p. 98 | The Prophets of Old by Charles W. Elliott

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Sep 20, 1877

The Prophets of Old.

By Charles W. Elliott

Imagination can hardly picture the startling effect of the presence of one of these men, appearing suddenly in the midst of a careless multitude at the doors of the temple, and raising his threatening, warning cry.

If it be possible, let us suppose such an one to stand in the porch of one of our beautiful churches on a Sunday morning, when crowds of well-dressed, self-satisfied, prosperous people are thronging its doors. He shakes his warning finger, he raises his voice, shrill with anxious forebodings:—

“A voice from the east and a voice from the west, from the south and from the north—It is the voice of Jehovah saying to me, ‘Go to this people and cry aloud in their ears, that they are a lying people, a cruel people, a base people, a foolish people. They come here to this house, clad in silk and lace, and pretend to worship Me, while their hearts worship mammon—Gold, gold, gold is their god! They know that I require of them to visit the fatherless in their affliction and to keep themselves pure from corruption; and yet they live and fatten on the ill-paid wages of the poor; the air they breathe is tainted with the misery of the wretched; the cry of the outcast smites their ears! They call themselves honorable men, high-minded directors; yet they lease the railroads to themselves, and take the money of the widow and the orphan and put it into their own pockets! They know that these money-kings are greedy, unscrupulous, seizing the

spoil; that they are corrupting the morals of the young men, and insuring untold mischiefs to the coming time;—yet the people fall down and worship these men and say, “Smile upon us, for ye are gods.”’

“‘Hearken not to sweet voices, hearken to me. Tear off your finery, sit in sackcloth, repent, amend, do justly, walk humbly, and save yourselves from eternal infamy and ruin.’”

Should we listen to such a voice as that? Should we not laugh it to scorn? Should we not mob it, stop it in any way? We should. We should do like the Hebrews; we would not have such amongst us: disturbers of the peace, spoilers of trade, disagreeable in every way.

Are we then so very different from those ancient Jews?

There is, however, a marked difference between them and us. They believed in the prophetic utterance; believed the prophets had direct communication with the Spirit of God. Now we do not. They were excited to fear—they trembled and repented; or they were roused to frenzy, and then they killed the prophets. We should laugh at them, despise them for a time, but if they persisted, it is not at all certain we should not kill them too.—Charles W. Elliott.