psRlrnists we haYe Rs it were the iYy e.nd the passion-flowers which t\vine around its bole. But it is in lyric poetry thRt the Hebrew genius most characteristically dis• played iteelf, and in its songs we have, e.e Luther said, "a garden in which the fairest flowers bloom, but oYer which there blow tempestuous ,vinds," And of all the cha- '.·acteri~ties of Hebrew ~oetry, its fresh simplicity, its stainlese purity, its lofty purpose, its gemal cheerfulness, 1te free universality of tone, none is more rem11rk11ble than the fa.et that it is intensely religious, that it is full of God. What the son of Sime i::ays of David is true of a.II the Hebrew poets: "In all his works he praised the Holy One most high with words of glory; with his whole heart he sung songs, o.nd loved him that made him." 1 4. In turning to the sixteen directly prophetioal books of the Dible we a.re deal~ ing with its most distincti'Ve element. They do not fall into isolated masses, but interpenetrate one another, and form one organic whole. Prophecy-by which is mainly intended impassioned moral teaching, which insists on the certain vindication of great principles by the issue of events overruled by God-runs all through the Bible. "As we watch the weaving of the web (of Hebrew life) we endeavour to trace through it the more conspicuous threads. Long time the eye follo,vs the crimson: it disappears at length; but the golden thread of sacred prophecy i::tretches to the end."J The constant references to the prophets in the New Testa- ment, 3 the marked approval of their teaching by our Lord, 4 his express statement that they prophesied of him, 6 give the Books of the Prophets an immense importance. To foretell was one of the functions, but was not the main function, of the Prophets. A mere glance at their writings is sufficient to show that they were the moral and spiritual teachers of the people, the interpreters of God's will, the forth- tellers of Dinne truth, far more than the foretellers of future circumstances. The horizon of their vision indeed, and especially its Messianic hope, extended even to 1 he distant future ; but it was not like the view of a plain outstretched before them, but like that of a mountain chain, towering range after range and peak beyond peak 10 the crowning glory of one eternal summit-the view of mon after mon, all tending to the one far-o:ff Divine event-the kingdom of God and of his Christ. The Hebrew Prophets were patriots, staresmen, reformers, leaders of the people, " In them is plainest taught and easiest learnt What me.kes a nation happy and keeps it so, What ruins kingdoms and lays cities flat." 8 Their great characteristics - those which give them such an eternal value - are their heroic faith, their unquenchable hope, their inflexible righteousness, the manner in which they rose superior to the petty ritualisms of sacerdotal formalism, and made holiness the test of sincerity in worsbip. 1 All who would escape the average- all who would feel the sacredness of enthusiasm and self-sacrifice-must learn ·of them. In them, as in the moral truths which they enunciated, they were the true forerunners of him of whom they prophesied; and he bas given his eternal sanction to the truths which they have taught us: "to live and to struggle; to believe with immovable firmness; to hope even when all is dark around us; to trust the voice of God in our in.moat consciousness; to speak with boldness and with power." 8 5. It only remains to touch for one moment on what may be called the philosophic 1 Ecclua. rlvii 8. , Kuenen, • The Prophets.' 1 Especially in Me.tthew's Gospel,
' Matt. iL 13, &c. 6 Luke xxiv. 45. 9 Milton, 'Pa1·adise Regained. ' Hosea vi. 6, &c. • Kuenen, • The Prophets,' ad fin, GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO THE OLD TESTAMENT. xvif
books of Scripture. It bas been a subject of much discuRsion whether the Jews could be said to have possessed a philosophy or :not, and it ha8 been differently decided by different inquirers. But we may venture to give the name of philo8ophic books to those which specially discuss the perplexed problems of human exiRtencc. Of these the three chief are the Books of Job, Proirerbs, and Ecclesiastes. All three might be also classed under the poetic books of Scripture, and the problems with which they deal are also touched on in several of the Psalms ; 1 but they belong more directly to that practical wisdom which the Hebrews called chokmali. a. The Book of Pronrbs contains many of the most valuable results of human experience put into a terse, striking, and often antithetic form. Its earlier and more consecutive chapters (i.-ix.) are strikingly beautiful, and are aglow with the enthu- siasm of lofty thought. In the two next sections (chs. x.-xxi.v., and xxv.-xxix.) the form is more apothegmatic, and the maxims, especially in the earlier division, move at times on the lower level of prudential advice. The thirtieth chapter is ascribed to the unknown Agur, son of Jakeh, and the thirty-first to King Lemuel, respecting whom we have nothing but conjecture. The book concludes with the famous eulogy on the virtuous woman, which, like some of the later Psalms,~ is written in the form of an acrostic-a sure sign that, however beautiful, it belongs to the less spontaneous and impassioned order of poetry. But the whole book in its diversified elements is a noble product of Hebrew thought, and furnishes 118 with a mine of instructive teaching for all classes, but especially for the young. /3. The Book of Ecclesiastes is one of the most singular books of the canon, and ono which presents us with problems which have not yet been finally solved. It is invaluable as the faithful record and confession of a life which bad been taught by evil that good is best; of a career which had struggled through luxury, sensuality, cynicism, and speculative despair into a firm conviction that to fear God and keep his commandments was the whole duty of man. y. Lastly, .in the Book of Job, whatever may be the ultimate conclusion as to its date, authorship, and unity, we have a drama of inexhaustible interest, and one which has attracted the attention of many of the greatest thinkers, ancient and modem. The problem of tho sufferings of the good does not indeed find in this book its final solution, for many of the best and noblest of mankind ban not been restored, as Job was, to their old prosperity, but have died in anguish, loneliness, nnd apparent failure. But to the Book of Job we owe, among many other lessons, the most splendid vindication ever written of innocence against the uncharitable suspicion of those who see it overwhelmed with suffering, and the moat majestic description of that power and majesty and love of God which are displayed in the works of his hands, and which make us involuntarily exclaim that "though be slay us, yet will we trust in him."