The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1927-10-22
BY VIM. E. GILROY.N. d.

Editor of the Congregationaiist
The passages chosen for our lesson
reveal to us much more than the
circumstances of the call of three
different men to be prophets. They
may be said rather to suggest or typ
ify the nature of the prophetic i'm
pulse and the way in which the call
comes to men in general.
In two instances of the three the
circumstances are not diSSimilar.
The call came to Elisha while he was
blowing with oxen in the field. To
Amos the call came when he was
attending to his duties as a herds
man and gatherer of fruit. In the
case of Isaiah the call to the proph-
etc function seemed more in accord
ance with what we might expect. 1t
came while he was at worship, in a
vision that corresponded to his de-
votional mood.
These phases of the prophetic call,
however, are not as different as they
might seem: Had there been no
worshipful spirit in Elisha and Amos
as they went about their daily tasks
there would have been no prophetic
call or no capacity for hearing it and
responding to it. Had there been In
Isaiah simply a worshipful mood,
with no great practical willingness to
serve, his experience would have ex-
pressed itself in mere feeling, and he
would not have responded to the
voice of the call saying, Here am I;
send me-"
These indications Of the way In
which God called men to great
prophetic service in the past are ex-
ceedingly important for today. We
might be disposed to say that those
who have been accorded distinctive
place in the record of the worlds
great prophets were surely specially
prepared for their task.
We might at least be inclined to
regard their office as one that arose
through unusual circumstances and
a very clear and distinctive call. The
call, as matter of fact, was clear
and distinctive, but the outstanding
impression Of our lesson is that 1t
came not in any extreme or unusual
form, but as a profound conviction
of call and duty experienced by men
as they pursued their ordinary occu-
rpations.
One might even lay certain
stress upon the Identification in anc-
lent Israel of prophecy with vigorous
out-of-doors life in field and vine
yard. How often even in the cities,
where men congregate, the really
prophetic voice has come from the
country or from the wilderness! 1t
is out in the open spaces where men
feel something of the vastness OF the
universe and the greatness Of God;
it is in the elemental experience OF
daily living as men produce the
means Of life from the soil that they
come to real and clear perceptions
of value.
There are few false assumptions
or unrealities here. The conditions
and foundations of existence are
daily enforced upon the minds and
consciousness of men and the myS-
teries of providence are brought
very definitely into the range OF in
dividual experience. Hope and fear,
service and devotion, become empha-
sized when life is lived under such
conditions, and when, without an
elemental faith and willingness to
work with providence, the very con-
ditions of life cannot be fulfilled.
It was some such rugged clearness
of vision with power to see things
without soplistication and corrup-
ton that Elisha was brought from
his driving of oxen to the larger
Office OF the prophet AS he learned
to pillow a straight furrow so his new
task was characterized by simple
directness of purpose.
So also Amos brought from the
fields deep and wide range Of