Amos 6

“God counts among the reprobate not only those who have received their comfort on earth, but those who grieve because they have not.” It is right to exhort men to make sure their calling and election in heaven. Only, we must remember, heaven is not a spot to lie down in, and there, on our couches, tuning our harps, to think how much misery we have personally escaped. The Christian heaven is an exalted society of self-sacrificing spirits, bound together in mutual fellowship by their common consecration to Him, who is above them, where each accepted soul will go from strength to strength, run and not be weary, toil and not faint, aspire and not be baffled, do good and not be misinterpreted, and will be assimilated, in ever closer and closer affinity to Him who is its Light and Life, in whom whosoever liveth and believeth shall never die. Let us fearlessly carry our standard beyond the old line of our inferior moods. And if any of us find we are asking for a religion that shall make us comfortable, or put us at ease, be sure we are asking out of a false spirit, what no reverential prayer should dare to petition, what cannot be, and are no longer in a posture to receive the Master’s gifts nor the favor of our God. F. D. H.

One feels like going to work and working vigorously for very sympathy as he gazes away at the universal and splendid executiveness that reigns and triumphs throughout the celestial spaces. The swift and ever-rushing spheres rebuke his idleness, his languor, his feebleness. In them God has expressed His own forceful nature. In them He has made proclamation that men should do with their might what their hands find to do. It is not the Bible only that tells us that God detests lukewarmness, and loves to see us “zealously affected in a good thing”—the lesson was flaming among the stars long before it was copied into the Book. Burr.

2. Compare your condition with that of other kingdoms close at hand. Look to the east, the north and the west. B. C.—The thought is, Judah and Israel have stood high among the nations of their time, in military power, in richness of country and in the light of a true religion; their responsibilities are therefore the greater, and so much the more is their guilt in disowning and abusing the great Giver of blessings.

3-6. They thrust the fear of danger from sin far away, and welcome near the worst forms of wrong, even legalized oppression, rolling in luxury, lounging in idleness, feasting ing on fatlings from flock and stall, chattering to the sound of the viol. Their country and the cause of their nation’s God have no place in their hearts. This last clause, “they grieve not for the affliction of Joseph,” is analogous to “being at ease in Zion,” and shows why the woes of God came down on Israel. They had no true sympathy with God or with His people.

7. As the men of wealth and high standing have been foremost in oppressing the poor and wresting the cause of the meek; foremost also in luxury, self-indulgence and recklessness of the cause of God, so they shall be first among the captives, heading the sad procession.

8. The pride and moral corruption of the people were so monstrous and so intrinsically hateful to God, that He abhorred the very country for their sake, and must consign to long and blank desolation. And there the land of Palestine lies to-day! H. C.

God abhors that form of godliness which hypocrites keep up, while they abhor the power of it. And if He abhors their temple for the iniquity of that, no marvel that He hates their palaces for the injustice and oppression He finds there. That creature which we take such a complacency and put such a confidence in as to make it a rival with God, is thereby made abominable to Him. He hates the palaces of sinners for the sake of the wickedness of them which dwell therein (Prov. 3: 33). The curse of the Lord is in the house of the wicked. And if God abhor them, immediately it follows, He will deliver up the city with all that is therein, deliver it up into the hands of the enemy, that will lay it waste and make a prey of all its wealth. Those that are abhorred and abandoned of God are undone to all intents and purposes. H.

10. A man shall not have a brother or a son left to do him the last offices of his burial; but if his uncle or his kinsman shall undertake to bring out his corpse, he that is the overseer of these funeral rites, joining with him in that work, shall say to that one which is left alive in the house, Is there any one remaining of the whole number of the family? and he shall say, No. Then shall the other answer again, Rest thou humbly and silently in the just pleasure of the Almighty; this is His work; as for us, our sins have been so grievous that in conscience thereof it is not for us to call on the name of the Lord for a release or mitigation of His judgment. Bp. Hall.

12. The questions of the prophet vividly represent what is unnatural, absurd and fruitless. Do horses run up the steep cliff? Do men plough with oxen on the naked rock? Would not the toil be preposterous? Our translators have well added there in the second clause, in which something must be supplied. Would not a man be thought mad who should attempt such a thing? Amos seems to address himself to the nobles and judges of Israel, as if he had said, Is your conduct more reasonable, who have violated the eternal laws of God, have turned law and equity into a means of oppression and violence, and yet hope to prosper, escaping the Divine vengeance? For

(he adds) ye have turned judgment into gall, and the fruit of righteousness into hemlock. The corrupt judge turns what is wholesome into poison; he makes what should be sweetest, bitterest. B. C.

14. This prediction almost names the Assyrian power—manifestly means it. God raised them up; they came, and did indeed lay the land desolate “from the entering in of Hamath”—a very common phrase for their northern border, and a natural thoroughfare outward to Hamath—“unto the river of the wilderness.” H. C.