the original reality...

I have spent a goodly part of my day studying the Prophets in preparation for our Church's Bible Study group this Sunday (a pretty good way, incidentally, to spend the day.) My favorite line so far...Abraham Heschel's idea that a Prophet has "a sympathy with the Divine pathos."

"PROPHETS WHO HAVE BEEN SINCE THE WORLD BEGAN." is James Freeman Clarke's take on prophecy.  An excerpt...

"A PROPHET is not merely one who foresees, who knows the future, who beholds events as they draw near: he is this, and more. He is not merely one who rebukes a nation's sins. Prophets do that; but that is not all they do. He is not merely one who teaches truth. The essential thing which makes him a prophet lies deeper than any of these partial definitions take us. A prophet is one who goes back of all traditions in religion to the original reality; behind all creeds, to the primal insights out of which they grew; beneath all expediency, to the creative law of justice and eternal right. This makes him a prophet; this helps him to foresee; this charges him full of noble indignation against all falsifiers of truth, and betrayers of justice. Such men are naturally and necessarily the teachers of their race. They do not teach officially as a profession, but from the need of utterance. He who sees, must say what he sees. "We also believe, and therefore speak."

Blessings
(illustration:  Seated Prophet by Durer)