In the Gospel according to S. John it is stated that the crowds said
of Jesus, "This is of a truth that Prophet that should come into the
world": and so much, at the least, the average Englishman is ready to
admit: for to call Jesus Christ a Prophet--even to call Him the
supreme Prophet--is to claim for Him no more than a good Mohammedan
claims for Mohammed.

The word "prophet" in itself means one who speaks on behalf of
another: and a prophet is defined to be a spokesman on behalf of GOD.
He is essentially a man with a message. In so far as he is a true
prophet he is one who by an imperious inner necessity is constrained
to declare to his fellows a word which has come to him from the Lord.
And the prophet's word is urgent: it brooks no delay. It is impatient
of conventionalisms and shams. It breaks through the established order
of things in matters both social and religious. It is dynamic, vivid,
revolutionary. It goes to the root of things, with a startling
directness, a kind of explosive force. It disturbs and shatters the
customary placidities of men's lives. It forces them to face spiritual
realities, to look the truth in the face.

All this is true in a pre-eminent degree of the words of Christ. There
is a force and directness, an energy and intensity about His teaching,
which is without parallel in the history of the world. It might have
been thought impossible for His utterances, in any age or under any
circumstances, to become conventionalized: but the miracle has been
achieved. Christianity is to the average Englishman an established
convention and nothing more.

"Blessed are the poor in spirit," said Jesus: but _we_ say rather,