BIBLE STUDIES —No. 38 Introduction to the Prophets

By Charles G. Mortimer,
WE ha\ e tiow passed in review the Ohl Testament books from Genesis to Eeclesiasticus, and before we embark on the Prophets it may be hest to sum up a few of the leading ought s put forward in these weekly notes. The Bible is rightly called. a Testament, that is, a Covenant or contract between God and His chosen people, destined finally to embrace all mankind. The Old Testament is the first record of this Covenant, the first history of this Revelation. It presents us not with g,00d advice but with good news ; not with spiritual aspirations only but a divine message, with a law of worship and. a moral code. While much of this is the foreshadowing of a future Plan, the fulfilment of the Promise concerning the Seed of the Woman, yet the Old Testament is the inspired and authoritative basis of the true Religion. _Hence we may draw out analogies between the Old Testament and the New Testament, such as :
The Old Testament Revelation—The deposit of Faith; The Old Testament Law—Grace and Salvation through Jest's Christ; The Ten Commandments—The Sermon on the Mount; The Jewish Sacrifices—The Christian Sacrifice: the Mass.
One of the supreme objects of the Old Testament is to relate the varying fortunes of the chosen people—hence, for instance, the historical books—and to show that the essence of the Covenant is this : Man may fail but God cannot. His Promise must and will be kept. Hence we may formulate two more pairs of truths : God is faithful to His pledge—The Church is indefectible; His people, despite their failings, have yet received the " oracles of God "—The Church is Infallible.
We are thus taught how much theology is implicit in the Old Testament—the same kind Of theology that we learn from our Catechism. It is all of a piece. Is is a curiously mistaken idea that teachers like St. John and St. Paul worked up an organised body of doctrine and elaborated new ideas that had but slender reference to the sayings of the historic Christ. On the contrary, both Christ and His Apostles appealed back to the Old Testament for the very sanction of what was now fully revealed:; as Our Lord Himself said : " These (the Old Testament Scripture0 are they that testify of life." Thus the " Wisdom " of the Old Testament is fulfilled in the Logos-doctrine of St. John and the glorious poetry of the Song of Songs in the teaching of St. Paul thisit the Church is the Mystical Bride of
Truth in the Old Testament are cast, as it were, two beams of light : one to illuminate the spirit in its approach to God—and hence the Psalms, still the text-book of our daily prayers; anothrr to direct us in the conduct of our lfre and the part we must play in this world and hence, for instance, the Proverbs, Furthermore, this teaching is reinforced by narratives such as Ruth and Esther or by philosophical and even dramatic studies like the book of Job.
Yet even so we have not spoken of the Prophets, whose books follow in due sequence. So to the Prophets we turn next, and here we must consider first what their office entailed and next the content of their several prophecies.
Next week: The Prophets (continued).