The Pulpit Commentary — Amos — Section 134

things. True ho.ppiness springs from within, not from without; arises from holy loves, hopes, o.spiro.tions 1 o.nd o.ims. In one word, love is the well of water that springs up unto everlo.stlng hre. IV, WHEN THEY ATTEMPT TO SAVE SOULS BY MINISTERING TO THEIB SELFISHNESS, There o.re men in all Churches who give themselves to saving souls, as they say, Salvation is the burden of all their thought and talk. Hut how do they endeavour to 1ccomplish their object? By everlasting appeals to the selfish fears and hopes of men. Tragic descriptions are given of hell in order to frighten men, and sensuous descriptions of heaven in order to attract them. But can this save the soul? Impossible. lt will only aggravate its damnation. Salvation consists in the extinction of all that is selfish in human nature, and in the generating, fostering, and perfecting disinterested, self- obli vioue love. 11 He that seeketh his life shall lose It: he that loseth his life shall find it." A preacher may increase his congregation by appealing to the selfishness of his hearers, but he does not add one to the family of the good. The man who tries to save souls by constant appeals to the selfishness of human nature acts more absurdly than he who attempts to gallop horses upon the sharp peaks of rugged rocks. V. WHEN THEY ATTEMPT TO CONVERT HEATHENS ABROAD BEFORE CONVERTING THE HEATHENS AT HOME. London abounds with heathens. All the heathens of the heathen world have their representatives in London; besides, the great bulk of the resident population are heathens; they are without God and without hope in the world. The influence of London upon the most distant parts of the world is a thousand times e.s great e.s that of all the missionaries from England and America. Under such circum- stances, to send a few lonely men to distant peoples, who are ignorant of our language, modes of thought, and habits, with the idea. of converting the world, is more absurd than to put horses to run on the rock, o.nd oxen to plough thereon. Are we not bound to go into all the world to spread the gospel? Yes, but is there a greater world than London? and should not our sailors, our merchants, onr travellers, and emigrants be the missionaries to foreign lands? Whilst your missionaries carry teaspoonfuls of the gospel here and there, your London pours out floods of depravity on every zone. CONCLUSION. Alas I how much human effort and sacrifice are lost for the want of practical wisdom and common sense I " Shall horses run upon the rock? will one plough there with oxen?" Yes, more successfully than we poor fools can accomplish some things that we labour to attain.-D. T. Ver, 12.-Man's perverting power. "For ye have turned judgment into gall, and the fruit of righteousness into hemlock." The meaning of this is that they had turned the best things into bad use. Judgment and righteousness, the laws of right, they had made as nauseous and noxious e.s II gall" and "hemlock." Our subject is man's perverting power, Our blessed Maker in our constitution has endowed us with a force which no other creature under heaven seems to have, of turning things to wrong uses, and making those things which he intended to bless us the means of misery and ruin. You can see man exercising this power in many departments of action. I. IN PHYBI0AL OPERATIONS. What does he do with the iron which he discovers in the depths of the earth? Forges it into implements of human destruction. What does he do with the vineyards and the corn-fields? He turns them into inebriating liquids, and rolls them like rivers of poison through every district of society. What does he do with his own physical appetites? Instead of attending to them as means of relief, he makes their gratification the chief sources of his pleasure, and thus degrades his mental and moral nature. Everywhere you see man perverting nature- perverting the metals, the rivers, the fruits, and the chemical elements of the world, II. IN OIVIO LIFE, The principle of human governrrent is a Divine ordinance, intended to secure equal justice and protection. But how has man perverted it! Hs has turned it into an instrument to benefit the few at the expense of the many, an instrument of tyranny and oppression. The principle of J°udicature, intended to secure for all a just administration of law, man notoriously perverts. Men are appointed to occupy the throne of judgment who are not always, or generally, known as incorruptibly just and morally pure, Hence often in the name of justice iniquities are enacted. Man's perversion of the law is proverbio.l e.s a hideous enormity. The prinoiple of merchandiae, intended to band man together by the exchange of cow.•  134 THE DOOK OF AMOS. [on. vi. 1-14:.