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SERMON XVI.

ELIJAH AND THE PROPHETS OF BAAL.

1 KINGS Xviii. 24.

And call ye on the name of your gods, and I will call on the name of the Lord of Hosts: and the God that answereth by fire, let him be God.

IT is a remarkable circumstance in the history of the chosen people, that amid all the advantages which they enjoyed, amid all the evidences which had been afforded to them of the Deity of Jehovah, they continually failed in their allegiance to him, and repeatedly gave themselves up to the grossest idolatry. This sin, in the children of Israel, involved not merely the forfeiture of their duty to God as their Creator, but also as their King. It was not merely a religious, but a civil transgression: it was not only the violation of their religious obligation to their God, but it was a treason against their governor. Any one, who should thus draw away the people of Israel from their twofold allegiance, might well be called

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one that troubled Israel: and the prophet who boldly retorted upon the idolatrous Ahab the charge of being the disturber of the peace, and the destroyer of the prosperity of the nation, was justified, in every sense, in casting upon him the reproach of his iniquities: "I have not troubled Israel, but thou and thy father's house; in that ye have forsaken the commandments of the Lord, and thou hast followed Baalim." And it was in order to show that this accusation, thus boldly advanced, was indeed well founded, that Elijah proposed an immediate appeal to the evidences of divine power; and challenged the prophets of the false deities of Ahab's worship, to exhibit some satisfactory testimonies of the authority of those whom they served. It was proper, also, that this appeal should be made in the most public manner, and therefore Elijah demanded that all Israel should be gathered to Mount Carmel; so that in the presence of the assembled people, the multitude of Baal's prophets, and the prophets of the groves, even though supported by all the power of the court, and all the influence of Jezebel, might be convicted of falsehood and idolatry; and that all Israel might be brought to confess, that Jehovah was the God of all the earth.

Now it is evident, that in the present state of Israel's mind, it was in vain to make any reference to the declaration of God's word,-any appeal to

the laws and ordinances of Moses. The bare acknowledgment that these writings were worthy of being the subjects of such a reference would have instantly convicted the idolaters, and have proclaimed their sin and their folly. It was therefore, doubtless by divine instruction, that the prophet Elijah proposed to attest, by a visible miracle, the claims of Jehovah as the Almighty God. He would not have dared to rest upon his own authority in such a public demand that God should show forth his power, had not he been assured that he was not tempting him who had sent him forth. It would be a pleasing task, to review at length the methods by which the prophet was himself brought to such a conviction of the power of Jehovah, and such a full persuasion of the validity of his own commission as the prophet of the Lord, as dispelled his original timidity, and gave him boldness to meet that king who had so eagerly sought his destruction. For three years the prophet had been under the especial instruction of the Spirit of the Lord. For three years he had himself been the subject and the witness of miracles, which had placed beyond the possibility of doubt the Deity of that Jehovah, who was the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. At the brook Cherith, the ravens, (or be it the plunderers of the desert,) had sustained him by the especial providence of God. At Zarephath, the barrel of meal wasted not, nor

did the cruse of oil fail; because the widow, who herself had despaired of sustenance, was commanded to sustain the prophet. At that same Zarephath, the lifeless form of that same widow's child had been re-animated in answer to his prayers. How then could he fail to perceive the manifest tendency of these miraculous occurrences, or observe that he who thus blessed him in that which was little, would bless him also in that which was great; and that the spiritual resurrection which awaited Israel, the spiritual sustenance which was to give life to the people dead in trespasses and sins, might also be administered by the hand of him, whom God had thus specially marked as an instrument of his providence !

The more we examine with an humble spirit, and a reverential awe, the proceedings of the Deity, the more clearly shall we see the manifestations of his wisdom, and the evidences of his power. Perhaps there could not, for many reasons, be a more satisfactory test than that to which the prophet appealed on this occasion. Considered merely as a simple sign, none could be more free from any suspicion of collusion. No undue advantages could be given, either to the worshippers of Baal, or to Elijah. The king, the court, and the priests of the idols, might be leagued together; but no confederacy could call down fire from heaven; and as the thing proposed was to

be executed on the instant, no time was allowed for any previous preparations, by which any deception could be practised. Many and various, as we know, have been the counterfeit miracles of heathen superstition, and of that almost worse than heathen superstition, the Romish perversion of the christian truth; yet here was no altar prepared in such a manner, that a concealed fire should burst forth before the people; nor did Elijah himself ask for any other sign, than that fire should fall from heaven, as the result itself showed. As, therefore, no contrivance could be resorted to, a matter of which the whole multitude could judge, so no doubt could remain on the minds of any of the spectators, if the signi should be actually given. And what could be a more simple, or a more equitable arrangement, than that some visible attestation should be granted to so public an appeal to Omnipotence? What so reasonable as that he, who was indeed the God, should proclaim his own honour, and vindicate his own authority? And how more sensibly could this display of power and of authority be made, than by that control of the elements, which could only be exercised, or permitted, by the omnipotent Creator? And when that omnipotent Creator condescended, for the display of his own honour, and for the benefit of his creatures, to put his character to the test, and to make himself acknowledged as the one true God,