y and never allowing the daughter of Zion to despair of her
future.

It was then especially that they cultivated the most remarkable of all
the elements of prophecy--the hope of the Messiah. Tragic as was the
failure of the prophets themselves to raise the nation to the
elevation which they saw so clearly to be her destiny, they all
believed that what they had failed to do would yet be done, and that
there would yet be a Jerusalem bright and glorious as a star, and
serving as the star of hope to all the peoples of the earth. Their
confidence in this did not rest solely on the will and power of God in
general; it was guaranteed to them by the belief, which, under
different forms, they all cherished, and taught their countrymen to
cherish, that in the womb of the nation there lay One, to be born in
due time, endowed with powers far greater than their own, who would
take up the task which each of them had had in his turn to lay by
unaccomplished, and carry it forward to its fulfilment--a Child of the
nation who would unite in His character all the attributes in their
fullest perfection which the nation herself ought to have possessed,
and who, though standing high above His fellow-countrymen, would yet
be thoroughly incorporated with them, and, taking on His shoulders the
responsibility of their destiny, would never fail to be discouraged
under it, but bear it victoriously to the goal. "Unto us a Child is
born, unto us a Son is given; and the government shall be upon His
shoulder; and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the
Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace."

* * * * *

Now, gentlemen, the question is, How far the aspect of the prophetic
activity which we have considered to-day is a model to us?

It might be argued that this is a stage of preaching which has been
superseded, and that the message of ministers ought now to be
addressed entirely to individuals. This is the theory of preaching on
which many act, without perhaps considering how widely it differs from
the procedure of the prophets. And no doubt much might be said in its
defence. It was a vast step in the development of religion when Jesus
turned from the nation to the individual and taught the world the
value of the soul. Here must ever now lie the stress of Christian
preaching; the preacher is not worthy of the Christian name who does
not know what it is to hunger and thirst for the salvation