Ahab and all the priests of Baal, yet he quailed before the
wrath of this terrible woman,--this incarnate fiend, who cared neither
for Jehovah nor his prophet. Even such a hero as Elijah felt that he
must now flee for his life, and, attended only by his boy-servant, he
did not halt until he had crossed the kingdom of Judah, and reached the
utmost southern bounds of the Holy Land. At Beersheba he left his
faithful attendant, and sought refuge in the desert,--the ancient
wilderness of Sinai, with its rocky wastes. Under the shade of a
solitary tree, exhausted and faint, he lay down to die. "It is enough, O
Jehovah! now take away my life, for I am no better than my fathers." He
had outstripped all pursuers, and was apparently safe, yet he wished to
die. It was the reaction of a mighty excitement, the lassitude produced
by a rapid and weary flight. He was physically exhausted, and with this
exhaustion came despondency. He was a strong man unnerved, and his will
succumbed to unspeakable weariness. He lay down and slept, and when he
awoke he was fed and comforted by an angelic visitor, who commanded him
to arise and penetrate still farther into the dreary wilderness. For
forty days and nights he journeyed, until he reached the awful solitudes
of Sinai and Horeb, and sought shelter in a cave. Enclosed between
granite rocks, he entered upon a new crisis of his career.

It does not appear that the future destinies of Samaria and Jerusalem
were revealed to Elijah, nor the fate of the surrounding nations, as
seen by Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Daniel. He was not called to foretell the
retribution which would surely be inflicted on degenerate and idolatrous
nations, nor even to declare those impressive truths which should
instruct all future generations. He therefore does not soar in his
dreary solitude to those lofty regions of thought which marked the
meditations of Moses. He is not a man of genius; he is no poet; he has
no eloquence or learning; he commits no precious truths to writing for
the instruction of distant generations. He is a man of intensely earnest
convictions, gifted with extraordinary powers resulting from that
peculiar combination of physical and spiritual qualities known as the
prophetic temperament. The instruments of the Divine Will on earth are
selected with unerring judgment. Elijah was sent by the Almighty to
deliver special messages of reproof and correction to wicked rulers; he
was a reformer. But his character