68 THE REV. J. J. LIAS, M.A., ON THE UNITY OF ISAIAH. 



possibly be as the Professor confesses, " difficult to understand, 

 but this is a strange way to describe it : — 



"The prophet beheld a vision of the future in its actual detail, 

 and read this off as a man may read the history of the past out of a 

 book or a clear memory.'"' 



This description will, I think, seem to most of those present 

 the exact opposite of that presented by prophetical writings, 

 except, perhaps, in a few passages such as we find in the 22nd 

 and 69th Psalms. 



But to proceed : — 



"Isaiah prophesied as he did from loyalty to two simple truths 

 . . . that sin must be punished, and the people of God must be 

 saved." 



He is credited with " wonderful knowledge of human nature 

 and ceaseless vigilance of affairs." He had " no magical means 

 for foretelling the future, but simply his own spiritual convic- 

 tions and his observations of history." 



It will be noted that Professor Smith does not tell us whether 

 the above character of Isaiah is based upon the whole book as 

 we have it now, or only upon the few chapters left us after the 

 critical dissection has been effected. Further, the use of the 

 word " magical " in describing prophecy is surely begging the 

 question. And lastly, if this criticism is scientific, these 

 assertions should surely have been accompanied by some 

 demonstration. There is, however, this difference between the 

 " science " of criticism and other sciences, that the latter are 

 founded upon demonstration, but the former is content with very 

 little or none at all. 



Dr. Skinner's Dissection of the Book. 



According to the analysis given by Dr. Skinner, in the Cam- 

 bridge Bible for Schools, the following is the dissection of Isaiah, 

 chaps, i-xxxv : Isaiah is credited with the first ten chapters, and 

 with xi to the end of verse 9, or, as some say, verse 10. The 

 rest of the chapter is not supposed to be his. Neither are 

 chaps, xii-xiv, verse 23 ; xv ; xvi (though to this last Isaiah is 

 asserted to have written two verses as a postscript) ; xxi, xxiv- 

 xxvii, xxxii-xxxv. It seems to me most unfortunate that young 

 people in colleges and schools should be given insufficiently 

 digested theories of this kind for their intellectual nourishment, 

 instead of a straightforward exegesis of the prophet's writings. 



