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Thus far as regards "the congregation of prophets" in the days of Samuel. In the time
of Elijah, Israel - as distinct from Judah - was entirely cut off from the sanctuary,
and under a rule which threatened wholly to extinguish the service of God, and to
replace it by the vile and demoralizing rites of Baal. Already the country swarmed
with its priests, when God raised up Elijah to be the breaker-up of the way, and
Elisha to be the restorer of ancient paths. The very circumstances of the time, and the
state of the people, pointed out the necessity of the revival of the ancient "order," but
now as "sons of the prophets" rather than as prophets. Nor did this change of
designation imply a retrogression. What on superficial inquiry seems such, is, on
more careful consideration, often found to mark real progress. In earliest patriarchal,
and even in Mosaic times, the communications between Jehovah and His people
were chiefly by Theophanies, or Personal apparitions of God; in the case of the
prophets, by inspiration; in the New Testament Church, by the indwelling of the
Holy Ghost. It were a grievous mistake to regard this progress in the spiritual history
of the kingdom of God as a retrogression. The opposite is rather the case. And
somewhat similarly we may mark, in some respects, an advance in the succession of
"sons of the prophets" to the order of "prophetics," or "prophesiers," as we may
perhaps designate them by way of distinction. "But all these things worketh one and
the self-same Spirit, dividing to every man" (and to every period in the Church's
history) "severally as He will," and adapting the agencies which He uses to the
varying necessities and spiritual stages of His people.
What has been stated will help to explain how the three embassies which Saul sent to
seize David in the Naioth were in turn themselves seized by the spiritual influence,
and how even Saul, when attempting personally to carry out what his messengers
had found impossible, came yet more fully and manifestly than they under its all-
subduing power.^189
It proved incontestably that there was a Divine power engaged on behalf of David,
against which the king of Israel would vainly contend, which he could not resist, and
which would easily lay alike his messengers and himself prostrate and helpless at its
feet. If, after this, Saul continued in his murderous designs against David, the contest
would manifestly be not between two men, but between the king of Israel and the
Lord of Hosts, Who had wrought signs and miracles on Saul and his servants, and
that in full view of the whole people. It is this latter consideration which gives such
meaning to the circumstances narrated in the sacred text, that the common report,
how the spiritual influence had subdued and constrained Saul, when on his
murderous errand against David, led to the renewal of the popular saying: "Is Saul
also among the prophets?" For all Israel must know it, and speak of it, and wonder as
it learns its significance.
(^)