The Pulpit Commentary — Hosea — Section 320

eoen on vast pre.irie-lflnds, rippling under the breeze like & Be& of aold, the la.we or Its growth, tho mode of its production, are not different; and so wh~rever he may be tho religious tencher may find the old illustrations of spiritual truths. How muoh poorer would tho world have been had Divine lessons been represented by the variable foehions or ohe.ngeful machinery of man's invention, which only the archamlo"ist would understand, instead of being written as they are in the harvest-fields where"any way- farer may read them I Still are the different conditions o( "hearers of the W orcl" reprc- sonted truly by the different soils ,which the sower sees in &ny land. Another and profounder reason for the Divine choice of such illustrations lies in the truth that both nature e.nd grace are of God. 'l'he two spheres of being proceed from the same Source, the material being the image of the spiritual. 'l'here is a true sowing and reaping in the inward as well as in the .ou~ward world; so that in these inspired words we get, not only illustrations, but analogies. . Hence .the wisdom of the metaphor which is found in vers. 11-13. The twelfth verse shows Israel what it should be, while our text depicts what Israel actually was, ·and a.ffords us an example of mo,ral ah<l8emene which we shall do well to consider. I. MORAL ADASEMENT IS SHOWN Ill PREFERRING THE LOWER TO TBE IDGBER Lil"E, "Ephraim is as a heifer; " whereas, in ~he ,next verse, Ephraim is exhorted to be as a husbandman. 'l'he former is what the people had become, the latter is what God meant them to be. It is the constant tendency of man thus to sink below a possible id~al. Men of the highest intelle.ctual culture will. deprive themselves in their religious life of the liberty and dignity of tbe sons of God. Many hearers avowedly wait for some overpowering manifestation of.. GQd's presence before they believe in him. They would have upon them some influence so mighty as to be resistless. The evil and adulterous generation is still seeking a sig.n.; and gathers around the Christ, asking, "What sign showest thou? what dost thou work?" Now, the tendency of all this is to ask God that we may be dealt with as animals, not as men- as those who are with- out the spiritual capacities which belong to beings made in the image of God. We would be as.t)1e heifer, wanting the yoke and the gc;iad; not as the husbandman, who, qbedient to the inner thought that is given to him, intelligently, and freely breaks np the fallow groun,d, sows th,e. seed, and seeks upon it the blessing of God. But listen to the exhortation of the psalmist: "Be ye not as the horse, or a.q the mule, which have no understandiQg, whose mouth must be held.in with bit and bridle [not, 'lest they come near,' but] because they will not come near to thee" to do thee service; but rather 1:>e as a child, so looking for the Father's glance, so ready to obey his faintest sign, that he can say, "I will guide thee with min~ eye" (Ps. xx.xii. 8, 9). Ephraim was called to be as the husbandman (ver. 12), bu~ was content .to be as the heifer. II. MORAL ABASEMENT IS SHOWN IN RENDERING A PERFUNCTORY AND IBRELIGIOUS SERVICE. " Ephraim is• as a heifer that is taught." She is accustomed to do a certain kind of work, and does it day after day from the memory of the past; as a perfunctory performance, without the inspiratic;in of the thought that it will please her master. Sach obedience abounds amongst men. Right acts are done by multitudes, as they were by scribes and Pharisees, without there being in them the moral worth God looks for. For example, it is right for a man to be diligent in business, to do his work with all his might. The idle and thriftless sink ever lower in character and circumstances. But it would not be difficult to find one who is regular and punctual, failing in no engl)gement, prompt in all his dealings, setting before others a commendable example .of hard work thoroughly done, who never has a thought of his Lord's approval, sees nothing of tho eternal issues which may flow from the present life, but is "as a. heifer accustomed to the yoke." Such perfunctoriness may creep into religiou,s service ; into the prayers which are said by rote, into the gifts which are given from custom, into the work and organization which is the outcome of habit, etc. III. MORA,L ABASEMENT IS SHOWN IN OBEYING l'ROFITABLE COMMANDS FOR THE SAK!t OF THEIR PROFIT. "Ephrahn is as a heifer that ... loveth to tread out the corn." The all1,1~ion is to the Eastern custom of drivin" oxen over the reaped corn, that by their feet or by the implement they dragged behind them the grain might be separated from the straw. In thc:i Pentateuch (Deut. xx.v. 4) the command was given," 'l'hou shalt not muzzle the ox wben he treadeth out the corn." The ox was to share in the bouuti- ful gifts God had bestowed on man in the harvest, and might eat what be pleased.  320 THE BOOK OF HOSEA. [oH, x. 1-lli.