present volume approaches his subject, one might say, from the
dramatic standpoint, for, with fine insight, he has culled from the
lives of the prophets those striking and intense experiences which
illustrate most powerfully the indomitable spirit of these men who
followed right in scorn of consequence, for were they not the
messengers of the God of right whose demand upon men is, as told by
one of them in imperishable words, to do justice, to love mercy and to
walk humbly with God?

The author has succeeded well in his characterization of the various
prophets. His pages glow with the vital spark of each prophet's
flaming figure. He has named his book fittingly "Stories of the
Prophets," and interesting stories has he told. He has brought to his
task not only a sympathetic appreciation of his subject, but an
imaginative faculty that has enabled him to supply links in the
narrative suggested if not actually given in the incidents preserved
in the recorded annals.

From the words of the prophets themselves he has, therefore,
occasionally built up situations which if not strictly indicated in
the original text may, at any rate, be imagined. Not as predictors of
events in the far future, for this the prophets were not, despite
frequent interpretations of their words along this line, but as bold
speakers of the truth, as fiery preachers of the right, as intrepid
champions of the poor and oppressed, as fearless denouncers of
corruption and wrong in high places does our author present the
leading figures in his book. As such, their words are as significant
for us to-day as they were for the men of their generation, and their
impassioned accents sound as forcefully now as they did then. This is
brought out clearly and strikingly in the sketches of this volume,