All the places of business were closed, and everybody was going up to
Mount Carmel. There must have been more people on Mount Carmel than there
are today at the races.[A] A better class of people, too.
[A] This was said on Derby Day, in Opera House, Haymarket,
London.
There were eight hundred and fifty of the prophets and priests of Baal
altogether. I fancy I can see them all, going up in a grand procession,
with the king in his chariot at their head.
“Fine-looking men, aren’t they?” says one man to another, as they go by.
“They will be able to do great things up there on the mountain.”
But there Elijah marched, all alone--a rough man, clad in the skins of
beasts, with a staff in his hand. No banners, no procession, no great men
in his train! But the man who could hold the keys of Heaven for three
years and six months was not afraid to be alone.
Now, Elijah says to the people: “How long will ye halt between two
opinions? Let the priests of Baal build them an altar and offer
sacrifice, but put no fire under, and I will do the same; and the god
that answereth by fire, let Him be God.”
So the priests of Baal build their altar.
I am sure that, if God had not held him back, Satan would have brought up
a little spark out of hell to set that sacrifice on fire. But God would
not let him.
Then they begin to pray: “O Baal, hear us! O Baal, hear us!”
Elijah might have said: “Why haven’t you prayed to Baal for water this
dry weather? You might just as well have asked him for water as for fire.”
After a long time they begin to get hoarse.
“You must pray louder than that, if you expect Baal to hear you,” says
the old prophet. “Maybe he is asleep. Pray louder, so as to wake him up.”
Poor fellows! They haven’t any voice left. So they begin to pray in
blood. They now cut themselves with knives, and lift their streaming
hands and arms to Baal. But no fire comes down.
It is getting toward sundown.
The prophet of the Lord builds an altar. Mind you, he does not have any
thing to do with the altar of Baal. He builds an entirely different one,
on the ruins of the altar of the Lord, which had been broken down.
“We will not have any one saying there is any trick about this thing,”
says the prophet. So they bring twelve barrels of water and pour over the
altar. I do not know how they managed to get so much water, but they did
it.
Then Elijah prays: “O God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob, let it be
known this day that Thou art God in Israel.”
He did not have to pray very loud. God heard him at once, and down came
the fire. It burnt up the sacrifice--burnt up the wood--burnt up the
water--burnt up the very stones of the altar. Jehovah is God; nobody can
halt any longer.
Ah, but some of you say: “I, too, would have decided for God if I had
been on Mount Carmel that day.” But Calvary is far more wonderful than
Carmel. The sacrifice of Christ on the cross is more wonderful than the
sacrifice which was burnt on that altar.