The Pulpit Commentary — Amos — Section 128

-their own enjoyments, comforts, and luxuries, the great fail to sympathize with those whom we call "the masses." A self-denying and benevolent and public-spirited course -0f, conduct would have precisely an opposite effect. There is no reason in the nature of things why nobles should not feel with and for the poor and unfortunate ; as a matter of fact, they orten do so. But those whose absorbing thought is of sell have neither heart nor time to give to their less-favoured neighbours. V. A LUXURIOUS AND DISSOLUTE LIFE OFTEN INVOLVES A SPEEDY AND FEARFUL RETRIBUTION. The table of the epicure is overthrown. The sybarite is dragged from his palace, and sent away into exile. Those who have been worthless members of their own state become banished mourners in a strange land. And the song of pleasure is exchanged for the wail of woe.-T. Ver. 11.-" The Lord commandeth.'' It was the office and function of a prophet to lose himself in becoming the vehicle of Divine communications, the organ of Divine ,decisions. His prefatory words were these: "Thus saith the Lord. n He saw and felt the Lord's presence, not only in his own ministry, but in all the events that occurred in the range of his observation, whether affecting individuals or nations. I. THERE IS AN ELEMENT OF AUTHORITY IN EVERY WORD OF THE LoBD. Whether God addresses to men language of rebuke or reproach, of entreaty or of threatening, he speaks with authority. His invitation is that of a King; it is a command When our Lord Christ spoke in the course of his ministry, he spoke with authority. The Divine judgment is always correct, the Divine will is always obligatory. IL ALL AGENCIES AND INSTRUMENTALITIES ABE OBEDIENT TO THE LoBn's BEHESTS. It is so with the forces of nature. " The stormy wind fulfilleth his word;" "His Ininisters are a flaming fire." It is so with the institutions of human society, with the purposes and the activities of men. The hand which is visible in a work ma.y be that of a creature; the power that directs that hand may, nevertheless, be creative wisdom ,and creative Inight. God gives the word; it is executed by ten thousand ministers of his holy will. He maketh even the wrath of man to praise him. Ill. THE POWER OF THE GB.EA.TEST AMONG MEN IS INCAPABLE OF BE81STING THE DIVINE COMMANDS. The "great house" and the "little house" alike are smitten when the Lord makes bare his arm. Israel and Judah, the prince and the husbandman, may know that nothing can protect them from the Inight of the Eternal when his decree of judgment has gone out against them. Well may the people that rebel a,,aainst God tremble and fear, and remember that they are but men.-T. Ver. 12.-The vanity of the einner's principles and hop1!8. The perfect naturalness and genuineness of Amos must be apparent to every reader. The sources from which. he drew his grapbio imagery were his own life and experiences. As a husbandman employed upon the land, he was brought into contact both with the phenomena of nature and with the processes of agriculture; and from these sourco■ his mind was supplied with the bold eimilitudes which occur in his prophecies. Wishing to depict the irrational and absurd suppositions and expectations of the sinful and rebellious, he compared them to husbandmen who should attempt to drive horses up a steep cliff, or to plough the hard, barren rock by oxen. I. JUSTICE! IS THE ETERNAL LAW OF THE ll/lOBAL UNIVERSE. Here is the true and Divine bond of human society ; here is the principle which should govern earthly rulers, judges, and princes. The higher men's station, the greater men's power, the more important is it that justice should guide and inspire their conduct. II. lN A CORRUPT STATE OF BOOIETY OPPRESSION AND VIOLENCE ABB SUBSTITUTED FOB .JUSTIOE. Amos complained that the kings and nobles of Israel were guilty of the basest and most degrading conduct; they exchanged the sweet and wholesome fruit of righteousness for the bitterness of gall and wormwood nnd,the poison of hemlock, i.e. for bribery,• for violence, for oppressiveness. History is full of such instances. The noble institutions of society are perverted into instruments of personal ambition, aggrandize~ ment, and wrong. Cruel kings. luxurious nobles, corrupt judges, are morally disas- trous to the state; their example spreads threugh all classes, and faith, honour, and purity decay and perish. Jll. JT IS lMPOSSIDLE THAT TRUE PROSPERITY SHOULD PREVAIL WIIERE THE FOUNTAUI 128 THE BOOK OF AMOS. [CB, VI. 1-H.