conquest should sweep o"cr thcmsekes. Doth peoples, Snmarita.ne and Ilcth-a'V'enitM unired in a common cause, and, involved in a common ca\amltr or eo1:>n to be so, wo11ld mourn for t-he loss of their idol. This Scripture may well llnpl't!lll! its lesson, and a rno~t salutary one, on all idolaters, w.hether those whobo'\\t down tb· tboso idol ianltlcs of wood, or st-0ne, or metal, made by their own hands, or tbosa •ilpir\tul\l idolaters ,vlioso hearts arc swayed by some lust. or passion, or any other object than God,, Any earthly object tlrnt ~ngrosses our affcclions, or u~ul'ps thatylace in our hear~ which belongs to God alone, 1s our god for the time bemg---our idol, and that which commands our l1omage or adoration. And surely, as we set np any such object of spiritual idolatry in our heart and ele.at.e it to the throne of our affections, we shall come to grief; we shall be di,;appointed in it while we possess it, or dis.'tppoioted of it when we·lose it. Bitterly shall we be made to feel and to mourn its loss; nor is this to be' wondered at or complained of, for God is a jealous God, and will not give his· glory to another. Matthew Henry has well observed that " whatever men make a· god of, tl:fo:y •will mourn for the loss of; and inordinate sorrow for the loss of any worldly good is a sian we made an idol of it." The idol-priests who derived 'their emoluni.etit and livelihotid from idolatry were plunged in still greater mourning than the people· for whom: they ministered. The wages of sin do Dot last long, and do not satisfy the .short time they do last. Thus it was with the priests when the source of their gain and the object of their glory departed. • Ill. ISRAEL'S SHAME W.AS ANOTHER OONCOJIIIT.ANT, OR RATHER CONSEQUENOE; OF ISRAEL'S SIN. The shame was twofold; she.me to see their idol thrown down and defaced, and yet more to see it, or at least the gold that adorned it, carried away in triumph· as a present or peace offering to King Jareb. There was yet deeper cause·of shame. It.was not only that they gloried in their god of gold, and confided in it for protection;but that their policy was completely frustrated. The political sagacity on which, no doubt~ they piqued themselves, as certain to keep Israel separate from Judah by detachit1 9 the former from the latter in worshipping at the national sanctuary in' ·Jerusalem, resulted in Israel's ruin. No wonder that Ephraim, the tribe with which this' separation ci,rigi.- nated, recei'l"ed shame; while the remaining tribes of Israel, that with such facile com- pliance acquiesced in their counsel and followed their example, were put to shame. Thus the wise are often caught in their own craftiness. " The sinners' hands do make the sno.rea Wherewith themselves a.re caught." IV. SUFFERING IS ANOTHER RESULT OF SIN. Creature-confidences fail' to. succour; without Divine help and blessing, sover~ign and subject are alike powerless and resource- less. The king, on the appointment of whom the people had so set their heart at first; and on whose power all along they continued to place such confidence, was too weak to help ; and in utter impot.enoe was himself cut off~ut off ignominiously as foam on the face of the water, or chip carried headlong by the current, , The scenes of their sin were so desolated, and left without a single woNhipper, that thorns and thi~tles came Up upon those altars where multitudes once had worshipped. So true it is tbat "if the grace of God prevail not to destroy the love of sin in us, it ,is just_ that the providen.ce of God should destroy the food and fuel of sin about us." Smners m general suffer. sooner or later shame and contempt, disgrace and disappointment, poignant sorrow an(j mental anguish. To Sllcb an extent wa.s this the case with the .hapless idolaters, that their distress was so intolerable that, feeling life not worth, living, they preferred death to life, Times there are so sad, and suffering, both bodily ancl. mental, so acute, .that death is more tban welcome. To be swallowed in the yirwning earth, or covered:by _the f~Un~ hill, or whelmed in the surging sea, was welcome to such. sufferers. So·.w1th 1mpemten1 sinners in the day of judgment (Rev. vi. 16). So with the Jews iri their distressful circumstances at the siege of Jerusalem by the Romans (Luke xxiii 30). This cry for death paeEed into ~ proverb; it was the offspring of despair. . . • 1 .' V. Su111MARY OF THIB SECTION. Such a summary is contained in vers. 7 and Bl Israel's two chief sources of confidence were their king and their idolatry---one civil, oo r;ecular, the other ecclesi.utica,l or sacred, both to the ·rejection and neglect of the truo Source of hope and help. Neither of these is any longer available or any longer reliable. 'l'lie king or bead of their civil polity is cut off like foam on the surface of a strcarr.- a m0weut there, then gone for ever, The high places of Aven, that is, Betn-aven, t!it. lt. 1-16.] THE BOOK 01!' HOSEA. 311
"house of vanity," the n11me given in eontemptoous reproof or idolatry to Beth-el, once the'' house of God "-these high places C<i11Aecra_ted to Idolatry, at once the occasions of ein to lsro.el, anrl plooes polluted by that people's sin, are doomed to destruction, total destruction. 'l'he altars erected thereon are destined to be heaps of mine, so forsaken nnd desolate, that where the whole burnt offering went wp in smoke (;i7)1, whole burnt offering, from n~JI, to go up), the them and the thistle now go up (,Sil'), and bear undis- puted sway, 'rhe sin-le.den people ·who had forsaken their own mercies and pursued their idolatrous practices on those hills e;nd at those altars, are in the end so over- whelmed with calamity and so thoroughly miserable, that, as we have seen, they prefer death to life, reckoning a life so wretched not worth living. Hence arose their cry of desperation-a cry that may have had its origin in the local situation of the people who uttered it. Situated on a hill as Samaria was, and surrounded by an amphithea.tre of hills still higher, the intervening valley and narrow outlets- being occupied by the enemy, those hills to w,hich ,they- once looked for sa.fety, instead of helping, now· hemmed them in, and the only help t.hey could now afford was to fall on their devote,! heads, to screen them from wrath and deliver them from misery.