n liveth."

In the third year of the famine the Lord said to Elijah,

"Go, show thyself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the earth."

As Elijah went he met a good man named Obadiah, who was governor of the
king's house. This man worshipped the Lord, and when Ahab's wicked
wife, Jezebel, tried to kill all the Lord's prophets he hid a hundred
of them in two caves and kept them alive with bread and water. He was
seeking grass and water for the king's horses, and when he saw Elijah
he fell on his face and said,

"Art thou my Lord Elijah?"

"I am," said Elijah, "go, tell thy lord, 'Behold, Elijah is here.'"

Obadiah was in distress at this command, for he knew that the king
would kill Elijah if he found him, and he could not think that Elijah
would be brave enough to meet the king, or he thought perhaps the
spirit of the Lord would carry him away, and he alone would have to
meet the anger of the king.

"As the Lord of hosts liveth," said Elijah, "I will surely show myself
unto him to-day."

So Obadiah told Ahab, and Ahab went to meet Elijah, and said to him,

"Art thou he that troubleth Israel?"

"I have not troubled Israel," he said, "but thou and thy father's
house, in that ye have forsaken the commandments of the Lord, and thou
hast followed Baalim."

Then he told Ahab to call all Israel to Mount Carmel which overlooks
the sea, and to bring there also the four hundred and fifty prophets of
Baal, and the four hundred prophets of the groves.

So the king called them together, and Elijah cried to the people,

"How long halt ye between two opinions? If the Lord be God, follow
Him; but if Baal, follow him."

And the people, afraid of the king and his wicked wife, answered not a
word.

"I, even I only, remain a prophet of the Lord," said Elijah, "but
Baal's prophets are four hundred and fifty men." And then he told the
people how it could be proven which was true--the God of Israel, or
Baal.

He told the prophets of Baal to make an altar and place wood and a
sacrifice upon it, and he also would do the same, and they should call
upon Baal, and he would call on the name of the Lord, and "the God that
answereth by fire, let him be God."

This the priests of Baal were willing to do, and they cried around
their altar from morning until night, "O Baal, hear us," but there was
no voice, and no answer by fire.

Elijah watched and waited, sometimes telling them that perhaps their
god was asleep, and could be