A Prophet for this Age

I do suppose this age needs a prophet, though I know not who. Certainly I am too late to be a prophet for my age; I believe myself too old to be a prophet to the young (and certainly I am too vain). But I shall herald the prophet, if I am not too frail. Who shall this prophet be? What shall he preach? He will not reach love-- this age has had enough talk of love-- but rather wrath. Or perhaps he will not even know of wrath; perhaps all he will know will be the despair of life, a man too old for his time (so I am not excused when God drafts this prophet). His age will be his vigor, his wisdom his killing-stroke. He shall hate the world, just as Christ loved the Church. This prophet will not come to be loved, but to be scorned, so that the world-lovers shall read their hypocrisy on his brow. He will die a martyr- must die a martyr- in order that they may be awakened to their folly.
This is my prophet, but perhaps he is not God's prophet. Perhaps God's prophet will be a man acting love, and being convicted by the hate that plagues the world.
The question is whether all this talk of love that surrounds us in this day and age, is spoken by men who do as they preach, and love as they know how, or whether it is spoken by men who secretly hate the world deep in their hearts.

The prophet will not be welcome here.