The Pulpit Commentary — Hosea — Section 391

and belle rang, and editors wrote leading &rticl~, and the just thing be trampled out of sight to all mortal eyes, an abolished and an e.nnihil.e.ted thing."-D. T. Ver. 10.-God's 'TMthod in teaching the great f,ea,chl!lf's of the world, "I have also spoken by the prophets, e.nd I have multiplied visions, e.nd used eimllitudee, by the ministry of the prophets." God ie the great Teacher of mankind. "Who teaches like him?'' He tee.ches the best lessons, in the best way and for the beet purpose; he teaches man through the works of nature, and through the beet of men. God has always employed prophets in hie great school for humRnity. Into every age he has sent men above the average of the race-men gifted with high intellect, lofty genius and speci':"l inspiration. They a.re evermore his prophets, and these he himself teaches; they are m hi.s "normal school." He t;ee,ches them that they may teach others. 'l'he text indicates his method of teaching them. I. BY VISIONS. He gives to those men inner revelations, unfolds to them spiritual realitieR, opens their spiritual eyes, and bids them look. What wonderful visions Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Paul, and the Apostle John had I They saw wonderful things; hut what they saw was not with the outward eye, but with the eye of the soul. 'l'hese visions eerve to show three things. 1. The distinguishing glory of the human mind, What is that? It is a power to eee the sensuously invisible, the universe that lies beyond the ken of mortal sight. What e. universe came to the eye of the sightless bard of England I In some this visual organ is keener and more active than in others. He who has it in the highest extent is the poet, the prophet, emphatically the seer. 2. The accesswility of the human mind to God. Man can only address the mind through the senses; the Almighty can do it when all the senses are closed up, in the "visions of the night." He can t.ake into it at his plea.sure a whole universe, and bid it gaze on its object.El and listen to its sounds. 3. The reality of spiritual things. 'l'he bodily eye does not see realities, but mere forms and shadows. The soul alone can see the real, hence God brings the real into it. Hy visions I think the Almighty has ever taught the great thinkers of m•okiod uot only in ancient but in modern times. All the true discoveries of men of science, all the creations of sacred bards, ell the .flashes of the true evangel, a.re but visions from God. "In visions of the night." IL BY SIMILITUDE. "And used similitudes." By this is meant, he showed them the invisible by the visible, the spiritual by the sensuous. He gave them parables. "Without a parable spake he not unto them." Hence the prophets spoke in parables; and the great Prophet of the world, who was like unto Moses. There are good reasons for this mode of teaching spiritual truth. Two may be mentioned. 1. It makes the spiritual more attractive.. All men, whether they will or not, from their very bodily constitutions a.re vitally interested in material objects. They live in them and by them; and without direct impressions from God, we can scarcely conceive of spiritual truth beinp; made clear to them but by their means. 2. It makes the material appear 'lT.ore Divine. Flowers, trees, streams, and stars, when they have become emblems to the soul of spiritual truth, become invested with a. mystic charm. The picture that LaE hung in your room for years, and on which your eyes have rested a thousand times, becomes invested with a strange fascination after you have made the acquaintance and come to love the person whom it represent.s. Thank God for his parabolic method of teaching.-D. T Ch. xi. 12--xii. 1, 2.-God faithful, his people unfaithful. Probability seems against the rendering," Judah yet ruleth with God, and is faithful with the All-Holy;" for, though a relative truth might be claimed for the first statement, the other refer- ences to Judah are in a. very different strain (eh. iv. 15; v. 5, 10, 14; vi. 4, 11; viii. 14; x. 11), and in any case the eecond clause would be untrue to fact. "Faithful with God" is too glaringly at variance with what Isaiah says of the state of Judah at tLis time: " Their land is full of idols; they worsh~ the work of their own hands" (eh. ii. 8). The otlier rendering, "Judah vacillates Lroves about] with God, and with the faithful Holy One," better meets the conditions of the context. Ephraim's con• dition, however, was much worse than Judah'8, I. EPRB.AI.M's DECEIT. Deceit had become as second nature to Ephraim. 1. He r,u'IJ/Tii,hed himself UJ,or. it. "Ephraim feedeth on wind," i.e. on lies. Lies were his OJf, XlL 1-14.J THE BOOK OF HOSEA.