I 



PROPHECY AND PERSONALITY 



A FRAGMENT 



WHILE it is true that history and prophecy alike are 

 in all their parts the work of God, it is equally true that 

 both in all their parts are products of human personality. 

 Some, perhaps, who agreed to our previous leading 

 principle may object to this statement as evacuating 

 prophecy of its properly supernatural character. But 

 such an objection is baseless ; history as well as prophecy 

 is supernatural, and if we recognise in miracles not mere 

 occasional outbreaks of divine power, but the continuous 

 manifestation of God in history terminating in the great 

 permanent miracle of the incarnation, we shall not fear 

 to dishonour prophecy by placing it side by side with 

 history. And just as history, in spite of the supernatural 

 factor that has always been present in it, and still is 



present in the working of the divine Spirit in believers, 



as history is notwithstanding in all its parts the product 

 of human personality ; so it is with prophecy also. The 

 prophet in becoming a prophet never for one instant 

 ceased to be a man. Not one element of his personality 

 was destroyed or suspended ; the prophetic inspiration 

 added something, but took away nothing of the feelings 

 and thoughts and desires that built up his previous life. 

 It is not enough to say that the prophet is not a mere 



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