354 LECTURES AND ESSAYS [1874- 



when the Turkish conference broke up. The verification 

 of this prediction in the event would not have proved him 

 a true prophet. It might prove him to be an accurate 

 diviner, but the thing would have no religious value. It 

 would not bring God nearer to man, or in any sense 

 confirm to us the reality of a divine purpose and guidance 

 in human history. Though every prediction in Zadkiel s 

 Almanac for 1877 were fulfilled to the letter, Christianity 

 would remain precisely where it is. We might have 

 something to wonder at, but we should not have any 

 right to welcome a new revelation from God. On the 

 other hand, it is very possible that a prophet might have 

 a real message from God to men, enabling men to act 

 under an intelligent comprehension of his guidance and 

 purpose, and yet that the outcome of that guidance and 

 purpose might take a shape not literally described before 

 hand by the prophet. Why should we expect prophecy 

 to be a &quot; history of future events,&quot; when we never think 

 of taking it as the test of the reality of the confidence 

 which a fellow-man reposes in us that he shall tell us 

 beforehand with literal precision the exact actions which 

 he is about to perform ? The man would be deceiving us 

 if, while pretending to make us his confidants, he did not 

 open up to us his heart, the way in which he views things 

 and in which his action is to depend upon them ; but that 

 is a different matter from saying that he is to give us 

 beforehand an exact picture of all that he is going to do. 

 Of course the case of divine Revelation differs from cases 

 of ordinary human intercourse, inasmuch as God, unlike 

 man, foresees the exact turn of every event even of such 

 as depend on human freedom. But then, if prophecy is 

 not to neutralise human freedom and destroy moral 

 responsibility, it is impossible for all that lies in omniscience 

 to be revealed to us. How much of the future God is to 

 reveal to the prophet, and what limitations of form are 

 to apply to the revelation is a question which depends on 

 a variety of considerations which cannot be rightly 



