represents the feminine sido of piety, Rnd includes snch graces as pity, clemency, kinclnose, sympRthy. These fatnl defects were due to the lack of" knowledgawf Go,l in the lo.nd." Mercy o.nd truth nre glorious perfections of the Divine nature, and their existence as virtues of social ethics depends upon right conceptions regarding him. But Ism.al had lost the knowledge of Jehovah. The calf-shrines had been her ruin. The image-worship bnd destroyed the spiritual service of God. And the failure of the heart- knowledge led to the failure of head-knowledge also, and that in tum to the loss of all virtue. How sad that there should be " no knowledge of God in the land" I For was it not the land of Immanuel, and were not its citizens" a people near unto him"? How dreadful such an indictment against the nation of whom the psalmist exultingly sings, "In Judah is God known: his Name is great in Israel" (Ps. Ix xvi. 1) ! 2. Immorality wa,r rampant. (Ver. 2.) The sin of Jeroboam I., in setting up the golden calves and encouraging the systema.tic violation of the second commandment, had become the fruitful source of disobedience to the whole moral Law. It had paved the way for the deeper apostasy of Baalism (1 Kings xvi. 31); and, the first two commandments being overturned, little respect was any longer paid to the others. Ver. 2 presents a picture of the eleven years which followed the death of Jeroboam II., when the forces of revolution and anarchy were struggling for the upper hand. Then t)le land was full of perjury and violence. All kinds of evil broke forth like a flood. 'J.~he third commandment, the sixth, the seventh, the eighth, the ninth, were alike disregarded. One deed of blood trod upon the heels of another; assassination following assassination, and slaughter avenging slaughter. The character of the people, and of their prophets and priests, was hopelessly bad. Reproof would be in vain (ver. 4). The men, of· Israel were as contumacious as those who refused to obey the priest when he gave judgment in Jehovah's Name (Dent. xvii. 12). Indeed, the sin of the whole k'.ingdom, [which began ·with the renunciation of the Aaronical priesthood, may be sym- bolically·described as that of" striving with the priest." And now, at last, even the very meTcy of God had to be withdrawn from the nation. •Ill. 'l'mrnUDG!rlENT. (Vers. 3-5,) The Lord does not cite and plead in vain. He i.$•" justified when he speaks, and clear when he judges." The punishment of Israel's l!in°is •to:J,lDe universal and very terrible. .The judgment is to fall upon: L The soil. '(iV-er.181) "The threatening here is that of a universal drought. The very ground is to be cursed because of the people's guilt. The famine is to be one of fearful severity. In a sense,cthe soil of Palestine may be said to be lying under that visitation yet. Canaan is naturally "a fruitful land;" but God has turned it "into barrenness, for the wickedness of them that dwelt therein." 2. The lower creatures. Animal life is to decline by reason of the.drought. 'l'he brute creation shall be reduced to an ex:tremity of hunger on account of the people's sin. 3. The people Oi.emselves. They are to be punished with :.(1) Loss of health. "Every ane that dwelleth therein shall languish"- the physical frame losing strength and tone, and "joy being withered away from the sons of men" (Joel i. 12). (2) Loss of food, due to the breaking of the two staffs of life-the failure of the harvests and the destruction of the animals. (3) Loss of grace (ver. 4). Expostulation with the people . would be useless. They hated reproof. God's Spirit had ceased to 11trive with Ephraim; he was "joined to idols" (ver.17). The men of Israel :were so desperately· wicked that it was "impossible to rene,v them again unto repentance." (4) Loss of life (ver. 5). "Evil shall slay the wicked." 'l'he people of the ten tribes, with their fa.lse prophets, are to perish in their sins. The slaughter is to be continuous, neither day nor· night being free from it. It i~ also to be indiscriminate, and at last universal. And the loss of temporal life is only the shadow of deeper spirituru. loss, beyond in eternity. 4. '1.'he nation as such. (Ver. 5.) "I will destroy thy mother." The Israelitish state was the "mother" of the people; and already, by reason of the family wickedness, she is driving fast along the highway to dastruction. These closing words, indeed, are her funeral knell. CoNoLUSION. Two lessons of this passago are specially prominent, viz. (1) the essential connection bet,veen religion and morality ; (2) the inevitable connection betweeu national sin and national suffering. Wherever the right knowledge of God is wanting, th11re sin and Satan aro sure to triumph. Ancieut Greece gavti to Europe the glorious beginnings both of political and intellectual lifo. and was herself resplendent 116 THE BOOK OF HOSEA, [ou. IV, 1-19,
with the choicest triumphs of literatme and art; yet some of her wisest philosophers c01rnt.enanced the practice of unmentionable vices. The sun never shone upon a more brilliant company of scholars, poets, philosophers, orators, jurists, and litterateurs, than that which adorned the court of Augustus, the first emperor of Rome; yet during the Augmtan age the Homan people were plunging into depths of morn! degradation which ultimately led to the ruin of the empire. On the other hand, when the general overthrow of the continental monarchs took place in 1848, and the throne of Great Ilri tain remained as stable as ever, M. Guizot said one day to Lord Shaftesbury," I will tell you what saved your empire. It was not your constable; it was not your army; it was not your statesmen. It was the deep, solemn, religious atmosphere that still is breathed over the whole people of England." For nations, knowledge of God and acceptance of his salvation a.re necessary, in order to the prevalence of that righteous- ness which is the source of national stability. And for each citizen in like manner, " This is life eternal, to know the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent."-C. J.