Divine judgment ooming on the rebellious nation, and comma.nde an alarm to be given of tho approach of the enemy. Gibeah (Josh. xviii. 28) and Ramah (xviii. 26) were two elevated plaoee in the tribe of Benjamin, and were well adapted for signals on account of their lofty elevation. The introduction of these pa.rt-icule.r townR, which did not belong to the tribe of Israel, but to Judah, is intended to indicate thnt the enemy had e.lready conquered the ten tribes, and had advanced to that on the border of Judah. The idee. of the passage is-Give an earnest warning of the judgment about to break on the people, sound the alarm, and startle the population. The subject sug- gesttid is that of an earnest ministry. Notice-- I. THE NATURE OF AN EARNEST MINISTRY. "Cry aloud." Let the whole soul go fort.h in the work. Let us not mistake the nature of tiarnestness. It is not noise. Ignorant ptiople imagine that the minister who makes the greatest noise, roars and rav('s the most in the pulpit, or para.des his doings most in journals and reports, is the earnest man. "A celebrated preacher, distinguished for the eloquence of his pulpit preparations, exclaimed on his death-bed, ' Speak not to me of my sermons. Alas I I was fiddling whilst Rome was burning.'" It is not frightening people. Often he who is the most successful by graphic and impassioned descriptions of the judgment de.y and hell fires, in terrifying men, is considered the most earnest. This is a mistake-a popular and fatal mistake. It is not bustle. He who is always on the "go," whose limbs are always on the stretch, into this house and that house, into this meeting and that, who is never at rest, men are always disposed to regard as an earnest man. Genuine earnestness is foreign to all these things. It has nothing in it of the noise and rattle of the fussy brook ; it is like the deep stream rolling its current silently, resistlessly, and without pause. An earnest ministry is living. It is not mere preaching or service, occasional or even systematic; it is the influence of the whole man. It is the "Word" made flesh ; so permeating the whole man that every word, act, and expression are as the blasts of a Divine trumpet, rousing sinners to a sense of their moral danger. Such a ministry is & matter of necessity. The Divine thing in the man becomes irrepressible, it breaks out as sunbeams through the clouds : "W ue is unto me if I preach not the gospel." Such a ministry is constant. It is not a professional service; it is as regular as the functions of life ; it is a thing that is "in season and out of season "-in shops and in sanctuaries, on hearths as well as in pulpits. Such a ministry is mighty. Men can stand before the most thunderous words and violent attitudinizations, but tbey cannot stand before such a ministry as this; they are before it as snow before the sun. " Oh ! let all the soul within yon For the truth's sake go abroad I Strike I let every nerve and sinew Tell on ages--tell for God." II. THE 1...,EED OF AN EARNEST MINISTRY. Why was the "comet" to be now blown in Gibeah., and the " trumpet" in Ramah ? Because there was clanger. The moral clanger to which souls around us are exposed is great. There is the danger of losing, not existence, but all that makes existence worth having-love, hope, power, friendship, etc. "To be carnally minded is death." It is near. It is not the danger of an invading army heard in the distance. The enemy bas entered the soul, and the work of devastating has commenced. It is increasing. The condition of the unregenerate soul gets worse and worse every hour. Brothers, let us be earnest in our work, always •• aboUD.ding in the work of the Lord " I "Time is earnest, passing by ; Death is earnest, drawing nigh; Life is earnest; when 'tie o'er Thou returneBt nevermore." D.T.
Ver. 12.-" The moth;" or, God's quiet method of destroying. ., Therefore will I be unto Ephraim as a moth, and to the house of Judah as rottenness." ." And I ~m like the moth to Ephraim and like the worm to the house of Judah" (Keil and Dehtzsch). " TLe moth and wor~ are figures employed to represent de.etrucli 1·e powers-the moth 011. V, 1-16,] THE BOOK OF HOSEA. 1131