The Pulpit Commentary — Amos — Section 118

11houting of the revellers will depart" (ver. 7). This is about the first step in retribu- tive punishment, The criminal's enjoyment comes to be centred in his sin, and to interrupt it is a sharp blow. . The retributive °;leasure to which lust i_s most of all amenable is to put a stop to indulgence. Depnve the oppressor of his power, the extortioner of his opportunity, the drunkard of his drink, and already the work of taking vengeance on him is well begun. 2. Apposite hardship should be inflicted. " Shall go captive.'' As captives they should endure oppression, not inflict it. For indulgence would be substituted privation in every form. They would make juster acquaintance with luxury by having the means of it wrung out of their own helpless- ness and misery. It is no doubt along these lines that eternal reward and punishment are arranged. Heaven will be the perfect exercise and enjoyment of all that is pure and spiritual in desire and taste. Hell, among other things, will be the cutting off for ever of einfol sources of enjoyment, for which the wicked had learned to live. 3. Those who had been first among the nations should, be first among the captive8, Thie is only fitting. The guilt of any evil movement culminates in its ringleaders, and ," first in transgression, first in punishment," is a maxim of natural justice. Those who organize and officer a wicked movement are those on whom justice will lay the earliest and the heaviest hand. Ver. 1.-Sorrow dogging the seC1tre. Human !He is proverbially uncertain. "We know not what shall be on the morrow," whether we ourselves shall be. "The unexpected" is always happening; and the lesson of this is-take nothing for granted that is still future. In the religious sphere the application of this principle would put an end to carnal security, and at this object our text aims. As to the security denounced here, notice- ' I. THE SPHERE OF IT. " In Zion." This is often in Scripture a name for the Church on earth (Rom. ix. 33; see on eh. i. 2). The membership of this is mixed (Matt. xiii. 30, 41), There are cold and hot and lukewarm among them. Some love God, some hate him; some are in equilibrio, having neither declared for him nor '11gainst him. Of the last two classes many are at ease. The ideal of spiritual life is watchfulness, activity, and self-suspicion; but these qualities need not be looked for in unspiritual men. Their fitness is not seen, nor the motives to them felt. .Though in the Church, they are not of it; and the characters of their life are not. those proper to the sincere believer. II. THE MEANING OF IT, There are principles at hand on which to account for it without difficulty. 1. PreocC1tpation. Spiritual things ought to get our first and ,best and continuous attention (Matt. vi. 33; xxvi. 41; Luke xiii. 24). But they do n.ot. The careless "eat, and drink, and marry, and are given in marriage" (Luke xvii. 27), and so events come on them unawnres. The householder relaxes his vigilance, and as a result his house is broken. into (Matt.. xxiv. 43). The wise virgins as well as the foolish sleep (Matt, xxv. 5), and. the bridegroom comes on them unawares. The security is foolish in proportion to the interests involved, and criminal in proportion to the number and plainness of a.rousing circumstances. 2. Blindness• .'l'he natural man is blind in spiritual things (1 Cor. ii. 14). He does not see the beauty of spiritual qualities (Isa. !iii. 2), nor the self-evidentness or spiritual principles, .nor the inviolability of spiritual deliverances, nor the grounds of spiritual assurance, nor the evidences of approaching Divine action, He sees neither what has been, nor ,what is, nor what is coming, Accordingly, he is secure and at ease in the very teeth of danger. 8. Presumption. Men do not adequately realize sin as to either its guilt or danger. They live in it equably and calmly, !IS if it were the normal thing. They anticipate no evil and no disturbance. They reckon on being spiritual fixtures, 'and on the perpetual maintenance of the status quo. They do not mean to turn, nor take account of being disturbed; but 11Ssume that there will be "no changes" for ever- more. Character is become stereotyped, conscience is silent, and the quiet of strong -delusion is within them and around. III. 'l'HE v ABIETIES OF IT, The secure in Zion are not all secure in the same -0.egree or sense. 1. Some are secure in sin. They expect to sin on and suffer no evil. Either they do not recognize the inseparable connection between the two, or they .trust to the chapter of accidents for something to intervene and stay proceeuings before IlS THE DOOK OF A.MOS. [c!J. VI, 1-14.