SERMON XXI.

THE MOOD AND FUNCTION OF THE PROPHET.

(JANUARY 30, 1870.)

"Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the Lord shall be thy rereward."-ISAIAH lviii. 8.

THAT the word "prophet" should so early in our language have come to be used as a synonym for a "predicter," is only an instance of the prevailing error which consists in looking for signs and wonders as evidence of Divine power. If a man possesses a superhuman commission, he must be able to do superhuman acts. Such is the vulgar reasoning. And as the prophets, men inspired by God, have looked forward into the future, and spoken of what they saw, these predictions have been seized upon as the characteristic feature of the speaker's mission, and the noble office of prophet has come to be regarded as that of

a worker of magic. I should think there is no one present in this church whom I need remind that the word has nothing whatever to do with the reading of the future. A prophet is he who speaks for, and in the name of, God whether he speaks of future, present, or past. Prediction is a single incident of his office, although a necessary incident, indeed. He who stands on a mountain, must needs see further than those who are in the valley below. But the inspiration-the being possessed by the spirit and wisdom of the Most High-this is the note of the prophet of God.

An incident of which we read in our last Sunday's text will have reminded you that the popular notions of the word had become corrupted even in the time of our Lord. Even so early as that, and among the Jews themselves, the credentials of the prophet were the ability to work wonders; not only to foretell future events, but to work miracles or to look into the thoughts and feelings of men. "If this man had been a prophet," reasoned the Pharisee Simon about his Divine guest, "He would have known who and what manner of woman this is." You will remember, too, how in the interview between the Saviour and the

woman of Samaria, after He had told her something of the circumstances of her history, she cried, "Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet," and after she had gone away said, with a marvellous touch of feminine exaggeration, to those she met, Come, see a man which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?" Again, when the Pharisees asked of the blind man: "What sayest thou of Him, that He hath opened thine eyes?" the man. seems to have replied without any hesitation : "He is a prophet!" The possession of miraculous power was to his mind proof sufficient of the prophetic character.

Now, as I need not remind you, Christ claimed to be a prophet. But it was by virtue of other powers, and a different nature, than were recognized by the careless crowds among whom He spent His days. The power and the acts which the people looked upon as prophetic were just those to which He himself attached least importance. "Unless ye see signs and wonders," was His complaint against them, "ye will not believe." On the other hand, the true characteristics of the prophet met with no recognition from the Jews, but rather incurred their displeasure and opposition.

And this called from Him the marvellous saying, appropriate to all times and places, that "a prophet is not without honour save in his own country, and in his own house." When He worked miracles, or showed superhuman knowledge of their thoughts, they called Him prophet. When He spoke - though it was "as never man spoke;" when He evinced only righteousness, and not a power which seemed to them magical, then they failed to recognize the character. When He stilled the waves, or multiplied the loaves, they looked upon Him with awe. When He brought peace to a troubled conscience, or spoke of Himself as having come to do His Father's will, they called Him blasphemous or thought Him mad. But He was the true prophet always, whatever His outward acts, because He had come to fulfil the primary meaning of the word. He was interpreting, even as Elijah and Isaiah and Micah had done-though how much greater than they!-a God in the heavens, who would that all men should be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth. My brethren, let us try never to lose sight of this fact. The true seer is not the magician, but the pleader for the righteousness of God. Let us worship

The latter may be

righteousness, not power. devilish; but the former has but one origin, as it has but one destiny.

It is of the prophet that I wish to speak this afternoon: to inquire what is his mood; what the function it was given him to perform. Different as are the various prophets of the Hebrew nation whose utterances have been preserved, their general resemblance is more striking and more important than their points of difference. We have been reading for many weeks past the words of one of the greatest among them-the prophet Isaiah. I do not mean to dwell upon the predictions which he delivered as to the Messiah, though the prophet stands out with marked prominence from his fellows in the clearness and fulness of detail with which he described one who should take upon Himself the sins and sorrows of His people. But these predictions, valuable as they are, occupy but a small part of his extant words. Isaiah is historian of the past, and interpreter of the present, as well as reader of the future. He is politician, patriot, adviser, exhorter, comforter; and speaking throughout in that language of excited imagination, and passionate feeling, which we call poetry. And what poetry is it!