God’s servants must be taught the value of the hidden side of life. The person who is to serve in a lofty place before others must also assume a lowly place before his God. We should not be surprised if God occasionally says to us, “Dear child, you have had enough of this hurried pace, excitement, and publicity. Now I want you to go and hide yourself—‘hide in the Kerith Ravine’ of sickness, the ‘Kerith Ravine’ of sorrow, or some place of total solitude, from which the crowds have turned away.” And happy is the person who can reply to the Lord, “Your will is also mine. Therefore I run to hide myself in You. ‘I long to dwell in your tent forever and take refuge in the shelter of your wings’ [Psalm 61:4].”

Every saintly soul that desires to wield great influence over others must first win the power in some hidden “Kerith Ravine.” Acquiring spiritual power is impossible unless we hide from others and ourselves in some deep ravine where we may absorb the power of the eternal God. May our lives be like the vegetation centuries ago that absorbed the power of the sunshine and now gives the energy back after having become coal.

Lancelot Andrews, a bishop of the Church of England and one of the translators of the King James Bible of 1611, experienced his “Kerith Ravine,” in which he spent five hours of every day in prayer and devotion to God. John Welsh, a contemporary of Andrews, and a Presbyterian who was imprisoned for his faith by James VI of Scotland, also had his “ravine.” He believed his day to be wasted if he did not spend eight to ten hours of isolated communion with God. David Brainerd’s “ravine” was the forests of North America while he served as a pioneer missionary to the American Indians during the eighteenth century. And Christmas Evans, a preacher of the late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries, had his long and lonely journeys through the hills of Wales.

Looking back to the blessed age from which we date the centuries, there are many notable “ravines.” The Isle of Patmos, the solitude of the Roman prisons, the Arabian Desert, and the hills and valleys of Palestine are all as enduringly memorable as those experienced by the people who have shaped our modern world.

Our Lord Himself lived through His “Kerith Ravine” in Nazareth, in the wilderness of Judea, amid the olive trees of Bethany, and in the solitude of the city of Gadara. So none of us is exempt from a “ravine” experience, where the sounds of human voices are exchanged for the waters of quietness that flow from the throne of God, and where we taste the sweetness and soak up the power of a life “hidden with Christ” (Colossians 3:3). F. B. MEYER

This is not a very gratifying endorsement of Elijah. Doubtless the man’s heart swelled with eagerness to start a great reformation; his mind expanded with dreams of world-empire. To flee now, when the audacious approach to the king has been made, is to contradict all accepted methods of operation.

Nothing now but solitude? But God knows His plans and Elijah, his servant. There is wholesome truth here. To trust where we cannot trace is to give our God the full sovereignty that He longs for. The most formidable barrier in His dealings with His children is their self-will. “Let him do what is good in his eyes” (1 Samuel 3:18) is not resignation but triumphant faith, if we trust.

And so by the Kerith Ravine the lonely man abides. It is lost time in the judgment of the flesh-depending critics; here is a thread in the fabric of society capable of great accomplishment, doing nothing. But they who argue so fail to see what God is to do. If we weigh things in the scales of human reasoning, we shall always deal with economics and expediency; but no time is lost if God can have His way. The real truth is, that He is to come into the life of His servant to better qualify him for a more vital revelation of Himself, for with God “the worker is more than the work.”

There may be many dear saints of God who doubt their saintship because their activities have been taken from them. Circumstances have closed in upon them; doors have been shut in their faces; funds for the prosecution of their work have ceased. It may be that, physically exhausted, they lie on their beds wondering why He can consent to so unreasonable a situation. Be assured of one thing: Elijah is not to remain in obscurity and inactivity for all time. Our error lies in mentally fixing our future according to present conditions. Let us arouse ourselves from this deadly coma. There is always the afterward of His gracious promising. KENNETH MACKENZIE

He knows, and loves, and cares!

“My immediate response was not to consult any human being,” says Paul (Galatians 1:16), and he went away into a desert place. A desert place . . . and rest!

All his saints are in thy hand.—The word of the Lord came unto Elijah, saying, Get thee hence, and turn thee eastward, and hide thyself by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan.

And it shall be, that thou shalt drink of the brook; and I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there.

And the word of the Lord came unto him, saying, Arise, get thee to Zarephath, which belongeth to Zidon, and dwell there: behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee.

Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.

Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.—Casting all your care upon him; for he cares for you.