358 LECTURES AND ESSAYS [1874- 



where the appeal is to the moral evidence of true 

 prophecy. 



It is proper to observe in connection with Kuenen s 

 method that, while he regards the literal fulfilment of 

 prediction as the proper test of the supernatural character 

 of prophecy, he is very far from supposing that the 

 importance and value of prophecy stands or falls by the 

 result of this inquiry. He would have us to believe that 

 the prophets are quite wrong in supposing that they 

 possessed in any special sense a word from Jahveh. They 

 were not specifically different from other seers. What 

 they call the word of Jahveh and regard as an objective 

 communication from Him, is simply an inference drawn 

 from their subjective belief as to the unity, spirituality, 

 and ethical character of God. But this does not make 

 their work the less important. Their religious convictions 

 were very earnest and very noble. They had reached the 

 idea of spiritual monotheism, and they left that idea as 

 a legacy to the world. Professor Kuenen is not very 

 communicative as to the way in which they reached that 

 idea whether they thought it out by a process of reason 

 ing, so that they were, in fact, a kind of philosophers, or 

 whether they seized it by a peculiar faculty of religious 

 intuition. But be it reasoning or intuition, their reason 

 ings and insight were juster than those of other ancient 

 nations and formed an important step in the religious 

 development of mankind. 



Now, one is apt to suppose that if the prophets were 

 really inspired their inspiration must display itself most 

 clearly in the thoughts and convictions which gave to 

 their work its world-wide importance. If the predictions 

 are for the most part inferences which the prophets drew 

 from their religious convictions, the true question for us 

 to decide is, whether these religious convictions were, 

 or were not, given to the prophets by a special divine 

 influence. If, after all, the predictions form a small part 

 of the prophetic writings, if they are secondary in import- 



