The Pulpit Commentary — Amos — Section 127

Vere. 4--7.-The sin of dissolute life. A herdsman and gatherer of wild figs like Amos, brought into contact with the nobility and the courtiers of a. wealthy and luxurious city like Samaria, was likely enough to be shocked and scandalized. The judgments he formed were naturally severe, but they were not unjust or passionate. His langwige remains a merited and everlasting rebuke to those in high station who live for their own gratification and indulgence. L A LUXURIOUS AND DISSOI.UTE LIFE IS A SHAMEFUL )lISUSE OF PRECIOUS OPPOR TUNITIEB. It is sometimes judged that those who are "born in the purple," those who inherit great estates, great wealth, are to be excused if they form in youth, and retain in manhood, habits of expensive self-indulgence. But as all men are, above all, the children of God, endowed with a spiritual nature and entrusted with sacred oppor- tunities, it is not to be for a moment admitted that the advantages of high station .absolve them from the obligations involved in human nature and human life. A man has no right to pamper the body and exalt it to a. lordship over the spirit; he bas no right to gratify his tastes as though self-gratification were the great end of existence. IJ. A LUXURIOUS AND DISSOLUTE LIFE IS MORALLY DEBASING AND DEGRADING. No -one can live below the appointed level of humanity without paying the inevitable ;penalty, without incurring the inevitable deterioration. The light burns dim; the fine gold turns to clay. The couch of indolence, the feast of gluttony, the voluptuous music, the brimming bowls of wine, the costly unguents,-these are dangerous indulgences. Men may give them fine names, and call them the bounties of Divine providc.,nce. And it is quite true that the evil is not in the instruments of self. indulgence, but in the bad uses to which they are put. But none can live merely for bodily, for 1BSthetic, for social, enjoyment, without injuring his own character, without losing self-respect and the esteem of those whose esteem is worth having. Ill. A LUXUBIOUII AND DldSOLUTE LIFE ON THE PABT OF THE GREAT 1B A BAD EXAMPLE TO THE COMMUNITY AT LARGE. Bad habits penetrate from the sercalled upper to the s~lled lower class. When the nobility aod gentry are self-indulgent, the tradespeople who grow wealthy are likely to follow their example, and the poor are likely enough to grow envious and discontented. The Samaritan chiefs were reproached for misleading the people, and justly. The ignorant and the thoughtless are naturally influenced by an example of selfishness, and none can altogether escape receiving some measure of harm. IV. A LUXURIOUS AND DISSOLUTE LIFE RE!.'DERS THE GREAT INSENSIBLE TO THE .AFFLICTIONS OF THE POOR AND OPPRESSED. 'l'he language of the prophet is very touch- ing: the self-indulgent" are not grieved far the afflicliun of Joseph." Wrapped up i11 '(JH, VI, 1-H.] THE BOOK OF AMOS. 127