Ezekiel 11:25 - Homilies By J.r. Thomson

The prophetic office.

In these few and simple words we have a declaration of the office and function of the inspired prophet, and in a certain sense of every true religions teacher whom God commissions to be the vehicle and conscious agent in communicating his truth, counsels, admonitions, and encouragements to men.

I. RECEPTION . The prophet and every religious teacher must come mediately or immediately into spiritual communication with the Divine Mind.

1 . The Source from which the communication proceeds is none other than God himself.

2 . The matter which is received is what is commonly called revelation; the thoughts and commands and purposes of the Supreme are made known to a human spirit.

3 . The vision, the hearing, of the prophetic soul are made ready by Divine grace to appreciate the communication.

II. IMPARTATION .

1 . Thus the prophet, the religious teacher, is a mediator, capable on the one side, of fellowship with God, and on the other of correspondence and communion with his fellow men.

2 . There are special qualifications, by reason of which he can fulfil the commission received; he should be a man of quick intelligence, of tender sympathy, of dauntless courage, of manifest authority.

3 . Yet his chief credentials are simple and moral—truthfulness, conscientiousness, and simplicity of nature and habit.—T.