eposing Saul, and scaring him from the
tomb, and Elijah slaying the priests of Baal. Of the written prophecies
the characteristic word is "Woe unto you!" They are the prototypes of
Jesus assailing the Pharisees and driving out the money-changers; of the
book of Revelation; of Tertullian proclaiming the torments of the damned;
of the mediaeval ban on the heretic; of Puritan and Catholic hurling
anathemas at each other; of Carlyle, of Garrison. But in the greatest of
the prophets the threat is almost hidden by the promise, and instead of
cursing there is benediction.

Whoever would get at the heart of the Old Testament, and understand the
spell which the religion first of Judaism and then of Christianity has
cast upon the world for thousands of years, should ponder the book of
Isaiah. It blends the work of two authors, but their spirit is closely
akin. In each case the prophet is full of a conviction so intense that
he propounds it with perfect confidence as the word of God. By the
boldest personification, he speaks continually in the name of God. This
was the characteristic method of Hebrew prophecy. The prophetic books
all stand as for the most part the direct word of God. This way of
thought and speech was possible only to men in an early stage of
intellectual development and under the highest pressure of conviction and
emotion.

The traditional repute of these Jewish prophets and the record of their
words were accepted by both Jews and Christians. Their writings were
taken as the authoritative voice of God. The same credit came to be
extended to all the ancient books of the Jewish religion,--psalms,
histories, genealogies, ritual, and all. But it is mainly the prophecies
to which this character originally belonged. The Psalms are, with few
exceptions, purely human in their standpoint. In them, it is avowedly a
_man_ who mourns, rejoices, repents, prays, curses, or gives thanks. But
in the prophecies God himself is presented as the speaker.

In both the earlier and later Isaiah, God appears as speaking to men in
extreme need, in words of incomparable comfort, inspiration, and hope.
To whatever special exigency of Israel they were first addressed, the
language, stripped of all local references, comes home to the universal
human heart in its deepest experiences. To the divine favor this
teaching sets only one condition: "Cease to do evil, learn to do well."
"Seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge t