The Pulpit Commentary — Amos — Section 79

the rugged ranges that closed in the Dead Sea, had scanned the desert of the south and had delighted himself in the blue waters of the Mediterranean. He had out: watched the stars and greeted the glorious dawn; he had bowed hie head before the t<'mrest, and heard the voice of the Almighty in the thunder's craBh. lie had read the scroll which unfolds itself to every observant eye; he had listened to the language best heard in solitnde and seclusion. His meditations concerning God as known, not by the book or the law, but by the book of nature, relate to- I. Gon's CREATIVE POWER. This he doubtless recognized wherever he turned, by tay and by night, in the peaceful plain and upon the awful hills. He here refers to two instances of the Maker's might, two proofs of his incomparable majesty. "He formeth the mourttains." The stability and the immensity of the mountains have ever p~sscssed a charm and an inspiration for the sensitive and thoughtful student of nature. Little as Amos could have known of those processes by which the enduring hills have been fashioned, he was capaMc of appreciating their testimony to the Crea.tor, and probably of recognizing their symbolism of Divine attributes. The wind is a phe- nomenon which has always impressed the observer of God's works. Its immense power and its inscrutable mystery, its tenderness as it breathes through the forests at eventide, its awfulness when it roars upon the mountains, when it lashes into fury the mighty waves of the sea, a.re suggestive of the manifold operations of the all-compre~ bending Deity. And our Lord himself hae reminded us of its symbolical significance as setting forth the wonderful, varied, and inexplicable manifestations of the presence and the working of the Divine Spirit. II. Gon'e SPIRITUAL INSIGHT. When the prophet describes God as" declaring unto man what ie his thought," the language has sometimes been taken to refer to the Divine thought revealed to man; but it probably is to be interpreted of that omniscient energy by virtue of which the Eternal penetrates the spiritual nature of men and reads their thoughts afar off. That the creating Spirit is thus in perpetual and inti- mate contact with those created spirits into which he has breathed the breath of lire, a.nd which he has fashioned in his own likeness: this is reasonable enough. Yet the enunciation of tLis unquestionable truth should have two effects upon us. It. should enhance our conception of God's majesty, and so call forth our adoration and our praise ; and it should make us concerned as to the moral quality of the thoughts of our minds, which the omniscient and holy God must surely estimate with justice, and by a standard infinitely lofty and pure. III. Gon's PBOVIDENTUL RULE. If we take literally the language, "That maketh the morning darkness, and treadeth upon the high places of the earth," then these clauses are additional acknowledgments of the Crea.tor's power and wisdom as displayed in nature. But coming after the preceding clause, which refers to men's thoughts, they seem to invite another interpretation. God's presence is to be recognized in the order of the world, in the tokens of moral government, in the workings of retributive law-in a word, in the facts which are justly deemed providential. , .. IV. Gon's GLORIOUS NAME. To the Hebrew mind there was a very close connection between the natnre and attributes and the Name of the Divine Ruler and Lord. He was Jehovah, i.e. the Self-existing and Eternal, whose Being accounts for all being beside, He was the Lord of hosts, i.e. supreme over all powers, possessed of all might, ordering all natures and all processes according to hie own wisdom. The angelic hosts of unseen ministers and warriors, the armies of Israel and of the nations, the innumerable forces that obey the Divine behests and bring to pass the Divine purposes,-all these are beneath the cognizance and the i;way of the Eternal, all these are ever executing his authoritative commandments and establishing his universal and everlasting kingdom. In the presence of a Being so glorious, so mighty, so holy, what power attaches to the nwnition of Scripture, "Stand in awe, and sin not" 1-T. . Ver. 12.-" Prepare to '171.eet thy God." The threats whioh precede this summons are very indefinite. Designedly so; for the prophet wished to a.ro1111e a general fcfre- hoding of retribution amongst the careless people, which would have Its fulfilment in national disasters, but its final consummation in another world. Buch indefiniteness aJ.;;o makes it possible to apply his words to men of every age and country, All responHible beings must at last meet their God, and may wisely be urged to "prepare." ,OB. IV. 1-13,] THE BOOK OF AMOS. 79