either to please or to grieve His Holy Spirit. We know, indeed, how the Divine character of the Scriptures has been distorted into superstitious notions concerning them. It argues, of course, a want of capacity for apprehending and appreciating what is truly Divine, when its presence is made a pretence for worshipping the human or earthly shrine in which it dwells. The many languages of the Earth are, indeed, one providential antidote to this tendency towards worshipping the mere letter of the Bible. Yet they have not hindered that letter from being used by many, at least in our land, magically, as charms and amulets are used, as means of divining or foretelling the details of events in the histories of nations or the lives of individuals.

But, as I have said, not only in Scripture do we find the language of prophecy-but out of Scripture also, and in the utterances of living men in all times. The great poets of an age have often been its prophets-were always meant to be so; and St Paul calls the Cretan poet, who spoke the truth about his countrymen, a prophet of their own,'-for so it reads in the original Greek, where the English version translates 'one of their own poets.' And great preachers also are the prophets of God, and statesmen, and orators, who hold their fellow-men in rapt admiration of their eloquence and power of speech. The gifts of deep feeling and clear strong utterance mostly go together: though in some, who possess the former, the latter is comparatively wanting; the prophet's lips must be touched with sacred fire. How miraculous his words then appear to the hearer! How wonderful is that gift of eloquence, which has carried whole crowds and masses of men on the breath of one! While God has made, and can make, even 'babes and sucklings' to show forth His praise, shall we not give Him glory, when He uses more powerful instruments, whose power and perfection are equally His work?

The historian, too, who teaches us the results of experience in the history of the past, and from the past foresees the future—the man of science, who unfolds to us the mysteries of Nature's Laws-these too are God's prophets, and we must hear their voice. The knowledge, indeed, of God's works and laws in Nature is the fruit of patient

6

inquiry, of diligent observation and comparison; we do not speak of it as given by inspiration; it may seem as if such utterances came by the will of man.' And yet the leaders of the now vast army of the students of Nature have received from time to time, as it were, in flashes of Divine illumination from the Father of Lights,' the knowledge of those laws which have made of a mass of detached incoherent facts an orderly universe of knowledge.

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But the knowledge of God's laws in nature, which is given in our age, was not vouchsafed to the prophets of old. They had another and a yet higher and more needful office to speak in the ears of men those holy laws of conduct, of feeling towards both God and Man, to which the heart answers when they reach the ear,-to throw the light of another mind upon the writing of the conscience, -to clothe in burning words the devout aspirations of the soul towards the Fountain of its life,-those aspirations and desires, which are the promise and pledge of their own fulfilment, as He is True, from whom they came, to whom they tend. These are the holy men,' who spake of old, and speak at all times, as men moved by the Holy Ghost.' The Divine Spirit uses them as His instruments for enlightening and quickening the hearts of their fellow-men; and the very imperfection of His instruments serves only to show the Great Instructor's skill. How often by the simple tale or homely sermon has a truth or, better still, has the Love of God been carried home to the heart of the still simpler reader! How often even will a pious soul find food for holy thought in the barest_commonplaces! Even by such as these hath the Lord spoken.' But when the great poet or thinker commands the hearts and minds of his age, clothing old doctrines in new and living forms, tracking truth into some of her innermost and most sacred recesses, who would dare to ascribe such truly Divine powers to any but the Father of Lights, the Giver of every good and perfect gift'? Who would not take courage in the assurance, that the Voice of God is still to be heard in His Great Universal Church, and say with filial reverence, 'Speak, Lord, for Thy servant heareth' ?

No! brethren-not by the will of man' in olden times did prophecy come, nor does it come thus in the days in

which we live. A man writes or speaks from many motives-perhaps, from the best, or from a pressure of the subject on his spirit, which seems more like compulsion than motive. But whether freely, or on compulsion, whether with or without motive, the work must be done. 'A dispensation of the Spirit is committed unto him.' And the same Divine Power takes home the words uttered to the heart of the receiver, and they become light and life and strength and wisdom to his soul,-sometimes, alas! while the utterer himself remains dark and cold and dead, because of unfaithfulness to his own gifts.

Ah! yes, there may be unfaithful prophets, speaking like Balaam, of whom we heard last Sunday, words of truth in God's Name, yet themselves loving all the while the works of darkness,―as the writer of this epistle himself describes them

'wells without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest, to whom the mist of darkness is reserved for ever.'

In those days, doubtless, there were persons well known, to whom such words as these were specially applicable, of whom he says―

'When they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error. While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption.' But in every age experience tells us there will be those who, while preaching to others, will be in danger themselves of being cast away,—who may be made the messengers of God's Mercy to others, may have been the means of saving them, and yet may have lost themselves the way of life. There may be men of genius richly endowed,— poets, philosophers, statesmen, men of science,—ay, and preachers of righteousness also, gifted with a prophet's eloquence, who, having ministered their choice gifts to others, have fallen short themselves of the Kingdom of God.

May God in His Mercy preserve us from any such misery, proportioned to the gifts which we ourselves possess, as stewards of the manifold Grace of God! For let us not forget that we are all bound to minister one to another. Are all apostles? are all prophets?' No! not in the higher sense of these words. It is not within the power of any one to fill at his pleasure the chair of the teacher of

men,-to speak as the 'oracles of God' to his brethren. It is a gift, to be used humbly, indeed, reverently, conscientiously; but it is not conferred in a high degree on all-in a high degree, so as to make all prophets. But to bear witness for the truth is imperative on all who know the truth, at least not by silence, when occasion offers, to acquiesce in a lie, to leave to it that strength which our contradiction would have helped to withdraw from it. In a lower sense, each in our measure, we are to be 'apostles,' that is, messengers, and 'prophets,' that is, utterers, of God's Will one to another. We are to consider one another daily, to provoke unto love and good works'; we are to comfort and support one another; we are to speak to one another the truth in love. The gift of light and life, which one has received, he must impart to his brother, and share his brother's gift in return. For the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal';

'And there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord; and there are diversities of operations; but it is the same God, which worketh all in all.'

XX.

PROPHECY AND PROGNOSTICATION.

PREACHED IN THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF ST PETER'S, MARITZBURG, ON SUNDAY MORNING, MAY 6, 1866.

MATT. IV. 14-16.

" THAT IT MIGHT BE FULFILLED WHICH WAS SPOKEN BY ESAIAS THE PROPHET, SAYING, THE LAND OF ZABULON AND THE LAND OF NEPHTHALIM, BY THE WAY OF THE SEA, BEYOND JORDAN, GALILEE OF THE GENTILES; THE PEOPLE WHICH SAT IN DARKNESS SAW A GREAT LIGHT, AND TO THEM WHICH SAT IN THE REGION AND SHADOW OF DEATH LIGHT IS SPRUNG UP.'

HERE is an instance of the kind to which I referred in my discourse of last Sunday Evening, where the writer of the Gospel narrative,-whether Matthew himself, in those notes of his which furnished, it would seem, the ground-work of the present Gospel, or more probably the unknown compiler, to whom we owe it as it now lies before us,—has quoted the language of some ancient prophecy, as singularly applicable to the later event which he is engaged in describing. And this, in fact, as I explained, is the highest characteristic of true prophecy, that it is not of any private interpretation;' it cannot be restricted to the age or to the event, with reference to which it may have been originally uttered; it is an utterance of Divine Truth, of the Living Word of God, which in its essential character is applicable to all times, which is no mere prognostic, foretelling some particular event in the history of one person or one people, but contains eternal truth for all ages, the result of deep insight into human nature, and into the dealings of God with man, His child, in the past. In this way prophecy is a proof to us of the existence of a Living God, of One who was and is the God of our fathers, as He is now our God,—a proof that one and the self-same Spirit