wall was a main coodHioo of its strength. In the perfection of the one wa.a the per- fection of the other. The loss oC one would be the loss of both. The wall that lean11 is about to fall. II. THE PLUMB-LINE. Thie is the regulating appliance, and the testing instrument with which the building must tally. 1. le is righteousness. Righteousness in the moral world answers to straightness in the world of matter. It is the moral recti. lineal, or line of "oughtness "-the line along which moral beings ought to move. This is manifestly the plumb-line by which to adjust the wall Israel to the perpen- dicular. Exemplified in the character, this righteousness is uprightness. Exemplified in the conduct, it is justice. In either case it is the ideal of rightness. 2. It ia r~qliteousness as it exists in God. God is universal Perfection-" Light," "Love," "Truth," "the Holy One,'' "the righteous God," and all in ideal form. He is, in fact, the typical moral Being. Each grace exists in him in its highest form. His righteousness is unspotted righteousness, and the realized ideal of all that righteous- ness ought to be. 3. It is this righteousness as it is revealed in &riptv.re. Scripture is the rule of man, just as being the revelation of God. What he is is our ModeL What he does is our Exemplar. What he is and does and requires is the burden of Scripture-a formulation of his whole will. " To the Law and to the testimony," etc. By the Law must Israel be tried, its true character revealed, and its fitting destiny settled. "Those that have sinned in the Law shall be judged by the Law." The Law is the unerring plumb-line, exposing every deviation from the moral perpendicular. III. THE TESTING. "Behold, I will set," etc. (ver. 8). This is to apply the plumb- line to the wall, so as to reveal irregularity if it exists. 1. This is no longer to be puC o_ff. "I shall pass by it no more." The limit of Divine forbearance was now reached. No more passing by, no longer indulgence, no further forgiveness, no more postpone- ment of the vengeance vowed. There is a last word of God to every man, and &fter it nothing can come but the blow. 2. The wall is to be fried by the rule it was buiU by. (Ver. 7.) "He destroys it by that same rule of right wherewith he had built it. By that law, that right, those providential leadiogs, that grace which we have received, by the same we are judged" (Pusey). God has only one standard, and he uses it always. 'l.'hings ought to be as he made them, and he tries them to discover if they are so. Tbe measure of divergence from original righteousness, whether in men or Churches, is the measure of guilt in the diverging party. Comparison with its own pure ideal would bring out Israel's corruption in the strongest light. 3. The testing is to be one of the entire nation. " The wall is not the emblem of Samaria, or of any one city. It is the strength and defence of the whole people" (Pusey). There was general deflection, and to discover this there will be a general plumbing. .All the wall must be tested before it can be all destroyed. IV. THE DEMOLITION. 'l.'he wall is found to have bowed, and the word is given to pull it down. In this destruction would be involved: 1. The idolatrous places. "The sacrificial heights of Isaac," all the high places at Dao, Bethel, and Gilgal, where idol- worship was carried on. In the wasting of these would appear, on the one hand, the vanity of idol-worship, and, on the other, God's epeciaJ:wrath against it-matters which it was necessary to emphasize in the mind of idol-loving Israel. 2. Idolatrous ob}ect11. "The holy things of Israel" ( ver. 9) are the objects and adjuncts of their idolatrous worship. Dan and Bethel, as rivals of Jerusalem, having been desolated, Baal, Ashta- roth, etc., as rivals of Jehovah, would be destroyed. Broken idols and levelled shrinell would alone remain, a commentary on the impotence of the "lyin" vanities" to which blinded Israel persistently turned. 3. The Hebrew monarchy. "Th;house of Jeroboam" was the reigning family. It was the last dynasty of the Israelitish monarchy. In it and with it was to perish (Hos. i. 4), and did perish, "the kingdom of the house of Israel." The royal house was so identified with the national idol-worship as of necessity to be involved in whatever destruction this provoked. It was specially fitting, more- over, that the family of the arch-idolater should be the one to sink in the burning grave of the idolatry he set up.
Vers. 10-17.-Machination foiled by fearless candour. Amos hi\d deserved well of Israel. He took a more practical interest in their welfare than any other man from the king down, He saw their sin, and lamented it; their impending ruin. and woulJ 148 THE BOOK OF AMOS. [OH, VII, 1-17,