g
his great and difficult work he wielded no other weapon. It seems the
frailest of all weapons; for what is a word? It is only a puff of air,
a vibration trembling in the atmosphere for a moment and then
disappearing. But so might one speak of the cloud whose rolling coils
of vapour, changing every moment, seem the least substantial of all
things; yet out of it breaks the forked lightning, which rives the
giant of the forest, and overturns the tower which has defied ten
thousand assailants, and, loosening the crag, sends it thundering down
the mountain-side. Though it be only a weapon of air, the word is
stronger than the sword of the warrior. Words have overturned
dynasties and revolutionised kingdoms. When the right virtue is in
them, they outlast every other work of man. Where are the cities which
were flourishing when David sang? where are the empires whose armies
were making the world tremble when Isaiah wrote? Nineveh and Babylon,
Tyre and Memphis--where are they? But the Psalms of David still
delight, and the wisdom of Isaiah still instructs, the world.

The prophets were well aware of the temper and force of this weapon
which they wielded. Jeremiah refers with especial frequency to the
power of the word. "Is not My word," he asks, "like a fire, saith the
Lord, and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?" When
putting this weapon into his hand, the Lord said to him, "See, I have
set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out and pull
down, and to destroy and throw down, and to build and to plant." How
was one man to be able to throw down and build up kingdoms? He speaks
as if he were at the head of irresistible legions and equipped with
all the enginery of war. But so he was; for all these and more are in
the word. Such military notions seem to have occurred naturally to the
wielders of it. Another of them says, "The weapons of our warfare are
not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds,
casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth itself
against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every
thought to the obedience of Christ." Yet another of them says, "The
word of God is quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged
sword." And Isaiah says, in the name of the Servant of the Lord, "He
hath made my mouth like a sharp sword; in the shadow of His hand hath
He hid me, and made me a polished shaft; in His quiver hath He hid
me."[23]