THE PROPHET OF NAZARETH. 221 



the iniquity of us all. Surely he hath borne our 

 griefs, and hath carried our sorrows. His soul was 

 made an offering for sin. He was wounded for our 

 transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities, 

 and with his stripes we are healed!' 



There are many worthy people who think it a very 

 extraordinary thing that this poem can he used, almost 

 word for word, to describe the rejected mission and 

 martyrdom of Jesus. But as the Hebrew prophets 

 resembled one another, and were tried before the same 

 tribunal, under the same law, the coincidence is not 

 surprising. A poetical description, in vague and 

 general terms, of the Rebellion of the English people 

 and the execution of Charles I. would apply equally 

 well to the rebellion of the French people and the 

 execution of Louis XVI. 



The prophet of Nazareth did not differ in tempera- 

 ment and character from the noble prophets of the 

 ancient period. He preached, as they did, the re- 

 ligion of the heart ; he attacked, as they did, the 

 ceremonial laws ; he offered, as they did, consolation 

 to the poor ; he poured forth, as they did, invectives 

 against the rulers and the rich. But his predictions 

 were entirely different from theirs, for he lived, theo- 

 logically speaking, in another world. The old prophets 

 could only urge men to do good that the Lord might 

 make them prosperous on earth, or, at the most, that 

 they might obtain an everlasting name. They could 

 only promise to the people the restoration of Jerusalem 

 and the good things of the Gentiles ; the reconciliation 

 of Judah and Ephraim, and the Gathering of the Dis- 

 persed. The morality which Jesus preached was also 

 supported by promises and threats, but by promises 

 and threats of a more exalted kind : it was also 



