=Elijah's Home.= It was natural that the prophet who was able to analyze the situation and to point out its dangers, should come from the borderland of the desert where Moses had first impressed upon his people the unique character of Jehovah. Tishbe, the town from which Elijah came, will probably never be identified with absolute certainty, but it was somewhere in the land of Gilead. Modern tradition fixes it at Mar Elyas, a village a little north of the modern town of Ajlun in northern Gilead. Amidst this land of deep, rushing river-beds and steep, tree-clad hills, which gradually merge into the desert, was reared this stern champion of Jehovah and foe of the degenerate cults of agricultural Canaan. In one of these wadies, which cut down through the Gileadite hills toward the Jordan, Elijah found a refuge when the drought parched the fields west of the Jordan. His other home was Mount Carmel, whose fertile top and noble vistas resembled his native land across the Jordan. =The Scene on Mount Carmel.= Excepting when he found refuge in the Phœnician city of Zarephath, which lay on a promontory about eight miles south of Sidon, and again at Horeb far in the south, Elijah performed his life work almost entirely in the narrow strip of land which lay between Gilead and Carmel. It was somewhere on the eastern end of Mount Carmel,^{(102)} where it jutted out far into the Plain of Esdraelon, that he summoned king and people to the great conference which revealed to them the vital issue between the religion of Jehovah and that of Baal. Modern tradition identifies it with a site called El-Mahrakah, Place of the Burning. A spring a little below favors the conclusion that this was an ancient sanctuary. This retired spot, far away from the distractions of the city life below, was eminently fitted for the delivery of the prophet's brief but searching message. It looked along the western side of the plain to the old stronghold of Megiddo, the centre of the ancient Canaanite kingdoms. Due east lay the battle-field beside the Kishon where Jehovah fought for his people and demonstrated in a language that a child nation could understand, his superiority to the local baals. To the south were the fertile, undulating hills and valleys of Samaria, to the north those of lower and upper Galilee, while eastward across the plain were the hills where lay the prophet's home, and far away in the northeast rose the snowy height of Mount Hermon. It was a scene that spoke clearly and impressively of Jehovah's might and of his tender love and care for his people. When at last, after the great convocation was over, the lightning flashed and the thunder rolled across the plain, none could doubt that Jehovah was still in the midst of his people demanding their undivided loyalty.