of Hebrew inspiration has ever appeared upon the stage of history, and failed to obtain the recognition of his countrymen because they themselves no longer felt the living breath of that inspiration in their hearts.

With the noblest conception, however, when committed to the custody, not of a select few, but of a whole people, it is inevitable that low and selfish thoughts should mingle. While times of calamity answer a holy purpose in raising men's minds to the contemplation of a divine order to which the world must ultimately be conformed, yet they are times when men of inferior spirit are prone to dream dreams, and to see visions in which the products of a higher faith are fantastically blended with imagery born from the terror of defeat, the rage of helpless suffering, and the lust of revenge. In such times false prophets abound, and ready credence is given to what satisfies the dominant passion. Josephus relates that at the siege of Jerusalem a multitude of six thousand people, including women and children, perished in a porch connected with the Temple, owing to the proclamation of a false prophet, who had desired them to go up to the sacred enclosure to receive there the signs of their deliverance. He adds that there were many prophets of this kind 'suborned by the tyrants' to prevent the people from deserting, and that a man in misfortunes is soon persuaded.'1 A similar instance of credulity was witnessed at the capture of Constantinople by the Turks. 'From every part of the capital' there flowed into the church of St. Sophia. the multitude of fathers and husbands, of women and children, of priests, monks, and religious virgins: the doors were barred on the inside, and they sought protection from the sacred dome . . . Their confidence was founded on the prophecy of an

1 B. J. vi. 5, 2.

enthusiast or impostor, that one day the Turks would enter Constantinople, and pursue the Romans as far as the column of Constantine in the square before St. Sophia; but that this would be the term of their calamities: that an angel would descend from heaven, with a sword in his hand, and would deliver the empire, with that celestial weapon, to a poor man seated at the foot of the column. "Take this sword," would he say, "and avenge the people of the Lord." At these animating words, the Turks would instantly fly, and the victorious Romans would drive them from the West.' Amid the great upheaval of thought at the time of the Reformation wild fanatics arose, filled with disordered longings for a redeemed and renovated world. The prophets of Zwickau professed to have special revelations, and laid claim to the power of predicting future events. Strange visions haunted their sleep, and were not wholly absent from their waking moments. With the same confidence as the writer of Fourth Ezra,' they foretold the speedy termination of the present order of things. The Turk would soon seize upon Germany. All priests (even married ones) would be slain. In five, six, or seven years such general destruction would take place that not a single sinner would be left. And then the kingdom of God would come, and there would be one baptism, one faith.2 Even by English rustics, in their abhorrence of the papal proclivities and despotic measures of James II., it was fondly believed that their beloved Monmouth,' though his treason had been terminated by the scaffold, 'would

6

1 Gibbon, Decline and Fall, ch. lxviii. In Dr. Smith's edit. of 1854-5 vol. viii. pp. 172-3.

2 See Ranke's Deutsche Geschichte im Zeitalter der Reformation. Vierte Auflage, 1869, ii. S. 15 sq. The original authorities are quoted in Gieseler's Lehrbuch der Kirchengeschichte. Dritten Bandes erste Abth. 1840, Cap. i. Anm. 87, S. 101 87.

suddenly appear, would lead them to victory, and would tread down the King and the Jesuits under his feet.' 1 But not to multiply instances, we may borrow an example from our own time. Amid the excitement produced in France by the disasters in the Franco-German war the imagination of many was exalted into the intensity of belief, and a ready ear was given to stories of miracle and prophecy. Monseigneur Dupanloup, Bishop of Orleans, in an address to his brethren of the Catholic Church in France, relates how a person had said to him with full confidence, 'God will work a miracle; God will strike a great blow.' He asked him how he knew, and the reply was, 'You will see; I have no proof to give, but I am sure of it.' He mentions that at the time of writing he had before him more than twenty volumes of pretended prophecies, of all sizes and countries, but chiefly from France and Belgium. One of these was called Le Grand Avènement, Preceded by the Great Prophecy.' This great advent was to take place on February 17, 1874, and a Paris bookseller stated that before that date fifty thousand copies had been sold.2 This example, borrowed from a neighbouring country which boasts of being the leader of civilisation, may enable us to enter more sympathetically into the wild hopes and longings of the struggling and oppressed Jews, and may also save us from laying undue stress upon a class of literature which, in some of its aspects, may represent rather the passion of an hour and of a party than the per

1 Macaulay's History of England, ch. viii. In fourth edition, vol. ii. p. 367. Similarly, the victims of the Bloody Assizes believed that Christ would soon come to the rescue. Ibid. ch. v.

2 This is taken from the French correspondent of the Times. I have not got the exact reference; but a portion of the correspondent's letter was quoted in The Inquirer, April 25, 1874.

manent conviction of a nation. But through all its vagaries the reader to whom the human soul, even in its errors, is dear, will discern a love of righteousness which no oppression could crush, and the aspirations of a faith which no suffering could extinguish.

CHAPTER II.

SKETCH OF THE MESSIANIC IDEA AS EXHIBITED IN THE

PROPHETS.

Ir does not belong to our present subject to give a full and critical account of the Messianic idea as it is presented in the pages of the Old Testament. But as it is desirable to have a general view of the Scriptural basis on which the belief of a later time was supposed to rest, we must briefly notice the picture of the ideal future exhibited to us by the successive prophets; and here, for the sake of conciseness, we shall follow the former of the two methods indicated in the last chapter, and sketch at once the entire view of each writer or group of writers. In doing so I must not pause on disputed points of criticism and interpretation, a discussion of which would be inconsistent with the subsidiary character of the present survey.1

We may confine our attention to the prophetical books, in which the great lines of Messianic thought are clearly and unmistakably traced. Among these we may

1 I must acknowlege my indebtedness, among other works, particularly to Anger's Vorlesungen über die Gesch. der mess. Idee, which is chiefly occupied with the Old Testament, and gives a careful and neatly arranged synopsis of the subject; and to Oehler's article 'Messias' in Herzog. References to other works may be seen in Anger, S. 17. I may refer here to Il Messia secondo gli Ebrei studio di David Castelli. Firenze, 1874. The Old Testament view is treated in the First Part. I unfortunately procured the work too late to avail myself of the numerous Rabbinical references in the Second Part.