The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1911-02-18

ed in their shade The panic stricken
prophet lay down here on the ground,
for he commonly slept on the ground,
or at best, upon the floor. The real
simple life" is that of the desert
rover Here. apart from men, in the
spirit stimulating solitudes, the Lord
ministered to his soul, by giving him
a square meal Many pessimistic per-
they are only dyspeptic they ~fiatter
themselves that their souls are in fer
ment when really it is merely that
their stomachS are out OF order.
Enough sleep, and leiSurely dinner,
will turn more than one pessimist in
to an optimist. After a quiet restful
time under the juniper tree Elijah
was made fit for the long desert trip
to Horeb, or Sinai. | know the joy he
felt as his own legs carried him buoy
antIy over those fiinty solitudes.
The very idea of a solitary walk to
Sinai strikes horror into those of US
who have been debilitated by our
steam heated civilization, I confess
to having been of those who attempt
ed to dissuade a pilgrim, a Russian
army officer whom / met in a city
east of the Jordan, not far from Jeri-
cho, from attempting this journey
afoot. But he had already walked
from Russian Turkistan and ere this
1 hope, has passed through all des-
ert dangers to his goal Elijah went
to Sinai, where he made himself at
home in a cave. and down in that
latitude a cave is a by no means I'M
comfortable abode. He wanted to lead
his congenial hermit life on the
mountain of God, where the sacred
memories of the place would be his
meditation and there would be no
Jezebel to disturb him. In sanctimo-
NOUS selfshness he meant to spend
the remainder of his days an unpro-
ductive recluse. But Gods idea of a
career is not the solitary but the So
cial one.
\ Man on His Job.
"What dost thou here, Elijah p
came the reprOachful inquiry from
God. No amount of piety or asceti-
cism or monastic life can atone for
running away from ones own proper
work Elijah's place was not down
in the mountain of God. in the des-
ert. but up north in the thick OF
things, where Jezebel ragged, and
Baalites plotted. and Israel backslid.
and the godlv waVered There were
real tasks for Elijah. and he had no
business to be off in a hermit's cell,
eating his own heart.
So the Lord gave him an object
lesson of the forces. he had at his
wind. earthquake, fire But
mightier than these was 1.-The sound
of a gentle Stiffness" the voice where
bv God speaks to the spirits of his
own. The "still small voice. of the
spirit is greater than any of the forces
of nature or of man. That is what
the prophet should have been heed
ing all the while.
So back to his work he was sent,
even to the thronging city of Damas-
Gus, and to the fertile plains of Israel.
There were two kings ard prophet
to be anointed, what business had
Gods man to be croaking about the
danger to his life. Let man do his
work and if death comes thereby, let
him rejoice that he has died as
man rather than lived as a craven.
There is a enthusiastically orien-
tai touch to the call of Elisha. He
was found ploughing with twelve yoke
of oxen, side by side, yet one slightly
in advance of another, even as may
be seen to this day in Syria. The
pIoughs are of wood, such as are in
common use in Syria, and when the
young man realized, after blunder,
the full sacrifice of the great mo-
ment that had come to him, he
promptly made a fire of the ploughs
and yoke3 and sacrificed two of the
oxen, as an offering to God. He saw
that an occasion or crisis had ar
rived, and he recognized it fittingly.
He put Gods call first. which was
just what his new master had for the
moment failed to do.