AFTER being sustained for a certain period "in a time of famine" by the power of God, Elijah the prophet received the command, "Arise, get thee to Zarephath." He was assured that a woman there had been commanded to sustain him, but upon his arrival he found it necessary to prove the truth about supply for the woman and her family, as well as for himself. Later, Elijah was privileged to restore to life the woman's son, and in acknowledgment of this proof of the presence and power of immortal Life, the woman said, "Now by this I know that thou art a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in thy mouth is truth."
In spite of these transcendent proofs of the power of God, infinite good, to heal disease and to meet the needs of mankind; in spite of the further proof of God's power when he confuted the prophets of Baal, Elijah came to the place, in his journey through the wilderness, where he sat under a juniper tree utterly discouraged and ready to listen to the suggestion that death would bring release. Nevertheless, through divine power he was provided with food and water. And the "angel of the Lord," or message from divine Love, touched his thought, in this hour of doubt, to enhearten and encourage him. Then, it is recorded, "he arose, and did eat and drink, and went in the strength of that meat forty days and forty nights unto Horeb the mount of God."
Many mortals, since the time of Elijah, have sunk beneath a "juniper tree," discouraged and ready, as was he, to give up the struggle—succumb to the suggestion of defeat—and yet have found, as did the prophet, that "man's extremity is God's opportunity."
