1 877] WAS PROPHECY SUPERNATURAL ? 361 



and in Holland alike, the characteristic feature of the so- 

 called organic view of the development of religion is not 

 critical research, but pantheistic presupposition. And 

 now a word upon his statement that &quot; the prophets 

 conception of the righteousness of Jahveh deserves respect 

 for its earnestness, but cannot be accepted as truth &quot; 

 (P- 354) The prophets, says Kuenen, assume that in the 

 case of individuals, or at least of nations, outward fortune 

 is determined by moral condition. And this, he says, is 

 contrary to all experience. Now, in the first place the 

 prophets certainly teach that Divine retribution is 

 tempered by mercy and the purpose of grace ; and, in the 

 second place, though they have not the full New Testa 

 ment doctrine of fatherly chastisement, they at least know 

 as comes out so clearly in the last chapter of Micah 

 that the judgments sent on the godly differ from those 

 sent on the ungodly, not by a mere mechanical proportion 

 ing of the punishment to the offence but by the fact that 

 the former have a gracious purpose and operation, so that 

 they can be humbly accepted as consistent with God s 

 love. Grant these two limitations to the doctrine of 

 retribution, and it is not so plain that the doctrine is 

 inconsistent with experience. Or, rather, here again we 

 come into a region that transcends mere outer experience ; 

 we come to deal with quantities that have a spiritual 

 meaning. The divine righteousness appears as perfect, 

 not when it is regarded as a mechanical lex talionis but 

 when each external dispensation is read as a revelation 

 of the heart of God. The same judgment may have a 

 very different meaning and value to different men, or to 

 Israel and to the heathen, and this the prophets well knew. 

 But, thus understood and interpreted, God s righteousness 

 must be the law of the Universe if there is a God at all. 

 And it is impossible for religion to put this conviction too 

 strongly. The prophets do put it as strongly as possible, 

 but to fail to do so would have been to give up faith in 

 God. The limitation of their standpoint, their difference 



