' voice of thunder. It is the same inner voice through which 'God speaks to all of us. That voice may dwindle away and 'become hardly audible; it may lose its divine accent, and 'sink into the language of worldly prudence; but it may also 'from time to time assume its real nature with the chosen of 'God, and sound into their ears as a voice from heaven. A "Divine instinct" would neither be an appropriate name for 'what is a gift or grace accorded but to few, nor would it be a 'more intelligible word than "special revelation."' 1 Through these revelations, the child first, and then the man, became 'Samuel the Seer.' By that ancient name, older than 'Samuel the any other designation of the Prophetic office, he was 'Seer.' known in his own as in after times. 'I am the Seer,' was his answer to those who asked, 'Is the Seer here?' 2 'Where is the Seer's house?' 'Samuel the Seer' is the name by which he is known in the Books of Chronicles, as the counsellor of Saul and David.3 And, as if in a distorted reminiscence of his peculiar gift of second sight,—of insight into the secrets of Heaven, and of the future,-Samuel is the character selected in Mussulman traditions as the first revealer of the mysteries of the nocturnal flight of Mahomet from Mecca to Jerusalem.1 But it was in a much higher and more important sense than as a mere 'seer' of visions, that Samuel appears as pre-eminently 'the Prophet.' The passages already quoted from the New Testament indicate to us, and Augustine in his 'De Civitate 'Dei'' has well caught the idea, that he is the beginning of that Prophetical dispensation, which ran parallel with the Monarchy from the first to the last king, and together with it forms the essential characteristic of the whole of the coming period. 'Hoc 'itaque tempus, ex quo Sanctus Samuel prophetare cœpit, et deinceps donec populus Israel in Babyloniam captivus duceretur . . . . totum est tempus Prophetarum.' It was from Samuel's time that the succession was never broken. Quoted from the same Essay of Prof. Max Müller already cited in Lecture I. p. 13. 2 1 Sam. ix. 11, 18, 19. '6 Even the Mussulman legends delight to make him the herald of all the Prophets, down to the last, that were to come after him. The Schools of the Prophets. In many ways does this origination of the line of Prophets centre in Samuel. We may trace back to him the institution even in its outward form and fashion. In his time we first hear of what in modern phraseology are called the Schools of the Prophets. Whatever be the precise meaning of the peculiar word, which now came first into use as the designation of these companies, it is evident that their immediate mission consisted in uttering religious hymns or songs, accompanied by musical instruments-psaltery, tabret, pipe, harp, and cymbals.1 In them, as in the few solitary instances of their predecessors, the characteristic element was that the silent seer of visions found an articulate voice, gushing forth in a rhythmical flow, which at once riveted the attention of the hearer.2 These, or such as these, were the gifts which under Samuel were now organised, if one may so say, into a system. The spots where they were chiefly gathered, even in later times, were more or less connected with their founder; Bethel and Gilgal. But the chief place where they appear in his own lifetime is his own birth-place and residence, Ramah, Ramathaimzophim, the height,' 'the double height of the watchmen.' From this or from some neighbouring height they might be seen descending, in a long line or chain,3 which gave its name to their company, with 'psaltery, harp, tabret, pipe, and cymbals.' Or by the dwellings, the leafy huts as they were in later times, on the hill-side-'Naioth in Ramah'—they were settled in a congregation 4 (such is the word in the original), a church as it were within a church, and 'Samuel stood appointed over them.' 5 Under the shadow of his name they dwelt as within a charmed circle. From them went forth an influence which awed and inspired even the wild and reckless soldiers of that lawless age.6 Amongst them we find the first authors distinctly named, in Hebrew literature, of actual books which descended to later generations, and gathered up the recollections of their own or of former times. Song, and music, and dance were interwoven in some sacred union, difficult for us to conceive in these western or northern regions, yet not without illustrations, even at the present day, from the religious observances of Spain and of Arabia. But, unlike the dances of Seville and Cairo, the mystical songs and ecstasies of these Prophetic schools were trained to ends much nobler than any mere ceremonial observance. Thither in that age of change and dissolution Samuel gathered round him all that was generous and devout in the people of God. David, the shepherd warrior and wandering outlawSaul, the wild and wayward king-Heman, the grandson of Samuel himself,2 chief singer, afterwards, in David's court, and known especially as the king's seer-Gad, the devoted companion of David in his exile-Nathan, his stern reprover in after times, and the wise counsellor of David's wise son—all, however different their characters and stations, seem to have found a home within those sacred haunts, all caught the same Divine inspiration; all were, for the time at least, drawn together by that invigorating and elevating atmosphere. I may be forgiven, if for a moment, before dwelling in detail on what belong to the special age and country, I call attention to the fact that this is the first direct mention, the first express sanction, not merely of regular arts of instruction and education, but of regular societies formed for that purpose-of schools, of colleges, of universities. Long before Plato had gathered his disciples round him in the olive grove, or Zeno in the Portico, these institutions had sprung up under Samuel in Judæa. It is always interesting, whether in common or in ecclesiastical history, to indicate the successive moments at which the successive ideas and institu 'The Psalms of David, and the biographies written by Samuel, Gad, and Nathan. (1 Chron. xxix. 29.) Various books of the Old Testament have been ascribed to Samuel--the Judges, Ruth, the Pentateuch, and even the two books which bear his name. But of the author ship of these writings there is no express mention, and therefore no decisive proof, however much he may, with probability, be supposed to have contributed towards the composition of some of them. 2 Son of Joel, 1 Chron. vi. 33; xv. 17; XXV. 5. tions, afterwards to be developed, first came into existence. And here, in Oxford, it is impossible not to note with peculiar interest the rise of these, as they may be truly called, the first places of regular religious education. They present to us the same fixedness of local continuity, which so remarkably distinguishes our schools and universities from the shifting philosophical societies of Greece; at Bethel and at Gilgal, if not at Ramah, the schools of the Prophets are found in the time of Elijah where they were in the time of Samuel, even as our own University, and our own Colleges, still flourish on the ground chosen ages ago by Alfred and by Walter de Merton. They present to us also, so far as we know anything of their constitution, something of the same large influence, so often observed amongst ourselves, the effect exercised rather by the general atmosphere and society of the place, than by its special instructions. Of the information imparted by Samuel, or by the fathers of the school of the Prophets, we know hardly anything. We see only that there was a contagion of goodness, of enthusiasm, of energy, which even those who came with hostile or indifferent minds, such as Saul and the messengers of Saul, found it almost impossible to resist; they, too, were rapt into the vortex of inspiration, and the bystanders exclaimed with astonishment, 'Is Saul also among the prophets?' How like to the spell exercised by the local genius of our English Universities, insensibly, unaccountably exercised over many, who would not be able to say how or whence they had gained it; how like to the influences passing to and fro amongst us, for good or evil, from the example, the characters, the spirit of our companions; far more potent than lectures, or precepts, or sermons. 'I have learned much from my Masters, more from 'my companions, most of all from my scholars.'2 And further, The Pro- if this be so, the peculiar circumstances of the rise of the Prophetic Schools of Israel may well point out to us one special object, at least, of all such seats of education everywhere. To mediate between the old and the phetic mission of Samuel. 1 See Lecture XIX. 2 Sayings of a Rabbi, quoted in Cowley's Davideis, Notes, p. 40. new; to maintain a standard of independent thought and feeling amidst the pressure of lower influences; to distinguish between that which is temporal and that which is eternal-this is the mission of institutions like ours; this was the mission of Samuel, and of the schools of which he was the Founder. Let us take these points in their order. His media the old and the new. 1 1. To mediate between the old and the new.—This, as I have before intimated, was indeed the peculiar position of Samuel. He was at once the last of the Judges and tion between the inaugurator of the first of the Kings. Take the whole of the narrative together; take the story first of his opposition, and then of his acquiescence, in the establishment of the Monarchy. Both together bring us to a just impression of the double aspect in which he appears, of the two-sided sympathy which enabled him to unite together the passing and the coming epoch. The misdemeanors of his own sons-the first appearance in them of the grasping avaricious character which in later ages has thrown so black a shadow over the Jewish character-precipitated the catastrophe which had been long preparing. The people demanded a king. Josephus 2 describes the shock to Samuel's mind, because of 'his inborn sense of justice, because of his hatred of kings, as 'so far inferior to the aristocratic rule, which conferred a god'like character on those who lived under it.' For the whole night he lay, we are told, fasting and sleepless, in the depths of doubt and perplexity. In the visions of that night,3 and the announcement of them on the following day, is given the dark side of the new institution. On the other hand, his acceptance of the change is no less clearly marked in the story of his reception of Saul. In the first meeting no word is breathed to break the impression that God is with the new Ruler, and, in his final coronation as king, there is no check to the joy with which the whole nation, and, according to the Septuagint, Samuel himself, 'rejoiced greatly.'5 In the final address is represented the mixed feeling with which, after having fore 'Their crimes were bribery and exorbi tant usury. 1 Sam viii. 4. (LXX.) 2 Ant. vi. 3, § 3. 4 3 Ibid. Ibid. xi. 15. |