( eh. i. and iii.) of this book? The most interesting problem of Hosca's life nnd the ".,.e_xed ques~ion" in_the exposition of his prophecy, li~s !n th~ mee.ning of this Btory of his domestic experiences. There have been three prmc1p11.l mterpret11.tions. At tho nue extreme is the eeverely literal new; viz. that Hosea, in obedience to 11. Divine C()mmand, united himself in martiase with a woman notorious for her impurity ( Augustine, Pusey, Dean Stanley, etc.). At the other extreme is the purely alle<rorlcal view; viz. that the narrative is to be regarded merely as a parable; or, at most, that the marri~e too~ place in _prophetic_ Yision_ only (Jerome, Calvin, Hengetenberg, etc.), The exegesis which the ,n1ter of this homily prefers lies between these two; viz. that Hosea's me.rrie.ge was real, but that Gomer did not become profligate until after she had borne the prophet's three children (Ewald, Professor A. ll. Davidson, Dr. Robertson Smith, etc.). No view which it is possible to take is free from difficulties; but this last one is not exposed to the insurmountable objections which, in the writer's judg- ment, adhere t-0 the two extreme interpretations. It also furnishes an appropriate parall~l in Hosea's experience ~ the J~ve of God for his people Israel. The prophet, e.ccordmgly, contracted a marn11.ge which turned out to be unhappy. Gomer did not love God. Her heart became contaminated with the more.I miasma which was poison in" the ~ocial life of the whole nation. Hosea's quiet home, his simple occupations, and hi~ devout s11.bb11.th-keeping, grew distasteful to her. She felt her life intolerably slow. After the birth of her third child she was directly tempted, and wandered and fell. Gomer joined the throng of the priestesses of Ashtoreth, took part in the abominable rites of the Phcenician idolatry, and left her poor husband to "cry to vacant chairs 11'.tid widowed walls " that she had made his home desolate. Hosea's love for his spouse had been very deep and tendeT, and he felt the.t he loved her still, despite the fierce conflict which his affection had now to wage against his outrnge<l honour. It would almost seem too, from the ominous names given to the children, that they also, as they grnw up, followed for a time in their mother's evil ways. So Hosea begins his book by showing that it was the blighting of his fireside joy's and the breaking of his howiehold gods that first me.de him "a man of sorrows." "Now I sit All lonely, homeless, weary of my life, Thick darkness round me, and the stars all dumb, That erst had sung their wondrous tale of joy. And thou hast done it all, 0 faithless one I 0 Gomer I whom I loved as never wife Was loved in Israel, ell the wrong is thine I Thy ha.nd bath spoiled ell my tender vines, Thy foot bath trampled all my pleasant fruits, Thy Bin bath laid my honour in the dust." (Dean Plumptre.) IL Gon's PROVIDENCE IN THIS DISHONOtra. The shipwreck of his home-happiness taught Hosea very solemn spiritual lessons. He heard in it the voice of Jehovah point- inu out to him his life-work. Looking around, he perceived that his experience was not an isolated one. Rather, his home was a picture of the moral state of the entire northern kingdom. The land was reeking with sensuality. And with th~t sin the sin of idolatry was closely intertwined. So Hosea became very deeply convinced that all the crime and vice of the age sprang from one spiritual root: "'fhe l~nd had ~om- mitted great whoredom, departing from the Lord." He reflected that !us own bitter experience was but a parable of God's experience. What Gomer was to him, the Isre.elitish nation had been to Jehovah. She had been betrothed to God "in the <lays of her youth, when she came up out of the land of Egypt;" e.~d the nuptials had been celebrated at Mount Sinai. But, alas I she had fallen now rnto foul and shameless idolatry. Hosea., from his own sad experience, could have sympathy with God. Him- self a victim--a.nd not an eye-witness merely--of the wickedness of his age, he realized more fully than he could otherwise have done the odiousness of Israel's apostasy. When he tbouuht of Gomer, be could understand the words of the second command- ment, "I the Lord thy God am a jealous God." And thus his conjugal dishonour was l,is birth as a prupbet. Jt was "the beginning of the word of the Lord in Hosea.'' OH, I. 1-11.) 'rl-IE BOOK OF HOSEA. 1!)
'fhe Book of HosoB is B poem; and while, of course, "the poet is born, not made," even ta in his own life are oftentlmos needed to strike from him the poetic fire. Although tho poet is "dowered with the hate of hate, the scorn of scorn, the love of love," it is al~o true that "Most wretched men Are orndlod into poetry by wrong: They learn in suffering what they teach in song." (Shelley.) It was notably AO with Hosea. Affliction was his one prophetical school. So, when he now sits down to begin Iii, book, he recounts a.t the outset his domestic wrongs, in tl,e light of his ripe experience of their Divine meaning. God had "girded" him, tbouo-h at first he had "not known" it. The Lord had said, in his own Divine plan of Hose~'s life, "Go, take unto thee a wife of whoredoms, and children of whoredoms." The event had taught him that his desolate home was a type of Israel's ruin; and his pity for Gomer-which longed to restore her from her wasted life-a faint shadow of the yearning love of God for his apostate people. III. LESSONS FOR OURSELVES. 1. God himself is the supreme end of our life. He is so: (1) 'l'o the individual. "Man's chief end is to glorify God." The life whicn does not do this is a failure. (2) To the f<11mily. This sad story reminds us of ,he blessedness of household piety, and of a pure family life. Holy Scripture everywhere magnifies the family, and enjoins that the fear of God be enthroned in its very heart. "Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it." (3) To the nation. National religion, on the part of a. self-governing people, depends upon the spiritual state. of the persons a.nd households which .compose the nation. "Departure from the Lord," whether in the case of the individual, or the family, or the common- wealth, is idolatry and adultery; and jt_ leads inevitably to ruin (Ps. lxxiii. 27). 2. .AU of us require to repent of Gamer's sin. Our evil hearts have gone a-whoring fwm our God; our wrong words and actions are the children. born of our adultery. Ea.eh of us may say- "Thon, my aonl, wast loved, As bride by bridegroom, by the eternal Lord: And thou, too, ha.at been false." (Dean Plumptre.) 3. .A course of affliction affords a valuable prophetic curriculum. There is a sense in which" all the Lord1s people" should be" prophets." But, before we can be fully qualified and accomplished to teach the truth as it is in Jesus, we most be washed, not only iu his blood, but in our own hearts' blood also.-C. J.