IDOLATRY AND DEFEAT. 247

Grandfather. He ought to have asked direction from
God. He had been favoured with two wonderful vic-
tories, yet he never returned thanks for them, nor sought
to know what the Lord would next have him to do. <A
prophet was sent to reprove him, and he proceeded in this
manner. He commanded his neighbour, in the name
of the Lord, to smite him. The man refused, and the
prophet said, “ Because thou hast not obeyed the voice
of the Lord, behold, as soon as thou art departed from
me, a lion shall slay thee.” It happened as the prophet
had said: the man was killed by a lion. By the punish-
ment which he met with we are taught to give strict
obedience to the commands of God.

Marianne. But, grandfather, I do not understand why
the prophet wished him to smite him. He surely did
not do very wrong in refusing to do that.

Grandfather. When he knew that the contmand tame
from God, he certainly did wrong in refusing to obey it ;
but you will understand better the prophet’s motives
when you hear the rest of the story. The next man whom
he asked to smite him was not so unwilling. He struck
him so violently that he wounded him. The prophet
bound up his head, and put ashes on his face, and waited
by the wayside till the king was coming past. When
he saw Ahab, he cried to him in these words, “ Thy
servant went out into the midst of the battle, and be-
hold a man turned aside, and brought a man unto me,
and said, ‘ Keep this man; if by any means he be
missing, then shall thy life be for his life, or else thou