The prophetic office.
In these few and simple words we have a declaration of the office and function of the inspired prophet, and in a certain sense of every true religions teacher whom God commissions to be the vehicle and conscious agent in communicating his truth, counsels, admonitions, and encouragements to men.
I. RECEPTION. The prophet and every religious teacher must come mediately or immediately into spiritual communication with the Divine Mind.
1. The Source from which the communication proceeds is none other than God himself.
2. The matter which is received is what is commonly called revelation; the thoughts and commands and purposes of the Supreme are made known to a human spirit.
3. The vision, the hearing, of the prophetic soul are made ready by Divine grace to appreciate the communication.
II. IMPARTATION.
1. Thus the prophet, the religious teacher, is a mediator, capable on the one side, of fellowship with God, and on the other of correspondence and communion with his fellow men.
2. There are special qualifications, by reason of which he can fulfil the commission received; he should be a man of quick intelligence, of tender sympathy, of dauntless courage, of manifest authority.
3. Yet his chief credentials are simple and moral—truthfulness, conscientiousness, and simplicity of nature and habit.—T.