Books, Isaiah and Ezekiel, will suffice to bring into view the kind of testimony and claim with which all the Books of the Word abound. The former begins with the heading, "The vision of Isaiah, the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jothan, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, Kings of Judah. Hear, O heavens! and give ear, O earth! for Jehovah hath spoken." While the corresponding declaration with which the latter commences, is contained in the third verse: "The Word of Jehovah came expressly unto Ezekiel the Priest, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the river Chebar; and the hand of Jehovah was there upon him."

A more detailed account of this whole subject will be given when we come to treat of the Prophetical Office, and of each Book separately.

In contrast with this claim of the Prophets, let us turn to the writers of the "Kethubim." We open the Book of Esther and search. But we look in vain. We find no vision, no "Word" from the

Lord; not even an allusion to a Divine Being or a Superintending Providence; only a piece. of history collateral to the Jewish, with no claim made or any hint given of anything Divine in it. The character of this Book has invited the critical remarks of nearly all Biblical scholars. The most superficial

observer cannot fail to perceive the absolute necessity of recognizing a difference in the several Books.

Ezra refers to the Prophets Haggai and Zechariah, as prophesying in the name of the Lord God of Israel, and therefore uttering His Word; but he claims no similar function for himself, nor does he make any record of what they delivered; thus clearly directing the reader to the Books of those prophets, to find that portion of the Word of God that was revealed to the Jewish Church in his day. Ezra everywhere calls himself simply a scribe, but never a seer nor a prophet. He receives no Divine message for the people.

So the Book of Nehemiah is headed: "The words of Nehemiah, the son of Hachaliah;" with no claim anywhere made of his having received a message or "Word" from the Lord.

The Song of songs is called "Solomon's," and the proverbs are the Proverbs "of Solomon"; that is, a portion of them; others are such as the men of Hezekiah copied out; while some are the words of King Lemuel, which his mother taught him.

From this it will be seen that the claim which the second class of Books make for themselves, is distinctively different from that made by those of the first class. A consideration of the inspiration of these Books, both its kind and degrees, will be reserved for a distinct chapter.

VI.-The Prophets were Seers: How their Communications were Received.

THE nearness of the spiritual world is constantly set forth in the Bible; and, as we read, it was in the early ages very frequently rendered visible. All Divine revelations come, of course, from that world, being communications from inhabitants of that world to inhabitants of this. Hence, whenever a revelation has been made, it has been effected by an opening made between this world and that, a lifting, so to speak, of the thin veil which separates the two worlds from each other. It is most properly called an opening, for it is effected by an opening in men of perceptions which are usually closed up; that is, by an opening of the spiritual senses.

Every man possesses these senses, by virtue of having been born an immortal spirit. They are the senses which come into operation the moment the physical body is laid aside, and man enters the spiritual world. They are the senses by which he then holds his intercourse with his fellow-beings, by which he sees, hears, touches, and converses with spirits in that world, as he formerly held intercourse or conversed with men in this world. They are the eyes, the ears, and the hands of his

spiritual body,-which body is within the mortal body while he lives here in the world; but, as a bird in the shell has its wings, and all that wonderful apparatus by which it is hereafter to fly aloft in the air, folded up, hidden, and scarcely developed at all, so these spiritual senses in men are, while they remain here in the world, obscured, being covered over and concealed by the sensual organs of the mortal body.

Now these inward senses, which every one possesses, are capable of being opened, or brought into exercise, whenever it pleases the Lord that they should be, - whenever any heavenly or Divine purpose can be accomplished by it. And whenever they are brought into exercise, then the spiritual world around us immediately becomes visible to that individual; he sees some of its inhabitants and hears them speak.

Such was the state in which were the prophets when they had their visions. They were said to be in holy vision, and conversed with angels, and had many heavenly things shown them. A "vision," as applied to them and in its real sense, means something that is distinctly seen; as we are told in the Gospel concerning the women at the sepulchre, that they had seen a vision of angels, who had told them that the Lord had risen from the dead. And John, in the Revelation, declares repeatedly, in relation to the

things there described, that he "saw and heard" them, while in the spirit.

Hence in the ancient times the prophets were called "seers," or men who had their "eyes open," because there was opened in them this capacity of seeing what to other men is invisible, the other world: its scenery and its inhabitants.

In the twenty-fourth chapter of Numbers we read of Balaam, the Syrian prophet, who foretold the grandeur of Israel: “The man whose eyes are open hath said; who heard the words of God and saw the vision of the Almighty; falling into a trance, but having his eyes open.' ""* So in the ninth chapter of I. Samuel, where it says, "Beforetime in Israel, when a man went to inquire of God, thus he spake, 'Come, and let us go to the seer; for he that is now called a Prophet, was beforetime called a Seer."" And as Saul went, he inquired where the seer's house was. When he arrived, he asked, "Is the seer here?" And when he had found him, Samuel said to him, “I am the seer."

Another striking instance is found in the sixth chapter of the Second Book of Kings, where the Syrian army had come down against Dothan, where was the Prophet

*It is said that the form of expression here in the Hebrew is peculiar; implying that his eyes were both shut and open; that is, his outward eyes being shut, his inward eyes were opened.