ho were these false prophets, and how did there come to be such
numbers of them? These are questions which an attentive reader of the
Bible cannot help asking; but it is not by any means easy to answer
them.

The prophets whose names have come down to us are not by any means
numerous; but, besides them, there must have been many other true
prophets. There were times when the spirit of religion was breathing
through the community, and then men were not wanting who felt called
to be its organs. The spirit of inspiration might fall on anyone at
any time; no prescribed training was necessary to make a man a
prophet. It might come, as it did to Amos, on the husbandman in his
fields or the shepherd among his flock. It might alight on the young
noble amidst the opening pleasures of life, as it did on Isaiah and
Zephaniah; or it might come, as it did on Jeremiah and Ezekiel, on the
young priest preparing for his sacred functions.

But some of the more noted prophets endeavoured in a more systematic
way to diffuse the spirit which rested upon themselves, and thus to
multiply the number of the prophets. They founded schools in which
promising young men were gathered and plied with the means of
education available in that age, cultivating music, reading the
writings of the older prophets, and coming under the influence of the
holy man who was at their head. These were the Schools of the
Prophets, and their students were the Sons of the Prophets. Samuel
seems to have been the first founder of these schools. They were
flourishing in the times of Elijah and Elisha, and they probably
continued to exist with varying fortunes in subsequent centuries.
Perhaps all who went through these schools claimed, or could claim,
the prophetic name. Those who took up the profession wore the hairy
mantle and leathern girdle made familiar to us by the figure of John
the Baptist; and they probably subsisted on the gifts of those who
benefited from their oracles. Their numbers may have been very large;
we hear of hundreds of prophets even during an idolatrous reign, when
they were exposed to persecution.

In times when the spirit of inspiration was abroad or when the schools
enjoyed the presence of a master spirit, it is easy to understand how
valuable such institutions may have been, and how they may have been
centres from which religious light and warmth were diffused through
the whole country. But they were liable to deterioration. If the
general