The Pulpit Commentary — Amos — Section 120

tive. All the lower animals exhibit it. So do men in different waye. It ill not joyous, but grievous. Human life and happiness are 11haped largely by this feeling. Men make their relations to it a chief concern. If it be past, they seek compeDMtiooa for it. If it be present, they seek relief. If it be coming, they try to prevent it; or failing that, to postpone it; or, failing both, to mitigate it. And as a certain pr~portion of the pain is altogether mental, and due to our thoughts about it, one of the commonest palliatives for it is the endeavour to ignore it altogether. Among her other follies and sins, the attempt to do so on the part of Israel is here announced. I. THE EVIL DA y WHIOB MEN WOULD PUT OFF. This will be : 1. The day of a,au,aJ, evil. To the wicked there are many such days, with almost as many individual characteristics. Such a day pre-eminently is: (1) The day of death. This is the king of terrol'II. To the wicked it means the end of all the good they know of, and the beginning of sufferings of every possible kind and a magnitude inconceivable. It is, therefore, the day of evil in a sense peculiar to itself. (2) The day of visitati(Ya for sin. Such days are sure and frequent. Israel had experienced many of them, and. the reminiscence was not agreeable. They had brought, and might again bring, every calamity for body, mind, and estate short of utter destruction. Tbey were evil days io. a very emphatic sense, and as such were specially feared. 2. The day of imagined evil. Such days would be : (1) The day of submission to God, which is an evil day in the ,estimation of pride. (2) The day of forsaking sin, which is disagreeable to lust. (3) The day of coming into relation to spiritual things, against all which the carnal mind is enmity. For such things the" more convenient season" is convenient in proportion as it is or can be regarded as distant. II. THE FOOLISH DEVICES BY wmoH MEN TBY TO ACCOMPLISH THE IMPOSSIBLE. A. foolish thing is never attempted for a wise reasol). or in a wise way. As to the evil day: 1. Some do not practically .believe that it is coming at all. They minimize their own guilt, which is the provoking cause. They magnify the considerations which bear in the direction of postponement. They ignore the sure Word of God, which denounces inevitable suffering on sin. The result is an amount of ignorance or scepticism about the !!latter sufficient to prevent its exercising any practical effect. It is believed in a vague and heedless way, but not so as to lead to appropriate, nor in fact to any. action. 2. Some trust to the chapter of accidents. They know the evil day is denounced. They know it is coming. They know that, if it comes, it will involve them in its calamities. But they hope events will take some happy turn, and some- thing indefinite, but highly convenient, will occur, which will change the issue, and , prevent the crisis from touching them (Isa. x.xviii. 15). All sinners persist in the life of sin, yet hope, somehow or other, to escape hell. 3. Some endeavour not to think a~u~ it at all. They, of set purpose, divert their attention from the subject. They refuse to "consider their latter end." They busy themselves about other things. They insanely act as if the danger would be annihilated by being ignored. Into this snare of the devil many fall. They cannot see the nearness of the evil day who refuse to look at the matter. Blinder and more stupid than the ox or the ass is the people that will not consider (Isa. i. 3). III. THE LAST STATE OF THE PBOCRASTIN.lTOB, WHICH .IS WOBSE THAN THE FIBS'.1:. What he gains is a heritage of woe (ver. 1). As to the coming of this, H is evident: 1. He cannot prevent it. God makes his own arrangements and keeps to them. W" cannot resist hia power. We cannot change his purpose. His word on any matter is the last word, and fixes it once for all. What he has apoken, and 33 he has spoken, must come to pass. 2. He cannot postpone it. The just.ice, goodness, and wisdom that combine in fixing an event enter also into the timing of it. All possible con- siderations are taken into aoconnt, and infinite power no more surely does the thing it means than at the time it means. It would be as wi~e to attempt and as easy to accomplish the defeat of God's purposes as their postponement. Our mental and active attitude are alike inoperative as to both. 3. He disqualifies himself for facing it. " Be ye also ready" is the Divine prescription in reference to the uorevealed date of the day of God. To be unready 1s to face it at tremendous disadvantage. To be inex- pectant besides is to aggravate the disadvantage to the very utmost. Prepare and watch are equally essential conditions of meeting the day of God in safety. Wilful delusion about the event means woeful injury by it. Men ought to be prepared for  120 THE BOOK OF AMOS. [on, VL 1-14-,