Saint Paul (apart from his gift of tongues), of Saint Augustine, of
Huss, of Luther, of Wesley, automatic or semi-automatic composition
appears to have been only occasional. In the Hebrew prophets, on the
contrary, in Mohammed, in some of the Alexandrians, in many minor
Catholic saints, in Fox, in Joseph Smith, something like it appears to
have been frequent, sometimes habitual. We have distinct professions
of being under the direction of a foreign power, and serving as its
mouthpiece. As regards the Hebrew prophets, it is extraordinary,
writes an author who has made a careful study of them, to see--

"How, one after another, the same features are reproduced in the
prophetic books. The process is always extremely different from what
it would be if the prophet arrived at his insight into spiritual things
by the tentative efforts of his own genius. There is something sharp
and sudden about it. He can lay his finger, so to speak, on the moment
when it came. And it always comes in the form of an overpowering force
from without, against which he struggles, but in vain. Listen, for
instance, [to] the opening of the book of Jeremiah. Read through in
like manner the first two chapters of the prophecy of Ezekiel.

"It is not, however, only at the beginning of his career that the
prophet passes through a crisis which is clearly not self- caused.
Scattered all through the prophetic writings are expressions which
speak of some strong and irresistible impulse coming down upon the
prophet, determining his attitude to the events of his time,
constraining his utterance, making his words the vehicle of a higher
meaning than their own. For instance, this of Isaiah's: 'The Lord
spake thus to me with a strong hand,'--an emphatic phrase which denotes
the overmastering nature of the impulse--'and instructed me that I
should not walk in the way of this people.' ... Or passages like this
from Ezekiel: 'The hand of the Lord God fell upon me,' 'The hand of the
Lord was strong upon me.' The one standing characteristic of the
prophet is that he speaks with the authority of Jehovah himself. Hence
it is that the prophets one and all preface their addresses so
confidently, 'The Word of the Lord,' or 'Thus saith the Lord.' They
have even the audacity to speak in the first person, as if Jehovah
himself were speaking. As in Isaiah: 'Hearken unto me, O Jacob, and
Israel my called; I am He, I am the First, I also am the last,'--and so
on.