July 26

“Yet I reserve seven thousand in Israel–all whose knees have not bowed down to Baal and all whose mouths have not kissed him.” — 1 Kgs 19:18

Things were not so bad as Elijah had thought. He supposed he was the only one left; but there were seven thousand more, scattered here and there through the land, who were still loyal to God. God’s cause in this world is never hopeless. He has others, where we think we are the only one.

There is an experience of Luther’s which is suggestive: “At one time,” he says, “I was sorely vexed and tried by my own sinfulness, by the wickedness of the world, and by the dangers that beset the church.”

One morning I saw my wife dressed in mourning. Surprised, I asked her who had died.

‘Do you not know?’ she replied; ‘GOD is dead.’

‘How can you talk such nonsense?’ I said. ‘How can God die?’

‘Is that really true?’ she asked.

‘Of course,’ I said, not perceiving her aim. ‘How can you doubt it?’

‘Yet,’ she said, ‘though you do not doubt that–yet you are so helpless and discouraged.’