Oh, the compassion of God, Who knows just how we feel! So Elijah obeyed; and he went in the strength of that food, for forty days and forty nights, till he reached Horeb, the Mount of God, where he found a cave and lodged there. By and by he heard a Voice from the Lord speaking to him, and it said: "What doest thou here, Elijah?" Then Elijah said: "I have been very jealous for the Lord, but now the Children of Israel have forsaken my God, and I, even I, am the only one left, and they are going to kill me!" And the Lord said: "Go out and stand on the mount before the Lord." Then the Lord passed by, and a great wind tore the rocks and the mountains, and there was a great earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake nor in the fire that came afterwards; and then there was a still, low voice. And when Elijah heard that voice, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood by the mouth of the cave. Then the voice spoke to him again: "What doest thou here, Elijah?" And again Elijah said that he was the only Prophet left! But the Lord told him that He had seven thousand Israelites who had served Him faithfully, and had never bowed down to Baal! Then the Lord told him to go and anoint two kings; and also to anoint Elisha, the son of Shaphat, as a Prophet instead of himself. So Elijah went to Abelmeholah, and found Elisha ploughing in the fields; and as he passed by him, he cast his mantle upon him. Then Elisha left his oxen and ran after him, and said: "Let me go and kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow thee!" Elijah said: "What have I done to thee?" But I think Elisha knew what the Prophet had meant by casting his mantle upon him! So Elisha took a yoke of oxen, and with the ploughing instruments for his fire, he boiled their flesh, and gave to the famine-stricken people to eat, and then he went after Elijah and became his devoted servant. Then many years passed on, and there were great wars between Ahab and the King of Syria. But Ahab did not leave off his wicked ways, and at length God sent Elijah to Samaria to warn him that God's judgment would come upon him in the very spot in which he and Jezebel had sinned against Him. I have not space to tell you here about Ahab coveting Naboth's vineyard, nor how Jezebel had Naboth killed in order that Ahab might possess it. But God's judgments always come true, and though Ahab was killed by a chance bow-shot in a great battle, yet, as God had said by Elijah, "dogs licked up his blood" in Naboth's vineyard, which was close by the king's palace in Samaria, where the men were washing out his chariot after the battle! [Illustration] [Illustration] XXXI. SOLOMON'S WISDOM AND SOLOMON'S TEMPLE SOLOMON, the son of David, was anointed King, as the Lord had promised David. Solomon loved the Lord; and when he was made king, the Lord appeared to him in a dream, and told him he might ask for anything he wanted.