PREFACE.

WHY should another book be written on Prophecy? A few words, by way of preface, in answer to this question, seem to be called for.

Those who are acquainted with the writings of the critical school of Germany and Holland, the school of Wellhausen, Kuenen, Graf, Valke and others, represented by Dr. Robertson Smith in our own country, will know that the study of the Old Testament has entered an entirely new phase. On two sides Scripture is being assailed. Some would deprive it of its foremost claim, to be a special and unique revelation; others, while admitting that there is a providential superintendence of its successive instalments, and that they form a progressive development of truth, would, in a rationalistic spirit, eliminate from it all the supernatural.

The Prophetic element is a very large one in the sacred volume. How is that to be regarded? Are we to renounce altogether the predictive portions of prophecy? Is it no longer to be held that the Holy Spirit of God imparted to individual men the power to foretell the future? Are we to read prophecy only as we should read the discourse of an ancient Greek philosopher, or the despatches of a great military commander? Is our Bible a mere bundle of disconnected fragments, relics of a ministry of spiritual men,

raised up for their own generation, but overshadowed now by the growth of time? The present volume is not an attempt to answer such questions controversially. On the critical ground it enters very little. Only those who are prepared by accurate scholarship and prolonged study are able to appreciate arguments which deal with linguistic difficulties and literary principles of an erudite character.

But apart altogether from such learned discussions, there is much to be said on the broader aspects of the subject. A re-statement of the whole doctrine of Inspiration is necessary. In order to this the study of Prophecy seems a pre-requisite; we must know what we mean by prediction, and how far it is involved in Revelation. Such a subject demands more than a merely popular handling. It must be treated in a philosophical spirit.

The author thankfully acknowledges his indebtedness to such writers as Dr. John Davison, whose "Discourses on Prophecy" have never been surpassed as a thoughtful and comprehensive treatment of the subject, and Dean Payne Smith, whose work on "Prophecy a Preparation for Christ," is much referred to in the following pages. The view of inspiration which underlies the author's method in dealing with Prophecy is expounded in his handbook of Christian Evidence, "The Christian's Plea against Modern Unbelief."

Putney, 1882.