destruction of their vines and fig trees affected, not only their preser.t and actual pos• sessions, but also their future and possible prospects. The frmts of one year, or even of ~cversl, might fail; but other years of better harvests and other seasons of greater fruitfulness might repair in some measure the loss. 'l'he destruction here threatened, however, is not only that of one year's fruits or of one season's produce, but the cuttina off of all future hope. It is not only the destruction of the jl'uits, but of the free;, and so a ruin v.-ithout remedy. Neither is it a partial destruction-some of tho•;e fruit- bearing trees bcin!): still spared-but total; the country woul~ be laid waste, the fences would be broken down, the enclosures taken away, and the vmeyards left as a cowmon; the fig trees would give place to forest trees, and wild beasts devour and dwell amid the ruins. Yet Israel could not say that this ruin was unmerited, for the prophet is careful to remind them how foully they had abused the favours of God's provi<lence, and scandalously regardeJ them as the fruits of their idolatry, the gifts of their idols or the hire of their spiritual adultery. ' IX. RETRIBIJ'l'ION COMMENSURATE WITH THEIR WBONG-DOING, God's chastisements in this, as often in other cases, bear an obvious proportion to the heinousness of men's sin and the time of its continuance. Like wicked men and seducers in general, idolaters wax: worse and worse. From the wrong way of worshipping God under the images of the calves according to their own devices, they had proceeded to the grosser sin of settin<> up an idol in his place. This idolatry had long continued, and that continuance made"' an era. in their history here named tbe days of Baalim. 1. The variety of this idolatry is specified. They worshipped Baal under divers forms, for divers purposes, and in divers places; and hence the plural. Ilaalim. 2. We may notice the devoutness of their .idolatry. The burning of incense preceded the morning and succeeded the evening sacrifice of a lamb in the temple. It was symbolical of prayer and thanksgiving; it was, in fact, the highest and holiest of the priest's functions, as we may infer from Luke i. 9. 3. Further, the preparation and pomp of this service to which Israel prostituted the wealth she possessed, decking herself, adulteress-like, with her ear-rings and her jewels; and la,ishing the good gifts of God's providence on contemptible and filthy idols. 4. Her eagerness for idol-worship is as noticeable as it is lamentable. Unsought, unsoli- cited, without inducement or allurement, she takes the initiative, and with unblushing importunity makes advances to her lovers. 5, The blackest_ sin of all, and in some sort the source of all. was her forgetfulness of God. .Alas I how often do men and women abuse the best gifts of God, and pervert them to tbe vilest purposes I How often are they far more zealous in a wrong course than in the right! How often do sinful pursuits engross their noblest powers ! How often does the storm of evil passion sweep away all thoughts of God out of their mind I How often, amid the lusts of the flesh, the lusts of the eye, the pride of life, grovelling avarice, soaring ambition, and schemes of worldliness, do men forget God altogether; or at least how often do they consecrate to self, or sensuality, or sin in some of its countless forms, the thoughts, affections, and love which God claims as justly his due I How often, too, does God visit \\'ith terrible retribution the sins of such I
Vers. 14-23.-Sympathy with lsrael in spite ,if their sins. The laken which introduces ver. 14 is rendered by some" notwithstanding," and this is what we might expect; but it is opposed by linguistic usage. We must adhere to the ordinary tra.ns- lation, which is "therefore." 'l'he word thus translated tends to exalt our idea of God's goodness. Israel had sinned and forgotten God; the " therefore" we would expect, and the inference we would draw is God's final and for-ever abandonment of such a sinful, God-forgetting people. Not so, however. Israel had sinned by idolatry, and sunk into a depth of misery from which they were utterly unable to extricate themselves. But their extremity is God's opportunity; their misery appeals to God's mercy; and what man could not do, and man would not do if he could, God does, liflin'-' Israel up out of the pit of misery into which, through sin and forgetfolness of God, they had plunged. Not their desert, but their distress, turned the eye of Divine compassion upon them. "His ways are not as our ways, neither are his thoughts as our thoughts." "He bath not dealt with us," says the psalmist, "after our sins; nor rewarded us a.ccording to our iniquities." He had indeed dealt with Israel in wrath, anu pr~pa1erl the people to put away their idols, and now, to prcveut them giving way on, ll, 1-23,] 'l'HE BOOK OF HOSEA. 51