What did God do with Elijah, His tired servant? He allowed him to sleep and then gave him something good to eat. Elijah had done tremendous work and in his excitement had run “ahead of Ahab[’ s chariot] all the way to Jezreel” (1 Kings 18:46). But the run had been too much for him and had sapped his physical strength, ultimately causing him to become depressed.

Just as others in this condition need sleep and want their ailments treated, Elijah’ s physical requirements needed to be met.

There are many wonderful people who end up where Elijah did —“under a juniper tree” (1 Kings 19:4 KJV)! When this happens, the words of the Master are very soothing: “Get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you.” In other words, “I am going to refresh you.”

Therefore may we never confuse physical weariness with spiritual weakness.

I’m too tired to trust and too tired to pray , Said I, as my overtaxed strength gave way . The one conscious thought that my mind possessed, Is, oh, could I just drop it all and rest.

Will God forgive me, do you suppose, If I go right to sleep as a baby goes, Without questioning if I may , Without even trying to trust and pray?

Will God forgive you? Think back, dear heart, When language to you was an unknown art, Did your mother deny you needed rest, Or refuse to pillow your head on her breast?

Did she let you want when you could not ask? Did she give her child an unequal task? Or did she cradle you in her arms, And then guard your slumber against alarms?

Oh, how quickly a mother’s love can see, The unconscious yearnings of infancy . When you’ve grown too tired to trust and pray , When overworked nature has quite given way:

Then just drop it all, and give up to rest, As you used to do on mother’s breast, He knows all about it—the dear Lord knows, So just go to sleep as a baby goes;

Without even asking if you may , God knows when His child is too tired to pray . He judges not solely by uttered prayer , He knows when the yearnings of love are there.

He knows you do pray , He knows you do trust, And He knows, too, the limits of poor , weak dust.

Oh, the wonderful sympathy of Christ, For His chosen ones in that midnight tryst, When He told them, “Sleep and take your rest,” While on Him the guilt of the whole world pressed—

You have trusted your life to Him to keep, Then don’t be afraid to go right to sleep.

ELLA CONRAD COWHERD

This is Elijah! One is startled, perplexed, disappointed. A while ago we saw him on Mount Carmel surrounded by the thronging thousands of Israel, undismayed by the bold audacity of the worshipers of Baal, and confidently appealing to God to vindicate His own honor, and confound Baalim.

Here he is, the prey of deep depression, forgetful of the past, giving all up, wanting God to take away his life. God has not once failed him. Not to any extent at all has one single foe prevailed against him. He should not have lost heart, should not have fled, should not have asked God to take away his life; all this was wrong.

He should have remembered how God had wonderfully stood by him in the past, and have firmly trusted Him still. Is not his privilege ours also? May not God’s people trust Him fully, firmly, and under all circumstances, and at all times? God is not “afar off,” neither has He forgotten to be gracious; and that which He has promised He will unfailingly remember, and do.

Are we not always in His hands and under His care? Should we ever have a single fear? Why should we be cast down, or disquieted? J. T. W.

Have faith in God, the sun will shine, though dark the cloud may be today!

Have faith in God!

When a man loses heart, he loses everything. To keep one’s heart in the midst of life’s stream and to maintain an undiscourageable front in the face of its difficulties is not an achievement that springs from anything that a laboratory can demonstrate or that logic can affirm. It is an achievement of faith.

If you lose your sky, you will soon lose your earth.

From under the juniper tree Elijah is called into an audience with the King of Kings. While listening to his own defeated wail, the accents of the still small Voice fall upon his weary ear. God refused him his unworthy request; rested him from his service; reminded him that he was still needed; and returned him to his work. He thought his work was done and that life had left him in the shadows. God says: “No, I am commissioning you to go forth and anoint kings and prophets, and climax the service of other days.”

Not till His hour strikes is our day done; as long as we live, we serve the King!

The tempter is always ready to take advantage of a time of weariness and reaction.

He loves to fish in troubled waters.

Juniper trees make poor sanctuaries.

It is good to have things settled by faith, before they are unsettled by feeling.