II.
"How long halt ye between two opinions? If the Lord be God, follow Him: but if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not a word."—1 Kings xviii. 21.
The blessed Scriptures contain instruction for the ignorant, encouragement for the timid, exhortation and example for all. There is no crime so abandoned, no sinner so depraved, that they deign not to consider and admonish. They would that all should be saved.
This passage from one of their sacred historians is interesting in several points of view. It presents a vivid picture. Elijah was called upon to contend singly with the nine hundred and fifty idolatrous prophets of Baal and of the groves. Look at the throngs gathering in their curiosity, with eyes bent scornfully on the solitary herald of the truth, or triumphantly on their own infuriated, vociferous champions. There they stand, representatives of a degenerate nation, sunk in idolatry, the sport of corrupt minions, and awed by an infamous monarch, Ahab, and his still more infamous queen. Neither the three years' famine, nor the sealed windows of heaven, nor the perished verdure of the land, could arouse their death-like stupidity. Their blinded priests, hardened in conscience, rejected the law of Jehovah. The prophet appeals not to their forfeited reason, but touches them with the sting of satire; for when the armor of the king of
