The Pulpit Commentary — Amos — Section 119

evil actually falls (Isa. xxviii. 15). 2. SorM are secure in moraUty. They trust in the arm of flesh. They persuade themselves that they Rre but little to blame. They view the coming ju<lgments RS provoked by, and meant for, others. They see nothing in their own life to provoke them; and they build on this as a ground of immunity from evil when the day of it shall come. A.nd so they are seoure; less guiltily, it may be, but no more reasonably than the secure in siu (Jer. xvii. 6 ; Rom. iii. 20), 3. Some. are secure in ordinances. They locate spirituRl power in Church forms. The SRcraments, they say, contain anrl convey the grace they signify. Regeneration with them means a sprinkled face, and justificRtion an elevated host, and sanctification an exhaustive observance of ordinances. Many are secure in the persuasion of these things. They put a hollow form of godliness for its spirit and power, and lull their souls to rest in its deep recesses. IV. THE occASIONS OF IT. There is RD incongruity about it that seems to call for explanation. In the case of Israel, and others like it, one cause was: 1. Unvarying pi·osperity. "Because they have no changes they forget God." People calculate on uniformity. As life has been, so they easily assume it will be, A smiling world is a dangerous tranquillizer. Even the godly experience this (Ps. cxix. 67), and the direct tendency of adversity is to prevent it (2 Cor. iv. 17, 18). An unbroken run or prosperity is most unfavourable to spiritual life and liveliness. 2. Luxurious living. (Ver. 4.) The course of religion in the soul is just the progress of a warfare between flesh and spirit (Rom. vii. 23). To this warfare there is one uniform issue-the triumph of the spiritual principle. But victory is not won without a struggle. The spiritual. principle waxes strong only under culture. The flesh gets weak . only by being crucified. If it be let alone it will grow strong, much more if it is indulged and fed. Hence "fulness of bread and abundance of idleness" (Ezek. xvi. 19) are a revealed occasion of spiritual declension; and God was lightly esteemed and forsaken when Jeshurun "waxed fat, and grew thick" (Deut. xxxii. 15), Luxury is leaving itS-,mark on all the Churches in indolence and self-indulgence and a lowered, spiritual tone. 3. Oompaniomhip of tM ungodly. "He that walketh with wise men shall be wise," <'tc. Character propagates itself-begets character in its own likeness. Familiarity with sin breeds tolerance of it. A sinful example is a temptation to sin. So long as men not impeccable instinctively imitate each other, association with the wicked must, to a certain extent, corrupt. The corrupter any society is, the lower will be the spiritual tone of the Church in it. All Israel were not alike guilty, nor alike i,ecure. Many were innocent, no doubt, of the special national sins; and there is- no reason to suppose that they all were recklessly at ease in Zion. But it is certain. that the security of many was due to the hardening influence of the sins become familiar to his mind. 4. Sin. This is not an occasion merely, but a cause, and the most fruitful e&nse of all. Sin both blinds and hardens. The more sin we commit- the less do- we see of its consequences, the less do we fear what we can see,,and the further are we from an appreciative knowledge of God in those characters which lead inevitably to the punishment of it. The climax of. security is-more than likely .to correspond to the extreme of wickedness. It was so with Israel. Never was she more corrupt, yell never was she more recklessly at ease, than when these words were spoken. V. THE EVIL OF IT. "Woe to them," etc.! Wherever the security is the woe it denounced. 1. With tM godly it comu before a fall. 'fhey stand by faith. 'l'hat faith is not an act merely; it is a habit of soul. It is not maintained at normal strength without an effort. And the frame most favourable to its maintenance at par is evident from the injunction, "Be not high-minded, but fear" (Rom. xi. 20). In the perfect realization of our dependence on God is the condition of abiding faith, anli in the maintenance of such faith is the condition of escaping a fall. From the moment Peter soared in his own imagination, his fall was a foregone conclusion (Matt. xxvi. 33, 34). 2. With tM ungodly it comes before destruction. Carnal security is in proportion to blindness, and blindness is in proportion to coruption. When a sinner-~ most secure he most of all deserves his doom, and is least of all on his guard against it. Hence, as the height of imagined safety is the depth of real danger(l Thess. v. 3). No surer sign c,f destruction near than the cry, "PeRCc, peace I" Ver. 3.-The procrastinator family. The fear of suffering is universal and instinc- _______________________ ________ ClH. VI. 1-14.] THE BOOK OF AMOS. ..._ 119