careful view of the finer shades of human character, so often overlooked by theologians, but so necessary to any true estimate of human life." 1 Old Test. rev In the great prophets of the Old Testament the depth and spirituality of the Mosaic religion attained their highest elation reached expression. We have already outlined the progressive its highest spirituality in the character of the Messianic prophecies, and seen the orgreat prophets. ganic and vital relations of prophecy to the history of the Israelitish people (p. 316). The Messianic hope, first uttered in the garden of Eden (Gen. iii, 15), was a fountain-head from which a gradually increasing stream went forth, receiving constant accessions as prophet after prophet arose commissioned to utter some clearer oracle. In a general way, at least, each new prophet added to the work of his predecessors." The prophecy of Jonah, one of the earliest written, emphasizes Jehovah's compassion upon a great heathen city which repents at his word. It is conspicuously an oracle of hope to the Gentiles. Joel, the ancient apocalyptist, sees in the desolating judgments on the land signs of the coming of Jehovah, and calls upon the people to rend their hearts rather than their garments in evidence of contrite humiliation before God (Joel ii, 12). His visions stretch away to the latter times when the Spirit of Jehovah shall be poured out upon all flesh, and whosoever shall call upon the name of Jehovah shall be saved (ii, 28, 32). Hosea bewails the idolatry of Israel and Judah, but sees great hope for them if they will but offer their lips as sacrificial offerings of prayer and praise (Hos. xiv, 2). The formal ceremonial worship of the nation was fast losing all its deep sacredness, and ceasing to be a means of holy, heartfelt devotion. With such outward unspiritual worship Jehovah could not be pleased, and he says in Amos (v, 21, 22): 1 History of the Jewish Church, second series, p. 269. New York, 1869. 2 R. Payne Smith observes: "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 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. . . . Carefully, and with prayer, the prophets studied the teaching of their predecessors, and by the use of the light 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."-Bampton Lectures. Prophecy a Preparation for Christ, pp. 304, 305. Boston, 1870. I have hated, I have despised your feasts, For if ye offer me burnt-offerings and your meat-offerings And a peace-offering of your fatlings I will not regard. And the music of thy harps I will not hear. And let judgment be rolled along as the waters, It would thus appear that as idolatry increased, and the ceremonial worship became cold, heartless, and idolatrous, the prophets, as inspired watchmen and teachers, turned the thoughts of the people to those deeper spiritual truths of which the ceremonial cultus furnished only the outer symbols. They yearned for a purer worship, and a more real and vital approach to God. They began to realize, what the New Testament so fully reveals, that the law was only a shadow, not the very likeness, of the good things to come, and that the ritual sacrifices could never perfect the worshippers who depended on them alone (Heb. x, 1). Thus Micah (vi, 6-8): With what shall I come before JehovahBend myself to the God of height? Shall I come before him with burnt-offerings? With calves, sons of a year? Will Jehovah be pleased with thousands of rams, With myriads of streams of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, Fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He has showed thee, O man, what is good; And what is Jehovah seeking from thee, But to execute judgment and the love of mercy, And humbly to walk with thy God? Written proph ecy reaches a climax in Isaiah. In the Book of Isaiah the prophetic word reaches a lofty climax. This evangelist among the prophets seems to rise at will above the limitations of time, and to see the past, the present, and the future converge in great historic epochs vital to the interests of the kingdom of God. Although the first thirty-nine chapters deal mainly with the matters of contemporary interest and note, they are filled with glowing visions of Messianic triumph. The first part of the second chapter, apparently borrowed from Micah, portrays the universality and glory of that spiritual dominion which is to supplant Judaism, and go forth from Jerusalem to establish peace among all nations. The Messianic promise again and again finds varied expression (chap. vii, 14; ix, 1–7; xi, 1–10). Where, in all the pictures of a coming golden age, can be found a more beautiful outline than Isa. xxxv? But in the last twenty-seven chapters Isaiah's prophecies exhibit their highest spirituality. He depicts things in their divine relations, and contemplates the redemption of Israel as from the position of the high and exalted One who dwells in eternity (lvii, 15). His thoughts and ways are loftier than those of men, even as the heavens are higher than the earth (lv, 8, 9). Looking away from the darkening present, and exulting in glowing visions of Messiah's triumph, the prophet often speaks in the name and person of Messiah and his elect, and apprehends the glories of his reign as the creation of a new heavens and a new earth. The prophecies of Daniel exhibit the increasing light of divine The prophecies revelation which came when Israel, by exile, was brought of Daniel. in contact with the great heathen world-powers. Daniel speaks as one who looks out from the midst of the operations of great empires, and sees a throne higher than that of the kings of Babylon or of Persia, and forces more numerous and mighty than all the armies of the world (Dan. vii, 9, 10). "In him," says R. Payne Smith, "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 all history." His visions make prominent a determined END or consummation, when a desolating abomination shall destroy the sanctuary (ix, 26, 27; comp. Matt. xxiv, 15; Mark xiii, 14; Luke xxi, 20): 1 And many, sleeping in the dust of the ground, shall awake, These to life eternal, And those to shame and eternal contempt. And the wise ones shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, And those who make many righteous As the stars for ever and ever (Dan. xii, 2, 3). Ezekiel. In some respects Ezekiel surpasses Daniel in the depth and fulProphecies of ness of his revelations. His vision of the cherubim and the theophany is set forth in the first chapter of his prophecy with a wealth of suggestive symbols not to be found elsewhere in the Old Testament, and the detailed description of the new temple and land of Israel (chapters xl-xlviii) is an anticipation of John's vision of the new heavens and the new earth (Rev. xxi). Ezekiel's city of Jehovah-Shammah (xlviii, 35) is no other than the New Jerusalem of John. The doctrine of the resurrection, which 1 Prophecy a Preparation for Christ, p. 238. Post-exile in Isaiah (xxvi, 19) is suggested by a striking apostrophe, is expressed in formal statement by Daniel (xii, 2), and assumed as a common belief in the imagery of Ezekiel (xxxvii, 1–14). After the Babylonian exile we note that Haggai sees in the second temple a glory greater than that of the former (Hag. ii, 9). Zechariah combines in his prophetic book prophets. the varied symbolism of Daniel and Ezekiel with the lofty spirituality of Isaiah. And the "burden of Jehovah's word to Israel by the hand of Malachi" (Mal. i, 1), the last of the Old Testament prophets, is a series of rebukes to a false and heartless formalism, and an earnest call to repentance and personal self-consecration.' between the Passing over the four hundred years of silence between Malachi and the advent of Jesus Christ, we find the two Testa- Prophetic link ments linked by a noticeable prophetic bond. The Old Old and New Testament closes with a promise that Elijah the prophet Testaments. shall come before the great day of Jehovah, and the gospel history of the New Testament opens with the ministry of this Elijah who was to come (Luke i, 17; Matt. xi, 14; xvii, 10-13). But John the Baptist, though filled with the spirit and power of Elijah, was merely a forerunner, a herald, a voice (John i, 23), provided in the divine order to prepare the way of the Lord. His ministry was professedly introductory to the Gospel Age, and his constant testimony was that one mightier than himself was about to come, who would baptize with the Holy Ghost and fire (Matt. iii, 11). ings the substance, but not the final form, of Christian doctrine. The ministry and words of the Lord Jesus, as recorded in the gospels, constitute the substance of all Christian doc- Christ's teachtrines. As the five books of Moses really embody the germs of all subsequent revelation, so in a clearer form the teachings of Jesus embrace every great truth of the Christian faith. But our Lord himself was explicit in declaring that his own teaching must needs be supplemented by the fuller revelations of the Spirit. He taught by parable, by precept, and by example, but he found the hearts of the people and of his own disciples too heavy to apprehend the grand scope and spirituality of his Gospel, and declared that it was expedient for him to 1 R. Payne Smith observes that prophecy" was not withdrawn abruptly. It still lingered in those beautiful 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 for teaching had ceased. The Jews were children no longer, but grown men; and, like grown men, they must leave home, and go out into all lands to carry to them the truths which the prophets had taught them.”—Prophecy a Preparation for Christ, p. 335. the ascension of Jesus. go away in order that the Spirit of truth might come to guide into all the truth, and to teach all things (John xiv, 25, 26; xvi, 7–15).' The Acts of the Apostles shows that divine revelations were Revelations continued after the ascension of the Lord. On the day continued after of Pentecost the waiting disciples received the gift of the Holy Spirit, and began to realize as never before the "powers of the coming age" (Heb. vi, 5). Thenceforth they went forth with a heavenly authority to proclaim the newly enunciated truth of God. The angel of the Lord opened the prison doors where the apostles were shut up, and commanded them to continue speaking the words of eternal life (Acts v, 19, 20; comp. xii, 7; xvi, 26). The martyr Stephen saw the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God (vii, 56). The same Lord Jesus appeared to Saul on his way to Damascus (ix, 17), and also to Ananias, in a vision (ix, 10). Peter was guided into opening the kingdom of God to the Gentiles by a symbolic vision (x, 9–16), and was aided by the ministry of an angel of God (x, 3–7). Special revelations of the Spirit directed Philip and Paul in their journeys (viii, 29, 39; xvi, 7). The great apostle of the Gentiles was repeatedly directed by visions and revelations of God (Acts xvi, 9; xxii, 17–21; comp. 2 Cor. xii, 1-4). Thus it is evident from the Acts of the Apostles that what Jesus began to do and teach (Acts i, 1) was carried into completion by those whom he chose to be the authoritative expounders of his word. The Book of the Acts of the Apostles is a connecting link between the gospels and the epistles. It is essentially a historical introduction to the latter, and without the information it affords, both the The Epistles em- gospels and the epistles would be involved in much body the elabo- obscurity. The epistles preserve for the Church the of the apostles. teachings of the apostles, and present them in a form admirably adapted to meet the wants of all classes of readers." rated teachings 1 This subject is ably presented in Bernard's Bampton Lectures on the Progress of Doctrine in the New Testament. In Lecture iii he lays down and elaborates the following propositions: "First, The teaching of the Lord in the gospels includes the substance of all Christian doctrine, but does not bear the character of finality. Secondly, The teaching of the Lord in the gospels is a visibly progressive course, but on reaching its highest point announces its own incompleteness, and opens another stage of instruction."-P. 79. " "The prophets," writes Bernard, “delivered oracles to the people, but the apostles wrote letters to the brethren, letters characterized by all that fulness of unreserved explanation, and that play of various feeling, which are proper to that form of intercourse. It is in its nature a more familiar communication, as between those who are, or should be, equals. That character may less obviously force upon us the sense, that the light which is thrown upon all subjects is that of a divine inspiration; but this is |