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ILMBIBASSr

DIVINITY SCHOOL
TROWBRIDGE LIBRARY

GIFT OF

Professor George Dahl

THE PROPHETS IN
THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY

BY
JOHN GODFREY HILL
Hi
Professor of Religious Education in the University
of Southern California

INTRODUCTION BY
F. M. LARKIN

THE ABINGDON PRESS
NEW YORK CINCINNATI

Copyright, 1919, by
JOHN GODFREY HILL

Printed In the United Statea of America

First Edition Printed August, 1919
Reprinted November, 1923

TO
A HOST OF DEVOTED STUDENTS
"Teaching is personal propagation"

CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
Introduction   9
Foreword  13
I. The Prophets in Relation to Our
Twisted Age  19
IT. The Prophets and Their Inspiration 26
III. The Prophets and Theds Revelations 45
IV. The Prophets and Thehi Meaning ... 66
V. The Prophets and Theds Authority. . 82
VI. The Prophets and Their Personality 101
VII. The Prophets and Their Writings . . . 127
VIII. The Prophets and Their Ideas  145
LX. The Prophets and Theds Religion. . . 161
X. The Prophets and Theds Politics  184
XI. The Prophets and Theds Predictions. 201
XII. The Prophets and Thess Permanence. 221

QUESTIONS CHAPTBB
Why Does the Changing Order Require a Re
valuation of Faith?  I
In What Sense is Prophecy the Word of God? II
What Conception of Revelation Best Fits the
New World?  Ill
How May Prophecy be Best Interpreted? .... IV
How May We Know What Correctly Ex
presses God's Mind?  V
What Fitted the Prophets to Speak the Mind
of God?  VI
What is the Nature of the Written Record
Which We Treat as Binding?  VII
What Ideas are Elemental in Life and What
Makes Them So?  VIII
What Makes a Religion Good?  IX
What Place has Religion in Politics?  *X
In What Sense did the Prophets Reveal
Future Events?  XI
Wherein Consists the Abiding Value of
Prophecy?  XII

INTRODUCTION
This book is timely and of the greatest
importance in our modern life. Never since
the advent of Christ has it been more im
portant to understand the permanent teach
ings of the Hebrew prophets, who spoke not
only for their own time but for all time.
They deal with fundamental and universal
truth in relation to individual and national
conduct. No thoughtful person can overlook the
fact that the civilization of the world is pass
ing through one of the most appalling crises
in all history. The boom of the first cannon
in the great European war was the an
nouncement of the beginning of a new age.
Suddenly and swiftly has history been made.
With the ceasing of the war the transition
has been made. The world never again will
be what it was before the war.
Much depends upon the attitude the
world governments are to take upon funda
mental principles of human nature when
9

10 INTRODUCTION
recbnstruction is made. In no way can we
understand better what the great God has
been trying to teach man in all the past and
in the present than by a proper understand
ing of the permanency of the ancient He
brew prophets. A misunderstanding of
their messages will result disastrously to the
church and the world.
Professor Hill has given much attention
to this line of study, and the church will be
grateful to him for the publication of these
lectures in permanent form. For many
years he has been coming in contact with
the mature minds in the University of
Southern California, and from personal
testimony, which has come to the writer,
we know that he has been exceptionally suc
cessful in leading young people out of their
intellectual doubts into a clear, bright, ear
nest Christian faith. The Prophets in the
Light of To-day has been written in touch
with the vital issues of the classroom which
have given him an exceptional insight into
what people of to-day want to know about
the Hebrew prophets in their relation to
the development of modern civilization.

INTRODUCTION 11
When pastor of University Church I
found young people who were devout Chris
tians having great difficulty in adjusting
their faith to their intellectual light and
growth. They were attempting to think
their religion in the symbolism of their child
hood, which was taught to them in the Sun
day school, and were unable to adjust it to
their more mature intellectual college life.
A great deal of skepticism has thus resulted
from a failure to teach our young people to
think properly about God and religion. A
large number of the skeptics who are com
ing from our State universities are the re
sult of being taught to think about material
things in a modern way, while little is done
to teach them as a man ought to think about
spiritual things. Professor Hill's success
ful experience in helping this class of young
men to revalue their faith makes his book
especially welcome to the larger public.
F. M. Larkin.

FOREWORD
The purpose of this little book is to at
tract busy people to the grandeur of the
Hebrew prophets. Especially persons dis
tressed with doubts or yearning to know the
modern views on religious values may re
ceive help. It is also the purpose to help
correct, without needless offense, prevalent
unscholarly misuse of prophecy. It is hoped
that these chapters may help to bring the
needlessly conservative student into a more
hospitable attitude toward the modern reli
gious trend of thought without losing any
of his fervor. There is need of a careful
reappraisement of spiritual values in the
light of to-day. In the present reconstruc
tion period the spirit and ideas of the
prophets are especially timely. The better
day will be hastened by placing a saner and
higher value upon spiritual realities.
David Grayson's reflection about his
farmer friend, Horace, and himself, that
"we have been the best of friends in the
13

14 FOREWORD
way of whiffle-trees, butter tubs, and pig
killings, but never once looked up together
at the sky," may serve as a blanket confes
sion for our workaday-world. We are
caught in the treadmill of "getting on," and
are damaging body and damning soul in
the forced scramble for a livelihood. The
most smothering feature of modern life is its
absorbing practicality. Grayson's further
confession that "throughout many feverish
years I did not work, I merely produced,"
fairly labels our truck-driven age. One
hoped-for result of the present studies of
the prophets is that these preoccupied neigh
bors of ours may learn to "look up together
at the sky" and "trust a little in God."
The prophets were sky-gazers and would
teach us moderns to look starward. Amaz
ing material achievements have outrun the
more meager spiritual results. Success has
formed a kind of conspiracy against the
spiritual life. The world crisis, however,
has cleared the way for a fresh approach to
the unseen realities. The guidance of the
prophets is, therefore, timely.
The prophetic material has been selected

FOREWORD 15
because it records the highest expression of
religion, and also because the present crisis
has stimulated a fresh interest in prophetic
predictions, believed by many to find their
fulfillment in the present world movement.
Unless a common-sense view be taken of
prophetic utterances many good people will
be misled and sadly disappointed should the
"signs" fail of fulfillment, as they have done
so often before.
The attempt is made to treat in a living,
practical way those problems of religion
which are of practical interest and vital con
cern to honest seekers after "a working
faith." The viewpoint taken, therefore, is
that which is commonly held by progressive
Christian leaders of the day. By common
agreement these leaders interpret Chris
tianity in harmony with scientific, psycho
logical, and sociological truthfulness. This
viewpoint is what may be termed progres
sive orthodoxy.
In a way this book is the accumulated
result of years of effort to make a working
faith possible where outworn conceptions
have ceased to carry intellectual respect.

16 FOREWORD
Hence, only topics of living interest make
up the chapters that follow. They have re
ceived such treatment as has proved most
helpful to pastors and people, teachers and
students. It has seemed to the writer that the Bible
material needs to be popularized and
modernized in order that it may play the
guiding and controlling role which it de
serves in modern life. To effect this end,
several things have been attempted: first,
to give only positive and needful results of
modern biblical scholarship; second, to pre
serve a passionate spiritual tone; third, to
present progressive ideas in plain modern
speech; fourth, to treat questions involved
in a sane, brief, and honest manner. The
reader will be the judge in that matter.
The author gratefully acknowledges help
received from many friends and stimulating
books. It is not possible to cite the sources
of ideas and suggestions used which have
been accumulated during many years of
study and teaching. Materials of public
ownership have been worked over into a
new, and let us hope, fresh setting. The

FOREWORD 17
author has tried to strike a happy medium
between "cold critical scholarship" on the
one hand, and "inaccurate devotional litera
ture" on the other hand. The writer is con
vinced that a fervid spirit and a fair ac
curacy joined together will aid to make the
Bible ideal winsome. If this book shall
further that end, the author will be content.
J. G. H.

CHAPTER I
THE PROPHETS IN RELATION
TO OUR TWISTED AGE
What?
The most momentous decision in history
is now in the balance. All former world
molds he broken, and the social fragments
must now be recast. Who is to take the
contract? This is a fair and fearful chal
lenge to trained Christian men and women.
Since the lines in Picardy and Flanders
have won the war, a new world is in the
making. The period of reconstruction is,
therefore, a momentous hour for the Chris
tian Church. Her finest teachers and
preachers, scholars and statesmen, laymen
and laborers, must seize this world moment
for Christ.
The awful conflict which recently raged
on the trenched fields of Europe presents a
world of agonizing problems. The troubled
waters run far deeper than the issue between
19

20 THE PROPHETS
opposing political ideals. "The worth of
the whole structure of modern civilization
is being put to the test." Everything is
being subjected to revaluation. In the
melting-pot of the world's crisis cherished
customs, time-honored institutions, and
long-established ideals are being refined by
the fires of the great conflict.
Whither?
We are on our way to a new humanity
with different racial values and ideals. This
fact is being anticipated by the titles of new
books. Nicholas Murray Butler calls it
The World in Ferment; Harry Emerson
Fosdick, The Challenge of the Present
Crisis; Mrs. Humphry Ward, Towards the
Goal; and Butler in another of his books,
The International Mind. In the face of
this crisis, Adams Brown might well ask
in the title of his virile volume, "Is Chris
tianity Practicable?" The daring John
Galsworthy takes up the new challenge in
his recent novel Beyond, and permits young,
beautiful "Gyp" to pass "beyond" the
bounds of old settled conventions. This

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY 21
daring and dramatic story seems to fling
the new departures in our faces by asking,
"Was she justified in taking the step?" In
that question and in that novel may be seen
the modern man's effort to break with the
conservative Past and to face up to a radical
Future. But there are titles that sound a
note of warning, such as Katherine Holland
Brown's The Wages of Honor, for we are
in some danger of "Running Free," as
James B. Connolly puts it in his humorous
book of racy sea stories. Henry van Dyke
seems positively alarmed lest the "Blond
Beast" be "enthroned in the place of God."
We must make certain that the new order
takes on Christ or we shall be undone.
Providentially, the Christian Church is
being urged forward by the new struggle it
is forced to wage to meet the changing order
of society. It must be evident to all that
great changes are in progress both within
and without the Christian Church. In every
branch of the church we have heard for a
generation much about the "higher" and the
"lower critics," the "liberals" and the "con
servatives," the "heterodox" and the "ortho-

22 THE PROPHETS
dox." The way of science is gaining more
respect. The newer secular education is
taking a firmer grip on our youth. Social
improvement and psychological tests are
coming forward with new aids to the gospel
of human betterment.
The significance of the gospel of Jesus
Christ for the life of our age is being both
broadened and intensified. A new interpre
tation of the gospel is imperative, and a
finer life of the saint is mandatory, if Chris
tianity is to exercise the controlling influence
in the new world.
Abner Daniel's observation about the
Tinsleys in The New Clarion puts the mat
ter well: "Me'n' her git along all right, but
I can't stomach that sanctimonious husband
o' her'n. He's so ready fer the next life
that he's out o' joint in this un, an' makes
everybody else uncomfortable." How?
That new order will not be ushered in in
the spectacular manner of a cloud-burst. It
is not to be a free gift from the skies, but
a gritty grind from the ground. Only as

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY 23
God works in us and through us here and
now, will we be able to bring about his pur
pose for a better world and a nobler society.
A new sense of the need of world improve
ment, a new sympathy with all movements
which strive for a better society, a clearer
grasp of practical methods which will secure
good results are God's messengers to urge
us on to more strenuous endeavor. While
individual rectitude must not slacken, in
ternational ethics must also come. No mere
local and fitful, conventional and formal
application of the gospel will save the world
and restore the church to its rightful place
in society. Nothing short of a fresh inter
pretation of the gospel, a simpler view of
faith, a clearer understanding of the Chris
tian ideal, a truer exhibition of Christian
conduct, and a broader application of the
Christian program to the world's problems
will satisfy the emerging needs of a world
writhing in the birth-pangs of a new era.
"The immensity of the war," writes Ralph
Barton Perry, "lies not only in its area and
volume, but in the profoundness and com
plexity of its issues. The outcome is going

24 THE PROPHETS
to determine not only what nation shall
survive, but what institutions and ideas shall
survive. It is not merely a question of who
shall prove strongest, but of what form of
life shall prove strongest." When?
The massive truths of the prophets, re
iterated by Jesus with spiritual clearness,
need now to be reaffirmed and centrally
fixed in the life of society. Their passionate
appeals to practical justice, downright hon
esty, and social equality, to reverence the
one and holy God, to recognize his purpose
in history, and to establish the divine king
dom of good on earth, are at this hour the
crying needs of the bleeding world. From
the mouths of our ministers the prophets
speak across the centuries to the men on our
streets. For it is given to the prophet class
that lives on the divine side of life to keep
alive the elemental moral sense of mankind.
Never were the sermons of the prophets
more timely than now, for they deal with
the ever-recurring moral, social, and polit
ical problems of society. Modern social and

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY 25
political prophets catch unfailing inspira
tion from these voices of the past with which
to shed fresh light on our twisted age, and
thus gain a new spiritual ascendency.
May the Christian leaders, like the
prophets of old, keep the divine vision clear,
the human spirit steady, the well-springs of
sympathy flowing, the lamp of truth burn
ing, and the social atmosphere sweet, lest
the world's Gethsemane end in a trenched
grave without a resurrection.

26 THE PROPHETS

CHAPTER II
THE PROPHETS AND THEIR
INSPIRATION
Haunted as we are to-day by scientific
ghosts, it is impossible to read the Bible
thoughtfully without being taunted by the
questions: In what sense is the Bible the
veritable Word of God? How can the im
perfect and finite speak the mind of the Per
fect and Infinite? If human errors have
crept into the divine record, how may we
know the true from the false? These are
practical questions which dog the footstseps
of the modern man's religious wanderings.
To the thoughtful, earnest, honest soul these
mental ghosts must be met and slain or his
Bible is for him a haunted book, wherein
dismaying surprises may appear at any
turn. That the God of hfe and all things
has spoken in the Bible, and through it yet
speaks to the human heart, no one can well
doubt, and few indeed do doubt it. The

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY 27
verdict of human experience for centuries
has been that the Bible reveals adequately
God's will and way for man. Sir Walter
Scott, on his deathbed, is reported to have
said, pointing to his library, "Hand me the
Book." When asked, "What book?" he re
plied, "There is but one book, the Book!"
Yet the very greatness of the book raises for
us more keenly the questions above, for any
apparent flaw in an otherwise perfect work
is the more noticeable and disturbing.
Hence we are the more pained and puzzled
at finding what appear to be imperfect
statements therein.
These problems, however, are not to be
settled by off-hand declarations or diction
ary definitions, but by candid consideration.
The son of a minister told his father that the
dictionary defined "collect" and "congre
gate" to mean the same thing. "Perhaps
they do, my son," said the venerable clergy
man, "but there is a vast difference between
a congregation and a collection." Likewise
there may be a vast difference between the
facts and dogmas of inspiration and revela
tion. Inspiration is necessary to revelation.

28 THE PROPHETS
Revelation is, of course, the result of in
spiration. Man is the means; God is the
source; inspiration is the spur; revelation is
the content; and the Bible is the record.
Revelation is continued and varied as the
inspiration fluctuates in the subject.
Flower, fowl, and folk are all so many un
like forms of God's handiwork. That is to
say, our psychic nature is fashioned to
search after God as the bee hunts for honey.
In the normal craving of our souls we find
the warrant for religion. This craving God
satisfies with his Spirit as he does flowers
with sunshine. The Bible directs us to the
divine store where satisfaction for the soul
is to be found.
Modern Theories of Prophetic Inspira
tion
How, then, shall we understand prophetic
inspiration? There is, I think, no consider
able disposition at the present to doubt the
vital fact of human inspiration and conse
quent divine revelation. Devout students
of the Word merely differ as to manner,
form, and condition under which inspiration

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY 29
takes place. These views are commonly
held: 1. That God immediately and unerringly
revealed all things to holy men of old, dif
ferently from anything which occurs to-day.
2. That it is all the product of human
development, essentially the same as all
other development of nature.
3. That the method of divine revelation
has been an historic process of divine ac
commodation to human limitations. God,
through his indwelling Spirit, lifted man
into higher and newer meanings by way of
old customs, symbols, institutions, impart
ing to them, and through them, nobler ideas
from age to age. Even Saint Paul found
it necessary to say, "For now we see through
a glass, darkly; but then face to face" (1
Cor. 13. 12).
Whichever of these theories be the near
est correct may not be demonstrated. It
seems, however, that the third one men
tioned fits best into our time, and holds
several advantages over the others for our
modern mode of thought. Our conquest of
nature has given us a new grip on the mate-

30 THE PROPHETS
rial world, and our scientific method of
thought has given us a new interpretation
of the world. More of order and law has
made less of miracle and caprice, as the
modern man looks at it. Explanations of
inspiration must not do violence to this
respect for nature on the one hand, nor the
longing for spiritual realities in men's lives
on the other hand. The last theory respects
both; while the other two choose one and
exclude the other.
Man's Place in the Process of Inspira
tion
The third theory mentioned in no way
belittles God and his self-manifestation in
the world. Special revelation is not denied
by being accommodated to human conditions
as the Bible shows them to have existed.
This way of looking at it gives man an
active place in divine revelation. No vio
lence is done to human nature as we know
it. No issue is forced between views of
science and religion. It finds modern psy
chology an ally and friend. William James,
in this connection, speaks of the "psycho-

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY 31
pathic level of sudden perception or convic
tion of new truth . . . the unseen region in
question . . . produces effects in this world.
God is real since he produces real effects."1
Earthly Materials in Divine Forms
It gives meaning to Bible history as
showing the gradual growth of revelation
in accord with scriptural facts. It shows
the heritage of the past to have contributed
to the making of the present. The events
of the present were fashioned into new prod
ucts in the hot crucible of prophetic experi
ence. From his heated soul the sparks flew
in forms of hope and fear, doubt and cer
tainty, joy and sorrow, success and failure.
But in the ordeal the prophet beheld the
form of One invisible. On the one hand the
prophet followed his religious intuitions; on
the other hand he seized the earthly material
at his feet to transmit the heavenly grace.
The man of God lifted into new meaning
old symbols, put to sacred uses secular ob
jects, and filled heathen words with holy
'WUliam James. The Varieties of Religious Experience,
pp. 516. 517.

32 THE PROPHETS
contents. Old customs, old institutions, old
phrases were invested with new meanings in
the wake of wider experiences in the light
of God. Thus earthly materials are often
molded into the divine forms.
In the mouths of the prophets heathen
words acquired holy uses. Where once they
carried low, even base contents, taken up
into Hebrew usage they are filled with lofty
meaning. Note, for instance, the prophetic
use of the word Qadosh, "holy" (Isa. 6),
applied to Jehovah. The three meanings
most often attached to this word in its vari
ous forms are: (1) in reference to holy
things (a new relation) ; (2) the Holy One
(separate from all else) ; the Transcendent
One; (3) holy persons (as priests belonging
to God as his peculiar property). Since
Jehovah is holy, all that is used for or by
him must be worthy of him. Hence only a
clean, sound, perfect, unblemished vessel,
thing, or person is fit for divine use. So
that not only Jehovah is Qadosh, that is,
clean, whole, separate from all that partakes
of evil, but all persons in his service must
be clean and sound.

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY 33
Then we find Qadash, "to be dedicated" ;
Qodesth, "to be hallowed"; and Qadosh,
"saintly." Now, Qadash was an old Semitic
word which meant in heathen circles "to
withdraw," "to set apart." On the one
hand a thing may be forbidden because it
was unclean and, therefore, untouchable;
or, on the other hand, it may be too sacred,
too clean to be defiled by common hands.
Thus, the same word may and did carry
opposite meanings. Forms of this word ap
pear among the Semitic peoples with varied
meanings. Among the Assyrians Qadasu
meant "to cleanse," and a thing that was
Qadistu was consecrated by purification.
An exact parallel is found in 2 Chronicles
29. 19 and 30. 17, where the word is used
in this sense concerning temple vessels and
concerning the people at the time of the
passover. Qadesh was a word used by the
corrupt Canaanites to designate young
women set apart for immoral purposes
at the sacred shrines — temple prostitutes,
always closely associated with nature reli
gions. When a Hebrew writer speaks of
the immoral women of Canaanite shrines,

34 THE PROPHETS
he will not use Qadesh, but will use Zonah
instead. Thus, a heathen term, used in the
lowest way, was lifted to the highest and
purest meaning by the Hebrew sacred
writers, and even given a place in the
prophetic doctrines of the "Holy God."
How the meaning of the term has been
transformed by dropping the low heathen
contents !
God's self-revelation, accommodating it
self to human conditions, working through
prophet and the very growth of a language,
gained this splendid result. The refining
Hebrew fire passed over many heathen
words, signs, and institutions, burning out
the dross and leaving naught but gold.
The same holds true of the Sabbath.
Other Semites had sacred days, but the He
brews gave to their Sabbath a new and dis
tinct character. The root Sabbath in He
brew, as the Arab Sabata, means "to cut
off" or "cease from" — hence, to quit work.
God's revelation of his dwelling place is
especially indicative of his accommodation
to human progress. Sacred places, where
gods were supposed to resort and where

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY 35
men might meet them, were common among
all nations. Many sacred spots were long
recognized by the Hebrews, Bethel, She
chem, Hebron, Shiloh, Carmel, etc. At
length, Jerusalem was looked upon as Je
hovah's earthly sanctuary. All worship
centralized there. Nay more, within the
temple, in the very Holy of holies only,
Jehovah was to be found. Then broke the
light, the most wonderful revelation of all,
prophet and Jesus found God's dwelling
place within the human heart. When man
could understand, God could reveal — new
meaning in old words.
Similarly, circumcision, tithe, covenant-
making, sacrificial system, all took on higher
meanings as men entered into the richer
and deeper God-experiences. The divine
self -revelation passed "from .glory unto
glory" in the dawning religious conscious
ness of mankind.
Faith and Reason in Inspiration
The third theory of inspiration harmon
izes more readily with faith and reason, ex
perience and education, culture and con-

36 THE PROPHETS
science. How often the two extremes are
witnessed! — those who grope their way by
the glimmer of reason on the one hand, and
those who rely on the spark of intuition on
the other hand. Neither alone is complete.
Reason by itself sooner or later runs into
a stone wall, and faith alone into the fog.
They must not be separated, for they sup
port each other in the guidance of life. One
is regulative, the other is rousing.
Modern science has pierced the stone wall,
and given reason a view of faith by using
the lens of intuition. "There are things,"
says Bergson, "that intelligence alone is able
to seek, but which, by itself, it will never
find. These things instinct alone could find,
but it will never seek them."1 Modern the
ology, on the Other hand, is piercing the fog
and giving intuition a better use of reason.
So that behind wall and fog we may now
view a new realm of reahty which experience
enjoys even when reason is puzzled and
faith is misty. Is it not this newly discov
ered universe of spiritual reality into which
William James, George B. Cutten, E. S.
'Henri Bergson, Creative Evolution, p. 151.

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY 37
Ames, I. King, J. H. Leuba, H. C. Mc-
Comas, J. B. Pratt, E. D. Starbuck, G.
Stevens, George A. Coe, and G. M. Strat-
ton, in their psychological treatises of reli
gion, conduct us in a new, fresh, and friendly
fashion? Their general standpoint, more
over, seems to be that "the soul is open to
invasion from a spiritual universe by which
it is surrounded, and that the impressions
which it receives from that source are as
convincing to those who have them as any
direct, sensible experience can be."2 As
Emerson would say, "All minds open into
the Infinite mind." It was a fine saying of
Professor James, scientifically cautious as
he was, when he wrote : "We and God have
business with each other; and in opening
ourselves to his influence our deepest destiny
is fulfilled."3
Primacy of Experience in Inspiration
First of all, in dealing with human limita
tions we need to remind ourselves that in-

8 J. M. Campbell, Paul the Mystic, p. 143.
3 William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience, p.
517.

38 THE PROPHETS
spiration is hfe at flood-tide, and revelation
is lofty experience — experience with the
Highest. Life does not begin with logic,
but with legs. We do not first have a theory
of life and then follow it. We begin to act
before we think. Thinking is hard work,
and very few people endure the strain. The
personal effort is first. We are dowered
with certain instincts and tendencies which
push us on and on. There is a push in the
mold that shoves us out from the shores of
eternity. Part of that urge is the spiritual
reach which causes us to crane our necks
for the starry blue and aspire for the
heavenly good. We are dowered with
eternity by the Eternal. Faith is a personal
trust which instinctively makes us commit
our hfe to the unseen. While we cannot
demonstrate God as we do a problem in
geometry, yet we can know him. We know
God best in fellowship, as we know our
parents and love and trust them by being
with them. The deepest reahties of hfe
are not demonstrated. They are divined.
The instinct to do right, acted upon
promptly, gives experience in right doing,

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY 39
and the field of right is enlarged. We know
by hving and venturing. Life is first faith
that my deepest demands — right, love,
trust, and good — are real. We surrender
to these as worth while and later reason
about them to justify them. Hence we
know only as we venture. This is not per
fect logic, but it is perfect hfe, or hfe per
fected. God has us in tow for another
shore. Experience, then, is the way of hfe, the
key to the future and the test of reahty.
God is gained in the venture. Love comes
by hving, and goodness fattens on honest
endeavor. Out of the largest aspirations,
heartiest endeavors, and fullest experiences
men have found the greatest religious cer
tainties, the fullest inspiration, and the
truest knowledge of God. These personal
experiences, efforts, and yearnings are chan
nels of inspiration. Godly men, quickened
by inspiration, filled with joy, vision, and
insight of the unseen realities developing
within their hearts, have given us what we
call Scripture.
God sends us messages of burning words

40 THE PROPHETS
through the best and highest of the race.
The Hebrew prophets thus ventured upon
the unseen, and gained God. God spake,
and those nearest and truest to him under
stood and made known to us of duller ears ;
and we call them prophets. The "Thus
saith the Lord" of the Hebrew prophet was
his conscientious conviction which the God of
experience had pressed upon his soul. The
demands of God were as burning fire in the
prophet's bones (Jer. 20. 9) ; or the call of
God was like the roaring of a lion (Amos
3. 8). He saw and heard and knew things
of God foreign to the gaping multitude.
"Surely the Lord God will do nothing,"
says Amos (3. 7), "but he revealeth his
secret unto his servants the prophets."
This is spiritual discernment, insight, fore
sight, and upsight.
Modern View of God's Inspired Spokes
men
In what sense is such prophetic utter
ance the word of God? First, in the sense
that the prophet himself, as we have seen,
is steeped in a God-hfe. As he is full of

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY 41
God, he speaks fully of God. As righteous
ness, mercy, and love are set in his heart, his
voice rings with these divine notes. The
very name "prophet," Nabi, means "a
spokesman," or "one bubbhng over with the
truth," or one speaking the message of an
other. Both the prophet and the people
of the Old Testament believed that the man
of God spoke for God (Exod. 4. 16; 1 Sam.
3. 20, 21).
Secondly, it is the word of God in the
sense that the prophet is conscious of a
divine message. He is sure that he is right,
consequently he speaks with authority. He
declares the truth as "the Lord put his spirit
upon him" (Num. 11. 29; 18. 6). He is a
forthteller, rather than a foreteller. He
proclaims more than he predicts. He speaks
to his own time more than down through
the centuries.
Thirdly, the prophetic word is God's word
in the sense that it stands the test of ex
perience. The fundamental notes of the
prophets are true to hfe's deepest calls.
Their notes accord with our best judgment
and largest experience as being sound.

42 THE PROPHETS
Hence, what they declared, in the main, is
universal and necessary to good hfe. They
stand the test of conduct and welfare. That
is inspired which inspires ; that is true which
is binding upon us; that is good which has
good results when broadly applied. What
they said is authoritative because it is bind
ing. It holds us by appeahng to our inner
demands. Prophetic declarations, however, were not
necessarily of equal inspirational value.
They consisted of grades and shades of
utterances. The prophets grasped God's
revelations more or less perfectly according
to their preparedness to receive them.
Isaiah, for instance, could speak of God in
history and in the councils of nations be
cause he was experienced in statecraft.
Hosea could reveal God as infinite love be
cause he himself loved passionately. Jere
miah could declare the spirituality of reli
gion as independent of temple and priest
because he experienced deeply the spiritual
hfe. Isaiah of the captivity would declare
suffering for others because he himself suf
fered the agony of a captive. God reveals

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY, 43
himself most where the human experience
is fullest and noblest, because there inspira
tion is most favorable.
"Four things a man must learn to do
If he would keep his record true:
To think without confusion clearly ;
To love his fellow men sincerely ;
To act from honest motives purely ;
To trust in God and heaven securely."
Refebences
William James, The Varieties of Religious Ex
perience, 1902.
G. B. Cutten, The Psychological Phenomena of
Christianity, 1908.
E. S. Ames, The Psychology of Religious Experi
ence, 1910.
I. King, The Development of Religion, 1910.
J. H. Leuba, A Psychological Study of Religion,
1912.
H. C. McComas, The Psychology of Religious
Sects, 1912.
J. B. Pratt, The Psychology of Religious Belief,
1908.
E. D. Starbuck, The Psychology of Religion,
1911.
G. Stevens, The Psychology of the Christian Soul.

44 THE PROPHETS
George Coe, The Spiritual Life, The Religion of
a Mature Mind.
G. M. Stratton, The Psychology of the Religious
Life, 1912.
J. M. Campbell, Paul the Mystic.

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY 45

CHAPTER III
THE PROPHETS AND THEIR
REVELATIONS
Great books, like great men, are born.
They are not mechanically made. They are
hving creations, fathered by hving men, be
gotten in the soul of the author. The
vitality of a book depends upon the im
parted spirit of its author and the loftiness
and breadth of its ideas expressed. In this
respect the Bible books are supreme. They
bear messages of truth to all men. They
reveal God who gave himself to the authors
in their patient brooding, in their fancies
of visions, and in their spiritual devotion.
"In the Royal Art Museum in Berlin
there is a picture of Matthew writing his
Gospel. He is represented as an old man
with a flowing beard, seated at a desk upon
which there is a roll. Behind him stands
an angel who reaches over his shoulder and

46 THE PROPHETS
guides his pen. There is a look of intense
surprise on Matthew's face, as he sees what
his own hand, guided by the angel, has writ
ten."1 This striking picture represents what
was once generally believed to have been
God's way of revealing himself to men. A
few antiques still beheve in this mechanical
theory. It seems to us now that God must
have moved upon the spirit of olden men by
his Spirit as he moves each of us at present.
Out of that divine impact of Spirit upon
spirit "holy men of old were moved," and
out of the" depths of their own souls drew
forth, as hving and free men, what they
found there. The hand of a wooden Indian
will respond to mechanical control, but liv
ing men answer to an inner call. The
prophets were divine agents and not celestial
graphophones. Divine Discovery in Struggle
Joseph Lee, in his recent readable book
on Play in Education, describes a playful
kitten that "gave a remarkable series of

1 D. A. Hayes, The Synoptic Problem, p. 42.

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY 47
demonstrations" of how "play trains for
hfe." "A cork was her favorite plaything.
. . . She would crouch and he in wait for
it, bat it with her paw, run after it, dodge,
jump into the air, . . . and following with
a continued somersault and corkscrew
movement; . . . always the movement
ended with a pounce in which both paws
came down on the cork and held it fast."
"What was the kitten doing? Obviously,
she was learning her job. You could almost
see that cork turn into a mouse as she pur
sued. She was becoming a cat by doing
the things of a cat, . . . and the soft body,
from its first helpless moment, was molded
by that exercise." The author reflects that
"her whole activity was radial," — that there
"was no 'right paw,' 'upward raised!' in her
instruction," . . . and that "in the unsenti
mental, deadly practical school of nature
the activity thus prescribed is that by which
hfe is going to be supported. . . . That the
purpose had first then taken possession of
her soul and was working from that out
ward, ruhng every nerve and muscle from
troubled brow to spike of quivering tail.

48 THE PROPHETS
What possessed her was the passion and
ecstasy of pursuit, to which her physical
organism conformed as best it could. A
kitten playing is a hunting demon, a soul
of fire, a spirit that outruns all possible ex
pression. The cat becomes a hunter from
the soul out because it is the hunter in her
that has built her mind and body from the
start."1 The reader may wonder why so much
space has been taken up in this chapter with
the life of a worthless kitten. It is because
this narrative points out so well the divine
way of all development, human as well as
fehne. Was it not in the unsentimental,
deadly practical school of nature, "the play
and the struggle of life, the stress and flut
ter of the soul," that the prophets gained
the secrets of God? The lofty "purpose had
first taken possession of his soul and was
working from that outward, ruling every
nerve and muscle. . . . What possessed him
was the passion and ecstasy of pursuit."
The prophet is a "soul of fire, a spirit that

1 Joseph Lee, Play in Education, Chapter III.

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY 49
outruns all possible expression." The
prophet became an agent of special revela
tion because it was the supernatural in him
"that has built mind and body from the
start." Whatever is to be evolved must
first be involved. In the "deadly practical
school" of hving intensely from moment to
moment and discovering ourselves in the
struggle, the activity thus prescribed is that
by which hfe is going to be supported.
The prophets as revealers of God had a
divine task. Theirs was the task of estab
lishing religious truth. "The task of revela
tion is nothing else than to bring religion
into existence." How could they reveal
God unless he takes hold of the human life?
How could ideas of God come without ex
perience of God? The immediate influence
of God in the prophet's consciousness gave
rise to the prophetic revelations.
Why should this special revelation be the
gift of the Hebrew prophets? Historically,
it was Israel's gift because she alone of an
cient peoples progressed most in religion,
took God most seriously, played hardest at
the game of life, filled her days to overflow-

50 THE PROPHETS
ing with pious concerns, and her noblest
men, the prophets, registered highest in
divine attainments. This is not, however,
merely the result of a rehgious tendency in
the race of Israel, as some contend. The
special tendency here calls for an added fac
tor — the self -revelation of God in Hebrew
history and prophetic consciousness. As
the kitten described needed cat instinct, the
cork, and human protection to succeed, so
the prophet needed his country, its history,
its playground, its problems, and its Je
hovah to attain his prophetic position as
God's revealer.
Naturalness in Revelation
Prophetic revelation sprang from the
depths of prophetic conviction, born in the
day's work with God for man. The
prophets are best understood as real men
like ourselves, who attempted to hve big,
earnest, clean lives as they faced twisted
problems and gave their red, human blood
to solve them. They must not be set apart
entirely from our common human experi
ences as a totally different order of beings.

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY 51
Their contact with God was not one differ
ent in kind from ours, but perhaps differ
ent in degree and purpose. They were,
first of all, intensely human. But they were
extraordinary men. They thought soberly.
They felt deeply. They had stirring convic
tions. They were flaming preachers of
righteousness. They were impassioned re
formers, clear-eyed statesmen, and flaming
orators. They were not just lonely seers
staring into the future, predicting far-off
divine events. They spoke and wrote out
of hving experiences, much as earnest men
do now.
Take a striking instance — the prophet
Amos, thundering his first message in the
ears of guilty Israel. He traveled from
Tekoah, his birthplace, south of Jerusalem,
where he was a shepherd, to Bethel in the
northern kingdom and appeared there at the
time of the great yearly feast when the ten
northern tribes were gathered to eat and
to drink, sacrifice animals, and give thanks
to Jehovah for the season's prosperity.
While economic and social differences were
widening, evils multiplying, and greed con-

52 THE PROPHETS
suming the nation, the immoral worshipers
tried to bribe Jehovah with offerings.
The prophet let loose his belching invec
tive on the unsuspecting revelers at Bethel
thus: "The Lord will roar from Zion, and
utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the
habitations of the shepherds shall mourn,
and the top of Carmel shall wither." The
prophet did not at once condemn his guilty
hearers before him for their sins, but instead
began with the sins of the surrounding
nations with whom Israel had dealt and dis
liked — Syria, Philistia, Ammon, Moab, and
Edom — whom he bitterly denounced be
cause they had transgressed the universal
laws of morality: sins of cruelty, slavery,
immorahty, and sacrilege. Thus, hke a
skillful hunter, he circled about his game,
slowly closing in upon Israel, and only after
the hearers had become attentive and given
assent to the moral principle that God hates
sin and will punish the guilty did he turn
his relentless logic upon the evil hearers be
fore him. "For three transgressions of
Israel, and for four, I will not turn away
the punishment thereof; because they sold

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY 53
the righteous for silver, and the poor for a
pair of shoes; that pant after the dust of
the earth on the head of the poor, . . . for
they know not to do right, saith the Lord,
who store up violence and robbery in their
palaces. . . . Ye who turn judgment to
wormwood, and leave off righteousness,
. . . and cause the seat of violence to come
near ; that he upon beds of ivory, and stretch
themselves upon their couches, and eat the
lambs out of the flock, and the calves out of
the midst of the stall; that chant to the
sound of the viol, . . . that drink wine in
bowls. . . . Hear this, O ye that swallow
up the needy, even to make the poor of the
land to fail, . . . falsifying the balances by
deceit, that . . . buy the poor for silver, and
the needy for a pair of shoes; yea, and sell
the refuse of the wheat. . . . The Lord hath
sworn by the excellency of Jacob, Surely
I will never forget any of their works. Shall
not the land tremble for this, and every one
mourn that dwelleth therein? . . . And I
will turn your feasts into mourning, and all
your songs into lamentation" (Amos 1 to 8,
extracts) .

54 THE PROPHETS
An Eventful Moment
This was an eventful moment at Bethel
in the long, long ago. A soul on fire was
pouring forth molten words which burn
themselves into humanity. Such words stir
men to their diviner depths. Does not
speech (in any tongue or time or country
thus spoken) seem sacred and carry the
mark of the Holy Spirit upon it? It is hke
a Luther or Wesley moving the multitude.
Had David Grayson heard Amos give his
social plea at Bethel instead of Bill Hahn,
the sociahst, at Kilburn, he might have ap
plied to Amos the same descriptive para
graph: "My experience in the world is
limited, but I have never heard anything
like that speech for sheer power. It was
as unruly and powerful and resistless as hfe
itself. It was no mere giving out by the
orator of ideas and thoughts and beliefs of
his own. It seemed, rather, as though the
speaker was looking into the very hearts of
that vast gathering of poor men and poor
women and merely telling them what they
themselves felt, but could not tell. It was

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY 55
as though they said, 'Yes, yes,' with a feel
ing of vast rehef, 'Yes, yes, at last our own
hopes and fears and desires are being uttered
—yes, yes.' "x
Such flaming faith is generated only in
the crucible of hot experience, earnest brood
ing, and divine contact, whether in by-gone
or present days. Life begets hfe, whether
flesh touches flesh or soul touches soul.
" 'Tis life, whereof our nerves are scant,
O, life, not death, for which we pant ;
More life, and fuller, that I want."
Scriptural Restriction of Revelation
When one turns to examine the Old
Testament it is clear that Holy Writ itself
witnesses to several facts as to revelation.
A few of these facts may be pointed out in
helping us to think of the subject of revela
tion and in treating the Book which records
it. That God has freely and frequently re
vealed himself to man is a fact taken for
granted in the old Testament. Both the
early and the late prophetic records testify
to this. It is never a matter for dispute.
1 David Grayson, The Friendly Road, p. 278.

56 THE PROPHETS
Rather it is a Hebrew certainty. The pos
session of the spirit of man by the Spirit of
God is a scriptural reiteration familiar to
all as indicated by such passages as: "Now
the Lord had told Samuel" (1 Sam. 9. 15) ;
and, "The prophet that hath a dream, let
him tell a dream; and he that hath my word,
let him speak my word faithfully" (Jer.
23. 28).
God's unique revelations to man are usu
ally restricted to the spiritual and moral
domains. The records of the Old Testament
do not witness to a full and free revelation
of God upon all kinds of knowledge useful
to men. The revelation of which the
prophets are conscious is prevailingly a reve
lation of God's moral character, his moral
purpose for man, his workings in history,
his love for Israel, his mercy for the sinning,
and his age-long plan of human redemption.
The restricted revelation was unique in the
history of the Hebrew people through its
prophets (Jer. 23; Amos 1 to 4; Isa. 1 to
6). Taking the uniform testimony of the
great prophets, are we, to-day, warranted in

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY 57
holding a theory of revelation which calls
for an infallible revelation on all subjects
under heaven? Were not scientific, his
torical, geographical, hterary, and all other
material facts usually acquired by the sacred
writers, as to-day, by finding out the facts
in the ordinary human way? Hence some
distinction should be made between state
ments of human limitation and statements
of divine revelation, as found in the Bible.
In this way errors of dates, names, and
places, which modern critics point out in
these records, can be accounted for without
impairing the essential religious and moral
sanction of revelation. A tolerant attitude
also may be held toward the critic who has
meant no violence to the Book. If it should
be found that the sacred writers beheved the
earth to be flat and stationary, this was their
human limitation of knowledge, and need in
no way affect their spiritual message of
"Thus saith the Lord." The divine truth
of universal moral requirements as God's
demand upon man is not in the least affected
by changing the scientific theory of the
earth's shape or mode of travel. One may

58 THE PROPHETS
have a correct knowledge of God and his
demands, and at the same time a wrong view
of the solar system. Men might be just
as loyal and pleasing to God under the
Ptolemaic as under the Copernican theory
of the universe. Yet, for all that, we may
welcome heartily the corrections which
science makes, and turn all to the glory of
God. Compare Micah 1. 9 and 3. 12 with
Isaiah 36 and 37. The book of Lamenta
tions complains that "Thy prophets have
seen vain and foohsh things for thee" (2.
14). Gradualness in Revelation
An appeal to the Old Testament shows,
further, that revelation of God's will and
way has been gradual, concrete, and his
torical. It has unfolded bit by bit from age
to age. The earher prophets did not see
or grasp God's meanings in the fullness of
the later prophets. Between the concep
tions of Samuel and Jeremiah there are
marked degrees of fullness and clearness.
Samuel is found clinging to the sacrificial
system (1 Sam. 7. 9), while, five centuries

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY 59
later, Jeremiah vehemently criticized it
(Jer. 7. 22). This is the view of revelation
taken by the sacred author of the Epistle
to the Hebrews (1. 1, 2). Take the ideas
of God, sin, redemption, ethics, social
claims, law of retribution, claims of human
brotherhood, marriage laws, views of
slavery, death, and the future — all gradu
ally clear up and fill out under the long his
tory of the Hebrew people in their match
less schooling by Jehovah. The Holy One
of Israel drew very near to his people, and
"impressed his divine and eternal person
ality through the inspired consciousnesses
of her great sons, the prophets." But cen
turies of time were needed to accomphsh
the result, and the history of the Hebrews
constitutes the textbook. The high ethical
monotheism of the prophets is the result of
the divinely prolonged schooling. While
all other ancient peoples said, "God is many
and sensuous," Israel was able to say, "God
is one, and holy" (Jer. 10. 8-10).
Prophetic Method of Revelation
The method of prophetic revelation

60 THE PROPHETS
varied greatly. The old Testament shows
that God used various ways of making his
message known to his servant, the prophet.
Samuel found his message in night dreams
(1 Sam. 3. 3, 4; Deut. 13. 1-4), while Moses
listened to God out of a physical phenome
non (Exod. 3. 2). Both Jacob and Moses
are described as meeting God "face to face"
(Gen. 32. 30; Exod. 33. 11). In many in
stances the message is given by an angel
(Gen. 16. 7; 22. 1-11; Judg. 6. 11-14).
Often the divine will was sought in ecstatic
states, as in the case of Balaam (Num. 24.
4; 2 Kings 3. 15). By vision the word of
God came most often to the prophets (Isa.
1. 1-6; 6. 1-10; Obad. 1. 1; Nahum 1. 1) ;
by prayer and solitary meditation it came to
Habakkuk (2. 1,2).
It is a noteworthy fact, however, that all
other methods except vision virtually ceased
to be employed, while vision came to be the
common way of receiving God's message by
the great prophets from Amos to Jeremiah.
Jeremiah in his time almost discredits reve
lation by means of dreams as a trick of lying
prophets (Jer. 23). Now, the Hebrew

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY 61
words for "vision" and "seer" appear to
have come from the same root and to mean
something akin to insight or meditation.
Hence the great prophets depended for their
revelations from God, not upon abnormal
states of dreams or ecstasy, but upon direct
spiritual enlightenment in a state of normal
self-possession. We may conclude, there
fore, that God reveals himself in any way
that man is able to understand. Obviously,
God is manifested most often and clearly in
direct experience of the normal soul, which
is the divine method we know best to-day.
The content of the divine message is quite
distinct from the way it was obtained. "It
is not how and when it happened, but what
happened" that is significant. In Deut. 13.
1-4, we are told that the best of spiritual
claims need testing, by noting the nature of
the message claimed.
Prophetic Revelation and Biblical
Mistakes
To one holding the above attitude, such
troublesome passages as "And the Lord
hardened the heart of Pharaoh" (Exod. 9.

62 THE PROPHETS
12), "Samuel hewed Agag in pieces" (1
Sam. 15. 33) , and "The evil spirit from God
came upon Saul" (1 Sam. 18. 10), present
no grave difficulty in their relation to divine
revelation. To the alert, modern mind one
finds that the question cannot be answered
in a narrow, dogmatic fashion and hope to
allay the evident unrest. It was once
enough to say that there are no errors in
the Bible, and that it is the infallible word
of God. The new attitude toward all facts
taken by the present alert minds calls for a
frank, open, and broad treatment of such
questions, in keeping with the new forces of
our civilization.
If the foregoing considerations be kept
in mind, some of the most common and mis
leading mistakes made in treating the Bible
may be avoided, namely:
1. That of judging the entire Bible by
a few stray statements hke those cited above.
This would be like judging an entire box
of apples by a few defective ones.
2. That of judging a collective production
in the light of its lowest and least represen
tative expressions, rather than its highest

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY 63
and worthiest. A great singer is rated by
her best. The Bible must be rated by its
outcome, and not by its beginnings. The
measure is not Genesis, but the Gospels;
not Cain, but Christ.
3. That of failing to value the Bible, as
we value all other writings, in the light of
its prevailing and steadily reiterated spirit
and aim. The genius and germ of divine
revelation was abeady present, it is plain
to see, in early Old Testament faith and life,
however dimly and crudely expressed. For,
note that these records stand from first to
last committed to a way of life which must
conform to God's will, and all hfe is to be
interpreted in terms of moral destiny.
"Shall not the Judge of all the earth do
right?" (Gen. 18. 25), queried Abraham.
Revelation a Divine-Human Partner
ship
Is prophecy, then, human or divine? It
is neither and it is both, as we look at it.
As to the inspiring source, it is divine; as
to the manner of expressing this God-im
pulse, it is human. Hence, prophecy is

64 THE PROPHETS
humanly divine, and divinely human; and
the natural in the Bible is as supernatural
as the supernatural is natural; that is, with
out God the Bible could not be ; without man
it is not likely to have come. God, working
in the heart of man, paged it in human ex
perience, man deciphered the handwriting
on the walls of his own heart, recorded it in
the Bible, and it has become the universal
record of inspbation which he who runs may
read. The finger of God wrote his revela
tions on the heart as he daily quickened the
prophet's soul. We continue to heed the
prophet as the man of God. This view of
revelation has been happily expressed in the
familiar words of Tennyson, "Speak to him,
thou, for he hears." That which God com
municates in experience, prophets commit
to parchment. The divine flame which
burned in the breast of Jeremiah came from
the same source as the fire which flames in
the bosom of Gipsy Smith. He who gave
his word to ancient prophet will not with
hold his Spirit from modern preacher. The
God who inspbed inspbes, the Lord who
revealed reveals, and the Spbit which in-

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY 65
dwelt indwells. The God of ancient history
is also the God of modern times.
Such a view does not imply new scriptural
revelation, but it may make room for fresh
revelations of scriptural contents applicable
to changing conditions. We do not need a
new Bible, nor a new religion. We need
a better understanding of the old Bible; a
fresh, vitalized way of using it; and a re
covery of the spbit manifested in the old
religion in order to make the God of the
Bible dominant in every Human life and in
all social relations. If this can best be done
by reconstructing methods of religious work,
by reinterpreting the Bible meanings, and
by remodehng old creeds, well and good.
Lord, show us the way, or we perish!

66 THE PROPHETS

CHAPTER IV
THE PROPHETS AND THEIR
MEANING
At present there is a popular craze for
Russian novels in this country. Recently
the writer of these studies selected and read
one of these bearing the empty title The
Idiot, written by Dostoevsky. The book
contained at least one sentence worth quot
ing, which may serve, by way of contrast, as
a starting point for this chapter: "There is,
indeed, nothing more annoying than to be,
for instance, wealthy, of good family, nice-
looking, fairly intelligent, and even good-
natured, and yet to have no talents, no spe
cial faculty, no peculiarity even, not one
idea of one's own, to be precisely hke other
people." The Hebrew prophets are certainly ex
empt from the charge of being common
place, dull, or barren of ideas. They were,
on the contrary, delightfully fresh, boldly
original, and impressively expressive.

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY 67
Examples of Bible Interpretation
Are you f amihar with the book of Jonah?
Of course, you are. Since it is best to be
gin with the f amihar, will the reader look in
upon this scene? Five different persons on
Sunday morning are seated in a room, each
with his Bible in his hands, studying the
same passage of Scripture, but each using
a different method of approach to the Word.
The book is that of Jonah. Let us observe
what meaning each one gets from the pas
sage. A, who is a literalist, looks upon the book
as sober history. Jonah hved and had in
detail the experiences narrated. Jonah was
a prophet who disobeyed God's command,
tried to evade his duty, ran off to sea, was
properly disciplined, repented, and finally
carried out God's will in sulky fashion. It
all really happened just as stated. Wonder
ful to be sure, but God can do anything, and
such mbacles only impress his greatness on
man. Such questions as the critic raises
— for example: Is it likely that God could
use with such telhng effect a sulky prophet?

68 THE PROPHETS
Would God send a storm upon the whole
sea in order to punish one man? Would
God actually use such a form of punishment
as keeping a man ahve for three days in the
fish's belly? Under such circumstances
would a man be hkely to pray in poetry a
psalm of thanksgiving? — do not trouble A
because, either he will not raise them, or, if
they appear, it is enough to say that God is
omnipotent and is capable of doing any
thing he pleases. Miracles are his dehght.
B learns by looking up meanings of words
that "Jonah" means "dove," "Tarshish"
means "sea," "He paid the fare" has a
feminine suffix, "her fare," which must
mean the ship's fare; therefore, Jonah must
have been rich and paid for the ship's lad
ing. "From the presence of the Lord"
means "banished from," and "went down
into" means "hiding from." Putting his
material together, B arrives at the fanciful
meaning of the passage that a dove, the
symbol of a heavenly messenger, finding no
responsive soul on earth, fluttered over the
restless sea, the symbol of wickedness; and
that evil men banished the riches of heaven

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY 69
into the depths. That is, man spurned
God's great offers and cast them beyond his
reach. C looks at the passage from another
angle. To him it is not history, but allegory
— an allegory of Israel's history. Jonah
symbolizes the nation Israel; heathen na
tions are represented by "sea," "Nineveh,"
"Babylon"; "storm" stands for God's
wrath; "fish" stands for the devouring greed
of Assyria; "casting lots" symbohzes Divine
Providence. The meaning to C is, there
fore, clear. Israel, God's prophetic mes
senger, chosen as the bearer of his truth to
the nations, evades this sacred duty; hence,
God causes Israel to be swallowed up by
Babylon. When duly disciplined he again
restores Israel to her native land and
through her blesses the world.
D, who is out after proof -texts to support
the theory that everything in the Old Testa
ment foreshadows the coming of Christ, sees
at once in Jonah "the type of Christ." This
he bases on Matt. 12. 40, which reads, "For
as Jonas was three days and three nights in
the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be

70 THE PROPHETS
three days and three nights in the heart of
the earth." Hence to D this passage is one
more trophy hi his collection — another bead
for his doctrinal necklace — and he strings it
on. All else in the book is passed by on the
other side.
E, who is after the fundamental truth of
the book, sees in Jonah and his experiences
the great truth of God that a selfish, exclu
sive life, whether individual or national, leads
to disaster and is hateful to God. Any gift
bestowed upon man, God gave for service.
He sees that, whether this book be history
or parable, the inspbed prophet meant to
rebuke his people for their refusal to give
the heathen world the lofty prophetic reli
gion which they had received. Any worthy
gift or knowledge must be shared. The
book is primarily a prophetic sermon, cal
culated to arouse the missionary spbit which
was well-nigh dead in Israel at that time.
And thus E gets meat for his soul and the
meaning of the author.
Causes for Interpretative Variations
I am not concerned at this moment, how-

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY 71
ever, in finding out who is nearest correct
hi his interpretation, or who is furthest
astray; but I am interested in knowing why
they have reached such divergent results.
For, do not suppose that these are merely
imaginary instances. They represent popu
lar methods of getting the meaning from
Scripture. They illustrate popular use and
abuse of prophecy. Such results are ob
tained every day in a thousand places. You
can find just such things in popular works
on prophecy on the shelves of countless
homes. Now, why do such variations exist? It
is accounted for chiefly by the method of
approaching the Word, and the immediate
motive which the reader has in studying a
passage. He comes to the Bible primed
with a certain point of view which colors its
meaning. When we come to interpret its meaning,
variation appears and a variety of results
occur in confused profusion. When a per
son says, "I take the Bible for it," such a
statement means merely that, "I interpret
it to mean so," nothing more. Now the

72 THE PROPHETS
"mean so" is generally a personal factor of
wanting it so, and wanting it so leans back
upon one's acquired religious capital.
A recent able writer makes this significant
statement: "If I mistake not, the unrest of
the time is less a revolt against the content
of traditional beliefs than anxiety of finding
some way to be sure of something. The
great question is not whether or not such a
doctrine is true, but, rather, how we are to
distinguish the true from the false." We
all desbe religious certainty. We do not,
however, want to be in such a hurry to be
certain that we accept mere opinions for
facts, even though these opinions be dog
matically asserted in the name of "Bible
exposition." Much that goes under the name
of "Bible reading," "Bible study," or "Bible
exposition" is merely dogmatic barking and
faddist exposure, often ludicrous and some
times indecent; not contained in Scripture,
but extorted from it.
That most of the interpreters are honest
does not materially change the result. An
honest error of fact has the same result as
any other error. Mistaking a toadstool for

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY 73
a mushroom does not ease digestion, for
all that the eater is honestly mistaken. This
apphes to Scripture interpretation as well
as to toadstools — and with the same result.
But what has all this to do with prophecy?
It has everything to do with prophecy. For
we cannot intelligently and safely talk about
prophecy without first paying some heed to
the methods and principles of interpreta
tion. No doubt, it will be said that the
author's interpretation, like all the rest, is
merely his "mean so," and, therefore, no bet
ter than the others' "mean so." How, then,
is one to judge which is correct? Well, that
depends upon who is getting the closest to
prophetic facts and who is using the most
trustworthy method of getting the meaning
out of the Word, assuming that all are
equally moved by the spbit of honesty.
Prevalent Methods of Interpretation
Prophecy, hke other portions of Scrip
ture, means what we declare it to mean as
a result of the general view we hold of reli
gious values, and the popular method of

74 THE PROPHETS
Scripture interpretation apphed. These
may be suggestively termed:
1. The Block Method, hteral and arti
ficial. 2. The Circus Method, raising false is
sues. 3. The Looking-glass Method, allegorical
treatment. 4. The Curio Method, collecting texts to
support views.
5. The Common-sense Method, historical
and balanced.
The first treats the Bible in block fashion,
as hteral history and sober fact from cover
to cover, and makes it all of equal value and
meaning. This makes the Bible wooden and
artificial and often leads to hypocrisy.
There is, of course, history and sober fact,
but there is much else also. The second is
hke a cbcus, showy and spectacular, but
foolish and unreal. It puts a little knowl
edge to sensational use. The third is the
method of finding nothing historical or ac
tual, but treating everything as allegorical
and didactic, so that all parts have some
other meaning than theb plain statements.

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY 75
The fourth, or curio method, is perhaps
the one most used and abused. It is most
convenient for bolstering up all "isms" and
false doctrines saddled upon an innocent but
yearning pubhc. By mdiscriminate collec
tions of passages for the purpose of provmg
a proposition, any fad view whatever can be
supported. Polygamy, suicide, drunken
ness, sorcery, all have been substantiated by
Scripture quotations. It says in one place,
"Judas went and hanged himself," in an
other, "Go thou and do likewise." The man
who was converted at camp meeting justi
fied himself in still using tobacco by quot
ing, "He that is filthy, let him be filthy still"
(Rev. 22. 11). Obviously, such methods
must be used with caution, or the Scriptures
are easily perverted.
Principles of Corrective Interpreta
tion
The five students cited, getting the mean-
big from the prophecy of the book of Jonah,
illustrate, respectively, the five popular
methods in vogue. They cannot all be cor
rect. All have drawn upon the same identi-

76 THE PROPHETS
cal portion of Scripture, and yet each has
found a different meaning in what he read.
How, then, is the unskilled but earnest
Bible reader to obtain the right meaning
from his Bible?
First, in the main, all that is essential to
life and salvation is sun-clear to anyone of
average sense and abihty to read. No one
has any trouble in grasping such meanings
as these: "Hate the evil, and love the good,
and establish judgment in the gate" (Amos
5. 15) ; "Sow to yourselves in righteousness,
reap in mercy; break up your fallow
ground; for it is time to seek the Lord"
(Hos. 10. 12) ; "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" (Isa.
1. 16-17) . There is no mistaking the mean
ing in such passages. The wayfaring man
need not err therein. The trouble in such
cases is not mental, but moral.
Secondly, there are many things, as Peter
said about Paul's writings, "hard to be un
derstood" (2 Pet. 3. 16). How shall the

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY 77
correct meaning of these be obtained?
There are a few valuable principles which
everyone should heed if he is anxious to get
at the truth of the more difficult portions of
Scripture. 1. There should be a strict observance of
scriptural facts. A single statement must
not be so interpreted as to give a wrong esti
mate of a large group of facts and thus mis
interpret the prevaihng trend of the passage
under consideration. Take as an instance
Exod. 7. 3 and 8. 15. In one case God is
said to "harden Pharaoh's heart" and in the
other he (Pharaoh) "hardened his heart."
Now, in view of all that is taught by the
prophets in the Old Testament regarding
the nature of God, and by Christ in the New,
the second statement expresses the 'right
estimate; for God is of "purer eyes than to
behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity"
(Hab. 1. 13).
2. The author must be permitted to tell
his own story, and not be forced to express
the reader's bias. Too often men have
hearty theories about the Bible, and then try
to make the Bible support them. We should

78 THE PROPHETS
recognize the writer's view, whether we like
it or not, and not try to twist it to fit our
own view. This may be illustrated by the
book of Genesis. How often it has been in
sisted that the aim of this book was to write
history, or science, or philosophy! When
carefully studied the ami is seen to be the
preacher's. This prophet-author has a text,
and uses history, science, and story to en
force the intended spiritual lesson; namely,
that God cares for them that care for him,
and will keep and reward the faithful and
punish the recreant. All else supports this
contention. 3. It is needful to take note of hterary dif
ferences, styles, and forms of expression
used in the Bible in the hght of the age to
which they belong. The interpretation of
a passage is sometimes sharply affected by
an oversight of so simple a thing as prose
or poetry. In the tenth chapter of Joshua,
which describes the historical event of a great
battle won before sunset, a bit of poetry is
mserted thus: "Sun, stand thou still upon
Gibeon! and thou moon in the valley of
Ajalon!" This poetic stanza has been

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY 79
treated by many as prose-fact, and pro
nounced a stupendous miracle of an actual
suspension of the sun's movements for
hours. When it is seen that it is a bit of
poetry taken from the "Book of Jasher"
(Josh. 10. 13), it may be interpreted as we
interpret the 114th psalm which describes
the mountains skipping hke rams, and the
little hills hke lambs.
The latter being a sacred poem to an
earthquake, found in the midst of a book of
poetry, no one has even thought of regard
ing it as a mbacle. Here poetic license is
accepted. Many, therefore, prefer to re
gard this battle-poem in hke manner. The
question with them is not whether miracles
are possible, for they find them in the Bible.
It is often a matter of hterary form which
decides the meaning of a passage. God re
veals his truth in poetry as well as in prose.
Our God must not be thought so prosaic as
not to delight in poetry. Nearly one third
of the Old Testament is in verse.
4. To get the right meaning one should
allow for human limitations in grasping and
representing God's eternal truths. Even

80 THE PROPHETS
prophets and inspbed biblical writers at
times "see through a glass, darkly ; but then
face to face: now I know in part" (1 Cor.
13. 12). Wherever we come upon a state
ment which seems to present God as making
demands unworthy the Great Teacher of
the New Testament, we do well to regard
it as man's, and not as God's limitation, and
/ that we have to do with an imperfect stage
of revelation which a later stage completes.
Unless it is regarded as human shortcoming,
it seems to many that it would be an in
terpretation which presents a blemished God
or a twisted morality.
An observation of these simple laws of in
terpretation will greatly aid anyone in find
ing the true meaning of most passages, and
will avoid a variety of results to which the
first four methods cited are hable. On ac
count of a lack of space they can only be
mentioned. These methods distort the real
meaning of the Word; they have the effect
of devitalizing the Scriptures ; they make for
dogmatism and bigotry, fertilize freak sects,
and fill many plain, hard-headed people with
a skeptical attitude toward the Bible.

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY 81
The fifth method mentioned is the only
safe and sane method of approach which
alone will yield correct results. Try it and
see. That which you interpret the Bible to
mean is the Bible which you respect and
love. When we have done all, some mean
ings will remain obscure. Even these we
may hope to know when we shall see "face
to face" (1 Cor. 13. 12). Meanwhile let us
follow the best guides and walk by their in
terpretative hght. Since God alone can
match our spiritual craving, we have need
to go in quest of the Bible which contains
the supreme expression of man's supreme
experience. There we may catch the mur
mur from the shores of the eternal deep to
fill our common days with speech of God.
"So let the way wind up the hill or down,
Though rough or smooth, the journey will be
j°y;
Still seeking what I sought when but a boy.
New friendship, high adventure, and a crown.
I shall grow old, but never lose life's zest,
Because the road's last turn will be best."

82 THE PROPHETS

CHAPTER V
THE PROPHETS AND THEIR
AUTHORITY
"Oh David, David. Don't be angry with
poor little Vera if she doubts — if she wants
to feel quite sure. You see, I was brought
up in the Greek church." This plea of Miss
Revendal's, in the play called The Melting
Pot, is in a way a universal modern confes
sion of faith; and the answer of David, the
hero of the play, is worthy of the Hebrew
prophets : "It is live things, not dead metals,
that are being melted in the crucible. The
ideas of the fathers shall not be fastened on
the children. Each generation must live
and die for its own dream. . . . Yes — by
faith in the crucible. From the blood of
battlefields spring daisies and buttercups.
In the divine chemistry the very garbage
turns to roses."
There is truly an eager and universal
quest for certainty. With open eyes and
ears we look and listen for tokens of assur-

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY 83
ance. Can we know for a certainty that that
which we believe as right and good is the
very truth of God? How we crave au
thority over hfe! That is why we chng so
stubbornly to blind tradition and look with
discredit on new ideas. No, we must not
be angry with poor little doubting Veras.
They have been "brought up" to beheve as
they do, and then came the big world and
doubt. "It is the fires of God round his
crucible," to continue David's words. "Can
you hear the roaring and bubbling? How
the great Chemist melts and fuses them all!"
This voices, in the main, the modern reli
gious situation of the mass of people about
us. They say httle about it, but are much
troubled over their slipping faith which they
yearn to retain. If they could only be sure
of themselves! How could the ancient
prophets be so confident of moral truth?
Can we find in them the key to certainty for
ourselves? Prophetic Certainty
The noticeable characteristic of the He
brew prophets is their unshaken conviction.

84 THE PROPHETS
They knew they were right. They never
wavered. Therefore they were men who
spoke with fiery zeal. They declared theb
message with authority, and always referred
to their message as coming to them from
God (Jer. 2. 1) . They appeared to be pos
sessed by the words they spoke. Hence theb
hterary formula runs, "Thus saith the
Lord," or "Jehovah of hosts hath spoken
it" (Isa. 17. 6; Ezek. 34. 1; 37. 5; Amos
1. 9). They had the sense of a direct com
munication, so vivid and detailed that they
interpreted it as the very voice of God.
Therefore, the prophet was "a voice and not
an echo, a dynamic power and not an effect,
a living person and not a shadow." This
conviction of the prophet that God spoke
to him and through him, or in some manner
conveyed his revelation to him, meets the
Bible reader continually. This need not,
however, be taken in an over-hteral sense,
that God always spoke in audible words as
one man speaks to another; but only that
the Spbit of God wrought the conviction in
the prophet's soul so that he felt a divine
certainty about the message he uttered. An

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY 85
inner certainty, however it came, was just
as convincing as would have been a voice
from the sky. The preacher who is called
of God for the ministry does not hear a
voice hke a man speaking to him, but he is
no less certain of his call. God has subtler
ways of tucking the fact into the soul. The
fact and source of the divine certainty is the
all-important matter; the manner of receiv
ing it is indifferent. The knowledge the
prophets had of spiritual things was imme
diate and conclusive. The conviction of a
divine sense in the soul, however, has never
been of itself the sole guarantee of the value
and truth of the message spoken. The mes
sage must also be tested by its worth (Deut.
13. 1-4). Nevertheless, this sense gave the
prophet intensity and his words fire to kindle
the hearts of his hearers. The authority of
that which they uttered rested upon their
intrinsic worth for hfe.
Here lies a fact of vital moment, whether
for the ancient prophet of Israel or for the
modern preacher of America. Each must
speak with authority to be convincing. Each
must have intense conviction of the source,

86 THE PROPHETS
the truth, and the authority of that which
he declares. The world in every age will
listen to such prophets in reverent silence.
This is, no doubt, what Saint Augustine
meant in saying, "My body hves by my
soul." The Prophetic Credential
The Hebrew word for prophet, Nabi, re
flects the conception, a spokesman for Deity
whose message he carries and dehvers.
Aaron was appointed as Nabi for Moses to
speak God's word in Moses' stead (Exod.
4. 16). Moses himself was regarded as a
prophet who received and announced God^s-
communication in the pubhc assembly of
Israel (Deut. 18. 15-18), and he was prom
ised that such a spokesman-prophet should
never be wanting to faithful Israel. This
line of prophetic successors appeared in
every century of Israel's eventful history.
The behef that God makes his will known
to his people through chosen spokesmen was
so commonplace in Israel that the wise sage
coined it into a proverb, "Where there is no
vision, the people perish" (Prov. 29. 18).

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY 87
Men "shall run to and fro to seek the word
of the Lord," said Amos, "and shall not find
it" (8. 12). So sure was Amos in regard
to God revealing his will to the prophet that
he challenged Israel in these significant
words: "Surely the Lord will do nothing,
but he revealeth his secret unto his servants
the prophets" (Amos 3. 7) . Hosea phrased
it, "Come, and let us return unto the Lord"
(6. 1). The princely Isaiah pleaded with
the people, "Come now, and let us reason to
gether, saith the Lord: . . . for the mouth
of the Lord hath spoken it" (1. 18, 20).
The intensive Jeremiah said, "His word was
in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my
bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and
I could not stay" (Jer. 20. 9). The priest-
prophet Ezekiel, being a literary man,
wrote, "And he said unto me, Son of man,
stand upon thy feet, and I will speak unto
thee. . . . Eat this roll [book] and go
speak unto the house of Israel" (Ezek. 2.
1,3.1). Prophetic Conviction
This, then, was the prophet's credential

88 THE PROPHETS
that he beheved the message to have been
laid upon him by Jehovah himself. It was
this fact that gave him a high place and
great authority in Israel. Kings and
princes, priests and people alike, sought the
prophet because they beheved him to be a
spokesman for God. That is to say, the
prophets of Israel, the people of Israel, and
the rulers of Israel, all beheved that to speak
God's will one must be inspbed of God.
Now, what did they mean by being inspbed?
They seem to have meant, for one thing,
being "filled with the Spirit," which Paul
said was "the will of the Lord" (Eph. 5.
17-18). This is what the prophet Ezekiel
clearly tells us in describing his own call to
the prophetic mission. "And the Spbit en
tered into me when he spake unto me, and
set me upon my feet, that I heard him that
spake unto me" (Ezek. 2. 2). A late
prophet, Joel, predicts that, "It shall come
to pass afterward, that I will pour out my
Spirit upon all flesh ; and your sons and your
daughters shall prophesy" (2. 28) . In fact,
a display of any personal quality, such as
skill, bravery, strength, or wisdom, in an un-

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY 89
usual manner, was attributed directly to the
gift of God's Spirit. The Hebrew mind
never counted secondary causes as we do,
but went directly to the Divine Source for
everything. Solomon received his wisdom
(1. Kings 3. 12), David his courage (1 Sam.
17. 45), Samson his physical strength
(Judg. 16. 20), and Samuel his insight (1
Sam. 3. 19), dbectly through the indwelling
of God. The Hebrews beheved that all ex
ceptional persons were miraculously en
dowed with theb talents, just as were the
prophets. To quote again from Zangwill's
Melting Pot, David, the enthusiastic musi
cian, when rebuked by Mandel thus, "But
you needn't get so excited about it," rephed,
"Not when one hears the roaring of the fires
of God?" Have they not all stood by the
same kindling flame?
To-day when the spbit of man is touched
by this same Spbit of the living God, and
raised to a greater intensity, we explain the
phenomenon by secondary causes, as awak
ened intuition, genius, consecrated powers,
awakening, or training. Our present love
for natural explanations betrays us into tak-

90 THE PROPHETS
ing this round-about way to explain the
revelations of God within us. That is to
say, we prefer to recognize God's power as
inherent in us and manifesting itself through
natural channels. In any event, the hving
God is the final source of human power. He
who inwardly feels God most, and who
thinks most about God, will hkely know
most of God; and he who lives most con
scientiously and intimately with God will
hkely have the fullest sense of being his
representative. The spiritually minded see
God and discern things which other people
only dimly surmise. "The prophets are
above all things impassioned seers of spirit
ual truth and preachers of religion," says
Dr. Sanday. Is it not the reahzation of
truth that constitutes for any of us genuine
revelation? Nothing can be vital to us until
our own minds grasp it as a new reahty.
Then it lives ; then it warms ; then it moves
to action. Is it not this same Spbit of God
working in us which forms the truth of
Scripture now? Otherwise, would not the
Bible be a meaningless book? Where there
are Spirit-filled prophets speaking there

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY 91
must be, in a less degree, Spirit-filled hearers
receiving (Psa. 44. 1).
Wherever truth is thus born in man, it
brings to him the sense of divine authority,
for all real truth is divine, and consequently
from God, the only source. He who dis
covers it is a prophet whose burden it is to
declare the same. Being convinced that he
is in possession of the genuinely true, he
speaks with a prophet's assurance in what
ever field of God's great realm he may be at
work. Prophetic Means of Infilling
The prophetic records show that the
Divine Spirit used various means of obtain
ing recognition in the hfe of the prophets.
Sometimes it was by means of entrancing
music (Saul), dreams (Joseph), ecstasy
(Balaam), an angel of the Lord (Daniel),
prolonged meditation (Habakkuk), some
historic crisis (Isaiah), or by direct request
(Ehsha). It was of little consequence
whether the divine manifestation came by
means of dream, vision, angel, or ecstatic
trance ; it was all equally real to the prophet,

92 THE PROPHETS
and equally direct from God. He did not
analyze, as we do, his thoughts, f eehngs, and
convictions, and label them as "psycho
logical occurrences" stimulated by a "dbec-
tive envbonment." He traced every event
directly to Jehovah. What we call personal
convictions were to him "Thus saith the
Lord." In either case, in the last analysis,
it is the pressure of God in the life taking
active form. "For it is God which worketh
in you both to will and to do of his good
pleasure" (Phil. 2. 13). It is well to re
member, however, that in the case of the
great prophets, vision is the usual mode of
divine illumination (Prov. 29. 18; Jer. 23.
25; Isa. 6. 1-6).
Prophetic Test of Accuracy
What shall be the test of accuracy for us
to-day? The ancient prophet and his peo
ple may regard "the man of God" divinely
inspbed and possessed of knowledge which
others did not have. But how may we now
know that these prophetic records in the Old
Testament truly represent the mind of
God? Such questions are the more difficult

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY 93
since a perusal of prophetic declarations
reveals the fact that contemporaneous
prophets sometimes contradicted each other,
while both used the same sacred formula to
enforce theb words, "Thus saith the Lord."
A clear example of this is the controversy
of the prophet Micaiah with the prophets of
Ahab in connection with the king's war
pohcy. One prophet predicted failure; the
others in a body predicted success (1 Kings
22). Another conspicuous instance is the
conflict between the prophet Jeremiah and
Hananiah, whose messages are adverse to
each other (Jer. 28). Yet, each prophet
declared boldly in the temple, before the
assembled multitude, "Thus saith the
Lord," to insure his hearers that his mes
sage was from God. Other instances might
be related. In these accounts it is evident
that the ancient hearers were puzzled to
know, at the moment, which prophet con
veyed the mind of God. Both, of course,
could not be correct, since they opposed each
other. It is true that we to-day know them
apart as the true and the false prophets.
But who was to tell Ahab, the king at the

94 THE PROPHETS
time, who was God's real prophet? How,
then, was the matter decided?
The Scriptural Formula for Testing
Truth
That age, as does this, fell back upon the
practical test of accuracy and soundness —
Does the message accord with fact and
truth? That is the ever-ready test of au
thority, and those who fail in meeting it are
branded as lying prophets, even though theb
claims be lofty, and they manifest super
natural abihty. False prophets, no less than
the true, claimed divine inspiration, and
miracles were even attributed to them (1
Kings 13; Deut. 3. 1-3). Several tests of
authority are offered in the prophetic writ
ings. The first is found in Deut. 13. 1-4,
and reads as follows : "If there arise among
you a prophet, or a dreamer of dreams, and
giveth thee a sign or a wonder, and the sign
or the wonder come to pass, whereof he
spake unto thee, saying, Let us go after
other gods, which thou hast not known, and
let us serve them; Thou shalt not hearken
unto the words of that prophet, or that

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY 95
dreamer of dreams : for the Lord your God
proveth you, to know whether ye love the
Lord your God with all your heart and with
all your soul. Ye shall walk after the Lord
your God, and fear him, and keep his com
mandments, and obey his voice, and ye shall
serve him, and cleave unto him."
Three conditions are here required of the
prophet: (1) that his message should con
form to well-known standards of ethics and
religion; (2) that his claims shall be backed
by a genuinely sound and good life; (3) that
that which he predicts shall come to pass.
That is, no one can truly represent God who
contradicts good common sense, well-tested
experience, the facts of nature, and ethical
demands. Prophets like Amos, Isaiah, and
Jeremiah met these tests. Two other simi
lar tests are offered (Deut. 18. 15-22; Jer.
28), in which the appeal is made to past his
tory and future outcome.
In the instance noted it is plain that the
Hebrews of old had some difficulty in mak
ing sure which prophet spake the mind of
God when their messages were at variance
with each other. They, as we, seem to have

96 THE PROPHETS
lacked a ready-made infallible test. It is
evident that the prophetic hearers had to
use theb own God-given intuition and ac-
qubed knowledge in the discrimination of
truth and error on which we are obhged to
rest. Truth usually carries the day by its
own inherent worth when lodged in human
life. The prophets, moreover, seem to have
possessed no lost art by which they could en
force truth spoken. Like modern men of
God, the ancient prophets relied upon ap
peals to human intelligence, religious needs,
social worth, and ancient good to drive home
the truth uttered. In theb time, truth, as
it is in our day, was self -attesting and ex-
perientially vindicated. Believing that the
God who voiced himself in prophecy would
no less find his way into the hearts of the
hearers, the prophets trusted the "word of
the Lord" to move the men of Israel as it
had first moved them.
Modern Test of Authority
The ability to demonstrate that the
prophet is endowed with the power of God
is confirmed by prophetic records. We read

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY 97
in 1 Sam. 3. 20, "All Israel from Dan even
to Beer-sheba knew that Samuel was estab
lished to be a prophet of the Lord." In
verse 19 we are told how Israel knew this.
"The Lord was with him, and did let none
of his words fall to the ground." The mean
ing of this seems to be that Samuel proved
his loyalty to God's will by the fruit of his
hfe and work. Furthermore, it seems that
the early prophets — Moses, Elijah, and
Elisha — relied, to some extent, upon the
abihty to perform miracles (1 Kings 18. 24)
as a test of theb authority to speak for God.
The later prophets, however, do not rely
upon wonder-works to enforce their claims
of divine authority. Amos, Isaiah, Hosea,
Jeremiah, and Ezekiel rarely perform mir
acles (Isa. 20). In Jeremiah's time there
is warning against accepting signs and won
ders as proof that one speaks God's word
(Deut. 13. 2-4) . Here two significant tests
are suggested: (1) Is the word which is
spoken true to experience in that it makes
for human well-being? (2) Is the speaker
manifesting good will, that is, the will to be
good and to do good? Truth and goodness,

98 THE PROPHETS
then, are the fundamental tests of the man
of God, ancient or modern. There is no
higher test of authority than conformity to
truth. And there is that instinctive element
of truth in every man's heart which will an
swer to the truth in the author's heart.
How shall we be able to distinguish the
permanent and genuine in prophecy from
the passing and superficial? We possess the
innate test of our divine nature which, hke
a sixth sense, weathers the approaching gale.
How often it is said that if any portion of
the Bible is admitted to be untrustworthy,
none of it is dependable. Such reasoning is
poor logic, worse practice, and bad rehgion.
We neither argue thus nor act so in prac
tical concerns of life.
A counterfeit dollar does not invalidate
all money. There are ways of testing the
genuine in every line ; no less in rehgion than
in rubles. The prophets made their appeal
to the Hebrew conscience in reply to false
prophets whose messages failed to conform
to well-known moral standards and long
since accepted revelations of God (Jer. 14.
13-22). To some this seems too uncertain.

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY 99
Authority must be definite. We naturally
hke to feel secure in a doctrine of prophecy
which admits of no flaw. The doctrine of
the inerrancy of the Bible would be com
forting if only it were manageable. Pro
fessor Borden P. Bowne has summarized the
matter in this terse manner :
"If the doctrine [inerrancy of the Bible]
is important, we are in a bad way, because
we have no inerrant Bible at present. If
we grant the doctrine, we can make nothing
of it, and we are as badly off with it as with
out it." The prophetic records make no in
fallible claim for themselves, nor does hfe
call for such a record. But life discovers
in them something that is infinitely better,
inspired and inspbing personahties ; for in
stance, the grimly righteous Amos, the effec
tively pleading Hosea, the eloquently hope
ful Isaiah. Catching the spirit of such men,
even now, across the gap of tune, fires the
soul of modern man, casts a divine speE over
his heart, and fills him with the prophetic
ardor. This is the best of authority, the
authority of God's presence in life being
realized day by day, and ringing true to the

100 THE PROPHETS
rock-bottom facts of hfe. Whatever min
isters blessings to man, furthers his normal
well-being, and stands the test of tune, can
not be far wrong. It must be of God, even
though its form and apphcation change from
age to age.
Thus Whittier must have thought when
he wrote:
"I looked : aside the dust-cloud rolled —
The waster seemed the builder too ;
Upspringing from the ruined old
I saw the new.
"Take heart ! the waster builds again —
A charmed life old goodness hath ;
The tares may perish — but the grain
Is not for death."

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY 101

CHAPTER VI
THE PROPHETS AND THEIR
PERSONALITY
John Ruskin's message, reiterated in a
thousand ways, which he held up before the
last generation, runs thus: "Goodness is
more than gold, and character outweighs in
tellect." Personahty is God's greatest
achievement for man since it conditions all
genuine worth. The Old Testament litera
ture bears the impress of various types of
personahty. To anyone who reads the Old
Testament it will appear that God used at
least four distinct types of persons to pro
duce its books. Any book or chapter which
may be read is the product of one of the
following classes of persons: the priest, the
philosopher (wise man), the poet, and the
prophet. These represent, on the whole,
persons of temperamental differences, life
long divergence in training, interests, and
associations. They represent also different
functions in Hebrew hfe. Hence it may be

102 THE PROPHETS
said that God used the four P's to give us
the Old Testament Scriptures —
Priest
PhilosopherPoetProphet.
"For the law shall not perish from the
priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the
word from the prophet" (Jer. 18. 18).
The Hebrew Priest
The priest, under God, was the custodian
of law and worship. His interest was (1)
in the temple, its altars, sacrifices, offerings,
feasts, fasts, and rites; (2) in the formation,
preservation, and administration of law and
custom. His services were indispensable
to Hebrew society. From birth to death the
priest's hand touched every practical inter
est of Hebrew hfe. Hence, priestly writ
ings were short and choppy, prosaic and
legal. The seldom read book of Leviticus
is the best example of his style of writing.
It might be said of Leviticus, as the Irish
man said of the dictionary, "It is interesting
reading, but it changes subject so often."

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY 103
The Hebrew Sage
The philosopher, called by Israel "the
wise man" (Prov. 1. 5; 13. 20), was the cus
todian of the people's thought hfe. God
used these quiet thinkers to guide the com
mon people's outlook upon life as a whole.
The wise men usually sat in the market place
by the gate of ancient walled cities where
people congregated (Prov. 31. 23) and
where they could be consulted on matters
vital to hfe's meanmg. There they were
phed with such questions as: "What is right
and good for me?" "What is my duty?"
"From whence did all things come?" (Book
of Proverbs.) "What kind of woman
would be an ideal wife?" (Proverbs 31.)
"What is the highest good in hfe?"
(Ecclesiastes.) "Upon what basis does the
good God rule the world, seeing that the un
deserving often suffer?" (Job.) In daily
hfe the wise men's counsel was, "Practice
moderation hi all things."
The Hebrew Poet
The poet's function was to minister chiefly
to the emotions. He touched the springs of

104 THE PROPHETS
f eeling and guided them to God, as the wise
man did the intellect. His poetry begins
with God, continues with God, and ends
with God; whether the occasion be that of
a starlit night (Psa. 8) or a golden sunrise
(Psa. 19), a furious storm (Psa. 29) or a
frightful earthquake (Psa. 114), the home
sickness of the captive (Psa. 137) or a sense
of pastoral security (Psa. 23). The book
of Psalms, therefore, became Israel's song-
book in the worship of the temple. On feast
days and Sabbaths, pilgrimages and con
quests, the people expressed their divine
emotions by means of song (Pilgrim Song,
Psa. 126, Dedication Song, Psa. 118).
The Hebrew Prophet
The prophet, under God, was Israel's
custodian of the revelation of Jehovah. To
him were intrusted the oracles. He was a
preacher of righteousness; a seer who saw
clearly. He declared the message which
stirred to moral action. The prophet, there
fore, represented a unique personahty which
combined insight, foresight, inspbation, and

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY 105
action. He stood as Israel's gifted spokes
man for Jehovah (Amos 3. 8).
Since the prophet's teachings were the
outgrowth of his personality, let us consider
for a moment the mdividual traits of the
prophets. Theb personahties vary greatly
from each other. The prophets differed in
looks, manners, temperaments, education,
and methods much as do ministers of our
tune. They were markedly, even radically
unlike. The Relentless Amos
Nathan was brusque (2 Sam. 12) ; Gad
was pliable (2 Sam. 24. 11-14) ; Samuel was
gentle and excitable (1 Sam. 8. 1-15; 15. 8-
33) ; Eh jah was dramatic and rash (1 Kings
18. 40; 19. 4); Ehsha was dignified and
diplomatic (2 Kings 4. 38-44; 9. 1-11).
The writing prophets, as they are styled,
have left us more material from which to
judge, so that we are able to form a clearer
estimate of theb personahties. Amos, the
shepherd prophet from the Tekoan hills,
reared among crags and crannies, hving in
desert and dell, facing wild beasts and wily

106 THE PROPHETS
men, distilled these fierce elements into his
character. Hence he was a man of rugged
strength, and hquid iron flowed in his veins.
As a prophet he was severe, relentless, and
uncompromising. Even the age in which
he hved (B. C. 760) was marked by severity.
He was a John Calvin of his day and knew
no compromise. With him it was as with
Calvin — doom or discipline. He must have
"roared" his message hke a "roaring lion,"
for he opened his first sermon with, "The
Lord will roar from Zion, . . . and the top
of Carmel shall wither" (1. 2). Thus by
character he was God's ready scourge to
Israel. He proclaimed the then much-
needed message of the God of stern right
eousness, whose very innermost nature he
pictured as justice and law. Although there
was not a soft touch in Amos's make-up,
Israel had need of this fire-eating prophet.
The Lovelorn Hosea
Hosea, his companion prophet of the
north, was totally unhke Amos. He had
been disciplined in the school of desperate
love and bitter disappointment. Therefore,

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY 107
his eloquence was "logic set on fire." Early
in his hfe he fell in love with a coquettish,
vivacious gbl, called Gomer, whom he mar
ried. For a tune they were apparently very
happy together, but at length another stole
his wife's affection and became father to the
thbd child. When the shameful secret
leaked out, the guilty pab eloped (Hos.
1-2). The prophet's heart was torn and
bleeding. He still loved his fickle and un
faithful wife, and at length sought her and
brought her back from her degrading slavery
(3. 2). The whole tenor of his writing re
veals a man of affectionate nature, shy and
shrinking disposition, indulgent tenderness,
and flaming emotions. Out of a broken
heart Hosea pleaded with Israel to be faith
ful to her husband, Jehovah, who loved her
tenderly (6-7). Having experienced the
pangs of a broken heart by the wayward
conduct of his wife, there burst upon him
the profound significance of the love-rela
tion existing between Jehovah and Israel.
Hence this love-prophet was best fitted to
convey to man the love of God. To him the
cardinal trait of Jehovah was affection.

108 THE PROPHETS
Love had been the deepest note in his own
hfe. Could it well be otherwise with God?
Accordingly, to him the meanest of all sins
was unrequited love. After all, is not love-
lessness the blackest of all sins whether be
tween man and man or God and man? Not
to love is not to live. As a present writer
has expressed it in his book entitled, What
Men Live By, "Real life, then, if it is to
mean the nourishing, sustaining, and de
veloping of existence, demands work, play,
and love."1 The Brilliant Isaiah
The most striking, brilliant, and versatile
of all the prophets was the princely Isaiah,
the son of Amoz. He was highly gifted by
birthright and training. His was the be-
stowment of a large mold and rich surround
ings. He seems even to have had royal
blood coursing in his veins, and to have
moved all of his life in the cultured cbcles
of Hebrew society. He must have received
a finished education, for his manner, speech,

'Richard C. Cabot, What Men Live By, p. xv.

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY 109
and bearing show him to have been cultured
to the very fingertips. We may picture the
average prophet as crude and crusty, rude
and rugged, with shaggy eyebrows and long
hair, horny hands and weather-beaten vis
age; which would be a fairly accurate de
scription of most of them. The brilliant
Isaiah, however, was not such an one. He
would have resembled in appearance, man
ner, and speech one of our modern, refined
city preachers, always neatly groomed.
Jehovah had been lavish with this favorite
son of Jerusalem, whom he had cradled in
wealth and reared in the lap of luxury.
None had been endowed with greater ver
satility than he. Isaiah manifested brilliant
gifts in many directions, any one of which
would entitle him to recognition and mark
him as a man of distinction. Isaiah was
preacher and reformer, poet and painter,
composer and singer, statesman and orator,
educator and instigator, dramatist and
strategist. He was hkewise brilliant and
persistent, intense and sustained, lofty and
daring, graceful and diplomatic. It is
hardly too extravagant to say that Isaiah

110 THE PROPHETS
possessed the best gifts of all the other
prophets : the faith of Abraham, the leader
ship of Moses, the dash of Joshua, the bold
ness of Nathan, the popularity of David,
the wisdom of Solomon, the severity of
Amos, the passion of Hosea, the spbituality
of Jeremiah, the resourcefulness of Ezekiel,
the statesmanship of Nehemiah, the vision
of Daniel, and the bony of Jonah.
Above all else Isaiah was Israel's most
gifted orator and polished preacher. Never
before had any voice plied so well the He
brew speech as his. He was to Jerusalem
what Savonarola was to Florence, what
Luther was to Germany or Wesley to Eng
land. From his eloquent lips poured forth
the speech of Canaan hke water from a
fountain. His sentences are saturated with
a wealth of metaphors, a profusion of fig
ures, a richness of graceful phrases, and a
range of vocabulary which bewilders, aye,
even at times paralyzes his hearers. Read,
for instance, the first six chapters of his book
and feel, even through the Enghsh transla
tion, the power, grace, and beauty of his
matchless speech.

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY 111
Who can ever shake the spell of Isaiah,
once he has come under his magic words?
Every Bible lover will recall at once the
sixth chapter of Isaiah, one of the loftiest
in the Old Testament. "I saw also the Lord
sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up,
and his train filled the temple. . . . Then
said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; be
cause I am a man of unclean hps, and I
dwell in the midst of a people of unclean
hps : for mine eyes have seen the King, the
Lord of hosts." He takes one into the very
presence of the hving God where no evil
can abide. The charm of his spirit abides.
The reputation of Ulysses at the court of
Troy, "No mortal then would dare to strive
with him for mastery in speech," applies to
the gifted Isaiah.
The Tragic Jeremiah
In Jeremiah we reach the summit of
prophetic greatness and power. Notwith
standing his gifted and brilliant personahty,
Isaiah did not possess the iron logic of
Amos, the originahty of Micah, or the keen

112 THE PROPHETS
insight of Jeremiah. Never again, until in
Christ, did prophecy reach his level. The
torrential Isaiah did not leave much original
work. He mainly borrowed from others and
cast their thoughts into new expressions m
his own liquid style of utterance. Jeremiah,
on the other hand, though less flowing and
less prosaic than Isaiah, was far more origi
nal and spbitual, blunt and precise. Jere
miah was as passionate as Hosea and as
logical as Amos. His sohtary figure towers
over his time like a colossus, too great to be
appreciated by men of his age. A strange
and turbulent nature was his. He experi
enced the painful lonehness of genius. He
was often torn between conflicting emotions
of duty and seclusion, taste and obligation,
ambition to preach the word and a sensi
tiveness to criticism. "Oh that my head
were waters," he would bitterly cry out,
"and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I
might weep day and night for the slain of
the daughter of my people ! Oh that I had
in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfar
ing men; that I might leave my people, and
go from them!" (9. 1-2.)

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY 113
Jeremiah was by nature affectionate and
tender as a woman and, therefore, shrank
from the prophetic task of playing the role
of muckraker. Yet, he never left his post
nor ceased his preaching. He clung to his
duty with grim desperation; never letting
go, though he pined for quietude. Duty and
divine command were to this man more im
perative than natural taste and personal
inclination. Because he had a keen mind
and a tender heart, depth of feehng and
breadth of mind, his was a life at once
heroic and pathetic, dramatic and tragic
(see 10. 19; 8. 18-21; 18. 19-23; 20. 14).
He lived a hfe of perpetual martyrdom for
the cause of Jehovah, although he preferred
the scholar's seclusion.
His personal sufferings at the hands of
his countrymen were greater than those of
any other prophet, for Jeremiah lived in a
turbulent age when boundaries of empires
were shifting and the whole Eastern world
was in volcanic eruption from the Euphrates
to the Nile. Little Judah was situated in
the very center of the international crater.
Thus, this prophet's hfe imbibed the turmoil

114 THE PROPHETS
of his age. He too became at tunes turbu
lent. In turn, he would scold, plead,
threaten his people; then he would as sud
denly talk with God and make excuses for
them; curse his own hfe; meekly repent;
boldly stiffen up, face his persecutors with
"As for me, behold, I am in your hand: do
unto me as seemeth good and meet unto
you," when his life was threatened (26. 14).
Nevertheless, with all his puzzhng contra
dictions, Jeremiah was always grand, crea
tive, and courageous (31. 16-19).
He it is, therefore, who is best fitted to
give the highest and fullest revelation of
God which is to be found in the Old Testa
ment. Jeremiah (1) spbitualized God (10.
8-16); (2) purified worship (7. 1-7); (3)
deepened the sense of sin (17. 9-11) ; (4)
gave the death blow to idolatry (10. 14-16) ;
(5) declared for individual responsibility
(31. 29-33) ; and (6) prepared his people
for the impending national ruin, so that they
could survive destruction of state and
church, loss of land and ruin of temple, with
out surrendering the essentials of their faith
(see 6, 18-20; 14. 11-12; 17. 9-10; 31. 16-

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY 115
33) . It was a great work that this prophet
accomphshed in spite of many and terrible
oppositions that would have crushed lesser
men. Jeremiah's earthly reward was disap
pointing. He was banished from the temple
precincts (36. 5-6), imprisoned (chs. 26,
32, 37, 38), his hfe threatened (chs. 20, 26,
38), his family torn from him and his home
confiscated (10. 20), charged with treason
(chs. 26, 38), his hterary productions de
stroyed (ch. 36), and at length he himself
kidnaped and carried by force to Egypt,
where his last sermons were preached (ch.
43) . Jeremiah's cup of bitterness was filled
to the brim (20. 14) . Jewish tradition adds
that he was murdered in Egypt and his
bones left to bleach on the sands of the Nile.
Inasmuch as his rehgious contribution to
humanity is immense and imperishable, can
one say that he was wholly without reward?
His great ideas, centuries ahead of his tune,
molded later Jewish thought profoundly.
Jesus himself must have been strongly at
tracted by Jeremiah's sermons, which he
read in the Old Testament, for Jesus quotes

116 THE PROPHETS
him freely (see Matt. 2. 17; 16. 14; 27. 9;
Mark 7. 21; compare Jer. 17. 9; 29. 12; 16.
14; Luke 6. 45). Some of Jesus's teaching
so much resembled that of Jeremiah that the
people believed the ancient prophet had re
appeared (Matt. 16. 14).
The Sensational Ezekiel
The prophet Ezekiel, who must have been
a young priestly student in the palmy days
of Jeremiah, no doubt had his youthful soul
kindled to a prophetic flame as he hstened to
this forceful preacher of righteousness. At
any rate, Ezekiel seems to have imbibed a
goodly portion of Jeremiah's spbit as well
as the greater part of his teachings. It was
left for this young prophetic follower, how
ever, to apply his creative teacher's ideas
under new and trying conditions in the land
of captivity. When scattered like sheep
without a shepherd, torn from native land,
denied the temple courts and sacrifices, and
separated from the presence of Jehovah,
then it was that Ezekiel, by applying the
hving ideas of Jeremiah, saved Israel from
infidelity.

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY 117
Ezekiel's was a very practical ministry
during the troublous days of the captivity.
The Hebrews were homesick and doubting,
as the sacred poetry composed in that period
reflects. "By the rivers of Babylon, there
we sat down, yea, we wept, when we re
membered Zion. We hanged our harps
upon the willows in the midst thereof" (Psa.
137. 1, 2). "My soul longeth, yea, even
fainteth for the courts of the Lord: my heart
and my flesh crieth out for the living God"
(Psa. 84. 2). "When shall I come and ap
pear before God? My tears have been my
meat day and night, while they continually
say unto me, Where is thy God?" (Psa. 42.
2, 3). No wonder that in this discouraged
and dejected state of mind the skeptical
captives taunted the prophet by saying,
"The Lord hath forsaken the earth, and
the Lord seeth not" (Ezek. 9. 9), and
"The way of the Lord is not equal"
(Ezek. 18. 25).
Ezekiel, like Isaiah and Jeremiah, was
evidently highly educated, and, hke his il
lustrious predecessor, Jeremiah, he was a
hterary man (Ezek. 1. 3). "An hand was

118 THE PROPHETS
sent unto me; and, lo, a roll of a book was
therein; and he spread it before me; and
it was written within and without: . . . eat
this roll, and go speak" (Ezek. 2. 9, 10; 3.
1). We have here probably a reference to
the written sermons of Jeremiah, which this
captivity prophet dihgently studied and
used. Ezekiel was what we might term a
sensational preacher. He is found making
liberal use of parables (chs. 15, 16, 19) ;
visions — for instance, eating scroll (ch. 2),
chambers of imagery (ch. 8), destroying
weapons (ch. 9), cherubim (ch. 10), dry
bones (ch. 37), and his lengthy vision of the
future temple (chs. 40-48) ; reahstic imper
sonations — such as mimic siege (ch. 4), pub
licly shaving his head (ch. 5) , temple secrets
revealed (ch. 8), mock removal of his furni
ture (ch. 12). He was also a great pastor
and teacher (ch. 24), gathering about him
the captives and dihgently instructing them
in the lofty prophetic rehgion. No other
prophet was more resourceful, patient, dili
gent, methodical, and practical, than Eze
kiel. He was a sohd preacher in a sad situ
ation. No one could have met the needs of

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY 119
the captives better than he with his "pleasant
voice" and "lovely song" (33. 32) .
The Laconically Blunt Micah
Of the remaining prophets so very little
is known that it is impossible to say much
about theb personal traits. We can only
infer from theb meager writings which are
left to us the character of these prophets.
The prophet Micah, a contemporary of
Isaiah, must have been a poor country
preacher (1. 1; 7. 1), but was full of vigor
and convincing speech, able to condense reh
gion into a single expression so striking as
to be still quoted for its terseness and exact
ness. "Wherewith shall I come before the
Lord? . . . Will the Lord be pleased with
thousands of rams, or with ten thousand
rivers of oil? . . . He hath showed thee, O
man, what is good; and what doth the Lord
require of thee, but to do justly, and to love
mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?"
(6. 6, 8.) So deeply did Micah impress his
words on Judah that the generation of the
following century recalled his words (Jer.

120 THE PROPHETS
26. 18) . He was grim and blunt, poor and
powerful. The Great Unknown
The great unknown prophet who
preached his sermons of consolation during
the later period of the Babylonian captivity
of Israel, and whose sermons have been in
corporated in the book of Isaiah (chs. 40-
55), was a flaming optimist. His messages
were of hope and cheer, full of grace and
beauty. As he had passed into the crucible
of Israel's suffering, his spbit had been
finely tempered. Compassion, meekness, and
hopefulness radiated from his fruitful soul
as fragrance from a rose. He did not scold
like Amos, nor condemn as Hosea, nor de
nounce hke Isaiah, nor plead hke Jeremiah.
He consoled, encouraged, and comforted the
crushed spirits and bleeding hearts of the
captives. "Comfort ye, comfort ye my peo
ple" (Isa. 40. 1). "Hast thou not known?
hast thou not heard, that the everlasting
God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of
the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary?
He giveth power to the faint" (Isa. 40. 28,

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY 121
29). Here we listen to a new note in He
brew prophecy, made necessary in order to
meet the changed conditions of scattered hfe
and shattered hope and strained behef.
"Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and
cry unto her, that her warfare is accom
plished, that her iniquity is pardoned" (40.
2) . Such was the burden of the message of
this inspbed soul to the conscience of weary
men, hungry for soothing words from the
heights of God.
The God who sends the biting winds also
wafts the balmy breezes. He who sent the
fire-eating Amos also sent the gentle
"Second Isaiah" — as he is sometimes called.
He tempers the wind to the shorn lamb.
The timeliness of this prophetic message was
justified by the temper of the age. Three
classes of Hebrew hearers could profit there
by — the apostates (Ezek. 20; Isa. 45), the
indifferentists (Isa. 48), and the faithful de-
spondents (Isa. 51) . He had a message for
all. The Church-Builder Prophets
The two church-builders of the restora
tion, Haggai and Zechariah, who struggled

122 THE PROPHETS
to rebuild the temple, which had lain in
ruins for two generations, give us a glunpse
of the returned captives — poor, disap
pointed, and faithless (Hag. 1; Zech. 1).
Twenty years after the return from Babylon
these prophets found the temple still in
ruins and the people still protesting that
"The time is not come, the time that the
Lord's house should be built" (Hag. 1. 2).
These prophets dehvered a series of rousing
sermons upbraiding the people for dwelling
in "ceiled houses" while the house of the
Lord lay "waste" (Hag. 1. 4). These
prophets placed patriotism and piety before
private gain. The smothered spiritual flame
was rekindled into flaming enthusiasm.
Consequently, in B. C. 516, as a result of
prophetic activity, the second temple was
dedicated, and once more a monument had
been erected to Jehovah's honor. The one
hundred and eighteenth psalm was com
posed and used for the dedicatory service;
an immense chorus sang it grandly: "O give
thanks unto the Lord; for he is good: . . .
Open to me the gates of righteousness: I
will go into them."

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY 123
The Impetuous Malachi
In the degenerate days, nearly a century
after the captives had returned, and shortly
before Ezra's reformation in B. C. 445,
Malachi, which means "my messenger,"
raised his prophetic voice. Judging from
the book of Malachi, he must have been a
frank, bold, impetuous, and sentimental
prophet. He is lacking, however, in the old
prophetic grandeur, freedom, and grace
which had marked the preexile preachers.
He, nevertheless, met the social and rehgious
conditions of his age with timely words. He
dealt in the main with practical and local
problems, such as proper sacrifices (1. 6-
11), priestly abuses (2. 1-10), stingy giving
(3. 7-12), religious experience (3. 13; 4. 3),
and with the results of skepticism (4. 4-6).
The Humorist Jonah
The unique little prophet, whose sermons
are recorded in the book of Jonah, is an
enigma. He seems to have appeared late
in the Old Testament history. His message
ridicules Jewish national narrowness. He

124 THE PROPHETS
stands out as the only prophet of a humorous
vein. As the Hebrew mind was essentially
serious, and seldom given to joking, it is the
more surprising to find a prophet of wit.
We often fail to grasp the great significance
of this prophet's message because we are apt
to treat this book as a joke. Jonah is not
only a rare entertainer, but also a preacher
with a fine message. He contends that God's
revelations are not for private monopoly.
Gifts must be shared; God's truth is as wide
as the seas and as urgent as human needs.
"The gift without the giver is bare."
The Pensive Daniel
The prophet whose message is found in
the early chapters of the book of Daniel (1-
6) is preeminently a prophet of fidelity. He
can trust even where there is no visible
ground for certainty. He can abide God's
hour when the sky is dark and all goes dead
wrong. The burden of his message is this:
Trust God and he will keep you unharmed
in hon's den or fiery furnace, for God is
stronger than evil; he cares for his own with
infinite tenderness. A great message was

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY 125
this in the troublous days of Antiochus Epi-
phanes's religious persecutions of the Jew.
The Prophet of Judgment
The rest of the prophets — Zephaniah,
Nahum, Habakkuk, and Joel — played
minor parts in Hebrew and Jewish history.
Next to nothing is known of theb personal
character. It may be inferred that Nahum
was a realist by the graphic description he
gave of Nineveh's fall (Nah. 1-2) . Habak
kuk was the prophet of doubt, issuing in cer
tainty (Hab. 1-2). Zephaniah and Joel
were the prophets of impending judgment.
Summing up, then, we may think of
Amos as a John Calvin forging his thunder
bolts; of Hosea as a Melanchthon, a keen
but tunid scholar, shooting his pointed
shafts; of Isaiah as a Wendell Philhps, the
silver-tongued reformer; of Micah as a
Luther, rough and ready; of Jeremiah as a
John Wesley, a refined and tunid scholar
driven by conviction into fierce pubhc serv
ice; of Ezekiel as a Dwight L. Moody, a
great soul- winner; of the Second Isaiah as
a Philhps Brooks, a man with a melting

126 THE PROPHETS
message for the whole world of sad and suf
fering humanity.
What a diversity of personahties God can
use! How admirably each fitted into his
time and filled the task assigned him! How
different they were in theb manner, train
ing, mood, and message ! But, f ailing under
the same spiritual power, they sprang to
their tasks and did them in God's chosen
way. God has a place in his kingdom for
each of us. What we sometimes lack is the
eternal fire, which sets the soul aglow and
imparts to our words passion. Personahties
differ radically, but it is the same spbit in
all — the Spbit of God, "which worketh in
you both to will and to do of his good pleas
ure" (Phil. 2. 13). May God help us each
to respond eagerly to his loving call to hve
our hves in the place and manner for which
we are fitted by sacred and usable per
sonahty!

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY 127

CHAPTER VII
THE PROPHETS AND THEIR
WRITINGS
Signs and Symbols in Prophetic Writ
ings
The ancient, but wise, old Socrates was
fond of saying, "I would rather write on the
hearts of men than on dead sheepskins."
The prophets did both. Without theb writ
ten records preserved and handed down to
us, it is difficult to see how the prophets'
message could have endured until now.
Written language preserves the spoken
word. It is the vessel in which the sacred
and heroic past is bottled up for future use.
We must not, however, come to think more
of the bottle than of the contents, of the
form than of the substance, of the letter
than of the spirit of prophetic literature.
Let us not forget, however, that the forms
and styles of the writers affect scriptural
meaning for us. Much depends on how we

128 THE PROPHETS
view these writings and with what intent in
mind we read them. The story is told of a
stranger who passed a barber's window and
caught the following sign, reading it thus:
"What do you think?
I shave you for nothing,
And give you a drink."
He stepped in, got his shave, and called
for the drink. As he was leaving, however,
the barber said, "Thirty cents, please," and
called the man's attention to the sign, read
ing it thus :

"What ! do you think
I shave you for nothing
And give you a drink?"

Numerous instances of this sort occur
daily in wrongly interpreting written words.
Words are the bearers of ideas, moods, and
feelings. They are the signs we must em
ploy to convey our experiences one to an
other. Since language is a signal system,
whether it be an auto-honk, signpost, or
written document, the key to the system
must be understood in order to grasp rightly

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY 129
the meaning intended. This meaning is
easily misunderstood if the reader is want
ing in knowledge or careless in his readings ;
and, far worse, if he is biased in favor of
some meaning which he endeavors to extract
therefrom. This is no less true of the writings of the
Hebrew prophets, at tunes, than of the bar
ber's sign. The prophets used signs, sym
bols, illustrations, and various forms of
Oriental figures, to convey theb God-given
ideas. In order to grasp these prophetic
ideas we must possess the key to their signal-
system, the Hebrew tongue. Theirs was a
highly pictorial speech, teeming with Ori
ental imagery, borrowed from the life of
theb day. The prophets and theb writings,
then, must engage our attention in this study
since we are able to reach the man of God
only through his written word, preserved in
the Old Testament (1 Chron. 29. 29).
Illustrious writers of every age have had
theb central and consuming themes. Rus-
kin rang the changes on personal worth;
Carlyle preached the gospel of honest work ;
Matthew Arnold taught the worth of cul-

130 THE PROPHETS
ture; Emerson's theme was plain honesty;
that of H. G. Wells is eugenic reform;
Arnold Bennett developed the gospel of
psychic determinism; Bernard Shaw of so
cial regeneration through evolution; and
Rauschenbusch taught social reform through
the evoking power of Christianity. The
prophetic writers hkewise had theb themes.
Amos preached the gospel of righteousness ;
Hosea, of love; Isaiah, of holiness; Micah,
of justice; Jeremiah, of spirituality; Eze
kiel, of personal responsibihty ; and the
Second Isaiah of divine goodness through
the glory of suffering,
Themes in Prophetic Writings
What themes, then, find most frequent
expression in prophetic literature as a
whole? Foremost, it is teeming with human
hfe, or, rather, with the divine ideal for hfe.
Be loyal, be true, be good, be upright, be
chaste, be devout, be merciful, be honest, be
neighborly, be all that Jehovah has a right
to expect of his earthly children. These are
the hterary refrains of prophetic messages.

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY 131
"What does Jehovah reqube of thee?" was
every prophet's query (Mic. 6. 8).
His words, nevertheless, would not have
challenged Israel nor have been valued
enough to be preserved on parchment unless
his manner of utterance had been in good
form. It requbed hterary abihty, cleverness
in expression, breadth of vocabulary, knowl
edge of affabs, acquaintance with science,
art, and customs, and the possession of a
rich personality. He must have been intel
lectually, as well as spiritually, fitted for his
task. The prophets were men of exceptional
promise and of rich quahty, even before
Jehovah laid his Spbit upon them.
Capacity and capability, education and in
spiration, depth of personality and sound
ness of ideas, clearness of vision and spiritual
reach were their capital when they yielded
theb pens to the call of God. All these so-
called natural gifts, of course, without the
gifts of the "Spbit" would have left them
sounding brass (1 Cor. 13. 1) . On the other
hand, the Spbit without natural endowment
and training, seldom results in great reli
gious leadership.

132 THE PROPHETS
The Naturalness of Prophetic Writ
ings
If we think of God as having given the
spiritual hfe to the prophet in a normal way
as he does to us, and the prophet as speak
ing out of the fullness of his God-touched
heart as every messenger of God does to
day, we shall come to feel a closer spbitual
kinship to the "man of God" and to find
more interest, both human and divine, in his
writings. Prophecy will seem hke preach
ment and not hke puzzles or predictions.
Thus, it will cease to appear as a mechanical
production forced from the prophet, like a
speech from a phonograph.
This modifies the view, often held, that •
the prophet's words came dbectly from the
hand of God ; a literal product of God ready
made, imposed arbitrarily upon the prophet.
The author's personality, his thought and
spirit, his style, his training, and human
knowledge, entered into his spoken and
written words. God is the source of the
truth uttered, the spiritual fire in the
prophet's soul, the infilling life of his genius,

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY 133
and the conscious personal friend who sus
tains him. The prophet, nevertheless, ex
pressed this infolding of the Almighty in
as natural a manner as we express our own
feelings of the divine hfe within us. So
prophecy thus viewed is seen to be the fruit
of prophetic hfe, as the sermon of a modern
preacher is the fruit of his devoted hfe and
inspbed labors.
Does not the book of Amos, previously
quoted, seem to be the prophet's own pro
duction, thus divinely prompted, as truly as
John Wesley's sermons are his? Each is in
wardly moved of God to express himself in
keeping with his personality, his age, and
his training. What he speaks as his own
conviction echoes the mind of God.
Why need we insist that God should al
ways act contrary to nature in order to mani
fest his life in us? Should we not expect
him to act in keeping with his order, and
so manifest himself most in and through the
natural processes? God operates in natural
events as truly as in mbaculous manifesta
tions. He is not hmited to the natural
order, as we understand it, but he seems to

134 THE PROPHETS
prefer it. We do not say of a rose, "It is
either natural or it is supernatural." The
rose is both. It is natural as a natural
thing; it is supernatural as to its basic hfe.
God causes it to grow thus by a natural
process revealing his life in its blossoms.
God causes man constitutionally to "feel
after him" ; and when he is conscious of God,
and yields his inner life to him, God can
speak through him. Whichever way we
think of prophecy, the fact remains that it
is the Word of God. The fact is the same,
though the way of interpretation differ from
slavish literalism. At any rate, man grasps
the fact of the divine message more readily
through a mode of thinking that relates
spiritual realities in a friendly way to
natural processes.
The Growing Nature of Prophetic
Writings
When the prophetic writings are viewed
in this way, several delightful discoveries
are made. In the first place, progress is
found in the Bible, as in every other part

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY 135
of God's world. "All scriptures given by
mspiration of God," do not stand on a dead
level. They rise and fall with the experi
ence of the Hebrew people. Individually
or racially, hfe rises out of the animalistic
and moves toward the spbitual. This world
has never been perfect, though good (Gen.
1) ; but it has been growing better. This is
true of prophetic writing as well. The
grand good seer, Samuel, could "hew Agag
in pieces" (1 Sam. 15. 33) in the name of
Jehovah, but ten centuries later Jesus, the
flower of prophecy, said, "But whosoever
shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to
him the other also" (Matt. 5. 39). "All
they that take the sword shall perish with the
sword" (Matt. 26. 52) . The change here is
not in the character of the eternal God, who
changeth not, but in a progressive revelation
of God throughout Hebrew history. Sam
uel understood God in part; Christ under
stood him in full.
We are not troubled by apparent contra
dictions in the Bible when we remember that
we are dealing with a growing revelation
which rises with fuller and clearer experi-

136 THE PROPHETS
ence from age to age. Is it not for us a
sharp distmction between the rude and
savage practices of the book of Judges and
the life of suffering for others by the gentle
Servant of God in the book of Isaiah?
( Judg. 1 and Isa. 53.) In the course of five
hundred years religious ideas had clarified.
God's way in the Bible as in nature is de
velopmental. The Manifold Styles in Prophetic
Writings
In the second place, prophetic writings
display all the variety of hterary form to be
found in the utterances of our Western re
formers and preachers. Hence history,
parable, poetry, riddle, science, romance,
and story, were all used in driving home the
lesson intended, much as preachers use them
now; and all available sources of informa
tion were drawn upon.
The earliest prophets, Moses, Samuel,
and the writers of the histories of the books
of Samuel, Judges, and Kings, gave us the
prophetic narratives of Israel's past national

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY 137
experiences. These valuable historical writ
ings are known as the work of the early He
brew prophets, many of whom we do not
know by name. These authors do not write
merely as historians, however, but used his
tory to illustrate their sermons. The latter
group of the prophetic writings bear the
names, styles, and characteristic marks of
theb prophetic writers — Amos, Hosea,
Micah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel.
These are among the best of Old Testament
writings, which had first been spoken in pub
lic, then written down by the prophets
themselves, or by their pupils, and subse
quently collected and used for pubhc in
struction (Jer. 36. 28).
The prophetic writings not only vary with
different prophets, but in the same prophetic
book there may be composite productions re
flecting different events and periods out of
chronological order. Poetry, prose, narra
tive, and orations often succeed one another
in the same book.
Take the book of Isaiah for example. It
becomes a puzzle if treated on a dead level
as the work of one prophet. The first thbty-

138 THE PROPHETS
nine chapters, in the main, seem to have come
from the pen of Isaiah, the peerless prophet,
reformer, and statesman of Jerusalem, hv
ing a century and a half before the captivity
of Judah. The description of his call to the
prophetic career appears in the sixth instead
of the first chapter, as we might expect; his
prophetic inauguration in the fifth, just
preceding the call; his denunciations of
Judah's sins in chapters one to four; while
his earliest experience with King Ahaz oc
cur in chapters seven to eight. Chapters
forty to fifty-six, written by an unknown
prophet, often called the Second Isaiah, re
flect the later period of the Babylonian cap
tivity. They are wholly different in style
and purpose, in themes and presentation,
from the first thbty-nine chapters of the
book. Clearly, we have in the book of
Isaiah the sacred writings of at least two
prophets living in different centuries. Such
facts need not disturb us. They only mean
that the different parchments, valued and
preserved by prophetic followers, were in
after years gathered into a single roll for
sacred use.

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY 139
The Fresh Human Interest in Pro
phetic Writings
In the thbd place, the prophetic litera
ture takes on a new and fresh human inter
est to the reader. It is seen to drip with the
honey of human events and to move in hvely
incidents. It brings a reahstic sense of
God's dealings with his servant, the prophet.
For instance, Isaiah describes in terms of
kingly splendor and court imagery, scenes
in which most of his hfe had moved; he tells
of his soul's meeting with God and of the
new sense of surrender to God's will (ch.
6) , or he composes a love-song laid in a vine
yard, sets it to music and sings it at some
pubhc gathering (ch. 5) ; or, taking his son
by the hand, he meets the cowardly and
vacillating king, Ahaz, near the upper reser-
vob and pleads with him to trust in God
and keep out of entanglbig political al
liances (ch. 7) ; or, he paints a signboard
and nails it to a tree as a warning, "Speedy
prey, speedy spoil" ; or, laying aside his cus
tomary raunent for three years, he dons the
mean garb of a slave in order to create right

140 THE PROPHETS
pubhc sentunent (ch. 20) ; or, he chmbs
upon the walls of Jerusalem during the
desperate siege of Sennacherib to fire the
patriotism of the dejected soldiers (ch. 36).
This is surely all very real and very human.
It sounds not unhke the experiences of
God's great ministers of to-day. And yet,
in all its naturalness, who can doubt that the
inner power which stbs the human spbit is
that of the hving God?
This fascination in the real human life of
the prophet meets the reader in every pro
phetic book. Amos at Bethel (chs. 1-2),
Hosea in his love adventure (chs. 1-2),
Nahum excitedly describing the fall of
Nineveh (chs. 1-2), Jeremiah wearing a
yoke to suggest the coming captivity of his
people (ch. 28), or the shattering of the pot
ter's vessel to show how Jehovah would
break in pieces Jerusalem for her sins (Jer.
18), or being thrown into a mby well (ch.
32), or banished from the temple precinct
(ch. 36), having his sermons burned (36.
23), arrested as a traitor or kidnaped and
carried to Egypt ; Ezekiel carried with cap
tives to Babylon (1. 1), preparing a mock

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY 141
siege (ch. 4), a mock flight from the city
(ch. 12), symbolizing the fate of the land
by cutting off the hair (ch. 5). Similar
incidents are found in all prophetic writ
ings, which show this literature to be teem
ing with concrete hfe. It is all in the day's
work for God.
Literary Ability of Prophetic Writers
In the fourth place, the modern reader
of the prophets comes to hold them in his
esteem as genuine men of practical worth.
The reader discovers that the Hebrew
prophets were men of good training. They
were literary men, authors, orators, histor
ians, reformers, preachers, poets, singers,
and statesmen. They were men of marked
abihty in theb tune and were well known
authors, as shown by frequent references
made to their works. We read, "The books
[writings] of Samuel, the seer" (1 Chron.
29. 29), "The book of Shemaiah the
prophet" and "The story of the prophet
Iddo," "the book of Jehu" (2 Chron. 12. 15;
13. 22; 20. 34). Now, writing was a rare
accomplishment, even in Jeremiah's day.

142 THE PROPHETS
In fact, nearly all of the Hebrew history was
the product of the prophets. That the
prophets from Eh jah to Malachi could and
did write is apparent (2 Chron. 21. 12; Mai.
3. 16). Their interest in letters was not a
mere hterary ambition. They wrote, as they
spoke, with some definite moral and spiritual
object in mind (Jer. 36. 3-7) . Jeremiah, we
learn here, was himself prohibited from
preaching, but his pupil, Baruch, might read
the prophet's sermons, which led to writing
them. So that prophetic hterature was in a
sense a by-product of prophetic activity. It
was a means to an end. It was an instru
ment of divine service used in the day's work
for God.
Oral Style of Prophetic Writing
The manner of prophetic writing is re
vealed also in the messages of Jeremiah.
He dehvered these sermons twenty years
before writing them. They were evidently
memory reproductions of the substance of
his earher teaching adapted to his present
object. Hence they retain much of the oral
style and impassioned oratory of the

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY 143
prophet. What we learn about Jeremiah's
mode of writing we may assume to be largely
true of other prophets. The prophet's writ
ings are mamly dbect address; hence, we
feel the Hebrew audience present as we read
them. His words waft to us across the cen
turies the hving atmosphere of those an
cient times. We sense the presence of his
hearers. The prophet's writings came naturally
out of the hfe and objects of the time. He
tried to meet emergencies on the spot. He
eagerly grasped a chance to drive home a
moral truth for a specific need of his peo
ple. The prophets were always ready with
a message when it was needed. They were
students of history and apphed past events
to present conditions in Israel. Note, for
example, Jeremiah's readiness to answer
hard questions (Jer. 21) ; or his sermon of
the potter's clay, suggested by seeing a pot
ter at work (ch. 18) ; or his sermon on the
temple, produced by hearing the false
prophet's cry, "Our bones are dried, and
our hope is lost: we are cut off for our parts"
(Ezek. 37. 11). Thus, the prophetic writ-

144 THE PROPHETS
ings were steeped in the hfe of the people
and prompted by vital issues before his eyes.
The man of God was thus a true child of his
age, a faithful servant of Jehovah, and,
therefore, a contributor to every age.
Present Use of Prophetic Writing
Lastly, what use can we make in our day
of this prophetic literature? Why should
we read it? Our chief business is to under
stand and master ourselves that we may hve
well and usefully among others. To do this
we need to know the past as well as the
present. What the prophet has achieved
for himself he may accomphsh for us. His
writings bear his message and reveal his
spirit of fearless faith, courageous hopeful
ness, and genuine msight mto the needs and
conditions of his day. Such is the brilliant,
earnest, convincing style which is able to con
vey to us of later tunes something of the
ancient prophetic power and spirit which we
crave.

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY 145

CHAPTER VIII
THE PROPHETS AND THEIR
IDEAS
The Universality of Prophetic Ideas
"Man has arrived, and what a world he
has at his service!" Anybody can exist, but
it is a greater thing to hve. The reason some
people are so small is that they think and
hve so little. One has to hve a big life not
to be forgotten in a generation. To live a
small hfe and deal in trifling ideas is to be
hermetically sealed in a vacuum. The
prophets of Israel, who wrought in the long,
long ago, still hve in theb imperishable
utterances. They thought in large terms
and worked with big ideas ; they were mas
tered by these ideas, and with them mas
tered others.
Why should the ideas of ancient seers
concern us to-day? This is not an idle ques
tion, for the influence of the prophet on us
to-day is immense. The answer is that a

146 THE PROPHETS
sound idea spoken anywhere is sound every
where. Truth is universal; its home is wher
ever man is. Why should we value the
words of the prophets above the rest of the
Old Testament? Because ideas, hke coins,
are valued for their usefulness as well as for
their intrinsic worth. A dollar is worth more
than a dime because it will do more for us
and will better promote our welfare. It is
so with ideas. As we use them they bless
us, enrich us, and give us mastery in the
world. Those ideas which are universal and
necessary in the ongoing of hfe are of most
worth. Such ideas the prophets held and
proclaimed. Therefore they remain undy
ing and vital. They yet speak, though dead.
But even moral and spiritual ideas are of
varying worth, so that not all prophetic
ideas are of priceless value. The injunction
of Isaiah, "Cease to do evil; learn to do
well" (Isa. 1. 16, 17), is of more value than
"Howl, ye ships of Tarshish" (23. 1).
Likewise there are distinctions in moral mes
sages. To be righteous is better than to be
generous, though both are excellent virtues.
Goodness is intrinsic and makes its declara-

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY 147
tion in moral actions stimulated by sound
ideas. LrviNG Ideas of the Prophets
There are a half-dozen great ideas around
which hfe centers. They constitute the
cardinal principles of man. To have these
articulated in action is to be mighty. Did
the prophets of Israel possess such cardinal
ideas? They did; or, rather, the ideas pos
sessed them; and therein hes the chief value
of the prophets for us. They were aflame
with these ideas. Though each prophet had
his distinctive message, they all had certain
cardinal ideas in common, and used them in
different connections with varying clearness
and stress. They were always in evidence.
Unceasingly the prophets proclaimed them.
They underlay all that the prophets said
and did. There were about seven of these
vibrant conceptions, hving ideas, or govern
ing principles in the prophetic creed. They
were not proclaimed in order, of course, but
used as practical need requbed. The few
great truths which they saw and that had
mastered them, they were masters in giving

148 THE PROPHETS
out. This mastery they had gained by lively
contact with great events.
Jehovah's Supremacy
Fbst of all, the prophets believed in the
absolute supremacy of Jehovah. He was
Creator of all things (Isa. 40). He had
unlimited control over nature (Amos 1. 2).
His purpose ran through history (Isa. 28.
14-21). To the prophets, God moved to
ward a goal and shaped all movements.
Nothing ran with aimless feet. Nothing
happened by chance. All events were
divinely ordered. He worked through men
to accomplish his purposes (Isa. 37. 21-
38). Natural agents were his ministers
(Psa. 104. 4). Nothing is withdrawn from
his providential government (Isa. 10. 24-
27), great or small, remote or near, past or
future, material or spbitual (Isa. 10. 5).
God is supreme. "By the strength of my
hand I have done it, and by my wisdom; for
I am prudent: and I have removed the
bounds of the peoples, and have robbed
their treasures, and I have brought down as
a vahant man them that sit on thrones ; and

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY 149
my hand hath found as a nest the riches of
the peoples ; and as one gathereth eggs that
are forsaken, have I gathered all the earth:
and there was none that moved the wing, or
that opened the mouth, or chbped" (Isa.
10.13-14). This conception of God was not merely
an abstract theory with the prophet. It was
for him a hving reahty, ground into his soul.
It was a hving, working fact which moved
his whole hfe. The supreme God of the
world was seen by the prophet in the
heavens, heard in the storm, traced through
history, and felt in his soul. To him God
seemed to be his hving, daily, inspbing, per
sonal friend. The prophet was companioned
with Jehovah. He talked to him and heard
him speak, received his messages, pleaded
with God in behalf of his people (Jer. 10,
11, 15, 18). These men were God-intoxi
cated. They were men who lived in such
vivid realization of God's fellowship that he
could whisper his eternal truths into their
open ears, and the warm breath of heaven
fanned theb being mto a holy enthusiasm
which found boundless expression in pas-

150 THE PROPHETS
sionate preaching and courageous action.
Across the centuries their preaching is still
recognized as the voice of God. Such a
sense of God will make any hfe heroic,
saintly, and blessed.
Jehovah's Impartial Justice
The prophets beheved that this personal
God was unique in character by being im
partial in his justice and infinite in his mercy
(Mic. 7. 18-20). This unique doctrine of
the prophet marks a new day in rehgion, for
the rest of the ancient world still believed
in many gods, — gods capricious and gods
revengeful and lustful. The God of the
prophets was righteous to the core. Indeed,
to Amos, the center of God's character is
summed up in the word "righteous" (chs.
3, 4) ; to Hosea God is the compassionate
one (ch. 2), to Micah he is the just God
(ch. 2), and to Jeremiah the spiritual God
set in the heart (ch. 31. 33) . To all of them
Jehovah is the God of impartial justice and
infinite mercy. He punishes sin by storm
and earthquake, fire and sword, pestilence
and famine (Ezek. 5. 12). Yet he often

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY 151
waits patiently, delays the evil day, relents
when pleaded with, forgives when repent
ance is shown, and loves his wayward peo
ple to a fault (Mai. 3. 16, 17). "Is it pos
sible," breaks forth a recent writer in a com
ment on our times, "that we make the doing
of good an excuse for not doing right?"
That God is righteous needs still to be thun
dered into the ears of men.
Life a Holy Mission
In the prophetic creed hfe is a holy mis
sion from God. Israel was an elect people,
"chosen of God out of all nations." With
them he had covenanted to keep, prosper,
and bless, if they, on theb part, obeyed and
honored him. But Israel was chosen for a
purpose, to fulfill a high spbitual vocation.
Israel was to be the bearer of the true reh
gion, and to be the spbitual teacher of all
nations. Therefore, an exceptional respon
sibility rested upon Israel as the people of
God to quahfy for its mission. This idea
of divine election with special privileges was
echoed by all the prophets. "You only have
I known of all the famihes of the earth,"

152 THE PROPHETS
protested Amos (3. 2) ; "When Israel was a
child, then I loved him, and called my son
out of Egypt," sobbed Hosea (11. 1) ; "For
I brought thee up out of the land of Egypt,
and redeemed thee," pleaded Micah (6. 4) ;
"The people which I formed for myself, that
they might set forth my praise," rang out
Isaiah (43. 21 ) . Hence, a nation has a mis
sion under God; a person has a mission
under God. Each must find and fill his
mission, and do it in God's way, or perish
from the earth. Our national mission for
one thing seems to be the spread of demo
cratic ideas.
Disciplinary Nature of Misfortune
The prophets believed that the present
evils in the world were sent by Jehovah be
cause man was wicked. The evils which
were visited upon Israel were Jehovah's
rods of correction. Sin had caused God to
change the original perfect order and turn
it to corrective uses. The most common
divine scourges were war, pestilence, famine,
and earthquake (Isa. 10. 16; Amos 1. 2;
Jer. 23. 9-12; Ezek. 5. 12). Is it not so

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY 153
that the most stubborn, ugly, and persistent
fact among men is sin? Nevertheless, are
we not persuaded that sin can be eradicated
by the help of God?
"Sin is the only prison that binds the human soul ;
Love is the only angel that bids the gates unroll ;
When he shall come to lead thee, arise and follow
fast;
Though it leads through darkness, it leads to
light at last."
Redeemability of Man and Society
The prophets believed that the original
created order of the world could be restored
only by man being morally restored to divine
obedience. The supreme task was to secure
man's obedience to God. Two things stood
in the way :
1. Man's evil will.
2. Man's ignorance of God's will.
What was the prophet's remedy?
1. Man's evil will must be made good.
2. Man's ignorance of God must be re
moved.
How was this to be accomplished?

154 THE PROPHETS
1. By means of a chosen people whom
God will train and lead and put his
Spbit upon.
2. To whom he will reveal his will and
way through chosen men, priests
and prophets, poets and sages.
Now, Israel was that people. Prophets,
priests, and princes were his chosen leaders.
The king was the national protector. The
priest was the custodian of law and worship.
The prophet was the revealer of Jehovah's
word. Hence Israel was to become "a king
dom of priests, and a holy nation" (Exod.
19. 6).
The Ultimate Triumph of Good
The prophet believed with all his soul in
the ultimate triumph of good in the world.
Jehovah would win out; his order would
succeed. With the prophet good was
stronger than evil. God was mightier than
sin. Therefore the prophet was a confirmed
optimist, not by temperament, but by creed.
The darker the present appeared, the
brighter shone the future for the prophet.

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY 155*
The uglier the evil day frowned, the clearer
the man of God foresaw the face of the re
deeming One (Isa. 54) .
This optimism is the perennial nature of
every righteous, God-fearing soul. Is it not
carried naturally in the human heart and
confirmed beyond a question through a right
view of God? If one believes stoutly that
God is at the center of things, and that
wrong is hateful to God, then one must be
heve with equal force that all wrong, be it
the hquor traffic, child-labor, the sweatshop,
or any other form of wrong, will cease some
time, somehow. (See Isa. 2, 4; Mic. 4. 1-
5; Jer. 31. 11; Ezek. 34. 23-27; 37. 12).
How was this optimism to be realized?
For the Hebrew prophets, it was to be
characterized :
First, by judgment followed by peace,
which to the earher prophets was "a day of
Jehovah" (time indefinite) ; while to the
later prophets it was "the day of Jehovah"
(tune definite). At first it was to be the
joyous presence of God; later it was to be
a terrible day of vengeance upon all enemies
of God. Yet more and more the note of

156 THE PROPHETS
peace sounded forth. In this Isaiah led the
prophetic chorus (2. 4).
Secondly, it was to be characterized
further by the actual presence of God in
universal prosperity and blessing (Ezek. 37.
12-14). Out of this prophetic creed sprang
the Messianic expectation. God would
some day send his Dehverer, princely
and peaceful, righteous and holy, prophetic
and kingly, to set all things right. With
each generation this hope became firmer and
clearer until it was finally fashioned in the
heart of the sorrowing captives of Babylon
(Isa. 54). After weary, waiting centuries,
in Bethlehem of Judasa the angels of God
announced his arrival, and the cross sealed
his Messianic work when he said, "It is
finished." The Prophetic Gospel of Social Good
Again, out of this prophetic creed came
the impetuous social program of the
prophets. Hence they were reform preach
ers who took a fearless and uncompromis
ing stand against the brood of social wrongs
thriving in their day. They pleaded pas-

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY 157
sionately the cause of the poor and needy,
against whom the priests, the nobles, the
judges, and the kings conspbed. The poor
of the land were entbely at the mercy of
these robber classes. The kings robbed them
in taxes; the judges decided against them
for lack of fat fees; the nobles robbed them
of theb lands ; and the priests often cheated
them out of the consolation of religion.
Under such a system of robbery the poor
had nowhere to turn. The government, the
courts, and the sanctuary knew little argu
ment but coin, and they measured pity by
pay. The masses were helpless. They faced
starvation or serfdom. However, Israel's
poor were unique in having brave champions
to plead theb cause, while the poor of other
lands had no voice raised in theb behalf.
The three hundred and fifty years, stretch
ing from the conquests of David to the fall
of Judah, were years of ceaseless protest by
the prophets against social evils in the land.
What is at the bottom of this prophetic
social plea? The belief that the perfect so
cial good is the divine purpose, since the
cardinal nature of God himself is ethical

158 THE PROPHETS
goodness. Hence to be righteous is to be
most ethical in hfe. Read such declarations
as the following: Amos 5. 21; Hos. 4. 6;
Isa. 11. 4; Mic. 6. 6-12; Jer. 23.
Who to-day can be strong and good with
out the absorption of these hving ideas? The
elemental needs of hfe are found in the
prophet's creed: (1) a worthy and dominat
ing ideal, (2) a conscious intimacy with
God, (3) a resolute and helpful social life.
Thus, to be intelligently good is to be in
finitely great.
The Prophetic Standard of Morality
The prophets made a high standard of
morality the chief concern of Israel's God.
No ancient nation was without its moral de
mands. Egypt, as witnessed in her Book of
the Dead, had a religion full of moral pre
cepts though largely negative in tone. An
cient Babylon had its moral codes and gov
erning customs, calculated to regulate
human hfe and social relations, as minutely
revealed in the Code of Hammurabi. The
ethical codes of other ancient peoples were
buttressed on religion as was the Hebrew

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY 159
code. What, then, was the essential differ
ence between them? The prophetic distinc
tion of ethics hes in its elevation and in the
insistence upon taking it seriously. The
prophetic standing of ethics became an is
sue, paramount to authorized religious cus
toms. They portrayed Jehovah as the uni
versal embodiment of right living. Other
peoples could call upon theb gods for help
in misfortune or for vengeance upon an
enemy brespective of the ethics involved.
But Israel, according to prophetic interpre
tation, could hope for divine aid only when
her cause was just. It was this preeminence
which distinguished the Hebrew prophets
from all other ancient teachers. Even He
brew priests failed to appreciate the high
ground taken by the prophets. The anger
of Jehovah was never more aroused than
over flagrant and repeated violations of the
universal moral requbements. (See Amos
1, 2; Hosea 3, 4; Isa. 1-4; Jer. 7. 1-15.)
Hence, with them ethical demands took no
account of national boundaries, racial differ
ences, or social rank. All must subscribe to
God's moral demands or encounter his

160 THE PROPHETS
wrath. This was an unprecedented and
polar advance in the world's morahty. This
in itself raised Israel to a new standard, a
higher plane of existence, and marked her
history as different from that of her neigh
bors.

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY 161

CHAPTER IX
THE PROPHETS AND THEIR
RELIGION
In Mr. Britling Sees It Through the
author has turned his dazzling intellectual
search-hght upon his own religious strug
gle. At the startling news that his own boy,
Hugh, is off for the front, Mr. Britling, the
hero of the novel, spends a wakeful night
thinking-— thinking: "How stupidly the
world is managed! Our only strategy was
to barter blood for blood — trusting that our
tank would prove the deeper. While in this
tank stepped Hugh, young and smihng.
. . . Hugh wrote more frequently than his
father had dared to hope. . . . Mr. Britling
had the greatest difficulty in writing back.
There were many grave things he wanted to
say, and never did. . . . Once or twice, with
a half-unconscious imitation of his boy's
style, he took a shot at the theological and
philosophical hares that Hugh had started.

162 THE PROPHETS
. . . There are many things of that sort that
are good to think and hard to say. . . ."
One feels that way about taking a "shot"
at the prophet's religion. There are things
"that are good to think about and hard to
say." It may seem odd to some that one
need speak of the prophets' religion. It is a
matter, of course, taken for granted. How
ever, let us risk a "shot" at the cardinal
"hares" which make up the personal faith
of the prophets. We might as well own up
to it that we cannot let "things of that sort"
alone. "For good or ill we are incurably
religious." Our restless theological "hares"
have to be exposed to an occasional gun
ning. The Prophets' Spiritual Attitude
First, we may note that their whole hfe
was charged with spirituality. It was a
psychic state of mind. They had an ear for
God as the musician has for sound or as the
painter has an eye for sunsets. God lay
back of all theb motives and powers as a
mighty hving force. The whole man was
open, wide open, to spiritual values. The

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY 163
prophet was orientated in eternity. The
past, present, and future lay spread out in
an eternal purpose and grasp, watched over
by the unsleeping but unseen eye of God.
He grasped and related all the broken
threads of existence in the one eternal idea
of the will of God. His preaching and his
teaching, his political and social activities
were rooted in the same soil — his dominat
ing spbitual passion for an eternal reahty.
God stood under the prophet's conviction
like an adamantine foundation. The vague
but confident feehng that one's soul rests in
God is true rehgion.
Man's chief concern is not how to exist
but how to live — how to live and get others
to struggle in the light of a right standard
of conduct; to teach man how he should
think, feel, and act in his complex social re
lations is a huge task. Human happiness
and social progress must be solved, or re
solved, in conduct and character; and char
acter must be builded upon an adequate
ideal. The Hebrew prophets set forth and
urged a dominating ideal. The center of
theb ideal was the God of righteousness,

164 THE PROPHETS
and their passionate preaching aimed at a
reign of righteousness among men. Hence
the prophets gave a new impetus to the He
brew moral consciousness. They taught with
freshness, authority, and originahty because
they were charged to the fingers' ends with
the eternal elixb. They gave, therefore,
new interpretations of hfe, of religion, of
ethics, of history, and of society. They uni
versalized the rehgion of God; they moral
ized his character; they purified rehgion;
they intensified personal worth ; they spiritu
alized worship ; they ideahzed the future and
they laid the basis for a new social order.
To know the rehgion and the morals of
the prophets is, therefore, of supreme im
portance. The Prophets' Writing as Religious
Instruction
Even the historical books of the Old
Testament are prophetic productions, writ
ten in the spirit of prophetism to teach moral
and spbitual lessons. This was recognized
by Hebrew scholars, who divided the entire
Old Testament into three sections: (1) The

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY 165
Book of the Law, comprising the five books
of the Pentateuch; (2) The Book of the
Prophets, divided mto two sections, (a) the
"Former Prophets," the historical books of
Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings, (&)
the "Latter Prophets," divided into four,
Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the Twelve;
(3) The Writings, which make up the chief
poetic, dramatic, and the late historical
books. The "former" prophetic histories
appear to have been composed in part from
(a) an early Juda^an history, and (&) an
early Ephraimite history, freely drawn
upon by later Hebrew scholars.
The chief character of the records from
Joshua to Kings is that of religious instruc
tion through history. The book of Joshua
preaches the sermon of the mighty hand of
Jehovah which was with Joshua in the con
quest of Canaan, the land of promise (Gen.
15. 18; Deut. 11. 24; Josh. 1. 1-9; 5. 13-15).
The book of Judges preaches prophetic ser
mons in history to impress the simple truth
that God rewards national vbtue and pun
ishes national vice. "The children of Israel
did that which was evil in the sight of the

166 THE PROPHETS
Lord," is an oft repeated text (2. 11; 3. 7;
4.1). The books of Samuel preach through his
tory the sermons of the religious progress of
Israel under God-fearing leaders.
The books of Kings give the prophetic
protest against wicked and worldly kings
who cause Israel and Judah to sin. These
histories, then, are histories tempered in the
prophetic religious experiences with God.
The later prophetic books are, of course, ob
viously sermonic in character, and in com
position. They ring with the preacher's call
and throb with fervent appeals. They are
styled in dbect speech. We do well, there
fore, to observe the rehgion of the prophets
and to ask what the religious factors were
which made up the splendor of theb hves.
Their own religious hfe, then, merits our
attention. The Prophet's Consciousness of God
First is the prophet's own inner sense of
God, looked at as a unique personal experi
ence. These men, as has been noted, were
God-intoxicated. They had the sense of

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY 167
pleasurable, personal communion with God.
They were recognized by the common peo
ple, on this account, as the "man of God"
(1 Sam. 9. 10), as spokesmen for God (Jer.
23), as possessors of God's mind who could,
therefore, lift the veil of the future, if Je
hovah permitted it (Dan. 10. 1).
They were themselves conscious of the
closest communion with God (Jer. 31. 16-
19) . They spoke to God as to a fellow man
(Jer. 11. 23-25). They heard God speak
to them (Zech. 4. 1). They were called to
their prophetic tasks by God himself in some
supernatural manifestation (Ezek. 1, 2).
Whatever the outward cbcumstance, the
inner experience was real.
This was possible only on the supposition
that God had created at the center of the
prophet's soul a sense of divine companion
ship. He was, therefore, convinced of being
God's mouthpiece, God's anointed. Here is
fundamentally a sense of hving unity rather
than a thought refinement from which
springs his personal God-life and his doc
trines of rehgion. Hence, it is Jehovah who
sends him, empowers him, befriends him,

168 THE PROPHETS
enhghtens him, inspires him, and uses him.
It is as the friend of God that the prophet
faces mob, court, or priest to satisfy his God-
friend. Is it possible for men now to so realize the
enveloping presence of God? So, at least,
believed the prophets (Joel 2. 28, 29) . They
had no idea that it was peculiar to them or
their age (Zech. 9. 9, 10). To-day, when
science speaks with authority the words of
inflexible law, we seem to imagine the world
bound in fetters of determinism. Hence
timid souls find it hard to believe in the
direct inner touch of the Spirit. Humble
followers of God, however, still experience
the touch of a quickening hand. Is law
stronger than God? Or, is God the strength
of law? Is he who inhabits eternity ordered
by law, or doth he order all according to law?
Nature with her laws is one side of God's
great universe; and soul, with spbitual
order, is the other. "Hast thou not known?
Hast thou not heard, that the everlasting
God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of
the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary?"
(Isa. 40. 28). How may we reach God in

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY 169
this matter-of-fact age? The prophet's
world was instinct with God. Shall we be
lieve that he spake only in books of the dead,
and doubt whether he speaks now in the
souls of the living? "For I am the Lord, I
change not" (Mai. 3. 6), was the prophetic
belief. In this age of "insurrection of
doubt" we need the prophet's call to a resto
ration of faith. If we face upward, we
shall better go forward.
The Prophets' Piety
The prophets were men of genuine piety.
"Piety" is not a very attractive word to use
because it is a term now held in contempt
by many as standing for something flabby
and unreal. It is, nevertheless, the term
which best expresses what the writer wants
to convey, since there is a real piety which
everyone respects. Dictionary piety is
dangerous; advertised piety is punctihOus;
individual piety may glory in superior sanc
tity; collective piety may take dehght in
litany; but true piety is natural, sponta
neous, and a matter of the heart. The piety
which the prophets possessed was the fra-

170 THE PROPHETS
grance of the divine life which surged
through them hke God's life in the rose.
They just could not help living fragrant
lives. True piety is not forced ; it is fed. It
is not manufactured; it is manifested.
Let us call to mind for a moment the
defects of the popular piety in Israel dur
ing the prophetic tunes. First of all, piety
was then prescribed, mapped out. It con
sisted in doing certain things which were
thought sacred. The average Hebrew be
heved himself pious if he said his prayers
three times a day facing the temple, if he
kept prescribed feasts and fasts, if he offered
customary sacrifices and observed the regu
lar Sabbaths, if he went thrice yearly to the
feasts and joined in the ritual, if he gave
gifts to Jehovah and alms to the poor, and
if he kept the commandments in form even
though he broke them in spirit. Now, there
is good in religious forms, but Hebrew piety
was shpping into barren formalism, so that
the same people who were formally good
were, in practical living affairs, actually
wicked. It is just this contemptible
"piosity" which the prophets so vehemently

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY 171
denounced. Let Amos voice the feehng of
all the prophets in this regard when he
counseled: "Seek the Lord, and ye shall
live; ... ye who turn judgment to worm
wood, and leave off righteousness in the
earth, . . . for I know your manifold trans
gressions and your mighty sins. . . . Seek
good, and not evil, that ye may hve: and
so the Lord, the God of hosts, shall be with
you, as ye have spoken" (Amos 5) . Is not
the condition at this hour the same in spirit
though different in form? Millions go to
mass or meetings, sing their songs, chant
their collects, offer their gifts, and feel reli
gious; while child-labor, sweatshop oppres
sion, cutthroat competition, municipal graft,
slum tenements, white-slave traffic, and the
rum evil flourish all about them; and the
worst is that they can hardly be moved with
compassion for the multitude affected there-
by. Prophetic piety gripped the very inner
most soul. These men gave and urged wor
ship in very truth and spbit. Set forms,
stated hours, prescribed feasts, and all the
pious machinery they held to be meaningless

172 THE PROPHETS
noise unless the very spirit of hfe itself was
true and genuine. Life in toto was sacred
and not given moments or certain postures,
or staged days and seasons. It called for
constant spbitual renewal at hfe's center.
"For mine eyes have seen the King, the
Lord of hosts" (Isa. 6. 5).
The Religion of Prophet Versus Priest
In the religion of the prophets there was
a sharp cleavage between the worth of the
ritual life and the value of the real life.
With the priest, the right sanctuary life
was fundamental; with the prophet, the
right social life was cardinal. The priest
placed sacrifices of beasts foremost, while
he complacently tolerated bad morahty; the
prophet placed morality uppermost, while
he tolerated sacrifices (2 Sam. 24; Hos. 6.
6). How could this sacrificial practice have
gained first place in the priestly sanction,
if it were as objectionable as the prophets
protested? Devout and conscientious men
do not perpetuate with vigor wholly worth-

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY 173
less practices as cardinal issues; for, after
all is said, the priests were devout persons
who strove to honor God. It is, therefore,
a difference of viewpoint honestly held be
tween priest and prophet as to whether the
cardinal issue in loyalty to God rested in
ritual righteousness or in real righteousness.
How, then, shall we explain the critical at
titude of the prophets and the clinging at
titude of the priests toward the sacrificial
cultus? The sacrificial system, hke all good
things wrongly placed, contained for Israel
both social and religious worth which
priestly zeal had raised to the highest pitch
until it actually superseded morahty. There
was much in sacrifices which contributed to
the hfe of the ancients. The popular notion
of eating a friendly meal with Jehovah satis
fied the human craving for divine comrade
ship in the earthly hfe. For what else is
rehgion but hving, loving companionship
with God? "We and God have business
with each other," said William James. The
thought too of bringing (to the altar) a gift
which the worshiper prized highly and

174 THE PROPHETS
which he beheved Jehovah would value, fed
the human sense of honoring one's superior
and insuring men of Deity's continued pro
tection and favor.
The sacrificial cultus gamed sanction and
high favor, no doubt, also from the fact that
it contributed much to Israel's hfe. It was
an age barren of a rich, complex social hfe,
lacking our modern conveniences and curses.
The pilgrim feasts at famous shrines were
social equivalents of to-day. As every
sacrifice involves a feast and every feast a
sacrifice, the sanctuary place was yearly, or
thrice yearly, swarming with gaily attbed
Israelites, happy and sociable. All joined
in music and song, laughter and gaiety, eat
ing and drinking, visiting and worshiping.
These religious feasts became the social cen
ters of Israel's life.
No wonder that the sacrificial feasts
gained great sanctity, and that they were
supposed to please Jehovah more than all
else. No wonder there were temptations
to abuse. No wonder they rose above
morahty in the heart of the Canaanite peo
ple. No wonder that over this ritual sys-

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY 175
tern the priest and prophet clashed to the
bitter end. No wonder that here centered
the issues of church reform. Hence, while
priest cried, "Ritual before morahty,"
prophet protested, "Morahty before ritual."
"To what purpose is the multitude of your
sacrifices unto me? saith the Lord," cried
the eloquent Isaiah. "I am full of the
burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed
beasts; and I delight not in the blood of
bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats. . . .
If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat
the good of the land" (Isa. 1. 11, 19).
The Hebraic struggle between Ritualism
and Vitalism as the church's primary func
tion culminated in Judaism, a compromise
between ritual and moral supremacy. The
age of the prophet was followed by the
age of the priest. The priest stepped into
the place vacated by the prophet. The
spiritual fires of the prophet were ex
changed for the altar fires of the priest.
"After all, the paramount object of the
church is neither an impressive ritual, nor
correct doctrinal behef, nor emotional en
thusiasm, nor ecclesiastical efficiency. The

176 THE PROPHETS
paramount object of the church is the hu
man soul; these other objects are secondary
and subsidiary."
The Prophets' Religious Mysticism
In the rehgion of the prophets there was
what we may call the mystical sense. The
prophets, hke all great spbitual leaders,
were rehgious mystics ; that is, they felt and
faithed themselves in some immediate, some
invisible, and often undefined influence
which touched and fired theb earthly hves
and made them partakers of the tuneless
and spaceless, the immaterial and imperish
able reality. This was something more and
better than merely a mental solution of hfe's
mysteries. It was the soul's resting place,
where alone is found abiding satisfaction
for the troubled heart. This "over-life,"
which the prophets sensed, took the doc
trinal form in their theology of the suprem
acy of Jehovah — God over all (Isa. 40).
The prophets rested with confidence in
the unchanging purposes of God. They
beheved that God had mapped out a pro-

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY 177
gram and would carry it through. While
empbes changed and opinions shifted, the
prophets held theb certainty. They stood
unmoved when others doubted. They calmly
awaited the issues when kings despaired of
the outcome. They remained serene in the
face of insufferable difficulties. "In quiet
ness and in confidence shall be your
strength" (Isa. 30. 15). This mysticism
sometimes runs to excess and to pantheism,
but it is not necessary that it be so. It may
also run to a sane and scientific personalism
in nature.
The prophets lived and behaved as if
cared for by some one invisible. Whether
it is possible to scientifically prove that there
be the One who cares or not, the great un
assailable fact remains that men and women
have such experiences: beheve that they are
divinely cared for, and feel themselves sus
tained by a mighty hand. Such a sense is
certain to pitch life to a higher key. Blind
Milton felt it when he cried, "I cannot write
till the spirit comes." George Eliot was
dimly conscious of it when she said, "The
best I have ever written came I know not

178 THE PROPHETS
from whence." Was it not this same divine
security which enabled Longfellow to write
those sweet words over the death of his
child? — "Last night the angels came, and
little Lucy went with them." Or Whittier,
with tear-filled eyes, hsping this stanza:
"In thoughts which answer to my own,
In words which reach my inward ear,
Like whispers from the void Unknown,
I feel thy living presence here."
It was Tennyson's feeling, too, when he
wrote: "That good shall fall
At last — far off — at last, to all,
And every winter change to spring."
To have converse with God is not a fanci
ful theory of theology, nor is inspiration "a
clot of blood on the brain" ; but a practical,
sohd, undeniable reahty experienced by mil
lions this very hour. An ounce of actual
experience with God is worth a ton of the
best theory concerning these matters. One
swallow of water upon the hps is to the
thbsty worth an ocean full of theory about

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY 179
water. "O taste and see that the Lord is
good" (Psa. 34. 8).
"There is a larger view,
There is a deeper breath,
And a diviner sound,
Than sense can e'er reveal.
To see the glory in the Infinite,
To feel the breath of the Almighty,
To hear the voice of the I Am —
This is to live."
Are we not now living in a time of re
turning mysticism? The world has grown
restless in the clanking shackles of material
ism. Matter, force, and motion to the
modern mind are hke offering stones for
bread. They satisfy not. The sense of a
great pervasive Presence in all hfe cannot
still the mental and moral hunger of the
soul so long as it is pictured as moving atoms
and abstract force. It must have breathed
into it the breath of hfe and become a hving
soul.
"Behind the dim unknown
Standeth God within the shadow keeping watch
above his own."

180 THE PROPHETS
"Speak to him, thou, for he hears, and spirit with
spirit can meet —
Closer is he than breathing, and nearer than
hands and feet."

Such are the songs upon the hps of modern
poet and ancient prophet ahke. This per
sonal view answers best to hfe's yearning
call. The best witness to truth is found in
hfe itself. The most rehable assumption
concerning the invisible order is that one
upon which the soul best thrives. Our in
tuition of God outbids our cold intellect
about him. God may not be demonstrated,
but he is divined. Science with all its noble
work has sometimes attempted to view this
world as a f atahstic mass of stuff doomed to
eternal recurrence. Logic may seek to
justify, but hfe invariably rejects whatever
smothers the soul. The soul must have its
air, food, and hght in order to hve and
grow, no less than must the body. Every
where there is a growing evidence of a re
turning faith in a spiritual reahty. Modern
prophet, poet, philosopher, and even the
scientist, invest in spbitual liberty bonds.

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY 181
Philosophers hke Royce, Eucken, and
Bergson are dissolving Spencer's material
ism, as a mode of cosmic activity, into Spirit,
or Life, or Consciousness of some kind as
the ultimate reahty. Popular books of fic
tion are breathing more freely the spiritual
atmosphere. The common mass is feverishly
attracted by the psychic, occult, and mys
tical demonstrations, cults, and plays. Wit
ness the run of such psychical plays as The
Mystic Mba in the leading theaters of the
day, or the reading of Bennett's psycho
logical novels. These are omens of the ap
proach of a new spiritual trend. Though
its expression be often sickly and senti
mental, the spbitual is really striving to be
heard1 and seen.
It is for the modern prophet in the hving
church of God to give it life and form, so
that the present age shall be able to view
the world in a spbitual setting, in which
atoms become sparks of divine life; force,
divine power; law, eternal purpose; ulti
mate reality, personal life; and the great
God over all. For, as Emerson said, "The
world was built in order and the atoms

182 THE PROPHETS
march in tune." Then religion and science,
physics and ethics, psychology and spbitu-
ality, work and worship, will have friendly
relations and congenial resting places,
thank God! We have reason to think that
this is taking place to-day. Listen to the
kindly words of present-day scientific au
thorities. The distinguished scientist Sir
Wilham Thompson has said, "We are
bound to come to the conclusion that science
is not antagonistic to rehgion, but a help
to it." The great physicist Sb Ohver
Lodge has generously recorded his rehgious
attitude in these words: "I believe in one
infinite and eternal Being, a guiding and
loving Father in whom all things consist."
Professor Meeham has confessed that
"Scientific studies have strengthened my
faith, strengthened it, indeed, to an extent
that no study besides could have effected"
(Bibhcal World, July, 1916, page 7).
Our greatest living scientists are strong
behevers in a Personahstic Universe and
friends of the Christian faith.
The rule of the ancient mystics may be a
fresh call to the modern mind. "Shut the

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY 183
door of the senses and open the inward win
dows of the soul." For, as the poet wrote,
"The world is too much with us ; late and soon
Getting and spending we lay waste our powers."
"The heart of all rehgion is a spbitual
experience."

184 THE PROPHETS

CHAPTER X
THE PROPHETS AND THETR
POLITICS
In Tom Brown at Rugby the author gives
this choice bit of advice to the boys after
one of theb fist fights : "As to fighting, keep
out of it if you can, by all means. When
the time comes, if it should, that you have
to say 'yes' or 'no' to a challenge to fight,
say 'no' if you can. . . . But don't say 'no'
if you fear a licking ; . . . and if you fight,
fight it out ; and don't give in while you can
stand and see."
The prophet was a clear-eyed, cool-
headed fighter from his sandaled feet to his
sun-beaten head. The prophets were obhged
to "fight." If they were to stand for Israel's
redemption, they had no choice in the face
of political conditions but to "fight it out,"
not with fists, but by faith ; not with spears,
but by principles. They loved peace but
they loved righteousness more.. The

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY 185
prophets as pohtical reformers were indeed
men of dauntless and unbendable fiber.
"The bullet will hit the mark," says Emer
son, "which is first dipped in the marksman's
blood." The fearless, forceful prophets, free from
the bondage of impure imagery, unham
pered by material anxieties, disentangled
from social restraints, and independent of
all patrimony, possessed of only a few great
truths which they held with towering te
nacity, could without reserve express their
honest convictions upon any and every sub
ject which touched the good of the Israel-
itic state. This they did freely without fear
or favor. Above all, the prophets were men
of the highest ideals, the clearest discern
ment, and the sincerest conscience.
Facing the Political Fury
How often the modern preacher is irri
tated, and sometimes mtimidated by being
told, "Stick to the gospel and let business
and pohtics alone." The real minister
knows too well the hypocrisy which lurks
behind such admonition. The man's busi-

186 THE PROPHETS
ness or pohtics, who offers the injunction,
is probably shady. At such tunes prudence
hammers at the door and sympathy turns
devil's advocate. Shall the man of God
"measure up to the test of full pews and
swelling receipts" or speak the full counsel
of God and "face the fury"? The bread-
and-butter prophets were on hand before the
time of Amos, and theb progeny is with us
at the present time ; so are also the Amoses,
thank God ! Modern preachers, hke ancient
prophets, face the same task of getting busi
ness and pohtics under the sway of divine
righteousness. As bearers of the divine
truth they seek to bring righteousness mto
every phase of human hfe. The realms of
business and pohtics have largely excluded
the claims of righteousness. In these do
mains temptation to overreach is so tre
mendous, evil is so powerfully intrenched
behind bulwarks of custom, intrigue, wealth,
and organization that, as yet, hardly the
first trenches have been taken and some of
these have been retaken. The gospel must
find a welcome in government, or war and
wickedness will continue unabated.

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY 187
The Law of the Jungle
There is work to be done. The man of
God must hammer the modern conscience
at the point of its unsocial activity until it
quivers with discomfort and smarts with
shame. Does not Kipling's Law of the
Jungle still rule over the pohtical domain?
Is it not strange that men are capable,
on the one hand, of fine private lives, excel
lent domestic relations, and even reverent
church devotions, while, on the other hand,
the same persons can complacently carry on
pohtical or business careers by the laws of
the jungle? This they frequently do, or
seem to do, without inner distresses of con
science. What does such a condition imply?
Does it not indicate that the message of the
past has been mainly the gospel of private
righteousness? Does it not also mean that
the gospel of pohtical righteousness has been
neglected? The same standards of hfe, the
same principles of conduct are not applied
in private and pubhc hfe. "Politics is
pohtics and business is business," is the dic
tum. These two ungospeled far countries

188 THE PROPHETS
must be invaded and evangehzed by a fear
less pohtical gospel of downright rectitude.
The modern clergyman feels that Hodder,
the rector of Saint John's, is voicing his
soul: "Ye 're going to preach all this?" Mc-
Crea demanded, almost fiercely. "Yes,"
Hodder replied, "and more. ... If it were
merely a matter of doctrine, I would resign.
It's deeper than that, more sinister." Hod
der doubled up his hand and laid it on the
table. "It's a matter," he said, looking into
McCrea's eyes, "of freeing this church from
those who now hold it in chains, and the two
questions I now see clearly — the doctrinal
and the economic — are so interwoven as to
be inseparable."
Private Good and Corporate Greed
Men of our tune must be made to feel
that they are bad, infernally bad, unless
they are as good in corporate and political
conduct as they are in domestic relations,
and that they apply the same moral laws
as rigidly in the one as in the other. In the
enormous social complexity, the fierce eco
nomic conflict, the unabated modern radical-

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY 189
ism, the caustic appeals to class hatred, and
the breakdown of old forms of authority,
there is urgent need for daring, determined,
eloquent, spbitual leaders who see the issues
clearly and who will put them compellingly
to the modern conscience. There must be
an appeal to conscience which will win.
How shall we account for the keen pro
phetic interest in matters of state? What
was there in the faith of the prophets that
made them extend theb divine mission to
pohtical reform? Several elements appear
with prominence.
Prophetic Appeal to National Life
The prophet regarded himself as the
divine ambassador to the divinely chosen
people in their national life. The people of
Israel beheved that the prophet was com
missioned of God to furnish guidance in the
political turmoil of that age. He could not,
therefore, escape being a pohtical agitator.
Matters of state fell naturally under the
prophetic mission. Inevitably, therefore, in
every national struggle he fought for Israel's

190 THE PROPHETS
national preservation. The Hebrew state
was looked upon as a necessary agency to
help Israel forward in its march to the City
of God.
Prophetic Appeal Through the
Church in the State
The pohtical activity of the prophet was
further wrapped up in his religion because
Israel's religion found expression in a state
church. There was no thought in Israel,
as with us, of a sharp separation between
church and state, religion and pohtics. Be
fore the exile to Babylon the state controlled
the church; after the exile the church ruled
the state. In preexile times the king often
usurped priestly functions; in postexile
times the priest played the role of king.
The interests of state and church merged.
They seemed never to have been clearly de
fined; their respective boundary hnes were
never definitely surveyed and marked off
from each other. Since the rehgious hfe of
his people was so dependent upon the state,
pohtics and the good of the state found
large interests in the prophet's activity.

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY 191
Prophetic Plea for Political Ideas
The prophet found political activity at
tractive also because his consuming concern
was the glory and the perpetuity of the
kingdom of God. Most prophets were far
more eager to save the national hfe of
Israel as Jehovah's chosen people, than to
save individual Israehtes. They had, of
course, concern for the individual and his
good, but, primarily, in view of his mem
bership in the state. The individual was of
worth to the state, but had no significance
apart from the nation. Jehovah was, there
fore, most often thought of under the
figures of King (Psa. 24. 10), Ruler (Isa.
9. 16), Judge (Psa. 75. 15), Prince (Isa.
9. 6). Hence, the rehgious figures were
figures of state and state rulers. Jehovah
was Supreme Ruler, whose will was law, and
whose purpose was Israel's goal. Only ad
herence to the divine ideal would insure
national glory. This is good doctrine for
any nation.Prophetic Political Principles
What were the pohtical principles held

192 THE PROPHETS
dear by the Hebrew prophets? They cer
tainly did not struggle for the mere con
tinuance of the nation. They held that the
perpetuity of Israel's national life rested
upon certain eternal principles which under
lay all sound government. What, then, did
the prophets strive to attain in their pohtical
reforms? The Hebrew kings and nobles all too
often relied upon material strength for
national success and safety. The size of
armies, the safety in walls, the astuteness of
diplomacy, the splendor of courts, and the
matrimonial ties with surrounding nations
constituted theb principal defenses. The
prophets, on the other hand, almost uni
formly placed theb chief reliance for na
tional safety upon the loyalty to Jehovah's
will, trust in Divine Providence, purity and
integrity in private hfe, justice and mercy
in social obligations, majesty of law, and
the equality of every Hebrew in the guaran
tee of his rights. The age-long struggle
between kings and prophets centered about
these two views of national security. It is
the old human struggle between material

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY 193
and spiritual supremacy in the earth. Kings
were concerned with things of the passing
moment, the prophets wrought for endur
ing ethical foundations.
The prophets championed the cause of
national liberty for the good of all the peo
ple against the usurpations of ambitious
rulers and aggressive national neighbors.
Several matters claimed attention in order
to safeguard Israel's hberties.
Competent Leadership
The prophets took an active hand in
securing competent leaders for the nation.
Prophets became king-makers. Samuel
selected Saul and David (1 Sam. 9. 17; 16.
12-13) ; Nathan used his political strength
in the royal intrigues at David's death to
advance Solomon to the throne over the
older son, Adonijah (1 Kings 1. 22-41);
Isaiah and Jeremiah played important parts
in the councils of state (Isa. 7, 8). Thus,
the pohtical activities of prophets helped to
make and unmake kings and to mold the
fortunes of the Hebrew state. The key to
modern reform is competent leadership.

194 THE PROPHETS
Property Protection
The prophets undertook to guard the an
cient rights of the Hebrew landowners
against the growing aggressions of power
ful kings and nobles. The ancient law of
Israel held every man's homestead sacred
and inviolable. When, therefore, King
Ahab was disappointed in an attempt to buy
Naboth's vineyard, a small homestead of
a humble Israelite, which the king wanted
in order to enlarge his royal grounds, his
daring queen, Jezebel, by intrigue, procured
it for him. The matter might have passed
and a dangerous precedent have been estab
lished which succeeding kings might have
usurped in confiscating small farms for their
royal estate. But the dramatic prophet
Elijah fearlessly and vehemently defended
the sacred right of property — and thus pre
vented a ruthless pohcy of pohtical pilfer
ing of small landholders. Through the
political opposition of Eh jah and Ehsha,
the reigning house of Ahab was eventually
overthrown, its members destroyed, and the
new house of Jehu established in Israel (1

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY 195
Kings 19; 2 Kings 9). For five hundred
years thereafter the prophets stood boldly
against unjust aggressions of the rich and
the secularization of life by visionless priests.
The prophets stood unalterably opposed to
all autocratic rule in Israel. They jealously
protested against forced labor, heathen im
portation, and kingly tolerance of foreign
rehgious cults and customs. Hence the
God-fearing prophet stood between pluto
crats and people, kings and serfs, pohticians
and poverty. Ahab spoke of Elijah as "he
that troubleth Israel" (1 Kings 18. 17).
Evils of Entangling Alliances
The prophets, moreover, pleaded for na
tional aloofness. They had no faith in en
tangling alliances. Hence, they counseled
freedom from all secret compacts with other
nations. They preached trust in Jehovah
and the building of the state upon the en
during foundations of justice, freedom,
mercy, and loyalty to the Supreme God.
Thus, when pohtical disaster threatened the
state, the prophets availed themselves of the

196 THE PROPHETS
opportunity to urge upon them Jehovah's
demand for social morahty and spbitual
worship. The ancient prophet saw in the
long, long ago what is sun-clear now in the
European turmoil — that "secret alliances"
and "balance of power" are unsafe pohtical
counsels (Isa. 30. 1-7).
Victor Hugo once wrote that the voice of
the people is a fearful and sacred voice,
which is composed of the roar of the brute
and the speech of God that terrifies the
feeble and warns the wise. "The voice of
God" is, of course, not always reflected in
the "voice of the people," but, in the long
run, it is safer than the "divine right of
kings." No self-constituted class of per
sons is or can be wise and good enough to
fix the political good of all.
The prophets, however, seemed to believe
that God's spirit was so diffused through
the hfe of Israel as to make the people's
fundamental cry the call of God. They saw
in the mingling, combining, colliding con
fusion of popular party struggles a mighty
divine tide sweeping on to the supreme goal
of a glorious kingdom of God. After every

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY 197
ebb and tide there comes "flooding in the
main; and God's will is more perfectly done
in terms of human hfe."

The Struggle for Mastery
In Israel's midst there were two opposing
forces strugghng for mastery. On the one
hand, the conservatives — time-serving self
ish aristocracy which usually found kings
and politicians their representatives, then
as now; on the other hand, the progressives
— liberty-loving, independent minority
which found expression through the sturdy
prophets. The conflict raged with terrific
blows of fierce eloquence by the one and
intimidating brute force by the other. Then,
as is the case among us now, these two
tendencies struggled for supremacy in the
life of the government. They lie, have al
ways lain, at the roots of human life. "The
uprising of the people," Roosevelt once
said, "is mightier and wiser than conserva
tive law." Aggressive personalities like
Lincoln, rising from the common people,
led the popular unrest to victory.

198 THE PROPHETS
The Better World in the Making
Is it not this divine tide that has been ris
ing, ever rising through the centuries, which
has swept away many ancient oppressions
— slavery, feudalism, dueling, and serfdom?
Other oppressions, more modern, are crack
ing and crumbling under the pitiless modern
exposures by painters and poets, prophets
and preachers, philosophers and novehsts,
statesmen and reformers. An old English
adage has it:
"The law makes that man a felon
Who steals a goose from the common ;
But leaves the greater felons loose
Who steal the common from the goose."
By means of new forms of exploitation
under democracy, while we have shouted
ourselves hoarse about the great American
principles of democracy — freedom of wor
ship, freedom of speech, freedom of con
tract — the monopoly of big business has
forged the shackles of "moneyed plutoc
racy" about our feet. "We are face to
face with this burning issue," writes a recent

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY 199
economist; "shall our civilization be help
fully democratic or selfishly plutocratic, with
millions of the people paying tribute to
corporations, whose possession of natural
resources and control of strategic advan
tages enable them to dictate prices and fat
ten at the pubhc expense?" "Coal fields,
timber belts, mechanical trades, farm prod
ucts," writes another, "have all passed into
monopohstic control for a song." Yet an
other writes, "It strikes at the roots of
democracy." How are the present hving problems in
the pohtical and social turmoil to be solved?
The oppressions of pooled wealth, the men
ace of class hatred, the fury of organized
violence, the shame of city slums, the foul
ness of crowded tenements, the corporate
exploitation of amusements, and the pluto
cratic control of the press — these are new
forms of the ancient oppressions which call
for new applications of the old prophetic
spbit and principles to solve them. The
modern preacher, hke the ancient prophet,
is called upon to interpret these problems in
the light of eternal demands. God hates in-

200 THE PROPHETS
justice and wrong in every form and under
every name. The eternal issue is drawn;
rehgion and pohtics, economics and ethics,
education and science, ideahty and prac
ticality, prayer and progress, God and man,
clergyman and congressman, all mingle in
the turmoil. Out of the dust and smoke of
the struggle progress is perceived. Our God
is marching on, and so is humanity. "The
prophet made an inestimable contribution
to the life of the state, but the life of the
state was an imperative necessity to the
prophet." We have set ourselves the task
of making democracy real and thoroughgo
ing. We now dream of making "the world
safe for democracy." The church must
make democracy safe for the world by mak
ing it Christian.

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY 201

CHAPTER XI
THE PROPHETS AND THEIR
PREDICTIONS
The coming of the prophets mto the
midst of Israel pitched her rehgious inter
ests upon the borderland of the future. The
hoary past and the vivid present were tele
scoped into the lurid future. The prophets
beheved, and it was beheved of them, that
they could tap the unseen world of its
secrets (Ezek. 7). For this reason, they
were held in highest esteem in Israel and
were frequently consulted on matters of im
portance relating to the future. We, no
doubt, revere the prophets most on account
of theb godly hves and their moral integrity,
but the Hebrew people thought otherwise.
To them the moral elevation of the prophets
was mostly unwelcome, while their insight
mto the hidden mysteries of the future gave
them standing (1 Kmgs 22).

202 THE PROPHETS
It was an ancient behef that God had all
knowledge of the future as of the past, and
that sometimes, when he chose to do so, he
revealed such knowledge to the prophets
(Amos 3. 7). People consequently sought
the prophets with gifts in order to learn
whether some proposed enterprise would
prove successful or not (1 Sam. 9. 5-14).
Mankind has always loved a mystery and,
above everything else, a glunpse into the
future, for there lie hfe's hidden secrets.
That is why every age has had its seers, its
fortune tellers, its soothsayers, and its
palmists who deal in future events (Luke 1.
70). It is well to remind ourselves at this
point, that while Israel had thousands of
seers and prophets, true and false, less than
a score of them rose to high worth and last
ing fame. "Mine heart within me is broken
because of the prophets; . . . for both
prophet and priest are profane," Jeremiah
complained (Jer. 23. 9, II). As for the
bread-and-butter prophets, they were little
more than Oriental fortune-tellers, predict
ing for pay (1 Kings 14. 22; Jer. 23).
Hence when we talk about the prophets we

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY 203
usually have in mind the noble few who rose
to rehgious eminence in Israel and whose
writings constitute at the present the loftiest
spbitual literature in the Old Testament.
Use and Abuse of Prediction
Did the prophets forecast future events
in an extraordinary manner? No one, I
think, can carefully and candidly read the
prophetic records of the Old Testament
without being aware of the intuitive sweep
of vision that passes at tunes across the
borderland of bare human insight. The
ordinary visual limit is transcended by these
men; not always, not even generally, but
sometimes, they scan the horizon hke a
searchlight and expose dark corners far dis
tant from the place and time they occupy.
At such rare moments they speak in the sure
consciousness of men who have learned of
God; they appear to stand in the presence
of unborn generations, and, like Bellamy's
Looking Backward, describe anticipatory
events as if they constituted past history.
Furthermore, there appears upon the his
toric horizon no other group of men of equal

204 THE PROPHETS
inspirational foresight in matters of national
movements. In this regard the Hebrew
prophets of the Old Testament were nothing
less than unique.
Bible incidents are not wanting in which
both good and bad uses of divine secrets are
made. Take, for instance, the left-handed
Ehud, a crafty warrior of Benjamin, who,
in order to secure audience with the king of
Moab, pretended to have a secret message
from God (Judg. 3. 20). By playing the
role of a prophet, Ehud disarmed Eglon of
suspicion, which cost the fat king his hfe
(Judg. 3. 21). Again, Jonathan pierced
the future by means of a dream (1 Sam. 14.
9), as did also the false prophets (Jer. 23.
25). Saul, his superstitious father, invoked
the crude primitive devices of heathen witch
craft to ascertain the future (1 Sam. 14.
18) . Even David, the man after God's own
heart (1 Chron. 28. 9), sought divine knowl
edge by means of omens (1 Sam. 23. 1-6).
The great prophets, however, as we have
seen, discarded all heathen devices for gain
ing divine knowledge and relied solely upon
inner convictions of truth born by dbect

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY 205
spbitual communion with God. "The
prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a
dream; and he that hath my word, let him
speak my word faithfully" (Jer. 23. 28).
Godly men, who thus felt themselves up
born of God and could and would reveal the
future, cannot be at this distant age easily
estimated in regard to their predictive ac
tivity unless several important facts relating
to their personality and to the popular be
liefs of their tunes be taken into account.
The prophets were by bbthright excep
tional persons : men of genius, men capable
of feehng profoundly, seeing clearly, think-
big strongly, acting promptly, and antici
pating accurately (2 Sam. 12).
The prophets were men of the hour,
molded by their tunes, called out of great
cbcumstances ; such as Nathan, in the crisis
of David (2 Sam. 12), Elijah in the strug
gles of Ahab (1 Kings 17), and Isaiah in
the hour of national conflict (Isa. 7, 8).
Men of decisive character know how to act
in rare moments. Mr. Plimpton, Eldon
Parr's paid peacemaker's characterization
of John Hodder, reminds one of the prophet

206 THE PROPHETS
of old: "That's just it. Hodder seems to
me, now that I come to think about it, just
the kind of John Brown type who wouldn't
hesitate to get into a row with Eldon Parr
if he thought it were right, and pull down
any amount of disagreeable stuff about our
ears." The prophetic atmosphere, the social en
vironment provided a rich spiritual setting
for theb hves. The prophets, for the most
part, were either -disciples of former
prophets or members of priestly families of
prophetic guilds (2 Kings 2. 3-5; 1 Sam.
19. 20; 1 Kings 22. 23; Amos 7. 14).
A Divinely Ordered History
They were conscious of moving in a
divinely ordered history which they strove
to interpret in the light of an unfolding
process. Jehovah planned that history,
hence they could anticipate God's move
ments for the future, obeying the same
moral law as in the past. God himself
stood over against theb souls assuring them.
The history of Israel "was unique ; prophecy
was consequently of divine origin; both hu-

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY 207
man, both divine to the same extent." Pre
dictions are then to be expected from men
set in a divine movement.
Use of Predictive Power
Power to predict the distant future was
neither an essential nor a common function
of the regular prophets. (1) The earliest
and latest prophets exercised this gift most.
The mightiest of them were sparing in dis
tant foreclosures; Samuel, for instance, fore
told immediate future personal events, while
the later prophets dealt in distant national
movements. (2) The age of lowest pro
phetic level predicted most; and (3) the
false prophets indulged more freely in fore
telling events than did the true. Therefore
the predictive function can hardly be con
sidered an essential mark of the prophet.
This gift was at most occasional with the
mighty men of God, at least so far as de
tailed, definite, and distant predictions are
concerned, such as appear in the book of
Daniel, which has become a productive place
of some modern exegetical adventurers, who
lead curious seekers on hazardous excursions

208 THE PROPHETS
through the mystical mazes of bibhcal
apocalypses. The Ideal One of God
The prophets more and more pooled He
brew hope of the future in an ideal of divine
deliverance through a chosen person whom
God should clothe with power for the reali
zation of all their hopes (Isa. 53). This
prophetic hope found its complete answer in
Jesus, whom they foretold in ideal outhnes,
rather than in exact details. The appear
ance of Jesus, the Christ, was as much
greater and grander than prophetic fore
casts as the sun is more glorious than dawn.
God enabled the prophets to give the form ;
but Jesus filled in the details. In Christ,
prophetic hope took form; in Jesus, Israel's
noblest ideal became flesh and "dwelt among
us" (John 1. 14).
How, then, shall we understand predic
tive prophecy? What was the divine pur
pose in foretelling events, and in what pre
cise manner did they foretell events? Their
primary aim was to encourage and to warn ;
to spur to right action, or to halt a wrong

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY 209
course. Predictive prophecy can best be un
derstood in this light as an appeal to popu
lar needs of the prophet's day. Hence,
in evil times they dwelt often and glow
ingly upon a future realization of Israel's
ideal, or they predicted some future wrath
of God to be visited upon the corrupt
world. With these facts in mind we are now bet
ter prepared to estimate prophetic predic
tions. We turn, then, to the predictive hter
ature most often drawn from by present-day
adventurers in "predictive signs" and "ful
fillments." Readers are not generally
aware of the fact that our modern predictive
jugglers draw almost entbely from the Jew
ish writings incorporated in certain pro
phetic books, which writings scholars regard
as doubtfully prophetic or of a low grade
of prophetism. When the blind lead the
blind it is with the usual result that both
fall in the ditch. Sections in the late minor
prophets bear the same earmarks, as does a
vast extent of the Jewish hterature found
in non-bibhcal books, which goes under the
name of "apocalyptic hterature."

210 THE PROPHETS
Character of Predictive Literature
When one turns from the writings of the
great social prophets, Amos, Isaiah, Hosea,
and Jeremiah, to Daniel, Zachariah, Ezekiel,
Malachi, and Joel, a sharp change is ex
perienced. (1) The style of the former
writings is simple, direct, and convincing,
while the latter writings are often fanciful,
mysterious, hteral, and full of imagery.
(2) The subject matter in which they are
interested hkewise differs markedly. The
former group emphasizes the social right
eousness; vehemently denounces the sins of
the times; and proclaims divine punishment
for sin. The latter group emphasizes the
hopeless evil of the present age, the super
natural glory and good of the new age which
is anticipated, swift and severe judgment
upon God's enemies, a rich and full Mes
sianic element, and a vivid sense of heaven
and heavenly beings. (3) They differ again
in their objects. The earlier prophets de
nounce the sinful classes in Israel and call
for immediate reform. The latter prophets
mainly encourage the faithful to hold on

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY 211
until the Great Day of Jehovah should
bring speedy rehef from the present intol
erable conditions of God's people.
This latter form of prophecy incorporates
not a little of the so-called "apocalyptic"
writings, which are hidden and figurative in
character and which had to do with secrets
of earth, heaven, and the future. For
several centuries this type of sacred writings
flourished among the Jews and was most
abundant in times of sharp collision with
the great world empires, Persia, Greece, and
Rome. In fact, nearly all of the prophetic
writings, from the exile to the opening of
the Christian era, contain a hberal sprink
ling of prophetic apocalypses.
These fall into two distinct types: (1)
those describing a speedy vindication of
God's people; (2) those announcing divine
judgments upon the heathen. Such sec
tions as Isaiah 24-27, 34-35, 40-66 are
among the fullest and finest expressions of
the national hope sustamed by the older
prophetic creed. Such sections reflect pro
phetic confidence in God's purpose for his
people. This purpose was to be accom-

212 THE PROPHETS
phshed through coming judgments, a day
of vengeance, the hope of the remnant, and
the expected Redeemer.
In this predictive hterature the wrath of
God on wicked nations and the perfect
blessedness of God's people in the future are
successively described in graphic pictures.
Zechariah 1 to 8 richly pictures the wealth
of nations flowing to Jerusalem and the
glory of the temple. Chapters 9 to 14 de
scribe the distress that is to precede the com
ing of God's kingdom. The book of Daniel
contains a series of predictions of the fate
of Oriental empbes (7-12), and not the
fate of the present European nations.
Reading the Signs
How shall the Bible student in our day
treat this apocalyptic hterature? Fbst of
all, one may observe that the predictions
were either largely in the nature of ideal
ized hopes to be reahzed in the near future,
or historic rehearsals to reassure the droop
ing hope in trying times. The prophets'
messages projected into the future also, be
cause the prophets could foresee the result

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY 213
of the forces at work. Every moral act is hke
a locomotive — it draws a whole train of
events after it. Though they generally
preached to theb age, they sometimes saw
visions of things to be, because moral law
is uniform. This is to some extent the case
with preachers of every age. We have a
saying, "Coming events cast their shadows
before." Mr. Lincoln, in his last debate
with Douglas in the fall of 1858, asserted:
"That is the real issue — the eternal struggle
between right and wrong. It is the same
principle in whatever shape it develops it
self. It is the same principle that says,
'You toil and work and earn bread, and I'll
eat it.' That is the issue that will continue
in this country when these poor tongues of
Judge Douglas and myself shall be silent."
We find ourselves in the heat of that strug
gle now. Whether in Lincoln or in Isaiah,
it is the conviction that the conflict must go
on until settled right because God is right
and his purposes cannot fail.
The Best Is Yet to Be
Prediction rests first of all upon un-

214 THE PROPHETS
shaken confidence in the soundness of the
world's ethical order. The prophetic creed
begat prophetic confidence. His faith found
fullness in the future. That which ought
to be could be and would be. The ideal
must some time become the real. Modern
prophetic voices cry out in similar strains:
"God is marching on"; "His purpose runs
through the lengthening years"; There is
"one far-off divine event, to which the whole
creation moves"; "No good is ever lost; that
which was, is, and ever shall be" ; "The best
is yet to be." So lisp the poets and the
prophets, preachers and statesmen in every
tune. Even a skeptical scientist, Thomas
Edison, could say many years ago: "It is
very clear to me that within the next half
century science will abohsh night. Physic
ally and morally, science will make the
world over, and the best part of the great
triumph will be witnessed, I beheve, within
the next fifty years." We are seeing this
scientific prophecy fulfilled. Is he not, hke
the rest, borne on by a confident trust in the
dependable order of nature and nature's
laws?

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY 215
Faith's Borderland of To-morrow
To the prophet, sin, suffering, and misery
were the most stubborn, ugly, persistent,
and damaging facts in the world. The
prophet had also a deep ineradicable con
viction that sin, suffering, and misery did
not belong in the original world order. They
can and must be eradicated, for God is
against them. He, therefore, confidently
looked forward to a better day when peace
and plenty, right and love should reign.
Every age of humanity has felt that these
enemies of society are intrusions which do
not properly belong to the order which God
has planned. Hence every great leader, re
former, preacher, in the dark hours of his
age, has turned his face to the future for
rehef, and pitched his faith on the border
land of the to-morrow. It was under such
conditions of mind that Plato wrote his Re
public, Moore his Utopia, Bellamy his
Looking Backward, and Jane Addams her
Spirit of Youth.
In Israel's history, a long line of prophets,
touched by the power of God, for five cen-

216 THE PROPHETS
turies before Christ's day prophesied the
good time coming by the hand of God's
"anointed." The darker the national hfe
grew, the higher rose the hope of a glorious
future in the prophet's vision until the Jews
became a nation drunk with the nectar of
Messianism. Through these forecasts Pal
estine, in Jesus's day, was saturated with
the Messianic expectation. Jesus was
brought up upon it and responded to its call,
which was the plan of God. When he
opened his Messianic career he chose to read
and apply to himself these words of the
prophet, "The Spbit of the Lord God is
upon me; because the Lord hath anointed
me to preach good tidings unto the meek;
he hath sent me to bind up the broken
hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and the opening of the prison to them that
are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year
of the Lord" (Isa. 61. 1, 2) . "To-day hath
this scripture been fulfilled in your ears,"
declared at length the voice of Jesus, the
incarnate idea of prophetic ideal as men be
held the Only Begotten of the Father (Luke
4.21).

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY 217
Apocalyptic Devices
In the next place, to gain a proper esti
mate of this type of apocalyptic prophecy
the modern reader needs to understand its
literary devices, underlying spbit, and
forms of symbolism.
In the first place it was probably never
intended as a direct prediction for our day.
Those prophecy hunters who now seek for
signs of fulfillment of ancient apocalypses,
supposing that Daniel or any other ancient
worthy were speaking of modern tunes in
exact terms of history, are sadly on the
wrong track and always run into blind
alleys. For two thousand years now theb
"signs," "prophecies," "expectations," and
"set days of fulfillment" have failed miser
ably. Yet with each generation new guesses
are made, no doubt doomed to hke failure.
Apocalyptic Consolation
The spbit animating the prophetic
apocalypses is that of comfort for troubled
Jews who suffered persecutions for their
faith. The writer hoped thus to kindle faith

218 THE PROPHETS
and enable the tbed souls to hold on to theb
rehgion in the face of the rack. The Apoc
alypses of Daniel are generally beheved by
scholars to have been produced by unknown
writers about B. C. 165, during the persecu
tions of the Jews at the hands of the insane
Antiochus Epiphanes — produced in the
hope of maintaining fidelity to Jewish faith.
Therefore the first six chapters are written
exhortations in the form of vivid presenta
tions of real and important rehgious truths,
"Trust God and he will keep you." The
last six chapters seem to say, "Endure per
secution, for your tormentors will come to
grief and the righteous will be vindicated in
the end." The lodgment of the sacred ideas
was everything, the mode of expression had
no independent value and much less present
apphcation in details.
Apocalyptic Symbolism
The symbohsm of this form of hterature
is unique. Symbohc terms were freely used
which had meanings known only to the in
structed, so that the Jews' enemies could
make nothing of them when they fell into

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY 219
theb hands; for predictions of destructions
of the enemy empbe, if understood, was
treason, hence death to author or possessor.
They were a kind of sacred secret code in
vogue during the later centuries of Judaism.
The most commonly used symbols and
theb meanings may be noted in passing:
"abomination that maketh desolate" (Dan.
12. 11) had reference to Antiochus's pollu
tion of the altar of burnt offerings by the
sacrifice of swine thereon. This phrase had
no reference to the Roman Catholic Church,
as some exegetical triflers invent. "The tune
of the end" (Dan. 11. 35) meant the end of
Antiochus's persecuting reign and not the
end of the world, as some modern ex
pounders vainly imagine; "sealed up" (12.
9) was an expression for veiled predictions.
Divine "horses" (Zech. 1. 8) symbohzed
divine mission; "four horns" (1. 18) sym
bolized worldly powers opposing Israel;
"golden candlesticks" (ch. 4) symbohzed
restored Israel; "winds of heaven" stood for
strife (Dan. 7. 2); "lion" meant strength
7. 4) ; "bear" signalized devouring greed of
the enemy falhng upon his victim (7. 5) ; the

220 THE PROPHETS
"four beasts" so often repeated no doubt
reflected the leading political empires whose
hands lay heavily upon Israel (7. 9). Thus
the hteral was symbolized and the symbohc
literalized in order to keep up the faith of
the devout in tunes of trial and to vindicate
the ways of God, who could control national
destinies for the faithful's final good.
What good can these apocalyptic predic
tions serve in our time? Surely not as
modern history unfolded in detail to ancient
prophet, but, rather, as revealing to us the
true spbit, the adequate faith, the sound
ideas needed now in the fight against evil.
The predictions are not as marvelous as the
prophetic hfe which clung unwaveringly to
God and banked on the certainty of his
goodness, justice, and mercy. A faith that
can trust God in the dark is better than
assurance of perpetual daylight. The hope
that sustains the believer in the hour of per
secution is more to be coveted than exact
knowledge of events of centuries unborn.
It is a misplaced zeal and a barren exegesis
which attempts to read modern events as
minutely foretold by ancient seers.

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY 221

CHAPTER XII
THE PROPHETS AND THEIR
PERMANENCE
The great German poet Goethe paid
this glowing tribute to the Bible: "The great
veneration which the Bible has received from
so many people and generations of earth is
due to its intrinsic worth. . . . The higher
the centuries rise in culture, the more will
the Bible be made use of by all who are not
wise in theb own conceits, but truly wise."
The "intrinsic worth" of the Old Testament,
one might almost say, is comprised in the
words of the prophets. At any rate, the
high-water mark of Old Testament revela
tion is recorded in prophecy. While we
have seen that not every word of every
prophet is permanent, the great ideas
enunciated by them are. Whenever and
wherever a great truth is declared in any
corner of the world, it tends to abide. But
when a man freely gives himself in its estab-

222 THE PROPHETS
lishment, it gains common credence, if not
ready obedience. The prophets' writings
are saturated with moral and spbitual
worth. Sound morals and sound rehgion
such as theirs will not perish from the earth.
Like axioms in geometry, they abide. They
sounded the cardinal needs of man, and
man's intrinsic needs have not greatly
changed with time and culture. Wherein,
then, consists the abiding worth of prophecy?
The Permanence of Moral Action
Fbst of all, the prophets to a man raised
morahty above ceremony. "I hate, I despise
your feast days," protested Amos, "and I
will not smell in your solemn assemblies,
. . . neither will I regard the peace offer
ings of your fat beasts" (Amos 5. 21, 23) ;
"For I desbed mercy, and not sacrifice; and
the knowledge of God more than burnt
offerings," sobbed Hosea (Hos. 6. 6).
"Bring no more vain oblations ; incense is an
abomination unto me," rang out the silver
tones of Isaiah. "Cease to do evil; learn to
do well" (Isa. 1. 13, 17). "For I spake
not unto your fathers," said Jeremiah, "con-

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY 223
cerning burnt offerings or sacrifices; but
this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey
my voice" (Jer. 7. 22, 23). "Offer unto
the Lord an offering in righteousness," said
Malachi, one of the late prophets (Mai. 3.
3). It will remain forever true that right
eous conduct is of more consequence than
right ceremony. In every age the subtle
temptation lies before man to make going
to church a substitute for going right, and
to let creed substitute deed. As the pro
verbial Chinaman observed about the Sun
day school: "It's all talky talky and no
walky walky." Holy worship should in-
spbe holy conduct. This prophetic note
needs sounding afresh to each generation.
The basis of divine deahng with man is
ethical, not ritual; universal, not local; prac
tical, not theoretical.
The Permanence of a Dominating Ideal
In the next place, the prophets' teaching
of a supreme ethical and personal God, over
all and through all, has never been sur
passed. Monotheism as a creed, theism as a
philosophy, and Divine Providence as a per-

224 THE PROPHETS
sonal faith are permanent gains to humanity
from prophecy. The modern social em
phasis must be grounded in such a faith or
sink with its own weight. Enthusiasm for
social reform must be fed at some smoking
Sinai where God flames forth in personal
power, personal law, and personal love. All
social endeavors rest back on the theory that
man is of supreme worth, therefore worth
any effort in his behalf.
The Permanence of the Reign of Law
Again, the prophets spake permanently
when they insisted on the majesty of law
and the sanctity of obedience thereto.
Indeed, their great word was "righteous
ness." "God is righteous, and he demands
righteousness for his people." "To obey is
better than sacrifice," was said as early as
in Samuel's tune (1 Sam. 15. 22). This
principle makes a permanent demand upon
mankind. Just now we almost worship at
the shrine of natural law. But moral and
spiritual law is no less exacting than natural
law. Modern psychology has shown us the
law of psychic action. That no experience

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY 225
is ever lost to the soul is a fundamental law
of psychology. Life is governed by its own
inner demands. Society is ruled by social
forces which react upon the soul. History
is marching to the command of gripping
ideas. We now seek the oracles of science
for the deliverance of both physical and
psychical demands. The laws of God stand
fast; the ways of Providence abide. The
reign of law is the rule of God. Obedience
is hfe's first demand.
Permanence of Commanding Mastery
in Crises
The prophets faced every national crisis
with a commanding mastery. A crisis is a
time when human values, regarded to have
been permanent and steadfast, have sud
denly become disturbed, given way, been
thrown into a turmoil, so that no one knows
what to do next. We are passing through
such a crisis now. All is problematic ; every
one is guessing; some are trusting, a few
others are speculating, and not a few are
disheartened. This is the time for the
prophet. He knows what to do, for religion

226 THE PROPHETS
is the only force which is capable of restor
ing confidence in the hour of uncertainty, of
placing men's feet upon the eternal founda
tions. He, with his religious assurance, re
minds us of the fact that there is soundness
at the world's center; that God lives, loves,
and lords the world ; that truth is invincible ;
that a brighter day is coming; that good
ness is winging its way to the goal; and that
God cares for his earthly bewildered chil
dren. The man who rehgiously feels the
pressure of a firm hand, and drinks in the
breath of the unseen world, and views events
on God's sweeping horizon, is alone in a
position to pilot us through the crisis.
Permanence Rooted in the Imperfect
The roots of the present are only to be
found in the past; the stream of the ages
has left its rich silt on modern soil; the
light of centuries floods our own age. We
are debtors to all the past. It has been
said that the blood of our own beastly ances
tors runs in our curdhng veins, and that
when you scratch the surface veneer of the
modern man the savage with paint and

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY 227
cudgel appears. It may also be said that
the blood of martyrs, prophets, and re
formers throbs in our arteries when calls of
the heroic are made. The plan of God has
long been in the making. The age-long his
tory of the Jews marks the grades in the
divine school from the simple Adam to the
saintly Christ. Living as we do in the white
light of the twentieth-century Christianity,
how else shall we understand the Old Testa
ment saints with many wives, slaves, blood
revenge, rehgious intolerance, and poly
theistic conceptions? When it is remem
bered that the past was the clearing house
for the present and that the ancient worth
became modern good, we will not be scan
dalized by the standards of early Jewish
saints. The early prophets succeeded the
early patriarchs. Moses, the prophet, was
better than Methuselah, the old patriarch;
and the "latter prophets" were better than
the "former prophets." Amos was better
than Aaron, and Jeremiah was better than
Samuel. The meaning of the above is simply this,
that the prophet fell upon a sound principle

228 THE PROPHETS
when he appealed to the good and true con-
tamed in the past, which he used for pres
ent needs in the solution of new problems.
The Bible supplies a rule that is constantly
improving upon itself, and the later edi
tions are intended to antiquate the earlier.
(Heb. 1. 1-2; Matt. 5. 21-22). But we
must not sin against the Bible by reversing
the order and read back into the Old Testa
ment the standards of the New, or wrong
the Old Testament saints by thrusting back
the ethics of Jesus upon them. That is a
burden too grievous to bear. In our pres
ent shameful world war we may well profit
by reading the past history of warring na
tions. We would not, however, want the
thirtieth-century historian to measure us by
his hght.
It is, then, a permanent good to read the
past into the present, for permanence is hid
in the imperfect, but it is vicious to reverse
the process and read the present in the past.
By the latter, we misjudge the past and mis
interpret the future.
Was the prophets' world a strange and
far-away world? Was it vastly different

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY 229
from ours? Yes, in many things it was far
removed from our own world. Neverthe
less, in its simple needs of reverent, honest,
and sympathetic hfe it differed nothing from
our own age. The yearning, burning souls
of prophets which then found speech effec
tive in calling men to the requirements of
God are needed now. The speech of God
in the mouths of preacher-prophets is a
permanent need. Therefore the pulpit will
not be crowded out by the stage, the Bible
will not be smothered beneath magazines,
and the preacher will not be silenced by the
actor. God has made preaching permanent.
The hving voice is a permanent necessity.
Permanence in Facing Facts as They
Are
Modern, like ancient seers, are frankly
facing the facts and prescribing cures. "Our
America," writes Dr. George A. Coe of
her church life, "is the scene of a warfare
of the spbit. . . . The audible voices of re
hgion are not one but many; we have not
a church but churches, and these are con
trary, the one to the other." Dr. Newell

230 THE PROPHETS
Dwight Hillis has penned this in one of his
recent books: "The human soul is vastly
more important than anything else in the
world, and you get its history in the novel.
... To me humanity is the finest of all
studies and subjects."
The famous Dr. George A. Gordon, of
Boston, soberly comments on this "hu
manity," that "man's inhumanity to man" is
as yet civihzatioh's unblushing crime.
Rudolf Eucken, the present preacher-phi
losopher of the world, looks into the pal
pitating heart of our modern hfe and reads
the inscription thus: "It is an age afflicted
with immense contradictions. It is wonder
fully great in the mastery of and achieve
ments within the environing world; but, on
the other hand, it is deplorably poor and
insincere in regard to the problems of the
inner hfe and the inner world. . . . The in
terests of the senses have set the standard of
hfe. . . . This type of culture breeds a dis
tinctive type of man: the man of restless in
telligence and refined sensuality. He is
ready, adaptable, and knows something
about everything, but inwardly he is empty,

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY 231
having no spiritual experience to draw
from." To diagnose our "sick souls," as
William James would say, is our first duty ;
to prescribe the remedy the next ; and finally
to provide spiritual nurses possessed of
"healthy mindedness" to restore us to spirit
ual health.
The Permanence of Simple Truth
The prophets preached a return to the
simple, sound realities of hfe. A study of
the prophets tends to lead one away from
the confused, unnatural, and artificial de
mands of hfe and toward the things which
are simple, genuine, and fundamental. The
prophet plumbed the depths of the soul and
tried to fathom that which is expressive of
life at its center. When the priests tried
to smother life with formal rules, the
prophets tried to evoke the inner spiritual
hfe. They met the hunger of the soul for
genuineness, simplicity, and truth. Theb
protests were always, "Do not push God
aside by either substituting doctrines about
him or rituals to him; live with God, let
the soul bask in his hght, drink in his sun-

232 THE PROPHETS
shine, and reahze his presence." This is
the kernel of the prophetic thought about
the issue of rehgion.
One cannot undermine this view of hfe
without endangering the foundations of
human nature. The prophet's call is to hve
life to the brim in its normal possibihties
as God has given it, to relate life socially
in simple, sympathetic neighborliness, and
to find God as real as earthly friends. Such
honest sincerity of life is permanent. Life
itself attests the prophetic claim. Christ
and the Christian centuries have put the
stamp of permanence upon it. Let simple
honesty be more vigorously preached; let
sound life be more common; let the modern
Christian be more vigorous in practical liv
ing. Thereby the power of the church would
enlarge. How our complex artificial civilization
needs a call to the simple habits, simple vb-
tues, simple dress, simple modes of life, even
simple faith in God! We destroy our
chances for happiness by distracting com
plexities ; we confuse hfe's purpose by sheaf-
wise radiations; we strain our nerves to the

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY 233
snapping point by debilitating amusements ;
and we burn hfe's candle at both ends by
infinite, but trifling obligations. The cry
of Saint Paul becomes us: "Who shall de
liver me from the body of this death?"
(Rom. 7. 24.)
The Permanence of Readjusting Old
Inheritances to New Needs
The prophet had no thought of claiming
permanence for his verbal utterances. He
attempted rather to relate the earlier reli
gious revelations to the altered needs of a
new day. He reconstructed the ideas essen
tial in religion to meet the living demands
of his tune. He ever rejected earlier out
worn dogmas. It is widely recognized that
men of the present time find depressing
difficulties in existing doctrines of Chris
tianity. These seem often to rest upon
artificial claims. Many of our orthodox
doctrines are reasoned on external and now
extinct presuppositions which were forged
on the anvils of mediaeval workshops.
Though they are repeated with ready f ami-
liarity, they fail to find reahty in modern

234 THE PROPHETS
experience. They represent no real ex
perience in our hves, because our age, filled
with science, evolution, and realism, has its
own characteristic type of thought and
teaching. Therefore results are not com
mensurate with equipments. Christianity
should prove more vital, more gripping,
more controlling in modern life. Our Chris
tian fundamentals are so essential, so true,
so self-evident that we would expect them
to be put into actual, hving, working prac
tice in our social experience at once with
out further persuasion. This is not the case,
however. Everyone is aware of the wide
gap existing between formal Christian
claims and commonly accepted practice.
The shocking fact faces us that church
members in "regular standing," even held
up as "successful men," pray in the church
and prey in the market place with the same
fervor and untroubled conscience; falsify
accounts, maun workmen, starve girls into
immorahty, combine against just claims, re
ceive rents from shameful places, and seem
to have utterly forgotten human welfare and
social needs. "The damnable cruelty of it

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY 235
all makes our blood boil." Obviously, our
urgent task is to understand our modern
hfe as it really is, and to find what great
realities touch the daily life of its preoc
cupied men and women. The old symbols,
doctrines, and phrases do not move the
twentieth-century man. Not because he is
brehgious, but because he hungers for a
rehgious claim that shall seem to him real
and gripping. There is a desire to escape
sin, but not in the same way nor for the
same reason as the older theology demanded.
Bunyan made his "Pilgrim" leave home and
family to save himself for the "celestial
world." The modern man would deem it a
crime to do so. He must be saved where
he is. He feels the need of escape from an
economic system which makes profits con
ditioned upon social injustice and business
oppressions. The modern man is not saved
from his sins until he faces about in his own
factory and places actual value upon per
sons immeasurably above the price of
property. Business men's attitude must be
come different. To make "the indifferent
different" is the problem.

236 THE PROPHETS
In order to effect this change, rehgion
and rubles must be more closely related so
that the ideals preached by the church shall
find incarnation in the practice of the shop.
This can be done by making old truths serve
new needs.
Chekhov, the short and realistic story
writer of Russia, has a story to the point.
A malefactor, barefooted before a magis
trate, is questioned thus:
"Here it is — the nut! . . . What were
you unscrewing the nut for?"
"If I hadn't wanted it, I shouldn't have
unscrewed it," croaks Denis.
"What did you want that nut for?"
"The nut? We make weights out of
those nuts for our lines. . . . But can you do
without a weight, your honor? If you put
live bait or a maggot on a hook, would it go
to the bottom without a weight? . . . What
the devil is the use of the worm if it swims
on the surface ! The perch and the pike and
the eelpout go to the bottom, and a bait on
the surface is only taken by a shillisper.
. . . And there are no shilhspers in our
river. . . . The silliest little boy would not

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY 237
try to catch fish without a weight. Of
course, anyone who did not understand
might go to fish without a weight. There is
no rule for a fool" (The Witch and Other
Stories, Chekhov).
The practical ethics of Denis might be in
question, but his reflections about fish
weights are sound. The church of to-day
might profit by his reasoning. We seem to
have plenty of good bait on our ecclesiastical
hooks, but lack weights to hold them down.
The "nuts" are screwed on the derail tracks.
Our modern problem is not lack of bait.
We are rich in rehgious inheritance — in an
historical Christianity, logical creeds, orga
nized churches, able ministers, rich laymen,
liberal givers, and consecrated leaders. All
this fine bait is too near the surface. The
fish runs deep. We need to unscrew a few
"nuts" for sinkers. The practice of re
affirming old reasons to justify permanent
values is to "fish without a weight."
When the social structure and the eco
nomic pressure have cut new and deeper
channels in civilization, as is the case to-day,
the church cannot continue to catch men of

238 the Prophets
a deeper-going need with the old theological
bait. Let us unscrew some needless doc
trines on neglected lines of thinking and
fasten them to lines of practical anghng, to
catch faith-hungry moderns who are pushed
mto waters of the present crisis. Authorita
tive orthodoxy is seldom other than arrested
ecclesiasticism. It is frequently an attempt
to conserve the past religious inheritance in
mass when such inheritance has become dis
tressing in the face of a changed age. The
structure of civihzation is shifting outward
in the dbection of larger freedom, franker
experience, finer rehgious realities, and
wider cooperative action. Let us suit the
old heritage to the new needs and sink our
Christian bait into the intellectual and ac
tual depths where the stream of modern hfe
flows. The Permanence of Self-Communicat
ing Providence
There is permanence in the view of the
prophets that God communicated his in
finite will to man. God spake and God
speaks. The prophet spake convincingly

IN THE LIGHT OF TO-DAY 239
out of his hving experience the truths of
God. The priest, on the other hand, ap
pealed to the written page, the inscribed
law, the posted ordinance. He was bound
to a dead letter. The prophet depended
upon the quickening spbit. Jesus, our
Lord, sanctioned the prophetic conscious
ness of hving communication by the Holy
Spbit. Jesus assured his followers of the
guidance of the self-communicating pres
ence who should lead them into all truth
(John 17). Is not this a permanent belief
of the Christian Church which inspires, as
sures, convinces, and consoles the children of
God's kingdom? Let us not suppose that
we can dispense with the need of God's self-
communicating Spirit in modern hfe. In
this self-satisfied, matter-stuffed, pleasure-
loving, money-mad age a fresh fervor in
spiritual reahty is not only a dire necessity
but a growing quest. Each age is religiously
re-created in terms of a fresh, personal
spiritual awakening, based upon values
which have endured. The Hebrew prophets
lived and spoke better than they realized.
We clasp hands with them across the space

240 THE PROPHETS
of time and take fresh courage and counsel
from them in our present crisis. Above the
boom of bursting shells is heard the still
small voice, mto the blood-drenched trenches
shines the blazing sun, and over the bleed
ing world bends a wounded figure whisper
ing : "Peace, be still. Let not your hearts be
troubled. Believe in God."
The prophets knew themselves as true,
And so they spoke in tongues quite new ;
The way of God they understood,
Revealing it as best they could.
What thus they left on written page
Remains quite true from age to age.
Spbitual interests are paramount. "De
mocracy itself stands or falls with this
faith."