Arrived there, he remained at least one night in one of the caverns of the awful mountain-range, and in the morning heard the word of the Lord enquiring, _What doest thou here, Elijah?_ In reply, the prophet urged his eminent services for the cause of Jehovah. The children of Israel had forsaken the covenant, thrown down the Lord’s altars, and slain the prophets with the sword, he alone was left, and they sought his life to take it away. In this dejected, murmuring mood he was not fit to discharge the duties of his office. The Lord, therefore, bade him leave his cave, and stand before Him face to face upon the mountain, while He passed by “in all the terror of His most appalling manifestations.” First, a mighty rushing wind rent the solid mountain, and brake in pieces the cliffs of Sinai, _but the Lord was not in the wind_. Then an earthquake shook the rocks, and the mountain trembled with the crash, _but the Lord was not in the earthquake_. Then a fire blazed forth, and burned with a consuming heat, _but the Lord was not in the fire_. Then all was quiet; the convulsion of nature was hushed; and presently there came _a still, small, Voice_, and as Elijah listened, his face wrapped in his mantle, he learnt that there was yet something left for him to do, that he was not the only instrument the Lord could employ. He was to return, and anoint HAZAEL king over Syria, JEHU the son of Nimshi king of Israel, and ELISHA of Abel-meholah as his successor in the prophetical office; and whereas he had complained that he was the only faithful servant of Jehovah, he now learnt that the Lord had left him 7000 in Israel, _all the knees which had not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which had not kissed him_ (1 K. xix. 1–18). CHAPTER II. _WARS OF AHAB AND BENHADAD._ 1 KINGS XX. B.C. 901. OF the three commands thus laid upon him, Elijah straightway proceeded to execute the last. From Horeb he journeyed to Abel-meholah[364] (_the Meadow of the Dance_), in the northern part of the Jordan valley. Here he met ELISHA, the son of Shaphat, apparently a man of substance, plowing with twelve yoke of oxen before him and he with the twelfth. Casting his well-known mantle upon him, the prophet by this symbolic action claimed him as his son, and called him to follow him. Lingering only to bid farewell to his father and mother, and to celebrate a parting feast with his people, Elisha arose and hurried after the great Prophet, and became henceforth his constant attendant.