THE DISOBEDIENT PROPHET,

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CXLII.

JHE PIsoBEDIENT PROPHET,

  

eGJAS Jeroboam thankful to
i P| the prophet who prayed
God to make his hand
well again? Yes, Jero-
boam said to him, “ Come
home with me, and rest thyself, and
eat bread at my house, and I will
give thee money.” But the prophet
said, “ No, I must not go back with
thee. God commanded me not to
eat nor drink In this place, but to
go away directly by another road.”
So the prophet went away, and
Jeroboam returned to his house
alone.

There was an old man who lived
at Bethel, who was a prophet too,
but he was not a goodman. When
his sons came home that day, they
told him the wonderful story of the
prophet who came from Judah, and
prophesied about Jeroboam’s altar:
and of the king’s hand withering
when he tried to lay hold of the
man of God; and how it was cured
when the prophet prayed to God.
The old man wondered very much
to hear these things, and said, “I
should like to see this prophet, and
talk to him; where is he gone?”
The sons showed their father the
road the prophet had taken; and
then the old man saddled his ass,
and rode after him, to seek him.
Did he find him? Yes, at last he
saw the prophet sitting under an
oak tree. Then the old man went
to him, and asked, “ Art thou the
prophet, who came from Judah ?”
He said, “Yes, I am.” Then the
old man said, “Come home with

 

| not in us to teach us aright.

 

me, and eat bread.” But the pro-
phet answered, “No, I must not;
God commanded me to eat no bread
and drink no water here, and I can
not disobey Him.” But the cold man
said, “I am a prophet too; and an
angel appeared to me, and told me
to go to thee, and bring thee home,
and give thee bread to eat, and wa-
ter to drink.”

Was this the truth ? No, but the
prophet did not know it was a lie;
he believed all the old man said, and
went home with him to his house.
Was this right? No, it was disobe-
dience to God’s command. The
prophet ought to have asked God,
“Ts it true what this man tells me?
Shall I go with him?’ But the
prophet believed the old man more
than he believed God; and when he
was tempted to do wrong, he did
not ask help from God, and there-
fore, he began to sin against Him.

There are now many wicked peo-
ple who try to tempt us to sin; and
our own sinful hearts too often
make us wish to do wrong, and not
right. We all love sin better than
we love holiness, if God’s Spirit is
What
must we do when we are tempted?
We must pray God to help us to re-
sist sin; we must ask Him to keep
us in the right way; and pray every
day we live, “Lead us not into
temptation, but deliver us from
evil.” Matt. vi. 18.

The old man and the prophet
went home together, and sat down .
to eat and drink. And now pun-