god's condescension to prayer.
Amos vii. 2, 3. Then I said, 0 Lord God, forgive, I beseech thee : by whom shall Jacob arise ? for he is small. The Lord repotted for this : It shall not be, saith the Lord.
IT is very instructive to see, amongst all the ser- vants of Jehovah, whether Prophets or Apostles, how love was blended with fidelity in the whole of their ministrations. They were constrained to declare all which " God had shewed unto thet?ia." But did they "desire the woeful events" which they predicted? They could appeal to God that they did notb. The Prophet Amos had been commanded to foretell that the fruits of the earth, with the exception of those which had been gathered in, should be eaten up by grasshoppers0. But he immediately betook himself to prayer, and, by his importunity, prevailed on God to suspend the threatened judgment. He was directed afterwards to foretell the destruction of a part of the land by fired: and again, in the same terms as before, he interceded for the land ; and obtained for it a similar relaxation of the impending calamity. The judgments had been begun to be inflicted6 ; but at his request they were removed. It is probable that these judgments were also threatened in & figurative sense ; and related to the invasions of Pul, king of Assyria, who contented himself with imposing a tribute of a
a ver. 1, 4, 7. b Jer. xvii. 16. c ver. 1, 2.
d ver. 4. e Amos iv. 9, 11.