a:·1.,,bole were insensible of their privileges, and neglected and abused them; indeed, they are charg0d with having despised them. The smTounding and heathen nations were not guilty of this heinous offence. Great is the sin of those who have the Word of God, but who treat it with neglect and disdain. II. THE TRANSGRESSION OF JUDAH WAS AGGRAVATED BY THEIR FAILURE TO PROFIT BY THE LESSON OF WARNING OFFERRD IN THE HISTORY OF THRIR FOREFATHERS, The chosen people were taught not only by words, but by facts; not only by the books of Mo~es, bu_t. b,- the history _of their ancestors.. How often bad the Hebrew people for- saken then God_l How grievously had they sinned I And how terribly had they been scourg0d for their folly! Yet the lesson, emphatic and impressive though it was, was overlooked and unlearnt. III. 'l'HE TRANSGRESSION OF JUDAH WAS AGGRAVATED BY THEm LAPSE INTO IDOLATRY. The "lies" spoken of by the prophet refer to the deceptive and hideous rites and practices of the heathen. JehovRh was the true God• the "gods of the nations" were but idols, the professions of whose worshippers and priests were delusive and vain. That those who had been trained to idolatry should persevere in it was intelligible; but that Judah should forsake the righteous, pure, and gracious God for the capricious and obscene and ridiculous divinities of the surrounding nations, was monstrous, and only to be accounted for by an awful abandonment to self and sin. The greater the height from which one falls, the deeper is his descent. IV. THE AGGRAVATED TRANSGRESSION OF JUDAH MET WITH A SEVERE BETBIBUTION, Nebuzaradan and the army of the Ch.aldees fulfilled this prediction to the letter.-T. Vers. 6-8.-.A nation's crime,. The ministry of Amos was mainly to the northern kingdom. With this passage commences the long impeachment and warning which the prophet was inspired to address to Israel. The previous denunciations are pungent, but brief; now Amos puts forth all his strength of invective, reproach, and expostulation. L UNGODLINESS IS AT THE BOOT OF A NATION'S MORAL DEBASEMENT. Israel did not, indeed, abjure religion; but Israel abjured God. "The house of their god," says the prophet with a quiet irony, referring to the idol-temples which the people had taken to frequenting. The reverence of the supreme Lord of righteousness is the very root of national morality. Let a people worship such deities as were worshipped by Israel's neighbours, the Philistines, the Amorites, the Syrians, and it is well known to what fatal results such worship will surely lead. And let a nation abandon all worship, and live a life of sense, and it is certainly upon the high-road to moral ruin. II. Gr.EED AJID OPPRESSION ABE AMONG THE FRUITS OF NATIONAL UNGODLINESS, In the state of society with which Amos was conversant, these immoral habits dis- played themselves in the enslavement of the poor or in their deprivation of the ordinary comforts of life. There was no human law to prevent some of the base transactions mentioned, and all belief in a Divine Law was abandoned. History gives us many proofs of the pernicious effect of secularism and superstition upon human relations. Not only a.re all restraints, save those of civil law and physical force, spurned and ridiculed; there is no impulse and no motive to a higher than the selfish and animal lifo. IIL FLAGRAlIT LIOENTIOUBNEBB IB ANOTHER FRUIT OF A NATION'S IRBELIGION. The passions which lead to such atrocities as those here mentioned are, no doubt, deep seated in human nature. But religion assists men, not in repressing them wholly, but in controlling and guiding them. It is believed by many that Amos refers to some of the practices which were encouraged by the idolatries to which the Israelites were con- forming. Certain it is that infidelity is often associated with the vilest principles of an immoral life, and tends to the letting loose of that wild beast-sensual appetite-which works dire devastation in society. ArPLICATION. These considerations should induce those who prize true religion for themselves to seek its maintenance at home e.gainst the assaults of infidelity, and to 1:1eek its propagation in lands where its absence is so morally deleterious. -T.
Vers. 9-11.-.A nation's privikgea. The transgressions of Israel were all the more reprehensible because of the peculiar favour which had been shown to the people who THE BOOK OF A.MOS. 37