The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1924-04-10
SUNDAY, APRIL 10.

21:21; II Kings 1:1-2:12.
No man can serve two masters =
Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
Matt. 6:24.
THE CHALLENGE
For fifty years the sword ruled
Israel. Policy instead Of patriotism
bore a bloody harvest and Jeroboam's
son lay dead that a new dynasty
might rise. Soldiers became the
kingmakers and rulers were military
despots followed in the hope that
force would free the people from the
crushing burdens imposed by dis
union. Omri was elected by the
people. Mexico offers our best illus
tration of the situation in Israel. But
when Omri was safely in power he
put his land on the map as it had
never been before and the Assyrian
tablets give the title of the LAND of
Omri" to all its history. He made
Samaria his capital and a fortress
second only to Jerusalem. He ex-
tended the country's borders and re-
heved taxation by tribute He entered
into an alliance with Phoenecia and
opened new door to wealth thru
commerce. Ahab had much of his
fathers ability and made peace with
Judah, defeated Syria, and formed a
league that for years barred the men,
ancing advance of Assyria to the sea.
1t was Israels period of greatest
political power but it held within it
desperate moral menace. Strangely
enough as in that old Edenic day
when Eve challenged God so in this
Eden of prosperity it was again a
woman who defed Jehovah.
For Jezebel was queen. Binding the
treaty of amity with Phoenicia she
came to the throne with memories of
her own fathers use of bloody dag
ger as key to the palace. Beautiful,
brainy, regal, religious, Jezebel be-
came Ahab's evil genius. He was
always a follower Of Jehovah and
kept contact with the prophets, he
named his children after his God and
felt himself to be his worshipper. He
probably was careful in observing the
prescribed forms of his faith but he
was absorbed in the affairs of state
and held his religion largely in his
preachers name. Jezebel was a frey
devotee. Her god was her life and
she gave him every bit of her power
If Christians held the same passion
the history of the world would needs
be rewritten. She challenged Jehovah
on His own ground and determined
that it would not be her fault if her
god did not displace Him. Now Israel
had accepted tolerantly enough the
various Baals Of the land but Jehovah
had been supreme. They were Jehov-
abs people but He was now being
challenged by another sod claiming
to be equal in rights even tho an i'm
portation from another land. Jezebel
used blood to blot out His name and
the hour had come when in the think
ing of Israel there was to be settled
whether there was but one God or
whether there were many, whether
religion was to be matter of life al
legiance or an acceptance of force
and one of the great battles of all
time was being staged
THE CHAMPION
Into the lists so arranged there
leaped a figure gaunt and lean with
desert fasting, clad in desert garb,
who was as passionately devoted as
the queen. worship your god Of
fertility will you! A mere man with
the Almighty is more than your god,
and rain and dew shall cease till l
give the world" He would create the
same sense of sin that had been pro-
duced in Egypt by the similar act of
Moses and stage again that old bat
tie Of the gods that thrilled his imagi-
nation as it moved to its bloody eli
max in the death of the first born and
to its vindication of Jehovah and the
VI q llSW Neiy IOI ioI etSl az
the Exodus. This may account for
the death of the priests at Kishon
and for his climbing to the mountain
where Moses had met Jehovah
Elijah was "back to Moses" man.
No wonder they were found together
at the TRANSPORTATION! So drought
came and vegetation died while men
wondered. But the altar fires still
burned and Jezebel pressed the bat
tie. Her zeal spread her faith but
could not cloud the sky. Nor could
Elijah be found, for he was safely
hidden beyond Jordan where SONS
think Arabs were his eyes and ears as
we'll as his providers. Arabs OF
birds-what matter so God sent them
Then under the very shadow of Jeze-
bers home he found refuge, for Gods
man is always safe when he is where
God sends him. He found kindnes;
and self-sacrifce in all alien heart:
and perhaps an alien faith and useC
his own strength to care for her anC