الكتاب المقدس

Expositor's Bible Commentary Amos 6:1 Woe to them that are at ease in Zion, and trust in the mountain of Samaria, which are named chief of the nations, to whom the house of Israel came! 3. "AT EASE IN ZION" Amos 6:1-14 The evil of the national worship was the false political confidence which it engendered. Leaving the ritual alone, Amos now proceeds to assault this confidence. We are taken from the public worship of the people to the private banquets of the rich, but again only in order to have their security and extravagance contrasted with the pestilence, the war, and the captivity that are rapidly approaching. "Woe unto them that are at ease in Zion"-it is a proud and overweening ease which the word expresses-"and that trust in the mount of Samaria! Men of mark of the first of the peoples"-ironically, for that is Israel’s opinion of itself-"and to them do the house of Israel resort! Ye that put off the day of calamity and draw near the sessions of injustice"-an epigram and proverb, for it is the universal way of men to wish and fancy far away the very crisis that their sins are hastening on. Isaiah described this same generation as drawing iniquity with cords of hypocrisy, and sin as it were with a cart-rope! "That lie on ivory diwans and sprawl on their couches"-another luxurious custom, which filled this rude shepherd with contempt-"and eat lambs from the flock and calves from the midst of the stall"-that is, only the most delicate of meats-"who prate" or "purr" or "babble to the sound of the viol, and as if they were David" himself "invent for them instruments of song; who drink wine by ewerfuls-waterpot-fuls-and anoint with the finest of oil-yet never do they grieve at the havoc of Joseph!" The havoc is the moral havoc, for the social structure of Israel is obviously still secure. The rich are indifferent to it; they have wealth, art, patriotism, religion, but neither heart for the poverty nor conscience for the sin of their people. We know their kind! They are always with us, who live well and imagine they are proportionally clever and refined. They have their political zeal, will rally to an election when the interests of their class or their trade is in danger. They have a robust and, exuberant patriotism, talk grandly of commerce, empire, and the national destiny; but for the real woes and sores of the people, the poverty, the overwork, the drunkenness, the dissoluteness, which more affect a nation’s life than anything else, they have no pity and no care. "Therefore now"-the double initial of judgment "shall they go into exile at the head of the exiles, and stilled shall be the revelry of the dissolute"-literally "the sprawlers," as in Amos 6:4 , but used here rather in the moral than in the physical sense. "Sworn hath the Lord Jehovah by Himself-‘tis the oracle of Jehovah God of Hosts: I am loathing the pride of Jacob, and his palaces do I hate, and I will pack up a city and its fullness. For, behold, Jehovah is commanding, and He will smite the great house into ruins and the small house into splinters." The collapse must come, postpone it as their fancy will, for it has been worked for and is inevitable. How could it be otherwise?" Shall horses run on a cliff, or the sea be ploughed by oxen-that ye should turn justice to poison and the fruit of righteousness to wormwood! Ye that exult in Lo-Debar and say, By our own strength have we taken to ourselves Karnaim." So Gratz rightly reads the verse. The Hebrew text and all the versions take these names as if they were common nouns-Lo-Debar, "a thing of naught"; Karnaim, "a pair of horns"-and doubtless it was just because-of this possible play upon their names, that Amos selected these two out of all the recent conquests of Israel. Karnaim, in full Ashteroth Karnaim, "Astarte of Horns," was that immemorial fortress and sanctuary which lay out upon the great plateau of BaShan towards Damascus; so obvious and cardinal a site that it appears in the sacred history both in the earliest recorded campaign in Abraham’s time and in one of the latest under the Maccabees. Lo-Debar was of Gilead, and probably lay on that last rampart of the province northward, overlooking the Yarmuk, a strategical point which must have often been contested by Israel and Aram, and with which no other Old Testament name has been identified. These two fortresses, with many others, Israel had lately taken from Aram; but not, as they boasted, "by their own strength." It was only Aram’s preoccupation with Assyria, now surgent on the northern flank, which allowed Israel these easy victories. And this same northern foe would soon overwhelm themselves. "For, behold, I am to raise up against you, O house of Israel-‘tis the oracle of Jehovah God of the hosts-a Nation, and they shall oppress you from the Entrance of Hamath to the Torrent of the ‘Arabah." Everyone knows the former, the Pass between the Lebanons, at whose mouth stands Dan, northern limit of Israel; but it is hard to identify the latter. If Amos means to include Judah, we should have expected the Torrent of Egypt, the present Wady el ‘Arish; but the Wady of the ‘Arabah may be a corresponding valley in the eastern watershed issuing in the ‘Arabah. If Amos threatens only the Northern Kingdom, he intends some wady running down to that Sea of the ‘Arabah, the Dead Sea, which is elsewhere given as the limit of Israel. The Assyrian flood, then, was about to break, and the oracles close with the hopeless prospect of the whole land submerged beneath it. 4. A FRAGMENT FROM THE PLAGUE In the above exposition we have omitted two very curious verses, Amos 6:9-10 , which are held by some critics to interrupt the current of the chapter, and to reflect an entirely different kind of calamity from that which it predicts. I do not think these critics right, for reasons I am about to give; but the verses are so remarkable that it is most convenient to treat them by themselves apart from the rest of the chapter. Here they are, with the verse immediately in front of them. "I am loathing the pride of Jacob, and his palaces I hate. And I will give up a city and its fullness" to (perhaps "siege" or "pestilence"?). "And it shall come to pass, if there be left ten men in one house, and. they die, that his cousin and the man to burn him shall lift him to bring the body t out of the house, and they shall say to one who is in the recesses of the house. Are there any more with thee? And he Shall say, Not one and they shall say, Hush! (for one must not make mention of the name of Jehovah)." This grim fragment is obscure in its relation to the context. But the death of even so large a household as ten-the funeral left to a distant relation -the disposal of the bodies by burning instead of the burial customary among the Hebrews-sufficiently reflect the kind of calamity. It is a weird little bit of memory, the recollection of an eye-witness, from one of those great pestilences which, during the first half of the eighth century, happened not seldom in Western Asia. But what does it do here? Wellhausen says that there is nothing to lead up to the incident; that before it the chapter speaks, not of pestilence, but only of political destruction by an enemy. This is not accurate. The phrase immediately preceding may mean either "I will shut up a city and its fullness," in which case a siege is meant, and a siege was the possibility both of famine and pestilence; or "I will give up the city and its fullness" in which case a word or two may have been dropped, as words have undoubtedly been dropped at the end of the next verse, and one ought perhaps to add "to the pestilence." The latter alternative is the more probable, and this may be one of the passages, already alluded to, in which the want of connection with the preceding verses is to be explained, not upon the favorite theory-that there has been a violent intrusion into the text, but upon the too much neglected hypothesis that some words have been lost. The uncertainty of the text, however, does not weaken the impression of its ghastly realism: the unclean and haunted he use: the kinsman and the body-burner afraid to search through the infected rooms, and calling in muffled voice to the single survivor crouching in some far corner of them, "Are there any more with thee?" his reply, "None"-himself the next! Yet these details are not the most weird. Over all hangs a terror darker than the pestilence. "Shall there be evil in a city and Jehovah not have done it?" Such, as we have heard from Amos, was the settled faith of the age. But in times of woe it was held with an awful and a craven superstition. The whole of life was believed to be overhung with loose accumulations of Divine anger. And as in some fatal hollow in the high Alps, where any noise may bring down the impending masses of snow, and the fearful traveler hurries along in silence, so the men of that superstitious age feared, When an evil like the plague was imminent, even to utter the Deity’s name, lest it should loosen some avalanche of His wrath. "And he said, Hush! for," adds the comment, one "must not make mention of the name of Jehovah." This reveals another side of the popular religion which Amos has been attacking. We have seen it as the sheer superstition of routine; but we now know that it was a routine broken by panic. The God who in times of peace was propitiated by regular supplies of savoury sacrifice and flattery, is conceived, when His wrath is roused and imminent, as kept quiet only by the silence of its miserable objects. The false peace of ritual is tempered by panic. Amos 6:12 Shall horses run upon the rock? will one plow there with oxen? for ye have turned judgment into gall, and the fruit of righteousness into hemlock: 8 COMMON SENSE AND THE REIGN OF LAW Amos 3:3-8 ; Amos 4:6-13 ; Amos 5:8-9 ; Amos 6:12 ; Amos 8:8 ; Amos 9:5 ; Amos 8:4-6 FOOLS, when they face facts, which is seldom, face them one by one, and, as a consequence, either in ignorant contempt or in panic. With this inordinate folly Amos charged the religion of his day. The superstitious people, careful of every point of ritual and very greedy of omens, would not ponder real facts nor set cause-to effect. Amos recalled them to common life. "Does a bird fall upon a snare, except there be a loop on her? Does the trap itself rise from the ground, except it be catching something"-something alive in it that struggles, and so lifts the trap? "Shall the alarum be blown in a city, and the people not tremble?" Daily life is impossible without putting two and two together. But this is just what Israel will not do with the sacred events of their time. To religion they will not add common-sense. For Amos himself, all things which happen are in sequence and in sympathy. He has seen this in the simple life of the desert; he is sure of it throughout the tangle and hubbub of history. One thing explains another; one makes another inevitable. When he has illustrated the truth in common life, Amos claims it for especially four of the great facts of the time. The sins of society, of which society is careless; the physical calamities, which they survive and forget; the approach of Assyria, which they ignore; the word of the prophet, which they silence, -all these belong to each other. Drought, Pestilence, Earthquake, Invasion conspire-and the Prophet holds their secret. Now it is true that for the most part Amos describes this sequence of events as the personal action of Jehovah. "Shall evil befall, and Jehovah not have done it? I have smitten you. I will raise up against you a Nation Prepare to meet thy God, O Israel!" { Amos 3:6 ; Amos 4:9 ; Amos 6:14 ; Amos 4:12 } Yet even where the personal impulse of the Deity is thus emphasized, we feel equal stress laid upon the order and the inevitable certainty of the process Amos nowhere uses Isaiah’s great phrase: "a God of Mishpat," a "God of Order" or "Law." But he means almost the same thing: God works by methods which irresistibly fulfill themselves. Nay more. Sometimes this sequence sweeps upon the prophet’s mind with such force as to overwhelm all his sense of the Personal within it. The Will and the Word of the God who causes the thing are crushed out by the "Must Be" of the thing itself. Take even the descriptions of those historical crises, which the prophet most explicitly proclaims as the visitations of the Almighty. In some of the verses all thought of God Himself is lost in the roar and foam with which that tide of necessity bursts up through Chem. The fountains of the great deep break loose, and while the universe trembles to the shock, it seems that even the voice of the Deity is overwhelmed. In one passage, immediately after describing Israel’s ruin as due to Jehovah’s word, Amos asks how could it "have happened otherwise":- "Shall horses run up a cliff, or oxen plough the sea? that ye turn justice into poison, and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood." { Amos 6:12 } A moral order exists, which it is as impossible to break without disaster as it would be to break the natural order by driving horses upon a precipice. There is an inherent necessity in the sinners’ doom. Again, he says of Israel’s sin: "Shall not the Land tremble for this? Yea, it shall rise up together like the Nile, and heave and sink like the Nile of Egypt." { Amos 8:8 } The crimes of Israel are so intolerable, that in its own might the natural frame of things revolts against them. In these great crises, therefore, as in the simple instances adduced from everyday life, Amos had a sense of what we call law, distinct from, and for moments even overwhelming, that sense of the personal purpose of God, admission to the secrets of which had marked his call to be a prophet. These instincts we must not exaggerate into a system. There is no philosophy in Amos, nor need we wish there were. Far more instructive is what we do find-a virgin sense of the sympathy of all things, the thrill rather than the theory of a universe. And this faith, which is not a philosophy, is especially instructive on these two points: that it springs from the moral sense; and that it embraces, not history only, but nature. It springs from the moral sense. Other races have arrived at a conception of the universe along other lines: some by the observation of physical laws valid to the recesses of space; some by logic and the unity of Reason. But Israel found the universe through the conscience. It is a historical fact that the Unity of God, the Unity of History, and the Unity of the World, did, in this order, break upon Israel, through conviction and experience of the universal sovereignty of righteousness. We see the beginnings of the process in Amos. To him the sequences which work themselves out through history and across nature are moral. Righteousness is the hinge on which the world hangs; loosen it, and history and nature feel the shock. History punishes the sinful nation. But nature, too, groans beneath the guilt of man; and in the Drought, the Pestilence, and the Earthquake provides his scourges. It is a belief which has stamped itself upon the language of mankind. What else is "plague" than "blow" or "Scourge?" This brings us to the second point-our prophet’s treatment of Nature. Apart from the disputed passages (which we shall take afterwards by themselves) we have in the Book of Amos few glimpses of nature, and these always under a moral light. There is not in any chapter a landscape visible in its own beauty. Like all desert-dwellers, who when they would praise the works of God lift their eyes to the heavens, Amos gives us but the outlines of the earth-a mountain range, { Amos 1:2 ; Amos 3:9 ; Amos 9:3 } or the crest of a forest, { Amos 2:9 } or the bare back of the land, bent from sea to sea. { Amos 8:12 } Nearly all, his figures are drawn from the desert-the torrent, the wild beasts, the wormwood ( Amos 5:24 ; Amos 5:19-20 ; etc.; Amos 7:12 ). If he visits the meadows of the shepherds, it is with the terror of the people’s doom; { Amos 1:2 } if the vineyards or orchards, it is with the mildew and the locust; { Amos 4:9 ff.} if the towns, it is with drought, eclipse, and earthquake. { Amos 4:6-11 ; Amos 6:11 ; Amos 8:8 ff.} To him, unlike his fellows, unlike especially Hosea, the whole land is one theatre of judgment; but it is a theatre trembling to its foundations with the drama enacted upon it. Nay, land and nature are themselves actors in the drama. Physical forces are inspired with moral purpose, and become the ministers of righteousness. This is the converse of Elijah’s vision. To the older prophet the message came that God was not in the fire nor in the earthquake nor in the tempest, but only in the still small voice. But to Amos the fire, the earthquake, and the tempest are all in alliance with the Voice, and execute the doom which it utters. The difference will be appreciated by us, if we remember the respective problems set to prophecy in those two periods. To Elijah, prophet of the elements, wild worker by fire and water, by life and death, the spiritual had to be asserted and enforced by itself. Ecstatic as he was, Elijah had to learn that the Word is more Divine than all physical violence and terror. But Amos understood that for his age the question was very different. Not only was the God of Israel dissociated from the powers of nature, which were assigned by the popular mind to the various Ba’alim of the land, so that there was a divorce between His government of the people and the influences that fed the people’s life; but morality itself was conceived as provincial. It was narrowed to the national interests; it was summed up in mere rules of police, and these were looked upon as not so important as the observances of the ritual. Therefore Amos was driven to show that nature and morality are one. Morality is not a set of conventions. "Morality is the order of things." Righteousness is on the scale of the universe. All things tremble to the shock of sin; all things work together for good to them that fear God. With this sense of law, of moral necessity, in Amos we must not fail to connect that absence of all appeal to miracle, which is also conspicuous in his book. We come now to the three disputed passages:- Amos 4:13 :-"For, lo! He Who formed the hills, and createth the wind, and declareth to man what His mind is; Who maketh the dawn into darkness, and marcheth on the heights of the land-Jehovah, God of Hosts, is His Name." Amos 5:8-9 :-"Maker of the Pleiades and Orion, turning to morning the murk, and day into night He darkeneth; Who calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them forth on the face of the earth-Jehovah His Name; Who flasheth ruin on the strong, and destruction cometh down on the fortress." Amos 9:5-6 :-"And the Lord Jehovah of the Hosts, Who toucheth the earth and it rocketh, and all mourn that dwell on it, and it riseth like the Nile together, and sinketh like the Nile of Egypt; Who hath builded in the heavens His ascents, and founded His vault upon the earth; Who calleth to the waters of the sea, and poureth them on the face of the earth-Jehovah His Name." These sublime passages it is natural to take as the triple climax of the doctrine we have traced through the Book of Amos. Are they not the natural leap of the soul to the stars? The same shepherd’s eye which has marked sequence and effect unfailing on the desert soil, does it not now sweep the clear heavens above the desert, and find there also all things ordered and arrayed? The same mind which traced the Divine processes down history, which foresaw the hosts of Assyria marshaled for Israel’s punishment, which felt the overthrow of justice shock the nation to their ruin, and read the disasters of the husbandman’s year as the vindication of a law higher than the physical-does it not now naturally rise beyond such instances of the Divine order, round which the dust of history rolls, to the lofty, undimmed outlines of the Universe as a Whole, and, in consummation of its message, declare that "all is Law," and Law intelligible to man? But in the way of so attractive a conclusion the literary criticism of the book has interposed. It is maintained that, while none of these sublime verses are indispensable to the argument of Amos, some of them actually interrupt it, so that when they are removed it becomes consistent; that such ejaculations in praise of Jehovah’s creative power are not elsewhere met with in Hebrew prophecy before the time of the Exile; that they sound very like echoes of the Book of Job; and that in the Septuagint version of Hosea we actually find a similar doxology, wedged into the middle of an authentic verse of the prophet. { Hosea 13:4 } To these arguments against the genuineness of the three famous passages, other critics, not less able and not less free, like Robertson Smith and Kuenen, have replied that such ejaculations at critical points of the prophet’s discourse "are not surprising under the general conditions of prophetic oratory"; and that, while one of the doxologies does appear to break the argument { Amos 5:8-9 } of the context, they are all of them thoroughly in the spirit and the style of Amos. To this point the discussion has been carried; it seems to need a closer examination. We may at once dismiss the argument which has been drawn from that obvious intrusion into the Greek of Hosea 13:4 . Not only is this verse not so suited to the doctrine of Hosea as the doxologies are to the doctrine of Amos; but while they are definite and sublime, it is formal and flat-"Who made firm the heavens and founded the earth, Whose hands founded all the host of heaven, and He did not display them that thou shouldest walk after them." The passages in Amos are vision; this is a piece of catechism crumbling into homily. Again-an argument in favor of the authenticity, of these passages may be drawn from the character of their subjects. We have seen the part which the desert played in shaping the temper and the style of Amos. But the works of the Creator, to which these passages lift their praise, are just those most fondly dwelt upon by all the poetry, of the desert. The Arabian nomad, when he magnifies the power of God, finds his subjects not on the bare earth about him, but in the brilliant heavens and the heavenly processes. Again, the critic who affirms that the passages in Amos "in every case sensibly disturb the connection," exaggerates. In the case of the first of Amos 4:13 , the disturbance is not at all "sensible": though it must be admitted that the oracle closes impressively enough without it. The last of them, Amos 9:5-6 -which repeats a clause already found in the book {Cf. Amos 8:8 } -is as much in sympathy with its context as most of the oracles in the somewhat scattered discourse of that last section of the book. The real difficulty is the second doxology, Amos 5:8-9 , which does break the connection, and in a sudden and violent way. Remove it, and the argument is consistent. We cannot read chapter 5 without feeling that, whether Amos wrote these verses or not, they did not originally stand where they stand at present. Now, taken with this dispensableness of two of the passages and this obvious intrusion of one of them, the following additional fact becomes ominous. "Jehovah is His Name" (which occurs in two of the passages), or "Jehovah of Hosts is His Name" (Which occurs at least in one), is a construction which does not happen elsewhere in the book, except in a verse where it is awkward and where we have already seen reason to doubt its genuineness. But still more, the phrase does not occur in any other prophet, till we come down to the oracles which compose Isaiah 40:1-31 ; Isaiah 41:1-29 ; Isaiah 42:1-25 ; Isaiah 43:1-28 ; Isaiah 44:1-28 ; Isaiah 45:1-25 ; Isaiah 46:1-13 ; Isaiah 47:1-15 ; Isaiah 48:1-22 ; Isaiah 49:1-26 ; Isaiah 50:1-11 ; Isaiah 51:1-23 ; Isaiah 52:1-15 ; Isaiah 53:1-12 ; Isaiah 54:1-17 ; Isaiah 55:1-13 ; Isaiah 56:1-12 . Here it happens thrice-twice in passages dating from the Exile, { Isaiah 47:4 and Isaiah 54:5 } and once in a passage suspected by some to be of still later date. In the Book of Jeremiah the phrase is found eight times; but either in passages already on other grounds judged by many critics to be later than Jeremiah, or where by itself it is probably an intrusion into the text. Now is it a mere coincidence that a phrase, which, outside the Book of Amos, occurs only in writing of the time of the Exile and in passages considered for other reasons to be post-exilic insertions-is it a mere coincidence that within the Book of Amos it should again be found only in suspected verses? There appears to be in this more than a coincidence; and the present writer cannot but feel a very strong case against the traditional belief that these doxologies are original and integral portions of the Book of Amos. At the same time a case which has failed to convince critics like Robertson Smith and Kuenen cannot be considered conclusive, and we are so ignorant of many of the conditions of prophetic oratory at this period that dogmatism is impossible. For instance, the use by Amos of the Divine titles is a matter over which uncertainty still lingers; and any further argument on the subject must include a fuller discussion than space here allows of the remarkable distribution of those titles throughout the various sections of the book. But if it be not given to us to prove this kind of authenticity-a question whose data are so obscure, yet whose answer frequently is of so little significance-let us gladly welcome that greater Authenticity whose undeniable proofs these verses so splendidly exhibit. No one questions their right to the place which some great spirit gave them in this book-their suitableness to its grand and ordered theme, their pure vision and their eternal truth. That common-sense, and that conscience, which, moving among the events of earth and all the tangled processes of history, find everywhere reason and righteousness at work, in these verses claim the Universe for the same powers, and see in stars and clouds and the procession of day and night the One Eternal God Who "declareth to man what His mind is." The Expositor's Bible Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com . Used by Permission.

Woe to them that are at ease in Zion. Amos 6:1 The secure alarmed William Jay. There is something very agreeable and desirable in ease. Yet, strange as the declaration may appear, this tranquillity is too common; and to disturb it should be our design. For your peace may be a false peace. Before an earthquake the air is uncommonly serene. Ascertain precisely the characters whose delusions we wish to destroy. I. SOME ARE AT EASE IN ZION FROM SELFISH INSENSIBILITY. Such there were in the days of Amos. In a similar way to Amos, Isaiah upbraids the Jews. There are still many whose attention to their own indulgences regulates all their actions. Our dispositions ought always to correspond with the providence of God, and the purposes for which He placed us in the world. For the unfeeling wretch conscience has no kind office to perform. For him no orphan prays, no widow sings. For him the evil day comes on charged with every horror. He has no asylum in the feelings of the community, the happiness of whose members he never sought. II. SOME FROM INFIDEL PRESUMPTION. If there be any truth in the Scriptures, the dispositions of the generality of mankind are very unsuitable to their state and their destiny. What is this ease which flows from infidel persuasion? 1. It is obtained with difficulty. 2. It is partial, and liable to interruption. 3. The less liable it is to be disturbed, the more awful; for it is penal. 4. This ease is fatal. Its duration is momentary; it must end, and end in anguish and despair. III. SOME FROM VAIN CONFIDENCE; relying on the goodness of their present state, and on the certainty of their future happiness. There is such a thing as spiritual self-flattery; there is such a thing as a delusive dependence on religion. 1. This confidence keeps them from looking after salvation. They are too good to be saved. 2. This course will terminate in woeful surprise and disappointment. IV. SOME PROM PRACTICAL INDIFFERENCE. You would much offend persons of this class, were you to inquire whether they believed the Scripture. These persons are not to be charged sentimentally with anti-nomianism or any other error. They know the Gospel in theory; but they are strangers to its Divine efficacy. Of all the various characters we have to deal with in our ministry, these are the most unlikely to insure success. We preach; you acknowledge, and admire, — but you discover no more concern to obtain the one thing needful we propose, than if you were persuaded we called you "to follow a cunningly devised fable." Your life is a perpetual contradiction to your creed: you are not happy, and contrive not to be miserable. Inferences. 1. They are highly criminal, who countenance and promote a state of carnal ease. 2. Let none be troubled when they find their connections distressed and alarmed with a sense of their sin and danger. 3. Nothing is so much to be dreaded as false security in religion. 4. There is consolation for those who are distressed. We do not applaud all their doubts and dejections, but these painful scruples are easily accounted for, and they lie on the safe side. ( William Jay. ) Carnal security G. Brooks. I. THE STATE OF MIND THAT IS REPROVED IN THIS PASSAGE. 1. It includes carnal security (ver. 1). 2. It includes presumptuous unbelief (vers. 2, 3). 3. It includes sensual indulgence (vers. 4, 5, 6, first clause). 4. It includes selfish indifference (ver. 6, last clause). II. THE JUSTICE OF THE WOE DENOUNCED AGAINST IT. 1. Such a state of mind indicates a lurking enmity against God. 2. Indicates insensibility to the claims of Jesus. 3. Indicates a deep-seated unbelief of coming judgments. ( G. Brooks. ) The danger of indifference to spiritual things Essex Remembrancer. I. THE STATE CONDEMNED. God's threatenings had been declared against the kingdoms of Judah and Israel, but the people confided in their fortifications and external advantages, or in their profession of being the people of God; thus they carelessly indulged themselves, and were heedless about consequences, though destruction impended over them. The application of the passage to the conduct of many under the means of grace is natural and easy. The state of mind condemned is — 1. Expressive of careless indifference. 2. It is expressive of false security.The persons warned in the text were regarding themselves as secure on false and uncertain grounds. So many are now found perverting the doctrines of the Gospel, and promising to themselves security in such per version. Or they pretend that they arc waiting for God's time, when He will afford them necessary help. They make their moral inability, or in other words, their unwillingness to receive Christ and His Gospel an excuse for their continued disobedience, and attribute their rebellion and unbelief to the want of God's help, rather than to the state of their own hearts, to the love of sin, and to their unwillingness to yield submission to the Saviour's authority. Others make their moral conduct a ground of hope. Their honesty, their kindness to their neighbours, and the propriety of their general deportment are substituted for faith in Christ, and a cordial reception of His Gospel. 3. It is expressive of a state of sloth. Many professors are thus at ease. Once they were anxious, inquiring, full of apparent desire after the favour of God and the blessings of salvation, and of activity 'in the Saviour's cause. But their zeal, activity, and ardour have passed away. They are slumbering and sleeping. II. MARK THE PLACE WHERE THIS STATE OF MIND IS EXERCISED. If slothfulness and indifference are unseemly in other spheres, are they less so in Zion, in the house, in the Church of God? If they are injurious to our temporal concerns... are they less so to our spiritual and eternal interests? Restricting the term "in Zion" to the place where God is worshipped, to His sanctuary, we remark — 1. That in Zion the law of God is declared. Its purity, its justice, its spiritual character and extensive requirements are set forth. In Zion we are shown the harmony of the law with the Gospel, while it becomes the means of preparing us to receive salvation. 2. In Zion the Gospel is proclaimed. Here the most constant theme is salvation through the Saviour s blood. Here Jesus is evidently set forth as crucified among us. Can you be at ease in Zion, cold and insensible, with the Cross in view, and indifferent to the Saviour's voice addressing us therefrom? 3. Zion is the special residence of Christ. Jesus is now represented as King in Zion, as the Ruler and Head of His Church. III. THE DANGER TO WHICH THIS STATE OF MIND EXPOSES. 1. How opposed to all spiritual improvement. 2. How expressive of contempt for spiritual blessings. 3. How ruinous to our eternal interests. ( Essex Remembrancer. ) Sinners in Zion described and doomed E. Payson, D. D. I. CONSIDER THE PERSONS HERE MENTIONED. They are described as being "at ease in Zion." The temple was called Zion. The name was gradually extended to the worshippers, so that it came to embrace all who profess to know and worship God. To be in Zion means to be in a land where the true God is known and worshipped, where religious privileges, similar to those of the Jews, are enjoyed. Taking the word in a more limited sense, to be in Zion is to be among those who statedly meet for the purpose of religious worship. Or it may include only those who have made a public profession of religion. The ease here intended is ease not of body, but of mind; ease relating not to our temporal but to our religious or spiritual concerns. Persons are at ease when they feel neither sorrow nor alarm on account of their sins; when they are seldom troubled by the admonitions of conscience; when they arc not engaged in working out their salvation with fear and trembling, but feel quiet and secure. This unconcern respecting themselves is usually accompanied by at least equal unconcern respecting the salvation of others. Such persons are described as "not grieved for the affliction of Joseph"; that is, for the evils and calamities that afflict the Church. This body may be divided into several classes, corresponding with the various causes to which their ease is ascribed. 1. Those who deny that any punishment will be inflicted on sinners. This includes infidels of every description; those who deny God's government of the world; those who contemn God; and the scoffers. In this class must also be placed those who believe that all men will be saved. False prophets who cry "peace, peace," when there is no peace. 2. Those who allow that sinners will be punished, but who deny, or do not appear to believe, that they are sinners. They find, or fancy that they find none better than themselves, few so good, and very many worse. Hence they conclude that they arc in no danger, that they have nothing to fear, and of course feel easy and secure. Such persons are without the law. They know nothing of its spirituality, strictness, and extent. They have never tried themselves by this rule. They are like a man buried in sleep, totally unconscious of their true character and situation, insensible of their sins, and of the danger to which their sins expose them. 3. Those who acknowledge that they are sinners, and that sinners will be punished; and yet they are at ease, for they contrive in various ways to persuade themselves that though other sinners will be punished, they shall themselves escape. Such persons, though habitually, are not always at ease. They have times of anxiety and alarm. It is their way by promises and resolutions to put off the evil day. They trust to a future convenient season. There is perhaps no class of sinners whose situation is more dangerous. This class also includes all who entertain a false and groundless persuasion that they have already become pious, obtained the" pardon of their sins, and secured the favour of God. The reasons why persons feel such a persuasion are various. II. THE WOE WHICH IS DENOUNCED AGAINST THEM IN OUR TEXT. The doom is expressed in general terms; in terms which may include curses and threatenings of every kind. Why are such characters thought worthy of a punishment so severe? 1. Because the ease which they feel proves that they belong to the number of the wicked. All who are habitually at ease in Zion know nothing of true religion. They are either careless sinners or self-deluded hypocrites. 2. They are not only sinners, but sinners of no common stamp, sinners whose guilt and sinfulness are peculiarly aggravated, and whose punishment will therefore be peculiarly severe. He who is at ease in Zion must be deaf to God's voice, blind to God's glories, insensible to every spiritual object; he sins against light and against love. 3. There is little reason to hope that they will ever repent. On what grounds can we hope for the salvation of those who are at ease? If they cannot be roused, if their false peace cannot be disturbed, they must inevitably perish; and to rouse them, humanly speaking, seems impossible. ( E. Payson, D. D. ) The Church warned against supineness John G. Avery. : — While Amos unveils the transgressions of Israel, he does not spare the sins of Judah. I. THE PERSONS HERE REFERRED TO. Those who are "in Zion." The class of persons spoken of are the members of the visible Church, the professing people of God. Regard the professing Church — 1. As solemnly devoted to holiness and God.(1) They are so by the immediate and express purpose of God Himself. He has created them anew in Christ Jesus. And He has done this for His own glory.(2) They are so by the intention of their Divine Redeemer. He has done and suffered much for them. To redeem and raise up a holy Church is the object which is the solace of all the Redeemer's labours, the mead of all His sufferings.(3) They are devoted to holiness in baptism. The ordinance of baptism is the expressive type and sign of the sprinkling of the efficacious blood.(4) They are thus devoted by voluntary covenant. Every Christian is such by his free choice. 2. As the appointed instrument in the evangelisation of the world. The Church of Christ is designed to be a benevolent institution. They are appointed "witnesses" for God to an unbelieving and perishing world.(1) They are eminently fitted for this. They are themselves awakened and alive to the dangerous condition of every unconverted man. They know too the way of deliverance. And(2) they have the command. 3. As a mediator with God on behalf of a perishing world.(1) The renovation of the moral world depends upon the agency and operation of the Holy Ghost. The Word of God itself con tains no inherent or independent efficacy to convert mankind.(2) The bestow meat of the Spirit is frequently and distinctly promised, but always in answer to prayer.(3) Hence prayer is made the Christian's primary duty. Jesus both by precept and by example urged it upon His followers. II. THE SIN CHARGED UPON THEM. "They are at ease." Consider — 1. Their spiritual condition. They are devoted to holiness; are they holy? The spiritual state of Christians generally is not such as to warrant their being at ease. Every scriptural view of their character and duty involves the obligation of strenuous exertion. 2. The state of the world. The Gospel has now been preached over eighteen hundred years, and what is the result? Look at your own family and domestic circle. Look at the inhabitants of your town and neighbourhood. To how small a proportion of our race have even the tidings of the Gospel yet been conveyed. 3. Another reason for uneasiness is that the success of the Word must always arise from the agency of the Holy Spirit. III. THE JUDGMENT DENOUNCED. Under stand — 1. In the sense of a simple prophecy, as the prediction of a calamity likely and even certain to ensue. 2. It is the language of righteous retribution. That there is an equitable correspondence between sin and its consequences is testified by all experience. 3. It is the language of Divine denunciation. God is a just God, and a terrible. The sceptre of His mercy may become the rod of His wrath. If by our supineness, our unfaithfulness, our inconsistency, our sin, we have caused to be shed the blood of souls, shall we escape, think you, the just judgment of God? ( John G. Avery. ) At ease in Zion G. Wood, M. A. The text practically applies to all nominal and professing Christians. I. WHAT IS MEANT BY THOSE WHO ARE AT EASE IN ZION? Lazy Christians. Christianity is more than profession, it is even something more than faith. It is carrying into practice the truths we profess. The soul that is at ease sits down very contentedly on his mere profession, and mistakes earth for heaven. II. WHAT IS THE CAUSE OF BEING AT EASE IN ZION? 1. There is ignorance of the nature of Christian life. Christianity is not ease, but labour. It is a daily struggle against unbelief and sin. The man at ease does his religion by deputy, or trusts entirely to the "mercy" of God, or relies on outward service and participation in form and ceremonies. 2. There is a dislike of the duties to be undertaken. Self-denial is not congenial to the natural heart. Labour is hateful, conflict repulsive, and therefore men sit down and dream away their opportunities. 3. Self-confidence. Disaster seems so unlikely. We fancy we are so secure that nothing can move us. Our prosperity, our privileges, our apparent tranquillity deceive the heart and lure the soul to sleep. III. THE RESULT OF BEING AT EASE IN ZION. 1. It generates sin. 2. It merits the displeasure of God. 3. It will end in entire destruction. ( G. Wood, M. A. ) The "policy of drift" easy A. Maclaren, D. D. Unless you make for the great things of your life, for I am not talking about the little things of life, many of which are best deter mined by circumstances — unless you make for the great things of life, the deliberate choice of the better part, you have in effect made the disastrous choice of the worst. The "policy of drift" always ends in ruin for a nation, for an army, for an individual. And it is plain enough that it is so, because, to the superficial observer, it is a great deal easier, and a great deal pleasanter, to take the low levels than to climb; and there are far more, and very clamant voices calling to us from out of worldly things to eat, and drink, and take our ease and be merry, and let ideals alone, than there are summoning us to the loftier, harder, more heroic, Christlike course of life. It is hard work taking a great junk up the Yang tse-Kiang. Hundreds of trackers have to strain every nerve and muscle as they go stumbling over the rocks on the bank, with great cables on their shoulders, and slow progress is made. It would take a week to get as far up as they can travel coming downwards in a day, without any trouble. Ay, and what is that that the idle crew begin to hear, as they lie half somnolent on the deck, enjoy ing the repose? A groaning sound, the roar of the rapids. To go down stream is easy, but there is a Niagara at the far end. You choose the worse when you do not deliberately choose the better. That is true all round. If you do not coerce, by a deliberate act, your will, or your inclination, the baser sort of them will get the upper hand of you. Take away the police, and the mob will loot and riot. ( A. Maclaren, D. D. ) The inner life of a nation determines its destiny J. G. Greenhough, M. A. : — It is not the increase of the outer man and his surroundings and possessions, but the renewal of the inner life and spirit which makes the net profit and abiding wealth. It is the inner life of a nation that determines all things, not the visible, but the more or less invisible, not what can be arrayed in figures and statistics, but what no figures can express — not the show and splendour of prosperous times, the glare of wealth, the blaze of knowledge, the surfeit of luxuries, the pomp of pride, the flaunting of power, but the hidden qualities of patience, faith, self-mastery, courage, righteousness, and purity which lie underneath all this external display. It is the soul of a nation that makes a nation, not its body. If the soul is not sound, the body soon becomes a mass of weakness and decay. France is wealthier than it ever was before. It has more splendid cities, larger armies, greater intellectual resources and material resources than ever before; the outward man was never so fair and strong as now. What of all that if the heart has ceased to beat with honest purpose, if its ideals are lost, if the inner life has become diseased, defiled, corrupt? The outward show slowly rots away, when the inspiring force within degenerates and disappears. It is the continued renewal of the inner man that saves all. ( J. G. Greenhough, M. A. ) Degrading moral transitions John Ruskin. The phases of transition in the moral temper of the falling Venetians, during their fall, were from pride to infidelity, and from infidelity to the unscrupulous pursuit of pleasure. During the last years of the existence of the State, the minds both of the nobility and the people seem to have been set simply upon the attainment of the means of self-indulgence. There was not strength enough in them to be proud, nor forethought enough to be ambitious. One by one the possessions of the State were abandoned to its enemies; one by one the channels of its trade were forsaken by its own languor, or occupied and closed against it by its more energetic rivals; and the time, the resources, and the thoughts of the nation were exclusively occupied in the invention of such fantastic and costly pleasures as might best amuse their apathy, lull their remorse, or disguise their ruin. It is as needless, as it is painful, to trace the steps of her final ruin. That ancient curse was upon her, the curse of the cities of the plain, "Pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness." By the inner burning of her own passions, as fatal as the fiery rain of Gomorrah, she was consumed from her place among the nations; and her ashes are choking the channels of the dead salt sea. ( John Ruskin. ) Pass ye unto Calneh, and see; and from thence go ye to Hamath. Amos 6:2 Comparing notes David Davies. This was a Divine challenge to Israel. Israel in those days thought that religion was often a great hardship; that it abounded with demands for self-denial; and that its numerous duties could be observed only at considerable cost. You generally find that the least self-denying are the most keenly conscious of their self-denial. In those days the people of Israel were willing to be religious, after a fashion, but they must be also politic, so that their religion should not militate against their national interests, or weaken them in their struggle with the heathen powers by which they were surrounded. Israel practically said: "Cast among these godless nations, there is nothing for us to do but largely to adapt ourselves to circumstances; to obey God's commandments as far as it is practicable, but not henceforth, as in the past, to sacrifice national interests by a too scrupulous attention to religious precepts." We have in the text God's reply to Israel's fallacy. "Pass ye into Calneh." Calneh was a great city on the Tigris. Hamath was also a great city, and a capital, on the banks of the Orontes, on the north. Gath was one of the great cities of Palestine. God now practically says to Israel: "Look at those powers, those centres of worldly empires and governments. You say that they have nothing to hamper them; that they fight their battles irrespective of right and wrong; that no principle is at stake; that their aim is self-aggrandisement; and therefore that the path of victory is to them a far easier one than it can be for nations who, like yourselves, have to fear God and to keep His commandments. See, what is the practical issue. Compare your national prosperity with the prosperity of these surrounding nations. Are their borders greater than your borders?" That was the question which practically silenced their complaint. What are the relative compensations of godliness and worldliness? In what consists man's highest interests or his greatest wealth? Does true blessedness consist in what the world calls success? Take — 1. The life of the thorough worldling — the man who has no principle to hamper him, and to whom the highest law of life is self-aggrandizement. Such as the spendthrift. The man with an insatiable love of money. The gambler. 2. Those who are determined to make their position in the world. Such an one enters business, or a profession, and considers that it is necessary to adopt certain customs which are not above suspicion, but which become largely respectable by their universal acceptance. Even in such cases there are hundreds of thousands who fail entirely in their attempts. Some undoubtedly do prosper and accumulate wealth; but in how many instances have they lost their good name in the effort! 3. The honest man of the world. Even then business may be allowed to monopolise all his time and all his energy, to the exclusion of higher aims, without Which even an honest life is poor. There is a distinctly spiritual work for man to do. If that Christian work is neglected, and the claims of Jesus Christ along spiritual lines ignored, that man may gain the whole world, but he will lose his soul. ( David Davies. ) Ye that put far away the evil day, and cause the seat of violence to come near. Amos 6:3-6 Man' s evil day Homilist. I. ALL MEN HAVE AN EVIL DAY IN THEIR FUTURE. Calamities and trials are common to all. There is one evil day, it is death; but it need not be evil. II. SOME MEN ADJOURN IN THOUGHT THIS EVIL DAY. 1. Not because they have any doubt as to its advent. 2. Not because they lack reminders of its approach. Why then do they adjourn the thought? The reason is found — (1) In the strength of our material attachments. (2) In our lack of interest in the spiritual. (3) In our dread of the mysterious. (4) In our conscious unpreparation for the scenes of retribution. III. NONE WHO ADJOURN THIS EVIL DAY IN THOUGHT CAN DELAY IT IN FACT. These men so ignored their coming calamities that by their conduct they hastened them on. A general truth is suggested here, — That a man who adjourns all thought of his end, will pursue such a course of conduct as will hasten its approach. ( Homilist. ) The knowledge of sin Joseph Parker, D. D. Only history can tell what sin is; nothing but Divine judgment can give you a definition of bad doing. We must watch the desolation if we would know the meaning of certain terms and the range of certain actions. We must study Divine judgment if we would know human sin. The difficulty of the teacher herein is that so many persons are unconscious of sin and are therefore mayhap the greater sinners. Some do not distinguish between crime and sin. They have not been criminals, and therefore they think they have not been sinners, — as if all the story of life did not lie in the disposition rather than in the action. The heart is the seat of evil. None knoweth the heart but God. The heart does not know itself; and if there were not a concurrent line called history, or providence, or judgment, we should never know the real state of the heart. We must go to the broader history, the larger experience of mankind, and find, not in it alone, but in it as interpreted by Divine providence, God's meaning of the term sin. ( Joseph Parker, D. D. ) They are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph. Amos 6:6 Personal sympathy the only right basis for Christian effort Joseph Maskell. The term "Joseph" is here employed for the whole of the people of the kingdom of Israel. The term "Ephraim" is usually employed by way of reproach when the sin and rebellion of the whole people are referred to, while the more illustrious name of "Joseph" is apparently reserved for occasions that call for pity and compassion. The idea here appears to have been suggested by the heartless conduct of Joseph's brethren when they made away with their brother, without pity for his youth or respect for his piety. So the prophet, describing the rich men and rulers of his time, says, "They drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with the chief ointments; but they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph." In this chapter we have a terrible picture of a corrupt, degenerate commonwealth. The prophet, with a noble plea for patriotism, turning from the miseries of the lower to the heartless luxuries of the higher ranks, sees nothing in the future but national ruin. The principle he establishes is this, — The life of a nation depends on the healthy exercise of sympathy throughout all its parts, all its ranks and classes. How shall we apply this principle, and the warning that accompanies it, to ourselves? I am not one of those who would willingly indulge in reflections upon the character of the age in which we live. I do not see the wisdom of making a disadvantageous comparison between these and past times, as if our forefathers were in all respects wiser and better than we. But I am not bound to shut my eyes to the signs of the times, nor cease to reprove the evils of the times. Is not a want of union and sympathy throughout all ranks of the nation as characteristic of our age as of the age of Amos? Our divisions, political and religious, when taken in connection with our great prosperity and liberty, are the surprise and the ridicule of the whole world. Of all power in the world there is no force equal to the moral force of sympathy. This is the power that takes strongest hold, and enables us to wield empire over the hearts of men. Personal influence and kindness — thus we may form an estimate of tim comparative failure of so many of our benevolent institutions. Tried by these Divine rules of conduct, how does the benevolence of many who have earned a reputation for charity, pale before that which may never be able to go beyond kindly words and secret intercessory prayer. Charity ceases to be charity if it is unaccompanied by tenderness and courtesy. By sympathy is meant an entrance into the circumstances, a true realisation of the position of those whom we seek to benefit. Jesus came down at first from heaven, and still administers His way of salvation by the exercise of sympathy. The same mind that was in Christ Jesus must and will animate every true disciple. He will be impelled to seek out sinners, and lead them to their Saviour by kindly advice and loving persuasion; not by cold reproofs and pharisaic condemnation, but by brotherly sympathy, because he is like that Saviour who came "not to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved." ( Joseph Maskell. ) The ruin wrought by a selfish spirit W. L. Watkinson. We belong to the greatest empire that this world has ever seen, and not only is this the vastest empire, but it is also the most opulent. Ours is an empire teeming with wealth, genius, and splendid possibilities, With this vast empire, with this rich and manifold civilisation, what is our particular peril? Let me say it in a word — selfishness. If historians are to be believed, selfish indulgence ruined the ancient empires; if some of the most capable and dispassionate critics living are correct, selfish indulgence is ruining France. Selfishness in various subtle forms is a far greater menace to this empire than any foe that threatens the silver streak. Selfishness is the worm to spoil your roses, whether they belong to York or Lancaster. Selfishness is the canker upon your gold; selfishness is the moth to fret your purple, and selfishness is the creeping paralysis that may eat out the strength of this empire and spoil its splendour and its fame. Wherein lies our safety? In spiritual magnanimity! If you want to take care of your empire, take care of .your missions. It is a strange thing to say, but the guarantee for your splendour is your sacrifice. You are going to keep your wealth just as you give it away in noble causes. The tonic for your luxury is the generosity that does and dares for the perishing; and if you want to keep your place with the topmost nations you will keep your place at the top by taking a tremendous stoop to those who are at the base — the lost. When you bring your learning, or wealth, or political mastery, and when you associate them with pity, humanity, and magnanimity, you have got a supreme safeguard upon all your greatness and glory. ( W. L. Watkinson. ) Endosed within self L. A. Banks, D. D. There is a little pool in a mountain chasm, so completely enclosed within its high and rocky walls that no sound reaches it from the great outer world. Yet the slightest noise started within its environ ment — the cry of the heron, the splash of the muskrat, or the roll of the pebbles under the feet of the deer — reverberates over the water and is echoed from the cliff. Some minds are so enclosed within their own selfishness as to be silent to the great things which stir the world — the calls of human need, the summons of God to public duty, and all the onrolling cause of human progress in many lands. They live only among their own thoughts, desires, and prejudices. To them their little concerns are great. ( L. A. Banks, D. D. ) Christian solicitude A. Smdlie. When William Burns was asked the nature of his thoughts on finding himself among the Chinese, he turned to his interrogator and answered, "The lost, and a Christ for them." When Henry Venn preached, such was his flaming fervour that "men went down before him like slaked lime." It was the same yearning which drove John Brown to nightly and prevailing intercession for "dead Haddington, and wicked, withered East Lothian"; the same which wrung from Rowland Hill the cry, "Oh that I were all heart and soul and spirit, to tell the glorious Gospel to perishing multitudes!" Would that I burned out for Jesus with the same intense and ardent glow! ( A. Smdlie. ) Careless indifference of Christians Morlais Jones. I know a beautiful valley in Wales, guarded by well-wooded hills. Spring came there first, and summer lingered longest, and the clear river loitered through the rich pastures and the laughing orchards, as if loth to leave the enchanting scene. But the manufacturer came there; he built his chimneys and he lighted his furnaces, out of which belched forth poisonous fumes night and day. Every tree is dead, no flower blooms there now, the very grass has been eaten off the face of the earth; the beautiful river, in which the pebbles once lay as the pure thoughts in a maiden's mind, is now foul, and the valley, scarred and bare, looks like the entrance into Tophet itself. And this human nature of ours, in which f

6:1-7 Those are looked upon as doing well for themselves, who do well for their bodies; but we are here told what their ease is, and what their woe is. Here is a description of the pride, security, and sensuality, for which God would reckon. Careless sinners are every where in danger; but those at ease in Zion, who are stupid, vainly confident, and abusing their privileges, are in the greatest danger. Yet many fancy themselves the people of God, who are living in sin, and in conformity to the world. But the examples of others' ruin forbid us to be secure. Those who are set upon their pleasures are commonly careless of the troubles of others, but this is great offence to God. Those who placed their happiness in the pleasures of sense, and set their hearts upon them, shall be deprived of those pleasures. Those who try to put the evil day far from them, find it nearest to them. 6:8-14 How dreadful, how miserable, is the case of those whose eternal ruin the Lord himself has sworn; for he can execute his purpose, and none can alter it! Those hearts are wretchedly hardened that will not be brought to mention God's name, and to worship him, when the hand of God is gone out against them, when sickness and death are in their families. Those that will not be tilled as fields, shall be abandoned as rocks. When our services of God are soured with sin, his providences will justly be made bitter to us. Men should take warning not to harden their hearts, for those who walk in pride, God will destroy.