Do you suppose that Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Daniel would have been
good men, if they had said to themselves, 'We are prophets; we are
inspired; we know God's law: and therefore we are righteous; we are
safe: but these people--these idolaters, these drunkards, these
covetous, tyrannous, profligate people round, to whom we preach, and
who know not the law--they are accursed.' If they had, they would
have said just what the Pharisees said afterwards. And what came of
their saying so? Instead of knowing the Lord Christ, when he came
they crucified him, showing that they were really worse at heart
than the ignorant common people, instead of better.
No, my friends, Isaiah, and Jeremiah, and Daniel, were, better men
than those round them, just because they had the humble and contrite
heart; because they confessed that the root of sin was in them too,
as much as in their fellow-country men; because they took their
share of the public blame, their share of the public burden.
And their work and wish was, to breed in their fellow-countrymen the
same humble and contrite heart which they had; to make them confess
that their only hope lay in turning back to God, and doing right.
But they could not succeed. Sin was too strong for them. So as
Isaiah had warned the Jews, God did the work himself.
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