The Pulpit Commentary — Hosea — Section 339

prophet, "0 thou aword of the Lord, how long will it be ere thou be quiet? put np thyself into thy scabbard, rest, and be still." But it is added, in answer to this inquiry "How can it be quiet, seeing the Lord bath given it a. charge a.~ainst Ashkclon and ngaiost the sea-shore? there bath he appointed it." 3. The Prophet Hosea picture~ the severity of the stroke either by the wide area which the sword swept over, or the Jenath of time it continued to distress them; also by the fa.et that the cities which were looked upon as the strong fortresses, at all events the strength of the land, were the main objects ot' nttack. Elsewhere in the fields or open country the ravages of war are not quite so dreadful as in the city with its crowded population, where human beings, densely massed together, are literally mowed down. Nor yet were the villages spa.red, nor did their ha.re shut out the enemy. 4. The duty of prayer is incumbent in time of war. '!'his lesson is inculcated by the example of the psalmist. After speaking in the fifty- fifth psalm of having seen violence and strife in the city, while men hurried to and fro upon the walls, with other sad accompaniments of troublous times-mischief, sorrow, wickedness, deceit, and guile-he announces the course he pursued: "As for me, I will call upon God; and the Lord shall save me. Evening, and morning, and at noon, will I pray, and call aloud: and he shall hear my voice;" while peace and deliverance were the happy outcome of his prayers: "He bath delivered my soul in peace from the battle that was against me: for there were many with me." ID. THEm PRONENESS TO BACKSLIDE. Proneness to backsliding was not peculiar to the people or the period of Hosea's prophesyings. The unregenerate heart is invariably the source of backsliding. When a. religious profession is influenced only by external motive and not by internal power, men may be expected to backslide. In the days of our Lord it was sorrowfully said of some tha.t they went back and walked no more with Jesus. In seasons of religious revival, of many who make a. profession of religion, that profession, in the case of some, proceeds from an outward impulse, certain convictions, or even the power of sympathy, and soon &S the time of excitement is over they back- slide; their convictions did not ripen into conversion; the root of the matter was never in them. The same is occasionally found in the case of some young communicants. At the :first communion, the boy in the freshness of his youth, the girl in the purity of her childhood, feel much ardour of affection and manifest much fervour of devotion ; but what from unfavourable surroundings, or evil communications, or· little sins unchecked, the love of their espousals grows cold, and backsliding ensues. Even in the case of persons truly converted, a degree of coldness creeps over them; they seem to grow weary of the ways of God; they become apathetic, and backslide for a time. Beware of grieving the Holy Spirit; beware of resisting the strivings and stirrings of conscience; beware of putting the band to the plough and then turning back or turning aside to folly; in a. word, beware of backsliding. Be warned by that solemn Scripture, "IT any mo.n draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him." IV. THE PERPLEXITY OAUSED TO THE ALMIGHTY. With reverence be it spoken, the conduct of Israel seems to have puzzled the all-merciful One himself. Judgment was due, but love holds it in check; the via.ls of wrath were ready to be poured out, but the voice of mercy intercedes; punishment was well deserved, but the band of pity pushes it a.side. 'l'hey bad been called to the Most High, to acquaint themselves with him, to acknowledge him, and to accept him as their God and King ; but they stopped their ears against those calls. They refused to lift themselves up from their low grovelling course of conduct, and they refused to exalt the Most High, or to bless that glorious Na.me which is a.bove all blessing and praise. We cannot exalt God, or make him more glorious than he is, " yet then God accounts himself to be exalted when be is known and acknowledged as the high, supreme, first Being; when we fear h_im as God; when 'we humble ourselves before him as before a God; when we are sensible of the infinite distance there is between him and us; when we are willing to consecrate what we are, or have, or can do, to the furtherance of bis praise; when his will is made the rule of all our ways, and especially of his worship; when we make him the last end of all; when it is the great care of our souls and work of our lives to do what possibly we can, that he may be rnagni:fied and lifted up in the world; and when we account the least sin a greater evil than r,an be recompensed by all the good which heaven and earth oan nlford us ;-when we do thus, God accounts himself exalted by us." But Israel had acted iu opposition to all this; hence the controversy, the perplexity, the  340 THE n~)OK \JF HOSEA. [ell, XI, 1-12.