the altar without setting fire to the wood; and the divinity who should answer by fire was the true God.  The prophets of Baal came first and sought after their own manner to influence their deity.  They shouted and leapt wildly, wounded themselves with swords and lances till they were covered with blood, and kept up their raving ecstasy from morning till mid-day, and from mid-day till evening.  During this time Elijah looked at them and mocked them, saying, “Cry louder, for he is a god; either he is talking, or he is somehow engaged, or he is asleep and must be awaked.”  At last his turn came; he repaired the altar of Jehovah, which was broken down, spread the pieces of the sacrifice upon it, and, to make the miracle still more miraculous, caused them to be flooded two or three times with water.  Then he prayed to Jehovah, and fire fell from heaven, and consumed the sacrifice.  The people, up to this point divided in their mind, now took the side of the zealot for Jehovah, laid hold of the prophets of Baal, and slaughtered them down below at the brook.  A great storm of rain at once came to refresh the land.

This triumph of Elijah was only a prelude.  When Jezebel heard what had happened she swore vengeance against him, and he fled for his life to Beersheba in Judah, the sanctuary of Isaac.  Wearied to death he lay down under a juniper-bush in the wilderness, and with the prayer, It is enough:  now, O Jehovah, take away my life, he fell asleep.  Then he was strengthened with miraculous food by a heavenly messenger, and bidden to go to Horeb, the mount of God.  He arrived there after a long journey, and withdrew into a cave; a rushing wind sweeps past; the wind and the earthquake and the lightning are the forerunners of Jehovah; and after them He comes Himself in the low whispering that follows the storm.  His head covered, Elijah steps out of the cave and hears a voice ask what ails him.  Having poured out his heart, he receives the divine consolation that his cause is by no means lost; that the direst vengeance, the instruments of which he is himself to summon to their task, is to go forth on all the worshippers of Baal, and that those 7000 who have not bowed their knee to Baal shall gain the day—­“Thou shalt anoint Hazael to be King over Damascus, and Jehu ben Nimshi shalt thou anoint to be iiing over Israel, and Elisha ben Shaphat to be prophet in thy room; and him that escapeth the sword of Hazael shall Jehu slay, and him that escapeth the sword of Jehu shall Elisha slay.”  The account of the execution of these commands by Elijah is at present wanting; we shall soon see why it was omitted.  The conclusion of chapter xix. only tells us that he called Elisha from the plough to follow him.  Of the account of the judgment which overtook the worshippers of Baal, this group of narratives contains only the beginning, in chapter xxi.  Ahab wanted to have a vineyard which was situated beside his palace in Jezreel, his favourite residence:  but Naboth,