concorn and hie life-effort. He could think, speak, be active about nothing else. " The land could not bear hie words," so vehement were they and eo persistent. The advocacy that will take no refusal, that must be either yielded to or silenced, is thBt which alone beseems the stupendous importance of the cause of God. "The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up." If this ie not an all-ab~orbing passion, it ie not after the one Example. 4. Bold. (Vere. 16, 17.) Prohibition is treated as a challenge. It only leads him to repeat and emphasize. There is no bravado in this, bnt only a supreme regard for the principle, "We ought to obey God rather than men." 'l'he King's messenger, on the King's business, must brook obstruction from none. The best soldier is the boldest. Perfect devotion to and faith in his Captain speaks in absolute fearlessness in his service. 5. Explicit. (Ver. 17.) 'l'he heathen oracles always "pBltered in a double sense." After the event their deliverances could be reconciled with whatever happened. But the prophet, delivering God's message, is sure of his ground. He specifies details with confidence, for no jot or tittle of the Divine Word can fail. .As in other cases, the fulfilment of this particular detail of the prophecy is not recorded (Isa. xxii.17, 18; Jer. xxix. 22), nor could it be expected to be in the condensed account of the Scripture narrative. "Scripture hath no leisure to relate all which befalls those of the viler sort." Yet the broad fact of the Captivity and exile, accompanied by all the horrors of Oriental warfare, forms a. constructive record of the events. III. A HARROWING PICTURE. (Ver. 17.) These are the horrors bom of idolatry. When Amaziah came to suffer them in his family he would know practically what his chosen idolatry was, and made of men. 1. Famuy duhonour. " Wife dishonoured," etc. A common atrocity (Isa. xiii. 16; Zech. xiv. 2), and to Bll concerned the most diabolically cruel conceivable. Between this crime and idolatry there are analogies, and probably affinities, in virtne of which the one is figuratively called by the name of the other (Jer. iiL 9; Ezek. xxiii. 37). The patron of the one is fitly punished by being made the victim of the other. The conduct of Turkish troops in recent wars, in respect to this matter, is a commentary on the assertion that Mohammedanism is a valuable protest against idolatry. 2. Family impo11erishment. A Hebrew's property is inalienable. If he lost it by mismanagement, it reverted to his family at the jubilee. But the Assyrian would know nothing of jubilees. The chance of disgorge- ment was small when he had eaten up the inheritance. 3. Family Q;termination. ,ve all like to perpetuate our name and family. The Hebrew had this feeling in almost unparalleled strength. To die childless was with him the sum of all disaster. What more appri,priate than that it should wait on idolatry, " the sum of all sin"? 4. Dia- honoured death. Dying in a strange country, both Jacob and Joseph made provision for being buried in their own land (Gen. xlvii. 30; 1. 25; Heb. xi 22). No Jew could die happy expecting burial in a heathen country. Exposure to such a fate wonld cap the climax of Amaziah's wretchedness. 5. Exile for all Israel. They had polluted their land, and were unworthy longer to remain in it. They had become assimilated to the heathen in their character and ways, and would be associated with them yet on closer terms. It was a holiday heathenism they were in love with, and they would be cured of their penchant by a sight of it in its working dress. IV. A CLENOHING ARGUMENT. "The word of Jehovah." It was Amos who spoke it; but the word was God's. And it cannot be broken. The Divine truth is pledged to it. 'l'he Divine energy is lodged in it, The Divine purpose is couched in it, The thing it affirms is potentially a fact.
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS, Ver. 2.-Intercessory prayer. In the language which the prophet employed in hil1 e.ppeal to God, he copied that of the great leader and lawgiver of his nation; and he was probably encouraged by remembering that Moses had not pleaded for Israel in vain. I. THE PROMPTmo TO INTEROESSORY PRAYER. Why should one man plead with God on another's behalf? It is evident that there is in human nature not only a principle of self-love, but also II principle of sympathy and benevolence. Amos intercedeu for the natiot1 from which he sprang, in which he was interested, and which was endeared to him by sacred associations. He was well aware of his countrymen's offences, and of 150 'l'HE BOOK OF AMOS. [dH, VU, 1-17,