this admonition:

"Whoso is wise, let him understand these things;
Whoso is prudent, let him realize them;
For straight are the ways of the Lord.
The righteous walk in them,
But transgressors stumble upon them."





THE STATESMAN PROPHET



CHAPTER I.

_The Vision in the Temple._


Even his closest friends could not explain what had come over young
Isaiah, since the physicians announced that King Uzziah was nearing
his end.

Amoz, Isaiah's father, was of a noble family, very near the throne in
Jerusalem, and a dear personal friend of the king. Isaiah, too, was a
prime favorite of Uzziah's, not by virtue of his father's friendship
for the king, but because of his own fine qualities and excellent
disposition.