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Hebrew prophets and the pagan Sibyl. The predictions of the Sibyl were
accompanied by strange fantastic circumstances, and wore the
appearance of a blind caprice or arbitrary fate; whereas the
announcements of the Hebrew prophets, founded upon the denunciation of
moral evil and the reign of sacred and peremptory principles of
righteousness in the world, were calm, dignified, and self-consistent.
But we cannot, notwithstanding, deny to pagan prophecy some share in
the higher influence which inspired and moulded Hebrew prophecy. The
apostle of the Gentiles took this view when he called Epimenides the
Cretan a prophet. The Bible recognises the existence of true prophets
outside the pale of the Jewish Church. Balaam, the son of Beor, was a
heathen living in the mountains beyond the Euphrates; and yet the form
as well as the substance of his prophecy was cast into the same mould
as that of the Hebrew prophets. He is called in the Book of Numbers
"the man whose eyes are open;" and God used this power as His organ of
intercourse with and influence upon the world. The grand record of his
vision is the first example of prophetic utterance respecting the
destinies of the world at large; and we see how the base and
grovelling nature of the man was overpowered by the irresistible force
of the prophetic impulse within him, so that he was constrained to
bless the enemies he was hired to curse. And in this respect he
represents the purest of the ancient heathen oracles; and his answer
to Balak breathes the very essence of prophetic inspiration, and is
far in advance of the spirit and thought of the time, reminding us of
the noble rebuke of the Cumaean Sibyl to Aristodicus, and of the oracle
of Delphi to Glaucus.

God did not leave the Gentile nations without some glimpses of the
truth which He had revealed so fully and brightly to His own chosen
people. While He was the _glory_ of His people Israel, we must not
forget that He was a light to lighten the Gentiles. He gave to them
oracles and sibyls, who had the "open eye," and saw the vision of the
years, and witnessed to a light shining in the darkness, and brought
God nearer to a faithless world. Beneath the gross external polytheism
of the multitude there were deep, primitive springs of godliness, pure
and undefiled, working out their manifestation in noble lives; and
those who have ears to hear can listen to the sound of these ancient
streams as they flow into the river of life t