"Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret
unto his servants the prophets."--Amos 3:7.
The words are those of a prophet of God who figured in the midst of
the Hebrew nation about eight hundred years before the birth of the Savior. A
more modern translation of the text might have rendered it thus: Surely the
Lord God will do nothing, without first revealing it to his servants the
prophets. But it is sufficiently plain in its present form. The meaning I
understand to be this: The all-wise Dispenser of human affairs will neither
cause nor permit any event to take place, affecting the weal or woe of the
human family, until he has first communicated with his chosen servants, his
oracles among men, and given them due notice of its approach, making them wise
as to his purpose, that they in turn may make wise the people; the object being
that some sort of preparation shall precede the event in question. The promised
sending of Elijah the prophet, before the coming of the great and dreadful day
of the Lord, as foretold by Malachi, was in order that certain things might be
done which, if left undone, would cause that coming to smite the earth with a
curse.
To prepare God's people, and through them the world at large, for
changes that must come in the carrying out of the divine program, is the
function of the prophet, who foretells the future; of the seer, who looks
through time into eternity; of the revelator, who delivers the word and will of
the Universal Father to his children. The aims of the prophets are high and
noble. They desire the happiness and progress of the race; yet almost
invariably they are misunderstood, ridiculed, opposed and persecuted. (Orson F.
Whitney, Conference Report [October 1917]: 49)
