The Pulpit Commentary — Amos — Section 132

what do our prosperous tradesmen and the upper ten thousand live? For the most pa.rt, we fear, for the senses. Grand furniture-" beds of ivory;" choicest viands-- "lambs out of the fbck, and calves out of the midst of the stall;" ravishing music- "chants to the sound of the viol;" delectable beverages-the choicest wines in" bowls·" the most delicious aromas-" the chief ointments." Has carnal indulgence been mo~e rife in any land or age than this? Matter everywhere governs spirit; the body every- where is the despot, men are "carnal, sold under sin." 2. These people wrought without conscience. In all this there is no effort of conscience recorded, no word uttered. There is, indeed, a reference to intellectual effort, for it is said "they invented to themselves instruments of music." Carnal indulgence has ever been and is now as much, if not more than ever, the great employer of man's inventive faculties. Luxnry in England to-day is the great employer of human inger.uity. But there is no con- science here. When conscience is touched in such a state of things, and startled by the sense of its guilt, it exclaims, "0 wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this sin and death ? " II. THE RETRIBUTIVE RRSULT OF CARNAL INDULGENCE. The threat in the text is: 1. The loss of liberty. '' Therefore now shall they go captive with the first that go captive." Those who had taken the lead in revelry and all manner of wickedness were to bo the first in the procession of captives. In such a position their disgrace would be more conspicuous. Luxury always leads to slavery: it is the eternal law of justice, that those who live to the flesh shall lose their freedom and be exilecl. into the region of tyranny. "Lust, when it bath conceived, bringeth forth sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, bringeth forth death" (Ja.s. i. 15). 2. The loss of provisions. "And the banquet of them that stretched themselves shall be removed." They shall have scarcity, perhaps starvation, instead of the profusion of dainties with which their tables have been spread. All this carnal indulgence and voluptuousness, this luxury in ease, and diet, and music, and aroma will not go on for ever. They are abnormal conditions of human nature; retribution will one day put an end to them. "0 luxury, Bane of elated life, of affluent states, What ruin is not thine ? , , . Behind thee gape11 Th' unfathomable gulf where Ashur lies O'erwhelmed, forgotten; and high boasting Cham; And Elam'a haughty pomp; and beauteous Greece; And the great queen of earth, imperial Rome." (Dyer.) D.T. Ver. 8.-National depravity. " The Lord God bath sworn by himself, saith the Lord the God of hosts, I abhor the excellency of Jacob, and bate bis pa.laces: there- fore will I deliver up the city with all that is therein." In order to show the voluptuous debauchees referred to in the preceding verses the terrible judgments that would over- take them, Jehovah is here represented as making a solemn oath. Whether the city here refers to Samaria or Jerusalem, or both, is of little moment. The subject is national depravity, and we infer from the words- I. THAT DEPRAVITY KAY EXIST IN A NATION WHERE THERE IS MUCH THAT 18 KAGNIFI0ENT. Here is a reference to the "excellency "--or, as some render it, the splendour-" of Jacob; " and here is a reference to " palaces," the homes of princes. Thern was much that was magnificent among~t the Jewish people of old in their own land. Great cities and their palaces, and, above all, the temple at Jerusalem, beautiful in architecture and situation, with an organized priesthood and gorgeous ceremonies. Still, its depravity at this time was wide and deep and hideous. A nation may have much that is magnificent, and yet be deeply sunk in moral corruption. Witness ancient Greece and Rome; witness England to-day. The arts, sculpture, painting, architecture, music, have reached their perfection, and abound. On all hands our eyes are attracted by grand churches, splendid mansions, marts, banks, museums, colleges, and galleries of art. Albeit was depravity ever more rife In any age or country than this? Greed, ambition, selfishness, sensuality, fraud, falsehood, and self-indulgence,- these, the elements of depravity and the fountains of crime, abound in all direction11.  132 THE BOOK OF AMOS. [on. v1. 1-14.