The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1911-02-15
Sunday School Column
Side Lights on Next Sundays Les
son for Teachers and Pupils
By CHAS. K. MEYERS

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Feb. 19.-Elijah's Flight and Return
Kings IS. Al to 10, 21.
We are still studying the life of
the great prophet Elijah. In the last
lesson we saw his triumph, but in this,
his dismay and apparent weakness
After the wonderful display Of the
strength of God as shown in the les
son last Sunday, when the people were
called to witness test between the
power of the true God and that of
Baal, Elijah told King Ahab that soon
the rains would come. The prophet
went with his servant on mountain
not far from the Mediterranean sea
and besought God in prayer for rain.
Six times the servant was sent to look
for signs of rain and he reported moth
ing to be seen. On looking for the
seventh time small storm cloud
could be observed. Then Elijah ran
down to tell the king to beware of the
foods of rain which indeed did come
shortly. The fact that the prayers of
Elijah controlled the rainfall, is held
up by St. Paul as an evidence that
prayer is heard by God.
One might we'll expect that after
the scenes at the great test and the
fall of rain, that Elijah would expert
", I, wiz 40 Yn0r1n
turn to the true worship of Jehovah.
TINS was not to be the case. The
wicked queen Jezebel pronounced a
sentence of death on Elijah. The fear
of the fury of the woman, and disap-
pointment at the seeming failure of
his mission, caused Elijah to fly to
the wild mountains far to the east of
land ruled over by Ahab and his al
lies. Tired out, he sank down under
a tree and was awakened to find food
to give him strength. Then he went
further away and indeed to high noun
history "Horeb." Here it is told that
God talked with him. Elijah confessed
his discouragement, and wanted to
die. He was told that Gods cause
was far from lost, that many thou
sands of people in Israel had never
bowed to Baal. He then witnesses a
terrible storm which is wildly de-
scribed in the lesson verses. Later a
"still small voice" spoke to him, and
this we are told was the great God
talking to the prophet. Elijah is d.
rected to return to his work as a
prophet, and on the way to anoint one
Hazael to be king over Syria, one
Jehu to be king in place of Ahab and
finally to anoint one Elisha to be
prophet in his place. All this he did,
and further history shows that these
kings reigned and Elisha became Eli
jah's successor.
There have many reasons been CIV
en- to account for the flight of Elijah
just after his seeming great victories.
1t is clear that he wanted to see Ahab
dethroned or convert to the true
God at once. He was not ready to al
low Gods time to take it's course.
When new opposition came up his
courage failed and he was ready to
abandon ALL How often do we see
just this thing in daily life about us.
In our private life we are impatient if
relatives and friends at once, and some
give up in despair. We also see en-
thusiasts of great reforms, heart brok-
en- when their followers, or the people
generally, do not respond with decid-
ed action along the desired lines. Eli
jah was human, the same as we. In
due time he found that God still ruled
in, the history of men and nations. So
we today find in the end that Gods
ways are the best, and that we are
foolish to give up work for His cause
simply because things do not come
about just to our liking.
But a few days ago the attention of
our nation was again called to the life
of Abraham Lincoln by the Observ-
ance of February 18th, his birthday.
If any think that the life of Lincoln
was one steady success after another
with no periods of gloom, dishearten-
ment, doubt as to final triumphs, they
have read history far from right. If
any think that Washington, great and
strong as he was, did not have times
when the way looked dark and seem
ingly, only confidence in God and
earnest prayer, sustained the immort-