The Pulpit Commentary — Amos — Section 60

II. THAT THE RIGHT REOEPTION OF THIB BPEOIAL REVELATION NEOE88ITATEB PREACH- ING, "'!.'he lion bath roared, who will not fear? the Lord God hath spoken, who can but prophesy?" The idea. is that the men who he.ve rightly taken the truth into them can no more conceal it than men can avoid terror at the roar of the lion. There a.re some truths which men may receive e.nrl feel no disposition to communicate, such as the truths of abstract science, which have no relation to the social heart. But gospel truths have such a relation to the tenderest and profoundest affections of the spirit, that their genuine recipients find them to be irrepressible. They feel like Jeremiah, that they have fire shut up in their bones; like the apostles before the Sanhedrin, "We cannot but speak the things that we have seen and heard;" like Paul," Neces- sity is laid upon me to,.preach the gospel." "Who can but prophesy?" None but those who have not received the truth.-D. T. Vere. 10, 11.-Rectitude. "For they know not to do right, saith the Lord, who store up violence and robbery in their palaces," etc. "\Ve derive from this passage three general remarks. !. THAT THERE IS AN ETERNAL LAW OF "RIGHT" '.i'lIAT SHOULD GOVERN MAN IN ALL HIS RELATIONS. Right, as a sentiment, is one of the deepest, most ineradicable, and operative sentiments in humanity. All men feel that there is such a thing as right. What the right is, is a subject on which there has been and is a variety of opinion. Right implies a standard, and men differ about the standard. Some say the law of your country is the standard; some say public sentiment is the standard; sorp.e say temporal expediency is the standard. All these are fearfully mistaken. Philosophy and the Bible teach that there is but one standard-that is the will of the Creator. '!.'bat will he reveals in many ways-in nature, in history, in conscience, in Christ. Conformity to that will is right. 1. The law of right should govern man in his rela- tions with God. That law says-Thank the kindest Being most, love the best Being most, reverence the greatest Being most. "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God," etc. 2. The law of right should govern man in his relation to his fellow-'Tlien. "Whatso- ever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even so unto them." This law of right is immutable. It admits of no modification. It is universal. It is binding alike on all moral beings in the universe. It is benevolent. It seeks the happiness of all. Earth will be Paradise again when the will of God is done here "as it is in heaven.n II. THAT A PRAOTIOAL DISREGARD OF THIS LAW LEADS TO FRAUD AND VIOLENCE. "For they know not to do right, saith the Lord, who store up violence and robbery in their palaces." The magnates of Samaria had no respect for the practice of right, hence they "stored up violence and robbery in their palaces." Fraud and violence are the two great primary crimes in all social life. By the former men are deceived, befooled, rifled of their rights, and disappointed of their hopes and expectations. Never was fraud stronger in England than to-day-fraud in literature, commerce, religion, legislation. Ily the latter, men are disabled, wounded, crushed, murdered. Can the history of the world furnish more terrible manifestations of violence than we have had in the wars of Christendom in this age? Why this fraud and violence? Why are these devils let loose to fill the world with lamentation and woe? The answer is in the text, "Men knew not to do right." That is, they do not practise the right. III. 'l'ITAT FRAUD AND VIOLENOE MUST UL'l'IMATELY MEET WITH CO?iDIGN PUNISH- MENT. "Therefore thus saith the Lord God; An adversary there shall be even round about the land; and he shall bring down thy strength from thee, and thy palaces shall be spoiled." How was this realized? "Against him came up Shalmaneser King of Assyria; and Hoshea became his servant, aud gave him presents.... In the ninth year of Hoshea. the King of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away iuto Assyria, and placed them in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the MeJes" (2 Kings xvii. 3-6; xviii. 9-11). 'l'he cheats and murderers of mankind will, as sure as there is justice in the world, meet with a terrible doom. "Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness a 6ainst you, an,l shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye havo heaped treasure together for the l~st '.lays. Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which 1s of you kept back by fraud, 60 THE BOOK OF AMOS. [oa. IV. 1-18.