"As I live, s&ith the Lord, llill the earth t1hall be filled with rey glory." "In that day a man ehall 0&8t hie idols of silver, and bis idols of gold, which they made each ono f,,r himself to worship, to the moles and to the bats: to ~o into the clefts of tbo rocke aud into the toJ111 of the ragged rocks, for fear of the Lord, and for the glory of bi~ majesty, when he arieeth to shake terribly the earth." ' V. As PR_ODU_cTIVE OF GREAT EVIL. "They have sown the wind, and they shall rea.p the wh1rlwmd,",etc. "As the husbandman reaps the same kind of grain which be ha.s sown, but in far greater abundance, so be who sows the wind shall ha,ve the whirl- wind to reap." "It bath no stalk." Nothing that can yield .a. blossom. "'l'he bud shall yield no meal." "If they should have a stalk, and that stalk should have a ?lossom, that blossom sha_ll yield no frui~; and if there be fruit, the sower shall not enjoy 1t, for strangers shall eat lt. The Israelites should be unsuccessful in all their under- takings, and whatever partial gains they might acquire would be eagerly seized by the Assyrians" (Elzas). 1. All men are sowing. Every human act is a seed. 2. Some are sowing worthless seed-" wind." The worldlin~, the man of pleasure, the conven- tional religionist, the speculative sceptic, are ell "sowing the wind." 3. 'l'he more worthless the seed sown, the more terrible the reaping. "Reap the whirlwind." Great is the power of the whirlwind, The Scripture describes it as very grea.t. In 1 Kinas xix. 11 it "rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks." Sabdicos reports tb~t Cambyses' soldiers being at dinner in a sandy place, there arose a whirlwind and drove the sa.nd upon them, so that it .covered them all. "Whatsoever a man sowetb, that 6hall he also reap.., ,. Hear, Father I hear and aid I If I have loved too well; if I have shed, : In my vain fondness, o'er a mortal hee:d • Gifts on thytihrine, my God, more fitly laid·~- If I have sought to live -' ·· 01; .. : But in one light, and .made a mortal eye,: The lonely &tar ofmy idola.try ;- .. :. , : • Thou art Love; oh, piiy,11.Dd forgive!",, : . -~, Hema.ns.J . ' Vers. 11, 12.-Perversion of WO'l'ship. " Because Epiu::aim bath ml\de: Ill~Y. altars.~ sin." Israel was to have only one altar, and that in the place wb,ere the. Lord woulcl reveal his Kame (Deut. xii. 5). But, instead of that, Ephraim bad .buil~ a ,numbei: .Qf alum in <lilTerent places to multiply the sin of idolatry, and, thereby li!lap µ:i,ore and more guilt upon itself (Delitzsch). The passage lea.di! us. to notice the p(/!l'versio'T!, of worship. 'fhis is one of the oldest, the most prevalent, and D;lOst baneful sins amongst mankind. :Men l,a~e perverted worship, not only by making false, gods, but by making false altars for the true God. There is only one altar in true worship, and that a~tar lf! Christ (Heb. xiiL 10). The text leads us to I!lllke two 1em,arks in relation t<> false worship. : . .. . . . 1 1T IS A GREAT SIN. 1. It is a very propagativp_ sill, : "l:p,hraim bath made many altars." "If men leave the rule," says an old author, "they know not where to stay; hence the multiplying of things thus amongst the Papilits-five hundred altars in spme one temple." How sublimely antagonistic th.e Jews were to the, introductiqn c;if, any altar but one (Josh. xxii.11)1 But now they bad "many." Once admit.a wrongJhj.Q.g in worship, and that one thing will multiply itself; superstition will gire .it fertility. The llomish Church is a sad illustration of this, and the Anglican ,Church in soxrio, sections is multiplying ~.xamples. 2. It is a tielf-puni6hing sin. "Altars sh~ll be uµ.tg him to sin." The idea probably is, "As you have gone on persisUng,to muH1ply altars contrary to my will. I will let you alone; yoii shall go on. Your altars shall be a sin to you." That is, thus seeing they wiU have theµi, they shall haye, ~em; they shall "have enough of them. Let, them go on ip. their wa_ys ; let them mu~tiply· their sin. . 'J.'l,i.ey make a great deal of stir for it, and have "it they must; they refuse to eee the light; they are prejudiced against the way of God's woubip. .Let tl!e1J1. ~a".e their de~ires ; let them have, saith God, gr,vernors to establiBb by their authority, aqd .~ache~s to defend by their subtle arg~ent.s, what they wish for. '.l'hc;y multiply o.ltar11 to sin, and they 011, vur. t-~14.] 'l'HE BOOK OF HOSEA. 267
~h111l be to sin, even to h1i.rden them; their hearts a.re set upon the~, and they will havo them and love them, a.nd they shall be hardened in their heart's desire in what is evil. And as it sho.ll be to them for sin, so it shall be to them for misery the fruit of sin ; for so sin is taken very frequently in Scripture for the fruit of sin. They will have the,;n. to sin,. and they shall :find in them the fruit of sin-misery. The text leads ns to rernar)t tha~ II. IT IB A BIN AGAINST GREAT LIGHT. "I have written to him the great tbing,i of my Law, but they were count_ed as a strange thing." They could not say they sinned in ignorance. God gave them directions most concise and abundant concernin" the nature and object of true worship. Some translate the words," I may prescribe my laws .to them by myriads ; they will treat it as a strange thing." 1. God hm given us laws concerning worship. 2. Those laws are oft repeated. By myriads or by thousands. \Ve have "line upon line, precept upon precept," 3. 'rhese oft.-repeated laws leave fals~ worshipper, without eQ;cuse.-D. T.