hosts;
for the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down
thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I
only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away."

And the Lord said to him, "Go, return on thy way to the wilderness of
Damascus: and when thou comest, thou shalt anoint Hazael to be king
over Syria: and Jehu the son of Nimshi shalt thou anoint to be king
over Israel: and Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah shalt thou
anoint to be prophet in thy stead.

{125}{126}

[Illustration]
THE WILDERNESS OF THE BROOK CHERITH
Copyright by Underwood & Underwood and used by special permission.

It was in this wild country that Elijah stayed while the drought was
wasting the land. The exact location of the "brook Cherith" is not
known.

Of this region the following description tells: "When you realize
that this howling waste came within reach of nearly every Jewish
child; when you climb the Mount of Olives, or any hill about
Bethlehem, or the hill of Tekoa, and, looking east, see those
fifteen miles of chaos, sinking to a stretch of the Dead Sea, you
begin to understand the influence of the desert on Jewish
imagination and literature. It gave the ancient natives of Judaea, as
it gives the mere visitor of to-day, the sense of living next door
to doom; the sense of how narrow is the border between life and
death; the awe of the power of God, who can make contiguous regions
so opposite in character. 'He turneth rivers into a wilderness, and
water springs into a thirsty ground.' The desert is always in the
face of the prophets, and its howling of beasts and its dry sand
blow mournfully across their pages the foreboding of judgment."
[End illustration]

{127}

"And it shall come to pass, that him that escapeth from the sword of
Hazael shall Jehu slay: and him that escapeth from the sword of Jehu
shall Elisha slay. Yet will I leave me seven thousand in Israel, all
the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath
not kissed him."

So he departed thence, and found Elisha the son of Shaphat, who was
plowing with twelve yoke of oxen before him, and he with the twelfth:
and Elijah passed over unto him, and cast his mantle upon him. And he
left the oxen, and ran after Elijah, and said, "Let me, I pray thee,
kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow thee."

And he said unto him, "Go back again; for what have I don