's nature, then the individual is addressed.
Every one who has any love to offer feels himself appealed to. Only
in his own heart can any one know whether or not God's desire is met;
every one, therefore, who understands the appeal becomes personally
responsible for the answer, and religion becomes a matter, not only
between God and the people, but between God and the individual as
well. Personal religion, therefore, makes its appearance among the
Jews at this time. Jeremiah carries on dialogues with God; prayer is
met with, as the outpouring, not of public needs alone, but of
private feeling; the soul has learned that it is called to a life of
its own with God, and not merely to a share in the life of the nation
with him.

We have dwelt at some length on the ideas of the prophets; not at
such length, indeed, as to satisfy any of those who love their
writings, for we have thrown together in one view what belongs
historically to different centuries, while to the personalities of
the prophets, to their sublime certainty and their stupendous
courage, we have given no attention. We have stated the outlines also
of the great movement of thought in which advances of such
transcendent importance were made in religion. They are advances
which have not been lost, but which we still enjoy. If it is the gift
of the Semitic race to bring the thought of God to bear on life with
such direct practical force as Aryan religion never by itself
exerted, we must look with profound veneration on those Semitic
thinkers who applied this great force in the service of a God, who
has no other nature and property but that of justice and love.
Religion thus became to them and to all they influenced an engine for
the direct promotion of justice and love among men; and we do not
think the less of the prophets that the harvest of which they sowed
the seed could not be reaped in their day.

Prophecy leads to no Immediate Reform.--The message of the prophets
seems at first sight to have been delivered long before the world was
ready for it. Even the practical measures which can be traced to
their influence are far from being in accordance with their ideas.
The causes of this we have already to some extent seen. The prophets
were not practical reformers. The amendment they called for was one
to be realised in individual lives rather than in public policy, and
they do not bring forward schemes of reform which they urge the
people as a whole to adopt;