pared three several times to a baker's "oven," the meaning being that in doing t'helr deeds of guilt they were enthusiastic and passionAt.c. 'l'hey sinned hotly in the direc- tion of: _(1) Idolatry_. (Ver. 4.) "They are all adulterers;" i:e· king, princes, and ]){'Opie ahke were guilty of apostasy from Jehovah, and shared in the dissolut•uuass wh(ch ~•as associated with the worship of the Phoonician deities. "They had violated thmr faith pledged to God, they gave themselves up to filthy superstitions, and they had ~holly corrupted themselves; for faith and sincerity of heart constitute spiritual chastity before God" (Cah-in). Their souls were inflamed with their idolatroua lusts like a burning oven. (2) Debauchery. (Ver. 5.) ;Both the king e.nd the nobles followed habits of intemperance. At the banquet held on the royal birthday he and they" erred through strong drink," and scoffed together at the majesty of Jehovah. In our own couutry, too, how many there are who spend Christmas as if they were cele- brating the birth of the devil rather than that of the Redeemer 1 (3) Anarchy. (Vers. 6, 7.) The fiery passions of the people caused the land to be long torn by disorder and revolution. Their rulers became fuel for the fire of their anger. "All their kings are fallen; "-Zechariah was murdered by Shall um, She.Bum by Menahem, Pekahiah by Pekah, et.c. Indeed, very few of the monarchs of the northern kingdom died in peace. During its entire course, the heat of political violence devoured like a furnace; and in the deepest national calamities none sought the aid of the Divine King. 11. WHAT i.ED TO THIS EXPOSURE. 1. The encircling presence of their sins. (Ver. 2.) 'The people ~inned so deeply and so boldly that their enormities grew up around them like a rampart. Wherever they went their wickedness attended them, and became a swift witness against them. A man's iniquity wraps him round like a poisoned tunic. He is "holden with the cords of his sins " (Prov. v. 22); and it is his own hands, alas! that have forged and riveted his chains. Evil doings "beset" a man through the accusations of conscience, through the power of habit, through the action of natural law, R.Dd through the providence of God, which makes sure that his "sin will find him out." 2. God's remembrance of their sins. (Ver. 2.) The Lord must take notice of sin, for be must punish it. Although the sinful nation bas forgotten this, the fact remains. " They are before my face; " i.e. ever present to me; I cannot avoid seeing them. " These words [' before me'] in the first commandment teach us that God, who seeth all things, taketh notice of, and is much displeased with, the sin of having any other god" (Westminster Assembly's Shorter Catechism). 3. God's efforts to cure them of their sins. (Ver. 1.) As the depth and seriousness of a wound are often not known until the surgeon probes it, and as the nature of a disease may not be fully understood for some time after the physician has begun to grapple with the case, so the depravity of Israel was adequately exp!'6ed only when God adopted strong measures in connection with it, by the chastisement,; of his providence, and the warning voices of his prophets. For the people refused to obey each summons to repentance ; and, instead of placing confidence in Jehovah," they called to Egypt, and went to Assyria" (ver.11). So the very means of grace which God used in order to save Israel, became the occasion of showing how far the nation had already wandered from him, and even of inducing them to wander still further. And thus is it still, when God deals with men by his Word and ::ipirit. "By the Law is the knowledge of sin." (Rom. iii. 20). The primary work of tLe Holy Ghost is to" convince the wbrld of sin" (John xvi. 8). By his common grace he gives, even to the unconverted, a partial view of their own unworthiness . .And, in the case of all who enter upon the Christian life, he uses the disclosure of sin to lead the penitent to renounce all self-righteousness, and to fall at the feet of the Lord ,Jesus Christ for mercy.-C. J. Ver. 8.-" .A cake not twrned." There are many striking sayings in Hosea. This one, in particular, has a quiet touch of humour in it, as well as a severe reproof. There is nothing conventional in the style of the Bible writers. When they have anything practical to say, they do not wrap it up in verbiage. The Book of Hosea contains 6trains of poetry of surpassing splendour; yet here is an illustration from the cottager's kitchen. Let us look at this cake. It is burnt to a cinder on one side, and remains ,,amp and doughy on the other. It is partly underdone, pa1·tly overdone; and thus, l,ei11,; neither dough nor bread, it is quite spoiled, and fit only to be thrown away. T~o Ulel:,1,lwr rerniuJs us of the English legend of good King Alfred, when a wanrlf'rer 1n en. ni:. 1-16.J THE BOOK OF IlOSEA. 211
the forest of Belwood: the royal fagitive kept mendin~ his bow and arrows, and forgot to turn the cakes which the neat-herd's wife had committed t<, his care. The first part of the verse helps us to understand the metaphor in its application to the kincr<iom of the ton tribes. Ephraim had " mixed himself among the people," i.e. ente;cd into political alliances with the heathen round a.bout, and conformed to their idolatrous usages. Yet he did not wish to break with Jehovah altogether; the Israelites continued to observe the sabbaLhs and the feast-days (eh. ii. 11). But the simile before us may be used with a still wider application. It describes- !. THE NATURAL STATE OF MANKIND. Human nature since the Fall has been spoiled and worthless. 'l'here clings to it a radical defect God ward. Man is like a cairn which has its warm side to the earth, and its cold side towards heaven. Some unrenewed men a.re very kindly in feeling and unselfish in action towards their fellow-men, but all the while their hearts remain cold and ungrateful towards God. We remember the young man who came to Christ, of whom it is said that" Jesus, beholding him, loverl him" (Mark x. 21); he was amiable and truthful, yet what a fa.ta! " lack" there was in bis character l Such, however, is the nature.I condition of man everywhere--" a cake not turned." "Low, but majestic, though most strangely formed Of contradictions and a.ntithesee, With hea.d of gold and feet of miry clay, One he.If of duet, one half of deity ; Touching the angel here, and there the brute. Here, 'thoughts that wander through eternity;• There, passions sounding all the sties of time; His rooted selfishness a.nd lofty love, His little life, his princely intellect, His pure desires, his hateful selfishness, His deeds of darkness, and his thoughts of light." (Gilfillan.)