The Penn's Grove record., 1906-02-09
THE PULPIT.
A BRILLIANT SUNDAY SERMON BY
DR.. SPENCER S. ROCHE.
Subject: Lessons of EIiiah's Lilo.

Brooklyn, n. Y.-At st. Marks P. K.
church, the Rev. DR.. Spencer Summer
held Roche, the rector, preached Sun
day on Lessons From Elijah's Life"
The text was from I. Kings, xix %:
And he came thither, unto a cave
DR.. Roche said:
The lessons present quite fully the
lie OF that grand old prophet Elijah
the Tlshbite. From a sublime scene in
his life l shall attempt to draw such
lessons as may fit the hour. Let us Sc
lect the moment when his soul yearned
to be on Horeb, the mount of God.
Give your thoughts to this statement.
And he came thither, unto a cave"
shall speak of the coming and of
the cavern; of the grief the Journey
brought to view, and the glory the cav
ern revealed. Throughout we must re-
member that we study a typical case
of Almighty Gods dealing with His
discouraged servants. What the Lord
said and did to Elijah, He would have
US believe He says and does to our
selves.
From one of the most striking situa-
tons in history we are to see Elijah
hurled in an instant. The occasion of
his fall was q of the slightest of in
cidents, as when an avalanche which
carries down the side of a mountain is
started by the waves of the air aroused
by a tourists halloo. Ahab talked with
MS wife. We have seen greatness of
character in reticence, as when to the
numerous interrogatories of PLATE the
Son of Man answered him never a
word " On -
seen often in that easy flow of words
which lets out everything. A wife
may tell her husband what he has no
business to know; a man may make
himself contemplate blabbing every
tnlng to his wife. "Ahab told JCzebel
all that Elijah had done and withal
how he had slain the prophets with the
sword" l do not understand he spoke
in wrath or malice; quite the contrary:
he knew ne had a tigress to deal with,
and used all the tact his lean wit could
summon. He was afraid to tell her
that he himself had abandoned the
sinking u of the Baalites. He d.
ylded his matters, putting the small
things hrst; last of all-her beloved
ministers of falsehoo1 and frald were
slain. The tigress rolled her angry
eyes and showed her cruel teeth. She
sent this message to Elijah: THE gods
do so to me and more also if l make
not thy life as the life of one of them
by tomorrow about this time" Jeze-
bel's blood was up. He arse and
went for his life" The man who had
confronted the king and his armed re-
tainers fed terrified from a woman
Thnre is a lesson hero for all. Life's
victories only lift u to new battlefields.
One of Elijah's mistakes was his sup
position that all would go we'll if one
event resulted fayorably. He succeed
ed beyond his vile st DRAINS only to
find his real troubles yet to. begin.
So we regard the office to which we
hope te be elected, the partnership we
are anxious to f0rm. the fifty or hun
dred thousand we are striving for.
When the great achievement is won
we are simply like the army landed OH
a hostile shore under the guns of the
fleet. Shut up for weeks in narrow
quarters, tossed by the sea, fed on
ships fare, the men long for the land
with its fruit and forage. The joy of
the landing is quickly exchanged for
the sense of insecurity and the fear of
sudden attack.
A day or so after Carmel, Elijah was
at BeerSheba. Even there he was full
of alarm. He fed into deeper solitude.
The farther he fed the lower sank his
spirits. See his awful CONSERVATION
IN his inconsistency with regard to life.
He had u away to save it. Under
the juniper tree he begged it might be
taken. So low is Elijah fallen! Nc
for the second stage of TIE journey.
The prophe: is broke down. He
thinks the end has come. See how God
cheered His disconsolate servant.
First He took care of Elijah's body.
The prophet was fatigued, famished,
spent. Natural law carrying out di-
vine purpose ca~sed the pinins and
signing to bring slumber.
The discouraged Christian can often
do worse Than lie down and take a nap.
When the world is too much for us.
when the strain and worry seem as if
they would never cease, when the dis
appointment is bitter, when the letter
comes destroying our hopes, when be-
reayement leaves the heart desolate,
heaven guides the afflicted soul to calm
and quiet, and the peace of submission
$50 He giveth His beloved Sleep"
Next God fed Elijah. "An angel
touched him and said: Arise and eat.
And behold there was at his head o
cake baken on the Goals and a cruise OF
water" Our depression has at times
an intensely physical basis. Our Lord
fed the multitude before He instructed
them. A full stomach is not always
the sigh of a pure heart, but who
doubts that if we could give one good
meal to the wretched creatures infest-
ing the streets of cities we might begin
in some of them the salvation from sin.
Elijah slept and ate, and slept and
ate again. The repose was natural, the
repast supernatural, but the lessons are
universally applicable. Gained and
strengthened, his holy spirit reaSserted
itself. He would see Horeb the Mount
of God.
"And he came thither, unto a cave"
Notice the parallel with Moses. These
two who were united in a. post-mortem
communion on the Mount of Transfg-
u~ration, were in life granted the most
inspiring visions of Jehovah in per-
haps the same Identical spot. How of.
ten in the Old Testament and in the
New, as well as in the later history of
Redemption. we are reminded that God
grants additional favors and mercies
in the place where prayer is wont TO be
made. Places in the lapse of time ac-
quire redoubled sanctity. This church
was rebuilt over the spot where God
had for many years listened to His peo-
pies prayers and praises. We see it
again this morning after an interval of
several months, changed, but the same;
not vet in the final form of beauty
which W. shall see in a few weeks and
which will justify unusual services and
unusual gladness, but already brighter
and fairer than we have ever seen it
before.
We love to apply the term old to our
churches, and the world has no more
inspiring ncllities than those areas in
some of the great cities of Europe
where churches have stood since the
days of Charlemagne, of Constantine,
and possibly in some cases from the
age of st. John. Where God had re-
vealed Himself hundreds of years be-
fore to Moses He now shows His glory
l. VA - MI