It was not given to Elijah to foresee the future calamities of the Jews, or to declare them, as Isaiah and Jeremiah did.  It was his mission, and also Elisha’s, to destroy the worship of Baal and punish the apostate kings who had introduced it.  He was the messenger and instrument of Jehovah to remove idolatry, not to predict the future destiny of his nation.  He is to be viewed, like Elisha, as a reformer, as a man of action, armed with supernatural gifts to awe kings and influence the people, rather than as a seer or a poet, or even as a writer to instruct future generations.  His mission seems to have ended shortly after he had thrown his mantle on a man more accomplished than himself in knowledge of the world.  But his last days are associated with unspeakable grandeur as well as pathetic interest.

Elijah seems to have known that the day of his departure was at hand.  So, departing from Gilgal in company with his beloved companion, he proceeded toward Bethel.  As he approached the city he besought Elisha to leave him alone; but Elisha refused to part with the master whom he both loved and revered.  Onward they proceeded from Bethel to Jericho, and from Jericho to the Jordan.  It was a mournful journey to Elisha, for he knew as well as the sons of the prophets at Jericho that he and his master, and friend more than master, were to part for the last time on earth.  The waters of the Jordan happened to be swollen, and the two prophets, and the fifty sons of the prophets—­their pupils, who came to say farewell—­could not pass over.  But the sacred narrative tells us that Elijah, wrapping his mantle together like a staff, smote the waters, so that they were divided, and the two passed over to the eastern bank, in view of the disciples.  In loving intercourse Elijah promises to give to his companion as token of his love whatever Elisha may choose.  Elisha asks simply for a double portion of his master’s spirit, which Elijah grants in case Elisha shall see him distinctly when taken away.

“And it came to pass, as they still went on and talked, that behold there appeared a chariot of fire and horses of fire, which parted them both asunder.  And Elijah went up by a whirlwind into heaven.  And Elisha saw it, and he cried, ’My father, my father! the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof !’”—­Thou art the chariot of Israel; thou hast been its horsemen!  And then there fell from Elijah, as he vanished from human sight, the mantle by which he had been so well known; and it became the sign of that fulness of divine favor which was given to his successor in his arduous labors to restore the worship of Jehovah, “and to prepare the way for Him in whom all prophecy is fulfilled.”

ISAIAH.

PROPHESIED 740-701 B.C.

NATIONAL DEGENERACY.

To understand the mission of Isaiah, one should be familiar with the history of the kingdom of Judah from the time of Jeroboam, founder of the separate kingdom of Israel, to that of Uzziah, in whose reign Isaiah was born, 760 B.C.