their predecessors. It is with this Jeremiah reproaches them when he
says, "Behold, I am against the prophets, saith the Lord, that steal
My words everyone from his neighbour." The older prophets used to
begin their utterances with the phrase, "the burden of the Lord;" and
Jeremiah complains that this had become an odious cant term in the
mouths of his contemporaries; and in the same way Zechariah complains
that in his day the great word "comfort," which from the lips of
Isaiah had descended like dew from heaven on the parched hearts of the
people of God, had become a dry and hackneyed phrase in the mouths of
false prophets. How dangerous this habit of stealing the words of
others might become, when practical issues were involved, may be
illustrated by a striking example. The inviolability of Jerusalem had
been a principle of the older prophets, which was quite true for their
times; and Isaiah had made use of it for rousing his fellow-citizens
from despair, when the army of Sennacherib stood before the gates. But
in Jeremiah's time the change of circumstances had made it to be no
longer true; and yet the false prophets kept on repeating it; and no
doubt they seemed both to themselves and others to be occupying a
strong position when, in opposing him, they could allege that they
were standing on the same ground as Isaiah. All the time, however,
they were betraying those who listened to them.

There is a sense in which the truth of God is unchangeable; it is like
Himself--the same yesterday and to-day and forever. But there is
another sense in which it is continually changing. Like the manna, it
descends fresh every morning, and, if it is kept till to-morrow, it
breeds loathsome worms. Isaiah describes the true prophet as one who
has the tongue of the learner--not of the learned, as the Authorised
Version gives it--and whose ear is opened every morning to hear the
message of the new day. What was truth for yesterday may be falsehood
for to-day; and only he is a trustworthy interpreter of God who is
sensitive to the indications of present providence.

It would, however, be a mistake to suppose that the only form which
false prophecy can take is a dried-up orthodoxy, mumbling over the
shibboleths of yesterday. If he who stands forward as a speaker for
God is out of touch with God and has really no Divine message, he may
make good the lack of a true Divine word in many ways. The easiest way
is, no doubt, to fall back on so