1 Kings 19

The Letter “I”

I, even I only. 1 Kings 19:10.

What is your favorite letter of the alphabet? Most of us have a special liking for one letter or another. Some of us like “W” because it is a pretty letter, or “T” because it is an easy letter to write, or “Q” because it is such an unusual letter, or “X” because it stands for a kiss. Or we have a special weakness for our own initials whatever they may be. We are so fond of them that we scribble them on every available space and carve them on every possible piece of wood. We even go the length of cutting them out in the grass, or writing them in sand or snow.

Now there's not much harm in all that, so long as we take care not to decorate other people's property with our initials; and yet there is a hint of danger in being too fond of your own initials. Shall I tell you why? Because the boy or girl who is always admiring his or her special initials is really adoring the letter “I.” And to adore the letter “I” is a very dangerous thing indeed.

Did you ever notice how often some people use the letter “I”? If you just listen and count you will find an “I” at the beginning of nearly every sentence they utter. Once I remember reading the letter of the wife of a very clever and a very famous man. He was, like all great men, very simple-hearted and very humble-minded, but his wife, who was neither clever nor famous, was quite the reverse, and so in the three and a half pages of that short letter how many “I”s do you think she had? Forty! That was a record, wasn't it?

In today's story you find a great prophet using the letter “I” more often than he should. “I, even I only,” said he, and he said it twice. Why did Elijah use the letter “I” too often? He used it too often because he was in despair, and his spirits were as low as they possibly could be. It was the result of the terrible strain he had gone through when he stood alone on Mount Carmel and called upon God to show Himself God before all Israel.

You remember the story how God answered Elijah's prayer by sending down fire to consume the sacrifice, and how the eight hundred and fifty priests of Baal were slain as a consequence. You would have expected Elijah to be triumphant, wouldn't you? Yes, but Elijah was an “up and down” sort of man, and instead of being triumphant he got very depressed, and saw things black, and said to God, “What is the use of all that happened on Mount Carmel? The people of Israel don't really care. They haven't given up worshipping Baal. There is nobody but me left in all Israel to worship Thee.”

Well God told Elijah both by word and by deed that he was talking very foolishly, and He told him that, so far from his being the only person to worship God in all Israel, there were seven thousand others who had never bowed the knee to Baal, seven thousand besides himself true to Jehovah.

Now why we are too fond of the letter “I” is not usually because we are, like Elijah, in low spirits, so that our self suddenly becomes very important to us. It is usually because we think ourselves very important all the time. We can't look at the world and the people in it because we are continually gazing at our own person, and it is filling up the whole of the picture.

A certain well-known philosopher told of himself that when he was quite a little child his father noticed that as he was sitting quietly by the fireside he suddenly tittered. “Herbert,” said his father, “what are you laughing at?” “I was thinking,” replied Herbert, “how it would have been if there had been nothing besides myself."

That man began to think of himself and forget others when he was a tiny fellow, and the fault grew till, in his old age, life became a weariness and a misery because he could not think of anybody but himself. That was what too great fondness of the letter “I” did for Herbert Spencer. And it not only destroyed his happiness, it destroyed the value of his work; for he wrote the story of his own life and it was written also by other people, and when the world got to know the conceit and self-importance of the man, they set a much lower value on his books.

Boys and girls, the next time you are tempted to be selfish, or greedy, or boasting, or important, catch yourself up. Change the “I” into “they.” Then instead of saying “ I must come first!” you will find yourself saying “They must come first!” instead of “I'm going to have the sugariest cakes!” “They are going to have the sugariest cakes!” instead of “I'm somebody and they are nobody!” “They are somebody and I am nobody.”

And practice what you say. Learn to think of yourself second and other people first. It will be a hard task for some of you, but if you learn it thoroughly it will be the grandest lesson you ever mastered in your life.

And I'll tell you what will help you if you find the learning specially difficult remembering Jesus Christ, remembering how He said, “Learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart.”

If the Son of God was ready to take the lowest place, surely we should be proud and glad and eager to follow in His steps.