The Pulpit Commentary — Hosea — Section 195

Jove freely and without restraint. On earth it is not so. Men set their wills In hoAtility to his. Their langua!(e is, "We will not have thee to reign over us." They are robe18, and wiJI not lay down their a_rms of hostili_ty and become loyal snhjccts, hence they must be crushed; they are d1sease<l, and will not accept the means he has prescribed for their restorntion; they are captives, and will not leave their cells though he has thrown their doors wide open; they are paupers dying of starvation, but will not take from him the Brea<l of life which he offers to them without money and without price. Hence he says, "What shall I do unto th(•e?" I can reverse the laws of nature, I can break up old universes and create new ones; but I cannot make beings whom I have endowed with the power of freedom virtuous and happy contrary to their own will. " Why will ye die?" III. EVANESOENT GOODNEBB. "Yolll' goodness is as a morning cloud, and as the early dew it goeth away." Whether the goodness here refers exclusively to human kindness or includes some amount of pious sentiment, it matters not; it was so evanescent that it was of no worth. It was like the cloud, empty, fickle, disappointing. When it appeared first, men thought it had in it the refreshing element, and they expected a shower to come down on the parched earth ; but n gust of wind came and swept it out of sight. Like the "early dew," it sparkles as diamonds on the greensward for a short hour, but is soon exhaled by the summer beams. Evanescent goodness is worthless. Most men have some amount of goodness in them, which continues for a time and then passes away. Goodness is of no worth to any being until it becomes supreme and permanent. CONCLUSION, Thank God for endowing thee with freedom; it is a fearful power. It gives to men a widely different destiny even here. "From the same cradle's side, From the same mother's knee, One to long darkness and the frozen tide, One to the peaceful sea I" But a destiny in eternity infinitely more dissimilar. It leads some to God's heights of blessedness, others to the deepest depths of perdition.-D. T. Ver. 6.-Righteonsness and ritualism. "For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings." We shall take "mercy" a11d "knowle<lge of God" here as including spiritual excellence, and "sacrifice" and "burnt offerings" as representing religious ritualism; and the idea is that Jehovah desires from man one rather than the other. The same idea is given in the following passages: "Bath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obe: ing the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams" (1 Sam. xv. 22; Matt. xii. 7); "What doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to wi,.ll, humbly with thy God?" (Micah vi. 8); "Go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance" (Matt. ix. 13) ; "To do justice and judgment is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice" (Prov. xxi. 3); "To love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neigh hour as himself, is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices" (Mark iii 33). Why is moral righteousness preferable to religious ritualism ? 1. BEOAUSE RITUALISM AT ITS BEST, APART FROM RIGHTEOUSNESS, IS WORTHLESS. We are not of those who thunder unqualified denunciations at all rites and ceremonies in connection with religion. Principles to show themselves must always have forms, and we would have the forms ever the most graceful and appropriate. Science is the ritual of the philosophic, art is the ritual of the iesthetic, tuneful verse is the ritual of poetry. Nature is the ritual of God; through its countless forms of life and beauty his invisible things reveal themselves. But ritualism, in connection with the religion of man, must he lhe effect, the expression, and the medium of inner righteousness. ·without "mercy" and t.he "knowledge of God" in the soul all ritual observances are as worthless and as revolting as the motions of a galvanized corpse. "Bring no more vain oblation~; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbath~. the calling of HOSEA, '-  194 THE BOOK OF HOSEA. [OH, VI, 1-11,