The prophets were not religious individualists.... they always dealt with Israel and Judah as organic totalities. They conceived of their people as a gigantic personality which sinned as one and ought to repent as one.... it was only when the national life of Israel was crushed by foreign invaders that the prophets began to address themselves to the individual life and lost the large horizon of public life.

p. 8-9 - Christianity and the Social Crisis (1907) - Ch.1 The Historical Roots of Christianity the Hebrew Prophets