The Pulpit Commentary — Amos — Section 136

are like the productions of the fields and the meadows. In the summer the variety is st1iking, some herbs nnd flowers appear in more stately form and attractive hues than others; but when old winter comes round, who sees the distinctions? Where are the plants of beauty? They are faded and gone. "All flesh is grass, and all the goodlinese thereof as the flower of the field." "Beauty is but a vain and doubtful good, A shining gloss, that fadeth suddenly; A flower that dies, when first it 'gins to bud; A brittle glass, that's broken presently: A doubtful good, a gloss, a glass, a flower, Lost, faded, broken, dead within an hour. uAnd as good lost is seldom or never found, As fading gloss no rubbing will refresh, As flowers dead lie withered on tue ground, As broken glass no cement can redress, So beauty, blemished once, for ever's lost, In spite of physic, paiDting, pain, and cost." (Shakespeare.) III. 'l'o BEJOIOE IN ANCESTRAL DISTINCTION is to "rejoice in a thing of nought!' There are those who are constantly exulting in their pedigree. Some who in this country can go back to the days of William the Conqueror, how delighted they are I But who were the men that William brought over with him, and between whom he divided this England of ours? Cobblers, tailors, smiths, plunderers, men of rapine and blood, most of them destitute alike of.intellectual culture and morality. But even had we come from the loins of the intellectual and moral peers of the race, what cause in this is there for rejoicing? It is truly "a thing of nought." Our ancestry is independent of us; we a.re not responsible for it. It is not a matter either of blame or praise. Each man is complete in himself-an accountable unity, a moral cause. A prime minister has a number of earnest servile lackeys-they are printers, jewellers, clothmakers, tailors, and such-like; in the zenith of his power he rewards them by causing them to be titled "sir," "lord," "baron," etc. In this their children rejoice. But is it not "a thing of nought"? What is there in it? Nothing. "Knighthoods and honours home Without desert, are titles bnt of scom." (Shakespeare.) IV. To REJOICE IN MORAL MERITORIOUSNESS is to "rejoice in a thing of nought." There are many who rejoice in their morality. Like the Pharisee in the temple, they thank God they are not as "other men." They consider they are "rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing," whereas they are " wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked." Moral merit in a sinner is a baseless vision, a phantom of a proud heart, The man exulting in his own self-righteousness acts as foolishly as the man who endeavours to secure himself from the scorching rays of the sun under his own shadow. He seeks to bring his shadow between him and the sun, but cannot. If he runs, the shadow is before or behind him; if he falls down, the shadow falls with him, and leaves him in contact with the burning beam. No; our righteousness is "11 thing of nought;" it is "filthy rags." "Beware of too sublime a sense Of your own worth and consequence. The mau who deems himself so great, And his importance ofsnch weight, That all around, in all that's done, Must inove and act for him alone, Will learn in sohool of tribulation The folly of hie expectation." (Cowper.) CoNcLUBION, Ah me I how many on nil hands are rejoicing in "a thing of nouabt • 1 Wealth, beauty, ancestry, self-righteousness,-what are these? Fleeting sb;dows. 136 TRE BOOK OF A.MOS. [011, VI, 1-14,