PROPHETS.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3127, 24 July 1922, Page 7

PROPHETS.

(By Eldon Junior.) The gift of prophecy .is not a passport to public favor. In the East I encountered many of the tribe infinitely various in their manifestations. They appeared to enjoy a measure of public approval. But the alacrity with which tin' passers-by placed coins in their little brass pots might have represented a disposition to become speedily relieved of their company. However, in the East one is courteous, even in anger, which is controlled with more ease than is possible in the West. In the East prophets and other unpleasing varieties are suffered gladly. In the West wo suffer nothing gladly, not even our pleasures. Now prophets are not to be counted among the pleasures of existence. On the contrary, they are a menace to our happiness. For they point incessantly when they do anything at all, to the defects of our present arrangements with the object of contrasting them unfavorably with others they affect to contemplate and recommend in the future, j find these exercises in prophecy a form of nuisance not easily to be borne. And this disrelish is shared by countless other mortals, particularly in our own day. For the late war bred a large company of prophets, and the number does not diminish. In fact, it is high time to say things about the matter. We English never look kindly to prophets, and they have always had a hard time of it in our realm. They are disturbers of the established order, and we venerate order of any kind. They unsettle men’s minds, and particularly women’s, to the general discontent and a confusing unrest. Our troubles arc sore enough without any complications from persons who do nothing to lighten them. Indeed, they rejoice in their occurrence and the bewilderment they set up. They withdraw themselves, with unctuous ostentation, from any participation in efforts to make things better. They declare that things must get worse before they can grow better, and they dissociate themselves from endeavors to interfere (as they call it) with the intentions and purposes of Providence. Our forefathers disregarded such persons in a way which no longer seems to be available for our relief. For they assail us in all directions. We are told that a new world is coming, if it be not already here, and that we must get ready to live in it. Personally, I am not disposed to fly from the nuisance's 1 am accustomed to in order to enjoy others held out to me. Besides, I object to the sort of person who recommends them. ‘ The proneness of some women to engage in these exertions makes them even more distasteful. You can ignore a man, but a woman is not so easily escaped. Her persistence in ill-doing, which she mistakes for good-doing, is always abounding. And I don’t like it. in the Temple, we have adopted an expedient which 1 commend for acceptance outside. Above our doorways wo now exhibit a card which reads: “No prophecy, by special request.’’ To avoid the overlooking of this injunction we place it also above our mantelpieces into which prophetsf find especially prophetesses) are wont to gaze, in search (perchance) of the now world they have found and lost. For, in these trying days, no one is safe from the attentions of those who (in their own parlance) seek a better country. I would they might find it to be relieved of their company. But while yearning for another state, they bewilder us in this.