Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1915-08-27
WOMEN AND MEN
WARRED AGES AGO
Elijah Is Figure Of Absorbing m
terest; He Carries Message For
Both Children and Men
The International Sunday School Les
son For August 20 Is Gods Care
of E.lijah."-I Kings 17:1-16.
(By William T. Ellis)

Enter the hairy, desert-marked
figure of the most interesting man in
the Old Testament. Welcome, Elijah.
champion of righteousness, fearless
foe of a corrupt king and queen.
lonely servant of truth. First of the
long line of prophets of social jus
tice and national righteousness. who
are only to-day coming to their own,
Elijah, son of the wilderness, is a fig
ure of absorbing interest. The tens
of millions of members of the Sun
day School will study his life for the
next few weeks, with more than ordi-
nary attention. His career has mes
sages for little children, and for strong
men in the thick of public affairs.
The background is attested both by
the Old Testament record and by the
monuments. Ahab, a brilliant states
man, had succeeded his great father,
Omri. on the throne of the northern
kingdom. Ahab was ambitious to
make Israel world power. He made
notable alliances with Syria on the
east and Phoenicia on the west. As
part of his diplomacy, he had mar
ried the daughter of the bloody king
of Tyre, and Jezebel herself was
brilliant, bad woman, stronger per-
sonality than her husband. Her name
is to-day more widely used as
synonym for wicked womanhood
than that of Cleopatra herself.
Contrasting sharply with the brill
liant court of Israel, with its imported
worldliness and heather usages. is the
personality of the great prophet Eli
jah, whose character is more clearly
drawn than that of any. of the other
I 10 iG
figure. A Nazarite, vowed to aceticism,
and dwelling in the wilderness of
Gilead, east of the Jordan, Elijah's
every gesture and utterance spells
personality. Clad in skins, like his
post-type, John the Baptist, and dis
daining the polished speech and man
ners of the city, he was all rugged
virility, "a man with the bark on" In
that best school of soul-greatness, the
wilderness, he had learned indepen-
dence and fearlessness, and a whole
some degree of contempt for conVen--
tionality. The voice of God had
spoken to him: and that emancipated
him from sycophancy and servility.
He would never have made a "popu-
, lar" preacher.
A clash between shrewd. sophisti-
Gated, palace-trained Jezebel and this
voice from the desert was inevitable.
Israel was not big enough to contain
TWO SuCn personalities III pSdGe. VI
| they represented utterly irreconcila BILE
| forces: Jezebel stood for idolatry,
| and all it's attendant immortality; Eli
| jah stood for stern loyalty to the one
| God, who had called the Hebrews out
| from among the nations, to be a pecu
| liar people. The background of all
the studies affecting Elijah which fol-
| low is this fundamental antagonism
between the woman Jezebel and the
man Elijah.
The Man Who Faced a King
To souls that dwell apart friends
of the solitudes and silences, God
speaks His messages. Apartness from
men is often nearness to God. His
tory is full of such experiences, right
down to our own time. Myriads of
present-day Christians are listening to
the spoken and written words of S. D.
| Gordon, an apostle of the life hid
with Christ. Few of them know that
Gordon was Young Mems Christian
Association secretary of the sort who
making and nonsense. Awaking to a
! need of spiritual power, he went apart
for two years. and returned, trans
| formed, the messenger of mysticism
whom five continents know.
For many a wild. in many a land,
and many peak sublime,
Can tell how solitude with God breeds
souls that conquer time"
Out of such a wilderness school
perhaps the very Wilderness east
of Galilee. to which Jesus Himself
retired eight hundred years later
Elijah came to arraign the corruption
of the Court of Israel. We have no
record of the full interview. 1t must
have been sizzling. With words that
punctured pride and purple state. this
incongruous figure wearing an ami
mails skin for a robe, portrayed to
the arrogant king how little his trea-
ties and trade and alliances and glory
amounted to, alongside of the fact
that he had been recreant to Jehovah,
and to Israel's distinctive mission.
Thank God that in every time God
sends voice to call men back to
right paths