" in the dictionary.

4. Read chapter one or chapter five of the book of Isaiah for a good
example of his eloquent preaching.

CHAPTER XIX

A REVISED LAW OF MOSES

Amos and the great prophets who followed him met with the same fate as
many other pioneers--only a few of their hearers heeded their words,
or even understood them. But four great leaders in one century--Amos,
Hosea, Micah, and Isaiah--could hardly fail to make some real
impression on the minds and lives of their nation. Isaiah was perhaps
the most influential, partly because the others before them had
prepared the way and partly because he himself lived and preached to
the people during a long period of time--more than forty years.

=Isaiah's disciples.=--Another reason why Isaiah exerted so great an
influence was that he organized little groups of his disciples into
circles for study. These groups met together from time to time, and
read aloud the sermons of Isaiah and the other prophets, and talked
about how to apply them to their lives. We can see them seated in a
circle in the evening on the floor of one of those little homes
opening into a narrow Jerusalem street. There would be a candlestick
in the center, or an upturned bushel measure, with a candle on top of
it. The circle would be composed of men; but on the outside eagerly
listening would be women and children. One of the men in the circle
would be seated by the candle reading from a roll of papyrus on which
were written the sermons of one of the prophets.

THE EVIL DAYS OF MANASSEH'S REIGN

It is well that these reading circles were started, for they kept
alive the new truth of the reformer-prophets during the reign of a bad
king, Manasseh. This man's father, Hezekiah, had favored the prophets.
But Manasseh, who became king when Isaiah was an old man, was opposed
to all these new ideas. Most of the people of Judah probably agreed
with him. They still clung to the belief that the one sure way for a
nation to be prosperous was to offer sacrifices to the most powerful
gods. Now the kingdom of Judah, in spite of all their worship of
Jehovah, was still subject to the empire of Assyria. Great sums had to
be paid every year as tribute. "What fools those prophets are!" men
said, as they talked together in the streets. "See how much stronger
the Assyrian gods are than Jehovah!" "Last month I had to pay ten
shekels for the tribute!" "If we want to prosper, we must worship the
gods of Assy