itrriK

tU^CErVERVTj^r
YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

THE LIBRARY OF THE
DIVINITY SCHOOL

PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS

PROPHETIC IDEAS
AND IDEALS

SERIES OF SHORT STUDIES IN THE
PROPHETIC LITERATURE OF THE
HEBREW PEOPLE

W^G. JORDAN, B.A., D.D.,
PROFESSOR OF HEBREW AND OLD TESTAMENT LITERATURE
IN QUEEN'S UNIVERSITY, KINGSTON, CANADA

Chicago New York Toronto
FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY
London and Edinburgh
1902

COPYRIGHT, ig

02,

BY FLEMING

H.

REVELL COMPANY

October

CHICAGO: 63 WASHINGTON STREET
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CONTENTS

Page.
I. Introduction. Prophetic Literature and
Preaching  7
II. The Prophet's Defence  vj
(Amos.)
III. The Prophet's Comprehensive Word —
Mercy  29
(Hosea vi. 6.)
IV. The Twofold Sympathy of a True Pro
phet  45
(Micah i. 1-9.)
V. The Prophet's Call or the Vision of
the King  57
(Isaiah vi.)
VI. The Prophet's View of Faith  71
(Isaiah vii. 9, xxvii. 16.)
VII. The Prophet as Statesman  83
(Isaiah vii., xxviii., xxx.)
VIII. Prophetic Fellowship or Unity and
Individuality  97
(Amos, Hosea, Isaiah and Micah.)
IX. The Prophet as Disciple  111
(Zephaniah.)
X. The Prophet of Vengeance  121
(Nahum.)
XI. The Prophet's Questionings  131
(Habakkuk.)
XII. The Prophet's Presentation of God's
Plea  141
(Micah vi. 1-9.)
XIII. The Prophet's Kingly Ideal  155
(Micah v. 2-4, Isaiah xi. 1-9.)

CONTENTS Page.
XIV. The Prophet as a Failure  163
(Jeremiah xviii. 18-23.)
XV. Aspects of a Prophet's Life  179
(Jeremiah.)
XVI. The Prophet as Priest  193
(Ezekiel.)
XVII. The Prophet's Parable  211
(Isaiah v., xxviii. 23-29, Ezek. xv.)
XVIII. The Prophet's Message of Consolation. . 223
j (Isaiah xl.)
*XIX. The Prophet a Preacher to His Own
Age  233
(Isaiah i., xl.)
XX. The Prophet's National Ideal  243
(Isaiah xii.)
XXI. The Prophetic Missionary Idea  253
(Isaiah ii. 1-4, xiii. 1-4, Micah iv, 1-4.)
XXII. The Prophetic View of Suffering. ...... 265
(Isaiah liii.)
XXIII. The Prophet as Church Builder  277
(Haggai i., Ezra iii.)
XXIV. The Prophet's Promise of Peace; or,
The City Without a Wall  289
(Zech. ii.)
XXV. The Prophet and Social Problems  301
(Malachi.)
XXVI. The Prophet's Protest Against Small-
ness  313
(Jonah.)
XXVII. The Prophet of Judaism  327
(Joel.)
XXVIII. The Prophet's Confidence; or, The
Changing Form and the Eternal Life 337
(Haggai ii. 6, Hebrews xii. 27.)
XXIX. Conclusion. The Ancient Prophet and
the Modern Preacher  353

PREFACE.
The present volume claims to be considered as a
series of suggestions, not as a complete system of
prophetic theology, or even as an outline of such a
system. The chief aim throughout is expository
rather than critical or apologetic. An attempt has
been made to give specimens of popular exposi
tions based upon the most recent study, but as free
as possible from technical discussion. Hence the
variety in the form of the chapters. In accordance
with this plan, it may be one idea, one aspect of a
great prophecy that is briefly presented (xiii, xxii),
the life and ministry of a great prophet that is
sketched (xiv), the contents of one small book may
be paraphrased (xxv), or the leading thought of
another investigated (xxvi). The arrangement of
the chapters will suggest to the student the author's
views concerning the course of Israelitish history
and the development of Hebrew theology; this, of
course, could not be formally presented or fully dis
cussed. But it is hoped that there is sufficient unity
in the midst of all this diversity to show that the
various themes represent closely related parts of
one great whole, incidents in one of the most re
markable spiritual movements. The prophetic
movement is one of the most important lines of the
great Revelation and through the reverent study of
it we come to a larger knowledge of God and man.

PREFACE.
The form "Jehovah" has been used throughout
to represent the Sacred Name instead of "the Lord"
of the English versions ; where "Lord God" occurs
in the English translation it is therefore replaced by
"Lord Jehovah". This seemed the only course open
in a book which being meant for the ordinary
reader was yet to be kept as near as possible to the
Hebrew original. The word "Lord" either in
Greek or English cannot in this case be regarded
as a correct translation or a satisfactory substitute,
and its use gives us a general and somewhat con
ventional term instead of a name that carries with it
the powers of distinct personality and the influence
of glorious memories and definite historical associa
tions. The author desires to acknowledge the kindness
of his friend, the Rev. Prof. J. E. MacFadyen,
M. A., of Knox College, Toronto, for his assistance
in reading the proofs and for valuable suggestions
given while the volume was passing through the
press.
W. G. J.

INTRODUCTION— PROPHETIC LITERA
TURE AND PREACHING

"The Old Testament has yet a message, an important
message for mankind. Were it better understood and ob
served, our politics would be cleaner, public opinion purer,
and our statesmen more patriotic than we find them." —
Extract from a letter to the author, on the occasion of his
appointment to the professorship, by the late Rev. Dr. J.
Robertson, Superintendent of Home Missions in the North
west of Canada.
"He who does not know how to transfer himself into
spheres of ideas, beliefs, and customs different from those
where he has chanced to be born, lives only an imperfect
life, lost in the ocean of the progressive, manifold, bound
less life of humanity." — Lamennais.

CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTION— PROPHETIC LITERA
TURE AND PREACHING.
The title of this volume, "Prophetic Ideas and
Ideals," indicates with a sufficient approach to ac
curacy its character and scope. The prophets dealt
with are those who have left to after ages specimens
of their preaching from which we can form a real,
though perhaps in some cases an imperfect, concep
tion of their place in history, and their outlook upon
life. The period of their ministry, roughly speak
ing, may be said to cover a space of three centuries,
beginning at the middle of the eighth century, B. C.
These three centuries form a most important section
of the history of the Israelitish people ; the period is
politically a time of disaster and decline, but out of
national division and distress there come, by the
good providence of God, and the faithfulness of
heroic men, religious results of rich significance and
far-reaching importance. It is not proposed to
weave into a system of theology the prophetic con
tribution to this great movement, but rather to at
tempt the more modest task of presenting a series of
types which will illustrate at the same time the unity
of the prophetic spirit and the diversity of its mani
festations. The constituency that the author has in
7

8 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
view consists of theological students, youthful min
isters and intelligent laymen, who take an interest
in the history of their own religion. Many of these
chapters have, in substance, been spoken to average
audiences, and within that small circle have proved
that the lives and words of those distant men may
form the theme of helpful discourse to men of to
day. "Ideas" means that the prophets were think
ers, honestly facing facts and consistently applying
God-given principles; "ideals," that they were men
of faith, that is, men who, though sharing the com
mon human limitation of having to present eternal
truths in the forms of a particular age, were yet con
vinced that changes of form would not destroy the
realities of religion which gave them inspiration and
strength. It is a part of the business of the Chris
tian preacher to translate these ideas and ideals into
the thought and language of the twentieth century,
and so to bring them to bear effectively upon pres
ent life.
The main qualifications that the present writer
can claim for dealing with this important subject
are, first, his interest in the work of the ancient
prophets, and, second, his respect for the vocation
and ministry of the modern preacher. "Every scribe
who hath been made a disciple to the kingdom of
heaven is like unto a man that is a householder,
which bringeth forth out of his treasure things new
and old." The only way in which the modern
preacher can hope to fulfil this description is by hav
ing a real fellowship with the great souls of the past,
as well as a living faith in God and a sympathetic

INTRODUCTION 9
comprehension of present needs. It may, of course,
be urged that this is difficult ; that the times of these
men are so distant and their lives so remote from
ours ; that the words they have left are so scattered
and broken, and hence not without painful toil can
we even in an imperfect fashion reconstruct their
history and get at their point of view. That is true
but is there any good work that is not difficult? If
the man of science displays his devotion to truth in
earnest efforts to reconstruct earlier forms of life,
if in other spheres the student of literature and art
is content painfully to spell out the meaning of an
ancient author, or seeks sympathetically to interpret
the symbolism of a great painter, surely the preacher
may be expected to give some loving care to those
whom he claims as his spiritual ancestors. He has
many helps at the present day, but the "helps" of the
right kind are precisely those which demand most
severe and conscientious work from himself. As a
matter of fact, if the divorce between religion and
knowledge is not to become real and deep, the min
ister must be content to accept the fate of the effec
tive workers in any noble profession — that is, he
must work carefully through processes which can
not be seen by the mass of people to whom his results
are presented. Study must be the joy of his silent
hours, in order that his speech may do justice to his
deepest life and be helpful to his fellow-men. This
is what we expect from the doctor or the artist, and
why should the minister be free from the hard uni
versal law ? The efficient physician must keep him
self familiar with many sciences, but those who do

io PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
their work most thoroughly bring the least sugges
tion of all this severe discipline when they come with
a sympathetic smile into the sick room. The artist
must study anatomy, but we do not wish him to
decorate our walls with grim skeletons ; as a rule, his
figures are pictures of buoyant health, clothed in the
most graceful drapery. Neither is the preacher
expected to give lectures on history, to discuss
"theories of criticism," or methods of exegesis, but
rather to do all that preliminary work so thoroughly
that his exposition shall bring the noblest spirit of
that past to meet the questioning of the present.
This process cannot be made easy, but so far as we
can see it is the only way in which we can show real
reverence to men who in their own day were not given
to choosing short methods and easy paths. Building
monuments to the prophets and forsaking their spirit
is a manner of worship which ought by this time to
have fallen into discredit among intelligent men. To
praise the Scriptures, as possessing the supreme
revelation, involves the duty of endeavouring to ap
propriate the message in its varied forms. In this we
have the example of the most faithful and effective
teachers in all ages.
This effort to get back to the actual life of men to
whom we owe so much can only be partially suc
cessful; but the effort itself is both a religious
exercise and a means of culture. It is not a mere
literary study ; such study is only a means to an im
portant end. Farther, it is far from being an un
practical thing, unless for us practical means shal
low. What is more living, and in the best sense,

INTRODUCTION 1 1
practical than this very effort to break through the
barriers of our local limitations and personal preju
dices, that we may hold sweet communion with a
noble soul of another time or race or creed? The
minister whose business is to understand and sympa
thize with all classes and conditions of men may thus
find on the intellectual side of his life a real prepara
tion for those duties which lay the largest strain
upon his heart.
At the present day we are apt to pride ourselves
upon being "modern," but some who are least mod
ern in spirit are found among those who make
this their loudest boast. If the latest century
had any distinctive message, if science and the
ology have united to emphasize any central truth,
it is this, that we are members one of another,
and the present has grown out of all the past. The
obvious lesson, then, is that to understand ourselves
we must know the past. This is a truth now recog
nized in every sphere of science, and it has a deep
meaning for the student of religion who desires to
realize the glory of his great heritage.
It is not difficult to prove that the Hebrew pro
phets have a message for our time, but more than
any definite message is the spirit that they quicken
in the devout student and the atmosphere of fearless
faith and courageous hopefulness that they kindle
about his life. But for the purpose of making this
statement more specific two points may here be
briefly noted. The message of the prophets was
largely a national or social one ; individual piety is
implied and the problems of the personal life begin

12 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
to emerge ; but in the main their address was to the
community. The preacher who will try to discover
for himself what that message actually was, and will
seek to disentangle its essential spirit from the tem
porary form, thereby prepares himself for dealing
with social questions in a sober spirit ; he will learn
to combine boldness with wisdom, and to express in
powerful, appropriate forms the passion for right
eousness. The prophets emphasize the unity of life. In our
day there is a tendency to range morality and phil
anthropy with their allied forms of intellectual activ
ity and beneficent ministry outside of religion, and
if this process goes on religion will be emptied of all
content and shrivel up into a narrow, barren eccles-
iasticism, the very thing that the great prophets re
fused to recognize as religion. To them the honesty
and purity, the kindness and loyalty for which they
fought were of the essence of religion, its living
spirit and noblest expression. Our life is more com
plex, it is split up into divisions and compartments
of which they in their simpler days never dreamed ;
but good men still hunger for unity. We wish to
know that God is everywhere, and that God is all in
all. Religion for us must embrace our philosophy
and politics, our worship and work, our personal
aims and social duties. Because our Lord Jesus
Christ represents for us the divine and human, the
mystic communion and practial endeavour, devotion
to truth and the pursuit of duty, sonship towards
God and brotherhood towards men; because He
brings the religion of the spirit, He is the

INTRODUCTION 13
interpretation and fulfilment of the prophets'
message, and in the light of His life we
can render to them not a slavish, mechan
ical homage, but a sympathetic devotion which
is both intelligent and free; then the inspira
tion of the prophets will attest itself to both head
and heart, and find new expression as well as more
faithful interpretation.

THE PROPHET'S DEFENCE: A MEMORA
BLE CONTROVERSY

"There is a note of austerity in the terms in which Amos
speaks. It is true, the message which he bears is a hard
one; but his younger contemporary, Hosea, had substan
tially the same message to bring; and yet there is a marked
difference in the tone in which he delivers it." * * *
"With Amos, God is the God of righteousness; he himself
is the apostle of righteousness; he is the preacher whose
moral nature is moved by the spectacle of outraged right,
but who does not unbend in affection or sympathy; on the
contrary, he announces Israel's doom with the austere
severity of the judge." — Dr. S. R. Driver, "Amos and Joel,"
page 3.

THE PROPHET'S DEFENCE: A MEMORA
BLE CONTROVERSY. (amos vii.)
The prophet stands always on the defensive in a
world that he is driven to denounce and condemn;
but the tragic thing in the situation is that those who
reject his message cannot sympathize with his de
fence. Amos and Amaziah represent two different
worlds, worlds that are always in conflict, and that
can never understand each other. The courtier, the
representative of luxury, fashion and convenience,
stands now face to face with a stern, strong man,
who is a type of the simplicity of religion and the
supremacy of conscience. How can these men, stand
ing at such extreme points, give the one to the other
a sympathetic interpretation and fair judgment?
Here the prophet and the priest stand in sharp con
tradiction with their different views of life and an
tagonistic conceptions of religion. In a certain sense
Amos may be said to understand Amaziah, for he
measures him, condemns him, and announces his
doom. But though this Amaziah is, no doubt, a thin,
shallow specimen of his class, it is possible there is
17

1 8 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
some element in the priest and his sanctuary that
the prophet of the wilderness cannot fully under
stand and interpret. On the other hand, Amaziah
thinks that he understands Amos. At the first
glance he takes him for one of the common herd
of "prophets"; a man who for a morsel of bread
seeks to create a sensation, or who by flattery will
win the applause of the people. When the indig
nant herdsman repudiated the insinuation with
such tremendous vigour he must have been
quickly convinced of his mistake. Amaziah, with
his plea of convenience, passes into silence and
confusion ; but Amos remains a clear sign, an ever
lasting witness. A NEW EPOCH.
In these days we are taught not to make our dis
tinctions too deep, our contrasts too abrupt. The
warning is needed, and yet there are distinctions
which must-be made, and contrasts that deserve em
phasise (ij The nation is now about to come into
contact with great world-empires, a contact that
continued through all the subsequent history, with
its Assyrian, Babylonian, Persian, Greek and Roman
periods^anth influenced largely its politics and reli
gion. /^2j^Here is a new form of literary activity;
the writing down of sermons, after their delivery, as
¦^savcred deposit of truth, and an appeal to the future.
(3/ Behind this new literature there lies a new kind
"01 prophet, and a higher form of prophecy. In
Amos, the prophet appears as purely and simply a
teacher of religion and a defender of righteousness.
He has a clear idea of his vocation ; prophecy is not

THE PROPHET'S DEFENCE. 19
with him a business or profession; he is a special
witness with a definite message. All that we know
of Amos is written in this short book ; and his teach
ing stands there open to all. Both the man and the
teaching are marked by strength and originality ; we
can discern the characteristics of a great personality
who hears the voice of God and looks upon the world
with the eye of faith.
Amos belongs to those who are called pre-em
inently "the prophets," and yet he rejects the title
(vii. 14). As a matter of fact, there had been bands
of enthusiasts, and guilds of prophets that had
fanned the flame of patriotism and in some measure
kept alive the fire of religion ; but around these or
ganizations much greed and impurity had gathered,
and this man, rejoicing in the reality of his call,
seems to have a stern satisfaction in disassociating
himself from them. Yet this is not the whole story ;
for besides the efforts of noble men, like Samuel and
Elijah, there had been also a not unworthy attempt
to continue in many ways the great work of Moses.
Amos practically says that the responsibility of the
nation is increased by the fact that God had never
left himself without living witnesses (ii. 11). We
have then to describe Amos as a "layman," who re
ceives as his vocation the highest, the essential fea
ture of the prophetic work, that is the call to preach
pure religious truth. He did not belong to an organ
ized school, he did not take part in actual political
intrigue, he was not a public legislator, or a private
professional adviser ; he was simply an inspired man
in the purest sense. He represents the ideal law, he

20 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
demands loyalty towards God and righteousness
among men.
This cannot have been an absolutely new thought
in Israel ; indeed, we know it was not ; earlier stories
and songs show that the lofty teaching of the He
brew religion had taken deep root, though it
appeared in simpler forms. But it gains here
a new emphasis, a deeper meaning and a
wider range. The prophet did not claim to
be a revolutionist, making a clean sweep
and a new beginning. He made a solemn ap
peal to the past. These two things we learn clearly
from the lives of the prophets : First, that not by
scepticism is superstition to be fought and con
quered, but only by the presentation of positive truth,
which quickens a nobler faith. And, second, that
the true conservatism is progressive; the only way
really to preserve the great message given in the past
is by grasping the essential principles that are at the
heart of it, and giving them new expression to meet
changed conditions and fresh needs. The prophets
were not lawyers interpreting a formal law that had
reached a final form, but they were in a high sense
interpreters, interpreters of a living past, in which
God's choice and guidance of the nation had been
abundantly proved in peace and war. The prophets
preserve the purity and strength of the older faith
not merely by denouncing shallow ritualism, or ridi
culing foreign fashions and selfish luxuries. This
they do with a fierceness and scorn that stand in
strong contrast to our fastidious notions of polite
preaching (iii. 9-15; iv. 1-3, etc.). But this, while

THE PROPHET'S DEFENCE. 21
much needed in their day, is only the negative part
of their teaching; its real power consists in the
positive presentation of loftier thoughts of God and
nobler conceptions of religion.
THE PROPHET'S DEFENCE.
This great task brings the prophet into conflict
with popular notions, with vested interests in church
and state, and with such professional prophets as are
content to represent the average opinion. How then
shall a man stand up against a bitter and universal
cpposition and meet the charge that his new gospel is^
simply the product of his self-conceit? The answer
is that God has spoken to him in solitude, God's pur
pose has been revealed to him, and he must speak.
The doom is coming ; the prophet has seen it in vis
ion and prayed against it, but it cannot be completely
warded off; the prophet must herald it, and bid the
nation prepare to meet its God in judgment. This
is the prophet's own explanation of his ministry and
defence of his message. To us it is justified by the
character of the man and the truth of his teaching.
The God-sent vision justifies itself by its contents
and its effect upon life. The claim of this man to be
inspired by God cannot be settled by any small argu
ments, though the reasonableness of it may be much
more apparent to us than it could be to his contem
poraries. To those who believe that a living, intelli
gent God rules the world, and has given a real revel
ation of Himself in the life of this favoured people,
the message attests itself. For us it is better to ap
preciate and appropriate it than to argue about it:

22 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
the call to set conscience before convention and re
ligion above ritual is by no means out of date.
"Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs ;
For I will not hear the melody of thy viols.
But let judgment run down as waters,
And righteousness as a mighty stream." (v. 23, 24.)
The central thought of Amos is that the God who
has called him to speak is a being who, by his very
nature, pjaces-Figfeteotisness in, the supreme place.
Though we cannot say that the prophet is a "theo
logian" in the sense of working out a philosophic
system, or even of presenting his convictions in a
systematic manner, yet we can maintain that he is a
consistent thinker and that there is a living relation
ship between the various parts of his message.
What then does the righteousness of God mean to
him? ( 1 ) That righteousness is the purpose of the na
tion's calling ; iniquity is not to be excused or slurred
over because committed by "the chosen people";
rather the blessings received, increase the guilt of
those who have : misunderstood their "meaning.
"You only have I known of all the families of the
earth ;
Therefore I will visit upon you all your iniqui
ties."
This means a reversal of popular watchwords.
The people have been fond of talking about "the

THE PROPHET'S DEFENCE. 23
day of Jehovah" and "Jehovah of Hosts." Je
hovah is a partner in a small concern; they sup
ply Him with sanctuaries and sacrifices, He will
give them prosperity and victories. "The day
of Jehovah" is coming, which means confu
sion to their enemies and a glorious time
for themselves. The prophet does not throw
aside the old words ; they are too good to be
discarded. Besides, real originality does not consist
so much in inventing new words as in breathing
new spirit into the old phrases and making them
tlirill with new life. Sometimes words' are so stained
with impure associations, or have so completely de
generated into cant, that they must be flung con
temptuously away. Probably many such phrases
were cast aside by noble men in Israel. Here, how
ever, the prophet infuses new and terrible meaning
into phrases that were spoken glibly. Yes, he says,
"the day of Jehovah" is near, but it will not be the
bright, noisy festival that you are looking for, but
something quite different.
"To what end is it for you ?
The day of Jehovah is darkness and not light."
(v. 18.)
"Jehovah of hosts" is not a mere leader or
patron of the hosts of Israel; He has other hosts
in heaven and on earth. These are all subservient
to His will and carry out His purpose"; that purpose
can be expressed in one word, righteousnes
(2) Hence, let the people learrrtnatreligion is
not luxurious ritual, but real goodness. The wor-

24 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
ship that they offered was in name given to Jehovah,
but it was utterly unworthy of His nature ; it was fit
only for some, paltry idol and not for the Lord of
heaven and earth. When a man of the character of
Amos says "Seek good" he cannot mean merely the
pleasant or the useful. His word has not the flexi
bility and fulness of the word "mercy" used by
Hosea ; but when we think of the man behind it, and
his stern loyalty to God, it must mean the real, the
true ; or, in other words, the people must face the
real facts of life and accept the revelation that comes
to the sincere seeker after God. From this point of
view it would be better to have no ritual at all than
to have sanctuaries that were scenes of wicked de
bauchery. Religion might live in mystic communion
with God and display itself in honest dealings. If,
however, a church and a ritual are necessary they
must be something very different from this impure
worship by which God is insulted and man de
graded. (3) Inhumanity and injustice is the worst form of
irreligion ; and considerations of humanity are not to
be limited by any barriers of nation or sect. ( Chap.
i.) To break these laws of humanity is to outrage
the God of heaven. God desires brotherhood among
men. Amos is not an emotional man; there is no
touch of tenderness in his proclamation of the law.
He is not subtle or mystical ; there is a grand sim
plicity about his mind and character, and a definite-
ness about his teaching that shows the limits of the
man as well as the glory of his mission. But even
when we recognize his hardness and sharpness, we

THE PROPHET'S DEFENCE. 25
marvel at his clear vision, his deep conviction, his
powerful penetration of certain elementary truths
and facts of religion that need to be constantly re
stated./ And nowhere is this more striking than in
the splendid humanitarian teaching of his first chap
ter. With him this is no effeminate sentiment or
mechanical philanthropy or political party cry ; it is
his simple, stern fashion of setting forth the truth
that righteousness and kindness are of the essence
of religion ; that neither must be forgotten, and that /
they must not be divorced from each other. /
(4) These things are a prophecy ; they went direct
to the heart of the particular problem of the age,
and they contain a message for later times. By their
strength and by their limitation they tell of great
things to come. Unless the world comes to a stand
still and God sends no more men of this or similar
spirit, out of the principles here laid down a larger
thought of God and a broader view of religion must
grow. Such principles cannot be left where this
prophet leaves them, they mean more than he has
perceived, they are prophetic in the deepest sense.
By life more than logic they have come in this form,
and in the future they shall be advanced both by
reason and experience.
Upon this foundation a nobler kingdom must be
built in which the claims of God and the needs of
men shall come to fuller recognition. When Amos
heard a voice calling him from the flock to speak
these noble words it was the voice of ONE who
will not be satisfied until He has given to man a more
perfect vision of Himself. He is patient and to each

26 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
generation gives a new word and guides the men
,who are seeking to spell out His meaning, until "the
fulness of times," when the Son of man shall link
their different words into a new and perfect story of
Love.

THE PROPHET'S COMPREHENSIVE
WORD— MERCY.

"The words of Amos sound like a voice from outside,
pealing with the thunder of God's anger and righteous
indignation against wrongs and injuries that Amos himself
does not feel bound up with. The characteristic of Hosea's
book is that the burden of Israel's guilt lies weighty on his
soul; he wails, and mourns and laments, and repents with
that sinful people. He cannot, without tears in his eyes,
contemplate the glorious opportunities that have been flung
away. He almost expresses the vicarious involvement in
their guilt and carrying of their sorrows. That is the
note which gives its exquisite music of pathos and beauty
to Hosea's prophecy of the coming downfall of his own
land and of his own people." — The late Professor W. G.
Elmslie, D. D., Expository Lectures and Sermons, page 62.

CHAPTER III.
THE PROPHET'S COMPREHENSIVE
WORD— MERCY.
RELIGION RATHER THAN RITUAL.
(Hosea vi. 6.)
Our Lord has shown us that these words are
worthy of our most careful consideration. He gath
ered up into His great life the highest and holiest
aspirations of the ancient prophets; he was the
greatest of prophets, and He met the prophet's fate
because the Church of His time had not learned the
real meaning of this deep saying. That thought
should give us pause and lead us to ask whether we
have entered into the heart of its mystery. On at
least two occasions Jesus Christ used these words
in meeting the bitter attacks of fanatical opponents.
When He had ignored their hard, selfish distinctions,
which magnified convention and caste at the expense
of religion, the Pharisees uttered a complaint, and
would have made it a crime, that He sat down at the
table, in a brotherly spirit, with those whom they
classed as "publicans and sinners." His reply was
gentle but forceful, and in their view it was, no
2q

30 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
doubt, exceedingly presumptuous. It amounted to
this : "You misunderstand my mission ; I am not a
Pharisee, always seeking to guard my own dignity,
but a physician whose business is to heal the sick
and minister to the sorrowful. But you who profess
to have reached finality in your knowledge of truth
and your observance of the law, go learn the mean
ing of this great word, 'I will have mercy and not
sacrifice' ; do not lose yourselves in petty squabbles,
but ponder it in the light of our nation's history and
in the presence of your God." (Matt. ix. 11-13.)
When His disciples had broken one of the numer
ous minute regulations with which the Pharisees had
fenced and burdened the Sabbath, our Lord made a
great claim for Himself as the Son of man, and laid
down the principle that the Sabbath was made for
man, to be an inspiring blessing, not a crushing bur
den. Then he added, "If ye had known the mean
ing of this, 'I will have mercy and not sacrifice,' ye
would not have condemned the guiltless." (Matt.
xii. 7.) To infringe their microscopic etiquette was
not sin, and even if it must be considered an offence,
it was a small thing compared with the carping spirit
which delights to say unjust cruel things, in the
name of religion. It is a sad thing when, under pre
tense of great zeal for the maintenance of God's law,
men are sundering the sacred spiritual bonds which
should bind them to God and man. If this were
merely one incident in distant history there would
be no need to dwell upon it, but it is still a present
danger. Our Lord's use of this passage shows how His

THE PROPHET'S WORD— MERCY 31
mind was saturated with the prophetic teaching, how
He seized always the essential principles and used
them effectively in the controversies that were forced
upon Him. Thus in the highest sense he fulfilled pro
phecy, laying hold of the eternal element, lifting it to
a loftier height and giving it a wider range. To us
His word is more authoritative than that of the
greatest prophet, but the critics of that day did not
regard Him with any reverence ; to them that word
was the daring speech of a youthful self-appointed
teacher, a religious adventurer, a man destitute of
theological education and ecclesiastical prestige. He
did not use prophecy as a mere weapon of contro
versy, He was not simply sheltering Himself behind
an authority which His opponents must recognize;
His own life had been nourished at this source, He
reverenced the revelation given in the past, He knew
that it was His great mission to realize it, and make
it a heritage for all men. The Pharisees also pro
fessed great reverence for prophets — that is, pro
phets who had been long dead ; they really thought
that they would be glad to meet an Isaiah or
a Jeremiah, but in actual life they had small faculty
for recognizing prophets. Jesus lived in spiritual
companionship with the men who had toiled and suf
fered for the nation's noblest life ; He looked calmly
forward to the prophet's reward, the cross ; and He
warned His disciples that the world was still the
same, that they must be prepared to suffer for their
loyalty to God : "If any man will be my disciple let
him take up his cross, daily, and follow me."

32 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
HOSEA.
This brings us back to the fact that the man who,
more than seven centuries before the coming of the
Saviour, uttered these striking words, was himself a
rejected prophet, "a man of sorrows and acquainted
with grief." He may be appropriately described as
"the prophet of love" and "the prophet of the broken
heart." The earlier prophets who spent their
strength in guiding social and political movements
are not those who bequeathed to us the undying ser
mons. The man who completely expresses and em
bodies himself in present movements does not create
the highest literature. The life of such a man may
be heroic and its story inspiring, but, as a rule, it is
not to this class that we owe the words that live and
burn through all the ages. The men who have given
us the noblest prophecies were men who brought a
deeper revelation of God, a loftier ideal of life, which
the mass of their fellow-men did not appreciate and
would not accept. Strange it seems that the deepest
things of life, human and divine, are revealed only to
our sorrow and simplicity. At times we think this
arrangement unjust, but in our better moments we
can say with our great Teacher, "Even so, Father,
for so it seemed good in thy sight." If good, then
also rational — that is, a law of life which harmon
izes with intelligence and love. This law is richly
illustrated in the life of Hosea; his sorrow was pri
vate and public, it concerned the small circle of his
own home, and the larger circle of the nation's life.
He sorrowed as a husband and as a patriot ; through
his sorrow he came to a deeper knowledge of God's

THE PROPHET'S WORD— MERCY 33
love towards His people ; out of this knowledge he
has given us a passionate prophecy; his utterances
may be broken and disconnected, but there is in them
a throbbing emotion, a pathetic tenderness, which
manifests the divine pity as a great redemptive
force. It is difficult sometimes to trace out clearly
the connection of his thought, or to discover the
exact reference of particular phrases ; but the spirit
of his ministry may be plainly discerned, and some
of his noblest sayings have passed into our religious
speech and song, so that he still pleads even with
those who have no time for specific study of his
book, saying, "Come, let us to the Lord our God
With contrite hearts return."
"THE LOST TEN TRIBES."
The fate of the Northern Kingdom of Israel re
minds us again that the race is not to the swift nor
the battle to the strong; or, in other words, in our
forecast of the future influence of a man or a peo
ple we must not judge by mere appearances. When,
after the death of Solomon, the national unity se
cured by David was lost, and the kingdom
broken into two parts, the Northern por
tion was larger and stronger. The King
dom of Israel, distinguished now from that of
Judah, set out upon an ambitious and appar
ently prosperous career; it could afford to despise
the brother in the South, and sometimes treated
him cruelly. For a while Israel had able kings and
pursued a successful policy; Jhis kingdom was the

34 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
scene of the labours of some of the most famous
heroic prophets, as Elijah and Elisha. All this,
however, was to come to a sad end, Hosea's heart
was burdened with the weight of the coming judg
ment, and the prophets Isaiah and Micah, who fol
lowed him, not only predicted the approaching doom,
but also lived to see it realized. In 722 B. C. Samaria
was destroyed and the nation that had known such
brilliant success was completely shattered. So far
as having any share in the abiding life, and higher
vocation of the true Israel, these people were lost.
Particular individuals were no doubt loyal to the
faith of their fathers and friendly to the Kingdom
of Judah. The literature of Northern Israel, much
of it of the highest quality, has in part been pre
served urjto this day and by God's providence handed
over, as a precious everlasting heritage to the Chris
tian Church ; but it has come to us because it was
first of all gathered together to be the Bible of the
later Jewish Church — that is, of that section of the
ancient Hebrew people who survived many shocks
of change, and were trained to a faith which made
them strong, separate and persistent.
There are people to-day busy seeking "the lost ten
tribes," but, alas, their quest is vain; we cannot
argue with that fanciful theory farther than to say
that seeing the people were not lost in any such
mechanical manner as is supposed that method of
seeking them is doomed to failure. This nation was
lost even as men are lost to-day — that is, swallowed
up in the great world's whirling tide, absorbed in
the great characterless throng. It is the fate of all
weak, characterless people to be swallowed up in

THE PROPHET'S WORD— MERCY 35
the great stream of life, and most of the Northern
Israelites shared that fate. They had persistently
rejected such noble teaching as this, and they were
driven out into the world before their faith was suf
ficiently distinct and their character had attained
the strength which could stand the strain of being
scattered among people whom they resembled too
closely. They refused to respond to prophetic in
fluences, they would not grow with their religion,
and a nation, like a man, must grow or die. If we
are asked then why a great part of the Hebrew race
failed of its high vocation, why the great number
of Northern Israelites were lost, we can truthfully
say that it was because they would not learn this
great lesson, "I will have mercy and not sacrifice.."
The race, however, survived and did its work in
spite of this and similar shocks, and God's word
proves its power and persistency even if it is in a
way that suggests that God is careful of the type
and careless of the single life. That problem we
cannot now touch, but this much is clear, the young
people of to-day to whom so much high instruction
and noble inspiration is available must use the sac
red gift on peril of being lost. The young man who
does not gain in the storm and stress of life by the
action of inward spiritual force, clear convictions
and strong character is lost, swallowed up in the
great heathen host that ever surges around the true
Church of God. THE PROPHET'S PROTEST.
The prophet's hope did not perish. With his pas
sionate sense of the Divine love he felt that God

36 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
must have a people — that loyal souls will be kept
through all shocks and storms ; so more by love than
logic he felt his way, and in his own manner reached
out after the great mystery concerning Christ and
His Church, and if he was not in a position to pro
claim the final truth — "God is spirit ; and they that
worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."
"For such doth the Father seek to be his worship
pers" (John iv: 23, 24.) — he hungered after it, and
prepared the way for it.
The prophet's complaint was not that the people
were irreligious but that their religion was not of
the right quality. They were full of zeal for re
ligion, they had many sanctuaries and a showy ritual,
their religious festivals were a great success. Priests
and prophets who received fat offerings and were
well paid for popular teaching thought that all was
well. They regarded Hosea as a man too much given
to melancholy views, a man driven mad, by much
sorrow. Did they not pay Jehovah His dues ? Would
not Jehovah fulfil His part of the contract and
strike a great blow ? Would He not defend His own
home and His own people against outside enemies
and foreign gods ? That was their argument. Many
a rousing sermon, many a popular speech was given
on that text. This foolish boasting drove the
prophet to despair because he was compelled to rec
ognize the sad fact that people did not really know
the God about whom they prated so glibly. What
does God care about sanctuaries and sacrifices ex
cept as means to reveal His true character and lift
men into communion with Himself? Amos went
boldly to the most fashionable sanctuary at Bethel

THE PROPHET'S WORD— MERCY 37
and declared the hollowness and helplessness of
such worship: "Prepare to meet your God, seek
God in simple goodness, not in vain pomp and fool
ish show." But Hosea's battle was longer, his
wrestling more severe and he found a word of
richer significance; his word suggests the love of
God, and the loyalty of man. Over against a re
ligion that was showy, sensuous and immoral he set
up his ideal of reverence and righteousness, of noble
character and consistent conduct.
THE GREAT WORD  MERCY.
This word "mercy" has a long history and a large
influence. In its various forms it is used of the
grace of God and the godliness of men. In later
days and in one of its forms, it was used to desig
nate a party "the godly ones" ; that is a dangerous
use for any noble word, it may then easily be de
graded by men who deal in watchwords overmuch.
It is however in itself a rich, sweet word, speaking
of kindness, love and loyalty. It is impossible to
translate such a word by any one word or phrase ; it
unites in itself many things which we to-day view
as belonging to different spheres. Though we have
these things in more highly developed forms we
must remem'ber that in the prophet's conception they
are really present in seed-form. To the prophet
life was one, all the world in which he moved was
God's world ; and his word "mercy" meant loyalty
to God in every part of human life. To us the
world is larger and life is more complex, but we
need a new synthesis, a bringing together again of
all spheres in the name of God ; they must all be

38 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
lifted up into the light of His love. We speak now
of politics, society, art, science, theology, religion,
morality, philanthropy, and there is a tendency to
regard these as so many separate compartments of
the great world or even as so many different worlds.
The form of our life is different, but we need the
spirit manifested by the ancient prophets to give it
unity and power. His word "mercy" may be said
to concern religion, morality or philanthropy, it has
to do with all because in his view these are only
different aspects of the same life. He met a religion
that was divorced from morality and philanthropy
and he refused to acknowledge that this was a re
ligion in any real sense. He refuses to be dazzled
by external splendour ; perhaps he was not altogether
deficient in the aesthetic faculty, he could, no doubt,
enjoy music and other pleasant accessories of wor
ship, but he declines to accept this as a substitute
for real spiritual life ; in the name of God he cries,
"I will have mercy, and not sacrifice."
He demands an intelligent trust in God's grace
instead of a blind reliance on material sacrifice.
Jehovah was the Redeemer of the nation; of Israel
it was originally said, "Out of Egypt have I called
my son." Sacrifices might have a real use as
symbols of the living bond between the God of
Israel and His people, but when they were regarded
in a coarse mechanical fashion as payment for His
protection they became harmful instead of helpful.
The prophet was bold enough to believe that re
ligion could exist without sacrifices, but he knew
that it could not exist without living faith in a
righteous God. The prophet's view of religion was

THE PROPHET'S WORD— MERCY 39
thoroughly spiritual, though his thought of God
may be simple and his, conception of the world lim
ited. The word mercy on one side then means loy
alty to God as the Father of the nation, the King
and Guide of His people. It involves a perception
of the fact that the divine blessings are not merely
abundant harvests, success in commerce and war,
that these may even become a curse, and that there
are other and higher ministries. The root of a real
religion is in the reverence which recognizes that
God must first of all be faithful to His own high
character, and that to respond to the stern demands
of love is the only worship which yields satisfaction
and strength.
The word demands a real morality. Perhaps
there were supporters of the popular religion who
regarded the prophets as "mere moralists," but in
so far as the phrase has any meaning it is not ap
plicable to these great preachers. They never
dreamed of such a thing as morality separated from
religion, they thought of noble conduct as the out
ward manifestation of real religion. The man who
is loyal to the God of the nation will respect the
rights of men. They did not oppose morality to
religion ; they emphasized the neglected side of the
religious life; they held that the religion which,
while abounding in festivals and ceremonies, failed
to produce political honour, civic righteousness and
social purity was by that very failure condemned, as
lacking true inspiration and real power. The thing
that distressed the prophet was that religion ap
peared to be popular and plentiful and yet for lack
of true religion the social fabric was falling to

40 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
pieces. Since that time theology has advanced to
deeper thoughts of the sacredness of the solitary in
dividual life, but in order for this to reach its true
expression we need to hold fast the truth that we
are not a mere collection of atoms, but a living
whole in whose varied life religion must find its
highest realization.
Hence the word "mercy" calls to a spirit of
brotherhood. Piety and patriotism must again be
brought into living harmony. Worldly prosperity
had ruined the national life in Israel, the old simple
ways had departed, and religion had not conquered
and moulded the new conditions. The tribal life had
given way, the old clan feeling had lost its power;
the rich were greedy and cruel; the poor were un
mercifully oppressed. The feeling among citizens
that as servants of one God they were helpers of
each other was weakened. So that the prophet
looking out upon the social disorder could say of
his brethren that in relation to each other they were
"more than kin and less than kind." By "mercy"
he did not mean that the rich should pity and pa
tronize the poor, but that all Israelites should stand
on the same plane of loyalty to God and each other,
that men should be esteemed for their manhood,
not for their money; and that the strong should
have a brotherly satisfaction in helping the weak.
It needed the life of Jesus to do justice to this
great word, to incarnate it in lowly lovely forms. He
has gathered it up into Himself that He may breathe
it into our spirits ; in Him reverence for God and
"the enthusiasm of humanity," worship and moral
ity, religion and philanthropy, the deep mystic life

THE PROPHET'S WORD— MERCY 41
and the true social service are beautifully blended
and stand forth forever as the aim and hope of the
Church.

THE TWOFOLD SYMPATHY OF THE
TRUE PROPHET.

"Woe unto you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites ! for ye
tithe mint and anise and cummin, and have left undone
the weightier matters of the law, judgment and mercy and
faith ; but these ye ought to have done, and not to have left
the other undone.''
"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killeth the prophets and
stoneth them that are sent unto her ! how often would
I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gath-
ereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not.
Behold your house is left unto you desolate. For I say
unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say,
Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord." —
Matthew xxiii. 23, 24, 37-39.

CHAPTER IV.
THE TWOFOLD SYMPATHY OF THE
TRUE PROPHET.
(micah i, 1-9.)
It is often said that we know nothing concern
ing these "minor prophets," that to us they are
simply strange names from out the distant past.
But is this statement correct, and if correct are
we not largely to blame? It is true that we do not
know much about the circumstances of this man's
life, but it is equally true that we may, if we really
desire, know much that is important and illuminat
ing regarding his real life. What do we mean
by knowing a man ? To know many outward facts,
and minute details of a man's life is not necessarily
to know the man. The clear convictions, strong
sympathies, and living hopes make the real man;
these forces give energy to his conduct and colour
to his character. We are surrounded by many
men of whom we know many things, and yet of
how many must we confess that they are strangers
because we have not gained the clue to the domi
nant principle of their life. But the writings of a
true prophet are a self-revelation ; in his very man
ner of proclaiming God's will the prophet reveals
his inmost self. 45

46 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
In those days when names were not mere labels
but often had a spiritual significance this man's
name may suggest that he belonged to a devout
family whose members were loyal to the true God
in dark days. That is merely a conjecture, though
it is well to remember that to the prophets the
play upon the meaning of names was not a trivial
thing, it was consistent with their most solemn
moods (i. 10-16, vii. 18). Micah, whose name
is a shortened form for "who is like Jehovah," was
at any rate a zealous champion of Israel's God.
Micah was a native of Judah, the southern king
dom, and lived in the same period as the great
Isaiah of Jerusalem, but unlike Isaiah he belonged
to the poorer class, and his home was in the coun
try. One is an aristocrat and a courtier, the other is
a peasant and has no great love for the cities. To
him the two chief cities are the head and front of
Israel's offences.
"For the transgression of Jacob is all this,
And for the sins of the house of Israel.
What is the transgression of Jacob? is it not Sam
aria?
And what are the sins* of Judah ? are they not Jeru
salem? (i. 5.)
This is not without significance. It might
prompt the commonplace remark that God does
not limit his choice of prophets to any one class;
prophecy can appear in the russet garb of the
peasant's speech as well as in the purple robes of
the statesman's oratory. Perhaps it is more to

*Greek Version.

THE TWOFOLD SYMPATHY 47
the point to call attention to the fact that it is the
honest, homely countryman who predicts the des
truction of Jerusalem more than a century before
the hour of doom arrived (iii. 12) . It is
thought that belief in the inviolability of the city
grew out of or attached itself to the teaching of
Isaiah; however that may be there was no such
possibility in the case of Micah's preaching.
Micah's prophecy or at least the first part of it
was delivered before the fall of Samaria, an im
portant event which happened in the year 722 b. c*
His stern denunciations and solemn warnings em
braced both Israel and Judah.
It is interesting to note that about a century later
this particular prophecy concerning the destruction
of Jerusalem was quoted in favour of the prophet
Jeremiah, who not only predicted the same doom
but also saw its sure, steady approach (Jer. xxvi,
18) . This was surely a better use of a text than
has often been made under similar circumstances.
Too often the ancient document has been used to
stifle the living voice ; Micah being dead did, in that
case, speak to some purpose. This is all the real his
tory we possess, all else is late tradition of quite
uncertain character. What is certain is the man's
real inspiration, his faith in God, his pity for the
poor, his burning indignation against unjust rulers ;
all this he has written out of his deepest experi
ence; he does not put himself prominently for
ward in the sense of writing direct autobiography,
but he thrust forward his message with all the

*See Chapter III.

48 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
weight of his manhood, and in that message we
may read his soul.
The question naturally arises, how is it that we
possess, in documentary form, the preaching of
this zealous prophet and strenuous reformer who
exercised his ministry almost three thousand years
ago? The answer is that we owe this blessing to a
generous providence by which the world is ruled,
ruled so wisely that when the chaff supplied by
time-serving teachers is swept away much golden
grain of true teaching remains. Quite true, but
providence acts through human life, so we may with
profit and without irreverence carry our question a
little farther. There was both writing and prophecy
in Israel before the eighth century B. C, but at that
period these two things come into a different rela
tion to each other. From that time we receive re
ports of the great sermons that were delivered, and
prophetic literature in its highest distinctive sense
takes its rise. Four of the greatest prophets —
Isaiah and Micah in Judah, Amos and Hosea in
Israel — belong to this period. Why did these men
write at a time when the pursuit of literature was
not easy, and there was no great circulation of
books ? It is easy to see that these men are speak
ers more than authors; it is face to face with the
people that they would gladly do their work of
denunciation and persuasion. It was not for world
ly gain. In those days literature had not become
a profession; and indeed in any age it is the ex
ception for poets, philosophers and preachers to
receive much recognition for their toil of brain
and heart. That is not after all such an evil thing,

THE TWOFOLD SYMPATHY 49
seeing that the products of the highest kingdom
cannot be paid for in this world's current coin.
Neither did they write for fame. Personal
reputation and literary fame were not re
garded in the same way then as now. No
one can tell how many nameless souls have
poured their best thought and noblest aspira
tions into the great stream of literature that we
call the Old Testament. So far as we can learn
the great prophets began to write down their mes
sages because they were misunderstood and rejected
by the people of their own time. Prophets of an
earlier age had found it possible to put all their
strength into the actual political and social battles
of their own age. But while the eighth century is
not the beginning of the Hebrew religion, it is
certainly the starting point of a higher prophetic
movement which makes its solemn appeal to the
past and sets its face steadfastly toward a nobler
future. The rejected prophets made their appeals
to God and to the future time; thus the despised
message, the word of the cross, carries down the
ages its lesson of warning and hope.
"Now go write it down, and in a book inscribe it,
That it may be for after days a testimony forever,
For a rebellious people is this, lying sons,
Sons that will not hear the instruction of Jehovah
Which say to the seers, see not ! and to the men of
vision
Do not bring to us visions of what is right,
Speak unto us smooth things, see delusive visions !"
(Isaiah xxx, 8-10.)
Micah had the same faith as Isaiah in the undying

50 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
power of truth, and bore the same testimony against
folly and unbelief (iii. 5-8). In this section of
his prophecy there is manifested something both
of severity and sympathy, loyalty to God and pity
for man (i. 2-10). We have first a powerful
description of coming judgment given by one who
sees the storm approaching, then in the eighth
verse there seems to be a sudden revulsion, an
outburst of personal feeling, "therefore will I wail
and howl, naked and barefoot will I go." The
prophets do not write or speak as logicians or sys
tematic theologians, but as men whose passion ex
presses itself in poetic forms; consequently they
paint their pictures with strong light and deep
shade, the transitions are abrupt, they pass quickly
from one mood to another. The startling change
is especially instructive in the case of Micah, a
man whose mood is grim, whose attacks upon evil
doers are rude and realistic. Read the sublime
theophany, study the picture of Jehovah coming to
judgment riding upon the high places of the earth,
so that the hills are melted and the valleys cleft.
How real this is to the prophet, he sees it by the
eye of faith, he knows that it must be, because God
is righteous ; he acquiesces in it and seems to rejoice
in it — so strong is his sympathy with the justice of
God, but when he realizes all that it means for the
doomed land he utters the mournful cry, "therefore
will I wail and howl." What is the explanation of
the abrupt transition? It is not merely because it
means pain to himself, loss and distress to the
district in which he lived. "For the wounds are
incurable ; for it is come even to Judah ; it reacheth

THE TWOFOLD SYMPATHY 51
unto the gates of my people, even Jerusalem."
Neither was it simply grief and personal bitterness
that the people have rejected his message and
scorned his ministry. That those considerations en
ter as elements into the case there is no need to
deny. Micah, if we take the first three chapters
of this book as a decisive specimen of his work,
does not seem to be a man of the sensitive emotional
style of Hosea and Jeremiah ; there is a plainness
and roughness about his fibre, but it is just because
of this that he shows most clearly that he has
grasped the twofold life which is essential to real
prophetic ministry: the vision of divine judgment,
and sympathy with sin-stricken, sorrowful men.
He is on the side of God, through conviction of the
divine righteousness he enters into the secret of
judgment, but what he sees is so awful that he
swings round to the side of men, and goes into
mourning for their woe. At that very time it may
be that the world is making merry, that the church
is gay in her festival attire, and the weird figure
of the prophet comes across the scene preaching
judgment and manifesting pity. This change from
sternness to sympathy is not weakness or inconsist
ency, it is real prophetic strength; this spirit is the
source of power with God, and influence over men ;
the prophet because he has been so near to God
is driven close to the heart of humanity. In the
case of Micah with his fierce denunciation of
wicked rulers we are in danger of forgetting this,
and we may be tempted to think of him as a raving
demagogue (iii. 1-3) . Hence it is important to
emphasize the fact that he has in his own form

52 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
that twofold outlook and double spirit which is
the essence of the deepest religious experience, the
noblest spiritual life. The prophet speaks for God,
but he speaks from within the circle of human life,
not as a cold outsider. It is not necessary at this
point to describe all the faculties and qualities of
a true prophet, but we single out this common
characteristic feature, faith in the living, righteous
God, and such faith as begets deep sympathy for
men. The prophets are an everlasting proof of this,
that real faith in God does not make men depress
ing pessimists or cruel cynics ; life is dark to men
who see judgment coming upon a corrupt and
thoughtless generation, but in reality there is hope
for humanity and religion behind their most tragic
lamentations and most despairing cries.
The prophet is just the opposite of the Pharisee;
these two types are separated by the whole dia
meter of being. One is throbbing with life, he is
not careful of appearances if he can only rouse
men to think of God and goodness; he has a holy
recklessness, a sacred abandonment of self. The
other defends a fixed law, a hard dogma, and is
supremely concerned for his superficial respectabil
ity. We hear of "the high Church," "the low
Church" and "the broad Church;" these all have
their strength and their weakness, but the Pharisees
create what has been well called "the hard Church ;"
the church that has lost its soul, the church that
has no care for the outcasts, no pity for the poor,
the church that crucified the Christ.
From this point of view also, it is in our Lord
Jesus Christ that we meet the highest manifesta-

THE TWOFOLD SYMPATHY 53
tion of the prophetic spirit. He smites hypocrisy,
He pours out His hot indignation against preten
tious unreality, and then He goes forth to weep
over the city that had rejected the prophets. Be
cause He stands so near to God He comes close to
the human heart; the divine purity gives strength
to the human sympathy. He reveals God's right
eousness in such a spirit of love that He can attract
the outcasts of society, and make them feel that in
the very heart of judgment there is mercy.
This then is the spirit of the true preacher,
"commending ourselves to every man's conscience in
the sight of God." Though the matter and tone of
our preaching may be in some respects different,
the spirit is the same, the preacher is not a mere
special pleader for God and law, any more than he
is a retailer of feeble sentiment; mercy and justice,
strength and tenderness must meet in his presenta
tion of the great Evangel. The man who stands
outside of us and in a mechanical manner declares
that we are sinners and merit damnation does not
move us very deeply. The preacher must see the
vision of judgment and in his inmost soul weep
over our sins. This can not be put on, it must
grow out of the life that has been moved to its
deepest depths by the manifestation of God's
righteousness and the pressure of human needs.
But this is also the spirit of the true Christian dis
ciple; in this sense all the Lord's people must be
prophets, then every faithful soul becomes a living
link between earth and heaven. Then the battle
against impurity in all spheres of human life may
be fought with equal zeal and less bitterness. From

54 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
the vantage ground of a higher religion and a
clearer individual experience we may fight for the
civic righteousness, social purity and national bro
therhood which was so dear to the prophets of
Israel. We must each have our own Vision of
Judgment, and recognize the supreme claims of
righteousness, if our sympathy is to be effective,
and our kindness have redemptive force. Then will
our lives be made strong through the righteousness
of God, and gentle through the love of Christ.

THE PROPHET'S CALL, OR THE VISION
OF THE KING.

"It is the sovereignty or majesty of Jehovah that is his
main thought. The conception is singularly pure and lofty.
It is a worshipper's thoughts when he draws near to God.
The vision is but the service in the Temple transfigured.
The prophet fell into a trance while beholding the service
and musing on its meaning. Suddenly the house and the
service and the ministers became transfigured; the walls
went apart, and the roof lifted itself up till it seemed the
high dome of God's palace on high under which he stood,
and the Lord the King sat upon His throne receiving the
adoration of all holy beings. The mental history through
which the prophet passed has a singular psychological se
quence. And his own experience will be that of his people :
the fire of God burnt up the impurity of his lips, and the
filth of Jerusalem shall be consumed with a blast of judg
ment and a blast of burning (iv. 4). Jehovah is a fire in
contact with the sin of His people, which must either con
sume them or purify them." — The Late Rev. A. B. David
son, D. D., "The Temple Isaiah," xii.

CHAPTER V.
THE PROPHET'S CALL, OR THE VISION
OF THE KING.
( ISAIAH VI.)
This chapter is one of the most important in the
history of revelation; like a great picture of won
derful beauty and subtle suggestion, it will repay
repeated and careful study. The great words of the
chapter are heard and spoken in vision, but they
cannot be called visionary in any shallow sense ;
they are intensely practical, they contain the
prophet's call, they give the keynote of his life, and
sum up in a few striking sentences the spirit and
purpose of his ministry. This vision shows us how
Isaiah became a prophet, and gives the secret of
his strong, consistent career in the words, "Mine
eyes have seen the King."
Isaiah seems to have spent the whole, or the
greater part, of his life in the city of Jerusalem ;
for many years he was the most remarkable figure,
and sometimes the most influential man in that city.
The tribes of Israel had again been broken into
discordant division, and Jerusalem was at that time
the centre of only a small kingdom ; but this man
and his band of disciples set at work spiritual in
fluences of great significance for the higher life of
the world. Though the Jerusalem of his day was
57

58 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
full of feebleness, folly and wickedness, we can trace
in his teaching the beginnings of a new Jerusalem,
Zion, the city of the Great King, which shall not
pass away. He was a young man when he saw
this vision ; as he stood at the opening of his great
career he was led to look into the heart of things,
and to see the real meaning of his life. Probably
it was later in his life when he wrote down this
statement for the use of his disciples and the service
of the Church. Before he committed it to the care
of men who loved him and who would cherish his
memory, he had often pondered its meaning and
proved its power. He remembered that the decisive
moment of his life came in the year of King
Uzziah's death. When the proud, successful king
had been brought low by disease, and had passed
under the shadow of death, the young patriot was
called to see the spiritual temple and the Eternal
King. Life is full of change ; high rank and worldly
success cannot resist the attack of decay and death ;
how important, then, for the young man to learn
that there is an unchanging kingdom, and a King
supreme in majesty and righteousness.
About the time that this crisis came in the life
of the young Jew, the city of Rome was founded.
The obscure village grew to be a city, the city de
veloped into a State, the Republic spread its power
over the Italian Peninsula, then it launched out on
a conquering career ; it finally subdued the civilized
world and came to be a great imperial power.
That empire, after centuries of sway and influence,
crumbled to pieces and left its varied heritage to
the life of mankind; new empires have risen and

THE PROPHET'S CALL 59
the world is called to face new problems. Isaiah's
vision remains, and the spiritual kingdom to which
it belongs is beginning to be revealed in larger out
line and richer fulness. "The grass withereth, the
flower fadeth, but the word of our God abideth
forever." Distance of time does not destroy our
interest in a scene which is a parable of the change
less life and part of the upward movement of God's
kingdom. the vision.
This is the only vision of which Isaiah gives a
clear and full description; he no doubt had other
visions, but this was of supreme importance. He
elsewhere alludes to the fact that there were times
when he was gripped and subdued by the strong
hand of God. (viii: ii.) But the great prophets
did not hanker after visions nor boast about them ;
they did not seek by artificial means to stimulate
feverish religious excitement. The great Apostle of
the Christian faith tells of one decisive vision at
the beginning of his new life; he tells us further
that he was constantly meeting with small men who
boasted of their wonderful visions, yet that he him
self steadily refused to be drawn into that morbid
strain. The real test of the vision is the daily life,
and no two men can stand that test better than
Isaiah and Paul. These two events were of such
high importance, because in one case the revelation
of Jehovah and in the other the vision of Jesus
marked the beginning of a life-work which was
to have great and lasting influence on the Church
of God. It was a vision and a vocation, a conver-

60 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
sion and a call. The visions of youth may be of
great things sought for self, of earthly ambitions
that are deceptive as well as brilliant. There were
many young men in Jerusalem spending their
strength in wild revelry or in pursuit of selfish gain,
and for them there was no voice of God, no vision
of the King. The vision came to the young man
in whose life the two vital forces of patriotism and
religion were at work. The vision came as a re
ward for search and an inspiration for service; to
the seeking spirit was given the open eye. The
deep secrets of experience are difficult to tell, the
finest drapery of words seems too coarse to express
their mystic meaning. Here surely the Divine Spirit
has guided the prophet in his delicate task; the
truth in its infinite suggestiveness shines through
the noble forms of the picture. This description
of a kingly presence, and of the attendant seraphim
who chant the sublime divinity and perfect purity
of Jehovah, is a reverent unveiling of unseen reali
ties; it is a glorious suggestion rather than a
finished picture; it detaches itself from the crude-
ness and impurity of those dim days and awaits its
fulfilment in the words of One who possessed the
perfect vision, "Our Father which art in Heaven."
The central fact is the vision of God as King —
"Mine eyes have seen the King." You say, no man
can see God and live. That is quite true, as we here
see, this man did not live; in a very deep sense
he died. The vision of God kills that it may make
alive ; the fire of the divine revelation burns up the
dross of pride and passion. The great need of
\ that time is also our own great need, a true vision

THE PROPHET'S CALL 61
of the divine, a lofty thought of God. This alone
can meet the hunger of Isaiah's soul and save the
nation from utter failure. The popular religion
was crude and impure; many worshipped idols,
many ran after a spurious spiritualism or reduced
religion to a sensuous ritualism, (i: ii, ii:8, viii:
18.) That which made a hero of this young man,
and gave power to the purest religion of his day,
was the force which also nerved our fathers to cast
out superstition and fight for liberty; the vision of
a God who is supreme, who through His righteous
ness is really kind, who is revealed in Nature, who
rules the nations and who does not disdain the cry
of the penitent soul. No argument can do justice
to this; it is a vision and a life. The saints and
martyrs point to it as the object of their love and the
source of their strength. Men of mighty intellect,
of childlike heart, of pure spiritual aspiration, have
through its inspiration saved the nation from despair
and the church from failure. The men who have
borne the burdens and fought the battles which
helped forward the world's highest life, knew the
meaning of the words "Mine eyes have seen the
King." THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE VISION.
It brings a true sight of self; youth has restless
energy and daring impulse, but can only come to
real greatness through deep humility. No man sees
himself truly except in the light of God's presence.
One of our greatest needs to-day is the need of a
deeper reverence ; this we cannot learn by rote, and
no mere surface ceremony can supply the lack; it
can only come through the consuming fire of God's

62 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
presence, which with its cleansing, quickening
power, drives away our petty pride and foolish
frivolity. When that presence is realized worship
is not a display nor an entertainment, but a real
approach to the eternal throne.
There is a sense of the sin in society which makes
a man not a Pharisee, but a prophet. It is easy to
be cynical at the expense of our fellows, and to
pour out stinging satires on the shams and weak
nesses of society ; but that is not the dominant spirit
of the highest ministry. In the all,-searching light of
this vision, Isaiah sees that the world in which he
lives is full of such shams ; speech is a symbol and
expression of life, and speech which should be clean
and sweet, as well as truthful and strong, is vile
and unclean. But the life of sinful people is the life
the prophet shares, the atmosphere he breathes, the
sphere in which he lives and moves. He cannot
flee to the wilderness and leave it all behind. He
must be in this world but not of it; this he can be
because he has learned that sin is an alien power in
himself and in society. It is treason to the divine
King; in the name and by the power of the King
it can be conquered. Through the influence of this
deep revelation he can be a statesman as well as
a religious teacher, a social reformer as well as a
sacred singer, and through it all a saint. The
vision means, then, the possibility of service. If
there were no King a man might be content to be a
time-server, but to the man who has seen the King
the way of highest service is open, and he is "not
disobedient to the heavenly vision." Life, then,
finds its real meaning in service to God and man.

THE PROPHET'S CALL 63
Behind this man's call to service there are certain
great convictions which are a prophecy of, and a
preparation for, the rich personal experience which
is fully revealed in our Lord Jesus, and quickened
in us by the power of His great sacrifice.
To the promise, "Thy sins are forgiven," our
Lord adds the call "Follow me" ; in a different, but
still in a real way the same close connection of
two great truths was felt by the prophet Isaiah.
Forgiveness and personal cleansing are not the end
but the beginning of real religious experience. He
has seen a great vision and heard rapturous sounds ;
can he then flee from the world and be at rest?
Can he not find shelter behind the throne and listen
forever to the celestial music ? No ! That is neither
the prophetic call nor the Christian life. He who
is accepted of God is the one to be sent back to
the world of men. Forgiveness means power to
conquer sin, and therefore power to help men in
their hard struggles; sanctification is not merely
the passport to heaven, it is the preparation for
highest service. God needs men to speak for him on
earth. The cynic says that this is the cry of our
self-conceit, and that we might serve God better by
silence than by babbling speech. But it is precisely
the man whose conceit has been most thoroughly
purged out who feels the significance of this state
ment. The power of heaven is seeking to break
through with beneficent influence into the life of
man, and its most effective medium is the ministry
of faithful men. (Amos iii, 7.) And at last it
found its way to the heart of humanity in the form
of the Highest Man. "God, having of old time

64 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
spoken unto the fathers in the prophets by divers
portions, and in divers manners, hath at the end
of these days spoken unto us in a Son." That
which redeems a human life from vanity is the
thought that God will condescend to use it. The
ministry of speech seems, in our unbelieving mo
ments, to be a small helpless thing. To meet this
we must look back upon what has been accom
plished by those who spoke out of a strong sense
of their unworthiness and of the divine helpful
ness; their words the world will not willingly let
die. There is nothing more wholesome for us
when we falter and lose heart than the reassuring
voice of one who can say sincerely, "Mine eyes have
seen the King."
This high service comes from a volunteer who
feels behind him the strain of a great spiritual
pressure. The words "Here am I, send me," stand
forth as the type of the fullest surrender ; they are
not the result of man's coaxing and persuasion ;
they do not represent the slight flutter of a passing
excitement; all the strength of this young man's
nature and all the inspiration of this vision are be
hind them. There already slumbered in his soul the
faculties of the poet and the natural endowment of
the statesman ; now that he has the living fire of the
prophet, he gains strength to face the foe and to
persist in spite of indifference and misinterpreta
tion. The perseverance of the saints presupposes
the vision of the saints. In the darkest hour there
remained with this man the knowledge that though
our sight is dim the reality abides, the King upon
the throne of His holiness bringing strength and

THE PROPHET'S CALL 65
progress out of what seems to be the chaos of human
history. THE INFLUENCE OF THE VISION.
A vision in which such clear, strong convictions
are communicated must prove a power in the storm
and stress of life. It came from heaven to illumine
and quicken the prophet's soul ; it gave him power
to face the people, and the right to speak with
kings. He was not a courtier seeking wealth for
himself and favours for his friends. He longed to
have the throne of Judah established in righteous
ness, that the visible king might be a true, if im
perfect, representation of the divine King; he was
indeed the most kingly man of that generation in
Jerusalem, because he cherished a lofty ideal and
had the firmness of character which comes from
God-given principles. In contrast with him Ahaz
was vain, sensual, unbelieving; and Hezekiah shal
low, feeble, vacillating. Their shifting policies em
bodied no real principle, but were mere makeshifts,
frantic attempts to escape by any means from pres
ent difficulties. It is a sad thing when the King on
the throne has no kingliness of character, when the
ruler manifests the weakness which in its practical
effect is as disastrous as wickedness. How would
our fathers have met the craft and cunning of
reckless rulers ; how would they have fought politi
cal and ecclesiastical tyranny to gain for us this
large place, unless they had caught a glimpse of the
heavenly throne and the Supreme King? The power
to speak with earthly princes in the name of liberty,
truth and righteousness has ever come from the
Vision of the King.

66 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
From this standpoint the prophet had power to
recommend what shallow people thought to be a
very strange policy, namely, the policy of "splendid
isolation," or, in other words, faithfulness to one's
own vocation and supreme trust in God. "In re
turning and rest shall ye be saved, in quietness and
confidence shall be your strength." (xxx: 15.) A
great word standing out clear amid the fever and
confusion of the time. The "Jingoes" of Judah
thought that their tiny kingdom might play a great
part on the diplomatic and military stage. In the
hour of weakness they craved for alliances which
cost them much and yielded little. Isaiah fought
against this political folly. He would have the
nation keep clear of these costly and dangerous
alliances, and stand calmly in the position assigned
by Israel's God. You say it is a foolish thing for
a paltry little kingdom to attempt to stand alone.
But to Isaiah this simply means that the nation
must be true to its vocation and faithful to its God.
The prophet was beginning to see that the nation
must find its strength in its religious life rather
than in worldly splendour or political influence.
Such preaching must always seem foolish to
those who have no faith in God, or even to
those whose faith is feeble. If a nation
has no strong independent life, no noble na
tional character, it feels loneliness to be terribly
oppressive and seeks glittering alliances which are
usually showy and expensive but yield little help in
the testing time. If a church has little apprehension
of the Kingly presence it will seek false stimulants
and trust in cunning little contrivances. If a man

THE PROPHET'S CALL 67
has no sense of God's companionship and helpful
ness he will be dependent on popular applause or
the approval of the great. To be alone without God
means weakness, confusion, death; but to feel our
selves grasped by the divine power and embraced by
a great divine purpose, means clear intelligence and
abiding power. The true aristocrats of all the ages
are the sons of God who could say "Mine eyes have
seen the King."
We see this in the way Isaiah undertakes an ap
parently hopeless task. To preach to an indifferent
and unwilling people, to prove that, under certain
circumstances, the very fulness of truth may be a
blinding instead of an enlightening power, this is
a great test. (Matthew xiii: 12-16.) Even if we
admit the contention of some expositors that the
narrative is coloured by the experiences of later and
darker days, it is still quite clear that the young
man did not begin his ministry with flattering hopes
of speedy success. He knew from the first that he
was called to what the world regards as failure, to
be a preacher delivering a rejected message, a
statesman struggling with insuperable difficulties.
Let us thank God that no man can realize all the
details of the continuous cross-bearing ; to meet the
actual pains is sufficient without too much torture
of anticipation; but let us at the same time rejoice
that a man of faith can accept the principle of the
cross, that noble men did so before the Christ came
to reveal all its richness of meaning. To seek first
the kingdom of God, to place principle before ex
pediency, to declare boldly the unpopular truth, to
oppose the will of kings and the demands of the

68 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
people while seeking their highest good, this in
such an age meant the Cross. That this man should
accept the prophetic call knowing what it meant is
only explained by the fact that he "endured as see
ing Him who is invisible." And so through all the
conflicts and changes he came to see one thing
clearly, that religion springing from the revelation
of the Eternal God cannot die; as the light grows
the shadows deepen, those who see only the dark
ness are driven to despair, those who take comfort
in empty things preach peace where there is no
peace; but the prophet sees both sides of life, the
present shame and confusion, and the eternal order
which struggles toward clearer manifestation. The
movement may be slow, but the man of faith fights
the heroic battle knowing that the future is in the
care of the righteous God. In dark days the prophet
plays well his part ; he is a sign that man does not
live by bread alone; he who has received the true
vision does not lose it, but is faithful in a fickle
world. The harsh discords of the world ring round
him, but the music of heaven is in his heart; he
proves that one true man can represent the kingdom
of light and love.

A PROPHET'S VIEW OF FAITH

"Credulity is not Faith. That indolent abdication of the
responsibility of judgment in favour of every pretender,
that superficial assent lightly given and lightly withdrawn
is utterly at variance with the intense clear vision and
with the resolute grasp of Faith. '
"Superstition is not Faith. To choose for ourselves
idols, whatever they may be, to invest with attributes of
the unseen world fragments of this world, to brood over
shadows, is to deny Faith which is at every moment active,
progressive, busy with the infinite.
"Conviction is not Faith. We may yield to what we
admit to be an inevitable intellectual conclusion. Our op
position may be silenced or vanquished. But the state of
mind which is thus produced is very often a state of ex
haustion and not of quickening. Till the heart welcomes
the Truth, it remains outside of us." — Wescott's "Historic
Faith," p. 6.

CHAPTER VI
A PROPHET'S VIEW OF FAITH
(isaiah vii, viii, xxx. 15-16.)
Isaiah is called the prophet of faith because he
affirms so clearly that there is a vital connection
between faith and character, believing and living.
Later the prophet Habakkuk gives prominence to
this truth by presenting it as the answer to doubts
and difficulties concerning the government of the
world, and by the supreme emphasis which he
places upon the statement that the just man shall
live by his faithfulness.* In Isaiah's teaching
the idea has a fuller development and richer set
ting; it springs from his central thought of the
majesty of God, and it touches the whole round of
human life. This great prophet may in a very real
sense be called a theologian, not that he works out
a formal abstract system, but because he is a great
thinker whose teaching is built up into a living
organic whole. The great creative ideas hold a cen
tral position and stand in harmonious relation to
each other, while the practical applications grow
out of them in the most, consistent manner. Such
a living system is presented in beautiful symbolism

?See Chapter XI. 7i

-J2 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
in the vision through which the prophet was led
to a consciousness of his high vocation. In this
system faith plays a great part as the force that
links man to God, and gives real meaning to human
life. The highest illustration of this is in the
prophet's own life and career, but the prophet had
the gift of luminous teaching as well as of consist
ent living. It is difficult to mark absolutely new
movements in the world of thought, and it is neces
sary to guard against attributing to Isaiah's use of
"faith" all the later associations which have gath
ered round the great word, but when all needful
qualifications are made we must recognize in his
thinking the originality and spirituality which are
the marks of the highest inspiration.
The man of faith according to Isaiah's repre
sentation is the man of clear vision and true insight,
who sees God as a great King ruling the world in
righteousness. Such a man gains a correct view of
himself, and sees life in its proper proportions, as
a manifestation of the divine majesty, and an op
portunity for faithful service. Zion is the dwelling-
place of Jehovah which He seeks to make pure
and glorious. The people of Israel have received
special tokens of favour, and the severe chastisement
which awaits them is a manifestation of righteous
ness, which, if rightly received, will prepare the way
for mercy. Thus while the man of faith is a real
patriot and makes the character and destiny of his
own people the starting point of his thought con
cerning God's government of the world, he treats
this in such a noble spirit of religion, and gives
such a broad view of morality that there is in his

PROPHET'S VIEW OF FAITH 73
thought the promise of real progress. The great
truths that are revealed in a many sided fashion in
the Old Testament came by way of the living ex
perience of men who were ever seeking to under
stand more fully the meaning of loyalty to God.
Faith meant so much to Isaiah because in his own
way he thought of the life of God as seeking to
express itself in the life of man. Out of such in
sight there grows lowliness and reverence. No
where is the majesty of God so splendidly ex
pressed, and hence no prophet speaks with fiercer
scorn of the levity and frivolity, the conceit and
arrogance, which show that men have no sense of
the greatness of God and the solemnity of life.
How painful it was to the man who would say,
"Mine eyes have seen the King," to behold the
giddy multitude hasting after foolish fashions and
silly superstitions. From this point of view it fol
lows that the great feature of the "day of Jeho
vah" as pictured by Isaiah is the bringing down of
every high thing that has set itself up in pride and
self-dependence against the glory of God.
"Enter into the rock and hide thee in the dust,
For fear of Jehovah and for the glory of His
Majesty.
The lofty looks of man shall be humbled,
And the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down,
And Jehovah alone shall be exalted in that day."
(ii. 10.)
This is one of the most striking notes in Isaiah's
prophecy, arrogance is branded as sin and folly.
Mortal man ought to humble himself in the dust be
fore God, but the vision that rebukes pride does

74 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
not paralyze effort. The man who so humbles him
self gains strength to face kings, to guide the peo
ple and to wait calmly in the most critical hours.
This vulgar pride is lack of faith in God. The
frivolity of the women, the sensuality of the men,
the greed of the rulers, the blindness of idolators,
is all traced to its real root.
"But they regard not the word of Jehovah,
Neither have they considered the operation of His
hands." (v. 12.)
Men and women who live in such brutish ignor
ance and false pride prove that they have no vision
of God, consequently no reverence for human life.
To those who have not been bowed down by the
majesty of God there is nothing sacred; religious
festivals, social pleasures, business pursuits are all
so many forms of selfishness and manifestations
of pride. Faith begets reverence and transforms
the whole of life into a pure service, hence where it
is lacking, the outside magnificence only makes the
inward hollowness more striking to the discerning
eye. Men who trust in money, in horses, in their
own strength or in fashionable idols instead of in
the living God are all doomed to disappointment.
The man of faith whose life by reverential fear is
rooted in God is a man of character; he can trust
without being afraid, he can see through preten
tious shams, he can be calm amid the panic-stricken
crowd, he can work and wait.
"Bind thou up the testimony, seal the law among
my disciples and I will wait upon Jehovah, that hideth
His face from the house of Jacob, and I will look

PROPHET'S VIEW OF FAITH 75
for Him. Behold, I and the children whom Jeho
vah hath given me are for signs and for wonders
in Israel from Jehovah of hosts which dwelleth in
Mount Zion." (viii. 16-18.)
(1) From the standpoint of faith the prophet
can denounce jdpjatry. If there were no true revel
ation of the living God the eternal King, men might
make idols or import them from other countries
and so satisfy the craving for religion which is so
hard to destroy but so easy to degrade. If there
were no real prophet in Israel then there might be
some slight excuse for foreign soothsayers. But to
the man who knows the righteous God and can
speak for Him, how hollow and helpless is all this
restless, misdirected activity! The coming judg
ment will shrivel up all this pretentious foolish
ness."And the idols he shall utterly abolish,
And they shall go into the holes of the rocks,
And into the caves of the earth, for fear of Jehovah,
And for the glory of His Majesty,
When He ariseth to shake terribly the earth." (ii. 19.)
(2) From the same lofty standpoint he can
criticise the PJjbh^worship ofJiis_time; instead of
being an inspiration to goodness it is presented to
Jehovah as a substitute for the same. The people
trample the courts of the temple like a herd of sense
less cattle. "Wickedness and worship" they have
wedded together and they do not see the horrible
inconsistency. On the other hand they have
divorced religion from morality, that which God

76 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
has joined they have rent asunder. If they had
faith, they would know that more than showy ritual
is obedience to this great command.
"Wash you, make you clean ;
Put away the evil of your doings from before mine
eyes;
Cease to do evil ; learn to do well ;
Seek judgment, relieve the oppressed,
Judge the fatherless, plead for the widow." (i. 16-17.)
(3) A man who thus faces facts and finds God
in common duties could have nothing but contempt
for the false spiritualism of the day. "And when
they shall say unto you, seek unto them that have
familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep and
mutter: should not a people seek unto their God?"
Yes, the man who knows what it is to seek God in
sincerity and truth does not need such mockery.
That which men preach as a new and better faith
the prophet condemns as unbelief and superstition.
If we can not find God in the sunshine and the
shower, in pure worship and noble fellowship, in
common cares and high duties, how shall we dis
cover him in dark corners, in foolish mummery
and fraudulent tricks ? The King of Righteousness
is a God of light who speaks to the mind He has
created and the conscience He has quickened.
Some doubt whether the particular words just
quoted come from Isaiah, but there is no doubt
that they represent his spirit. The man who could
denounce impure worship in the regular temple
would have still less sympathy with clandestine at
tempts to juggle with the mysteries of the spirit

PROPHET'S VIEW OF FAITH 77
world. And in our own time we should remember
that such superstition is not excess of faith, but
really want of faith. Faith lives in the light and
does not need to nourish itself on that which is
dark, morbid and unclean.
(4) The man of faith can face all changes calm
ly because he knows that nothing shall be des
troyed thatjs worth preserving. This is Isaiah's
strong conviction drawn from his vision of the
righteousness of God. The prophet had strong
feelings, he knew the sweetness of rapturous spirit
ual experience, he had passed through the agony of
conflict and entered into the joy of victory. But
he is often seen standing in a position that con
trasts strongly with that taken by the people. They
are panic-stricken, he can command them to put
away their fear and look to God for deliverance.
(viii.) When they are carried away with joy at
an unexpected deliverance, a deliverance that he
had prophesied, he warns them to prepare for God's
searching judgments, (xxii.) In both cases he is
working from the same principle, what he calls for
is a deeper life. They are faint-hearted in the
day of danger because they fear men rather than
God ; they are carried away by shallow excitement
because escape from the foreign foe seems to be
the supreme salvation. His strong faith keeps him
from being carried away by these surface currents,
his feet are on the solid rock, he proves that the
man who fears God sincerely and intelligently need
fear nothing else. The world is not ruled by clever
politicians or successful soldiers, there is a God of
righteousness who takes final responsibility on

78 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
Himself, hence it is only the chaff that the wind
drives away, only the wood, hay and stubble that
the fire consumes.
(5) Therefore the man of faith must also be to
some extent the prophet of hope. Isaiah did not toil
for forty years without cherishing great hopes for
his city. Two of his great words, "With us
is God" and "A remnant shall turn," have in
them suggestions of hope as well as decla
rations of judgment. The prophet's great
words may have been developed and differently
applied by his successors, that which was liv
ing and plastic may have become hard and
dogmatic, but while his circumstances were always
difficult and his outlook often dark, the future was
not altogether without hope. The early prophets
were on the whole messengers of judgment, but it
is scarcely correct to call them "pessimists." Their
announcements of judgment were inspired by faith
in the divine righteousness, or in modern phrase, the
moral order of the world, and that is surely not a
hopeless conviction. They knew that true religion
could not be destroyed, and if religion lives and
advances to higher forms hope will bloom into new
loveliness. To them this world is the scene on
which the eternal justice manifests itself and the
kingdom of heaven is revealed, therefore in the
darkest hour they can commend their work to God
and the future time. A sure foundation is laid
in Zion, even this, that the true believer does not
falter, but endures as seeing Him who is invisible.
The poor refuges to which faithless men flee in
their desperation will all perish, but the link that

PROPHET'S VIEW OF FAITH 79
binds the faithful soul to God will stand the severest
strain. The knowledge of God may be enlarged,
the thought of Zion transformed, but the faith of
an Isaiah remains the living principle of religion,
the spiritual force that creates the true abiding
Church.

THE PROPHET AS STATESMAN

"And nevertheless God is with us. In this Jerusalem, in
this city of David, in this sanctuary of the old religion,
God has been known, righteousness loved, the root of the
matter reached, as they never have been in the world out
side. The great world outside has nothing so indispensa
ble to mankind, no germ so precious to mankind, as the
'Valley of Vision' has. Therefore 'he that believeth shall
not take flight'; there is laid by the Eternal 'in Zion for a
foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone,
a sure foundation.' God is with us." — Matthew Arnold.

CHAPTER VII
THE PROPHET AS STATESMAN
( ISAIAH VII. 22.)
Isaiah of Jerusalem was by his loftiness of char
acter and firmness of principle utterly unfitted to
be a popular politician of the baser sort; but as a
statesman who cherished a noble ideal of civic and
national life, and who saw clearly the duty of the
hour, he has left an enduring name. He shows a
remarkable combination of spiritual enthusiasm
and sanity of judgment, pure idealism and practical
wisdom. It is difficult to sketch a systematic
biography of the man, or to give a full account of
his thoughts concerning the future destiny of his
people; but the dominant principles of his life stand
out clearly, and we know the position that he took
in the great political crises. He is a striking figure,
an aristocrat who met on equal terms with kings
and courtiers, yet a preacher who makes with
peculiar emphasis the demand for humility in the
presence of the divine King. A poet who can sing
to attract attention, but whose song will surely
turn into a sermon (v.). An oriental orator using
strange symbolism to impress his message upon
the minds of the thoughtless people, but no mere
sensation monger. (xx.) A man capable of
83

84 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
standing alone, but also gifted with the power to
draw round him a few sympathetic disciples who
are the providential means of preserving his mes
sage and carrying on his work. He is a married
man and has two sons who bear strange names ; one
of these speaks of judgment, and the other sug
gests mercy (viii. 2, vii. 3). He is not a pale-faced
ascetic or a shrinking sentimentalist, but a strong,
full-blooded man, who will seize the whole of life
and sanctify it in the name of Jehovah. He does
not despise the name of prophet ; prophecy to him is
a high vocation. If the name has fallen into dis
repute he will rescue it and make it a name that
men must respect. He is a man of high mettle, he
finds it quite consistent with true lowliness to pour
contempt upon a weak vacillating king, to fling
back fiery scorn against irreverent mockers, and to
denounce falsehood and folly in words that burn
and blister (vii, xxviii). His characteristic feature,
to sum up in a word, is strength, the strength that
comes from clearness of thought, firmness of pur
pose and well balanced passion.
HIS CONCEPTION OF THE NATION.
We must not make too deep the distinction be
tween poet, preacher and statesman; the prophet
himself did not recognize any such divisions. It is
difficult indeed to find a man who is more com
pletely one by virtue of loyalty to one central, vital
principle, a man whose varied activities are really
aspects of the one life, of whom we may justly say
that one spirit runs through his manifold ministry.
In his teaching there are germs of truth that will

PROPHET AS STATESMAN 85
require centuries before they reach full maturity,
but for the present he has a clear, straight message
for the city and the nation. What is the nation in
his view? It is not a chance conglomeration of in
dividuals, it is not a creation of cunning politicians.
It is a thing that God has made, on which He has
spent loving toil and care, and from which He ex
pects fruit noble and beautiful. The union of privi
lege arid responsibility is a cardinal principle with
this great preacher; on such a soil as this, shallow
irresponsible patriotism or narrow religious bigotry
cannot grow.
"A vineyard belongs to my friend,
On a hill that is fruitful and sunny;
He digged it and cleared it of stones,
And planted there vines that are choice;
A tower he built in the midst,
And hewed also therein a wine-vat,
And he looked to find grapes that are good;
Alas, it bore grapes that are wild."*
THE CIVIC REFORMER.
Here is a principle that needed to be thoroughly
worked out in relation to one nation that it might
become the common property of humanity. How
much of faith and hope as well as of pain and dis
appointment is concentrated in the sharp utterance,
"He looked for judgment but behold oppression;
for righteousness but behold a cry." (v. 7.) All
else is implied in this, here is high opportunity and

*v. 1-2, Dr. Cheyne's Translation. x

86 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
reluctant judgment. If this is commonplace truth,
it is also fundamental, and in our prophet it finds
fresh, varied, unconventional expression.
We are in our own time confronted with a great
problem, namely, to make the complex life of the
great city a new embodiment of the kingdom of
God. This problem meets us now on a much larger
scale, but in principle it is the same, it must be
faced with the same unfaltering faith. We cannot
return to rural simplicity, or find refuge in a rude
puritanism; reHgjon must again conquer and^con^
secrate science, art and.pohtics. Isaiah was a man
of the city, he could satirize the ridiculous vanity
and aping of foreign fashions displayed there, but
these are only the fringe of his great theme. He
loved the city, all his interests and hopes were cen
tered in it ; he longed that Jerusalem might become
the home of righteousness, the abode of peace.
Love can strike the mightiest blows; no cynical
criticism, no scornful satire can have such power in
it as the lament of love.
"How has the faithful city become a harlot !
Zion filled with judgment, righteousness lodged in
her!
Thy silver has become dross, thy drink adulterated ;
Thy princes are rebellious and companions of
thieves ;
They all love bribes and seek after rewards ;
The widow's cause comes not to them, the father
less they do not judge.
Therefore saith Jehovah, the Mighty One of Israel,
Ah, let me ease me of mine adversaries, and avenge
me of my foes,

PROPHET AS STATESMAN 87
And I will turn my hand against thee, and purify
thee with lye;
Thy dross will I remove, all thine alloy,
And I will restore thy judges as at the first, and
thy counsellors as at the beginning;
Afterwards thou shalt be called Town of Right
eousness, Faithful City."
This is not the utterance of cynical disappoint
ment or fierce fanaticism, it is the sober application
of a high ideal to a low state of civic life. There
had been a wave of prosperity, and with it came
many "improvements," the ordinary councillor could
speak glibly complacent congratulations on the
rapid march of progress, but the prophet sees that
palace and temple, council chamber and judgment
hall are full of unrighteousness. The preacher
seeks to quicken the conscience of the community.
He would not stifle innocent joy or stimulate a
false solemnity, what he demands is honesty in the
presence of God, and fairness between man and
man. He is not a popularizer of small fads, but a
preacher of justice in the largest sense. God is on
the side of righteousness, He demands from the
rulers of the city real service; He is not like
themselves, easy to bribe with large gifts. He hates
the sacrifice that is purchased out of the plunder
gained by grinding the faces of the poor. The su
preme thing in the city is not the outward form of
government or the display of material splendour, but
the character of the citizen, the moral life in street
and market, church and home.

88 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
TWO PERIODS, ONE POLICY.
Isaiah had something to say on the question of
foreign politics, he was not prepared to accept the
view evidently cherished by Ahaz, that this region
lies outside the range of religion. It is a doctrine
popular with a certain class of politicians that a
small amount of religious sentiment may safely be
introduced into politics strictly for home consump
tion, but that in foreign relationships such consid
erations are out of place and highly dangerous.
Ahaz did not wish any sign from heaven in that
department of his affairs ; he thought that he could
manage very cleverly on the line of worldly policy ;
perhaps he had made his choice and committed
himself before Isaiah appeared on the scene. The
prophet does not wish to be very troublesome, but
he has a principle which he believes to be applicable
to all these affairs, and upon the clear and full
recognition of it depends the life of this nation.
Hence we see the political event and the prophet's
call placed side by side.
"And it was told the house of David, saying,
Syria is confederate with Ephraim. And his heart
was moved, and the heart of his people, as the trees
of the wood are moved with the wind."
"Then said the Lord unto Isaiah, Go forth now
to meet Ahaz, thou and Shear- jashub*, thy son, at
the end of the conduit of the upper pool in the high
way of the fuller's field, and say unto him :

*A remnant shall turn.

PROPHET AS STATESMAN 89
"Take heed and be quiet,
Fear not, neither be faint-hearted,
For the two tails of these smoking firebrands,
For the fierce anger of Rezin with Syria,
And of the son of Remaliah." (vii. 2-4.)
This is a prophecy of comfort if men have faith
to receive it, but the same principle lies behind the
comfortable words of a true prophet and his words
of condemnation; what is demanded in both cases
is recognition of God's purpose, trust in His power
and acceptance of His righteousness. This is cer
tainly a critical situation when the Israelites and
the Aramaeans, the brother and the cousin, conspire
against the small kingdom of Judah. What is to
be done when princes are trembling and the people
full of fear? In such an hour the man who waits
upon God knows that there is help and guidance
from a higher sphere. He is laid hold of powerfully
and taught that he must not be carried away by
the cry that prevails in the street, but must wrestle
mightily with those who are fearful of the outside
foe and have no reverence for the righteous God
who dwells in Zion. Jehovah guides the course of
history, princes and politicians are mere pawns in
His hand; is it not folly then to tremble at those
who can do so little? (viii. n-15.) The king of
Judah has decided what he will do, — he will call in
the aid of the great Assyrian Empire which is just
coming into contact with the Palestinian powers;
in that way he will checkmate the conspiracy of his
two nearer neighbors. (II. Kings xvi.) We can
now see clearly that this was the height of folly.

90 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
The Assyrians will be knocking at the gates of Jeru
salem soon enough. It meant paying the king of
Assyria to do what he meant to do in any case,
namely, attack Aram; it meant Judah assuming
voluntarily the position of a vassal to a great alien
power; it meant foreign influence on Jewish social
and religious life; in other words, it meant sur
rendering everything in an hour of weakness and
faithlessness. To the prophet it was apostasy from
pure religion and treason against heaven's King.
Jehovah has chosen Judah and will accomplish His
purpose through her ; let her stand on the defensive,
trust in Him and bide her time. In this case loy
alty to the ideal did not mean the unpractical thing,
it never does if we understand it rightly ; if we had
more real faith there would be less need for un
worthy compromise. The great word IMMAN
UEL meant to the prophet "With us is God," and
not simply God will some day be with men in a
nobler form. Because of the lofty faith that is ex
pressed it was capable of gathering around it the
most sacred associations and becoming a prophecy
of the highest. If on that memorable day king and
people could have risen to the level of Isaiah they
would not have played the traitor to the God of
their fathers, to themselves and to their children;
knowing that God was with them, they would have
kept free from an alliance which was in its nature
disgraceful and which from any point of view was
not worth what it cost, and they would have been
saved from such shameful disaster.
But if such an alliance is wrong and harmful, will
not the prophet help them to get rid of it later on ?

PROPHET AS STATESMAN 91
Certainly not. Men must be faithful in something ;
if they will not be faithful to God they must surely
keep their own bargains. In the days of the next
king Hezekiah, when Aram and Israel had been
conquered and the Assyrian came unpleasantly near,
an Egyptian alliance was popular. In the prophet's
opinion it was wicked to enter into any alliance,
but to break away from obligations that the nation
had contracted was a still greater degree of wicked
ness. Over thirty years have passed away, Judah
has reaped the results of the disastrous policy
against which the prophet had fought so fiercely;
Hezekiah has made some attempts at religious re
formation, and the life of the small state of Judah
has been saved from complete confusion. But the
battle was hard and it is no injustice to the un
known few to say that the one faithful life, the one
steady light, was that of Isaiah. This is what he
thinks of an Egyptian alliance:
"Woe to the rebellious children, saith Jehovah,
That take counsel, but not of me ;
And that cover with a covering, but not of my
spirit,
That they may add sin to sin :
That walk to go down into Egypt,
And have not asked at my mouth,
To strengthen themselves in the strength of
Pharaoh,
And to trust in the shadow of Egypt !
Therefore shall the strength of Pharaoh be your
shame,
And the trust in the shadow of Egypt your con
fusion." (xxx. 1-3.)

92 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
"For thus saith the Lord Jehovah, the Holy One of
Israel,
In returning and rest shall ye be saved ;
In quietness and confidence shall be your strength;
And ye would not, but ye said No !
For we will flee upon horses, therefore shall ye flee ;
And on the swift will we ride, therefore shall your
pursuers be swift." (xxx. 15.)
The politicians and diplomats of that time prided
themselves upon their accurate measurement of
worldly forces, but they left God out of account.
Isaiah maintains that because Jehovah is the real
King of the world, righteousness and morality are
the greatest forces; the kingdom that rests simply
on greed and violence cannot endure, because it
violates the fundamental law of life, and insults
the majesty of God. With him faith is not
a substitute for action, nor religion a senti
mental luxury; he works always from the one
central principle which is the essence of religion and
the inspiration of noble conduct; it is the recogni
tion of God's justice in such a manner as to bring
it to bear on all the relationships of life. His ef
forts to enforce this principle in national affairs
involved a severe continuous struggle. He was
charged with wearisome repetition of his common
place morality, as if it were any valid objection to
a great lesson that we have heard it before. The
prophet is driven to reply that those who reject this
teaching in simple homely garb will have to look
upon it in the sufficiently sensational dress of a
foreign conqueror. If we find common ministries
to be tame and meaningless we may force God to his

PROPHET AS STATESMAN 93
"strange work" of judgment; in that dread hour
our cleverness will shrink to its real smallness,
even in our own sight. Thus would he reply to friv
olous chatter, and he found as little satisfaction in
the shallow congratulations that fluttered around
him in his brief hours of success ; but such a stren
uous life for forty years is not lived without satis
faction of the noblest kind, the sense of duty well
performed and the sympathy of a few discerning
spirits. Even his brightest vision could never pic
ture the full significance of the service that he had
rendered to mankind in maintaining that the true.
strength of a nation lies in its faithfulness to right- '
eousness, its loyalty to a God-given vocation.
In his ministry we find also thejue^injnjings of the
chjn-ch^d]stinctfrom the.state. The word "disciple"
occurs on almost every page of the New Testament
record, but in the early Hebrew literature it is very
rare. The word is, according to our present text,
used once by Isaiah, but we know that the living
reality must have played a great part in his fruitful
ministry. Of course the thing is old enough. Moses in
the earliest days must have had disciples, men who
sympathized with his aims and were touched by his
spirit, and who were eager to preserve the good
tradition. But here it attains a clearness, a distinc
tion and spirituality that is never again completely
lost, (viii : 16-18, xxx : 8-11.) Such prophecy could
not be learned as an art or practised as a trade, but
truth could be taught and the intelligent spirit of re
ligion kept alive. Isaiah did not desire a party in
the narrow sense of that word, he knew too well
how easily men take a fragment of the truth and

94 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
transform it into a fetich, to worship it in a mechan
ical fashion. It would have caused him still deeper
pain if he could have seen how some of his noblest
sayings would be turned to false dogmatic uses.
Neither did he conceive of the church as separate
j from the nation ; his ideal was to have commerce
so clean, worship so pure, and politics so honest
Ithat it would all be a real service to God. But the
" effect of his teaching was to create a body of dis
ciples and to stimulate thought along the lines of
what we call religious truth. One grand result
traceable to him and men of like spirit was that
when the catastrophe came that destroyed the nation
there was something that could not perish, a life
that would create new forms for itself. In this he
prepared the way for One who built His church
upon the same rock of faithfulness and declared
that the gates of hell would not prevail against it. If
in these latest ages we combine the intelligent zeal
of Isaiah with the gentle spirit of Jesus, we shall
fight the necessary battle for righeousness in every
sphere of life and refuse to acknowledge that there
is any region of man's knowledge or activity where
the presence of the King cannot be felt and obeyed.
Thus among the most influential of the forerunners
of our Lord in the Hebrew nation we place Isaiah
of Jerusalem, poet and preacher, reformer and
statesman.

PROPHETIC FELLOWSHIP; OR UNITY
AND INDIVIDUALITY

"It follows that in the narrower sense of the word the
age of saints is not past. There has never been a time
when the Gospel has not vindicated its sovereignty and
Christ has not found His living interpreters. We have not
as yet been taught to give an open place in our public
services to the latest heroes of faith, but I trust neverthe
less they are not forgotten. I trust that we call up in
grateful memory saints whom we have known — the glory
of their devoted service to give distinctness to thanks
giving and hymns. There is not one among us whose
study and whose experience may not bring some dear
companion, whom he has learnt to recognize in the silent
converse of books, or in the stirring conflicts of duty,
to swell 'the glorious company of the Apostles' and 'the
goodly friendship of the prophets' and 'the noble army of
martyrs,' men who in these later days and in our own
church have heard a call from God and interpreted it,
men who have received a burden at the hands of God and
in trust on Him have borne it, saints who have not been
reckoned in any calendar." — The Late Bishop B. F. West
cott, "Social Aspects of Christianity," page 157.

CHAPTER. VIII
PROPHETIC FELLOWSHIP; OR UNITY
AND INDIVIDUALITY
Amos, Hosea, Isaiah, Micah — these four names
stand out boldly in the history of Hebrew religion
in what is called the Assyrian period ; their pro
phetic activity falls within the last fifty or sixty
years of the eighth century b. c. Seen from this
distance of time they are the true heroes, the real
immortals of that age. Priests, princes, politicians,
are all thrown into the shade by these four great
preachers. There were other men of clear purpose
and earnest endeavour after a nobler life, but these
four were the real leaders of a higher movement
in the sphere of religious thought. We are thankful
for the nameless saints who gave their lives for the
truth though they have left no visible memorial, but
we are still more thankful that from such a time
of darkness and disaster some splendid fragments
remain to show the quality of thought and style of
speech that came from those men who fought the
stern battle of truth and righteousness. We cannot
be sure that any one of these men was acquainted
with any other; indeed the probabilities point the
other way, and at any rate there is no record of
such personal intercourse. The higher move-
97

98 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
ment of thought which owes so much to
their influence was not an organized effort or
party enterprise. These men stood very much
alone, their message was despised or neg
lected, but from men of such mighty faith
and strong personal influence there went forth a
quickening power which did not altogether fail in
its mission. We know that one of them had "disci
ples," and it is likely that the others also found a
few sympathetic hearers and congenial companions.
Spiritual influences do not any more than natural
energy travel through a perfect vacuum; the great
creative thinkers are few, but smaller men who have
the power to receive and retain new forms of truth
may also play an important part.
Even if these four men had no actual personal
intercourse we can think and speak of them as
forming a spiritual company, a prophetic fellowship.
They belong to the same age, they face the same
problems and meet the same difficulties. They live
under the same political conditions, their circum
stances are in many respects similar, they all look
to the great Assyrian power as the instrument of
those judgments which manifest the righteousness
of God. In other words they have the same back
ground of history and breathe the same spiritual
atmosphere. Yet each of them has a strongly
marked individuality; no one of them is a mere
imitator; each man is himself and not to be con
founded with any other; intense faithfulness to the
same great principles issues in peculiarity of
thought and distinction of character. They all pro
claim the righteousness of God and the spirituality

PROPHETIC FELLOWSHIP 99
of religion, but each with his own tone, accent and
emphasis. These great original preachers are all
impelled by clear intelligence and passionate feeling,
but the sternness of Amos differs from that of
Isaiah, and the intense emotion of Hosea is unlike
Micah's fierce passion. One has breadth, another
intensity; one moves us by the fiery outburst of
mingled pity and indignation, the other by the power
of clear, consistent, concentrated thought.
COMMON FEATURES.
All these men look upon impurity of worship and
unrighteousness of conduct as wicked and foolish
rebellion against a God who has been generous in ¦, ^
his gifts and gracious in his guidance :
"Also I brought you up out of the land of Egypt,
And led you forty years in the wilderness,
To possess the land of the Amorite,
And I raised up of your sons for prophets,
And of your young men for Nazirites ;
Is it not even thus, O ye children of Israel ?"
(Amos ii. 10, 11.)
"When Israel was young then I loved him,
And called my son out of Egypt."
"I did know thee in the wilderness,
In the land of great drought." (Hosea xi. 1 ; xiii. 5.)
"Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth, for
Jehovah hath spoken. Sons have I made great and
exalted and they have been untrue to me."
(Isaiah i. 2.)

ioo PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
In Micah also the unfaithfulness is clearly and
strongly stated, even if the privileges and blessings
are not set forward so prominently. The peasant
prophet, as is natural, confines himself to the sad
facts of corruption and disorder among his own
people; he does not reveal such a wide outlook of
politics or large background of history.
All the four prophets complain bitterly that true
teaching, faithful ministry is treated with coarse
contempt. "But ye gave the Nazirites wine to drink
And commanded the prophets, saying,
Prophesy not." (Amos ii. 12.)
"Though I wrote for him my law in myriad forms
They are counted as a strange thing." (Hosea viii. 12.)
"For it is a rebellious people;
They are lying sons
Who will not hear the teachings of Jehovah."
(Isaiah xxx. 9.)
"If a man walking in wind and falsehood deals in
lies,
I will prophesy unto thee of wine and strong drink ;
Even he shall be the prophet of this people."
(Micah ii. 11.)
In these prophecies we find the strongest denun
ciations of greed and injustice; and in these strong
words there is a threefold revelation. First of social
disorder resulting from increasing division between
class and class ; second, of the prophet's strong pas-

PROPHETIC FELLOWSHIP 101
sion for justice ; and third, of his intense pity for the
poor. These elements may be differently balanced
in the individual prophets.
"Ye that afflict the just, that take a bribe
And turn aside the needy in the gate." (Amos v. 12.)
"There is nought but perjury and lying,
Killing and stealing and committing adultery ;
They commit acts of violence,
They heap murder on murder." (Hosea iv. 2.)
"Woe to those who join house to house,
Who lay field to field
Until no room is left
And ye dwell alone in the midst of the land."
(Isaiah v. 8.)
"Woe to those who devise iniquity
And execute evil upon their beds ;
In the morning light they practise it
Because it is in the power of their hands;
They covet fields and seize them,
And houses and take them away ;
They oppress a man and his house,
Even a man and his heritage." (Micah ii. 1, 2.)
It is evident that we have here the common char
acter of pre-exilic prophecy in which condemna
tion rather than consolation was the dominant note.
This is further confirmed when we observe the atti
tude of these teachers to the public worship of their
time. Micah in his prophecy against Samaria has

102 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
one short, scathing allusion to "her graven images" ;
and the following fierce attack on Zion should be
carefully compared with Isaiah's song of the city :
"Her chiefs judge for reward
And her priests teach for hire;
Her prophets divine for money,
Yet they will lean upon Jehovah and say,
Is not Jehovah in the midst of us ?
No evil shall come upon us!"
(Micah iii. n; cf. Isa. i. 21-26.)
Isaiah distinctly repudiates in the name of Jehovah
the gorgeous ceremonial which the Jerusalem wor
shippers offer as a substitute for righteousness of
daily life. "Your new moons and your appointed
feasts my soul loathes ; they are a trouble unto me ;
I am weary to bear them." Of the two earlier
prophets it is not necessary to speak in this connec
tion, as their preaching is a powerful polemic against
an impure sensual worship offered at the various
sanctuaries in Northern Israel. This characteristic
passage from Amos should also be compared with
the stern sermon delivered by Isaiah to the wor
shippers at Jerusalem:
"I hate, I despise your feasts ;
I will take no delight in your solemn assemblies."
"But let judgment roll down as waters,
And righteousness as a mighty stream." (Amos v. 21-24.)
Hosea in his own way reiterates the same great
truth, that obedience is better than sacrifice, "and
the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings."

PROPHETIC FELLOWSHIP 103
Neither shall their sacrifices be pleasing unto Him ;
Their bread shall be unto them as the bread of
mourners,
For their bread shall be only for their hunger ;
It shall not come into the house of Jehovah.
What will ye do in the day of solemn assembly,
And in the day of the feast of Jehovah?" (Hosea ix. 4, 5.)
DISTINCTIVE CHARACTER.
A careful student may note individuality of tone
and temper even when the same theme is handled.
The points of contact do not by any means furnish
us with cases of mere mechanical repetition. But
each prophet has also his own special message, and
no one name can do justice to this particular feature.
Names, however, are helpful if we remember the
limitation under which they are used.
THE PROPHET OF MORALITY.
The prophets did not separate morality from re
ligion; in fact their whole ministry was a protest
against such separation, and they rendered an eter
nal service by insisting that religion must manifest
itself in all the relations of private and social life.
Hence, while it would be unjust to class as "a mere
moralist" a man who claims so distinctly to have
an original message from God, there is a real sense
in which Amos may be called the prophet of moral
ity. He marks a new epoch in the ethical teaching
of the Hebrew religion. Read his wide survey in
the first chapter and see how such strong moral

104 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
teaching breaks down national and sectarian bar
riers. It is through this teaching, practically ap
plied to social and political life, that the religion of
Israel is to become conscious of its large significance
and world-wide mission. Note how he takes such
popular phrases as "the day of Jehovah" and "Jeho
vah of hosts" and sanctifies them for future serv
ice by cleansing them from base, selfish associations
and making them the medium of his own nobler
teaching. We cannot claim for Amos subtlety of
thought or tenderness of feeling, but he loyally
placed at the service of his God a largeness of view,
a breadth of sympathy, a stern passion for righteous
ness. That is a noble contribution for one man in
any age. If Amos had been complete there would
have been no need for any other ; what he was com
missioned to give was partial, but it was of the
highest value. The man who in a time of low ideals
and coarse sensual religion could say —
"You only have I known of all the families of the
earth,
Therefore will I visit upon you all your iniquities,"
that man gave religion the supreme place, and pre
pared the way for those who should explain more
fully the connection between election and service.*
THE PROPHET OF LOVE.
The book of Hosea is difficult from the point of
view of continuous reading and minute interpreta
tion, but the general impression is clear, and as we
glance over it we have a feeling of familiarity be-

*See Chapter XXI.

PROPHETIC FELLOWSHIP 105
cause of the fact that so many of these fragments
have entered into common religious speech. For
example: "I will have mercy and not sacrifice."
"Come, let us to the Lord return." "Your goodness
is as a morning cloud, and as the dew that goeth
early away." "For they sow the wind, and they
shall reap the whirlwind." "Gray hairs are here
and there upon him, and he knoweth it not." "Eph
raim is a cake not turned," etc. Though it may be
difficult to explain the details of this prophecy, we
can easily form a distinct conception of Hosea as a
man of intense feeling and a prophet of love. He is
tender and emotional; he has passed through sad
domestic experiences ; the facts of his life and the
peculiarities of his temperament influence the in
tellectual forms of his message. His treatment of
Israel's unfaithfulness is very different from that
of Amos. Israel is the unfaithful bride of Jehovah
and all her pretentious impure worship is so much
harlotry, a powerful figure that is much used by
later prophets. Hosea has his own interpretation
of history; he looks upon the schism as a sin, and
declares that God will avenge "the blood of Jezreel."
Like Isaiah he uses symbolic names which speak of
mercy and judgment. And if he does not give us
detailed pictures of future blessedness, he knows
how as a poet and preacher to mingle light and
shade. This is not conscious art, but the actual re
flection of his own changing moods and alternating
hopes and fears.
"I will heal their backsliding,
I will love them freely,
I will be as the dew unto Israel:

io6 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
He shall blossom as the lily,
And cast forth his roots as Lebanon."
(xiv. 4, 5.)
Other prophets teach us that judgment is Jeho
vah's "strange work," but here we find this truth
expressed in the tender tones of love, and with a
compassion that is prophetic of the gentleness of
Christ :
"How shall I give thee up, O Ephraim ?
How shall I deliver thee, Israel ?
How shall I make thee as Admah ?
How shall I set thee as Zeboim?
Mine heart is turned within me,
My compassions are kindled together." (xi.8.)
It is significant and suggestive that when the
prophet expresses most strongly the pitiful tender
ness with which Jehovah stoops over the people
whom He is compelled to punish, that He can add
as a reason both for the mercy and the judgment:
"For I am God and not man,
The Holy One in the midst of thee." (xi. 8, 9.)
THE PROPHET OF THE POOR.
In the original prophecy of Micah (i-iii) there
is neither the breadth of Amos, the intensity and
variety of Hosea nor the splendour of Isaiah ; after
the noble opening there is a certain plainness and
grimness. Micah is true to his character as a plain
man of the country, who fears God and hates injus
tice. His preaching, however, is not mere political
socialism, it is thoroughly suffused with religious

PROPHETIC FELLOWSHIP 107
feeling; the poor who are oppressed lose by ruth
less eviction ; lose not only the piece of land which
gave them life, but also a lot in "the congregation
of Jehovah." He is not a theologian in any large
sense, he is not a statesman, but as rustic poet
and patriot preacher he plays his part and con
tributes his share to the great literature which rep
resents such a wonderfully varied life. If we note
this characteristic utterance we may see clearly that
rugged force rather than politeness and polish
marks the utterance of this man from the lowlands
of Judah.
"And I said — Hear, I pray you, ye heads of Jacob,
And rulers of the house of Israel,
Is it not for you to know judgment?
They hate the good and love the evil,
They tear the skin off the body
And the flesh from off the bones,
They devour the flesh of my people,
They take the skin off their bodies,
They bruise their bones,
They chop them in pieces as for the pot . "
(iii. 1-4.)
THE PROPHET OF FAITH.
Isaiah has much in common with all the other
great prophets of this period; from the standpoint
of lofty thought and large influence he is the great
est. He is poet and preacher, thinker and states
man. When we speak of him as the prophet of
faith it is not to suggest that he has a theory of
faith, but rather to emphasize the fact that he brings
a nobler faith because he has a grander conception

io8 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
of God. The purity and majesty of God is the
centre of his thought ; his faith in the Eternal King
is so intense, intelligent and well balanced that it
controls his thinking and builds it up into a living
system of truth. This faith begets real reverence;
it reveals to a man his weakness and then makes
him strong; it brings in a fear of God that drives
out all base fear; it casts a man down that it may
inspire and uplift him. Hence, "the day of Jehovah"
is a day when man's foolish arrogance and paltry
pride will be cast down before the presence of the
divine King. Because the worship in the temple,
the business of the civic council, the politics of the
court, because all these forms of life can now be
seen to be feeble and impure, men ought to know
better than look forward to "the day of Jehovah"
with shallow self-satisfaction. A faith such as
Isaiah possesed was the foe of all those evils against
which the other prophets declaimed. If men had
more of this faith they would respond to the de
mand of Amos for brotherhood, of Hosea for kind
ness and loyalty, of Micah for justice; such faith
is not a mere theory or formula, but a living force
which leads a man to cherish thoughtfulness and
reverence in all times and places, because he sees
that the whole earth is filled with the glory of the
Lord. "Mine eyes have seen the King" means that
there is order everywhere, and that the man who
fights for righteousness has behind him the strength
of universal and everlasting law.

THE PROPHET AS DISCIPLE

"Zephaniah is of importance to us less on his own ac
count than because of his use of Isaiah. He shows what
use a sober imitator can make of the master's material of
thought. And indeed the striking thing is the emphasis
with which at least the extensive completeness of the judg
ment as well as of the restoration is made prominent: all
peoples shall be punished, purified and made serviceable to
Jehovah. It was not given to Zephaniah to penetrate to
the depth of his model, hence his prophecy does not mark
an advance, least of all in view of his contemporary Jere
miah ; but he is one of those who bear witness to the sig
nificance of Isaiah for the religion of Israel." — B. Duhm,
"Die Theologie der Propheten," page 225.
"Prophecy was again roused from its slumbers by the
trumpet notes of the world's history. In 650 the Assyrian
Empire was, if anything, greater and mightier than ever.
But now destiny knocked at its gates. From the coasts of
the Black Sea a storm broke forth over Asia, such as man
had never before witnessed. Wild tribes of horsemen,
after the manner of the later Huns and Mongolians, over
ran for more than twenty years all Asia on their fast
horses, which seemed never to tire, spreading everywhere
desolation and terror. Egypt had torn itself away from
the rule of the Assyrian?, and a new and terrible enemy in
the Medes who were now consolidating their forces in the
rear of Nineveh appeared. The Assyrian world-edifice
cracked in all its joints, and grave revolutions were im
minent. At once prophecy is at hand with the small but
valuable book of Zephaniah. The thunder of the last
judgment rolls in Zephaniah's powerful words, whose
dithyrambic lilt and wondrous music no translation can
render. The Dies irae, dies ilia, which the Roman church
and the whole musical world now sings as a requiem, is
taken word for word from Zephaniah." — Prof. C. H. Cor
nill, "The Prophets of Israel," page 76.

CHAPTER IX
THE PROPHET AS DISCIPLE
(zephaniah )
The great creative minds, the original leaders of
the highest movements are few, hence we must not
undervalue the prophets and teachers of secondary
rank who according to their capacity develop and
apply the truth that has been given. After the
preaching of the four great prophets, the judgment
that confirmed it, and the attempted reformation
that came out of it, there was a violent reaction
marked by gloomy superstition and bitter persecu
tion. Between these dark days under Manasseh
and the new reforming movement under Josiah,
Zephaniah exercised his ministry. The book as
cribed to him is a small one, but it is sufficient to
show that he is a disciple, that is, he is dependent
upon his predecessors and especially upon the great
Isaiah ; and further that he has distinct individual
ity, the fragment of truth that he does grasp he
uses effectively for practical purposes.
By the substance of his thought, as well as the
style of his teaching, this prophet is linked to Isaiah.
Like that great prophet he also is a man of Jeru
salem, well acquainted with the city and addressing
his admonitions specially to its inhabitants. "The
m

112 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
princes and the king's children" receive particular
attention ; the quarters of the city where the judg
ment is likely to strike first are pointed out. The
local colour and social atmosphere is that of a man
quite familiar with the varied life and activity of
the capital. In this connection then it is worthy of
note that Hezekiah, the ancestor of Zephaniah,
referred to in the superscription, may be the king
of that name with whom Isaiah had so much to do,
and in whose reign a real if not effective effort was
made for the reformation of religion. The preach
ing of Isaiah and the reforming zeal of Hezekiah,
superficially considered, seem to have overshot the
mark and ended in complete failure. But a new race
of teachers and reformers is about to arise who will
be something more than pale reflections of the earlier
prophets; men who will broaden the message and
adapt it to new conditions. In Zephaniah the in
fluence of the old can be very clearly traced, while
there is clearly visible a new beginning of zeal and
hopefulness. He may be correctly called a prophet
of judgment, though even if we leave out of con
sideration the beautiful passage with which the
book closes we may still say that he knows how to
mingle promise with threatening. At the beginning
we read, "I will cut off man from off the land, saith
Jehovah. I will also stretch out mine hand upon
Judah, and upon all the inhabitants of Jerusalem1,"
and at the end we have this promise: "The rem
nant of Israel shall not do iniquity nor speak lies;
neither shall a deceitful tongue be found in their
mouth, for they shall feed and lie down and none
shall make them afraid."

PROPHET AS DISCIPLE 113
OLDER THOUGHTS IN A NEW SETTING.
When Zephaniah declares that Jehovah will root
out what is left of Baal worship he is taking his
place in a long line of men who fought for the
spirituality of religion and the purity of worship.
(i. 4.) For centuries this warfare has been carried
on in various forms. Indeed, when the Hebrews
came into Palestine with their nobler faith and purer
thought of God war to the death was inevitable.
This was a long, costly struggle. One important
incident in it was the destruction of Northern Israel,
where Elijah had fought so heroically and Hosea
preached in such tender plaintive tones. (1 Kings
xviii.; Hosea ii. 16.) Sensuous superstition in the
form of coarse nature worship lingers on in Pales
tine to this day, but the prophet was right in his
belief that by means of a great judgment God would
gain for Himself a people whose religion would
move on a higher level of intelligence and in a
sweeter atmosphere of piety. It was not by judg
ment alone that this was brought about, but also
by the ministry of faithful men who were ever
seeking to cleanse religion from the impure ele
ments common to that time and place. When the
name Baal was set aside much still remained to be
done, for the old paganism can live very vigorously
under new and higher names.
It is instructive to compare Zephaniah's announce
ment of judgment with that of other prophets. He
has caught something of the tone and style of Amos
and Isaiah, and if there is a tendency to a more sys
tematic treatment of the theme there is less original

114 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
connection of thought. Amos reverses the popular
view of "the day of Jehovah" by showing the real
nature of God's demands. In Isaiah this great day
is a manifestation of the majesty of the divine
King, before which the power and pride of men is
bowed down. In both these cases the message
comes first to Israel and Judah ; its universal signifi
cance grows out of its moral nature, or in other
words, springs from the fact that the principles of
righteousness revealed in God's dealings with Israel
must be applicable to the whole world. In our
prophet the setting is different ; the prophecy begins
with a general announcement : "I will utterly con
sume all things from off the face of the ground,
saith Jehovah. I will consume man and beast ; I
will consume the fowls of the heaven, and the fishes
of the sea," etc. Without giving any reason for
this world-wide catastrophe, the statement is nar
rowed down to a threat against Judah and Jerusa
lem, for which detailed reasons are given. Thus
the punishment of Judah is treated as an incident
in a judgment universal in its scope and character.
The classic passage beginning "The great day of
Jehovah is near. It is near and greatly hasteth"
has also a certain vagueness which has fitted it
for use in later days as a vehicle for the solemn
suggestion of a great day of doom. (i. 14-7.) No
doubt it is impressive to be reminded that "the day
of Jehovah is near," but it must not lead us to for
get the other truth which the prophets helped to
make clear, namely, that life itself is a constant
silent process of judgment.

PROPHET AS DISCIPLE 115
The threat against Assyria and Nineveh, its chief
city, was not new. About this period it received its
strongest, most passionate expression in the proph
ecy of Nahum. One can understand how after the
tyranny and cruelty of Assyria, and after Isaiah's
teaching that though Jehovah might use the proud
empire he would punish it, the people of Judah came
to look upon this particular foreign power as the
personification of wickedness. The judgment of the
world has as one of its chief features the destruc
tion of Nineveh. A century later Babylon came to
occupy this place in the thoughts of Jewish patriots,
but as yet the Babylonian conquest with all its hor
rors is still in the future. This prediction is not a
mere cry for revenge, but an expression of faith in
a righteous ruler who will bring the proud nation
to account for its many crimes. It was amply ful
filled, even if the event came about in a form some
what different from the prophet's expectations.
HIS MESSAGE TO THE CITY.
Zephaniah resembles the earlier prophets in this
that he announces judgment coming upon his own
people. He does not develop at great length his con
ception of God's character, but states briefly, "Je
hovah is righteous in the midst of her ; morning by
morning He brings His justice to light." How
ever, by his strong specific charge against the city he
shows clearly that Jehovah demands social right
eousness and religious purity. He sets forth
the judgment in a startling form: It is "the
day of Jehovah's sacrifice." "Jehovah hath pre
pared a sacrifice; He hath bid His guests." The

116 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
prophet sees the weird picture and makes it stand out
clearly by a few sharp strokes. Judah is the vic
tim in a sacrificial meal ; the slaughter is complete ;
her enemies gather now in solemn silence round
the altar. The grim idea is not altogether new, but
the prophet is not a smooth imitator of other men's
illustrations. Yet in this place and in the word play
of ii. 4 this supposed descendant of King Hezekiah
does remind us of the peasant prophet Micah.
What then are the sins which merit such terrible
doom, and make it so inevitable? The lawlessness
of princes and the coarse selfishness of priests. The
dishonesty of traffickers and the careless frivolity
of the common people. There is lack of true lead
ership and, as Hosea said, it is "like priest, like peo
ple." What a terrible indictment is this :
"Woe to her that is rebellious and polluted, to the
oppressing city!
She obeyed not the voice ; she received not instruc
tion ;
She trusted not in Jehovah; she drew not near to
her God.
Her princes within her are roaring lions ;
Her judges are evening wolves ;
Her prophets are bragging, treacherous men ;
They leave nothing till the morrow.
Her priests have profaned the sacred things, they
have done violence to the law."
This is certainly a powerful picture of social dis
order and reckless irresponsibility ; and in such cir
cumstances we are not surprised to learn that from
the point of view of religion matters are in a hope-

PROPHET AS DISCIPLE 117
less condition. Some practice foreign idolatries;
"they worship the host of heaven upon the house
tops." These ape recent fashions and import their
religion, as well as their clothes, from abroad. Some
pray to Jehovah and swear by Molech they are de
termined to avoid fanaticism and think it safer to
have two gods than one. They do not understand
that there is a noble intolerance — the outcome of
intelligence and faith. And then there are the scep
tics, those who think that all this trouble about re
ligion of one kind or the other is absurd.
"I will search Jerusalem with lanterns,
And punish the men that are settled on their lees
That say in their heart, Jehovah will not do good,
Neither will He do evil."
These are the indifferent who have no faith, no
zeal in God's service, no sense of public duty. They
justify themselves on the plea that Jehovah is an
absentee God, who does nothing, but allows the
world to whirl along in any careless fashion. This
is the real infidelity, this assertion that there is no
real vindication of divine law in human life, and
hence no significance in worship, no meaning in
duty. When Jehovah comes on His round of in
spection and searches out the dark corners that easy
going folly will be put to shame.
In such a chaotic condition of things, with sweep
ing judgment inevitable, where is there room for
any hope?
Logically it seems to be excluded; the prophet's
scheme of thought scarcely provides for it, but his

118 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
soul hungers for it and faith leaps up into the face
of fear.
"Seek Jehovah, all ye humble ones of the earth ;
Ye who perform His ordinances
Seek righteousness, seek humility;
It may be that ye shall be hidden in the day of
Jehovah's anger." — (ii. 3.)

THE PROPHET OF VENGEANCE— NAHUM

NAHUM
"So he chants of winds and the earthquake: these are
the hot breath and the awful tread of God. Of old He
was the Maker and the Lord of the rain, and of all that
rain could bring of evil and of good. The clouds that
darkened the sky were the dust flung up by His feet and
by His hosts that rushed along at His will. Men saw
the cloud, and then they knew that He was coming. So
today cries Nahum, the dashing of great waves, the dry
ing away of our rivers, is all caused by His treading on
the sea and streams. There flash the lightnings; they
are the gleam of His sword and spear. See, the tops of
mountains are dashed off, and roll away down as in a
molten stream to the plain. This is because He is plant
ing His feet on the high places, whereon He may alight
as He descends to earth. It is His anger's heat that
burns in summer time the forests of Lebanon, the vines
on Carmel, and the wheat fields of Bashan. When our
elements rage, it is our God Iahweh who rages. Know
then His awful anger; understand His heart." — Prof. A.
Duff, LL.D., "Old Testament Theology," ii. 48.

CHAPTER X
THE PROPHET OF VENGEANCE— NAHUM
The great prophets before the Babylonian Exile,
because they were preachers of righteousness, placed
God's judgments in the forefront of their message ;
most of them for the very same reason laid the
greater emphasis upon the chastisement that must
come upon Israel. They were all, no doubt, con
scious that the principles underlying such preaching
were capable of wide application. But with Amos,
Hosea, Micah and Jeremiah the supreme question
was how to bring home to the hearts of their own
people the thought that their God is zealous for
righteousness rather than desirous of splendid ritual.
They were prepared to judge other nations in the
light of the same searching, impartial standard ; but
as the righteousness of God was the central princi
ple, the organizing idea of all their teaching, their
own nation was their chief concern and the direct
object of their ministry. Each in his own way might
preach a strong sermon on the text, "Vengeance is
mine ; I will repay, saith Jehovah." But in Nahum
we meet a prophet for whom this is the one text and
the whole sermon. The destruction of Nineveh is
the theme, treated as a manifestation of Jehovah's
power going forth in stern judgment, meting out

122 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
merited punishment to an exceedingly proud and
wicked nation.
This is the one thing that is certain in connection
with this small book; it stands out boldly in the
midst of many minor uncertainties. The proud city
of Nineveh is about to meet its doom at the hand of
an avenging God ; the prophet, recognizing the jus
tice of God, and remembering the cruel deeds of the
Assyrian Empire, feels justified in exulting over
the terrible fate which he pictures in such a vivid,
powerful fashion. The one aspect of truth pro
claimed in such patriotic, passionate tones is that at
last, even after long delay, complete punishment
comes upon the arrogant nation that has despised
God and outraged humanity. This, of course, im
plies many things; but we are now concerned with
the prophet's special view of the world.
THE UNCERTAINTIES.
We are not sure just at what point within the lat
ter half of the seventh century B. C. we must place
this book. It is characteristic that the two lines
which inclose the space are two acts of judgment,
two chapters in the great world-story of divine retri
bution (iii. 8). If the writer is regarded as a suc
cessor of Isaiah, we must admit that he presents
only a subordinate fragment of that great prophet's
teaching. If we think of him as a contemporary of
Jeremiah, we remember that it was a very different
side of the truth that was emphasized in those dark
days by that faithful, many-sided man. As for
Nahum himself, we know him only by means of
this brief prophecy and if it reveals vividness of im-

PROPHET OF VENGEANCE 123
agination and intensity of feeling, it certainly shows
an unusual narrowness of range in one who pos
sessed great gifts, and who saw these scenes with the
poet's eye. One would like to accept the suggestion
that here was a man who belonged to "the lost ten
tribes" and was not lost ; a member of that section
of Israel which suffered most severely from Assyr
ia commissioned to herald the doom of the proud,
cruel empire. There would surely be more than "po
etic justice" in that; such a view may be permitted
as a "pious opinion," but cannot claim to rank as a
sure result of historical investigation. Two or three
words and a few doubtful allusions must not be
made to carry too great a burden. Absolute unity
of authorship may be questioned even by men who
are not given to eccentricities of criticism. The
fact that there is no certain reference to Nineveh
in the first chapter, and that this section is in its
character a poetic and theological introduction —
these and other things may admit of various ex
planations. But there is, at all events, a spirit
ual unity, a similarity of tone and atmosphere
which justifies us in reading the great doctrine
of an avenging God, in the light of the whole
book. Interpreters may differ as to the point
whether the prophet had in view the actual foe of
Nineveh, the specific instrument appointed to exe
cute the doom, or whether from a greater distance
he delivered with tremendous force and clearness
the God-given message. But none of these differ
ences need dim our view of the particular prophetic
idea here embodied.

124 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
A DEFINITE MESSAGE AND ITS TEACHING.
Nineveh was a great city, the centre of a splendid
empire, an empire that had a long career of vic
tory; and victory in such a case meant unbridled
violence, cruel greed, insatiable lust. This empire
then was one of the richest, most powerful and most
flagrantly wicked that the world has ever seen. The
story of this splendid tyranny and social corruption
can be read in books and in the stones dug up long
after Nineveh was dead and forgotten. The resur
rection of Nineveh has only confirmed the story of
its shame and proved that the prophet, with all his
passion, was not guilty of exaggeration. Israel and
Judah had suffered much from these arrogant, un
principled tyrants ; and it is quite natural that with
the prophet's poetic fervour there should be mingled
the fire of intense patriotism. As we follow his
predictions we can hear the crack of the whip and
the clatter of the chariot ; we can see the victorious
army rushing to the final attack, and see the multi
tude of corpses strewn in disorder about the path.
The lion is tracked to his last lair and slaughtered
without mercy. In the hour of doom strong men
faint, and powerful defences fail. It was a bloody
city, full of lies and robbery. The judgment is thor
ough; there is no healing of the bruise. No more
shall the ambassadors of this proud city go forth to
dictate oppressive terms to weak peoples. All that
hear the noise of her downfall will clap their hands
with revengeful joy. Her wickedness has passed
upon all the peoples continually ; and when she dies
there is no creature to mourn. Men's minds are

PROPHET OF VENGEANCE 125
filled with the solemn conviction that God has taken
a great curse from off the face of the earth.
This is our prophet's one distinctive message; it
was true, and history has abundantly justified it.
We do not say that this was all the truth he held,
but it is what he has given us with all his intensity
of conviction and glory of poetic imagery. Hence
the view of God given in the first chapter forms a
fitting background for such a prediction.
"A jealous God and vengeful is Jehovah;
Jehovah is vengeful and wrathful;
Jehovah is vengeful upon His adversaries
And retaineth wrath against His enemies."
This magnificent theophany needs meditation, not
commentary. Instead of "Jehovah is slow to
anger, and great in power,
And will not acquit the wicked" (i. 3)
it is suggested that we should read "great in mercy,"
and so bring the verse into line with a great number
of other passages. But there is no documentary evi
dence requiring this, and surely the mention of
power is most appropriate here. The message is
that "Though the mills of God grind slowly, yet they
grind exceeding small;
Though with patience He stands waiting, with
exactness grinds He all."
The punishment of guilt may be slow in coming,
but it is absolutely sure. At the seventh verse it
may be well to follow the Greek Bible and gain a
better parallelism, thus:

126 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
"Jehovah is good to those who wait on Him,
A stronghold in the day of trouble."
But the Hebrew version, "Good as a stronghold in
the day of trouble," contains a thought specially
suitable in such an atmosphere; on the whole, it is
the tremendous power and stern justice of the great
God that is made prominent, and these are brought
to bear upon a wicked nation. The distinction of
our prophet is the way in which he makes this
thought stand out in its solitary grandeur.
When we examine the differences that separate
Nahum from those who went before, we must admit
that they are great and of immense importance.
Perhaps it is not well to press the point that he does
not, like Isaiah, speak of Assyria as an instrument
in the hand of Jehovah, for the time had come
that Isaiah himself foresaw when God would
cast away the rod He had used. It is signifi
cant that he says nothing concerning the sins
of his own people and concentrates attention so
exclusively on a foreign nation, and this at a time
when Judah was preparing for the greatest catas
trophe in its history. Assyria passes away, but
Babylon takes the place, and becomes "the servant
of Jehovah" to administer a still severer chastise
ment upon the people who had rejected so many
privileges. It may be said that he had a specific
message to deliver which did not involve the presen
tation of a large circle of religious ideas. Let us,
then, remember that the proclamation of vengeance
against the outside foe, pleasant as it may be to our
patriotic pride, is only a small part of the prophetic
activity, and that there is danger that our joy over

PROPHET OF VENGEANCE 127
the enemy's fall may be greater than our hatred of
the sins that God has so strikingly condemned. As
a matter of fact, this was precisely the temptation
to which the Jews yielded in later days ; they made
the contrast between themselves and the world ab
solute, privilege and blessing for themselves and
severe judgment for those outside became the fixed
and central point of their creed. Thus they teach us
that one aspect of truth must not be separated from
the whole to which it belongs, and in which it finds
its explanation.
Nahum sets forth one form of the truth that the
world is governed by a righteous God. Religion
does not condemn a wholesome patriotism ; through
the religious influence that purifies and enlarges it,
this natural feeling finds its fullest satisfaction. The
indignation against tyranny and cruelty, the pas
sionate cry for vengeance on those who, in a ruth
less fashion, outrage all divine and human laws, is
an expression of that justice which centres in God
and which He will, in due time, vindicate. God does
hear the cry of the oppressed, end He will destroy
the nation that is built up by brute violence and
lawless selfishness. But He will also cause the
noblest nation to suffer for mistakes and pay the
penalty of sins. In our own day, and within our
own borders, we may see the principle which lies
behind this prophecy working out its legitimate con
clusion, a conclusion which works for righteousness
and serves the interests of mercy.

THE PROPHET'S QUESTIONING

"Perplext in faith, but pure in deeds,
At last he beat his music out.
There lives more faith in honest doubt,
Believe me, than in half the creeds.
He fought his doubts and gather'd strength,
He would not make his judgment blind.
He faced the spectres of the mind
And laid them : thus he came at length
To find a stronger faith his own;
And Power was with him in the night
Which makes the darkness and the light,
And dwells not in the light alone,
But in the darkness and the cloud,
As over Sinai's peaks of old,
While Israel made their gods of gold,
Altho' the trumpet blew so loud." — Tennyson.

CHAPTER XI
THE PROPHET'S QUESTIONING
(habakkuk )
This prophet presents his impatient question be
fore the throne of God. He receives an answer
which becomes a message to his time and which
possesses perennial significance. We can scarcely
call this "scepticism;" it is rather painful perplex
ity. His religious beliefs are clear and strong, but
the question is how can they be harmonized with
the facts of life? This problem is considered from
the personal point of view in the Book of Job,
Psalm1 Ixxiii. and elsewhere, but here the signifi
cance is national. "Righteous" means the Jewish
nation and "wicked" the Chaldeans. In later Juda
ism this contrast between the righteous nation and
the wicked foreign foe was held in a hard mechan
ical fashion, but here it is set forth in connection
with a great moral principle, which refuses to be
fastened to any local limitation. Before the prophet
went to his watch-tower he was able to affirm his
living faith in a God who rules the world and whose
eyes are so pure that they cannot look upon evil (i.
12-15). Indeed what would be the use of going to
watch and pray if he did not believe in the Holy
One who can answer his cry and explain the glaring
131

132 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
contradiction? "Wherefore lookest Thou upon
them that deal treacherously, and holdest Thy peace
when the wicked swalloweth up the man that is more
righteous than he ?" It is because the man's faith is
so real and the facts of life also so real that the
problem is so pressing and painful.
The splendid poem in the third chapter is a suit
able supplement with its magnificent theophany and
its beautiful expression of sublime trust in the God
of salvation, but it is not closely connected with
the main theme of the book; our prophet is con
cerned more with the righteousness than the power
of Jehovah. There are many difficulties to be en
countered in the detailed explanation of the first
two chapters, and the settlement of these will nat
urally influence the way in which an expositor states
the precise form of the prophet's question and an
swer ; but the principle involved is the same, whether
we regard him as dealing with the battle between
the wicked and the righteous within the pale of his
own nation or as concerned altogether with the pride
and insolence of the outside enemy; or, in other
words, if he is more closely related to Nahum than
to Jeremiah. Among the true prophets we meet
variety and individuality. Each has his own point
of view, but they are all men who are seeking to
interpret the facts of life in the light of God's right
eousness. In this book we learn specially that
prophecy has a strong relation to the prophet's own
experience. It is not a message copied from a book ;
it is not a ready-made formula or even a carefully
reasoned intellectual solution. It comes to him from
God by a process that stirs into high activity all the

PROPHET'S QUESTIONING 133
powers of his soul. Habakkuk wrestles with the
difficulty that oppresses him; he prays and waits
until he prevails. Like another true saint, he does
not use his doubts to show his own cleverness or
to disturb others, but waits until he has something
positive to preach when even the perplexities viewed
in the light of the sanctuary shall play a useful
part. "Jehovah, how long shall I cry and Thou wilt not
hear?
I cry unto Thee of violence and Thou doest not help ;
Wherefore dost Thou make me to see iniquity, and
dost look upon trouble?"
— (i. 2, 3; cf. Psalm Ixxiii. 15.)
Here we have weariness, impatience and perplex
ity. The prophet views with personal irritation the
dark problem of life as it appears before his eyes.
He has pity upon his own people; he knows that
their life is imperfect, but when he thinks of the
efforts that have been made to raise the standard
of righteousness in politics and religion, he wonders
that people worse than they should be allowed to
punish them, and that the scornful foreigner's op
pressive cruelty should prevail so long. It was just
at this point that many broke down and said, "Je
hovah does not care, or His power is limited. It is
no use being so narrow ; we may as well compromise
matters and pay some little tribute to the other
gods and receive a share of the success they have
to give." It is when we realize the popular supersti
tions of the time that we can appreciate the loneli
ness, strength and grandeur of the prophets. A man

134 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
who was so hard pressed in spite of his noble faith
could have some compassion on those who were so
much weaker than himself.
We can understand the prophet's impatience.
There may be weakness in it, but it is also tinged
with piety and patriotism. It is not all personal
vexation. There is much real zeal and jealousy for
the righteousness of God. The prophet is just as
zealous for the vindication of Jehovah's character
as for the honour and safety of his own nation. But
God's demand is that the prophet must have pa
tience. It is the prophet's duty to watch and wait.
He can utter his complaint. Certainly there is no
book where man's freedom of utterance is more
fully vindicated than in the Old Testament. Every
mood and passion of the soul finds full expression.
So long as it is not mere self-conceit or idle fret-
fulness it is good that man's complaint should be
spoken and not cherished in sullen silence. When
that is done the prophet can look longingly to
wards God. How dignified is this attitude !
"I will stand upon my watch, and set me on my
tower,
And I will look forth to see what He will speak
with me
And what answer He will give to my plea."
To such anxious hope and earnest expectation
an answer is not lacking. The man who really de
sires to look at things in the light of eternity is
lifted above party interests and personal prejudices,
and can look out with a clear eye to discern the
signs of the times, and interpret the movement of

PROPHET'S QUESTIONING 135
history. The God-sent vision that answers the
questioning of his own soul forms a message that is
needed by all. The revelation is not for his private
satisfaction. It must not be hidden. Let it be
placarded in the streets in plain characters so that
all may read it. God has His wise righteous pur
poses that are even now moving towards their ful
filment and hastening to the end. Though this ful
filment may seem to be delayed it is absolutely sure.
This is the principle that needs to be proclaimed
and understood. It is that the soul of the wicked
man is not straight and square within him.
"But the righteous shall live by his faithfulness."
Here we reach the heart of our prophet's message.
If it seems to us to be simple and commonplace
let us remember the toil and tears through which
it came to him. It may be said that there is nothing
new here, even according to his own statement.
This was all implied in the belief in a righteous God
that he professed. Just so. In the full, clear light
of to-day it is easy for us to see that ; but as a mat
ter of fact it is only when a man is thrown back in
doubt and agony upon his creed that he begins
to realize its full meaning. The prophet joins in
the most significant manner two things which Chris
tian theology recognizes as two aspects of the same
sublime reality, personal faith in the righteous God
and the clear, perception of the moral order of the
world. The superficial view is to say that in the
face of pride and tyranny God is silent; He does
nothing. Even the man of faith in hours of weak
ness hears this sinister whisper in his soul, "God is
silent; He does nothing." The deeper thought

136 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
that comes in the hour of meditation and prayer is
that the Eternal is never silent, but ever-present
and always active. It is true that the prophet re
fers to the future. The message is written plainly
so that men's faith may be confirmed when future
events cast their lurid light upon it, when it is read
in the light of burning cities, and amid the crash
of falling empires. He has also his great hope of
a time "when the earth shall be filled with the know
ledge of the glory of Jehovah, as the waters cover
the sea." But the great truth which has come to
him1 and in which he finds rest is one of present
application, namely this, that character decides des-
tirry^irLis_its_own r^njshment. We are so familiar
with this truth and have had presented to us in so
many forms the fact that whatsoever a man soweth
that shall he also reap, that we do not easily feel
how living and original it was to the prophet in his
hour of wrestling.
The prophet sees that the oppressed people may
well take up a "taunting proverb" against the ty
rants and cry against him manifold "Woes." In
so doing they are not merely manifesting personal
feeling; they express the judgment of God and pre
dict the doom which has already begun to work
itself out. Insatiable greed, unbridled lust, reckless
extravagance, shameful cruelty, worship of one's
own power; these sins against God and man carry
in themselves the seeds of their own corruption.
Just in so far as a nation is ruled in this spirit it
is built upon a rotten foundation; its day of doom
may seem to tarry, but it is in process of coming
all the time. Its very success is its degradation,

PROPHET'S QUESTIONING 137
even before the height of ambition is reached,
judgment comes by slow decay or sudden calamity.
"But the just shall live by his faith." Isaiah
teaches the same truth in a different form. When
we meet it in Paul it has advanced into another at
mosphere and taken on new associations. In the
present connection it is simple and deep. It sug
gests that to be righteous is itself a strength and
satisfaction. The plain statement is that the right
eous man lives by his faithfulness. Righteousness
exalteth a nation; proud iniquity brings it to the
ground. This really means that the righteous man
lives by his faith in God, by his perception of God's
working in the regular movement of life and by
his loyalty to the same. This is true when the
dark disappointment and painful contradictions of
life make it seem most uncertain. If we are to hold
this truth firmly and with living adaptation to our
own needs we must gain it for ourselves through
the same patient watchfulness and persistent prayer.
As applied to the life of the individual it receives
in the lowliness and glory of Jesus its highest ful
filment and interpretation.

THE PROPHET'S PRESENTATION OF
JEHOVAH'S PLEA

"For when man comes to front the everlasting God, and
look the splendour of His judgments in the face, personal
integrity, the dream of spotlessness and innocence, vanish
into thin air: your decencies, and your church-going, and
your regularities, and your attachment to a correct school
and party, your gospel formulas of sound doctrine — what
is all that in front of the blaze of the wrath to come?"
"A heart renewed — a loving heart — a penitent, humble
heart — a heart broken and contrite, purified by love — that
and only that is the rest of man. Spotlessness may do for
angels — Repentance unto Life is the highest that belongs
to man.'' — F. W. Robertson.

CHAPTER XII
THE PROPHET'S PRESENTATION OF
JEHOVAH'S PLEA
(Micah vi. 1-9 )
Professor Huxley, one of the most distinguished
champions of the claims of science in the latter half
of the nineteenth century, used to point to this great
passage as presenting a complete picture of the
highest religion. According to this authority, when
the great word has been spoken — "He hath showed
thee, O man, what is good ; and what doth Jehovah
require of thee but to do justly, to love mercy, and
to walk humbly with thy God" — the whole secret
has been revealed, substantially all has been said,
yet the same writer could say, in a different connec
tion : "The question of 'inspiration' really possesses
no interest for those who have cast ecclesiasticism
and all its works aside, and have no faith in any
source of truth save that which is reached by the
patient application of scientific methods." Our
present purpose is not controversial. We wish
rather to allow the prophets to speak for themselves
and reiterate their high message, which is thus ad
mitted by keenest critics to possess abiding appro
priateness and perennial power. We cannot, there
fore, consider how far the true prophet, in his read
ing of history and interpretation of life, in contrast
141

142 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
to the fitful follies of his contemporaries, may be
said to have pursued a scientific method. There is,
however, one bold fact which we cannot ignore.
The prophet claims to speak for God, and to have
received his message from the Eternal King who
rules the nations and demands the intelligent homage
of the individual soul. Further, the prophet in car
rying out this conviction became in his own way
a critic of the Church, to this extent, that he was an
opponent of false ritualism and narrow "ecclesias-
ticism." Though gifted with great clearness of
thought, he does not altogether fight his battle with
those weapons of precision in which the modern man
of science makes his boast; prophecy is not keen
logic, swayed by cool scepticism. It is, rather, a
living enthusiasm for the true religion, seeking to
conquer superstition by bringing into the life of
man a loftier, purer thought of God. The prophet
speaks out of his rich knowledge of God and man.
The dramatic structure of the passage brings out
this varied knowledge in a manner at once natural
and beautiful. If dialogue meant stringing question
and answer together, in a mechanical manner, it
would be quite easy to write a dialogue. But to
make question and answer reflect the actual conflict
of life with its varying moods of superstitious fear
and reasonable faith, that is not easy. This dia
logue brings the life of man face to face with the
life of God. Here we have real genius consecrated
to the service of God and man. The prophetic inspi
ration manifests itself powerfully and the result is
a dialogue, showing in its form a dignified sim
plicity, and presenting in substance a picture of the

JEHOVAH'S PLEA 143
patience of God wrestling with man's culpable igno
rance and perverse unbelief. When we say, then,
that the passage is dramatic we mean that, in spite
of its brevity, it has a living movement; it is not
dogmatic statement, but subtle suggestion of great
truths ; it advances with sure, steady step to its noble
climax. THE CONTROVERSY.
The voice of Jehovah calls the prophet to conduct
this significant controversy. Then the prophet sum
mons as witnesses the mountains, the strong founda
tions of the earth. Now the court is open, and we
hear the voice of God setting forth His side of the
case in tender, pleading tones. "O my people, what
haveldone unto thee? Wherein havelwearied thee?
Testify against me, for I brought thee out of the land
of Egypt and redeemed thee out of the house of
bondage; I sent before thee Moses and Aaron and
Miriam." The charge is not rudely rebutted; an
attempt is made to break the force of it by the
counter-plea of ignorance ; lack of knowledge, rather
than want of will, is the cause of failure. The peo
ple declare that they are willing to give any costly
sacrifice if only they may gain the favor of their
God. They evidently do not see that this is repeating
the reproach in another form, suggesting that the
crookedness of their life is fully accounted for by
the dimness of the light that their God has shed
upon their path. The prophet, therefore, closes the
case with the great declaration that makes all evasion
and excuse seem small ; what is needed, he declares,
is not more knowledge of historical facts, legal pre-

144 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
cepts, and ritual ordinances, but recognition of real
ity, insight into the nature of God's demands, sur
render of the soul in that true spirit of loyalty
which delights "to do justice, love mercy and walk
humbly with thy God."
FORM AND SUBSTANCE.
To have this and similar passages of Scripture
printed in such a way as to make quite clear their
literary structure is no doubt very helpful, and goes
far towards suggesting the right interpretation. But
admiration of the mere form, however artistic that
may be, is not the supreme and final thing. We are
now beginning to see that the points of view repre
sented by the words "Revelation" and "Literature"
are not contradictory, but complementary. The
modern preacher may well learn a lesson from the
ancient prophet in the art of presenting great truths
in attractive, winning forms. Beauty and symmetry
of form are by no means to be despised, even by
the messenger of God ; but let us remember that the
greatest literature is never created by those whose
chief concern is with the outward form. The living
message moulds for itself the form that is appropriate
and effective. Literature worthy of the name is the
outcome of noble life, and it is in the movement of
actual life that we meet the revelation of God. This
passage of Scripture is clearly a revelation of life, on
many of its sides. The several spheres which we
define more sharply as nature, history and human
experience are to the prophet made one kingdom by
the presence of the divine life. Because the God in
whom we live and move and have our being sheds

JEHOVAH'S PLEA 145
the light of His presence and the warmth of His
love through all these regions, the literature which
reflects the deepest life of man may be the medium
of His revelation, and prepare the way for the high
est manifestation in the man Christ Jesus.
Thus through an intelligent grasp of the struc
ture of this passage we see more clearly the truths
revealed. It reveals the heart of the prophet, the
inward life of the man of God who hungers after
the divine righteousness and sorrows over the sins
of his fellow-men. It reveals a particular stage of
the conflict between true and false religion; the
prophet does not play with fancy pictures or sug
gest improbable suppositions; he is face to face
with actual experience. Here we see how a certain
class of men in that age by their superstitious be
wilderment were driven to think of heroic service
and supreme sacrifice. This dialogue finally reveals
the gracious guidance, the large generosity, the per
sistent patience and pity of Israel's God.
This is revelation, and it is also a part of the his
tory of revelation. The sun does not rise with one
swift stroke and reach in an instant its meridian
splendour, though sometimes it bursts with unex
pected brilliance through the thick, dark clouds.
Neither can the full-orbed truth come to a man or a
people all at once. The path of revelation is, to
those who can recognize it, like that of the sun shin
ing more and more unto the perfect day. Many
great teachers had to live and do their work before
it was possible for a man to utter this great speech,
and even in its noble sugg'estiveness it is not final ; it
marks a stage in the long upward journey; it is a

146 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
prophecy of and a preparation for the still greater
future. jehovah's plea.
The controversy between God and His people is
often represented as a matter of universal interest
and solemn import, but it gains here a special mani
festation of tenderness. God draws near, not with
the sternness that severe judgment seems to de
mand, but in pleading, persuasive tones. He could
come in the terrible storm and make a quick end of
an ungrateful people, but He prefers to knock at
the door of the heart in this gentle fashion. He
comes in mercy to His people; He will draw them
with the cords of a man, and with plaintive appeal
win them to penitence. At a time when religion
among the surrounding tribes was savage and sen
sual, when many even in Israel thought of their God
as a cruel, blood-thirsty tyrant, this is the vision of
the true prophet. He sees a God of whom it may be
rightly said, "Mercy is His delight." The question
trembles through his soul as with mingled pity and
indignation he presents the divine plea: "Have I,
the living, helpful God, really been a burden instead
of an inspiration and strength to you, my people?"
Has the Father of the nation worn out the patience
and power of His people by cold neglect or cruel
demands ? There is boldness in so presenting God's
plea — the boldness of the inspired man, who knows
how to startle men by the clear expression of their
own thoughts. For such a man the truth must not
be enslaved by any respectable, conventional form in
which it has been enshrined. Let us, he seems to

JEHOVAH'S PLEA 147
say, carry our half-hearted unbelief to its legitimate
conclusion and see what it really means. The clear
statement of the question brings us a long way to
wards the right answer. Surely the suggestion is
false ; this God is the Redeemer of His people ; He
is the same Lord who inspired an earlier prophet
to say : "When Israel was a child, then I loved him
and called my son out of Egypt." (Hosea xi. 1.)
This principle of the highest religious life stated
by the Apostle John, "We love because He first
loved us," receives its full revelation, and its deep
mystic meaning in the life of the Son of man and
the teaching of His apostles, but in an earlier, sim
pler form it is found in the old Covenant. This
evangelical principle that God's love is first, and that
religion is man's loyal response to the divine com
passion, received its first application to the national
life of this favoured people. The great command
ments, the "ten words," are not to be regarded as
mere legalism; they should be read in the light of
the sublime preamble, "I am Jehovah thy God,
which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt."
Thus in the early days men were taught to treat
history as a sacred book, in which the love of the
Eternal God was written in large, living letters.
The gift of great leaders is also a revelation of
God, and lays men under heavy responsibility. No
great nation was ever built up except through the
toils and sacrifices of heroic men and noble women.
Moses, Aaron and Miriam are types ; they stand at
the beginning of a great movement, and they are
followed by "a great cloud of witnesses." Whether
we keep a calendar and observe saint's-days or not,

148 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
we must try to remember how much we owe to the
long succession of faithful witnesses, and we should
often endeavour to realize how, through them, we
are linked to the life of God and heaven. In the dark
est days there were those who heard the Divine
voice, who kept alive the lamp of life, and who "en
dured as seeing Him who is invisible." Not through
silent, empty spaces does the great message travel
down to us from the distant past, but through the
sacred ministries of men and women who knew well
life's perplexing problems and tormenting passions,
and who knew, also, that in spite of their weakness
God gave them strength for abiding service.
the reply.
Can anything be said in reply to this searching
plea? Is there any way open save silence and
shame? The reply represents that the people are
not ungrateful, but ignorant; they believe in God,
but do not know the right way of approach to His
throne. If the question, "What must we do to be
saved?" can be clearly answered, they are willing
to do anything that will win the favor of the divine
King. They will give of their choicest possession,
yea, even surrender their beloved children in literal
sacrifice — "the fruit of my body for the sin of my
soul." In our soft, easy times we are inclined to
think that this is merely an effective rhetorical
touch on the part of the preacher, Not so ! Relig
ion was in those days a thing of tremendous import,
a matter of life and death to many people ; they laid
rich gifts upon the altars, they spent much time and
strength in fasts and festivals. Stricken by keen

JEHOVAH'S PLEA 149
remorse or haunted by grim despair, they were will
ing literally to sacrifice their own flesh and blood.
Cannot the great God, then, be content with this?
No ! The reply is hollow and helpless ; it only aggra
vates the original offence. He has come to them in
so many ways, and yet they know not how to ap
proach Him ! Faithful prophets have fought against
their coarse superstition, and yet they cling to it, and
allow it to bring blindness and confusion. History
is full of the manifestations of His kindness, and yet
they think of Him as seeking His own glory at the
expense of their degradation. What they need is
not more knowledge of ritual, but clearer insight
into life. The sacrifice that God desires is obedience
to the law of life, the self-surrender through which
men come to purity, strength and usefulness.
THE TRUE IDEAL OF SERVICE.
"He hath showed thee, O man, what is good."
The revelation has already been given in many ways.
Our prophet does not claim originality, in the sense
of uttering startling, sensational novelties. He is
original in the only worthy sense; he can see into
the heart of things ; he can rightly interpret God*s
dealings in the past and apply this teaching to the
living present ; he can realize the deep gulf that sep
arates popular superstition from pure religion. Re
ligion is not to him a history, but a present life. He
prizes the record of what God has done, because it
is the revelation of what He is still doing. The
Eternal God is always coming near with new mes
sages of love and new manifestations of kindness.
The picture has clear, strong light over against

150 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
the deep, dark shadows. As a matter of fact, it was
in the saddest hours of Israel's history that the rad
ical opposition between the two views of God, the
popular and the prophetic views of religion, came
out most clearly. In the gloomy reign of Manas
seh, and in the dark days just before the Exile, the
popular superstition went to the most frightful ex
tremes. Those who thought of Jehovah as a cruel,
capricious tyrant were driven to dark deeds; they
yielded to despair and gave way to debasing forms
of idolatrous worship. But at that very time the
sure word of prophecy reached its loftiest height;
the righteousness of God was seen to be free from
all national and sectarian limitations; the very dis
order of the outside world became the means of
making clearer the vision of the spiritual kingdom ;
the true nature of religion as loyalty to God and
service to man shone out in clearer, brighter light.
In such light we must view this noble summary
of prophetic teaching — "to do justly, to love mercy,
and to walk humbly with thy God." Amos had
cried, "Let judgment run down as waters, and
righteousness as a mighty stream." Hosea's cen
tral thought is, "I desired mercy and not sacrifice."
Isaiah showed how the vision of the King brings
that true lowliness which is the beginning of real
greatness. Woven together these thoughts make a
noble creed, which speaks of worship, communion
and service. Personal purity and civic righteousness,
devoutness of temper, and honourableness of life,
humility in the hour of worship and strength in the
face of duty — all this and more they suggest. De
tailed exposition of such a simple, sublime statement

JEHOVAH'S PLEA 151
seems almost an impertinence. Sufficient now to
say that reading it in the light of our Saviour's
life, it may mean even more to us than to the
ancient prophet, because our world is larger, our
problems more complex, our temptations more
subtle, our duties more varied. During the inter
vening centuries individual experience has been
deepened and religion has assumed new social as
pects, but if we will take these words to our heart
with real desire to learn what is meant by loyalty
to God and kindness to men, they will lead us into
the way of sacrifice and of peace.

THE PROPHET'S KINGLY IDEAL

"It may therefore be affirmed that Christ's kingdom is
a true brotherhood founded in devotion and self-sacrifice.
Nothing less, indeed, would have satisfied those disciples
who had begun to feel the spell of his character. A philo
sophic school or sect may found itself on the prudential
instincts of man, may attach empty hearts, and attach
them by a loose bond to each other. But a- kingdom stands
on self-devotion, and the hearts of Christ's disciples were
not empty. They had not gathered themselves round him
to be told how they might avoid the evils of life, but to
know what they might do for him, how they might prove
their loyalty to him. It was the art of self-devotion that
they wished to learn, and he taught as a master teaches,
not sparing words but resting most on deeds, by the Ser
mon on the Mount, but also by the Agony and the Cruci
fixion." — "Ecce Homo."

CHAPTER XIII
THE PROPHET'S KINGLY IDEAL
(Micah v. 1-3; Isaiah xi. 1-9.)
Many careful, conscientious students of the Old
Testament regard it as proved that the prophecies
of the Messianic King in these two books belong
to the time when the Kingdom of Judah was de
stroyed and the successors of David no longer sat
upon the throne. In that case these pictures of a
glorious future were part of God's message of com
fort to a broken-hearted and dispirited people. We
cannot now discuss that question in detail ; even if
we were driven to accept that conclusion it would
only deepen our impression as to the vitality of a
faith which after such dark disaster could rise to
such sublime heights. Our present concern is with
the passage in Micah, but it is well to place by the
side of the short suggestive statement the fuller,
richer prophecies which are preserved for us in the
book that bears the name of the great Isaiah.
These prophecies have found an appropriate place in
a book that is arranged for practical rather than
scientific purposes. The picture of a lowly King
from Bethlehem, the small country town, links on
naturally to the teaching of Micah the peasant
prophet, while the other pieces have a similar rela-
i5S

156 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
tionship to Isaiah's teaching and style. The ques
tion as to the exact date of such pieces is important
from many points of view, but it is not for us now
the chief thing, as we are not seeking to settle the
precise course that was pursued by the development
of the Messianic idea, but to examine in various
lights the faith that lies behind it. When such
prophecies were produced in Israel inspiration was
still active; faith was living and creative.
The real moment of a nation's greatness is when
it has a noble heroic past, and yet looks forward to
a great living future. So long as prophecy was
alive in Israel the past had real meaning and the
future was full of hope. It is a striking thing, the
significance of which we do well to ponder, that
when Judaism rejected Jesus there was no more
real growth. The possessions from the past were
carefully preserved and mechanically copied, com
mentaries enlarged and rules multiplied ; all this car
ried to wearisome lengths and ridiculous refine
ments, but no real creative force or divine inspira
tion. This suggests that they rejected the One who
was able to interpret their noble past, and give it a
real spiritual meaning, so that it should be capable
of new and higher forms of expression. And yet
the reason for His rejection was that he was so
utterly unlike a real king; or, in other words, that
He did not literally embody the prophetic pictures
of the Messiah. Is not this a warning against cru
cifying the prophets by treating the noble poetry in
which they have expressed warm living faith as if
it were a narrow political formula, or a cold dogma ?
The prophets were not simply preachers in the

PROPHET'S KINGLY IDEAL 157
sense of warning their fellow-men against immedi
ate dangers and calling them to present duties.
They were men with a clear, calm outlook into the
future. If they did not construct almanacs in a
mechanical manner, they declared the great realities
of salvation which the future, governed by the gra
cious God who had guided the past, held in store.
Their central purpose and constant aim is to make
men feel the_jpresence of a living God. To them
history is a living movement hastening onward to
its goal. They have the assurance that Jehovah will
not utterly forsake His people, but after dark, dis
tressful days the light and glory of His presence
will be made known. But faith, when sketching its
picture of the future, must draw its imagery from
earlier days. The artist who paints a glowing pic
ture of the future must dip his brush in the golden
colours of the past. The real thing, however, is
the faith; the form, though important, is subordi
nate; it may vary with the individual teacher and
may take on various shades of local colour.
History repeats itself. God will again send
David and Elijah (Ezekiel xxxiv. 24; Mal. iv. 5).
That is true, but the repetitions of history are not
mechanical and monotonous. The same principle
reappears, but not in precisely the same form. New
leaders and reformers come with the spirit and
power of the old, but with their own individuality ;
with higher truth and loftier speech. David was
God's gift to the nation. With all his imperfections
he played the man and did a noble work. God will
bring him back again, but the new David must meet
new conditions, possess a wider dominion and exer-

158 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
cise a nobler sway. We cannot get back again to
the old simple forms of life, but God will give
purity of heart and real simplicity of spirit. Reli
gion must face new sciences and meet new social
needs; it must conquer and consecrate the noblest
civilization. From a small place and out of lowly circumstances
the new king must come. From the simple life of
the country new blood must come to revive and
maintain the wasting life of the city. The prophet
means that, but much more. Many of the proph
ets hated the life of the city, with its feverish rush,
its sham splendour, its lust and greed and cruelty.
They looked back to the simple village from which
the great king had come as a place fit to> be visited by
God and to be made a source of new blessing. The
prophet, even in his rustic preferences, manifests
a great principle. He shows himself a true idealist
and a real philosopher. He is not awed by pom
pous splendour; he does not worship bigness. Not
by extent of territory, number of population or vast-
ness of wealth can you measure the strength or
glory of a nation. Bethlehem may mean more to
the highest life of the world than Babylon. The
prophet's simple ideal rebukes our noisy pride and
pours contempt upon our vulgar worship of worldly
success. This is the real simplicity and strength of
faith, but we may see more clearly than the prophet
did that God's new beginning is never a mere going
back. God's new king is the heir of all the past.
The ideal of kingship is a noble one. The King
must combine in himself capacity and character;
service to God and kindness to men. He will be a

PROPHET'S KINGLY IDEAL 159
true shepherd of his people. How much the people
had suffered from unworthy kings, men that were
weak or wicked, princes that possessed no insight
for statesmanship, no ability to rule, no power to in
spire ! No wonder that they were sometimes led to
think of a king as a curse for their punishment,
rather than a blessing for their healing. (1 Sam. viii.
7.) And yet they felt that a noble king would be
a great blessing; one anointed by God and en
dowed with great gifts, to be used not for his own
glory, but for the service of mankind, would be in
a very true sense the representative of God on earth.
To such a king shall be given widespread domin
ion and lasting influence, and to his people peace.
"He shall stand and feed his flock in the strength of
Jehovah, in the majesty of the name of Jehovah
his God; and they shall abide and he shall be
great unto the ends of the earth." The essen
tial thing in these prophecies is the perception of
the character of a real king, the ideal of faith soar
ing far above anything that the prophet had ever
seen. God gave these noble thoughts to His hoping,
hungering servants that they might proclaim the
glory and prepare for the coming of the true King.
But there are limitations and these become a test
of faith in after ages. This is a king like David,
with nobler life and larger influence. But with all
the spiritual beauty there is still a suggestion of
worldly form and political surroundings. We can
now joyfully recognize that no king sitting upon
an earthly throne or political kingdom with its
centre at Jerusalem can meet the need of humanity.
We can find within the Old Testament itself large

i6o PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
universal elements that were striving to break
through all such narrow bonds. We know that our
Lord was rejected because He was a greater king
than even the prophet had dreamed of, but from the
vulgar eye His divinity was hidden by the lowliness
of His life. The prophecy is fulfilled, but the fulfil
ment is a large and ever growing life ; not an exact
and literal reproduction of the ancient picture, but
an incarnation of the spirit that was then seeking
to express itself. The teacher who could say, "My
kingdom is not of this world," and who inspired
his disciples to utter the daily prayer, "Thy King
dom come," will create for himself a wider do
minion and a nobler spiritual influence than the
world has yet seen. In His service men find free
dom; at His cross they receive the gift of peace;
through His inspiration they claim all spheres of
activity for God; in His presence they learn that
every kingly capacity brings power and responsi
bility for gentlest ministry.

THE PROPHET AS A FAILURE

"Jeremiah is not a master-spirit like Isaiah, who, since
he had seen the king Jehovah in his majesty, paid respect
to nothing else in the world, and faced even the blood and
iron Assyrian with Olympic calm. Nor has he anything
in common with the primitive Amos who is summoned to
mighty speech by Jehovah's angry roar. He is most
closely related to the thoughtful Hosea, they are both
characterized by depth of soul and richness of inward
life. Both suffer severely from the circumstances in which
they are placed, but both refuse in the same dignified
manner to be crushed by them, rather they gain strength
to read in them thoughts of God which have become the.
imperishable possession of religion. As Hosea made use
of the ancient history of the people in preaching to his
contemporaries, so Jeremiah willingly appealed to the
old time and directed the people to the earlier paths, to
the days of first love, and set before them how much care
Jehovah had lavished upon them through long centuries,
so that he might constantly remind Israel of his duty. He
placed before the eyes of the rebellious the ruins of the
Shiloh Sanctuary as a witness of God's earnestness in
chastisement. History should teach his prophetic oppo
nents what a true prophet is, if they will not believe his
statement." — D. G. Giesebrecht.

CHAPTER XIV
THE PROPHET AS A FAILURE
(Jer. xviii. 18-21.)
The life of Jeremiah has many sides, and here
we meet the plaintive prophet in one of his most
sorrowful and despairing moods. There is a "per
sonal equation" to be considered in dealing with
Jeremiah, as is the case with every man of strongly
marked individuality. His utterances are neces
sarily coloured by his sensitive, shrinking nature.
But there is no exaggeration in the statement he
makes regarding the opposition provoked by his
ministry. Many were ready to smite him with
something more brutal, if not more bitter than
words. The popular view of this prophet is that of
a man who was always uttering violent denuncia
tions against his fellow-citizens, or clamorously be
sieging the court of Heaven with harsh complaint
against the stupidity and hard-heartedness of his
hearers. That there is some truth in this view it
would be vain to deny, but when we look at that
side alone we do injustice to a great man.
This man's life and ministry would not have re
ceived such a large share of the sacred volume if
it did not possess deep and permanent significance.
Though a man of uncommon sensitiveness, strange
163

164 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
melancholy and deep despondency, he was also a
man of firm faith and strong character. He is
a type of the Highest Man in that for righteous
ness' sake he was "a man of sorrows and acquaint
ed with grief." This is not to claim perfection for
the prophet; he had, indeed, the limitations and
the weaknesses of the very qualities that made him
strong. He may at times have given too much
way to his naturally sad disposition; he may
have failed to see the little good there was in his
opponents ; the completeness of his consecration and
the fervour of his zeal may sometimes have made
him one-sided. This is simply to say that Jere
miah was a man, but a sympathetic study of his ca
reer will show that even his mistakes spring from
his intense zeal in the true service of God. Even if
in some things his tone and temper seem to fall
short of the Christian ideal, we are compelled to
admit that his whole life is a strenuous struggle
after righteousness. We deal now with only one
aspect of that life, the one we have noted at the
head of the chapter, "The Prophet as a Failure."
THE KIND OF FAILURE.
Our first need is to grasp clearly the nature of
the failure which at first view seems to blight this
man's life. It was not a business failure ; that is a
hard thing for an honest man. To sow and not
to reap; to be diligent and yet unsuccessful; to
fail in the face of fierce competition ; to see the fabric
that one has slowly reared suddenly shattered;
surely there is heart-breaking bitterness in this ex
perience. It was not merely political failure. The

PROPHET AS A FAILURE 165
prophet was a patriotic man who took the keenest
interest in public affairs and who ought, on account
of his ability and integrity, to have had political
influence. But the loss of position and direct in
fluence did not move him most. Others were wel
come to place and power if only he could see right
principles prevail. Neither was it the failure that
we generally associate with the thought of poverty.
It is not a pleasant thing to be poor, though it is
sometimes easy to discuss that experience from a
high poetic standpoint. The reality is grim and
sad. To have one's poverty pressing as a daily
burden ; to be hampered by petty limitations ; to be
haunted by continual reminders of the hard fact;
this also is painful even to the man who is seeking
first the kingdom of God. This man did not desire
great riches ; a little of this world's goods would
suffice for him, for he was quite content with "plain
living and high thinking." Besides he seems to
have had some little property, which in less troubled
days would have supplied all his needs. When
Jeremiah is regarded as a type of a certain kind
of failure it is not for the purpose of giving prom
inence to any of these common forms of suffering.
What is meant is that he was a rejected preacher, a
man with an unpopular message. He was regarded
as a dismal prophet, a public nuisance; a preacher
who had no sweet gospel but only dark sayings and
gloomy forebodings. THE STRENUOUS LIFE.
In the thirteenth year of King Josiah Jeremiah re
ceived his call to the prophetic office (b. c. 629).

166 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
From that time to his death is reckoned about forty
years. During his long ministry he saw five different
kings on the throne of Judah, some of them having
a short as well as a troubled reign. We have very
little information concerning the first eighteen years
of this ministry, but after that we can see him en
gaged in active work, denouncing wickedness, giv
ing counsel and uttering warnings. Then we see
him opposed by his kindred, persecuted by his
townsmen, and threatened by the rulers. In later
days the history is full of striking pictures, all of
which represent some aspect of the great tragedy.
Jehoiakim, the frivolous king, sits in his winter
chamber, surrounded by time-serving courtiers, and
he takes the book of prophecies, into which the
prophet has poured his life-blood, and casts it bit
by bit contemptuously into the fire. Again we see
the prophet, the noblest man of his age, with feet
thrust into the stocks, subjected to the most shame
ful degradation. Or once more we behold the true
patriot thrown as a traitor into the foul dungeon.
He proved that there are worse things than death,
hence when death seemed very near his thought was
for others, not for himself: "But as for me, behold
I am in your hand ; do with me as is good and right
in your eyes. Only know ye for certain that, if ye
put me to death, ye shall bring innocent blood upon
yourselves, and upon this city, and upon the inhab
itants thereof; for of a truth Jehovah hath sent
me unto you to speak all these words in your ears."
(xxvi. 15.) Saddest picture of all to see the ven
erable prophet, when he had declined to take refuge
in Babylon, dragged off to Egypt by a few miser-

PROPHET AS A FAILURE 167
able, superstitious rebels to die in a land that he had
despised. The brief sketch thus crowded into a few
sentences represents a long life of incessant toil and
constant pain. We think we have our share of sor
row, but how our small pains and petty persecutions
shrink in the presence of this great martyrdom!
It is true that we do now meet men who carry a
tremendous burden of woe and disappointment, but
a life so utterly sad is rare. Other prophets were
rejected and persecuted, but with none of them was
the long sustained battle on the whole so full of
gloom as with this man, whose very name has be
come a synonym of wailing and lamentation. Ac
cording to the ordinary social standard he failed
utterly and hopelessly. When we think that we are
unfairly treated, that the world is blind to our
merits, and that our noblest efforts yield small
results, we may do well to look once more on this
picture of "a man of sorrows and acquainted with
grief." THE BITTER CUP.
This man's sorrow came through his faithfulness
to God and duty. Many men bring poison into
their blood, wretchedness into their life, as a conse
quence of their recklessness and selfish indulgence.
But the prophet's sorrow comes in the main through
love of righteousness and loyalty to truth. It was
the call of God that summoned him to the battle.
He heard a voice that must not be disobeyed ; it was
a call to continual crucifixion, but the man who
hears that voice cannot be a traitor to his trust.
As we see Jeremiah respond to this spiritual con-

168 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
straint, even when his nature shrinks from the
ordeal, we may well ask whether in these softer
days our faith has anything of that high, heroic
strain. Are we prepared to accept misinterpre
tation and shame in our efforts to bring to men
loftier thoughts of God?
Having grasped, then, the dominant principle of
the prophet's life, mark the particular ingredients
in his cup of woe. He had often to stand alone.
It is true that he had a few disciples and friends
who loved him as their own souls. Humanly speak
ing, but for that we could not have had the won
derful story of his life. When bitter hatred and
unreasoning prejudice would have destroyed the
record of his deepest thoughts and noble work, God
used the love of faithful friends to preserve it and
hand it down to us. But he had dark days, when
it was practically Jeremiah against the world. Kin
dred and acquaintances went over to the enemy
and even friends failed to catch the significance of
his perpetual complaint. A man can have many so-
called friends when he is popular and successful,
when the crowds haste to his ministry and applause
is plentiful, but if he will champion the unpopular
cause and speak the unwelcome truth he must some
times stand quite alone, taking counsel only with
God and his own spirit. Is not that a hard thing
for a man who by his very nature loves fellowship
with men, as well as communion with God?
He, a lover_of_£eace, was flung out into the
brawling battle. A man of such sensitrve^ipirit
would have been more at home in seclusion, brood
ing over deep truths and writing tender, pathetic

PROPHET AS A FAILURE 169
psalms. Inclination alone might have made him a
mystic, a man of the cloister, but the call sounded
in him so clear and strong that he was compelled to
be a man of strife. Some men love the excitement
of battle. They need opposition to stir them and
bring the best out of them. They are seen at their
best in the fierce fray fighting for a great principle
or defending a good cause. Jeremiah does not
seem to have been of that type. He would no doubt
have welcomed a smooth, peaceful message had
such been possible. It was not exactly a pleasure
to him to contradict common opinions and to tell
the popular prophets that they were liars. It would
be a glorious thing if the minister could truthfully
declare that all is going well; that the people are
interested in the deeper life of the Church, and
intelligently anxious for the spread of God's king
dom. But how can the prophet say this when he
knows that it is not true; when he sees so many
spending their money for that which is not bread
and their labour for that which does not satisfy?
Jeremiah often cried out in severe anguish of spirit
because he was forced to appear as a spiritual Ish-
maelite, his hand against every man and every
man's hand against him.
He was a prophet of doom. He saw the inevit
able judgment coming quickly, and must herald it.
Earlier prophets had their troubles and disappoint
ments, but some of them were able to rally the
people for successful conflict ; and others had an in
spiring note running through their severe judg
ments, but Jeremiah had to set his face like brass
against all false hopes and deceitful expectations,

170 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
for in his day all hopes of victory were false. The
nation had gone so far on the wrong road that
only after a great judgment could there be a new
beginning. By wise counsel and righteous policy
much evil could be warded off. The rough down
hill journey might be made a little gentler, but it
was too late to turn away the judgment which was
already at the door. Woe to the prophet who must
herald the coming doom and declare to shallow,
self-satisfied fanatics that the day of Jehovah is for
them a day of defeat and darkness.
THE APPARENT FAILURE.
In the early years of Jeremiah's ministry there
was a religious revival in Jerusalem. This took
place in the reign of Josiah, who came to the throne
as a boy and reigned on the whole nobly for thirty
years. The movement was both a revival and a
reformation. It received its inspiration from the
"book of the law" found in the temple, and it marks
a very important stage in the life of the Jewish
Church. Much good work was done, the law-book
was diligently studied, worship was reformed, many
corrupt practices were swept away. It was a move
ment that tended to conserve the nobler elements
of the old faith and to lead to still higher revela
tions. It is difficult to trace Jeremiah's precise con
nection with this movement and decide how far
his earliest preaching was influenced and moulded
by it. For our present purpose we must empha
size the fact that the prophet was compelled to
turn upon it a stream of criticism and censure. It
was soon evident to his keen insight that the work

PROPHET AS A FAILURE 171
had not gone deep enough. Re-action was setting
in. The people, instead of pressing forward, were
making a fetich of a revival that had almost spent
its force. The goodness of the nation, like a morn
ing cloud, is passing away. There must be a deep
er repentance, and a new consecration. Policy
whispers : "Why dash thyself in vain against this
fierce fanaticism and earn once more the name
of unreasonable fault-finder. It is just as well to
hide the bitter truth in thine own heart." The true
prophet cannot listen to this sinister suggestion.
The message burns like a fire in his bones, he speaks
it in persuasive parable or passionate denunciation,
and is cursed for his pains ; he receives the cross as
his reward.
The little kingdom was at that time between the
two great powers, Egypt and Babylon. Josiah, the
one good king, had lost his life in a rash enterprise
against the king of Egypt. This defeat caused con
fusion and many were driven to despair. Babylon
would soon check the conquering career of Egypt,
and between two such world powers what could this
small kingdom accomplish? The alliance with
Egypt had a fatal fascination for many, but Jere
miah saw clearly that there was no help in that
direction. Egypt was a delusion and a snare, al
ways unready and unreliable. The princes and
politicians manifested that weakness which is in
its results as hurtful as wickedness. They seemed
to be able to trust in anything except God and
righteousness. They were even capable of trying
to pursue two contradictory courses at one and the
same time. In the midst of the general confusion

172 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
Jeremiah's message grew clearer and stronger. He
could even recognize the foreign conqueror, Neb
uchadnezzar, as a servant of Israel's God, and de
clare that salvation could only come through sub
mission. Restoration must be preceded by sharp
discipline. There might be a great future for
Judah's religion, but the thing to be made certain
and emphatic now was the unavoidable doom, the
Chaldeans at the door. Sad as it was, we can
hardly wonder that the prophet was called a traitor ;
that men said he had no proper pride of patriotism
and was willing to sell his country. When the
crash came, when Jerusalem lay helpless in the
hand of the Chaldean conqueror, the old man might
have found comfortable shelter in Babylon, but
rather than give colour to the false reproach he
chose to stay and suffer with the miserable rem
nant in Palestine, and then we meet the last tragic
touch, the prophet is forced to travel to Egypt
to die in the land for which he had always cherished
a profound contempt. THE REAL SUCCESS.
When we review these facts we are compelled to
admit that according to the world's standard of
success the life of Jeremiah was a miserable failure.
But it gives us pause to remember that, tried by the
same worldly standard, the life of our Lord Jesus
Christ also was an utter failure. He was only half
understood by His friends and was crucified by His
foes. The bigoted Pharisees, the sleek, self-sat
isfied Sadducees called that failure. Their final
criticism was indeed true, but in a different and

PROPHET AS A FAILURE 173
deeper sense than they had thought of. "He saved
others; Himself He cannot save." But how
much failure is there in the sacrifice which has in
spired the highest life of the world for almost nine
teen centuries? Those who say that Jesus Christ
has failed are only those who themselves have failed
to grasp the meaning of His life and the mystery
of His death. The fact is, that in the presence of
great, heroic men we must revise our small stand
ards of success and failure.
To examine further this question we must look
at the man's life from the inside. The prophet
did not fail there or he would have broken down
and have fled from his great task. In the darkest
hour he could say :
"Blind unbelief is sure to err,
And scan His work in vain ;
God is His own interpreter,
And He will make it plain."
It has been said that blind belief will err as badly as
blind unbelief. Certainly, but faith is not blind. Su
perstition may be blind ; credulity may be blind, but
real faith is by its very nature sight; insight into
reality and clear grasp of spiritual principles.
Jeremiah saw a living God ruling the world.
When everything seemed to go wrong and life was
full of crookedness he did not say, "There is no
God ; only blind fate and the success of the strong."
Though he was sometimes tempted to think that his
God laid too much upon him, thrusting him into the
forefront of the battle, yet nobly did he maintain
his splendid faith. A man who could meet life-long

174 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
contradiction and speak always the painful truth
which the world flung back to him with fiery scorn,
and yet believe in God, was successful in the high
est sense. He fought well one of the hardest bat
tles that was ever appointed to a man to fight.
He who thus believes in God believes in all else
that is essential. Not by a shallow, smiling optim
ism could a man in such circumstances gain the
victory. "This is the victory that hath overcome
the world, even our faith."
Seeing a God of righteousness he looked forward
to a king of righteousness. Several kings the
prophet saw in Judah. For some he had genuine
pity and sorrow; for others he was compelled to
cherish contempt. The best king of the time also
met a tragic fate and his defeat was to many the
destruction of God's cause. The others were weak
or wicked kings, with the semblance but without
the reality of royalty. They are shadows flitting
across the stage or weaklings tossed hither and
thither by the storm. Jeremiah met these ill-fated
men and though he longed to be loyal he had little
satisfaction in such helpless, vacillating rulers. But
he did not lose his faith in royalty. He looked
upward and forward to a higher king. What he
saw of feeble kings, of men who held the office
though destitute of royal power, did not destroy
his faith in divine kingship. Here he did not
dwell upon the surface. At this point he did not
fail. God will provide a righteous king, the true
guide and faithful leader of his people, "The Lord
our Righteousness."
Jeremiah saw a nation destroyed and a church

PROPHET AS A FAILURE 175
broken to pieces, but he did not lose faith in the
reality and undying power of true religion. To-day
the philosopher or poet can look back upon a long
stretch of history and
"Our little systems have their day ;
They have their day and cease to be."
To the prophet such a calm survey was not possible.
The breaking of the system, imperfect as it was,
was the breaking of his heart. From the depths
of his own faith he drew the conclusion that though
temples may be shattered and spoiled, though the
sacrifices may cease and the people be scattered, re
ligion cannot die. God's purpose cannot turn back
or be defeated. It must go forward to its glorious
fulfilment. The political kingdom may fail, but
God can bring out of it a new church. There shall
be a new kingdom and a new covenant. In the
great future the law shall not be written simply on
stone or in books. It shall be engraven on the
hearts of faithful men. Here is faith that rises
above appearances and laughs at impossibilities.
In this light we must surely revise our thoughts
of failure and success. The real failure is the
man who ruins his life and wastes his strength in
wicked self-indulgence, the man who grasps and
devours greedily all that the world has to offer.
Though the prophet had not the clear hope for
the future that the Christ has brought to us we can
truly say that he lived in the light of eternity, and
viewed in that light he is a real success. The Eter
nal God in whom he trusted does not cast such
spiritual treasure into darkness and nothingness.

176 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
Though he goes down weeping to the grave he
shall come again with rejoicing. In him also shall
the great word be fulfilled : "The ransomed of the
Lord shall return and come to Zion with songs and
everlasting joy upon their heads. They shall obtain
joy and gladness and sorrow and sighing shall flee
away."

ASPECTS OF A PROPHET'S LIFE
(JEREMIAH )

"A later generation, however, awoke to the virtue of
Jeremiah's pain. Whether the figure of the Suffering Ser
vant in the fifty-third of Isaiah be intended by the writer
as an individual (as it seems to me we ought to conclude),
or (in the opinion of most modern critics) as a personi
fication of the righteous and suffering remnant of Israel,
there is no doubt that the vision is partly inspired by the
nation's appreciation of the meaning of Jeremiah's life." —
Professor G. A. Smith, D. D., "Modern Criticism and the
Preaching of the Old Testament."

CHAPTER XV
ASPECTS OF A PROPHET'S LIFE
(JEREMIAH )
THE CALL. (i. I-IO )
Jeremiah was a young man of priestly family who
was destined to spend his life in opposition to the
ruling powers in Church and State. The real reason
of this is given here ; the call of God laid hold of him
mightily, setting before him a large mission and
impelling him to undertake a difficult task. This
was a memorable day ; all his life grew out of it, as
the plant grows from the seed. Predestined to be
a prophet, he shrank from the prospect of life-long
martyrdom when the actual call came. His sense
of weakness and unwillingness, as well as of youth
ful inexperience, is expressed in the words, "I am
a child." True, he was only a youth, but the life
that is to be completely consecrated to strenuous
service must be surrendered in its early days. Such
a call has a directness and certainty to the man who
receives it ; to others the proof of its reality is in the
life that comes out of it. Spiritual like natural
forces are measured by the work they do; if we
know anything of the life of Jeremiah, we know
what strain and effort was involved in being true to
179

180 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
this vocation through forty long, painful years.
Jeremiah was not the kind of man to take upon him
self in a light-hearted fashion the high task of set
ting straight a world that was very crooked. The
prophetic career had no natural attractions at that
time for a young man of clear vision and sincere
speech; the only explanation and justification for
Jeremiah's action is that a burden was laid upon him
which he could not cast away ; the voice and vision
which gave meaning to his life came from the King
who rules in heaven and on earth.
THE PERSEVERANCE OF A SAINT, (i. l8, 19; XXV. 3.)
One of the great lessons of Jeremiah's life, apart
from its direct teaching, is to be found in the fact
that it sets forth so clearly the power of a living faith
in God to sustain a man through long years of toil
in the midst of fierce opposition. He is taught at the
first that his ministry is to be one of judgment, and
that he must expect constant persecution. The judg
ment may be delayed, but God will surely perform
His word, and of this timid shrinking youth the Lord
will make a strong fortress, an iron pillar against
the whole land, against princes, priests and people.
He is to demonstrate the feebleness of mere num
bers and to show that one man with God in him and
behind him is a mighty force. The real commentary
on this is the story of the man's life, its persistent
faithfulness and patient endurance. Whether he is
meditating privately or preaching the truth openly,
suffering the severest public shame or wrestling in
secret agony, there is a firmness of character and
determination of spirit which reveals real strength

A PROPHET'S LIFE 181
behind apparent weakness. He is not a conventional
picture of patience ; wild words are at times wrung
out of his soul by the fact that men misunderstood
him and that he found it hard to understand the
dealing of God ; but the measure of his suffering is
also the measure of his power to persevere. The
firmness of the righteous man, the perseverance of
the saint, the continuity of character — these are dif
ferent phrases belonging to different periods of
thought, but they all embody the same truth that the
man who has seen God in true, clear vision is sus
tained in life's constant struggle.
THE ROOT OF THE MATTER, (ii. IO-I4.)
The preacher does not play upon the surface ; he
penetrates to the heart; in all this wild confusion
and many-sided corruption there are only two evils,
and these are two sides of one great apostasy; the
people have forsaken their God and hewn out for
themselves broken disappointing cisterns. The man
who goes to the central point with such clear vision
and strong conviction cannot be contented by shal
low resolutions or superficial reforms. Strange
thing that Israel with such glorious memories behind
(ii. 2, 3) should now play the fool, worshipping for
eign gods and trusting in foreign nations. She will
not leam from past experience, near or remote, (ii.
16, 36.) This is a matter for astonishment. To the
prophet, who sees the strength, righteousness and
faithfulness of Jehovah, it seems a horrible mystery
that heathen nations should be so steadfast and Is
rael so fickle. He was right when he called it black
ingratitude, base apostasy; but we do well to note

182 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
that we have here something which explains, if it does
not excuse, the weakness of these people. The heathen
religions were small, limited, sensuous, and in some
cases even sensual. They suited the average man;
they ministered to the passions of the crowd; they
satisfied religious cravings without making large
demands on the conscience. The religion of Israel
was becoming more spiritual ; the true teachers were
advancing towards a nobler faith and loftier ideal.
The mass of the people went back because they were
not willing to go forward. A stagnant orthodoxy
would not meet the case; loyalty to Moses and the
earlier prophets meant power to perceive that the
God of the past is the guide of the present; that
purity of worship and righteousness of life are now,
as ever, the sign of faithfulness and the source of
strength. Those who could not rise to this lofty
height turned from the fountain of living water to
earthern cisterns ; that is, they trusted in strange
superstitions that could not satisfy and in foreign
help that never came.
PIETY AND PATRIOTISM, (iv. I9-22.)
Not in any light, frivolous fashion does the
prophet hurl this strong reproach at his people:
"They are wise to do evil, but to do good they have
no knowledge." Because he sees the dread conse
quences of faithlessness and folly he is constrained
to cry, "I am pained at my very heart" ; or, "I suffer
intense pain, O the walls of my heart!" There is
nothing artificial or hysterical here ; it is the agony
of a strong man bowed under a weight of woe. In
order to preach judgment he must see it, and the sight

A PROPHET'S LIFE 183
is overwhelming. "I beheld the earth, and, lo ! it was
waste and void; and the heavens, and they had no
light." Love has the greatest capacity for suffering;
love of God and love of country causes this man to
weep over the wickedness which turned the beauti
ful earth into darkness and chaos. He could not sit
apart admiring his own virtue, and look with cold
contempt upon social disorder and political corrup
tion. He could not wrap himself in a hard coating
of selfishness and watch unmoved the lingering
agonies of a dying nation. His was not the piety
that is content with hollow compromise and conven
tional phrase. His was not the patriotism that is
satisfied with shouting against the foreign foe. Be
cause he loved righteousness and loved his country,
he saw clearly the coming doom, and shed these bit
ter tears. He teaches us the great lesson which
mere politicians are prone to forget, that no nation,
however great its privileges, can safely outrage the
laws of truth and honesty.
THE PROPHET AS CYNIC. (v. 1-6.)
This passage might easily provoke the comment:
"This is, indeed, a very cynical statement ; the
preacher is disappointed and soured; he rails at all
the world, and thinks that there is none good but
himself." Can the prophet be a cynic? No; that
is the very opposite of the prophetic spirit: but he
must fight that devil on the battlefield of his own
soul. He has his hours of depression, when he
thinks that he stands alone, that he is the only man
in the city who has not bowed his knee to Baal;
yes, he has moments when he is tempted to think

184 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
that God has deceived and forsaken him. Even
Jeremiah did not carry all the piety of the nation
in his own solitary heart. Had that been so, his
message would have perished with him. But he
sometimes suffered from the terrible pressure of
loneliness and lack of sympathy, and not without
reason was he oppressed by the scarcity of strong,
sterling men. Men of insight, capacity and stead
fastness were not common at that time. The broad
places of the city were full of men, men who were
noisy, pretentious and clever, but in the prophet's
sense it was not easy in all the crowd to find a man.
Even the prophet is tempted to treat blatant folly
with cynical contempt. This sensitive man looked
out upon a strange, confused world. He saw men
making fools of themselves. They listened eagerly
to quack prophets and turned away from the saintly
teachers ; they sowed tares, and hoped to reap fine
wheat ; they lived ungodly lives, and expected heaven
to aid them in the day of battle; they trusted in
small ritualistic tricks, and forgot the great prin
ciples of justice and mercy. What wonder if the
prophet in his darker hours should be tempted to
cry : "What fools these men are, and am I not a
fool to fret myself about them ?" But to be cynical
in the fullest sense is to lose all faith in God and
goodness. In that sense Jeremiah was no cynic ; we
have seen him carry the cross and weep over the
sin and shame of his brethren.
THE PROPHET AS A CONSERVATIVE, (vi. l6, 17.)
Jeremiah is radical in his treatment of religious
and social problems ; he shows that God will destroy

A PROPHET'S LIFE 185
the most sacred places and the most ancient forms
in order to save the truth that these were meant to
represent (vii. 14). He can, however, adopt a con
servative tone and exhort men to "ask for the good
old paths." A true prophet cannot be a conservative
in any narrow, stupid sense. The very essence of
the prophetic spirit is the faith that the living God
is still speaking to men, giving them new revelations
and fresh guidance. A man who really believes that
cannot be a slavish, superstitious worshipper of old
things for their own sake. But he can quite con
sistently utter a powerful protest against those who
recklessly break away from the simple life and
sacred associations of earlier days. He can justly
denounce innovations in religion which do not spring
from any real principle, but are mere makeshifts,
the refuge of men who do not understand either the
teaching of the past or the needs of the present. In
a very real sense, the only way to find the new life
is to stand in the ways and ask for the old paths, the
new thing that is both true and valuable springs out
of the old in the way of healthy growth. The real
principles that lie behind Jeremiah's preaching are
old, and because he sees their living relation to the
past he can bring out of them new applications. He
has the strongest contempt for mere parrot-like repe
tition of other men's words; he insists that each
prophet shall see with his own eyes, and deliver his
own message, but no man is more faithful to the
great teachers who have gone before. He was far
from making a fetich of "good old times" ; he would
gladly have cherished larger hopes for the present
if he could have found a reasonable basis for them ;

i86 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
but he would not, to use his own words, cry "Peace,
peace, where there is no peace." The old faith in
God, the old brotherly feeling, the old simplicity of
family life, these must be preserved if the nation is
to adapt itself to new circumstances and face new
problems. Life is the real conservative force, the
man that is alive can stand in the old paths and face
new duties; by real progress he can preserve the
permanent revelation.
THE PROPHET AS AN OPPONENT OF BIGOTRY.
(vii. 1-4.)
Here the prophet attacks the false dogma of the
inviolability of the temple ; this place the priests say
cannot be destroyed, because it is Jehovah's palace,
the dwelling place of the God of Israel. This belief
is founded on a false interpretation of history, and
is a distortion of Isaiah's teaching, yet religious
zealots are prepared to make it a test of orthodoxy.
Jeremiah is commanded to stand at the gate of the
temple and declare that it is a lie, dishonoring to
God and hateful to men. This is a serious business.
The prophet speaks at the risk of his life. The best
commentary is the statement in Chapter xxvi.
There we can learn both the bitter feeling that was
stirred and the dignified position taken by the
prophet in a critical hour. Those whose only
thought of Jeremiah is that of a weak, melancholy
creature, who weeps on the slightest provocation,
would do well to consider the calm words : "But as
for me, behold, I am in your hand : do with me as
is good and right in your eyes. Only know ye for
certain that, if ye put me to death, ye shall bring

A PROPHET'S LIFE 187
innocent blood upon yourselves, and upon this city,
and upon the inhabitants thereof; for of a truth Je
hovah hath sent me unto you to speak all these
words in your ears." (xxvi. 14-16.)
Jeremiah standing at the door of the Jerusalem
temple declaring the broad, simple demands of the
moral law is a worthy successor of Moses ; Jeremiah
prophesying of the "new Covenant" is a real fore
runner of the Christ. The narrow bigotry that he
rebuked so fiercely consisted in divorcing religion
from morality, profession from practice, worship
from work. Past promises were perverted and pres
ent duties ignored. Under the delusion that there
is one place where Jehovah must dwell, the temple
and the city were regarded as safe from the assaults
of foreign foes. "This is the temple of Jehovah"
became a party cry. The sanctuary was worshipped
and the God of the sanctuary forgotten or misunder
stood. THE PREACHER OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. (ix. 23-25.)
No ceremony or sanctuary can take the place of
righteousness. It is always true that obedience is
better than sacrifice. But behind obedience there
lies insight, the knowledge of God's character, the
sympathetic appreciation of His demands. A man
may in a lowly spirit rejoice that this power of
knowledge and obedience have been inspired in him
by the spirit of God. From the prophet's point of
view it is not worth while to glory in anything else.
Wisdom, strength, riches — these are the world's
treasures. Men covet them and trust in them. These
gifts of God were treated as gods in Jerusalem

188 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
twenty-five centuries ago ; men toiled for them and
put their trust in them. The preacher declares that
there is something higher ; it is the preacher's duty
now, as then, to uplift the ideal of righteous living
and unselfish service. Men push on in their search
for gold and fame, popularity and power, but in
their serious moments they confess that without
this ideal of faith and obedience life would be poor
and meaningless. The kingdoms of the world at
tract us, but still we recognize that the supreme
command is, "Seek first the Kingdom of God."
THE PROPHET AND PRINCE, (xxxvi.)
The prophet's reward was always the cross ; he
must repeat the unwelcome truth ; he must bear the
burden of misinterpretation. This is one incident in
the tragic career: "Jehoiakim was twenty and five
years old when he began to reign, and he reigned
eleven years in Jerusalem, and he did that which was
evil in the sight of Jehovah." This is one of the
kings to whom Jeremiah owed loyalty and service.
Eleven years of restless, wicked life he lived, and
then his body was flung over the walls of Jerusalem,
"buried with the burial of an ass." As he comes be
fore us here he manifests a bold impiety, a want of
reverence for God and good men, that gives the key
to his character. The difficulties of that time were
great for any king, but for one who had no true
faith and no real principle, no serious purpose, the
case was hopeless. Note the striking contrast. The
prophet has spent his time and strength writing out
the message of warning, every sentence has been
well weighed, every word represents thoughtful

A PROPHET'S LIFE 189
conviction and tearful sympathy. This book has
come from God. It has come from the depths of
the prophet's soul. It was a gloomy prophecy, but
it was sent on an errand of mercy. How is it re
ceived at court? The king, with cool contempt,
cuts up the roll and casts it into the fire. The man
upon the throne, irresponsible and irreverent, pours
scorn and shame upon the noblest servant that God
has given him ; that of itself proves the truth of the
prophecy and hastens its fulfilment. The truth re
mains though men shut their eyes to it ; the prophet's
message receives new life by the very attempt that
is made to destroy it. The judgment is written in
a book that no king can destroy.
THE NEW COVENANT, (xxxi. 33.)
The written word is a wonderful thing; it is
marvelous thus to express and preserve thought by
means of the outward visible symbol. Doubtless
many things are written now that are not worth pre
serving, but the great helpful books are an important
part of the world's treasure ; the wisdom of the cen
turies is in them. Men have used many things for
the purpose of writing, stones, bricks, skin, paper.
Stories forgotten for centuries come to us now from
the distant past written on those strange stone books
of early days. But before any such material was
largely used the mind of man was the means of
preserving as well as originating the thought which
makes literature. Stories, songs and proverbs
passed from father to son, not by mere mechanical
memory, but by living interest; the best thoughts
and noblest truths were thus handed down from age

190 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
to age. Literature before letters. It may be that
in Jeremiah's time some were beginning to make an
idol of the book and exalt the letter above the
truth. The book is good, but man must not be a
slave to the book; the spirit that created the good
book must dwell in each, imparting a life that is
ever new and spontaneous. Here we have the
prophet's highest word. Judgment is not all; there
is mercy in the heart of God. After captivity there
shall be restoration, a new beginning and a new
hope. But how can we be sure things will not drift
back and become worse than ever? Because God
will give a new Covenant and write it not upon
tables of stone or in book-rolls, but upon the minds
and hearts of his faithful followers. The political
order may change, but religion shall not die; it
shall rather become purer, more spiritual, more per
sonal. This is a lofty view of religion and a splen
did exhibition of faith. This man by his life and
teaching helped forward the movement towards a
larger, freer faith. His prophecy of the new Cov
enant has received its fulfilment in the pure indi
viduality of the Christian religion; and now our
duty is to show that the new Covenant means both
personal salvation and social service, a kingdom of
God here as well as a hope of eternal life.

THE PROPHET AS PRIEST

"If the remnant of Israel was not lost among the
heathen after the destructive catastrophe of 587-86, but
found the way in which alone its future lay, this is really
due to the service rendered by Ezekiel. In a wonderful
manner he suited his activity to the changed conditions.
In distinction from his earlier activity, as well as from
that of all his prophetic predecessors that now exercised
by him shows a fully marked individualistic feature. His
word is now mainly directed to individuals and from many
individuals he seeks to establish the sacred community of
, the approaching final time. In order to quicken the con-
I science he declares with special emphasis that every one
\ stands in his separate personal relationship to Jehovah and
ithat He will judge him according to his personal action
'alone, and in this way he contributed much to the deepen
ing of piety; how earnestly he contended for the compre
hension of the worth of moral personality is shown in a
special manner by xii. 18-33. We may correctly regard
him as, next to Jeremiah, the founder of the doctrine of
individual retribution. In this respect a doctrinal dog
matic effort is clearly manifest in the prophecies of the
second period. It is religious dogma and seeks to con
ceive the facts of religion in intelligible forms though the
material at first shows itself inflexible. His legislative
activity stands in connection with this." — Kraetzschmar.

CHAPTER XVI
THE PROPHET AS PRIEST
Ezekiel holds a peculiar position as a prophet
who exercised his ministry far from his own land.
He lived among the exiles in Babylon and ad
dressed to them his message concerning the destiny
of Israel. He belonged to an aristocratic and priest
ly family and it is probable that in youth he was
engaged in temple service. Five years after his
arrival in Babylon he was called to prophesy against
"the rebellious nation." Thus he became a prophet,
but though there was no opportunity for such min
istry, he never ceased to be a priest. He stands at
a turning point of Jewish history between the
prophets who had in the first place heralded the
judgment and those whose main business was to
heal the wounds and minister consolation. His
ministry has both these sides strongly developed.
The prophet was taken to Babylon in the year 597
b. c, when Nebuchadnezzar carried off so much
of the substance and so many of the best people
of Jerusalem (2 Kings xxiv. 14). The two most
powerful religious influences of that time had al
ready left a deep impression on his mind. First, the
religious reformation under King Josiah ; and, sec
ond, the teaching of Jeremiah. It is evident from
193

194 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
Ezekiel's own picture of the new temple that the
Deuteronomic idea of one central well-ordered sanc
tuary was for him essential to the preservation of
pure religion and the manifestation of true faith.
From his peculiar type of mind, as well as from
the intensity of his faith, it followed that he had
little sympathy with the variety and spontaneity of
the older forms of religion. Hence he was one
of the greatest among those who strove for strict
ness and uniformity in worship. Those who have
studied most carefully the church life and apocalyp
tic literature bear strong testimony to the reality
and duration of his influence.
The teaching of Jeremiah was evidently an im
portant part of Ezekiel's preparation for the pro
phetic call. Verbal coincidences, which in this
case are numerous and suggestive, are merely signs
of sbmething deeper. It may be well to note a few
of them.
(a) "Thy words were found, and I did eat them ;
and thy words were unto me a joy and the rejoicing
of mine heart." (Jer. xv. 1 6.)
"Then did I eat it (i. e., the book-roll) and it was
in my mouth as honey for sweetness." (Ezek. iii. 3.)
(b) "And I set watchmen over you, saying,
'Hearken to the sound of the trumpet' ; but they
said, 'We will not hearken.' " (Jer. vi. 17.)

THE PROPHET AS PRIEST 195
"Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto
the house of Israel, therefore hear the word at
my mouth and give them warning from me."
(Ezek. iii. 17.)
(c) "The heart of the king shall perish, and the
heart of the princes ; and the priests shall be aston
ished, and the prophets shall wonder." (Jer. iv. 9.)
"The king shall mourn and the prince shall be
clothed with desolation, and the hands of the peo
ple of the land shall be troubled." (Ezek. vii. 27.)
(d) "Then said Jehovah unto me, Though Moses
and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind could
not be toward this people." (Jer. xv. 1.)
"Though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job,
were in it they should but deliver their own souls
by their righteousness, saith the Lord Jehovah."
(Ezek. xiv. 14.)
(e) "Seek in the broad places thereof, if ye can
find a man." (Jer. v. 1.)
"I sought for a man among them 
but I found none." (Ezek. xxii. 30.)
Jeremiah knew well that religion could not be
kept alive simply by books and forms of worship.
It must find permanence and progress through the

196 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
lives of faithful, intelligent men. Books were be
coming more useful, and ceremonies could not quite
be dispensed with, but these must receive their
true interpretation through the experience of men
who gather up the treasures of the past and march
forward to a richer future. The strength of the
movement shows that there were many men of
this class, but Ezekiel stands out boldly as a type
and leader who has given varied expression to
their beliefs and aspirations. A LIVING LINK,
He links together in his own life contrasted pe
riods, different classes and opposite interests. Stand
ing in the midst of the great period of judgment he
affirms its absolute justice and helps to shape the
new church that arises after the downfall of the
nation. He is a public speaker and a man of letters ;
a prophet and a priest ; a man of large outlook and
yet a pastor ordained to watch over the souls of
men. A man endowed with such varied capacities
must be called a many-sided man; in fact the diffi
culty is to harmonize his ideas and show the unity
of his life. We must be content to give fair repre
sentation to each essential feature without making
too great a sacrifice for the sake of smoothness and
system. Ezekiel plays so many parts that he can
scarcely be expected to be in the first rank in any of
them. Besides being a prophet and a priest he is a
strange combination of the poet and theologian ; he
does not attain to the perfection of form character
istic of the greatest poets and he has not woven his
teachings into a clearly articulated and logically

THE PROPHET AS PRIEST 197
consistent scheme, but he loves a weird poetic im
agery and he sees the importance of certain great
theological ideas. Like all representative men he
unites in himself the conflicting forces and comple
mentary conceptions of his age. Hence he is by no
means a man of one idea. He can hold at the same
time thoughts which seem to small sectarian minds
to be mutually exclusive. And we must admit that
it is the most difficult thing to maintain a church
system, such as that which he sketches, and keep
alive at the same time the personal responsibility
and spiritual experience which is so powerfully ex
pressed in his teaching. If, however, our religion
is to reach a high level it must by the power of
Christian faith give appropriate expression to the
deep solitary experience and the broad social com
munion. Similarly we may say that all the varied
lines of ministerial activity which find a bold partial
embodiment in the life of this inspired man have a
permanent significance. He links together preach
ing and literature, prophetic zeal for moral princi
ples and priestly care for ritual, a wide outlook on
national destiny and a keen sense of the importance
of individuals, a clear vision of the thoroughness of
judgment and a noble faith in the new future.
THE BOOK.
The fact that writing has begun to play a larger
part is symbolized by the form in which the call
comes to Ezekiel. "And when I looked, behold a
hand was put forth unto me ; and lo, a roll of a book
was therein ; and he spread it before me, and it was
written within and without : and there was written

198 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
therein lamentations and mourning and woe' (ii.,
9, 10). He who received his call in this striking
form has given us a book which in its very structure
reveals the order of his thought. In this case it is
probable that the book comes to' us in an arrange
ment due to the prophet himself and controlled by a
great idea. We have:
I. Visions, speeches and symbols from the time
before the destruction of Jerusalem. Here the pic
tures are dark and the tone that of complete con
demnation. (I— XXIV).
II. Oracles against foreign nations. These na
tions must be judged and punished in order to clear
the stage for Israel's future restoration and blessed
ness (XXV-XXXII).
III. The picture of redemption and final blessed
ness. There shall be a national resurrection.
The blessedness of the land shall provoke the com
ment : "This land that was desolate is become like
the garden of Eden." The people shall have a new
clean heart. The old sad days shall flee away at the
words, "Neither will I hide my face from them any
more for I have poured out my spirit upon the
house of Israel, saith the Lord Jehovah" (XXXIII-
XXXIX).
IV. Description of the new order of things when
the restored tribes shall enjoy in Palestine a time of
perfect service to God and peace with each other
(XL-XLVIII). Even if the form in which we
now find the book is not in all respects as it
came from the author the general arrangement of
the material harmonizes well with the progress of
the prophet's thought.

THE PROPHET AS PRIEST 199
THE PROPHET.
Ezekiel is remarkable for the sternness and
steadfastness with which he declares that the
judgment must be carried through to the bit
ter end. It was an unwelcome task, but having
felt the pressure of the divine command he seems
almost to have a grim pleasure in reiterating the
mournful message. As he surveys the present con
dition of Jerusalem, or looks back upon the past
life of the nation, he sees nothing to relieve the
gloom. The people have been wicked and ungrate
ful from the beginning; they have been guilty of
black ingratitude, shameless apostasy, abominable
idolatries. We are tempted to call the prophet dog
matic and doctrinaire; he applies his standard in
such a hard absolute fashion. He has not the varied
perspective of Isaiah nor the tender sensitiveness of
Jeremiah. He had his hours of excitement and de
pression, but he is always marked by a certain
hardness and inflexibility. All his visions, para
bles, riddles and poems tell the same tale of Israel's
sin, shame and sorrow. In language deemed ex
pressive at the time, but sometimes repulsive to our
modern taste, the unfaithfulness of Judah is vividly
portrayed. It is often difficult to say whether the
visions are actual and the actions real ; but the mean
ing of all this strange symbolism is clear ; the nation
has come to the close of a long career of inexcusa
ble wickedness. There is no hope; only doom cer
tain and complete. This is the immediate outlook
given by a prophet who judges all the people and
measures all its history by the same absolute stand
ard.

200 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
THE PREACHER.
Such a course of prediction, especially when
justified by events, could only lead to humil
iation and despair. How can men cherish any
hope when they feel that the woes accumulated
from centuries of sin and shame come upon them
with crushing weight? It is scarcely surprising if
men in such circumstances cry, "the fathers have
eaten sour grapes and the children's teeth are set
on edge." Indeed there is some truth in the sinister
proverb. In true preacher fashion Ezekiel will take
another fragment of truth and wield it to meet this
case. Each man is responsible for his own action
and will receive from God according to his own
deeds. "As I live, saith Jehovah, I have no pleas
ure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked
turn from his way and live; turn ye, turn ye from
your evil ways, for why will ye die, O house of
Israel!" Here is recognition of the solitary indi
vidual life, faith in the possibility of conversion.
The form in which the thought is worked out is
very bold and it seems to take each soul and cut it
clear away from all relationships of past and pres
ent. But that is the preacher's business, to set forth
strongly the neglected truth. If the preacher can
not set forth this truth of individual responsibilities
in all its relationship and show all its consequences
it is well that he should fling it forth in a way that
will check despair, quicken thought and inspire
faith. The fact that he has preached such a power
ful sermon on the text, "visiting the iniquities of
the fathers upon the children," drives him to assert

THE PROPHET AS PRIEST 201
with equal boldness that the individual man can
throw off the dead weight of the past and lay hold on
present mercy. Immediate impressiveness rather
than systematic consistency is the preacher's main
business. Ezekiel with all his capabilities was not a
philosopher and probably did not feel as much as we
do the pressure of inconsistency in the varied ele
ments of his thought. THE PASTOR.
To save the church, when the nation had
made such terrible shipwreck, something more
was needed than elaborate denunciations and
grim symbols of punishment. Some attempt must
be made to gather together "the remnant," to give
new hope to those who were destined to keep alive
the spiritual idea. Therefore pastoral responsibility
is set forth* in a special manner. The prophet is "a
watchman" set to blow the trumpet and warn the
people of coming danger. This view appears in
Amos with intense vividness and spirituality, but in
Ezekiel the reference is to the particular individuals
who compose the community rather than to the
nation as a whole. We are reminded of Baxter's
great discourse, "The Reformed Pastor," which
was also delivered in a time of transition and per
secution. "When I say unto the wicked, O wicked man,
thou shalt surely die, and thou dost not speak to
warn the wicked from his way; that wicked man
shall die in his iniquity, but his blood will I re
quire at thy hand" (xxxiii :8). This commis
sion given in such terms makes "the watchman"

202 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
feel that it is a very solemn thing to stand between
men and their God, weighted with responsibility on
one hand and exposed to suspicion and scorn on the
other. Yet with all his seriousness the prophet had
a certain popularity on account of his skill in speech ;
even to shallow people there was a charm in his
intense earnestness and his pictorial style. The
people talked about him "by the walls and in the
doors of the houses" and said, "Come, I pray you,
and hear what is .the word that cometh forth from
Jehovah"; or, in modern phrase, let us go and
hear the latest thing in the way of a sermon. To
have the outward form admired and the inward
message rejected is a tragic fate for the preacher,
but not peculiar to any age. To compliment the
preacher on his elocution and treat his words as
trifles is the height of cruelty. "And lo, thou art
unto them as a very lovely song of one that hath
a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instru
ment; for they hear thy words but do them not."
(xxxiii, 32.) THE POET.
It is quite true that he was a singer and
a painter, a master in the use of words, chant
ing solemn songs or creating gorgeous suggestive
pictures. In these days of exact science and prosaic
materialism it might be well for us to take a little
more interest in and cherish a stronger sympathy
for these antique poems and symbolic pictures.
From the artistic point of view they may often be
rude, and sometimes grotesque, but the main thing
is the moral principle; the pictures are not valued

THE PROPHET AS PRIEST 203
for their own sake but as illustrations in a powerful
sermon. This wealth of oriental imagery may be
foreign to our taste, but it was very dear to good
men in those days and has exerted a wonderful in
fluence over later literature, and still in indirect
ways it moulds the thoughts of men concerning
death and judgment. Many comparisons might be
drawn similar to that suggested by ix -.4, and Rev.
vii : 3. Ezekiel delights in parables, riddles,
songs, dirges and elaborate pictures ; some complain
that these are artificial and barren, but in all
cases they will reward a careful, sympathetic study.
For his marvelous descriptive powers one should
read his predictions concerning foreign nations; he
decorates the victims magnificently before announc
ing their doom. These nations viewed in this rich
light seem to have some excuse for their pride, but
they have ill-treated the chosen people and their
unchastened arrogance is a mortal sin against the
supreme God, therefore they must die.
THE PRIEST.
In and through all Ezekiel continued to
be a priest. Amos and Isaiah lay special
stress on morality as opposed to ritual; Zechariah
and Haggai are zealous supporters of the claims
of the church and the needs of the sanctuary ; Eze
kiel comes between these two epochs and stands be
tween these different classes of prophets; he con
tinues to be a priest while far from the sanctuary
and exercising the ministry of a prophet. His
great predecessor, Jeremiah, sprang from a priestly
family but devoted himself entirely to the work of

204 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
preaching ; the temple was still standing but he had
evidently lost all hope of cleansing and refining it,
and in his teaching there is nothing of a distinctive
priestly character. Ezekiel, though he lives in
Babylon, where there is no Jewish temple, never
loses his priestly instincts. His vocabulary is full
of ecclesiastical phraseology; he is much concerned
with "the clean" and "the unclean", "the sacred"
and "the profane". It may not be fair to judge him
from the modern point of view as to the distinc
tion between the "moral" and the "ceremonial",
"ritual" and "conduct"; to him these are elements
which must be blended into a consistent life, a life
which links earth to heaven and men to each other.
To sketch a restored land, a glorified nation, a new
temple, was at such a time a great act of faith, but
the form in which it appears, the clothing of the
idea, shows how thoroughly the priestly view of life
dominates the man's mind. To Ezekiel the form is
essential, it is not mere drapery. His picture of
the new temple is an important part of his polemic
against impure worship, and it had a great share in
the development of later Judaism. To us it may
seem foreign and remote, but it was a fitting vehicle
for the expression of his hopes. We cannot in the
^face of all his strong sermons class Ezekiel as a
'mere ritualist, but we must confess that "the
IChurch" as an ecclesiastical organization is for him
central and supreme. This side of the truth still
needs representation and if we are compelled to
regard this prophet's picture of a religious nation
as local and mechanical, this is because of our ap-

THE PROPHET AS PRIEST 205
preciation of other and higher elements in his teach
ing. THE THEOLOGIAN.
If Ezekiel felt himself driven to act as archi
tect of a new temple it was not because he
was destitute of religious ideas and unable to
live without the material sanctuary. He helped
to stimulate theological activity by the very rough
ness of his system of thought, the force by which
disjointed fragments of truth were flung out into
a world that had lost its standards. There is
strength and it may be something of arbitrariness
in his thought of God. Jehovah is the absolute
ruler who "sanctifies Himself", that is, reveals His
nature for the honour of His own name. There is
a certain stiffness in the manner in which this truth
is presented. We do not find the mingling of ten
derness and sublimity that marks the fortieth chap
ter of Isaiah ; and yet in a different way the same
elements are in both. Ezekiel, after denouncing the
human shepherds who neglect the flock, can give us
an attractive picture of God as the good shepherd.
(xxxiv: 12.) God can do all things, therefore
no hindrance can stand in the way of the new
Kingdom and Church that are to glorify His name.
This is real faith, though there is much national
limitation in the mode of its expression. At times,
however, it reaches the highest union of sublimity
and pathos. When the prophet sees the valley of
dry bones he hears the question, "Son of man, can
these bones live?" There is reverence as well as
faith in the reply, "O, Lord Jehovah, thou knowest".

206 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
There is faith also in the indication of the means to
be used. "Prophesy upon these bones, and say unto
them, "O, ye dry bones, hear the word of Je
hovah." God can make a new nation, He can cause
its scattered members to arise out of the dust in
response to the living word. The Church will not
become a cold, stiff, mechanical system so long as
this faith is cherished and expressed in beautiful
forms. Ezekiel may be a father to a class of "for
malists", but that will only be if men are content
to ignore his noblest teachings. No prophet gives
a fuller, more varied description of the work of
"the Spirit". To this divine energy he traces his
own prophetic activity, "the spirit entered into me,
as he spoke to me" (11:2; 111:24; xi:5). He
knows what we call "repentance", since he can say,
"Make you a new mind and a new spirit ; for why
will ye die, O house of Israel?" (xvni:3i.)
In connection with the promise of restoration there
is the suggestive statement, "I will give them a new
mind and put a new spirit within them" (xi:x9).
And in our final judgment of Ezekiel's view, it must
never be forgotten that besides giving us a model
of the restored land with its temple in the centre,
and sweet idyllic pictures of the fruitfulness and
beauty of the land, he has furnished the charter of
the new nation in these terms :
"And I will sprinkle clean water upon you, that
you may be clean: from all your filthiness, and
from all your idols will I cleanse you. A new heart
also will I give you, -and a new spirit will I put
within you: and I will take away the stony heart
out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of

THE PROPHET AS PRIEST 207
flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and
cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep
my judgments and do them" (xxxvi 125-27) .
In order to do justice to the prophet it is not nec
essary to read into these great words the clearer and
richer thought of spiritual regeneration which is
the centre and glory of the Christian faith, but we
must acknowledge that this man, with all his care
for ritual and genius for organization, saw the need
of inward renewal, and in his own way longed and
prepared for the higher command, "Ye must be
born again." His ecclesiastical system is impos
sible to us now, but we may possess the same living
faith in a God who can create a new church which
shall hold a lofty central position even in our mod
ern life. In dealing with foreign nations Ezekiel
does not strike the missionary note, the judgment
upon the peoples is simply to make known Jehovah's
justice and prepare the way for Israel's prosperity
(xxxviii :25-26). At that point it may be said
that he stops short of what is implied in his own
teaching; that may be so, but with regard to his
successors, while there were some who exalted the
ecclesiastical and exclusive elements in Ezekiel's
system, there were others who saw clearly that
such truths as individual responsibility and the in
wardness of religion cannot be confined to any
one church or nation. This prophet had im
mense influence over his immediate follow
ers; since then he has been neglected and now,
though he is not the most attractive of the
prophets, we are slowly learning that he demands
careful consideration and is worthy of reverence.

THE PROPHET'S PARABLE

"The artist is a witness to the truth; or he will never
attain the beautiful. So is the agriculturist; or he will
never reap a harvest. So is the statesman, building up
a nation's polity on the principles which time has proved
true, or else all his work crumbles down in revolution;
for national revolution is only the Divine Rejection
stamped on the social falsehood which cannot stand. In
every department of life man must work truly as a witness.
He is born for that, nothing else; and nothing else can he
do. Man the Son can do nothing of Himself, but that
which He seeth God the Father do." — F. W. Robertson.

CHAPTER XVII
THE PROPHET'S PARABLE
(Isaiah v. 1-7; xxviii. 23-29. Ezekiel xv.)
Hosea, speaking in the name of Israel's God, says :
"I have also spoken unto the prophet, and I have
multiplied visions, and by the ministry of the
prophets have I used similitudes." This speech of
God to the prophets was a sustained and varied
process, as we may see from a study of the way in
which they interpreted life and imparted truth to
the people. The prophets spoke many things in
very plain language; they smote the wickedness of
their time in words that could not be mistaken ; but
in seeking to present positive truth in attractive sug
gestive forms they often preferred the "simili
tudes," which great teachers use so effectively and
which all classes of hearers can appreciate. The Old
Testament has suffered much from disconnected
treatment and wild allegorical interpretations, but
the most careful examination of this great literature
often brings to our minds the words that Tennyson
applies to the Great Teacher :
"For Wisdom dealt with mortal powers,
Where truth in closest words shall fail,
When truth embodied in a tale
Shall enter in at lowly doors."
211

212 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
There are many parables in the prophetic writ
ings. One of them, the parable of the Vine, will in
this chapter claim the greater part of our attention ;
but in the first place a few words may be given to
the parable of the Husbandman, which we find in
the twenty-eighth chapter of the book which bears
the name of Isaiah.
This parable may have been spoken by Isaiah to
vindicate God's varied dealings with the nation, and
the changing moods of his own ministry. If, how
ever, the view is accepted that it is a later produc
tion, meant to show that all past judgments were
a preparation for future blessing, the central prin
ciple is the same — namely, that we must not attrib
ute to God's government a senseless mechanical
uniformity. The subordinate suggestions also are
not seriously affected by the difference of view as
to the exact period in which the parable must be
placed. One of these is that the work of the hus
bandman is sacred and symbolic: it is a parable of
God's dealing with nations and men, as well as of
the faithful ministry of a wise teacher. The reason
of this is that the farmer is taught by God how to
manage different seeds and plants : each husband
man is trained by Jehovah, taught by his God (26).
His work shows knowledge, which manifests itself
in adaptation to each particular case. "This also
cometh from Jehovah of hosts, which is wonder
ful in counsel and excellent in wisdom" (29). The
Hebrew laid more stress upon practical wisdom
than on keen intellectual analysis or brooding mys
tic meditation. Wisdom was careful thought, issu
ing in strong, consistent living. This was God's

THE PROPHET'S PARABLE 213
gift. It might be handed down by tradition or be
learned by sharp personal experience ; but it was not
the less given through the guidance of God ; it was
in a very real sense a revelation. We need to go
back to this thought of one God and one world.
No ! there is no such thing as going back ; we need
to go forward and hold this view in a still loftier
fashion that we may claim all spheres of life for
God. The poet and the engineer, the philosopher
and the farmer — all these varied thinkers and work
ers must, in order to attain the highest service,
link their work to the forces which come forth from
God and constantly express His will.
The point of supreme importance is that different
methods are used to meet varying needs, but all for
the same purpose. No living ministry follows a
cast-iron uniform rule of procedure and treats
everything in the same manner. The farmer may
level the soil and smooth it as well as tear it up;
he does not keep on ploughing all the time, he can
sow and reap ; he does not thrash all kinds of grain
in exactly the same way, he has an appropriate
method for each. You do not call this fickleness
and inconsistency on the part of a farmer; you
recognize it in his case as a manifestation of wis
dom on the part of a man taught by God. The
farmer is always seeking the same thing, fruitful-
ness and blessing as the result of toil; there is no
real change of plan in his work, only wise adapta
tion of means to ends. From this we may learn
what is meant by the steadfastness of God and the
consistency of the true teacher. The different
seasons that God gives in the world of nature all

214 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
work toward the harvest. His different treat
ment of nations and the varied discipline of
the individual life is all for the same end.
He is ever working for righteousness and char
acter. If Samaria is destroyed and Jerusalem
is preserved it is for the same purpose. If Jeru
salem is protected in one century and delivered
over to the enemy in the next it is all in pursuance
of the same plan. If the prophet's message is in
one age mainly of denunciation and in the next
chiefly of consolation there is no real contradiction,
the same principle is at work through all the
changes. The changeableness of God is the adapta
tion of love and righteousness to the changing needs
of men. He does not care for dead uniformity or
surface consistency; to judge His plan we need
deep thoughtfulness as well as devout reverence.
O'ur shallow criticisms may simply show our own
conceit instead of disproving the constancy which
hides inflexible purpose behind seeming caprice.
We may find everywhere illustrations of the fact
that God fulfils himself in many ways, but espe
cially in the history of that redeeming mercy which
finds its highest manifestation in Jesus Christ.
THE PARABLE OF THE VINE.
The vine played a great part in the life of Pales
tine, and it is quite natural that it should be used
in literature as the symbol of peace and blessing,
fruitfulness and joy. In the prophets the thought
of God's ill-requited toil and care is represented by
the disappointed husbandman who looks in vain
for the fruit from the vine upon which he has be-

THE PROPHET'S PARABLE 215
stowed painful labor. We meet this similitude first
in Hosea in a very brief form, "Israel is a luxur
iant vine," but the fruit is not of the right kind —
it is a luxuriance of impure worship, not of noble
deeds. The next time we meet this figure it is in
the form of a finely worked out poetic parable, one
of the noblest pieces that we possess from the pen
of the great Isaiah. It is even supposed that in the
early years of his ministry the prophet appeared at
one of the festivals to sing before one of the assem
bled crowds the story of Jehovah's love, patient
ministry, the bitter disappointment; that is un
certain, but it is quite clear that the union of privi
lege and responsibility here finds richer and sweeter
expression. Jehovah is reluctant to condemn and
destroy that which he has created and cherished,
but what can He do?
"And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem,
And men of Judah,
Judge, I pray you, betwixt me
And my vineyard.
What could have been done more to my vineyard
That I have not done in it ?
Wherefore when I looked that it should bring forth
grapes
Brought it forth wild grapes?"
Here is a touching parable which in its first move
ment must make a powerful appeal to the audience,
quickening interest and rousing curiosity, but the
orator is determined that his speech shall not min
ister to mere entertainment; there shall be no
doubt as to the meaning and application of this

216 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
sermon. The closing sentence is something that
all can understand and that they cannot easily
forget. "The vineyard of Jehovah of hosts is the house
of Israel,
And the men of Judah His pleasant plant,
And He looked for judgment, but behold oppres
sion,
For righteousness, but behold a cry."
After this we find the Vine parable in many
varied forms of song, sermon and prayer. In Isaiah
xxvii. 2-5 there is one of a different tone, which
probably belongs to a much later time.
"A vineyard of wine, sing ye unto it !
I, Jehovah, do keep it;
I will water it every moment;
Lest any hurt it,
I will keep it day and night.
Fury is not in Me :
Would that the briers
And thorns were against Me in battle!
I would march upon them,
I would burn them together,
Or else let him take hold of My strength,
That he may make peace with Me;
Let him make peace with Me."
One parable is a message of reproach and con
demnation, the other a song of comfort and cheer.
In Psalm lxxx. the same sweet symbol is used as a
plaintive prayer ; the blessing of God which can be
made the basis of powerful exhortation can also

THE PROPHET'S PARABLE 217
serve as the reason for earnest appeal. He who has
shown such grace in the past will surely have pity
on the penitent church. Defeat and disaster have
lessened pride without quite destroying faith.
"Thou broughtest a vine out of Egypt :
Thou didst drive out the nation, and plantedst it."
"Why hast Thou broken down her fences,
So that all they which pass by the way do pluck
her?"
Through what terrible experience the nation had
to pass and in what severe tones the prophet spoke
before the time of comfort and hope dawned may
be seen from the words of Jeremiah : "Yet I had
planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right seed ; how
then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a
strange vine unto me"? (ii. 21). Nowhere is the
judgment more severe and the threat of destruction
more complete than in the fifteenth chapter of Ezek
iel, where the prophet hears the sharp question,
"What is the vine tree more than any other tree,
the vine branch which is among the trees of the
forest ?" If men still cling to the idea that election
is a coarse mechanical thing, that Jehovah is bound
to protect and restore the nation because it is his
heritage, the vine of his planting, then they must
be reminded once more why a vine is planted and
what is its true place among the trees of the for
est. What is the use of a vine? You cannot
build ships with its wood, or make houses from its
timber; it is not fit to be used for any article of
furniture or common utensil. It is not the kind of

218 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
wood that one would choose for the making of a
paltry peg. What is the use of a vine, especially
one that has been thrown into the fire and burnt at
both ends? Can anything more be done except to
cast it again into the fire and let it be completely
consumed ? But if the vine is not for these purposes
is it not one of the noblest trees from the point of
view of fruit-bearing ? That is quite true ; but this
vine has not borne the right kind of fruit, and here
we meet the real point of the parable, a point that is
made more prominent by solemn silence than by elo
quent speech. If it is a question of fruit, then the less
said of it the better; history has justified Isaiah's
parable. Jehovah has visited the vine in anger for
the very reason that after all His care, it did not
bear good fruit. Israel was from the first meant
for fruit-bearing, to bring forth in her own time
and way the fruits of the Spirit, to be an example
of a nation loving truth and seeking righteousness.
But she did not covet earnestly the best of gifts;
she desired to be like the other trees of the forest.
She envied the political pretensions and military
power of the great Oriental empires. That vain splen
dour and such short-lived power were not meant
for her ; in hei high message and spiritual vocation
there was greater glory and nobler influence,
Judged from the material and political point of view
Israel was contemptible; she must seek her great
ness elsewhere or die. The vine, with its rich clus
ter of luscious grapes, has a grace and beauty of
its own; but the barren vine pretending to be a
cedar of Lebanon is a ridiculous sight. The church
still needs this lesson ; she must be true to her own

THE PROPHET'S PARABLE 219
life, active in her own sphere, fruitful in the God-
appointed way. If she will leave her "vine which
cheereth God and man, and go and move to and fro
over the trees" she may gain a little temporary splen
dour, while losing the beauty and power of real spir
itual life. The influence of real faith, the gentle
power of genuine goodness, the indirect rule of
clear, truthful testimony, the silent, effective force
of character — through these the church must work,
and these spiritual weapons have lost none of their
special significance and supreme power. But if she
craves the crown and the purple, if she is dazzled
by the glamour of the visible sceptre, if she covets
the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them,
then the voice may speak again in the same piercing
tones, "What is the vine tree more than all the trees
of the forest?"

THE PROPHET'S MESSAGE OF COMFORT

"If Israel had been merely a race like others it would
never have survived this fearful catastrophe and would
have disappeared in the Babylonian Exile. But Israel was
the bearer of an idea ; this was not to be annihilated with
the State, and its external destiny was not closed with
its political life. On the contrary. It seems as though
only now, when the body was dashed to pieces, was the
spirit really able to develop unhampered. The death that
Judah died was a death suffused with dawn." — Professor
C. H. Cornill, "The Prophets of Israel."

CHAPTER XVIII
THE PROPHET'S MESSAGE OF COMFORT
(Isaiah xl.)
This prophecy is full of voices ; we can hear these
voices wail or sing, we can catch the call that ad
dresses the conscience, and listen to the soothing
strain that tenderly appeals to the weary heart.
There are also echoes, reflections of what the
heathen cry in their confusion or the Israelites mut
ter in their despair, but the dominant sound is the
voices of prophets and heralds bringing a great
message of peace and blessing from the redeeming
God. This is a noble piece of literature, it clothes
the appropriate messages in such winning forms
that the sermon which did its own work effectively
has become a thing of beauty and a joy forever.
The voice has not died away or spent its force. Be
fore it became sacred literature it was a living mes
sage, coming with persuasive power from the depths j
of an inspired soul. We are thankful for the book,
and because we believe in God we still have faith
in the preacher's voice. Let men denounce empty
babble with all the cynical bitterness they can com
mand, it will still remain true that God uses the
human voice as His instrument. Smart writing and
showy pictures cannot superannuate the voice that
223

224 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
has a soul behind it. The inspiring tones that call
to battle, the flaming speech that denounces sin, the
calm, persuasive plea, the sympathetic words that
dispel doubt and check despair, these are always
needed. They never did a nobler work than when
they bound up the wounds of a broken-hearted na
tion, and declared that the community in banishment
and disgrace was called to new life and higher ser
vice. We cannot say of this preacher that he is "a voice
and nothing more," for he is very much more, he
hears many voices and he brings a manifold mes
sage. Though we do not know exactly where he
lived and how he exercised his personal ministry,
his teaching we may know and its place in the his
tory of a great revelation. His voice at first spoke
to a small company ; now it reaches to the heart of
the universal church and echoes round the world.
Because the man listened so attentively to the high
est teaching of the past and was true to the present
message God has vindicated the voice and given to it
increasing power. Many nameless men, careless of
fame and longing only for usefulness, have poured
their life-blood into this great literature ; surely they
have their reward!
This tone of comfort is a new note in Hebrew
prophecy; it is made necessary by changed condi
tions, and it meets a pressing need ; the boldness
once manifested in condemnation is now shown in
consolation.
"Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto
her

THE PROPHET'S MESSAGE 225
That her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity
is pardoned:
For she hath received of Jehovah's hand double
for all her sins."
This is not too strong for the work that has to
be done; the position of the nation seems quite
hopeless. If the dry bones are to live, if the dead
nation is to arise and enter on a new career, there
must be a breath of the Eternal Spirit. The brute
force of the Chaldean power has crushed Jerusalem
and left it in ruins. The people are scattered as
sheep having no shepherd. In a time when misfor
tune was regarded as a curse they stand in disgrace
before God and the world. Then their patriotism
and their piety seemed to have received a fatal
wound. These are the forces that make a nation
great; had they been quite withered the national
life would have been completely crushed, a loss to
the world and a dishonour to the name of Jehovah.
The land might be poor, but they loved it, it was
the land of their fathers and the gift of their God.
Their religion had been so closely associated with
Jerusalem and the temple that it was hard to keep
it strong and inspiring in a distant place and an
alien atmosphere. How could they sing the song
of Zion in a strange land? As they beheld the
mighty power of Babylon, its material splendour,
military strength and magnificent idolatry, their
hearts sank within them for fear; many fell into
scepticism or gave way to despair.
"Why sayest thou, O Jacob,
And speakest, O Israel;

226 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
My way is hid from Jehovah,
My judgment is passed over from my God?"
Many, no doubt, felt that they could fill their
mouths with arguments and answer that "Why";
there seemed to be so many reasons for sadness and
so few strong, inspiring voices. How can the
preacher meet such a desperate case and justify his
call to be a messenger of consolation ? He meets it
as every great need must be met : by a great theol
ogy, the convincing presentation of the highest
| truths concerning God. It is no cunning of poetic
art or skill in oratory that can meet the case, though
these high gifts can be consecrated by faith and
wielded by love. Persuasive arguments, tender songs,
precious promises, noble appeals abound in this por
tion of scripture, but they all grow out of a great
scheme of thought. The preacher is theologian as
well as poet, careful in his study of the past as well
as quick to receive the present revelation. A sublime
conception of God is the centre of his prophecy;
his fearlessness in the face of great world forces,
his quiet scorn of idolatry, his confident appeal to
the past, his mighty faith for the future, all grow
out of a theology that throbs with new life.
"Lift up your eyes on high, and behold
Who hath created these things,
That bringeth out their host by number :
He calleth them all by name; by the greatness of
His might,
For that He is strong in power, not one faileth."
Here everything is lifted up into the light of

THE PROPHET'S MESSAGE 227
heaven and touched with the largeness of the skies ;
local limitations are beginning to drop away ; there
is a spirituality of tone and universality of range;
men struggling with commonplace sorrow and con
suming care find it hard to follow the prophecy in
its lofty flights. The prophecy helps to re-create
Judaism, but it requires something larger for its
real fulfilment.
The movement throughout is from God to man;
the emphasis is not so much on man's duty as on
God's sovereign grace; the predominant note is
promise rather than exhortation, promise based on
what God is, and what He determines to do. Here
the essential divinity and true spirituality of Je
hovah reach the highest expression that was pos
sible within the limitations of a national religion.
He is the Unique, the Incomparable ; He creates the
earth, stretches out the heavens, makes both dark
ness and light, gives life to man and all the dwellers
on the earth, controls the course of history, decides
the fate of nations, gives victories to kings, chooses,
chastises and restores His own people. All this
He does as a living God. It is not the story of facts
in the distant past but the recognition of a present
process; religion to the prophets is not mere his
tory but actual life. Wonders are not confined to
the Exodus of long ago, they shall be repeated ; Je
hovah will give "waters in the wilderness and rivers
in the desert," so that the ransomed of Jehovah may
return and come to Zion. The nation may have
been severely chastised, sent to a hard school, but
the restitution to favour, the justification in the arena
of history and the face of the world, proceeds not

228 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
from its merits or any virtues of its penance, but
from the power and purpose of the Eternal God.
Hence the thought of election plays a great part ;
now that the outlook is world-wide, it expresses
the special relation of Israel to Jehovah. This is
the charter of salvation.
"But thou, Israel, art My servant,
Jacob whom I have chosen,
The seed of Abraham, My friend.
Thou whom I have taken from the ends of the
earth
And called thee from the corners thereof,
And said unto thee, Thou art My servant,
I have chosen thee, and not cast thee away."
This is the real refuge for the soul in hours of
distress ; this is the strength of the nation in times
of defeat; God's choice is the manifestation of His
own wise purpose and shall not utterly fail. When
there is no help or hope in man lift your eyes to
the throne of the Eternal. This thought of election
can be held in a crude fashion ; it can, when reduced
to a narrow dogma, be made to exclude the very
things that God includes in it. Election does not
deny evolution ; rightly understood, these may be
complementary thoughts representing two sides of
the same fact. Election does not mean low favorit
ism on which any class or clique can legitimately
rest its spiritual pride. Precisely in this section
where God's election of His people is most nobly
vindicated in the face of the most distressing con
tradictions, the missionary idea comes to its fullest
expression. That Jehovah is the God of the whole

THE PROPHET'S MESSAGE 229
world means mercy for mankind and not a monop
oly for the Jew. That the Jews shall be restored
because God has something for them to do for the
great world and not merely something for them to
enjoy within themselves, is the central feature of
this prophecy. Hence the word "comfort" here
has no selfish meaning or effeminate associations:
it has the idea of strengthening which was in the
word before we spoiled it. The prophecy of com
fort is a nobler presentation of God, a deeper read
ing of history, a larger outlook upon life, a call to
conquer difficulties and draw sweetness out of sor
row, a declaration that the small people who possess
a great truth are mightier than the colossal empire,
an assurance that the word of God liveth and abid
eth for ever.

THE PROPHET A PREACHER TO HIS AGE

"What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? Ministers
through whom ye believed ; and each as the Lord gave to
him. I planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the in
crease." "Wherefore let no one glory in men. For all
things are yours ; whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or
the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things
to come; all are yours; and ye are Christ's; and Christ
is God's." — i Cor. iii., 5-6, 21-23.

CHAPTER XIX
THE PROPHET A PREACHER TO HIS AGE
(Isaiah xl )
The immense difference in tone between this and
the earlier portions of prophetic literature leads
naturally to a consideration of an important ques
tion, the adaptation of each prophecy to the time
when it was delivered. A generation ago men em-"
phasized, perhaps unduly, the prophet's relation to
the future; now it is the fashion to insist upon the
need of taking as our starting point his actual con
tact with the circumstances of his day, and his dis
tinctive message to his own age. It may be worth
while, then, to try to make a little clearer to our
own thought what is meant by the statement that
the prophet was primarily a preacher and that his
immediate aim was to bring to his contemporaries
a clearer vision of God, and a stronger sense of re
sponsibility to the righteous King who has called
the nation. Stated even in this bald fashion we
can see at once that "preaching to the times" in a
low, vulgar sense is excluded; the prophets were
not "popular preachers" in a base sense. They may
at times have used means of attracting attention
which seem strange to our modern tastes, but they
did not deliberately cater to a sensation-loving pub-
233

234 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
lie ; they were not content to dress in plausible form
the average opinion of the day; they did not per
form curious tricks to catch popular applause.
There were such prophets in Israel, as elsewhere,
but they are gone and their miserable little sermons
have perished with them. When we use the word
"prophet" now we refer to those choice spirits who
dared and suffered all for truth and righteousness ;
in what sense then were they "preachers to the
times" ?
It cannot be denied that they uttered predictions
more or less definite in their nature, but it may be
shown that these were also a part of the preaching.
The clear statements of judgment given by Amos and
Jeremiah did not refer to some remote event out of
all relation to the present, but to an actual chastise
ment near at hand, the whirlwind to be reaped by
those who were so diligently sowing the wind. It
is to be noted that, as in the case of Micah's predic
tion concerning the destruction of Jerusalem, the
prediction was sometimes far ahead of its accom
plishment (Micah iii. 12; Jer. xxvi. 18). Neither
is it meant to question the fact that from these men
we receive prophecies in the larger sense. In this
sense, that their preaching contained a God-given
revelation of truth, truth in many cases seen and
applied for the first time, truth so vital that when
we pierce behind the drapery and find its real mean
ing we gain an eternal principle applicable to all
time, truth that in its simplest form possesses the
promise of infinite growth; the preaching of such
truth may well be called prophetic, in that it both
promises and prepares for a larger and clearer

A PREACHER TO HIS AGE 235
manifestation of God. Truths which we to
day may confirm by a philosophic survey of history
they received by living inspiration and the direct
vision of life. Hence it is good for us to have fel
lowship with them for the purpose of bringing the
divine life into the commonplaces of our own creed.
Prophecies of what must come to pass in a world
ruled by a living and righteous God these men have
given us ; visions of a nobler nation, a purer church,
a true anointed King; except in the case of a few
scattered and separate poems these prophecies also
had a living relationship to the prophet's activity as
a preacher. What is meant, then, is that prophecy was a real
ministry, not an artificial production; the particular
prophecy was in the noblest sense a sermon, and
Godjdoes not inspire the great sermon ajcentury_b£-
fQ3^_iLJl_needed_qrJintelligble. There are poems
and songs in the Old Testament so short and con
sisting of such general expressions that it may be
difficult to say in just what generation they arose.
But in the case of a large section of prophecy there
is a historical background, a theological tone, a lin
guistic character which fixes the author in a partic
ular age ; when that age is discovered the real light
is thrown on the situation so that we can see how
the God-sent messenger met the needs of his own
generation. Instead of this discovery limiting the
prophecy and making it appear antiquated it frees
it for larger service, and reveals its permanent
power. The thing that is antiquated is the thing
that is utterly unintelligible, that has no known rela
tion to your life, or to any life that you know. The

236 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
prophet, therefore, resembles other great poets and
teachers in this, that we must enter into the large
field of his thought through the narrow gateway
of his local circumstances. Because he spoke so ap
propriately to his own age, we must study that age
if we are to understand him; because he spoke so
powerfully to his own time he may really minister
to us.
Thus, much more is meant than can be com
pressed into a few sentences, but one more thought
must for our present purpose be emphasized ; if the
prophet did not as a rule preach that which referred
only to the future, neither did he repeat in a mechan
ical fashion the message that had been addressed
.to a previous age. The latter is always a real dan
ger in the case of the preacher, for it is a thing that
superficial people demand. The preacher is not a
reciter but an interpreter ; he may make effective use
of sacred texts and forms that are hallowed by sa-
'cred associations, but it is his business to reincarnate
and vocalize the eternal truth that lies behind all
texts and dogmas. The man of to-day must hear the
wonderful story in his own tongue.
Take one simple illustration of this variety, elas
ticity and adaptation of living prophecy. In the
days of David Jerusalem became the political capi
tal and to some extent the religious centre of Israel.
When the northern tribes broke away, the position
of the city relatively to its territory became more im
portant; Jerusalem represented Judea; Zion to the
patriot and poet became the city of the great King.
What, then, was the position of the great prophets
as to the fate of this city in the coming judgment?

A PREACHER TO HIS AGE 237
Micah, the peasant prophet, as we have seen, pre
dicted that "Jerusalem shall become heaps, and
the mountain of the house as the high places
of a forest."* The prophet Isaiah was a citi-/
zen of Jerusalem, and exercised his strenuous
faithful ministry within its walls. He was in the
main a prophet of judgment and on the whole his
outlook was gloomy. The nation is to be punished
for the folly of rulers and for the faithlessness of
the people, Jerusalem is to receive severe chastise
ment (i. 24-26). But at one period of his life,
when "The Assyrian came down like a wolf on the
fold," Isaiah declared that the invader should be
discomfited and driven back. When his prediction
was in some way fulfilled, the people went wild with
joy, and the prophet's influence was for the time
being increased. A man of Isaiah's faith and tem
per could not minister to such shallow, selfish sat
isfaction, and for him the battle of righteousness
continued to be severe. It is easy, however, to see
how out of such comfort as he did give, coloured as
it was by his contempt for the proud Assyrian and
his love for the sacred city, men might construct a
doctrine of the inviolability of Jerusalem, and con
nect it with his teaching. A glorious doctrine many
people thought it to be, that Jerusalem cannot under
any circumstances be desecrated by the foreign foe
because it is a sacred citadel, the dwelling place of
Jehovah.f When in the next century Jerusalem possesses in
the person of Jeremiah a great prophet spending

*See Chapter IV. tSee Chapter XV, page 186.

238 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
his energy through long years within its walls, or
thodox Jews will certainly ask him to respect a
truth so ancient and of such noble ancestry. He
cannot do that; he must respect his own message.
This so-called truth was not taught in that crude
form by the great Isaiah, and even if in his own day
he had taught any such doctrine, he would have been
the last man to desire to fetter those who were to
follow him. Jeremiah taught the destruction of the
city, and if the worshippers of the past had not been
confronted by a precedent his career might have
been cut short ; as it was, he was spared to reiterate1
the solemn warning.* In his day Jerusalem was
doomed, the avenger was at the door, there was no
hope of deliverance, the only path of safety must be
sought in submission to the God-sent conqueror.
In the following century comes the prophet of
consolation to declare that Jerusalem has been suf
ficiently punished and that the hour of restoration
is at hand.
"Go ye forth of Babylon,
Flee ye from the Chaldeans,
With a voice of singing declare ye,
Tell this, utter it even to the end of the earth ; say
ye,
Jehovah hath redeemed His servant Jacob."
(Isaiah xlviii. 20.)
Here are three different messages relating to the
sacred city ; they are not inconsistent, though differ
ent in outward form they possess a living harmony.

*See Chapter XIV, page 169; Chapter XV, page 186.

A PREACHER TO HIS AGE 239
The prophets were all of them patriots ; they loved
the city of their fathers and the sanctuary of their
God, and they longed for the new Jerusalem where
in dwelleth righteousness.
The same principle applies now to the experience
of an individual or the life of a community. There
is a time when the word of Isaiah, "Not yet," is
available and appropriate. God is long-suffering, He
gives many warnings; repentance and consistency
may yet avert or modify the threatened doom.
Coming along the same course we meet the word
of Jeremiah, "Too late" ; not too late to repent and
pray, but too late to turn away the physical conse
quences; the Chaldean is at the gate, the hour of
chastisement has come, there is only one way out of
the distress, namely, to submit and acknowledge
that the Lord is just. Then there may come, when
sorrow has done its work, the great word, "Comfort
ye, my people, saith your God."
"For a small moment have I forsaken thee;
But with great mercies will I gather thee." (liv. 7.)
"Behold I have refined thee, but not with silver;
I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction." (xlviii. 10.)
The only thing that has changed is the life of
man ; truth and righteousness remain the same, the
redemptive purpose is the same; but prophecy
which brings the eternal forces to bear on man's
changing circumstances and needs, shows a living
flexibility and power of adaptation, so that the

240 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
prophet by going below the surface currents of his
own age and ministering to its deepest needs has
left a word which is "not for an age but for all
time."

THE PROPHET'S NATIONAL IDEAL

"The Servant of the Lord. There are two questions
which the reader of Isaiah should keep well apart. The
first is, In whom have the prophet's ideas of the Servant,
his sinlessness, vicarious suffering and spiritual power,
been verified in fact and history? And the answer of all
interpreters is, In Jesus the Messiah. The answer was
given by the contemporaries of Christ, and it was given
by His own consciousness. The other question is, What
subject had this prophet in his own mind when he spoke
of the Servant? Very various answers have been given
to this question. What is of moment is the prophet's
ideas, which enriched and deepened the religious thought
of mankind before the Lord came, and were seen to be
verified in Him when He came." — The late Rev. A. B.
Davidson, LL. D., "The Temple Isaiah," xxvii.

CHAPTER XX
THE PROPHET'S NATIONAL IDEAL
THE SERVANT OF JEHOVAH
(Isaiah xii. 8-n.)
There is one point accepted by all students of
this section of the prophetic literature, namely this,
that Israel the nation is clearly set forth as "the
Servant of Jehovah." The differences that have ex
cited so much discussion concern the literary char
acter of the various passages, their relation to each
other, the conception that shall do justice to all of
them and bind them into a living unity, and their
final fulfilment. Our present concern is with the
one point upon which all interpreters, ancient or
modern, Jewish or Christian, are agreed. This idea
in its present setting is one of the noblest that God
has ever given to the human mind; it is still an
ideal which Christian statesmen ought to cherish
in spite of the popular notion that generous senti
ments are, if suitable for any sphere of politics,
specially out of place in the international realm.
In the ministry of the prophets the message is
mainly to the nation. It is in the dark days when
the nation is breaking to pieces that the problems
of individual life and personal experience gain
greater prominence. Noble individual life is, of
243

244 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
course, manifested in the earlier stage; unless the
prophet had been a man of rich spiritual experience
he could not have done his great work, and he must
have felt that the nation could respond to the divine
call only in so far as the individual members, and
especially the rulers, were moved by a nobler spirit.
But in the later days the questions that concern the
life of the individual soul begin to demand more
careful consideration. The great leaders of the
Hebrew people had from the first the idea of
a special relationship between Jehovah and the
nation. He brought them out of Egypt and
gave them their land, hence they were called
to be His servants. This idea was held in a
limited simple form by the noblest men. The popu
lar tendency and the influence of the new land
worked largely in the direction of degradation. The
growth of Israel's religion cannot be called "nat
uralistic" in any bad sense; it was a high religious
discipline and a great spiritual struggle. The work
of the inspired teachers was to keep alive the lofty
thought of God; this, as we have seen, was only
possible through a process that involved the enlarge
ment of that idea. Through the fuller realization
of what is meant by the righteousness of God and
the service due to Him there comes a grander con
ception of the nation's calling and destiny. We
take, then, the thought of Israel as the servant of
Jehovah at the stage when it receives its richest
meaning and widest range. That a nation can be a
servant of God, a minister of the highest, may be
held in a crude way, and may even tend to narrow
ness rather than breadth ; but that is on account of

PROPHET'S NATIONAL IDEAL 245
our infirmity which drags down the sublimest prom
ise to our own low level. In itself it is a creative
principle carrying the promise of true catholicity.
This strong statement of the call of the nation to
higher service is given as part of a message of com
fort to a people cut off from their land and in dan
ger of losing all hope; it is once more the venture
of faith. The most daring word is uttered in the
darkest hour. It is grounded on the most glorious
teaching concerning the character of God, and in
fuses a nobler meaning into the thought of election.
It brings the completion of all the past and hope of
all the future. The teaching contained in this view
needs now to be appreciated and assimilated in order
that we may find a higher fulfillment. If Jesus
Christ has fulfilled the idea on its individual side,
interpreting, completing, and incorporating in his own
life all that was most sacred and divine in the life of
the nation, this does not mean that the national side
of religious life is to disappear, but rather that it is
to be enriched by all the conflicts that have deepened
and enlarged the personal life.
All this is true, commonplace and important. Let
us now confine ourselves for a little while to a still
narrower sphere and ask, did not these words re
ceive a real fulfilment in the career of the Jew
even in its broken, disappointing forms ? The mod
ern Jew came out of Babylon. The strange ordeal
of the Babylonian exile did not create the Jew but
it left a deep mark upon him. The Jew still carries
with him influences from the earliest days; at no
stage was the break with the past absolute. Some
of these influences may be difficult to detect, but the

246 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
effects of the great captivity are easily found ; they
are clearly manifest in Jewish social life and relig
ious customs, and we may find them in our own
homes and churches. When all proper qualifica
tions have been made concerning previous prepara
tion and later development the statement is substan
tially correct that the modern Jew came from Baby
lon. Speaking of the Jew we venture to assert that
the prophet's faith was justified, and that through
the God-given discipline he did become in a real
sense the servant of Jehovah. This does not mean
simply that the Jew made sacrifices for his religion,
restored his temple, built a hedge around the law
and continued to call on the name of Jehovah. No!
the phrase "servant of Jehovah" must be tested in
the highest light. It must be taken to mean that
which Jesus Christ meant by it, and that which the
noblest men of to-day are seeking to realize ; it must
be referred to a service of God which is also the
service of humanity. In this sense the Jewish na
tion has not been an utter failure, though it lost the
highest vocation through blind unbelief.
THE JEW OF COMMERCE.
The Jew considered as a trader does not seem a
promising subject to which to apply the sacred title
"Servant of Jehovah"; but that is owing to the
smallness of our faith, and to our arbitrary division
of the sacred from the secular. There is no more
pressing need in the modern world than the con
quest of commerce for Christ, but it cannot be ac
complished unless we believe that through trade
men may serve God. It is a pity if it is simply

PROPHET'S NATIONAL IDEAL 247
greed of gain that breaks down the aristocratic
prejudice against soiling one's hands with trade.
Commerce must be recognized as a mighty force
for binding men together, a powerful influence for
mutual helpfulness. The Jew was not always a
mere trader ; in the oldest days he was a wanderer
and a warrior; then he became a cultivator of the
soil, having as his ideal of peace and prosperity to
sit under his own vine and fig-tree, no one daring
to make him afraid. It is true that the Jew, as typi
fied in Jacob, possessed in large measure the ca
pacity to trade and the tendency to cheat; it can
not, however, be claimed by friend or foe that he
has had a monoply of these capabilities. When the
Jew against his own will was cut off from his own
land and driven out into a cold, cruel world he
was compelled to take to trade with new energy and
on a different scale. Since then he has never left
that field of operations. The Christian charity that
has been exercised towards him has consisted in
driving him from the soil and scorning him for
trading, denouncing his greed and stealing his
gains. If the lion of Judah has been transformed
into the fox of the Ghetto, "Christian" nations are
not free from blame. A sympathetic reading of his
history, even in this sphere, will show that in the
midst of all that is sordid and mean the tragic and
heroic are not lacking. We now see that there are
many ways of serving society, and ministering to
the general life of the world: even in carrying on
the hard struggle for their own existence honest,
diligent men build up the common fabric. Unless
a man is blinded by senseless anti-Semitic fury he

248 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
must confess that the providence which scattered
the Jews and turned these narrow patriots into cos
mopolitan traders was working in the interest of
a higher and more complex civilization.
THE LITERARY JEW.
There were books and scribes long before the
captivity in Babylon, but these literary forces play
a much larger part in the life and religion of the
people after that, momentous event. The Jew comes
from that great city with a book in his hand, a book
that has exercised a tremendous influence over the
higher life of the world. The making of literature
had long been in process, but the formation of a
"canon" or collection of sacred books begins or at
least receives a new impetus. The religion that
centres round the book may tend to become stiffer,
more conventional ; but it is purer, more intellectual,
better fitted to go out and meet with other forces
in the larger arena of international conflict. The
meeting of Hebrew and Greek thought is of im
mense significance for the intellectual and re
ligious life of mankind, but first the Jew must
gather and preserve the great treasures from the
past, reflect upon them, develop them and apply
them to his own life. The nobler class of Jews
when cut off from fatherland and temple were
thrown back upon the past. They came then to a
clear consciousness of the great value of that her
itage bequeathed by historians and legislators, poets
and prophets. There was begotten in the minds
of some the strong conviction that here was some
thing superior to the material splendour of the

PROPHET'S NATIONAL IDEAL 249
world's greatest cities, something that would sus
tain them in the darkest hour; a sacred litera
ture from whose inspiration the fires of patriot
ism and piety might constantly be rekindled. The
business of the scribe may in the end have be
come a dreary, mechanical thing, but it had its
living period and it served a high purpose. The
Christian church did not create the Old Tes
tament and did not collect its various docu
ments. The Jew toiled to bring together these
fragments of sacred literature and fought desper
ately to preserve them from destruction ; in that he
did a larger work than he dreamed of, and was a
servant of God and man.
THE MISSIONARY JEW.
The Jew was not directly a missionary, but with
a measure of truth it may be said that he was a
missionary in spite of himself. He not only, under
God's providence, prepared a book which was to
become a common and valued possession of many
races ; in the foreign land he was led to adopt a sim
ple form of worship, praise, prayer and study of
Scripture which has proved helpful to later genera
tions. The scattered communities of Jews might be
despised by Greeks and Romans among whom they
dwelt, but did not doubt their own superiority.
They exulted in the thought that they alone pos
sessed "the oracles of God", and in the very hour
when they claimed the monopoly of this great treas
ure they were unconsciously preparing the way for
a new missionary movement. The nation must be
judged by what it has done in the long range of its

250 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
history ; and not simply by its failure in the supreme
hour, nor by the spirit manifested in the most bigoted
of its members. The Jews of the pre-Christian era
served the interests of humanity and from this peo
ple sprung the first apostles and missionaries of the
new faith. The prophet's faith then, was abund
antly justified when he regarded the proud Orien
tal empire as doomed to disappear while his own
people possessed an abiding life. A calm survey
of the facts, without any special pleading, leads us
to confess that God chose this people for peculiar
service, and did not altogether cast them away.

THE PROPHETIC MISSIONARY IDEA

"We are here at the, religious summit of the Old Testa
ment. Israel's consciousness of its missionary vocation
has indeed shown its influence, in many ways, in later
books; but never again with such lofty thought or deep
feeling. Before us stands the picture of a heathen mis
sionary, sketched in evangelical colours. It is self-evident
that he does not lack the Old Testament background.
Duhm observes, on this point, that the songs of the Ser
vant of Jehovah are essentially limited to the formal side
of religion, without teaching things new and higher; it
would be unfair if on account of such expectation we were
to lower the significance of these songs. We must re
member that here for the first time a member of the Jewish
community is thought of as a missionary who goes out
to the despised, 'stupid' heathen — the conversion is not
Jehovah's immediate work. Farther that the goal of this
mission is the highest possible, to give the heathen a share
in the divine mercy, this, not Jehovah's glory, and not the
glory of the Jewish community, is the goal. Finally, that
he may bring to them Jehovah's institutions and com
mands; but with this he brings the very soul and body
of religion. The least in the kingdom of heaven is
greater than he, but yet in his time many people and kings
were to be astonished at what they saw and heard." —
M. Lohr.

CHAPTER XXI
THE PROPHETIC MISSIONARY IDEA
(Isaiah ii. 1-4, xiii. 1-4, lvii. 7-8 )
The nineteenth century has been called, in a spe
cial and appropriate sense, the missionary era of
the Christian Church. There was quick advance
of science, rapid change of political and social situ
ation, clash of apparently hostile interests, and keen
discussion of opposite theories; but through it all
there was the growth of kindly human feeling and
direct missionary effort. In many ways the last
generation was taught the lesson that we are "mem
bers one of another." There is much work of this
kind still to be done in every sphere of life, for the
upward movement is very slow ; but we can rejoice
in any sign that men are beginning to recognize
more clearly the great scriptural truths and moral
principles, which check national pride and soften
fierce race prejudice. Our present subject leads us
to emphasize the particular expression of the "en
thusiasm of humanity" which is found in the mis
sionary enterprise and effort of the Christian
Church; we are not called, just now, to a discussion
of means and methods, but to study the living spirit,
which seeks in this way to manifest itself. In re
garding this as one of the highest gifts of God, we
253

254 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
do not thereby undervalue true patriotism, but only
a narrow national bigotry.
When we ask why the Christian Church is bound
to go outside her own borders and carry the mes
sage of mercy into the great world, many answers
are possible. The one nearest at hand is that in
this she is embodying the spirit and obeying the
command of her Lord. To those who acknowledge
the authority of Jesus Christ, in the spirit of love
and loyalty, this is full and sufficient reason. Others
would add that this duty rests upon a moral prin
ciple that is now commonly accepted, namely, that
if we possess the highest truth it is our duty to
spread it ; if we enjoy a nobler revelation of God we
cannot consistently monopolize it, but rather we
must be willing to share it with those whose life has
not such abundance of light and blessing. Our study
of the Old Testament suggests another way of treat
ing this great subject which may tend to make our
knowledge clearer and our faith stronger.
THE GROWTH OF A GREAT IDEA.
When our Lord said, "Go ye into all the world
and make disciples of all nations," he gave new em
phasis and richer meaning to a truth which had been
partially revealed, and brought into the world of
reality the highest aspiration of the older religion.
His word was not an absolutely new beginning ; the
suggestive phrase, "fulness of times," has an appli
cation here, as elsewhere; the missionary thought
had advanced to a certain stage, had received a
beautiful if imperfect expression, and was waiting
for its complete emancipation ; the real work of "the

PROPHETIC MISSIONARY IDEA 255
law and the prophets" was not to be destroyed, but
fulfilled. The originality of Jesus is not a display of
superficial novelties, but that living interpretation of
the past which creates rich promise for the future.
Great ideas rule the world, but these divine inspira
tions do not reach maturity in a few years; they
grow to strength, consistency, clearness and beauty
through the toil of men, who in each succeeding
generation are serving God with their face toward
the light. The Old Testament is the seed-plot of
great ' religious ideas, of ideals which show their
lofty origin by their power to grow, and their affin
ity with the highest, holiest life of man. A little
careful examination will show that what we call
"the missionary idea" has its roots in the sacred lit
erature which reflects the highest life of the Hebrew
people. Judaism is generally classed as a non-missionary
religion, and the striking contrast is emphasized that
out of the most intensely national religion there
sprung a religion that abolishes all distinctions of
"Jew and Gentile, Greek and barbarian, bond and
free." But our best classifications are apt to be
superficial, and our abrupt contrasts often ignore the
living thread which lies behind. We must remember
that Judaism thus defined is only one side of Hebrew
religion, fixed in a hard traditional form. The
first Christian missionaries, men of Jewish race,
claimed to have received a nobler interpretation of
their own past ; they were not revolutionists, but, like
all real leaders of progress, both conservatives and
reformers. Judaism had also done in its own way

256 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
real, though limited, missionary work.* The ap
peal to the prophets in justification of the new
movement might often be popular rather than
scientific in its form, but it was true to the spirit
of prophecy. There is nothing strange in this;
a truth is not less divine because it has been given
"in sundry times and divers manners" ; or, in other
words, because its path has been like that of the
sun shining more and more unto the perfect day.
To trace the growth of this great idea with any
thing like completeness would be to give a sketch
of the progress of the Hebrew faith, in its many
stages, under the influence of the inspiring Spirit.
As this is not possible in a brief space, we must be
content to emphasize the highest forms that it as
sumes in the teaching of the prophets, and show how
both in its strength and limitation this is a looking
forward for nobler things to come. In its earliest
days the Hebrew religion was inspired by a lofty
thought of God ; Moses, the great leader, could not
have done his work without the consciousness that
God had called him to a noble mission, and his people
to a great destiny. But after his day both the peo
ple and the religion had a long fight for existence.
There was continual conflict without and within ;
the higher religious movement had always a fierce
struggle against popular superstitions. In those
days the highest life was clothed in simpler forms.
David, who cherished a noble faith in the God of his
fathers, felt that to be cut off for a time from the
Israelite community was to be driven from the pres-

*See Chapter XX.

PROPHETIC MISSIONARY IDEA 257
ence of Jehovah his God. (I. Sam. xxvi. 19. And
down to the end there remained something of local
limitation even in the faith of men who had attained
to lofty thoughts of God and large conceptions of
religion. But in the broad morality of Amos, the
spiritual intuition of Hosea, the noble theology of
Isaiah, the impartial zeal of Micah, there is the
promise of all that was presented in varied forms by
later prophets and teachers. We meet, however,
the thought of the election of righteousness before
that of the call to world-wide service. The
great prophets of the Assyrian period found all their
energies taxed in declaring to their own people the
righteousness of their God, and contending against
impure religion. The first thought with regard to
the outside world is that God will be glorified
among the nations by His judgments, the judgments
that manifest His righteousness. Jeremiah gives a
hint of mercy following judgment when foreigners
who have learned the ways of God's people shall be
gathered in and share the inheritance (Jer. xii. 16).
Remarkable also is his utterance, "O Jehovah, my
strength, and my stronghold, and my refuge in the
day of affliction, unto thee shall the nations come
from the ends of the earth, and shall say, Our
fathers have inherited nought but lies, vanity and
things wherein there is no profit." (xvi. 19.)
After the days of this great teacher the thought of
Israel's world-wide mission and religious service is
manifested in a rich variety of forms ; it finds mani
fold expression in prophecy and psalms. The most
frequent statement is that foreign nations and
distant people shall come to Jerusalem to seek truth

258 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
and worship God ; of this side of the idea the follow
ing twice-repeated passage may serve as a noble
type: "For it shall come to pass in the latter days, that
the mountain of Jehovah's house shall be established
at the head of the mountains, and shall be exalted
above the hills, and all nations shall flow unto it.
And many peoples shall go and say :
'Come and let us go to the mountain of Jehovah,
To the house of the God of Jacob,
That He may teach us His ways,
And we will walk in His paths;
For out of Zion shall go forth the law,
And the word of Jehovah from Jerusalem,
And he shall judge between the nations,
And give decision to many peoples ;
And they will beat their swords into ploughshares
And their spears into pruning hooks ;
Nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
Neither shall they learn war any more.' "
( Isaiah ii. 2-4 ; Micah iv. 2-4. )
In this lofty ideal it is not suggested that the true
religion will leave its home in Jerusalem and go out
to seek and save that which is lost; it is an ideal
Jerusalem, possessing an attractive religion, that is
pictured but linked to the local habitation that was
so dear to every pious, patriotic Jew. Peace there
shall be in the future days, when Jehovah's sover
eignty is recognized and religion reigns with gentle
guidance and sweet constraint, that is a feature al
ways present in these sublime pictures of the great
future. In those days of wars and tumults men
longed for peace as the greatest gift of God. The

PROPHETIC MISSIONARY IDEA 259
distinctive thing here is the attractiveness and effec
tiveness of pure religion, and the mighty faith that,
in days to come, it shall attain to fuller manifestation.
Here is an abiding truth which, freed from local limits,
must be taken up into the life of the Christian Church.
The Church must be a centre of attraction, a source
of inspiration, a seat of instruction. Men must be
drawn not by sensational shows, but by the presence
of higher truth and purer life. This was fulfilled to
a certain small extent even in later Judaism; many
earnest men and noble women from many nations,
even the highest and proudest, did frankly and fear
lessly recognize the superiority of its religious mes
sage.* It is true that there was a strong tendency to
dwell upon the external splendour of Jerusalem, and
to picture the Gentiles as paying a slavish homage to
the Jews ; but in the real prophetic pictures the prom
inence is given to the glory of the righteous God and
the winning power of the highest spiritual truth.
Behold my servant, whom I uphold;
My chosen, in whom my soul delighteth :
I have put my spirit upon him ;
He shall bring forth judgment to the nations.
He shall not cry, nor lift up,
Nor cause his voice to be heard in the street.
A bruised reed shall he not break,
And the dimly burning wick he shall not quench :
He shall bring forth judgment in truth.
He shall not burn dimly, nor be bruised
Till he have set judgment in the earth ;
And the isles shall wait for his law.
(Isaiah xiii. 1-4.)
*See Chapter XXII, page 265.

260 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
Here the missionary hope reaches its highest
expression in the picture of a servant of Jehovah,
who, with gentle persistence and unostentatious
zeal, shall carry to the nations the precious gifts of
revelation which have been coming to clearness and
power through all the toil and travail of the past.
It would be well for the teacher of to-day to linger
lovingly over this picture of a divinely elected and
supremely gifted minister. From it he may learn
to combine reverence for past revelations with quick
ness to hear the present voice of God, stern faithful
ness to God and truth, with keen knowledge of life
and kindly sympathy for men. But the fact that
concerns us now is that whether this is a personifi
cation of Israel or the picture of the individual ideal
Servant, we have the true religion beating against
the narrow local barriers and leaping forward to a
large universal life. Judaism could never completely
fulfil such a picture; it can only be realized by the
pure spiritual religion of Jesus. In its earliest days
Christianity went forth to free religion and man
from narrow prejudices and petty limitations ; great
things have been done along this line, but an im
mense task still lies before the Church, demanding
both intelligence and love.
Thus we see that the "missionary idea" which is
now an accepted part of the evangelical programme
rests not alone upon the law of common obligation,
nor even altogether upon the gracious word of
Jesus. It has a great history; it has been woven
like a golden thread into the very fibre of the world's
highest thought and noblest life; God, who took
care of it in darker days, and who in the fulness of

PROPHETIC MISSIONARY IDEA 261
time gave it the richest manifestation in the life of
His Son, will guide it to victory, and even out of
imperfect effort will bring a fuller embodiment of
His own Kingdom, so that the true Servant shall
"see of the travail of His soul and be satisfied."

THE PROPHETIC IDEA OF SUFFERING:
THE GREAT PASSION PSALM

"To us it is still wonderful that an Old Testament
saint, poet, seer sketches a picture which is realized cen
turies after, even if it remains in many and not unessen
tial features behind this realization. In this is shown the
inner relationship of the Old Testament religion with
Christianity, certainly also its inferiority, in so far as it
could think but not realize the highest thoughts." — B.
Duhm. "Prophecy is like the rosy dawn, which ushers in the
day. The prophetic word is 'a light that shineth in a dark
place, until the day dawn and the day-star arise in your
hearts.' (2 Peter, 1:19.) Prophecy is as trustworthy as
the dawn certainly kisses the hem of the sun's robe. More
over, were there no dawn there would be no day, and the
soft glow of the morning red prepares the eye for the
brighter light, and cheers the heart that yearns for the day.
But the rosy line of morning is not the blazing day-star
itself. Aurora falls when the monarch sun assumes his
radiant sway." — E. Koenig, D. D., "The Exile's Book of
Consolation," translated by the Rev. J. A. Selbie, M. A.

CHAPTER XXII
THE PROPHETIC IDEA OF SUFFERING
THE GREAT PASSION PSALM
( ISAIAH LII. 13 — LIII. 12.)
Iu the Acts of the Apostles, we read, that the
Evangelist Philip met a foreigner who had been "to
Jerusalem for to worship," who also "was returning
and sitting in his chariot and was reading the
prophet Isaiah." This man was unconsciously ful
filling a part of the great prophetic message, namely
this, that Israel's religion should go outside its own
narrow circle and become a blessing to many needy
souls. But note more particularly "the place of the
Scripture which he was reading" :
"He was led as a sheep to the slaughter ;
And as a lamb before his shearer is dumb,
So he openeth not his mouth :
In his humiliation his judgment was taken away :
His generation who shall declare ?
For his life is taken away from the earth."
This man evidently had an instinct for high themes
and central positions, or he was caught at a happy
moment. Mark his genuine modesty, when he is
politely asked the pertinent question, "Understand-
est thou what thou readest?" he replies, "How can
I, except some one shall guide me?" But his in-
265

266 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
telligence is equal to his humility; in one clear,
searching question he fastens upon the main point
of interest, and of difficulty, "Of whom speaketh the
prophet this? of himself or of some other man?"
For the Evangelist this was a favorable position
from which to preach Jesus with fervour and enthu
siasm to this thoughtful man. Christian exposit
ors agree with Philip that in our Lord Jesus the
prophecy finds its real meaning, and highest glory.
We agree also with the questioner that the passage
is a difficult one, when we seek to discover what was
really in the mind of the writer. A glance at the
Revised Version will reveal to the ordinary reader
the fact that the work of translation and explana
tion in this case is not easy. As to the application of
the passage the Ethiopian shows the impression
that is made upon the mind of the average reader,
namely, that the prophet is thinking of an individual,
himself, or some other person. That is not only
the popular and traditional view, it is also held by
several modern scholars who have made the subject
a matter of special study. Even the suggestion of
this reader that the prophet speaks of himself is
not to be rudely thrust aside. There is deep truth
in it: if the prophet did not speak of himself he
spoke out of himself, for God does not send to us
such a message except through a man who in his
own life has, in some measure, learned the sacred
meaning of sorrow; and the picture of the suf
fering Servant is also the picture of one who
shall possess more fully, and express more clearly
the prophetic spirit. Prophet and prophecy have,
by God's grace, a deep spiritual relationship.

PROPHETIC IDEA OF SUFFERING 267
When we pass from the position of the Evan
gelist to that of the Old Testament student we find
ourselves face to face with a problem which because
of its interest and difficulty has attracted the atten
tion and stimulated the toil of the foremost scholars
and keenest critics. Who is the author of this pas
sage ? Is it correct to call this and the related pas
sages "poems" or "lyrics"? (xiii. 1-4, xlix. 1-6,
1. 4-9). Can these passages be shown to have
a real connection with their present context? If
not, does this suggest a difference of author, or at
least of time and mood of the same author, or is it
sufficient to say there is quick "dramatic" change
of standpoint ? Is it likely that the passage now be
fore us is composed of two poems, or of "a theo
dicy psalm worked over in the Messianic sense,
under the influence of the sacrificial idea?" In
what sense is the passage "Messianic" ? These and
other questions are still much debated, there is no
immediate prospect of substantial unanimity, and
indeed the lines cross each other in a curious fash
ion. Now, these questions are important: the pro
cess of investigation, undertaken in a reverent,
thoughtful spirit, is of great service. We may, in our
efforts to explain apparent want of coherence, be
tempted to lay too much weight on the fact that the
prophet was a poet and not a mere logician or sys
tematic theologian; there is logic of its kind in a
great poem, it is possible to have consistency of
thought without formal system, and the really great
thinker, be he poet or philosopher, does work in
harmony with his own central truth. Thus we hon
our the prophet in seeking to understand his place

268 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
in history, the particular message confided to his
care, and the relation of this to the larger realm in
which he has played his part. Therefore the attempt
to analyze a piece of sacred literature into its orig
inal elements may be both reasonable and reverent.
It is, however, also possible to place these ques
tions in the background while we give prominence
to some one aspect of truth. The thought we empha
size now is the treatment of suffering in this great
passage. In the limited view with which we at pres
ent regard it this idea remains in substance the same
— for example, whether the prophet meant that
through Israel's suffering supreme blessing would
come to mankind, or was prompted to picture an ideal
individual sufferer bearing the sins and sorrows of his
fellowmen, we have here in either case an idea of
suffering that is new, lofty and fruitful. Let us fix
our attention for a brief space on that one thought.
It may be said that this is not the whole story or
the main element in it, that the wonderful, incredi
ble thing is that one who went down to such deep
humiliation was lifted by his God to such sublime
heights of exaltation. If we allow that, we may
still maintain that the expositor has a perfect right
to select one striking feature of the picture for
separate meditation providing that he acts fairly
by it, and is true to the spirit of the whole. With
out discussing the setting of the passage, and all
the particular problems that arise out of it, we can
dwell upon the fact that the idea of vicarious suf
fering receives here a clearness and nobleness of
expression that is not found in any other part of the
Old Testament.

PROPHETIC IDEA OF SUFFERING 269
From this point of view we can see how super
ficial is the statement that "Prosperity is the blessing
of the Old Testament and Adversity the blessing
of the New." When the hope of a future life did
not play a great part it was natural that the justi
fication of God's people should be looked for in the
actual events of life, and of the nation in the arena
of history; but those who represent the highest
spirit of the Old Testament are precisely those who
fought against the common creed that present
success is the real test of God's favour. And as to
the spiritual life itself, though it differed so much
in form, it was in essence the same, to this extent,
at least, that then as now, the richest experience
came through painful struggle, and the deepest
revelations were given to those who bore the cross.
We have a striking example of this in the seventy-
third psalm, a wonderful story of strain and temp
tation, in which the thoughtful, saintly writer tells
how by the pressure of misfortune he was led to
the verge of scepticism, and almost lost faith in the
meaning of life, and the moral order of the world.
He pictures for us his dismay when he realized how
the proclamation of his despair would bring distress
to the hearts of those who were really seeking to
live as sons of God, in the midst of a crooked and
perverse generation. He tells how he was led to
reconsider the question in the light of the sanctuary,
to confess his stupidity and to find in God the su
preme and satisfying blessing. In the book of Job
the problem of suffering is handled in a still bolder
fashion, with larger and more varied treatment.
It is possible to draw out and tabulate several "so-

270 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
lutions" from that wonderful book; these are wor
thy of careful consideration, but a serious study of
the daring speeches that the poet has placed in the
mouth of Job forces us to the conclusion that his
supreme concern was for the freedom of the human
spirit, the liberty of the awakened soul to face the
real facts of life, and to pour out its complaint be
fore God unfettered by hard conventional dogmas.
There is a volcanic energy, a majestic passion in
the stormy utterance of the "patient" Job that is
very significant. Here, however, we have a dis
tinctly different note:
"He was despised and forsaken of men ;
A man of sorrows and acquainted with sickness :
And as one from whom men hide their face
He was despised and we esteemed him not.
Surely he hath borne our sicknesses,
And our sorrows he carried:
Yet we did esteem him stricken,
Smitten of God and afflicted.
But he was wounded for our transgressions,
He was bruised for our iniquities :
The chastisement of our peace was upon him,
And with his stripes we are healed."
In addition to its prophetic character, in the
stricter sense, the teaching contained in these words
opposes the narrow, cruel view of suffering with
even mightier power than the passionate protest of
Job. In this chapter there are two aspects of the
silent sufferer's experience; the picture of one
marred by loathsome disease, which, being regarded
as the mark of heaven's vengeance, causes the af-

PROPHETIC IDEA OF SUFFERING 271
flicted one to be cast out from the society of men;
and the description of the same sufferer as the vic
tim of bitter persecution and judicial murder. For
our present purpose the first scene as represented in
these lines is sufficient. It is the new noble thought
of suffering, its meaning and purpose with which
we are here concerned. In Old Testament times
there was a strong tendency to look upon sorrow,
especially in sudden, mysterious and terrible forms,
as a direct stroke of God, a sign of the fierce anger
of the Almighty. That was a very ancient thought,
and in a certain crude form it embodied the idea of
a moral government of the world. The truth that
there is in it we must still preserve, and bring it into
harmony with other truths that have been revealed.
A simple statement of life such as we find, for ex
ample, in the first Psalm sets forth nobly one side
of the truth concerning the moral government of
the world, but when it is treated as the whole and
hardened into a cold complete formula it may be
very cruel. It was quite common in those days
both for conventional theology and popular super
stition to argue back from extreme suffering to
enormous sin. We have got rid of that horrible
nightmare, we know that some of the noblest saints
have been great sufferers ; we know that whom the
Lord loveth he chasteneth. Many other great things
we know, but in our vulgar moments we still wor
ship what the world calls success. But familiar as
we are with these words it is difficult for us to real
ize what a spiritual revolution there was hidden
in the prophet's statement; here is a lonely, silent
sufferer ; in our blindness and unbelief we treat him

272 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
as one bowed down under the curse of God, when
the truth is that he willingly stoops under the bur
den of our sin and shame. Suffering may be self-
sacrifice, the anguish and torture may be patiently
accepted as from the hand of God and out of it
may flow streams of healing mercy for those who
are blind, wilful and rebellious. It was a great in
spiration that led the prophet to look thus into the
heart of life's mystery, and out of his deep vision to
draw this pathetic picture of "the man of sorrow
and acquainted with grief." When we speak of the
newness of this teaching we do not mean to say
that in the early days men did not realize in their
own simple way that "we are members one of an
other." In very real ways the innocent suffered
with or for the guilty; each member of the family
or clan shared more fully the fate of the whole than
is the case now. But that was on a low natural
plane and was carried out in ways that were me
chanical and superstitious though often tragic
enough. Here we are on a higher plane; we have
entered the sacred region of reverent submission of
spiritual sympathy, of willing self-sacrifice. That
the suffering of an innocent member of the human
family can have redemptive force for mankind is
a wonderful suggestion. This is not a theory or a
theology; it is a prophecy which means that it is
not a completed formula, a fully revealed truth,
it is prophetic by virtue of its incompleteness as
well as by its relative perfection. Judaism did not
and could not realize this or there would have been
no need for Jesus and Calvary. The Christian re
ligion, in the person of its great Teacher, interprets

PROPHETIC IDEA OF SUFFERING 273
the loftiest anticipations of the ancient saints and
embodies them in living forms of willing sacrifice
and loyal service. When in the light of the Cross
men learn the real meaning and power of suffering
the bitterness and curse passes away and those who
know the redeeming power of love can count it an
honour to suffer in the cause of God and humanity.

THE PROPHET AS A CHURCH-BUILDER

"We have a few fragments of the utterances of Haggai
preserved for us in the Old Testament Canon. They are
so brief and bald and abrupt as to suggest the opinion
that they are but notes of his discourses, mere outlines of
what he really said. As they are preserved for us they
certainly convey no idea of wealth of poetic imagination
or richness of oratorical coloring. But Haggai may have
possessed none of these qualities, and yet his words may
have had a peculiar force of their own. He is a reflec
tive man. The long meditation of years has taught him the
value of thoughtfulness. The burden of his message is
'Consider your ways.' In short, incisive utterances he
arrests attention and urges consideration. But the out
come of all he has to say is to cheer the drooping spirits
of his fellow-citizens, and urge on the rebuilding of the
temple with confident promises of its great future. For
the most part his inspiration is simple, but it is searching,
and we perceive the triumphant hopefulness of the true
prophet in the promise that the latter glory of the house
of God shall be greater than the former." — Prof. W. F.
Adeney, M; A., "Expositor's Bible." Ezra, Nehemiah and
Esther.

CHAPTER XXIII
THE PROPHET AS A CHURCH-BUILDER
(Haggai i; Ezra iii. n-13.)
It is an oft-repeated saying that the nation is
happy that has no history; if "happiness" is taken
in the superficial sense of mere material comfort,
then this saying is quite true. God's gift to a great
nation is not a stagnant, unruffled prosperity, but a
series of heroic struggles, and for reward a mighty,
wide-spreading influence. No one who knows their
history would venture to call the Israelites a happy
people in the shallow sense of the word. A Jew
looking back upon the history of his nation is
tempted to regard it simply as a long series of
wretched failures and bitter disappointments ; and it
is certainly true that it is difficult to find in the his
tory of any people more violent contrasts, brighter
hopes and darker disappointments. But the pro
phetic view which expresses the highest attainment
of a living faith is that the nation is the Servant of
Jehovah, and that these very trials are a discipline
for loftiest service.* This is one form of life's final
mystery, that the noblest things come through the
cross, the sweetest songs are born in sharpest sor-

*See Chapter XX. 277

278 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
row, the highest knowledge comes through hardest
toil and bitterest experience.
In the Old Testament records we can see clearly
the close connection, in the case of this people, of re
ligion with history; the first Exodus is the birth-
hour of the nation and the beginning of religious
organization. The people came into Palestine under
the influence of a great religious impulse, and al
though their stock of theology might be small and
their ecclesiastical equipment simple, the fact that
Jehovah was regarded as creator and guide of the
nation's life was a strong protection against a low
nature worship, and the source and stimulus of a
living, progressive movement. Prophecy interpreted
history and history modified prophecy. From this
point of view "the Second Exodus," the Return
from Babylon, was of immense importance. In the
earlier days, two centuries before our present period,
prophetic preaching lays emphasis on judgment, it
fights against popular superstition, and rebukes the
sins of reckless rulers and greedy oppressors. After
the great catastrophe of the sixth century b. c. it
takes on the tender tone of consolation, it gives mag
nificent promises and seeks to inspire new endeavours.
Before the Exile the prophets are severe critics of
the Church, they denounce the ritual that is divorced
from real religion, and pour contempt upon a wor
ship which they regard as a delusive form of selfish
ness. After the Exile the prophets work with the
priests, and use their powers of speech to persuade
the people that it is a duty and a privilege to build
the temple and support the Church (Ezra v. 1-3).
This change is highly significant and is worthy of

PROPHET AS CHURCH-BUILDER 279
careful consideration. When the Northern Israel
ites were deported and scattered about one hundred
and thirty years before this Babylonian Exile the
result was to destroy entirely the national existence
and separate character of those particular tribes,
and to bring into Palestine a mongrel population
and mixed religion (John iv.). Hence the Jews
on their return instead of finding in the immediate
neighbourhood of Jerusalem support in their relig
ious struggles had to contend with lasting enmity
and bitter rivalry ; in that sense the northern people
were, as a community, "lost" to the common cause.*
The experience of Judah in its hour of doom
was different, it was the flower of the small
nation that was transported across the desert to the
city and district of Babylon. There a community
was formed, which sent out its branches in various
directions, and those who came back to Palestine
returned for the very purpose of fighting for the
preservation and. purity of their religion. This was
a tragic national experience, and while it did not
involve extinction, it meant in many things a great
break from the past and left a lasting mark on the
life and character of the Jewish people. The He
brew word "to remember" meant originally "to
pierce," and certainly this was a memorable exper
ience in the sense that it reached the heart and left
a mark that is still very far from being effaced*
When Judah was conquered and Jerusalem de
stroyed it seemed as if all was lost, and as a matter
of fact many Jews did lose heart and hope. Jere-

*See Chapter III. fSee Chapter XX.

280 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
miah, who declared with startling boldness and un
flinching persistency the inevitableness of the judg
ment, also possessed the strongest faith that the re
ligious life would survive the destruction of the po
litical organization. From his lofty standpoint the
nation died in hope of a glorious resurrection; the
resurrection was real, though the glory was delayed.
Those who looked eagerly forward to the Return
from Babylon were inspired to paint the glories of
the new movement in glowing colours, which now
shine out in strong contrast to the hard, dull reality.
But with this and many other examples still before
us we still thank God for poets, idealists and enthus
iasts, who make the desert of hard fact to "rejoice
and blossom as the rose," and throw a halo of glory
around "the day of small things." This small move
ment is a real link in the golden chain of God's prov
idence and turns out to be a thing of larger, more
lasting significance than even the richest poetry had
suggested. All the poetry is justified when we take
a long view. "The ransomed of Jehovah shall re
turn and come to Zion, with songs and everlasting
joy upon their heads : they shall obtain joy and glad
ness and sorrow and sighing shall flee away." This
is noble language, fit indeed for a description of
heaven; but when the Sons of the Captivity re
turned to Zion what they found was not heaven,
but a very mean, miserable bit of earth, a city in
ruins, and its very limited territory surrounded by
envious and troublesome neighbours. Certainly they
needed tender comfort as well as bracing exhorta
tion from their preachers. It has been said that a

PROPHET AS CHURCH-BUILDER 281
nation was destroyed by the Babylonian conquest
and "a sect" came back to Jerusalem. This form of
expression, while seeking to stigmatize the narrow
ness of Judaism, is itself needlessly harsh and nar
row. If we are impartial, we can see that at this stage
a certain amount of exclusiveness was absolutely
necessary; it was only by fierce struggle and stern
resistance that men preserved the rich results of all
these years of toil and discipline. In later times,
when the noblest work had been accomplished, this
narrowness often degenerated into intolerant big
otry. But the men who in this great crisis pre
served for us the fruit of such real inspiration and
varied activity were not altogether lacking in cath
olicity of spirit.
THE PROPHET AS CHURCH-BUILDER.
When we see that there were strong reasons why
the temple, now the one sanctuary, should be rebuilt,
that it was indeed a matter of life and death for the
Jewish religion, we can understand that it was no
degradation of the prophetic office for its ministry to
be concerned with the building of a church and the
strengthening of its organization. The gathered
literature, the final creed, the elaborate organization,
these we are told tend to destroy the prophetic spirit.
But this is not an absolutely necessary consequence.
The highest prophet when he comes can say with
out loss of originality, "It is written," and can pay
due honour to the Church while rebuking its rulers.
When we see the important place taken by the sec
ond Temple in the history of Judaism, and in the life
of the world, we can understand that the prophets

282 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
of this period are doing a noble work, even if thej
do not possess the personal greatness or wield the
tremendous influence of some of their predecessors.
What use was there in these pious people strug
gling across the desert to their old home, with such
heroic faith and in the face of such tremendous diffi
culties? (Ezra vii. 21.) The answer to that question
will give the real basis of this ministry of the post
exilic prophets. There were no doubt "advanced
men" in Babylon, and one can now have great sym
pathy with their views. They had learned that their
religion could survive after great shocks, and in a
strange land ; they had caught a glimpse of the great
truth that the acceptable sacrifice is the broken heart
and contrite spirit, and it was possible for some of
them, without losing their faith, to doubt whether
it was absolutely necessary to build again the walls
of Jerusalem. (Psalm li.) But if we follow the
"advanced men" altogether we may find ourselves
in the air without a body; or we may forget
the needs of the average man in our hasty
pursuit of the ideal. The time will come when
the religion can be freed from its local habita
tion, with advantage to itself and in the interest of
mankind, but that time had not arrived. There were
also wealthy Jews, men who, having followed the
wise advice of Jeremiah, had settled and prospered
in Babylon; many of these very naturally did not
wish to be disturbed ; they give their sympathy and
a subscription. Subscriptions were in this, as in
many other cases, of great service, but the men who
have saved great causes have also given their souls.
(Zech. vi. 10.)

PROPHET AS CHURCH-BUILDER 283
The men who led the Return, as well as those
who came later to support the cause, felt that this
business was of infinite importance to themselves;
they must put patriotism and piety before all personal
considerations (Neh: 1) And indeed it is im
portant that men should be true to the best tradi
tions of their race, and seek to preserve the great
heritage given by God to their fathers. Conscience,
not convenience, must dictate the form that such
service must take. To stifle spiritual enthusiasm
and conquer deep conviction would have been in the
case of these men to sell their birthright for a mess
of pottage; or to end by despising themselves and
despairing of all noble effort.
In responding to the call of duty they did a work
of great importance to those who were to come
after. The second Temple became a centre towards
which the Jews scattered throughout the world
could turn in reverence and hope, the symbol of
racial and religious unity. In distant lands, and
among strange people the pious Jew could greet the
coming festival with the sweet words, "I was glad
when they said unto me, let us go unto the house of
Jehovah." Thus the worship was perpetuated, and
the highest religion kept its place until the Christ
came to complete its revelation and to enlarge its
mission. That being so, the work of these men was
important for us ; we who are so distant from them
in time and so different in circumstances owe to
them a deep debt of gratitude. We cannot then
despise this period and call the immediately suc
ceeding generations "four hundred years of si
lence." It had its own significance and heroism, its

284 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
noble struggles, bright visions, and inspiring voices.
The effort to build this temple and maintain this
worship involved heavy strain and great sacrifices.
Through these men we are linked to the distant
past, to Moses and all the prophets ; if the circum
stances were hard and prosaic, all honour to the men
who in the face of great difficulties preached the
word of hope. THE TEMPLE AND LIFE.
(Ezra iii. n-13.)
Because of such faithfulness we find bright, poetic
flashes in a chronicle which is often counted dry
and commonplace. It was a festive day when the
foundation of the temple was laid, for out of this
small beginning great things were expected. It re
quired strong faith to sing in such a time, "for He
is good, for His mercy endureth for ever toward
Israel." There arose a great shout of joy, but in
mid-air it was caught by the sound of wailing,
which met and mingled with it; the funeral dirge
broke in upon the wedding march. At a distance
you could scarcely tell whether it meant the cheers
of the victors or the groans of the vanquished. A
symbol this of human life with its diverse sounds
of anguish or rapture ever rising into the air. To
the aged there is an undertone of sadness echoing
through the music of every festal day. The old
men did not go with deliberate intention of marring
the brightness of the occasion with their untimely
tears, their reason for weeping was the only valid
reason, they could not help it; in the hour of joy
sorrowful memories surged over their souls, and

PROPHET AS CHURCH-BUILDER 285
found expression in tears. This is the true conse
cration when sorrow and joy are poured forth on
the foundation of the temple, for in the Church di
verse interests and feelings should be harmonized.
Two different views of life are natural to youth and
age, the life of one is largely in the past, to the other
the future is full of promise. To the one "the good
old days" are very real, while to the other the
golden days are all to come. In the house of God
these opposite points of view must be harmonized,
the Temple must shelter old and young, its songs
must soothe the one and summon the other to bat
tle. God has done great things for our fathers —
that truth we must not lose; God still speaks, and
promises large things to us — that faith we must also
cherish. Religion must link the life of young and
old in pure sweet fellowship. Because the Temple
is a symbol of the unseen kingdom, a place where
"the communion of saints" may be realized through
a pure worship of God, there are times when the
prophet may appear as a church-builder, calling
men to consecrate material gifts to high spiritual
purposes. When we contrast this form of activ
ity with the fierce criticism of sanctuary and ritual
which marked the ministry of Amos and Isaiah we
may learn that the prophet is a man who delights
to give emphasis to the particular aspect of truth
that, in his own time, is in great danger of being
neglected and despised.

THE PROPHET'S PROMISE OF PEACE,
OR,
THE CITY WITHOUT A WALL

"Then I proclaimed a fast there, at the River Ahava,
that we might humble ourselves before our God, to seek
of him a straight way for us, and for our little ones, and
for all our substance. For I was ashamed to ask of the
king a band of soldiers and horsemen to help us against
the enemy in the way; because we had spoke unto the
king, saying, The hand of our God is upon all them that
seek him for good; but his power and wrath is against all
them that forsake him. So we fasted and besought our
God for this; and he was entreated of us." — Ezra viii.
21-23.

CHAPTER XXIV.
THE PROPHET'S PROMISE OF PEACE
OR,
THE CITY WITHOUT A WALL
(Zech. ii. 1-5.)
Zechariah was also a church-builder; he spent
his strength in supporting the leaders of the small
Jewish community, and in quickening the hopes of
the people, when their circumstances were straitened
and their outlook dark. It is a ministry of conso
lation, a prophecy of blessing and enlargement. We
may regard the early chapters of this book as a
sermon on such a text as this : "Comfort ye, com
fort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye com
fortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her that her
warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is par
doned; that she hath received of Jehovah's hand
double for all her sins" (i. 13, 15). After the in
troduction we have a series of visions which serve
as illustrations for the gracious theme. The
prophet begins with a suggestive thought which
brings light out of darkness, and solace out of
distress. The nation has learned from history the
lesson it refused to receive from prophecy. "The
former prophets" have passed away, it is possible
now to look back and see that they were rejected
289

2QO PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
messengers, and to see also that the course of events
has fully vindicated their preaching. What the peo
ple would not learn from intelligent, earnest teach
ing has been burned into their souls by sharp ex
perience. The chastisement was severe, but God
was just (i. 6). The nation has not been utterly
consumed, though it seemed to come so near to that
sad end; the adversary can be reminded that it is
"a brand plucked out of the fire" (iii. 2). Now
its life must be built up again, the great teaching
from the past must be woven into present life to
make possible a brighter future. The preacher, the
idealist, whom men denounce as a dreamer must
infuse new poetry into the dull prosy routine, and
cast a halo of glory over "the day of small things."
This he seeks to accomplish by means of a series
of visions, which tell in varied forms God's loving
zeal for His own people and His vengeance on
wicked oppressors, His renewed acceptance of
Judah and His choice of Jerusalem, His purpose to
cast iniquity out of the land and His promise of
peace and protection, His blessing upon the rulers
and His gift of grace and attraction to the Jew.
The prophet can use clear, striking speech as well as
strange symbols. Surely this is a fine description
of peaceful prosperity, "There shall yet old men and
old women sit in the streets of Jerusalem, every man
with his staff in his hand for very age. And the
streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls
playing in the streets thereof." (viii. 4, 5.) And
he makes quite clear that he is not thinking
of mere material prosperity as he writes the charter
of a city that God can bless, "Speak ye every

PROPHET'S PROMISE OF PEACE 291
man the truth with his neighbour; execute the
judgment of truth and peace in your gates : and let
none of you imagine evil in your hearts against
his neighbour ; and love no false oath ; for all these
are things that I hate, saith Jehovah." (viii. 16, 17.)
Why then should he use visions ? The only reason
able answer seems to be that these were in his day
attractive and effective means for imparting instruc
tion and inspiration. Such word-pictures were, no
doubt, attractive and helpful to thoughtful men, as
they conveyed the promises in a poetic form, which
suggests more than is expressly stated. But the il
lustration suited to one age and people may to others
seem childlike, quaint, or almost grotesque. And it
is open to any one to say, why should we puzzle our
selves with the riddles of an ancient preacher, or try
to read the meaning of pictures that are out of date ?
Such a question could, however, only come from a
shallow mind, and the discussion that it raises is
not confined to the sacred Scriptures. It touches our
relation to all the life of the past; how is it that
precisely in this busy, scientific age there is so much
reverent, sympathetic study given to the great
things of the past ? Because we realize that all our
life is one and God has been guiding us through all
the ages. All real study or search for truth is a
religious movement; and this literary investigation
which tries to get behind the form and fashion of
an age to the eternal truth is an act of devotion.
The religious man seeks to get out of the small circle
of self into the thoughts of God and the life of
humanity. One form of this endeavour worthy of
being called worship is the sympathetic communion

292 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
with an artist, poet, or preacher to whom God gave
a great message, even though it requires patient
perseverance to clear away the dust of centuries
or break from traditional interpretation and stand
face to face with the original thought. This de
mands attention and thoughtfulness, but it brings
a richer reward than any small sensational pleasure-
seeking. THE MEANING OF THIS VISION.
There are different kinds of visions, those that
come with overpowering force and carry the prophet
for the time being out of himself, leaving a lasting
impression, and those which are created by the
calmer movement of the imagination, and serve to
present in parabolic form the prophet's faith and
teaching.* Zechariah's visions seem to be rather
of the latter kind, they remind us of Bunyan's
immortal dream, and indeed the great puritan
preacher may have received here the suggestion
of "the Interpreter." One must not try to make
too deep this distinction between the form in which
the truth comes to the prophet and the manner in
which he imparts it to us, but if not unduly pressed
it may serve a useful purpose. Here we have a
prophecy of comfort and each vision presents a
particular phase of the consoling message. "Cry
yet again, saying, Thus saith Jehovah of hosts : My
cities shall yet overflow with prosperity, and Jehovah
shall comfort Zion and shall yet choose Jerusalem."
(i. 17.) This is the commission, and very much was
it needed in those dark days when men wept as they
?See Chapter V.

PROPHET'S PROMISE OF PEACE 293
recalled the ancient glory of Jerusalem, which
seemed to have passed away forever. The proud,
tyrannical nations must be brought low, and thus
the stage cleared for the growth of Jerusalem's pros
perity and influence. (1 :i8-2i).
This would appeal most powerfully to the young
men such as those who shouted for joy when the
foundation of the temple was laid. Hence in the
vision we see a young man with a measuring line
who wishes to measure Jerusalem, the enlarged and
beautiful Jerusalem, to see what is its length and
breadth. There are in every community men of
mathematical mind who lay great stress on the
statistics of a subject. If they hear of a city they
wish at once to know its exact size and population.
That is good, in its place, it checks mere dreaming
and limits unbridled imagination; but there are
facts to which figures do scant justice and forces
that cannot be imprisoned in a definite formula.
When it is a matter of God's presence our small
measurements are put to shame. The young man,
whether his tendency is towards poetry or mathe
matics, has generally two qualities : the capability of
great faith in the future, and the craving for definite
knowledge. The young man does not doubt that
Jerusalem will be great but he wishes to know how
great, and what will be its precise form. These are
qualities to be cultivated and prized ; the young man
who thinks that all great things are in the past is
spiritually dead, fit only for mere mechanical duties.
The young man who is slovenly in his statements
and inaccurate in his measurements is doomed to
failure, and it may even be to disgrace. All good

294 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
work demands clearness and accuracy, and the lives
of men are involved in exact measurements. But
this training in defimteness is meant to fit the
young man to find his own way through trackless
regions, and to learn that there is a divine presence
that surpasses all limitations, a fire that burns away
all barriers as it brings largeness and freedom into
the life of man. The young man in the vision is told
that this is not a case for the measuring line, Jerusa
lem shall not be enclosed by a wall but spread out
like open villages ; her glory and strength will be the
presence of God within and around her. This means
that Jerusalem shall have prosperity difficult to
measure combined with peace and protection of the
noblest kind. THE CITY WITHOUT A WALL.
This is a bold thought; Zechariah is not ranked
with the greatest of Old Testament prophets, but he
shows here the boldness of the inspired man, the
man whose thought breaks through local limitations.
(Rom. x. 20.) He dares to proclaim a city such as
no man had ever seen ; in ancient da) s the city was
essentially a citadel and sanctuary. The most im
portant feature of the city was the wall behind
which people could find shelter when the enemy
swept unchecked over the open country, and by
means of which powerful armies were kept at bay.
The very life of Jerusalem depended on the wall ; the
patriotic Nehemiah and his helpers had to combine
the use of sword and trowel in order to complete
the fortifications. The Jews at this time had many
troublesome neighbours, and to ensure a peaceful

PROPHET'S PROMISE OF PEACE 295
place on the earth it must be enclosed and protected
by the well-built wall. What then does the prophet
mean when he pictures a city that has no wall but is
rather like a number of villages or settlements
spreading round a common centre? He will cer
tainly be reminded that life is not worth living
without the city wall. There are different kinds of
walls, he says, and the city will have a wall that is
real to faith though unseen by mortal eye. How
pleasant life is in the open country, under the vine
and fig-tree, if only we can feel secure! That joy
God will give to the city when he takes away the
wall, for He Himself will be a wall of fire round
about. The prophet's vision is, at once, an expres
sion of his own faith in coming blessing, and an
assertion that spiritual forces are superior to earthly
defences. He knows that men have had to build
walls to protect their life and their religion but he
realizes that that religion is ever striving to get be
yond all human barriers. If God is in Jerusalem
men will be drawn to her, and no earthly wall can
circumscribe her throbbing life.
Was this prophecy fulfilled ? If taken in the sense
of lasting prosperity for the actual Jerusalem, no!
If taken in the deeper sense proper to prophecy, yes !
This does not mean a fanciful allegorizing of the
vision but finding the principle at the heart of it,
and then enlarging its application. A few genera
tions later Judaism manifested, under the inspiration
of faith, its power to make a successful fight, and
then enjoyed a brief space of political power and

*See Chapters XX and XXI.

296 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
worldly prosperity. But when the end came the
wall, though it made a stubborn resistance possible,
could not stop the progress of imperial Rome and
the city was apparently forsaken by its God. There
was no wall of fire to consume the fierce soldiers
who executed vengeance upon the doomed city.
But every real vision of truth is fulfilled in various
ways; the prophet is able to speak of the future
because he sees clearly the thing that really is, and
is not blinded by bewildering appearances. Hence
Zechariah in his vision of the city without a wall has
at the same time prophesied concerning the future of
God's church, and laid down a principle that admits
of many applications.
( I ) In the history of the Jews there would have
been less shame and disappointment if they had
trusted less in the wall and more in God, the latter
not in the mechanical sense of expecting prodigies
to minister to their pride but by bringing into civic
life and national policy the reason and righteousness
taught by the prophets.
(2) Jerusalem did spread out her scattered settle
ment into the great world, the synagogue was
planted in the chief cities of the Roman Empire ; and
just in proportion as the Jews were true to the
higher elements of their faith they sent forth truths
of priceless value and imperishable influence.
(3) How is it that in this age and in our own
land we can allow ancient walls, and local barriers
to fall into decay? Because though our social and
political life is far from being perfect, there is a real
recognition of God and some reverence for His

PROPHET'S PROMISE OF PEACE 297
law, and this makes possible a large peaceful com
munion between man and man. Society is protected
by spiritual forces that are stronger than visible
bonds or material walls.
(4) The Christian religion is not a revolutionary
attempt to sweep away all barriers and abolish all
distinctions, but in its nature it is spiritual, diffusing
itself as an atmosphere and refusing to be con
fined within the limits of any "chosen people." In
connection with the various churches there has been
much wall-building; a needful operation at times,
but not the highest order of architecture. Some
minds are easily provoked to build a separating
wall. If, however, any church could succeed in mak
ing itself absolutely a sect, cutting itself off com
pletely from the large universal currents of life, it
would die ; its strong wall would enclose not a living
city but a silent tomb. The church can open wide
her gates just in so far as she possess the fearless
expansive life which comes from the indwelling
God. (5) In our personal life largeness and freedom is
possible if we carry within and around us the fire
that is kindled by the life and love of God. Our
Lord broke down sectarian hedges, ignored con
ventional walls and took the whole of life as His
domain because He incarnated perfectly the purity
and peace, the conscience and charity of the soul
that is absolutely loyal to God.

THE PROPHET AND SOCIAL PROBLEMS.

"And his disciples asked him saying, Why then say the
scribes that Elijah must first come? And he answered
and said, Elijah indeed cometh and shall restore all things;
but I say unto you that Elijah is come already, and they
knew him not, but did unto him whatsoever they listed.
Even so shall the Son of man also suffer of them. Then
understood the disciples that he spoke unto them of John
the Baptist." — Matthew xvii., 10-13.

CHAPTER XXV
THE PROPHET AND SOCIAL PROBLEMS
(MALACHI.)
Except from this book we do not know anything
of a prophet named "Malachi," and indeed we can
not be sure that the word is a personal name, it
may mean "My messenger," or according to an
other reading "His messenger."
The suggestion that the face of the great scribe
Ezra is hidden behind this veil is an old but quite
unreliable conjecture. The book is simply a frag
ment of prophetic literature from the dull, de
pressing days between the first attempt to rebuild
the temple and the reformation carried out by Ezra
and Nehemiah, that is about the end of the fifth
century b. c It may be regarded as a part of
the preparation for the movement which took place
under those two great men half a century later. In
so far as it touches these matters it seems to come
in between the Deuteronomic demands and the final
Levitical arrangements of the Jewish church.
The prophets were always dealing with social
problems in this sense, that they stood and worked
amid the great currents of their nation's life, they
addressed the community, demanding in the name
of God social purity and civic righteousness. But
301

302 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
the word "problem" has a special appropriateness
here because there is a scholastic air of discussion
about this book that we do not find in the earlier
prophetic literature. The matters dealt with are
set forth in the form of questions; it is a process
of reasoning and lecturing unlike the passionate
poetic appeals of the great prophets. The presenta
tion is quite prosaic; there are bright flashes here
and there, but there is no swift movement or
mighty swing in the style. The short sermons are
preached on texts which are introduced by the
words "Ye say," or "Yet say ye." The reasoning
shows that the writer lives in the days of an ad
vanced creed though he himself is not a great
theologian. Let us be thankful that the power of
useful ministry is not confined to a few men in the
first rank of genius ; to men of more limited powers
God gives desire, capacity, and inspiration for help
ful service.
Especially do we need to be grateful for those
who kept alive the good traditions and handed
down the sacred Scriptures in dull, prosaic days.
We can not live all the time at fever heat of ex
citement and expectation ; we cannot have for every
day high poetic oratory concerning the beauty of
Zion, and the imminence of the great deliverance.
We cannot always be listening to the thunder roll of
tremendous denunciations. There are days when
the supreme duty is to watch quietly and wait pa
tiently, struggling in the meantime against shallow
scepticism and sordid selfishness. At such a time
the present seems very poor as it does in this book,
men feel that it is only a dull space between the

PROPHET AND SOCIAL PROBLEMS 303
glorious past and a brighter future. "Then shall
the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant
unto Jehovah, as in the days of old, and as in an
cient years." Thus the writer stands between a
great past and a still greater future. He sees great
truths, such as the universal dominion of the
changeless God, and the fatherhood of God as a
sublime fact which has a real bearing on social
life. He has faith that upon those who truly fear
Jehovah's name "the sun of righteousness shall
arise with healing in his wings." He knows that
there must be "a day of Jehovah," a judgment so
destructive that it shall leave of the proud and the
workers of wickedness "neither root nor branch,"
as well as a chastisement of the church that shall
purify it for nobler service. And yet with all these
bright gleams we feel that the whole piece moves
in a depressing atmosphere and is touched by a
despondent tone.
As to the foreign outlook, we find no general
reference ; the wide sweep of Amos, Isaiah or Ezek
iel is absent and we have one short solitary allu
sion to Edom. That Jacob is preferred to Esau
has received another and a recent illustration. The
Edomites lift themselves up proudly in the day of
disaster, but the prophet declares that their habita
tion shall be thrown down and their land branded
as "The border of wickedness." This proves that
Jehovah is great beyond the borders of Israel. In
contrast with such severe punishment and complete
destruction, the men of Judah should see in their
own destiny a token of patient love. Though there
may be some tinge of local jealousy in the form in

304 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
which the truth is here expressed, the sense of su
periority, the conviction of higher privilege, was
well founded and finds historical justification.
I. — THE PROBLEM OF SACRIFICE (i : 6-I4).
In this passage we have a great faith shining
out in the midst of petty local difficulties; Judah's
God is the universal lord ; wherever true sweet wor
ship is offered it is offered to Him, and yet within
the borders of the chosen people the name of God
is profaned and the table of Jehovah polluted.
The offerings presented are mean and shabby, wor
ship is reduced to a miserable task to be shirked,
or discharged with as little trouble as possible. In
the service which ought to be the noblest expres
sion of the soul's devotion there is no dignity, not
even common decency. An offering that men
would be afraid to present to the local governor is
considered fit for the Lord of heaven and earth.
A closed temple and ah empty altar might have
some real significance and pathetic suggestion ; any
thing would be better than this wretched trifling.
The priests are careless and the laymen deceitful.
Public worship might possess social joy or ecclesi
astical dignity, in this case there was neither vig
orous spontaneity nor scrupulous regulation. What
is more useless than worship that is neither accept
able to God nor inspiring to men? There have
been times in Israel when men have attached a
worthy significance to "sacrifice"; here the word
has no meaning and the thing no power. There is
certainly great need for the Christ to come with
his new commandment of love. Men must be

PROPHET AND SOCIAL PROBLEMS 305
taught in nobler ways the meaning of God's love
and man's response. When men have lost hope
and enthusiasm it is hard to shame them into de
cency or reason them into reverence. A new
vision of the eternal Love is needed to inspire the
spirit of self-surrender which leads men to give
their substance and devote their energies to real
religious service.
II.  THE PROBLEM OF PRIESTLY SERVICE (il : I-IO).
The next passage is in the same strain, but its
attack is directed specially against the priests on
account of their unfaithfulness. Surely the priests,
representatives of God and leaders of men, should
be loyal and obedient. This is the ideal, "For the
priest's lips should keep knowledge and they should
seek the law at his mouth ; for he is the messenger
of Jehovah of hosts." Our author regards this
ideal as having been more fully realized in ancient
times ; "The law of truth was in his mouth and un
righteousness was not found in his lips; he walked
with Me in peace and uprightness and did turn
many away from iniquity." Now it is different;
the priestly class merit a curse and shall be put to
shame; their teaching has been crooked and they
have shown partiality in the administration of the
law. The men who treat a sacred profession as a
means of personal gain, and show selfish favoritism
shall surely be made "contemptible and base before
all the people."
III.  THE PROBLEM OF SOCIAL ORDER.
This concerns first the life of the family, and

306 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
second, the church and society in general (ii: 10-16,
ii: 17, iii: 6). In the first of these two sections
we have a powerful polemic against foreign mar
riages, and looseness in regard to the sacredness
of family life. Loyalty of men to each other within
Israel is based on the fatherhood of the one God
who created all. Side by side with this statement,
which begins to have a suggestion of universality,
there is an intensely exclusive spirit. The foreign
woman is spoken of as "the daughter of a strange
god." At that time it was necessary that purity of
blood and strictness of religion should be pre
served. To us it is more important to note the
emphasis laid on the sacredness of the wedding
bond, and how near the writer comes to the New
Testament position in this particular. Marriage is
not a matter of personal caprice or temporary con
venience; it is a sacred tie, "because Jehovah hath
been witness between thee and the wife of thy
youth . " Marriage is meant to be the basis of fam
ily life, the children are "seed of God," through
them the nation is to be preserved and the church
kept alive. Jehovah hates divorce. The tears of
wronged women cry to heaven for vengeance.
The man who deals treacherously with the woman
who has given herself to him shall be smitten with
a curse. The nation that treats marriage as a trivial
thing is weakening the very foundation of social or
der and family blessedness. Through many obscuri
ties of text this truth shines clearly and it is im
portant in all times and countries.
This evil is playing havoc in society and yet
there are those who weary God with their com-

PROPHET AND SOCIAL PROBLEMS 307
plaints, complaints that are the simple expression
of blindness and stupidity. Through the very mis
chief that is wrought, God is judging men and
showing the righteousness of His law, and yet
they say, "Every one that doeth evil is good in the
sight of Jehovah and He delighteth in them; or
where is the God of judgment?" Surely this is lack
of insight, scepticism of the worst kind. If they
cry for judgment, judgment they shall have, but
no superficial, one-sided process. Let us remember
when we appeal to heaven's bar that this is no light
thing. "Who may abide the day of His coming?"
The judgment will be wide in its range; it will
strike both priests and people ; its mission will be to
punish and purify. To the temple and the market,
to the court of justice and the home, the messenger
of judgment will come. "He is like a refiner's fire."
But after the dreadful visitation there shall be pur
ity and peace once more. "Then shall the offering
of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto Jehovah
as in the days of old, and as in ancient years."
IV.  THE PROBLEM OF CHURCH SUPPORT (ill: 7"I2).
After this noble prophecy, which would be a
fitting climax to any sermon, we come back to the
consideration of "ordinances" in a narrower sense.
In answer to the startling question, "Will a man
rob God?" we are told that the whole nation has
robbed God in the matter of tithes and offerings.
On this account the land is cursed with barrenness.
If men will be generous towards God, He will pour
upon them rich store of blessing. "And all nations
shall call you happy ; for ye shall be a delightsome
land, saith Jehovah of hosts." The form of the

308 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
statement is intensely Jewish, but there is a truth in
it that can be translated into higher forms. Re
membering the strong words that have gone before,
we cannot say that this writer is forgetful of the
weightier matters of the law in his zeal for the
tithe. But those who are interested in church or
ganizations must guard against the danger of wor
shipping the mechanism even after the spirit has
gone out of it. On the other hand the church has
a body which must be cared for; God is gracious
and truth is free, but spiritual ideas must embody
themselves in institutions suited for the times.
This calls for generous gifts of time, energy and
substance. If a man is to receive blessing from the
Temple he must give himself to it; spiritual bless
ings cannot be bought or sold in the world's market,
neither can the fulness of blessing find its way
into a narrow, greedy heart. Jesus Christ lifts all
these subjects to a higher plane with His great
word, "He that loseth his life for my sake shall
find it."
V. — THE PROBLEM OF RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE.
(iii. 13; iv. 3.)
Here we have reflected the despondent sceptical
tone which prevailed at that time, quenching en
thusiasm and paralyzing effort. There were those
who went so far as to say that "It is vain to serve
God," and we cannot wonder when we consider
their conception of this service. When religion be
comes a mere mourning apparel, put on for the sake
of profit, there is nothing in it to create joy and
strength. The temptation to "call the proud hap-

PROPHET AND SOCIAL PROBLEMS 309
py" may beset a strong man in the hour of dark
ness; the seventy-third Psalm shows us how that
battle may be fought and won. But even in those
dark days there were men of real religious ex
perience, that is, men to whom the fear of God
was the beginning of wisdom and the basis of life.
Such reverence, not a superficial solemnity, is the
real root of religion. That reverence is also the
basis of truest friendship and sweetest fellowship.
That is the real church, the fellowship of those who
fear God, respect themselves and care for each
other. On that church God looks down with inter
est; He keeps its records, and in the terrible day
when pride is humbled and falsehood put to shame
Jehovah will spare and cherish His own. Here
is a flash of glorious light struggling to shine
through the thick darkness. From the side of the
formalist religious life is a mere pretence, to the
man of real godliness it is a pure satisfaction, to
the eye of God there is in it the promise of eternal
life.VI. — THE PROBLEM OF FUTURE MINISTRY (iV: 4-6).
The answer to scepticism will be judgment.
When the day comes burning like a furnace the
dullest will be able to see, and these shallow grum
blers will be driven to revise their estimate of life.
But before that a minister is needed to prepare for
the great day by bringing order and peace into
family life. For this purpose God will send again
the great prophet Elijah to work with restless en
ergy and speak with convincing power. This clos
ing paragraph represents well the spirit of the

310 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
whole book; remember Moses, look for Elijah,
this is the exhortation and it implies a certain high
faith in the past and the future, combined with a
despondent tone as to the present. The prophet
rightly reflects his age, and such was the prevalent
spirit; men clung to the glorious memory of the
past and they cherished hopes of better things to
come, but on the whole they felt as if their own
day was a dead, God-forsaken time. The men of
that age therefore deserve thanks for holding fast
when the atmosphere was damp and chill. Their
faith has been justified in larger measure than they
ever dreamed ; many greater than Elijah have been
sent by the Eternal God, and by the ministry of Jesus
Elijahs will continue to be multiplied, the church
will not lack strong, bold men, who are ready to
speak the truth in fearless fashion, and who by
preaching peace will prepare for judgment and
turn away the curse.

A PROPHET'S PROTEST AGAINST SMALL-
NESS

"We should fancy that Jonah's portrait as he sat under
his withered gourd was not a thing of beauty, or a joy
forever." — Spurgeon.
"This apparently trivial book is one of the deepest and
grandest that was ever written, and I should like to say
to every one who approaches it, 'Take off thy shoes, for
the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.' In this
book Israelitic prophecy quits the scene of battle as victor,
and as victor in its severest struggle — that against self.
In it the prophecy of Israel succeeded, as Jeremiah ex
presses it in a remarkable and well-known passage, in
freeing the precious from the vile and finding its better
self again."— "The Prophets of Israel," by Prof. C. H.
Cornill, page 170.

CHAPTER XXVI
A PROPHET'S PROTEST AGAINST SMALL-
NESS
Some of the most competent and enthusiastic ex
positors of this wonderful book complain bitterly
of the treatment it has received both from the world
in general and the Church in particular. The tragedy
of the book, they tell us, is this, that a picturesque
piece of literature throbbing all through with the
warmest life has been so often handled in a shallow,
controversial spirit, that a story so constructed as to
carry from beginning to end a great spiritual truth,
an important practical lesson, has been covered with
the dust of a barren controversy. Such a contro
versy cannot be altogether avoided, and there is no
doubt much to be learned from the discussions that
have gathered round this book ; still we believe that
the statement is substantially true, the book of
Jonah has suffered from the very thing against
which its original protest was made namely, narrow
ness of view. It is not simply that men have dif
fered in their interpretation of it; such difference
may be healthful and stimulating ; but it is this, that
under the idea of "defending" the narrative it has
so often been maintained that only one view was
possible, that only on that one view has the book
3*3

314 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
any reality and value. It is not the purpose of the
present exposition to discuss in detail these different
views, but rather to lay stress upon the great lesson
which the book enshrines in such a striking form.
In other words our task is here, as all through the
present volume, positive and constructive. If the
truths we thus discover and develop are not new
they are at least in danger of being neglected, and
they need bold emphasis to-day, for the battle which
the noble life must fight against narrowness is the
same in substance though the form is ever chang
ing. One remark, however, must be made with
regard to this controversy whether the narrative is
literal history or a poetic story whose main purpose
is to teach a great lesson. Even this, that the ex
positors who accept the latter view have not been
driven to that position by arguments against the
possibility of miracles or by vulgar ridicule poured
upon the incident of "the great fish." That kind of
"negative criticism" spent itself in vain against the
faith of men who felt that in this book there was
something of priceless value and everlasting use.
In the case of thoughtful Christian men a change
in their explanation of this particular book is not a
thing that stands alone, it is part of a larger move
ment involving what they regard as a clearer view
of the upward course of revelation, and a more cor
rect and sympathetic appreciation of the varied
forms of Hebrew literature through which that
revelation comes to us. Such change as this implies
a wide range of reading and much keen, careful
thinking; it is in fact a process which can scarcely
have full justice done to it by those who have never

PROTEST AGAINST SMALLNESS 315
passed through it. The result at any rate is the con
viction that Old Testament literature has assumed a
great variety of forms and that the student will be
richly repaid who makes a conscientious effort to
place himself in the position of the ancient historian,
poet or prophet. He will find the same great truth
expressed in sermon or song, prophecy or prayer,
and the vital fundamental character of the truth is
seen in the very variety of expression which it craves
and creates.
The first thing then for a student to do* in connec
tion with this book is to treat it as he would treat a
great picture, that is, take a good look at it, as a
whole, so that all its parts may be seen in their
proper place and proportion. Whatever view of the
book we may take it is not right to seize a minor
incident, place it in the foreground, and discuss that
to the neglect of everything else. When we take a
full sympathetic view of the whole picture, even
from the English version, we can gain the impres
sion that this short story shows marvelous powers
of vivid description and picturesque presentation.
There is dramatic power, we are taken into a real
world, we are seized by a living movement; the
man who is put before us as the chief figure is shown
as faithless in his foolish flight from the presence
of God, reluctant in his discharge of duty, and
petulant as he sits and waits for the unfolding of
destiny. To attempt to paraphrase such a story
would be to gild refined gold. Let each reader give
a quiet half hour to the study of the picture sketched
by one who was both an artist and a prophet. Thus,
when we gain the proper perspective we see that

316 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
the protest against littleness, the stinging satire
against smallness is the main thing, it is through
this that God rebukes our narrow bigotry and petu
lant pride.
We are warned against a small idea of a prophet.
The man who wrote these words was a prophet in
the deepest sense. "And Jehovah said, Thou hast
had pity on the gourd for which thou hast not
laboured neither madest it grow ; which came up in a
night and perished in a night; and should not I
have pity on Nineveh, that great city, wherein are
more than six-score thousand persons that cannot
discern between their right hand and their left
hand ; and also much cattle ?" Yes, the divine pity
and tenderness that breathe through these words
manifest the real prophetic spirit, the spirit, that is,
of the man who has learned that loyalty to God and
love to men are the two sides of the same religious
life. The author of the book is indeed a prophet
but his Jonah is a small creature who, on his own
confession, makes his personal comfort and reputa
tion the supreme consideration. A prophet is a man
who looks out upon the world from the standpoint
of God and humanity; he never allows self-interest
and selfish ease to loom so large upon his horizon
that all other needs and demands are hidden. How
does Jonah stand this test? He flees from duty be
cause a merciful God in answer to penitent prayer
will avert the doom which he has predicted, and
so his reputation for clear foresight and accurate
calculation will be damaged, or his claim to be
a God-sent messenger will be rendered null and
void. This is the sophistry of a small soul ! Further,

PROTEST AGAINST SMALLNESS 317
when he has delivered his message he goes outside
the city, makes himself comfortable and sits down
to wait and "see what would become of the city."
What does he care what becomes of it so long as the
reputation of Jonah the great prophet is not injured?
Seated there he manifested the same smallness of
spirit; the gourd had no living relation to him, he
had not spent any thoughtful care or loving sym
pathy upon it, but it suited his convenience, it was
a good umbrella; when it was taken away and he
lost its pleasant shade, he was hot and uncomfort
able and wished that he might die ; he thought that
he did well to be angry with God and all the world.
Very far was he from the spirit of resignation man
ifested in the words —
"Jehovah gave, Jehovah takes away;
Jehovah's name be blessed." (Job i. 21.)
These words express the submission of the pious
man who struggles hard to maintain his faith, even
when life seems hopeless. Jonah under a trifling
loss believes that all things in heaven and earth con
spire against his comfort. This is not the ideal of a
true prophet; it is rather an early form of the
Pharisee, and it would not have been sketched in
this vivid fashion, if there had not been good men
who were in danger of having their life blighted by
such narrowness.
We are warned against a small idea of truth.
What is the true fulfilment of prophecy? Is it not
that it should enter into the life of man and become
an effectual force for righteousness? The saying

318 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
of an ancient expositor that prophecy is given not to
be fulfilled but that it may not be fulfilled suits this
case ; even if it cannot be applied universally, it rep
resents the position of the true prophet who preaches
judgment in the hope that mercy may follow. That
which burdened the heart of the great prophets
was not the thought that the mercy of God might
put to shame their predictions of doom, but rather
the fact that the people would not place themselves
in the condition which made it possible for a right
eous God to be merciful. If in the spirit of sym
pathy a preacher tells a young man that he is going
to darkness and destruction, and if the word by its
tone and truth arrests the attention and quickens
the conscience of that young man so that he turns his
face toward the light of heaven, and the love of
Jesus, is not the prophecy fulfilled? Yes, it is ful
filled in the truest, noblest sense, it has entered into
the young man's life and through him it will enter
into the human life in which he shares.
If the word remains outside of the man it is ful
filled in a different sense ; when mercy is repeatedly
rejected, judgment goes unchecked to its final result ;
but the Cross as a sacred symbol, speaks to us of all
the love and care which constantly seeks to save men
from destruction by turning them from sin.
If the truth thus suggested is embodied in a
typical case and not merely in the life of an individ
ual, it is none the less true. To think that truth con
cerns only particular facts is a small idea of truth.
The touching parable of the Prodigal Son is not
to be lightly swept aside as "fiction" because we
cannot prove that it referred to some definite youth

PROTEST AGAINST SMALLNESS 319
in Jerusalem or Nazareth; it is much more than a
personal photograph; it is a symbol of the life of
humanity, and in it many wandering souls have
found their own experience mirrored. If you saw
a man broken down under the weight of conviction
brought to a deeper sense of sin by the ministry of
that incomparable parable, you could surely never be
guilty of such stupidity as to suggest that he is
allowing his mind to be distressed and his heart to be
tormented by an imaginary picture. Centuries ago
a great Greek thinker taught that poetry is truer
than history; and at the present stage of our ex
perience it ought to be a common-place saying that
there are some kinds of "fiction" that are truer than
truth, that is, they bring us nearer to the heart of
things, to the vision of real life than a crude collec
tion of facts can possibly do. The highest work of
imagination is not to invent artificial, grotesque
combinations of thoughts or things but to unveil the
hidden springs of life, and to show the real relations
of the spiritual kingdom. The evil is not that truth
should come to us in varied forms, prosaic and
poetic, personal and typical ; if we really grasp the
great idea, the living principle, the exact form of
its embodiment is a subordinate consideration; but
it is an evil that we are so often not seeking the
truth at all but want support for our prejudice or
stimulus for our pleasure, and that so many can
take pleasure in low ideals and false views of life.
We need further to take the warning against a
small idea of history. Let us not despise facts, or we
shall become vain dreamers ; in science the accuracy
of observation and in history the faithfulness

320 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
of the recital are of supreme importance. But
in the realm of ideas and beliefs we can
not apply mathematical measures, and statistical
reports. A mathematical formula has its own value,
a strict record of particular transactions may be of
the highest importance but the world is large and
life is subtle so that there are other valuable forms
of expression and testimony. Hence there is more
than one kind of history. We have, at the present
time, no controversy with the man who maintains
that this book is a literal record of fact, that every
feature of the description had its corresponding event
in the world of sense, but we are opposing with all
the weight of legitimate argument the man who
says that if such view is denied the historical value
of the book is lost. There are many kinds of history.
At one time people of our own race were content to
regard history as a list of battles, a record of ex
traordinary events, a series of royal biographies, or
something of that kind, now we know that the suc
cessful historian is the man who reproduces the life
and makes us realize the ruling forces of a given
period. This requires something of philosophic in
sight and artistic creative genius, it is a difficult
thing to do and is never perfectly done.
Two kinds of history we need to mention for our
present purpose, the history of a soul, and the history
of a truth. A comprehensive view of this book
convinces us that the writer's main concern is with
the inward life of Jonah. If he meant to write the
history of an actual expedition to Nineveh his narra
tive has many missing links, there are many inter
esting questions of detail that he has left unanswered

PROTEST AGAINST SMALLNESS 321
but if he meant to give us the picture of the man's
spiritual life, and to show what Jonah's idea of
prophecy was, and how a man with such an idea
must look up to God and out upon the world, how
the false selfish point of view must warp the whole
life and degrade the temper — then he has succeeded
perfectly. With wonderful skill our author has
arranged all the material at his command so as to
make it reflect the strongest light upon the char
acter and career of the chief figure. Only when he
accepts his fate and surrenders himself to the storm
with these words "I know that for my sake this
great tempest is upon you," only then does Jonah
attain to the slightest semblance of dignity and
submission; everything else is coloured by his nar
rowness of temper and his false view of the pro
phetic function. When this is patiently pondered,
it will be seen that the really prominent thing is the
history of the soul that allows itself to be cramped
by the influence of a narrow bigoted selfishness.
Further there is such a thing as the history of an
idea, the growth of a great truth, and this history
is of great significance.* We know that the very
battles which were necessary to prevent the He
brew religion from being crushed by foreign in
fluence, or dragged down by popular supersti
tion tended to beget, along with strength of
character, an exclusive spirit and a harsh temper.
For the time exclusiveness was necessary in order
to preserve the spiritual treasure which in the provi
dence of God was meant for all mankind. But
there was danger in the situation. Small men were
*See Chapter XXI.

322 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
led to consider the exclusiveness as the essence of
the religion, and to think that the great truths they
had received were a perpetual monopoly for their
own race. It was quite natural for the average man
to drift into this position, for it is always easy to
mistake the temporary circumstance for the eternal
principle. Hence it was at the time when the cycle
of prophecy was about complete, and the revelation
given to Israel had reached the point when it be
came both by its loftiness and its incompleteness an
anticipation of the Christian faith; it was then that
the hardest crust gathered around it and certain of
its defenders showed that it was possible to be
jealous guardians of "the law and the prophets"
without possessing the discrimination and spiritu
ality of the true prophet. This tendency grew and
became so strong that it was the bitterest enemy
our Lord had to meet. The narrow spirit of Juda
ism so blinded the minds and hardened the hearts
of its leading representatives that they could not
recognize the true King. They honored the memory
of prophets whom their fathers had persecuted and
they themselves slew the greatest prophet that God
ever gave to this world.
But on the other hand, there were those who saw,
even if imperfectly, that the knowledge of the true
God meant responsibility as well as privilege, that
Israel's election was an election to service, that
vengeance upon the heathen could not be all that
was in the heart of a merciful righteous God.*
These men valued highly the peculiar privilege of
their nation and their Church, but gifted with spir-
*See Chapter XXI.

PROTEST AGAINST SMALLNESS 323
itual insight and true human sympathies they had a
purer and larger idea of Israel's mission. These two
tendencies struggled together within the bosom of
the same religion, the narrow national thought con
quered to this extent that it nailed the Son of man to
the cross ; but in that seeming conquest it met defeat,
for by the disciples of the new faith the broad uni
versal spirit receives its highest expression and with
the cry "Jesus and the resurrection" the religion
was born that refuses to recognize any barrier of
race or clan. The book of Jonah is part of the
history of that great movement, it has an intrinsic
beauty and attraction, and as part of a great spirit
ual conflict it is of permanent significance. If we
look around and within we shall find the same con
flict in process ; the movement advances, God's pur
poses become clearer but still in a real sense each
community and each soul must fight the battle anew.
If in the picture of Jonah we see ourselves in our
small hours, when personal feeling and selfish con
siderations have played too large a part, we may
learn that it is ridiculous as well as wicked to make
self the centre of God's world, and to be so inflamed
by vain self-conceit as to imagine that the divine
purpose can be moulded to our personal convenience.
Thus the book not only reveals the conflict of
opposite views and hostile forces in the history of
the chosen people but it lives to help us in the battle
which goes on within our own souls, it bids us come
out of a close, selfish atmosphere, and look at life in
the light of eternity, so that we may sympathize more
cordially with the mercy of God and the needs of
men.

THE PROPHET OF JUDAISM— JOEL

"To Joel this world is a great drama; the history of
humanity is a tragedy; this world is ruled and controlled
by a holy righteous God; this world exists for the pro
duction of ethical, religious, eternal character; this world
is being sculptured into a kingdom of holiness, righteous
ness, truth, goodness, and love. I do not care how many
defects and ignorances there are; I do not care how much
of weak personal feeling mingles in Joel's declaration of
that faith ; but I tell you what it is : All that is grand,
and great, and heroic, and good in our world has grown
out of faith in man's soul, often dark and obscure and
ignorant — faith that this world belongs to God, is ruled by
God, and shall at last be judged by God." — The late Dr. W.
G. Elmslie, "Expository Lectures and Sermons," page 94.

CHAPTER XXVII
THE PROPHET OF JUDAISM— JOEL
This prophecy is of a different order from those
we have found in the earlier books; the writer is
rather a poet than a prophet, he addresses a small
community, and the Temple is the centre of his
world and the supreme object of his sympathy. Joel
was evidently, according to his capacity, a man of
noble spirit who had studied the earlier writings
and who gladly places his literary gifts at the ser
vice of the church. In his writings we seem to
reach a point where the prophet is beginning to
give way to the theologian and the scribe. His
carefully prepared sermon has a real significance,
as a revelation of his faith, and as a document of
that Jewish church which was now reaching its
final stage of development. The small Jewish
community, sheltered within the large frame-work
of the Persian Empire, was free to devote itself
exclusively to religious and ecclesiastical interests;
its circumstances might be miserable, and its noblest
life drawn largely from the past, but in these dull,
prosaic days it was preserving a great treasure for
the world and preparing for another heroic strug
gle. Before the Exile the prophet is a critic of the
church, afterwards he becomes a comforter of a
327

328 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
struggling community, in Joel he appears as a
churchman who devotes his patriotic fervour and
prophetic fire to keep alive the flame of sacrifice
upon the altar. In this position also real inspiration
is possible, and a man of true prophetic spirit may
catch the command, "Strengthen the things that
remain that are ready to die." And yet it is worth
while noting where the particular prophet places
his emphasis, and the kind of dress that he con
siders appropriate for the clothing of his thoughts
concerning God - and the world. We have here,
then, the poetic picture of a great calamity, the
prophet's persuasive call to national penitence, the
promise of acceptance and blessing which expands
into a programme of final judgment.
The prophet's description and interpretation of
the calamity has its special features. Doubtless a
plague of locusts is a terrible event, bringing sad
ness and gloom upon the community, and the start
ing point of this prophecy is such a real historical
incident, but surely the locust plague has once for
all found its poet; Joel pictures with wonderful
vividness the march of the devouring army; his
presentation is realistic and yet is coloured by his
peculiar theological idealism, the plague suggests if
it does not actually symbolize a visitation of still
larger significance.
"They leap upon the city; they run upon the wall;
They climb up into the houses ; they enter in at the
windows like a thief.
The earth quaketh before them ; the heavens trem
ble;

PROPHET OF JUDAISM 329
The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars
withdraw their shining,
And Jehovah uttereth His voice before His army ;
For His camp is very great;
For He is strong that executeth His word ;
For the day of Jehovah is very great and terri
ble," etc.
Two powerful descriptions in which every word
is suggestive and every stroke of the style tells its
pitiful tale, culminate in the twofold exhortation,
"Sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly, gather the
old men and all the inhabitants into the house of
Jehovah your God, and cry unto Jehovah." "Blow
the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, call a solemn
assembly, sanctify the congregation, assemble the
old men, gather the children and those that suck
the breasts; let the bridegroom go forth of his
chamber and the bride out of her closet." The
central position of the Temple is brought out in
the way in which the loss of the means of sacrifice
is regarded as the supreme and significant result
of the great disaster. "Is not the meat cut off
before our eyes, joy and gladness from the house
of our God ?" "Who knoweth whether he will not
turn and repent, and leave a blessing behind him,
even a meal offering and a drink offering to
Jehovah your God?" What a strange contrast be
tween this and the position of Isaiah when he
stands and pours his fierce contempt upon the
sacrifices that had ceased to be symbols of right
eousness (i: 10 f). But Joel also sought righteous
ness in his own way ; the circumstances are differ
ent, the whole point of view has changed.

330 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
Joel does not give a prominent position to the
demand for deeper morality and nobler righteous
ness that is so characteristic of the prophetic
preaching. His people are poor and to be pitied;
he reserves his stern proclamation of vengeance
for the outside world. If only there can be a real
service of humiliation, when the whole community
prostrates itself in sincere penitence before God,
then all will be well. He does give a high place
to the outward act, the church ceremony, but we
cannot charge him with formalism in the face of
that one magnificent word, "rend your heart, and
not your garments, and turn unto Jehovah your
God." But this much we can say, that in our
preaching the ethical and spiritual drawn from
the other prophets must play a larger part, lest we
find ourselves with an elaborate organization and
well supplied temple from which the life has slipped
away. The duty of public humiliation or of united
thanksgiving may still have its appropriate place,
but these must be guarded against false views of
religion, and narrow thoughts of God. Joel did his
own work faithfully, but because we are taught in
the school of Christ our whole system of thought
and movement of life cannot revolve round one
ecclesiastical idea.
To Joel "the day of Jehovah" is near, this terrible
day seems to be coming in the plague of locusts,
and when that calamity has passed and in answer to
penitent prayer blessing is promised, "the day of
Jehovah" is still near. The plague shall be removed,
the land shall again prosper, all that has been taken
away shall be restored. "Ye shall eat in plenty and

PROPHET OF JUDAISM 331
be satisfied, and shall praise the name of Jehovah
your God, that hath dealt wondrously with you;
and my people shall never be ashamed." Then
follows the promise of the outpouring of the Spirit
with its accompanying signs, and finally the last
act of the great world-drama, when the nations shall
be gathered into the valley of judgment, near Jeru
salem, in order to receive due punishment for their
offences against the chosen people. "But Judah
shall abide forever, and Jerusalem from generation
to generation." In this programme we may fairly
say that the only ethical idea that is brought out
clearly and vigorously is that the foreign nations
shall be punished for their unjust violence, shame
less greed, and unrelenting hatred toward Israel.
This thought that God will avenge the nation's
wrongs is an important one, but it may be held in
a one-sided fashion. The promise of Israel's pros
perity also lays stress on outward circumstance
rather than inward character, "And it shall come to
pass in that day that the mountains shall drop down
sweet wine, and the hills shall flow down with
milk," etc.
( 1 ) It seems clear that the closing portion of the
book is dominated by the strict exclusive Jewish
spirit which condemns the world to destruction and
reserves everlasting privileges for the Jews. "All
flesh" upon whom the Spirit is poured, according
to the context, and the general standpoint of the
book, refers to the children of Israel. The apostle
Peter, just before he was prepared for a wider
view, says: "For to you is the promise, and to
your children, and to all that are afar off, even as

332 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
many as the Lord our God shall call unto Him."
But we must not judge this exclusiveness unreason
ably. By its very stiffness and sternness it did a
good work in helping to preserve the purity of the
Jewish religion against Samaritan superstition,
Syrian persecution and the baser side of Greek in
fluence. This, however, is only one side of a great
question; the missionary hope also has its roots in
the teaching of Old Testament prophets. Let us
treat these messengers of God sympathetically, and
at the same time cleanse our own minds from small
sectarianism rather than waste our energies in
denouncing the narrowness of men, who by God's
grace builded better than they knew.*
(2) "The day of Jehovah" is a phrase that plays
a great part in the teaching of the prophets from
the time when Amos rescued it from popular de
gradation. In Joel it seems to be rather a theolog
ical conception, a part of a creed than an actual
vision. All through he works from the belief that
"the day of Jehovah" is near; in the first stage a
chastisement on Israel calling for penitence and
prayer ; in the second a day of doom for the foreign
foe. In the other prophets the working out of this
idea occurs in connection with some real historical
event which threatens the life or influences greatly
the fortunes of Israel; here it is a general outlook
into the future proceeding from the writer's relig
ious beliefs. Its spiritual meaning is to some ex
tent preserved in that it is preceded by a great act
of humiliation, which makes prominent the ac-

*See Chapters XX, XXI, XXVI.

PROPHET OF JUDAISM 333
knowledgment that only by forgiveness and purifi
cation can even Israelites be prepared for the
dreadful appearance of Jehovah's great day. It
is just as possible now as in the olden times for
men to talk glibly of "the day of the Lord," and
glory in its nearness without realizing its awful
significance. It is also possible for us to cling to
a system of thought and form of words out of
which all definite meaning and living power has
gone. We must re-think the old sacred phrases
and refresh our minds by finding out what they
once meant and what they still symbolize.
(3) The prophet's programme has not been ful
filled in the exact form in which he presented it;
nor do we expect that God will literally gather the
nations into the neighbourhood of Jerusalem to
wreck His vengeance upon them. About four cen
turies after this the Roman armies gathered round
the ill-fated city; in spite of the resistance of noble
patriots and fierce fanatics they succeeded in level
ling its walls, capturing its citadel and desecrating
its temple. Since then broken-hearted Judaism has
suffered the scorn of a thoughtless, cruel world.
And yet in a real sense the movement of history has
justified the prophet's teaching. The judgment
against the nations has worked itself out. The light
trivial tribes have vanished, leaving hardly a trace
behind. The great empires founded by force, and
driven by selfish greed, have crumbled to pieces.
The Oriental empires that were the most splendid
specimens of earthly magnificence, have left the
smallest legacy to humanity. To-day we all ac
knowledge the truth that Hebrew prophets saw so

334 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
clearly, and sometimes proclaimed so fiercely,
namely this, that there is a judgment-day for na
tions; that sensuality, cruelty and greed not only
injure the victims and outrage the law of heaven,
they cause the life of the proud nation to become
rotten at the core.
On the other side there has also been fulfilment.
The Christian religion proved itself the true suc
cessor of ancient prophecy by the way in which
it seized the eternal part and lifted it to fuller
beauty and larger power. Jerusalem does in a very
real sense abide forever and send forth a living
message. It may be that in many forms Babylon
is with us still, but the judgment of the wise and
thoughtful is not bewildered or perverted by the
glamour of worldly success. We can see that
Judaism, even when it was defeated and disheart
ened, has preserved many truths and laws needful
for the highest life of the world. And we can
cherish the clear, strong conviction that the mes
sage of mercy, the evangel of love which finds its
fullest expression in the suffering Christ, gives
nobler meaning to prophetic hope and vindicates in
even a larger way the eternal righteousness.

THE PROPHET'S CERTAINTY, OR THE
CHANGING FORM AND THE
ETERNAL LIFE

"The Revelation recorded in the Bible is a jewel which
God has given us in a setting of human history. The
love of God to His people now is the continuation of the
love which He showed to our fathers ; and Christianity,
like all else that is of value in the spiritual possessions of
mankind, is an inheritance the worth and permanence of
which have been tried by the experiences of generations.
Such treasures are not won without effort and battle.
What is appropriated easily is as easily lost, and the
abiding possessions of humanity consist of truths that
have been knit and strengthened by long habit, and insti
tutions that have been shaped and polished by the friction
of practical use. A religion fit to be a part of actual
life cannot be exempt from this law, and revelation itself
has become a force in human conduct only by first becom
ing a factor in human history." — Robertson Smith's "The
Prophets of Israel," Lecture I.

CHAPTER XXVIII
THE PROPHET'S CERTAINTY, OR THE
CHANGING FORM AND THE
ETERNAL LIFE
(Haggai ii. 6-9; Hebrews xii. 27, 28.)
One of the most remarkable passages in that
noble treatise called "the Epistle to the Hebrews,"
is an application and an adaptation to the writer's
own time of a part of Haggai's prophecy ; the Bible
student will do well to place side by side the words
of the prophet-preacher, and those of the Christian
teacher. Thus we learn that though the external
circumstances and spiritual atmosphere are different
the real living faith is the same. In the days of
Haggai the nation was only a small remnant, what
the world calls "a miserable few," and the people
looking back to the distant redemption under
Moses, the heroic days of David, the peaceful, pros
perous times of Solomon, were in danger of think
ing that their golden days were all in the past,
that the future could have nothing in store to be
compared to the splendour of the ancient days.
When men give too much way to that feeling, ac
tion is paralyzed ; they spend their strength in vain
regrets, lamenting the loss of "the good old times."
This is not the attitude of faith, and God's messen-
337

338 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
ger can never be content with it ; though he himself
in his phrase "yet once more" may show trace of
human limitations, he is so far in advance of the
people that he can confidently declare the truth that
the divine programme has never been completely
realized, the future has still greater things to reveal,
God has yet more light to break forth from His
word. God will not only shake the earth as in the
days of Moses, He will also shake the heavens.
He will shake all nations; men will then recog
nize the meaning of this neglected impoverished
Temple, and they will gladly minister to the life of
the true Church. To understand this prophecy, its
noble spirit, as well as its local limitations, we
must remember the difficult but necessary work of
church building which strained the efforts of the
small Jewish community; then we can seize the es
sential spirit of the comforting message and show
how in a Christian atmosphere it attains to a larger
meaning and wider application. The writer of the
Epistle to the Hebrews, living in times of sudden
change and fierce persecution, when all things
seemed to be shaken, gained help and blessing from
the words of the prophet Haggai. Thus the pro
phets of all ages are linked into one family; sepa
rated by large tracts of time, they form one com
pany because they hold fast to the essential things
of God's kingdom, in the spirit of faith in God and
hope for the future of the Church. The circum
stances of their lives, and the outward forms of
their religion differ, but they have the same deep
convictions, the same interpretation of the past,
the same outlook into the future. They both see

THE PROPHET'S CERTAINTY 339
that immense changes take place in the course of
the world's life; thrones and kingdoms, nations
and churches are moved by gradual change or vio
lent convulsion. As our knowledge of the world's
history is enlarged that fact becomes ever clearer;
it does not now require keen perception or pro
found insight to see that change, slow or sudden,
is the all-pervading fact. But that view, of itself,
may beget scepticism and indeed has often had
that effect. These two men are men of faith;
while fully realizing the changefulness of life they
see that there is a kingdom which cannot be shaken,
a church which cannot be moved. The two ex
amples of shaking to which they point are the
same, though viewed from widely different stand
points; the giving of the law at Sinai, and the
coming of the Christ. From the religious point of
view, these are two of the most significant epochs
in the world's history. When God delivered Israel
from the Egyptian yoke and sent the Hebrew tribes
into the wilderness to seek freedom and begin a
higher life, that movement, small in itself, was the
dawning of a larger life for mankind; and when
more than a thousand years later the temple of
Jerusalem was destroyed, and the Gospel went out
on its great missionary career, that was a fuller
and clearer manifestation of the same redeeming
purpose. To many then living both periods seemed
to be days of dark disorder and utter loss ; it
was only the men of strong faith who clearly recog
nized the fact that through it all God was working
to bring to men a nobler vision of Himself, and
a richer realization of His kingdom. Prophets and

340 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
apostles had their moments of weakness and weari
ness, but one principle was clear to them, to this
one truth they were always loyal — Whatever
changes may take place, whatever thrones may fall,
whatever temples may perish or peoples be scat
tered, the true religion must live, and the love of
the Eternal God must continue to be revealed. The
things that are made, the temporary forms may be
shaken, but the eternal purpose of redemption must
stand out more clearly, and the love which radiates
from the Cross must more and more light up this
dark world.
We are often told- that the present age is a time
of great restlessness, that it is pre-eminently a
transition period, that we are passing, in so many
ways, from an old order that was known and
definite to a new order which as yet only appears in
dim, uncertain outline. True, but our age is not
exceptional, we are only submitting to a constant
law ; the movement of change may be a little quick
er now, but it is not confined to our own or any
century. Change is the unchanging law of life;
we must all recognize it and bow before it; it is
only a part of life, but if we can see that though it
often seems to be cruel, there is mercy at the heart
of it, we may hail it in these jubilant tones :
"Rejoice that man is hurled
From change to change unceasingly,
His soul's wings never furled." (Browning.)
Our great poets see this truth and preach to us
loyal submission to this law.

THE PROPHET'S CERTAINTY 341
"Meet is it changes should control
Our being, lest we rust in ease ;
We all are changed by still degrees,
All but the basis of the soul."
"The old order changeth, yielding place to new,
And God fulfils Himself in many ways,
Lest one good custom should corrupt the world."
(Tennyson.)
Change then is inseparable from life. Some men
are fickle and fond of change, others cling with timid
fear to the past. This is a matter of personal feel
ing, individual temperament, but we must all try
to understand the significance of life's restless
movement and learn that while change counts for
much, it is not the whole story. The body is al
ways changing, casting off its dead particles and
gaining new substance, going forward in healthy
growth until change begins to conquer and the
balance inclines towards decay and death. The
mind must ever be acquiring new thoughts and
seeing the truth under new aspects; those who
seem to remain stagnant are really drifting back
ward, for here as elsewhere there is no such thing
as standing still. In social life the same; your
family is never the same many days together;
babies leave behind their babyhood, the young
grow out of their lightness and irresponsibility,
they rise up to bear the burdens and fight the bat
tles of life. National life cannot be marked out
and limited by paper constitutions, or bound down
by stereotyped forms; new forces emerge which

342 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
kings and statesmen may guide, to some extent, but
which they cannot altogether control. There can
only be two ways of viewing this perpetual change ;
one that it gives movement to and fro without end,
and also without meaning; such a view is correctly
called scepticism. The other is the view of faith, that
it is a gradual unfolding of a divine plan which
may be hindered or delayed by our weakness and
wickedness, but which must march on to its final
triumph, because it is a revelation of the eternal
life of God. This glorious faith has been cherished
and expressed by the prophets and saints of all
ages ; at times it has been manifested in simple and
even rude forms, but such a vital principle under
God's gracious guidance breaks down its early bar
riers and corrects its own childlike errors.
The breaking away of the Christian religion from
Judaism was a tremendous crisis, one of the most
tragic chapters in the religious history of the
world. It is difficult for us to realize the intense
pain of the needful process. We need not be sur
prised if even strong men were haunted by the fear
that in such a great crash something of real value
might be irrevocably lost. The writer of "the
Epistle to the Hebrews" does not attempt to meet
the case by ridiculing such fear, but he shows in a
sympathetic spirit that when the Christian religion
emerges from the hard shell of Judaism it does not
leave behind any great truth or real force; it car
ries everything into a higher plane and into a clear
er light. The Lord Jesus is not a destructive critic
or revolutionary reformer, but one who brings in the
new order by fulfilling the real purpose and highest

THE PROPHET'S CERTAINTY 343
aim of the older forms of faith. His disciples were
treated by their compatriots as men who had proved
disloyal to Moses, and who had forsaken the law
of God. They, however, can claim that they have
only cast off the temporary and changeable, that
they have found through Jesus Christ the faith of
Abraham and the piety of Moses ; that in their new
Teacher the preaching of the prophets and the songs
of Zion have found new meaning and richer power.
The shaking has been very great, but nothing real
or divine has been lost.
The Christian religion does not abolish the con
flict between the old and the new; the same strife
is still active, for we cannot set all men on precisely
the same plane of life. There will always be diver
sity of operations from the same spirit, and that is
the strength not the weakness of the Christian
faith. The simple, sublime faith of Abraham, the
symbolic ritual of the Jewish church, the bold,
strong preaching of the prophets, the lofty theology
of Paul, the glorious idealism of John; these ap
peal to varied classes, and the man of large heart
and catholic mind can appreciate the beauty and
significance of all. Just in so far as we feel the
attraction, and understand the meaning of the
Eternal Love manifested in the Son of man, shall
we treat with proper sympathy all lower and pre
paratory forms of revelation. Thus shall we com
bine strength of conviction with breadth and ten
derness of charity. The apostles did not make it
their special business to denounce the old forms
and the earlier faith, but they firmly resisted all
attempts to enslave men and bar the pathway of

344 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
progress by the power of tradition. Their think
ing took a positive constructive form ; the new was
cherished, not because of its novelty, but because it
enshrined, as well as expanded, the old truth.
In the case of every new movement towards
freedom and largeness of life, when the shaking
has been great, the birth-pangs severe, men who
posed as leaders of their fellows have cried out
that the church would surely be destroyed, and in
consequence religion would die. In a spirit of
fear and with loud clamour, men have thrust forth
reckless hands to save the ark of God. Let us
remember in our times of panic that no outside at
tack can do so much harm as our sloth and un
belief; it is rather late in the day to imagine that
religion can easily be killed or that God will fail
to defend His truth in the day of battle. We must
be ready to part with that which can really be
shaken and destroyed, though the loss of some of
these things may seem for a time to tear away part
of our real self; through such seeming loss the un
seen kingdom will advance to fuller revelation,
and in our intellectual life we may learn that it
is possible to take up our cross and follow the
Christ into a larger world.
There are many devout people who are bewil
dered by advancing knowledge or thrown into panic
by the keenness of present criticism. They fear
that as he realizes the immensity of the universe
man will be driven to confess his utter insignifi
cance, and that then his mysticism, which magni
fies the importance of the soul, will be rebuked, and
religion thus stricken at the roots will die. If we

THE PROPHET'S CERTAINTY 345
come to See that we have sprung from the dust, not
by instantaneous command, but through a long,
slow process, another blow will be struck at our
spiritual conceit, and the life will go out of that
noble cry, "I am poor and needy, but the Lord
thinketh upon me." Or if we find that the Bible
grew and attained its present wonderful form by
processes which are very imperfectly represented
by ancient tradition, then in the hour when the
truth and beauty of this great literature is most
fully and reasonably vindicated, we shall lose our
faith in the inspiring guiding Spirit. Sometimes
men from whom the church expects guidance
stand up trembling and confess their fear that the
battle is too fierce, the strain too hard; if we can
not have quietness they fear the people will go
back and sit down under the shadow of some great
and ancient authority, where they can have the rest
which Protestantism does not give. Certainly
there will always be found some foolish enough to
commit spiritual suicide in a time of great strain,
but while we may be sorry for that we must not
look behind us. "Speak unto the children of Is
rael that they go forward," is always God's word
to the prophet. If our faith cannot stand the
strain of changing forms it is weak and unworthy
of the name of loyalty to the living God. In every
century some have uttered the doleful prophecy
that if the form of knowledge changes faith must
surely die. Thank God, those were not the true
prophets! One of the distinctive messages of real
prophecy, a message that grew to clearness in dark,
tragic hours, was this, that temples may perish and

346 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
creeds change but religion will not die. History
vindicates the prophet though his contemporaries
found him lacking in their particular kind of pa
triotism and piety. In spite of paltry fears, true
religion has grown, knowledge and reverence have
gone hand in hand to new victories.
The Old Testament is specially instructive from
this point of view; one of its many missions is to
show us a devout religious spirit working in and
through a great variety of forms. We have the
earlier forms of the Hebrew religion, when the
father of the family or head of the tribe was king
and priest. There is the sublime revelation given
to Moses, involving the birth of a nation, and in
simple forms the beginning of a religious move
ment which through processes of growth reaches
its high destiny. The prophets are both conserva
tives and reformers; they fight against degenera
tion, and meet this danger in the only possible way
by stimulating living progress. When we come to
the Jewish religion in its final form, the Levitical
system with its one central sanctuary and its all-
embracing ritual, we find that though the religious
life and institutions bear the marks of many a con
flict, yet they have in large measure been trans
formed by the constant stream of lofty teaching
which is the manifestation of a growing revelation.
Prophet and priest often confronted each other as
representatives of apparently opposite ideas and ir
reconcilable interests, but in the final product the
influence of the best in both has been beautifully
blended. Here as elsewhere, every stage of the

THE PROPHET'S CERTAINTY 347
upward movement meant strife and loss to the in
dividual life; it was the everlasting process, the
ever-present mystery of gain through loss. Not
by mere lapse of time, but by a living movement to
which countless souls contributed their noblest
spiritual treasure, "the fulness of time" was ushered
in, and there came One who sums up many revela
tions in the words, "God is spirit, and they that
worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in
truth." Here we reach the true Temple mount ; the
air is clear, and the view is exceedingly large.
Every important epoch in the life of humanity
and of the Church illustrates in a special manner
this great law of life. When Luther with mag
nificent boldness and reverence declared afresh
the everlasting truth that "the just shall live
by faith," the official representatives of the
dominant system declared that religion was at
tacked, the Church was in danger and must be
defended by fire and sword. Now it is easy to see
that though vested interests were assailed, old
traditions superseded and vain superstitions swept
away, even the fierce strife of those stormy times
did not destroy any essential truth or cast discredit
upon any vital element of the Christian faith.
Luther with his union of reverence and boldness, his
vindication of freedom and his sure instinct for the
essential things is a fine specimen of the prophetic
spirit acting under more modern conditions, and
hence a noble example for us. It would have been
well if that great movement could have been man
aged with less violence, but we must remember that

348 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
gentle efforts to reform the church from within
had failed; God does not shake either earth or
heaven without good reason.
The proof of the divinity and absoluteness of
our religion is its capacity of constantly renewing
its fires of love and enthusiasm at the Cross. In
the eighteenth century men who boasted in their
shallow scepticism, declared that it was no use
wasting arguments over a dead cause. Christianity
was dying of weakness and old age ; it was a blood
less, withered system. As is now admitted, Bishop
Butler was intellectually more than a match for
men of that type, but the real reply was the faith
ful preaching of the love of God manifested in
Jesus Christ; this under such leaders as Wesley
and Whitefield created a new evangelistic missionary
movement which has encircled the world with its
message of love, and exerted a far-reaching in
fluence in every sphere of thought and life.
The French Revolution, whose baleful fires cast
a lurid light on the closing years of the same cen
tury, was one of the greatest shakings that the
modern world has known. Many good men in dif
ferent lands at first hailed the movement with joy
ful hope as the dawning of a new day of liberty
and righteousness, but soon all but the boldest sym
pathizers shrank back in horror from the terrible
excesses. They saw that it was one of the dark
days of the Lord, a day of fire and blood. But
even "The Reign of Terror" could not destroy any
great truth. Some useful things were no doubt
consumed in that burning of wood, hay and stubble,

THE PROPHET'S CERTAINTY 349
but when violent passion has spent its force, it is
seen that, though not the highest manifestation,
God does work through the earthquake and the
fire. It is an appropriate conclusion to our considera
tion of the varied forms of prophetic teaching to
dwell with special emphasis upon the fact that faith
abides and grows through changing forms; to us
this is a commonplace, but two things are worthy
of emphasis in this connection: first, this is a
truth that the ancient prophets had to learn in
painful ways, and second, each reverent, believing
man to-day must have it vivified and appro
priated to his personal experience, and it may be
in his case not without pain. Having tried then
to expound and illustrate some of the great truths
revealed to the ancient prophets, we may strive to
hold in our own way this great conviction. There is
a kingdom that cannot be shaken, a kingdom of truth
and righteousness, of faith and love. Into that
kingdom we may enter by personal submission to
the real Saviour and King. This kingdom had
great part of its preparation in the ministry of the
prophets; it received its highest revelation in the
Son of man ; it is ever coming, and for its coming
we make our daily prayer. That kingdom is not
wedded to one form ; in time it has had many forms
and in eternity it will continue to create new forms.
Its glory is that it works from within outwards,
moulding for itself ever clearer, more adequate, and
so more beautiful expression. Small kingdoms
built up through earthly greed and selfish pride

350 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
will be shaken and shattered; "the day of the
Lord" scatters all shams and unrealities, but this
kingdom comes into fuller freedom through the
fiercest judgments, and larger, sweeter significance
grows into the old watchword, "Jesus Christ, the
same yesterday, today and forever."

CONCLUSION
THE ANCIENT PROPHET AND THE MOD
ERN PREACHER

"But the ultimate fountain of the prophetic preaching
is the passion to win men. This is the secret both of the
pathos and the splendours of its style. To the Prophets
preaching was no mere display, but a sore battle with the
hard hearts of their contemporaries, in which the messenger
of the Lord worked with the pity of his weakness upon
him, at a supreme cost to himself and conscious that he
must summon to his desperate task every resource of
feeling and of art." — Dr. G. A. Smith, "Modern Criticism
and the Preaching of the Old Testament," page 281.

CHAPTER XXIX
CONCLUSION
THE ANCIENT PROPHET AND THE MODERN PREACHER
If the Christian minister is not in some deep sense
a messenger of God there seems to be no special
reason why he should survive in highly civilized
communities. There was a time when all education
was included in the formal circle of the Church's
life, and the clergyman or priest was the chief or
only teacher. By fierce revolution or slow develop
ment all that has been changed. The schoolmaster,
the journalist, the novelist and many others have
acquired a share in the teaching function, and to
some it seems as if the preacher was to be driven
into a corner, and that a very small corner. Indeed,
there are not wanting voices to cry that it is time he
was superannuated, and some even to suggest that
it is an impertinence for mortal man to speak to his
fellows concerning the deep things of God. More
than ever do we need to realize the words of the
great apostle, "We have this treasure in earthen
vessels that the excellency of the power may be of
God and not of us." If we would face this bold
attack there must be strong conviction not only that
we have a great revelation to expound, and a fair
equipment for the handling of it, but also that we
have a living vocation, and stand in the line of an
353

354 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
honourable succession, that this is as true to-day as
in the supreme moment of Isaiah's great vision ; the
Eternal King needs men to speak for Him; men,
it may be, to deliver an unpopular message, to pro
voke a deeper thoughtfulness, and to break up the
stagnation into which all organized religion is prone
to settle.
Here we have one point of contact between the
modern preacher and the men who by God's grace
guided the life of Israel to ever loftier heights. The
great prophets were speakers rather than authors. It
is in later times when prophecy is about to vanish
that the literary aspects are more prominent. The
difficulty to-day of understanding many of the pro
phetic writings springs from this fact, that they are
not logically connected and carefully polished essays,
but fragmentary remains of spoken discourse. The
criticism to which these writings have been sub
jected during the past century has tended to place
the predictive element in a more subordinate place
by showing that the ancient prophets were in the
fullest sense living men speaking to their own times.
This is surely what we may hope to be, knowing
that we possess a fuller light and may be quickened
by the same spirit. We have to be teachers even as
they were, and our teaching has to assume the form
of preaching, that is, it is not the lecturer's scientific
discussion of a given theme, or the brilliant product
of the artistic essayist, it is teaching revolving
round and radiating from a certain centre, that cen
tral point being the act of heralding the King, call
ing men to the Cross, beseeching them to be recon
ciled to God and declaring forgiveness to penitent

CONCLUSION 355
souls. Thus the preaching of Isaiah, his appeals, his
predictions of approaching judgment stand all or
ganically related to his central conception of the
divine King ; and so in the forefront of a New Tes
tament book, which is unsurpassed for its variety of
teaching and its penetrating application of Christian
principles to individual and social life, we have the
announcement, "I determined not to know anything
among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified."
We hear very much now about "preaching to the
times," and it is a very good phrase, if rightly con
strued, but no superficial sociology can meet the
case.* If the mystic element falls out of our preach
ing, and we live upon the mere surface of things,
we are as preachers dead men, and dead men can
never raise the dead. If we are to face the present
with real force we must hold fast to the great things
of the past and cherish an inspiring view of the
future. This is our wisdom and our life, as it was
the spirit of the true prophet. Emerson speaking
of "the wise man," said, "he needs no library, for he
has not done thinking; no church, for he is a pro
phet." Alas, the difficulty with this wise man is the
difficulty of finding him; he is a purely ideal con
ception. The One whom we recognize as the ideal
of manhood was glad to use the great library of His
people and content to sit with His lowly brethren in
the church. The people whom we have to face
Ido not claim in this sense to be wise ; in their deeper
moments they confess their ignorance and their
need ; they are willing to listen to a calm, clear voice

*See Chapter XIX.

356 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
which in natural tones and with the accent of con
viction speaks to them of the deep things of man
and the great things of God.
It would be easy to fill up our brief space with a
bare catalogue of differences and similarities be
tween the ancient prophet and modern preacher, but
such a list would not be specially luminous, and it
would be difficult to make it so without a larger
sketch of the history of prophecy and a more search
ing examination of the various forms which it as
sumed during the long, painful development of
Israel's religious life. One or two points of this
kind must, however, be noted if we are not to lose
ourselves in vague generalities.
The Hebrew prophet lived before the Christ and
prepared the way for His coming. The" relative im
perfections of the prophet's message as well as the
depth of the prophet's life was a prophecy of the
Christian revelation, an inspiration toward it and a
clearing the way for it. Still it would not be alto
gether correct to say that the prophet looked forward
while the preacher looks backward. That is a crude
contrast, which if taken too literally becomes false.
Though we have much greater things behind us, our
look must still be towards the future. We still need
insight and foresight. Our Lord's atonement is not
simply "a 'finished work"; it is the divine fire of
self-sacrifice which ever renews itself. His life is
not a mere memory, but a perennial ideal. His teach
ing is full of startling suggestions rather than
smooth, complete dogmas. Though we have so
much to interpret and apply we must not become
mere theological lawyers. Our religion is living

CONCLUSION 357
revelation, not dead history, and it presses eagerly
forward to richer fulfilment.
The original prophets were the creators of the
Church in the spiritual sense, and they were led by
slow stages to ever clearer views of its true nature,
until, in Jeremiah's doctrine of the new covenant,
we have an anticipation of the deep individual exper
ience which, in the Christian Church, should be
combined with the purest social communion. We
live in the Church, which is separate from the State ;
it is highly organized; in fact, we are sometimes
tempted to think there is too much organization. We
are swallowed up in the organization, and are in dan
ger of becoming slaves to mere routine, for we are
expected to have a message twice every Sunday and
several times during the week. Yet most of us will
do well to fight the unceasing battle against a me
chanical, materialistic religion within the Church
rather than raise a standard of revolt in the name
of freedom and individualism, thus proving that we
have mistaken eccentricity for inspiration.
The ancient prophet was more national in his posi
tion and outlook ; in his case religion and patriotism
were two sides of the same life. We need to get
back to that condition with a difference. The Old
Testament has still a large ministry to exercise in
this particular. The prophets taught with mighty
power and richness of ethical application the brother
hood of men, even if it was the brotherhood of
Israelitish men. To them the social sins which
sapped the life of the State were not simply political
blunders or ordinary manifestations of selfishness;
they were acts of treason against the Eternal King.

358 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
The prophets' treatment of social questions may be
to us a tonic which will save us from a shallow in
dividualism and a spurious evangelism. We must
learn to unite in a living whole the individualism of
Jeremiah and Paul with the civic consciousness and
conscience of Amos and Isaiah.
There is still a deeper difference; we cannot rid
ourselves of the feeling that there is something
unique in the position and power of the ancient pro
phet, so that when we are applying the name to our
noblest men we are using it in a secondary sense.
That point will bear much investigation, but this
uniqueness seems in part to consist in the fact that
they were divinely appointed interpreters of a
nation's destiny and guides of its life until by a won
derful providence an insignificant Semitic tribe be
came the "servant of Jehovah," a nation with a
religious vocation, a missionary hope, and a message
of permanent and universal significance. This also
is "a finished work," the product of a special provi
dence which "shall be to the Lord for a name, an
everlasting sign which shall not be cut off." We
cannot aspire to that precise position and yet it seems
sometimes as if our reformers and noblest leaders
have come very near to it when they rediscovered
the Bible and applied to the enfranchisement of
nations those great truths concerning God's right
eousness, man's responsibility and the spirituality
of religion. While this unique position can be
claimed for the noblest prophets who united the
highest poetic genius with the purest religious pas
sion, it shades off by almost imperceptible degrees
into the broader prophetic life which we by divine

CONCLUSION 359
grace may hope to share, and it is mere mental
analysis which cuts it out and makes it the subject of
separate contemplation.
There is another feature of the prophetic life which
we must not neglect. The prophet was an inter
cessor, a representative of men in the presence of
God as well as a messenger from God to men.
Hungry, helpless men turned to him with the cry,
"Pray for us." The sublime fact of intercession
finds its highest fulfilment in the mediation of
Jesus Christ, so that the lofty monotheism of the
Hebrew prophets being translated into Christian
language reads thus: "There is one God and
one mediator between God and man, the man
Christ Jesus." This also was in some measure
anticipated in the life of the prophet. The Psalms
are prophetic and it has been well said that if in
the prophetic writings God is speaking to man,
in the Psalms man speaks to God. Intercession
is to-day the privilege of every true believer who
has appropriated the great sacrifice and come into
living fellowship with the High Priest. But those
whom He has counted worthy and called into the
holy ministry have in a special manner to keep this
truth alive. Sometimes it seems more difficult to
speak to God for men than it is to speak to men for
God, and it may be that we feel here more deeply our
dependence on the Divine Spirit. What a solemn
task is this,* not only to plead in general terms for
"all sorts and conditions of men," but to enter in
timately into the life of our people, to express with
reverent reserve and tender delicacy their sins and
sorrows, their needs and hopes, their deepest desires,

360 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
most pathetic pleadings and noblest aspirations.
Only when we cast ourselves upon the Holy Spirit
and faithful worshippers kindle around us the at
mosphere of prayer can this high duty be rightly dis
charged. But if this is attained real preaching is
possible and it will have some touch of prophetic
power. Let us rejoice, then, that we may still possess the
prophetic faith and cultivate the prophetic qualities.
Some may think that this is dangerous counsel, see
ing that the prophets were in so many cases unpop
ular men, and had often in bitterness of soul to com
mend themselves to God and the future time. This
does not necessarily mean that a man cannot possibly
be a noble man, a clear thinker, and at the same time
a popular preacher. Let us be thankful that in our
day such a rash inference is contradicted by many
brilliant examples. Still it is probable that if mere
popularity is sought it is more likely to be gained by
qualifications which the prophets did not cultivate,
namely, the ability to express the average belief in
bold, brilliant style, which makes up in dogmatic
assertion what is lacking in intellectual clearness
and moral depth.
The prophet's faith is in the reign of a righteous
God and the undying nature of religion. The polit
ical order might fail and ecclesiastical systems might
fall to pieces, but God would manifest Himself and
faith would abide. This was the prophet's faith, a
faith which sometimes brought upon him the charge
of unbelief and want of patriotism. These truths
must still be convictions of faith and not mere mat-

CONCLUSION 361
ters of tradition. Each generation must see them
and appropriate them afresh in its own way. Our
formal creed may be larger and more minute, and
yet we may lack the breadth, simplicity, and strength
of the prophet's faith in God. It would cure both
a narrow dogmatism and a belated ritualism to come
into closer contact with those strong men who fought
so nobly the shallow infidelity and the sensuous cere
monialism of their own time. If we are to have
a living pulpit the old faith must live with the new
science, and the puritanism of the prophets must be
chastened by the gentleness of the Christ; the
teacher must speak out of a living experience, and
not simply from the learning of the schools ; mere
professionalism must be conquered by the strength
of the man who can say, "We also believe and there
fore speak."
The prophetic qualities are insight, constancy and
courage, and surely these are needed as much as
ever. Insight, to see God in our own souls, and be
hind the ever-increasing wonder of the world ; to see
deep into the life of our own time, to sorrow over
the weakness of the Church as well as to rejoice in
her strength and beauty, to see the dangers of pop
ular movements as well as their advantages, to see
these things clearly and in right proportions, to
speak of them not in harsh, cynical tones, but with
tender, hopeful sympathy — this the Church now
needs and demands from her prophets. Constancy
to hold fast to our message when we have found it
true and appropriate, to test it in various lights and
apply it in different circumstances. To mo*e on

362 PROPHETIC IDEAS AND IDEALS
with unswerving perseverance when reward is small
and applause silent, when our noblest thought is
misinterpreted and our best effort is misunderstood ;
to accept it as our reward that we have led some to
see that their little world is not exactly God's great
universe and that the measurements of the spiritual
world are very high and very deep ; in other words,
to make religion purer and more thoughtful is the
aim of the true teacher. This demands courage as
well as constancy, courage to differ from the current
standard, to refuse to bow down at the altar of aver
age opinions, and make a god of shallow conven
tionality. It means to have boldness without impu
dence, sternness without censoriousness, authority
without dogmatism, tenderness without effeminate
gush. These are prophetic qualities still attainable
by the man who lives near to God and lives for his
fellow-men. The Church needs many gifts to min
ister to her varied life, but without prophetic men
she cannot live at all in any valid sense; without
men inspired and inspiring she declines into a mere
machine, and a machine can never represent the
living Christ. Her work is still to present a lofty
thought of God, and to preach the religion of
humanity, the religion of the Cross. The highest
product of her life is not in splendid buildings or
gorgeous ceremonies, but in the lives of men and
women who recognize that the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ moves through all spheres,
and that self-sacrifice is the law of the highest life.
We are thankful for all central truths that great
thinkers have proved and poets sung, but a hungry

CONCLUSION 363
world demands that these treasures of eternal truth
shall continually find fresh forms of speech and new
manifestations in the lowly lives of faithful men.
To this end work the ancient prophet and the mod
ern preacher, and God never leaves Himself without
a witness.

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