the earthly had been the type. It is not meant that these prophets had not their message for the

present also: to Israel and Judah, and to their kings, as well as regarding events either

contemporary or in the near future. Had it been otherwise, they would not have been prophets to,

nor yet understood by, their fellow-countrymen.

Besides, God's dealings and discipline with Israel still continued, and would of necessity continue

- primarily to the coming of the Christ, and then beyond it to the final fulfillment of His purposes

of mercy. Hence their ministry was also of the present, though chiefly in warning and

announcement of judgment. But by the side of this despair of the present, and because of it, the

ideal destiny of Israel came into clearer minds, the meaning of the Davidic kingdom, and its final

spiritual realization in a h appy future; and along with denunciations of impending judgment came

the comfort of prophetic promises of the future.*

* Comp. Hasse, Gesch. des a. Bundes, apud Bahr, u.s. p. 370. Generally we refer here also to the

remarks of Bahr on the whole subject under consideration.

Two points here specially present themselves to our minds. The first is, that with this period

commences the era of written prophecy. Before this time the prophets had spoken; now they

wrote, or - to speak more precisely - gathered their prophetic utterances and visions into

permanent records. And, as connected with this new phase of prophetism, we mark that it is rather

by vision and prediction than by signs and miracles that the prophets now manifested their

activity. But the importance of written records of prophecy is self-evident. Without them, alike the

manifestation and establishment of the Messianic kingdom in Israel and its spread into the Gentile

world would, humanly speaking, have been impossible. Christianity could not have appealed to

Messianic prediction as its spring, nor yet could the prophetic word of God have traveled to the

Gentiles. With this yet a second fact of utmost interest seems intimately connected. On the

boundary -line of the two stages of prophetism stand two figures in Jewish history: one looking

backwards, Elijah; the other looking forwards, Jonah, the son of Amittai (2 Kings 14:25). Both are

distinguished by their ministry to the Gentiles. Elijah, by his stay and ministry at Sarepta, to which

might, perhaps, be added the ministry of Elisha to Naaman; Jonah, by that call to repentance in

Nineveh* which forms the burden of the prophetic book connected with his name while, on the

other hand, his contemporary message to Jeroboam is apparently not recorded.** Thu s the great

unfolding of prophecy in its outlook on the inbringing of the Gentiles was marked by symbolic

* This, whatever view may be taken of his mission, or of the time when the prophetic book of

Jonah was published (see note at the end of this chapter). If the Book of Jonah be regarded as a

grand allegory of the message of God's grace to the Gentiles, reluctantly borne to them by Israel:

this will only increase the significance of the fact referred to in the text.

** There seems no reason to suppose that this prophecy is preserved in Isaiah 15, 16.

Without attempting any detailed account, the prophets of that period, and the contents of their

writings, may here be briefly referred to. The earliest* of them was probably Joel, "Jehovah is

God" - a Judaean whose sphere of labor was also in his native country.

* Unless we are to regard Joel 2:32 as pointing to a still earlier prophet.

His "prophecy" consists of two utterances (1:2-2; 18; 2:19 -3:21), couched in language as pure and

beautiful as the sentiments are elevated. From the allusions to contemporary events (3:4-8, 19), as

well as from the absence of any mention of Assyria, we infer that his ministry was in the time of

Joash, king of Judah, and of the high-priest Jehoiada, - with which agree his temple -references,

which indicate a time of religious revival. But here also we mark the wider Messianic references

in chapters 2 and 3. The prophecies of Joel seem already referred to by Amos, "the burden-bearer"

(comp. Amos 1:2; 9:13 with Joel 3: 16, 18, 20). Amos himself was also a Judean, originally a