2. More specifically, the sixteen prophets whose books are in the (anon have that place of honor because they were endowed with the prophetic gift as well as ordi- narily (so far as we know) belonging to the prophetic order. There were hundreds of prophets contemporary with eacli of these sixteen prophets; and no doubt numberless compositions in sacred poetry and number- less moral exhortations were issued from the several schools, but only sixteen books find their place in the ('anon. Why is this? Because these sixteen had what their brother collegians had not— the divine call to the office of prophet, and the divine illumination to en- lighten them. It was not sufficient to have been taught ami trained in preparation for a future call. Teaching and training served as a preparation only. When the schoolmaster's work was done, then, if the instrument was worthy, God's work began. Moses had an exter- nal call at the burning bush (Exod. iii. 2 ). The Lord called Samuel, 80 that. Eli perceived, and Samuel learned, that it was the Lord who called him (1 Sam. iii. HI i. Isaiah (vi, 8), Jeremiah (i, 5), Ezekiel (ii, 4), Amos (\ ii, 15), declare their special mission. Nor was it suf- ficient for this call to have b(fen made once for all. Each prophetical utterance is the result of a communication of the divine to the human spirit, received either by " vision" t lsa. vi. 1 ) or by " the word of the Lord" (Jer. ii, 1). (See Aids to Faith, essay iii. -On Prophecy.") What, then, are the characteristics of the sixteen proph- ets thus called and commissioned, and intrusted with the messages of God to his people?
(1.) They were the national poets of Judaea. We have already shown that music ami poetry, chains ami hymns, were a main pan of the studies of i he class from which, generally speaking, they were derived. As is natural, we find not only the son^s previously specified, but the rest of their compositions, poetical, or breathing the spirit of poetry. Bishop Lowth " esteems the whole book of Isaiah poetical, a lew passages excepted, which. if brought together, would not at most exceed ihebulk ■of live or six chapters," •• half of the hook of Jeremiah," !' the greater part of Ezekiel." The rest of the proph- ets are mainly poetical, but Haggai is " prosaic," ami Jonah ami Daniel are plain prose (Sacred /'<>,/iy, led. xxii. The prophetical Style differs from thai of books properly called poetical, whose sublimity it all but out- vies, only in being less restrained by those external tonus which distinguish poetical language from prose.
and in introducing more frequently than prose does plays upon words and thoughts. This peculiarity may be explained by the practical tendency of prophetical addresses, which avoid all thai, is unintelligible, ami
studiously introduce what is hot calculated for the mo- ment to strike the hearei>. 'the same appears from many other circumstances, e. g. t he union of music w it h
prophesying, the demeanor of Saul when among the prophets | 1 Sam. x. 6), Balaam's description of himself (Numb, xxiv, :>) as a man whose eyes were opened, who saw the vision of the Almighty, and heard tin words of (, oi I. the established phraseology to denote the inspiring impulse, vi/. " the band of the Lord was strong upon him" ( L/.ek. iii. 1 1: cunp. I-a. \ iii. 11 ; 2 Kings in. L5), etc. (See >' vi. below, i
(2.) They were annalists ami historians. A great portion of Isaiah, of Jeremiah, of Daniel, of Jonah, of Haggai, is direct or indirect history.
to. ) They were preachers of patriotism ; their patri- otism being founded on the religious motive. To the subject of the theocracy, the enemy of bis nation was the enemy ol (mil. the traitor to the public weal was a traitor to his God: a denunciation of an enemy was a denunciation of a representative of evil; an exhortation in behalf of Jerusalem was an exhortation in behalf of God's kingdom on earth, "the city of our God, the mountain of holiness, beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, the city of the great King"' (J'sa. xlviii, 1. 2).
(4.) They were preachers of morals and of spiritual religion. The symbolical teaching of the law had lost much of its effect. Instead of learning the necessity of purity by the legal washings, the majority came to rest in the outward act as in itself sufficient. It was the work, then, of the prophets to hold up before the eyes of their country nun a high and pure morality, not veiled in symbols and acts, but such as none could pro- fess to misunderstand. Thus, in his first chapter. Isaiah contrasts ceremonial observances with spiritual moral- ity: "Your new moons and your appointed (easts my soul hatetfa : they are a trouble unto me: I am weary to bear them. . . . Wash ye, make you clean: put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; learn to do well: seek judgment; relieve t he- oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow" | i. 14-17). He proceeds to denounce God's judgments mi the oppression and COvetOUSness of the rulers, the pride of the women (ch. iii I, on grasping, profligacy, iniquity, injustice (ch. v), and so on throughput The system of