The Mission of the Old Testament Prophets.
ONE of the duties of their mission is liable to be overlooked, viz: their rebuke of great national sins. It is pleasant to think of them as ministers of consolation to God's mourning children in their wilderness of darkness and calamity. We love to ascend with them those sublime hights they sometimes reached when their prophetic eye pierced through to the glories of Messiah's distant reign. But foregoing whatever is pleasant and sublime in those aspects of their work, it may be especially profitable to us to think of them as doing a work of no less radical utility in exposing the nation's guilt, in rebuking kings for righteousness' sake, and in bearing fearless testimony for God when his name was deplorably forgotten and shamefully set at nought. There was Elijah, battling with strong hand and heart against the overwhelming current of idolatry that swept through the land from the throne and court of Ahab. We sometimes wonder that Elijah should be so sensitive to the threats of Jezebel; but we probably do not realize so fully as he did, how demoniac her hate when thoroughly aroused. We do not see her as Elijah did, a tigress robbed of her whelps, her eyes flashing fire over all the hills and valleys of her kingdom. Her history is but another illustration of the power for evil of one bad woman of indomitable will, tremendous daring, and sagacity to match. It was no small matter to stand up well for God against such a Queen. Yet this was part of Elijah's mission. Micaiah, son of Imlah, had some of the trial of living as a prophet of God, during that wicked reign. He was known at court as a prophet of the Lord. It was not Ahab's choice to call him out for counsel from Jehovah in pending questions of great moment; but Jehoshaphat, with some real faith in the true God, had him called. Ahab would have ruled otherwise—saying, 'I hate him; for he doth not prophesy good concerning me, but evil.' The court sought to coax him to give an acceptable response from his Lord; but he had only one answer; he did not make those responses and must deliver them as God gave them. A prison with "bread and water of affliction" were his lot. It cost something to be true to Jehovah then. Isaiah and Jeremiah had seen this side of the true prophet's life, before they heard God's call to this work. Hence they shrunk back. How can I, said they, stand up before my wicked king and his wicked princes, and deliver to them God's awful message? They knew they should be denounced for disloyalty; disowned by the greater part of their countrymen, and traduced as bad men. But the Lord gave them to understand that he could not excuse them, but could and would anoint them for their mission, so that "as their days, their strength should be." And by his grace their rebukes of popular sin were fearless and unsparing. It is quite essential to a just view of their case to remember that the sins God called them to rebuke were not some obsolete iniquities of former generations—sins without champions to defend them—sins that, however much rebuked, could stir no living man's wrath. It is commonly very easy to speak against such sins; but such a mission as this the Lord did not think would pay. He never sent his prophets on such an errand. No; the sins which God sent his ancient prophets to rebuke were those of then living men;—aye, and the sins of princes too and of kings—of men in power throughout the land. Hence its peril. Hence for their fidelity to Jehovah, one went down into a deep dungeon where his feet stuck in the mire; another, according to very ancient tradition, was sawn in sunder, after having in a long life uttered and written more burning rebukes for sin, and more thrilling prophecies of Zion's glory than have fallen from any other human lips. Hosea and Amos show by their writings that flagrant sins were rife in their time, and that they had a keen sense of their enormity of guilt. We cannot suppose their mission to have been a sinecure—a benefice without a cross. Let us note that these testimonies were altogether essential to the honor of Jehovah and to the salvation of the land and the people. They were God's agencies to act on the heart and consciences of the people, to recall them from their idolatries to repentance. Doubtless they often availed to avert his impending judgments and to prolong the nation's life. The people of this age have their great national sins. It cannot be well that these should pass unrebuked. We need not expect God will commission a second Jeremiah or Amos to testify against our national oppression—doubtless for the reason that he has revealed the principles of his government so fully that he can properly leave the nation with this light and no other, to see their sins, take warning, and avert his impending wrath. If therefore, the Lord has any faithful servants, true to his name and wakeful for the salvation of their country, to them goes forth his trumpet call, "Cry aloud; and spare not; show my people their transgressions and the house of Jacob (the church and the nation) their sins." O might the mantle of Elijah fall on many a faithful Elisha! May the spirit of wisdom to know the sins that do most provoke God's wrath, and the spirit of protest and rebuke against those sins, rest largely on all good and true men of the pulpit and the press, if so be, the nation may turn unto the Lord, and his fierce wrath pass away that we perish not!—Sel.