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THE

BAMPTON LECTURES
FOR M.DCCC.LXIX.

PROPHECY
A PREPARATION FOR CHRIST
EIGHT LECTURES
PEBACHED BEFOEE THE UNIVEESITY OP OXFORD
m THE YEAE
1869
ON THE FOUNDATION OF THE LATE EEV. JOHN BAMPTON, M.A.
CANON OF SALISBURY

BY
R. PAYNE SMITH, D.D.
REGIUS PROFESSOR OF DIVINITY AND CANON OF CHRIST CHURCH, OXFORD

MACMILLAN AND CO.
1869
[All rights reserved]

OXFOED:
BY T. COMBE, M.A., B. B. GARDNER, E. P. HALL, AND H. LATHAM, M.A.,
PRINTERS TO THB UNIVEESITY.

EXTRACT
FROM THE LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT
OF THE LATE
REV. JOHN BAMPTON,
CANON OF SALISBUEY.
 " I give and bequeath my Lands and Estates to the
" Chancellor, Masters, and Scholars of the University of
" Oxford for ever, to have and to hold all and singular the
" said Lands or Estates upon trust, and to the intents and
" purposes hereinafter mentioned; that is to say, I will and
" appoint that the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ox-
" ford for the time being shall take and receive all the rents,
" issues, and profits thereof, and (after all taxes, reparations,
" and necessary deductions made) that he pay all the re-
" mainder to the endowment of eight Divinity Lecture Ser-
" mons, to be established for ever in the said University, and
" to be performed in the manner following :
" I direct and appoint, that, upon the first Tuesday in
" Easter Term, a Lecturer be yearly chosen by the Heads
" of Colleges only, and by no others, in the room adjoining
" to the Printing-House, between the hours of ten in the
" morning and two in the afternoon, to preach eight Divinity
" Lecture Sermons, the year following, at St. Mary's in
" Oxford, between the commencement of the last month in
" Lent Term, and the end of the third week in Act Term.

vi EXTRACT FE.OM CANON BAMPTON S WILL.
" Also I direct and appoint, that the eight Divinity Lecture
" Sermons shall be preached upon either of the following Sub-
" jects — to confirm and establish the Christian Faith, and to
" confute all heretics and schismatics — upon the divine au-
" thority of the holy Scriptures — upon the authority of the
" writings of the primitive Fathers, as to the fjaith and prac-
" tice of the primitive Church — upon the Divinity of our Lord
" and Saviour Jesus Christ — upon the Divinity of the Holy
" Ghost — upon the Articles of the Christian Faith, as compre-
" hended in the Apostles' and Nicene Creeds.
" Also I direct, that thirty copies of the eight Divinity Lec-
" ture Sermons shall be always printed, within two months
" after they are preached ; and one copy shall be given to the
" Chancellor of the University, and one copy to the Head of
" every College, and one copy to the Mayor of the city of
" Oxford, and one copy to be put into the Bodleian Library ;
" and the expense of printing them shall be paid out of the
" revenue of the Land or Estates given for establishing the
" Divinity Lecture Sermons ; and the Preacher shall not be
" paid, nor be entitled to the revenue, before they are
" printed. " Also I direct and appoint, that no person shall be quali-
" fied to preach the Divinity Lecture Sermons, unless he hath
" taken the degree of Master of Arts at least, in one of the
" two Universities of Oxford or Cambridge ; and that the
" same person shall never preach the Divinity Lecture Ser-
" mons twice."

PREFACE.

IT has been my object in the following course
of Lectures to show that there exists in the Old
Testament an element, which no criticism on natural
istic principles can either account for or explain
away. That element is Prophecy : and I have
endeavoured to prove that its force does not consist
merely in its predictions. These are numerous,
special, precise, and have been fulfilled with mar
vellous exactness, and yet not in such a way as
any one, Jew or Gentile, had expected before the
fulfilment came. But prophecy means more than
this. There is throughout the Old Testament a
special presence of God preparing for the fulfil
ment of a gracious purpose on His part to restore
man to a higher state of perfection and happiness
than that from which he fell. The Bible begins
by describing man as standing in a nearer relation
to God than any other created being on this earth.
It describes his first estate of innocency, his fall,
and the promise given by God of his restoration.

viii PREFACE.

We assert that throughout the Old Testament
there is an express and manifest working of the
Deity for the accomplishment of this promise.
Virtually the promise meant that God would give
man a true religion : and a true religion implies
such a knowledge of God, and of His purposes
towards us, and of our relation to Him, as will
suffice for the wants of the soul. It implies, too,
the bestowal of sufficient aid to enable us to fulfil
our obligations to God, and of some means for
the purification of the conscience from the stain
of sin, and for the raising of the soul from its
present degradation to a fitness for the reception
of God's mercies. We assert that Christianity is
the sole religion upon earth which fulfils these
necessary conditions : and farther, that God has
given us the sole satisfactory proof that it is the
true religion by pledging His own attributes in
its behalf.
This pledge He has given in miracle and pro
phecy, and without it the proof would fall short
of our needs. For no religion could claim authority
over the conscience which had no higher evidence
to offer than the probabilities of human reasoning.
There may be such a thing as a merely natural
religion, and for such no supernatural proof would
be required. But if we are to be brought into
nearer contact with God, and find our peace and
happiness in union with Him, we want all that
Christianity offers us ; all that we seem to find in
it. But the whole scheme of Christianity is super-

PREFACE.

natural, and for such a religion a preparation like
that in the Old Testament — a preparation commen
surate in its greatness with the Christian faith — ¦
was necessary. Men could not have believed in
a doctrine so marvellous as that of the Divinity
of Christ unless the way had been prepared for
it by a dispensation in which God's presence was
manifested in a supernatural way. -v
One portion of this proof was discussed with
great ability in the Bampton Lectures of 1865 s:
I have endeavoured to show the reality of the other
portion, prophecy. But prophecy must not be nar
rowed down too closely to words. The prophets
were God's representatives on earth, and the media
tors between Him and man. And thus in the
comparison between our Lord and Moses, it seems
to me that our Lord is the prophet like unto Moses,
more in being the true Mediator between God and
man, than even in being the giver of a new dis
pensation. All the prophets were mediators, but
none held so high a place as Moses among God's
representatives under the first covenant : in the
second covenant Christ is the one Mediator in Whom
God and man are made one (John xvii. 21). Pro
phets, then, we have none now, because we need
no other mediator. In the preparatory dispensa
tion it was the business of the prophet to appear
for God whenever any step was to be taken forward
in the accomplishment of God's purpose. No doubt
» Eight Lectures on Miracles, by J. B. Mozley, B.D., Vicar of
Old Shoreham, London, 1865.

PREFACE.

the very highest duty and glory of the prophet
was to declare some new truth, or explain some
old truth. He was then directly 'the speaker for
God/ the bearer of God's message : but God might
and did use the prophets for other purposes. They
laboured for the preservation of Israel's political
existence, for morality, for education, for everything
that tended to raise the social condition of God's
people. Finally, they laboured for all mankind, in
giving us a record of Israel's history, and written
memorials of the truths revealed to them. In these
memorials they ever led the minds of the people
onward to the time when the preparation would
be complete, and God's promise fulfilled in the
Advent of the Christ. It is especially in this por
tion of their labours that we affirm that God's
Spirit was with them in a higher way than in
His ordinary and natural workings. Whatever new
truth they taught, was revealed to them directly
by God, and not attained to by the unaided work
ings of their mental powers : in recording or explain-
j ing old truths we feel sure that they had such
aid given them as at least preserved them from
error ; that even in writing history, where the higher
gift of revelation was not needed, yet they were
inspired. Now it is plain from this that such of us as
believe in inspiration can never consent to treat
the Bible as an ordinary book. In one sense, indeed,
it is a matter of painful necessity that it must be
so treated. It must be subjected to exactly the

PREFACE.

same tests as any other document. Its claims are
a matter of such incalculable importance to every
one of us, that they must be closely and critically
examined : every possible argument for and against
the authenticity and genuineness of every book of
the Bible must be closely studied : history, chro
nology, philology, must all be made to contribute
their aid to the enquiry. Subjective criticism, too,
has a right to be heard. The style of these various
writings, their inner accord or disagreement, their
relation to their supposed date, the knowledge
evinced by the writer, the nature of his ideas, his
character as incidentally shown by what he says,
and his object in writing : all these and many more
such things have their weight in the proof. The
examination ought to be made seriously, earnestly,
impartially, but even where made with hostile view,
we yet may be glad that it has been made. For
if the Bible be the Word of God, our duty is to
bow our wills humbly and obediently before it.
But a being made in God's image has no right
to abandon his self-mastery except upon the clearest
evidence. We may be glad, then, that the examina
tion has been made, and the claims of the Bible
closely scrutinized, even if our own reverence for
it forbids our entering upon the task. If, indeed,
we were placed in such a position, as that our minds
could be a tabula rasa, utterly devoid of all pre
possessions and ideas one way or another, it would
be our duty at once to enter dispassionately upon
the enquiry, whether there be a true religion upon

PREFACE.

earth, and if so, which of the various religions here
below is the true one, and what is the extent of
its claims upon us. We none of us can possibly
be in this position, and those of us who have long
since arrived at the conclusion that Christianity is
God's one religion, may reasonably decline, as far
as our own faith is concerned, to re-open a question
upon which we have years ago come, upon sufiicient
evidence, to a definite conclusion.
But there are those who have arrived at an oppo
site conclusion, and those who are still undecided as
to their own duty, and the side which they ought to
take. New arguments have been brought forward
against the credibility of Holy Scripture, and they do
not know what weight ought to be given them. It is
necessary, therefore, to examine these arguments, and
to state what seem to be valid reasons for adhering
to the conclusion that the Bible is, unlike all other
books, a book of miracle and prophecy. There are,
indeed, critics who deny the use of argument alto
gether. With them the conclusion is foregone. They
assert that miracle and prophecy are absolutely im
possible. It is of no use suggesting that the giving
of a true religion may be an adequate cause for such
an interference — or apparent interference — with the
ordinary laws of nature as would give man the
requisite proof that God was speaking to him. No
cause, they .say, is adequate. The soul cannot be
of such value as to justify any interference with
the laws of nature. Those laws 'are found to be,
in things material, unchanging. They must there-

PREFACE.

fore be so in things spiritual. The laws that are
good enough for the body are good enough for the
soul. I do not mean that they use just these words ;
but that, arguing solely from their experience in
things material, they do deny the possibility of God's
acting in any higher way in the things which belong
to an entirely different sphere. Into this argument
it is not necessary for me to enter farther than as it
concerns prophecy. Of course prophecy is a miracle ;
the very thing for which we argue is a supernatural
presence of God in the words and actions of certain
persons who claimed to speak in God's name. Such
a claim must be supported by a supernatural proof,
and the proof could take no simpler or more cogent
form than prediction. The negative critics do not
examine this proof ; they start with the denial of the
possibility of God speaking to man at all. By their
own principles, then, they are bound to affirm that
every precise prophecy is either an imposture or an
artifice. It may take the form of a prediction, but
really must be subsequent to the event which it pro
fesses to foretell. Isaiah, in the very ^place where he
predicts the capture of Babylon by Cyrus (xii. 23, 25,
xliv. 25, 26), stakes his whole argument for God's
unity and the vanity of idols upon the fact that the
predictions of Jehovah's messengers were confirmed by
the event, and that those of the worshippers of idols
proved false. According to the negative critics, that
appeal was a specious hypocrisy, and the pretended
prophecy of the conquest of Babylon by Cyrus, and
of Jerusalem rebuilt by his decree, is proof enough

PREFACE.

that the last twenty-seven chapters of Isaiah are a
forgery, palmed upon the too credulous Jews by some
one who wrote at Babylon at the end of the exile.
If the principle were true, critics, having thus dis
covered the key to settle the date of each portion of
Holy Scripture, would in time arrive at some settled
conclusions. There would be a consensus among them,
or an approach to one, and absolute results would be
obtained. If they could not always tell exactly when
a book was forged, scholars would at least be certain
that it was a forgery. No reasonable man doubts that
the Epistles of Phalaris are a forgery ; no one doubts
that the history of Susannah, and of Bel and the
Dragon, are forgeries tacked on to the Book of Daniel
at Alexandria ; no one doubts that the Gospel of the
Infancy, or the Assumption of the Virgin, are for
geries. Fortunately, forgeries are always very easy
of detection, and those of ancient date especially so ;
for men then had neither the means nor the idea of
imitating the style and language of other days. But
the negative critics agree in nothing else except in
denying the authority and inspiration of the Bible.
When you ask for any positive results you find
a Babel of Ihmaels. Every man's tongue is against
every other. If Ewald ascribes Psalm ex. to the time
of Solomon, Hitzig, a critic of almost equal reputa
tion, ascribes it to the time of the Maccabee Jonathan.
Hitzig says that the last six chapters of Zechariah
were written by one and the same author in the days
of King Uzziah ; Ewald divides them between two
different authors, who lived separated from one

PREFACE.

another by a period of one hundred and forty years.
Ewald ascribes to the age of Jeremiah portions of
Isaiah which Hitzig says are some of the most ancient
writings of that prophet himself. The Prophecy of
Obadiah, according to Ewald, was written during
the Babylonian captivity ; Hitzig says it belongs to
the time of Antigonus b.
If the results arrived at by the negative critics are
thus unsatisfactory, we are justified in inferring that
their method is in fault. In spite of the great
ability and patient labour of a host of critics, no
such conclusions have been obtained as justify their
assumption that prophecy is antecedently impossible.
It is still a duty, then, to examine the other hypo
thesis, that God has spoken to man in the Scriptures,
and sift carefully the evidence offered in its behalf.
And here we affirm that the prophecies contained in
the Old Testament are so numerous, so entirely in
woven with its innermost substance, so consentient
with one another, and yet so contrary to the whole
b See Hofmann, Weissagung, i. 63. He further shows how the
same critics arrive at different conclusions in each edition of their
works. De Wette began by ascribing numerous Psalms to the
Maccabsean age ; subsequently he summarily rejected such a con
clusion. Psalm xiv. at first he said was written in the time of the
Persians, afterwards he ascribed it to the age of Solomon. The
second half of Zechariah he once thought was written some of it
in Josiah's days, and the rest under Ahaz ; soon he modified his
views, and could see no reason for a divided authorship. Nor, as
he observes, are the critics more successful on the ground of philo
sophy than on that of history. Conradi and Bauer see in the Book
of Proverbs a genuine work of Solomon's time ; while Vatke places
it and the Book of Job in the fifth century before our Lord.

PREFACE.

tenour of Jewish thought, so marvellously fulfilled
in Christianity, and yet in a way so different from
every anticipated fulfilment, that while it is unscien
tific to refuse to listen to the proof of their reality
because of any a priori supposition, it is even worse
folly to speak of them as mere forecasts and anticipa
tions. The argument for prophecy does not rest upon
a small number of special predictions, but upon a vast
preparation for an equally vast result. That pre
paration claimed to be divine, and offered miracle
and prediction as its proof. Farther, it ever asserted
that it was but a preparation for something better,
and described the nature of the dispensation which
was to take its place. Let the critics, then, disprove
the real inner unity between tlie two Testaments ;
let them show that the Christian Church does not
answer to, and complete and perfect the earlier dis
pensation. Till they do this, it is in vain to put
forward the negative criticism as fairly commensurate
with the greatness of the thesis which it undertakes
to prove. The Bible, it says, is an ordinary book ;
its miracles are contrary to science ; its prophecies
the record of facts that had already happened. But
they assume all this ; they do not attempt to prove
it. Surely a criticism of the Bible upon these
assumptions is not real criticism. The Bible claims
to be not a common book. That is the very point
in dispute. A fair judgment can be arrived at only
by an examination of the evidence which it offers in
support of its claims, and this enquiry should be
carried on in a judicial frame of mind. The negative

PREFACE. xvii

critics begin by denying every one of the claims of
the Bible, and affirm that they are so impossible that
all argument is worthless.
Still, if criticism carried on upon this assumption
led to satisfactory results, it would be some indica
tion that the assumption was not absolutely false.
Hence the importance of the discussion as to the
genuineness of the last twenty-seven chapters of
Isaiah. The prophecy about Cyrus is not a matter
that very directly concerns us ; but the question
whether every prediction was subsequent to the
event is of vital consequence. The prophecies about
the Messiah would be as remarkable at Babylon as
at the end of Hezekiah's reign, but what would be
the value of them if no prophecy is more than a mere
human forecast. The question, besides, is one satis
factory to discuss for another reason. The negative
critics boast, or did boast, of the dichotomy of Isaiah
as their greatest feat. It used to be constantly put
forward as a positive and certain result of nineteenth-
century criticism. If, however, you boldly face the
question, and look at what the German critics say,
you will find that no positive result whatsoever has
been arrived at. The sole thing in which they
agree is the assertion, that as Cyrus is mentioned
by name, therefore he must have been living and
threatening Babylon, if he had not already conquered
it, at the time the prophecy was penned.
Now let us first of all listen to what Ewald,
undoubtedly in many respects the first critic in
Germany, says of the real Isaiah. ' We cannot
b

PREFACE.

but recognize in Isaiah, as the first condition of
his peculiar historical greatness, an originality and
a vivacity of spirit rare even among the prophets.
What is seldom united in the same genius, the
deepest prophetic excitement and purest sensibility,
the most unwearied and successful activity exert
ing itself evenly midst all the turmoil and vicissi
tudes of life, and the truest poetical versatility
and beauty joined with vigour and rushing _ might
of description, this triple band we find realized
in Isaiah as in no other prophet, and from the
evident traces of the constantly combined action
of these three powers we draw our conclusions as
to the measure of the original greatness of his
genius.' (Proph. d. A. B. i. 272, ed. sec.) You
have, then, in Isaiah no common writer. His cha
racteristic is the union in due proportion of three
very high and remarkable qualities. Wait a little,
and you will find that the Book of Isaiah is a
miscellany of fugitive pieces, ' flying leaves,' as
Ewald terms one part of it, and that twenty name
less writers all possessed this rare combination of
unrivalled power tempered by the most exquisite
judgment. Let me give the various stages by which this
monstrous conclusion was reached. , Less, then,
than a hundred years ago the suggestion was first
made by Koppe, and soon afterwards repeated by
Doderlein, that the last twenty-seven chapters of
Isaiah are not genuine. The theory was at first
very simple, namely, that the true Isaiah wrote

PREFACE.

the first half, and a false Isaiah, his equal in
native genius, wrote the other. Tbe more toned-
down style of the latter half, resulting, as I
believe, from its being, first, written in Isaiah's
extreme old age, and secondly, composed not for
public delivery, but for study in the prophetic
colleges, gave some faint colour to the assumption
of a different authorship. But it was soon found
that this dichotomy could not endure a close and
accurate examination. The words used, the pecu
liarities of style, the metaphors, the sentiments,
were in the main identical in the two portions.
It soon became plain, that unless large portions
of the first thirty-nine chapters were taken away
from Isaiah, the whole must be restored to him ;
moreover, there are parts of the last twenty-
seven chapters plainly written before the exile,
parts written in a mountainous country, parts
which speak of the city and temple as still stand
ing. These must be taken away from the Pseudo-
Isaiah. Hence the present state of German thought
is as follows : —
The book is a mere collection of fragments, of all
dates, written by a confused horde of nameless person
ages, many of them mere imitators, whose effusions
have been patched together upon no other principle
than that of filling up the skins of parchment. And
yet this olla podrida, this hotch-potch, in which
are jumbled together the fragments of writers of
every age, from Jonah to Ezra, is the book in
which Hebrew genius reaches the summit alike
b 2

xx PREFACE.

of strength and beauty : never elsewhere is the
union so clear of the rarest native gifts and the
most consummate skill. Never is the line of
beauty overstepped, never does the writer fail in
reaching it. As Ewald from time to time cuts
it into tiny pieces, he is never weary of lament
ing that these noble fragments are all that we
possess of a writer so vigorous and yet so polished,
so strong and yet so beautiful. This, then, is the
first trial of your credulity. The subjective criti
cism requires you to beheve that a union of native
force and perfect judgment peculiar to Isaiah, and
found in no other prophet, is maintained through
out a long miscellany of fugitive pieces put together
upon absolutely no principle.
Let us next proceed to the details.
The first twelve chapters are genuine, and un
doubtedly written by Isaiah (Knobel, Bleek), but
disfigured by glosses, transpositions, interpolations,
&c. &c, so that every critic is justified in rejecting
anything in the way of his pet theory. Thus
Roorda says that chs. i-v. were written by Micah,.
Gesenius denies the authenticity of ch. vii. 1-16,
Koppe, Vater, Rosenmuller reject chs." xi., xii., and
Ewald ch. xii.
The next section, chs. xiii-xxvii., are mere ' flying
leaves ' (Ewald), put together without regard to
date or matter, of which ch. xiii. and the first
twenty-three verses of ch. xiv. were written by the
'great unknown' at Babylon (Knobel), or at all
events by a nameless prophet just about the time

PREFACE.

when Cyrus took that city (Rosenm., Justi, Bleek).
As for the next four verses (ch. xiv. 24-27), they
are a fragment of a long prophecy of Isaiah against
Assyria (Ewald, Gesenius). The two next chap
ters (chs. xv., xvi.) were written by Jonah (Hitzig),
or if not, then Jeremiah wrote them (Koppe, Au-
gusti, Bertholdt), or if not, then perhaps Isaiah
borrowed them, but added the epilogue, ch. xvi.
13, 14 (Ewald), which is absurd, for the epilogue
was written during the Babylonian exile (Bleek).
As Jonah lived long before Isaiah, and Jeremiah
long afterwards, and as their style and manner
are totally distinct, it is hard to invent the reasons
which justify so diverse a judgment.
No one at present has interfered with the two
next chapters, but ch. xix., of which Egypt is
the subject, was written by Onias, who built the
temple at Leontopolis in that country (Hitzig). It
mentions that men fished in the Nile both with
hooks and nets, and that papyrus reeds grew there ;
facts which plainly could be known only by one
who had resided a long time in the immediate
neighbourhood of that river !
The first ten verses of ch. xxi. were written by
the ' great unknown ' (Bleek) ; the rest, to the end
of ch. xxii., are probably Isaiah's.
The twenty-third chapter was written by Jere
miah (Movers), or by a scholar of Isaiah (Ewald),
but at all events in the time of Jeremiah (Bleek).
The twenty-fourth and three following chapters
— chapters of the most exquisite beauty- — were

PREFACE.

written by an exiled Ephraimite living in Assyria
after Nineveh had fallen, and when the Egyptians
had begun to be troublesome (Hitzig), though it
is hard to see how they could be troublesome to
an Ephraimite living at Nineveh. Therefore Ge
senius, Dmbreit, Knobel, deny that it refers to
Nineveh, and say that it is a prophecy of the fall
of Babylon, written at the time when Judah went
into captivity. But Ewald places it in the time of
Cambyses' expedition against Egypt, whilst Vatke
prefers the era of the Maccabees. Other discre
pancies might be added : I will mention but one
more. As these chapters contain a repetition of
the prophecy found in ch. ii., namely, 'in this
mountain shall Jehovah of hosts make unto all
people a feast of fat things/ and as that mountain
can properly be only Jerusalem, Bleek ascribes the
three chapters to a Jew who lived at Jerusalem in
Josiah's time.
The next six chapters (chs. xxviii-xxxiii.) are
probably genuine (Knobel) ; but Koppe doubts about
ch. xxx. 1-26, and Ewald ascribes ch. xxxiii. to a
scholar of Isaiah's.
The next two chapters (chs. xxxiv., xxxv.), were
written early in the exile (Bleek) ; they were written
in the middle of the exile (Knobel) ; they were
written at the end of the exile by the 'great un
known ' (Gesenius, Hitzig) ; they were written
during the exile by a distinct author from the ' great
unknown' (Ewald, Umbreit).
The last four chapters of the first portion of Isaiah

PREFACE.

(chs. xxxvi-xxxix.) are a mere historical annex
(Knobel), but abbreviated probably from a genuine
historical work of Isaiah (Bleek) : no, they are
entirely spurious (Hendewerk, Hitzig). They were
written by a late chronicler, when legend had taken
the place of history.
Thus, then, subjective criticism, in order to wrest
the last twenty-seven chapters from the true Isaiah,
has been compelled, by the searching examina
tion which its simpler theory has undergone, to
mangle the prophet's matchless work into a series
of fragments, all singularly beautiful, all bearing
the impress of a master mind, all instinct with the
presence of rare genius. I see in this nothing that
needs serious refutation, but only that Nemesis, that
just retribution, which necessarily overtakes those
who argue not for truth but for such a foregone
conclusion as that every prediction was necessarily
subsequent to the date of the event foretold.
Let us proceed to the last twenty-seven chapters.
These form too decidedly a whole for them to be
easily capable of similar dismemberment, yet only the
first sixteen chapters are now confidently ascribed
to the Pseudo-Isaiah. Excepting the prophecy of
the capture of Babylon by Cyrus, these chapters
contain nothing particularly indicative of their date.
Directly you come to anything distinctive, it is
impossible to hold any longer that it was all writ
ten at one time at Babylon. Gesenius and Hitzig
still argue for the unity of the authorship, but
then they are forced to grant that much of it was

xxiv PREFACE.
written in Palestine, and thus Knobel0 says that
the work can have been put into its present form
only at a time considerably later than the return
of the Jews from exile. He honestly owns, too,
that he cannot explain how it came to pass that a
work composed at such a time could ever have been
ascribed to the true Isaiah. But Ewald denies the
oneness of its authorship, as I have shown at length
in the note attached to page 320. So Bertholdt
says that chs. Iii. 1 3— Iiii. 12, Ivi. 9-lvii. 2r, fix.,
lxiii. 7-lxiv. 12, lxv., Ixvi., belong to a date anterior
to the attack of the Persians upon Babylon ; chs.
xl-xlvi., 1-lii. 12, to a time subsequent to it; chs.
xlvii., xlviii. were written during the siege of
Babylon, and chs. liv-lvi. 8, Iviii., lx-lxii. after the
capture of the city. Knobel, who seems to hold
the oneness of the authorship, yet argues that chs.
xl-xlviii. were written during the first siege of
Babylon, chs. xlix-lxii. during the period when
Cyrus was making war upon Croesus, and the last
four chapters after his victory. Gesenius, on the
contrary, thinks that the later chapters were written
first : while De Wette stands alone in holding that
these last twenty- seven chapters were written by
one man at one time, namely, the first time of Cyrus,
whenever that may have been.
As for the chapters plainly written in a moun
tainous country (chs. Ivi. 9-lvii. 11), some hold with
c Knobel's work on Prophecy, ' Der Prophetismus der Hebraer,'
Breslau, 1837, contains much valuable matter, of which I have
occasionally made use.

PREFACE.

Bleek that Isaiah wrote them, some that it was an
ancient prophet who lived in Manasseh's reign, some
that the ' great unknown ' was their author, after
the return from exile. This theory requires the
monstrous supposition, opposed to every tittle of
historical evidence, that the Jews under Ezra and
Nehemiah offered human sacrifices to Moloch. Yet
without this supposition it is impossible to see
how De Wette, Gesenius, Hitzig, can still maintain
that these chapters were the work of one author,
unless he were the true Isaiah.
Plainly, therefore, the subjective criticism has no
thing to offer us, on the very ground where it boasts
its greatest triumph, but a farrago of disjointed
conjectures. And the same is true of it every
where. Instances beyond number could be brought
forward showing its entire want of cohesiveness. I
will content myself with mentioning but one more.
Ask it for another of its strong points, and it
would tell you that it had wrested Deuteronomy
from Moses as thoroughly as it has robbed Isaiah
of all but some twelve chapters. You learn from it
most extraordinary information about Deuteronomy.
It is a very late book, never quoted till the time of
Jeremiah, probably a pious fraud palmed off by him
and the good -high priest Hilkiah upon the too
credulous Josiah, and so on. Ewald, however, holds
a theory that soon after Samuel's time there was a
period of extraordinary literary activity, when, upon
the basis of certain Books of Origins and Books of
Covenants, a series of apocryphal narratives were

xxvi PREFACE.

put forth, of which the Pentateuch, Joshua, Judges,
the Books of Samuel, and parts of Kings remain to
this day. Having, then, no particular bias against
Deuteronomy, he finds in his History of the Jews
eight references to this book in Joshua, more than
twelve in Judges, several in Samuel, in the early
Psalms, and so on. Never was judgment more
opposed to all that the mass of the negative critics
say upon the subject.
Plainly, therefore, the attack made upon the Bible
has had no such measure of success as to justify its
assumption that prophecy has no supernatural ele
ment. Still, I can scarcely hope that the negative
critics will pay any attention to the arguments
which I have endeavoured to offer, in proof that
the Old Testament is no human utterance but a
message from God. My object will have been fully
gained if I have been able to confirm the faith of
any who beHeve, and to remove difficulties out of
the way of any who doubt. The prophets are, I
know, often regarded as very difficult to understand;
I shall not have laboured in vain if I have aided any
in seeing how their work led up to and was a prepa
ration for Christ.

Chbist Church, Oxford,
Oct. 1869.

CONTENTS. LECTURE I.
PROPHECY A PREPARATION FOR CHRIST.
Romans xv. 4.
Whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our
learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scrip
tures might have hope.
LECTUBE II.
THE PROPER IDEA AND MEANING OF PROPHECY.
Hebkews 1. 1, a.
God, Who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time
jiast unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days
spoken unto us ly.Mh Son.
LECTUKE III.
samuel, the restorer of prophecy.
Acts iii. 24.
Yea, and all the prophets from Samuel and those that follow
after, as many as have spoken, have likewise foretold of these
days.

CONTENTS.

LECT UKE IV.
PAET I.
THE SCHOOLS OF THE PROPHETS.
i Samuel xix. i 9, ao.
It was told Saul, saying, Behold, David is at Naioth in Bamah.
And Saul sent messengers to take David: and when they saw
the company of the prophets prophesying , and Samuel standing
as appointed over them, the Spirit of God was upon the messen
gers of Saul, and they also prophesied.

LECTURE IV.
PAET II.
THE ORDINARY LIFE AND DUTIES OF THE PROPHETS.
Hebrews xi. 37.
They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were
slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and
goatskins ; being destitute, afflicted, tormented.

LECTURE. V.
THE COMMENCEMENT OF WRITTEN PROPHECY.
Ephesians ii. 20.
Built upon the foundation ofthe apostles and prophets.

CONTENTS.

LECTURE VI.
THE FOUNDATION OF TRUTH LAID BY THE PRO
PHETS JONAH, JOEL, AND HOSEA.
Acts xxvi. aa, 23.
Saying none other things than those which the prophets and
Moses did say should come : that Christ should suffer, and
that He should be the first that should rise from the dead, and
should shew light unto the people, and to the Gentiles.

LECTURE VII.
SPECIFIC PROPHECIES OF CHRIST IN HOSEA, AMOS,
ISAIAH, AND MICAH.
Acts x. 43.
To Him give all the prophets witness, that through His Name
whosoever believeth in Him shall receive remission-of sins.

LECTURE VIII.
THE PROPHECIES OF ISAIAH.
Acts viii. 34, 35.
I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this? of himself , or of
some other man ? Then Philip opened his mouth, and began
at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus.

CONTENTS.

LECTURE IX.

THE JEWISH INTERPRETATION OF PROPHECY AT
VARIANCE WITH THAT TAUGHT BY CHRIST
AND HIS APOSTLES.

Matthew xxii. 43.
What think ye of Christ ?

ERRATUM.
Page 36, line 6, note, for eVapyfc read eWpyfc.

LECTURES.

LECTUKE I.
PROPHECY A PREPARATION FOR CHRIST.
Whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our
learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scrip
tures might liave hope. — Rom. xv. 4.
feT. PAUL claims in these words for the Scriptures
of the Old Testament a special quality distinct from
those possessed by ordinary books. They were
written, he says, not for temporary use ; not for
one age and one people, but for all time : and yet
for a limited purpose. Their object is not to divert
and amuse ; not even to instruct or give information
upon any of the thousand and one things which
concern our temporal state. Incidentally they may
give us most valuable information, and the purest
enjoyment : but they were written ' that we might
have hope.' Even this again is limited. In the
origmal Greek it is not hope generally ; not the
bright anticipation of joy in life, nor even an in
definite expectation of peace in death. St. Paul's
words are, might have the hope, ty\v eXwiSa e^cefiev"-.
» The Vatican Codex reads, ' that we through the patience and
the consolation of the Scriptures might have the hope of the conso
lation,' rr/v i\moa rijs napaK\r)o-ea>s. The added words are probably
an explanatory gloss, but they give the right sense. ' The conso
lation of Israel ' emphatically was the Advent of the Messiah : and
B

THE BIBLE [Lect.

It is definitely some special expectation, to which
those Jewish Scriptures have encoviraged men to
look forward : some special promise given in them,
by virtue of which they thus instruct and encourage
all mankind.
Now this claim, to be the instructors not of one
people only, nor at one time only, but of all people
at all times, is no ordinary matter. We, most of us,
are so used to the proposition affirmed by St. Paul,
that probably it does not strike us with the force
which so remarkable a phenomenon would exert
upon us, if we were brought face to face with it
for the first time. Por the assertion is this, that
in a considerable number of short treatises, several
of them themselves compiled from more ancient
documents0, written by the men of one nation, but
what St. Paul affirms of the Old Testament Scriptures generally —
oa-a wpoeypafprj — is, that directly or indirectly they were all pro
phetic, all looked forward to and prepared for Christ. Similarly,
all believers now look forward. St. Paul's words are applicable to
the Christian Scriptures quite as thoroughly as to the Jewish : for
they also are for our learning, that we by the exercise of that patience,
necessarily implied in the fact that we have not as yet the full pos
session of the promise, and by the comfort given us by the strong
conviction of our faith that Christ will come again, may have hope — '
the hope, — -that as Christ has come once to open the way of salva
tion for man, so He will come again to perfect His work.
b It is certain that the books of Chronicles were thus compiled,
and probably most of the Historical books. Many scholars have
also held that Moses made use of the primitive records of the
House of Abraham in composing Genesis. The Book of Psalms
too, though not a compilation, is a collection of national poetry
from the time of Israel's greatest glory down to the return of the
exiles from Babylon.

I.] A UNIVERSAL TEACHER. 3
at distant intervals, under very different states of
outward circumstance and inward development,
there is a unity of purpose, common in a greater
or less degree to them all ; and that this purpose
was not anything national, not anything contempo
raneous with the writers, nor even fully understood
by them, but was something future, and for the
weal or woe of all mankind. The hope of the
whole world — the way of universal restoration — is
set before us in the writings of a people, of no
great power or influence, but few in number, pos
sessed of many high qualities, but narrow-minded,
prejudiced against foreigners, devoid of all cosmo
politan tendencies, not versatile enough to win any
general favour, as a matter of fact generally dis
liked, held usually in subjection by some of the
neighbouring powers, but restless and intractable as
subjects, and not to be depended upon as friends
and allies. These writings possess vigour and
beauty, but in so moderate a degree, that few even
of those who believe them to be inspired will take
the trouble of studying them in the original lan
guage : and that language though profound and
sublime is intractable : it adds no fresh beauty to
the thoughts, though it expresses those thoughts
with a fulness and depth which no translation can
entirely convey. Now, had the Greeks with their
versatile talents, their dialectic skill, and their
flexible, copious, and exact language, had writers
like Plato been the teachers of all mankind, truth's
universal exponents, we could have understood it.
B 2

4 EXTRAORDINARY INFLUENCE [Lect.
But no ! The fact agrees with what St. Paul
affirmed eighteen centuries ago : these Jewish
writers are the great teachers of the world.
Add to their works the writings of a few more
Jews ; some fishermen, a tax-gatherer, a physician
of Antioch0, and a citizen of Tarsus, and you have
a book with few external charms, which does not
allure its readers by its beauty, of one part of which
the language is so alien to our studies that even of
the clergy few know the letters of its alphabet,
while of the other part the Greek d is so unpolished
that your fastidious student, who prefers his style
to his soul, shuns its perusal ; yet this book is in
every house, is read daily by countless multitudes,
is said by these multitudes to give them strength
for the struggle of life, and comfort under its sorrows.
It is translated into all languages, and poured forth
from the press by millions e, is the subject of daily
c Luke by birth was of a family of Antioch, and by profession a
physician. Euseb. Hist. Eccl. iii. 4.
d Nevertheless, the hand of Providence is very clearly seen in the
production of a language so peculiarly fitted for the conveyance of
the truths of revelation, and for translation into other languages, as
the Greek of the New Testament. Dr. Pusey has pointed this out
with his usual force. ' The Septuagint, the dialect which, uniting
the depth of Hebrew with tlie intellectual precision of the Greek
language, was to be the vehicle of the revelation of the Gospel, the
Greek of Alexandria modified by the Old Testament, were produc
tions of the peculiar character of the third empire in Alexander and
his successors.' Daniel the Prophet, p. 148.
« The British and Foreign Bible Society alone circulates copies
of the Scriptures in 169 languages, and 172 versions: since its
foundation no less than fifty millions of Bibles or portions of Bibles
have been printed for its use. The Society for the Promotion of

I.] OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. 5
debate and controversy, and divides nations into
hostile parties according as they take one view or
another of its meaning, so that even the gender f of
a pronoun becomes in it a matter of earnest debate.
A bad translation of this book exercises a depressing
influence upon a nation's advance in civilization : a
good translation is one of the great levers in a
nation's rise. By translating this book Luther
moulded the German language into shape and con
sistency, and made it a fit vehicle for expressing
the thoughts of those great writers whose names
are now everywhere as household words. Our own
Christian Knowledge also annually circulates a vast number of
Bibles and Testaments, and has had several translations of the
Scriptures made into other languages.
f It is one of the many archaisms of the language of the Penta
teuch that it has only one pronoun for the third person sing, in all
genders, namely, N1H, hu = Iis, she, it. The Massorites, in the same
ignorant way in which they have everywhere endeavoured to
reduce the grammar and pronunciation of the Hebrew to the
standard of one particular time, give this pronoun a different sound
according as it is masculine or feminine. The unhappy result of their
labours, in many respects so valuable, has been that they have
succeeded only too well in obliterating the traces of change and
growth in Hebrew, and given colour to the notion that the lan
guage of Abraham and Moses remained without alteration or
development till the days of Ezra. As a matter of fact the conso
nants alone are genuine, and the work of the Massorites, between
the sixth and tenth centuries after Christ, was simply a modern
izing of the Hebrew text, though a modernizing of it according to
a fixed standard handed down by tradition in the Jewish schools.
The pronoun then in Gen. iii. 15 proves nothing, nor is it of much
weight that the Massorites vocalize it as masculine : the matter is
really settled by the verb, which is masculine, and can be nothing
else. It is probable, moreover, that the ipsa conteret of the Vulgate
is itself a mistake, not supported by the best manuscripts.

6 ITS INFLUENCE ESSENTIAL [Lect.
translation so elevated and noble, however deficient
it may be in exactness, is the mainstay of our lan
guage, the means whereby its purity is maintained
at home and abroad, and the bond which unites
our colonists to their mother-land. Nor is this all.
In proportion as men study this book and act upon
it, they become more just, more temperate, more
self-denying, more willing to labour for the good of
others : while its neglect leads to luxury, to self-
indulgence, to the loosening of the reins of our
passions, to national weakness and private infamy.
Destroy this book with its 'enthusiasm for humanity,'
and no one can even suggest any other influence
capable of counterbalancing the materialism of life,
and of checking the tendency of increased wealth,
and larger command over the powers of nature s,
to pleasure and an effeminate luxury. Destroy this
book, and the poverty which grows more deep and
dark and desperate as the wealth of the nation in
the aggregate increases, will have nothing to give
it consolation ; nothing to alleviate it with lessons
of patience; nothing to ennoble and strengthen it
by faith in a future world, where the cruel inequali
ties of our present social state will exist no more
(Luke xvi. 25). Destroy this book, and the bond
between rich and poor is gone. There is nothing
henceforward to speak to both alike of a God Who
e The rapid advance of physical science in the present day by
the increased power it has given us over nature, has opened to us
a thousand sources of pleasure and convenience unknown even in
the last century. A man of ordinary means has no longer to do
battle with life, but finds nature well-nigh subdued to his service.

I.] TO HUMAN PROGRESS. 7
is no respecter of persons; Whom rich and poor
must both obey, and Who will surely succour the
poor who trust in Him. The suffering Christ, the
Man of Sorrows, the cross meekly borne leading
onwards to the immortal crown, there will be nought
of this to comfort the afflicted. The glorified Christ,
coming with all power as Judge of quick and dead,
and in that judgment putting the poor into His own
place (Matt. xxv. 40, 45), there will be nought of
this to bid the rich man seek out the poor, and
minister to him. To eat and drink and die, that
will be man's all. Among the mass of mankind, —
and we must remember that the object of religion
is to find a motive power that will influence not one
or two extraordinary minds, but the great mass of
ordinary people ; — among the mass of mankind, a
man is in the main just, sober, industrious, temperate,
chaste, in exact proportion as he studies and values
his Bible. So general, in short, is its influence, that
the very student of physical science takes more
interest in his facts and theories in proportion as
they seem to bear upon some statement of Holy
Scripture, or upon some gloss currently put upon
its words ; and many a so-called scientific treatise
is in reality a theological argument.
Spoken then primarily of the Old Testament,
St. Paul's words have proved true of the whole body
of the sacred Scriptures. ' They were written for our
learning:' and the whole atmosphere of EngHsh
thought still in the middle of this nineteenth
century, is saturated with their teaching. The very

8 OPPOSITION TO CHRISTIANITY [Lect.
bitterness with which they are attacked is an un
conscious testimony to their importance. If they
were powerless, without influence ; if men coiild
even shake themselves personally free from their
influence, they would then be regarded with philo
sophic indifference ; with that calmness with which
thinking men profess to study the problems of human
Hfe. Now it would be contrarv to the whole tenor
of the Bible to expect such a state of calm : to expect
a time in which there would not be strong opposition
to Christianity : in which it would not have an up
hill fight, and men be compelled to win their way
to its peace and blessedness by a severe struggle
(Matt. xi. 12). It would be contrary too to the
whole tenor of the Bibleh to expect that even in
the Church the fierce contest of passion will cease ;
that it wiU not be rent by opposing parties, and
weakened in doing its Master's work far more by
schisms within than by any and aU opposition from
without (Matt. x. 21, 22 ; xiii. 25, 47). But that
sword of which our Lord spake is still wielded as
trenchantly as ever. With unabated earnestness we
stiU contend against one another and against the
world. Our religious opinions or our irreligious,
our faith or our scepticism, hold the foremost, the
dearest place in our minds. None but the tame and
feeble and irresolute are indifferent in the strife.
Christianity is not dead nor dying. It is not yet
h Such a state of blessedness is promised (Isa. xi. 9), but only as
the result of the universal propagation of Christianity, and its final
triumph over all mankind.

I.] INEVITABLE.

a stagnant pool of moribund and worn-out theories ;
the spirit of life stiU broods over its waters, and
quickens it with energy, with activity, with power.
Strange that it should be so ! Strange, humanly
speaking ! Strange, unless there be in the Bible
something more than human, some direct speaking
and utterance of God ! How could the words of a
Galilsean peasant, and the few fishermen with whom
He consorted, thus for eighteen centuries be a law
to the civilized world, if they were merely human %
And why should scientific men, in this advanced
and advancing age, care to look so constantly behind
them, and busy themselves with the enquiry whether
every statement in a Jewish cosmogony written
many thousand years ago, agrees exactly and Hter-
aHy with their theories, if that cosmogony was a
mere speculation 1 We do not quarrel over the egg,
in which Brahm created himself, and then floated
majestically over the waters during a period of
countless ages, till finally growing tired of his
narrow quarters, he parted it asunder, and formed
the sky and the earth from its divided portions1'.
We have no counter theories with which to explain,
defend, or attack that egg. Nothing in the world
depends upon it. In India itself no one cares for it.
But a great deal does depend upon the first chapter
of Genesis ; and it is a note of the value of Holy
Scripture that, written as that record was for an en
tirely different purpose i, it should yet excite so great
> Hindu Institutes, or Laws of Manu, Book i. 9-13.
i See Appendix, Note A.

10 THE OLD TESTAMENT [Lect.
and sustained an interest in a matter completely
subsidiary to its main object.
My business however lies with St. Paul's words
in their primary sense. With the New Testament, —
with the influence of the Bible as a whole, — I am
only so far concerned as it justifies the Apostle's
assertion, that the scriptures of the Old Testament
had collectively and individually a higher, a nobler,
and a more permanent purpose than the instruction
of those to whom they were originally addressed.
If the preparation in the Old Testament had led
on to nothing, if Christianity had been no whit
greater than Judaism, if after temporary successes
it had proved incompatible with continued and
abiding progress in morahty and true civiHzation,
if Christian nations had stagnated, and fallen behind
others in good government, in laws, in industry, in
power, in the love of truth, in the pure and ardent
quest of knowledge, and in whatsoever else ennobles
our nature, if progress in all that is just and true
and lovely and of good report became possible only
as men broke away from Christianity, and if its
corrupt forms tended to human excellence and
human happiness more than an exacter conformity
to what is taught in Scripture, and was held in
primitive times, if this were so, then the argu
ment from prophecy would faU powerless upon our
ears. The more extraordinary the preparation, the
greater evidently must the result be to justify that
preparation. If the result be a failure, we could
not beHeve that the Divine Providence had ushered

I.] A PREPARATION FOR CHRISTIANITY. 11
it into the world with more than ordinary care and
forethought. Man's works constantly do thus fail.
That which is begun with arrogance and ostenta
tion generaUy results in a mean and disastrous issue.
For the most part, great things with men arise out
of modest and small beginnings. It cannot be so
with God. He is the perfect Worker, and aU that
He works must be in harmony and proportion.
It must however be borne in mind that the Holy
Scriptures themselves declare that sin, misery, po
verty, death, and with them irreligion, profanity,
unbelief, are not to cease till Christ's second advent.
It is possible to claim of Christianity that which
it expressly refuses to give. What it does profess
to give is the one true probation of the soul, the
one true means by which sins may be forgiven, and
man regenerate and renewed be made capable of
eternal happiness. Why there should be this pro
bation for man, I cannot tell, nor why it should
be so difficult. But I know as a fact that it is dif
ficult ; difficult for myself, difficult for others : and
the teaching of our Lord agrees with what we
know and feel to be the case. He too teUs us not
why there is a probation : the Bible never teUs us
what are our relations to other inteHigent beings,
nor what the exact place which this our world
holds in the vast plan of the universe. It tens us
only how in this state of things in which we do
actually find ourselves we may so live as not to
miss the object for which God placed us here. And
it never leads us to expect that in attaining to

12 REVELATION [Lect.
this object we are to have a comfortable, easy course.
Rather if we are to win the everlasting life, it warns
us that in this life we must be content to strive,
and labour, and forego. The favour of numbers,
the popular acclaim — these are not the notes which
Christ gave of success. He spake of a narrow way,
whose entrance but few find. He spake of many
caUed, and but few chosen. He even spake despond-
ingly, as if there were doubt even of the permanence
of religion. ' When the Son of Man comes wiU He
still find the faith on earth V a pa eupqo-ei ryv -n-la-Ttv;
(Luke xviii. 8). Why this is so, God only knows.
In the Manichseism of my heart I would that it
were otherwise ; the entrance wider, the way easier,
and more frequented. But doubtless God doeth all
things well, and our difficulties arise from our igno
rance, because we see the present only, and that
but dimly, while the past and the future are con
cealed from our view.
But the Bible must be judged according to its
own principles and assertions, and with reference
to the state of things in which as a matter of fact
we find ourselves. Philosophers may conceive of a
world without sin and sorrow and unbehef, of man
as a virtuous, gentle, intellectual being, of a religion
that involves no probation, where all, without
struggle and without failure, attain to the highest
perfection of which their nature is capable ; and
there by all means let them have their ideal Bible,
and their ideal Church. But we inhabit no Utopia,
and if in this world, such as it is, the Church has

!•! NOT A FAILURE. 13

succeeded in doing the work marked out for it by
the prophets in the Old Testament, and by Christ
and His apostles in the New ; and if this work be
in close relation to the actual constitution of things
as they now exist ; then Christianity does justify
the extraordinary preparation made for it.
And who can deny its success ? It has been, I
grant, far more limited than one could have wished.
It has but a limited influence even in Christian
nations, and Christian nations are but Hmited in
extent. Unbelief, like sin and sorrow, exists every
where around us ; is more universal, more prevalent
than faith. But all that this means is, that religion
is in exact analogy with and relation to the general
state of things upon earth. It is not a special dif
ficulty with Christianity, but belongs to the province
of natural religion, and to the enquiry, Why the
state of all things upon earth is just what it is \
The solution of this difficulty belongs, I beHeve, to
that time, and to that time only, when we shall
no longer see as in a riddle, but face to face, and
know as also we are known. Till that time I grant
that it is faith only which can make us feel that
God doeth all things well : and to faith I am
content to leave it, because reason also tells me
that it is a childish and ridiculous folly to endea
vour to explain a proposition of which we know
not the data. Till we learn the past and the future,
we cannot understand the present. But while I
grant the existence of the awful mystery which
shrouds life, still, judging of Christianity in relation

14 CHRIST'S CHURCH ENDOWED [Lect.
both to the actual state of things in which we
find ourselves, and to what the Bible itself says of
the difficulties in the way of attaining to, and
holding the truth, I ask again, Who can deny its
success 1 Attacks upon it from without there will be,
and, what is far worse, corruptions within. These
corruptions weaken its influence, prevent its increase,
and shock our moral sense far more than any attacks
from withoutk. There have been times when the
k Mr. Gladstone, ' A Chapter of Autobiography,' pp. 50-55, gives
a most interesting picture of the great movement which we have
witnessed in the Church of England, and of the disappointment wliich
seems to attend its issue. He thinks it would have required either
' a deeply saturnine or a marvellously prophetic mind' to have fore
told this issue (p. 54). This may be true as to the particular form
which the disappointment has taken, but unless the Oxford move
ment was to be utterly unlike every other movement, it was to be
expected that it would have a chequered course, and be a mingled
source of good and evil, ending in much that would be painful to
those who first originated it. The Oxford movement was itself a
result of the general ferment which preceded the Reform Bill of
1831-2. Like everything else, the Church of England had gone to
sleep during the previous century, and needed reform as much as
the State did. She was bitterly attacked, her corruptions in disci
pline had raised np against her hosts of enemies, and men believed
that her fall was near. But there was life in her yet,- and of this
the Oxford movement was a result. With much of the Oxford
movement I disagree, but there is very much in it that is good and
true, and any one who judges of it by its later developments will
judge of it unfairly. If an enemy sowed tares in Christ's own field,
why should it be surprising if tliere have been tares as well as
wheat in the Oxford movement? Every earthly institution and
tendency seems to have one settled course. It begins well and
brightly : as it advances onwards evils begin to mingle with it : it
has a dark as well as a fair side ; and its ultimate acceptance by
God or rejection depends in the main upon this, whether these evils

I.] WITH A SELF-RESTORATIVE POWER. 15
immorality and the doctrinal corruptions of the pro
fessors of Christianity have degraded the Church
to so great an extent that its speedy fall seemed
inevitable. But God has ever again infused life
into its decaying members. Its last stage of decay
has ever been also the time of a new birth ; refor
mation has followed close upon the heels of doctrinal
corruption ; and Christianity still lives, is strong,
and fruitful in holy deeds. It alone possesses the
power of influencing men largely and generally.
It stiU speaks mightily to the conscience. After
every period of decay, it revives to fresh power.
After every attack, it springs up with renewed
energy. The very blows aimed against it serve
but to quicken and animate it. ' Troubled on every
side, it is not distressed : perplexed, it is not in
despair : persecuted, it is not forsaken : cast down,
it is not destroyed.' Its one assurance of life is
that it bears about in the body the dying of the
Lord Jesus : that it teaches a suffering Christ, and
is content to suffer with Him (2 Cor. iv. 8-10).
Nor must it be forgotten that the power of Christi-
be checked or fostered. If the Oxford movement finally ends dis
creditably, it will be because men have loved its evil rather than its
good ; and have not cared to test by God's Holy Word, as the sole
ultimate rule of faith, the nature of its teachings. And it is this
tendency of all human things to evil, which makes the responsibility
of the leaders of every great movement of thought so serious
and weighty. A movement that goes forward unchecked, will
inevitably end in error. This law has held good of Christianity,
but when the truth seemed all but lost, there has ever come an
awakening, a reform, and men have gone back to the Bible, and

started afresh.

16 CHRISTIANITY MORE INFLUENTIAL [Lect.
anity ever increases in proportion as nations advance
in aH that most ennobles our nature. Where people
are ignorant, immoral, coarse, dull, degraded ; where
bad government and false doctrine unite in depressing
the moral state of the people ; where not religion but
superstition sways the public mind, there the con
science being darkened, the influence of Christianity
is but nominal. But give them good government,
good laws ; let them freely search and examine God's
word for themselves ; let knowledge of every kind
be diffused ; let truth be more loved ; and with in
creasing purity of life and greater freedom of mental
action, that nation wiU also steadily advance towards
a more spiritual and more earnest faith. Faith is
strongest where the light is brightest, and where life
is the purest. The man who believes that the Bible is
God's word ought not to fear for it the most searching
examination. It is a sickly faith that would seek
evasion and concealment. But there is also a sickly
utopianism that cannot bear difficulties, and runs
away from instead of facing the problems of life.
Of neither of these did our Lord speak when He
declared that the kingdom of heaven suffereth vio
lence, and must be seized by force.
The preparation then made for the Gospel in the
Old Testament has not failed in having a result
worthy of it ; and therefore we may fairly require
that the evidence which prophecy offers in support
of the claims of our Lord to be God incarnate in the
flesh for man's salvation, should be examined impar
tially. The existence, the nature, the power of

I] IN CIVILIZED NATIONS. 17
Christianity are aU phenomena which cannot be
Hghtly passed over. To reject its claims without
examining the evidence it produces in their behalf
is, in view of these phenomena, unscientific. At the
same time, I am aware that the very magnitude of
the thesis to be proved alarms many. The Bible
claims no less than to be a message from God to the
soul. It claims to speak to all men everywhere with
authority, only indeed upon one subject, but that
the one great and momentous subject which most
deeply concerns us all. In the text, St. Paul teUs
us that it was given to teach us the Christian hope,
the hope of a Saviour. Our Lord more exactly
defines its object as our ' eternal Hfe,' Xwh ala>vio<s.
(John v. 39.) It tells us then that which no other
book teUs us : that which we could know in no other
way unless God did teU it us in some supernatural
manner, namely, what are the relations between God
and the soul, how the soul can approach God, be
made holy so as to be fit for His presence, and be
united to Him. These are high claims, and the fact
is not at variance with them. The Book is a great
teacher. Kant himself concedes, that ' if the Gospel
had not previously taught men the universal moral
laws, reason wordd not have been able yet, that is,
in the short period between Plato and ourselves — a
couple of thousand years or so — to have attained to
so perfect an insight into them1.' Important as is
this testimony from a man who endeavoured to build
'Kant to Jacobi in Jacobi's Werke, iii. 523, quoted by Luthardt,
p. 160. C

18 INTERNAL EVIDENCES [Lect.

up a system of morahty upon the reason only, yet the
strength of the Gospel does not lie in its pure moral
teaching. It lies in that part of it which is directly
supernatural. It is in the manifestation of God in
the flesh ; it is in the work of the Emmanuel the
God-man, that its extraordinary power consists.
Take this away — the miracle which is the very centre
and core of Christianity — and the rest, though not
without a value, is yet comparatively of so smaU
value, that it would be scarce worth a struggle. The
power, the might, the life of the Christian world
would be gone.
With so great a thesis to prove, it is necessary that
the proof should be strong. And naturaUy the more
convincing evidences are those which are usuaUy
called internal. Our Lord claims to be so much
more than a mere historical character, that a mere
historical proof faUs below the exigencies of the case.
It is valuable, indispensable ; but not enough. We do
not regard our Lord as a teacher in the same way
that Socrates and Sakya-muni werem, but as be
longing altogether.to a higher and diviner sphere. And
thus the most convincing evidence of aU is our Lord's
own character. The more we study that simple but
marveUous delineation of Him given in the Gospels, the
more certain we feel of His unapproachable perfect-
ness : that no man ever spake as He spake, or taught
as He taught, or wrought as He wrought11- And next
m See Appendix, Note B.
n I would especially recommend a work intituled 'The Jesus
of the Evangelists,' by the Rev. C. A. Row, 1868. For fulness of

I] THE MOST CONVINCING. 19

I should place the evidence of the Epistles of St. Pard.
The man who can read them, and not be convinced
both of the greatness and the searching and critical
character of St. Paul's inteUect, and also of his entire,
thorough, and profound belief in the truth of every
word he wrote or spoke, must have a mind strangely
constituted, and strongly biassed. And another
powerful though less concentrated proof is that
which wiU be the subject of these Lectures ; the
proof, namely, which the Old Testament offers to
the truth of the New by the fulness and exactness
of the preparation made for it, and the wonderful
harmony, under vast external differences, which exists
between the two dispensations.
To treat so great a subject worthily would require
powers far greater than I can bring to the cause of
God's truth : to treat it fuUy would require many
volumes, and much time and study. I can but touch
the subject slightly and generaUy, and chiefly I shall
confine myself to the nature of the preparation made
under the Jewish covenant for Christianity : content
if I can remove any difficulties out of the way of
thought, and terseness and accuracy of reasoning, I do not know its
equaL No man can read it without being convinced, I should
imagine, not merely of our Lord's historical existence, which is
what Mr. Row undertakes to prove against Strauss, &c, but also
of His unapproachable perfectness. As a usual rule, it is in myths
that we find attempts at describing a perfect character : our Lord
is perfect in a way entirely distinct from any and every ideal of
perfection that the fancy has ever suggested, and with such proofs
of historical certainty that the more they are examined, the more
convinced are we that the Gospels are simple narratives of fact.
C 2

20 CONSISTENCY OF THE SCRIPTURES [Lect.

those who doubt, and confirm the faith of the devout
believer. That faith wiU, I believe, be best built up
by the close study of the Bible itself. If it be God's
book, it wiU speak best in God's behalf. And what
other proof can you offer to the great mass of man
kind 1 Christianity is no heritage of the rich, the
studious, the learned : it is common property, belong
ing as much to the cottage and the village as to the
cloister and the university. Its proof therefore can
not consist in elaborate arguments, such as those only
have the time to study, who are set free from the
cares and the manifold business of life. It must
carry its proof with it, and such a proof as working
men can understand : such a proof as makes faith
possible to the unlearned. And such a proof, felt
even where not consciously understood, I believe to
be the unity and consistency of the Bible itself, and
the wonderful way in which its many treatises form
one book, and all combine in setting before men one
and the same way provided by God for man's restor
ation. In the Bible men find the same plan of
salvation gradually and steadily unfolded. It grows
more plain, more clear and definite as speaker after
speaker arises with words from God. No one ever
contradicts the past, but each adds his own measure
ef truth to that already given. And finally 'It is
finished :' — the message of God to the soul is com
pleted under such circumstances, and with so great
an outpouring of Divine light, as infinitely to excel,
while nevertheless it fulfils and exactly corresponds
to all the previous declarations of the prophets.

I.] A PROOF OF THEIR INSPIRATION. 21
Finally, in this message thus perfect and complete
men find what they need — it supplies a want, a
craving in their own natures. They feel themselves
the better and happier for it, and believe not because
of other men's words, not because of arguments and
proof and evidence, but because they have found for
themselves that Jesus is the Christ. CaU it, if you
will, fanaticism0, but as a matter of fact it is this
internal conviction which supports and upholds the
true Christian. It is man's own heart at last, taught
by the Holy Ghost, which convinces him that he
needs a Saviour, and that Jesus of Nazareth both
can and will save him.
Nevertheless, if reason contradicted faith ; if we
had to do violence to our inteUect ; if after care
ful and candid consideration we felt that the proof
was insufficient, the evidence doubtful, or even
against us, I doubt whether the faith of an edu
cated man, used to weigh and balance testimony,
could stand the trial. Our inward conviction, that
wliich springs from faith, can overcome difficulties,
provided that, the balance of proof in the main
inchne largely and decidedly in its favour. And
thus if the Bible were at variance with itself, if
the books of the Old Testament marked out some
one way, and some another, for man's recovery : if
0 Though called fanaticism by those outside the faith, it is never
theless the proof which St. Paul asserts is possessed by all Chris
tians, 2 Cor. xiii. 5. The translation reprobates for dSoKip-oi rather
obscures the sense. It more correctly means 'not abiding the
proof,' and so not genuine, real Christians.

22 EXTERNAL EVIDENCE NECESSARY [Lect.

its principles were at variance with what our Lord
sets before us as holy, just, and true : if its lessons
and teaching, confessedly and necessarily inferior
to our Lord's, did not tend in the same direction,
and lead men onwards to Him, in Whom the Spirit
dwelt, not by measure but fuUy : — if this were so,
the power of the Bible would be gone. It would
carry on its very face its own refutation, and
there could be neither peace nor joy in believing,
if belief arrayed our inteUectual faculties in battle
against our moral faculties. Far different is the
case. And yet it is very extraordinary that this
discrepancy does not exist among the books of the
Bible ; — extraordinary and incredible from the scep
tic's point of view. For what is the Bible regarded as
he regards it 1 It is a collection merely of the most
heterogeneous treatises possible : laws, poems, biogra
phies, sermons, histories, of which few are genuine,
and those vdely interpolated. It is the remains of
a once far larger Jewish literature, preserved by
mere haphazard, dealt with by forgers at their list,
but by forgers and interpolators who had not the
slightest intention of preparing the way for Christi
anity. These are the books which the Jews valued
as God's most precious gift to them (Bom. ni. 2) :
these the books which they everywhere carried
with them, and of which they made translations
into whatever was their current tongue : these the
books which they thought assured to them the
heritage of the world. If these books were what
sceptics assert them to be, is it possible that the

I.] IN SUPPORT OF FAITH. 23
Jews could have regarded them with this profound
respect 1 Of these too it is that St. Paul affirms
that they were written for the teaching of all man
kind : that they all have one and the same high
purpose, and an eternal value. St. Paul's view
involves a miracle. Unless they had a superna
tural element, the Scriptures could not thus be the
universal teachers. But in proof of this assertion
and the miracle it involves, there is a vast and
wonderful mass of evidence, so thorough, perfect,
and complete, as in all ages to have satisfied the
most intellectual and earnest minds. And finaUy,
these are the books under whose teaching the
Christian world has outstripped, not only in mo
rality, but also in science, the farthest progress
of olden time ; and tested as they have been by
eighteen centuries of the most varied experience,
they stiU possess authority over many of the most
critical, judicious, and acute minds of the present
day. Perpetually attacked, subjected for centuries
to a bitter, minute, and searching criticism, they
still survive. Man has done his worst to destroy
them. Each new phase of scepticism boasts that
at length it has won a final victory ; but still they
speak to man with ever renewed power. 'This is
the Lord's doing, and it is marveUous in our eyes.'
Treat the Bible as an ordinary book ; take from it
the guiding hand of inspiration, the heavenly light
of revelation ; regard it as a merely national litera
ture, the chance combination of a number of myths,
legends, forgeries, fabrications, interpolations, with a

24 NATURE OF THE [Lect.
few genuine poems, exhortations, sermons, histories,
and the like, and you have — in the face of these facts
— the most extraordinary, the most unaccountable
phenomenon upon the face of the earth. That such
a Bible, — the Bible of the neologian, — or the Bible in
any way except as the Word of God, could stand the
test of criticism for a single month, or exert on any
one average mind a holy and strengthening influ
ence, I for my part regard as a childish and irrational
absurdity. St. Paul then affirms the prophetic character of
the whole of the Old Testament Scriptures. AH
these writings combine, and were intended to com
bine, into a concordant body of teaching, given to
man to set before him one and the same great truth.
For they were given, first, to prepare for the Advent
of man's Deliverer : and secondly, to bear witness to,
and be the proof of His mission after He had come.
But this preparation for Christ again was twofold.
It was necessary first of aU to make preparation for
the external part of His manifestation. If a De
Uverer was to come, if that Deliverer was to take
upon Him man's nature, He must come of some
lineage, must be born in some place, must have
witnesses to record what He said and did, must find
on earth such a state of things as would permit of
His giving the requisite proof of His mission, and
of His performing such acts as were necessary for
the carrying out of the Divine plan. And secondly,
there must be such a state of mental and moral
culture, as would enable men to understand His

I.] PREPARATION FOR CHRIST. 25
teaching, and comprehend whatever ideas were in
volved in the plan of man's restoration.
For evidently our Lord could not have come in
times like, for instance, the present. How could
He have wrought His miracles, and taught His
lessons, and gathered people round Him by thou
sands, and have wandered from place to place ever
with a more or less numerous following, unless
there had been far greater freedom of personal
action than is possessed by us now \ And again :
how could He have died, the just, the innocent, the"
spotless, unless the times had been rough and arbi
trary 1 Wherever excessive personal liberty exists,
wherever each man has to stand up for himself,
while the law is weak, and its action irregular,
there the hand of authority endeavours to repress
any dangers which seem to threaten itself, by
violent reprisals. And thus the state of Judaea,
restless under the Roman yoke, with its native
government all but powerless, whUe its conquerors
were alike unwilHng and unable to interfere much
with domestic matters, was admirably suited for
the work of our Lord's ministry. But this was
but one of many conditions equaUy indispensable:
and necessarily much of the Bible is concerned with
this external preparation. We see from the time
of Abraham aU the outward circumstances of our
Saviour's mission gradually growing into shape.
And it is this which gives its interest to the his
torical portions of the Bible. Starting with the
successive covenants made by God with aU man-

26 PURPOSE OF THE HISTORICAL [Lect.
kind in Adam and Noah, it rapidly lessens its
field of vision. Nation after nation is dropped out
of the programme. Ever it is a narrower stream
of history p. You have advanced but a short way
in the narrative before it is Hmited to the fortunes
of a chddless old man, dwelling in his black camel's-
hair tent beneath the lofty terebinths of Mamre.
But that old man is the ancestor of Christ, and
from him a nation must spring whose habitation
is to be a land peculiarly adapted for the Saviour's
mission, whose institutions all bear close reference
to Him, whose ritual sets forth His doctrines, whose
heroes are His types, whose fortunes for good and
evil are all so controlled as shall best serve His
purposes, and whose sons are to be the first reci
pients and disciples and propagators of the new
faith. The historical parts of the Bible aU relate
to this the closing scene of Israel's drama ; and so
exactly is this limiting principle adhered to, that
no sooner have the ten tribes forfeited all part in
the noble office of preparing for the Messiah, than
they disappear entirely from Holy Scripture. In
the prophets subsequent to Hosea, Israel becomes
a symbol for wider mercies than those which be
longed to the seed of Abraham after the flesh. The
purpose of the Bible is not historical. Its history is
strictly subservient to the covenant of grace.
P As till Christ it was an ever narrowing stream, till it all cen
tred in Him, so from Christ the stream is ever widening, till the
knowledge of the Lord shall at length be as universal as the waters
cover the sea.

I.] PARTS OF THE BIBLE. 27
But essential as was this portion of the prepara
tion, it nevertheless holds but the lower and inferior
place. Prophecy had also the nobler work of pre
paring for Christ's teaching. Look at that teaching.
Consider how spiritual it is, raised how high above
the teaching of any other sage whatsoever. How
perfect too in all its parts : not a medley, from
which you may cull here and there some of wisdom's
scattered pearls, while the rest is mere common
verbiage, the expression of loose, inaccurate, ordi
nary thought. Upon our Master's words the best,
the wisest, the most inteUectual of men for eighteen
centuries have pondered, and found in them a
strength and sweetness such as n'o other words
possess. If you bear this in mind, you can then
understand something of the greatness of the task
imposed upon the prophets. They had to prepare
men's minds for that teaching. If when Christ
came~ the Jews had been in so low a state intel-
lectuaUy and morally that they could not have
understood Christ, how could His Church have been
formed 1 Whence could He have gathered disciples %
Who would have recorded His lessons for us 1
Whence could the St. Paul have arisen to give us
their doctrinal exposition \ Whence the St. John
to raise the veil from their spiritual and mystic
import : That nation could not have been in a
low state of mental development whose fishermen
and tax-gatherers were capable of understanding
and recording the interpretation put upon the Old
Testament by our Lord ; of seeing our Lord's acts

28 GREAT APTITUDE OF THE JEWS [Lect.
in the light of prophecy, and prophecy as Ulumin-
ated by those acts. As I shall show hereafter, the
Jewish scribes and teachers had not attained to
the true interpretation of the prophecies. The
apostles had been brought up under a recognized
interpretation very different from what we now
hold. Yet their mental state was such as enabled
them, slowly I grant and unwillingly, nevertheless
finaUy, to grasp firmly and fully this new and
Christian interpretation of the Old Testament. But
whUe thus the Jews had been educated to such a
point as gave them great aptitude for understanding
religious teaching, the nature of the Talmud*! for
bids our conceding them much power of originating
doctrine. It is not an elevated or spiritual work,
and its strength lies rather in minute detaUs, than
in those great principles which rouse in us the
fire of a noble enthusiasm. And yet it is the
literature of a people great in teaching, and if we
cannot give them a high place in philosophy, still
q The strength of the Talmud lies in what is technically called
Halachah, the pathway or course of life, in other words morals. It
never places its morality however upon a scientific basis as Aristotle
did in his Ethics, but is full of sensible and sententious remarks ;
yet even in morals the point of many of its treatises is How you
can best break the full force of God's law while keeping the letter
of it. Its weakness is its Haggada, its queer tales and narratives,
not always of the most innocent description, and rivalling in wild
ness and monstrosity many of the tales in the Arabian Nights.
Something of this tendency of the Jewish mind may be seen in the
Book of Tobit. The morals of the book are excellent, but the
stories of the fish's liver, and of the love of an evil spirit for Sara
belong to the wildest class of legends.

I.] FOR MORAL TEACHING. 29
in morality — practical morality — their system was
far more pure and exceUent than that of many
nations capable of reasoning upon it with more
dialectic skiU. Prophecy had done its work. It
laid the foundation upon which to build, but the
buUder was Christ. Christ is the great teacher of
mankind : but they were Jews, Jews of the middle
and lower classes, who carried the great Teacher's
words to the Gentile world, and thereby fulfilled
that high office and destiny which the prophets
had not hesitated to claim for the Jewish nation.
•The law shall go forth of Zion, and the word
of the Lord from Jerusalem.' (Micah iv. 2, used
afterwards by Isaiah as the text of his prophecies,
Isa. ii. 3.)
And stiU prophecy speaks to us. For its other
great purpose was to bear witness to the truths
of Christianity. Man's works are for some limited
object. They have their use and then pass away.
One half of that which we call progress is the
removal of what once was sound and good, but is
now obsolete, worn out, and decayed. Just as the
generations of men pass away, and leave their
places for the young and strong to fill, so do
their works pass away. But God changeth not,
and His doings are not subject to time, do not
grow old, do not become obsolete, nor need restor
ation and renewal. And thus His Word 'shall
stand for ever.' (Isaiah xl. 8, 1 Peter i. 25.) Neces
sarily using human language, and clothing its
eternal truths in the ideas current in each writer's

30 THE OLD TESTAMENT [Lect

timer, it has also to fulfil an impossible condition —
impossible for man, and possible only for God — :
namely, that it must belong to all generations,
and speak forcibly to men in every stage and
diversity of culture and civilization. The more
I reflect upon the conditions of the problem, the
more extraordinary it seems to me that the Bible
should stUl be a living book. And what is more, not
the New Testament only, but also the Old Testa
ment stiU fulfils this impossible condition. It is
no more obsolete than the words of our Lord and
His apostles. It still has its use : stiU has its lessons
for poor and rich, and the testimony of the Saviour to
its power stiU finds an echo in our hearts. ' Search the
Scriptures ; for in them ye think ye have eternal life :
and they are they which testify of Me.' 'Had ye
r It is an amusing absurdity of the present day, that some stu
dents of physical science affirm that God's Word ought to have
used scientific, instead of popular language, that is, it ought to have
used the phraseology of the nineteenth century. For scientific lan
guage is itself but an approximation to an exacter phraseology, just
as science is but an approximation to truth. What is scientific
{ language now will be unscientific a century hence. Speaking to
men, the Bible must use human words, and, what is worse, human
ideas. The best of these words and ideas fall infinitely short of the
Divine realities (2 Cor. iv. 7, xii. 4), and are but shadows of the
truth. No words short of those used by heavenly intelligences (if
they use words) could have adequately expressed the truth, and if
so expressed men could not have understood it. God has deigned
therefore to clothe His revelation in such words as men generally
can understand, and each writer uses the phraseology of his own
period, but we are warned against the folly of supposing that we can
see the whole truth as long as we are here in the flesh (Ex. xxxiii.
20, 1 Cor. xiii. 9, 12).

LJ STILL A LIVING BOOK. 31

believed Moses, ye would have believed Me : for he
wrote of Me.' (John v. 39, 46.) Still it bears wit
ness to all the great principles of Christianity, and
those principles are the best, the truest, the sole
firm foundation for whatever is good in man ; upon
them all the better part of modern civilization rests,
and they alone are its preservatives, and resist and
correct the tendency of every form of civilization
to exhaustion and decay. I do not know whether
modern civilization may or may not have a decline
as well as a progress, a faU as weU as an uprise :
but if it be so, it will be because Christianity has
been overpowered, and unbelief taken its place, and
let loose the base herd of human passions from
their foul den. But wherever Christ's Church shaU
still exist — for it ever wiU somewhere exist with
Christ present in it, according to His promise (Matt.
xxviii. 20) — there will be purity, chastity, tempe
rance, self-restraint, the willingness to suffer, the
spirit that ' counts aU things but loss so that it may
win Christ.' And these things it is which save
not the soul only, but society, according to the
deeper meaning of the promise, that if there be
but ten righteous men in a city, God will not
destroy it for those ten's sake (Gen. xvni. 32).
To aU the great principles then of Christianity the
Old Testament bears witness, as weU as to the facts
of our Lord's life and the nature of His person and
offices. GraduaUy, by a long course of teaching, the
prophets led men on, till they were fit for Christ : so
fit that when Christ came the news of His mission

32 RAPID PROPAGATION OF CHRISTIANITY [Lect.
was rapidly carried throughout the world, and found
acceptance in every city. Even in the Gentile world,
at aU the great centres of human activity, devout
men had been gathered from among the heathen in
readiness for Christ. They were not proselytes, had
not submitted to the burdensome ceremonial of
Judaism, but they had learned from the Jewish
scriptures the doctrines of God's unity, His justice,
His mercy, His omnipresence, His spiritual nature.
Without being Jews they went on the Sabbath to
the synagogue to hear the words of the prophets
read there. And these were the men who almost
universally accepted Christianity, and who, added to
the believing Jews, gave the nascent Church a strength
and influence it could not, humanly speaking, have
otherwise gained among the Gentiles. These were
the men who made Antioch the second mother of the
faith, who gave there to Christianity its name, freed
it from aU that was local and temporary in Judaism,
and taught and commended it to the GentUe world.
And they were the fruits of prophecy. In them the
prophets had won the heathen as an inheritance for
Christ. In fact, Christianity could neither have so quickly
won its way to general acceptance, nor have occupied
now so firm and sure a position, had there not been
this marvellous preparation for it, carried on so
steadily through so long a period of time, and still
testifying so clearly to its being of God. That pre
paration began with the primaeval promise made to
the woman in the hour of the first great earthly

L] A RESULT OF PROPHECY. 33

sorrow. From that day onward one purpose, and
one only, is ever kept in view in God's dealings with
His fallen creatures. The promise was that man,
worsted in his first encounter with his spiritual
adversary, should crush that adversary's head by
means of one of the same nature as himself, empha
tically the woman's seed. That promise contained
in outHne the whole of prophecy. Of that promise
the Gospel is the one fulfilment. From the day on
which Eve was comforted by it, all God's deahngs in
grace ; — for the Bible has nothing to do with God's
deaHngs except as they belong to the covenant of
grace ; it is not a book of natural rehgion, but of
supernatural ; — but all God's dealings with man in
grace, which are the proper object-matter of the
Bible, relate to the performance of that promise.
They are God's means for raising ruined man, not
only to that height from which he fell, but to a far
more glorious and perfect state even than Adam
could have attained to, had he kept the terms of
the first covenant (Rom. v. 15-21).
From this short sketch of the office of prophecy it
will be manifest that it is by no means to be con
founded with prediction. It was but a part of the
office of the prophets to foretell certain necessary
facts and particulars with respect to Christ. It was
necessary that the preparatory dispensation should
give certain sure signs by which the Messiah when
He came might be identified. It was also neces
sary to keep alive in men a confident belief that
the promise of a Deliverer would be fulfilled. Lastly,
D

34 PROPHECY MORE THAN PREDICTION.
as the time of that fulfilment approached, it was
necessary that the minds of men should be roused
to a lively expectation that 'the latter days' had at
length arrived. But this was not the whole office
of the prophets, and the proof which the Old Testa
ment offers to the truth of the New is something far
larger and broader than even that extraordinary series
of predictions so exactly fulfilled in our Lord and in
His Church. Time however wiU not permit me to
enter upon so wide a subject to-day, but in my next
lecture I shaU endeavour to show what is the true
idea of prophecy, and what was the proper office and
mission of the prophet.

LECTUEE II.
THE PROPER IDEA AND MEANING OF PROPHECY.
God, Who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time
past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days
spoken unto us by His Son  Heb. j. i, 2.
J.HE Apostle in these words distinguishes between
the manner of God's revelation in the Old and in the
New Testament. In both God speaks : and the
word used of this speaking is a homely kind word
(XaXeoi), agreeing well with the informal8- way in
which the truth is given, not in set definitions, but
so as to arrest our attention and interest us, and
dwell upon our memories. But though the reve
lation is made in this informal way, nevertheless it
is God who speaks, not by, as our translation renders
it, but equally in the prophets and in the Son {ev
toIs Trpocpnrais — ev woo). The prophets were not mere
messengers, to whom a definite form of words was
a It is, however, exactly this informal manner in which the truth
is given that renders the study of the Bible so rich in results. No
other book could be dwelt upon word by word, and sentence by
sentence, all our lives through, as we dwell upon the Bible, and
always find not only the dear old familiar long-treasured truth,
but some new aspect or meaning or application of it. There is
always a mine in it, not of new doctrine, but of fuller instruction
in the deeper significance of the truths entrusted to the Church's
D 3

36 EQUAL INSPIRATION OF THE [Lect.
entrusted : they spake freely, fully, but yet not of
themselves. They had some share in what they
taught. There is no book in which the personality
of each writer is more plainly marked than in the
Bible. Each retains, alike in things great and small,
his own individuahty, his favourite modes of expres
sion, even his peculiarities. But however great the
freedom of the messengers, it was nevertheless God's
message which they spake. And they knew it to be
His. They ever ascribed it to Him, and declared
that their words were not their own, but God's ;
not the working of their own minds, but something
that came to them from without0.
The difference, then, between revelation in Christ
and in the prophets is not that the words of the One
are more God's words than those of the others. To
keeping. Each age even of the Church collectively finds in the Bible
what exactly answers to its needs. And thus it is not a mere record,
not a body of dead formulse and definitions of doctrine, but is fraught
with power, and with that faculty of adaptation which living bodies
possess. Experience justifies what is said of it in Heb. iv. 12 :
' The word of God is quick, i. e. living, £S>v, and active, evapyrjs,'
capable of doing work, as living bodies alone are capable. Men
may ridicule our respect for the Bible, may call it bibliolatry and
book -worship ; but the question really is whether what is said in
Heb. iv. 1 2 is true. If the Bible possess a living energy such as
no other book possesses, does not reason require us to treat it
differently from mere ordinary books ?
b In the Hebrew text there is considerable diversity of expression
in the manner in which the prophets refer all that is spoken to
Jehovah. Thus Isaiah, while constantly saying that it is Jehovah
who speaks (Isa. i. 2, 10, 18, &c), yet does not use an introductory
formula in the regular way in which Jeremiah and Ezekiel prefix
one to their several prophecies. Once or twice he speaks of a
vision, or a word which he saw, a phrase peculiar to himself, to

II.] OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS. 37

mark how thoroughly they both stand upon the same
footing, the Apostle does not hesitate to use language
from which perhaps we might have shrunk. We
should have said, perhaps, that Christ spake of Him
self, of His own fulness : that being God as weU as
man, He spake as God. The Apostle, of set purpose,
says, 'God spake in the prophets, and in the Son.'
We must not then draw distinctions between the Old
Testament and the New, as though they differed in
authority, or in the nature and extent of their inspi
ration. Where God speaks, man's business is to
obey. The distinction which the Apostle draws is
in the manner of the revelation, the different way in
which it was given, not in the degree of it. In the
Old Testament it was partial, gradual, progressive ;
in the New, it is fuU, perfect, final, complete. We
Obadiah, and Habakkuk, though evidently in popular use long
afterwards (Ez. xii. 2*7 ; xiii. 6-8, Zech. x. 2). His usual title to
his prophecies is massd, an ambiguous word signifying a sentence,
decision, authoritative decree, in which sense Isaiah used it, and also
a burden. This ambiguity led to ridicule and profanity on the
part of the wits of Jerusalem (Jer. xxiii. 33-38), but nevertheless
the word continued in use in its proper sense of a sentence passed
by God, especially upon Gentile nations (Nah. i. 1, Hah. i. 1, Zech.
ix. 1), though not confined to them (Zech. xii. 1, Mal. i. 1). Isaiah
also says that Jehovah spake by him (Isa. xx. 2). Jeremiah con
stantly uses two formulae, the first, ' The word of Jehovah was unto
me' (c. ii. 1 , &c), and a stronger form, ' The word that was upon
Jeremiah' (c. xxv. 1, &c), implying the duty on his part to speak
it, and suggesting also the reluctance with which he had so often to
struggle (c. xv. 18 ; xx. 7, 8, 9). Ezekiel's constant phrase is, 'The
word of Jehovah was unto me,' and this is the usual formula with
the rest (Hos. i. 1, Joel i. 1, &c). It must be noticed that it is
always Jehovah, the covenant God, not Elohim, God simply, who
speaks. It is the God of grace, not of nature.

38 REVELATION IN THE OLD TESTAMENT [Lect.
look forward to no further revelation. Not that we
possess all truth. 'We shall know as fully as we
are known' only in the beatific vision; but we possess
aU that necessary knowledge of our relations to God
in Christ, and of our hopes in a future world, wliich
was the proper object-matter of a revelation ; all,
namely, which the conditions of our probation in this
world involved, if that indispensable probation was
to be also merciful and just.
Revelation, then, in the Old Testament was, first,
in many parts or portions, -woXv/mepws, not ' at sundry
times ' only ; that is but a small part of the meaning.
What the Apostle says is that it was an imperfect
revelation, given in bits ; now a little, and then a
little, with long intervals during which no addition
was made to the heritage of truth. The attitude of
the saints of old was that of expectation ; ' they
searched, and searched diUgently what time, or what
manner of time the Spirit of Christ that was in
them did signify, when testifying to them of Christ's
sufferings.' (i Pet. i. n.) And thus they themselves
constantly spake of ' latter days,' and of a ' new
covenant;' whereas in the New Testament we read
of the ' fulness of time,' and of a ' faith once for all
delivered to the saints.'
Ours, too, is an attitude of expectation. 'We
wait for the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.'
But we wait for no new truth : we believe in no
development of old truths. The truths of Holy
Scripture, by its very faculty of life (Heb. iv. 12),
adapt themselves to each succeeding age, and

II-] PROGRESSIVE. 39

portions long neglected, or but partially understood,
break forth often with new energy when circum
stances caU for their application. Of others it is
only by careful study and diHgent and oft-repeated
examination, that the Church at length attains
to their fuU meaning, and due relation to other
truths. But a new article of the faith, by its
very novelty, stands self-condemned. The Church's
duty is, not to invent, but to defend and maintain
in its integrity the whole truth entrusted to its
charge. Our duty is to study the inspired records,
so carefuUy and with prayer, that by the Holy Spirit's
aid we may comprehend, as adequately as our Hmited
powers will permit, the unsearchable riches of the
truth as revealed in Jesus Christ our Lord.
And next the truth was given ' in divers manners ;'
there is a varied ministry in the Old Testament, both
of angels0 and of men. And to men God spake vari
ously, to Moses face to face, to others in dreams and
visions ; to some it may have seemed as the welling
up of their own hearts, while to others it was an
express message, which they delivered in God's name.
When Moses gave his two histories of creation, he
must have been recording absolute revelations, made
to some of the patriarchs, in the first of which (Gen.
i-ii. 3) man appears as the final crown simply of
creation, its lord and master, whereas in the second
(Gen. n. 4-iH. 24) he appears as a being in covenant
with God, using his freedom for his ruin, yet with
that promise of restoration made him, which aH the
0 Especially in the time of the Judges.

40 DIVERSIFIED MANNER [Lect.
rest of the Bible is occupied in fulfiUing. But in the
account of the flood he gives the narrative of an
eye-witness (see for instance Gen. vii. 19); and so
also the history of Joseph (Gen. xxxvii-1, omitting
Gen. xxxvni, inserted to keep the history of Judah,
to whom now belonged the birthright, synchronolo-
gical with that of Joseph), bears many internal proofs
of having been compiled from contemporary records,
or even from a narrative composed by Joseph himself.
Subsequently Moses recorded revelations made to
himself, facts of history witnessed by himself, and
predictions of the future, for Israel's warning and
guidance. So too of others. There is a rich diversity
of manner in which the truth is given : and con
stantly words, called forth by some temporary occur
rence, rise up to an eternal significance. When David
was celebrating the glories of Solomon's wide-spread
dominion, his language, not perhaps altogether un
beknown to himself, sweUed onwards to the universal
reign of Christ. When in other Psalms, and in the
prophets, the saints poured out their sorrows, God's
hand mysteriously rested upon them, and caused
them to foreshow the deeper mystery of Christ's
passion : so to foreshow it, that those who read felt
that the words meant more than mere private grief.
And then there were the types and shadows and
figures of the law: and many symbolical acts both
in the ritual and in the history of the nation, and
typical personages, of aU of which we know that the
Jews regarded them as intended to convey doctrinal
truths. It is no peculiarity of St. Paul that he finds

II.] OF ITS BESTOWAL. 41
Christian verities in Sarah and Hagar, and in the
passage ofthe Red Sea, and in the smitten Rock. But
we never interpret the New Testament in this way.
The apostles are examples often for our imitation,
but their teaching is explicit, definite, and complete.
For they and we have in Christ ' the brightness of
God's glory/ the airavyao-ixa, the pure Hght, that is,
of God, unveUed, shining in absolute clearness, limited
not in itself, but in us, by our narrowness, held but
in part by us, because infinitely larger than we can
hold. And thus, surrounded by the clear daylight,
our business now is to endeavour thoroughly to
understand what is revealed, and not to be searching
in twUight and gloom, as the fathers of old searched,
if haply they could learn somewhat more of God's
future purposes of grace.
But though thus the revelation of Christ in the
Old Testament was first, partial, and secondly, be
stowed in many different ways, yet absolutely the
prophet was one in whom God spake. He was God's
representative, whose business it was chiefly to speak,
but often also to act for God. And plainly this is
something far wider than the mere foreteUing of
future events. Prediction is part of prophecy : for
as the past and the future are both -present to God,
one in whom God spake would be raised above the
limits of time, provided that this elevation were
needed by that particular portion of God's truth
which he was commissioned to dehver. But if, as
often was the case with the prophets, their office
related to the present state of God's Church, no

42 PREDICTION A NECESSARY [Lect.
prediction would be spoken by them. Prediction, Hke
miracle, was rare : nevertheless Isaiah declares that
on fit and proper occasions prediction is an essential
element of prophecy. In those noble chapters in
which he so utterly overthrew idolatry, and proved
the necessary unity of God's nature, he speaks thus ;
' TeU ye and bring them near (that set up the wood
of their graven image, and pray unto a god that
cannot save) : Who hath declared this from ancient
time 1 Who hath told it from that time % Have not
I, Jehovah % and there is no God else beside Me !
A just God and a Saviour : there is none beside Me !'
(ch. xiv. 21.) And again; 'I am God, and there is
none like Me, declaring the end from the be
ginning, and from ancient times the things that
are not yet done ! saying, My counsel shall stand,
and I wiU do aU My pleasure.' (ch. xlvi. 9, 10.)
For plainly as God's knowledge is not limited Hke
man's knowledge, so His words cannot be Hmited
Hke man's words. Nor does the difficulty really
lie in the possession by the prophets of this super
human element. It lies farther back in the existence
of the supernatural at aU. If there be a God ; if
that God be more than a blind force ; if He can
will and do ; if being thus a personal God He
deign to have relations with man, His chief creature
here on earth ; if these relations involve His
bestowal upon man of such knowledge as, being
necessary for man's restoration, he yet could in no
other way obtain except by a message from God,
the bearers of that message must have some proof

II.] ELEMENT OF PROPHECY. 43

to give that they reaUy are God's messengers ; and
no proof can be sufficient except it be supernatural.
The two supernatural proofs offered in the Bible are
miracle and prediction. Any proofs but these would
faU infinitely below the exigencies of the case.
For you would have men, who professed to bring
words from God, words upon which man's ever
lasting salvation depended, and yet these words
would be limited as ordinary words are, destitute
of divine attributes, and with no qualities but mere
human qualities. And then, without miracle, these
men would have absolutely no proof to give that
those common-place words of theirs were anything
more than hopes and aspirations dictated by their
own hearts. Nay more : Christ spake as never man
spake. He says too that for those who are of God
His words would be enough : for ' he that is of
God heareth God's words.' (John vni. 47.) He says
too, that if God had not spoken d, if there had
d In God's speaking we must nevertheless include the light of
nature. God speaks in the conscience, and the fact that man
possesses the faculty of distinguishing between right and wrong
involves the duty of choosing what is right. A being set between
right and wrong, and endowed with the power of distinguishing
between them, is bound to do so. Bound to whom ] What follows
if he choose evil 1 If he resist conscience 1 Bound, I answer, to
Him Who gave him a conscience, and Who enabled him to distin
guish between good and evil. A being so endowed must be liable
to a future judgment. If not, man is a blunder, a mistake in
creation : he has the false semblance of qualities which serve for no
useful purpose. As for happiness, instincts would not merely have
sufficed, but have better provided for human happiness than con
science does.

44 NAMES APPLIED TO THE PROPHET [Lect.
been no revelation, as there would have beep no
covenant of grace, no possibUity of salvation, so
also there would have been no such thing as sin.
Man would have been in the same state as the
cattle (John xv. 22). Yet, in spite of this, unless
Christ had performed miracles, there would have
been, He teUs us, no obHgation to examine into
His claims, and no sin in rejecting Him. 'If I
had not done among them the works which none
other man did, they had not had sin.' (Ib. xv. 24.)
God spake then in the prophets : and necessarily
His speaking in man must be something more
perfect than mere human speaking ; and being itself
a miracle, it requires the supernatural proofs of
prediction and miracle. And yet it is possible that
the wonderful series of absolute predictions respect
ing the person and offices of the Saviour may have
led in many minds to too complete an identification
of prophecy with the" foretelling of future events.
Let us then examine what the Bible says of the
prophet's office : for this too exclusive consideration
of fulfilled prediction, whUe it rightly appreciates
the great value of the Old Testament in bear
ing witness to us of Christ, yet makes us perhaps
put too much out of sight the influence exerted
by prophecy upon the Jews, its preparation for
Christ's spiritual teaching, and the testimony it
bears to many cardinal truths both of Christianity
and also of natural religion.
Let us begin then with the names applied to the
prophet in the Hebrew Scriptures. Of these the

IE] IN THE HEBREW SCRIPTURES. 45

first is Roeh, a Seer. With two exceptions this
name is applied only to Samuel ; of these the first
is in 2 Sam. xv. 27, where David asks the high
priest Zadok, whether he is not a seer : while the
second is found in the Book of Chronicles (2 Chr.
xvi. 7, 10), a work compiled at a date subsequent
to the return from Babylon, and when the language
was no longer spoken or written in its original
exactness and purity. Isaiah also uses the term in
the plural : ' This is a rebellious people, which
say to the seers6, See not, and to the prophets,
Prophesy not unto us right things.' (ch. xxx. 10.)
Nowhere else does the word occur except with
reference to Samuel.
From the narrative in Samuel we learn that the
people were in the habit of consulting the prophets
upon occasions of difficulty, and according to the
reading in the Septuagint the term Seer was the
popular name1 assigned to them when so consulted.
e The meaning of Isaiah is, that neither in their worldly matters
nor in things spiritual would they listen to upright advice. The
seers to whom they went on matters of business, the prophets to
whom they went on matters of conscience, were both to combine in
flattering and cajoling them. Still many of the seers may have
been impostors, and false claimants to supernatural powers. People
who want to be deceived naturally go, by instinct as it were, to the
false, to those who will take their money, and give them what
-they want for it, falsehood.
f The LXX read Dyn for DVn, the difference being simply the
junction of the two central letters. The sense however is much
altered, namely, ' for the people formerly used to call the prophet
the seer.' The difference however would be much greater in the
ancient or Samaritan method of writing, and thus the diversity of
reading is probably subsequent to the Babylonian captivity.

46 MEANING [Lect.
The Hebrew text makes the term Seer an archaic
name for the prophet : the more probable reading
of the Septuagint makes it not merely archaic, but
also coUoquial. In any case the term has nothing to
do with prophecy in its proper sense. Even the
large majority of those who, as belonging to the
prophetic order, were caUed Nabhis, prophets, were
not inspired S; and though the term inspiration, or
its equivalents, is used in a far wider sense in the
Old Testament than we might have expected h,
yet there is no reason for supposing that the Seers
had any special Divine help whatsoever in resolving
the difficulties of the people. Samuel, when con
sulted by Saul, did give him a divinely -inspired
answer, but it was because the occasion was a
great one ; for the raw youth, who came with his
half-shekel to enquire about his father's lost asses,
was to be Israel's first king. Undisciplined as he
was, unbroken to the yoke, and, as it proved, des
tined to fail in his probation, he yet possessed alike
great personal and great mental endowments, and
by his soldierlike conduct he did much in raising
Israel to the dignity of an independent nation. But
we have no reason for supposing that the seer Zadok
was inspired, or that generally, as a class, they were
inspired. Even Hanani, who is mentioned in Chron
icles as a seer, though undoubtedly also a prophet1,
e See Lecture III. h See Appendix, Note C.
* He was a prophet, because his reproval of Asa, and the sen
tence passed upon him, are recorded as true prophetic acts. But it
would not follow from 2 Chr. xix. 2, as unwary readers might sup-

IL] OF THE WORD 'SEER.' 47
may have reaUy been a seer in the proper sense of
the term, and Asa's rough treatment of him may have
arisen from his venturing to transgress his usual office.
It may be doubted whether Asa would have dared
to imprison one generaUy regarded as a prophet.
But though not inspired, the seers were men of
acute understanding, and probably often of better
education than the mass of the people. By the
exercise of a practised inteUigence they solved
difficulties which passed the comprehension of the
rude countrymen around them. Their advice pos
sibly was usuaUy good in itself: but its success
was due even more perhaps to the renewed energy
which it breathed into the enquirer. Many even of
these seers may have been impostors, if not con
sciously, yet unconsciously, and have claimed for
themselves more than was their due. Even among
us in Christian England there are aU sorts of pre
tenders to spirituahstic powers, aU sorts of books pub
lished which profess to divine the future. And, what
is more extraordinary, there are even people who
believe in them. But such pretensions can never
endure the test of time. And so as regards these
seers, the fact that the very name so entirely dis
appears suggests the idea that it became discredit-
pose. Seer (in Hebrew Chozeh) belongs there to Jehu, who is thus
described as above his father in dignity. He was a Chozeh, his father
a Boeh. In Hebrew, people are described by their own name, and
that of their father, and commentators not remembering this, some
times ascribe to the father what undoubtedly belongs to the son ;
for though our version is ambiguous, the Hebrew is not. Thus,
then, Jehu Hananison is the Chozeh, and not Hanani.

48 GRADUAL DISUSE [Lect.
ablek. Seers in Samuel's days there were probably
plenty : but the word of the Lord was rare, ' It was
precious in those days : there was no open vision.'
(i Sam. iii. i.) If seers had been equaUy rare, there
would have been no popular name for them ; nor
would Saul's man-servant have known so exactly what
was the method of consulting them. In fact we may
be sure, that if there were plenty of people ready to
go with presents of food and half-shekels, there would
be plenty of others ready to receive their gifts.
StiU at best we can only conjecture what the
functions of the seers were. Like so much in Holy
Scripture, we learn about them only incidentaUy,
by reason of the providential occurrence which
brought Saul to Samuel. No account is given of
them, nor was intended to be given : but we may
perhap< infer, from the manner in which the name
is applied to Samuel, that he was often thus con
sulted. Every real prophet would be thus beset.
k Like most appellations it was an honourable one at first. For
if Boeh does not occur till Samuel's days, other words from the
same root do. Thus mar 'eh, a vision, is found in Gen. xlvi. 2, ' God
spake to Israel in the visions of the night,' and Num. xii. 6, ' If
there be a Nabhi among you, I Jehovah will make myself known
unto him in a vision.' Here then it is spoken of as the usual form
of revelation, yet as something infinitely lower than that which
Moses enjoyed. The verb also is of frequent occurrence, as in Gen.
xii. 7. One to whom a mar' eh was vouchsafed, would rightly he
called roeh. Visions do not however appear to have been the
ordinary way in which God revealed Himself to the greater pro
phets, Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah, Jeremiah, &c, though Ezekiel's vision
of the dry bones is the most instructive of that great writer's
lessons.

IL] OF THE TERM SEER.

49

Instead of taking the trouble of deliberating for
themselves, and doing their best, all feeble, slothful,
and superstitious people would try to get the pro
phets to help them out of their difficulties. But in
Samuel's time there was some excuse for it. The
miserable state of the land after the utter defeat
of Israel at Ebenezer (i Sam. iv. i, io), made the
people need, not the advice only but the encourage
ment, of the wise and thoughtful man who raised
up the nation once again from its utter prostration
to a renewed life. As he travelled on circuit year
by year round the land, not merely judicial matters,
but difficulties of every kind were probably laid
before him. But again, we have no reason to sup
pose that either his answers as a Roeh, or his de
cisions as a Judge, were inspired1. As one estab
hshed to be Jehovah's prophet he was by Divine
right the temporal ruler of the country. He ruled
weU and firmly : he was a just, upright, able, and
1 The gift of inspiration rested permanently on Moses, yet not
for all and every, but only for fitting purposes. We find him
even thankfully accepting the advice of his father-in-law, Jethro,
upon a matter of the highest but only of temporal consequence
(Ex. xviii. 13-26). We are not to suppose, therefore, that in judg
ing the people even he had any supernatural aid. So of the
Apostles, St. Paul wrote at least three epistles to the Corinthians,
one of which is not in our canon, being probably lost, because it
was not inspired (1 Cor. v. 9). So again, it is by no means cer
tain that he was right in going up to Jerusalem after the many
warnings he had of what awaited him (Acts xx. 23, xxi. 11):
the warnings seem to me to have been given to prevent the great
loss which the Church sustained by his imprisonment. But he
was an intrepid, determined man : was he also obedient 1
E

50 MEANING OF THE TWO WORDS [Lect.
active man : he was more. God's gifts of grace were
largely possessed and used by him. One so holy,
so pure in word and deed, was well worthy that
under the extraordinary circumstances of the Jewish
dispensation, the higher gift of Divine knowledge
should rest upon him, to be used on all fitting and
proper occasions. But miracle and prophecy were
ever too sparingly given to justify us in supposing
that the Roeh, the seer, possessed anything more
than ordinary but practised acuteness. He must not
be confounded with the prophet m.
In the authorized version the term seer repeatedly
occurs elsewhere, but it is the translation of an
entirely different word. When we read in the
m The Bible never does confound these entirely different gifts in
Samuel. When Saul goes to consult him about his asses, it is
incidentally mentioned that the vulgar view of the prophet was
that he was a person to be consulted in the ordinary difficulties of
life. It is quite possible that Samuel may have been even called
Seer from this one occurrence. For the appointment of Saul as
king, and the valiant achievement (i Sam. xi.) which made all
Israel feel that he was king in very deed, must have made the
whole land ring with every incident in his appointment. I incline
however to the other view, that Samuel did give the people advice
in their troubles. But this was a very different thing from those
weighty matters in which ' Jehovah was with him,' and for which
' Jehovah appeared to him in Shiloh.' As Moses was the founder,
so was Samuel the restorer of Israel ; and it was in this grand
work that 'all Israel from Dan -even to Beersheba knew that
Samuel was established to be Jehovah's prophet.' (i Sam. iii. 19-21.)
Even the heathen could see that the two things were essentially
distinct ; for so we read of Oedipus,
avbpaw ere nparov ev re fTV^.(popais j3/ov
Kpivovres, ev t( baip.6vav avvaWayais. Oed. Tyr. 33, 34.

II-] TRANSLATED 'SEER.' 51

same verse (i Chron. xxix. 29) of 'Samuel the
seer, and Nathan the prophet, and Gad the seer,'
it would not suggest itself to an English reader,
that the three terms are essentially dissimUar".
Samuel is the Roeh, the man who can see, whose
eyes are open, and who therefore is consulted in
aU the more important circumstances of human
life. Gad is Chozeh, the gazer, one who sees visions,
not the acute intelligent man, possessed of insight
in matters of worldly business, but the tranced
man who gazes with dazed eyes upon the verities
of the spiritual world. This term is as distinctly
modern, as that of Roeh is archaic. The usual
term for a prophecy was Massa0, a sentence, but
also meaning a burden, and so usually rendered in
our version. ' Remember how that when I and thou
rode together after Ahab, Jehovah burdened this
burden upon him,' but more correctly passed this
n Ewald (History of Israel, vol. i. 189 note, ed. Martineau)
affirms that these words are not intended to convey different ideas,
as is clear from 2 Chron. xii. 15, xiii. 22. I believe on the contrary
that every word has its own proper idea, and its several history.
Still, I grant that the word Chozeh, applied to Gad, came in popular
language to be used as almost identical with Nabhi prophet, though
its idea and origin are distinct. But how a professor of Hebrew
can translate Chozeh, viewer, passes my comprehension. To view
implies careful, exact examination. To view a vision is impossible.
The real equivalent of Chozeh is gazer. Ewald's references do not
touch the word Roeh. In his Propheten d. A. Bundes i. 27 note,
ed. 2, however, he regards the three names Boeh, Nabhi, and Chozeh
as distinct in idea, and as marking three progressive stages in the
development of Hebrew prophecy.
0 See note to page 36.
E 2

52 'NABHI' THE PROPER TERM [Lect.
sentence (2 Kings ix. 25). Subsequently a prophecy
was caUed a vision, a term apparently brought into
general use by Isaiah P, and probably having in his
writings a distinct reference to the glorious spec
tacle (in ch. vi.) by which he was inaugurated into
his office. By the simpler visions of the almond
rod and the seething caldron Jeremiah (ch. i. 11, 13)
was summoned to be Jehovah's prophet, and Eze
kiel (ch. i. 4-28) by the chariot of the cherubim,
and the four living creatures. And thus the
thought of a vision became inseparably connected
with the prophetic office. By a vision the prophet
was appointed : and the word was appUed coUec-
tively to the whole body or mass of a prophet's
writings (Isa. i. 1, Obad. 1, Nah. i. 1, and 2 Chron.
xxxii. 32), because in that inaugural vision aU the
rest, all God's subsequent revelations to him, vir-
tuaUy were contained.
This term, then, Chozeh, the seer, however dif
ferent in derivation, became in time equivalent to
the word 'prophet.' It means the man who has
been summoned to speak for God by a vision such
as those of Isaiah, and Jeremiah, and Ezekiel.
It does not foUow that Gad had seen such a vision ;
it was simply a title first applied to the prophet
p Before Isaiah's time it occurs only once, in the 'open vision/
literally, 'the vision bursting forth' of 1 Sam. iii. 1, unless Hos. xii.
10 be also earlier than Isaiah. It was however in b. c. 74^, the
last year of King Uzziah, that Isaiah saw his vision, and from that
year the technical use of Chazon, a vision, must be dated. Hosea
xii. 10 is probably twenty -five years later than the visj^B. of the
seraphim.

II.] IN HEBREW FOR PROPHET. 53

in Isaiah's time because of the magnificent spectacle
which he had witnessed, and which subsequently
lost its special meaning, and was used of aU the
prophets indiscriminately i. And then, lastly, there
is the one proper term for the prophet, Nabhi. Its
derivation is from a root signifying 'to bubble up
like a fountain r.' But this overflowing fulness is
not the prophet's own. The verb never occurs
either in the Hebrew, the Syriac, or the Chaldee
in the active voice. Like vaticinor in Latin,
and /navrevofiat in Greek, it is properly a passive,
and as a passive8 it is constantly used in the Scrip
tures both of the writings and of the oral teachings
of the prophets. It was by compulsion that the
i This indiscriminate use of it however is confined to the Books
of Chronicles. By his contemporaries I do not doubt but that Gad
was called Nabhi.
r Ewald, Proph. d. A. B. i. 7, ed. 2, explains Nabhi as meaning
a loud clear speaker. But he draws his explanation from the
Arabic. This use of Arabic I have long rejected as utterly unscientific,
and as having done more to corrupt Hebrew and to confuse Hebrew
scholars than anything besides. Who would dream of settling the
meaning of an Anglo-Saxon word by its present signification in
English, or interpret the laws of the ten tables by French or
Italian ? There is a connection between Himyaritic Arabic and
Hebrew sufficiently near to be of use : between the Arabic dialect
which Mohammed adopted and Hebrew there is just such a false show
of semblance as suffices to lead all those who use it utterly wrong.
8 The passive in Hebrew is called Nifal. As an instance of the
use of the verb in Nifal we may quote Amos iii. 8 : —
' The lion hath roared : who will not fear 1
The Lord Jehovah hath spoken : who will not prophesy V
i. e. who will not be compelled to pour forth. Our version, as usual,
translates the vowels of the name of God, and leaves the consonants,
which alone are genuine, untranslated.

54 REAL AND FALSE PROPHECY [Lect.
message burst forth from their Hps. So the word
teaches ; and Jeremiah declares that such was Hterally
the case with him. In deep distress at the supposed
failure of his efforts, disappointed of his hopes,
with wounded feehngs at the mockery and derision
which daUy attended his preaching, surrounded by
false prophets to whom the people willingly gave
ear, he wickedly rebeUed against God, and deter
mined to cast his high office from him. ' Then I
said, I wUl not make mention of Him, nor speak
any more in His name.' But Jeremiah's rebellion
was as vain as Jonah's flight. ' His word,' he says,
' was in my heart, shut up in my bones : and I
was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay.'
(Jer. xx. 9.) The prophet therefore neither regarded
himself, nor was regarded by others as entirely a free
agent. His freedom was not absolutely overpowered ;
but there was a bit in his mouth, and to be restive
and struggle against it only brought grief and
suffering upon himself.
The verb is also used in the reflective* voice, he
acted the prophet. In this way it is spoken of the
seventy elders, and of Eldad and Medad in the camp
(Num. xi. 25-27); of the music and dancing of the
sons of the prophets (1 Sam. x. 5); of Saul's partici
pation in their rehgious exercises (1 Sam. x. 6, 10, 13);
of the excited cries and contortions of the prophets
of Baal (1 Kings xvin. 29); of the prophets who
prophesied lies at Jerusalem (Jer. xiv. 14); and of
4 This is called in Hebrew the Hithpahel. It means, to give one's
self out as, or profess one's self, a prophet, to play the prophet.

IL] NEVER CONFOUNDED IN THE HEBREW. 55
those at Samaria who professed to be inspired by
Baal (Jer. xxni. 13). So, too, it is the word
employed by Ahab, who probably regarded with
something like contempt the wish of Jehoshaphat
to know Jehovah's will (1 Kings xxii. 8, 18). Oc
casionally therefore it is used in a good sense,
though scarcely ever of real prophecy. The seventy
elders were regularly appointed to their high office
of being deputies for Moses in the administration
of justice, by having a share of the spirit that
rested upon him communicated to themu (Num. xi.
17). It was God's gift, but it was the gift of govern
ment; just as it was God's spirit that rested upon
Bezaleel, but it was the gift of artistic skiU. Twice
however it approaches the character of real prophecy.
Thus it is said that Eliezer acted the prophet as to the
wrecking of Jehoshaphat's navy (2 Chron. xx. 37)*;
but the use of the verb suggests that Eliezer brought
a prophetic message merely to Jehoshaphat ; that he
came in the character of a prophet, and was not him
self inspired. And finally, in the vision of the dry
« When first communicated there was evidently however a certain
amount of excitement and agitation on their part, showing itself in
unpremeditated and perhaps partially incoherent utterances, chiefly
probably of praise.
x The Books of Chronicles however, th'e latest in date of the
Hebrew Scriptures, being composed when Chaldee and not Hebrew
was the vulgar tongue, are not so exact in language as any of the
rest, and therefore if any one considers that Eliezer was himself a
prophet, all I can say is that he may have been, but he may not.
If he was an independent prophet, then the use of the Hithpahel is
a Chaldaism : for the Chaldee, having no Nifal, uses the Hithpahel
as a simple passive.

56 EXAMPLES [Lect.
bones (Ezek. xxxvn. 4, 9, 10, 12), Ezekiel is com
manded — not to prophesy to the dry bones, and to
the wind, as our version renders it, but — to act as a
prophet. It was a vision, not a real occurrence.
The vision was a revelation, and though Ezekiel
seemed to himself to take part in it, and to give
commands in the character of a prophet, this reaUy
was part of the vision, and not an actual fact. And
the Hebrew, with that wonderful accuracy which
marks every part alike of the Old and New Testa
ments in the original tongues, notes the distinction.
It says that Ezekiel seemed to himself to take part
in this vision, to be summoned to act in a prophetic
capacity, and as such to utter God's commands.
Everywhere else the distinction between the real
prophetic gift (Nifal), and the mere acting the prophet
(Hithpahel) is so clearly marked that none can mis
take it. The music and dancing of the sons of the
prophets formed part of their regular education, and
very probably they were carried on, as dancing is in
the East now, with an intense and enthusiastic ex
citement, such as seemed to pass the bounds of
nature, while reaUy it did not. But as a general
rule, everywhere except in the four places y I have
mentioned, the word is used absolutely in a bad
sense, of a false and wicked sham, a blasphemous
pretence. The distinction is so plain that it is noticed
at least once in our version — ' Every man that maketh
v These four are (1) The seventy elders; (2) The sons of the
prophets ; (3) Eliezer's mission to Jehoshaphat ; (4) Ezekiel's vision
of the dry bones.

II.] OF FALSE PROPHECY. 57
himself a prophet.' (Jer. xxix. 26.) The Hebrew teUs
us that the prophets who prophesied Hes at Jerusalem,
and the Baal prophets at Samaria, and those who
leaped on Baal's altar, while Elijah derided their
folly, were not prophets made by God, but men
who made themselves prophets. So, too, in Ahab's
mouth the word was a confession of his unbelief.
Neither the four hundred Jehovah-prophets, who
bade him go and prosper, nor Micaiah, who warned
him that he would go and die, were in his view
men instinct with a higher power, but men who
practised an art for their own gain.
But the word is even used in a worse sense. When.
Saul had failed in his probation, and fallen from God,
and hardened himself in crime, it is said that ' an evU
spirit of God came upon Saul, and he prophesied in
the midst of the house.' (1 Sam. xvui. 10.) Really
the word means that he imitated the prophetic ex
citement, and raved, and roamed about in a moody
frantic state, miserable no doubt as bad men are; but
instead of repenting he let jealousy take possession
of him, and twice in his phrenzy cast his javelin at
David. There was no doubt, a certain degree of
madness in his state : and to this day the Orientals
regard madness as something divine. Even in the
¦ true prophets there was occasionally this labouring and
excitement of spirit, such as made Elisha caU for a
minstrel to soothe his troubled feehngs before he
would prophesy in the presence of a son of Ahab.
And so when a son— a disciple— of the prophets
came as Elisha's messenger to anoint Jehu, the

58 EXTREME ACCURACY [Lect.
captains, struck by his strangely abrupt and hasty man
ner, describe him to Jehu as a madman: — 'Wherefore
came this mad fellow to thee"?' (2 Kings ix. 1 1.) And
so in the Book of Jeremiah, madness and this acting
the prophet are coupled together in the contemptuous
letter of the false prophet Shemaiah, wherein, writing
from Babylon, he urges the deputy high priest (Pakid)
Zephaniah to punish and imprison Jeremiah. ' Je
hovah,' he says, 'has made thee priest, that thou
shouldest put in prison and into the stocks every
man that is mad and maketh himself a prophet.' (Jer.
xxix. 26.) By this use of the word he asserted that
Jeremiah's claims to be a prophet were untrue z.
z Ewald, Proph. d. A. B. i. 1 3, describes madness as the melan
choly side of prophecy, resulting from the prophet not being able
to control the strong emotions arising from the violence with which
the Divine truth urges itself upon him, and hurries his whole
nature along. Having thus lost his balance, he becomes either a
fanatic or a dreamer. In proof of this he refers to Hos. ix. 7, where
' the inspired man' is described as ' mad,' or rather as going back
wards and forwards, in a state of great excitement. But such
excitement would imply no madness. The prophet is speaking of
the days of Israel's visitation, when the Assyrian host' was crushing
the ten tribes with the sword. The Nabhi, who had long preached
repentance and foretold the coming ruin, would now be a 'fool,'
have no more counsel to give, no more words of wisdom, no more
salutary advice to utter. And ' the inspired man ' might well roam
about, horror-stricken at the miserable end of his country. There
is in fact a plain allusion in the word to Deut. xxviii. 34, where it
is said that the sight of the horrors committed by an invading army
would produce this feeling in the minds of the conquered Israelites.
The word does not imply the loss of reason, but only a frantic
state of excitement. See 1 Sam. xxi. 14, ig, 2 Kings ix. n, Jer.
xxix. 26. Even if David's terror had made him temporarily
deranged, the word itself does not prove it.

IL] OF THE LANGUAGE OF THE BIBLE. 59
And thus, then, there is no looseness or inaccuracy
in the Bible itself as to this great gift of Divine in
spiration. The seventy elders, and Eldad and Medad,
had a gift, but not that of prophecy. The sons of
the prophets had no supernatural aid in their music
and dancing. Said, the false prophets at Jerusalem,
the Baal priests of Samaria, raved no doubt ; but of
prophecy not a word. So exact is the Scripture, that
Moses does not wish that the Lord's people had even
such a gift as that of Eldad and Medad. He does
not wish them to claim what they did not possess,
nor even to be all appointed officers and rulers in
Israel. There would not have been room for all to
be rulers. What he wishes is, that they were aU
true, genuine prophets, such as he was himself.
' Would God that all Jehovah's people were Nabhis !'
As regards this word Nabhi, the first place where
it occurs is Gen. xx. 7, where Abimelech is warned
in a dream to restore Sarah to Abraham, ' for he is
a prophet, and he shall pray for thee.' The word
in this ancient booka is thus used in a distinct sense
a Owing possibly to the Massorites having done their best to
carry out a uniform system of grammar and pronunciation through
out the Bible, people entertain the vague idea that the language
of the Pentateuch differs but slightly from that of Isaiah and other
later writers. The exact opposite is the case. Not only is there
an absence of several distinctions of gender which came into use
afterwards, but as a usual rule the words employed are different.
I became gradually more and more aware of this in writing my
Syriac Thesaurus. I have found that the Syriac word is con
stantly represented by one word in the Pentateuch, and by another
in later books. Ewald, whose view is that the historical books of
the Old Testament have been recast an indefinite number of times,

60 ABRAHAM AND THE PATRIARCHS [Lect.

from any that it ever had in later times0. It means
one under God's special protection, one holding a
closer than ordinary relation with God, and whose
prayers therefore are acceptable. It may suggest
that Abraham bore a sort of sacred character; but
his paying tithes to Melchizedek shows that such
was not the case to any large extent. And certainly
the history never sets him before us as one who
had any message from God to the Canaanites0. He
yet fully grants this fact so destructive of his theories. Speaking
of ' the great book of the primitive history,' and of ' the great book
of the kings (Judges, Buth, Samuel, Kings)' he says : 'Although
both are equally made up of passages by the most diverse writers,
yet on the whole each is distinguished by a peculiar cast of lan
guage. Many fresh words and expressions become favourites here,
and supplant their equivalents in the primitive history ; others
that are thoroughly in vogue here are designedly avoided in the
primitive history, and evidently from a historical consciousness
that they were not in use in the earliest times ; but the most
remarkable and pervading characteristic is that words of common
life, which never occur to the pen of any single relator of the
primitive history, find an unquestioned reception here.' — Hist.
Israel, i. 133. In the face of this he affirms that the basis ofthe
Pentateuch is in the main two historical works (helped out by a
multitude of others), the first the book of Covenants, written in
Samuel's time, and parts of which are incorporated in Judges;
and ihe book of Origins, which covers the whole space from Gen. i.
to the building of Solomon's temple, and of which parts are incor
porated in 1 Kings. Both works, then, had a common basis : how
could the language be kept distinct ?
b The passage quoted from Ps. cv. 15, is a remarkable corrobo
ration of this. Tradition had evidently preserved the fact that the
patriarchs had been called prophets, while such a meaning of the
term had long disappeared from the ordinary language.
c Abraham, taking with him a powerful clan (Gen. xiv. 14), left
the probably more thickly peopled Ur of the Chaldees, and subse-

IL] IN WHAT SENSE PROPHETS. 61
taught his own household rehgiously, as every up
right head of a family would now, but he had no
commission to speak in God's name, and reveal His
wiU. Once, and once only besides, is there a simUar
use of the word in Holy Scripture. ' Touch not my
anointed, and do my prophets no harm/ (Ps. cv. 15.)
The prophets here referred to are the twelve patri
archs, men not inspired, but living in closer than
ordinary relations to God, as admitted into covenant
with Him.
The next place in which the word Nabhi occurs
is one that throws singular light upon its meaning,
and which wiU sufficiently settle its true sense.
'Jehovah said unto Moses, Sae, I have made thee
a God, Elohim, to Pharaoh, and Aaron thy brother
shall be thy prophet.' (Ex. vii. 1.) Now Aaron had
no message of his own to deliver. He was not
even a man fit to be trusted apart from Moses
(Ex. xxxii. 1-6). His duty was to find words
quently Haran, to wander in the southern districts of Palestine,
a region by no means of great fertility, and where the population
was sparse. We find the Amorites there confederate with him,
and a priest-king blessing him in the name of ' the most high God/
and receiving tithes of him (Gen. xiv. 13, 19, 20). We gather
from this that though the Canaanites in many of the more fertile
parts were grossly voluptuous, yet that they still possessed some
knowledge of the true God, and were not tainted in the country
districts with the sins which brought down chastisement on the
cities ofthe plain (Gen. xv. 16). Abraham then wandered in the
wildernesses of southern Palestine to preserve his clan from corrup
tion, just as afterwards Israel was shut up in Goshen that it might
remain pure. The time for the regeneration of the world had not
yet come, and Israel was only being trained for effecting it.

62 THE PROPHET [Lect.
with which to explain to the people the will of
Moses, accordmg to what we read in the paraUel
place, 'Aaron shall be thy spokesman unto the
people (Hterally, shall speak for thee to the people) :
and he shaU be to thee instead of a mouth, and
thou shalt be to him instead of God.' (Ex. iv. 16.)
Now God and man are so infinitely remote in their
own proper natures, that without a mediator or
interpreter it would not be possible for them to
hold any communication with one another. God's
wUl, and whatever knowledge He may be pleased
to give us of heavenly things, must be brought
down to human ideas and narrowed to the small-
ness of human words, before we can possibly under
stand them. To suppose that human words and
human ideas can be adequate exponents of divine
truths in their full perfectness is simply absurd.
As certainly as a vessel can hold no more than
its own measure, so certainly no being can under
stand anything higher than itself. The animals
have no power of understanding those qualities in
which man transcends the limits of their nature :
man has no power of understanding those qualities
in which angels excel us d : the very angels and arch-
d We must suppose that St. Paul himself understood the revela
tions made to him in 2 Cor. xii. Now as there could be no secrets
between St. Paul and the angels, there could have been nothing
unlawful or unfit to communicate to other saints in the things of
which they conversed with him. But if St. Paul understood those
revelations only by supernatural help, that law which prevented his
communicating them to others (2 Cor. xii. 4) must have been the
law of man's nature. The revelations probably did relate to

H.] A MEDIATOR. 63

angels have no power of comprehending God's
infinities. For the finite, however large, can never
comprehend the Infinite. If then any knowledge
of heavenly things was to be given to man, there
must be a mediator between God and man. The
very centre of Christianity is that there was such
a Mediator. One in Whom the infinite, incompre
hensible, unapproachable God became one with
finite man. In this God-man, the Emmanuel, of
Whom the prophets spake, there was this meeting of
heaven and earth, by means of which the truths of
heaven could be communicated to man. ' God spake
in the Son :' it became possible to express in human
ideas and human words, not perfect knowledge, but
such knowledge of divine things as was necessary for
man's salvation. And such as Christ was in His ful
ness, such were the prophets in their degree. I bade
you before remark that the Apostle uses the same
word of them as of our blessed Lord. And now
I ask you to observe how, in the very first place
in which the word 'prophet' is used in its proper
sense, we have just the same truths set before us.
those things into which men often so earnestly try to penetrate —
the mysteries of Christ's future kingdom and of the world to come.
Now if St. Paul had endeavoured to bring down these paradisiacal
ideas to the level of human language, he would necessarily have
been misunderstood, and the Church would have been injured and
not benefited by having revelations made to it beyond the bounds
of its present capacities. Hence it is a note of the Canonical
Scriptures that they are silent upon these mysteries. The nearest
approach to an exposition of them is in Bev. xx, and early councils
very strongly condemned what looks like a not unreasonable expo
sition of St. John's words.

64 REVELATION NOT PERFECT [Lect.
We should shrink from the language twice used,
that any one man should be a God to another.
But it is God Who speaks it. And how deep the
mystery ! Moses as God, Pharaoh as sinful man,
cannot approach one another. There must be a
mediator. The prophet is that mediator. Till the
true Mediator came, the prophet was His repre
sentative. When the true Mediator had come there
were prophets no more. There are no mediators
now between heaven and earth. Christ is the one
point of junction, the one bridge which makes a
pathway over the abyss, and unites the Infinite
and the finite. The last representative prophet
was John the Baptist. The -n-pocpnT^ of St. Paul's
epistles, the 7rpocp4r>]i of the early Church, was some
thing quite different. His business was to preach,
to speak for God by urging upon the consciences
of the people acknowledged truths. He had no
new truth to declare ; bore no message from God but
that once for aU entrusted to the Church's keeping.
Under the Old Testament, then, the prophet
was the mediator, whose business it was in his
measure to do that which Christ did fuUy and
finally for His Church. For the whole theory
of the Bible is that man needs a certain amount
of information as to his soul, its relations to God,
and to eternity. This knowledge must be con
veyed to man through some such medium as will
enable him to understand it. It cannot be perfect
knowledge, because man is incapable of under
standing such knowledge. It would be no use

H-] BUT SUFFICIENT. 65

giving man even angelic knowledge : for man is
not merely 'an earthen vessel' (2 Cor. iv. 7), but
a very smaU vessel ; the utmost knowledge there
fore of which he is capable is but little, and that
little must be in relation to himself, must be such
as suits his feeble powers. God then chose men
as the mediators to convey to man in a human
way, as being the only way in which he could
possibly understand it, such knowledge as was both
necessary and sufficient. Sufficient it must be, or
it were no good giving it at all. But the amount
of truth given was limited by man's needs. There
is aU that he requires, but nothing more : nothing
given to satisfy our curiosity, or even our thirst
after knowledge. Yet God of His mercy has given
us this Hmited measure of truth in such a way
that we seem never to reach the bottom of it.
The more we read, the more full of meaning the
Bible seems to be to us : and as men grow in grace
it does unfold to them more and more of God's ways,
and they do see more clearly in it God's mysteries
of love, and read it with deeper awe and reverence,
as it speaks to them with more power, and becomes
day by day more thoroughly the law by which
they Hve, and the comfort which sustains them
in this troubled world. Still, we are not to read it
for knowledge' sake, but for use. It has been given
to us simply to enable us to walk in that narrow
pathway whereby we may attain to those mansions of
perfection where knowledge wUl be ours, for ' we shall
know even as also we are known.' (1 Cor. xiii. 12.)
F

66 TRUTHS OF REVELATION NOT [Lect.
I know that by many these mansions are regarded
as but an unsubstantial hope; and each advance in
science, each growth in knowledge, as it reveals to us
more and more of those perfect laws by which the
Creator works, is supposed to remove that Creator
from us, and to leave us laws only without a law
giver, and earth only without a heaven. But how
ever perfect the knowledge of our bodies may become0,
there is ever something beyond, something which
physical science cannot grasp, because it Hes not
within its province ; and stiU do the secret cravings
of our nature prompt the question, Has this earthly
body, constructed so curiously and admirably, any
unearthly inhabitant 1 Is Hfe mere chymical action and
nothing more 1 Are these so-called mental workings
within it simply the result of organization, and there
fore not mental but corporeal % Are there truths that
lie safe within the heart of man, because placed there

e There are especially two recent physical theories supposed by
some reasoners to disprove the conclusions of those thinkers whose
studies have been in things mental and not material. The first is
the theory which explains the growth of habits by supposing an
aggregation of molecular cells ; the second is that which makes
the physical basis of life consist of three compounds, carbonic acid
( = oxygen and carbon), water ( = oxygen and hydrogen), and am
monia ( = hydrogen and nitrogen). Both theories seem to me
remarkably innocent and very interesting. The odd thing is that
men of ability should ground metaphysical arguments upon physical
data. It is just the old confusion which made the physical philo
sophers of antiquity deduce all sorts of conclusions about material
things from metaphysical considerations. Verily, in spite of the
Baconian philosophy, the aggregate of human wisdom remains a
very stationary quantity.

IL] COGNIZABLE BY PHYSICAL SCIENCE. 67
by God 1 or are they, not truths, but unsubstantial
mockeries % The answer to these questions cannot
be given by physical science ; it belongs to other
studies, studies such as those in which Plato of old
excelled, who, by the examination of the workings of
the human mind, deduced the conclusion that there
was in man something immortal. The very first
lesson about man in the Bible is that he was made
out of the dust of the ground. We start with this ;
every part of man's bodily organization is physical :
and science, by giving a more exact meaning to the
language of Scripture, does but enable us with deeper
reason to join in the Psalmist's words, ' I will praise
Thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.' (Ps.
cxxxix. 14.) But it gives no answer to the question,
Is the universal belief of mankind in the existence of
a God the result of a Divine impress upon the human
mind 1 Is it a breach of my nature to deny that
God exists, and that He has relations with me ? Are
those other words of the Bible true which speak of
man as made in God's image and likeness'? (Gen. i. 26.)
Now verities such as these the Bible never attempts
to prove. It never strays off into phUosophy or
metaphysical science, any more than it does into
physical science. Wherever any aUusion is made to
these branches of knowledge, it is for some moral
purpose. The existence of a God, His unity and
perfectness ; the existence of a soul, its immortality
and spiritual nature, — these cardinal truths are taught
by the very constitution of the human mind, and by
its irresistible promptings. The Bible does but state
F 2

68 THE THEOCRATIC GOVERNMENT [Lect.
them clearly, purely, adequately : it does not prove,
but asserts them. It asserts them as self-evident
truths. Apart from religion they may be but prob
abilities ; yet as the probabUities of our nature, they
are therefore the law of our nature — the law of our
higher and spiritual, though not of our physical
nature. The groundwork of the Bible is the tacit
assumption that there is a difference between right
and wrong, that answering to this difference there is
in man a conscience, above man a God, and before
man a judgment. It assumes this, and the prophet's
message related simply to man's duty to God ; it told
him of his present probation, of his future hopes, of
God's love, of an opened way of mercy, of sins for
given, of man reconciled to his Maker and admitted
to an eternal happiness. The prophet in these things
was God's spokesman.
Now there are two things in the Mosaic record
entirely in accordance with what I have here said,
and which wiU both themselves be better understood
if viewed in connection with the prophet's office, and
also throw much light upon it. The one is the
nature of the government of the Jews as established
by Moses, the other is his celebrated prediction of
God raising up unto them a prophet Hke unto
himself. The idea of the government estabhshed by Moses
was that of Jehovah's direct autocracy. The Jews
were fenced off from aU other people, and were to
Hve under a special providence, with Jehovah as
their king. The actual administrator of the govern-

II.] IMPLIED THE EXISTENCE OF THE PROPHET. 69
ment was to be chosen by Him, and was to have His
direct aid and counsel. The ordinary means provided
for this by Moses was the Urim and Thummim ; and
the priest was the appointed person by whom Je
hovah's wUl was to be made known. But Moses
himself made no use of the Urim and Thummim.
It was intended for use only when there was no
prophet : and thus when, after Samuel's days, God
was pleased to bestow the gift of prophecy more
abundantly, we read of it no more. David is the
last person mentioned as thus consulting God, and
Abiathar the last priest who spake in God's name by
means of the ephodf. The priest therefore with
the Urim and Thummim was confessedly something
f Thus David ' enquired of Jehovah' not only when fleeing from
Saul (i Sam. xxiii. 9), but in his wars with the Philistines after
he was made king (2 Sam. v. 19, 23, 1 Chron. xiv. 10, 14). From
1 Sam. xxviii. 6, however, it appears that we must not infer that the
term 'enquired of Jehovah' necessarily implies making use of the
ephod, so that it is quite possible that Nathan, or some other
prophet, may have given David the instructions recorded in 2 Sam.
v. 19, 23. Passages certainly referring to the Urim and Thummim
are Judges xx. 27, 1 Sam. xxii. 10, 15, xxviii. 6, 2 Sam. ii. 1, xvi.
23, 1 Chron. x. 14, xiii. 3. We observe in these passages that it is
accounted as a sin to Saul that he made no use of the Urim and
Thummim ; that is, being the first king, he deliberately rejected
that means whereby the will of Jehovah as their civil ruler had
been previously made known. David's restoration of the ark to its
place, and his frequent use of it and of the ephod, mark his deter
mination to rule as Jehovah's representative. Nevertheless gradually
he abandoned the use of it, and in the rebellion of Absalom he abso
lutely declined the presence, not only of the ark, but of Zadok and
Abiathar (2 Sam. xv. 24-29). Whatever his reason may have
been, he refused to make use of the Urim and Thummim in that
unnatural war.

70 THE PROPHET HIGHER [Lect.
inferior to the prophet. Probably nothing more could
be learned by it than Yea and Nay. And while it is
quite possible that Moses may have expected that
the priests would perform many of those duties which
as a matter of fact they neglected — I mean the spiri
tual duties of their office, teaching, and preaching,
and instructing the people, and warning them of
their sins, and urging upon them the necessity of a
godly Hfe ; — while the priests seem to have attached
themselves too much to their ritual duties, and to
have neglected the weightier matters of their office,
stiU, even from the first, the prophet stood on a far
higher elevation than the priest. Moses was as high
above Aaron as Isaiah was above Azariah, the high
priest of the house of Zadok (2 Chron. xxxi. 10) in
Hezekiah's days ; as high above Aaron as Jeremiah
was above Seraiah and Zephaniah, the high priests
in Zedekiah's days (Jer. Hi. 24) ; as high above Aaron
as the spiritual must ever be above ritual. And the
prophets, with their earnest preaching and teaching,
their incessant admonition of the people, their stern
and unwavering denunciations of sin, their attacks
upon idolatry, their warnings that sacrifices and
sabbaths, fastings and festivals, might be an abomin
ation, and to trust in the temple — to trust in any
thing but in a cleansed heart and a contrite spirit —
might be to trust in lying words (Jer. vii. 4) ; — they
in aU this were the worthy foUowers of Moses. They
had not necessarUy civil power. Samuel possessed it ;
and we read that in his days the possession of the
spiritual Ulumination of the Nabhi carried with it

II.] THAN THE PRIEST WITH THE URIM. 71
the right to the government of the states. But when
the people determined to have a king, they separated
the two things for ever, and Samuel long protested
against the change, because he saw that henceforward
the true representative of Jehovah, the true adminis
trator of the theocratic government, would be deprived
of his right place. But even then the prophets had
the right, and usually the power, to dethrone kings,
and bestow the crown upon others, (i Kings xi. 31,
&c.) And though shorn, from the days of Saul, of
the civil power, yet in all other respects they were
the successors of Moses; only so far from exceUing
that great spokesman for God, Holy Scripture clearly
points out the particulars in which the rest of the
prophets fell short of the full powers possessed by
the first and greatest of their order (Num. xii. 6-8,
Heb. in. 5).
The prophet then was the representative of God
under the theocratic government, the vizier, or deputy,
whose business it was to speak in God's name. And
in the Book of Judges, the civil governors, God's
representatives too, hold a sort of prophetic position.
Deborah judged Israel because she was a prophetess,
e This is implied in 1 Sam. iii. 20. It seems, from the example
of Eli, that, when there was no prophet, the high priest was invested
with the temporal power, possibly because he alone could consult
Jehovah by means of the Urim. As the ark is often associated with
the Urim, the people probably took it and Eli's sons with them to
battle for the purpose of obtaining auguries (1 Sam. iv. 4); but
when they knew that the higher inspiration rested upon Samuel,
the priests with the Urim retired into their proper office, and
Samuel, as Nabhi, became also Shophet or Judge.

72 THE JUDGES DIVINELY INSPIRED [Lect.

and the warrior Barak obeyed her. Her successors
were men chosen, as we should say, providentiaUy,
yet some by direct commission, by the agency of
angels, as Gideon and Samson. But their gift was
in the main that of government and military skiU.
And thus, as not having the highest gift, that of
speaking God's truth, they are not called prophets,
and we read of angels, spiritual messengers from
Jehovah, more frequently than of prophets in the
interval between Moses and Samuel h. Yet neither
Joshua, nor Othniel, nor Gideon, not Jephtliah, nor
Samson seem to have used the Urim and Thummim :
apparently it was used only when God had no repre
sentative, no one who had the right either to speak
or to act in his name (cf. Judges xx. 18, 23, 28). ' The
Spirit of Jehovah,' we read, ' came upon Othniel, and
he judged Israel ;' (Judges iu. 10 ;) ' The Spirit of Je
hovah came upon Gideon, and he gathered the people
for battle ;' (Ib. vi. 34 ;) ' The Spirit of Jehovah came
upon Jephthah.' (Ib. xi.29.) And four times the same
phrase is used of Samson1 (Ib. xni. 25, xiv. 6, 19,
h The only prophet mentioned in the Book of Judges besides
Deborah was the nameless man who preached repentance just before
Gideon was summoned to Israel's rescue (Judges vi. 8-10). Here
then the higher and spiritual duty of preaching was separated from
that of government, even more completely than in the case of Barak ;
for Deborah chose him as her deputy, and gave him directions
what to do.
5 A difficulty may perhaps have often been felt rather than
expressed with reference to the heroes of the Book of Judges, wliich
may be resolved probably by bearing in mind two considerations.
The first, that God's Spirit, resting upon men like Jephthah and
Samson, did not remove them out of the level of their own age.

II.] FOR GOVERNMENT. 73
xv. 14). The impulse to perform those actions neces
sary for the preservation of Israel's nationahty came
upon them from without, from God, quite as much
as the impulse which compelled the prophets to pro
claim certain truths. And this was an essential part
of the theocracy. It was God's direct government :
and for that government it was necessary that certain
acts should be done, or it could not have been car
ried on. But those who spake for God held a still
higher place than the civU governors. For though
certain even of their acts might have a typical
meaning, yet primarUy the Judges had their commis
sion for temporal and present purposes for the good
government of the Israelites and the preservation of
their national existence. The prophets had further
to prepare for Christ, and to raise the nation to a
higher state of morality, of knowledge, and of fitness
for the spiritual truths of the Gospel.
And thus, then, we come to the second point, the
They are both freely numbered with God's saints in Heb. xi. 32,
and were doubtless worthy of the high rank given them, and yet
may have attained to a far lower degree of holiness absolutely than
the saints of the New Testament or of Christian times. They must
be judged relatively to their own times, for God's Spirit is never
revolutionary : the settled order of things goes on in what seems
a natural sequence of cause and effect, and the saints are liable to
all the prejudices and common errors of their own age, nor can they
advance more than a certain limit beyond it. And secondly, the
gift of the Spirit, either for government or for declaring the truth,
did not interfere with a man's individual probation. God's gifts do
not take away our responsibility, hut only increase it. In Jere
miah we have a deeply interesting account of the struggle that went
on in his mind before finally grace was triumphant. But see Note
C in the Appendix.

74 MOSES GREATER [Lect.
prediction namely of Moses, twice referred to in the
Acts (iii. 22, vn. 37) : 'The Lord thy God wUl raise
up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of
thy brethren, like unto me ; unto Him ye shaU
hearken J.' (Deut. xviii. 15.) Now we have already
seen that the prophet was, generaUy, the mediator
j Ewald (Hist. Israel, i. 125, note 3) denies that this passage was
originally Messianic, and asserts that it became so only through the
influence of Deut. xxxiv. 10-12. But this latter place asserts,
what is undeniable, that no prophet ever did rise up in Israel like
unto Moses, and if, as probably was the case, it was added by Ezra,
it gives his deliberate judgment, that during the whole era of pro
phecy the promise of Moses had not been fulfilled. Still, I do not
deny that every prophet was aliqaatenus, to some small extent, a
mediator between God and man, and therefore a representative of
Christ, the sole sufficient and true Mediator. The odd thing is, that
what Ewald denies in one place he virtually grants in another. Thus
he says, that 'the eternal truths were no where so clearly and
firmly held as in Israel, and consequently the strong conscious
ness could not but prevail there that their community must
advance to some more perfect state, to something nearer the ideal
of human striving. But these Messianic hopes were no invention
of the prophets : they inherited them as an old and settled pro
perty' (Proph. d. A. B. i. 29, ed. 2). But from whom did they
inherit them? How did Israel get hold of these eternal verities?
Whence this certainty that Israel was to bestow upon all mankind
this perfect blessedness? and itself enjoy an imperishable existence?
Well ! the great part which Moses had in endowing Israel with
these high hopes — hopes destined to be fulfilled — is undeniable, and
Ewald does not deny it. The whole is granted, but the parts must
be denied. The Jews always did look forward for some one to
come, though their ideas were often modified by present circum
stances. It was Moses who made them thus look forward.
Granted. But Moses must not be allowed to say anything special.
Explain everything special away, and the haze that remains will do
no harm. It is not enough for faith, and therefore may be per
mitted to remain for the present. But is such an argument sound
and reasonable?

IL] THAN A PROPHET. 75
between God and man ; and specificaUy, that under
the theocracy he was God's deputy, and endowed
even with the civU power untU the people, by the
appointment of a king, separated their state govern
ment from the direct control of Jehovah. Now both
these powers, the power of speaking for God, and
the power of acting for "Godk, existed in Moses in a
far fuller manner than in any of his successors. The
distinction is declared by Jehovah Himself. We read
in the Book of Numbers (xii. 5-8), that when Aaron
and Miriam reproached Moses for having married a
Cushite wife, and Moses meekly bore their reproaches,
Jehovah came suddenly down in the pUlar of the
cloud, and summoning the offenders into His presence,
reproved them thus : ' Hear now my words : If there
k I ought rather to have said ' for Jehovah.' In His covenant
relations to Israel the name of the Deity is Jehovah. Not Elohim,
the God of nature, but Jehovah, the God of grace, was the king of
the covenant people ; and doubtless by this name is meant our Lord
Jesus Christ. So in the Te Deum, addressing Christ, we say, ' We
acknowledge Thee to be the Lord,' i. e. Jehovah. And thus, while
the ' Word of God' is a phrase constantly used in the New Testa
ment, where God's mercies are coextensive with all nature (Mark
xvi. 1 5), it is not used more than half-a-dozen times in the Old Testa
ment ; nor do the prophets speak in the name of God, but of Jehovah.
As for the real pronunciation of this name, while Jehovah is certainly
wrong, I am fully convinced that Jahveh is not right. Its use is to me
a mere affectation of an unattainable exactness. The true sound of the
name was pronounced only once a year while the temple stood, on the
great day when the High Priest entered the Holy of Holies. Had it
been recoverable, it would have been found out before the nineteenth
century. All the arguments for the name being Jahveh start with an
assumption which almost takes one's breath away; namely, that the
vocalization of the Massorites represents the original pronunciation.
It is very useful, very clever, very systematic, but that it was the
pronunciation used by Moses is a little too much to believe.

76 POSITION OF THE SLAVE [Lect.
be a prophet among you, I Jehovah wiU make Myself
known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him
in a dream. My servant Moses is not so, who is
faithful in all My house. With him wUl I speak
mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark
speeches ; and the similitude of Jehovah shall he
behold.' Now, not only does it foUow from this that
inspiration was a permanent and abiding influence
upon Moses, an occasional and temporary gift to the
rest, but it shows us why Moses had this higher gift.
He held a position such as no one besides ever held.
In all God's house — in His Church — it was his to
order and command as he would, though only as the
steward, the servant, and Christ as the Son1. That
which Moses did by appointment, by a delegated
authority, that Christ did by right of His nature ; and
in His own house, for^'the Church is Christ's body,'
(Eph. i 23,) in which His wUl, as being the wUl of
the Head, reaches to and controls every part. But
the Jewish Church stood in no such relation to Moses.
It belonged to Jehovah, and Moses was His slave.
The changed institutions of our time make us lose
much of the force of this comparison between Christ
and Moses. Used to the idea of predial slavery, and
to the degraded condition of the slave as set before us
l Even the Son is not absolute master. He is heir of all, and
His rights come to Him by nature, not by gift. Yet as Son He
can neither do nor say anything as of Himself. For the former, see
Christ's words in John v. 19 ; for the latter, John xii. 49. Yet in
this there is a mystery, though not past solving, when we reflect
that the Son is the xaPaKTVP (Heb. i. 3), in Whom the Father's
ineffable will finds outward form and expression.

II.] UNDER THE LAW OF MOSES. 77
by the political economists of Greece, who in their
inhuman materialism regarded him only as e/x^rvyov
opyavov, an implement endowed with life, differing
from the plough or mattock in much the same way as
the ox differed from them ; — used to see this detest
able idea pushed to its base but legitimate conse
quences by the trading avarice of Christian nations,
aided no doubt by the fact that the slave in modern
days is one of a different race and colour, marked
off by physical inferiorities from his master, and not
therefore appealing to his sympathies in the same
way as if he had been in the main his master's like
and equal ; — used thus to negro and predial slavery,
we carry our horrible notions into the Bible, and
imagine that the Hebrew slave held an analogous
condition. When we turn to oriental commentaries,
we find altogether a different feehng. We read, for
instance, in an Exposition of the Prodigal Son™, that
in the household there are three grades of depend
ence, first the son, next the slave, last of all the hired
freeman, 'the mean white' of modern days; and they
note it, as a mark of humility in the repentant prodi
gal, that he asked only for the lowest place. How
ever this may be, we certainly find two things in the
Bible ; first, the entire recognition of the rehgious
equality of the slave. He was to be admitted to the
covenant (Gen. xvii. 12, 13), the Sabbath (Ex. xx. 10),
the passover (Ib. xii. 44), the feast of weeks (Deut.
xvi. n), and tabernacles (Ib. xvi. 14), on just the
same footing as his master. And further we find,
m Cod. Bodl. Or. 624, fol. 670. See also Ex. xii. 45.

78 MOSES THE SLAVE [Lect.
that if there was no son, then the slave stood next.
He was heir to the property ; on him devolved the
tribal chieftainship11 ; and if there were daughters,
husbands were chosen for them from the slaves0. In
the clan the head slave stood in all respects next in
rank to the chief and to his sons.
The same thing happens in oriental countries now.
The great officers of state, its prime ministers and
treasurers, begin life often as slaves. And thus we
can understand the meaning of that peculiar title
given in so remarkable a manner to Moses, by virtue
of which he holds a place in revelation inferior only
to that held by our Lord. He is Jehovah's servant ;
Hterally translated, Jehovah's slave; translated accord
ing to the sense, Jehovah's prime minister, His vice
gerent and vizier. Now Moses never appropriates
this honourable distinction to himselfP. It is first
found in the narrative of his death, by whomsoever
n Thus Eliezer of Damascus, a slave born in his house, was
Abraham's steward during his life, the next in rank to him in the
tribe till a son was born, and heir at his death to all his wealth and
power. This office of steward is exactly parallel to that held by
Moses in Israel towards Jehovah, Israel's king.
o Thus Sheshan gives his daughter to wife to an Egyptian slave
named Jarha (i Chron. ii. 34). Unless he had done this, his
landed possessions and chieftainship would have been sunk in those
of some other princely house.
p Moses records in the place quoted above (Num. xii. 7), that
Jehovah called him My servant Moses ; but so he records that
Jehovah spake in similar terms of Caleb, My servant Caleb (Num.
xiv. 24). It seems, therefore, that the name was not given to
Moses because of God thus addressing him, for then it would
have equally been applied to Caleb. It was given to him because
he did as a fact hold a peculiar place in God's dealings with
mankind. Unless this, too, is borne in mind, ^md the relation in

IL] OF JEHOVAH. 79
written, and whensoever added to the history. ' So
Moses the servant of Jehovah died in the land of
Moab.' (Deut. xxxiv. 5.) It is subsequently given
him in the Books of Joshua (seven times), of Kings
(1 Kings viii. 53, 56), of Chronicles (2 Chron. i. 3,
xxiv. 6), in the Psalms (cv. 26), and in Malachi (iv. 4).
He is called the servant of Elohim in Chronicles
( i Chron. vi. 49, 2 Chron. xxiv. 9), in Nehemiah (x.
29), in Daniel (ix. 11), and finally in Revelation
(xv. 3), the substitution of the term Elohim being
probably occasioned by that superstitious reverence
for the name Jehovah, which graduaUy grew up
among the Jews, which made them unwiUing to
utter it, which has further led to its being translated
usuaUy Lord in our version, and which makes us at
this day pronounce it with vowels belonging to
another word. Jehovah is a name made up of the
consonants of one word, and the vowels of another <l.
Moses, then, emphatically is Jehovah's servant :
and the name virtually is peculiar to him. It is
which Moses, Jehovah's servant, and Christ His son, stand to one
another, it will be impossible to understand the place held by
Jehovah's servant in the last twenty-seven chapters of Isaiah.
The LXX had a true appreciation of the importance of the
name when they applied an analogous term, nals, to Abraham (Gen.
xviii. 17).
a The Jews read it by the vowels alone, that is, they read it
either Elohim, God, or Adonay, Lord, according as it had the vowels
of one or the other. Usually it has the vowels of Adonay, the first
a being a schva, or auxiliary vowel merely, like the a inserted by
us in 'baptism,' pronounced baptisam, or baptisem. The words
might thus be written, J'hovah, 'donay. The word Lord in our
version is a translation, not of J'hovah, which is distinctly a proper
or personal name, but of 'donay.

80 ANALOGY BETWEEN MOSES [Lect.

true that Joshua, that is, Jesus r, is so styled once,
in the narrative of his death (Josh. xxiv. 29) ; and
rightly. He was the finisher of Moses' work, and
the type of the true Jesus. And once, and once
only, is it found again, in Isa. xhi. 19, in a passage
strongly Messianic. Why there used, and what it
means, I have elsewhere fully discussed8.
Moses therefore rules Jehovah's house as that
servant who, in the famiha, the household of slaves,
represented the master, and was invested with his
authority. Less than the son, greater than any
besides, nearer to the master, yet not one with
him in nature as the son is, he is the steward,
armed with aU the Master's power, and entitled to
lay down the law, yet not by any plenary or inherent
right, but by virtue of his office. In this respect
Moses holds a place distinct from any prophet
beside ; and our Lord was a prophet Hke unto
Moses. There is no such complete analogy between
our Lord and the ordinary prophet. The ordinary
prophet did but deliver another's message. But
Moses was a legislator — the bringer in of a dis
pensation. So also was our Lord. On Moses the
spirit of prohpecy rested without measure (Num.
xii. 8) : so did it on Christ (John iii 34). Jehovah
knew Moses face to face (Deut. xxxiv. 10, Ex. xxxin.
r Joshua is always called Jesus in the LXX and in the New
Testament (Heb. iv. 8). There is very great doubt about the cor
rectness of the Masoretic punctuation Joshua and Jehoshua. The
Masorites themselves twice punctuate the name Jeshua,= Jesus,
namely, in Ezra ii. 2, iii. 2.
8 In my ' Messianic Interpretation of the Prophet Isaiah.'

IL] AND OUR LORD. 81
ii) : ' the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom
of the Father, hath declared that God Whom no
man hath seen at any time.' (John i. 18.) No
prophet was like unto Moses in the signs and
wonders which Jehovah sent him to do (Deut.
xxxiv. i c) : Christ wrought works which none other
man did (John xv. 24). But that which Moses did
by an authority delegated to him, that Christ as
the Son did by His own inherent power.
But if Christ and Moses stand in this relation
to one another, then necessarily must Moses give
the outline of the whole Gospel. The most ancient
writer in the Bible, by the peculiar position which
he holds, must in some way or other be commensu
rate with Him in Whom revelation reaches its last
and ultimate perfection. And this absolutely is the
case. Moses does mark out the whole programme*
of God's scheme for man's restoration. All the rest
of the Bible is but the gradual filling up of the
plan, the gradual preparation for the fulfilment.
Moses gives this outline in the narrative of man's
original intimacy and communion with God, of his faU,
and the promise of a DeUverer. Of this Dehverer
he sets before us many notable predictions, as that
* Ewald (Hist. Israel, i. 10 1) well points out that the support for
the furthest prophetic outlook, or, in other words, for the Messianic
expectations as they existed in their fullest development in the
writings of the greater prophets, is to be found in Genesis. He
quotes Gen. xii. 1-3, xviii. 18, 19, xxii. 16-18, xxvi. 4, xxviii.
1 4. Of these he says in his way, ' Few finer presentiments would
be found to be declared by the real great prophets of the ninth and
eighth centuries before Christ.' G

82 THE PROPHETS THE BOND OF UNION [Lect.
of ShUoh (Gen.- xlix. io), of the Star (Num. xxiv.
17), and of the Prophet like unto himself (Deut.
xviii. 15, 18). He farther sets before us many
remarkable types of Him ; but chief of all, the
entire scheme of the Levitical law, the whole
burnt-offering, the sin-offering, the thank-offering,
the passover, the scape-goat, .the Tabernacle with
its various parts, all looked forward to, and were
fulfilled in Christ. It is not merely the fathers,
who often set forth their evangelical import with
wonderful force" ; St. Paul equally rests his teaching
upon the Pentateuch. So too constantly does our
Lord, Who even affirms that not one iota of it
may really pass away. While lastly, in the Epistle
to the Hebrews, we have an authoritative exposi
tion of many of its chief particulars. The prophets
link the two together. On the mount of Trans
figuration Elias unites Moses to Christ.
And thus then the prophet belonged specifically
to the theocratic government. That government
might be administered by men on whom the Spirit
of Jehovah rested for action only as statesmen or
soldiers. Its highest administrator was the pro
phet, who could speak and command in Jehovah's
name, as well as act for Him. And of this govern
ment Moses was the founder. He, in aU the grandeur
of his viceregal office, as the very representative of
Jehovah, gave the chosen people the law which
was to train them for Christ: farther, in type and
symbol he marked out the nature of the true mani-
" See, for instance, the noble sermon of S. Cyril on Luke ii. 25, in
my Translation of his Commentary on St. Luke, Oxford, 1859, p. 24.

IL] BETWEEN THE LA W AND CHRIST. 83
festation of God upon earth, and the office of the true
Mediator, Who is the real point of union between God
and man, the real Way of access to God, the true
Restorer of man's fallen nature. And upon Moses
other prophets foUowed, not equal to him in
greatness, but carrying on his work, unfolding to
clearer view the truths he had veiled in symbol,
and preparing the world for the last prophet ; the
prophet like unto Moses as being a legislator, but
the legislator of a perfect and final law; Hke unto
Moses as being the founder of a Church, yet that
Church not local nor temporary, but catholic, and
with the promise that it shaU endure till Christ
come again : a prophet not like unto Moses, in
that His is no delegated authority, no vicegerency,
but in His own right, by right of nature as the Son,
He governs and commands in His own house.
And in Him aU the wants of our nature are
suppHed, the breach between heaven and earth
repaired, man raised from his faUen state, the veil
which had shut out heaven from earth torn asunder,
access granted us unto God, and earth and heaven
in Him made one ; just as in Him, the Emmanuel,
God and man became one. He is the Mediator
of the New Covenant, God's final dispensation ; for
there can be no higher and better Mediator than
Christ : and if to Him gave aU the prophets witness,
His words are to us the final and sufficient proof
of all our heavenly hopes. 'Lord,' we say with
Peter, ' Lord, to whom shaU we go, save unto Thee %
For Thou, Thou only, hast the words of eternal life.'
G 2

LECTUKE III.
SAMUEL, THE RESTORER OF PROPHECY.
Tea, and all the prophets from Samuel and those that follow
after, as many as have spoken, have likewise foretold of these
days. — Acts iii. 34.
St. PETEB in these words points out to us that
prophecy had in Samuel a new beginning. As I
have before observed, the theocratic government was
carried on in the time of the Judges not so much by
prophets as by heroes. God's spirit rested upon
mighty men of valour for government and military
enterprise, without which the nation could not have
been preserved. In two instances only do we read
of prophets (Judges iv. 4, vi. 8) ; in every other case
the commands of Jehovah, as Israel's king, were
given either by the priest with the Urim (Judges xx.
27), or by angels (Judges ii. 1, v. 23, vi. n, &c, xin. 3,
&c). But with Samuel there began a new order of
things. On the one hand prophecy became a regular
institution, placed upon a settled basis ; and on the
other it wrought within a narrower circle, and for
a long time in a far more humble way, than when, as
in Moses, it gave a powerful nation its laws ahke in
things human and divine. Not merely in Samuel's
days was a final severance made between those two

SAMUEL'S OFFICE. 85

functions of speaking for Jehovah and acting for
Jehovah, which had hitherto been combined in the
prophet ; but even in speaking for God his words
were confined within a more limited range. Great
as was Samuel, he had no new truth to declare to
mankind, no light to throw upon old truths a. Moses
had marked out the whole limits of Gospel truth;
and several centuries passed after Samuel before
the prophets began to fill up the outline. Whatever
of fuller knowledge was given was in the Psalms.
Whatever kindhng up there was of Messianic hope,
was connected with the famUy and throne' of David,
the hero-king. Yet Samuel's was no mean calling.
His office was to preserve the truth as taught by
Moses, and to work for holiness, for spirituality
(i Sam. xv. 22), for a higher moral elevation on
the part of the people, and for a fuller appreciation
of those primary truths upon which all real civiliza
tion rests ; such truths as the unity and spirituality
of God, the union in Him of mercy and justice, and
the certainty that evil deeds must, because of God's
justice, bring a heavy retribution upon the offender.
These were the truths that Moses had taught ; and
Samuel was to restore them and invest them with
new power over the hearts of the people.
Now it will be impossible to understand the nature
a The only Messianic prediction, connected with Samuel was that
of a faithful high priest to walk before God's anointed for ever
(1 Sam. ii. 35). But as God's anointed was the king, the words
had a primary reference to the new relations between the priesthood
and the temporal power.

86 LINEAL DESCENDANTS OF JACOB [Lect.
of Samuel's office as the Restorer and in one sense
even the Founder of prophecy, unless we take a
glance at the history of his times. He stands then
in the middle, between the faU of the great houses
who had exercised an irregular authority during the
days of the Judges, and the new birth of the nation
after its crushing defeat at Ebenezer, when, under
those two able warriors, Saul and David, the youthful
energies ofthe nation had that grand development,
which made Israel for a time the most powerful
monarchy in the East. Now in the Book of Judges
we find no traces of progress except in one and that
a very necessary way, namely, the union of the
people into one nation. When it left Egypt, not
only were there those tribal jealousies and differences
which finaUy divided the nation into two -hostile
kingdoms, but there were great diversities among
the people themselves, and nothing but the extra
ordinary vigour of Moses' mind could have held
together so motley a multitude, and have stamped
one character upon them. For we trace clearly the
presence in Israel of those three classes so generaUy
to be met with in every ancient history. There were
first the great nobles, personaUy descended from
Jacob, whose genealogies you find in the Books of
Numbers and Chronicles. Men certainly few in num
bers, as those genealogies teach us, and possessed
of great power and vast landed estates. Even these
nobles were not aU of equal rank. The chiefs of
Dan and Naphtali, of Gad and Asher, descended
from slave mothers, and therefore of impure blood,

III.] THE LEADERS OF THE EXODUS. 87
did not stand upon the same elevation as the chiefs
of Judah and Ephraim. Even Leah's last two sons,
Issachar and Zebulun, born after a long period of
barrenness, never attained to the high dignity pos
sessed by the first four. Of these Judah held the
foremost place in the camp (Num. ii. 3), and ulti
mately prevailed over his brethren (1 Chron. v. 2) ;
and the whole nation in the third period of its
history bore his name. In the second line in the
camp Reuben's banner was foremost (Num. ii. 10),
while in Genesis we read that it was Simeon and
Levi, the two other sons of Leah, the first of the
high-born wives, who were able with their depend
ants to conquer the Canaanite city of Shechem0,
and add the mass of its population to their clans.
To Joseph, the elder son of the second high-born
wife, belonged the birthright (1 Chron. v. 2) ; from
Benjamin, her other son, the nation chose its first
king. And in short, with some notable exceptions,
such as that of_Samson°, it was the nobles of pure
blood who gave Israel its heroes and its kings.
And next there were the retainers, who formed
the strength of these noble houses. The idea that
*> Though Jacob was afraid of the consequences of this deed
(Gen. xxxiv. 30), and justly condemned the violence and cruelty
with which Simeon and Levi had acted (Ib. xlix. 5-7), he never
theless felt considerable pride in the exploit itself (Ib. xlviii. 22).
c Barak probably belonged to the tribe of Naphtali, though
acting under the orders of Deborah, who dwelt in Mount Ephraim.
What is more important is that we find Ephraim claiming supre
macy over even the Manassites, Gideon (Judges viii. 1) and
Jephthah (Ib. xii. 1).

88 NUMEROUS RETAINERS [Lect.

all the Israelites who came out of Egypt were
descended from Jacob is so contrary to every text
of Holy Writ, that it passes comprehension how it
could ever have arisen : even though the truth is
obscured in our version by the translation 'little
ones' for a wordd which the Septuagint correctly
renders household and clan {phia and o-vyyiveia). For
we have already seen that the fundamental law
of circumcision was that every slave, whether born
in the house or bought with money, was to be
circumcised (Gen. xvii. 12, 13) : he became a mem-
d The word, in Hebrew *|t3 taph correctly answers to the word
household; thus, in 2 Chron. xxxi. 18, the taphs of the priests are
said to consist of their wives, their sons, and their daughters : and
so when, Ib. xx. 13, the men of Judah brought their taphs to pray
in the temple, it is explained as meaning their wives and children.
But elsewhere it plainly includes the slaves and dependants. Thus
' Joseph nourished his father, and his brethren, and the whole house
of his father according to the taph,' i. e. according to the number
of the whole household, Gen. xlvii. 12. So Pharaoh was willing
to let the Israelites go, but they must leave their taphs, their house
holds, behind, Ex. x. 10, 11. So when the Gadites and Beubenites
built cities for their taphs, Num. xxxii. 16, 24, 26, it does not mean
for small children, but for their households. While forty thousand
of the men numbered in Num. xxvi went over Jordan to the con
quest of Canaan, more than sixty thousand stayed behind ; but
though doubtless most of these were but armed retainers, still the
taph did not strictly include them, but only the domestic slaves :
see Ex. xii. 37, where the taphs are not numbered among the six
hundred thousand men who left Egypt. In Num. xxxi. 17, 18 the
taphs are described as consisting partly of males, who were all to be
put to death, and partly of women, some married and some virgins.
The translation ' women children' is erroneous. In other places a dis
tinction is made between the women and the taph; see Deut. xx. 14,
xxix. 1 1, Josh. i. 14, &c. In such places the children and domestic
slaves are meant.

III.] OF THE PATRIARCHS. 89
ber of the covenant just as fully as his master.
But Abraham could equip 318 trained servants born
in his house, and take them with him to battle.
He must have left other servants at home to guard
the women and chUdren, the flocks and cattle. You
would scarcely find three hundred active young men
in a clan of three thousand souls, and yet Abraham
grew far more great and powerful than he was
at the early period here described (viz. Gen. xiv).
So too of Isaac. Not only did he inherit all that
Abraham possessed, except the probably large gifts
bestowed upon Ishmael and the sons of Keturah
(Gen. xxv. 5, 6), but we read that he so grew in
wealth, that Abimelech the Phihstine king of Gerar
bade -him depart : ' for,' said he, ' thou art much
mightier than wee.' (Ib. xxvi. 16.) To this again
e This verse seems to me to solve the difficulty which some have
felt as to the presence of Philistines in Canaan at this early period.
Caphtor, i. e. Crete, was their original home (Amos ix. 7 ) , and an
early body of immigrants had founded this kingdom of Gerar in
the south of Palestine. They were however comparatively few,
and finally were conquered or absorbed by the Canaanites. When,
centuries afterwards, Israel entered Canaan, we read at first nothing
about Philistines, and Judah conquered Gaza, Askelon, and Ekron
without trouble. But either the opportunity afforded by the troubles
consequent upon the invasion of Palestine by Israel, or internal agita
tions in Crete, induced large numbers of Philistines to seek once again
a land well known to them by tradition as once occupied by their
countrymen, and thus as early as Judges iii. 3 we read of the five
lords of the Philistines. From three of these cities they must have
expelled the men of Judah, and powerful by sea and land they became
Israel's most dangerous enemies, till they were finally conquered by
David, who so respected their valour as to form of them his body
guard (2 Sam. viii. 18). To what exact date Judges iii. 3 belongs
is uncertain.

90 THE HOUSEHOLDS OF THE PATRIARCHS [Lect.
must be added the numerous retainers brought
back by Jacob from Mesopotamia. Though unable
to cope with Esau, who came against him with
four hundred men, it was perhaps not so much
because of inferiority of numbers, as because his
men were untrained, while Esau had with him the
hardy mountaineers of Seir. His present to Esau
was that of a mighty prince, and proves the greatness
of his wealth. But besides we read of Jacob being
accompanied from Padan-Aram by his brethren. They
it was who pUed up the hill of Galeed (Gen. xxxi.
46, 54). Now strictly speaking, brother he had
none but Esau, and these can scarcely have been
aught else than confederates, who had migrated
with him from Mesopotamia, and who were doubt
less absorbed into the twelve tribes. But indepen
dently of this, we read that after Isaac's death, when
Esau and Jacob had divided his wealth between
them, 'their riches were more than -that they
might dwell together; and the land wherein they
were strangers could not bear them because of their
cattle.' (Gen. xxxvi. 7.) And so Esau seized upon
Mount Seir, and reduced the Horites there to sub
jection (Deut. ii. 12), while Jacob abode in Canaan.
Now ' the gifts and caUing of God are without re
pentance;' (Rom. xi. 29 ;) and I have yet to find the
place in Holy Scripture which deprives these men,
admitted by express command to the covenant, of their
covenant-rights. Equally, I have still to find the place
where we are told that the ground opened and swal
lowed them up ; or that they perished by fire, or pes-

III.] MEMBERS OF THE COVENANT. 91

tilence, or famine f. I am quite sure that the great
chiefs would not have put them to death, because in
them consisted their power. I should as soon ex
pect to find the 'patres majorum gentium' at Eome
putting their clients to death, or the captain of
a Scottish clan putting his clan to death, as any
of the chiefs mentioned in the first chapter of Num
bers putting their households to deaths. What
f All those commentators who make elaborate calculations to prove
the possibility of the six hundred thousand men at the Exodus
being Jacob's lineal descendants, do by some sleight-of-hand manage
to exclude all these men from the covenant, to which, both by the
original law of circumcision and by subsequent enactments, they
were expressly admitted. But fairness requires that we should
know by what process they were excluded, at what date it took
place, and what became of them.
e The history of Joseph may seem at first sight to militate
against what is so absolutely certain from every other part of
Genesis, namely, that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were the chiefs of
powerful clans. But in so very brief a narrative, the silence of
Holy Scripture is not so significant as the pregnant hints which
from time to time it drops, and by which we are able to catch
some ideas of the patriarchs in their worldly aspect. They are not
set before us as human history would delineate them, but as men of
God, the founders of the Jewish Church, and the forefathers of
Christ. Now Joseph's history is full of religious instruction. He
is the very model of suffering meekly borne for conscience' sake :
he is the visible example of that working of God which brings good
out of evil : he is the proof of God's goodness, Who though He
long try His people will yet surely visit and save : he is the sign of
God's providence, so overruling men's good and evil, as to bring about
His great designs. Intent upon this, the history puts out of view
all those particulars upon which worldly history would descant at
large. Of course twelve sacks of corn would not do much to main
tain a numerous tribe, but probably the great mass of the servants
were dispersed seeking pasturage for the cattle. Most probably
too Jacob's sons went down only to open trade, and make arrange-

92 LARGE TERRITORIAL POSSESSIONS [Lect.
good would the vast territories which Caleb gave
to his daughter Achsah, her southland, and her
upper and nether springs, have done her, if neither
she nor Othniel had had dependants to till them ?
What good would Hebron have been to Caleb, if
he had had to till it with his own hands \ The
lineal descendants of the patriarchs always strike
me in reading the Bible as remarkably few.
These clans, then, formed the great strength of
Israel, both in Goshen and in the Holy Land. At
the head of some such body of retainers the sons
of Ephraim made that expedition into the land
of Palestine which ended so disastrously in their
slaughter (i Chron. vii. 21, viii. 13). 'No less powerful
was the other son of Joseph ; for we find that Jair,
accounted to belong to Manasseh (Num. xxxii. 41),
because his grandfather Hezron, a son of Judah, had
married a daughter of Machir, the son of Manasseh,—
ments for the future. There was thus ground for Joseph treating
them as spies. There is no reason to doubt but that when they
were settled in so vast a region as Goshen, their numbers must
have stood in some relation to the country assigned them. Even the
great chiefs were not all born of Jacob. How could Othniel the
son of Kenaz be the younger brother of Caleb the son of Jephunneh
in any other way than by adoption % Caleb however himself is called
a Kenezite in Josh. xiv. 14, and, from the manner in which he is
spoken of in Josh. xv. 13, it is plain that he himself did not belong
to the tribe of Judah by birth. Apparently the Kenezites were in
corporated with Israel at the Exodus, and Caleb and Othniel, the
chiefs of two several portions of the tribe, were reckoned as descend
ants of Judah, and as brothers ; but in the genealogy (1 Chron. iv.
i3> 15) no attempt is made to connect them either with Judah or
with one another by actual relationship. They were brothers only
in the sense in which Jacob's confederates were his brothers.

HE] OF THE CHIEFS. 93

we find that this Jair possessed in Gilead, as the
representative of Machir's daughter, no less than
twenty-three vUlages (i Chron. n. 22), and himself
extended his rule over thirty-seven more (ver. 23).
No wonder that another Jair of the same house
judged Israel for twenty-two years, and that men
long remembered his wealth and his magnificence,
and talked of his thirty sons riding upon thirty ass
colts, and Hving in feudal style each in his own cityh
(Judges x. 3, 4).
Now these retainers grew graduaUy out of the
taph, or household. As I have shown, the position
of a slave was not accounted dishonourable, and in
course of time those born in the house attained ap
parently to a certain amount of independence, and
regarded their lord rather as their chief than as
their owner. When Abraham and the patriarchs
bought slaves (Gen. xvii. 12), they would probably be
employed at first in domestic service, or in tending
the cattle, but their children would enjoy greater
freedom ; and, finally," in a land so large as Goshen,
would acquire a higher position and greater rights.
The liberal spirit which had secured for the pur
chased slave admission to the covenant and equality
in reUgious matters, could not stop there. Civil
rights must in time follow, and personal freedom.
But the connection between them and the great
h In Judges xii. there are several other instances of this sort of
barbaric grandeur, coupled with polygamy upon a large scale; a
thing which is always sure in the long run to lead to the decay of
those families which indulge in it.

94 ISRAEL ACCOMPANIED AT THE EXODUS [Lect.
chiefs apparently was never dissolved ; and the lineal
descendants of the patriarchs, whose genealogies are
so carefully given in the Books of Numbers and of
Chronicles, depended for their power and influence
upon the number of the men who formed their clan,
or family >, as it is called in Num. xxvi. 5 sqq.
1 The word rendered family, mishpachah, means one of the larger
divisions into which the tribe was distributed, and which bore the
name of one of the sons or grandsons of the patriarch after whom
the whole tribe was called. Thus the 43,730 men of the tribe of
Beuben formed only four families, which were subdivided into
houses (Num. i. 2). The chiefs of these houses were important
men, and are called ' chief fathers' in Num. xxxi. 26, and ' heads of
the fathers' in Josh. xiv. 1, which latter is the more exact trans
lation of the Hebrew words. From 2 Chron. v. 2 we gather that
while each tribe and each house had its chief, the family had none,
possibly because the sons of the patriarchs had maintained an
equality among themselves. The same also follows from Num.
xxxvi. 1, where the spokesmen for the family (not the families, as
in our version) of the Gileadites are the chiefs of its houses. In
Josh. vii. 17, 18, in the history of Achan, we find the tribe of
Judah thus divided into families, houses, and individuals. Now
as the tribe of Judah consisted of 76,500 men, divided into four
or at most five families, the whole number of each house must
have been large, but by the individuals plainly are meant, not the
retainers, but only those of pure blood — the chiefs actually descended
from Jacob, and who would be few. It is necessary to remember
this meaning of family. When Saul speaks of his family as the least
of all the families of Benjamin (1 Sam. ix. 21), it does not follow
that Kish was not a powerful chieftain — Gibeah apparently belonged
to him, — but that as Benjamin was but a small tribe, so the division
of it to which Saul belonged was not that which held the foremost
rank. No doubt each house looked to its Mishpachah for aid, and
the Mishpachah to the whole tribe: in which probably some one
family bore the preponderance, possibly because the tribal chief
usually belonged to it. In Saul's history we find an undesigned
corroboration of the narrative in Judges xx. xxi. Benjamin, accord-

III.] BY A MIXED MULTITUDE. 95

But besides these armed retainers, the glory and
strength of the great houses, there was also a mixed
multitude (Ex. xn. 38, Num. xi. 4), a plebs as it was
caHed in Latin, but in Hebrew Ereb. In Goshen
these had formed the lowest class, and probably had
consisted of Arabs chiefly, who had been forced in
times of famine or trouble to leave the wilderness J
of Sinai, and seek refuge in the Egyptian border-land,
and had been compelled there to own the superior
power of Israel. But at the Exodus there must
have been Egyptians, too, who threw in their lot
with Moses. For Moses had mighty truths to preach,
such as God's unity, His spiritual nature, His holi-
ing to Num. xxvi. 38-40, was divided into six or seven families —
probably the latter number. But Saul's family, that of Matri, is
not one of them. Doubtless when the tribe was reduced to six
hundred men, several of the old families were obliterated, and in
course of time new ones took their place.
J There could not be a greater mistake than to judge of the
fertility of the wilderness of Sinai in the time of Moses by its
present barrenness, the result, partly of the large mining operations
once carried on there, when the wood was consumed for smelting
the ore, and partly of the ravages of the Arabs since the days
of Mohammed. In the Bible we always read of it as a populous
region, inhabited chiefly by the powerful tribe of Amalek, but also
by the Madianites, with whose chief Moses sought refuge. But
just as famines had caused Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to go
down into Egypt, so probably the same cause led to many
small Semitic tribes seeking a refuge there with the more
powerful Israelites, who had been settled in Goshen by the Pha
raohs, and fostered and protected by Joseph, Pharaoh's vicegerent.
So, in the march through the wilderness, the Kenites and Kenez-
ites joined Israel. Mr. Tristram and the Bev. F. W. Holland have
abundantly proved that the wilderness of Sinai was once a thickly-
wooded and well-watered region.

96 THE MIXED MULTITUDE FINALLY [Lect.
ness. Brief as is the narrative, it teUs of Egyptians
who feared the word of Jehovah (Ex. ix. 20). Such
would not have been content to remain behind ; for
religion is too powerful a motive for men to endure
having their conscientious convictions trampled under
foot : and as certainly as it was a struggle for
rehgion between Moses and Pharaoh, so certainly
would aU those who hated the debased worship of
animals in Egypt, and the grovelling superstitions
prevalent there, ally themselves to one who pro
claimed truths of such marvellous purity as those
for which Moses and Israel strove.
OccasionaUy the chief of an Arab tribe, or an
Egyptian of noble rank, may have been adopted
into the princely houses ; but the great mass of the
Ereb were men of inferior rank. What were their pre
cise position and legal rights we cannot exactly tell,
but certainly they had no landed property assigned
them. You never find a small landed proprietor in
the early history of Israel. You find men like
Micah in Mount Ephraim with his house of gods,
and hiring a Levite to be his domestic priest. You
find Nabal in Carmel, owning sheep and goats by
thousands. You find Barzillai providing a king and
his army with sustenance whUe he lay at Mahanaim.
Even Ziba, a servant of the house of Saul, has his
fifteen sons and his twenty servants. Still more
significant is the picture of Boaz, a mighty man of
wealth, surrounded by his retainers, and living in
rustic opulence at Bethlehem. The idea that the
Israelites were, by the terms of the Mosaic law, a

III.] INCORPORATED WITH ISRAEL. 97

nation of small proprietors k, is opposed to everything
that we read of in the Bible. The Mosaic divisions
were into tribes, famUies, and houses.
But, further, we are not to suppose that this plebs
or Ereb had any share in the covenant1. In Goshen
,c Certainly what the daughters of Zelophehad were so anxious
about was not a miserable acre or two apiece, but some such
princely territory as their cousin carried as dower to Hezron
(Num. xxvii. i, i Chron. ii. 21, 22). The whole thing is made
clear by the instructive genealogy in 1 Chron. ii. 50-55, where
cities and clans are reckoned as sons. Compare also 1 .Chron. viii.
29 with ix. 35. It is quite plain that Gibeon in these two places
was the property of Jehiel. Beally, too, it follows from the law as
given in Num. xxvi. 53-56. The land was to be divided among
the 601,730 men mentioned there, 'according to the number of
names. To many thou shalt make his inheritance much, and
to few thou shalt make his inheritance small : to each shall his
inheritance be given according to those that were numbered of him.'
Surely these words must mean that it was the chiefs who had the
land, and that their share was greater or less according to the
number of their retainers. Of course they would hold it for their
clan, and would make allotments to them, but on what terms
is uncertain. In the reign of Solomon the power of the
great houses seems to have been crushed, and the land sub
divided into smaller portions. As much is implied in the phrase
'dwelling every man under his vine and under his fig-tree.' (1 Kings
iv. 25.) By what steps this change was brought about we are not
told, but the fact is certain. Though we still read of the princes
(1 Kings xx. 14, 2 Chron. xxx. 24), their power and wealth had
greatly declined since the days of David. They had become rather
the great officers of the court (Jer. xxxvi. 12), than chieftains living
among their own people.
1 It was simply by confounding these three entirely distinct
classes of people, of which the first and second only were members
of the covenant, the first by their own right, the second by the
fundamental law of the rite of circumcision, that those ingenious
arithmetical puzzles were constructed which some short time
H

98 CONDITION OF THE EREB [Lect.
their connection with Israel was probably a very
loose one, but at the Exodus they would be compelled
by the need of protection to attach themselves to one
or other of the tribes, and with this closer amalgama
tion a higher position would also gradually be won by
them. But it would not be till the conquest of
Canaan that they would fully rank as Israelites™.
For by that conquest a still lower class was formed,
consisting not merely of the Gibeonites, but also of
large remains of the native inhabitants (Judges iii. 5) .
And the Ereb, dignified by the share they had taken
in Israel's wanderings in the wilderness, and in the
conquest of Palestine, looked down it may be with
contempt on the conquered Amorites, who had be
come little better than serfs n ; and so in time they
ago puzzled the unthinking. Those numbers, as of the first-born
in the wilderness, really enable any one with a little historical
insight to judge of the relative proportions of the three great
classes who collectively formed the Israelite nation.
m It is quite possible that when Joshua renewed the covenant
of circumcision at Gilgal (Josh. v. 2-7), the Ereb were admitted
into it. If so, they would then be attached to some tribe, and
henceforth numbered with it. They were not so numbered at
the Exodus (Exod. xii. 38), but possibly many of them were
included in the census recorded in Num. xxvi.
n Many native towns no doubt maintained their independence
during the days of the Judges besides Jebus (2 Sam. v. 6-8). In
fact, we learn from 2 Sam. xx. 15-22 that a walled town was a
troublesome matter to conquer. Many such towns and large pro
perties retained by Canaanites (thus Araunah is even called a king
in 2 Sam. xxiv. 23) would probably be absorbed by marriages
(Judges iii. 6), but while thus the nation was growing in internal
unity, its moral state was being depressed to the level of the Ereb,
and even of the Canaanites.

III.] IN PALESTINE. 99
would be regarded even by the true Israelites as their
worthy companions and friends.
And thus they formed a very valuable portion of
the community. Enjoying personal freedom, and
residing principally in the towns as traders, though
many of them no doubt would stUl roam about as
nomads — for to the very last there were large tracts of
open country where any could pasture their sheep0 —
being above all things independent, they would temper
and moderate the power of the large houses. But
their moral condition was probably low, nor had they
those grand and noble ideas of the Godhead which
marked the true descendants of Abraham. Of these
in the main, the Book of Judges speaks, telling us
how in successive dangers they delivered Israel from
the inroads of the neighbouring nations, and exercised
a sort of sovereignty, now in one quarter of the land
and now in another. How great was the preponder-
o The Israelites had always been a people partly agricultural and
partly pastoral. Great part of Palestine is a vast table land (the
mountain of Matt. v. i), and much of this apparently was not
appropriated, but only the fertile valleys by which it is constantly
traversed. Yet even of this Mr. Tristram tells us that ' the whole
country south of Hebron, which now is a series of rolling downs,
bare, and covered only with turf, testifies every mile or two by its
ruined heaps, its olive-presses, wine-vats, and wells, to the density
of a past population;' and no doubt the large districts originally
given to the chiefs (Josh. xix. 50, xxiv. 33, Judges i. 20, 1 Chron.
ii. 23, &c.) were, as population increased, broken up into smaller
sections. But a large mass of the people still subsisted by pasturing
their flocks in the wilderness or table land. Thus the powerful
house of Bechab could all take to a nomad life at the command
of Jehonadab, and Jeremiah speaks as if living in tents was still
common in his day (Jer. iv. 20).
H 2

100 CONDITION OF THE ISRAELITES [Lect.
ance of these houses we learn in Gideon's history.
When Jehovah's angel came to him, his difficulty in
undertaking the command in the war against Midian
was the smaUness of his father's house. Yet the
town of Ophrah belonged to his father Joash ; Gideon,
' the least in his father's house/ had himself ten men-
servants whom he could take with him to throw
down Baal's altar. He does it by night, because ' he
feared his father's household' as weU as the men of
the city ; and when they come to Joash to complain
of his son's conduct, Joash puts them off with a bitter
jibe at their having a god who could not help him
self. The townspeople, then, had a sort of import
ance, and yet could not cope with even the small
proprietor to whom they appertained. And as con
sisting chiefly of the Ereb, with an admixture of
Canaanites, we find them given up to idolatry. It
is ever the towns at this era which are the seats
of false worship and immorality. It was only gra
dually that the higher teaching of the pure Israel
ites leavened them, and it never leavened them
thoroughly. Probably few but pure IsraeHtes went
into captivity with Jehoiachin, and returned to
found the second temple.
During the days, then, of the Judges, there was no
settled form of government, but the rule only of a
dominant class, of whom occasionaUy one here and
one there emerged into more general power. Mean
while the nation was growing in unity ; so far there
was progress, but we cannot detect many signs of it in
any other direction. The extraordinary elevation of

III.] IN THE TIME OF THE JUDGES. 101
Moses' character, which had stamped so deeply upon
the minds of his contemporaries such noble truths as
that from Jehovah come both love and chastisement
(Exod. xx. 5, 6, xxxiv. 6, 7), and that in God a
nation finds at once its protection and its code of
morality, and that therefore God must alone be king :
this influence seemed to lose its hold upon the people
as Joshua and the rest who had known Moses passed
away. We find instead a race of men valiant, self-
reliant, with many rough and youthful virtues, but
whose moral state was low, and their capacity for
spiritual thoughts limited. Even those to whom
Moses must have chiefly looked for carrying on
his work, left their religious duties unattended to.
Neither priests nor Levites seem after the days of
Eleazar and Phinehas to have devoted themselves to
the teaching of the people ; and the gift of prophecy,
though not absolutely withheld, yet exerted itself in
no other way than in the preservation of Israel's
national existence.
Yet the people never abandoned their conviction
that they were consecrated to Jehovah, and held a
special relation to Him. When sin entangled them,
and national calamity came as its result, they never
doubted but that upon their true repentance Je
hovah would come to their succour. They knew that
it is sin which separates man from God, and that
repentance is not the cry of the lips, but the change
of the heart. And thus when they returned to God
He accepted them, while the splendid reformations of
Hezekiah and Josiah wrought no deliverance, because

102 RELIGIOUS IDEAS OF ISRAEL [Lect.
the heart of the people remained unchanged. We
find even some slight traces of Messianic hopes.
Jephthah's daughter bewails not her death, but her
virginity ; as though every Jewish mother hoped
that from her might be born the promised Deliverer.
They were not untrue then to their calling, and it is
even possible that the higher views of the true Israel
ites were gradually leavening both the mixed mul
titude who came with them out of Egypt, and the
large number of Canaanites who still remained in the
land. At all events, when Samuel appears the whole
nation is ready to join in the spiritual worship of
the one true God.
Now, whence came this deep conviction, even in
those coarse times, that there is but one God, and
that that God requires as His sole true service holi
ness % If there be one constant tendency in the
human heart, it is to make worship a matter of the
senses ; to express truth by outward sign and
symbol. Truths ever crystallize and harden into
objective forms, and lose thereby their quickening
and penetrating force. How came this one people
ever to struggle after spiritual truth, and finally to
win it and impart it to aU mankind 1 Whence gained
Abraham that better knowledge which made him
abandon those gods which Terah worshipped (Josh.
xxiv. 2), to serve a God whom no image may re
present ? Rachel brings with her Laban's teraphim,
and yet no canker of idolatry is the result. Ex
cepting Joseph, the patriarchs are not set before us
as men free from very deep stains of sin, and when

III.] IN ADVANCE OF ITS PRACTICE. 103
the nation settled in Egypt, they were brought into
contact with a people whose idolatry was of the
basest kind, who worshipped cats and crocodUes, and
animals of every sort, and even vegetables, but who
besides possessed a civilization — a culture, as it is
the fashion now to caU it — very far superior to that
of the Hebrews, and such as must have greatly in
fluenced and impressed them. So debased in fact
were they, that a forty years' sojourn among the
mountains and wildernesses of Sinai was necessary
to rid them from the demoralizing influences of
Egypt. But, in spite of this, there was on their side
a healthy love of truth, and the power of embracing
it ; and, on the other side, there was Moses, the one
man who faUs below the level only of Christ, the
one man in whom human nature reached its highest
glory, and who points . onward to Christ, as the per
fection of that which Moses sought, but through
human infirmity could not reach (Num. xx. 12, 24,
xxvii. 14). After Moses we have the picture of a
people impressed by his master-mind with indelible
convictions, but convictions far higher than their
own moral level. It is but too probable that Moses'
own grandson p was ready to minister before a graven
image, on the excuse, no doubt, that it was but a
symbol of the true Deity (Judges xviii. 30). The ephod
p Many scholars consider that the Jews, to save the credit of
Moses' family, changed Moses into Manasseh in Judges xviii. 30 ; the
change consisting in but one stroke, namely, altering ne>lD into
ntWD. It is remarkable how entirely the family of Moses dis
appears from Jewish history.

104 SUPERIORITY OF MOSES [Lect.

made by Gideon, in remembrance of the defeat of
the Midianites, became a snare both to his own house
and to the people generally (Judges viii. 27) . Not one
of the gods of the heathen round but found wor
shippers in Israel (Judges x. 6). Plainly the nation
was leading a double existence. Whence came their
better knowledge % Read through the Book of Judges.
You do not find there any men capable of winning
.spiritual truths for themselves. You do not find men
strugghng after new ideas, and gradually attaining
to them. Measured by their times the Judges were
men of whom the world was not worthy. For, mixed
up with much that was low and bad, they had
an unwavering trust in Jehovah, an honest manly
love of truth, and a consciousness that God must
be served in holiness, and that repentance means a
reformation of life — ideas altogether superior to any
thing in the times wherein they lived. But they stand
upon an infinitely lower level than Moses. Even Samuel
and Jeremiah, the two other most perfect characters of
Judaism, reached not up to the standard of Moses.
The wisdom of Moses was not the product of
Jewish culture, nor was it of Egyptian growth.
Trained as was Moses in all the wisdom of the
Egyptians, and admitted probably to the priesthood,
as Egyptian tradition 1 affirmed, he learned their
1 Manetho's account, as quoted by Josephus, c. Apion. i. 26
sqq., though grossly distorted, contains much nevertheless in itself
credible. Cf. Ewald, Hist. Israel, ii. 76. From it we gather that
the Exodus was the result of a religious struggle, and that Moses,
as he appears also in the Pentateuch, was the bitter opponent of
the wisdom of the Egyptian priests.

III.] TO THE JUDGES. 105
teaching only to hate and condemn it, and at Mount
Sinai his purpose was to raise up an eternal barrier
between the Israelites and the rehgion of the country
wherein they had so long dwelt. There did this
extraordinary man lay broad and deep the founda
tions of the one true rehgion, which was in due time
to become the right of all mankind (Mark xvi. 15).
StiU in the Ten Commandments do we recognize the
most perfect summary of our duty to God and man.
Still do we worship 'Jehovah, a God merciful and
gracious, long-suffering, abundant in goodness and
truth, but that wUl by no means clear the guilty.'
(Ex. xxxiv. 6, 7.) Still in the types and ceremonies
of the law we see the outlines of truths since re
vealed, and which were ordained of old not to hide
and conceal the Hght already given, but to prepare
and lead men on to more light, to new truths, but
truths for which the world was not then ready. No
jot or tittle of the law has passed away, but aU has
either been fulfilled in Christ, or lives on in Chris
tianity in more fuU and perfect significance. Moses
was no mere product either of Egyptian wisdom, or
of Israehtic striving after spiritual truth. Truth, in
the way of nature, is gained by man only after long
struggles, and its ultimate exponent is preceded by
a long series of men who have ever been getting
nearer and nearer to its reality. No doubt in Moses
personaUy there had been a long striving after God ;
but there was nothing in the times that went before
or that followed him to account for the extraordinary
purity and elevation of his views. No long line of

106 STATE OF ISRAEL [Lect.
men had preceded him to lead him upwards to the
truth. If, as we beHeve, he was one chosen by God
to reveal to mankind the true nature of the Deity,
and of the manner in which God must be served, all
is easy. God by him did so implant in the chosen
people the germs of true religion, that in spite of
every difficulty and obstacle they grew and deepened
and widened, tUl at length the time was full and the
world ready, and Christ came. If Moses was the
mere product of a struggle between Egyptian and
IsraeHtic theology, he is a greater miracle than in
spiration itself.
The times of the Judges, then, enable us to form
something of a judgment upon the greatness of
Moses. Immeasurably do the heroes of those times
fall below him. They were in proportion and rela
tion to their times ; Moses rose high above them.
His standard of truth was perfect, even though per
sonally he once or twice fell below his own standard.
And yet the Judges were seekers after God, and
wrought too for that complete ascendancy of the
Mosaic institutions and views which we find in the
days of Samuel. When we think of the long years
passed by Israel amid the debasing associations of
Egypt, when we think of the vast mixed multitude,
which lusted only after sensual pleasures (Num. xi. 4),
and of the numerous Canaanitish idolaters, among
whom the Israelites freely lived (Judges iii. 5-7),
we can estimate the difficulties of the times of
Barak, and Gideon, and Jephtha, and Samson, and
our wonder is not that the nation fell so low, but
that it ever rose again.

III.] IN SAMUEL'S YOUTH 107
It was at a time of the deepest agony and despair
that a new life came to it. For many years the
Philistines had been gradually crushing Israel. Even
in the days of Joshua the people had not been able
to conquer the inhabitants of the plains and of the
sea coast, and now, aided probably by new immigra
tions from Crete, the Phihstines had gained a de
cided superiority11, against which Samson vainly
struggled by detached acts of heroism. At length,
at the place subsequently called Ebenezer, the
national ruin became complete, and church and state
feU in one day. Since the days of Joshua the place
where the ark was deposited, and which was there
fore the centre of the national religion, had been
ShUoh in Mount Ephraim ; and the Philistines de
stroyed Shiloh with such hideous barbarity, that
centuries afterwards the heart of the people shud
dered at the very mention of the name s. They
never restored the place. Even Jeroboam, though
of the tribe of Ephraim, never ventured to use, as
a rival to Jerusalem, a site consecrated by so many
centuries of worship. In the Psalms you read many
a bitter waU over its faU. So late as the time of
Jeremiah, the threat of a similar fate hanging over
Jerusalem so stirred the rage of the people that but
for the princes they would have put Jeremiah to
death. So utter was ShUoh's ruin, that its very site
r Judges xiv. 4.
a See Ps. lxxviii. 60-64, Jer. vii. 12, 14, xxvi. 6, 9. There is
probably also an allusion to the return of the ark from captivity in
Ps. xiv. 7.

108 SUPERSTITIOUS USE [Lect.
was not known until the last few years *. It seems
as if the people could not bear any aUusion to scenes
and remembrances so inexpressibly painful.
But from Shiloh's faU Israel dated its regeneration.
There had been brought up there from his infancy
a calm, wise, and thoughtful man. A Nazarite Hke
Samson, he was cast nevertheless in a higher and
nobler mould. Cut off from the affections of home,
he was a daily witness of the supreme power being
wielded by a weak and irresolute man, and of the
religious sanctuary of the nation being defiled by the
immoralities of that high priest's sons. Such a train
ing would have ruined one not possessed of rare and
unusual gifts. But he had that rarest gift of early
yet not precocious piety : a youthful goodness that
was a fit prelude for his religious manhood. But
there was also at Shiloh something to make amends
for this painful isolation. Eli was at least personaUy
a good man : but of far more consequence for Samuel's
mental and spiritual growth were those religious
records stored up in the tabernacle. These doubtless
were Samuel's study, and from them he learned that
great truth which was the inner spring of aU his
subsequent conduct, namely, that Israel's strength
lay in its true religion — that Jehovah was Israel's
sole stay and deliverance. Impressed with this truth,
he gave his whole heart to teaching it ; and Jehovah
accepted him as His spokesman. ' All Israel, from
Dan even to Beer-sheba, knew that Samuel was
t It was discovered by E. Bobinson : see his Palestine, vol. iii.
302 sqq. ; and Wilson, Lands of the Bible, ii. 293 sqq.

III.] OF THE ARK. 109
established to be the prophet of Jehovah.' (i Sam. in.
20.) And up to this time God's spokesman was also
God's representative. As prophet, Samuel was also
the temporal ruler, the Judge, of the nation.
We may be sure that it was against his advice
that the ark was taken to battle. People of debased
ideas may imagine that success depends upon some
holy relic, some consecrated banner, some labarum or
oriflamme carried out before a host waging it may
be unholy war for lust of power or spoU, or to rob
freemen of their rights. Such ideas are natural to
man. Among the heathen you always find some
ancile, or paUadium, or image of the great goddess
Diana, upon which their safety depends, and which
always plays them false at the hour of need : and
heathenism is nothing more than man's selfish in
stincts narrowed and hardened by contact with the
material world tiU he loses aU perception of the truth
that in union with God alone is Hfe and deliverance.
Now this truth was Israel's real strength, and when
the unchaste and unholy sons of EH took the ark
to battle, they put superstition in the place of re
ligion; and if the ark had not been captured, and
the people utterly smitten, the spiritual teaching of
Moses would have been so overborne that one does
not see how it could have survived the shock. De
graded then to so base a use, the ark not only did
not save the people, but was itself taken in battle.
And yet at such a crisis, if there had been no inter
ference of God in the nation's behalf, so heavy a
chastisement might have been more than the faith

110 ISRAEL'S EARLY HISTORY [Lect.
of Israel could have borne. Even then in captivity
the god of the PhiHstines falls prostrate and broken
before the ark, and it is restored to Israel in such
a way as proved Jehovah's power and the deep
reverence with which He must be approached. And
never afterwards was the ark put to any superstitious
use. The people who broke even the brazen serpent
to pieces were too spiritual in their views to regard
the ark as anything more than a symbol of God's
more immediate presence at that spot which He had
chosen as the chief seat of His worship.
But while this disastrous battle was being fought
at Ebenezer, Samuel was probably busy in removing
from Shiloh those precious records, of which after
wards he so weU knew how to make use. Some
possibly were laid up inside the arku, and were
restored with it by the PhiHstines. But however
saved, from these records Samuel would learn the
great lesson that a nation's strength and prosperity
come to it not from without but from within; not
from what a people have, but from what a people
are. Not active trade and victorious armies, but
religion and moraHty are the safeguards of freedom.
When faith is lost, virtue soon departs also, and
corrupt at its very core, an unbelieving nation soon
sinks tamely and meanly into decay. Samuel's great
work was to bring about a reformation of the people
themselves. The influences which in modern times raise or
depress a nation are far more general and diffused
than in times when books and reading scarcely ex-
a See Deut. xxxi. 26.

III.] CENTRES IN MOSES AND SAMUEL. Ill
isted. Even now the virtues and mental strength of
one man may do much for a nation's good, or by
mistaken policy he may guide it into a course whence
it may be difficult for it to retrace its steps, and
escape ultimate ruin. Yet at every turn he wiU be
checked by other influences, and the reaction x, which
in the main consists of the combined resistance of
units, themselves singly powerless, may prove in the
end more powerful than the mightiest intellect of the
day. But in old time the individual was well nigh
everything. Nations rose and feU according to the
characters of their leading men : and so, ancient
history is mainly the history of these men, and of
the effects which followed upon their working. Such
men were Moses, the founder, and Samuel, the re
storer, of Israel. Still, you must not suppose that
the people went absolutely for nothing — that they
bad no probation, no part in the nation's fortunes.
The Bible sets before us the very opposite principle.
God bestows His gifts, but they must be accepted
(Deut. xxx. 19, Jer. xxi. 8). His people must be
x Though reaction has only of late been acknowledged as one of
the most powerful forces in public questions, yet it is the name,
not the thing, that is new. Nemesis was but a poetical way of
expressing in old time the fact, that power and prosperity evoke a
retribution. But, as understood in modern days, reaction is not
ultimately a blind, but a regulated, force ; for however little men's
minds may be prepared for a particular line of conduct, yet, if it
be founded on truth and justice, time will inevitably weaken a
resistance which has no deeper root than prejudice. It is only
when a policy is one-sided, and violates justice and equity, that the
reaction in a well-ordered state will be overpowering. I use the
word ultimately advisedly, because reaction has its origin often in
a blind dislike of power and prosperity as such.

112 NATURE [Lect.
willing in the day of His power (Ps. ex. 3). The
nation did accept Moses and Samuel. When sub
sequently the people feU away, God granted first a
Hezekiah, with Isaiah to press home on their con
sciences the necessity of reformation. He gave next
a Josiah, with Jeremiah to aid his efforts. But aU
was in vain (Jer. viii. 17-20). The influence of a
nation's great men may be vastly more at one period
than at another, but the issue rests with the nation
at large. With us, in modern days, broad principles
are at work ; and not one but many minds labour
together for good or for evil. Of old, the result was
more plainly connected with some one mind ; but
then, as now, a nation's uprise or decay depended
finaUy upon the nation's own choice.
Samuel's lot fell upon times when the instincts of
religion prevailed. The testimony of the Book of
Judges shows that the people had not lost their
conviction that Jehovah was their Deliverer. When
then the national existence seemed crushed at Eben
ezer, they came to Samuel, as Jehovah's prophet, for
aid and comfort. As such all Israel had recognized
him in the days of Eli, and now they turned to him
as their sole hope. Brief as is the history of his
doings we learn from it three things. The first, that
he urged upon the people the necessity of putting
away their idols (1 Sam. vn. 3). Now this had a moral,
as well as a religious significance. Idol worship was
but another form of wantonness. Turn where you
wiU, the worship of fa]se gods is the worship of human
passion. In honour of the gods men did that which

III.] OF SAMUEL'S REFORMS. 113
they would have blushed to do as men, but yet what
they wished to. The god served only as an excuse
to silence conscience. The worship of Jehovah was not
a sensuous but a spiritual worship. It meant tem
perance, chastity, self-restraint, justice to others, holi
ness. The heart must be prepared for Jehovah ; and
this, at Samuel's exhortation, the people did by fast
ing, by prayer, by the confession of sins. And God
accepted their repentance because it was sincere ; and
at Ebenezer, the very place where they had been so
disastrously overthrown and the ark captured, the
yoke of the PhiHstines was lightened. Though they
had still garrisons in Israel (i Sam. xiii. 3), and pre
vented the importation and manufacture of arms
(ver. 19-22), yet aU marauding expeditions ceased
in Samuel's days : whether or not they were tribu
tary to the Philistines does not plainly appear.
Samuel's first act, then, was to bring about a
thorough reformation among the people ; his second
was to provide for the maintenance of morahty and
religion, by making provision for the regular ad
ministration of justice. In profane history we find
that Deioces by this means raised the Medes into a
nation. But Samuel did more than Deioces. Not
at one centre only, at Ramah, did he judge the
people, but went yearly on circuit to three chief
places, Bethel, GUgal, and Mizpeh (1 Sam. vii. 16).
Nor did justice with him subserve the purposes of
personal ambition. True to the high theory of the
theocracy, as Jehovah's representative he sought
only Jehovah's honour. And by his just decisions,

114 THE PROPHETIC SPIRIT [Lect.

and the example of his own unblemished purity, he
taught the people themselves to be just, and also
united the tribes together into something Hke one
nation (i Sam. xii. 4).
Now it was in this upright administration of the
government that Samuel soon found the need of fit
persons to act under him. The people were no doubt
very ignorant, and reading and writing v were mys
teries confined to the descendants of those great
scribes, Eleazar and Phinehas. Samuel determined
therefore, in the third place, to raise the nation
inteUectually, as he had already raised it moraUy ;
and for this purpose he gathered round him at
Naioth, that is, the meadows or open pastures at
Ramah, where his own house was situated, a number
of young men, whom he trained in reading, writing,
and music. As their education was in course of time
entrusted to Nabhis, prophets, they were caUed the
sons, that is, the disciples, of the prophets ; and from
this modest beginning arose 'the schools of the
prophets,' of wliich we read so much afterwards,
y It is a mark of the intellectual superiority of the Semitic races
that syllabic writing was known to them at a very early period,
while the Egyptians, like the Chinese, never advanced beyond pic
torial writing. Ewald, Hist. Israel, i. 51, shows that writing ex
isted among the Semitic nations before we can historically trace it,
and though it is uncertain to what Semitic people ' half the civil
ized world owes this invaluable invention, so much is incontro
vertible, that it appears in history as a possession of the Semitic
nations long before Moses.' In opposition however to so great an
authority I farther hold that the phraseology of Gen. xxiii. 17 be
longs to a written document, and therefore that the art of writing
existed in Abraham's days.

III.] NOT ALWAYS SUPERNATURAL. 115
especially in the history of the northern kingdom.
And thus prophecy now first became a regularly or
ganized national institution.
But let us consider who these Nabhis or prophets
were, whom Samuel gathered round him at Ramah
to aid him in the work of education. For it is ex
pressly said that ' the word of Jehovah was rare in
those days;' (i Sam. iii. i;) and after Deborah and
the prop'iet who preached repentance throughout
Israel before Gideon was summoned to the rescue,
we read nothing of prophets tiU Samuel. But the
Spirit of Jehovah was not withdrawn. 'When a
young lion roared against Samson, the Spirit of Je
hovah,' we read, 'came mightUy upon him, and he
rent the Hon as he would have rent a kid ;' (Judges
xiv. 6 ;) and can we suppose that that Spirit, at such
a crisis in Israel's history, would be withheld from
good and earnest men, thoroughly penetrated with
the same truths as Samuel, and joining hand and
heart with him in once again giving life to the
Mosaic institutions 1 Had Samuel stood alone he
could have effected but little But other holy men
caught from him the pious enthusiasm, and spread it
in a wider circle. Now the great characteristic of the
prophet is that intense conviction of the truth and
necessity of religion which compels him to proclaim
its truths to others. On this account there is much
in common between the prophet a d the preacher.
Often the terms are synonymous. Yery fittingly,
therefore, does our Church require the profession of
an inward caU before she admits any one into her
I 2

116 REVELATION NECESSARILY [Lect.
ministry. ' Do you trust,' she asks, ' that you are in
wardly moved by the Holy Ghost to take upon you
this Office and Ministration2 V Now, as certainly as
the Spirit of God rested upon Samson and Saul (i Sam.
xi. 6), and did not make them prophets, but only
heroes, so may even the prophetic spirit rest upon
men, and yet they may rise no higher than earnest
preachers. Who shall deny the gift of the pro
phetic spirit to WycHf and Luther, to Wesley and
Whitfield, to WUberforce and Clarkson 1 Who deny
it of old to Augustine and Ambrose, to Basil and
Bernard 1 ' The testimony of Jesus,' we are told, ' is
the spirit of prophecy.' (Rev. xix. io.) Men bear
that testimony now ; they bore it of old. But there
were four a great periods at which this testimony rose
to a higher and more directly supernatural level.
At these periods God's purposes of mercy towards
mankind made the higher gift necessary. Prophets
then had not merely truths to preach, but truths
to reveal. But because no revelation was made by
them or to them, I do not therefore infer that the
prophets whom Samuel gathered round him had not
z The Ordering of Deacons, Question i .
a These four periods are, (i) the Davidic period, when many
Messianic Psalms were composed ; (2) the Assyrian period,
of which the great glory was Isaiah ; (3) the Chaldee period,
equally ennobled by Jeremiah ; (4) the post-exilic period, when
the beautiful Psalms of Degrees were composed, and Zechariah,
Haggai, and Malachi flourished. The Mosaic period I regard as
something higher than ordinary prophecy. It corresponds to
nothing but Christianity. The prophets wrought within the circle
of the Mosaic truths ; Christ finally made those truths full and
perfeot, and bestowed them upon all mankind.

HI.] SUPERNATURAL. 117

the Spirit of Jehovah, and were not true prophets,
even though the Divine Spirit wrought within strictly
natural limits. So, in the Christian Church, I do
not infer that Agabus was more a prophet0 than
the rest, because he was endowed with prescience
also. And believing, as I do, that there are even
now men 'inwardly moved by the Holy Ghost to
take upon them the work of the Ministry,' and yet
that this influence does not surpass the bounds of
human nature, I recognize in such God's presence,
though fully aware of the great difficulty of exactly
defining where the influences of the Spirit remain
b The prophets in the early Church were men inspired by the
Holy Ghost, not to foretell events, but to preach truths. They
stood, therefore, next to the apostles, and higher than mere teachers
(i Cor. xii. 28), with whom, however, they are constantly associated
(Acts xiii. 1). It was the office of the apostles to rule, of the pro
phets to preach, of the teachers to instruct and catechize. Upon
the apostles the Holy Spirit rested supernaturally for certain special
purposes. These were, (1) to bring back all Christ's teaching
to their remembrance (John xiv. 26); (2) to guide them to the
right understanding of that teaching (Ib. xvi. 13); (3) to tell
them the things that were coming (lb.). St. Paul, moreover, ob
tained his knowledge of Christ's life and preaching by revelation
(Gal. i. 12). But these supernatural gifts were so regulated as not
to interfere with their own probation (1 Cor. ix. 27). The faculty
of prediction, as in the case of Agabus (Acts xi. 28, xxi. 10, 11), was
not involved in the term npocpTjnjs, but belonged to that fulness of
charismata which distinguished the early Church. We must further
suppose that as the apostles were divinely aided in their own know
ledge and understanding of Christ's teaching, so they were guided and
assisted by inspiration in their communication of it to the Church.
But the prophets of St. Paul's times had not necessarily any such
inspiration, but that only which every real Christian has, and
which is described in 1 Cor. ii. 10-16.

118 UPRISE AND GROWTH [Lect.

entirely within the limits of man's natural, yet quick
ened and elevated, powers, and where they rise en
tirely above them. But when the Word of God so
truly ascribes to His Spirit that mighty impulse
which made Samson rend the lion, and which never
theless, in another way, may be viewed as still only
a natural impulse, we need feel no hesitation in
believing that that same Spirit stirred mightily
many hearts, and made them run over with earnest
words, when Samuel caUed God's people to his aid.
The error is in circumscribing too narrowly the office
and duties of the prophet, when men fear to apply
the name to those who, though moved by the Holy
Ghost, had yet no commission to declare new truths
in Jehovah's name0.
At first, indeed, Samuel may have attempted to
train his young men himself ; but soon I doubt not
c I wish, in fact, to protest against two errors : the first, that
the inspiration of the prophet was unlike anything that happens
now. On the contrary, I believe that the Holy Ghost still
impels and forces men to preach Christ. But the second seems
to me the worse error ; namely, the denial of any spiritual gift
higher than is vouchsafed now. On the contrary, I believe that
on special occasions the great prophets of old were under the
influence of a directly supernatural power. No preacher or teacher
now is secure from error, but unless the- writers of the Holy Scrip
tures had been thus secured, what reliance could we have placed
upon their words 1 No preacher now has any new Divine truth to
reveal ; but it was the very office of prophets and apostles to reveal
new truths to the Church. While, then, God's gifts now do not
surpass the bounds of our natural powers, however much they
may quicken them, a further and supernatural gift was bestowed
upon a certain small number of persons in old time, but strictly
for one special purpose.

HI.] OF SAMUEL'S SCHOOLS. 119

that he gathered round him as teachers many on
whom Jehovah's Spirit rested, as it may rest on men
now, and who were irresistibly urged thereby to
proclaim the old Mosaic truths of God's unity and
spirituahty, His justice and mercy, and of light and
life and strength to be found alone in Him. And
evidently Samuel was anxious that there should be
many such men dispersed everywhere throughout
the land ; and in his circuits he sought such men
out, and, if young, he took them with him, and gave
them fuller instruction. Probably he began with
one or two youths who seemed more especially fitted
for so high a calling ; and then his institution grew,
and teachers had to be found as weU as scholars.
But it is chiefly the results which the Bible sets
before us. We find there nothing less than a new
life rapidly beginning for the nation, so that com
paratively but a few years separate the rough and
untaught anarchy of the times of the Judges from
the learning and order and piety of David's reign d.
d One instance of this enormous change will suffice. There is
much to be learned from the proper names in Holy Scripture.
Compounded very frequently of some appellation or other of God,
they show us what were the prevailing religious ideas of the time.
Now, judged in this way, Saul is half a heathen. He names one
son Jonathan = God's gift, in Greek, Theodore ; but another is
Ish-baal = Baal's hero (i Chron. viii. 33). Jonathan's son is Merib-
baal = Baal's striver. Soon after, feelings so changed that men
would not even use the name of Baal, but said instead Bosheth =
shame, or disgrace, and, in still later times, abomination (Is. xliv.
19, Dan. xi. 31, xii. 11, Mal. xxiv. 15). But what a world-wide
difference a few years had made between the state of feeling which
allowed Saul to call his son Baal's hero, and that which could not
endure the name of Baal, and substituted for it Ish-bosheth =

120 ANALOGY BETWEEN [Lect.

Now there can be little doubt but that Moses had
intended the priests and Levites to be the instructors
of the people. For this purpose he had raised them
above the necessity of labouring for their bread, and
had dispersed them among the people. But they
proved but sorry teachers; and God, in Samuel's
days, raised up others to take their place. God has
not given to any body of men whatsoever a char
tered right to lock up heaven, and let His people
perish for lack of knowledge. If those who are
regularly called, and who are the priests according
to the true succession, neglect their duties, their
place wiU very soon be supplied by those who have
only the inward call. The prophets essentially were
men whose sole claim to teach was this inward call.
So entirely was this the case that the men trained
in the prophetic colleges were themselves the first to
acknowledge the higher gift which summoned EHsha
from his farming at Abel-meholah to be their head
(2 Kings ii. 15) ; and which urged Amos to leave his
scanty subsistence, as a puncturer of sycamore fruit
at Tekoah, to publish to the ten tribes a warning so
weighty that, as the high priest testified, 'the land
was not able to bear his words.' (Amos vn. 10.)
From the days when Samuel first gathered the
few youths round him at Bamah, the schools of the
prophets never seem to have ceased in Israel. We
Shame's hero ! It is very true that the Baal of Saul's time was a
very different being from the Baal of Ahab and Jezebel ; but it
was a term too directly connected with idolatry to admit of its use
by any right-minded man.

III.] THE PROPHETS AND THE CLERGY. 121
read of them afterwards as flourishing at numerous
places, especiaUy among the ten tribes, and of the
Nabhis, the prophets trained in them, as existing
by hundreds— sometimes nobly dying as martyrs for
the truth, Hke those whom Jezebel persecuted to
death, but of whom Obadiah saved a hundred pro
phets, hiding them by fifty in a cave (i Kings
xvni. 4) ; at other times ready to lie and flatter,
like the four hundred Jehovah-prophets, who bade
Ahab go up to Bamoth-gilead and prosper (1 Kings
xxii. 5, 6). Evidently they filled a position analo
gous to that ofthe clergy in the Christian Church,
except that their call was somewhat irregular. For
neither did these schools form part of the Mosaic
institutions, nor was education even in them neces
sary before entering upon the prophetic office. They
had been raised up to take the place of men who
had faded in their duties ; but they had no regular
charter, nothing to appeal to but an internal impulse ;
and naturaUy therefore to the last we find a sharply-
defined opposition between them and the priesthood.
Of the two sides of the truth they press almost
exclusively the need of real, deep, personal religion :
of the necessity of external aids to our infirmity they
say but little. I do not see how they could have
done otherwise. The need of these aids is a deduc
tion of the reason drawing its arguments from ex
perience. The prophets spake from a fervent heart,
eager for the end and not calmly examining the
means. And so their text ever is, ' Behold, to obey
is better than, sacrifice ;' and their teaching a fore-

122 THE PROPHETIC LIFE [Lect.
shadowing of His Who taught that the true worship
must be ' in spirit and in truth e.'
Among the • men trained in these coUeges, there
were, I doubt not, thousands who preached the pure
spiritual doctrines of the Mosaic economy, and who
formed the true core of the nation, and laboured
earnestly for that great end for which the Mosaic
institutions were given, and which we now enjoy in
Christ. But we must not confound these preachers,
true prophets though they were, with those few and
divinely-gifted men who were speakers for God in
a far higher sense, as being directly inspired either
to explain old truths, or to proclaim some new portion
of that heavenly knowledge which was to be made
perfect in Christ. It is to these prophets in the
largest sense that we owe the Bible. If the pre
servation of the several books of the Bible was
probably due to the prophetic coUeges, the writers
themselves were men to whom prophecy was no mere
calhng or profession. There were Jehovah-prophets
by hundreds, doing in the main God's work, as our
own clergy do, and who felt that they were inwardly
moved to do this work ; and here and there we
find men who falsely professed to be thus caUed,
because of the dignity or emoluments to be gained by
such a profession. And from time to time the Spirit
of Jehovah rested upon some one man — not neces-
e So in the New Testament, there is little direct teaching about
institutions and ceremonies ; it was left to the Church, the great
society of believers, to appoint such institutions and ritual as might
best help in guarding the truth intrusted to its keeping, and in
propagating it throughout the world.

III.] ONE OF ENDURANCE. 123
sarily of greater natural gifts, but of a heart more
intensely devoted to God. And this special call was
tied down to no institution whatsoever, nor to any
class. It might come to an Amos, gaining a scanty
living by his own labour ; it might come to the
young priest Jeremiah, dweUing on his own lands
at the priests' town Anathoth ; it might come to
Zephaniah, a prince of the blood royal, amid the
splendours of a court. But it came by no initiation,
by no training, by no ordinances of men, but directly
from above, from God. And when the caU came, it
summoned them to trouble, to sorrow, to disappoint
ment. The book spread before them was written
within and without ; and the writing was ever
lamentations, and mourning, and woe (Ezek. ii. 10).
They might be wanted for some special mission, as
was Amos, and might afterwards return again to
ordinary life. It might be a life-long service. Jere
miah must daily be God's witness during the forty
and two years which preceded the faU of Jerusalem.
He must forego for ever aU share of domestic happi
ness (Jer. xvi. 2); must abstain from all pleasant f
company, and dwell lonely and apart (Ib. xv. 17) ;
must take no share in the joys or the sorrows of Hfe
(Ib. xvi. 5, 8) ; and this not to attain to honour, not
to win those prizes which stir in men an honourable
ambition, but to become 'a man of strife, a man of
f There is nothing to justify the translation of the A. V. mockers.
The word really means those who laugh and are cheerful. Our
version entirely corrupts the sense. Jeremiah, as a prophet, had to
abstain from what was right, or at least innocent, and not merely
from what was wrong.

124 REASONS FOR THE TRIALS [Lect.
contention ; one that every one did curse.' (Jer. xv. io.)
'Why,' said he, 'is my pain perpetual, and my wound
incurable, which refuseth to be healed V (Ib. xv. 18.)
Such was God's caU to him ; and such was it ever.
The prophets were sent to a people whose heart
was fat, and their ears heavy, and their eyes shut
(Is. vi. io). Their cry ever is, 'Lord, who hath
believed our report?' (Ib. lni. i.) For the false pro
phet there was reward, honour, emolument ; for the
true the word was, ' I hate that man. Put him into
the prison, and feed him with the bread of affliction,
and the water of affliction,' tiU his words be dis
proved (i Kings xxii. 8, 27).
And this was necessary for two reasons. First, as
regards the prophet. He was summoned to his office
by an internal caU. But men deceive themselves too
greatly for such a caU to be trustworthy if it leads
them to wealth and power. At first it did lead to
power ; Moses and Samuel held their authority by
virtue of their prophetic office : and in men of such
extraordinary elevation of character no danger would
ensue. But when we find that there were professed
prophets who poUuted God among His people for
such mean profits as ' handfuls of barley and pieces
of bread,' (Ezek. xni. 19,) to what degradation might
not the prophet's name have faUen, if wealth and
honour had been its guerdon? The prophet was
called to the highest and noblest of aU vocations : he
was Jehovah's minister. But his earthly lot was
scorn and the enmity of the world. He had his
reward, but it was not one that allures worldly-

III.] OF THE PROPHETIC LIFE. 125
minded men. It was a spiritual life hidden in God :
and this none can enjoy but the pure in heart.
But still more important was it for the people.
The prophet brought them a message from heaven.
Upon this message God's favour depended. How
were they to know that it was God's message 1 Be-
member that there were false prophets as well as
true : men who made great professions of their pro
phetic power. We read of Zedekiah making him
horns of iron as a sign that Ahab should push the
Syrians till he had consumed them (i Kings xxn.
ii). We read of Hanamah taking the yoke off
Jeremiah's neck and breaking it in token that Nebu
chadnezzar's empire should be broken (Jer. xxvni. 10,
ii). We read of Shemaiah writing from Babylon,
and reproving the high priest for not punishing
Jeremiah, and putting a stop to his predictions of
woe (Lb. xxix. 24 sqq). In the last days of the
monarchy the false prophets obtained a fearful as
cendancy : and that chiefly because the people loved
falsehood and hated truth, and therefore themselves
corrupted the prophets. So says Isaiah, ' This is a
rebeUious people, lying chUdren, that wiU not hear
the law of Jehovah, which say to the seers, See not ;
and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right
things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy de
ceits.' (Is. xxx. 9, 10.) In severer terms Jeremiah
speaks of a fearful aUiance of prophets, priests, and
people in mutually deceiving and depraving one
another (Jer. v. 30, 31). How then, in such a state
of circumstances, could one who tridy sought God
know who was indeed the bearer of God's message %

126 THE PROPHETIC CALL [Lect.
He would know it chiefly by the message itself.
There is no man who does not at some time or other
feel that there is a message of God to his soul : and
that that message bids him repent and be holy. He
knows that God's message must be a reproof of all
that is wicked in him, and a warning that for his
wickedness there will be judgment. This is just the
message which the true prophets always brought.
Not a smooth message, but a rough message of
rebuke and expostulation, and of promise only where
there had been first repentance. But men deceive
themselves. They have ever some excuse, some plea
for themselves : and therefore the message must be
brought by those who are not merely disinterested,
but are actually sufferers by it. Such is stiU the
case now. The highest caUs of duty are ever incom
patible with worldly gain. And such certainly was
the case with the prophets of old. They neither
gained nor expected to gain from their labours any
thing but opposition, abuse, and injury. Read their
history through — search in their works for the
motives which influenced their conduct; examme
what they taught, and the principles which they
urged upon others, and you will never find tha,t
what they sought was either pleasure or profit, or
any worldly, low, mean, unworthy object. They
laboured for God, and found in Him their sole reward.
And even this very labouring came not to them of
their own choice. They sought not the office. ' As
for me,' says Jeremiah, 'I have not hastened from
being a pastors to follow Thee : neither have I desired
s The word pastor, when not used in its primary sense of a

III.] UNSOUGHT. 127
the woeful day; Thou knowest.' (Jer. xvn. 16.) The
inspiration came from God, unsought, against their
own wUls ; and they knew that earthly ease, happi
ness, enjoyment must be foregone. Such were the
criteria of the true prophet : a message which did
not flatter man, but raised him from earth to God;
himself an example of every earthly good resigned
that duty might be done, and God obeyed and found.
Such was the teaching and such the conduct of
the men who wrote for us the Old Testament : but
to show more clearly their extraordinary excellence
I shaU in my next lecture explain what was the
general nature of the prophetic institutions, the
kind of instruction given in their colleges, their
mode of life, their ordinary average standard of
duty and reUgion. It is only by contrasting the
inspired prophet with his uninspired brethren, that
we can see how high he was raised above the usual
level of his contemporaries.
shepherd, means one who exercises civil power, a ruler, governor;
but as Jeremiah was called to the prophetic office when but a lad, it is
difficult to see how he could ever have been in possession of political
power. Various other translations therefore have been proposed,
and Naegelsbach takes it literally, thinking that before his call
Jeremiah may have tended at Anathoth his father's sheep. During
the long interval however between Jeremiah's call and his coming
forward in a prominent position in Jehoiakim's days, Josiah may
have employed him in some civil capacity, or as a priest he may in
some way have exercised power, and have abandoned everything of
the sort to devote himself exclusively to teaching when he found
himself called by God to higher duties. But in spite of this diffi
culty the general sense is clear. Could Jeremiah have overpowered
his conscience, he would have been glad not to have been a prophet,
and there was a long struggle on his part before he thoroughly gave
himself up to the prophetic office.

LECTUKE IV.
PART I.
THE SCHOOLS OF THE PROPHETS.
It was told Saul, saying, Behold, David is at Naioth in Ramah.
And Saul sent messengers to take David : aud when they saw
the company of the prophets prophesying, and Samuel standing
as appointed over them, the Spirit of God was upon the mes
sengers of Saul, and they also prophesied.
i Sam. xix. 19, ao.
IN my last lecture I endeavoured to give a general
-outline of the nature of Samuel's times, and of the
work which he accomphshed. We find ourselves
in his days transported into an entirely different
state of things from anything that had existed
before. It was the second great era of Judaism,
inferior to the age of Moses, but yet one in which
the truths taught by Moses first acquired that as
cendancy over the Jewish mind which they never
afterwards lost ; on the contrary, from Samuel's time
they ever grew in strength and clearness, till finally
the veil was withdrawn from them in Christ, and
apostles and evangelists completed what Moses had
begun. I showed somewhat of the difficulties with
which Moses had to contend. Though round him
he had the heads of the tribes, men impressed with

THE ERA OF MOSES. 129
the same truths as himself, yet the mass of the
people were not merely debased by a long sojourn
in Egypt, but originally of inferior position, re
tainers3 merely, who had been taught the nature
a The number of first-born males, as given in Num. iii. 40-46,
is 22,273. All the genealogies show that large families were the
exception among the Israelites, and not the rule. An average of
three or four sons in a family would be a high one, and thus we
cannot be far wrong in estimating the number of lineal descend
ants of Jacob at the Exodus as under eighty thousand. Now Jacob
and all his kindred when they went down to Egypt amounted to
'threescore and fifteen souls;' (Acts vii. 14;) but adding together
Jacob's ' brethren' and the menservants he brought with him
from Mesopotamia, the captives taken at Shechem, and the half of
Isaac's possessions, Jacob's whole household must have amounted
to many thousand persons. In Egypt Joseph was ruler over the
whole land, and his power is proved by the expeditions made by his
grandsons into Palestine. By the time of his death the Israelites
in Goshen were probably more than a hundred thousand strong,
since for military reasons Joseph would do all he could to increase
their numbers, so as to enable them to protect the north-eastern
boundary of the kingdom, where they were posted. Many Semitic
tribes may have been incorporated with them in Joseph's days, just
as the Kenites and Kenezites were in the days of Moses. If their
chiefs were adopted into the patriarchal families, as Caleb and Othniel
were into that of Judah, even the eighty thousand spoken of above
would not all be lineally descended from Jacob. Now, multiplied
by four, the sixth generation would make these 75 souls into
76,800, but this implies an average of eight children, all arriving
at full age and marrying. But, as a matter of fact, we find that
Joshua was the twelfth generation from Joseph (1 Chron. vii. 20-27).
It is a vexed question whether the 430 years mentioned in Ex. xii.
41 are to be reckoned from Abraham's vision, Gen. xv. 13, or from
the descent into Egypt : but one complete genealogy like that of
Joshua has more weight than the shorter genealogies like those of
Moses, because it was the rule with the Hebrews to omit names.
Names are omitted even in our Lord's genealogy in Matt. i. As
K

130 HIGHER MORAL LEVEL [Lect.
of God by their chiefs, but probably very imper
fectly. And then there was that base mixed mul
titude, who were half-heathenish in their views ;
and, after the conquest of Canaan, there was added
to all this a large admixture of the native popu
lation, whose wanton nature-worships had a power
ful attraction for at least aU the mferior portion of
the mighty multitude who left Egypt.
Even the princes did not always give Moses a
hearty support. Aaron and Miriam, and Aaron's
sons on more than one occasion faded him. The
chiefs of Reuben, and Korah a prince of Levi, broke
out once into open rebellion ; but the real difficulty,
as is evident everywhere in the history of the wan
derings in the wilderness, was with the mass of the
people. When, at the end of a year, they reached
the borders of Palestine, their cowardice was so
great that they refused to enter upon the conquest
of the land ; and it was not tiU after that whole
generation was dead, and Moses at his head-quarters
at Kadesh-barnea had trained up an entirely new
generation, invigorated both by his teaching and by
the healthy air of the desert, and the hardy mode of
life they led there, it was then only that marching
upon Canaan by an entirely new route he conquered
in person the Amorites of Heshbon and Bashan, and
the Midianites, and placed Joshua at the head of a
band of hardy warriors, whom nothing could resist.
Ewald observes, the names in the genealogy of Moses may repre
sent each a century. In four centuries Jacob's lineal descendants
might well amount to fourscore thousand men.

IV.] OF THE ERA OF SAMUEL. 131
A vast moral and physical change D alike had passed
over the people, but it was not complete. Perhaps
a large proportion of the tribes were necessarily dis
persed over the desert during Moses' days, seeking
pasture for their flocks and herds, though incontest-
ably the whole region then was vastly more fertile
than it is at present. But however it be accounted for,
evidently the Canaanitish rites had only too great an
attraction for the mass of the people, and the times of
the Judges are set before us as times of constant lapses
into idolatry, and.of a by no means elevated moral tone.
But in the days of Samuel we find the worship
of Jehovah everywhere firmly established, and from
their defeat at Ebenezer the people rise to a more
vigorous, a nobler, and a higher life. As the con
quest of Canaan by Joshua was really Moses' work,
because he had formed and trained the men whom
Joshua led, so the victories of Saul and the conquests
of David were reaUy Samuel's work, because he had
raised the nation to that moral level which made it
fit and able to win first independence and then
empire. Samuel by his reforms had endowed the
nation with a vigorous inner energy, which showed
itself outwardly in strong acts. Israel had, I grant,
never lost that hardy valour with which it emerged
from its thirty-eight years' training in the wilderness0;
t> Compare Ex. xiv. ii, 12, xvi. 3, Num. xi. 4-6, xiv. 1-4, with
the bravery displayed when Moses started the second time from
Kadesh for the conquest of the land, Num. xxi. 24, 35, &c.
c I am quite ready also to grant that David's strength was in
part owing to the decisive way in which Judah now entered the
confederacy. It had always been the most warlike of the tribes
K 2

132 WARS FOR EMPIRE [Lect.
but Samuel had revived in it its early enthu
siasm, had filled it with fresh faith in Jehovah;
with a renewed confidence that Israel was Jehovah's
people, and that, if it served Him in truth and
holiness, He would be its strength and sure defence.
This new life not only won for Israel freedom, but
dominion over the neighbouring states. It was but
too natural for a warrior who had broken the yoke
of foreign subjection from off the neck of his own
people, to place it, if he could, upon the neck of
others. I do not find, however, that the prophets
approved of this. Bather they strongly condemned
it. When David numbered the people, the prophet
Gad reproved him, and bade him choose one of three
¦severe punishments. Why % We do not doubt but
that it is absolutely right to number the people.
Moses twice numbered the people. All civilized
nations number the people. Yes ; but David mini-
(Num. x. 14, Judges i. 2, xx. 18), but from the time that Othniel
drove back the Mesopotamians (Judges iii. 10), we read nothing
more of it, except the not very patriotic proceeding in Judges
xv. 9-13. Apparently, however, it had enjoyed a period of
unchequered prosperity; for when David numbered the people,
there were in Judah 500,000 valiant men that drew the sword
and only 800,000 in all the rest of the tribes. Now at the last
numbering of the people, in Num. xxvi, the tribe of Judah had
consisted of 76,500 men, and the other eleven tribes, omitting
Levi, of 525,230 men. I think we may appeal to this as an
undesigned coincidence. In the Book of Judges every other tribe
js exposed to constant trouble, but Judah remains tranquil in its
southern fastnesses. When it emerges from its obscurity, it has
grown so strong that it is well-nigh a match for all the rest. The
other tribes had increased in numbers, but not to any great extent,
Judah had increased more than sixfold.

IV.] CONDEMNED BY THE PROPHETS. 133
bered only 'the valiant men that drew the sword,'
and he numbered them for a bad purpose — for foreign
War and aggression ; and the punishments were aU of
such a kind as to abate this fighting lust. And when
David would have built a temple for Jehovah's ser
vice, leave is refused him. A man who had ' made
great wars, and shed much blood upon the earth,'
must resign so pure and elevated a purpose to ' a
man of rest.' (i Chron. xxii. 8, 9.)
Now we saw in the last" lecture the three great
means employed by Samuel in working this mar
vellous change in Israel, of which David's empire,
and the learning and culture prevalent in his days,
his psalms too, and the service in the sanctuary
at which they were sung, were truly results ; Samuel's
three chief means for this were the reformation of
the people's morals, the upright administration of
justice, and the regular organization of the prophetic
order d. Like aU true reformers, his object was to
raise and elevate the people themselves ; aU the rest
was sure to foUow. Now of aU his institutions, that
which gave strength and Hfe to everything else was
the grand development he gave to the energy of the
d Of course I do not put these upon the same level. The first
was the end sought also by the other two. I put them down in
this order (illogical though it be), because Samuel brought about
a national repentance first of all by his own exhortations (1 Sam.
vii. 3-6), and then took means for making this revival of faith and
morality firm and lasting by his other two measures. His annual
circuits as judge would maintain a high standard of morality ; the
preaching and activity of the prophets would quicken the nation's
faith.

134 ORIGIN [Lect.
prophets by means of the schools which he founded
for them. He had in them men whose one business
was earnestly to labour among the people for their
spiritual good. As the priests and Levites laboured
to preserve the Mosaic religion, its ceremonies and
ritual, its types and sacrifices, its feasts and fasts
and festivals, so the prophets laboured to preserve
and impress upon the people's hearts all the great
spiritual truths and ideas of the Mosaic teaching.
After the return from Babylon, this great duty was
performed by the synagogues, wherein the law, and
psalms, and prophets were read every Sabbath day.
Among us it is performed by the services of the
Lord's house, wherein the teaching of the Church and
of the Bible is enforced by the living voice of the
preacher. As I have said, I doubt not but that
under the Mosaic institutions the priests and Levites
were dispersed throughout Israel on purpose that
they might discharge this duty : they did not dis
charge it, and Samuel now confided it to men trained
by him for this one end.
In the text we are introduced to the first and
earliest of the prophetic colleges, with its arrange
ments apparently complete and in full working order.
We find prophets arranged in a regular company,
duties about which they are engaged, and a duly
appointed head presiding over them. Already in the
tenth chapter we had read of a company of the
prophets coming in solemn procession from some
rehgious ceremony, preceded by instruments of music,
whereas previously the name of prophet is most rare.

IV.] OF THE PROPHETIC SCHOOLS. 135
And here we see them at their head-quarters, and
subject to a settled discipline, with ' Samuel standing
as appointed over them.' How appointed ? and by
whom 1 and whence arose these schools of the pro
phets, of which henceforward we read so much in the
annals of the Jewish monarchy 1
Now, first, the college of which we here read is
at Bamah, a town which pertained to Samuel. His
father Elkanah had dwelt there (i Sam. i. 19, ii. 11),
and at his death his possessions descended to Samuel,
his first-born son. Thither at the end of each judicial
circuit Samuel returned, ' for there was his house,
and there he judged Israel, and there he built an
altar unto Jehovah ; ' (Ib. vii. 17;) and there, finaUy,
' he died, and was buried.' (Ib. xxv. 1 .) And, as I
have before said, Naioth is not the name of any town
or village, but means pastures, places apparently that
were common property, and where the shepherds
loved to congregate and pitch their tents. In these
pastures, then, near Ramah, Samuel's dwelling-place,
there were young men congregated, to be trained, as
it appears, not in martial exercises, but in the rudi
ments of a higher education.
It is quite incidentally that the mention of them
is made. Probably the Books of Samuel were com
piled from records which he had himself begun. Had
Gad or Nathan written them, it seems incredible but
that they would have told us more about the origin
and disciphne of these schools. For they had by
that time grown into important institutions, and
prophets who had learned in them arts so important

136 RAPID ADVANCE OF LEARNING [Lect.

as reading and writing, would have looked back with
affection to their great founder, and told us more of
his plans and ways. Not so Samuel. The prophetic
coUeges had grown up round him as it were by
chance. He had not consciously intended to alter
the whole course of things, and found a new era :
but he had felt a want, a need, and tried to supply it.
And his plans by prudent management had pros
pered. From smaU beginnings there had sprung up
round him what virtuaUy was a University e. Men
had graduaUy gathered to his teaching, and learning
advanced with rapid strides. Though Deborah records
that there came to her from Zebulun 'those that
handle the pen of the writer,' (Judges v. 14,) this is
the last indication of the existence among the Israel
ites of that culture which they must have had in
Egypt when Hving in close contact with a people so
highly civilized. Nor can even this be depended
upon, for the more probable translation is ' those that
handle the staff or baton of the general.' In the
sanctuary alone at Shiloh were the arts of reading
and writing preserved. But now learning becomes
common. The youthful David, son of the rich farmer
at Bethlehem, standing there at Samuel's side when
Saul's messengers came, was not only himself an
educated man, but when he became king could gather
e I will not enter into the vexed question whether Kirjath-
sepher, Book-town, was a Canaanite University, but Bamah was
plainly the first Hebrew University, and stands at the head of that
long line of educational institutions which after the Saviour's time
ended in the great schools of Tiberias, Sora, and Pumbeditha.

IV] IN SAMUEL'S DAYS. 137
round him accompHshed scribes and competent his
torians. His son was to be the wonder of the age
for literary skill. AU this was Samuel's doing. I see
not how David could have learned to read and write
except in Samuel's schools. His skill in music may
also have been acquired there. But be this as it
may, from the days of Samuel till the repeated inva
sions of the Assyrians wasted the land and destroyed
its higher civilization, the Israelites f were a highly-
educated and literary people.
His own education then in the sanctuary was
bearing fruit. Samuel's predecessors had been war
riors, men who fought for freedom sword in hand,
but who had little idea of anything more. Samuel
was no warrior. Not but that at Ebenezer he put
himself at the head of the Israelites, and won for
them that great victory which gave them rest for so
many years. But he had higher purposes. To give
Israel permanent and enduring superiority he must
raise the whole people mentally and moraUy, as well
as religiously. If by his own teaching and example
he could thus ennoble a few, they would be his instru
ments for ennobling the rest. He gathers round him
therefore rehgious men, deepens their own convictions,
awakens their zeal, fills them with earnestness, kindles
in them the true prophetic spirit, and by them calls
f Like all energetic races they had an eager thirst for knowledge,
and an aptness to learn and teach. ' The scholar and the teacher'
are already mentioned in David's time (i Chron. xxv. 8) ; and among
the three precepts ascribed to Ezra in the Talmud is this, ' Teach :
make numerous scholars.' See Nicolas, Des Doctr. Rel. des Juifs,
P- 3i-

138 THE PROPHETS TRAINED [Lect.
forth again into fuU force and activity those pure
and elevating Mosaic beliefs which had at first nerved
the people to quit Egypt, and enabled them in the
next generation to conquer Canaan.
At first these young men probably dwelt in tents
or booths on the open pasture land : for the ways of
Hfe were still simple, and houses s rare, and possessed
only by those of higher rank. But as their numbers
increased, and a regular constitution was given them,
and a settled discipline, it is probable that something
more of a permanent character was given to their
dwellings11. In the text they certainly appear as a
regularly organized body : for we find ' Samuel standing
as appointed over them.' Now these words may only
refer to that religious service of song and chant in
which they were engaged when Saul's messengers
arrived. If so, they would show that they had
arrived at that stage when the service of God was
conducted according to a dignified and impressive
ceremonial. But the words more probably signify
that Samuel 'was chief over them.' Not appointed
by any one : that is not the meaning of the Hebrew.
As a prophet of the highest rank, he was by virtue
s That the tent was the ordinary dwelling-place of the Israelites,
except in the towns, is suggested by passages such as Is. liv. 2. So
David is described as saying, 'I will not go into the tent of my
house,' Ps. cxxxii. 3 ; and Isaiah, xvi. 5, calls David's house a tent.
If such was the king's habitation, no wonder that all the people in
Solomon's life still lived in tents, 1 Kings viii. 66, and long after
wards, 2 Kings xiii. 5, Jer. iv. 20, x. 20.
h At all events they would require something like a common
hall, or place of meeting.

IV] IN READING WRITING AND MUSIC. 139

of his office their chief. And thus the words suggest,
what we should also gather from other things, that after
the appointment of Saul to the kingdom, Samuel, for
the remaining thirty years of his life, concentrated aU
his energies upon these schools. Hence the deep
root they struck in Israel, and the vast effects they
produced. And, following Samuel's example, other
inspired prophets devoted themselves to the same
high purpose, and the sons of the prophets looked to
them naturaUy as their chiefs. Thus when at Jericho
they saw that ' the spirit of Ehjah rested upon
Elisha/ they acknowledged him as their head by
' bowing themselves to the ground before him ;' (2 Kings
ii. 15;) and subsequently we find him recognized as
their ruler by aU the prophetic colleges among the
ten tribes.
The training of these young men was partly in
reading and writing, the two sole foundations of
all inteUectual culture, and the two greatest steps
that men can take forward on the road from bar
barism to civilization. But it was partly also, as
we have seen, in music, with which was joined
probably singing, such as subsequently formed the
great charm of the temple services, as established
there by David, Nathan, and Gad, all three, I doubt
not, trained by Samuel himself. Now the introduc
tion of psalms into the temple service was a great
step towards an inteUectual and spiritual worship.
The sacrifices were full of typical meaning, but the
great attraction probably was the feast which fol
lowed; The Psalms were 'a reasonable, an intel-

140 IMPORTANCE OF MUSIC [Lect.
lectuai service,' and men's hearts rose up in them
to God. The synagogues, after the return from
Babylon, made this kind of service, with other
similar additions of prayer and the reading of the
scriptures, the ordinary service throughout the land.
And we have inherited this service. The Christian
Church was formed upon the model not of the temple
but of the synagogue. Still we read the same
law, and the same prophets as they read, and sing
their psalms. To this day these Jewish Psalms
are our best expression of praise and thanksgiving.
When Samuel trained his young prophets in music,
he introduced an innovation into Divine service
which will continue and bear fruit as long as the
Church shaU last1.
But this training was necessary also for the times.
In a coarse and violent age like that described in
the Book of Judges, music and poetry, which in
evitably go together, exercise a powerful influence
in civilizing men, and giving the softer arts, and
the pleasures of a milder and more refined Hfe,
value in their eyes. We now are subject to innu
merable softening influences. It was not so then.
Music, the song, the religious chant, the solemn
dance at holy festivals, these were the chief, and
well-nigh the sole civilizing elements of early times k.
' Yet here as everywhere else the root is in Moses. He first
wrote a Psalm which Miriam and the women sang with timbrels
and dances (Ex. xv. 20), and therefore the Psalms are very signifi
cantly ascribed to Moses in the Revelation, ' They sing the song of
Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb;' (xv. 3.)
k In a fighting age the bard stands in the same relation to

Lv".]' IN BARBAROUS TIMES. 141
We must not, however, suppose that all the young
men trained by Samuel at Ramah became prophets.
Very probably at first he wanted men to aid him
also in the civil administration of the realm : and
besides, though the sons of the prophets occupied
a lower position than that held by men so highly
inspired as Samuel and Gad and Nathan, and Elijah
and Elisha, yet before a man was admitted into
the lower grades even of the prophetic order there
must have been proof that Jehovah's spirit rested
upon him ; proof that he had the inner caU to
bear to men Jehovah's message. But men so called
formed probably but a small proportion of those
who frequented Samuel's schools. Certainly we find
that David had returned to his ordinary duties at
home when the war with the Philistines summoned
him away from his obscurity. Yet we cannot be
far wrong in concluding that he did not learn at
Bethlehem either his extraordinary skill in writing
or his mastery over the harp. We read of him
too as dancing before the ark, and though not
expressly mentioned, yet we cannot doubt but that
civilization as the newspaper of the present day. He was the organ
. of intelligence, the bearer of news, the representative of the ideas of
his times. When men take to reading, the bard becomes a plaything.
He may beguile the long hours of a winter evening, or increase the
pleasures of a feast, but no more. In early times he was the edu
cator also. His lays, as sung by himself, and repeated from mouth
to mouth, formed the minds of his countrymen. The song, the
ballad, — these were the intellectual food of the people. Of such
ballads probably consisted the Book of Jashar, and the Book of the
Wars of Jehovah, so often mentioned in the Bible.

142 CONNECTION OF SAUL [Lect.
this formed part of the rehgious exercises of the
sons of the prophets1. StiU more conclusive is the
elevation of his views as shown in his contest with
the giant, his self-devotion, and early piety. From
all this I doubt not that after Samuel had anointed
David as Israel's future king, he had him with him
as much as possible, and carefuUy trained him for
his high destiny m.
We find a proverb twice referred to connecting
even Saul with the prophetic schools (i Sam. x. ii,
xix. 24). Two circumstances are mentioned, in both
of which the ready wit of the people noticed that
strange incongruity of character, which strikes us
to this day in reading Saul's history. But we must
not conclude from the proverb that Saul had ever had
any such training. The history presents him to us
as one who had no personal knowledge of Samuel
(1 Sam. ix. 18) when God's providence brought
him first to Ramah : and apparently he resided at
Gibeah during the no very long period which in
tervened between his designation to the crown, and
the establishment of his authority by the defeat
of Nahash. Saul was a man of great natural^ abUity,
with many noble quaUties, who yet faUed miserably
in his probation. But his whole history is that of
1 Compare Michal's reproach of David, 2 Sam. vi. 20, with what
is said of Saul, 1 Sam. xix. 24.
m According to the ordinary chronology, Saul's second and final
rejection was in B.C. 1079, and David's combat with Goliath in B.C.
1063. There is thus an interval of sixteen years for David's anoint
ing and subsequent training for the kingly office.

IV.] WITH THE PROPHETIC SCHOOLS. 143
an untrained man, nor is there the slightest indi
cation that he could read or write, or that he
possessed any of the accomplishments taught in the
prophetic schools. The national wit, then, contrasted
the tall, ungainly, uncultivated, but still stalwart
hero with the educated and accomphshed men whom
Samuel was training for intellectual work. It did
more. It contrasted the wilful, irreligious, way
ward despot with the good and holy men whose
conduct was regulated by settled religious prin
ciples. Still the proverb shows that there was no impos-
sibihty in Saul having been thus trained. The
incongruity seized upon by the people was that of
his personal character. The probabUity is, that of
those trained by Samuel, some, like Gad and Nathan,
became Nabhis, prophets, and as a learned and de
voted order of men filled an important place in the
national economy ; others returned to more ordinary
duties, to the cultivation of their estates, or to a
military life or office under the king ; while, lastly,
a large majority were probably Levites, and from
the time that David brought the ark to the tent
which he had pitched for it in Zion, they had the
charge of the services there. For we are expressly
told that the music in the house of Jehovah was
according ' to the commandment of Jehovah by the
prophets.' (2 Chron. xxix. 25.)
For Samuel was himself a Levite, and to the
Levites he would naturally look for the men to aid
him in his reforms. He recognized the high place

144 CONNECTION OF THE LEVITES [Lect.
they were intended to fiU in the Jewish economy :
he saw that they had not filled it : but while organ
izing his new institution on a freer footing, so far
from excluding the Levites from it, he would still
chiefly turn to them. The opposition between the
priest and the prophet has often been noticed by
writers of every kind : but of the comparatively few
prophets whose lineage has been told us, the ma
jority are priests. And so when Samuel n added a
more spiritual element to the services of the sanc
tuary, it was entrusted entirely to the Levites;
Though the priests and Levites had not done aU
that Moses had expected, it yet is exceedingly
n It is certain from i Chron. ix. 22 that Samuel commenced
that reorganization of the Levites which David completed. From
1 Chron. xxv. we learn that all the great singers and musicians,
-Heman, Asaph, Jeduthun, &c., were Levites, and Heman a Kohathite,
like Samuel himself (1 Chron. vi. 22, 28, 33). From the part taken by
Gad and Nathan in the arrangement of the temple service (2 Chron.
xxix. 25), it is exceedingly probable that it was modelled upon the
same plan as that originated by Samuel in the schools of the pro
phets : and when in the text Saul's messengers found ' the company
of the prophets prophesying, and Samuel standing as appointed over
them,' there can be little doubt that they were engaged in a reli
gious service, consisting of music and singing, like that subse
quently instituted by David for the tabernacle, and performed by
a chorus of 288 trained voices (1 Chron. xxv. 7). How impressive
Samuel's service was we gather from the effect produced upon
three successive sets of messengers sent by Saul, and subsequently
upon Saul himself (1 Sam. xix. 20-24). From the last verse
we learn that there were also solemn dances, in which Saul
clad only in a linen ephod, or tunic, such as David danced in
before the ark (2 Sam. vi. 14, 20), took part so enthusiastically,
that he finally fell down completely exhausted, and for many hours
afterwards lay motionless.

IV.] WITH THE PROPHETIC ORDER. 145
probable that they had always maintained among
themselves a higher standard both in morality and
religion than the rest of the community. There was
an opposition in the law itself between its spiritual
truths and its burdensome ritual (Ezek. xx. ii, 25,
Acts xv. 10), and yet the law contained and har
monized both elements. And so, if the prophet
seized the law in its inner, and therefore its higher
and more spiritual, reality, but the priest in its lower
and objective aspect, still the prophetic spirit was
not denied to the priesthood ; and often, as in
Ezekiel, the two modes of thought were happily
combined in the same man.
Such, then, was the new beginning of prophecy.
The dismal state of things which preceded Samue],
and his own far-seeing and thorough remedies, made
him need a more highly-educated class of men than
Israel had ever before possessed. But the prophets
were no mere literary class ; I do not know that
such a class has ever either merited or met with
much respect ; and certainly that was not what
Samuel wanted. The very root of his reforms was
his desire to see Israel more virtuous and more
religious. His instruments, therefore, must above
all things be men who themselves were holy. He
needed a clergy. For them education was something :
the grace of God was more. Now the prophets had
ever been men who pleaded for God. Rehgion with
them was everything. And though we cannot sup
pose that the Spirit of Jehovah rested in the_ way
of direct inspiration on all the holy men trained by
L

146 PROPHECY AN ADVANCE [Lect.

Samuel, still they earned and deserved the name
of prophet by their intense conviction both of the
truth and of the need of God's message to man.
They were men who felt an irresistible caU to
work for God, and in whom God's Spirit wrought
by a large outpouring of the ordinary gifts of
grace. But there were also here and there among
them men on whom extraordinary gifts were be
stowed. Such men were Gad and Nathan in David's
days. What they were endowed with was no mere intel
lectual superiority ; no mere human wisdom ; but
something directly supernatural. There were at
David's court men of the highest worldly wisdom.
Ahithophel was so wise that ' his counsel was as if a
man had enquired at the oracle of God :' (2 Sam. xvi.
23 :) but men knew that there was nothing divine
about it, and David left his friend Hushai the
Archite to frustrate Ahithophel's advice. There was
nothing wrong in so doing : for Ahithophel's was
mere worldly wisdom ; his strong sense made him
discern what were the best means for gaining his
ends ; but the question of right and wrong formed no
element in his counsel. But the prophet ever spake
of right and wrong, and duty. And when he went
inspired with a message from above, like Nathan to
David, it was the conscience that was addressed, not
the inteUect ; and man's duty was, not to understand
it, and judge of it, but to obey. It was a command
given by the highest and final authority, from which
there was no appeal.

IV.] UPON THE MOSAIC INSTITUTIONS. 147
But our business with the prophets at present is
rather with their ordinary and every-day level. It
is only by looking at them as they were in the
large majority of cases that we shaU be able to judge
of the extraordinary elevation of those wonderful
men, who stand out from time to time in gigantic
vastness among- the actors in the annals of Jewish
history. Now first, as regards the time, we have already
seen that this remodelling of the Mosaic institutions
by Samuel took place just at the period when the old
way of consulting Jehovah by the oracle and Urim
went out of use. This was but an unsatisfactory way
at best, but it lasted just to the time when real pro
phecy, the real mediatorship between Jehovah and His
people, such as that with which Moses had been him
self invested, was set free from its connection with
the priesthood, and founded again upon a wider and
freer basis by Samuel. From this time forward
Jehovah was no more considted according to the
Mosaic enactments. His will could no longer be
ascertained whenever the chief ruler wished. Hence
forward the Urim probably answered no more. For
Jehovah had now His own special servants, who
declared His will not as and when men desired, but
as He commanded. And this usuaUy was as men
least desired. The prophets were unwelcome visitors.
Elijah meeting Ahab in Naboth's vineyard was a
most disagreeable intruder ; yet scarcely more so
than Nathan with his ' Thou art the man' to David,
or Gad with his three plagues, or Shemaiah bidding
L 2

148 THE PROPHETS [Lect.

Rehoboam dismiss his army. Seldom is God's mes
sage received by man with joy.
And next we must repeat that, unlike the priest
hood, the prophetic order was open to all, without
respect of birth or even of education. Samuel's
schook were as free to all of every tribe, as are our
own universities open to every one now. But we
must not connect prophecy too closely even with
them. Neither were all prophets trained in his
schools, nor were all trained in his schools prophets.
But just as now a higher education is the usual
preparation for the calling of a clergyman, so it was
then with the prophets. Samuel no doubt intended
his scholars to be prophets, and urged them to it.
But not only was the highest gift of aU absolutely
untrammeUed by any and every earthly ordinance,
but even the lower gift would depend upon the per
sonal fitness of the recipient. And these schools
caUed forth men who were fit. But as the usual
rule they were prophets by education only and call
ing. We find them in time graduaUy falling to a
very low spiritual level ; but this corruption was
long after Samuel's days. Even in their worst day
they were stUl caUed prophets. No practical incon
venience arises from the use of words in a higher
and a lower sense. Neither the Nabhis whom
Samuel set over his schools, nor the young Nabhis
trained by them, supposed themselves, or were sup
posed by others, to share the same gift as Samuel
and Ehjah possessed. It was only in bad and de
moralized times, like the reigns of Jehoiakim and

IV.] A NUMEROUS CLASS. 149

Zedekiah, that we find false prophets claiming direct
inspiration (Jer. xxix. 9) for their Hes, and denying
it to the true prophet (Ib. 27).
After Samuel's days these schools greatly multi
plied. His foundation had been at Ramah in Ben
jamin, but at the time when we read, most of them,
namely, under Elisha, we find prophetic colleges
existing at Bethel, at Jericho, and at Gilgal, places all
of them, except Jericho, connected with Samuel's his
tory0. But as they are mentioned only incidentally,
it is very probable that similar institutions existed
elsewhere. At all events prophets had become a
very numerous class. For when, seven years after
Elijah's great day of triumph at Carmel, Jehoshaphat
wished Ahab to enquire at the word of Jehovah
about the expedition to Bamoth-gilead, that king,
in spite of Jezebel's cruel persecutions, was able to
coUect in one town, Samaria, where, as far as we
know, there was no prophetic college, no fewer than
four hundred men. The whole narrative shows that
these men were by profession Jehovah-prophets, and
they all prophesied in Jehovah's name. But there
was something unsatisfactory about them ; perhaps
Jehoshaphat knew that God does not speak by people
in crowds, and so he asked if there was not some
one prophet of Jehovah besides, and the true prophet
came unwelcome as usual. Now though we cannot
0 This makes it highly probable that in the long period of thirty
years and more between the anointing of Saul and the death of
Samuel, the latter had established prophetic colleges in many other
places besides Ramah.

150 HIGHER EDUCATION [Lect.
but condemn the four hundred as flatterers, and that
of such a king as Ahab, stiU even they probably
were in advance of the mass of the people both in
religion and morals. It is at all events but fair to
remember, that but a few years before, when Jezebel
was persecuting the Jehovah-prophets, large numbers
of them wilhngly suffered death rather than abjure
God's true worship.
No class of men ordinarily is very far in advance
of the general state of feeling in the midst of which
it lives ; and thus until the days of Jeremiah we
never find the Jehovah-prophets in Judah sinking so
low as their brethren in Samaria. But however dis
creditable may be the behaviour of these men before
Ahab, yet there are many particulars in which plainly
there is a great advance made, which we cannot be
far wrong in attributing to the prosperity of the pro
phetic schools under the able management of Elisha.
Thus, after the palmy days of David and Solomon,
none apparently but the prophets were able to read and
write tiU about this time. But now we are told of a
writing addressed to Jehoram, king of Judah, in Eli
jah's name, which we must suppose that king could
read (2 Chron. xxi. 12). Jezebel sends letters to the
elders of Jezreel, and seals them with Ahab's seal, a
proof that such communications had now become
common (1 Kings xxi. 8). Jehu twice writes letters to
the same elders (2 Kings x. 1, 6) ; even the king of
Syria sends a letter with Naaman, and it is expressly
said that the king of Israel read it (2 Kings v. 5. 7),
though it is probable that it was written by some

IV.] THE WORK OF THE PROPHETS. 151
royal scribe. Henceforth letters and writing play
an important part in aU political matters. Now
when we bear in mind Jezebel's persecution of the
prophets, and then read how active and numerous
they were under Elisha, and further see so very
marked an advance in the Hberal arts, we may safely
draw the conclusion that the prophetic schools had
long before struck deep root in the northern king
dom, and established a firm hold over the affections
of the people. Plainly they were a great national
institution. The general government of the prophetic body, as
well as of their coUeges, would necessardy devolve
upon whatever prophet was then inspired. And
thus, as we have seen, no sooner did the sons of the
prophets at Jericho perceive that Elijah's spirit rested
upon Elisha, than by their deep obeisance they re
cognized him as their head. StiU he had also another
claim, namely, that of having been Elijah's chosen
personal attendant. So probably Gehazi would have
succeeded EHsha, had he not yielded, like Judas and
Demas, to the seductions of covetousnessP. As head
P It is important to remember that Gehazi's fall was the fall of
a man of high prophetic dignity. Just as being in the ark did not
save Ham, nor his apostleship Judas, so neither did the prophetic
office save the prophet. A gift so high as inspiration was probably
not attained till after many internal struggles, and long wrestlings
after grace. Yet Balaam fell, and Jeremiah has recorded his own
long-continued resistance against God, and finally his submission ;
but the struggle might have ended otherwise. The prophets had
their own probation quite as much as the apostles and all other
saints ; and when saved, they were not saved by the gifts they had
received, but by grace : by faith and the work of the Holy Ghost

152 ELISHA THE RECTOR [Lect.

of these colleges we find EHsha leading a Hfe of
incessant activity. We read of him at Dothan, at
Samaria, where he had a house, and usually dwelt
(2 Kings v. 3, vi. 32), on Mount Carmel, at Shunem,
and at Damascus ; but chiefly we find him with
the sons of the prophets. Thus he multiplies the
oil of the widow of one of them, to enable her to
pay her debts (Ib. iv. 1) ; at GUgal he renders the
poisoned pottage wholesome, and multiplies the first-
fruits offered by the farmer from Baal-shalisha (Ib.
iv. 38, 42) ; and here incidentally we learn that the
coUege at Gilgal numbered a hundred men. Else
where we read of his accompanying them to choose
timber for the enlargement of their dwelling (Ib. vi.
2), and restoring to one of them the axe-head lost
in the waters of the Jordan. Again, he uses one of
them as his messenger to Jehu (Ib. ix. 1), and every
where plainly stands in the closest relation to them.
And, next, we must notice that all the express
on their hearts, just like other men. And if so many fell whose
gifts were above nature, well may baptized Christians ' not be high-
minded, but fear.' Gehazi, however, had never received the actual
gift of inspiration, but probably hoped to attain to it upon Elisha's
removal. This, however, was no necessary result of his position.
Baruch, who held the same rank with regard to Jeremiah, never
became a prophet, though he was a good and holy man. Some
think that Jer. xiv. was written to comfort him under the dis
appointment. A common tradition in the East represents him as
so vexed by the withholding of the gift, that after Jeremiah's death
he apostatized, and under the name of Zerdusht, or Zoroaster,
became the founder of the rehgion of Persia. The tradition is only
so far interesting as illustrating the relation in which the great
prophets stood to their immediate attendant.

IV.] OF THE PROPHETIC COLLEGES. 153
references to the schools of the prophets connect
them with the northern kingdom. To the ten
tribes belong those great prophetic heroes Elijah and
Elisha ; and God, Who is merciful to all, seems to
have granted to those of the Israelites who loved
Him a compensation in prophecy for the loss of the
temple-service at Jerusalem, and for the withdrawal
of the priests and Levites. If the great means of
grace provided by the Mosaic ritual were no longer
theirs, at aU events they had the less regular institu
tions of Samuel to aid them in living unto God.
StiU it is hard to believe that no similar institutions
existed in Judsea. The notices respecting the
schools of the prophets in the northern kingdom
are so casual, so entirely connected with the per
sonal history of Elisha, that we can found no argu
ment upon the silence of Holy Scripture respecting
other places. And when we come to the books of
the prophets, we find every one possessed of so inti
mate an acquaintance with the writings of the rest,
that we feel sure they had some regular organization
to render this possible. Thus Isaiah quotes, verbaUy
and exactly, without even omitting the conjunction,
a passage from the writings of a prophet of his own
time, Micah. He could not have so quoted it but
from a written book. Obadiah quotes in the same
way from Jeremiah. Amos takes up the very words
of Joel as his beginning, and concludes with other
words from Joel which all but immediately follow <J.
a Compare Joel iii. 16 with Amos i. 2, and Joel iii. 18 with
Amos ix. 13.

154 EXISTENCE OF PROPHETIC COLLEGES [Lect.
Nor is this aU. The prophets use the same meta
phors, dwell in the same circle of thoughts, employ
the same phrases, have certain expressions always
occurring in the same meaning ; aU this shows that
they had some centre, some head-quarters, where
they met, and where the young were educated, and
the inspired writings of the great prophets made
available for general use and study. It is exceed
ingly probable that they had some such coUege in
Jerusalem, of which Isaiah in his days was head ;
and if so, the intimate knowledge which Jeremiah
possessed of the writings of his predecessors is no
longer so extraordinary. He was but a lad when
called to be a prophet (Jer. i. 6), and one so eminently
conscientious would doubtless prepare himself for his
office by deep study of the Scriptures. Even if he
did not enter the prophetic coUege, stiU, Hving at
Anathoth, so near Jerusalem, he would constantly go
thither to read the writings there laid up. At all
events he knew them almost by heart. Nor is Jere
miah the only instance of this. Short as is the pro
phecy of Obadiah, a large proportion of it is in the very
words of Jeremiah1* ; and though the rest write more
freely, yet all of them show a large and exact know
ledge ofthe works ofthe prophets who had gone before.
Now this was scarcely possible unless the prophets
had some head-quarters, where the inspired writings
of their great chiefs were preserved and read and
studied. Though, as I shall hereafter show, the
r Besides constant allusions, the first seven verses of Obadiah are
borrowed, with slight alterations, from various places in Jeremiah.

IV] IN JUDAEA. 155
exhortations of the prophets were far more widely
known, and attracted far more public attention than
the negative critics suppose, yet this verbal and
minute acquaintance, not with their general teach
ing, but with the very words of the written text
just as we read it at present, could have been ac
quired only by the eye, by the actual perusal, and
the committing to memory of their works. But we
have something Hke direct evidence upon this point.
In the days of king Uzziah, a hundred years after
Elisha's death, Amos, in answer to Amaziah the high
priest of Bethel, says, ' I was no prophet, neither
was I a prophet's son.' (Amos vii. 14.) Now the
words ' a prophet's son' mean one trained or edu
cated in the prophetic schools. But though Amos'
mission was to Israel, yet he belonged to Judah,
and his dweUing- place was Tekoah, twelve miles
south of Jerusalem, on the borders of the great
desert. We can scarcely doubt but that Amos in his
answer referred to the state of things existing at
that time in Judaea. If there were none trained to
be prophets in Judaea, as Amaziah very well knew
that Amos belonged to Judah, and in fact as all he
wanted was to induce him to leave Bethel, and go
home, it would have been very unnecessary for
Amos to tell him that he did not belong to an
order of men that did not exist. Thus his words
serve to show us how Httle really we know of the
social state and internal history of these kingdoms,
and warn us against the too hasty conclusions of
those commentators who have argued, that because

156 HIGH CULTURE [Lect.
the schools of the prophets are not mentioned after
the days of Elisha, that therefore they did not exist :
and that they never existed in Judsea, because we
have no express mention of them there.
It is, however, exceedingly probable that they
never were either so numerous or so important in
Judsea as in the sister kingdom ; for many of their
functions in this latter country were performed in
Judsea by the priests and Levites. But the large
number of prophets mentioned as writers of histo
ries, and whose works are referred to in the Books
of Chronicles, the high state of learning at Jeru
salem, especiaUy in Hezekiah's days, and still more
the unity of symbolism employed by the prophets,
forbid our imagining that they had no special train
ing. Those chroniclers and historians were probably
educated in the same way as Nathan and Gad had
been. In short, Samuel founded the schools of the
prophets to give men a better intellectual culture and
to fit them for God's ministry. The whole country
is soon raised by them to a high level in literary
matters, and though at first they flourished chiefly
in Samaria, yet finaUy it was Jerusalem that became
the centre of this learning, and of that class for
whom these schools were instituted. It is not there
fore very reasonable to suppose either that this
culture existed in Judsea without the educational
means which had caUed it into existence, or that
the prophets would stUl be so numerous unless
there was that special training which made men
prophets in the lower sense of the word.

IV] OF THE PROPHETS. 157
For mental culture is one thing, and the gift
of inspiration another. It was one thing to be
directly God's spokesman, and another to be a
prophet like those who existed in crowds at Jeru
salem, and who joined with the priests and people
in shouting for Jeremiah's death because he pro
phesied as miserable a fate for the temple as had
befallen ShUoh (Jer. xxvi. 8). Jeremiah, who more
than any one else has disclosed to us the internal
state of Jerusalem just before its fall, always speaks
of the prophets there as a large, powerful, and
organized class8: but he does not speak favourably*
of them. They were prophets as far as education
and class-feeHng could make them, somewhat better
possibly than the four hundred Jehovah-prophets
at Samaria, who had nothing but good words for
Ahab : certainly better than the mass of the people,
because they were as a rule opposed to idolatry,
with all its base accompaniments. They were moral,
to a certain extent even religious men, as far as
externals went, and joined, I have no doubt, eagerly

B See Jer. ii. 8, 26, iv. 9, v. 31, xiii. 13, xxvi. 7, xxxii. 32 ; they
formed even a powerful class among those carried captive with
Jeconiah to Babylon, Ib. xxix. 1, 2, but wrought more for evil than
for good, Ib. 8, 9, 21, 31, 32.
* The prophets in Jeremiah's days must have been fearfully cor
rupt, see vi. 13, viii. 10, xiv. 13-16, xxiii. 9, n, 14-32, xxvii. 9-18,
Lam. ii. 14, iv. 13. Occasionally, however, he uses words which show
that God had still His own servants among them, Jer. ii. 30, xxv. 4,
xxvi. 5, Lam. ii. 9, 20. The whole picture in Jeremiah shows how
hopeless is the state of that nation whose very clergy have become
demoralized, Matt. vi. 23.

158 THEIR DECLINE [Lect.
in Hezekiah's and Josiah's reforms11. Just the one
thing they wanted was the heart touched by
the Uve coal from the altar : the grace of God
was not in them, and therefore they feU each one
in his own way by his own besetting sin, and that
in most cases was the love of the world, the love
of power and praise and money.
And in them and with them the nation feU too.
It was the solemn duty, the weighty responsibility
of the priests and prophets to be, as the clergy
are now, the salt of the earth. Upon them, morally
speaking, depended the purity of the people's faith,
the depth of their religion, the sobriety of their
practice. Individuals could be saved without them,
but their influence told largely and directly upon
the mass. If they then, with the advantage of
special religious training, with higher associations,
and louder professions, and special call to Jehovah's

11 I have no doubt that the confidence expressed and felt by these
prophets that Jerusalem would never become subject to Nebuchad
nezzar (Jer. xxvii. 9), and that the captives would soon return (Ib.
16), was entirely founded upon the fact of Josiah's thorough reforms,
and of the continuance of the temple-service in all its magnificence
during his days and the days of his successors. It was, they
deemed, a detestable act in Jeremiah to threaten Jerusalem with
the fate of Shiloh so long as the sacrifice was daily offered, and the
Levitical priesthood active in its ministrations (Jer. xxvi. 8). But
this was always the way with the true prophets. They did not care
much for services (Is. i. 11-15, Jer. vii. 4), but set an enormous
value upon repentance (Is. i. 16-18, Jer. vii. 5-7, xxvi. 3). Far more
pleasant was the doctrine of the false prophets, that men can be
saved by what others do for them, and that services are acceptable
to God independently of the personal faith of the worshipper.

IV.] AND FALL. 159
service, faUed, what could you expect of the rest?
Jeremiah tells us what was the natural and in
evitable result : ' A wonderful and horrible thing
is committed in the land ; The prophets prophesy
falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means ;
and my people love to have it so : and what wiU
ye do in the end thereof?' (Jer. v. 30, 31.)
In Jeremiah's days, then, we see the prophets
fallen, but with true prophets still existing among
them, and the inspired word rising to as high an
elevation as in any previous agev. It was the
uninspired prophet that had fallen, and it is a
mark of their fall that they claimed to speak in
Jehovah's name (Jer. xxin. 21), and also that they
combined with the priests in seeking worldly ends.
But we must not therefore underrate either their
piety, or their services in earlier and purer ages,
any more than we must those of the clergy of the
Christian Church because of the low level to which
they have occasionally fallen. At first they were
men who had the inner call to the ministry : to
this was added a religious training, and a higher
culture than that ordinarily enjoyed by their coun
trymen. They could not therefore but be an influ
ential class. But however useful they might be,
and blessed to do much good, yet it was in the
v To this period belong Jeremiah, Obadiah, Zephaniah, Habak
kuk, and the writers of several psalms, besides the prophetess
Huldah. Josiah was also aided in his reforms by pious priests, like
the high-priest Hilkiah, and equally pious laymen, such as Geda-
liah, Maaseiah, Neriah, and others.

160 THE PROPHETS [Lect.
way of God's ordinary gifts of grace, and it does
not appear that the highest gift of direct inspira
tion was often bestowed upon them. Nor again
was it confined to them. If Gad and Nathan were
thus trained, and if the Psalms were mostly com
posed by men so trained, stdl Elisha was called
from the plough, and Amos from gardening. Yet
they too were both educated men. Elisha was
competent to take the supervision of the prophetic
schools, and in the appropriateness and terseness of
his metaphors, and in the judicious arrangement of
his subject, Amosw even excels the other prophets.
We must, however, still consider what was the
ordinary mode of life of the mass of the prophets
when their training was over. We find, then, first of
all that they were married. We gather this not
merely from the special prohibition given to Jeremiah
not to marry, for reasons peculiar to his days (Jer.
xvi. 2, 3), nor from Ezekiel's being married (Ezek.
xxiv. 18), but are taught it directly in Elisha's
miracle of multiplying the widow's oil (2 Kings iv.
w Though some words in Amos are spelt peculiarly, and though
his metaphors are taken from rural life, yet he was a well-taught
man, who wrote simply and easily, and with true artistic feeling.
How highly educated then must the Jews have been, when thus a
gardener, gaining but a scanty livelihood, and who had had no special
training, could think and write so correctly ! Reading was no easy
matter then, nor were the means for learning so simple and readily
attainable as with us since the invention of the art of printing.
And Amos is but one proof among many of the advanced state of
culture attained to in the southern kingdom before the Assyrians
and Chaldseans wasted the land, and which reached its highest ele
vation in Hezekiah's days.

IV] IN THEIR ORDINARY LIFE. 161
1-7). She is described there as ' a certain woman
of the wives of the sons of the prophets.' These
young men married therefore. And next, the hus
band had incurred debts : from this it follows that
their maintenance was not ensured them from any
common fund, but from their own personal labours.
At his death the creditor comes to take the two
sons as bondmen x to work out the debt. The
widow goes to Elisha, and he has no common fund
out of which to relieve her, but asks, ' What hast
thou in the house'?' She has nothing but one pot
of oil. They had separate houses therefore, and
their own furniture, though poverty had in this
case stripped the widow of everything. Was this
oil grown by themselves, the last of their produce 1
It would not, however, foUow from this that they
x The words may even mean to take them absolutely as slaves.
Either alternative was a violation of the Levitical law (Lev. xxv.
44-46), which however required that a debtor should himself be
liable to work out in person his debt (Ib. 39). Our law most
unfairly permits judges of county courts to send poor men to prison
for debt, while rich men are exempt from any such penal conse
quences. This iniquity arises from our regarding debt with the
eyes of traders. A moralist would punish those who give unrea
sonable credit, as men who tempt the poor and extravagant into
sin. A statesman would be content with giving no special facilities
for the recovery of goods sold on credit, in the sure confidence that
traders could and would protect themselves. When will the Uni
versity of Oxford arrive at such a degree of common sense as to
withdraw the special protection which it now gives to tradesmen 1
The long credit constantly offered to students would soon cease,
if the University would abandon its antiquated privileges in this
respect, and leave the tradesmen free to settle their matters with
undergraduates in the ordinary courts of the land.
M

162 THE PROPHETS HAD WIVES [Lect.
possessed or farmed land, as two or three olive trees
might in a good season produce a large quantity
of oU. EHsha finally bids her borrow vessels, and,
having closed the door, to fill them from her one
remaining jar, and then sell the od thus multiplied,
and pay her debts, and with her children Uve upon
the rest.
After this it is but natural to read of Samuel's
house at Ramah, of Nathan's in Jerusalem, of Ahijah's
at Shiloh, of Elisha's at Samaria, of Ezekiel's at Tel-
abib. As regards Elijah, it has been argued that his
ascetic character and wandering habits were incom
patible with a settled dwelhng and a wife. But this
is to confound modern with oriental manners. One
woidd have thought St. Peter's life incompatible with
marriage: not so our Lord. St. Paul even teUs us
that not only Peter but the rest of the apostles y and
our Lord's brethren were accompanied by their be
lieving wives on their circuits ; and so we find
St. Peter's wife with him at Babylon (i Pet. v. 13).
I do not know whether any one has ever supposed
y The phrase is so very strong as to imply that marriage
was the all but universal rule with the apostles, ol \omo\ dnwroXoc,
kq\ ol a8e\<po\ roC Kvpiov (i Cor. ix. 5). In the A. V. occurs one
of those mistranslations which occasionally mar our beautiful ver
sion, ' Have we not power to lead about a sister, a wife?' the Greek
means, a believing wife, a wife who is a sister, that is, a Christian.
The wives of the apostles, then, were all Christian women. The
rendering in the margin is a violation of one of the commonest
Greek idioms, but has some patristic authority, e.g. Clem. Alex.
Strom, iii. p. 210. If the time is not come for a new translation,
there is no reason why the marginal renderings might not be
improved. They are very often worse than the text.

IV.] AND SEPARATE DWELLINGS. 163
• that St. Peter's2 wife may have been in the number
of those Gahlsean women who ministered to our Lord,
but certainly we find several married women among
them, such as Joanna, and Mary the mother of James
.and Joses, and Zebedee's wife. If the mothers of
apostles followed our Lord, so also may their wives.
As regards Elijah and Elisha, the latter was more
perpetuaUy in motion than EHjah himself, yet he had
a settled dweUing. It was so imperative a duty
upon the Jew to marry, that it is a very hazardous
thing to conclude that either of these prophets had
departed from the ways and habits of their country
men. But though the sons of the prophets had thus
their own separate houses, yet we find something of
a collegiate life existing among them, probably during
their training. Thus we read of a great pot in which
they seethe pottage for the sons of the prophets
(2 Kings iv. 38). Into this pot a man shreds a
whole mantle a Ml of wild gourds. Evidently a
common meal was in preparation for a large number
of people. So when the farmer from Baal-shalisha
brings firstfruits, a common meal was being prepared
for a hundred men (Ib. 43). But the meal taken
* St. Peter certainly had the high privilege of doing more for
our Lord, in earthly matters, than any of the rest of the apostles.
His house was our Lord's dwelling at Capernaum, and his boat
that in which our Lord so often crossed the Sea of Galilee.
a The word in the original is not a ' lap full,' as in our version.
It is the 133, the loose upper garment, — the blanket, as Mr. Grove
calls it,— which was filled with these gourds ; and implies a load as
big as a man could cany. The Vulgate translates it very properly
pallium. M 2

164 COLLEGIATE BUILDINGS [Lect.
together is the great centre of a collegiate0 life.
Equally important is the common lodging. And of
this, too, we find something. On one of his numerous
circuits the sons of the prophets say to Elisha, ' the
place where we dwell vjith thee is too strait for us.'
(2 Kings vi. 1.) With Elisha at their head they go
to the Jordan, and there cut down every man his
beam, to construct therewith some addition to their
dwelling. But they had no community of goods ;
for we find them going, some with their own axes,
and some with borrowed tools. Now from their
going to Jordan, the place was probably Jericho.
Certainly it was not Samaria, where Elisha had his
own dweUing. To carry timber from Jordan to Sa
maria would have been beyond the power of so feeble
a community. We gather, therefore, that the buUdr
ing which was thus to be enlarged by their common
efforts was not Elisha's private property, but was
one used for educational c purposes. The manner in
which they describe it, as a place where they dwelt
with Elisha, shows that he did not content himself
with merely visiting these institutions, but took a
real share in their management.
The offering brought by the man from Baal-
b Hence, in Oxford, our usual term for the junior members of
the University is Commoners.
c The need of some such common lodging was early felt in our
own University. The three hundred and ten marks bequeathed by
William of Durham were expended on educational buildings ; and
John de Balliol's endowment was of a similar kind. From these
benefactions our two most ancient Colleges reckon the date of
their foundations.

IV.] AND MAINTENANCE. 165
shalisha was intended for ' the man of God ' himself :
but it is probable that the students were in part
maintained by private charity. Such, in later times,
was constantly the case in the East; and so in
Europe, during the middle ages, young men entirely
without means did not hesitate to go into distant
countries, wherever any University became famous
for its teaching, sure of finding a maintenance, though
often a very miserable one. And to give this help
was long recognized in our Church as part of the
ordinary duty of the beneficed clergy. They were
required by the Injunctions both of King Edward VI
and of Queen Elizabeth to maintain one student at
the Universities for every hundred pounds of annual
income. We have, however, no proof that the sons
of the prophets were thus supported by voluntary
offerings ; but, as such offerings were certainly made
to the prophets generaUy, some part of the revenues
of the colleges might possibly be derived from this
source. But when their education was complete, the pro
phets, as forming an educated and literary class
among those who could neither read nor write,
would be too useful and necessary for the general
good, not to be well paid. Many of course had
private property Hke Elisha, who was apparently
a rich man, with a good landed estate at Abel-
meholah ; but the narrative of the son of the pro
phet, who went out into the field to gather herbs,
and came back with his mantle full of wild gourds,
does not justify the conclusion which some have

166 FEES AND OFFERINGS [Lect.
drawn from it, that the schools of the prophets were
endowed with landed property. People do not grow
the cucumis colocynthis on cultivated ground ; and
the word field d in our version is used almost exclu
sively of the open country, the common land, where
aU might pasture their cattle, and which belonged
exclusively to no one. Wandering over this the
young man found a bed of wUd colocynth, a plant
which wiU grow in the driest weather, and gathering
his mantle full he brought home as a great prize what
had nearly proved fatal to the whole community.
While, then, there were probably offerings in aid of
the juniors, the seniors whose education was finished
would have to depend upon their own labour. Such
as were priests and Levites would have their share
of the revenues of their order. Amos had his fruit
d Thus the plants and herbs of the field (Gen. ii. 5) are wild
plants ; so in this very place the ' wild vine ' is in the Hebrew
'a vine of the field.' Even in Ex. xxii. 6, Gesenius explains 'the
field ' of wild herbs, olera agrestia, in opposition to those cultivated.
So ' the beasts of the field ' are the wild beasts ( 1 Sam. xvii. 44,
Cant. ii. 7). So Esau is a ' man of the field,' a man living by hunt
ing, and not by agriculture (Gen. xxv. 27). As for the wild gourd,
it is excellently explained by Tristram, Natural History of the
Bible, p. 452. He says that near Gilgal and all round the Dead
Sea the citrullus or cucumis colocynthis grows most abundantly on
the barren sands, covering much ground with its tendrils, which
reach a prodigious length, and bear great quantities of fruit.
Elisha had just arrived at Gilgal, and the son of the prophet who
gathered the fruit had probably come with him, and not being used
to the plants in the neighbourhood, on going out to search for food
had mistaken it for the wild melon, cucumis prophetarum, which it
very much resembles, and which is perfectly harmless. Some one
of the natives of Gilgal happily discovered the mistake, and Elisha
transformed 'the drastic medicine' into wholesome nourishment.

IV] GIVEN TO THE PROPHETS. 167
and cattle, and we find Jeremiah buying his uncle's
land at Anathoth. The generality — like St. Paul,
who supported himself hi his missionary travels by
his own hands — had doubtless some occupation or
trade by which they earned their living. But be
sides this they had the offerings of the people who
came to consult them. As men of greater literary
attainments they would be useful in many ways to
those among whom they dwelt. They would be the
physicians, the lawyers, the advisers, the letter-
writers of their neighbours, and their aid be in
voked not merely in difficulties like that which
brought Saul to Samuel, but in numerous legal
matters. Thus at the death of the head of a famUy
some sort of assistance would generally be necessary
for the arrangement of the property and its distribu
tion according to the terms of the Mosaic law (Deut.
xxi. 17). In the New Testament we find the scribes,
who had the management of all such legal matters,
a numerous and important class.
But besides law, medicine probably was an art
specially cultivated by the prophets, and one that
brought them no mean emolument. Thus we find
Jeroboam's wife disguising herself in order that
she may go to consult Ahijah at Shdoh about the
sickness of her son. Being thus in disguise she
would not wish to expose herself to detection by
taking much more than the usual offering, and this
in her case consisted of ten loaves, some delicate
confectionary caUed pricked cakes, and a jar of honey
(1 Kings xiv. 3). Jeroboam even offered a present

168 THE PROPHETS CORRUPTED [Lect.
to the man of God who came from Judah (i Kings
xiii. 7). We cannot doubt, then, that offerings e were
made to the ordinary uninspired prophets, and many
probably by their skill made large emoluments, and
earned them as fully as they are earned now by
those who study law and medicine. But it is equally
certain that these presents had a bad effect in the
end upon the characters of many of them. For two
things were mixed up which are really incompatible,
namely, the delivery of God's message, and the
practice of arts which however honourable are still
practised for the sake of gain. And thus men who
were prophets merely by education were led to claim
powers which they did not possess (1 Kings xxii. 11,
Jer. xiv. 14, xxiii. 21, xxviii. 15, xxix. 31, Ezek.
xiii. 2). Against these men the inspired prophets
utter the severest denunciations, because they made
Jehovah's people to err. Even as early as the days
of Micah this degradation of the prophetic office had
begun ; for he accuses the princes of judging for
bribes, the priests of teaching for hire, and the pro
phets of divining, — a thing strictly forbidden f, — and
e These offerings may however be looked upon in a different light.
In the East no one ever approaches a great man without a gift, and
this is looked upon not as payment for services but as an act of
homage. The quarter-shekel to be given to Samuel by Saul was,
no doubt, a mark of respect. And similarly the offerings made to
the prophets may be regarded not as fees, or payments for their
services, but as homage done them. If so they must have held
a very high place in the national estimation, and been looked upon
as raised above the ordinary level of the people, when thus they
could be approached only with gifts.
f Deut. xviii. 10, 1 Sam. xv. 23, 2 Kings xvii. 17. The Hebrew

IV.] BY THE OFFERINGS MADE THEM. 169
that for money (Mic. Hi, ii). Micah accuses them
also of using terrorism, and compelling people to fee
them by threats of false accusation ; ' he that putteth
not into their mouths, they even prepare war against
him.' (Ib. 5.) To one so intensely truthful and
just as Micah, such conduct must have seemed
most abominable. His contemporary Isaiah, however,
speaks of the prophets rather as fading in their duty
(Is. xxx. 10, Ivi. 10, 11), than as thus consciously
false. But the evil had begun, and it waxed in
intensity, till, as we have seen, in Jeremiah's days
the prophets were utterly corrupt, and Jerusalem
a foul den, whose king and princes and priests and
prophets were fit only to be ' removed into aU the
kingdoms of the earth, to be a reproach and a pro
verb, a taunt and a curse, in all places whither
Jehovah shall have driven them.' (Jer. xxiv. 9.)
Even these uninspired men, therefore, were powerful
alike for good and for evil ; but they were not the
men who wrote the Bible. The true prophets never
spake smooth things, but had ever a message of re
proof and warning. And to strengthen this message
it was ever brought by the holy, the self-denying,
the suffering ; by men to whom this high gift brought
only trouble, and wrong, and contumely. And the
in these passages, and many of similar import, is just the same as
in Mic. iii. 11, Ezek. xiii. 23, &c, and implies, without doubt,
a gross imposture. As I have before shown, the word for prophesy
in Ezek. xiii. 17, as applied to the women, means a sham, a false
pretence of prophecy ; but when used just afterwards of Ezekiel,
' prophesy thou against them,' the word means true prophecy. We
lose in our version the force of this opposition.

170 PROPHETS PERSECUTED.
world rejected both them and their message. Their
history is a history of good done by them, and wrong
done to them. The New Testament sums it up in
these words, ' They had trial of mockings and scourg-
ings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment :
they were stoned, were sawn asunder, were tempted,
were slain with the sword : they wandered about in
sheepskins and goatskins ; being destitute, afflicted,
tormented.' And who, brethren, can justly challenge
the Apostle's verdict, that ' they were men of whom
the world was not worthy' ? (Heb. xi. 36-38).

LECTURE IV.
PART II.
THE ORDINARY LIFE AND DUTIES OE THE
PROPHETS.
They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were
slain with the sword : they wandered about in sheepskins and
goatskins ; being destitute, afflicted, tormented. — Heb. xi. 37.
i. O those acquainted with the Septuagint these
words carry the mind at once back to the prophets
of the preparatory dispensation, wearing their dis
tinctive dress, ever actively in progress from one
place to another, bearing every kind of contumely
for Jehovah's sake, and often finally seahng with
their lives the truth of their message. And in the
main these words refer to the uninspired prophets —
the men who formed the mass of the order — as fully
as they do to those who had received the extraordi
nary gift of inspiration. Or rather they refer chiefly
to them : for the writer was speaking of faith, of
what everybody can attain to : and whUe we natu
rally perhaps think most of gifts of power, gifts such
as that of working miracles and foretelling things to
come, our Lord and St. Paula both expressly teach
us that God looks at these things very differently,
a Matt. vii. 22, 23, 1 Cor. xii. 31, xiii. 2.

172 LOW MORAL STATE [Lect.
and that in His eyes the gifts of grace are the more
precious. For the gifts of power save no man.
Men may have had the gift of prophecy and of
working miracles, who nevertheless at the last day
will be disowned by the Judge, ' I never knew you :
depart from Me, ye that work iniquity.' The gifts of
grace do save. The things that abide in life, and en
dure throughout eternity, are ' faith, hope, love ; and
the greatest of these — that which we are commanded
to foUow after — is love.' (i Cor. xin. 13, xiv. 1.)
Great and extraordinary powers were bestowed under
the Jewish dispensation for special purposes : but
they were given sparingly, and at distant intervals.
UsuaUy the men who attained to them were such
as had made extraordinary progress in the higher
gifts of faith, love, purity, holiness. But the Divine
purposes were sometimes even better accomplished
by the bestowal of gifts of power on men less
worthy. The glowing predictions of the man
brought from the mountains of the East to curse
God's people, but who was compeUed to bless, more
deeply impressed upon their hearts a firm faith
in Jehovah than any other words could have done.
But if Balaam fell, as Judas and Demas fell after
wards, it was because these gifts of power interfere
with no man's probation. A man is neither saved
nor lost by the number of talents which he possesses,
whether they be moral, intellectual, or supernatural.
They do but increase his powers of doing good or
harm, and thereby make his responsibUity heavier.
There is but one way of salvation, and that is by

IV.] OF THE PROPHETS IN EPHRAIM. 173
faith in Christ, sealed by tbe work of His Holy
Spirit on the heart. Prophecy and miracles do not
save (i Cor. xiii. 2), nor anything but the new and
spiritual birth (John iii. 5).
Now it is probable that a large proportion of the
ordinary prophets, at aU events at first and in Judah,
had God's better gift of grace, though, as we have
seen, they gradually declined in spirituality, tiU in
Jeremiah's days they were utterly fallen. Nor need
we doubt this because we do not always find them
very advanced in their views either in morals or
religion. No class of men is ever very far removed
from the level of its own age, and we must not
therefore indiscriminately condemn the prophets in
the northern kingdom, because many of them unques
tionably reached but a low standard. Nor, on the
other hand, can we form a high estimate of their
moral state. That old prophet at Bethel who caused
the ruin of the man of God from Judah was certainly
a Jehovah-prophet. He speaks in Jehovah's name
(1 Kings xni. 18) ; was probably greatly struck by
his fellow-prophet's doings, and thought possibly that
in bringing him back he was himself working for a
good end. ' But he lied unto him' (lb.), and, by his
false profession of a message from Jehovah, brought
upon him fearful punishment. But in persuading
the man of Judah to go back with him, he probably
intended not so much to gratify his curiosity, or
even to increase his own personal importance, as to
strengthen the right cause at Bethel. It was a
place where the king was doing his utmost to set

174 THE OLD PROPHET [Lect.
up a false worship. This worship he and the other
Jehovah-prophets were opposing as far as they
dared. If then this prophet from Judah, who had
wrought such miracles, could, after refusing the
king's present and hospitality, be prevaUed upon
to come to his house, and eat and drink with him,
what a triumph it would be ! What a proof that
he was Jehovah's chosen mouthpiece ! And how
he would talk all the rest of his life of his noble
brother from Judah, who had so helped him in his
great struggle against idolatry ! True, that such
an acknowledgment would bring him power, honour,
emolument. But this he would keep in the back
ground. The excuse he would put off upon himself
would be the great good he was doing for the right
cause so unrighteously oppressed at Bethel. He
was a man, then, who strained his conscience for the
sake of his cause. And this is a temptation which
assaUs many men in aU ages. They so think their
cause the one right cause, and so identify themselves
with it, that they lose all definite perceptions of
right and wrong. Like Uzzab, they think that
God's ark cannot stand unless they hold it up.
But God rejects them and their unhallowed aid.
This old prophet was compeUed himself to pass
sentence upon the man of God from Judah for
returning with him, and thereby to prove that God
had not accepted his own previous labours. And
most probably it was this condemnation of Jero
boam's calves, followed by the rejection of the
Jehovah-prophets at Bethel, and the severe punish-

IV.] OF BETHEL. 175
ment of the true prophet for even eating with
them, that made aU the true worshippers of Jehovah
quit the northern kingdom. The priests and Levites
we know all left the ten tribes0, and so probably
did many good men, from the conviction that Jero
boam's worship was one utterly rejected by the true
God. The old prophet did not quit Bethel : but
he showed his behef in the prophet's message by
ordering his sons at his death to bury him in the
prophet's grave.
Yet this old prophet had been brought up under
the better influences of Solomon's reign, and within
hearing of the teaching of true prophets Hke Ahijah.
What wonder, then, if at Samaria seventy years
afterwards they were ready to flatter a powerful
king Hke Ahab ! Yet even here we miss not the
one true prophet. It is the glory of Jewish history
that it always has the one true man. Even if its
great hero David falls into sin, there is the man
found ready to go with his Hfe in his hand and
carry to him God's reproof. Nathan reproving David
is something infinitely nobler than Clitus rebuking
Alexander : as much nobler as is the repentant David
than Alexander murdering his reprover, and dying of
surfeit and intemperance.
But it is not the greatness or nobleness of the few
that is the true proof of the acceptance with God of
any order of men. God gives His people, from time
to time, men of extraordinary powers, in order to
rouse up the great mass of the community to a
b 2 Chron. xi. 13, 14, 16 : and cf. xv. 9.

176 THE CLERGY STRONGLY INFLUENCED [Lect.
higher life and truer faith in Him. And thus He
gave the northern kingdom those two great heroes
of prophecy, Elijah and Elisha. Priests and Levites
had abandoned Israel (2 Chron. xi. 13, 14) : the mass
of the prophets had faUen to a very low ebb. But
Israel is not yet rejected. It may yet repent and
take its share in God's great work of saving man
kind. Its sons may yet be the heralds of salvation
to the heathen, and the word of Jehovah go forth,
not from Jerusalem only, but from Samaria also.
There rises then, first of aU, that great prophet
Elijah ; and he summons, by God's especial direc
tions, Elisha to carry on his work. Their individual
greatness proves nothing in favour of the northern
kingdom, nor of the prophets there. Bather the
contrary. Israel was sinking so fast that no ordinary
help could save it. Nor did these two men save it.
They gave Israel its last call to repentance, and that
a mighty caU, but it avaUed not.
Naturally they first addressed themselves to the
prophets, and for a time had great influence over
them for good. For, as I have said, they formed a
sort of irregular clergy, and though such a body
always holds a close relation to the state of morality
and religion and thought prevalent in its day, yet its
members are always among the first to be influenced
by, or even to originate, religious movements. If
they are cold when others are cold, lax in morals in
a careless age, negligent at a time of indifference,
they are also the most earnest when men's minds are
aroused and quickened with energy. It is very

IV] BY EVERY INTELLECTUAL MOVEMENT. 177
seldom that religious movements have begun with
the laity. The priest Wyclif, the monk Luther, the
pastor Calvin, the Anglican, clergyman Wesley, may
stand as examples of a general rule. Even unbe
lieving and neologian movements often find some of
their promoters among the clergy : for where religion
is the one subject of thought, there must ever be those
who range themselves in opposition to the dearest
convictions of the rest. So was it of old. The intel
lectual Hfe of the Jewish nation centred in its priests
and prophets. And not only were many of the greatest
prophets themselves priests or Levites, but even men
like Elijah and Elisha would look to the great mass
of the prophets as the only men who could give final
success and permanence to their labours.
I have already shown that the order was numerous
and powerful ; that there were special schools for
their training, certainly in Israel, and most probably
in Judah. I have shown that in these institutions
there was something of a collegiate life, but no traces
of any common fund or endowment, except in their
buUdings. How long time men spent in these schools
does not appear, nor whether many were educated in
them besides those intended for the prophetic calhng.
In Judsea it is probable that a large number of the
Levites were thus trained. For the temple-service
was a direct result of the music and singing taught
in the prophetic schools, and some such service was
probably even offered to Jehovah in Israel, perhaps
on the high places0. But however this may be,
c Hezekiah was the first to remove the high places even in
N

178 MEDICAL SKILL [Lect.
doubtless a large proportion of the ' sons of the pro
phets ' devoted themselves to the more distinctly
religious life. And of these many probably made
no gain of their profession, but gave themselves up
entirely and unreservedly to preaching and teaching.
But evidently other arts were also taught in the
prophetic schools, such as medicine d. Not only do
we find Ahijah consulted by Jeroboam's wife about
her son Abijah, but we read also of Benhadad
sending Hazael to Elisha, and saying, 'Take a
present in thine hand, and go, meet the man of God,
and enquire of Jehovah by him, saying, Shall I re
cover of this disease V (2 Kings viii. 8 .) In the history
of the cleansing of Naaman, every one, from the little
Jewish maid to the king of Syria, regards it as per
fectly natural that recourse should be had in sickness
¦ to a prophet ; and the rich presents which Naaman
brought would have sufficed to have raised Elisha
to the height of affluence had he deigned to accept
them. It is exceedingly probable that considerable
medical knowledge was accumulated in the prophetic
colleges ; and Isaiah, who was probably their Bector
in Judsea, displayed no mean skiU as a physician
in his treatment of Hezekiah's disease. Many com
mentators suppose that Hezekiah's malady was the
same as that which so suddenly smote down the
Judah (2 Kings xviii. 4, cf. xv. 4), and probably they were the sole
resource of the true worshippers in Israel.
<! Originally medicine must have been also studied by the priests.
Witness the considerable knowledge they were expected to have of
leprosy.

IV.] OF THE PROPHETS. 179

army of Sennacherib. In a country wasted by war
pestdence is sufe to appear, and the plague6 which
broke forth so violently in the camp of the Assyrians
probably remained for some time in the country,
though in a milder form. Ulcers have been a
symptom of the plague in aU ages, from the plague
of Athens down to the plague of London. But be
this as it may, Hezekiah's recovery from a malady,
which would otherwise have been fatal, is expressly
attributed to the medical skill of Isaiah. No doubt
there was God's especial blessing, but it was a bless
ing resting, as is usual with God's operations, upon
the right use of means. Naturally we have in the
Bible but a very brief summary of Hezekiah's sick
ness, and of the means used by Isaiah for its cure.
e The pestilence is called the angel, that is, the messenger of
Jehovah, just as that sent to punish David's sin is so called in
2 Sam. xxiv. 16, 17. Both visitations were more than providential.
They had been foretold, and were both the direct interference of
God with the laws of nature, yet acting in and by the laws of
nature for moral purposes. Just, then, as it was God's messenger
who smote David's realm with pestilence, so most probably pesti
lence was the natural means used by the angel in smiting the camp
of Sennacherib. A remarkable illustration of this method of God's
dealings may be found in the plagues of Egypt. With the excep
tion of the smiting of the firstborn, they are all natural occurrences ,
though many of them heightened to a supernatural degree. Hail
and lightning, though very rare, do occur in Egypt. The rest are
all based on phenomena by no means unusual there. I may add
that Ewald, Hist. Is. i. 218, enumerates the natural calamities to
which Palestine is subject. Only one of these, locusts, occurs
among the ten plagues of Egypt. This is very remarkable, and
a "proof that the Book of Exodus is a narrative of real facts. Had
it been written in Palestine in Samuel's days, as Colenso supposes,
the plagues would have been such as were known in Palestine.
N 2

180 HEALING AND TEACHING [Lect.

The Bible is not a medical work, and occupies itself
with the moral and religious significance of the event.
StiU it does tell us an important symptom of the
malady, and suggests to us that Isaiah wrought a
cure by his method of treating it.
I wUl add upon this point but two remarks ; the
first that the healing art has always been regarded
as something sacred. It was so in Greece and in
Egypt; throughout the East the Hakem, the wise
man or sage, is usually too the physician of the com
munity. So among us it is a calhng which not a few
in holy orders follow professionally, and many more
unprofessionally. A man is scarcely fit to be a mis
sionary who is not weU versed in it. The second and
far more important remark is, that when in the mani
festation of our Lord prophecy reached its highest ele
vation, so also did the power of healing. The twofold
occupation of the Saviour, as He wandered from place
to place perpetuaUy throughout the land, was heah
ing and teaching. And when He sent out the seventy
disciples two and two, His command was, ' Heal the
sick.' (Matt. x. 8.) Even the false gods claimed
a knowledge of the symptoms of disease : and thus
the messengers of Ahaziah were on their way to
enquire of Baal-zebub, god of Ekron, whether the
king would recover from his accident, when Ehjah
met them, reproached them for not making their
enquiry of the prophets of the true God, and fore
told Ahaziah's speedy death.
But, as the one educated class, there would be
numerous occasions on which their aid would be in-

IV] THE OCCUPATIONS OF CHRIST. 181

dispensable to the people. And though here and
there cases might occur of poverty, yet no one can
read the prophetic books without being convinced
that the prophets formed a very powerful order,
great in influence, large in numbers, with ample
sources of revenue, working generaUy for good, but
sharing in Judah's decay, and by the time of Jere
miah hopelessly corrupt, time-serving, covetous, and
false. Not perhaps so much in doctrine. Profes
sionally they were opposed to idol-worship : and yet
Jeremiah charges them with it. Adultery, spiritual
adultery was, as everybody knows, the phrase ap
plied by the prophets to idolatry ; and of this
Jeremiah accuses them : ' I have seen in the pro
phets of Jerusalem a horrible thing : they commit
adultery (i.e. idolatry), and walk in lies: they
strengthen also the hands of evUdoers, that none
doth return from his wickedness.' (Jer. xxin. 14.)
Only a few perhaps feU thus utterly ; yet of the
mass he says, 'Mine heart within me is broken
because of the prophets.' ' Both prophet and priest
are profane.' ' I have not sent these prophets, yet
they ran : I have not spoken to them, yet they
prophesied.' (Ib. 9, 11, 21.) No wonder that Jeru
salem was as Sodom, and the inhabitants thereof as
Gomorrah (Ib. 14), when that order of men, who
as God's clergy were especially bound to preach holi
ness, and whose privilege it was to be reqvured to
enforce the spiritual part of the law, and not its mere
ritual, were themselves hopelessly corrupt. A believ
ing clergy cannot by itself save a nation. That wiU

182 DISTINCTIVE DRESS [Lect.
depend upon whether the nation accepts their teaching
or rejects it. But an unbelieving clergy is simply ruin.
It is morally impossible for religion to survive the
apostasy of that order of men who are especiaUy
devoted to its maintenance. Things must already
be far gone when the very salt has lost its savour.
Yet even then God sent a Jeremiah. His justice
waited till the last caU had been made and rejected.
So is it ever. No nation utterly falls till it has
again and again refused to hearken to God's voice.
But the prophets had thus formed a separate and
numerous order long before the power and wealth
which prophetic gifts brought with them had led
to its corruption. And as its duties were different
from those of ordinary life, so probably it would be
distinguished by a peculiar dress. Such we find to
have been actuaUy the case. When Ahaziah's mes
sengers return to the king with so stern a rebuke,
they describe the person who had stopped them on
their way to Ekron thus ; ' He was a hairy man, and
girt with a leathern girdle about his loins.' (2 Kings
i. 8.) Such are the words of our version ; but
plainly it is absurd to describe a man by his long
hair or beard, and girdle. The words really mean
that he wore a garment' made of hair, long and
loose fitting, and to this is fitly added the description
f The Hebrew is literally ' a man master of hair.' This may no
doubt mean that he wore his own hair long, but it may equally
well mean that he was clad in a mantle of hair-cloth. Just as in
Latin dominus abollae means a philosopher, and in the middle a"-es
dominus cucullae a monk, so the Hebrew phrase means dominus
vestis pilosae, in other words a prophet.

IV] OF THE PROPHETS. 183
of the belt with which it was girt about his waist.
Now this garment, generaUy made of camel's hair, and
the leathern girdle formed the distinctive dress of the
prophet. When then his messengers told him that the
man who had so sternly rebuked them was thus clad,
Ahaziah knew that it was some prophet, and rightly
guessed that it was no other than Elijah the Tishbite.
The marginal references make this plain. The
first is to Zech. xiii. 4 : ' In that day the prophets
shall be ashamed every one of his vision ; neither
shall they wear a rough garment to deceive.' Now
if you turn to the Hebrew, you will find that the
passage is very loosely translated. Zechariah does
not say a rough garment, but uses the proper word
for that garment of hair which was tbe prophet's
peculiar dress. The word is Adder eth, a term four
times applied to Elijah's garment in the Book of
Kings, and there translated mantle. That mantle
plays, as you know, a very important part in Elijah's
history. It is to him what his rod was to Moses.
It was the possession of this garment which assured
EHsha that his prayer for a double? portion of his
s Many persons misunderstand this passage, and imagine that
Elisha asked for twice as large a gift of God's Spirit as had
rested on Elijah. Beally, he asks for the portion of the first
born son. Among the Jews, when the father died, his property
was divided into a number of shares exceeding by one the number
of the children. If he had two sons, it was divided into three
shares, if three sons, into four shares, and so on. The first-born
then took two shares, the rest one apiece. Thus he had always
twice as much as any one of the rest (Deut. xxi. 17). Elisha,
then, prayed that he might — not excel his master, but — be in
the position of the eldest and favoured son.

184 THIS DRESS CALLED [Lect.
master's spirit had been accepted (2 Kings n. 9, 14) ;
and with it he smote the waters of Jordan, and they
parted hither and thither. By wearing it he claimed
to be a prophet, and the sons of the prophets acknow
ledged him as such — as Elijah's successor, and their
own head and chief. And then, next, we can see
the meaning of the second reference to Matt. in. 4.
John the Baptist's dress is there described to us as
consisting of a cloak or robe of camel's hair, and a
leathern girdle about his loins. This dress was not
of his own choosing, stUl less was it the dress of
a self-inflicted asceticism. It was the regular pro
phetic costume, and was a claim on John's part to the
prophetic rank and dignity. St. Matthew's words
are, in short, the right translation of the description
of Elijah's dress as reported to Ahaziah.
Now, instead of this hair robe, the Septuagint uses
the term sheepskin, mXwt^. They describe Elijah's
mantle in this way. In the cave at Horeb they say
that he wrapped his face in his sheepskin, ev Trj fitj-
Xwtj? avrov. So thrice they use the term in the
account of his translation, and in other places. It
does not of course foUow from this that the prophet's
robe was reaUy made of sheepskins, but only that the
Seventy identified the Addereth, the hair mantle h, of
h Strictly speaking the word means a robe, a loose upper
garment enveloping the whole body. Made of rough materials,
and black in colour, it marked the prophet ; but it was often
made of the most costly materials, and thus what Achan stole is
described as Addereth-Shin'ar, a Shinar or Babylonian robe (Josh.
vii. 21) ; and so tlie king of Nineveh wears an Addereth (Jonah iii.

IV] A 'SHEEPSKIN' IN THE SEPTUAGINT. 185
the Hebrew, with the melote, the sheepskin of their
own days, a rough cloak worn probably by some
class of men in Egypt. In the passage, therefore,
chosen for our text, instead of that vague general
notion which too often passes current for a knowledge
of Holy Scripture, we find an exact description of
the prophets on their frequent journeys clad in their
distinctive dress. The person stoned was not Naboth,
as the paraUel reference might lead you to infer, but
Zechariah, the son of Jehoiada, stoned in the very
court of the Lord's house (2 Chron. xxiv. 21), and
possibly Jeremiah stoned at Tahpenes. The prophet
sawn asunder has been generally supposed to be
Isaiah. To be tempted or tried was the common lot
of all; of Ehjah when he fled from Jezebel's threats
to seek new strength at the mount of God ; of Micaiah
when cast into prison by Ahab ; of EHsha when the
king threatened him with death because of the famine
at Samaria ; of Jeremiah obliged to flee for his Hfe
from Jehoiakim, and reduced to sdence during the
last seven years of that despot's life, and again cast
into the pit by Zedekiah. It was Urijah, the son of
Shemaiah, who was slain by the sword (Jer. xxvi.
23), though this was the common fate of prophets.
Jeremiah compares Jerusalem to a murderess, whose
very garments were dabbled in their blood : ' Also
in thy skirts is found the blood of the souls of the
poor innocents ;' (ii. 34 ;) for during the whole
6). Even the prophet's Addereth was not necessarily of camel's
hair ; it might be made of sheepskins.

186 CEASELESS JOURNEYINGS [Lect.
reign of Manasseh the prophetic voice was silent,
owing to the violence of that unhappy monarch, who
slew them ' till he had filled Jerusalem with innocent
blood from one end to another.' (2 Kings xxi. 16.)
Soo, too, of their wanderings, when the apostle speaks
in the next verse of ' deserts and mountains, and dens
and caves of the earth,' EHjah in the cave at Horeb
in the desert of Sinai, and Elisha dwelling on Mount
Carmel (Ib. ii. 25, iv. 25) are the two most not
able examples. But in the text, ' they wandered
about' is a wrong translation. The word irepirjXOov
refers to no purposeless wandering, no restless men
dicancy, but sets before us the picture of a calm and
regular but never-ceasing activity. So Samuel, irept-
rj\6e, went about on circuit to judge the people. Like
the apostles afterwards, the prophets were ever on
foot, going from place to place, bearing with them
words from God. We find this especially the case
with that prophet whose history is given us at greater
length — Elisha. While Samaria and Mount Carmel
seem to have been his chief abodes, we read of the
rich woman at Shunem proposing to her husband to
make for him a Httle chamber that he might lodge
there whenever he chose ; for, said she, ' I perceive
that this is a holy man of God, which passeth by
us continually.' (Ib. iv. 9.) In these circuits we
find him visiting the schools of the prophets at
GUgal (iv. 38), at Jericho (vi. 2), at Bethel (ii. 23) ;
again, we find him at Dothan (vi. 13), not far off
when Jehoshaphat and Jehoram, in their march against
Edom, were in danger of perishing for want of water

IV.] OF THE PROPHETS. 187
(Hi. ii), going even as far as Damascus (vin. 7), but
always with a purpose. Such, too, was the journey
which Amos took throughout the ten tribes, though
limited to a set time, and for the one object of giving
Israel a final call to repentance whUe, during the
victorious reign of Jeroboam II, she stiU enjoyed
internal prosperity. The prophetic life was no life
of self-wiUed asceticism : it was the far higher and
worthier life of practical usefulness.
In these circuits the prophets ever wore their dis
tinctive dress. By it the Shunammite knew that
Elisha was a man of God. Amos would wear it
when on his mission, but would probably lay it
aside at Tekoah when his mission was over. From
the words of Zechariah, quoted before, we learn that
aU those who were prophets by profession regularly
wore it, as certainly would Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel,
called by express vision to the office for their whole
Hves. So also did John the Baptist. Of Isaiah we
have an express prophecy relating to his dress. For
three years he is to loose the sackcloth from off his
loins, and walk naked and barefoot (Is. xx. 2). The
word naked, both here and in several other passages
of Scripture, means clad only in the close-fitting
under-garment, or rather it means simply that the
loose upper robe had been thrown off (1 Sam. xix.
24), or parted with through poverty (Job xxii. 6,
xxiv. 7, 10). And this loose robe is here called Sak,
translated sackcloth, but the word does not neces
sarily refer to the material. UsuaUy it was made of
hair, and, thus clad, the two witnesses are represented

188 THE PROPHETIC LIFE [Lect.
in the Revelation of St. John as prophesying for the
thousand two hundred and threescore days (xi. 3).
Plainly it was a coarse rough garment, which in
times of sorrow and self-abasement was worn by
any one, and often without the tunic underneath.
Thus Job says, 'I have sewed sackcloth upon my
skin;' (xvi. 15.) And at the famine of Samaria
we read that when the king, passing by upon the
wall, heard of the women eating their own children,
'he rent his clothes, and the people looked, and,
behold, he had sackcloth within upon his flesh.'
(2 Kings vi. 30.) In these two places the sense
requires us to understand that the under-garment
was made of that coarse material usually employed
only for the outer robe. But when Ahab was reproved
by Elijah for the murder and robbery of Naboth, 'he
put sackcloth upon his flesh, and lay in sackcloth ;'
(1 Kings xxi. 27 ;) and when Joel proclaims a general
fast, he bids the people 'lie in sackcloth,' (i. 13,)
in both which cases we may best understand it of
their wrapping themselves in this mantle of hair.
Thus, then, we find that the prophet's ordinary dress
was that worn by the people as a mark of sorrow.
The sheepskin, mXcotv, was, on the contrary, the
dress of the poorer people. Now as the prophet's
message was ever a warning of woe impending be
cause of sins unrepented of, their proper dress would
be the garb of mourning. Still very fittingly might
they also wear the dress of poverty ; for doubtless
those who had the real inward call to the prophetic
office would give up aU worldly interests in order to

IV.] ASCETIC AND SELF-DENYING. 189
do God's work. It is very probable that the more
intensely ascetic life adopted by Jeremiah was in
tended as a protest against the worldly spirit of the
prophets in his days.
But great as was the necessity of a more than
ordinarily rigid life on his part (Jer. xv. 17, xvi.
2, 5, 8), yet were the prophets generally ascetic and
self-denying men. Even Isaiah, high in authority
and influence at the court of Hezekiah, walks naked
and barefoot for three years (Is. xx. 3) ; so Ezekiel
weeps in bitterness, and sits among his people
astonished for seven days (Ezek. iii. 14, 15). The
Baptist in the wUderness, poorly clad and fed, but
whose summons to repentance reached even the city
and the soldiery, is their type ; and yet there is such
freedom about them, that no prophet is bound by the
practices of another. They were earnest men, whose
care and thought was of duty and hoHness ; yet,
under different circumstances, and with different parts
of God's message to deliver, they were limited to no
one type. Our Lord is the very highest type not
merely of the prophetical but also of the spiritual
life, and He had nothing distinctive in dress or manner
or habit. He came eating and drinking, and was
as thoroughly occupied in doing the duties of a pro
phet when feasting in the house of Matthew the
publican, or with the rich Pharisee, or at the mar
riage in Cana of Galdee, as John gathering his soli
tary meal of locusts and wUd honey in the wilderness.
It is the prerogative of the Gospel to sanctify to
God the ordinary duties and relations of human hfe.

190 THE PROPHETS [Lect.
To abandon these duties arid relations is to fall below
the level of Christianity. The Christian is not to
abandon the world, but to win it for God, and in its
ordinary routine to lead the life of prayer, of self-
denial, of devotion to God, and active work for man.
EspeciaUy is this the duty of the clergy, who in so
many respects hold a position analogous to that of
the prophets under the preparatory dispensation.
To leave the world would be to abandon their pro
fession ; to lead a worldly Hfe is to be false to their
profession, to be a stumbling-block in the way of
others, and bring ruin on their own souls. Yet both
their outward life and the manner in which they seek
to maintain the spiritual life within them, will de
pend very much upon external circumstances. Scat
tered throughout the land there will be places where
a more rigid life may be necessary, and much have
to be foregone in itself right, because a more forcible
example is necessary to raise men sunk in foul and
degraded habits. Yet naturally Christ is the highest
pattern of our life, and our desire should be, under
every outward diversity, to aim at that thorough
holiness of which our Lord was alike the teacher
and the example".
1 What are often called counsels of perfection, and which in the
main are counsels to imitate not our Lord, but John the Baptist,
are usually proved by the fact to degrade and not to ennoble man.
Thus a celibate clergy and monkery are two infallible receipts for
depressing the moral tone both of the men themselves and of the
whole nation wliich has the misfortune to possess them. The case
is far different with voluntary poverty, and those counsels wliich
have been given us as individuals by Christ Himself. No one can

IV.] TOOK PART IN POLITICS. 191
And this brings me to the prophet's work. Now
this was wider than the work of the clergy in
the present day ; for we find them not confining
themselves to religion and morality, but also taking
part in politics. I suppose that it would be the duty
of the clergy now to take part in politics, if the
government attacked either religion or morahty k.
Whenever current pohtical ideas are based upon im
moral or irreligious principles, it is the duty of the
clergy, as teachers, to enforce Christian principles
in opposition to them : but this is more frequently
and better done by means of the press than in our
ordinary parochial ministrations. But religion was

point to any evil effect that has ever followed from them. Celibacy,
for those ' who can receive it,' our Lord by no means condemns
(Matt. xix. 12), but He made a married man the chief of the
apostles. k Thus the government attacks morality indirectly by its method
of licensing beershops. Not merely is every village crowded by
them, but wherever there is a lone outlying cottage, it is almost
sure to be licensed for the sale of beer. It is very doubtful whether
this is not a losing policy. It brings in a large revenue by means
of the malt-tax, but it increases the number of criminals, who are a
very expensive class to the community. It also encourages the
poor in spending all their extra earnings in beer. A common
practice with not disreputable labourers is to give the wife a
weekly allowance, and spend the rest at the beershop. Thus all
habits of thrift and self-reliance are utterly destroyed. If a man be
out of work for a week he comes at once upon the poor-rates. The
true policy is to raise as far as possible the moral habits of the
whole community. Vices seem to, but do not really, promote the
public good. A large revenue may be raised from the nation's
drunkards : the nation would be infinitely richer if those drunkards
were changed into sober men.

192 ORATORY THEIR CHIEF MEANS [Lect.
the basis of the Jewish commonwealth. It existed
for a rehgious purpose, and even after the appoint
ment of kings, Jehovah was stiU the supreme ruler,
and the prophets His representatives. Certain poli
tical maxims, therefore, formed part of that cycle of
truth, which every religious man was bound to
maintain, as far as in him lay, in its integrity.
That cycle of truth consisted of ideas relating partly
to the Divine nature, partly to human Hfe and
duty, partly to the right theory of government.
Now it was especiaUy the duty of the prophets
to maintain those ideas, and their chief means for
so doing was oratory. They were the great public
speakers, I may even say the great public men
of ancient time, who, when they saw king or people
violating any truth, or entering upon any course
of action opposed to those fundamental ideas upon
which the Jewish theocracy was based, stood forth
manfuUy, and resisted this wrong pohcy with power
ful and spirited appeals to the national conscience.
Sin and impiety they boldly rebuked even in
princes : warned aU men of the inevitable conse
quences of violating the law of God, whether natural
or revealed : and often gave new energy to their
addresses, or stimulated the curiosity of the people,
and woke up new attention to their words, by
symbolical actions. Sometimes, as when Jeremiah
took his stand in the temple on some solemn day of
gathering there, it was the national conscience that
was addressed (Jer. vii. 2, xxvi. 2) : sometimes, as
in the roll of that same prophet which Baruch

IV.] OF INFLUENCING THE PEOPLE. 193
copied at his mouth, it was the conscience of the
ruler, or of some powerful individual or class. The
grandest day of Jewish prophecy was doubtless
that on Mount Carmel, when Ehjah stood forth
alone, braved singly the anger of the king, and
the more determined and fanatical malice of the
queen, confronted the serried ranks of the priests
and prophets of Baal and Astarte, and forced the
hesitating and reluctant nation to give in its adher
ence to the truth, and cry, ' Jehovah, He is the God,
Jehovah, He is the God.' (i Kings xvin. 39.) Such
crises are rare : but upon all the great occasions
in the nation's history, the prophets ever stood forth
as the boldest, the most disinterested, and the most
powerful actors. Through them Israel attained to
the greatest of all blessings, rehgious truth. If
there be such a thing on earth — and what would
earth be without it % — they won it for their nation.
And then One came of Whom the prophets had
ever spoken : and He gave truth, religious truth,
to the whole world.
Necessarily, then, under the theocracy the pro
phets, as the representatives of Jehovah, took great
part in aU political matters, and we find them even
bestowing the crown. It was Samuel who chose
Saul, and when he faUed in his probation it was
Samuel again who, anointed David in his room.
At his death it was Nathan who was foremost in
advising that not Adonijah, the first-born, but
Solomon should be placed upon the throne (1 Kings
i. 11, 1 Chron. xxii. 8, 9). In the history of the
o

194 INTERFERENCE OF THE PROPHETS [Lect.

subsequent kings the narrative is too brief to enable
us to judge how far the influence of the prophets
may have been exerted in selecting one son before
another for the succession : but in the reign of
Asa we find Oded the son of Azariah the prime
mover in the extirpation of idolatry in Judah, and
able even to prevaU upon the king to depose Maachah
the queen-mother from her office, which was one
next in rank to that of the king himself. In Israel
it was Ahijah the Shilonite who chose Jeroboam
to be king : and though henceforward the annals
of that kingdom scarcely present us with more than
a succession of murders and military usurpations, yet
the one dynasty which did retain the crown for
four generations, and which under Jeroboam II
gave Israel its last epoch of success and glory, was
caUed to the throne by Elijah and Elisha. The
whole narrative shows that the command of these
two men was looked upon as conferring a valid
title to the crown, as well as ensuring the success
of Jehu's enterprise. Humanly speaking, the long
continuance of the dynasty, and the ready obedience
of the people, were the result of the general con
viction that Jehu was the duly appointed king.
Even in the mihtary affairs of the nation the
prophets exercised not merely a great, but often
a preponderating influence. It was the continuation
of that appeal to Jehovah, as the king of the nation,
by the Urim and Thummim, which we find in
general use from the death of Joshua (Judges i. i)
to the early years of David (2 Sam. v. 23). In

IV] IN POLITICS AND WAR. 195
David's wars of conquest the prophetic voice was
silent ; but when a foreign enemy attacked Israel,
or the two kingdoms warred with one another, the
prophets constantly interfered in a very peremptory
way. Thus when Behoboam had coUected 180,000
warriors to compel the ten tribes to return to their
aUegiance, at the command of Shemaiah (1 Kings
xii. 21-24) the attempt was given up, sorely, no
doubt, to the discontent of Behoboam, a violent and
godless man, with an Ammonitish mother : but he
had no choice. To persevere was useless ; for the
people recognized in the prophet's voice the deci
sive command of Jehovah. The same Shemaiah
subsequently averted from Behoboam the worst con
sequences of the Egyptian invasion (2 Chron. xn. 7),
possibly by having counselled submission, whereby
the expedition of Shishak passed away as a mere
temporary evil. Soon afterwards we find Hanani
reproaching Asa for having purchased the services
of the king of Syria, instead of himself preventing
Baasha from fortifying Bamah (2 Chron. xvi, 7),
and, as a punishment for this want of faith, Hanani
declares that henceforward he shall be troubled by
perpetual wars, a denunciation which Asa met by
casting him into prison. This did not however
deter Jehu, Hanani's son, from denouncing utter
destruction against Baasha (1 Kings xvi. 1), nor
from reproving his own sovereign Jehoshaphat for
his Ul-starred alliance with the house of Ahab
(2 Chron. xix. 2). We have seen this same Jeho
shaphat unwilling to go to battle without enquiring
o 2

196 GREATNESS OF THEIR INFLUENCE [Lect.
at the word of the Lord, ill-content with the loud
assurance of the four hundred Jehovah-prophets of
Samaria, and asking for the one true man. Sub
sequently, when attacked by Moab and Ammon,
Jahaziel instructs Jehoshaphat in the conduct of
the war, and promises him victory (2 Chron. xx.
14) : while his partnership with king Ahaziah in
ship-budding, and his attempt to revive the old
commerce of Solomon with India, are condemned
by EHezer, and the wrecking of the ships foretold
(Ib. 37). When, too, Amaziah had hired 100,000
fighting men from Israel, and paid them a hun
dred talents, sorely against his will he must forego
their help, lose the large sum of money already
expended, and incur the bitter anger of the mer
cenaries at the bidding of a man of God (Ib. xxv.
7). So, too, Hezekiah consults Isaiah in the war
with Sennacherib, and sends to him the insulting
letter he had received from that king, by the hands
of the noblest princes of the realm.
All this is very remarkable. It shows us the
prophets possessed of an authority before which
the very kings had to bow, in cases even where
to yield was most painful to them. StUl the
kings of Judah professed allegiance to Jehovah;
but we find plain indications that the Jehovah-
prophets exercised a similar influence also in the
northern kingdom. Thus the war between Ahab
and Ben-hadad, king of Syria, is carried on in
accordance with the directions of a prophet, who
speaks in Jehovah's name (1 Kings xx. 13). In

IV.] AT SAMARIA. 197
Jehoram's reign Elisha gives the king repeated
information of the ambuscades laid for him by the
Syrians (2 Kings vi. 9, 10), and when Samaria was
so pressed by siege that its surrender seemed in
evitable, Jehoram determined to behead Elisha, as
though the issues of war lay in his power (Ib. 31).
FinaUy, Elisha makes Jehu king in the place of
Jehoram, and on his death-bed sends for Joash, the
grandson of Jehu, and gives him encouragement,
and the promise of thrice-repeated victory in the
long struggle between Israel and Damascus (Ib. xiii.
19). When we bear in mind this constant activity
and interference of the prophets in matters of peace
and war, it no longer surprises us, but seems perfectly
natural, that Elisha should be found in the host of
Jehoram and Jehoshaphat in their expedition against
Moab. For, one purpose for which the spirit of pro
phecy was given was the preservation of Israel's
political existence. Israel existed, that God by it
might give mankind the one true and sole way of
salvation. It could not therefore be destroyed. The
mighty realms of which we read so much, Nineveh
and Babylon, Egypt and Macedonia, have passed away
with their people. You could not find, search where
you would, any remains of them. The Arabs, and
tribes of Mongolic race Hke the Turks, have wasted
and destroyed those realms once so powerful. Israel
could not be destroyed, for in it aU mankind was
to be blessed : and, even now, the Jew stUl remains,
the best proof and evidence of the unchangeableness
of God's counsels.

198 INTRODUCTION INTO ISRAEL [Lect.

StiU, important as was the preservation of Israel's
national existence, it was yet only a means for an
end. Far more important was the work of the
prophets for this end. Israel existed that the world
might be taught by it the nature and love of the
one true God : and the great duty of the prophets
was to maintain the worship of the one true God
in its purity. And this is the explanation of the
fact that it was in the northern kingdom that pro
phecy first assumed such grand proportions. It is
not true that it arose there. On the contrary, for
a long period after the disruption of Solomon's
empire, all the prophets whose names occur belong
to the southern kingdom. Shemaiah, the man of
God who went from Judah to Bethel, Iddo, Azariah,
Hanani and his son Jehu, Jahaziel, EHezer, all be
longed to Judah. Ahijah alone stiU dwelt at Shiloh.
During the long period from the beginning of Jero
boam's reign down to the time of Ahab, we find the
prophets fuU of Hfe and energy in Judah, forbidding
or rousing the nation to war, ever actively mixed
up in aU political matters, and possessed of enormous
influence : while in the kingdom of Israel we find
only that old Jehovah-prophet at Bethel, who played
so dubious a part in relation to the man of God who
came from Judah. Had we not been told so, we
should never have guessed that God had numerous
prophets in Israel during this time, and that they
were earnest enough in the cause of religion to
bring upon them the cruel anger of Jezebel.
Now during this period the kings were all nominal

IV] OF IDOLATRY. 199
worshippers of Jehovah. Jeroboam's calves were not
the images of a false god, but were a false way of
worshipping the true God. Even Ahab never directly
broke off from his allegiance to Jehovah, but, Hke
his predecessors, took part in that corrupt and schis-
matical form of worship estabhshed at Bethel and at
Dan. Upon his marriage, however, things changed ;
for his Sidonian wife did her very utmost to destroy
the worship of Jehovah, and substitute that of Baal
in its place ; and Ahab made no opposition to her
wishes. He even built, at her suggestion, a temple
to Baal in Samaria, and reared in it an altar, and
made an image of Astarte1 (i Kings xvi. 32, 33).
And this was an entirely new state of things. There
was the establishment of a licentious nature-worship,
and joined with it the determination to uproot the
worship of Jehovah. Upon how grand a scale
Jezebel set up her idolatries we learn from the fact
that there were four hundred and fifty prophets m of
1 The word rendered in our version grove is in the Hebrew
Asherah, which is merely another form of the word Astarte, or Ash-
taroth. Her image in ancient times was a roughly carved beam of
wood, fixed in the earth ; while the statues of Baal were made of
stone. As the Asherah could thus be cut down and burnt (see
Judges vi. 25), our translators concluded it must be a grove of trees.
As for the meaning of the word, Asherah is probably a name for
the planet Venus, and signifies good luck ; the root being connected
with the well-known word Jashar, and implying prosperity and
success. But that beautiful planet soon became the symbol of
lust, and Baal, the husband, the lord, and Astarte, love, soon
became merely representatives of the reproductive powers of nature,
and were worshipped by acts of the most unbridled profligacy.
m Evidently Jezebel did not consider that she had done
enough for her national deities till she had surrounded them

200 ELIJAH RAISED UP [Lect.
Baal, and four hundred prophets of Astarte, who ate
at the queen's own table. And not satisfied with
this she put to death the true prophets, as we learn
incidentaUy from Obadiah's speech, who urges his
interference in their behalf as a reason for Elijah
sparing him from a mission which he regarded as
equivalent to his own death-warrant. Even after
that great day at Mount Carmel, Jezebel flinched
not. Besolute against God, all undaunted11 by what
evidently made the deepest impression upon Ahab,
she defied Ehjah at the very moment of his victory,
and bound herself by an oath to destroy him. Such
a struggle as this between truth and falsehood had
never existed in Israel before, and God was pleased,
in order that the people might not fall for lack of
with a vast retinue of persons who imitated the Jehovah-prophets.
Doubtless they, too, claimed to be inspired by Baal and Astarte,
and to speak in their names. But we thus have an unintentional
proof of the importance of the true prophets, as elsewhere the
attendants upon the heathen deities were not prophets but priests.
» None perhaps but a woman would have set herself thus despe
rately to uproot the national religion of the country whither she
had gone as a wife, in order to establish in its place that in which
she had been brought up. It was a woman's entire devotion and
unwavering faith, degenerated into fanaticism. Like her daughter
Athaliah, she had a fearless energy, which shrank back from no deed,
however atrocious : but Athaliah's was a selfish wickedness, while
Jezebel, like Philip of Spain, may have thought she was labouring
for God. And how fearlessly she fell ! Arrayed in queenly attire,
as careful of her beauty as if she was preparing, not for death,
but for some high ceremonial, she boldly confronts one whom she
deems an usurper, and provokes him with a bitter taunt. And
then her pride, her determined purpose, her unflinching courage,
her queenly dignity : the end of it all was a crowd of curs yelping
over carrion !

IV] TO OPPOSE IDOLATRY. 201
knowledge, to raise prophecy to a far grander height
than it had attained to in previous times.
The open worship of Baal and Astarte had no
doubt roused all the deeper religious feeling of the
nation ; and persecution had purified the motives
and quickened the faith of the worshippers of Je
hovah, while it had also separated the lukewarm
from their company. But who would have sup
posed when reading of that old Jehovah-prophet
at Bethel, with not a word to say against Jeroboam's
calves, though ready to tell any number of false
hoods to obtain the countenance of the true prophet ;
who would have supposed that he was the repre
sentative of a class who preferred death to the entire
abandonment of Jehovah 1 Yet so it was ! The
only voices raised against the calves had all come
from Judah. Thence came the man of God who
denounced Jeroboam to his face : thence came Jehu
the son of Hanani to condemn Baasha. But when
they are required to abandon Jehovah's worship
altogether, and force is used, and the sword wakes
up, men's better principles resist, and death seems
preferable to so shameful a desertion of their creed.
And in this nobler state of mind there springs up
to them from among themselves one of the most
heroic men that ever bore witness for God's truth ;
and for a time he stays the nation in its downward
course, and gives it a fresh opportunity for re
pentance. And this is ever the way of God's doings with
mankind. He is longsuffering and merciful, and

202 GREAT INFLUENCE [Lect.
deals with His people, not, as some seem to suppose,
with the technicality and harshness of the letter of
the law, but with a largeness and fulness of mercy
such as befits His perfect nature. In David's time
we find the prophets Gad and Nathan engaged in
the comparatively unimportant duty0 of arranging
the singing and ritual of the temple- service {% Chron.
xxix. 25) : but when the usual means of grace were
taken away, when Jeroboam's impious worship had
driven from his realm all the believing priests and
Levites ; when the solemn feasts and festivals, the
sacrifices and offerings of the Mosaic law were lost,
and ordinary men ministered instead of the true priests
at altars devised to serve the purpose of worldly
scheming ; God gave then to His true worshippers
some compensation in the increased vigour and
power of the prophetic order. God withdraws not
His grace tdl men have long struggled against it.
Long and often do men grieve the Holy Ghost before
His light is finally quenched in the heart, and not
unfrequently grace at length gains the victory. Ill
were our lot if it were not so. But ever throughout
the Bible God is revealed as one ' Who waiteth to be
gracious :' (Is. xxx. 18:) and who deals with us not
according to the harsh letter of some statute, but so
as may best serve our own moral and spiritual good.
" This duty was not, however, really unimportant : for we owe
to that temple-service the Book of Psalms. And while uninspired
men might have been sufficient for arranging the service in itself,
yet we cannot say that prophetic aid was unnecessarily lavished
upon that which was to give the Church, throughout all time, her
best manual of praise and devotion.

IV] OF ELIJAH AND ELISHA. 203

And thus as religion declined in Israel, as the nation
rejected or lost one after another all its means of
grace, and the more pious members of the nation
withdrew from a country where Jehovah could not
be served in truth, He was pleased to give a last
loud call to repentance and faith, by the grand
development of the prophetic schools, and the extra
ordinary energy of individual prophets.
Who can estimate the influence of men Hke Ehjah
and Elisha 1 Few men in the whole Bible rise to a
higher eminence than they ! On the mount of trans
figuration it is one of them, Elijah, who appears as
the representative of the prophetic order, uniting
Moses to Christ! And never did men more truly
work as prophets. They kept rehgion alive in the
hearts of the people, encouraged the fainthearted,
were the centres of resistance against all the attempts
of Jezebel to make Baal and Astarte usurp the place
of Jehovah in Israel's worship. Gross sins in king
and people they openly rebuked : disclosed to view
the divine vengeance foUowing with speedy step upon
each act of national apostasy, and foretold the final
ruin which would inevitably follow upon their per
sistence in idolatry. And yet it is noteworthy that
neither the schools of the prophets, nor the influence
and unparaUeled energy of EHjah and Elisha availed
to save Israel. Had Jehu been more free from
worldly ambition, less ready to shed blood, and more
singleminded in his faith, he would have abolished
Jeroboam's calf-worship, and restored the Mosaic
law. In this case the labours of the prophets, united

204 THE ORDINARY MEANS OF GRACE [Lect.

to the influence of the state, might have been blessed
with happier results. As it was, there was no na
tional repentance. After all, it is the use or neglect
of the ordinary means of grace upon which our weal
or woe depends. And so even the prophets were no
compensation for the loss of priest and Levite, the
degradation of the priestly office by thrusting into it
unworthy men, the separation from Jerusalem, and
the enforced absence from the great festivals cele
brated there. I doubt if any extraordinary gifts,
however great, can compensate for the loss or neglect
of God's ordinary gifts ; or, rather, I have no doubt
that they cannot. For our Master has plainly taught
us so : ' If men hear not Moses and the prophets,
neither wiU they be persuaded though one rose from
the dead.' (Luke xvi. 31.) The greatest possible
miracle would not be so efficacious in bringing a man
to God as the simple reading of the Bible. The
resurrection of Christ did not move those Jews who
had heard Christ preach, and heard in vain.
And so Israel, cut off from Jehovah's true worship,
and resolutely abiding by her calves, fell rapidly into
moral and religious ruin : and, as is ever the case,
national corruption was but the prelude to national
decay. Judah still flourished and gloried in a
Hezekiah and a Josiah long after Israel had ceased
to exist. Not a single monarch in the long line of
Israel's kings was a good or a pious man, though
many were able statesmen and brave warriors.
And such as were the kings, such also was the
people. Ever it sank lower and lower, and those

IV] MORE VALUABLE THAN EXTRAORDINARY. 205
who were moved to better things, and who might
by their presence have resisted the growing degen
eracy, preferred rather to withdraw to Judah, where
they could enjoy those religious privileges which
were denied them at home. They went where they
could worship God as He had commanded men to
worship Him : and where they recovered their full
share in the blessings of the covenant, and the
actual enjoyment of its privUeges. Thus it was
one of the tribe of Aser who held the infant Saviour
in her arms at His presentation in the temple (Luke
ii. 36). But though one here and one there of the
ten tribes was thus restored to the Church (Acts
xxvi. 7), the mass fell gradually more and more
away. We know of no Israelites now. They are all
'IoixWot, Jews, descendants of Judah. Of the ten
tribes we know nothing. Where they are, or
whether they still are, and what purpose God may
yet have for them, or whether they have been finally
rejected, aU this is matter of debate and uncertainty.
As regards those passages of Scripture which seem
to refer to them, every man has his own doctrine, and
his own interpretation of their meaning.
And yet one remark more, and one only. Judah,
too, became corrupt, and in the place of the good, or
comparatively good kings that had sat on David's
throne, an Ahaz, a Manasseh, and a Jehoiakim urged
the people on, in substituting the gross licentious
ness of idolatry for the pure worship of Jehovah.
And then God gave prophecy as grand a develop
ment in Judah as previously it had enjoyed in Israel.

206 THE PROPHETS SAVED JUDAH.
It was not of the same type. Isaiah has little in
common with Ehjah : Jeremiah in personal cha
racter is the very reverse. Bound Jeremiah there
was gathered one of the noblest circles p of men
that ever lived. There is nothing comparable to it
in the whole history of the northern kingdom. And
prophecy in them saved Judah. The captivity of
Israel was for aye. It had no return. The exile of
Judah was for seventy years, and it had a return
(Jer. xxiv. 5-7). Judah returned to work out that
purpose for which God had called the Jewish Church
into existence and watched over it from the days
when Abraham first left his birthplace. That pur
pose was the giving the one true religion to the
whole world. Weary, footsore, in tears, the saddened
exUes toUed on their homeward journey : there was
in their poor array nothing of wealth or pomp, of
glory or earthly splendour, and yet they bore with
them aU that we hold best and dearest. Of them
sprang a carpenter's son, and some fishermen : and
they were the Saviour of the world, and His apostles.
On so shght a thread seemed to hang the destinies
of mankind, but reaUy that thread was a chain of
adamant. For God had declared by His prophets,
that ' out of Zion should go forth the law, and the
word of the Lord from Jerusalem.' (Micah iv. 2,
Is. ii. 3.)
p Jeremiah's labours were seconded by all the foremost priests
and laymen of his time. It is enough to mention the high priest
Hilkiah, the nobles Shaphan, and his son Ahikam, Neriah, and his
son Baruch, the prophets Zephaniah and Habakkuk, and the pro
phetess Huldah.

LECTTJKE V.
THE COMMENCEMENT OP WRITTEN PROPHECY.
Built upon the foundation of the apostles and
prophets. — Eph. ii. 20.
VV E have now traced at some length the upgrowth
of Jewish prophecy, but thus far we have been
occupied with it only in its earlier stages. Yet
even in these early stages, when apparently it was
engaged mainly in the lower work of maintaining
the kingdom of Israel in its integrity, and of
making ready the earthly scene of Christ's labours,
it was ever true also to its higher duty of preparing
for Christ Himself, and for the doctrines which have
not only raised Christian nations to a level so far sur
passing what even was best and noblest in heathen
phUosophy, but in which we believe that we have
' the words of eternal life/
If we would understand what was its office and
work directly as regards our Saviour, it seemed
necessary that we should thus study it throughout
the whole period of its existence. For prophecy
forms a grand whole, of which we shall lose the
right interpretation if we regard it merely as the

208 PURPOSE OF GOD [Lect.
fitful display of extraordinary powers granted to
men here and there of high intellectual gifts. Such
men there were ; men who stood far above the
general mass of the prophets, and whom God called
by a supernatural impulse to be the teachers in His
name of truths which man could not by any exercise
of his own powers have learned for himself. Of
these men St. Paul speaks when in the text he
says that we have been 'built upon the founda
tion of apostles and prophets.' For whUe aU truth
centres in Christ as the one corner-stone, yet it was
the especial duty of prophets before His coming,
and of the apostles after He had come, to give
us the doctrinal explanation of His person and
office, and of the manner in which we have salva
tion through Him.
But besides these men who spake under the
direct impulse of the Holy Ghost, there were pro
phets 'in companies,' on whom God's Spirit rested
in the way of His ordinary gifts, and who wrought
for God as men may work for Him now. And if
we would understand our Bibles, we must study
what is said of these men too, and examine all
the agencies and influences employed by God in
His dealings with His people throughout the whole
period of its existence, and not those only which
were supernatural. Abraham was caUed by God,
and Israel formed into a nation for the noblest
of all possible purposes — the bestowal upon man
kind of the one true religion, and of the one
Saviour, in Whose Name alone we can be saved.

V.] IN MAKING ISRAEL A NATION. 209
Hence the interest that attaches itself to every por
tion of the Old Testament. We read it not as the
history merely of a very remarkable and singular
people, but as the opening scene and gradual pro
gress of that which very closely concerns ourselves.
We are looking in the Old Testament at our own
foundations ; and it is well that we should be
again and again reminded that our religion did
not spring out of nothing. We are not people of
yesterday, or the day before. Our Lord was the
top corner-stone — XlOos a.Kpoyu>viaio<s — of a building
that had long been in course of erection. If in
these days of scientific enquiry there are difficulties
about the first chapter of Genesis, yet, on the other
hand, it is worth remembering that ours is the
sole religion that goes back to the day of creation
itself : and that we claim that throughout the long
series of records which describe God's deahngs with
mankind, beginning with that account of creation,
one, and one plan only has been steadily carried
out, and that that plan was completed and made'
perfect in Christ. No type of the law, no teach
ing of the prophets, has failed of its fulfilment.
It is the spirit of prophecy which thus binds
the Old Testament together, and gradually leads
it onward to the final and perfect teaching of our
Lord and His apostles. Two stages of this we have
already considered, the era namely of Moses and
that of Samuel. Now the distinguishing charac
teristic of prophecy, as it existed in Moses, is that
it gives the whole outline of Gospel truth. There
p

210 IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL [Lect.

is, indeed, one remarkable exception. Moses did not
clearly teach the Israelites the doctrine of a future
judgment and of an eternal state of rewards and
punishments. He did set it forth typicaUy. There
is in Paradise a tree of life, and faUen man must
be driven from Paradise, lest ' he put forth his hand,
and take of the tree of life, and eat and live for ever.'
(Gen. Hi. 22.) As the Bible begins so does it end
with that tree of life : but its meaning in the last
chapter of the Book of Bevelation is no longer
veiled, but, as 'the pure river of the water of life''
is the gi'ace of the Holy Ghost, so that tree of
Hfe is 'the living bread which came down from
heaven, of which if any man eat he shall live
for ever.' (John vi. 51.) The doctrine, then, of
eternal life is contained in the teaching of Moses.
He expressly states the possibility of man living
for ever. (For implicit teaching see Matt. xxii. 32.)
Why, then, was it not taught more clearly 1
We obtain the answer to this question by the
study of the mental and moral state of the Israelites
when they left Egypt. The more closely we examine
their state, the more unfit we find them for any just
ways of thinking about God. Still this did not pre
vent Moses from setting many high spiritual truths
before them ; but as regards the immortality of the
soul we must remember that the Egyptians held that
doctrine, but in such a way as tended more to the
debasement than to the ennobling of our nature*.
a On the views of the Egyptians, see Wilkinson, Manners and

V.] NOT CLEARLY TAUGHT BY MOSES. 211
It might be better, therefore, for the people to have
the doctrine withheld from them for a time, than for
it to be associated in their minds with gross concep
tions of what happens after death. And in fact
we are expressly taught by Ezekiel that this is the
principle of God's revelations in the Pentateuch,
namely, that while in many respects it set perfect
truth before the Israelites, in other respects it taught
them what was good only for them, the utmost that
they could attain to, but what was hi itself imper
fect, and not good, compared with what the prophets
subsequently were permitted to reveal. For first He
says, 'When I caused them to go forth out of the
land of Egypt, and brought them into the wilderness ;
I gave them my statutes, and shewed them my judg
ments, which if a man do, he shaU even live in them :'
(Ezek. xx. io, 1 1 :) and then he adds, ' But when they
despised my statutes, and polluted my sabbaths, and
their eyes were after their fathers' idols, then I gave
them also statutes that were not good, and judg
ments whereby they should not live.' (Ib. 24, 25.) I
need scarcely remind you how the fathers, many of
them, exaggerate Ezekiel's meaning ; and how con
stantly they use the word Deuteronomy, ' the second
law,' in the way of reproach, as a burden imposed
Customs of the Egyptians, vol. ii. 2nd series, 1841, p. 381 sqq.
Ewald, Hist. Isr. ii. 134, very well remarks, 'The religion of
Jehovah, while dealing a blow to all the mythology that had
hitherto prevailed, especially abhorred the generally gross heathen
conceptions of events after death, because its thoughts respecting
God and man's relation to Him had so totally changed.'
P 2

212 TWOFOLD CHARACTER [Lect.
upon the Israelites for their sinsD. But we must
not therefore forget his warning. The law has a
twofold character. On the one hand it marked out
the whole length and breadth of the divine counsels.
It foretold that man should be raised from his faUen
state by the wounding for him of one Who was to
be the woman's seed. It showed by its sacrifices
that sin could be atoned for only by the death of
a spotless victim, and God approached only by that
victim's blood. It set God forth as a personal God,
keeping covenant with His people, and showing
mercy, but that wdl by no means acquit the guilty.
It taught all this, and much more. But this teach
ing had to be accommodated to the moral and mental

b I do not know that I can refer to any place where this patristic
teaching is more unreservedly carried out than the 26th chapter of
the Didascalia Apostolorum, ed. Lagarde. The work, though spu
rious, and guilty of putting into the mouths ofthe apostles somewhat
unscriptural doctrines, is vei-y good evidence of the views current in
the fifth century. This chapter is addressed to the Jews, and tells
them that the law which David asserts to be perfect (Ps. xix. 7),
and which our Lord said that He came not to destroy but to
fulfil (Matt. v. 17), means the ten commandments only. After
giving for this a puerile reason, namely, that the symbol for ten
is the Hebrew letter yod, which yod or jot our Lord said was not
to pass away (Ib. 18), and which, too, is the first letter of His
own name, it draws the more important distinction between the
decalogue, as the law given before Israel's apostasy (Ex. xxxii. 1-6),
and those ' distinctions of meats, and offerings of incense and sacri
fices and burnt offerings,' which were subsequently imposed upon
them for their sin, and which it calls the Deuteronomy, or second
law. Till then, the author argues, sacrifices had never been ex
pressly commanded, though offered spontaneously by Abel, Cain,
and Noah : but for Christians to offer them, or submit to the yoke

V.] OF THE LAW. 213
state of the Jews. If the world was fit for Christ's
coming only after long ages of preparation, the very
fact of the necessity of this preparation shows that
there must be a development, a progress in reve
lation itself, and consequently that there must be
much in the earlier stages that was temporary, par
tial, incomplete. Bemembering this, it is the. more
extraordinary that Moses should nevertheless have
marked out so thoroughly the whole domain of reve
lation ; and have stood in a more close relation to
God than any that followed. No one besides has
so completely filled the prophet's office, and been
the mediator between God and man. Other pro
phets there were many : but a prophet like unto
Moses God gave but one, even Him, Who came as
of any part of the Levitical law, would be a violation of their bap
tism, &c. An earlier and more trustworthy evidence is the Persian
bishop Farhad, whose homilies are dated respectively a.d. 337,
344, and 345, and who was present at the Council of Seleucia
in the latter year. In his Homily on the Distinction of Meats,
discussing the passage quoted from Ezek. xx. 11, he asks, 'What
are these commandments and judgments, which if a man do he shall
live in them ? They are the ten commandments, which God wrote
with His own hand, and gave them to Moses, that he might teach
them to the people. But when they had made them a calf and
apostatized from Him, then He gave them commandments and
judgments that were not good ; such as those of offerings and
purifications and defilements and sacrifices for sin,' all which he
Contrasts with the terms of the Gospel in Matt. xi. 28-30. Dr.
Wright has lately edited the original text of these Homilies from a
MS. dated as early as a.d. 474, and the passage will be found in
page 318 of his edition, and also in page 334 of that of Antonellus,
who edited an Armenian version of several of them at Bome in the
year 1756, but wrongly ascribed them to St. James of Nisibis.

214 THE PROPHETS SET FREE [Lect.
the Son over that house of which Moses, great as
he was, had been the steward only.
During the long period that followed, the work of
Moses languished. Great men rose — men instinct with
the Spirit of God — but they did not labour directly for
religion, and even in temporal matters Israel seemed
in danger of being permanently conquered by the
PhiHstines. It could not, indeed, be so. For salva
tion was to be of the Jews (John iv. 22, Is. H. 3).
The purpose for which God had summoned Abraham
to leave his country must be carried out to its
full end. And so, just when the country was ripe
for him, God sent Samuel, and from his days there
is no break in the activity of the prophetic order.
Violent men like Manasseh might sdence the pro
phets for a time by the sword ; Jehoiakim might
compel Jeremiah to quit Jerusalem ; but the work
went on. The world, under their teaching, was
daUy growing more ripe for Christ's advent : the
plan of redemption was being more and more plainly
declared. The time of the Saviour coming, His
birthplace, His nature, His office, all were becoming
more definite, more exactly foreshown. Isaiah has
so clearly unfolded the nature of Christ's sufferings
for us, that not even the apostles after His cruci
fixion could give a more thorough doctrinal state
ment of the manner in which they avad for our
redemption. Before the prophets could attain to this elevation
it was necessary that they should be set free from
lower duties. Although the idea of the theocracy

V.] FROM THE DUTIES OF GOVERNMENT. 215

required that the prophet, as God's mouthpiece,
should also direct the government of the state, yet,
while human nature is such as it is, this reaUy
placed the prophet in circumstances more likely to
put difficulties in his way than to keep him single-
minded. Moses, Deborah, Samuel, had combined
the two offices in spotless integrity. But there
were great dangers in the union ; and thus Samuel
unwillingly, yet by God's express monition, sepa
rated the two for ever (i Sam. viH. 22). Under Saul
and David Israel soon obtained not freedom only,
but empire. That, as usual, was but a dubious bless
ing. But though the prophets remained so much
mixed up with pohtical and worldly matters, that
it became a snare to many of them, yet, set free at
least from having any direct share in the govern
ment of the nation, they could henceforth devote
themselves more entirely to God's immediate service,
and to their higher duty of teaching the people.
We see this in Samuel's own case. Beleased from
the toils of government, he can give his time and
thoughts to the management of the prophetic schools.
By their means he obtained for Israel, first of all,
a higher culture, and, secondly, a large and active
class of men who laboured directly for religion. In
both these respects we find ourselves at the close
of Samuel's days in a state of things removed by
a vast gulph from the days of the Judges. Idol
atry has disappeared. The people are everywhere
making great advances in learning, and a high tone
of morahty and religion generaUy prevails. The

216 REVOLT OF THE TEN TRIBES [Lect.
one blot upon the time is David's lust of war,
bringing men like Joab to the front, and debasing
David's own character. But the prophets were too
true patriots to approve of this. They disapproved
of it, and laboured that his throne might be fiUed
at his death by a man of peace. Even he, too, dis
appointed them. Beligion pined under the costly
trappings of an imperial court. Vice foUowed close
upon the heels of luxury. The people were ground
down by forced labour, exacted from them to rear
works of royal magnificence, and a lasting schism
tore into two petty nations what had once been a
powerful state. If ever God wrote His verdict
plainly upon ambition and aggressive war, he wrote
it upon the wars of David. They brought the
stain of two foul crimes on David himself; ruined
his own domestic peace and happiness ; ruined, by
the possession of too great power, that one of his
sons who started so wisely and so well ; and ruined
the kingdom, which broke asunder of its own weight.
Absalom saw clearly enough that the flaw in David's
government was his neglect of the administration of
justice at home (2 Sam. xv. 2-6). If he had foUowed
Samuel's example (1 Sam. vii. 15, 16), or provided,
as Jehoshaphat did afterwards, for the upright admin
istration of the law in every city (2 Chron. xix. 5-7),
instead of devoting himself to war, he would have
knit the tribes of Israel into one united and compact
monarchy. But it is probable that this schism in the kingdom
was for Israel's real good. The work of the prophets

V] NOT AN UNMIXED EVIL. 217
at all events was made more easy thereby. I can
scarcely see how an institution so free, so independ
ent, so brave in resisting sin even in the mightiest,
could have existed in the face of a powerful and
despotic court. We find Asa casting prophets into
prison, Manasseh and Jehoiakim putting them to
death. Means such as these would soon have re
duced the prophets to the condition of those at
Samaria, who must perforce say to Ahab 'go and
prosper,' or be content with prison fare and the
cruelties of a dungeon.
StUl, in these petty kingdoms they had, as a general
rule, full scope for their powers, and we have seen to
what grand proportions prophecy attained in the per
sons of Elijah and EHsha. Even they, however, were
men of action only ; we have not yet come to the time
of written prophecy. It was by oratory, by personal
addresses, that the prophets moved the people, but
we are now approaching the time when they began to
write their prophecies, or at least some memorials of
them. The prophecies of Amos and Jeremiah are
records of long and unwearied labours, the former an
orderly and well-arranged account of one important
mission, the other the rough and unarranged jottings,
as it were, of a life of incessant activity and constant
suffering, closed by a violent death, nor does the
prophet seem ever to have had any period of tranqud-
lity during which he had leisure enough for reducing
to order the narrative of his noble zeal. Micah's pro
phecy, so vigorous and terse, so abrupt and broken,
seems but as the heads of discourses often urged

218 IMPORTANCE [Lect.
upon the people. On the other hand the last twenty-
seven chapters of Isaiah, the prophecies of Habak
kuk, Joel, Nahum, and others are probably written
compositions, never oraUy spoken in public, but from
the first committed to writing. These written com
positions were less powerful at the time, and the
influence of the prophets far smaller than it had
been in Elijah's days. But to us the change is aU-
important. We are admitted by it within the circle
of inspired teaching c. We can appeal to that
teaching, can compare oiir Lord's Hfe and death and
doctrines with what the prophets had long before said
of Him. The New Testament comes not down to
us single-handed. We can point also to the Old,
and say, Bead both these books ; both these collec
tions of books ; compare them with one another :
and you will see that in Christ aU is accomplished
that prophets had foretold ; and you wiU see also
c Christians are sometimes twitted with being ' the people of a
book,' and our respect for the Bible is called bibliolatry, and other
bad names. So the Mohammedans are called ' the people of a
book,' and having thus a fixed standard for their religion, they
have a consistency among themselves, and a backbone for their
creed, which has hitherto made them very unmanageable oppo
nents of even Christian missionaries. But we are not ' people of
a book,' but of thirty or forty books, all for convenience' sake
bound together in one volume, but none the less distinct books.
While this widens the field of attack, it also makes the defence
more decisively successful. It is to be expected that clever and
brilliant fallacies will be brought forward from time to time, and
urged as unanswerable attacks upon some part or other of the long
line which believers have to defend. But what else than truth can
make so long a line really defensible !

V] OF WRITTEN PROPHECY. 219
that, from the first, men had been bidden to look
forward to, and expect, and pray for all that is
found in Christ. This is a thing to be noted and
remembered, this unity of teaching and doctrine,
beginning with the earliest records of God's deal
ings with mankind, and ending in that book which
sets before us the only sufficient Saviour, the only
reUgion worthy of God and man, the only revelation
that invites and can endure the closest scrutiny.
Such a fact is no chance-work. Either Christianity
is true, or you must believe that mere human agency
has for many thousand years steadily persevered in
preparing for, in producing, and in maintaining the
noblest and purest delusion. A creed utterly unlike
what men could have invented, which raises and
ennobles man, gives him the mastery over himself,
works only for purity, chastity, and holiness, and
which is nevertheless false. A creed supported by
a vast and solid mass of evidence, none the less solid
and vast because little holes have been picked in it,
but which no evidence may be allowed to prove.
Those may believe so who like. But those who have
not yet lost possession of their reason, and who can
weigh evidence, know that the balance of that
evidence is largely in favour of Christianity, even
though there are difficulties enough to try our faith.
As prudent men, too, they will wait to see whither
the apostles of doubt intend to lead them. We
know the value of our faith : we may reasonably
ask what is to be the substitute, before we part with
what we have.

220 DISTINCT OFFICE OF THE EARLY [Lect.
The early prophets, then, laboured for the main
tenance of the true religion in Israel ; the later
prophets laboured to raise Judaism from being a
mere local worship to its true dignity as the catholic
rehgion, the one true religion for the whole world.
The first was an absolutely necessary part of God's
scheme of mercy for man. Our Lord must have
some place where He could be born, and give proofs
of His Messiahship, and die. There must be there
men able to witness, to understand and to record
His doings, and teach them to others. Men must
be prepared also for their teaching. A certain cycle
of doctrine, relating especiaUy to the nature and
attributes of God, and to man's relation to Him,
must be impressed first upon the minds of the Jews,
and then, through them, dispersed everywhere for
this purpose, upon the more thoughtful among the
heathen. We do not hesitate to affirm that the
conquests of Alexander, the empire of Borne, the
translation of the Septuagint, and the gropings of
phUosophy after truth, were all ordained by the
Divine Providence, and so regulated as best to
lend their aid also to this part of the prepara
tion for Christ. A vast external work was neces
sary, as weU as a body of pure and spiritual teach
ing. In Israel, and outside of Israel, everything
combined to make that the very fulness of time when
Christ came. When we see the vast scale on which,
far and wide, all earthly things had been fitted and
made ready for the manifestation of God's mercies
to mankind in Christ, we need not wonder at the

V] AND OF THE LATER PROPHETS. 221
high rank held by Elijah among the prophets, even
though he committed no prophecy to writing, and
his work chiefly belonged to this, the outer and
material, preparation for the Saviour's ministry.
But even thus early the inner work had begun, of
giving to men the abiding record of the faith, and its
firm memorial as long as the world shall last. The
prophets did not confine their activity to oral teach
ing, the effect of which, however powerful, is never
theless transient. Already there had been added to the
law of Moses works of history and psalms. Both begin
with Moses. Bepeatedly he is commanded to lay up
written memorials of certain great events within the
ark : and psalmody commenced with that hymn of
triumph sung by Miriam and the women on the
shore of the Bed Sea, with timbrel and dance. But
these again had a new beginning in Samuel. The
singing in the temple is expressly said to have been
the work of the prophets (2 Chron. xxix. 25), and it
was in the prophetic schools that Samuel revived
the art of music, and made it part of the regular
course of instruction given there ; while history we
find was the special accomplishment of the prophets.
The annals of each king's reign were kept by pro
phets, and a large number of biographies are referred
to in the Books of Chronicles. The Jews caU aU
the historical books of the Old Testament the ' books
of the early prophets.'
But though histories and psalms were composed
thus early, the prophets did not as yet record their
own addresses to the people. And this continued

222 GENTILES INCLUDED [Lect.
to be the rule for rather more than three hundred
years, from the time of Samuel till the uprise of the
Assyrian monarchy. During this period Israeland
Judah were left to work out their own destinies, with
no worse evil than their constant rivalry with one
another, and no more powerful foreign foe than
the Syrian kingdom of Damascus. The most pro
minent figures in this era are Elijah and Elisha ;
the most remarkable fact the grand development of
prophecy in the northern kingdom. Written pro
phecy began with the Assyrian period, so called
because the relations of Israel and Judah to Nineveh
form the leading features of the times. It lasted
about a hundred years, commencing about. 800 B.C.,
in the reigns of Jeroboam II, king of Israel, and
Amaziah, king of Judah. The prophets of this era
were Jonah, Joel, Hosea, Micah, Isaiah, Nahum. The
third or Chaldasan period witnessed the Hfe-long
struggle of Jeremiah, the fall of Jerusalem, the seventy
years' captivity, and the final outburst of prophecy
among the returning exUes. And then for four hun
dred years there was sdence, tUl the Precursor came,
announcing the advent of the prophet like unto, but
greater than, Moses, in Whom God gave mankind the
fullest light that would avail for their good. We
have no new revelation to expect. The Old Testa
ment ever looked forward to, and spake of, latter times :
the New Testament bids us earnestly contend for a
faith that has been once for aU deHvered to the saints.
It was in these two last eras that, with a message
still for Israel, ' the spirit that was in the prophets

V] WITHIN THE RANGE OF PROPHECY. 223
testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the
glory that should foUow.' (i Peter i ii.) The earlier
prophets had laboured to keep Israel true to its
mission. They tried to maintain the worship of
Jehovah in its integrity ; instructed the people in
the great doctrines of God's unity, His omnipresence,
His spiritual nature ; resisted their longings after
idolatry, and strove to make them worthy of their
high vocation of being Christ's brethren after the
flesh, and His future ministers for teaching mankind
the true faith. To bring about these ends, the
prophets had hitherto taken great share in things
political ; but now, without altogether abandoning
this lower field (Is. vii, Jer. xxxii. 3-5, &c), they
yet constantly rise high above it, and look onward
to a new covenant, made not with one small nation,
but unto which 'all nations shall flow.' (Is. H. 2.)
In a people so exclusive as the Jews, whom Moses
had so separated from aU the neighbouring kingdoms,
whose patriotism was so fierce and so narrow, who
looked with such open aversion upon all foreign
races, and who refused even to admit proselytes
into full equality with themselves until the fourth
generation, it is the more remarkable that their
prophets speak of the deliverance of GentUe as well
as Jew, of the bestowal of a common Saviour, of
the founding of a universal Church. Up to this
time they had been content with trying to save
Israel from idolatry ; they now attack idolatry itself,
and summon the whole world to witness God's con
troversy with idols. The Jews are no longer, to be

224 COMMON MESSAGE [Lect.
the one people possessed of truth, but must be fitted
to be the apostles and teachers of a suffering Messiah,
who died ' not for one nation only, but that also
He might gather together in one the chUdren of
God that were scattered abroad.' (John xi. 52.) For
this end the prophets now expand, simplify, show
the living spirit which animated the teaching of the
law, free it from all that was local, temporary,
national, and labour to make Judaism the religion
of all lands, and people, and languages. The first,
and imperfect, and preparatory Church is fast grow
ing into a Church perfect, final, universal. The
flickering taper of Judaism is changing into a
dawn preceding the rising of the Sun of Bighteous
ness. You see this in their own writings. Passing by
the first chapter of Isaiah, written, as the contents
plainly show, when the prophet was gathering his
earlier prophecies together, to form an introduction
or preface to the whole volume ; passing this by,
we find in the second chapter Isaiah's programme —
his leading idea. And it is given in a very remark
able way. He quotes three verses from a contem
porary prophet, Micah, not omitting even the con
junction and& at the beginning, as if he had nothing
to add to or subtract from Micah's message, but only
to explain and enforce it. Or perhaps it was to
remind the people that there was something that
came before that and. For what was Micah's mes-
d In our translation the conjunction is translated but in Micah
iv. 1 ; in the Hebrew it is and in both places.

V.] OF MICAH AND ISAIAH. 225
sage 1 A very painful one ; so painful that the
people would have gladly seen Micah put to death,
if Hezekiah would have permitted it (Jer. xxvi. 18,
19). In good Hezekiah's days, when there was so
much to justify the expectation of an era of great
national happiness, Micah warned them that 'Zion
should be ploughed as a field, and Jerusalem become
heaps of ruins.' (Micah iii. 12.) Why 1 Because it had
to make room for something else, something better.
' In the latter days,' a phrase which always with the
prophets means the days of the Messiah, ' in the latter
days the mountain of the house of Jehovah shall be
estabhshed on the top of the mountains, and to it, the
Christian Church, not Jews only, but all nations shaU
flock. Out of Zion the law shaU go forth, — of old
it had stayed within it, — and the word of the Lord
from Jerusalem.' And this, not to found an empire
of force, like that of David, but an empire of peace.
' Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither
shall they learn war any more.' (Ib. iv. 1-3, Is. H.
2-4.) If ever there was anything contrary to the
whole tenor of Jewish thought, it was Christ's com
mand to go out into all the world, and make disciples
of the whole creation. That command, even now,
has not been fully obeyed. Missionary enterprise
soon died out, and its revival is a matter of recent
date. Man's supineness and disobedience have too
long delayed this promised reign of peace. No such
reign, too, wUl come till Christianity has been more
fully received at home, and has established a more
complete authority over the bad passions of fallen
Q

226 JERUSALEM TO GIVE PLACE [Lect.

human nature. But Micah and Isaiah spoke of a
duty incumbent upon every one who has been
brought near Christ, when they described this ex
pansive power which has ever been a note of real
Christianity ; and in this empire of peace they showed
what would be the result, if the principles taught by
Christ had obtained fuU mastery, first over our indi
vidual selves, and then, through us, over all mankind.
Now how came Isaiah to quote these words as
his programme \ You cannot say that he took
them in a less threatening sense than we do, for
Jeremiah has told us how greatly Hezekiah and the
people — Isaiah's contemporaries — took them to heart
(xxvi. 19). You cannot say that Isaiah had no
particular purpose in quoting them, for he refers
to them six or seven times elsewhere (xi. 9, xxv. 6,
7, 10, Ivi. 7, lvn. 13, lxv. 11, 25, Ixvi. 20). You
cannot say that he thought only of an extension
of Judaism ; for the prophecy expressly declared
that the 'mountain of the house,' the area on which
the temple was situated, was to be 'as the high
places of the field,' as the hiU-tops, which rise barren,
and lone, and desolate in the uncultivated wUder-
ness. You cannot say that Isaiah shared in the
popular alarm that the Assyrians would capture
Jerusalem. He expressly assured Hezekiah of the
contrary. You may take refuge with some of the
new critics in saying that the words had no mean
ing, or that we cannot tell what that meaning was.
But if the words have a meaning, it can be no other
than this; that mstead of that mountain of Zion

V-] TO GOD'S HOLY MOUNTAIN. 227
on which stood the temple, and of the dispensation
of which that temple was the centre and symbol,
God would have another, a holy mountain, a dis
pensation of which holiness would be the distin
guishing characteristic : that in it all nations would
have equal rights with the Jews : and that this
dispensation would be first published from Jerusalem,
but that afterwards it would have nothing to do
with it. Titus may destroy Jerusalem, Arabs and
Turks waste it : but in doing so they are wasting
the site merely of a dispensation that has fulfilled
its purpose. 'The Law has gone forth from Zion :'
it is not there now. ' The word of the Lord has
gone forth from Jerusalem :' it has no special head
quarters, no local centre now. ' In every nation he
that feareth God, and worketh righteousness, is
accepted with Him.' (Acts x. 35.)
It is quite possible that Isaiah did not himself/
distinctly contemplate or understand aU that was
contained in his words. It is the nature of pro
phecy not to be capable of being fully understood
until it is accomphshed. But 'borne along by the
Holy Ghost,' Isaiah took as his programme a text
that showed that Judaism was to pass away, and
that the business of prophecy henceforth must be to
prepare for that better and enduring dispensation,
of which the grand features are nowhere else so
clearly set forth as in Isaiah's own predictions.
In this second stage, then, the prophets laboured
not for the means only but for the ende: not for
e Of course the Christian Churcli and its ordinances are really
Q 2

228 ELIJAH THE LINK [Lect.

Israel, as God's instrument in giving man the true
rehgion, but for rehgion itself, for Christ and His
Church. And therefore they wrote their prophecies,
because they had not merely a temporary but an
eternal use and value. 'They were written for
our learning — the instruction of all Christians :
that we through patience and comfort of the Scrip
tures might have the hope.'
And we, — possessing these writings, and daily read
ing in them of the hope and consolation of the true
Israel, who are Abraham's seed by being sharers in
that faith which God accepted in Abraham while he
was yet uneircumcised,— having these Hvely oracles of
God ever before our eyes, we are in danger not of
over-estimating their value, but of under-estimating
the importance of the work of those prophets who
left behind them no written memorials of their
teaching. The place which Elijah holds in the
New Testament may serve to warn us that we
are wrong in our view of them ; and yet, when
we compare him with an Isaiah, or a Jeremiah,
we may wonder why he should have been chosen,
as the representative of the whole prophetic order,
to stand on the Mount of Transfiguration between
Moses and Christ, as the link which unites the
law to the gospel. Moses of course was there. He
had showed what God is. Go where you will ;
search where you will among aU the cosmogonies
and philosophies of ancient and modern times, and
means only : means for bringing men to God. But as regards the
Jewish Church, they were the ends for which that Church existed.

V] BETWEEN MOSES AND CHRIST. 229
you wiU never find anything so true, so simple, and
so sublime, as the opening words of Genesis. God
the Creator, the sole active, inteUigent, life-giving,
spirit : matter dull, heavy, void, shapeless, created
by God. But besides this he showed what God is
with relation to man : what man was, how he fell,
what he needs, how those needs must be supplied,
how sin can be atoned for, and man raised up again,
and the breach between heaven and earth be re
paired, and all once again be as at first ' very good.'
Moses must be there, for God in him gave man
the full outline of the marvellous plan of redemp
tion. But why Elijah 1 Because, you will perhaps
say, of his high personal merits, of those qualities
which made it meet that he should be exalted to
heaven in the chariot of fire. But Elijah was there
as the representative of the whole prophetic order,
and not by reason of his personal merits* You
will say then, perhaps, that Elijah was the great
preacher of repentance, and that repentance is the
true preparation for faith, the Baptist cry that
must precede the preaching of the Gospel. But
this is scarcely enough. You have on the Mount of
Transfiguration Moses, Elias, Christ: the law, the
prophets, the Gospel. You can scarcely say that
repentance is the equivalent of the second term.
May not the reason then be that Elijah and his con
temporaries were the real founders of the prophetic
teaching % and that written prophecy was the result,
the product of their work % That product is all-im
portant to us :. by being committed to writing prophecy

230 PROPHETIC TRUTHS OLDER [Lect.
took a firm, lasting, and permanent shape. Yet
the men who first taught those truths, which Micah
and Isaiah penned, may justly hold a higher place
in the view of Him Who judgeth not according to
the semblance, but according to reality. For with
one exception the prophets aU belong to, and give
expression to the same grand circle of ideas. They
speak plainly, clearly, decisively, and harmoniously.
Each retaining his own individual character, his
own style and mode of thinking, they yet utter
no confused and uncertain cries, but -aU teach the
same truths. Now God, even in His highest gifts,
yet works by means. And, as I have shown, pro
phecy was a great institution, numbering its ordinary
members by hundreds and thousands, with its in
spired teachers few, yet so grand and elevated in
their characters and powers, that they stamped the
impress of themselves deeply upon the minds of
their disciples, and of all the religious and thought
ful men of the nation. I have' shown you that this
lasted for three hundred years before Joel and Jonah
penned the first written prophecy. Shall we be
wrong in concluding that an institution so great
had a soul as well as a body % a purpose for which
it existed as well as an organized existence 1 If
there were so many and such flourishing prophetic
coUeges, are we to suppose that nothing was taught
in them except the simplest rudiments % They were
rehgious corporations, they must then have had some
doctrines, something that they believed. We may
be sure, therefore, that what the later prophets

V.] THAN THE PROPHETIC WRITINGS. 231
taught, and have left us in written records, the early
prophets taught also : yet probably God gave these
truths, these spiritual ideas about man and God
and a Saviour, graduaUy. They were slowly won
by the piety and faith of these early prophets :
many of them probably by the close study of the
law of Moses, yet not without the Spirit's direct
aid. Humanly speaking, we should say that the
circle of truth penned by the later prophets was
the result of the teaching of the prophetic schools
during these three centuries. Thus Elijah stands
on the Mount of Transfiguration as the represent
ative of the prophets, because the truths committed
to writing by later prophets were those which he
and his contemporaries had won for men, and which
they taught their disciples.
We are not left, however, to conjecture and rea
soning upon this point. As I mentioned, the pro
phetic schools were closely connected with the temple-
service. Prophets arranged that service : the psalms
sung there were the work of men educated in the
prophetic schools, and written, many of them, long
before the era of written prophecy : the Levites who
sang them had there also their training. Now
psalms and hymns1, I grant, are not the proper
f Psalms and hymns constantly have their origin in doctrines,
and thus indirectly they bear witness to them. But their use to
inculcate doctrines began with heretics. Bardesan first used them
to make Manichsean ideas popular in the East, and Ephrem Syrus
then wrote his poems 'Against the Enquirers" to frustrate his pur
pose. So Peter the Puller convulsed the Greek Church by inserting
into the hymn < 0 holy God, holy Almighty, holy Eternal, have mercy

232 CYCLE OF DOCTRINES [Lect.

means for teaching doctrine. A doctrinal hymn is a
hymn that has mistaken its vocation, and congrega
tions are sorely to be pitied who have to sing them.
Psalms and hymns ought to be the voice of praise
and thanksgiving, mounting up spontaneously from
glad hearts to glorify God for His goodness. And
this is the character of the Psalms of the Bible. They
are the expression not of controversy, but of devotion,
and spring not from the inteUect, but from the heart.
Still in pouring forth of its fulness- the heart will
give unpremeditated utterance to those thoughts
which most deeply agitate it, and little as the early
psalms have in them of distinctive doctrine still they
do show us something of the behef of the saints who
lived in times anterior to the first book of written
prophecy. What, then, do we find in them 1 Exactly the
same great circle of ideas as that given us in prophecy,
forming at all events the back-ground, and giving the
occasion often for the burst of praise which follows.
You have the prophetic view of the intrinsic worth
lessness of sacrifices, and that God's true offering is
thanksgiving (Ps. 1. 8-15, xl. 6-8) : the prophetic view
upon us!' the words 'That wast crucified for us,' but was anathe
matized by the council of Constantinople for his pains. So in
St. Chrysostom's time the battle between Arianism and Orthodoxy
was fought with hymns. But it was an evil necessity which led to
controversial hymns, and all such, especially when intended to enforce
the pet notions of some sect, are painfully out of place in public
worship. Naturally, however, Christian hymns will have more of
doctrine in them than the early psalms, because more doctrine has
been revealed ; but a hymn of praise, springing from a heart filled
with thankfulness at God's dealings with us in grace is one thing,
and a hymn intended to indoctrinate us, and drag some new notion
in, is altogether another.

V.] IN THE BOOK OF PSALMS. 233
of repentance, that it is the contrite . heart, and a
renewed life (Ib. Ii. 17, 10). Sin is forgiven by
our iniquity not being imputed unto us (Ib. xxxii. 1,
2). The Jewish priesthood is to give place to one
higher and better, after the order of Melchizedek s
(Ib. ex. 4). There is a mysterious tale, too, of suf
fering, an oft-repeated promise of especial love for
the poor and needy, and anticipations of a universal
empire over which a Son of David shall rule, of
Whom it is said, ' His name shall endure for ever :
His name shaU be continued as long as the sun :
and men shall be blessed in Him : all nations shall
call Him blessed.' (Ib. IxxH. 17.) But it is not
doctrines only which connect the psalms with the
prophets. They are fuU of pure, noble, spiritual
thoughts, such as the prophets everywhere give
utterance to. Now many of these psalms are writ
ten records of those early times when as yet the
prophets preached only, and did not preserve any
memorials of their sermons : when it was only by
the living memory that the truths taught by
Samuel and Nathan and Ehjah and Elisha were
preserved in the prophetic colleges. And it was
right that thus the earliest written memorials of
prophetic teaching should be these glorious psalms
of praise to God. The first-fruits were ever God's
share, and when they had been offered the rest was
thereby sanctified to man's use and enjoyment.
s This is, however, probably a later psalm, as it was only gradu
ally that the prophets taught that the institutions of Judaism were
all temporary. Aaron's priesthood, like David's throne, was a type
of something more perfect, reserved for the ' latter days.'

234 PURPOSE AND PLACE [Lect.
But, farther, one prophet, as I said, stands apart
from this cycle of ideas ; that is Daniel. In him
prophecy has a new development : it breaks away
from the bonds of Jewish thought, and sets before
us the grand onward march of the world's history,
and the Christian Church as the centre and end of
aU history. Prophecy would not have been com
plete had not this new direction been given to it.
For ' the world is Jehovah's, and the fulness thereof.'
If in Judaism there was a special preparation for a
certain end, that end belonged to the world outside
of Judaism, and prophecy must put the two in their
right connection. When the Jew learnt in Daniel
that the world was greater in God's eyes than Ju
dsea, and that his own especial work was nearly
over, and that therefore the city and sanctuary would
in a few weeks be destroyed, and the sacrifice and
oblation cease, and that God would set up a kingdom
that would never be destroyed, and that this king
dom would not be Judsea, he was puzzled and
offended, and though he could not help inserting
Daniel in the canon of Scripture, yet he would not
admit him among the prophets, but placed the Book
of Daniel between Esther and Ezra, in its chrono
logical order, as a sort of historical writing. Now
God works by means. It was necessary that pro
phecy should have this development, and whom did
He choose as His instrument for giving it ? One
carried as a child to Babylon, probably a prince of
the blood royal of Judsea, but brought up as a
eunuch for service at the king of Babylon's court.

V] OF THE BOOK OF DANIEL. 235
He is not educated at any prophetic college, but in
the wisdom of the Chaldseans. No doubt he would
often meet and converse with many of those believ
ing men who had been brought captive to Babylon
with Jeconiah, and would read with them the law
of Moses, and the recent prophecies of Jeremiah ;
for they, we know, were the great study and comfort
of the exiles ; but he would not be able, as Jeremiah
had been, to pore over and meditate day by day
upon the great mass of prophetic Hterature stored
up in the college at Jerusalem. And when he came
to man's estate, he became a mighty ruler, busied
with the government of a vast empire, and necessary
alike to the Chaldsean monarchs, and to the Medes,
their conquerors. Intensely deep as was Daniel's
religion, and tender as were his love and reverence for
Jerusalem, yet his thoughts are not as the thoughts
of the prophets who preceded him, nor of Ezra and
the returning exiles. God placed him in such cir
cumstances as made it easy for him to look at
Christ's kingdom not with Jewish but with GentUe
eyes. He is the link between Jewish prophecy and
the Christian Church.
And thus, then, I have endeavoured to show that
St. Peter was not wrong in assigning so high a place
among the prophets to Samuel (Acts iii. 24), and
that Elijah was the right representative of the pro
phets, as the bond of union between the law and
the Gospel. Prophecy did not grow out of nothing,
nor does God, so infinitely wise and good, bring
about effects without causes, or govern this world

236 WRITTEN PROPHECY THE PRODUCT [Lect.

by chance-medley. His providence moved Samuel
to found his schools ; it freed him from the cares
of government, by appointing Saul to be king ; and
it prolonged his life for more than thirty years
after that event, that his schools might take deep
root and be strengthened for lasting and powerful
influence. In these schools there grew up under the
teaching of inspired men a definite body of doctrine,
having its foundation in the law, but in close con
nection with the more spiritual part of its teaching ;
that part which Ezekiel described as statutes by
which the soul might live. Its effects were first felt
in God's own service. To the burdensome ritual
of animal sacrifice was added a spiritual sacrifice of
praise and thanksgiving. That service has lasted
from its first commencement in Samuel's schools to
our own day. Psalms written by that youth who
stood beside him at Naioth when Saul's messengers
came to seize him, are sung by us now. May they
not have been first sung by Samuel and his choir %
One of that choir probably was Heman, the son of
Joel, Samuel's first-born (i Chron. vi. 33, 1 Sam. vni.
2), who there acquired that mastery of music which
made him one of the three singers selected by David
and the captains of the host to arrange and preside
over the temple-service (1 Chron. xxv). Blessed with
a numerous family, who all seem to have inherited
Samuel's musical ability, he trained them all ' for song
in the house of Jehovah with cymbals, psalteries, and
harps,' (Ib. ver. 6,) and it is remarkable that no less
than fourteen out of the twenty-four courses of singers

V] OF THE PROPHETIC SCHOOLS. 237
were Samuel's own descendants, and that as long as
the first temple stood they were the chief performers
of that psalmody which he had instituted. Their
' songs of Jehovah,' then, give us the earhest ghmpses
of the teaching of the prophets, but when in due time
it was so far perfect as to be fit for permanent use,
God moved the prophets to commit the revelations
made them to writing. And thus we know what were
the truths for which Samuel and Elijah and Elisha
and so many others laboured. For the new know
ledge vouchsafed ever confirmed the old, and belonged
to the same cycle of thoughts, only it made them
more clear, and pointed them more definitely to
Christ. FinaUy, if we read our Bibles intelligently,
and observe how, from the days of Moses downward,
one great purpose has been steadily carried out, and
then examine the religion of Christ, and see what it
has done for mankind, and for the soul of each believer,
at aU events we must acknowledge that the claims
of Christianity are not to be carelessly and Hghtly
thrust aside. One might venture, perhaps, to say
that a true religion is the best and most precious
gift that God could bestow upon the noblest of His
earthly creatures— man : if so, it would justify the
great and extraordinary preparation made for it ;
and this vast preparation proves again the greatness
and value of the gift.
But written prophecy also requires a close and
exact examination ; and to this I shall proceed in my
next lecture.

LECTURE VI.
THE POUNDATION OP TRUTH LAID BY THE PROPHETS
JONAH, JOEL, AND HOSEA.
Saying none other things than those which the prophets and
Moses did say should come: that Christ should suffer, and
that He should be the first that should rise from the dead, and
should shew light unto the people, and to the Gentiles. — Acts
xxvi. aa, 33.
oT. PAUL, in these words, affirms that the one
subject of his preaching was the fulfilment of pro
phecy in Christ. Now it may seem natural that
our Lord Himself should constantly refer to the
Old Testament as the proper proof of His ministry ;
that He should say, ' Search the Scriptures : for they
are they which testify of Me.' And, again, 'Had
ye believed Moses, ye would have believed Me :
for he wrote of Me.' (John v. 39, 46.) And that
first to the two disciples going to Emmaus, and
then to all the apostles, 'beginning at Moses, He
should have expounded to them in aU the Scriptures
the things concerning Himself.' (Luke xxiv. 27, 46.)
This seems quite natural. Our Lord was speaking
to Jews, and they confessedly had been brought
up in the belief that a national deliverer was to
come, and that in their Scriptures there were certain

APPEAL TO THE OLD TESTAMENT. 239

marks and signs by which they were to recognize
Him when He did come. But it was St. Paul who
gave a wider scope to Christianity, and carried the
message of salvation far and near to those who
otherwise would never have heard it. We find in
the Acts of the Apostles very slight traces of any
readiness on the part of the apostles to obey our
Lord's command to make disciples of the whole
creation. Even the Christians scattered abroad
upon the persecution that arose about Stephen
preached to Jews only. With slight exceptions,
such as the mission to Samaria, and Peter's journey
to Lydda and Joppa, you always find the apostles
on aU occasions at Jerusalem, or in the immediate
neighbourhood. It is a matter of pious belief that
they did become missionaries, but they learned their
duty from St. Paul. His noble example brought
home to them the solemn responsibility laid upon
them by their Lord.
It was St. Paul, then, who was God's chosen
minister for the fulfilment of that which Christ
Himself had proved to the apostles to be the teach
ing of the Old Testament, namely, ' that repentance
and remission of sins should be preached in His
name among all nations.' (Luke xxiv. 47.) And
what is so remarkable is, that St. Paul takes to these
nations the same proof as that to which Christ had
appealed at Jerusalem. He, too, appeals to the
Jewish Scriptures. He can give the GentUes no
stronger evidence of the truth of Christianity than
the fact that in a long series of books, written

240 CALL OF THE GENTILES [Lect.

gradually in the course of many centuries, and of
which the most modern was composed four hundred
years before the Saviour's birth, there was the most
distinct preparation for the religion which He came
to found, and a vast array of passages which had
found in His person and ministry a most exact
fulfilment. One proof which especiaUy would come home to
their minds, is the undeniable fact that prophecy
had from the first distinctly contemplated the substi
tution of a catholic for a local religion. ' Moses and
the prophets taught that Christ should proclaim
light to the people and to the GentUes.' St. Paul,
no doubt, spoke Greek before men like Festus and
Agrippa ; but in the vernacular tongue of Jerusalem
it was but a single letter that separated the Jews
from the Gentiles. They always spoke of themselves
in the singular number as ' the people.' They were
the one people, the chosen, the beloved, to whom aU
God's mercies belonged, who had an exclusive right
to His favour. All mankind besides were ' the
peoples' in the plural number, who Hved outside
the circle of God's care, beyond the pale of His
providence, with no right to His mercies. Now, as
we have seen, the call of the GentUes was one of
the most important points of that circle of doctrine
taught by the prophets. And yet it had not made
the slightest impression upon the popular mind at
Jerusalem. When Stephen preached that Jesus of
Nazareth would destroy Jerusalem, an event which
Daniel had foretold (ix. 26), and which Titus,

VI.] DENIED BY THE JEWS. 241
during the lifetime of that very generation, accom-
phshed, they stoned him. Christ again and again had
taught what St. Stephen preached (Matt. xxi. 41, Luke
xix. 44, xxi. 6), and as He hung upon the cross His
murderers taunted Him with His prediction that the
temple — the symbol and centre of Judaism — should
be destroyed (Matt. xxvH. 40) ; and yet, in the Church
itself, we read but of one besides Stephen who com
prehended the full meaning of the Saviour's words,
and saw that Judaism and Christianity could not
exist together. That one man was St. Paul. He
had consented to Stephen's death. He made glorious
compensation by taking upon himself Stephen's work,
and building up not a Jewish sect, but a cathohc
Church, gathered from all nations, and whose doors
were open to all of every country and rank and
degree. And how was he treated % They resented with
the bitterest hatred his attempt to do what their
own prophets had foretold. In every city the Jews
were his resolute enemies ; his friends were those de
vout Gentiles, who knew the Old Testament, and read
it in the Septuagint translation, and who, not being
blinded by Jewish prejudices, could both understand
the sublimity of its teaching, and also see that it had
promises for them. As for the people of Jerusalem,
when the Boman garrison had rescued Paul from
their attempt to beat him to death, and had obtained
for him a hearing, they listened to his defence till
he used the hated word peoples in the plural, and
then their patience broke down, and they cried,
R

242 A GENTILE CHURCH [Lect.
' Away with such a feUow from the earth, for it is
not fit that he should live/ (Acts xxii. 22.)
Now, as I have shown, Micah and Isaiah had
prophesied just exactly the same truths as those
which Stephen and Paul preached. Those two pro
phets happily escaped violence. They Hved in good
times, and Hezekiah used their prophecies rightly.
A prophecy is never merely a prediction. The
heathen oracles simply foretold an event. So to
do is an act of divination or soothsaying, — a thing
always condemned in the Bible in the strongest
terms. A prophecy always has a moral purpose, and
Hezekiah used Micah's prophecy for its proper pur
pose when he repented, and urged the people to
repentance, and besought the Lord to avert the evil.
But their repentance was short-Hved ; and other
prophets arose with the same 'burden/ the same
sentence upon Jerusalem, and they were met with
as fierce an outcry as Stephen and Paid. Urijah
repeated Micah's prophecy, and king, princes, and
people were all indignant, and the prophet fled from
their rage, but fled in vain ; for Jehoiakim sent men
to Egypt, who ' fetched Urijah forth thence, and he
slew him at Jerusalem with the sword, and cast
his dead body into the graves of the common people.'
Undeterred by this cruelty, Jeremiah proclaimed the
same truth, and great again was the popular rage
at Jerusalem. ' Thou shalt surely die,' they say ;
and with difficulty was he rescued from their vio
lence. (Jer. xxvi.) The Jews read all this, and in
Paul's days no prophet was so highly esteemed as

VI.] FORETOLD BY THE PROPHETS. 243
Jeremiah a. But as , for the truths he had taught,
they were as unpalateable as ever. Jeremiah de
clared absolutely that Jerusalem should become as
Shiloh, and a curse to — that is, a thing cursed by —
all the nations of the earth. St. Paul did no more
than preach to the GentUes. Even that he did only
when the Jews rejected his message. Everywhere
he spake to the Jews first. And yet they were so
enraged even at this that they cried, ' Such a one is
not fit to live.'
The destruction, then, of Jerusalem, the rejection
of the Jews, the call of the GentUes, were plainly
taught by the prophets Micah, Isaiah, Urijah, Jere
miah. But what do we find at the commencement
of written prophecy 1 for it has been said that
prophecy takes its colour from contemporary events.
' The Psalms of David,' we are told, ' and the
writings of Solomon gave utterance to the feelings
of a time when the hopes of Israel came to at best
but a typical fulfilment. The prophecies that fol
lowed were to comfort Jehovah's people for the loss
of this splendour.' And these by no means com-
a In Matt, xxvii. 9 Jeremiah's name is used as equivalent to the
whole circle of the prophets. But it is chiefly in Jewish legends
that we find how great a place he held in the popular imagination.
Thus in 2 Mace. ii. 5 he is described as hiding the tabernacle and
ark and altar of incense in a cave; and in ch. xv. 13-16 he ap
pears as ' a man with grey hairs, and exceeding glorious, and of a
wonderful and excellent majesty,' who prays much for the people
and for the holy city, and summons Judas Maccabeus to its aid, and
girds him with a sword of gold. Hence the expectation of his re
appearing, John i. 25.
r a

244 PRIMARY AND SECONDARY [Lect.
forting prophecies of the removal of the Jews, took
their colouring, it is said, from the gloom cast by
those vast and restless monarchies of Nineveh and
Babylon upon the neighbouring states. Now I am
quite prepared to grant that very often a lower
reference is possible. Many a psalm which speaks
of Christ's universal empire begins with a possible
aUusion to' David's wide-spread dominion, or to the
calm peace of Solomon's reign. But rapidly it breaks
away from this narrow beginning, and uses words
which not merely surpass the bounds of Oriental
imagination, but would be fearfuUy impious if ap
pUed to any being less than God. So the troubled
relations of Jerusalem with the Assyrian monarchy
may have made the prophets, on the one hand, fore
bode Jerusalem's faU, while, on the other, they could
not but feel that a nation chosen so specially must
have, in spite of present difficulties, a grand future
before it. Grant all this — though I beg to say that
Jewish expositors do not grant it ; they know nor
thing about this theory of a second sense of prophecy
¦ — but grant it, and what foUows 1 Nothing : nothing,
at least, that in the slightest degree invalidates the
argument from prophecy. It rather strengthens it.
The voices of the prophets are in exact relation to
their times ; in other words, the history of the
Jewish people combines with the express teaching
of their holiest men in setting up that wide circle
of doctrine which finds in Christ and in Christianity
its exact fulfilment. But then, besides, there is a
vast mass of teaching in the prophetic books which

VI.] SENSE OF PROPHECY. 245
you cannot thus account for. Even that which does
grow out of some fact or circumstance in Jewish
history quickly leaves behind it aU reference to that
present event, and hastens on to ' the latter times/
But much has no such reference, and would have
been absolutely without meaning to the prophet's
contemporaries, had not they as well as he been
trained and habituated to look forward to the times
of the Messiah as those in which aU the national
hopes were to be fulfilled.
The Jews, as I said, do not hold this theory of
a primary and secondary sense of prophecy. Their
Targums and aU their early expositors refer a large
number of passages peremptorily to king Messiah
and to Him only. The rest, in an equaUy absolute
manner, they refer to the prophet's own times. But
the Christian view rather is that you cannot thus
separate the Bible into two parts, one belonging
to Christ, and one having no reference to Him.
We affirm that there are many passages which be
long to Christ only, which have no reference to
contemporaneous history, have nothing to do with
anything Jewish, and were not suggested by any
thing local or temporary, but were opposed to and
contradicted aU Jewish prejudices and modes of
thought. The most evident example of this directly
Christian teaching of the prophets is the complete
portraiture which they give of a suffering Messiah,
and any one acquainted with the Targums and
with Jewish expositors is well aware what an utter
puzzle this portraiture was and is to them, and
how it contradicted and still contradicts aU their

246 THE OLD TESTAMENT [Lect.

deepest feelings and their patriotic hopes. They
were equally puzzled, too, with that other teaching,
that while the Jewish Church was to live on for
ever, it was nevertheless to be a Church of the
Gentiles. But while we affirm that such ideas as
these of a suffering Christ and a Catholic Church
were entirely ahen to the whole tenour of Jewish
thought, we also affirm that much may finally have
a real fulfilment in Christ, which has also an equaUy
real reference to something Jewish. It may have
begun with man, but it ends with God : it may
have begun with some event or person belonging
to the preparatory church ; but it moves onward,
and rises to a fuUer and nobler — yes, and a truer
meaning. Psalms occasioned by some temporary
occurrence, prayers bursting from hearts overcharged
with emotions arising from present mercies, narra
tives and persons, in strictest harmony with their
times, yet leave constantly those times far behind,
and suggest thoughts of Christ, and shed light upon
His office and work for us. If this occurred once
only, or twice, or ten times, you might say it was
chance work. If it were mere spiritualizing, a
forced and far-fetched interpretation, it would not
have any argumentative force, however capable it
might be of adaptation to pious uses. But the
interpretation is natural, obvious, plain. It is so
general a rule in all the prophetic books, that you
do not get rid of its force by hunting up with
petty minuteness some present occurrence to which
the declarations of the prophets may in some few
cases, here and there, possibly refer.

VI.] EVERYWHERE PROPHETIC. 247
For, after aU, it is not on separate passages that
we depend for our proof, so much as on the manner
in which the whole Bible prepares for and teaches
Christ. The whole atmosphere of the Old Testa
ment is instinct with prophecy ; Judaism from first
to last is a progress towards the Gospel. You have,
I grant, many very remarkable predictions which
came exactly true : this is something — a great thing.
StiU, far more weighty is the fact that these express
predictions are but the highest summits as it were
of a whole region rising up everywhere to Christ.
The facts and persons of the Old Testament typify
Him : the Mosaic law and the ritual of the temple
teach us the nature and efficacy of His work for
us and in us; its psalms, and prayers, and songs
of rejoicing speak not merely of present blessings,
but of a coming Saviour : ever the thoughts of
the prophets dwell among those ' latter times/ when
the work of Israel is done, and God's new covenant
bestowed upon mankind. All the institutions of
Judaism, the whole state of things which it sets
before us, as weU as the express teaching of its
sacred books, look forward to and converge in Jesus
of Nazareth. Eighteen centuries have passed since
Jesus of Nazareth came, and Christians still, as they
read the Old Testament, find there the same truths
as in the New. We read it without note or com
ment, and without an effort it teUs us of Christ's
offices, Christ's work. We do not ask, Of whom
speaketh the prophet this 1 With calm, clear, power
ful voice it sets before us the Man of Sorrows,

248 NOTHING IN JUDAISM [Lect.

Who died that we might live. You say this is
fanaticism ; but fanaticism never reasons. It never
compares truths with one another, nor can it stand
the test of enquiry and cool reflection. But it is
to our reason that this argument, drawn from the
unity of the two Testaments, appeals, and men, as
they compare them, cannot but see that they do
hold a definite relation to one another. Necessarily
imperfect, veUed, reserved, the Old Testament yet
leads up directly to the New, and forms a connected
whole with it. It does fit exactly into its place, and
that in a large grand way of which no minute criti
cism can lessen the force.
StiU, as St. Peter reminds us, Christianity does
not owe its light to Judaism, nor was either Judaism
or Christianity the effect of the external state of
things by which they were surrounded. I have
shown that there was nothing in the state of Israel
when it left Egypt to account for Moses, nothing
in the time of the Judges to account for Samuel.
It woidd be labour thrown away to show that there
was nothing in the state of things under the kings
of Judah and Israel to account for the pure, spiritual
teaching of the prophets. As St. Peter says, 'the
prophetical word was a lamp shining in a squalid
place/ while Christianity is ' the day-light, and the
morning star/ (2 Pet. i. 19.) The one is a small
light, the other a great and glorious Hght, but the
place was but owy/i^o? toVo?. Both of them infi
nitely excel the mental and moral condition of the
people by whose instrumentality God gave them.

VI.] TO ACCOUNT FOR PROPHECY. 249

The Jews had many great and noble qualities, but
the Bible everywhere describes them as a stubborn
and rebeUious race. Their history is a disappointing
one, with little in it of earthly grandeur and no
bility. But there is just one point in which they
do excel all nations. They had a true religion,
and they were God's means for giving mankind
this one true, universal, and final rehgion. But
this religion was no product of their own ; no
national growth. Their history is the history rather
of a continuous resistance to God's purposes. As
a rule they did their very utmost to corrupt religion.
There was not one of those spiritual truths taught
by the prophets from Moses to Malachi, which they
did not do their best to degrade, and from which
they would not wiUingly have escaped. It was
the few, — one here and one there, — the few, yet
men never wanting in the Jewish Church, by whom
God gave mankind His light. As for the mass,
they were uneircumcised in heart and ears, and
Stephen truly said of them, ' Ye do always resist
the Holy Ghost : as your fathers did, so do ye.'
(Acts vn. 51.) They were but a squalid place, yet
God deigned to put His light there, and that light
was God's express gift, for it was the Hght, not of
natural, but of revealed truth, dim often, yet ever
growing in brightness, and pointing onwards to Him
Who is the Truth.
Even the few, the' men by whose instrumentality
God gave mankind the light, were seldom men
possessed of great originality, or of what we should

250 EARLY PROPHECY [Lect.
caU creative minds. Moses in the Old Testament,
St. John, St. Stephen, St. Paul in the New, had
minds thus powerful, but most of the prophets and
apostles were practical men who received truth slowly,
and only gradually yielded their assent to new ideas.
A vast gulph separates them from our Lord. In
Him truth weUed up as from an inner fountain,
without struggle or effort. Of Him alone could
we say, not that He had attained to truth, or spake
truth, but that simply He was the Truth.
And truth in Christ St. Peter declares is no lamp
or torch, but sunlight. And like the Hght of the
sun it belongs to aU. It is no private property,
but GentUes and Jews alike share in it. It is too
large and universal for it to be possible that there
can be any exclusive right to its possession. Now
if there be anything plainly taught in the prophets,
it is, that Judaism was to give place to a catholic,
a universal religion. And it taught this in direct
opposition to every hope and aspiration of the Jew.
The Jew dreamed of successful war, and of the
GentUes trampled ruthlessly under foot ; their
Messiah was to be a fierce and pitiless zealot,
whose sword would be drunk with slaughter. The
prophets spake of a suffering Messiah, of a religion
of peace and love (Micah iv. 3, 4), of a church which
Jews indeed were to found (Ib. 2), and of which
they were to be the first teachers, but which would
very soon turn against them, and regard them with
the bitterest hostUity. It is painful constantly to
read in the Fathers their rooted and unreasoning

VI.] CATHOLIC IN ITS TEACHING. 251
antipathy to the Jews, but the aversion remains to
this day. Jeremiah's words have proved true. The
Jew is a curse in the mouth of aU the nations of
the earth (Jer. xxvi. 6).
Now what I wish to point out to-day is, that this
grand cathohc teaching is no afterthought of pro
phecy, but that written prophecy starts with as
wide a programme as that of Micah and Isaiah,
in the days of its fullest development. The two
oldest written prophecies are those of Jonah and
Joel. The object of the former of these books is
to set before us the nature of prophecy itself,
while Joel strikes the key-note of that spiritual
teaching which has made the prophets the instruct
ors, not of one age, but of aU ages and aU peoples.
These two books form the proper introduction to
the whole series of the prophetic records, but in
stead of arranging them in chronological order, we
have adopted from the Jews a method apparently
devised to make it impossible to read our bibles
inteUigentlyb. The book of Jonah would never
b Though there is comparatively little uncertainty as to the
chronological order of the prophetic books, we nevertheless arrange
them according to their length, and thus Hosea, the prophet
struggling with apostatizing Israel, is put after Daniel, the link
between the Jewish and Gentile Churches. The confusion of the
New Testament is even worse. Not only are St. Paul's Epistles
arranged according to the supposed political importance of the
place to which they were addressed, but, contrary to the rule
of antiquity .and the authority of manuscripts, the Catholic
Epistles, with their general teaching, are placed after the specific
teaching of St. Paul !

252 PURPOSE OF THE [Lect.
have been regarded as a mere tale, nor its import
ance missed, if it had held its proper place at the
head of the roU. And so of Joel. Ewald0 has weU
remarked that Isaiah would have been, moraUy
speaking, an impossibility, had not Joel and other
spiritual prophets preceded him, and yet we put
Isaiah first, whUe Joel, whose teaching prepares for
that of Isaiah, is put away in a corner, as if the
importance of a prophet depended solely upon the
number of chapters which he wrote. So, too, Isaiah's
quotation from Micah would have been ten times
more obvious and forcible, if Micah had held his
proper place in the canon : while Jeremiah's nar
rative of the outcry raised against Micah in Jeru
salem, and of the effect produced by his prediction
upon Hezekiah's mind, and of the national mourn
ing to avert Jehovah's anger, all this and more
would have come home to us with double force
and fuUer meaning, if in the course of our dady
readings that narrative had followed instead of
preceding the prophecy which led to such remark
able events.
Now what is the nature of the teaching of this
Book of Jonah 1 The first thing that strikes us
is that this, the earliest book of written prophecy, is
a narrative of a mission to a Gentile city, and that
city the sworn foe and enemy of Israel. Jonah did

c ' Jesaja ware ohne Joel und andre grosse vorganger unmoglich
gewesen, er schliesst sich an sie, und fiihrt ihr werk in lebendiger
fortsetzung weiter.' Ewald, Propheten d. A.B. i. 273.

VI.] BOOK OF JONAH. 253
labour for Israel, as we learn in the Book of Kings
(2 Kings xiv. 25): but in . his written prophecy
Israel holds no place. And next it is an errand
of mercy. Nineveh repents at his preaching, and is
spared. Now the prophets generally have a message
for the heathen nations round ; only two or three
confine themselves to Israel and Judah. The heathen
nations do not lie beyond the pale of God's provi
dence ; and thus Nahum's one subject is Nineveh,
Habakkuk's is Chaldsea, Obadiah's is Edom. But
this is no case merely of sending them a warning, or
recording a condemnation of their sins. Jonah has
to labour in person among these heathen, and his
whole Jewish nature rises up against such a service.
He will flee to the ends of the earth rather than so
violate his prejudices. His name, Jonah, means a
dove ; but he cannot brook the thought of carrying
the olive-branch to those hateful Assyrians. Nothing
short of evident necessity can induce him to obey
God's command. So it was with the apostles. Simon
Bar-jonah will go and receive the Boman centurion,
Cornelius, into the Church only after he has thrice
had a command from heaven not to caU, in his Jewish
way, that common and unclean which the Holy Ghost
had sanctified. Had Jonah been quite sure that
Nineveh would be destroyed, then he would have
nerved himself to go. What he could not endure
was the feeling that there might be mercy for these
ruthless Assyrians. ' This was what I said when I
was yet in my country, and therefore I fled before
Thee unto Tarshish : for I knew that Thou art a

254 PROPHECY [Lect.
gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and of
great kindness, and repentest Thee of the evil/
(Jonah iv. 2.)
Jonah knew, then, the nature of prophecy better
than most expositors do now, and his book is more
remarkable for what it teaches us about prophecy
itself, than even for the fact that he was sent to labour
in a Gentile city. The great lesson of the Book of
Jonah is, that prophecy is no blind fate, threatening
men with an irrevocable destiny, but that it has a
moral purpose, and is a warning given by an omni
scient but merciful ruler to beings capable of repent
ance, and of thereby reversing the decrees of justice.
In the heathen world you ever find the idea of evd
impending upon men without the possibiUty of
escape. This is the one ground-thought of the
Greek drama, and the more innocent the sufferer the
more tragic and interesting is the onward course of
events, by which, through no fault of his own, he
is doomed to destruction. This, too, is the one idea
of all ancient oracles. Obscurely and in enigma they
predict some calamity. The prediction must be so
given as that it shall not serve as a warning, but,
if possible, rather invite its victim to his fate. In
the opening book of prophecy all these detestable
views are carefuUy guarded against. It is no blind
fate, but a kind, a merciful, a man-loving God, Who
orders all human things for man's good, and Who
directs the course of history, and guides the very laws
of nature so as to make them serve for moral purposes.
If there is one lesson clearly taught in the prophetic

VI.] OPPOSED TO FATALISM. 255

writings, it is God's longsuffering. It is even start
ling to find Jeremiah declaring in Jehovah's name to
Zedekiah, but a short time before Jerusalem was
captured, that if he would even then submit, God
would spare him and the city (Jer. xxxviii. 17). Our
patience has long been too utterly exhausted with
that weak bad man for us to imagine that God's
patience is not exhausted too. But His compassions
fail not. There is mercy even after the eleventh
hour has struck. It is man who obstinately persists
in his evil courses. The danger of a death-bed
repentance does not consist at all in God not being
ready to spare, but in the moral certainty that such
as a man has lived, such wiU he also die.
Now if the Book of Jonah had held its proper
place at the beginning of the prophetic writings,
men could never have confounded prophecy and
fatalism. Nothing could be plainer and more ex
press than Jonah's prediction, 'Yet forty days and
Nineveh shall be overthrown/ But it was not an
absolute decree, but conditional. Bepentance could
and did reverse it. Now I am not prepared to enter
upon the question what God's decrees are, when
looked at from above — from God's side. So regarded
they are probably absolute, unchanging, inevitable.
But the discussion wotdd lead me into the mazes of
the controversy how man's free will can coexist with
God's omniscience and omnipotence. If you work
downwards from definitions of these two divine
attributes, it is easy to show that everything must
have been predestined from the beginning, and be

256 GOD'S DEALINGS WITH MAN [Lect.
irrevocably fixed ; and if you include the idea of
God's absolute immutability, you wiU get an argu
ment by no means easy to answer in proof that
there is no such thing as the world at all, with such
disturbing elements in it as sin, and repentance, and
prayer, and reward, and punishment. But it is
possible to begin at the other end : to begin with
man, and this created world around us, and the
facts of our own nature and experience : to begin,
that is, with what we understand, and not with that
which we cannot understand. And thus we find
ourselves free, and the Bible speaks of us as free ;
for it says that we are made in God's own image,
and endowed with dominion over nature (Gen. i. 26).
But to be like God, and to rule, and yet not be free,
is an absurdity. And so, then, I look at prophecy
in the same way, from man's side, and as it is set
before us in the Bible ; and there I find it clearly
declared to be conditional. God's dealings with us
would not be moral deahngs if they were irrevocably
decreed, and if human repentance and human prayer
availed nothing with Him. If this were so, instead
of a personal God, a blind, harsh, cruel, relentless fate
would rule man's destinies, and crush him with stony
calmness and scientific precision. Thank God, this
is not what the Bible sets before us. Jonah's pre
diction was moral, that is, it had man's good for its
object, and was conditional upon the behaviour of
the people of Nineveh ; and Jonah was sent to de
clare it to them, not for so unworthy a purpose as
that they might know an inevitable future, but that

VI.] CONDITIONAL. 257
they might repent. If they repented, the whole
purpose of the prophet's mission was gained. A
prophecy can- only be said to have faUed when it
has wrought no moral effect whatsoever.
For the God in whom we believe is a God of
providence, a God who made man free to serve or
disobey Him, and who stiU governs man by moral
means, and therefore justly rewards and punishes.
Fate, destiny, the changeless sequence of nature,
the immutability of law, every idea that human
actions are governed by an inflexible necessity,
belong to heathen, and not to Christian men. A
Christian believes in repentance, and it is the very-
law of repentance that it reverses God's previous
decrees. The Scripture phrase, that 'it repented
God/ may be very unphilosophical. Beally and
truly, as Scripture tells us, God cannot repent.
But the phrase teaches us a great truth — a truth
without which religion could not exist, namely,
that human actions produce a change in the order
of Providence, or seem to us to do so ; for I am
looking at things in the only intelligible way in
which men can look at them, namely, as they appear
to us and concern us. To frame a constitution for
man as a moral agent from a priori notions of God's
nature, deserves to be set side by side with that
other folly, of deciding what creation ought to be
from the same sort of views. As certainly as the
creation of the world is incompatible with a priori
notions of God's immutability; as certainly as the
existence of sin and sorrow in the world is incom-

258 ALL EARTHLY KNOWLEDGE [Lect.
patible with d priori notions of God's wisdom and
goodness ; so certainly is man's moral freedom incom
patible with similar notions of God's foreknowledge
and omnipotence. That is, it is incompatible with
man's d priori notions. Of course this is a very
sad predicament for those who regard man as the
ultimate and perfect measure of aU things, and sup
pose that that which seems to man, also reaUy is.
To the Christian it is no difficulty at all. We start
with the confession, that now we know only in part
(i Cor. xiii. 12). But it would be well for all to
remember, that you cannot really argue from igno
rance. Of course I do not mean but that plenty
of people as a matter of fact do thus argue, but
what I mean is that no legitimate conclusion follows
from such arguments. Absolutely we know nothing
of God's real nature, such as it is in itself. He
has revealed to us what He is towards us, what His
attributes are, and what His nature is, relatively to
man, and so far as man can understand Him. But
who can rise up to the contemplation of the one
eternal I AM, such as He is in Himself 1 No being
can rise higher than itself elevated to the highest
degree of such perfection as it is capable of, and
purged from all its imperfections. It is part of the
promised bliss of heaven, that we shall know as
we ourselves are known (1 Cor. xni. 12). For ' when
God shaU have appeared, we shall be like Him, for
we shall see Him as He is/ (1 John Hi. 2.) But
even this does not mean that man will ever fuUy
comprehend God, or that our nature wUl be commen-

VI.] INCOMPLETE. 259
surable with His nature. What it means is, that
whereas now we have no other notions of God than
those derived from our own nature, hereafter we
shall understand somewhat of God's real, heavenly
nature, such as it is in itself. And thus we are
content to leave many an enigma unsolved (i Cor.
xHi. 12). We know that here we are limited on
every side, but we look forward to a better and
abiding home, where, in the beatific vision, we shall
be freed from the infirmities, physical, mental, and
moral, which in this, our trial world, constantly
remind us that it cannot be our rest.
Viewed, then, thus from below, we find ourselves
living in a world of the conditional, a moral world, as
we caU it, because human actions in it are influenced
by pleasure and pain, reward and punishment. And
this is the great lesson of the Book of Jonah. It
teaches us that, Hke all God's deahngs, prophecy
is for man's good, and not for his destruction. The
threatenings of the prophets are no absolute decrees,
no predictions of an inevitable necessity, but may be
averted by repentance and prayer. As I said before,
no prophecy could be more express. The time is
fixed, 'Yet forty days/ The event specified, ' Nineveh
shaU be overthrown/ The people repent, and the
city is spared. Jonah, naturally, is very angry. A
man's one self is of much more importance to him
than six hundred thousand other people, and better
they perish than Jonah's word faU of a Uteral accom-
phshment. But by his sorrow over the gourd God
s 2

260 JONAH TEACHES THE EFFICACY [Lect.
makes him condemn himself, and shows him the
wickedness of his conduct.
And this most important lesson certainly did not
grow out of anything either in the feelings or in the
history of the Jews themselves. In opposition to
that narrow and concentrated patriotism which so
marked the whole nation, and of which we see plain
proofs in Jonah's flight, and refusal to carry to
heathens a call to repentance, and his desire that
repentant Nineveh might stiU perish ; in opposition
to all this he is made the instrument of teaching that
prophecy is for man's good, and that its errand of
mercy is not confined to the Jewish Church, but
embraces within it all mankind. So St. Paul declared
that this was the one object of any threatenings of
evU in his own writings : ' Knowing the terror of the
Lord we persuade men/ (2 Cor. v. 11.) But persua
sion is impossible where there is no hope. No state
is so dangerous as that of the man who gives himself
up for lost. But there is no trace of this detestable
fatalism in either the Old Testament or the New. It
is a message of mercy from first to last, and warns
man of his dangers only that he may be moved to
escape from them. And how is he to escape from
them 1 It is by prayer and repentance. It is prayer
•which 'brings up Jonah's life from corruption;' it is
repentance which saves Nineveh. Not even in the
Gospel itself is the efficacy of prayer and repentance
more plainly set forth.
But there you learn why prayer and repentance

VI.] OF PRAYER AND REPENTANCE. 261
avaU. The time had not come, in Jonah's days,
for the full revelation of the manner in which God
saves us. Yet, as our Lord Himself teaches us (Matt.
xii. 40), there is in Jonah the sign of that death
and resurrection whereby we can die to sin and
rise again to a renewed Hfe. It was a sign not
understood at the time, nor intended to be under
stood. Even when our Lord referred to it, none
probably could teU what His words exactly meant.
It required other teaching to explain it. But
when Christ had risen from the dead, then the
full significance of the sign became plain. And
thus, then, in the earhest written prophecy d, — for we
may, I think, accept the date given by Mr. Drake,
d Supposing, however, that the Book of Jonah were a mere tale,
a fiction, as the neologists assert, you then, without losing any of
the force of its teaching, have a problem to solve more difficult
than ever. Of course the Book of Jonah must be put at a much
later date, long after the fall of Nineveh, and yet the purity of its
style, which nevertheless has something very personal and indi
vidual about it, will not let it fit in well even with the Chaldaic
period. Supposing, however, that with Ewald (Proph. d. A.B. iii.
237) you assert that it belongs to the end of the sixth century, how
do you account for the teaching of the book 1 Who was the won
derful man who entertained this view of prophecy so much in
advance of even Christian commentators 1 Whence came his en
larged views towards the Gentiles % his conviction that God
cared for them % I can find no era in Jewish history when such
views would have had a hearing, or any book containing them have
been admitted into the canon except upon the certainty that the
writer was a prophet. The popular view of prophecy was that it
was its business to curse the Gentiles and bless the Jews. They
would have trampled the Book of Jonah under foot unless it had
had some external authority.

262 OCCASION [Lect.

namely B.C. 840, in the reign of Adrammelech II,
as the most probable ; — in this earliest prophetic
record we are taught, first, what is the nature of
all prophecy, namely, that it is conditional, for man's
good, to move him to godly sorrow, and no dis
closure of destiny, but a warning of the necessary
consequences of sin unless averted by repentance :
secondly, we find a type of the central facts of Christ
ianity, Christ's death and resurrection : and lastly, we
have a foreshowing of the caU of the GentUes, and of
their acceptance of the call. Surely such a prophecy
was a fit preface and introduction to the whole pro
phetic canon ; for it gives the outline and measure
of that which succeeding prophets did but fill up
and complete. It is Jewish, and yet it transcends
all Jewish ideas and notions, contradicts their pre
judices, and sets before them a nobler mission than
any they ever contemplated, even that of being the
messengers of love to mankind. There is a tender
ness too in it, a purpose of healing the ills of all
mankind, which even the apostles with difficulty
realized. It needed the call of Paul, the Boman
citizen, the Hellenist trained at the Greek uni
versity of Tarsus, the inhabitant of Antioch, that
trading capital of the whole world, before even
the Christian Church could throw itself heartily
into the work of bearing the Gospel of love to. all
the Ninevehs, the fierce, debased, heathen cities
of a world lying in darkness and estranged from
God. And next in the list comes Joel ; and his teaching,

VI.] OF THE BOOK OF JOEL. 263
too, is spiritual, and not Jewish so much as cathohc,
and a lesson for all mankind. The occasion of his
prophecy was a two-fold national calamity ; the first
a general drought, the second and more terrible
the appearance year after year of vast armies of
locusts, whose ravages are described with wonder
ful force, and also with the greatest truth and
most exact agreement with nature. Many com
mentators have supposed that the description of
the locusts is symbohcal, but a passage in Amos
iv. 9 shows that the land was reaUy desolated by
these insects, and it is far more probable that the
misery caused by the wasting of their crops was
what moved the prophet to urge the people to
repentance, than that he introduced these details
as mere poetical colouring for his exhortations.
When we bear in mind that, in spite of the help
given them from this country, one fourth part of
the people of Ireland died from the failure for one
year of a single article of food, we may to some
extent form an estimate of the distress occasioned
by successive years of famine. No wonder that
'joy had withered away from the sons of men'
(i. 12), and that not only had they parted with
their silver and gold to the Sidonians and Phi
listines to purchase corn, but had even sold
their children to the Greeks (iii. 4-6), thinking
slavery better for them than death, or lost, it may
be, to aU feelings of natural affection from the
greatness of their despair. Finally, so utter was the
famine that the meat-offering and drink-offering, and

264 PROVIDENCE [Lect.
probably aU the sacrifices of the temple, had to be
discontinued for want of means (i. 9).
In this extremity of grief Joel summons them to
a solemn fast. All the people must gather together,
the priests and the ministers of the altar, the elders
and the inhabitants of the land : they must assemble
at God's house with fasting, with weeping, and with
mourning ; but withal he warns them that it must
be a rending of the heart and not of the garments
(H. 13); it must be a true, real, earnest, heartfelt
repentance. If so they return to God, He wiU
withdraw from them His chastisements. The early
and latter rain shaU come in abundance, and the
fertility of the land in future seasons shaU amply com
pensate them for their lost treasures. ' I wiU restore
to you the years that the locust hath eaten.' (ii. 25.)
Thus far, then, we have the simple but grand
lesson of God's Providence. As the Book of Jonah
showed that prophecy is given for a moral purpose,
so the Book of Joel shows that God's dealing's with
man in nature have also their moral lessons. The
God of nature is also the God of grace. He may
speak more plainly to us in His holy word than
He does in the world around us, but the lessons
taught are the same. And men try to escape from
them however they are taught. Man prefers to be
alone in the world — he will not brook the presence
of any active intelligent power higher than him
self; and thus he wUl see in nature only the
endless procession of cause and. effect moving on
coldly, senselessly, purposely, in obedience to fixed

VI.] JOEL'S LESSON. 265
laws, which laws have either no lawgiver, or one
who must not watch over, or control, or influence
them. Christians believe that the so-called laws
of nature mean only the presence of God's almighty
will, and that they are so even, perfect, apparently
changeless because His will is perfect. But they
believe that from the first God so wdled them
as that they shotdd minister to man's probation, and
to the individual good of all who love Him (Bom.
viii. 28). And this is what Joel teaches us, that
under all the dealings of God's providence there
Hes a moral purpose. It may not be capable of
proof by inductive reasoning, but it is taught us
by the faculties of our soul, proved to us by the
facts and experience of our daily life, acknowledged
by us in every act of prayer, grasped firmly by
our spiritual instincts. The belief in Providence
is the belief in God's active presence in the world.
Without this belief what a mockery would life be !
What a blank atheism would He before us as the
alternative ! And as regards any other world, if
God be present here only as a power inherent in
laws which move darkly forward without any intel
ligent or moral purpose, how can we dare hope
that we shaU find Him an intelligent or moral
governor in any other world, whether existing now
elsewhere, or yet to come %
But from the lesson of Providence Joel draws
other lessons. If the events of our lives, and what
happens in the world around us ; if chastisement
and mercy, joy and sorrow, are all intended to

266 REPENTANCE FOLLOWED BY [Lect.
move man to repentance, and wean him from sin,
and win him for God, what follows upon this 1 Or
does anything follow upon it 1 And why this
vast machinery to lead us to it 1 The answer
is, that upon repentance foUows God's gift of grace.
' I wiU pour out My Spirit upon all flesh ; yes,
even upon slaves and maidservants in those days
will I pour out My Spirit/ (ii. 28, 29.) Bepentance
has its own happiness, and this Joel has described
as the restoration of that which we had lost. But to
those who have God gives more ; and thus, freed from
the curse of sin, His people move onward to higher
privileges. Bepentance opens, as it were, the door by
which we may enter upon the spiritual life. And
so, eight hundred years afterwards, John the Baptist
preached again Joel's sermon, but in a new form.
He pieached first of all 'the baptism of repentance for
the remission of sins ;' (Mark i. 4 ;) that was a mere
preparatory stage. His other words were, 'He that
cometh after me is mightier than I : He shall baptize
you with the Holy Ghost, and fire.' (Matt. in. 11.)
Now this is a universal truth belonging to all
times, and to every individual man. It matters not
when, or who ; there is but one entrance to the
Christian life, and that is repentance. He who lives
in sin unrepented of is no Christian. Yet Joel con
nects this truth with one special time. What time
he did not know, except that it was the time of the
Messiah. He speaks indefinitely ; ' It shall come
to pass afterward! And again, 'In those days wiU
I pour out My Spirit/ St. Peter tells us (1 Pet. i. 10)

VI. j THE GIFT OF THE SPIRIT. 267

that the prophets laboured diligently to find out
more exactly when these times should be ; but,
excepting to Daniel, only signs of them were given
whereby not the prophets themselves, but men sub
sequently might be able to recognize them when
they did come. So our Lord Himself gave only
signs of that dread coming of the Son of Man in
the destruction of the Jewish Church and common
wealth, which that very generation was to witness.
Its exact date He declared was no proper subject
for revelation ; for if times and seasons were declared
to us, probation would be made impossible. And
thus the prophets necessardy spake indefinitely, and
their words must often have been an enigma to
themselves and to their contemporaries. Yet even
the men of those times were taught a valuable
though general lesson. Jonah taught them the
wideness of God's mercy ; the efficacy of prayer.
Joel taught them the present blessedness of repent
ance, and that it is the indispensable condition for
receiving stiU higher gifts.
And if they had deeper, fuUer teaching stored
up for the use of future times, is not this exactly
what we should expect of revelation 1 If the Bible
is God's word, must it not speak to men throughout
all ages'? It is a thought difficult to realize, that
God's word must be so constructed as to speak
with living power to men at aH times, of all nations,
in all stages alike of civilization and barbarism, of
learning and ignorance, of progress and of decay.
Till our Lord came the word of God was growing,

268 THE BIBLE NEVER MORE THAN [Lect.
but in Him revelation became complete, and its record
ends with a curse upon the man who shall add to or
detract aught from the words of the Book of Life.
But, complete as it is, must it not have lessons
for the future as well as for the present and past \
Wordd not the Bible soon grow stale and obsolete
if there were no deep meanings wrapped up in it
which only the course of time can unfold 1 Surely
it is this fulness of meaning which makes each gener
ation turn to it for the solution of the problems of
its own time. It has been well saide, that the
Church never understood St. Paul's Epistles tiU the
era of the Beformation. We seem once again in
danger of losing that insight into his marvellous
teaching which then so stirred aU the more intel
lectual minds in the Church. But those very minds
missed the value of St. James' teaching, which to
us seems so absolutely necessary in order to com
plete the true portraiture of faith. The time,
perhaps, is fast coming when the Bevelation of
St. John, excluded no longer from our services, may
speak with trumpet tongue to us, and the messages
of our Lord to the seven churches may be seen to
be a clear, plain message to churches now. And
may I not ask, Is not the Old Testament a sealed
book to most of us now % ' The Jews misuse it :
Christians know not how to use it1/ To one here
and there it is not destitute of meaning : to the
mass it teaches but little. But when the time
e Hofmann, Weissagung u. Erfullung, i. 46.
f Hofmann, as above.

VI.] PARTIALLY UNDERSTOOD. 269
comes described by St. Paul in Bom. xi, the Old
Testament may once again speak with living force,
and be the means of welding Jew and Gentile into
a Church whose vast proportions and firm hold of
evangehcal truth may far surpass everything that
exists now.
For mark how even an apostle could fall short
of the fuU significance of the words of God. St.
Peter, at Pentecost, quoted Joel's prophecy (Acts
ii. 16-2 1). It was the day on which the prophecy
was fulfilled. And Joel evidently was much studied
by the apostles, for they quote him continually. But
though Peter repeated the words, 'I will pour out
My Spirit upon aU flesh/ it needed an express reve
lation and direct command before he could be per
suaded that aU flesh meant more than Jewish flesh.
When the Holy Ghost was poured out upon Cor
nelius, Peter and they of the circumcision were
astonished beyond measure, and though he submitted
to what he felt to be God's will, yet his affections
were concentrated upon his own people. Not that
there was any doubt that ' aU flesh' meant aU man
kind. Peter would never have argued that the
phrase either had or could have any other meaning.
But that meaning had never presented itself defi
nitely before his mind. So, often all our lives
through, we have words in our mouths, and read
and hear them, and yet their true, full meaning
never strikes us. The truth is familiar to us, it
is daily confessed and repeated by rote, but has
never reached our hearts; and perhaps, at length

270 JOEL REVEALS [Lect.
something wakens us up, and henceforward the truth
is a living reality, influencing and moulding our
lives ; or, it may be, we die, and have never under
stood it. So, at the day of Pentecost, half Joel's
words suddenly came home to Peter's mind. With
awe he witnessed servants and handmaids inspired
with God's Holy Spirit ; but all his Hfe long he
gave but an unwilling assent to the other half, that
Gentiles should henceforward share that Spirit as
freely as Jews.
But if Joel had stopped even here, could we have
said that he and Jonah between them sketched the
full outHne of Christian truth 1 God's presence in
the world, supernaturally in Bevelation, naturaUy in
Providence, the sign of a Saviour's death and resur
rection, the efficacy of repentance and prayer, the
outpouring of the Holy Ghost, this is much, but
is it all ? They were no sorry teachers who taught
this ; but what of man \ Supposing that he choose
to stand outside of this, and let things take their
course, and lead merely a natural life, virtuous,
because virtue makes Hfe happy, but content with
virtue and its present reward, — what then 1 Why
should he not \ Why should not nature be enough ?
and man's highest aim be to live accordmg to nature 1
To this question Joel gives the answer. He it is
who first spake of a general judgment. Now this
is a truth which gives vitality to every part of
religion. Without it we can scarcely even conceive
of rehgion existing. The life according to nature is
not enough if we have to give an account hereafter

VI.] A DAY OF JUDGMENT. ill
of our actions. Nature gives us neither knowledge
enough of the principles upon which our conduct
will on that day be judged, nor help enough to
enable us to conform our actions to the Judge's
will. There is an immortal life following upon
our few years here. Nature is but a poor guide
even for this mortal life. For the life to come
her guidance is absolutely naught.
Now it was Joel who first placed personal rehgion
upon a settled basis by teaching men the doctrine of a
general judgment. The Church, whether the Jewish
of old or the Christian now, is the outer organization
in which God's dispensation of grace is embodied,
and it is grace alone that wUl suffice for the judg
ment day. At the very root of all, before we can
believe in anything supernatural, in divine gifts of
any kind, or even in a God, we must beHeve in
the immortality of the soul, and in its responsibility
to its Maker. To beHeve in God, without believing
in any relation between God and man, is to beHeve
in something so remote and abstract that at most
it is a speculation and not a belief. Now I am quite
ready to grant that it was very slowly that the doc
trine of a general judgment attained to its due pro
portions. Its fuU proportions it never did attain
to tiU Christ came. He it was Who brought to the
light the eternal life of heaven, and the immortality
of the soul (2 Tim. i. 16). Until these were under
stood men could have had but a faint notion of words
such as these, ' Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of
decision : for the day of the Lord is near in the valley

272 UNITY [Lect.
of decision;' (Joel iii. 14;) or of what was meant by those
metaphors under which he described the whole world
as ripening for judgment. But there the truth stood
revealed, and in due time its full importance was seen
(Dan. xii. 2, 3). No sooner had the Incarnate Word
come than an apostle could describe it as an elementary
part of religion, that men must beHeve not only in
the existence of a God, but that God rewards and
punishes human actions. Surely this is an extra
ordinary phenomenon. In the words of Dr. Pusey?,
' To this unknown prophet Joel, of whose history,
condition, rank, parentage, birthplace, nothing is
known, nothing beyond his name, save the name of
an unknown father ; of whom moreover God has
aUowed nothing to remain save these few chapters ;
to him God reserved the prerogative to be the first
to declare the outpouring of the Holy Ghost upon
aU flesh, the perpetual abiding of the Church, the
final struggle of good and evU, the last rebeUion
against God, and the day of judgment. " The day
of the Lord, the great and terrible day," the behef
in which now forms part of the faith of all Jews and
Christians, was a title first revealed to this unknown
prophet/ And again, ' To Joel it was first fore
shown that the Gentiles too should be filled with
the Spirit of God. To him was first declared that
great paradox or mystery of faith, which after his
time prophet after prophet insisted upon, that while
deliverance should be in Mount Sion, and the stream
of God's grace should issue to the barren world from
g Introduction to the Book of Joel.

VI.] OF JOEL'S TEACHING. 273
the temple of the Lord, those in her who should be
delivered should be a remnant only/
Now these doctrines which Joel taught form an
inseparable whole. The doctrine of a future judg
ment would crush man with insupportable terrors,
were not repentance possible. But what would re
pentance avail, if we sorrowed for sin only to return
• to it again 1 It is God's gift of the Holy Spirit
which makes repentance the starting-point of a
renewed life ; which makes it possible for a man
' born from above of water and the Holy Ghost ' to
live henceforward unto holiness. And this again
deepens our responsibihty towards our Judge. If
no grace were offered us, if a renewed life were
impossible, if the natural life were aU that we could
attain to, in hatred and bitterness we should defy
the terrors of a day which offered us nothing but
despair. As it is, we have only to use our privdeges
aright, and that day will be to us a day of mercy
and blessedness.
I wUl but further say that Hosea adds his one
most touching lesson to the great truths taught by
Jonah and Joel. His prophecy is one long waU of
sorrow over the impenitent : we may even truly
say that it is God's lamentation ; for God constantly
speaks in it in His own person. If any perish it
is not because God's love faUs. Israel was not
rejected from the covenant until after long warnings ;
nor until God had exhausted every possible means
for its recovery. And when it hardened itself against
all God's love, even then its rejection was thus
T

274 CATHOLIC TRUTHS [Lect.
tenderly bemoaned. Can man's final ruin be less a
grief in heaven than was Israel's earthly abandon
ment 1 We may be sure it cannot. Of the manner
of God's dealings with the heathen, with those
whom the preaching of the Gospel has never reached,
with those born and brought up under such circum
stances that a life of sin seems inevitable ; how God
wiU deal with such cases we have no means of
knowing. Here, as elsewhere, it is a note of reve
lation that it tells us nothing to gratify a foolish
curiosity. It teUs us only how we may be saved
or lost ourselves. Even where our Lord declares
that God's judgment will be just, and our stripes
be according to our knowledge, He was speaking
of the servants only (Luke xii. 47, 48). But God's
yearning love even for the impenitent, as proved
by the words of Hosea, plainly teaches us that as
God must be just in aU His dealings, so wiU He
also be merciful and good. But if we, the servants,
members of God's house, and sharers of His cove
nant, if we reject aU God's love, then equally does
Hosea warn us that our final doom is certain. Israel
was rejected. God's goodness did not, could not,
save the impenitent. And so with us : God's long-
suffering, His repeated calls to repentance, the ever
renewed struggle of His Holy Spirit with us ; aU
this leaves us without excuse. We are living in the
clear light : if we love darkness, what plea can avail
us at the last day 1
It was the office, then, of these, the three earliest
prophets, to declare general truths. They do give

VI.] TAUGHT BY THE EARLY PROPHETS. 275
utterance to prophecies of Christ, but they are faint,
and couched in symbolical terms ; not express, full,
exact, particular, like those of the later prophets.
But the great outlines of truth, the doctrines which
were to be the special distinction of Christianity,
the nature of the Christian Church, these it was
their business to teach, and they do teach them fully
and exactly ; as fully and exactly as their successors
do the great truths which relate to Christ's office
and person. The method of prophecy is a strictly
scientific one. It begins with general doctrines and
catholic truths, and gradually it moves onward to
particular and specific truths. The later prophets
do not so much develope as fill up the outlines of
the Gospel which the early prophets sketched in full,
large, and grand proportions. Together they com
bine in setting before us the perfect lineaments of
the truth.

T 2

LECTUKE VII.
SPECIFIC PROPHECIES OP CHRIST IN HOSEA, AMOS,
ISAIAH, AND MICAH.
To Him give all the prophets witness, that through His Name
whosoever believeth in Him shall receive remission of sins. —
Acts x. 43.
I MENTIONED in my last lecture that the earliest
written prophecies were occupied with the great
doctrines of Christianity, while it is the office of
the later prophets to set Him before us in Whom
these doctrines became the vital principles of the
Church. And this is a method that commends
itself to our reason. For many ages under the
Jewish dispensation men felt no need of anything
more than Moses had given them. They were
content with the possession of the land of promise,
and with the knowledge that Jehovah — their cove
nant God — was a God of love and mercy, in Whom
there was pardon for sin upon repentance. But
when they found, as aU men find, that no earthly
good can fill man's heart, and that there is ever a
craving for something more perfect : when the sin-
struck conscience found sacrifice and offering in
sufficient, and sought for some more efficacious
remedy : when the instinctive longings of our
nature for a nearer approach to God made the

ORDERLY PLAN OF PROPHECY. 277
Israelites impatient of those types and shadows of
better things, and that mere outer court of truth
into which the law of Moses had admitted them, it
was fitting that they should first be shown some
thing of those eternal and cathohc truths, which are
the very ground-work of religion, and which a man
must beHeve before he can come to God (Heb. xi. 6).
Upon this in due time would follow the particulars
and details of the plan of salvation. But these
details would have been meaningless had not those
general truths first been taught, which explained to
man his needs, made him understand the meaning of
his own emotions, and revealed to him the relation
in which he stands to God, and God's purposes to
wards him. Thus taught, he would study with
growing interest every detail of the means whereby
his restoration was to be accomplished, and the breach,
caused by sin, between God and man made whole a.
a No doubt in this there is a great mystery. It may seem not easy
to understand why a preparation should have been necessary. Man,
some think, might have been so created, as that every one should have
been exactly equal, with the same advantages, the same difficulties,
and the same probation to undergo. We see that this is not the
case. Men differ not only in their outward circumstances, but in
their inner selves : and that not only in things intellectual, but
even in their moral capacities. Not only is the lot of a heathen
entirely different from that of a Christian, but the probation of the
inhabitants of a Christian country differs immensely according to
the place where they live, the character of their parents, the nature
of their education, of their calling in life, and so on. But all that
this means is simply that the law of life is progress. Without
progress this would be but a poor world, and it is the hope of
progress which nerves to their work statesmen and moralists, and

278 JUDAISM PREPARATORY [Lect.
If the writings of the prophets seem wanting to
us in method, it is simply because we arrange them
according to their length, or what we are pleased
to consider their comparative importance, and not
according to their chronological sequence. If we
study them in the order in which God gave them,
we shaU find that they began with large and general
ideas, and having thus laid a sure foundation other
prophets built thereupon the exact and finished
edifice of truth. And if I have succeeded at aU
in my object, I shaU have shown in these lectures
that the prophets formed a large and organized com
munity, thoroughly conversant with one another's
writings, trained up in the study of them, anxiously
searching out their meaning, comparing statement
with statement, and, as St. Peter says, slowly track
ing out — epeuvwvTes — both the time and the nature of
that salvation which the Spirit of Christ that was
in them did testify beforehand (i Pet. i. 10, n).
I doubt not that many a later prophecy was the
result of patient and prayerful study of what had
been already revealed. Hence the constant re
ference and allusion made by each succeeding
all who hope in any way to benefit mankind. Progress, then, is
God's law, not only in the Old Testament, but in the New, for the
Church (Mat. xiii. 31-33), and for each individual Christian (Ib.
12). In old time it was the office of the prophets to labour
for human progress, it is now especially the office of the Church.
Within her the highest possible probation is offered mankind. It
is her duty to labour that this probation may become possible for
millions now living in the darkness of heathenism, and that it may
be more perfect and more easily attainable by those within her fold.

VII.] TO A SPIRITUAL DISPENSATION. 279
prophet to the writings of those who had preceded
him. And thus, though the Jews as a nation would not
hear of such a thing, it was the unanimous teaching
of the prophets that Judaism was to give place to
something better and more perfect. If Jonah
teaches this truth in a general way, it is Isaiah
who describes the nature of that universal church
which was to take its place, and Jeremiah (xxxi.
31-34) and Ezekiel (xxxvi. 26, 27) who show that
its sanctions are to be spiritual, that religion in it
is not to consist of ceremony and ritual, but of
God's law written in men's hearts, of sin forgiven,
and of iniquity remembered no more. But neither
they nor Isaiah more clearly taught the spiritual
nature of religion than Joel did. Isaiah's office was
to add to Joel's teaching more distinct ideas of
Christ's work for man.
For, as we have seen, Joel taught the presence of
God in Providence, the restorative power of repent
ance, the gift of the Holy Ghost to repentant men,
and, as a necessary consequence, the certainty of a
general judgment. Now we are expressly taught
in the New Testament that two of these doctrines
are absolutely essential even to the very lowest
form of religion. Any one that cometh to God
must beHeve that there is a God, and that God
rewards and punishes. But certainly by the exist
ence of a God is not meant here the existence of a
power merely to keep the dull machinery of material
laws in motion, and who must not venture to exer-

280 IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL [Lect.
cise any act of volition. Such a Deity neither could
nor would reward or punish : for material laws
perpetuaUy confound the innocent with the gudty,
and involve both in one common fate. It must
mean a God Who practically concerns Himself with
man, Who has subjected him to a state of probation
for some moral purpose, Who by His providence
leads him on to repentance, Who wUl accept that
repentance, wUl after repentance give him all neces
sary aid for living a holy life, and Who therefore
can and will reward and punish justly, because man
has a real choice between God's service and dis
obedience to Him. And thus, then, the teaching of
the New Testament, in this most important and
fundamental passage (Heb. xi. 6), exactly agrees with
that of Joel. If there were no restorative power
in repentance, if no aid were granted man in leading
the Hfe of faith, there would be no possibUity of God
rewarding any, and punishment would not be just
where condemnation was inevitable.
StiU it was very slowly that the prophets un
folded what seems to us a necessary result of such
teaching ; namely, that there must be a world to
come, and therefore that the soul does not perish
at death, but Hves onward. Fully revealed this
doctrine never was till Christ came. For He it
was Who, in St. Paul's words (2 Tim. i. 10), made
death a nuUity by the clear light cast in the Gospel
upon the doctrines of eternal life and of the incor-
ruptibiHty of the risen body. It was the privilege
of Daniel, who in so many respects stands apart

VII.] REVEALED VERY GRADUALLY. 281
from the rest of the prophets, to declare this element
ary truth in words as clear as any in the Gospel
itself. 'Multitudes that sleep in the dust of the
earth shaU awake, these to everlasting life, and
those to shame and everlasting contempt. And
they that be wise shaU shine as the brightness of
the firmament ; and they that turn many to right
eousness as the stars for ever and ever/ (Dan. xii.
2, 3.) The meaning of words such as these none
could mistake, but many, I doubt not, pondered
long and anxiously over the language used by Joel,
and wondered what it might mean. Now it is
not enough to say, that there — in Joel's words —
was the truth waiting only for the fulness of time
to attain to its full proportions : taught clearly, if
not clearly understood : and in due season to become
an elementary part of the Christian religion, and a
fundamental tenet without which we cannot see how
religion could exist at all. This is true, but not
enough. The prophets spake to their own times
as well as to us : and what they said was intended
to be carefully studied and examined by their con
temporaries. It was so studied, and its meaning was
ever more and. more fully understood. Men's hearts
mused upon their teachings, and looked eagerly for
ward to the time when, instead of this lanthorn
light, the Sun of Bighteousness should Himself arise
to Uluminate the dark region of this world (2 Pet. i.
19). But neither one nor the other was any light
of nature, or product of human wisdom ; for, as
St. Peter tells us, ' Prophecy was never brought by

282 TEACHING OF HOSEA [Lect.

the wdl of man, but men carried along by the
Holy Ghost spake of God/ (Ib. 21 according to
the Vatican codex.)
Time wiU not permit me to show the continuity
of the teaching of the prophets step by step. I can
only iUustrate it by touching very briefly upon some
of the more salient points. I shaU notice then — as
regards Hosea and Amos, the prophets next in order
— only this fact, that they are the first who connect
the promise of the Messiah with the Hneage of David,
and that in a very remarkable way. You have in
the Psalms an anticipation of the eternal duration of
David's throne (Ps. Ixxxix. 3, 4), and of a priesthood
to be connected with it for evermore (lb. ex. 4) ; but
in the mouth of these two prophets those sure mer
cies of David, which subsequently became the especial
subject of Isaiah's prophecy, are first spiritualized
and separated from the thought of an earthly king
dom. Hosea's prophecy is one long outpouring of
the divine sorrow over the ruin of the ten tribes ;
and I have already pointed out the remarkable fact
that throughout it is God Who in His own person
thus shows the tenderness of His love. And this is
Hosea's main lesson, — the lesson which John taught
so affectionately afterwards, — that God is love. He
utters, however, one very remarkable prediction. ' The
children of Israel shaU abide many days without a
king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice/
and yet free from any stain of idolatry : for there
shall be in them ' neither statue of Baal, nor ephod,
nor teraphim/ It is an exact prophecy of the state

VII.] RESPECTING DAVID'S KINGDOM. 283

of Israel at the present moment. They have no civd
government, and no temple or altar ; but neither are
they guilty of any form or degree or kind of idolatry.
And this is to be their state for many days. How
long it shaU last is known to Him Who has kept
times and seasons in His own hands. But it wiU
not last for ever. ' Afterwards shall the chUdren of
Israel return, and shall seek Jehovah their God, and
David their king ; and shall fear Jehovah and His
goodness in the latter days/ (Hos. iii. 4, 5.)
Now Hosea was an Israelite, and was preaching to
the ten tribes. Ephraim, as the head of the great
house of Joseph, to whom belonged Beuben's for
feited birthright (1 Chron. v. 1, 2), had never looked
upon the Hneage of David in any other light than
as those who had taken from them their own pro
perty. Isaiah thus speaks of the envy of Ephraim
towards Judah. Plainly they regarded, as did by
far the larger proportion of the tribes, the rising
of the Ephraimite Jeroboam as a successful attempt
to restore to the house of Joseph that supremacy
in Israel which it had ever claimed, and which
had generaUy been readdy accorded it. Naturally,
then, we ask, Had the lineage of David already
become among the prophets the symbol of those
mercies which in older time had been connected with
Abraham, in whose seed all the kingdoms of the
earth were to be blessed % Certainly the Israehtes
would have felt neither pleasure nor pride in the
exaltation of David's earthly lineage. It would
simply have meant the failure of their own claims

284 AMOS' PROPHECY [Lect.
to supremacy — claims persistently made during many
previous centuries — claims subsequently inherited by
the Samaritans, and of which we hear the last echo
in the discourse of the woman of Samaria with our
Lord. The Israelites, then, would only have been
irritated by the natural sense of the words. Any
how the prophecy was painful enough, that, after
the loss for long ages of their national independence
and national religion, their restoration was to be
connected with the object of their envy — Judah.
The words, then, must already have become the
symbol of spiritual mercies ; mercies too large to
leave room for envy or national rivalry. And cer
tainly the Jews so understood them. The Targum
of Jonathan paraphrases them as follows, 'After
wards the chUdren of Israel shall repent, and shall
enquire for the worship of Jehovah their God, and
shaU obey Messiah the son of David their king, and
shall come in troops to the worship of Jehovah, and
great shaU be their happiness at the end of days/
This is plain enough, and it is remarkable that
the Targum should describe their worship, however
free from idolatry, as no true worship of Jehovah,
till they obey Messiah their king. But Amos is
even more exphcit. He speaks of a time when ' the
house of Israel shaU have been tossed about among
all nations Hke as corn is tossed in a sieve/ and yet
with so extraordinary a providence watching over it
that not the least grain of it, or, more correctly, not
even the least stone or bit of gravel that has got
into the sieve, in spite of all the tossing, shall fall

VII.] OF THE FALLEN BOOTH. 285
to the ground. And then there is a time of punish
ment : ' All the sinners of My people shaU die
by the sword.' But this is followed by Israel's
restoration : ' In that day wiU I raise up the faUen
booth of David, and will wall up their breaches,
and restore its ruins ; and I will build it as in the
days of old : that they may inherit the remnant of
Edom, and of all the Gentiles, on whom My name
is called, saith Jehovah the doer of this/ (Amos ix.
9-12.) Now Amos wrote when the house of David
had not fallen ; the king then was Uzziah, who
reigned for fifty-two years in great prosperity. Yet
Amos caUs the royal lineage a booth merely, a con
temptuous word, says Gesenius, applicable to a smaU
ruined cottage. Now the mission of Amos, Hke that
of Hosea, was to the ten tribes. Why should he
thus describe the royal house of Judah \ What
comfort would it be to the Israelites to know that
the ruling lineage of a neighbouring state, which
had not yet fallen, should faU, and be restored
again 1 He described Israel also as tossed in a
sieve, and scattered among the Gentiles. To leave
no doubt of his meaning he says soon afterwards,
' I wdl bring again the captivity of My people
Israel/ (Ib. ix. 14.) Now Amos wrote in the days
of Jeroboam II, the era of Israel's greatest pros
perity, when under their warrior-king they had
pushed their conquests northward as far as Hamath,
and eastward as far as the Dead Sea (2 Kings xiv.
25). What scattering, what captivity had Israel
to fear then % Fifty years pass by, and aU outward

286 ISAIAH'S PROPHECY [Lect.
things are changed. The tide of war has roUed
over these lands, and Israel has fallen. The words
of Hosea and Amos have been in part fulfilled.
Israel has no king, has gone into captivity. But
what of Judah % The army of Assyria is advancing
upon Jerusalem as an easy prey, but this is to have
an extraordinary deliverance, and Isaiah is commis
sioned to describe how the pride of Sennacherib shaU
faU by a sudden and heaven-sent overthrow. In
terse and vigorous language he sets before us that
warrior's onward march ; the rapidity with which
town after town is captured ; the terror of the in
habitants, their flight in hopeless confusion. And
now the conqueror has reached the capital ; Jeru
salem is in sight, and, secure of victory, he shakes
his hand in his pride against the mount of the
daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem. Suddenly
he falls by the hand of God, and not of man.
' Behold, the Lord Jehovah of hosts lops the boughs
with terror : the tall trees are cut down, the lofty
trees are feUed. He cuts down the thickets with the
axe, and Lebanon falls by the hand of the Mighty
One/ And what foUows without pause or break upon
this description of Jehovah hewing down the army of
Sennacherib % ' There shaU come forth a sprout from
the cut-down trunk of Jesse, and a sucker shall bud
forth from among his roots/ (Is. x. 33, xi. 1.)
Now it was not very complimentary to Hezekiah,
just after Isaiah had been describing Sennacherib's
army as a glorious Lebanon feUed by God's own
hand, for him to speak of David's royal Hneage as

VII.] OF THE CUT-DOWN TRUNK. 287
a dead stump,, out of which there springs one poor
sucker. Nay, he passes by David. It is no longer
a royal Hneage, but the Hneage of the farmer of
Bethlehem. If the prophecies were mere poetry, or
if they grew out of the present circumstances of
their times, then Hosea, Amos, and Isaiah wrote what
was perfectly inexplicable. The reasonable thing for
Isaiah to have done would have been to wind up
his prophecy with a few words of encouragement
for Hezekiah, some delicate praise of his well-meant
reforms, and a timely hint that the services of the
prophets might be weU repaid by a Httle season
able liberaHty. Isaiah might then have done as
weU by his prophecy as VirgU by his lines upon
Marcellus, which made him a rich man. The
prophets never turn aside from the path of truth
to flatter any man. Nor is this all. In each of
the three cases the prophecy of the restoration of
David's ruined house comes in so abruptly, and
Hosea places it at so distant a time — after Israel
has been many days without a king — that I can
see but one explanation which satisfactorUy accounts
for such teaching. They could not have thus spoken
had it not been clearly revealed to the prophets, and
become a settled truth among them, and one regularly
taught in the prophetic schools, that the Messiah was
not to come tUl after the house of David had fallen into
obscurity. A long period was to separate the earthly
splendours of David's temporal rule from the spiritual
glories of Christ's rule over the hearts of believers0. I
b Nothing, too, could more plainly show that the true interpret-

288 DAVID'S LINE NOT RESTORED [Lect.
am not prepared to grant that these "three prophets
spoke nonsense, or, what is much the same thing,
what was unintelligible to their contemporaries. I
beHeve that the prophetic schools had a settled body
of teaching, and that the p.ople generally were
sufficiently trained in it to know what the prophets
meant. I believe that the ten tribes would perfectly
understand Hosea's meaning, that their captivity
would be a very long one, — no seventy years for
them as for Judah, — and that their restoration would
only be after the Messiah's advent, ' by their obeying
Christ, the Son of David, their king/ as the Targum
explains it. They would gather the same conclusions
from the words of Amos. And Hezekiah would feel
no bitterness at Isaiah, though his words could not
but suggest many sad and troubled thoughts ; still
there would be no anger, because he knew that with
one accord the prophets all taught the same truth
as Isaiah — that the Messiah, though of David's Hne,
would be born in a low place ; that He would be
a root springing out of dry ground, at Whom kings
ation of those prophecies which promise an era of glory and
splendour to the Israelites was to be a spiritual one. The per
petuity of David's throne, for instance, was repeatedly affirmed
in the plainest terms by the prophets (2 Sam. vii. 13, 1 Kings
viii. 25) ; in terms equally plain they stripped it of all temporal
rule and grandeur (Is. xi. 1, &c), and then, as if to show that
they themselves felt no difficulty in this seeming contradiction,
they refer to it long after the last king of David's line had reigned,
as an encouragement for rebuilding the second temple (Ps. cxxxii.
11, 12). Surely they must have been fully aware that 'the sure
mercies of David' were something higher and better than earthly
greatness.

VII.] AFTER THE CAPTIVITY. 289
would purse up their mouths, and Who would have
no earthly splendour to make men desire him.
And thus, after the seventy years' exile, David's
Hne was not restored. There was great respect felt
for and shown to Zorobabel, but power given him
none. Many psalms ' to David' were written, extol
ling the promises made to his house. In the Psalms
of Degrees, psalms sung by the returning exiles,
psalms of joyous praise, pre-eminent even in the Book
of Psalms for their beauty and the loving gratitude
which they express ; among them you have the record
of the promise, ' Jehovah hath sworn in truth unto
David, He will not turn from it ; Of the fruit of
• thy body will I set upon thy throne/ (Ps. cxxxii. ii.)
But there was no legitimist party among the exiles
who proposed to fulfil that promise in a literal sense.
In short, neither were the prophets so unintelligible,
nor the people so stupid, as the negative critics
imagine. They lived in a great circle of thoughts :
they were ever urging these thoughts upon the
people : everywhere throughout the land these truths
were taught by thousands whose names are written
in no earthly record, but in the Book of Life : in
their coUeges they had head-quarters for training
those whom God caUed to the ministry, and where
the writings of their great chiefs and leaders were
stored up. The recipe for making the prophets
unintelHgible and the people stupid, is to stand
apart from this circle of truth. If the prophecies
were mere human presentiments and forebodings,
they are absolutely inexplicable. But then there
u

290 PROPHECIES APPARENTL Y INCONGR UO US [Lect.

could not have been one fixed, settled, and consen
tient teaching in that which took its colouring from
the varying course of events. Isaiah would never
have described Hezekiah's lineage as a decaying
stump in the same breath as that in which he fore
told the overthrow of Sennacherib; nor Amos have
spoken of Uzziah's palace as a ruin, with gaping
breaches in its walls, and a mere booth or hut all
that remained of its former splendour.
The ancient Jews did not misunderstand these
prophecies. They mused upon them in sorrow:
for they saw in them the overthrow of their nation.
StiU there was comfort. As Jeremiah so repeatedly
prophesied, God would never make 'a full end' of-
them : or in Isaiah's words, ' a remnant would re
main/ A root was to spring out of the dry ground ;
a sucker was to spring up from among the roots
of Jesse's prostrate tree : a booth, at aU events,
would be inhabited among the ruins of Uzziah's
palace. And thus, after their expressive way, one of
their names for the Messiah was ' The Son of the
faUen/ Now how came these prophets to know
that two such contrary things would be combined
in Christ as the fall of David's throne and its
estabhshment for ever 1 That, like Solomon the
Magnificent, He would be the prince of peace, with
the key of government upon His shoulder, and yet
one despised and rejected of men \ The Jews could
not understand this contradiction, and they divided
the prophecies between two Messiahs. To one, the
son of Joseph, they gave aU passages which spake

VII.] RECONCILED IN CHRIST. 291

of Christ's humiliation and rejection and death.
To the other, the Son of David, they applied all
those which spake of His kingdom and triumph
and glory. In Jesus of Nazareth all these passages
are combined in one harmonious yet unexpected
solution. AU equally find in Him their place and
meaning, though that a very different meaning from
what any uninspired expositor had ever imagined. If
the negative critics are to effect anything, they must
prove that Hosea and Amos and Isaiah lived in
the second or third century of the Christian era.
They say that prophecy is nothing more than the
record of past history, and that the prophets wrote
subsequently to the events which they profess to
predict. It is one of their established canons of
criticism, if that can be caUed established which
rests upon nothing but unsupported assertion. Well
then, let them prove the soundness of their prin
ciples by showing us in what century of the Christian
era these prophets Hved. If I may refer to the
Church in the same breath as to the negative critics,
I would remind you that St. James had no doubt
of the meaning of Amos' prophecy. In the first
council of Jerusalem, of whose decrees the apostles
ventured to say, ' It seemed good to the Holy Ghost
and to us/ (Acts xv. 28,) St. James quotes these
words of Amos as a sufficient justification for his
sentence, that the Gentiles should be admitted into
the Church . without requiring of them obedience
to the law of Moses.
With Hosea and Amos closed the long struggle
u 2

292 THE MOSAIC INSTITUTIONS [Lect.

of grace with Israel. It had begun with the man
of God sent to rebuke Jeroboam at the very altar
of his calves. It had been sustained by the heroic
energy of Elijah and Elisha. It ended with Hosea's—
or rather Jehovah's — lamentation over Israel's fall.
Their words primarily referred to this struggle, but
we have also seen something of the grand truths
taught by them to God's universal Church. The
rest of the prophets belong to Judah, except Daniel.
He is the link between the prophets and the Church.
But aheady we have seen that the prophets of
Judah teach just the same truths as those of Israel.
It is quite evident, as regards their doctrine, that
the prophetic schools at Gdgal or Jericho taught
just the same as that of Jerusalem.
Now we have already shown that the two earliest
prophets of Judah, Micah and Isaiah, start with
a contradiction in terms. The mountain of the
Lord's house is to be desolate and solitary at the
very time when it is to be established upon the
top of the mountains, and when aU peoples — Gen
tile nations in the plural number — are to be flocking
into it. And what have we just been considering 1
Under a perfectly distinct metaphor, and one that
refers primarily not to the Church but to Christ,
Hosea and Amos teach you just the same truth.
Daniel, as we have seen, dispensed with metaphor
altogether. He taught (xii. 1 1) that the daily sacrifice
should be taken away, and that for a vast period
after the abomination of desolation had been set
up by Titus within the sacred area — a period which

VII.] TEMPORARY. 293
he describes as a thousand two hundred and ninety
days — the Jews should continue in that very con
dition described by Hosea. Elsewhere he fortells
the destruction of the city and sanctuary, and that
the sacrifice and oblation are to cease (ix. 26, 27).
But is this the teaching of all prophecy % I say
it is : that the temporary nature of the Jewish
Church and of fhe Mosaic institutions is as plainly
taught as the eternal nature of Christianity, and
the certainty of the perpetual existence of the
Christian Church. And if we have seen the one
set of predictions come true, we may rest perfectly
confident that the other wiU prove equaUy true,
whoever they may be ' who rage and take counsel
together against the Lord and against His Christ/
For, first, it is a mere trifle, but it is something,
that the Mosaic religion had for its symbol an ark
of gopher-wood, a very lasting wood, which with
proper care might have existed just about down to
the days of our Lord. It was past repair in Josiah's
time ; it perished when Nebuchadnezzar burnt the
temple. The Jews understood its significance, and
stoutly denied that it had perished (2 Mace. ii. 5).
Jeremiah had stowed it away safely, and in due
time would come again to restore it to them. So
they beUeved. He never has come. You have
here the contrast between prophecy that grew out
of the circumstances of the times — the prophecy of
patriotism — and true prophecy. Of more import
ance was the tabernacle : the fact that Judaism
had a local seat, and a definite centre. Such an

294 CHRISTIANITY [Lect.

institution never could be universal. But what
were the fortunes of this central seat of Judaism 1
Once in about every four hundred years it was
destroyed. The Philistines destroyed it at Shiloh,
and the ark went into captivity. Nebuchadnezzar
destroyed it at Jerusalem, and the ark with it.
The third temple lasted somewhat longer, but was
at last levelled to the ground with a destruction
as complete and enduring as that wliich had be-
faUen Shdoh. Jeremiah, the most patriotic of men,
foretold this in the most marked and pubhc way
(vii. 1 2-1 6). And with the temple feU the whole
Levitical law. There is no high priest to enter the
Holy of Holies now, no Holy of Hohes which he
could enter upon the great day of atonement, and
thereby give validity to the sacrifices of the Mosaic
ritual. And thus two things combine. The very
nature of the Levitical law and the course of Jewish
history alike show that Judaism was a temporary
rehgion. And this Micah and Isaiah not merely
teach in that plain way which I showed in a pre
vious lecture. This would be a very small truth
in itself. What they teach is, that it was to be
removed out of the way solely to give room for
something better. The imperfect was to be fol
lowed by the perfect : the preparatory by the final :
the torch of truth by the risen sun. ' God's moun
tain is to be estabhshed, not on mount Moriah, but
upon the mountains everywhere : and exalted above
the hills/ 'Out of Zion goes forth the law, and
the Word of Jehovah from Jerusalem/ The law

VII.] PERFECT AND FINAL. 295
was to become the rule of life of all nations, but
only as spiritually explained in the Sermon on the
Mount. God's mountain was to be established, but
it was to be a stone cut out without hands that
was to fill aU the earth.
I do not suppose that the prophets understood
this great truth as fully and exactly as we under
stand it now : but they understood the main out
lines of it. NaturaUy they use metaphors drawn
from the present state of Jerusalem. Their city,
their temple, their covenant relations with Jehovah,
naturaUy suggested the terms in which they were
to speak to the people of their times. And rightly
so. Jerusalem was the seat of God's true Church.
The Jews were the cluster which contained the
new wine of the Gospel (Is. lxv. 8, 9). Chris
tianity is Judaism separated from all that was
temporary, and raised to the highest possible per
fection. And this is what the prophets say, 'Jacob
is to be brought back : Israel is to be gathered0/
But this is but a smaU thing in the prophet's eyes.
'It is a light thing that thou shouldest be My
Servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to
restore the preserved of Israel : I will also give
thee for a Light to the GentUes, that thou mayest
be My salvation unto the end of the earth/ (Ib. xlix.
6.) It was to be the religion co-extensive with
creation (Mark xvi. 15) : a mountain not raised
0 There is little doubt that this is the right reading and mean
ing of Isaiah xlix. 5.

296 DISPERSION OF THE JEWS [Lect.

by war and conquest, but one in which none should
hurt or destroy. And how does Isaiah in this very
place— the place where he describes the peace and
love which, is to prevail in God's holy mountain, —
how does he himself explain iti 'The earth,' he
says, 'shall be full of the knowledge of Jehovah,
as the waters cover the sea/ (xi. 9.) It is the
general prevalence of Christ's religion in which
consists this vast and universal monarchy which was
to take the place of David's temporal kingdom.
Of David's kingdom the symbol in prophecy is the
hill of Zion : the mountain of Jehovah is the Chris
tian Church.
This temporal kingdom was expressly to pass
away. ' The Sceptre was to depart from Judah
when Shiloh came.' (Gen. xlix. 10.) ' Ships/ sang
Balaam, ' shaU come from the coast of Chittim, and
shaU afflict Asshur, and shall afflict Eber ; and he
also shaU perish for ever/ (Num. xxiv. 24.) ' They
shall come/ says Jerome, 'in triremes from Italy,
and shall conquer Assyria, and devastate the
Hebrews, and they too shall finally perish/ His
translation is the right one, and the temporal do
minion and polity of the Hebrews was to faU as
certainly as that of the Seleucidse, the rulers of
Asshur at the time referred to in this prophecy d.
There is nothing, then, so extraordinary in the fact,
d However absurd may be the attempt of the Bomish Church to
thrust this version upon nations who do not speak Latin, yet, in itself,
Jerome's translation, known as the Eoman Vulgate or common edi
tion, will always rank among scholars as a work of primary authority.

VII.] AN ELEMENT A RY TR UTH OF PROPHECY. 297
that Moses in Deut. xxvHi. foretold the fall of Jeru
salem, and the dispersion of the Jews. What is so
remarkable is, that the detaUs should be so exactly
described, that if the book be a forgery, it must
have been forged by some one with Josephus' history
of the Jewish war by his side. The general fact
that the Jews were to be scattered among the
heathen was, so to say, a common place of prophecy.
It was declared in the book of Leviticus (xxvi. 33)
as clearly as in Deuteronomy ; it is referred to by
Nehemiah (i. 8) as a prediction of Moses that had
become a tradition of the race : but what was only
darkly foreshown by Moses in the way of warning,
and as something conditional upon their conduct,
was constantly referred to by the prophets as some
thing that daily was becommg inevitable. There is
really but one teaching upon the subject from Moses
to Malachi. And this I cannot but think is one of
the most extraordinary phenomena ever witnessed
in the annals of thought. You have an order of men
of the most exalted patriotism ; men who are per-
petuaUy looking forward to 'latter days/ in which
Israel and Judah are to enjoy every temporal and
spiritual blessing ; and yet these very men with one
consent foreteU an evil end for everything in their
religion and their country. The nation is to be
scattered and become a curse, the city is to be de
stroyed, the temple to be laid in ruins, the sacrifice
and oblation to cease, the royal Hneage to sink into
obscurity. Yet nothing is to perish. The throne
of David is to be eternal, his dominion universal ;

298 MICAH'S PROPHECY [Lect.
aU nations are to enter their Church ; in this Church
the Jew is to have no exclusive privileges, the
Gentile to be subject to no disabilities. It is to be
the Church of aU nations. I have read many
attempts to weaken the force of detached portions
of this scheme. I have never read nor expect to read
any attempt to explain on naturalistic principles the
combined force of this the grand teaching of pro
phecy as a whole.
But when the prophets had thus sketched out the
great future of religion, — for, as I have said, the one
purpose for which the people of Israel were called
by God, and made subject to so extraordinary a
providence, was that God by them might give man
kind the one true religion, — when, then, the prophets
had taught plainly the main outlines of this great
purpose, they began to add specific and general
detafis. And these specific prophecies are so numer
ous, and have been so wonderfully fulfilled, that
naturally they have excited the greatest attention on
the part of expositors, and have been most frequently
appealed to as a sure foundation on which our faith
may calmly rest. Now the first of these predictions
is found in Micah. From Bethlehem-ephratah, the
old home of David's family, but which nevertheless
had so dwindled that it had become ' too small to be
reckoned among the thousands — the princely divi
sions — of the tribe of Judah, out of thee there shall
go forth to Me one that shall be ruler in Israel ;
whose goings forth have been of old, from the days
of eternity/ (v. 2.) They are to go back, then, to

VII.] OF CHRIST'S BIRTHPLACE. 299
Bethlehem for a new beginning of the kingly power,
and this new king is described by the prophet as
one Who had gone forth from aU eternity. But
I am not going to press this : it belongs to the
inner essence of Christianity, to that which is the
rightful portion of believers — its doctrines — and not
to its outer proof. I take, then, only the fact that
Micah affirms that a second kingdom would spring
forth from Bethlehem, and I ask you to read the
Book of Micah, and follow the order of his thoughts.
You wUl then see the force of his words, not in that
haphazard way in which they come before you sepa
rately from what leads up to them, and which makes
people sometimes speak as if prophecy were a sort
of legerdemain, but as the calm, thoughtful, and
orderly unfolding of the chart of truth.
Micah, then, begins his prophecy by reproving
the Jews for their sins. Zion, he declares, is built
up by blood, by murder, and Jerusalem by improbity.
The chiefs judge for bribes, the priests teach for hire,
the prophets divine — that hateful prying into the
future — for silver. AU classes thus are corrupt, and
therefore justice requires their removal. It is because
of this deep-set and general moral corruption that
Zion is to become ploughed as a field, and Jerusalem
a heap of rubbish, and the temple-area a desolate
place, where the sound of God's true service is never
heard. Observe then : moral reasons caused the
removal of Israel out of its place. Clearly as that
removal was foretold, it was never foretold as a fated
necessity. The Jews to the last might have averted

300 CONTEXT [Lect.

it. ' How often would I have gathered thee, even as
a hen her chickens!' It is unrepentant man who
turns the warnings of prophecy into certainties.
And so, then, there was no inevitable reason why the
Jews should have been taken captive, and Jerusalem
destroyed, except their own immorality. Bead the
pages of Josephus' Jewish War, and you will find
that if ever there was a city ripe for judgment it was
Jerusalem. No wonder that our merciful Saviour
denounced manifold woes upon them, when they
were capable of so acting, as their own historian
describes them. Moral reasons, then, caused them
to reject Christianity nationaUy ; had they received
Christianity, they might have become the first and
foremost of all Christian nations, and their temple
the St. Peter's of the world. But even in Micah's
days the immorality of the nation was too deep set
for any mUd remedies to suffice. It was this immor
ality which frustrated the earnest attempts of Heze
kiah and Josiah at a national reformation. It was
the wickedness of the people which made the teach
ing of our Lord practicaUy so powerless, that at His
resurrection the number of the disciples was but one
hundred and twenty.
From the hopeless present, therefore, Micah hurries
to the distant future. ' In the last days the moun
tain of the Lord's house shall be established/ The
Jewish Church was to have a great development. Its
teaching was not altogether to fail because of the im
morality of the nation. The justice of God separated
first of aU at the exile between the good and the bad.

VII.] OF MICAH'S PROPHECY. 301
It was shown to Jeremiah before the event, that those
who would perish at Jerusalem with Zedekiah were
the refuse whom God had rejected, and that those
who had gone captive to Babylon with Jeconiah were
men picked out by God's providence, that in them
the Jewish Church might live on (ch. xxiv). So the
teaching of our Lord and His apostles gathered out
of the festering mass of the Jews all ti ose fit for
admission to the Christian Church, and God's Provi
dence notably saved every one of them from perishing
with the refuse of the nation at Jerusalem. Pro
phecy, under an entire dissimilarity of external forms,
ever repeats to us the same grand eternal lessons.
But this, the means used by God for carrying out
His purposes, Micah could not yet see, though he did
see that the Jews were to go to Babylon, and be
delivered there (iv. io). Yet chiefly what he saw
was that the general immorality of all classes of the
Jews, while it would put an end to their national
existence, would nevertheless remove them only that
something better might take their place. As, then,
-5Cneas saw the gods leaving vanquished Troy, so
Micah sees the law going out from Jerusalem, but
only that it may gather the Gentiles into a nobler
and truer Zion. And, thus, after describing that
peace and love which are the effect of Christian
principles, and which do not prevail as they ought
among Christian nations, because their Christianity
is nominal only, or nominal too much — after this he
goes on to speak of the Church's triumphs. She was
lame, driven out, and afflicted, yet she shall become

302 THE MESSIAH NOT DESCENDED [Lect.
a great nation. God makes the horn of the daughter
of Zion iron, and her hoofs brass, that she may beat
in pieces many peoples, and consecrate them and
their substance to the use of Jehovah, who is now
described as the 'Lord of the whole earth/ (Micah
iv. 13.)
And thus, then, having seen the Church's glory,
having seen, in metaphor though it be, a time of
vast activity, when nations far and wide are to
be won, not for any national god, but for Him
Who is Lord of all, he finaUy couples all this with
one of David's race. From the town of Jesse shall go
forth the Church's everlasting ruler. And his words
about this ruler surpass all bounds. It could not
be flattery. The prophecy nearly cost the prophet
his Hfe. It roused up general and intense indig
nation against him. But Hezekiah was of a tender
conscience, and he urged the people to repent rather.
Yet the prophecy does not soften its painful detaUs
by connecting this restoration of the Church with
Hezekiah's race. As a matter of fact the Messiah
did not spring from Hezekiah, nor from any Jewish
king but David. He came from an uncrowned
branch of his descendants. And it is notable that
/ the prophets never do connect the Messiah with
j any king but David. This is very unlike flattery :
i flattery would have coupled the promise with some
thing distinctive of Hezekiah. Micah couples it with
a decaying town, where the dynasty lived ere it had
achieved greatness.
Time forbids me to speak of the rest of the

VII.] FROM THE KINGS OF JUDAH. 303
prophecy — how Micah teUs of a waiting-time untU
she that travaileth hath brought forth, and that
then the remnant of his brethren shaU return to
the sons of Israel, and Israel shaU feed in the
divine strength, and be magnified even to the ends
of the earth : and how the remnant of Jacob shaU be
scattered among many peoples, no longer as a curse,
but as the dew, and as showers, bringing a bless
ing unasked, and yet strong as a lion amid meaner
herds, whom none may resist. Already the Gen
tiles have thus been blest by the missionary labours
of the apostles and early Christians, most of whom
were of Jewish parentage : and never have mis
sionary labours been more heautifully described than
as the coming of the soft, gentle, refreshing dew,
heaven's own gift, but a gift unasked ; and of the
showers which descend unbidden upon the arid
waste, and bid it revive : labours which nevertheless
have a lion's strength to break through the bonds
and obstacles which sin and error place in the way
of God's truth. And a stUl greater fulfilment will
surely come : ' for if the casting away of Israel was
the reconciling of the world, what shaU the receiv
ing of them be but as life from the dead?' (Bom.
xi. 15.) Upon these and similar points I have not
spoken, nor do I intend to speak, because they
belong to those who accept the Christian interpreta
tion of the prophecies as given by our Lord and His
apostles, and held by the Church. It is the believer's
privilege to study such prophecies as are stiU but
partiaUy fulfilled, and search out their deeper lessons.

304 MICAH COMPARED [Lect.
But with those who deny the inspiration of the
prophets we can only bring forward the larger and
salient points, and say here are certain plain facts.
Christianity gives of them a straightforward, simple,
and natural explanation, — an explanation neverthe
less quite different from anything imagined by the
Jews, or by any one before the fulfilment came. Of
the prophetic teaching involving apparently a con
tradiction, we assert that both sides have in Christ
ianity an exact and complete, but unexpected ful
filment, a fulfilment not brought about by human
means, but by God. If they refuse to accept this
fulfilment, then let them offer some tenable theory
of the phenomena. What at present they do is
to nibble at trifles, pare away a little here and
a little there, and insinuate that the rest is unin-
telhgible. I will only add, as regards Micah, that there is
the most striking simdarity between his thoughts
and those of Isaiah, while, as writers, nothing can
be more dissimdar than their style. They both
lived at the same time, and though born at More-
sheth, a viUage on the Philistine frontier, yet Jeru
salem was evidently the place where Micah laboured.
Both he and Isaiah were probably members of that
coUege1 at Jerusalem, of which we read subsequently
f Our version in 2 Kings xx. 4 suggests an entirely wrong notion
as to Isaiah's dwelling. It says, ' Afore Isaiah was gone out into
the middle court,' whereas the Hebrew is, 'before he had reached the
middle of the city.' The substitution of the word court for city was
an absolutely unauthorized change made by the Massorites, to suit

VII.] WITH ISAIAH. 305
as the residence of the prophetess Huldah. Of this
coUege Isaiah was probably the head during the
later part of his Hfe, and Micah no unworthy col
league. But whUe Isaiah is the most poHshed of
Hebrew writers, Micah's prophecy reads like a series
of notes. It does, in fact, belong to a period when
the prophets were still orators rather than writers :
and we may justly consider it as representing only
the more important points in a long course of pub
lic teaching. That prophecy of Judah in ruins,
and of a new kingdom starting afresh at Bethlehem,
was no chance expression thrown off by the pen
in a moment of enthusiasm. It was the settled
conviction of Micah's whole teaching.
a Jewish notion that Isaiah dwelt in the temple. At the time when
our version was made, the corrections of the Massorites were
supposed to be authoritative ; now they are as generally acknow
ledged to be changes for the worse. Isaiah, then, dwelt in the city,
and moved in a circle separate alike from the king and the priests.
But his rank was so high that Hezekiah sent as a deputation to
him the highest nobles of his court, Eliakim and Shebna (of whom
see Is. xxii. 15-25), together with the elders of the priests (2 Kings
xix. 2). Isaiah plainly must have held some position of great
power and influence ; for we do not find that his prophetic office
saved Jeremiah from contumely and personal indignities of the
gravest kind (Jer. xx. 2, 8). But if Isaiah was the regularly
appointed head of the prophetic order, we can understand his posi
tion. It is quite plain that the prophets were a numerous and
powerful body : it is but reasonable, therefore, to suppose that they
had a regular organization, and chiefs and head-quarters. Manas
seh no doubt broke these institutions down ; and though possibly
restored afterwards, they would never regain their original strength,
especially as the prophets themselves had lost their old vigour,
and in the days of Jeremiah and Ezekiel the mass had become
utterly corrupt. X

306 MICAH'S CHIEF SUBJECT [Lect.

Never were there writers whose style is more
exactly marked than the prophets, and the idea that
large interpolations are possible, and that you may
puU a prophecy to pieces and divide its dismembered
limbs among a heap of other writers, simply means
that people know so little of the subject that they
suppose that Hebrew literature is unlike every other
Hterature. If I were to affirm that Horace wrote
considerable portions of Virgil's Georgics, the asser
tion would be treated as ridiculous, not because it
is more ridiculous than what has been said about
Isaiah, for instance, but simply because men gener
aUy know enough of Latin to be able to form a
judgment upon the subject. If a man make a
similar assertion as regards the writers of the Old
Testament, he can always count upon the ignorance
of his readers. They do not know that the pro
phets have each one his own marked and peculiar
style. Micah's is abrupt and broken. Evidently he
was a man of deep feeling, who beheld with intense
pain the growing corruption of the people. And
thus though he wrote those remarkable Messianic
predictions, yet his primary subject was morality.
What stirred his whole nature was the violation,
by God's own people, of the moral law. And never
has any man gone more directly to the root of
the whole question of human conduct than Micah
in that short code which forms perhaps the best
known portion of his whole prophecy : —
Wherewith shall I come before the Lord,
And bow myself before the High God]

VII.] MORALITY. 307
Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings'?
With calves of a year old t
Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams 1
With ten thousands of rivers of oil 1
Shall I give my first-born for my transgression ; —
The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul ?
He hath shewed thee, 0 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 !
In short passages such as this we often see Micah
master of a powerful and impressive style. The
earnestness of the thoughts is equalled by the beauty
of the language, and both the memory readily seizes
upon the words, and the heart is moved by their
import. His rhythm, too, is good and effective,
though far from being so smooth and exact as that
of Joel and Amos : and his Hebrew is that pure
dialect spoken in Jerusalem by the educated class,
and by that class only. Still there is no prophet
who requires more minute and patient study. You
must think over Micah before you can see how
his thoughts grow out of one another, and what
is the inner chain which binds his terse, brief, dis
jointed sentences into a connected whole.
Such, then, is Micah, the contemporary of Isaiah,
and no unworthy associate of that great prophet.
Not that he ever rises to that height of sublimity
and beauty, whither indeed Isaiah mounted alone.
Nor is his teaching so complete as that of Isaiah.
It is very full as regards the Church, but as regards
the person of the Messiah he teUs us but Httle.
His great lesson is holiness, that one sole founda-
x 2

308 ADVENT OF THE MESSIAH.
tion upon which alone Christ can be buUt. But
he never separates this lesson from Him Who made
holiness possible to us. Whatever may be their
special lesson, the prophets are men whose hearts
are ever fuU of one great subject, the advent namely
of the promised Deliverer. And natural as it may
seem to us in our cold pedantic way to look for
some lower apphcation of each prophecy, something
in the prophet's own times to which it may refer ;
to them and to the people generaUy it was as
natural to look onward to the distant future, and
to the coming of that Messiah, in Whom their nation,
shorn of its glory and fast sinking under the power
of Assyria, was to revive to a grander, a more
enduring, a more world-wide, and a more spiritual
empire.

LECTUKE VIII.
THE PROPHECIES OF ISAIAH.
I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this ? of himself, or
of some other man ? Then Philip opened his mouth, and began
at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus. — Acts
viii- 34, 35-
WE can well understand the confusion which dis
turbed the eunuch's mind when reading the fifty-
third chapter of Isaiah. The words there were
to be the key wherewith in due time the Church
would unlock the mystery of the atonement ; they
were to explain to us why Christ suffered, why His
death was necessary for our acquittal, why His
merits avail for our pardon and acceptance. But
until ' He was brought as a lamb to the slaughter/
the mystery of a suffering Christ, though clearly
taught in prophecy, was something so alien from
the usual current of men's thoughts, that they read
the words of the prophets without understanding
their meaning. Men never do understand anything
unless already in their minds they have some kindred
ideas, something that leads up to the new thought
which they are required to master. Our knowledge
grows, but it is by the gradual accumulation of
thought upon thought, and by following out ideas
already gained to their legitimate conclusions. God
followed this rule even in the supernatural knowledge

310 PROPHECY [Lect.
bestowed upon the prophets. It was a growing light,
a gradual dawning preparatory to the sunrise, and
no flash of lightning, illuminating everything for one
moment with ghastly splendour, to be succeeded
immediately by a deeper and more oppressive gloom.
It has been our endeavour to trace this growing Hght.
We have seen how the foundation for the revelation of
Christ was laid in broad and general doctrines con
cerning the universality of the Church, the power of
prayer and repentance, the necessity of sanctification,
the certainty of judgment. Upon these foUowed
exacter teaching as regards the plan of salvation,
and the person and offices of Him Whose name is
Jesus, a Saviour ; and we have seen that this know
ledge came in no haphazard way. Carefully, and
with prayer, the prophets studied the teaching of
their predecessors, and by the use of the Hght already
given were made fit for more light, and to be the
spokesmen of Jehovah in teaching ever more clearly
to the Church those truths which have regenerated
mankind. For the truths of religion alone give us
the power of mastering the baser portion of our
nature, and of rising to a nobler and more spiritual,
aye ! and a more manly, existence.
And this exacter teaching attains to its greatest
clearness and highest elevation in Isaiah. There are
other inspired writers, whose teaching completes, as
their varied excellencies adorn, that 'goodly fellow
ship of the prophets/ by wHom God gave us the
Scriptures. Had time permitted, there are many
of whom one would fain have spoken. There is

VIIL] A GROWING LIGHT. 311
much to be said of Jeremiah, a man it may be of
smaU natural gifts, but worthy, nevertheless, to stand
at the very head of the prophetic choir, and to be in
his sorrows the type of Christ ; for never was there
a character more distinguished for moral exceUencies,
or one more determined, in spite of the shrinking
melancholy of his disposition, at aU hazards to do his
duty. There is the sublime, but often obscure, pro
phet of the exUe, Ezekiel, whose mysterious teachings
appear again in their Christian form in the Bevela
tion of St. John ; but it would need a volume in
itself to show what are the relations in which these
two books stand to one another. There are the pro
phets of the return, especiaUy Zechariah, whose mind
dwelt so exactly among the same thoughts as filled
the heart of Isaiah and the old prophets, that Arch
bishop Newcomea argued that he must have been
a The portion of Zechariah, so entirely in the style of the old
prophets as to have suggested (first of all to Dr. Mede) the idea
that it was written before the exile, consists of the last six chapters.
Of these, Dr. Newcome assigned chapters ix., x., xi. to a date ante
cedent even to the carrying away of the ten tribes by Shalmaneser,
while chapters xii., xiii., xiv. he thought were by a different author,
who flourished between the death of Josiah and the destruction of
Jerusalem. Undoubtedly these six chapters are most remarkable.
They contain the account of Christ's entry into Jerusalem, riding
upon an ass' colt ; of His betrayal, and of the thirty pieces of silver
being cast to the potter. They contain the weighty prophecies of
the two staves, Grace and Union ; of the cutting off of the three
evil shepherds ; of the destruction of Jerusalem, and of its better
restoration, when God shall pour out upon the house of David, and
upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplica
tion, and they shall look upon Him whom they have pierced. They
contain, too, the great prophecy of Christ's divinity, joined with

312 REJECTION OF JEWS [Lect.
their contemporary. More reasonably we may attri
bute this fact to his careful examination of their
writings, and see in those very many remarkable
predictions spoken by him of Christ, God's especial
blessing upon his thoughtful study of what had been
already revealed. Finally, there is Malachi, whose
office it was solemnly for the last time to declare
God's purpose of calling the Gentiles, and His rejec
tion of the Jews. ' I have no pleasure in you, Israel,
saith Jehovah of hosts, nor wiU I accept even the
unbloody sacrifice at your hand/ to say nothing of the
sacrifices of animals, which at Israel's rejection would
of course become impossible, and which already among
the Jews of the dispersion had ceased to be offered.
' For from the rising of the sun even unto the going
down of the same My name shaU be great among the
GentUes ; and in every place incense shaU be offered
unto My name, and a pure unbloody offering : for My
name shaU be great among the GentUes, saith Jeho
vah of hosts.' (Mal. i. io, n.) The Israehtes must
have read such a prophecy with sinking hearts, and
that of His death : ' Awake, O sword, against My shepherd, and
against the man that is My fellow, saith Jehovah of hosts ; ' and, to
add but one prophecy more, when Jerusalem has been captured,
Jehovah goes forth to fight with the nations : ' In that day His feet
shall stand upon the Mount of Olives, and the mount shall cleave
beneath them, and living waters shall go forth from Jerusalem, and
Jehovah shall be king over all the earth : in that day shall there be
one Jehovah, and His name one.'
Now the sole reason for conjuring up several Zechariahs, was the
fact of these predictions agreeing so exactly with what the old pro
phets taught about the Messiah. It seemed impossible that one
who lived in the time of Darius Hystaspes, and whose office it was

VIIL] PROPHESIED BY MALACHI. 313
its ominous meaning was made the more threatening
by Malachi being the prophet who was commissioned
to foreteU in such clear terms the speedy advent of
the forerunner, and the sudden appearance imme
diately afterwards in His temple of the Lord, as the
messenger of the new covenant. And notice here
with what clearness he sets forth that separation
between the believing and the unbelieving Israelites,
which was to be made by the preaching of the
apostles, as the heralds of this new covenant, and that
within the Hfetime of the very generation who had
seen our Lord manifest in the flesh. Nationally it
was the last day of acceptance for the Jews, and
Christ sat there as a refiner and purifier of silver,
putting aside for the Christian Church all the faith
ful and true : leaving for Titus and the armies of
Borne aU ' impostors, and adulterers, and false-
swearers, and those that oppress the hireling in his
wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and who turn
the stranger from his right, and fear not Me, saith
Jehovah of hosts/ (Mal. Hi. 1-5.)
to encourage the exiles in rebuilding the temple, would foretell
a fresh destruction of Jerusalem in as clear a manner as Isaiah and
Jeremiah had foretold its capture by the Chaldees. But the minute
criticism of the Germans has scattered this theory to the winds.
Especially De Wette and Stahelin made a most exact and thorough
examination of everything connected both with the language of the
book and with its historical allusions, and came to the conclusion,
not only that the last six chapters were written by the same author,
but that, whoever he was, he also wrote the first eight. Ewald,
however, still divides the book into several fragments, which he
assigns to different periods, but without giving any adequate reasons
for his decisions.

314 PROPHECY CULMINATES [Lect.
Upon this, and much more, there is no time to
speak. For the Bible is like an ever-flowing fountain.
Take what we will, and as much as we wdl, we ever
leave more than we take to satisfy the wants of
others b. Neither the writers nor the thinkers of any
one age can exhaust its fulness. For nearly eighteen
centuries men have thought and written upon that
one book, and if for eighteen more centuries men so
write, yet wdl there stiU remain much that calls for
fresh examination and fuller enquiry : new knowledge
to be won, old truths to be better and more fully
understood. I do but submit to the general law in
acknowledging that my subject is ten times larger
than I can adequately treat. I have but stirred the
surface, whereas if I had dug deeper, I should have
won a richer harvest. Yet even the slightest stir
ring of God's Word yields abundant fruit. The books
of men have their day, and then grow obsolete. God's
Word is ever fresh and new— like Himself, 'the same
yesterday, to-day, and for ever.' Time passes over it,
but it ages not. As long as the Church shall last, so
long will it be the voice of God speaking to it ; and
that not as" a thing of the past, but as a thing of the
present. ' The Word of the Lord is quick, — alive/
says the apostle to the Hebrews (iv. 12). Its power
is as fresh as if God spake it but yesterday.
b Compare the passages culled from St. Augustine in Archbishop
Trench's 'Exposition of the Sermon on the Mount,' pp. 5 sqq.,
expressive of that great father's 'entire confidence that in the
Scriptures were laid up all treasures of wisdom and know
ledge.'

VIIL] IN ISAIAH 315
All these later prophets, then, add each his own
portion to the exact delineation of Christ and the
doctrines of the Gospel. But, passing them by, I
shall content myself with a few words upon Isaiah,
as that prophet who gives us the clearest possible
description of Christ's person and office. In Isaiah
all the peculiarities of Hebrew prophecy reach their
highest elevation, and especially in the last twenty-
seven chapters, concerning which no critic of note
abroad any longer holds that they can be distinguished
from the first thirty-nine chapters, by any test either
of language or matter. If any so-caUed critic at
home stiU holds that some Babylonian Isaiah wrote
the last twenty-seven chapters, it is simply because
he has not yet read what his masters say upon
the subject. What that is the reader wUl find in
my Preface0. It is not what we hold. A routed
army will still try to save what it can of its bag
gage : and with Isaiah the negative critics can
have no peace. For that prophecy in which
Cyrus is mentioned by name, and an exact
account given of the manner in which he won
possession of Babylon, in spite of its impregnable
fortifications ; a prophecy so clear, and agreeing in
so remarkable a way with the detaUs given in pro
fane history of the event, must ever remain a hope
less difficulty in the way of those who disbelieve in
the supernatural.
c Ewald's view will be seen below, note e, page 320. Virtually,
he acknowledges that more or less of eleven chapters out of the
twenty-seven are irreconcilable with DSderlein's theory.

316 ENTANGLEMENTS [Lect.
Theirs is a hard fate. They have to turn God out
of His own word, and out of His own world ; and it is
not easy to do either one or the other. When they
began what they are pleased to call (modestly 1) the
higher criticism, they supposed that if they could sug
gest doubts about the dates of some few very remark
able prophecies — that if, by the power of reiterated
assertion, they could make people suppose that this
passage was an interpolation, and that a forgery — that
all their work would be done. Knowing the credulity
of unbelief, they did reasonably count upon rational
ists being childish enough to take upon trust two
Isaiahs, two Daniels, and three Zechariahs. But
these makeshifts are by no means easy to manage ;
and behind there are a multitude of prophecies as
exact, as precise, as completely fulfilled, as those
more commonly put forward in argument. The
prophecy of Cyrus by name, and of the capture of
Babylon, does not stand alone : from beginning to end
the Bible is a book of special predictions exactly
fulfilled. Take it as God's word, and its various
parts aU unite weU together, and are all capable
of easy exposition ; and the difficulties in it are such
only as were reasonably to be expected in a book
which gives us all necessary knowledge of another
world, but in human language, through the medium
of human thoughts and human ideas. There must
be mysteries in such a book : places where the human
words can give us but a faint and shadowy repre
sentation of the Divine reality. But treat the Bible
as an ordinary book, as the mere remains of a curious

VIIL] OF THE NEGATIVE CRITICISM. 317
national Hterature, and you are involved at once in
hopeless entanglements. The Divine element in it
is too strong, too clearly evident, to yield to this
treatment. You must upset aU Jewish history, all
Jewish chronology ; you must cut out large portions
of every prophetic writing, and put them down
centuries after the prophet lived : you must say that
the rest is obscure, unintelligible, meaningless. Any
how the Bible cannot be an ordinary book. For
if the miracles and prophecies recorded in it are real
and true, then must God have been with the writers
and workers of those miracles in an extraordinary
manner. If they are not true, then the book is an
imposture, and every portion of it which contains
a prediction must have been written after the event
predicted had happened. It is this necessity which
requires the invention of those numerous shadowy
personages, referred to above, summoned up to write
a bit of a book now, and a bit then, as occasion serves.
Fortunately, the fertility of the imagination of the
negative critics has bounds set to it. They cannot
say of any prophecy fulfiUed in Christ, or in His
Church, that it was written after the event. For,
three centuries before Christ came, God was pleased
in His providence to cause the Septuagint version
of the Old Testament to be made at Alexandria by
a colony of Jews placed there by Alexander, and who
had become greatly estranged from their brethren
at Jerusalem. But for this independent testimony,
we should have been told that the chief prophecies
were fabricated by Christian writers ; and that pre-

318 LAST TWENTY-SEVEN [Lect.
dictions of Christ, so plain and clear, were inter
polations put into the Bible after the event d.
And nowhere are these predictions more clear and
plain than in these last twenty-seven chapters of
Isaiah. They are, as I beHeve, the last memorial
of the prophet's teaching, a monograph written in
the calm seclusion of his later life, when retired
from the turmoil of public business, saddened, too,
it may be, by the fadure of Hezekiah's reforms,
d It must be remembered also that the Jews, immediately after
the return from the exile, set themselves most earnestly to the
study of their sacred books. That great scribe Ezra is believed
on reasonable evidence to have begun the work of settling the
canon of Scripture, and tradition ascribed to Nehemiah the gather
ing of a library, containing the acts ofthe kings and prophets (2 Mace.
ii. 13). The previous age of Hezekiah, as I have shown, was one
of very high culture ; this culture was revived immediately after
the return from Babylon, and the style of the three last prophets
and of the post-exilian Psalms is far more pure than that of
Jeremiah and Ezekiel. Plainly it was an age when the old models
were carefully studied. The numerous books quoted or referred
to in Chronicles prove how large were the literary resources of
Ezra and his contemporaries. The men of the Great Synagogue
continued his work. In Ecclesiasticus we see with what reverence
the prophets were regarded, and Isaiah is referred to as the author
of these last twenty-seven chapters : ' Esay comforted them that
mourn in Sion.' (Ecclus. xlvii. 24, Is. xl. 1, Iii. 9.) The external
evidence, in short, gives a strong presumption for the general authen
ticity of the prophetic writings : and no negative critic, to the
best of my knowledge, has grappled with it. No one has shown
when, or under what circumstances, or by whose hands, this fal
sification of the Hebrew Scriptures took place. It is a thing
unparalleled in any other literature. We ought to have some
thing more than mere subjective criticism. Subjective criticism
can do much : but it must be sober and careful. That of the
negative critics is usually wilful, capricious, and fanciful.

VIIL] CHAPTERS OF ISAIAH 319
viewing with heartfelt sorrow that relapse of the
nation into sin, which, upon the succession of the
chUd Manasseh to the throne, amounted almost to
national apostasy ; in grief at the present, he turned
away from the sickening sight of God's own people
offering human sacrifices to devils, and concentrated
all his powers upon the contemplation of the happier
times of Messiah. It was a monograph written
chiefly for the use and study of that portion of
Israel which was true to its caUing — the prophetic
order. Isaiah had not to combat and struggle, like
Jeremiah, with corruption there. There were many
lukewarm prophets it may be (Is. xxx. io), some
utterly corrupt (Micah iii. 5, 11), but the mass was
still true. It is, however, abundantly plain to any
attentive reader of the Bible that Hezekiah's latter
days were days of disappointment, when, in spite of all
that king and prophet could do, idolatry was generally
prevalent. And thus Isaiah represents the people
as ' enflaming themselves with idols under every
green tree, and slaying the chUdren in the torrent-
beds under the clifts of the rocks.' (Is. lvii. 5.) Now
I need scarcely say, that as there are no torrents, but
only canals in the flat alluvial soil of Babylonia, so
there are no torrent-beds there, but that these form
a common feature of the landscape in Palestine
and aU mountainous countries. Such places were
the favourite haunts of superstition, and there, in
the deep channels worn by the rushing streams of
winter, they reared, it seems, altars of the loose
stones, and celebrated on them their horrid Moloch-

320 PORTIONS OF THEM [Lect.
rites. 'Among the smooth stones of the torrent-
bed is the place chosen for the sacrifice : they, even
they, are Israel's lot/ Its lot, its inheritance, used
to be Jehovah : but now their God, their country,
their love as parents, aU that ennobles man is re
jected and trampled under foot, and nothing valued
but what ministers to sin ! And so, on these stones
placed altar- wise, 'they pour their drink offering,
and there they offer their meat offering/ Now this
portion of the last twenty-seven chapters Ewald and
other great critics have at length been forced to
own must have been written in Palestine, and most
of them further grant that it describes the state of
things before the exde, and that there is no evidence,
but rather the contrary, of human sacrifices having
been offered at Babylon. They invent, however, for
it a shadowy author, who Hved, they say, during
Manasseh's reign e.
e According to Ewald, Proph. d. A.B. iii. 27, several portions of
this last prophecy of Isaiah, namely, chaps, xl. 1, 2, Iii., Iiii., liv. 1-12,
Ivi. 9-12, lvii. 1-1 1, were written by an unknown prophet, who
lived in the time of Manasseh. He invents this mythical personage
in a few lines at the end of vol. i. p. 537, but in the place referred
to above he speaks of him more respectfully, and laments that we
possess ' only these noble fragments, as evidences of a time so
remarkable as the reign of Manasseh — a time of the deepest trial,
distraction, and humiliation, but also of endless elevation and high
enlightenment on the part of the most pious and the most true in
Israel.' See also Ib. iii. p. 102. It is strange that reasonable men
do not see the absurdity of these shadowy personages, and how
destructive they are to real criticism. Whenever these German
critics get into a difficulty, and do not know what to do with any
portion of the prophetical books, they invent an ancient prophet,

VIIL] WRITTEN IN PALESTINE. 321
Now it is the state of things here described which
is the key to the whole monograph. There are
or a modern prophet, or a great unknown, or a little unknown, till
one is weary of such commonplace makeshifts. Thus the last
twenty-seven chapters are written by a ' great unknown ' who lived
at Babylon at the end of the exile : but first, he did not write the
opening words, he borrowed them. He wrote, however, the con
troversy with idols, and the account of the capture of Babylon :
but when you reach the very kernel of the book, ch. Iiii., Ewalcl
owns that it could not have been written at Babylon. He even
thinks that it may describe Isaiah's own martyrdom, or if not,
then the martyrdom of some one else, but at all events the sorrows
spoken of were suffered under Manasseh (p. 90). Why 1 Simply
because the prophecy would have been almost more remarkable in
the mouth of an exile at Babylon than in that of Isaiah. To get
rid of its Messianic character you must affirm that it is historical,
an account of some past tragedy. Tradition says that Isaiah was
sawn asunder ; it is certain that Manasseh was a tyrant ; ergo, by
the higher-criticism logic, it was Isaiah who ' bore our griefs and
carried our sorrows.' Well ! then come chaps. Ivi. 9-lvii. It is a
passage which has brought great ridicule upon the negative critics.
No rational man could believe that it was written at Babylon, as
they at first innocently affirmed. But Ewald is equal to the emer
gency. It was copied from 'an ancient prophet,' and must be
printed in italics. But chaps. Iviii. and lix. are almost as unman
ageable, so they, too, must be printed in italics, and assigned to a
'modern prophet,' an imitator of Ezekiel (p. 107). And now there
are no great difficulties till ch. lxiii. Judah had nothing to fear
from Edom and Bosra at Babylon. And so the first six verses are
printed in italics again, and the passage is borrowed from the pro
phet who wrote ch. Iviii. (p. 119). And all the rest — Ewald fairly
gives it up. The great unknown may have written it, but at a
later time, and under different historical circumstances (p. 125).
Ch. Ixvi. 6, which shows that the city and temple were still stand
ing when the prophecy was composed, refers to a time, he says,
subsequent to the decree of Cyrus and the ' weak commencement
of the rebuilding of the holy city.' Observe then ; omitting the
Y

322 MOLOCH-WORSHIP [Lect.

periods in every nation's history when it seems to
struggle violently against God, and endeavour to
free itself from the restraints of religion. In modern
days the struggle takes the form of infidehty : with
the Jews it took the form of idolatry. There was
much of it in Jeremiah's time. He, too, speaks of
human sacrifices outside the waUs of Jerusalem
(Jer. vii. 31) in the vaUey of Hinnom. But in his
days it was more the wantonness of idolatry that
captivated the people than its darker rites ; and so
he teUs how even in the streets of Jerusalem, in
the days of Josiah, and again in Egypt, after the
destruction of the temple, 'the children gathered
the wood, and the fathers kindled the fire, and
the women kneaded dough to make cakes to
Melcath/ the love-goddess of those days (Ib. vii.
18, xliv. 17, 19). But in Isaiah's later days it was
the darker side of idolatry which oppressed the
minds of the Jewish people : the idea that sin
could be atoned for only by the blood of the young,
the beautiful, the innocent. God was no longer, as
taught by Moses, one good, merciful, gracious, long-
suffering : he was a dark, malignant, cruel demon,

opening words, eleven chapters out of the twenty-seven, i. e. all the
crucial passages, are confessedly irreconcileable with the theory of
a great unknown having written this magnificent composition at
Babylon. Either, then, this book was written by Isaiah, as the
Jews constantly affirmed from the most ancient times, or it is a
piece of patchwork. The mental calibre of the man who can believe
it to be the latter, must be infinitesimally small. The theory of a
Babylonian Isaiah is dead.

VIIL] IN HEZEKIAH'S DAYS. 323
who rejoiced in human woe, and whose envy and
hatred of man could be appeased only by the vio
lation of the holiest instincts of our nature. If
Melcath, the queen, was pleasure-giving, the stern
king Moloch f could be served only in anguish and
despair. Now it is only too probable that the distress
caused by the Assyrian invasions had caused this
deep gloom of anguish to settle over the national
mind. Isaiah describes Judsea as desolate, its cities
burned by fire, the land devoured by marauding
strangers in the very presence of the hopeless in
habitants, watching perhaps from the hdl-tops the
destruction of their property. Zion alone is left,
and it is but as a booth put up for the temporary
use of the watchers in a vineyard (Is. i 7, 8).
It was the first time, too, that the land had been
thus afflicted, and used as the people were to re
gard temporal prosperity or adversity as the direct
results of religion, their faith seems to have given
way. In their anguish Isaiah describes them as
multiplying their sacrifices, and busying themselves
with aU the externals of religion (i. 11-15), but
Micah, his contemporary, discloses to us a darker
back-ground. He, too, speaks of the thousands of
rams they were willing to offer, and of meat-offer
ings so numerous that the temple ran with rivers
of oU. But still unrepentant, and oppressed there-
f I have little doubt that the right "vocalization in Isaiah xxx.
33, lvii. 9, is ip Moloch, not ^» king, but it makes no difference
whatsoever in the sense.
Y 2

324 CAUSE [Lect.

fore with a sense of unforgiven sin, they looked
round for something wherewith to crush the con
science, and were ready to 'give their first-born
for their transgression; the fruit of the body for
the sin of the soul/ (Micah vi. 7.) It was this
despairing unbelief which Hezekiah tried to stem
by a national reformation. This, too, was present to
Isaiah's mind when he wrote the last twenty-seven
chapters of his prophecy. He wished to meet this
feeling : wished to give them consolation, and to
raise their hopes. He shows them, therefore, the
powerlessness of idols : tells them that though they
must go into captivity, yet that they shall be de
hvered. And then he sets before them their Mes
siah — describes Him as the true expiation of sin,
the true giver of peace to the conscience : while
finally, in terms of mixed upbraiding and comfort,
he exhorts them to repentance, and declares to them
the future glories of the Church, Christ's love to
it, and the high office to which nationaUy and
individually they were caUed.
For the time both faded. Hezekiah's reforms
led to no national repentance, and Isaiah's exhort
ations reached only that 'remnant/ in whom the
Jewish Church was to Hve on, till the time came
for it to do God's work. But, for the present, the
nation's faith totaUy gave way. The long reign
of Manasseh was a period of utter irreligion, when
everything good and right was persecuted to the
death. For unbelief is never" a philosophy : a phi
losophy may be — generaUy is — tolerant. Unbehef

VIIL] OF JUDAH S APOSTASY. 325
is a propaganda, fierce usually, and intolerant, which
would crush out belief. And so Jeremiah, speaking
of Jerusalem in Manasseh's days, says, ' In thy skirts
is found the blood of the souls of the poor inno
cents : I have not found it by secret search, but
upon all these/ (ii. 34.) Like Jehoiakim's murder
of Urijah, Manasseh's bloodshed was done openly,
to strike terror, and silence that hateful word of
Jehovah, that would stiU speak of sin and judgment.
This utter failure, then, of Judah's faith was prob
ably the result of that first great wave of trouble
(Is. viii. 7, 8) which broke over the land in Heze
kiah's days. Their faith had been hoUow before,
but now it quite gave way. Isaiah describes their
unbelief in that stage in which it degrades the
outward forms of the true religion to superstitious
uses. Micah describes it in that further stage
when it looks to a false creed for peace, and would
appease God, not by serving Him in holiness and
truth, but by offerings of pain and anguish and
cruelty. And gradually this darker side of unbehef
prevaded. The feeling which Micah describes grew
more intense in Hezekiah's later years : during
Manasseh's reign it became universal. He made
his own offspring to pass through the fire (2 Chron.
xxxiii. 6), but — poor child — when he came to the
throne at twelve years olde, he could have had
8 It may be answered that children in the East are more pre
cocious than with us, and that Josiah was equally young when he
began his reforms. But Josiah is just a case in point. He was
surrounded by good men, Hilkiah, Shaphan, and others. For four

326 ISAIAHS LONG LABOURS [Lect.
little to do with the nation's apostasy. There must
have been strong bad men behind, and these had
rejected God in Hezekiah's days. Men like Shebna
(Is. xxii. 15-19) had come to the front again, and
so those last fifteen years of Hezekiah's Hfe (Ib.
xxxviii. 5) were years probably of much sorrow,
when the king saw aU his efforts for the spiritual
good of his people frustrated, and idolatry every
day more powerful and rampant throughout the
land. To his own soul this sorrow may have been
blessed (2 Kings xx. 19), but they were not years
in which he could have rejoiced. For evil seemed
in them more powerful than good.
During these years Isaiah seems to have with
drawn from public business. The first thirty-nine
chapters record his labours during the time when he
was young and active. They are the record of a
long life of duty : for when for the last time he
left the prophetic college to reprove Hezekiah for
his vanity, and forewarn him of the Babylonian
captivity, forty-six years had passed since, in the
last year of Uzziah, he was caUed to be a prophet h.
years he did nothing, though he gave every indication of piety : at
twelve years old he began his reforms, but it was in his eighteenth
year that the vigorous proceedings recorded in 2 Kings xxiii. took
place. These things depend not upon the precocity of the under
standing, but upon the strength of the will, and it may be doubted
whether this ripens faster in the East than with us : witness our
own Edward VI.
k Isaiah was certainly very young when he was called to be a
prophet. During the reign of Jotham he does not seem to have
done much more than prepare for his high office, and write the life

VIII.] AS A PROPHET. 327
The time for personal labour was now past, but he
was no unobservant spectator of the signs of the
times ; and thus, in retirement, occupied probably
in teaching the sons of the prophets, he gathered
into one memorial the great truths which he had
taught all life through, and which the present
circumstances of his times made more than ever
necessary. The one great subject, then, of this his last writ
ing is God's controversy with idols. With this
Isaiah begins : to this he returns. It was the
great struggle during Hezekiah's reign. Ahaz, his
father, Manasseh, his son, were both open idolaters.
Between these two was an interval of thirty years,
during which Hezekiah struggled against the national
will ; but it prevailed, and Manasseh represented
the winning side. But the triumph of evil is never
more than temporary, and Isaiah, mindful of the
promises made to the nation, looked forward to a
better age, when Judah would again worship the one
God in truth. And with this he connected the be
stowal of Christ. NecessarUy so. Christ cannot come
to idolaters, or to atheists. That heart which is oc
cupied by many gods : that heart which beheves in
no God : in neither of them can Christ dwell. The
great preparation for Christ, throughout the Bible,
of Uzziah. It was in the reign of Ahaz that he first steps forth with
great boldness and authority in Jehovah's name, while the period of
his greatest activity is the first half of the reign of Jotham's grand
son, Hezekiah. If he was about Jeremiah's age when called to be
a prophet he would be now (in the fifteenth year of Hezekiah's
reign) sixty-two years of age.

328 GOD'S CONTROVERSY [Lect.
is the teaching that there is but one God, and the
teaching what that God is. It is only when men
know and feel, more or less thoroughly, that God is
a Spirit, that God is good, that God is love, that it
becomes possible to worship Him in spirit and in
truth. And thus Isaiah begins by the utter over
throw of all the principles of idolatry. And he does
it with a master's hand. Jeremiah — the authors of
several psalms — later prophets — apocryphal writers —
can but reproduce Isaiah's arguments. They exult in
them, repeat them as an unanswerable demonstration
of the foHies of the heathen creed. They were un
answerable. In due time they did banish idolatry
entirely from the minds of the Jews. Naturally a
very sensuous people, ' projectissima ad libidinem
gens' (Tac. Hist. v. 5), idolatry had a strong hold
upon them. They loved it because it was vile.
But the combined teaching of the two prophets,
Isaiah and Jeremiah, prevailed against their besetting
sins. From the close of the Babylonian exile the
Jews hated idolatry as decidedly as before they had
loved and delighted in it.
This, then, was a very great step onwards in
God's purposes. The controversy had begun when
Abraham left Ur of the Chaldees. In him God set
apart one whose seed should grow into a nation, and
it was to be the office of that nation to contend for a
spiritual faith. When we roU backward the pages
of history, we can generaUy discern, of aU the chief
races of mankind, what was the purpose they have
served in God's counsels. So plain everywhere is

VIIL] WITH IDOLATRY. 329
His handwriting. But here we have a nation whose
office is marked out for it from the first, and which
has fulfiUed that office exactly. Abraham, indeed, was
rather removed from evil influences than commanded
to testify publicly to God's unity1. It was at the
Exodus that the struggle began in earnest; and the
result of that struggle was to stamp deeply into the
minds of Israel those great spiritual truths which in
the Bible alone are expounded clearly and purely.
Take all your phdosophies, and you will find them
only groping darkly and hesitatingly after those
grand truths taught in the two first verses of Genesis,
that God created everything that is not God, and
that there is no progress from darkness to light, from
confusion to order, except by the presence of God's
Spirit. And for eight centuries after the time of
Moses these and the like truths were entrusted to
Israel's keeping. Taught in Israel by the law, by
the temple ritual, by its psalms, and by the prophets,
not merely were they maintained, but were growing
in depth and clearness, and both the men were being
prepared to teach them, and the truths put in such a
form as made them ripe and fit for the acceptance of
the whole world.
In Isaiah we reach the last stage of this prepara
tion. For mark, as regards these last twenty-seven
chapters, what immediately precedes them. It is
Isaiah's visit to Hezekiah with the painful message,
' Behold, the days come, that all that is in thine
house, and that which thy fathers have laid up in
' See page 60, note c.

330 OCCASION [Lect.

store until this day, shall be carried to Babylon :
nothing shaU be left, saith Jehovah. And of thy
sons that shaU issue from thee, which thou shalt
beget, shall they take away; and they shall be
eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon/ (Is.
xxxix. 6, 7.) Now I have not time to stop and ask
whether Isaiah was likely to end his prophecies with
this announcement? whether any prophet concludes
with a prediction of unmitigated evil % But it is
necessary to point out that henceforward the idea of
Israel's exile is uppermost in Isaiah's mind. Involun-
tardy the fact clearly breaks through that the writer
was Hving at Jerusalem. Even such small matters
as his calling the land Hephzibah, the name of Heze
kiah's wife, all agree with this supposition, and with
no other. But Judah in exile is a thought upper
most in Isaiah's mind throughout. He seems to have
gone home, and to have made this sad prediction to
Hezekiah the one subject of his prayers and medita
tions. There was nothing new in it. Jerusalem a
heap of ruins, Zion ploughed as a field, the area of
the temple desolate and bare; these, as we have seen,
were the opening declarations of Isaiah's prophecy.
Yet truths come home to men at various times with
fuller force ; and the picture of Hezekiah's descend
ants ministering to the pride of a savage conqueror
may well have set Isaiah pondering upon the myste
rious ways of God.
Israel in exile, then, is the starting-point of these
last twenty-seven chapters, and thus they are a
natural sequel to the melancholy announcement made

VIIL] OF ISAIAH'S LAST PROPHECY. 331
to Hezekiah. As I have repeatedly said, the prophets
never predict anything simply that men may know
the future : their words have ever a moral purpose.
Hezekiah was the first to be benefited by Isaiah's
message ; but its chief fruits were those which the
prophet won by prayer and study for the whole
Church. Of these, the first was for the Jews themselves.
As I have said, that black form of idolatry which
then prevaUed was partly due to the misery, so
utterly beyond anything in previous times, which
the Assyrian invasions had brought upon the land.
Isaiah heals this by hope. Just as Jeremiah's pre
diction of the seventy years of captivity became, as
time roUed on, the, comfort and strength ofthe exiles
at Babylon, so Isaiah's plain and definite predictions
of the return, and of the rebuUding of the city and
temple, and of the grand and unique though spiritual
destiny of the nation, were intended to rouse it from
its despair, and quicken it with new hope.
But there was more than this. That exile was
itself the first beginning of the fulfilment by
Israel of its appointed duties. And this, again, is
another key to unlock the meaning of these
twenty-seven chapters. Why did Isaiah at this
very time come forward with arguments which
utterly overthrew the principles of idolatry % If
there be a God, and Isaiah His prophet, it was be
cause it was just the right time for them. If there
be not, I have nothing more to say, except that it
actually was just the right time, and so you endow

332 ISRAEL'S WORK [Lect.
chance with a wUl and a purpose. The captivity of
Israel had become a settled decree of prophecy. It
was to take place in about a century. As soon as
it had happened the people would find themselves
face to face with idolatry. Of this intervening
century, half was occupied by the open heathenism
of Manasseh's reign, when Jehovah's worship was
violently suppressed. Where was the mighty though
sUent influence which maintained the pure doctrines
ofthe Mosaic teaching during this period, and gave
them at the close of it such entire ascendancy, that
at Babylon no single doubt about the foUy of idol-
worship ever entered the people's minds 1
At Babylon, then, in the ninth century after
Moses, Israel's specific work began. Their training
was now all but completed, and the time had arrived
when they must begin to make the Gentile world
ready for Christ. For this purpose they were scat
tered far and wide. Other nations when scattered
in this way are absorbed. Their influence is often
great for a time, as was that of the Greeks who
foUowed in the wake of Alexander's conquests, but
at length the race itself disappears. Not so the
Jews. To do God's work they must be dispersed,
and He endued them with such vitality and tena-
ciousness, that to this day they remain a distinct
and separate people. Now this dispersion began
just six centuries before Christ, when Jeconiah was
carried into captivity. Up to that time the oracles
of truth had been intrusted to Israel's keeping, and
confined to their sole use. Yet from the first,

VIIL] BEGAN AT BABYLON. 333
account for it how you will, they had been taught
by their own chiefs and sages, that they had not
received their many privileges for their own good
simply, but for the good of others ; that in them
all the nations of the earth were to be blessed.
Never was there a people who set themselves more
obstinately against what their own sacred books
told them was the one purpose of their existence.
But that purpose was fulfilled in spite of them.
Upon the fertUe plains of the Euphrates arose vast
earthly empires, cruel, merciless, the robbers and
oppressors of mankind ; not worse, perhaps, than
other great military powers, but as bad. And
these crushed the independence of Judasa, but the
Jews were thereby dispersed throughout the world.
Everything proves that the time of Hezekiah was
a period of great culture. It was a time when
literature had advanced far enough to be interested
in and proud of its own past career ; and thus we
read of the men of Hezekiah making search for and
copying out the proverbs of Solomon, and the three
first books of the Psalms apparently were collected
and arranged by the same hands. So, too, in Isaiah,
the prophet of Hezekiah's days, the Hebrew language
reached its highest perfection. No such Hebrew
was written before or after ; and though there were
among the prophets who succeeded him his equals
perhaps in native power, yet is there none whose
style is so pure and perfect. Whence, then, came
it that just when there was this palmy state of things
at Jerusalem, when the long peace of the reigns of

334 HIGH CIVILIZATION OF JUDAEA [Lect.
Uzziah and Jotham had led to these happy results,
that God's providence should permit those merciless
Assyrians to crush and destroy a civilization so infi
nitely superior to anything that existed at Nineveh
or Babylon %
This is the question which the prophet Habakkuk
asks in Josiah's days. How could God permit a
hasty and bitter nation Hke the Chaldseans, idolaters
too, who sacrifice to their net, and burn incense to
their drag, to slay the nations continually, and
devour those that were more righteous than them
selves % Equally were the cruelties of the Assyrians
a terrible stumbling-block in Hezekiah's days, and
made men turn to Moloch, a demon to be served
only by human tears, and by the offerings of despair.
Habakkuk gives the answer which suited those
times, and quieted, no doubt, many troubled con
sciences. But he could not give the whole answer.
It is ever the weakness of man's judgment when
he tries to justify the dealings of God, that he can
know only in part. Our judgments are the judg
ments of ignorance. By Habakkuk, however, God
revealed such a portion of the truth as satisfied
men's requirements then. He showed that the Chal
dseans were commissioned only to chastise Israel ;
and that God's justice would visit their sins with
a severe and merited retribution. Babylon, the city
buUt with blood, was, as Habakkuk foretold, the
scene of murder and usurpation oft repeated till
Cyrus captured it, and from that day it has been
an independent state no more. But our interest

VIIL] WHEN CRUSHED. 335
lies not with Babylon, but with Judsea ; and now
that the whole course of God's Providence is open
to us, and not a part only, we can see more clearly
why, just when Judsea had reached its highest point
of civilization, God allowed those fierce empires to
arise and trample it under foot.
For, to use Isaiah's metaphor, it was the crush
ing of the cluster in order to obtain from it the
new wine (lxv. 8, 9). The grapes must be ripe
before they are crushed. Had Israel been dispersed
earlier they would not have been fit for their mis
sion. Had the Philistines crushed Israel in Samuel's
days, the one true religion would have been tram
pled out. Had the dispersion taken place soon
after the disruption of Solomon's empire, you would
have had a set of men of great military capacity,
as good soldiers as the Chaldseans, who, until they
established their short-lived empire at Babylon, were
the great mercenaries of the East : but that would
have been aU. As you read the- books of Judges
and Kings, you see the discipline by which God
formed the most firm, tenacious, inflexible, and en
during race that ever existed, or now exists, on
the face of the earth. Without the military glory
of David's empire, without the fame for wealth
and wisdom of Solomon's court, the Jews could
not have been that lasting monument of God's
dealings with mankind which they are now. No
nation can look forward to an abiding position on
earth for the future, which cannot look back with
pride upon the past. But so false a position as

336 GOD'S PURPOSE [Lect.
that of earthly empire for God's chosen people
lasted but for a short time. Bestored to the hap
pier position of a petty monarchy, they slowly
ripened under a long succession of good kings
tiU they were fit for God's purposes. And then
there came bad kings, for the higher good is never
reached without a struggle, and men Hke Manasseh
and Jehoiakim served as a fan to separate the
base and mean and unworthy from Jehovah's true
foUowers (Mat. iii. 12). Finally there arose that
succession of monstrous earthly empires, which oc
cupy the pages of profane history : empires at first
of brute force, but which soon gave way to the
learning and commerce of Greece, and to Bome's
empire of law. No sooner did these earthly em
pires arise, than the dispersion of Israel began.
' I wiU bring forth a seed out of Jacob, and out
of Judah an inheritor of my mountains/ They are
Isaiah's words just where he had been speaking
of the crushing of the grape as a necessary step
for the obtaining of the new wine. The whole
passage is one full of aU the marked peculiarities
of prophecy. It begins with the call of the Gen
tiles, reproaches the Jews as a rebellious people,
stained with the worst forms of idolatry and sin.
Punished they must be if God be just. This crush
ing, then, by Assyria is no harsh decree serving
merely for a. future purpose. The dealings of God
with Israel — with man always — combine what is
most just and merciful and good for the present,
with what is also best for the future. Had Israel

VIIL] IN THE DISPERSION OF ISRAEL. 337
not sinned, and so deserved the chastening armies
of Assyria, God would have brought about the
necessary dispersion of the Jews in other ways, as
He did increase it subsequently by the favour of
Alexander, and by the aptness of the Jews for trade.
The carrying away, then, to Babylon was primarily
the chastisement due to their iniquities. Yet it
was also, by a deeper and more mysterious counsel,
for the redemption of the whole human race. Crush
the cluster : yes ! for so wdl the new wine be found
in it, the new spiritual Israel, Abraham's seed by
faith in Christ. But ' destroy it not ; for a blessing
is in it : ' the old blessing, ' In thy seed shaU all
the nations of the earth be blessed.' And there
fore he proceeds, ' I will bring forth a seed out
of Jacob, and out of Judah an inheritor of my
mountains/ Chastised though it be, yet that seed
of believers which is to inherit not mount Zion
only, but aU God's holy mountains, His Churches
everywhere, can be brought forth only by Israel's
aid. Scattered everywhere, they carry with them
the promise of universal blessing, and already begin
the work of the renovation of the world.
And just when Israel was to be dispersed, Isaiah
wrote his prophecy. The elect part of the nation
was ripe for it ; the teaching of aU the prophets
had graduaUy led up to, and prepared for it : and
it was necessary also for them. Their prophets and
teachers must carry with them some such document
as this if they are to do their work. They were
going forth as the advanced guard, comparatively
z

338 PURPOSE OF THE [Lect.

few, at a time when idolatry was firmly established
everywhere, and none doubting but that the heathen
gods were real beings, delighting some in lust and
impurity, some in cruelty and bloodshed. They
were to shake this belief, and destroy its influence,
and lead the thoughtful everywhere to the con
viction that there is but one God, and that He
is good. And henceforward aU Israel's history tends
to this one object. They are restored, and Jeru
salem rebuUt, not merely because the Messiah must
be born of them, must have Judsea as the scene
of His labours, must have Jews for His apostles
and the propagators of His teaching, but also be
cause it gave stabdity to the Jews abroad. They
went up there at the great feasts, and so their
faith was quickened, and their views and doctrines
brought back to the standard of the Scriptures.
When we read Philo, and the works of other
Jews of the Alexandrian school, we see how great a
purpose Jerusalem served in the economy of prepar
ation for the giving of the Gospel. The Jews living
among the heathen were the connecting link between
truth as revealed in the Scriptures, and the truths of
natural religion ; open themselves to the influence of
Greek philosophy, it was their office to bring the
influence of Divine knowledge in return to bear
upon the Greek mind ; but their teaching, in spite
of the extraordinary tenacity of the race, would
not have been so great or so pure had not the
Jews of the dispersion from time to time revisited
Jerusalem, and gone forth thence renewed and

VIIL] THREE GREAT JEWISH FEASTS. 339
refreshed to their noble warfare. In no other way
could the balance have been maintained. We now
see what was the object of the Divine providence
in those constant journeyings thrice every year to
the holy seat of their religion, so stringently re
quired of every Israelite in the Mosaic law. Thrice
in the year there were those great gatherings, and
though distance prevented the Jews abroad from
being present at every festival, yet there were few
who did not often in their lives revisit Zion, to wor
ship there in aH the beauty of holiness. This was
the great means by which Christianity was so rapidly
propagated. Not at the first Pentecost merely, but
constantly, at every feast, 'devout men out of
every nation under heaven' were brought into con
tact with the apostles and the Christian Church
at Jerusalem, and returned home to prepare men's
minds in every city for the visits of Christian
missionaries. But if we suppose that this was the
sole use of those great gatherings, we shaU lose
half the truth. The place held by Jerusalem in
the affections of the Jews, and their constant pil
grimages to it, had kept them true to their faith
and their calling during those six centuries before
Christ, in which God's providence was yearly dis
persing them more and more widely throughout
the whole civihzed world. So complete, so perfect
in every point, externally as well as internaUy,
was the preparation in Judaism for the Christian
Church. The return, then, of Ezra and the exiles from
Z 2

340 THE JEWS ISOLATED [Lect.

Babylon, the rebuUding of Jerusalem, the restoration
of the temple and its glorious ritual, were things
absolutely necessary for the establishment and propa
gation of the Gospel. Without the dispersion of
the Jews there would have been nothing to prepare
the Gentile mind for Christ : without Jerusalem,
and aU those influences which knit the hearts of
the dispersed Jews in unwavering love and duty to
their haUowed home, they could not have maintained
that firm adherence to their law, that inflexible de
termination to be Jews and nothing else, which
marks them everywhere, which rouses against them
the anger of the philosophic historian, the satire of
the Boman moralist : but without which the in
fluences which the Greek and Boman world brought
to bear upon them would have been irresistible.
With open indignation Tacitus reviles the Jews for
that superstitionis pervicacia, that fides obstinata,
which made them, even at banquets, sit at a separate
table, and forbade all intermarriage with the Gen
tiles. To him it is simply adversus omnes alios
hostile odium (Tac. Hist. ii. 4, v. 5) : a bitter enmity
against the whole human race. And this isolation,
he says, was simply for a reason so absurd to his
philosophic mind as a difference in religion. The
Jews, he says, worship God mente sola, — worship
with them was spiritual, a service of the heart and
affections. And then he says, ' they worship but
one God, and believe that God to be supreme and
eternal, incapable of change and of death : and they
reject the worship of images, shaped after the like-

VIIL] AMONG THE GENTILES. 341
ness of men, and liable to decay/ To us these truths
are worth any price : and we note with wonder
the long course of discipline, by which the provi
dence of God formed in the Jews that tenacity
of character, that strength of will, which enabled
them to stand up firmly, resolutely, though alone,
amid the thousand reasons there were tempting them
to conform to the world around them. But no !
they were God's witnesses, and while many there
were that hated and reviled them for their inflexible
steadfastness, the more thoughtful and unworldly
listened to their noble teaching about the oneness
and goodness of God, and believed that God was
one, and was good.
Had not Jerusalem, then, been rebuilt, and the
law of Moses obtained there a local establishment,
the Jews could not so easily have maintained them
selves in their dispersion as a separate people. But,
next, had Judaea been rich, prosperous, successful in
war, and thriving in commerce, the Jews would have
returned thither, and so again they would not have
effected the purpose for which God had formed them.
It is a glorious history, that history of the poor
exiles restored to their dear countiy. The martyr-
spirit in which they resisted the abominable persecu
tions of the Syrian kings, the valour and heroism of
the Maccabees, this and more sheds a halo of light
around God's chosen people during the centuries
which preceded the coming of the Messiah. But
like most heroic histories, it is a history of the few
and the weak striving against the strong, a history,

342 THEIR SEPARATE EXISTENCE [Lect.
therefore, of endurance, of indomitable resolution, of
determined resistance to wrong. But such a state
of things does not aUure men from more peaceful
homes to take part in it. It made the Jews of the
dispersion proud of their country ; it made them, it
may be, hate uncharitably those Gentile kingdoms
which so crueUy illtreated the home of their race.
But every act of oppression drove many Jews away
from their land : occasionally their aptitude for
trade, and their other useful, yes, and high qualities,
made rulers of large mind invite them as valued
settlers to new and rising towns. It was thus that
Alexandria became a second metropolis of the Jews,
and we may well contrast its fortunes — the fortunes
of a city founded for peaceful purposes — with those
of Babylon, ' the city built with blood/ Sometimes,
then, by violence, occasionaUy by gentler means, the
dispersion of the Jews from the time of Nebuchad
nezzar's conquest was continual. On the one hand,
there was everything to make them proud of Jeru
salem, and love it, and go there from time to time,
and have their faith quickened and refreshed by the
sight of the temple-services, and by the glorious
memories of martyrdoms, and stern resistance to
wrong, and other deeds of heroism which haUowed
every spot there ; as weU as by intercourse with
the great teachers who had made Jerusalem a town
wholly devoted to religion : on the other hand, there
was no motive to return and settle there. The old
did, that they might die and be buried in holy
ground : the young and .active sought their fortunes

VIIL] HOW MAINTAINED. 343
in more prosperous lands. I may even add that
physical causes conspired with political in producing
this effect. The soil of Palestine, owing perhaps to
the destruction of the trees, owing certainly to the
continual ravages of war, has undergone an extra
ordinary deterioration since the days of the monarchy.
Districts where at every turn you meet the ruins of
wine-presses, and every mark of a large and thriving
population, will now scarcely maintain a few half-
starved sheep. It was possibly with the Assyrian
invasions that this deterioration began.
I ask you, then, to notice that Isaiah wrote
rather more than a century before this dispersion
of the Jews began. The interval just about served
for the book of his prophecies to become widely
and generally known : and silently, I doubt not,
it was working during Manasseh's evU reign,
and was the secret root of Josiah's piety, and
the teacher of those holy men who stood in such
goodly numbers round him. Notice, too, that this
dispersion is the third great stage of God's dealings
with His people. The first was the Exodus, the
second was the monarchy, the third the dispersion.
Moses was God's representative, His great chief and
spokesman, for the first period ; Samuel for the
second ; Isaiah for the third. Is it, then, so in
credible that Isaiah, after having predicted the
Babylonian captivity to Hezekiah, should have been
inspired by God to give that instruction which
so great a crisis required 1 and that God should
have set His seal to Isaiah's words by the express

344 PROPHECY CEASED [Lect.
prediction that Cyrus would let the Jews go free,
and restore them to their land 1 Grant that it is,
in some respects, a more express prediction than you
usually find in Holy Scripture. Yet is there not
a sufficient cause 1 Our Lord's miracles were greater
and more wonderful than those of any preceding
period. They offer no difficulty to the believer, for
he knows that it was the last and . final stage of
God's revelation. His purposes were then full, and
so He sent no longer a servant, but the Son — Him
self God blessed for evermore. If miracles and
prophecy, when Christ came, necessarily reached
their highest elevation, is it not reasonable that at
the third stage Isaiah should also be in some way
or other more plainly accredited by God as a mes
senger from Him 1 Was there not the same neces
sity for a special proof of Isaiah's mission as there
had been at the first stage when God sent Moses
as His prophet %
And still I must notice one thing more. Pro
phecy ceased at the dispersion. It belongs distinctly
to the second stage of God's dealings with Israel.
It began with Samuel, and ended with Isaiah, Jere
miah, and Daniel. Moses, as I have shown, occupied
different ground from those who were ' the prophets/
He stands in direct relation to our Lord. In our
Lord, with John the Baptist as His forerunner, and
the apostles as His messengers to aU the world,
there was a fulness of every grace, by which all the
blessings and gifts of every previous period were
poured out afresh in riper and fuUer measure upon

VIIL] AT THE DISPERSION. 345
the Church. But prophecy distinctively belongs to
the age from Samuel to the dispersion. It was not
withdrawn abruptly. It stUl lingered in those beau
tiful Psalms of Degrees sung by the exiles, and in
those prophets who helped in rearing the second
house. But at the dispersion it had done its work.
The Jews wondered that no prophet more arose.
We can see why the gift was withdrawn. The time
of teaching had ceased. The Jews were children no
longer, but grown men ; and Hke grown men they
must leave home, and go out into aU lands to carry
to them the truths which the prophets had taught
them. They must study their Scriptures : must
translate them : must gather their teaching into
one focus, and bring their concentrated light to
shine upon the dark regions of heathenism. You
never find the Jews of the dispeision falhng away
into idolatry. They had their faults, I do not deny
it. But their faults did not lie in their creed or their
teaching : and the reason why the heathen world
so hated them was their evident superiority to the
heathens both in doctrine and in morals. At Jeru
salem, when the Christian Church had gathered
into it the elect, I read with sorrow the painful
picture drawn of the rest in the pages of Josephus.
But it is the description of the threshing-floor after
the wheat has been separated from the chaff. His
pages also teU us how rapid had been the progress
of corruption at Jerusalem during the last few fester
ing years. We must not judge by his narrative of
the moral state of the Jews at an earlier time, nor of

346 TRUE TEACHING CONSTRUCTIVE [Lect.
that of the Jews of the dispersion. There were bad
among them as well as good : but the good and
true were numerous. There were those everywhere
who were themselves ripening for Christ's kingdom,
and preparing others for it. Of the Jews at home
and abroad, of those called to be God's people
everywhere and in all times, mournfully we own
the painful fact that Christ's is ever a ' Httle flock/
'Semen Abrahae,' says St. Augustine, speaking of
those who shared Abraham's faith, ' Semen Abrahae,
in comparatione multitudinis impiorum, profecto in
paucis est/ (De Civ. xvi. 21.) This mysterious law
of God's providence held good, I doubt not, of the
Jews of the dispersion : but few, comparatively, as
may have been God's saints among them, yet all
nationaUy held firmly to the great doctrines of the
prophets : and upon the foundation laid by the Jews
of the dispersion rose the Christian Church. To this
day, in our forms of worship, in our rites of burial,
in our graces before and after meals, and much more
besides, we stiU follow the modes and habits of those
scattered and exiled Jews.
And now to conclude. Were those Jews of the
dispersion to carry with them, as their manual, only
an unanswerable demonstration of the absurdity of
idolatry % Bead for yourselves those last twenty-
seven chapters. You wiU find Israel described in
them as Jehovah's servant — the epithet apphed in
so remarkable a way to Moses, the legislator, who
first established God's Church upon earth, and gave
to the one true religion the necessary support of

VIIL] NOT DESTRUCTIVE. 347
external forms and ordinances. But now aU Israel is
Jehovah's servant, and I have endeavoured to show
that this was an absolute fact. I have shown you
what their work and mission was, and that the time
had come for them to enter upon it. Could it be
that Israel's mission as Jehovah's servant was only
to throw down evd 1 Lucretius did that. He over
threw the superstitions of heathen Borne, and left
it, as regards faith, a blank. And when your house
is empty, swept, and garnished, there can be but
one result. There wiU come seven devils worse than
that ejected, and the last state of that man, or em
pire, or people, wdl be worse than the first. Those
who pull down without having anything to put
into its place are simply doing Satan's work. God's
servants pull down the false, the wicked, the corrupt,
that they may build in its place the true, the good,
the sound, the eternal and abiding verities of God.
And thus, then, Isaiah's teaching is not destruc
tive but constructive. He pulls down the motley
superstitions of a debasing heathenism, to build up
in its place the ennobling service of the one true
God. And oh ! how great is the mystery of that
teaching ! He sets forth Him Who in very deed is
Jehovah's servant, the prophet like unto Moses, bear
ing in Isaiah's pages the same distinctive name, but
who acts by no delegated power, but as a Son in His
own house. Yes, He was a servant — for though ' in
the form of God and very God, He took upon Him
the form of a servant and became very man/ But
inasmuch as when He was man He ceased not to

348 ALL PROPHECY [Lect.

be very God, therefore He could by one sacrifice of
Himself offered once for all make that atonement for
sin, whereby God's justice was appeased and man's
salvation won.
I need not dweU upon Isaiah's teaching of Christ :
so full, so mysterious, so admirably adapted to keep
the Jews everywhere in an attitude of expectation,
to make them ask with the eunuch, 'Of whom
speaketh the prophet this?' and keep their minds
open and ready for the answer when the fulness of
time had come. Without Isaiah I doubt whether
the Jews could have preserved their faith and
maintained their isolation durmg those long cen
turies of dispersion : without Isaiah I doubt whether
the Christian Church could have been so quickly,
so surely founded. Christ, His apostles, the early
Christians, always appeal to the Old Testament
as the great proof of Christianity being the one
true religion : that proof is plain everywhere, but
nowhere so plain and concentrated as in Isaiah.
Nowhere else do we find Christ suffering, and
Christ triumphant, and the character and duties
and destinies of Christ's Church, so clearly taught.
• And with Isaiah I conclude. Jeremiah must yet
strive to the very last with the disobedient Jews,
tiU Zedekiah flees by night from the beleaguered city.
His was a strife for God, hopeless as long as he
Hved, successful, triumphant, as he himself foresaw,
among the exiles at Babylon. He could not save
Jerusalem, he did save the Church in banishment.
In that strife Ezekiel was his true yokefellow.

VIIL] FULFILLED IN CHRIST. 349
They were really the men who won for Israel its
restoration. And amid the mingled tears and re
joicings of that restoration prophecy uttered its
last grand words : after Malachi it ceased till He
came Who as the Divine Word is the Author of
all revelation. I have endeavoured, feebly I know,
and unworthily, to trace the development of thin
wonderful gift of God ; to show in what institutions
it took its rise, how it grew, what was its outer form,
what its purpose, what its lower and pohtical aspect,
what its higher and diviner life, and how the order
became corrupt at the very time when its nobler
element attained its highest elevation in Isaiah and
Jeremiah. What may have been the effect of these
lectures upon the minds of others I know not. But
when, for my own part, I think upon what Chris
tianity is, what it has done for mankind, what it is
still capable of doing if men would but give it fuUer
obedience, and then look at this marvellous prepa
ration for it, so complete and perfect, carried on
through so vast a length of time, and answering so
perfectly to Christianity, combining so exactly with
it, and forming in fulfilled prophecy so trustworthy
a proof of its divine origin, I cannot beHeve that in
all this there is nothing more than empty mockery,
and the foolish play of blind chance. I believe that
I can see His hand Who, with perfect wisdom and
almighty power, doeth aU things weU, and Who in
tends me by this proof to worship that Messiah
Whom these prophets foretold as my Lord and
my God.

The following Lecture forms no part of the Bampton Course,
but is added as constituting a necessary part of the argument
(see Lect. I. p. 28). My object in the foregoing Lectures has
been to show that there was in the Old Testament a real, large,
and thorough preparation for Christianity ; and that this prepar
ation was no chance work, but the definite and systematic carrying
out of a settled purpose, not kept secret, but publicly proclaimed
from the very first, and constantly referred to in every stage of
the fulfilment. But it is necessary also to meet a counter theory,
which does not deny the close connection between the Old and
New Testaments, but affirms that it was the fanatic belief of the
Jews in the assertions of the prophets which brought about their
seeming accomplishment. Wrought up to the very fever-point
of excitement by the long series of cruelties suffered by them at
the hands of the Seleucicte and the Eomans, they surrounded with
a halo of romance a simple Galilsean peasant, and invested him
with powers and qualities which were the mere result of their own
over-heated imaginations. In opposition to this theory I have
shown that the fulfilment of prophecy in Jesus of Nazareth contra
dicted all the preconceived ideas of the Jews both in Palestine and
abroad. Clear as it is to us, it was utterly at variance with the
deductions of their teachers. This Lecture was preached before
the University as the sermon upon 'the Jewish Interpretation
of Prophecy,' in Lent, 1867.

LECTURE IX.
THE JEWISH INTERPRETATION OP PROPHECY AT
VARIANCE WITH THAT TAUGHT BY CHRIST
AND HIS APOSTLES.
What think ye of Christ ? — Matt. xxii. 42.
WHEN our Lord put this question to the Phari
sees, their hesitation showed how great were the
confusion and uncertainty of their views respecting
both the person and the attributes of the Messiah.
They knew that He was to be David's son ; the
voice of prophecy was too plain and unanimous
for there to be any doubt so far : but whether
He was to be David's son HneaUy, or only politi
cally, as the restorer of David's throne, upon this
they had no settled convictions. They were even
uncertain whether all the prophecies respecting the
Messiah would be fulfilled in David's son. Many
seemed to them so unworthy of Him, and spake
so confidently of His humiliation and dishonour and
death, that they shrank from connecting them with
One in Whom all the glories of David's empire
were to revive. Nor had they any certain opinions
A a

354 JEWISH UNCERTAINTY [Lect.
as to His attributes, and therefore when our Lord
asked them for a solution of but one of the many
apparent contradictions contained in prophecy con
cerning the Christ, they had none to offer. Prophecy
had described Him as at once David's superior and
inferior, his Lord and yet his son, and they could
not. teU how this could be. They had not reflected
upon Micah's words, that though torn in time at
Bethlehem, yet ' His goings forth had been from
of old, from everlasting/ (Micah v. 2.)
Nor is this the only place which bears witness to
the unformed character- of the opinions of the Jews
respecting Christ. When, for instance, the wise men
from the East came at the appearance of the star
to worship Him, the scribes at Jerusalem, being
asked by Herod where the Messiah should be born,
answered, ' In Bethlehem of Judsea/ and adduced
as proof the words of the prophet Micah. But
in St. John's Gospel we find that Micah's words
were by no means universally regarded as conclu
sive. Some held — and many famous expositors
among the Jews have maintained the same opinion
—that the Messiah would come suddenly, like a
bright and unexpected meteor. 'We know this
man whence He is : but when Messiah cometh, no
man knoweth whence He is/ (John vii. 27.) The
popular opinion, however, agreed with the answer
of the scribes to Herod : for many asked, ' Hath
not the Scripture said that Christ cometh of the
seed of David, and out of the town of Bethlehem,
where David wasl' (Ib. 42.)

IX.] ABOUT CHRIST'S NATURE. 355
Now we must not suppose that the opinion of
those who held that at Christ's coming no
man would know His origin, was groundless, or
fanciful. It rested upon all those passages of the
Old Testament which refer to our Lord's divine
sonship. To us the doctrine of the divine and
human natures indissolubly united in Christ is a
cardinal article of the faith : and trained in this
belief we reconcile by its aid, almost without con
scious effort, those many statements of the prophets
which externaUy are at variance with one another.
But this twofold aspect of our Lord must have
been a serious difficulty to those who had only
the teaching of the prophets without the exposi
tion of that teaching given in the New Testament :
nor can I see anything absurd in the expectation
that, like a second Melchizedek, He would appear
suddenly, with no human lineage, no natural parent
age, and no place of earthly birth and education.
More correctly we may regard this idea as only a
confused anticipation of the truth that the Messiah
was not only David's son but also ' the Son of God/
Now this very title is more than once given
to our Lord. Thus Nathanael says, ' Babbi, Thou
art the Son of God ! Thou art the king of Israel/
(John i. 49.) So, too, Peter confessed, 'Thou art
the Christ, the Son of the Hving God/ (Matt.
xvi. 16.) Even more remarkable is it that the
high priest adjured our Lord to tell him, whether
He were the Christ, the Son of God (Ib. xxvi.
63). For his words bear witness to the recognized
A a 2

356 CONFLICTING OPINIONS [Lect.

existence among the Jews of this most pure and
spiritual conception of the Messiah's nature. Caia-
phas himself probably put the question contempt
uously, as representing what he deemed to be the
most extreme form of Messianic doctrine : but there
were other and better men who held it devoutly
as a truth. But could those noble souls, who did
hold this doctrine, make it harmonize with the
equally plain prophetic teaching that the Messiah
was to be a man, a descendant of David, and born
at Bethlehem ? Many attempts no doubt were
made to harmonize this and other apparent dis
crepancies of the Old Testament. One such we
read in Justin Martyr's Dialogue with the Jew
Trypho (c. 8). Trypho affirms there 'that the Mes
siah at His birth would remain unknown, and unac
quainted with His powers until Elias appeared, who
would anoint Him, and proclaim Him as the Christ.'
Attempts such as this only show that the difficulty
was a real one, and was felt to be such.
In the Talmud the most conflicting opinions are
found respecting the Messiah's advent. In one place
it is said that the Messiah wiU first manifest Him
self at Borne : in another that the place will be
Babylon : in a third that He wiU not appear at
all unless the Jews reform their manners. More
frequently, however, it asserts that Jerusalem would
really be the place of His birth. Did not the
Psalmist say, ' Of Zion it shaU be reported that
He was born in her"? (Ps. lxxxvii. 5.) Was not
Zion the one source of aU that was good'? 'Out

IX.] IN THE TALMUD. 357
of Zion shaU go forth the Law, and the Word of
Jehovah from Jerusalem : ' (Is. ii. 3 :) ' Out of Zion,
the perfection of beauty, God hath shined/ (Ps. 1.2.)
Who could read such passages, and not draw from
them the conclusion that the Messiah would be
born on Zion's holy hUl ? By a similar argument
that Jewish zealot who wrote the Second Book of
Esdras was led to place at Jerusalem the scene also
of the last judgment. The Messiah when He comes
again as Judge is to rebuild the hill of Zioh, and
stand upon it to pass sentence upon the nations
gathered at its foot (2 Esdras xiii. 6, 35, etc.)
Now, however confused and mistaken may have
been the expectations of the Jews concerning Christ,
stiU the knowledge of their opinions seems to me
in two respects to be of value. For, first, it helps
us in understanding what the prophets wrote : and,
secondly, it is not without use in the interpreta
tion of the New Testament. We have in their
opinions an exposition of the Old Testament entirely
independent of that given by our Lord and His
apostles. Too often it seems to be the result rather
of national prejudice than of sober reflection : it
expresses rather what they hoped than what they
read. StiU it often gives us one side of the mean
ing, and usually that- side which we are in danger
of not seeing. It contributes, then, something to
our knowledge of the Old Testament, but for the
interpretation of the New it is of direct importance.
How, for instance, could we possibly understand that

358 THEORY [Lect.

extraordinary ferment of the popular mind at Jeru
salem, occasioned by our Lord's teaching and miracles,
and so forcibly set before us by St. John in the
seventh and three following chapters of his Gospel,
unless we knew something of the various and con
flicting views respecting their Messiah, which were
struggling in the hearts of the Jews \ Those chap
ters seem to me to have been written for the express
purpose of explaining to us the feelings at work in
the mind severaUy of the Pharisees and Sadducees,
which made them combine in putting to death One
Whose teaching contradicted and irritated the pre
judices of them both. No doubt the Gospels them
selves throw great Hght upon the theories then
current among the Jews, but to understand these
marveUous chapters fully, and much besides in the
New Testament, we need a more complete and exact
knowledge of the doctrines which the scribes had
gathered from the words of the prophets, and
which they taught as their authorized interpret
ation. In recent times an additional interest, perhaps, has-
been given to the enquiry by the theory of Strauss,
who argued that the Gospels were not the record
of a real life, but the result of fancies and notions
generally prevalent among the Jews in the era
immediately preceding the destruction of their city ;
and that their present external form had been given
to them under the influence of an overwrought and
unnatural excitement. This excitement undoubtedly

IX.] OF STRAUSS. 359

existed, but it is not the fact that the Gospels em
body an explanation of the prophetic writings cur
rent or generally received by the Jews of that time
either in Palestine or in Egypt. On the contrary,
our Lord's death, humanly speaking, was caused by
the intense disappointment of aU parties at finding
one endowed with such remarkable powers steadUy
opposing and refuting all their received opinions.
Strauss' theory itself had never much intrinsic value,
but owed its importance chiefly to the skUful manner
in which the author had combined with it every
objection in detail which had usually been brought
against the credibility of the Gospels. His theory
he has virtually abandoned in the last edition of his
work, and the current of thought now sets in the
exactly opposite direction. Thus Benan ascribes
Christianity to the extraordinary personal qualities
of our Lord, and to the enthusiasm e.xcited by Him
in the minds of His disciples : while in the pages
of Ecce Homo we begin with a man, but a man
endowed with the power of working miracles, and
as we proceed, and learn more of His doings, no
other conclusion seems possible than that to which,
perhaps, the writer meant to lead us, namely, Ecce
Deus. But independently of this, the enquiry has
a legitimate source of interest in the fact that our
materials for learning what the Jews thought of
Christ have been very greatly increased during the
course of the present century.
I propose, therefore, to consider what were the
conclusions arrived at by the Jews during those

360 PERIOD DURING WHICH [Lect.
four hundred years in which the voice of prophecy
was silent, and also during the first century of the
Christian era. The materials are so large that I
can only offer a very cursory review of them, and
that rather in the hope of awakening interest in a
very important field of study, than of giving fuU in
formation concerning it a.
The question, then, has often been asked, What
was the purpose and intention of that long interval
between the last utterance of prophecy in the Old
Testament and the Advent of our Lord? When
Malachi closed the roll of the Hebrew Scriptures it
was with so spirit-stirring an announcement of the
speedy coming of Elijah, that the minds of the Jews
could not but have been roused to the earnest study
of those priceless records, which told them of the
future glories of their race. And this study was
the appointed work of those four centuries. The
Jews were already widely dispersed throughout the
Greek empire ; they were everywhere being brought
into contact with the heathen world : and that world
they were gradually to leaven with principles far
higher and holier than any to which its philosophers
had been able to attain by the Hght of nature. Up
a For a fuller account of these materials, consisting chiefly of
works belonging to what is called 'apocryphal' literature, I must
refer the reader to the valuable treatise of Dr. Joseph Langen,
Professor of Catholic Theology in the University of Bonn, en
titled 'Das Judenthum in Palastina zur Zeit Christi,' Freiburg
im Breisgau, 1866, to which I am perpetually indebted through
out this lecture.

IX.] PROPHECY WAS SILENT. 361

to this time they had been at school, shut up in
a narrow region, and subject to a sharp and inci
sive disciphne. That was now over : for prophecy
had spoken for the last time. Daniel had told
them that there were but a few more weeks unto
Messiah the prince : Malachi had bid them listen
to the approaching footsteps of the Forerunner.
Everything, therefore, both in their outward cir
cumstances and in their relations with God was
altered. His word was no longer growing : it was
perfect and complete as far as their Church was
concerned. They must now study it, and find out
its meaning, and learn what it taught them of their
new duties now that their scattering had begun,
and what would be the next stage of God's dispen
sation. And they did study it : for everything
combined to make them love and value it more
and more. The very fact that prophecy was silent
made them feel more deeply how priceless were those
oracles which God had entrusted to their keeping
(Bom. iii. i, 2).
And their study was not fruitless. Two invalu
able results of their labours remain to this day in
the Septuagint and the Chaldee Targums, the one
the work of the Jews in Egypt, the other that of the
Jews of Palestine. Of these the former is the more
valuable. For, first, it is the more ancient. Though
the Targums had an earher beginning, and embody
many a traditional rendering of great antiquity, and
much knowledge gathered by a long course of
teachers in the schools of Jerusalem, yet the very

362 VALUE [Lect.
earliest — that of Onkelos — probably was not commit
ted to writing till about the first, or even the second,
century of our era. Much indeed of its matter was
far more ancient, and no less an authority than M.
Neubauerb considers that it very possibly embodies
much of the very Targum made immediately after
the return from exile (Neh. viii. 7, 8). The other
great Targum, that of Jonathan, was the work of the
Jews in Babylonia, and though probably not written
down till the fourth century, it, too, is a trustworthy
record of traditions far more ancient than that date.
But the Septuagint is beyond all price. For it was
made far away from Jerusalem by the Jews in
Egypt, who were a numerous and learned body.
At Alexandria, at Leontopolis, and at other places
there existed a large Hterary class, of whom some
studied philosophy, like Phdo, and the author of
the Book of Wisdom. Others studied history, and
we have a specimen of their labours in the Second
Book of Maccabees. But their great strength lay
in apocryphal writings. Two goodly volumes stiU
exist of Sibylline oracles forged by them, but re
garded as genuine by many of the fathers. Except
ing the Second Book of Esdras they wrote aU the
more worthless portion of our Apocrypha, and much
besides of a similar kind not contained in our
coUection. But they also wrote the Septuagint.
It is the work of many hands, was probably a long
time in making, and is of very unequal merit, some
b Geographie du Talmud, Preface, p. xi.

IX] OF THE SEPTUAGINT. 363

books being very well and closely rendered, and
others very loosely and badly, but its very mistakes
show that the translators had substantially the same
text before them as we possess now0. It is not too
much to say, that without the Septuagint, and the
Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan, instead of that
comparative certainty which we now enjoy, very
great uncertainty would rest upon the genuineness
of the Hebrew Text. Owing to the prejudice of
the Christian Church against the Jews, Hebrew
manuscripts were destroyed as something unholy.
None exist of any great antiquity, but the ancient
versions happdy take their place, and give us fuU
assurance that the Hebrew Scriptures were neither,
on the one hand, corrupted nor interpolated by Chris
tians, and that, on the other hand, the Jews have
not been able to weaken their testimony to Christ
and the doctrines of the Gospel.
But for my present purpose it is necessary to
notice that these works also teach us what the Jews
thought. The Targums are professedly paraphrases :
the Septuagint, though nominally a translation, is
throughout largely influenced by the opinions of
the translators. In both alike the hopes and fears,
the prejudices, the current philosophy and theories
of the times respecting the nature of God and man
and of the earth, are freely substituted for the
inspired words of the Hebrew Text. The Septua-
0 They had, however, a somewhat different text of the Book of
Jeremiah, and this again furnishes most valuable aid for the criti-
" cism of the Old Testament.

364 TWO THEORIES [Lect.
gint, for instance, in its opening words substitutes
the Greek notion of a chaos in the place of the very
different ideas contained in the Hebrew. The earth,
it Says, was aoparo? Kai a/caTaovcetW-ro?, a mass of
matter, but matter not discernible by the sight,
because its separate atoms were still uncombined.
Even more remarkable is the care with which both
the Targums and the Septuagint soften down, and
alter, or entirely omit aU those expressions in which
human actions or attributes are ascribed to the
Deity. We must confine ourselves, however, to one point,
namely, the conclusions at which the Jews arrived
respecting Christ. And here first, generally, we find
an entire disagreement between the opinions of the
Jews of Palestine and those of Egypt. To the former
the Messiah was a man, a hero, a soldier : to the
latter he was an allegory, an idea only, and not a
reality. Now, vast as is the difference between the two
theories, they both grew out of Holy Scripture.
Errors generally are but one-sided and partial state
ments, and have their origin in half-truths, which
graduaUy are pushed onward and developed till the
grain of truth in them is lost in the mass of false
hood. And thus the Jews of Palestine and Egypt
divided between them those statements of the pro
phets, which, when combined, present to us the
perfect delineation of our Lord. We find in Scrip
ture a twofold sonship of the Christ : on the one
hand, Jehovah says unto Him, ' Thou art My Son ; *

IX.] RESPECTING THE MESSIAH. 365
(Ps. ii. 7 ;) on the other, He is but a root growing in
a dry soil, an off-shoot merely of a lineage fallen to
decay (see page 290). Now He is the Son of David,
and now the seed of a woman. So, too, he is
described at one time as suffering, at another as
triumphant. In some places He is represented as a
man of sorrows, universally despised and rejected ;
elsewhere He is God, and His throne is established
for ever. So again, He is sometimes the judge,
and sometimes is Himself led to judgment and cut
off by an unrighteous sentence. Finally, the very
times of the Messiah are sometimes described as a
period of earthly glory and universal empire, and
again as a disastrous period, in which the city and
sanctuary are destroyed, the sacrifice and oblation
cease, and pagan symbols profane the temple area.
What wonder if uninspired men could not reconcile
these conflicting statements !
Were the Jews of Palestine unreasonable when
they put a literal interpretation upon words such
as these : ' God will extend peace to Jerusalem like
a river, and the glory of the Gentiles like an over
flowing torrent?' (Is. Ixvi. 12.) Or these, 'The
righteous bud of David shall reign as a king and
prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in
the earth'?' (Jer. xxiii 5.) Even words incapable of
being HteraUy understood, yet seemed to portend
an era of surpassing earthly magnificence : ' Thy sun
shall no more go down, neither shall thy moon with
draw itself: for the Lord shall be thy everlasting
light, and the days of thy mourning shall be ended : '

366 TWOFOLD ASPECT OF CHRIST [Lect.
(Is. Ix. 20 :) for they followed upon a promise of
changing the brass of Jerusalem into gold, and its
iron into sUver ; of making its officers peace, and its
exactors righteousness, and of stilling all violence,
wasting, and destruction within its borders. There
were prophecies of successful war. ' Ephraim and
Judah shall fly upon the shoidders of the Philistines
towards the west ; they shall spoil them of the east
together/ (Ib. xi. 1 4.) ' The house of Jacob shall
be a fire, and the house of Joseph a flame, and the
house of Esau for stubble/ (Obad. 18.) 'Proclaim
ye this among the Gentiles ; Prepare war, wake up
the mighty men. Beat your ploughshares into
swords, and your pruninghooks into spears/ (Joel
Hi. 9, 10.) There were also prophecies of peace.
' They shaU beat their swords into ploughshares, and
their spears into pruninghooks : nation shall not lift
up a sword against nation, neither shall they learn
war any more.' (Micah iv. 3.) ' They shaU not hurt
nor destroy in all God's holy mountain.' (Is. xi. 9.)
In short, while some of the prophets describe the
Messiah's advent as a time of blessedness at home,
and dominion abroad ; a time when Israel shall pos
sess the heathen, and David's son ' break them with
a mace of iron/ (Ps. ii. 9,) other prophets as clearly
declare that the heathen shall then conquer Jeru
salem, defile the sanctuary, and cause the sacrifice
and oblation to cease. It ' shall be a time of trouble/
says Daniel, 'such as never was since there was a
nation even to that same time/ (ix. 26, 27,
xii. 1, ti.)

IX.] IN THE OLD TESTAMENT. 367
In the interpretation of the prophecies given in
the New Testament, all these conflicting statements
fall naturally and easily into their place. To the
Jews before Christ came they could not but be a
difficulty, and we have no right to be surprised
if we find that in Palestine a literal interpretation
prevailed, while in Egypt aU was turned into aUe-
gory. The Jews of Palestine, however, attempted to
combine the two sides of prophecy into a whole, and
held either that there would be two Messiahs, or that
the one Messiah after being slain (Zech. xii. io, ii)
would be raised again to Hfe. They held, too, that
His coming was to be attended with a fierce struggle,
during which they would suffer nationally terrible
calamities, but finally would gain the victory, and
attain to universal empire. But here they had a
difficulty. The Messiah would be the first king of
the whole earth, but they could not make up their
minds whether He would found a dynasty, and sons
born of Him succeed to His crown, or whether He
would restore the theocratic government, and, after
His death, Jehovah rule again by the Urim and
Thummim. A small school seem even to have held
that the Messiah would not die at aU. Among
the Jews in Egypt a belief in a personal Messiah
soon entirely ceased. Already in the Septuagint
we find them obliterating from the text aU reference
to Christ's birth in the flesh. Thus, whereas in Ps.
ex. 3 the words of the Hebrew are, ' Of the womb of
the morning is the dew of thy birth,' the Septuagint
paraphrases it thus, ' Of the womb have I begotten

368 PHILOSOPHY [Lect.
thee before the morning dawn.' They acknowledge
the pre-existence of the Messiah, but are offended at
the doctrine of His birth in time. We must not,
however, conclude that therefore they confessed His
Divinity. For in Isaiah ix. 6, where the prophet
speaks of the birth of the chUd, Whose name shaU
be caUed ' The Mighty God/ they reject a statement
so contrary to all philosophy as that God could be
born, and, omitting this title altogether, they para
phrase the passage thus : ' His name shaU be called
the angel of the great counsel.' Now, according to
the Alexandrian philosophy, the angels were born of
God before the world was, and the idea which the
translators of the Septuagint seem to have formed
of the Messiah was, that He might possibly be
a being simUar to and sharing the nature of the
angels. It is, however, in the Book of Wisdom that
we find the open expression of those philosophical
opinions which finaUy ruined the Alexandrian school.
Beautiful as is this book, and while we may even
own that its influence upon the Christian Fathers
was less unwholesome than we might have expected,
yet nothing can be more unsound than its phUosophy ;
and the respect felt for it in old times did introduce
into the Church principles contrary to the teaching
of the New Testament. Apparently it was the
work of a man of singular richness of imagination,
and great command of language, and his description
of the shortness of life, and the greatness of immor
tality, is the noblest and most powerful passage in

IX.] OF THE BOOK OF WISDOM. 369

the whole of the apocryphal scriptures. In his
attempt, however, to combine the philosophy of the
Greeks with the teaching of the Old Testament,
he adopts principles entirely at variance with the
revealed word. Thus he teaches that matter is
eternal (xi. 17), and that creation consisted in fashion
ing what indeed already existed, but as a/uopcpov nva
vXjjv, a mass of chaotic shapelessness. Like Plato,
he teaches also the pre-existence of the human
soul (vHi. 19, 20), a passage, however, which the
fathers interpreted of the pre-existence of Christ.
But the most dangerous of the principles which he
adopted from Plato, was that of the essential opposi
tion between matter and spirit, and the inherent
badness of matter. The body is no temple of the
Holy Ghost, as with St. Paul, but a heavy clog and
dull prison-house of the soul ; and the Christian
hope of a resurrection, in which body and soul will
once again be joined together, and mutually perfect
one another's happiness, such a thought he would
have rejected with horror. Worse in itself than
even this dualism, was his conception of the Divine
Logos, or Wisdom of God. It becomes with him
mere pantheism, a sort of cosmical life pervading
the world, with not a trace of a personal existence.
The Book of Ecclesiasticus may be, as Dean Milman
argues, the programme of Sadducaeanism. It gives,
as he shows, no word of comfort to the dying, no
hope of any Hfe after death. In the universe it
acknowledges neither angel nor spirit, but two beings
B b

370 EGYPTIAN THEORY [Lect.

only, God and mand. But in the main it is a noble
book, and as regards the doctrine of the Divine
Wisdom, its teaching is sober, thoughtful, judicious,
and scriptural. As a rule, it adheres closely to the
inspired words of the Book of Proverbs ; but the
Book of Wisdom sets before us a refined but thorough
pantheism. In fact, these two books illustrate in a remarkable
manner what I have said before of the tendencies of
the two great divisions of the Jews. The Pales
tinian book is religious, but in a hard, worldly,
matter of fact way ; the Alexandrian book is reli
gious, but in a mystic way. In neither of them
is the Messiah a living reahty, and in this respect
the Palestinian book is not a fair representative of
the views of the great mass of the Jews in Judsea. It
belonged to a sect who beheved in no future world,
nor had any hope beyond the grave.
Time will not permit me to trace the gradual
disappearance in Egypt of the doctrine of a personal
Messiah, as shown in other apocryphal works, like
the Fourth Book of Maccabees e, the Sibylline Oracles,
and other products of the Jews of Alexandria and
Leontopolis. Living under a foreign rule, losing
gradually their hold of the Hebrew language, occu
pied with trade, and thereby brought into daily
d Milman, History ofthe Jews, ii. 32, note.
e An edition of the Syriac version of this interesting work will
shortly be published, with much illustrative matter, by Mr. Bensly,
Sub-Librarian of the Cambridge University Library.

IX.] OF THE MESSIAH. 371
contact with the Greeks, powerfuUy influenced by
their ideas and Hterature, and daily growing cos
mopolitan rather than patriotic, their efforts were
directed chiefly to recommending their books to the
heathen by explaining away in them everything
Jewish, and by detecting the chief tenets of the
phUosophers under the veil of the facts and laws
and doctrines and institutions of the Old Testament.
Probably, too, they wished to find some authority in
their own sacred books for ideas which had seized
upon their minds with aU the charm of novelty and
power. But in embracing the new they parted with
the old. Gradually their Messiah ceased to be a
person with a real existence. He became a mere
abstraction, a phantom. Thus Philo teaches that
the Jews are to be dehvered solely by their own
virtues. Their heathen masters will grow ashamed
of keeping in slavery people of such extraordinary
merit. And as they return to their land he describes
them as ' guided on their way by a kind of human
figure more divine than nature, invisible to the rest
but visible to those who are being saved1/ The
idea is taken from the pUlar of fire and cloud which
led the Israehtes through the wilderness : here the
returning host is guided by a phantom visible only
to the eyes of believers.
Throughout the Alexandrian theosophy the Mes
siah never once appears as King, or Buler, or Con-
f 3€vayoip.evot -rrpos tlvos Seiorepas fj Kara <pv<riv avOpamivns oyjfems,
dS^Xou p.kv erepois, p.6vois 8e to'is dra<ra£o/iEKOjs ip.<pavovs, Philo de
Execrat. § 8, 9. Cf. Langen, Judenthum, p. 398.
B b 2

372 PALESTINIAN THEORY [Lect.
queror, or Judge : in Palestine, on the contrary, the
tendency was to separate from Him every rehgious
element, and see in Him a great national hero.
It was the doctrine of the theocracy, but degraded
tiU it was simply human, carnal, earthly. No doubt
many noble minds struggled against this debasing
tendency : like Nathanael they believed that He
would be the Son of God. Others stopping short
of this yet held that He would be a prophet, and
regarded therefore Christ's miracles as His proper
credentials. ' When the Messiah hath come, wiU
He do more miracles than these which this man
hath done V (John vH. 31.) But with none, except
ing the Sadducees, was the doctrine allowed to fall
into the back-ground. Under some form or other
aU beUeved in a Messiah, all daUy looked for Him,
and were ready to join Him, and even to draw the
sword for the restoration of David's throne. Their
opinions were confused, incoherent, contradictory;
but all held opinions, and those strong ones, upon
the subject : and while the mass expected only a
hero to fight for them, there were doubtless those
who had higher conceptions of His nature, and
were thus prepared to understand and embrace the
spiritual interpretation put upon the writings of
the prophets in the New Testament.
The first work to which I shall refer, for a more
exact statement of the views entertained by the better
class of Jews respecting the Messiah, is the Book of
Enoch. To this University belongs the honour of
having first published both an English translation

IX.] OF THE MESSIAH.

373

(Archbp. Laurence's, Oxford, 182 1), and subsequently
the Ethiopic text (in 1838) of this, the most valuable
of all the apocryphal writings, though apparently
it was not from our present work that St. Jude
made the quotation contained in the 14th verse
of his Epistle. As regards its date, the best autho
rities ascribe it to the time of the Maccabees, and
consider that its object was to defend and protect
the teaching of the Old Testament against the
errors and encroachments of Greek philosophy as
held by the partizans of the Seleucidse. Probably,
however, very considerable additions have been
made to the work at various times, and as aU
that we possess is a translation made for the use
of a Christian Church, there is nothing surprising
in the fact that a more directly Christian bearing
has been given to certain portions of it. Like the
Second Book of Esdras, it bears many marks of
having been worked over by Christian hands. As
a whole, however, the book represents the spirit
of Judaism in its better days. Beligion with it is
not a matter of Babbinical scrupulousness about
externals, nor of the exact observance of the minuter
precepts of the law, but of mercy, judgment, and
truth. In its lofty tone, its earnest spirit, its wealth
of thought, and its sincere piety, it is no unworthy
companion of the canonical writings of the Jews s,
s In 1 85 1 Dillmann edited a text of the Book of Enoch, founded
upon the collation of five manuscripts, and two years afterwards
published a German translation with a most valuable and elaborate
Introduction. Till the publication of these works the materials

374 ORIGIN IN DANIEL [Lect.
It is thus the earliest of a large mass of literature
which had its origin in the inspired Book of Daniel.
With him first Jewish prophecy left the compara
tively narrow cir^e within which it had hitherto
worked, and contemplated the progress of the world
from a GentUe point of view. With aU the other
prophets the reign of Christ had ever been associated
with the thought of a time of glory for their nation.
Messiah's throne was the throne of David's son ; the
Levitical law was the law of His empire ; His abode
Jerusalem ; Mount Zion the seat of His glory ; the
Jew foremost among His subjects ; and the place of
their worship a temple the very measurements of
which had been given by Ezekiel. Whatever mercy
for criticism were not sufficiently definite to enable scholars to
arrive at any certain conclusions as to the date of the book.
Dillmann's own view, supported by very satisfactory arguments,
is that it was written about no years before the birth of
Christ (p. xliv): Ewald makes it still older, about 144 B.C. (See
his Abhandlung tiber des Buches Henokh Entstehung, Gottingen,
1854.) Both of them consider that new matter has from time to
time been interpolated, but Dillmann maintains that the great
mass of the work was written by one and the same author. On
the other hand, Philippi asserts that the book was written after
the destruction of Jerusalem, at the end of the first century of our
era (Das Buch Henoch, Stuttgart, 1868, p. 30, see also p. 142).
It is, however, so thoroughly Jewish, in spite of its having been
worked over by Christian hands, that I cannot believe that it was
from the first a Christian work. Unfortunately there was a period
when Christians rivalled the Jews of Egypt in the number of their
forgeries, but they are all very clumsy performances, and their
authors never attempt to give them any appropriate colouring.
Philippi's is, however, a very clever essay, though not to be set
against the judgment of Ewald and Dillmann.

IX.] OF APOCALYPTIC LITERATURE. 375
there was for the Gentiles could be won only by
their joining themselves to God's chosen people. No
doubt this was but the outward aspect of Jewish
prophecy. There were not wanting plain and defi
nite indications that Christ's kingdom would be
something far nobler and greater than these meta
phors seemed at first sight to signify. In Daniel
aU is altered, as well the outer form as the inner
essence. The prime minister of Chaldsean, Median,
and Persian monarchs, he traces the course of GentUe
history tUl the God of heaven sets up a kingdom that
shaU never be destroyed : and contemporaneously
with its estabhshment 'the people of the prince
destroy the city and the sanctuary/ and everything
distinctively Jewish ceases to exist.
Naturally it was not this part of Daniel's predic
tions which formed the staple of Jewish apocalyptic
literature. Such teaching may well be found in
an inspired book, because the facts taught were
the predeterminate counsels of God. But no Jew
of himself, especially in so spirit-stirring a struggle
against heathenism as that of the Maccabsean age,
could have conceived or endured the thought that aU
that he was fighting for was very soon to be destroyed
in order that Messiah's GentUe Church might be
delivered from an element ahen to her free develop
ment. The part of Daniel generaUy imitated in
apocalypses like those of Enoch and Esdras is his
description of the Gentile kingdoms under the form
of fierce and raging animals. Thus in the Book of
Enoch, Judas Maccabseus is described as a lamb

376 DOCTRINE OF THE BOOK OF ENOCH [Lect.
with a mighty horn, against which the Syrian kings
of the race of Seleucus wage war in the shape of
ravens. In a similar way in the Second Book of
Esdras the Boman empire appears as an eagle, and
the Csesars are its twelve feathered wings ; and in
another place it is described as the fourth beast,
which by the capture of Jerusalem had ' destroyed
the dweUings of them that brought forth fruit.'
(xi. 42.)
Now the doctrine of the book of Enoch respect
ing the Messiah is very remarkable. He is usually
spoken of as 'the Elect' or chosen one, a title
equivalent to that more than once given to our
Lord in the Gospels, * the Holy One of God/ (Mark
i. 24, Luke iv. 34, and in John vi. 69 in the Sinaitic
and Vatican copies.) But he is also caUed the
Anointed, the Son of Man, as in Daniel, and the
Son of God, as by Nathanael. He is even called
the Son of Woman, a name more strongly indica
tive of His human nature than even the title of
the Son of Man. As regards His dignity, some
times He holds a place very near to God ; He sits
upon the throne of majesty ; all address to Him
their prayers, and He rules over aU : but in other
places He is classed with the angels. Like them
He has an existence prior to the founding of the
world, a view adopted from the speculations of the
Jews of Alexandria, and held, as we have seen, by
the translators of the Septuagint. He is, moreover,
the Teacher and Prophet of His people, and the
spirit of the old prophets Hves again in Him. It

IX.] RESPECTING THE MESSIAH. 377
is worth noticing, too, that the Messiah is the
Light not of the Jews only, but also of the
Gentiles. He is the teacher of virtue everywhere,
the comforter of the distressed, the healer of those
wounded in heart. He is also the Judge,
before whose tribunal not mankind only, but
Azazel and the faUen angels must stand. FinaUy,
after the great judgment, heaven and earth wdl
be changed and renovated, and henceforward no
sinner wiU be found, nor sin exist, in Messiah's
realm. No wonder that some of the fathers
raised this book almost to the level of the inspired
Scriptures h.
And here I must notice, that while some of the
Palestinian Jews recognized the Messiah as the Great
Judge of the world, they never formed the idea of
His second advent for the purpose of sitting in
judgment. So to speak, there was no perspective
h Tertullian, de Habitu Muliebri, § 3, argues that the book was
actually written by Enoch, and was inspired. It is remarkable that
he says that it was not received by the Jews, ' in armarium Judaicum
non admittitur,' and in fact it does not represent their ordinary views
respecting Christ. Clement of Alexandria also supposed it to be
authentic, but the more critical Origen rejected its claims for him
self, though leaving it as an open question for others. Jerome
unhesitatingly calls it an apocryphal book, and destitute therefore
of authority (Hieron. ad Ps. cxxxii. 3). Augustine (de Civ. Dei
xv. 23) thinks that Enoch wrote something, but denies that it was
the so-called Book of Enoch : and he also mentions (Ib. xviii. 38),
that the Jews rejected it. After Augustine's time it disappeared,
excepting some long quotations from it in George Syncellus, till the
famous traveller Bruce brought from Abyssinia the copy now in
the Bodleian Library.

378 THE PSALTER [Lect.
in their views, but everything that every prophet
had foretold as belonging to the Messiah was all
compressed into one narrow period. Thus we find
the apostles sorely puzzled when our Lord said
that He was going away for a Httle whde, and
would then come again. Hence, too, the grief of
the two disciples going to Emmaus, because He
Who, they trusted, would have delivered Israel had
died a malefactor's death. And again, in St. John's
Gospel, where we find the most numerous allusions
to the current opinions of the Jews, when Christ
foretells His death the people make this objection,
'We have heard out of the law that the Messiah
abideth for ever, and how sayest Thou, The Son of
Man — another name for the Messiah — must be Hfted
up?' Now this view, too, is found in the Book of
Enoch. The Messiah at His advent first sets His
people free, then holds a general judgment, and
finaUy reigns for ever upon a renovated earth over
a people incapable of sinning.
Another interesting work is the Psalter of Solo
mon, consisting of eighteen Psalms, written in the
style of the Old Testament, and bewailing the suffer
ings of the chosen people. From the account given
of these sufferings there can be little doubt that the
writer's just indignation was stirred at the bar
barities inflicted upon Jerusalem by Pompey, after
it had of its own accord opened its gates to receive
him. The siege and profanation of the temple, the
mercUess slaughter of its defenders, and of many of
the inhabitants of the city, and the leading away

IX.] OF SOLOMON. 379
into captivity of its sons and daughters, are regarded
as so many chastisements brought up?,n the nation
by the godless misrule of the later piinces of the
Maccabsean line. Naturally the writer turns for
comfort to the promises made to the Jews of a
Messiah, who will avenge these cruelties, but un
fortunately the Hebrew original was translated by
some Christian hand, and we can put no confidence in
the genuineness of its Messianic teaching1. The two
most important passages (Ps. xvii. 33-51, xviii. 6-10)
are probably even interpolations. All we can safely
affirm is, that the pubhc calamities of the nation
had fiUed the writer with an eager longing for
the Messiah's advent, and for that display of super
natural power whereby He was to save the nation.
The work was much valued at one tune by Christ
ians, as is proved by its being the only specimen
of Jewish apocryphal literature inserted as an ap
pendix to the New Testament in our own Codex
Alexandrinus. But, after all, the Targums are the most trust
worthy evidence of the views and opinions of the
Jews at the very time when our Lord was manifest
in the flesh. The oldest of these paraphrases — that
of Onkelos upon the Pentateuch — keeps very

i Movers, Dillmann, Ewald, Delitzsch, Langen, all agree that the
style is too Hebraizing for the work possibly to have had any other
than a Hebrew original. Huet, on a less critical examination of
the Psalter, had thought it was written in Greek. Fuller informa
tion will be found in the Church Lexicons of Wetzer and Welte
(Bomanist), and Herzog (Protestant).

380 TARGUM [Lect.

closely, as a general rule, to the Hebrew origmal.
Twice, however, it refers to Christ passages of very
great importance. The first of these is the weU-
known text respecting Shiloh in Jacob's blessing,
which Onkelos renders as foUows : ' A sultan shaU
not pass away from the house of Judah, nor a
scribe, (an interpreter of the law,) from his sons'
sons for ever, until Messiah shaU come, Whose
is the kingdom, and Him shall the GentUes obey.'
(Gen. xlix. io.) We have a proof here that the
Jews were expecting the speedy arrival of the day
of their deliverance, and that they believed that
the Gentiles would then be subject unto them.
The other passage is Balaam's prophecy of the
star, which Onkelos paraphrases thus : ' A king
shaU arise out of Jacob, and Messiah shaU wax
great k out of Israel, and shall kiU the princes of
Moab, and rule over aU the sons of men/ (Num.
xxiv. 17.) Again, we find Messiah as a king, with
universal empire, slaying ruthlessly, and giving the
Jews that vengeance which the long and cruel
wrongs inflicted upon Jerusalem had made the in
habitants of Palestine so eagerly desire, a feeling,
however, of which we find no trace among the
more prosperous Jews of Egypt. The Septuagint
version of both these places is entirely destitute of
interest. The Alexandrians do not seem to have
k This is usually translated, ' shall be anointed,' but the passages
alleged in proof of this rendering seem to me rather to mean,
' to be made the high priest.' I have given the ordinary and usual
signification of the verb.

IX.] OF ONKELOS. 381

attached any importance to either of these pro
phecies. The other Targum, that of Jonathan1 upon the
historical books of the Old Testament and the Pro
phets, is distinguished first of aU by its division
of time into that before Messiah's advent, and Mes
siah's own time. Thus to the account of Solomon's
wisdom, his 3000 proverbs, and 1005 songs, Jona
than adds these extraordinary words, ' And he pro
phesied of the kings of the house of David, that
shall reign in this world and in the coming world
ofthe Messiah/ (1 Kings iv. 32.) He thus seems to
have imagined that when the Messiah had restored
David's throne, a new line of kings sprung from
His body would reign over Israel. Elsewhere, how
ever, he speaks as if Messiah Himself would be
their perpetual king. For in Isaiah's prophecy,

1 The Targum of Jonathan, though probably written down at
Babylon two or three centuries after Christ, is yet satisfactory
evidence of the opinions of the Jews of previous ages, because of
the tenacity of the hold which tradition had over their minds.
Thus the Massorites, who began their work in the sixth century after
Christ, seem to have given us little of their own, but have put into
writing, with the most minute accuracy, that system of reading
Hebrew which was elaborated in Judsea in the first and second
centuries of our era, and rested even then upon an older basis.
So the translation of the Hebrew text into Chaldee had begun with
Ezra (Neh. viii. 8), and without doubt its interpretation became a
matter of tradition, from which neither Onkelos nor Jonathan
departed very widely. The other Targums I pass by as too late in
date and too Haggadic in character to be trustworthy. All the
Targums are entirely Jewish, and have never been coloured by
Christian scribes or translators.

382 TARGUM [Lect.
' Unto us a Son is born/ he paraphrases the names
of the Messiah thus ; ' God wonderful in counsel,
man enduring to eternity, even Messiah, Whose
peace shaU be multiplied upon us in His days/
(Is. ix. 6.) Apparently he expected a restoration
of the theocracy in the person of an immortal and
divine m Christ.

m We must not, however, conclude too much from his calling the
Messiah ' God wonderful in counsel.' The divinity of Christ was
certainly not a Jewish dogma. We find no trace of it elsewhere
in Jonathan. Thus if we turn to crucial passages like Micah v. 2
we find him rendering the prophet's words thus, ' Out of thee,
Bethlehem, shall Messiah go forth before Me to exercise dominion
over Israel, Whose name has been spoken from of old, from the
days of eternity.' So in Zech. xiii. 7 his rendering is, ' Unsheath
thyself, 0 sword, against the king, and against the prince, who is
his companion and equal.' Even in the book of Enoch, which
gives so high a place to the Messiah, He stands among the angels
to worship God (lxi. 10). So, too, the words of ch. xlviii. 6,
' He was chosen and concealed before God before the world was
created, and even to eternity will He be before Him,' belong to
that connection of the idea of the Messiah with the divine Wisdom,
which produced the Alexandrian teaching of the Logos, and
which made even the Sadducees acknowledge a sort of eternity in
Wisdom, see Ecclus. xxiv. It was not a personal existence, and
yet Jonathan shuns even granting this (Micah v. 2), though imme
diately before he had been speaking (Ib. iv. 8) of the concealment
of Israel's Messiah, and the delay of His kingdom because of their
sins. In short, Trypho in Justin Martyr's dialogue gives the
ordinary Jewish view, even though there were better schools of
thought, which held that in some sense or other the Messiah would
be the Son of God. Trypho says, 'We all expect that the
Messiah will be a man born of men :' (c. 49 :) and again; 'It is
an incredible and well-nigh impossible thing that thou undertakest
to prove, that God submitted to be born and become a man.'
(c. 68.) Naturally, therefore, he denied that the Messiah's birth

IX.] OF JONATHAN. 383
In those magnificent chapters of Isaiah, which
treat of the Servant of Jehovah, the Targum refers
aH to Christ, yet so as to exclude from Him every
note of suffering. Every word there of sorrow and
affliction Jonathan transfers to the Jewish people :
they suffer, Messiah is a victorious warrior. Thus
the words, 'He hath no form nor comeliness' are
paraphrased as foUows : ' His aspect shaU be no
common aspect, nor His fear like the fear of a
private person : but His beauty shaU be the beauty
of holiness ; whosoever seeth Him shall look at
Him with admiration. He shaU be despised, indeed,
but He shaU strip all kings of their glory; they
shaU be feeble and in pain, like a man of sorrows,
and one delivered over to diseases/ (Is. HU. 3.) In
the foUowing verses it is the Jewish people who are
smitten of God for their own sins : and the Messiah,
so far from being the Lamb, is the Judge, Who ' shall
sentence the mighty among the Gentiles like lambs
to the slaughter, and like a sheep silent before
its shearers, nor shaU any one venture to open
his mouth and speak in His presence/ (Ib. 7.)
And when thus He has given over the wicked" to
was miraculous, and said that the virgin of Isaiah vii. 14 meant a
young woman (c. 71) ; and when Justin affirmed that He would
not be the seed of man's race, Trypho answered, ' How then does
the Scripture say to David that God will take to Himself a son
of his loins, and will establish his kingdom, and seat him upon the
throne of his glory V (c. 68.)
n The exact sense of Jonathan's words in this place may be
elucidated by his rendering of Isaiah xi. 4, ' By the speaking of His
lips He shall slay the wicked A.rmillus.' Armillus is the great

384 TEACHING OF JONATHAN [Lect.
the grave, explained as Gehenna, the place of the
lost, He purifies His own people, and accompanied
solely by the righteous He takes great nations for
His prey, and strong states for His spod. And so,
generaUy, in this Targum the Messiah appears often
as King, as Judge, as High Priest, as Prophet : He
never appears as a Saviour, as one Who will make
atonement for His people's sins and die in their
stead. As regards the actual passages, Jonathan
refers to Christ, as a rule, the same texts that we
do ; but there is an impassable gulf between his
interpretation of them and that of the Christian
Church. Now the Targum of Jonathan was a book of
authority among the Jews, and was regarded as
only less venerable than the inspired text itself.
We may be sure, therefore, that it embodied no
private views, but is the record of the received
opinions of the scribes and teachers of the Law.
Nevertheless, it is a far worse corruption of the
sense of Holy Scripture than anything contained in

opponent of the Jewish Messiah, the personal representative and
captain of the Gentiles on whom Messiah is to wage war. In
subsequent times, Armillus became with the Babbins the symbol
of the Christian Church, and they described him as the offspring
of Belial and a beautiful female statue at Borne, made to conceive
by magical arts. Beneath his banners all the sons of Esau will
gather to attack Jerusalem, where, according to some, he will slay
Messias ben Joseph, but finally will himself be slain by the breath
of the true Messiah, according to Isaiah xi. 4. A full account of the
various legends concerning him will be found in Buxtorf 's Babbinic
Lexicon.

IX.] AUTHORITATIVE. 385
the Book of Enoch, and may be almost called a
systematic perversion of the teaching of the pro
phets. And these were the views which prevailed
at the time of our Lord's advent. The mass of
the people expected one armed with supernatural
powers, but he was to use these powers for earthly
purposes, to drive the Bomans from their land, and
lead the armies of Israel to the conquest of the
world. Hence their eagerness to make our Lord a
king after the miracle of feeding the thousands,
and the care with which He frustrated their en
deavours, and ever taught His disciples that the
Messiah was to suffer. Hence the constant disputes
of the apostles about place and dignity, and the
request of Zebedee's wife that James and John
might be the two chief officers of state in Christ's
kingdom. Hence, too, the constant uprisings of the
populace, their readiness to follow Theudas, and
Judas of Galilee, and Bar-Cochba. They were Hving
in the very fever of expectation for the coming of
their deliverer ; they saw that Judah's sceptre had
departed ; they knew that Daniel's weeks had ex
pired ; but they would not believe that at the end
of those weeks their sanctuary would be destroyed,
their city captured, their temple-service suppressed,
and ' the power of the holy people scattered/ And
so their very fanaticism led to the exact fulfilment
of the true meaning of the words of the prophets.
They joined in cutting off their Messiah because he
was no fierce warrior but a preacher of holiness,
Whose kingdom was not of this world. They brought
c c

386 THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH [Lect.
by their restlessness the avenging armies of Eome
upon their city, and from that day the sacrifice ofthe
great day of atonement has been offered no more.
Even before the Jews ceased to be a nation, they
had ceased to be God's Church. But that separation
between the believing and the unbelieving Jews
which Malachi had described as the Messiah's great
work (iii. 1-5) at His first advent, was then com
plete, and God's covenant from that day forth has
been with those who had accepted the Gospel of His
Son. God cannot have two Churches ; still less can
the preparatory Church and that final and perfect
Church for which it was to prepare exist at the same
time. But Jews founded the Christian Church.
Jews were everywhere its first teachers, its mission
aries and apostles, its bishops and pastors. Jews
everywhere were the first converts, and the nucleus
in every town round which the Gentiles gathered.
The forms of worship in their synagogues became
those of Christian congregations, their scriptures
are our inspired law, and to this day our very name
testifies that we are those who have accepted a
Jewish Messiah. All this had been foreshown
before. When the Chaldseans encamped before Je
rusalem, Jeremiah (xxiv.) warned the Jews that
in destroying city and temple, with the high priests,
the king, the princes, and the people, Nebuchad
nezzar was not destroying the Jewish Church : that
had been removed for safety with Jeconiah to
Babylon. So Titus did not destroy God's covenant-
people. They had gone to Pella as the believers

IX.] FOUNDED BY JEWS. 387
in His Christ. Those who remained at Jerusalem
were the refuse merely whom God had cast out,
because in their greed for earthly dominion they had
rejected the spiritual blessings offered them by the
true Messiah.
Plainly, the Christ of the Gospels was not the
creation of uninspired thought. His wondrous cha
racter, His spiritual teaching, His kingdom of grace
in the hearts of men, His future kingdom of heavenly
blessedness, all this the prophets had taught, but the
Jews had not found it in their writings. Their imagi
nation had seized only upon certain metaphors, and
these, grossly materialized, had entirely obscured in
their minds aU the better and deeper teachings of their
scriptures. The doctrine of a suffering Saviour was
not revealed even to Peter ' by flesh and blood, but
by the Father Who is in Heaven/ (Matt. xvi. 17.)
To the mass of the Jews, when our Lord came, the
Messiah was scarcely more than a mere political
character, a warrior who would bid them arise
against Edom — the Boman empire — to battle, and
give them Zarephath and Sepharad — the fertile
regions of France and Spain — for a possession
(Obad. 1, 19, 20). As usual, man's necessity was
God's opportunity : when Scribes and Pharisees had
done their worst to blot out and darken the teach
ing of the Scriptures concerning the Messiah, He
came Who is our true Light, and the words of the
prophets were set forth for the first time in their
real. meaning, and that a meaning so clear, so simple,
so straightforward, so consistent, that we wonder
c c 2

388 THE ASCENSION [Lect.
how any other interpretation could ever have been
put upon their teaching.
There are numerous other writings of this period,
chiefly of an apocalyptic character, which, if time
permitted, would serve to show conclusively how
entirely the Messiah of the Jews of Palestine had
become a mere man, from whom every thought of
heavenly dignity, and every diviner attribute, had
been completely removed. I must content myself,
however, with a very brief reference to two works
written at the end of the first century of our era,
and both expressive of the honest indignation of
the Jews against the Bomans for the cruelty with
which they had destroyed Jerusalem and treated
its inhabitants. These two are the Second Book of
Esdras, and the Ascension of Moses °. Of the latter,
however, I shall make no further use than to say

° This work, which is quoted by Clement of Alexandria, Origen,
CEcumenius and other fathers, had long been regarded as lost, but
in the year 1861 a fragment of a Latin translation of it was found
by Ceriani in the Ambrosian Library at Milan, and published in
the first volume of his Monumenta Sacra et Profana. It is a
slavishly literal translation of a Hebrew original, which was prob
ably written about the same time as the Second Book of Esdras.
Both books describe the Eoman empire under the similitude of an
eagle with many necks and wings ; and both have the same object,
namely, to comfort the Jews for the destruction of their city and
temple by Titus. A time of retribution, they teach, draws near,
and then shall Israel mount up to heaven on eagles' wings, and
sit among the stars, while their enemies lie humbled upon the
earth. ' Of Christian view and interpretation not the least trace
can be discovered in this fragment : we have in it a genuine pro
duct of the Jews of Palestine.' Langen, Judenthum, p. 106.

IX.] OF MOSES. 389
that it proves to us that the creditable view of the
Messiah set before us in the Book of Esdras was
not the chance product of one religious thinker, but
was held at the end of the first century, at aU events,
by the better class of minds. For substantially the
two works agree, and both stand in agreeable con
trast with the Targum of Jonathan, and with the
unpatriotic Josephus, who was base enough to apply
to Vespasian the predictions of the prophets respect
ing Christ.
No doubt the capture of Jerusalem by Titus was a
terrible blow to those who were at that time eagerly
anticipating in their Messiah an able general to lead
them on to victory, and may have led many besides
Josephus to open infidelity. The disappointment
and pain caused by the abandonment of false reli
gious tenets too often produces this effect, but there
are others whom it leads to search for a more true
interpretation. And thus, in the Second Book of
Esdras, we find the Messiah invested with religious
attributes. The book itself, which was known in
early times to Jerome and Ambrose, has long disap
peared, but in the year 1462 a Latin translation of
it was appended to the Vulgate. It exists also in
various oriental versions, but has not hitherto been
discovered in Greek ; and it ought to be mentioned
that, though appended to the Vulgate, its pages are
separately numbered, and it has nothing of that
critical apparatus which accompanies those books
which the Church of Borne considers in any sense
canonical. Beaders are in fact warned in the Preface

390 THE SECOND BOOK [Lect.
to the Vulgate, that neither the Third nor Fourth
Books of Esdras — our first and second — are any
thing more than adscititium et extraneum quid.
Our own Church, not using the uncanonical Scrip
tures for the establishment of doctrine, inserts both
the Books of Esdras among its Apocrypha, but it
does not thereby give them any more authority than
that possessed by the Book of Enoch, the Third and
Fourth Books of Maccabees, the Ascensions of Moses
and Isaiah, the Book of JubUees, and the Testament
of the twelve Patriarchs. There was a vast apocry
phal Hterature, of which the works appended to our
Bible are specimens, but most of those mentioned
above have been brought to light again in modern
days, since the time when our version was made.
The First Book of Esdras is an Alexandrian work
of very little value.
The Second Book is really most interesting, but
known to us at present only in a bald Latin trans
lation ; and this has been so interpolated by Chris
tian hands, that whole chapters are a mere tissue of
phrases taken from the New Testament. Even the
name of Jesus occurs in it (vii. 28), where no doubt
in the Hebrew original the word was Messiah.
Nevertheless, the Jewish part is easily separable
from the rest, and is the work of a man of deep
rehgious feeling, but entirely ignorant of Christianity.
It burns with intense indignation against the Eomans
for their cruel treatment of Jerusalem, and finds in
the hope of Messiah's advent consolation under the
miseries of the times.

IX.] OF ESDRAS. 391
The main portion of the book is a vision of the
Boman empire under the figure of an eagle. Its
twelve wings, as I mentioned before, are the twelve
Csesars : of these the two first, Julius Caesar and
Augustus, are more fully described, as also are the
last three of the Flavian house, Vespasian, Titus,
and Domitian, who naturally are the objects of the
writer's ill-concealed aversion. Bapidly they faU,
and with them the empire of the twelve Caesars is
brought to a disastrous close. A double pair of
wings next arises ; they are the Emperor Nerva,
and Trajan, his chosen successor. And now the
purpose of the vision discloses itself. A roaring
HonP from the wood speaks with man's voice to the
eagle, condemns it for unjust and tyrannous rule,
and proclaims its speedy downfaU. That Hon is the
Messiah, come to free the Jew from the intolerable
yoke of Borne. It might have been dangerous to
speak openly, but surely it must have been a relief
to apostrophize the Boman thus : ' Thy wrongful
dealing hath come up to the Highest, and thy pride
to the Mighty One. The Highest hath also looked
upon the proud times, and behold they are ended,
and their abominations fulfilled. And therefore
appear no more, thou eagle, nor thy horrible wings,
nor thy wicked feathers, nor thy malicious heads,
nor thy hurtful claws, nor all thy vain body : that
aU the earth may be refreshed, being delivered from
thy violence/ (ch. xi. 43-46.) The cruelties practised
p Compare Bevelation v. 5.

392 JEWISH NOTION [Lect.
by Titus upon Jerusalem were still fresh in the
writer's mind, but probably it was not merely the
feebleness of Nerva's reign, but stiU more the pro
phecies of Daniel, which made him hope that a
speedy retribution for these cruelties was at hand.
But this retribution is confined within the limits
of justice, and we find in the vision of Esdras no trace
of that lust of conquest which would have raised the
Jews to an equally wicked eminence with the four
great mUitary empires of Daniel's dream (vii). Titus
had crushed them too utterly for such of them at
least as lived in Italy still to dream of battle and
war. And thus we find only a tame anticipation of
a millennium, if one may so caU it, limited to four
hundred years, in which the Jews will rejoice in
Christ's personal reign. 'My son Jesus 1 shall be
revealed with those that be with Him, and. they that
remain shall rejoice within four hundred years/
(2 Esdras vii. 28.) If in these words we are struck
by the absence of the fierce fanaticism of the Targum
of Jonathan, even more remarkable is the next verse,
'After these years shall My son Christ die, and all
men that have life, and the world shall be turned
into the old silence seven days, like as in the former
judgments/ It seems, then, that in his view there
1 Ambrose, on Luke ii. 21, had already pointed out that the
word Jesus has been substituted for something else. It is morally
certain that the translator was a Christian, and, finding Messiah in
the Hebrew text, instead of rendering it by Christus, or unctus, he
put Jesus as the exact equivalent, in his view, of the original word.
See above, p. 390.

IX.] OF CHRIST'S PERSONAL REIGN. 393.
had been a perpetual series of dispensations, between
each of which there was upon earth the sdence of
death for a period as long as the creative week ; and
the end of the present dispensation he thought was
approaching, but before it came the Jews would
have at least a moderately long period of consolation.
And then they and their Messiah and all living things
would die, and after the seven days' silence the dead
would rise, and God hold a judgment. If in aU
this there was a religious conception of the Messiah's
character, yet it was a very mean one, nor does it
attempt any exposition of the actual words of pro
phecy, but rather substitutes for them the notions of
the writer himself.
There is, then, an impassable gulf between the
Christ of the Jewish interpretation of prophecy and
the Christ of the Gospels. Their interpretation was
in no sense a preparation for the teaching of our
Lord : His Gospel was no culmination of ideas which
had long been at work in the Jewish mind. Christ
at Alexandria had become an allegory with the mass,
and a metaphysical Logos with the phUosophers ; in
Palestine He was a warrior, with no attributes but
those of strength and cruelty ; and if in certain
apocryphal works we find a rehgious conception of
His character, it was the view probably of certain
sects only, and had little influence over the popular
mind. Even these works fall utterly short of the
teaching of the Gospel, and had Httle or nothing to
do with its success. The reception of that teaching
was not effected without a violent wrench alike to

394 EXTERNAL OPPOSITION [Lect.

the Jew of Jerusalem and the Jew of Egypt. It
involved a revolution in aU their habits of thought,
and this was not effected without a fierce and bitter
struggle. In the Acts of the Apostles we find
abundant evidence of the violence of the conflict,
and the battle there gathered chiefly round St.
Stephen and St. Paul, the two men who most
clearly saw that Christianity implied the abolition
of Judaism. In the history of the Christian Church
the traces of the struggle are equally plain. We see
the marks of it in the deep hatred which grew up
between the Christian and the Jew ; we see it in
the doctrine of the Apostolical Constitutions, that
the mass of the Old Testament was a Deuteronomy,
a second law, bad in itself, and imposed upon the
Jews because of the badness of their hearts.
In short, we now in these latter days see only,
or chiefly, the profound inner agreement between
the Old and the New Testament. Men at first saw
chiefly their external antagonism, and to thousands
of devout men, brought up to love and venerate
and to beHeve in the eternal obligation of the
Mosaic law, it must have been an intense and
heartfelt misery which they had to endure, before
they could bring themselves to believe that that
law was a mere -x-aiSaywyo?, a slave, with no higher
function than to lead on the heir, while still under
the beggarly elements of the world, to the true
teacher Christ (Gal. Hi. 24) ; and that the Christian
was that heir, no longer in his nonage, but arrived
at man's estate, and in full possession of his heritage.

IX.] BETWEEN THE TWO TESTAMENTS. 395
Nor did the Jew alone thus feel. The key to
most of the heresies which troubled the early Church,
was the conviction of an antagonism, instead of an
agreement, between the two Covenants; If Marcion,
in his Book of Oppositions (AvTiOio-ets), wrought the
theory out, the strength of his party lay in the fact
that the Christian interpretation of the prophets was
something new, and entirely contrary to the inter
pretation current among the Jews.
And thus, then, in the first place, cursory as is this
view of what the Jews thought of Christ, it may
make it easier to understand the cause of the general
indignation aroused in the mind of the populace at
Jerusalem by the teaching of Jesus of Nazareth. He
had those, indeed, who loved Him : Gahkeans, it may
be, chiefly, who Hved too far away from the centres
of thought to hold very settled theories as to what
the Messiah ought to be ; but plainly some of the
Jews in Jerusalem also believed in Him. The mass
saw in Him one Who contradicted and frustrated all
their hopes, and if the Galilaeans were content to
follow a lowly king with their hosannas, their own
cry was, Crucify Him! Peter and the few said, 'Lord,
to whom shaU we go % Thou hast the words of
eternal life.' What was eternal life to the populace 1
They wanted the empire of the world, and if the
Messiah would not give it them, then they would
destroy Him. And, secondly, the Christ of the
Gospels is no human invention. Men did not
at aU learn what He would be from the words
of prophecy, plain though they be. Give men

396 CONCL USION.

what proof you wiU, but seldom do they find more
than what it suits them to find. If what is said
agrees with their preconceived notions, well : if not,
they reject it. So was it with the oracles of truth.
The Jew did not find the interpretation, because he
never sought to find it. If we see it, it is because
the Holy Ghost has given us the true exposition of
those Scriptures which He Himself inspired.

NOTES.

NOTES.

NOTE A, p. 9.
J. HERE are two accounts given by Moses of the Creation,
in the first of which, Gen. i-ii. 3, man is considered as the
final end and perfection of God's works in nature, while in
the second, Gen. ii. 4-iii. 24, he is set before us as the object
of the divine grace. In the first account the Creator is styled
absolutely God, in Hebrew Elohim, a plural word followed
by a verb singular, and expressive simply of greatness and
majesty. Thus it is used of the angels, ' Thou hast made
man a little lower than the gods ;' (Ps. viii. 5 ;) of kings
and princes, Ps. lxxxii. 1, 6, John x. 2>5'-> of judges, 'Then
his master shall bring him unto the gods ; ' (Exod. xxi. 6 ;)
but chiefly of the Deity. Using, then, this simple name, Moses
begins with one of the grandest and noblest truths ever uttered
by man, namely, that matter is not eternal, but created
by God, and that in God all things in heaven and earth
have their sole beginning. Compare with this the wearisome
speculations of the Greek philosophers, whether water or
air or fire were the one fundamental element : or the Oriental
view that matter is essentially evil, and that opposed to
God there is a wicked principle, all but co-eternal and co
equal with Him, and man the wretched plaything and victim
of these rival powers ; or again, the Indian view that matter

400 NOTE A.

and all earthly things and man are alike maya, a mere
delusion, the semblance and not the reality of being ; compare
all this with the opening words of Scripture, and Christians
have no need to be ashamed of their Bible, but may feel
that they have sure footing beneath them for their belief
in the real though created existence of matter, and in the
existence and supremacy of one God.
But Moses passes rapidly on from this, and leaving every
thing that does not relate to man, he comes at once to
this earth ; his object is too practical to let him linger
among philosophical speculations, and so he hastens to the
earth as man's abode, and tells us that it existed, for how
long time we know not, in darkness, as a desolate and
shapeless waste, and yet even during this period there was
motion and progress : for the wind or Spirit of Elohim was
brooding upon the face of the waters.
This progress is next set before us in its several stages,
described not as parts of a cosmogony, nor with any inten
tion of giving us a geological scheme, but simply as a prepa
ration of the earth for man's dwelling, and as the appointed
scene for the great work, of which the second narrative of
Creation gives us the main outlines. Of these stages the
first is the creation of light, and with it, of course, of heat.
This creation of light absolutely, while the sun and moon
were the work of the fourth day, so puzzled Origen, that
he gave up in despair any exposition of the earlier chapters
of Genesis except in a spiritualizing and allegorical way.
Scientific writers in the present day give us a very different
notion of these things. The so-called nebular hypothesis
even went upon the supposition that the sun was the last
formed of all the orbs of our system, and the moon subsequent,
at all events, to the shaping of the earth, as being a body
thrown off from it. But independently of this theory, which
has probably now few followers, the various mechanical and
chemical forces at work, condensing and arranging the mate
rials of this earth, would of themselves evolve heat and
light, while it is perfectly possible that the light, in Hebrew
Or, here referred to, is that marvellous agent electricity ;

NOTE A. 401

by means of which even now all the processes of animal
and vegetable existence apparently are maintained and carried
on. Or certainly means lightning in Job xxxvii. 3, and
probably Ib. xxxvi. 32. By what increase, however, and dimi
nution of this light the day was then measured, whether as
yet the earth revolved upon its axis, and whether these
days, .consisting of an evening and a morning, signify more
than the reaching of a certain stage in God's creative plan,
is hard to say. All must admit that some parts of the
narrative are metaphorical. ' God said,' grand and noble
as is the idea, really must mean that God silently willed that
so and so should be. He uses no articulate words. And so
these days must remain a mystery. Some have thought
that the various stages of creation were revealed to Moses
in a series of pictures, so to say, and that preceding each,
as shown in vision before his mental eye, there was a period
of gloom. But the Hebrew simply is, ' And there was an
evening, and there was a morning, day one,' a period of
thickening darkness, and a period of dawning light. The
words suggest a progress and improvement : and each morn
ing, it may be, was the beginning of some new creative
energy. The literal interpretation of the document entirely
forbids our confounding these primseval days with man's
working day of twenty-four hours.
As everything else in the narrative after the first verse
refers to the earth, it is but reasonable to conclude that this
' light' was neither solar nor stellar light, but such light and
heat as were evolved here below, by chemical and mechanical
forces acting upon the constituent elements of the earth, and
that to its action belong all those igneous rocks and other
results of intense heat with which geology has made us
acquainted. We may even gather from the narrative, as a
probability, that heat was an earlier agent in the shaping
of the earth than water : but it is a probability only. All
that we are expressly taught by the words of Genesis is
that light of some kind or other was the first product of
the divine action in that desolate void out of which our
earth was made.
Dd

402 NOTE A.

And next there follow certain changes which would result
simply from the gradual cooling of the earth's surface. As
its temperature slowly decreased by the radiation of its heat,
the aqueous vapours would condense and fall in the shape
of rain upon the earth, while the pure air would remain
to form an atmosphere, in which the clouds would float.
Thus on the second day of creation water definitely took
those two shapes in which it exists at present, the one its
fluid form, in which it seeks the lowest depths of the earth,
the other its form as vapour, in which it rises high above
earth's surface. The Hebrew word for atmosphere, literally
signifying an open expanse, has been miserably rendered in
our version firmament, because it was so translated at Alex
andria by the authors of the Septuagint, who thought that
the vault of heaven was solid. But the use of the word
does not imply any belief in the theory. We still speak of
a person's humours, but no one would suppose that we thereby
pledged ourselves to the doctrine held in old time, that our
mental state is dependent upon certain fluids in the body.
We may dismiss, then, this word ' firmament,' as a mere false
gloss put by the Jews of Alexandria upon the divine record ;
and it remains only to remark that throughout the Bible
the vast apparatus created by God for watering the earth
by means of rain is ever specially appealed to as the great
natural witness for His existence and goodness (see Acts xiv. 1 7
and the parallel places), and was thus not unworthy of a
place in the narrative of Creation.
Upon the condensation • of the vapours, and their falling
upon the earth as rain, follows again, by a natural law, their'
gathering into the lower portions of the earth, and the emer
gence of dry land. But much more than this was necessary
ere the earth could be fit for man's abode. As we see the
vast masses of the mountains, and the force which has
crumpled up their strata like paper, and raised aloft such
mighty obelisks as the Matterhom, we learn that this ap
pearance of the dry land was attended by terrible convulsions.
Without these agonizing throes of nature the earth would
have been a level mass covered everywhere evenly with water.

NOTE- A. 403

Yet even these convulsions may have been the natural results
of the cooling of the mass of the earth, and of the presence of
water in vast quantities upon its surface. Nor can I see
anything in the narrative to forbid this view. When God
speaks, His words do not pass away, but remain in ever-
abiding force for all time. To speak, with Him, is to will ;
and His commands continue as natural laws, lasting for
all time, and unchanging as He their author is unchange
able. When a spark starts from an electrical machine, or the
lightning from the clouds, it is because He has said, 'Let
there be light.' To this day the mounting up of vapours
into the atmosphere, their condensation there, and their falling
to the earth as rain, are by virtue of the laws pronounced by
God on the second creative day. Equally, too, now as on
the third day water separates itself from the solid bodies
mixed with it by mechanical action, and gathers into the lower
parts of the earth, in order that vegetation may cover the
dry land.
Without these laws the earth could never have been a fit
dwelling for man, and to believe that these laws exist inde
pendently of God's will, is just as heathenish as to believe
in the eternity of matter. God willed these so-called natural
laws for man's good. Without an atmosphere to bear the
clouds into every quarter, without those countless arrange
ments and adjustments which carry the falling waters away
from the surface, and make the grass to spring up everywhere
as of itself, the earth must have remained as empty and
desolate as is the moon now — a blank and waste in creation.
So, too, without that arrangement, so minutely dwelt upon,
by which every plant carries within itself the means of its
own perpetual reproduction, not only would the earth have
quickly relapsed into barrenness, but vegetation would also
have missed its secondary uses, of refreshing man and the
animal world by its fruits, and of maintaining them in winter
by seeds, capable of being stored up, and containing in a con
densed form all that is necessary for the support of life.
And now there is a break as it were in the processes of
creation. On the fourth day the two great luminaries, the
d d %

404 NOTE A.

sun and moon, are set in the firmament. Many have thought
that by the condensation of the vapours, and the clearing of
the atmosphere by a rank vegetable life, the glorious light of
the sun now at length broke through the clouds, and his orb
became visible. This is a perfectly reasonable view. There is
nothing in the Hebrew to settle the question when the sun and
moon and stars were created. It says only that at this period
they became earth's great luminaries, giving it an alternation
of day and night, indicating by a succession of seasons the
course of years, and serving as signs to show the onward
progress of time. The fourth day, then, may mark the period
when the revolution of the earth and planets upon their own
axes began ; it may mark the period when the state of the
atmosphere first admitted of their being seen from the earth's
surface ; or it may signify that the preparation of the earth
for man's abode was, in its beginnings, prior to the full com
pletion of the solar system, of which it may be that the sun
was the last and final perfection. Be this as it may, the
Divine narrator shows, with scientific exactness, that while
the first mean commencements of vegetable life are possible
without the unveiled presence of the sun, there can be no
animal life till it shines. Not till the fourth day could vege
tation even reach its full magnificence in flower and forest
trees, though the command had been given before : as for
animal life, it began upon the fifth day long after the sun had
shone upon the earth.
And here we must notice three things. For, first, we
repeat that the three previous days can scarcely have been
solar days, inasmuch as it is only on the fourth day that the
sun is set in the firmament to divide between day and night.
Probably they mark stages in creation, an advance from a
dark evening to a brighter morning, itself not yet complete,
but the beginning only of a better state. And if such were the
first three days, such also would be the three other creative days
of God. Secondly, the Hebrew does not say that God created
the stars on the fourth day, just as it does not say when or how
God made the sun. The record is confined simply to earth.
What the Hebrew says is, that, besides the sun and moon, God

NOTE A. 405

set the stars also in the firmament for signs and for seasons.
And as such the ancients used them. Having no almanacs,
they regulated not merely their navigation, but also their
agriculture, by the rising and setting of the stars. The third
observation is, that we must not imagine that the special act
of any day was confined to that day, on which it first began.
Whatever laws God imposed upon matter at the first, those
laws abide now. With one exception, we may conclude that
all God's creative works were carried on by the operation
of natural causes — that one exception being the giving of life.
The evolution of light and heat — the condensation of vapour —
the separation of land and water — all these and the like pro
cesses go on now as then. But whence came the first sporule
of vegetable life ? Whence the first and lowest form of animal
life ? If the higher forms of life have been developed from the
lowest, what a miracle was that first faint streak of vegetation
in which was contained all our present flora, all the countless
forms of tree, and plant, and herb, which now clothe our earth
with their rich verdure ! What a still greater miracle that
microscopic point, in which, nevertheless, was contained the
whole animal world, and, as some say, man himself ! It is at
this phenomenon of life that science still stands on the outside,
powerless to unlock the gate. Life may be but an aggregate
of cells, and science may construct these cells, but they are
lifeless. To give life is the great creative act, and that act was
as miraculous, as much a special interposition of the Deity,
if but one plant and one animal were created, endowed, never
theless, each with the faculty of infinite progress and develop
ment, as if each species were a separate act of creation.
In saying this, however, I must add that I believe that all
these secondary causes act merely in obedience to God's will.
Natural laws mean only the presence of the One worker, God.
It was the special act of creation to give these laws, and im
pose them upon matter, and they abide constant, unchanged,
ever active, because God the unchangeable is ever present
with them. Their present activity means God's present
power. God has not left them. They do not work because
He has given them a command to work, but because He

406 NOTE A.

works in them, and that which we call Law means but God's
will. Were God to withdraw His presence from creation,
all the laws of nature would cease. A law like that of gra
vitation, so grand, so universal, so unfailing, speaks of the
presence throughout all space of the one will of God. You
cannot separate natural laws, and so-called secondary causes,
from God. God is the one power present in creation, and all
that is done He is the Doer of it.
And, therefore, whatever laws God imposed on matter in
creation I feel certain must continue now. The law was given
at creation : it is maintained now by the same will which
then gave it. If an island were to arise from the sea in the
middle of the Pacific Ocean, I should expect it in due time to
be covered with vegetation, but in obedience to that higher
rule which requires that no supernatural force should be used
where so-called natural forces suffice, I should expect only
secondary means to be used for carrying to it seeds and the
sources of vegetable life. But at the first I cannot see how
these sources of life could have been produced except miracu
lously, and I have read nothing to make me doubt but that —
not every species, but — the main genera of vegetable life were
then in due order called into existence, each by a specific act
of creation. So as regards animal life. I know nothing in
Genesis to settle the question whether you can or cannot pro
duce by artificial means certain low forms of animal life. It
is entirely on scientific grounds that I disbelieve in these
absurdities, from the Acarus Crossii down to the bacterium.
But, at first, all the main genera of animal life were produced,
each, I believe, by a special creative act, though the narrative
is silent upon this point. It tells us, however, that means
were taken, as in the case of plants, so also for the constant
reproduction of the animals, and thus marks a plain distinc
tion between their first creation and their subsequent main
tenance. As the peopling of the earth with life was thus
amply provided for, I do not believe in the existence of any
byway for producing in an inferior manner the same end.
But the conclusion is a deduction merely from a study of the
laws of nature. Absolutely, if there ever could be exactly the

NOTE A. 407

same state of things as when animal life was first called into
existence, I should expect as the result the appearance of new
animal forms, and I should expect this to take place in the
same way as at first. In other words, if the exercise of God's
creative powers were in any way good or requisite, I believe
that God would exercise them. If He does not exercise them
now, it is simply because He has ordained certain laws, which,
because of their regularity and universality, we call the laws of
nature, and which amply suffice for the due course of all things
as at present constituted. But I can find nothing in the
record itself to settle the question whether the peopling the
earth with the innumerable forms of vegetable and animal life
took place by a series of distinct creative acts, or by a monad
being called into existence, endowed with a capability of
developing, in the infinite course of endless ages, into countless
genera and species, of which some, by a process of natural
selection, would survive, while the rest, as the mere failures of
nature's bungling hand, perished. I do not believe in this
more stupendous act of creation, in the first place, because it
makes too large a demand upon my credulity, and in the
second, because I can find no sufficient proof of it, but rather
the contrary, in the records laid open to us by geology. It is
because I find no bungling there, but each species perfect in
its kind, that I believe in its separate creation : but the brief
statements of Holy Scripture seem to me to record results
rather than the processes by which the Creator wrought them.
With the production of animal life the two last days or
stages of creation are concerned. The waters are represented
as peopled first with reptiles, and then with birds. "While
the word translated moving creature fitly describes all the
lower forms of creeping life, the real point lies in the attri
bute assigned to these reptiles, namely, a living soul, nephesh,
or soul, being used in Hebrew, like tyvxq in Greek, to express
an animate, in opposition to an inanimate or merely vegetable,
existence. We have thus, then, arrived at an entirely new
and far higher level of creation. With the sun shining in the
heavens we note the appearance also of beings endowed with
sensation. But we must not put a chasm between this and

408 NOTE A.

the preceding stages. The atmosphere was probably still but
partially cleared of the vapours which had previously over
loaded it. The surface of the earth was probably still hot
and moist. Water was still prevalent everywhere, and though
vegetation had begun, there is no reason for supposing that
it had reached its full development before animal life began.
What the Bible marks is the commencement of each stage,
or, as I have ventured to call it, the giving of the law whereby
it came into existence, but from the intercalation of the fourth
day, marked by no special work upon earth, we" may possibly
infer that the period appropriated to vegetation only was a
long one, and that at most only the lower forms of animate
life existed until long after the time when the fiat of God first
clothed the gradually drying earth with verdure.
We may be right, too, in inferring that through long ages
the earth still remained in a moist oozy state, from the fact,
that throughout the fifth day no animals existed but such as
owed their origin to the waters. These are described as
swarming in countless multitudes, and the record expressly
mentions the vast monsters of the saurian class, with which
the .waters and marshes were peopled. This word in the
Hebrew, tannin, is translated in our version whales, but prob
ably no mammal existed till the sixth day. Elsewhere it is
rendered dragon, as in Is. xxvii. i, li. 9, where certainly, as
often besides, it signifies the crocodile. Strictly, however, it
is not any one specific animal, but is a term applicable to all
animals which are of great relative length, and move by the
bending or wriggling of their bodies. Finally, on the sixth
day the earth brings forth the higher forms of animate being ;
and, last of all, man, the crowning work of God's creative
energy, stands forth, made in God's very likeness, and en
dowed by God with sovereignty over every living thing upon
the earth. And now, for another stage, God rests. There
is a sense in which He still works (John v. 17), but it is
in maintaining the laws of nature, and in Providence. He
imposes now no new laws upon matter, calls no new forms
of life into existence, urges the world forward to no new
stages of being. He has given nature its laws, and these

NOTE A. 409

abide permanent in their mighty working. We are living
now in that seventh day in which God rests.
Such, then, is the cosmogony prefixed by Moses to his
history of Israel's exodus from Egypt. It shows us God the
one supreme Lord, Who called matter into existence. It shows
us the gradual processes by which the earth was fashioned
and peopled, and fitted for man's abode. In the various
stages it sets before us God as giving matter its laws by the
simple action of His will : ' God said, and it was.' Lastly,
it marks man as different from all other creatures. The Deity
calls him into existence, not without counsel with Himself.
The words are metaphorical, but they mark man's special
nature and the unique purpose of his existence. He alone
of all the tribes of earth can worship and serve God. Lastly,
he consorts not with the other works of God as their equal,
but as their lord. Erect in stature, free in will, mindful of
the past, taught by experience, provident of the future, he
exercises authority by virtue of his nature, and has dominion
over every living thing that moveth on the earth.
And this record, — these thirty-four verses, — is the record
of nature : the next record is a record of grace. It speaks no
longer of earth, and of what man is by his original creation,
nor of the relation in which, by virtue of creation, he stands
to God. It is a fitting preface, so to say, to the one subject
which occupies the rest of Scripture. For it sets man before
us in his relations with Jehovah, the Covenant- God, as
created upright, as fallen, as comforted with the promise of a
Saviour. I do not intend to enter into the consideration of the exact
nature of this record, nor of the position which it holds with
respect to the first. It would require a treatise so to do ; but
it is not necessary. There are many difficult questions con
nected with it, but they belong to the province of theology.
There is, indeed, a very brief cosmogonical preface, asserting
that God created the heavens and the earth, and every plant
and herb : it tells also of a time when there was no rain, but the
earth encircled by an atmosphere of vapour. But it hastens
on to man's creation, of which it gives a more detailed

410 NOTE A.

account, to his original state of happiness, his temptation, and
his fall : and to this it appends that promise, of which the whole
of the rest of Scripture is but the record of the gradual stages
of its fulfilment, Whether its statements are literal or meta
phorical, where Eden was, and its rivers, where Havilah, rich
in gold and pearls and onyx stones, what the relation between
man and woman, as indicated by her being created out of his
flank, so curiously from ancient times translated rib, what the
apple, and the serpent speaking with man's voice, and whether
the fall was a necessary result of man's free will ; these and
many more such questions have been discussed by an endless
series of commentators, with ever varying conclusions. But
they are questions not connected with physical science, and
therefore it may suffice thus briefly to have pointed out tbe
entire difference between the purpose of the two records of
creation ; and while the latter is obviously a matter of reve
lation, and requires therefore, and rests upon, supernatural
proof, the first also, be it remembered, is not a mere cosmo
gony, but has a moral object, setting forth God as the author
of all, matter as made by Him, and man as bearing His
image. It is a record not of science, but of religion, though
of natural religion, while the second is an introduction to the
Gospel, a narrative explanatory of that world-long struggle
between man and his enemy, in which finally ' the woman's
seed' wins, yet not without suffering, the victory.

NOTE B, p. 18.
The following Note, conclusively showing that Buddhism is a
religion destitute of historical credibility, has been kindly
furnished me by one able to speak with authority upon tlie
subject, E. B. Cowell, Esq., M.A., Professor of Sanskrit in
the University of Cambridge.
Buddhism cannot be called an historical religion, if we
mean by that term a religion whose origin is to be traced
in contemporary annals.

NOTE B. 411

£akya Muni himself (like Socrates) left no writings behind
him ; his teaching was only oral ; and there are two separate
streams of tradition for his history and doctrines. These are
found in the Sanskrit books of Nepal, i. e. the Northern tradi
tion, current in Nepal, Tibet, China, and Mongolia ; and in
the Pali books of Ceylon, i. e. the Southern, current in Ceylon,
Burmah, and Siam. These books are said to have been
gradually arranged in the celebrated Three Councils, in a
threefold form— the discourses of Buddha (sutra), the cere
monies and discipline (vinaya), and the metaphysics (abhi-
dharma). But the dates of these Councils differ in the two
traditions. The Southern fixes them as respectively held
(i) shortly after the founder's death ; (2) 100 years after it,
under king Kalasoka ; and (3) 235 years after it, under
Dharmasoka ; while the Northern fixes the two latter as held
110 years after his death, under Asoka, and more than 400
years after in Cashmir, under Kanishka. The Ceylonese say
nothing of a reduction to writing even at the third Council,
and their great chronicle, the Mahawanso, expressly states
that the canonical traditions, which were introduced into
Ceylon by the missionaries from the third Council, were not
committed to writing till the reign of Wattagamini, B.C.
100-88. The Northern traditions may have been reduced
to writing at their third Council, 400 years after Sakya
Muni's death. We can hardly, in fact, believe that nothing
was written even at an earlier date ; but we have no reason to
suppose that any text which we at present possess goes back
even to Kanishka's time.
The Lalita Vistara, our great authority for the early life of
Buddha, has been published in Sanskrit. There are said to be
four Chinese translations of it : the first was made between
a.d. 70 and 76, the second a.d. 308, the third about a.d. 652 ;
of the fourth and latest I do not know the date, but as only
the third and fourth have the same division as our present
Sanskrit text, into 27 chapters, it would appear that the two
earlier may represent another text ; but on this point we want
fuller information. The Lalita Vistara is legendary in the
highest degree — it has miracles in every chapter, and is written

412 NOTE B.

in tKe most hyperbolical style. Every event is related twice,
first in a very bald mediaeval Sanskrit, and then in a poetical
version of very corrupted Sanskrit. The latter appears to be
the older version, representing these legends in their popular
ballad shape.
No doubt the same legends are to a great extent current in
every Buddhist country ; but directly we proceed to analyse
them, we find the usual divergencies which characterize a
legendary, as distinguished from an historical, period. Thus,
to take only one instance, the Northern tradition calls the
bride whom Sakya Muni wins by. his skill in arts and arms,
Gopa, the daughter of Dandapani, but the Southern calls
her Yasodhara, the daughter of Sakya Suprabuddha. It is
well known that there are at least twenty different dates of
Sakya Muni's death, varying between B.C. 2422 and 543 ;
and even the last date (that of the Ceylonese) has been falsi
fied, and has been conjecturally corrected by modern scholars
to b.c. 477.
We know with historical accuracy what Buddhism was
three or four centuries after its founder's death, and we may
conjecture with great probability what his own teaching
actually was ; but the details of his life are wrapt in the same
cloud of fiction which envelopes evety event in ancient Indian
history. We must never forget Elphinstone's remark at the
commencement of his ' Hindu period,' ' no date of a public
event can be fixed before the invasion of Alexander, and no
connected relation of the national transactions can be attempted
until after the Mahommedan conquest ; ' or, in other words,
we can only get historical light when other nations, possessing
an authentic history of their own, eome in contact with the
Hindus ; but they, of course, can be of no use with regard
to events which they could only learn from legends current in
India. [The best account of Buddha and his doctrines is to be
found in the first volume of Koeppen's ' Die Religion des
Buddha und ihre Entstehung,' Berlin, 1857. Its tone is
decidedly anti-Christian, but it contains a store of information
collected together from different sources.]

NOTE C. 413

NOTE C, p. 46.
Nothing can be more contrary to the teaching of Holy
Scripture than that view of inspiration which confines it to
words. In the Bible most of the great acts of the heroes of
old time are ascribed to the presence of God's Spirit. When
Othniel stirred up the military ardour of Judah, and led that
great tribe to battle against the king of Mesopotamia, it was
' because the Spirit of Jehovah was upon him.' (Judges iii. 10.)
Such, too, was the case with Gideon (Ib. vi. 34), with Jephthah
(Ib. xi. 29), with Samson, when he rent the lion (Ib. xiv. 6),
and when, having burst the new cords with which he was
bound, he slew ofthe Philistines a thousand men (Ib. xv. 14).
The Bible speaks in the same way of gifts of artistic skill.
Bezaleel's hand was cunning in gold and silver work, and in
cutting of stones, and wood-carving, because 'he was filled
with the Spirit of God.' (Ex. xxxi. 3.) Such, too, was the
case with Aholiab (Ib. xxxv. 31). Even the ordinary opera
tions of agriculture ' come forth from Jehovah of Hosts : He
hath made counsel wonderful, He hath magnified skill.' (Is.
xxviii. 29.) If Isaiah uses words such as these of the labours
of the farm, may we not apply them with even fuller meaning
to the wonderful enterprizes of the engineer, and to all the
works of genius?
But here, as also where St. James tells us that all good and
perfect gifts eome down to us from God, the difficulty is to
draw any line of distinction between God's gifts where they
are the result of His working in nature, and where the work
ing of God was special and extraordinary. It may be that
these two methods of working, apparently so different to
us, are not different in themselves. At all events in the
workings of Providence we cannot distinguish them. We
believe that not a hair of our heads falls to the ground without
Divine permission ; that our smallest and most ordinary acts
are not separable from God's working : while in the great
crises of our spiritual lives we feel that there have been special
interventions in our behalf. God has been working by and
in natural laws, and yet, apparently, has controlled them for

414 NOTE C.

individual good (1 Cor. x. 13, Phil. ii. 13). Believers have
the fullest conviction of this, and yet might hesitate about
saying that God had wrought a miracle for them, or that
the laws of nature had not held on their undeviating course.
They are content with saying that such interpositions are
providential. So if we were to say that these operations
of the Spirit of Jehovah, spoken of especially in the Book of
Judges, were providential, many might think this a sufficient
explanation, because they imagine that some sort of distinction
can be drawn between the providential and the miraculous.
Really, the terms miracle and miraculous are unknown to the
Bible : they are the products of the Latin language, which
has done so much by the inaccuracy of its words to vitiate
theology. The working of God is so much more perfect
than man's working, that that which seems to man miraculous,
because unusual, may be perfectly natural to God. If you
drive God out of the world, and exalt nature into His place,
understanding by nature a working of matter only, neither
originating in, nor sustained or controlled by any intelligent
mind, then of course you leave for God only such operations
as are unnatural, and it does not much matter what you call
them, miraculous or not. Not only scientific men, but theo
logians, I presume, would join in disbelieving in the existence
of such actions. But if ' in God we live and move and have
our being,' our natural actions cannot be separated from Him,
and to Him all actions may be alike natural, though they
differ according to the degree in which His presence in
them is apparent to our perceptions. In fact, in these things
we are reasoning about that of which we know nothing. In
all the discussions that have lately taken place about prayer,
there has been out of sight the postulate that God is a man,
acts as a man, and is subject in His working to the same
limitations as man. Grant this, and of course prayer cannot
produce any effect : providence is impossible : a revelation
absurd, and miracle monstrous. Grant it, and post mortem
nihil. But if God be God and not man, and not subject to
human limitations, these results do not follow. If a flock of
sheep were to discuss man's nature, they could form no idea

NOTE C. 415

of him but that he was a very strong and mischievous kind
of sheep. Man's discussions about God's nature are about as
wise and convincing. But worthless as they are, after all we
cannot form any idea of God except as a very powerful and
perfect man. But while we may feel sure that His absolute
attributes, such as love, goodness, justice, must be in accord
ance with our ideas, we ought to recognize that His negative
attributes are only veils to our ignorance. We can form no
idea of infinity, immutability, eternity. And thus all our
discussions must stop at a certain point, and all negative
conclusions are worthless. Enough, then, to notice that the
Bible does not draw a distinction between the action of God's
Spirit upon Samson when rending the lion, and upon Isaiah
when prophesying of the Messiah. To us the difference may
be vast. In ordinary language we might call the one a
natural impulse, or, at most, speak of it as providential : the
other we should call supernatural. Really, the difference may
be that in one God reveals His presence more than in the
other : in natural operations His arm is hidden, in super
natural He makes it bare in the sight of all His people.

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