CHAPTER LXIX.

ELIJAH, OR THE THREE CAPTAINS.

2 Kings i.

WHEN Ahab was dead, there was another king. He was one of Ahab's sons, and his name was A-ha-ziah. He was wicked like his father Ahab, and his mother Jezebel. He worshipped idols.

After he had been king a little while he met with a dreadful accident. He was in a room up-stairs, and he fell out of the window and hurt himself very much. He thought that perhaps he should die, and he wanted very much to know whether he should die, or whether he should get well. When you are sick, my dear child, who is it knows whether you shall get well? Only God. But Ahaziah was so foolish that he thought an idol could tell whether he should die or live. So he sent his servants a great way off, to an idol that he had heard of.

As the servants were going to the idol, they met a man; they did not know who he was. This man was dressed in the skins of beasts with the hair outside, and he wore round his waist a piece of leather, called a girdle. Do you know, dear children, who this man was? It was Elijah. God had told him to go, and speak to the servants of king Ahaziah.

Elijah told the servants that God was angry with Ahaziah for sending to an idol to know whether he should get well: and that God had said that he should never come down from his bed, but should surely die.

How surprised the servants must have been when they found that the man they met knew where they were going, and what the king's message was. They did not go on to the idol's house, but they went back

to tell Aha

ziah what the prophet had said. Then Ahaziah thought that perhaps the prophet was Elijah, for Ahaziah had often heard of him, and perhaps Ahaziah had seen him. He said to the servants, "What sort of a man was he?”

And the servants said, "He wore clothes covered with hair, and a leathern girdle." Then Ahaziah said, "It is Elijah."

Ahaziah was very angry with Elijah for having said that he should die, and he wanted to see him; but he knew that Elijah could do wonders, so he determined to send a great many men to fetch Elijah, and to make him come. So he desired a man, who could fight, called a captain, to take fifty soldiers with him, and to go and fetch Elijah.

The captain found Elijah sitting on the top of a hill: and the captain spoke to him in a rude manner, and said, "Thou man of God, the king hath said, Come down."

Elijah said, "If I be a man of God, then let fire come down from heaven, and burn up you, and your fifty men."

And the fire came down from heaven, and burned up the captain and his fifty men.

How dreadful it must have been to have seen all these men burnt up in a moment! How easily God can punish wicked people when he chooses it! He might have burnt

us up if he had chosen it, but he has been

very kind to us.

Ahaziah found that the captain and the soldiers did not come back. Then A haziah sent another captain with fifty soldiers; and this captain found Elijah on the top of the hill; and he said, "O man of God, thus hath the king said, Come down quickly."" You see that this captain spoke even more rudely than the other captain had done, for he said, "Come down quickly."

And Elijah answered, "If I be a man of God, let fire come down from heaven, and burn you up, and your fifty men." And the fire of God came down from heaven, and burned them up. So these soldiers never returned to king Ahaziah.

Then he sent another captain and fifty other soldiers. Now this captain had heard what had happened to the other captains. Do you not think that he must have been very much frightened when Ahaziah told him to go, and fetch Elijah? What could this poor captain do? The king would have been very angry, if he had said he would not go. This is what

202 ELIJAH, OR THE THREE CAPTAINS.

the captain did. He went to Elijah, and he behaved in a very humble manner. He threw himself down upon his knees before Elijah, and begged Elijah to spare his life, and the lives of his soldiers, and not to let them be burnt up like the captain burnt up? to burn him up.

other soldiers. Was this Ono. God was too kind The angel of the Lord

said to Elijah, "Go down with him; be not afraid of him.”

So Elijah went with this captain to king Ahaziah.

Elijah found Ahaziah lying sick in bed, and Elijah told him that because he had sent to ask the idol whether he should get well, God would never let him get well, but that he should die in that bed.

Very soon afterwards the king Ahaziah died, and there was another king instead of him, and he was wicked like Ahab and Ahaziah.

Are you not surprised that Ahaziah did not order his servants to kill Elijah? I suppose that he was afraid of hurting Elijah: for God, you see, took care of him.