RELIGIOUS WORLD.

Auckland Star, Volume 246, Issue 246, 16 October 1926, Page 22

RELIGIOUS WORLD.

PRESENT DAY OUTLOOK.

(Contributed.)

THE HEBREW PROPHETS

At St. David's Church last Sunday I evening the Key. D. C. Herron, speaking of "The Prophets.''" said that one of the ; results of the modern study of the Bible , had been to put these men into the central place in the religious development of Israel. The religion of Israel owes ! its distinctiveness largely to this emer-: genee aud teaching. Other nations hay had their great roli-ious teachers, but 1 no other nation had a succession of teachers like the prophets of Israel. The prophetic movement developed from' humble beginnings, not widely different from religious practices in other nations. Heathen divation divided itself into two types: ill The attempt to ascertain tiie Divine will from the manipulation of external objects, e.g., cup divining, examination of the entrails of slam animals, casting of lots. (2) The interpretation of dreams, visions and testacies. Both these methods were employe- in Israel. The casting of lots was a" common practice. Tbe content of the prophet's message became to be regarded as more important than the manner of receipt. False prophets could also throw themselves into ecstacies. Certain people can do that kind of thing still. For the most part the great Hebrew prophets received their mes-sage when in full possession of their normal faculties. Forefeeling and Foreboding. The central idea in the various names • icen to the prophet (e.g. man of God, servant of God, messenger, watchman), is that he is a man who receives a message from God and gives it to men. _\one of these names definitely expresses the idea of forecasting the future. The prophet was not primarily one who foretold the future, but one who spoke in God's stead. Prediction was a subordinate function. Mieah regarded it as his task to stir up the conscience of the people. Xevertheless some prophets were endowed with a remarkable insight into the political and religious future. They had a unique power of "forefeeling and foreboding impending supernormal occurrences," but we go astray when we attempt to read into many of their utterances and forecasts the events of many hundred years ahead. Generally their predictions were based on their conception of the character of God and His attitude to national corruption. Some were not fulfilled. Like Dervishes. Some sort of prophetic activity seems to go back as far as their national history. But the movement first became prominent in the days of Samuel. There •we find them moving in groups. When stimulated by music they worked up tremendous excitement, like Dervishes, and this excitement became contagious. Saul ■was caught by it. In that early stage nationality and religion were the same thing, and the prophets' task was much like that of an army chaplain. He kept up the morale of the people by reminding them that God was on their side in any national undertaking. The first man to break definitely with this attitude was Elijah, who denounced Ahab for bringing in the worship of rival gods. Amos was the first man to write down the substance of messages. From the day when he dramatically appeared at the royal festival at Bethel and uttered hi 3 warning of impending doom until the nation went into exile and Jeremiah ■was dragged off to Egypt, the prophets ■were the dominant figures in Israel. Sometimes they were diametrically opposed to the policy of the rulers and many paid the price in martyrdom. Gne striking thing was their consciousness of Divine vocation. They felt compelled to speak even when it was to pronounce woes, which they well knew none wanted to hear. Social and Political Questions. The prophets did four things for Israel. (1) Just when the nation berame involved in world politics through tho western movement of the itrcat Assyrian Empire, and it seemed almost impossible to prevent their religion from becoming absorbed in that of this vast State, the prophets rose to the conception of Jehovah being God over all the earth. It is marvellous that monotheism came not from world empires, but from two tiny States tottering down to ruin. That is one of the most remarkable things in the religious history of mankind. (2) In Greece and Rome divination declined pari passu with popular enlightenment. Two oracles could not pass without putting their tongues in their cheeks. But in Tsrael during the greatest days of the kingdom it was the prophets who led the thinking on religious, moral, social and often political questions. They felt free to correct priests and kings, and in consequence aroused tremendous opposition. They felt that religion applied to every department of life. Men who criticise ministers for speakimr on social and political questions that have a religious bearing should study the prophets. Much of Isaiah's preaching was about land aggregation, profiteering and sweated labour. Ho had. and advocated, a particular political policy. (3) They succeeded in liberating rolision from tompovary riational questions and disclosed its true character to 'ne in the nature of God and His demands from men. He had no favourite* among the nations. Oreator ' light implied creator responsibility. He rewarded virtue and punished wrongdoing wherever Ho found them. This was startlingly new teaching. Even today there are some who seem to thinkthat the Christianity is in some way bound up with the "onti"uanee of the British Empire. (4) The prophets fastened in tho minds of mon the truth that religio" and morality are bound to!rether. There was no relision whore a man did not do justly and love mercy, and there was no hope for a morality that did not get its dynamic from a faith in the living God. Religion was the one hope for social reconstruction. That truth needs to be driven home again to-day. M though we live in the twentieth Christian eenturv. many of us have not nearly such a gre.it God as the prophets had ' Possibly more than anything else just now the Christian Church is needin, again the leadership of men of the spirit of the prophets.

A* part of the series of the special Bervictfi arranged for the occasion of the anniversary of the consecration of Liverpool Cathedral, a service was arranged for Free Ch.irchmcn. The preacher was the Rev. D. S. Cairns, D.D., Principal of tho United Free Church College, Abcr- j dcen, and ex-Moderator of the General Assembly of the United Free Church. — ♦"Liverpool Post."