IT is interesting to note how often, according to the Bible records of healing, the one in need was bidden to arise, or to rise up.
It is related of the prophet Elijah that an angel, a thought or messenger from God, touched him when he was tempted by discouragement and depression in the wilderness, and bade him, "Arise and eat." Strengthened by his obedience to this uplifting thought, "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." In Horeb Moses received the command to lead the children of Israel out of Egypt, and both Moses and Elijah had so risen in spiritual consciousness that they were able to receive the word directing them in carrying out the work appointed to them.
In Horeb, Elijah, having learned by his previous experience that in the divine presence are safety and support, was lulled to a temporary sense of security and would have rested and sheltered awhile. But such was not the divine purpose. He was the great forerunner of the Messiah, whose utterance of Truth was to be restated in more recent times, through the revelation of Mary Baker Eddy, in Christian Science. His mission was to go forward in courageous opposition to the idolatry of the period, the worship of material gods. It is evident that his obedient arising to partake of the spiritual nourishment in the wilderness had prepared him to receive a fuller revelation. Faced with the trials of earthquake and fire, he heard the "still small voice" of Truth and returned to accomplish further work, including the anointing of Elisha, who was to be his successor.
