a ln"e, therefore, entirely pnre, self-oaused, unbought, and disinterested. How warmly s!ionl<l our love go back to him who has thus loved us I JI. THE PROPHE'r's TREATMENT OF ms WIFE, ( Vers. 2-4.) Consider here : I. Th6 rnndit1i1n in which he found her. It was a very deplorable one, She had sunk so low that it became neces.qary to "buy " her. 'l'he price paid-fifteen pieces of silver and a home~ _and a half of barley-seems the equivalent of the price of a slave. If so, it is nn add1t10nal token of her deeply humbled state. Either (1) she had sunk to the cnndition of a slave, and required to be redeemed out of it; or (2) "it was perhaps an allowance, whereby he brought her back from her evil freedom, not to live as his wife but to be honestly maintained, until i~ sbo1;1ld be fit completely ~ reRtore her" <Pusey)'. Darley was the coarsest food, so that, 1f maintenance was the obJect, her condition was still a hard and unenviable one. In this see a picture of the state to which sin reduces those who follow aft.er it. It is a picture true to the life as respects the state to which ~in reduced Israel. But it is surely not less true in the representation it gives of the results of a life of sin generally. The sinner, in beginning his career, promises himself liberty and happiness. He cheats himself with the belief that he is taking the true way to obtain these objects of universal desire. How soon he finds out his mistake! He obtains neither of the things he wishes. The pleasure he found in his vices soon dies out. His means are squandered. Friends desert him. His character, reputation, influence, are gone. He finds himself the victim of evil habits, perhaps of disease. He has lost his own self-respect. He feels that he has forfeited the respect of others. What remains for him but poverty and disgrace ; or perhaps a life of crime? 'l'he whole history is depicted in the memorable parable of the prodigal-the beginning, waste of 8ubste.nce in riotous living; the end, snatching a morsel at the swine-trough (Luke xv. 11-32). "The way of transgreSBors is hard" (Prov. xiii. 15). The prophet's wife should be a warning to every female tempted to go astray. 2. The restraint under which he p"laced her. He did not admit her at once to full conjugal rights. He put her under tri&L He bonnd her, in the mean time, to refrain from further immoral condnct. She was not to play the harlot. He, on his part, would abide in separa- tion from her. This was t.o continue" many days." It would take a long time to wean her from her immoral ways, and thoroughly to test her disposition. The intention was that she might be trained to be again a faithful wife to him. Analogous to this would be God's method of dealing with Israel. "For the children of Israel shall a.bide many days without a king," etc. In the light of the subsequent history this prophecy is very striking. There is involved in it: (1) Long erile. The people were to abide "many days" withont king or prince (civil government), without sacrifice or pillar (religions worship), without ephod or tere.phi.m. (means of inquiring into the future). This implies expulsion from their own land. The objects of Jehovah and idol worship are mixed up in this description to indicate the then mixed state of the nation's religion, and to show that in e:xile "the Lord would take away both the Jehovah-worship and also the worship of the idols, along with independent civil government" (Keil). (2) Continued preservation. The nation, it is further implied, though cast off, was not to be destroyed. It would still be the object of a Divine care. It would preserve its identity and distinctness through the" many days." "God would, in those times, withhold all special tokens of his favour, covenant, providence; yet would he secretly uphold and maintain them as a. people, and withhold them from falling wholly from him into the gnlf of irreligion and infidelity" (Pusey). (3) Ultimate recovery. God's end in his treatment of the nation was its ~alvation. Its banishment was not to be perpetuaL A day of recovery was set for it (ver. 5). It will be admitted that the prophecy has had, in its first two parts, a singular fulfilment. 'l'he tribes- remnants both of the ten and of the two-are at this hour precisely in the condition of the prophet's wife. They are in a manner "waiting on God, as the wife waited for her husband, kept apart under his care, yet not acknowledged by him;" not following after idulatries, ~•et cut off through unbelief in Christ from full covenant privilege. They have been in this condition "many days," "praying to God, yet without sacrifice for- sin ; nut owned by Gud, yet kept distinct and apart by his providence for a future yet to be revealed" (Pusey). 'l'he object of the present exile is (1) to wean Israel entirely frow idols,-tbis end may be said to be effectually accomplished; (2) to train hP-r to value lost privileges; (3) to educate her to constancy; (4) to create a Clll. IV, 1-19,) 'l'HE BOOK OF HOSEA.
longin~ for rooonciliation an<l restoration. Th Me end~ attained, restoration will follow. In I\ similar way God often deals with sinners for their good, cuttin"' them 0ff from the objects of their sinful desire, trying them by experiences of privation, leavin"' them wilhout the comforts of his presence a.nd the privileges of his worship, so teaching them tho vanity of past pursuits, inciting them to seek him, and preparing them to rece-ive hi~ mercy when it is at length proposed to them. !If. 'fHE RESULT OF Gon's TREATMENT OF IBRAEL. (Ver. 5.) "Afterwards shall the children ofisrael return, and seek the Lord their God, and David thei,· king," etc. ; that is, Israel, when recovered to God, would return to its allebriance to the Davidic house, and specially to him whom prophecy pointed to as the Mes8iah. It is to be noticed: I. Return to God is the designed end of moral discipli □ e. 2. Retnrn to God is connecterl with submission to his Son. 3. The result of return to God is experience of his goodness." "They shall fear the Lord and hi8 goodness in the latter days." 4. God is to be served by those who return to him in holy "fear.n Thie fear is awakened by the experience of hie" goodness," as well as by the remembrance of hie chastisements. It is a holy, filial fear, born of reverence and love, and dreading to displease One so good. It has nothing in common .with the slavish fear which combines love of Bin with dre~d of the Pu\J,iSher of it.-J. o!