PROPHECY—PROPHETS.
He spake by the mouth of His holy prophets, which have been since the world began.—Luke, i. 70.
Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.
For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.—II. Peter, i. 20, 21.
The world’s a prophecy of worlds to come.
Young.
The words of prophecy, those truths divine,
Which make that Heaven, if thou desire it, thine—
(Awful alternative! believed, beloved,
Thy glory—and thy shame if unimproved,)
Are never long vouchsafed, if pushed aside
With cold disgust, or philosophic pride.
Cowper.
But chief the Prophets glowed with full delight,
Strong as a god, mature as soon as born
To scotch the serpent’s coil. Oh, happy lands,
Where hope ne’er hopes in vain, and love is ne’er lovelorn!
And lo, Isaiah now amidst them stands,
Majestically eminent o’er all,
And blesses them with his thanksgiving hands.
Though they so great, he towers heroical,
Though humblest of that holiest company,
Sweet as sublime. So once looked royal Saul;
So looked, but was not what he seemed to be,
Amidst the children of his father’s land,
The goodliest, loftier then the rest was he.
But fairer Jesse’s son whom Samuel’s hand
King ’midst his brethren hallowed and proclaimed.
So Samuel stood above the prophet band,
When the insane tyrant at the youth’s life aimed,
But, smit at Naioth by the Spirit there,
Quelled at his feet lay naked and ashamed.
Now, as a pupil in his own school here,
Vaileth his reverential forehead low
Unto the prophet, the time-hallowed Seer—
A larger college is endowed now;
The jewels are made up, or nearly so;
One only they await, to whose broad eye
Shall be disclosed the vision, that will fill
The casket up, and seal it sacredly.
*****
So Jeremiah on a sea of grief
Floated his ark of pensive melody.
With bolder mien, and shown in strong relief,
Ezekiel, with a brother’s strict embrace,
Greeted the grasp of that returned chief;
Yet sighed bitterly before his face,
Because the furbished sword contemned the rod,
And, for a trial, glowed with its disgrace,
Sanguine with slaughter. Let it rage! For God
Will smite his hands together, and refrain
From fury—but the vintage must be trod.
To men on earth his was a lovely strain,
Of one who sweetly sang, and deftly played,
But in a foreign land discoursed in vain.
Oh, Daniel well beloved! who plainly said
In no strange tongue the things that were to be,
Simple of manners, and of mind unswayed.
Dear is the welcome of simplicity!
How dear is thine, to whom for this was given
The Hope of Nations over all to see!
Come forth, ye sacred band, inspired of Heaven,
Surround the Prophet silently controlled,
And hear how well his embassy has thriven—
Hosea, the zealous; Amos, herdsman bold;
Jonas, type of our theme, and Obadiah,
And Nahum, who of Nineveh foretold—
Micah and Habakkuk, and Zephaniah,
Joel, Haggai, and Malachi who saves
But with a curse, and lofty Zechariah—
Noble your duty—noble he who braves
The stormy world, and guides the ark of God
In safety o’er the inimical waves!
J. A. Heraud.