e
worse for the lesson of Providence and the advice of those who warn them!
Has it ever been so with you? Can you remember a time when God stopped
you, and made you think, thus giving you a chance of reformation?
Wretched Ahab! he had just seen which is Master. How contemptible Baal
seemed now! The heavenly fire, which leaped in answer to Elijah's
prayer, disdained to notice the victims on the altar of the idol, while
the blood of the false priests dyed the waters of the brook Kishon, a
sacrifice to their own wickedness and deception. One would have thought
Ahab's good sense would have prevailed, and that he would have said,
"Elijah, I will go with thee, and on Carmel's top will unite with thee in
prayer." Alas for the history that might have been!

But some of you will say, "Did not Elijah say to Ahab, 'Get thee up, eat
and drink?'" Yes, he did. A few hours before, he had said, "If Baal,
follow him." Does not God allow us to be tempted continually? Did He
not, in His wisdom and goodness, place the tree which bare forbidden
fruit in the garden of Eden? Does He not say, by natural appetites and
propensities, enjoy yourself? There was nothing wrong in eating, but if
Ahab had but

DENIED HIMSELF AND GONE WITH ELIJAH TO PRAY,

the rest of his life would have been different, he might have been
converted then. How often it happens that we hear a powerful sermon,
perhaps on the first Sunday night of a Mission, but we have something to
attend to on Monday, something that might be left without injury, or it
may be a party or a concert, and so we do not go to the meeting next
night. If we had done so, our whole life might have been changed!

Eat and drink! One wonders it did not choke him, for were not his
subjects starving? The famine was sore in the land; men and women pined,
children died of hunger, cattle and sheep perished in the fields, but all
this, what had it to do with the king? He was hungry, and would eat and
would be jolly, never mind about the poor people! Remember, my hearers,
you cannot turn your back on God and be the same man you have been. Each
time you say "No," to God's grace, you become less fit for His kingdom.
If men could but see their souls--

IF SOME OF YOU COULD HAVE A MIRROR THAT WOULD SHEW YOUR SOUL,

You would look as though you had seen a ghost! We have portraits of
ourselves years ago, and we look at them and wonder at the change. Could
you have a portrait of what you wer