The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-01-20

tacular victory had been crowned py
a rain that brokes a three years
4 drought, Elijah, the prophet of Israel.
took to his heels when vengefLI
| woman got after him.
! OF course, there was more to his
flight than fear of eTnbittered Queen
Jezebel who threatened his life es
the man who had Withstood an apoS-
tate nation and hurled scorn' at an
angry king, could not endure this in
! furiated female devotee of Baal tie
was suffering the reaction from an IN
/ tense strain. Every public speaker.
every worker in a great cause, can
understand Ehjah's mood. How often
have men gone out, SPENT apd per-
spring, from auditoriums wherein
/ they have moved large audiences to
nobler levels of thought, only them
selves to toss sleepless upon hotel
beds, in tortures of self-reproaches
and consciousness of failure and unfit
nessi The experience is as common
as great service; that he Was not self /
| conplacent after his mighty feat re-
moves Elijah from the class of ''popu-
/ lar preacher or lecturer, who has
been cynicaIly described as "a pillar
| of brass by Gay, and pillar OF gas
| by night Such a mood as Elijah'5
| is the price that a man must pay for
/ the possession of prophets soul. |
Jesus Himself had kindred hours.
In Flight From a Woman
With the bitter and deadly hate of
Queen Jezebel to spur him on, the
hardy wilderness dweller performed a
wonderful flight. He had outrpn
/ King Ahab's chariot on the fifteen
I mile ride from Carmel to Jezreel. Then
at the word of the queen (WhO be-
! Ionged to that dominant group of Wo-
men who have ruled kings as if they
4 were abiect siaYes) Elijah set out on
4 the ninety-fiVe mile flight to Beer
| sheba, on the deserts edge in the
Ta4 hao Il RIO nc rf
eral Allenby and the British soldiers
/ in their campaign against the Turks. |
Who was the servant with the physi- |
cal stamina to share the prophets
rapid journey to. this wilderness spot? !
One legend says it was the Zarephath |
widows son, and that he later became |
the prophet Jonah.
Utterly spent Elijah went off alone |
lin our black hours we want no COM |
parion-and, reclining under a juni- |
die. ct is enough; now, o Lord, take |
away my life!" he cried.
There are no liars like our bodies" |
says Kipling; for physical sensations |
seldom tell US the real truth. Had !
Elijah not been spent and weary and |
beaten, he would have been exultant |
that day. He thought he needed to i
die; what he really needed, and what |
the angel gave him, was a good sleep |
and a square meal, repeated the sec
ond time.
seldom bother my head about the |
nature and work of angels; but 1 am |
sure that EHjah's juniper-tree angel |
| belonged TO that goodIy company of |
wives and mothers and sisters who /
feed the preachers and the prophets, |
and make comfortable homes for |
them; and in general, minister to the |
Lord by sministering to His servants. |
1t was the simple Bedouin meal, of |
flat wheat cakes and water, that was
served Elijah: but we may be sure the |
bread was well cooked!
A Personal Glimpse of Sinai.
Green amid the granite is the ira
ditionaI cave on Mount Sinai, or |
Mount Horeb, to which Elijah fled |
from Beersheba; and green is the spot |
than two hundred miles, but Elijah |
spent forty days, like Moses and our
Lord, in his retirement and wander |
iags. The figure recalled the forty |
years spent in this wilderness by the |
Children of Israel.
1t was natural that so deeply reli-
gious a spirit as Elijah should turn
to the Mount of God for a refuge.
The desert has a gradeur of its
own; and so has the deep forest; but |
the majesty and awesomeness of the
rocky raVines and peaks of Sinai |
would impress. even the pagan mind |
with a sense OF the presence of the
supernatural. There it seems espe-
cially true that Mature is the art |
of Cod" Only the few travellers |
who, on came1-back, have undeddr- |
gone the rigors of the journey, know |
how soul-hushing are the sublimities
of these bare crags. From the height /
of JebeI Musa - 1900 feet - one |
studies a panorama unmatched in all
natural scenery. i
From the simple Greek stone chapel
which marks the site of the Theo- |
phany, where Moses bowed before the
visible presence of the Invisible, 1
have looked down half. way to the
base, where grow, in a stony plain, the |
few cypress trees that mark the |
Chapel of Elijah, built over the cave
| where tradition says the fleeing pro- |
phet Frustrated himself and. listened
| to the voice of Jehovah.
The Egotism of the Pious.
/ Good people, and especially the in
Prospective, pious sort of good people, |
are prone to the same sort of egotism
that made the fugitive Elijah cry out
to the Lord, IT have been very jealous
5pP i IsHoya4 To call this m eoeb mood 1oy
simple conceit and selfcenteredness
may seem harsh; but that is the truth.
Everybody knows this type of Chris |
tian,- sensitive, spiritual, consecrated;
and yet distrustful of the Church and
/ of fellow disciples, and sure that there
is little spirituality left except their
own. They pray much, but they are
more absorbed in the fact that they
are on their knees than in the exalted
truth that God is on His throne.
They have become fenced in by a
barricade Of personal pronouns; it is
1 ''I'' 'I'' "I'' with them, as it was
with Elijah. They are defeatists of
Gods army. AS one has said.s They
have sky-lights but no windows
When one begins to slump into this /
depression he needs to go fishing or
frolcking or to a big Christian con-
lvention.
| All over the Near East, and espe-
ciaily in Gilead, Elijah's homeland. one |
finds the caves of ancient Christian |
hermits. once examined one, cut out
! of solid granite, in the wilds of Kurdi- |
STAN We understand nowadays that |
this Observation-Disclosures conception of
religion was wrong, even as Elijah
lzgas wrong. From the first, the re-