not how
much money we possess, but the wisdom we display in its expenditure. It is
not how many obstacles we meet in life, but the manner in which we meet
them. It is not the soul who has the fewest trials and difficulties that
prospers most, but the one who meets them with courage and confident
trust. Some are crushed down and made to despair by the very things that
stir others to renewed effort and courage.

What our trials are to us depends on what we are to them. This is well
illustrated in Elijah's experience. The king and queen were his bitter
enemies. He feared them and fled away and lived in hiding.(2) He was
afraid, lest he should be betrayed to them. He looked to his enemies; he
saw their power; he looked at himself and saw his own impotence. And so he
dwelt in fear. But the time came when God spoke to him, and as he looked
to God he began to see His greatness and his soul was lifted up with
courage. His own weakness and the might of his enemies faded away from his
gaze. He came out boldly and challenged the idolatrous party to a test of
strength. Single-handed and alone, we see him walk out before the
assembled multitude, superior to them all. There is no fear in his heart
now. He is not in the least daunted by his adversaries. He can look them
squarely in the eyes without shrinking. His heart is full of confidence.
He knows whom he is trusting. Throughout the long day while the priests of
Baal are calling so earnestly upon their powerless god, the prophet is the
calmest man of all the many witnesses. He is looking on God's side now,
and he is conscious master of the whole situation. He even grows ironical
toward his enemies.

The outcome does not surprize us, for we know the God he served. He was
victorious now, but let us look at him a few days later. Under a
juniper-tree in the wilderness sits a man, weary and dejected. He has fled
for his life, but now even his life has lost its value, and he says, "It
is enough: now, O Lord, take away my life." Elijah has fallen from the
summit of victory to the depths of despair. What occasioned this great
change? Things did not turn out as he had expected them to. Instead of the
queen being humbled by the display of God's power, she was only made
harder and her anger became more fierce. And when Elijah heard her threat
to kill him, he lost sight of God and saw only the anger of the queen and
his own weakness and danger; so his heart was filled with fear, and he
fled a