and the preacher. Although it will be taken here as a single
great text, there is enough for a sermon in every verse of
it, enough sometimes in a part of a verse. It has received
many titles. The most popular title is, " The Making of a
Prophet." Perhaps that title should be enlarged now into
"The Making of a Missionary," letting it be understood, how-
«r
68 THE GREAT TEXTS OF THE BIBLE
ever, that the word " missionary " means anyone who is sent to do any work for God.
The passage is easily and almost inevitably divided into three parts —
1. A Vision of God, verses 1-4.
2. A Vision of Self, verses 5-7.
3. A Vision of Duty, verse 8.
I.
A Vision of God.
There is an essential difference between the prophets of early times and the writing prophets. That difference is that the latter are conscious of an express call, at a definite moment, by Jehovah to their office. We have not an actual account of this in the case of all of them, but its preciseness in the case of five justifies our assuming that from the time of Amos onwards a similar call was experienced by all true prophets of Jehovah. The call to be a prophet surprised Amos in the midst of occupations of a wholly different kind — Jehovah took him from the herd. According to Hos. i. 2 the commencement of Hosea's prophetic ministry was contemporaneous with his re- cognition that Jehovah intended even the prophet's unhappy experiences in his married life to be a reflection of Israel's relation to Himself. Isaiah records a vision that he had in the year King Uzziah died, when the Divine commission was given him to drive the people by his message into ever- increasing obduracy. Attempts have been made to explain this vision — the only one in Isaiah — as simply the literary garb invented for inward reflections and conflicts, so that the prophet's own determination would take the place of an express Divine call. But all such attempts are shattered by the earnest terms of the narrative, which will not permit us to think but of a real occurrence. The very same is the impression we receive from Jeremiah's record of his call in the thirteenth year of Josiah. Quite remarkable there is the emphasis laid (i. 5) on the choice and consecration of Jeremiah to the prophetic office even before his birth. How could anyone invent a thing of this
ISAIAH 69
kind and proclaim it as a word addressed to him by God ? But as little could he have added the supplementary invention that he tried to evade the Divine commission (v. 7) by pleading want of skill in speaking, and youth. On the contrary, we must see here an experience the prophet once had which left an ineffaceable impression upon his memory. In the case of Ezekiel, his exact dating of his first vision (i. 1, 2) by year, month, and day is the pledge that he, too, is conscious that his call to be a prophet (ii. 3 ff.) was a definite occurrence.^
IF The normal mode, says Whitehouse, by which Christian ministers and statesmen have been led to realise their vocation constitutes the most interesting point in their life-story, because it is the turning-^oimt. Among Christian statesmen we would instance the Englishman John Bright and the American Senator Sumner. The case of John Bright is not without its partial parallel to that of Hosea. That of Senator Sumner has been portrayed in Whittier's immortal verses, beginning —
No trumpet sounded in his ear.
He saw not Sinai's cloud and flame ;
But never yet to Hebrew seer A clearer voice of duty came.
i. The Occasion of the Vision.
" In the year that King Uzziah died."
There is more than a date given here ; there is a great con- trast suggested. Prophecy does not chronicle by time, but by experiences, and we have here, as it seems, the cardinal experience of a prophet's life.
1. Uzziah. — Of all the kings of Israel none had done so much for the nation as King Uzziah, save only David. Solomon's greatness was largely inherited. He certainly stands a figure more splendid than Uzziah, but not of as great service. Coming to the throne when a lad of sixteen, for more than fifty years Uzziah reigned in Jerusalem wisely and well. Under the guidance of one Zechariah, of whom all we know is this, that he " had understanding in the vision of God," the youth Uzziah sought the Lord, and as long as he sought the Lord, God made him to prosper. He drove back the Philistines and many
^ E. Kautzsch, in Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible, v. p. 6726.
70 THE GREAT TEXTS OF THE BIBLE
another tribe that had encroached upon Israel's domain, so that his name was spread abroad even to Egypt. At home he was always busy seeing after the welfare of his people. He strengthened Jerusalem with fortified towers, and set up towers for the protection of those in the pastures and plains. Careful about the water supply, he digged many wells. He had hus- bandmen busied with cattle ; and planted vines on the mountain slopes. " He loved husbandry," we read, — an honest and healthy love that it were well if we could all encourage and exercise. He turned to account the inventions of cunning men. Alto- gether a man whose name spread far abroad, associated with all that was beneficent and prosperous : " he was marvellously helped," we are told, " till he was strong."