The Pulpit Commentary — Hosea — Section 59

drink, or whatever we <lo, we mny glorify Go<l?" The ohuse of God's mercies abridgeR the time of their enjoyment; when we mis11ge or mismanage our stewardship, he turns us out of office, o.nd tells us we mny be no longer steward11; when'.we forget the Giver 11nd forsake his service, we forfeit our interest in his gifts. The manner, too, of their removal 11d<ls justly merited severity to the stroke. Just as the time of reapina arrives, the harvest becomes a heap; just as the ship reaches the port, it becomes /: wreck ; just 11t tho senson when all seems sure and hopes are highest, the blight descends and expectation ends in bitterest disappointment. VI. SHA·ME AGGRAVATES Till': CHASTISEMENT. A sense of shame is sometimes the most painful punishment; llleu of greatest physical courage have often been founrl devoid of sufficient moral courage to bear up age.inst a laugh or resist a sneer. Besides, when insult is added to injury, the indignity is complete. When Israel prospered, her folly was covered and her sin cloaked ; her lewdness was long concealed, being unseen, or overlooked, or thought lightly of. But when the prosperity is withdrawn, the covering is cast aside and the cloak torn off. Outward prosperity, while it lasts, is like gilding over many a lewd life, or like veneering over a loose character. But when, in the providence of God, the day of adversity comes, the inward vileness becomes transparent; when Israel fell from her prosperous state, her corruption was made manifest, even in the sight of the idols she loved, and whose love-tokens she fanciect herself to have enjoyed, or of the idolatrous nations whose alliance she courted, or of the sun and moon which as deities she worshipped; she is stripped naked, and exposed to shame, contempt, and insult. Nor is there any hope of remedy or prospect of recovery. It has been well remarked that" those who will not deliver themselve.s into the hand of God's mercy, cannot be delivered out of the hand of his justice." VII. SORROW FOLLOWS SHAME IN THE DAY OF ISRAEL'S DISTRESS. Israel continued to keep up the outward ordinances of religion, but the inward essence had long departed; there was the semblance of worship, but the reality was altogether absent; there was a form of godliness, but it was destitute of the living power. Jeroboam had made the worship of Jehovah a state religion. The changes he introduced were with the view of furthering his political interests. 'l'he worship he established was a sort of rival worship, so that the breach between the ten tribes and the two might become wider and still widening. He changed the manner of worship by the introduction of images or symbols, ao that Jehovah was worshipped under the form of a calf, as though in allusion to the cherubim over the mercy-seat; he changed the place of worship from its central seat at Jerusalem to Dan in the north and Bethel in the south; he changed the time of worship, at least in the case of the Feast of Tabernacles, from the seventh month to the eighth, as though the harvest was later in the north than in the south ; he changed the ministers of worship, taking the priests out of all the tribes without distinction, and not from that of Levi, which had resisted his innovations and refused to sanction his godless novelties. But notwithstanding these changes-and important changes they were-he retained so much of the national worship as suited his purpose, and did not clash with his usurpation or tend to weaken his authority. Israel still had the weekly sabbath, memorial of creation work completed; and the month-sabbath, a monthly dedication to God. They had the three yearly festivals-the pesach, with the chag ha-matzoth, to commemorate the deliverance from Egypt; the chag ha-sh'bu'oth, or feast of weeks, called also chag ha-gatzir, the feast of harvest, and yom ha-bicwrim, day of firstfruits; and the chag ha-asiph, the feast of ingathering, or chag ha-succoth, feast of tabernacles, or simply chag, the feast by way of eminence, the completion of the ingathering of fruits and vintage, and commemoration of Israel dwelling in ter.ts in the wilderness ; they had all the other solemn feasts of thanksgiving to God for special providences or particular blessings. With all these feasts were associated merry-makings, especially with tho.t of tabernacles; but now God takes all these away. 'l'he outward joy had for long been severed from that inward spiritual joy of true religion; only the semblance remained, for the substance was gone. And now shadow as well as substance is to pass away. God in judgment turns their joy into sorrow, their mirth into melancholy. "Sin and mirth," says an old writer, "can never hohl long together; but if men will not take away sin from their mirth, God will tako awo.y mirth from their sin." VllI. RUIN OF 'l'HEIR l'llOSPECTS AB WELL AB OF THEm POSSESSIONS, 'l'he threatened 50 'l'HE MOK OF HOSEA~ (ctt. 11. 1~2a.