Amos ix. 13. Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed; and the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt.
IT is gratifying to see what a harmony there is in all the prophets, in their descriptions of the glory of the latter day. The representations which heathen poets have given of what they call the golden age, are more than realized in their predictions. They appear indeed to speak of earthly things ; but it is of heavenly things that they speak : and by earthly images they embody truth, and present it to our
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minds with incomparably greater force than it could by any other means be conveyed. The idea of fer- tility, for instance, in all its richest luxuriance, is calculated to make a strong impression on the ima- gination : it is tangible, as it were ; and we can apprehend it ; and, when it is set before us in glow- ing language, we can with ease transfer to spiritual things our perceptions with all their clearness, and our impressions with all their force. Most striking is the picture drawn by the Prophet Hosea. He represents the people uttering their complaints to the corn and wine and oil ; and they to the earth ; and the earth to the heavens ; and the heavens to Jehovah : and all of them in succession conceding to the other the bless- ings solicited at their hands ; Jehovah granting clouds to the heavens ; they pouring out their contents upon the earth ; the earth yielding its juices to the corn and wine and oil ; and they nourishing the famished people a. The Prophet Joel goes further, and describes the effects produced, the mountains dropping down new wine, and the hills flowing with milkb; whilst the Prophet Amos proceeds yet further, and repre- sents the productions of the earth as so abundant, that there will scarcely be time to gather them in ; " the plowman overtaking the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth the seed:" in other words, that the successive operations of husbandry will, by reason of the abundance, press so closely upon each other, as almost to interrupt the regular execution of them.
It is with the spiritual import of these images that we are more immediately concerned^ It seems in- deed highly probable, that agreeably to the promise given by Moses c, there will be, as nearly as possible, a literal accomplishment of these things in Palestine, after that the Jews shall have been restored to their own land ; (for that event shall certainly take place in the appointed timed:) but infinitely richer blessings
a Hos. ii. 21—23. b Joel. iii. 18.
c Lev. xx vi. 5. d ver. 14, 15.