep humiliation, and therefore of unspeakable comfort. He had supposed he was alone in his witness for God. It was a thought of anguish, and yet it was a thought of pride. He felt the misery of solitude, yet there was self exaltation in it. "I alone am left and they seek my life." No! there are seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal. Is it so, indeed? What, Elijah the great prophet, after all does not know more than a multitude beside! He is not more faithful than they are! God has called them as well as him. Who can tell whether Elijah could have borne that discovery a few hours before? The still small voice had made it the most blessed of all discoveries. That voice had taught him brethren to care whether he was better than his fathers, or better than his brethren; to desire only that God might be glorified in his strength and in his nothingness.

This lesson referred to the present. The other concerned the future. Elisha the son of Shaphat, and Jehu the son

VIII.]

THE WHIRLWIND.

137

of Nimshi, were to finish the work which he had left undone. He was wanted no longer; God had other men— —one of them his servant, the other a wild captain of the host-who could bear a witness which he had not been able to bear. Was not this a message of humiliation? But was there not in it such comfort as no other could have brought? His task was over; he might leave the world in which he had fought so hard a fight, certain that it was in God's hands, and that he was, whithersoever he might go, in whatever manner he might be taken.

Once convinced of that, it signified not whether he died the most lingering death or was carried in a whirlwind into heaven. There are those who dwell on the story of his departure as if it were worthy of more wonder and were more divine than all the events of his life. I cannot think So. I do not pretend to understand that story. I do not desire to explain it away. I receive it in all the vagueness with which the Scripture has left it surrounded, as one of the testimonies which it pleased God to bear to the old world of a truth which we receive, since Christ has risen and ascended on high, as belonging not to some special saint, but to all beings who bear the flesh which he took. And when you are disposed to dwell upon that which is peculiar in the history of Elijah, that which is not vouchsafed to us in this age, turn to these words. "And it came to pass about an eight days after these sayings, Jesus took Peter and John and James, and went up in a mountain to pray. And as He prayed, the fashion of His countenance was altered, and his raiment was white and glistering. And behold there talked with Him two men, which were Moses and Elias, who appeared in glory, and spoke of His decease which He should accomplish at

138

THE TRANSFIGURATION.

[Serm. VIII. Jerusalem." There is then something more glorious than translation. So Elijah told the disciples; so he tells us. The death of a malefactor, the death of the cross; this in the eyes of saints and angels, is far more glorious. This breaks down all distinctions, this exhibits the eternal Son of God uniting Himself with the weakness and the death of every creature. This makes it a shame to wish that there were any other way into the full and open presence of God, than the one which he has consecrated. And in this Cross, we see Righteousness and Wisdom and Love, triumphing over all forms of human and natural power, claiming them as the servants, claiming us as the children, of Him of whom Moses and Elijah and every prophet in the old world bore witness while they were on earth, and bear witness now in their glory.

SERMON 1X.

ELISHA AND JEHU.

LINCOLN'S INN, SEPTUAGESIMA SUNDAY.-FEB. 8, 1852.

2 KINGS, IX. 1—3.

And Elisha the prophet called one of the children of the prophets, and said unto him, “Gird up thy loins, and take this box of oil in thine hand, and go to Ramoth-gilead. And when thou comest thither, look out there Jehu, the son of Jehoshaphat, the son of Nimshi, and go in, and make him arise up from among his brethren, and carry him to an inner chamber. Then take the box of oil, and pour it upon his head, and say, 'Thus saith the Lord, I have anointed thee king over Israel.' Then open the door, and flee, and tarry not.”

I NEED scarcely tell you that the phrase "children of the prophets" in this passage, indicates men who were taught by a prophet or prophets, and who might hope in due time to fulfil the office themselves, if they were not already called to it. The notion of a class of men under this kind of education, is very puzzling I apprehend to some modern readers. "Was not the prophet, they ask, emphatically the inspired man? Were not his words false if they did

140

THE SCHOOLS OF THE PROPHETS.

[Serm. not proceed directly from the mouth of the Lord? How could he be trained or disciplined to utter such words?" The subject is a very important one. The portion of the history at which we are now arrived, forces it upon our notice. Elijah was in a remarkable sense the solitary man. "I alone," he said, "am the prophet of the Lord; while the prophets of Baal are four hundred and fifty. I alone am left and they seek my life." On the contrary, his successor Elisha is nearly always surrounded by companions, disciples, or servants. Every passage of his history makes us understand how great the influence of the previous teacher had been, how true it was that there were numbers who had not bowed the knee to Baal during his stay upon earth, how soon, according to what seems the general law in such cases, they discovered themselves after he had left it. In the particular instance of which the text speaks, a young man out of the schools, goes by the direct command of Elisha to execute an errand which involved nothing less than the overthrow of a dynasty and a revolution of two kingdoms.

If the main work of the prophet was to declare, that such and such an event would, or would not, come to pass, or if he was a mere Æolian harp from which a chance breeze drew forth certain wild and irregular, however beautiful, notes—the idea of preparation involves an absurdity, or something worse than an absurdity. On that supposition it must mean, if it means any thing, an initiation of the scholar into certain tricks by which his predecessors had been wont to impose upon the vulgar, or the communication to him of certain facts and principles known to them by which he might acquire a reputation for sudden insight and discovery. No doubt such an education as this was