October 8

1 Woe is me! for I am as when they have gathered the summer fruits, as the grape gleanings of the vintage: there is no cluster to eat; my soul desired the first ripe fruit.

2 The good man is penshed out of the earth, and there is none upright among men: they all lie in wait for blood; they hunt every man his brother with a net.

3 ¶ That they may do evil with both hands earnestly, the prince asketh, and the judge asketh for a reward; and the great man, he uttereth his mischievous desire: so they wrap it up.

4 The best of them is as a brief: the most upright is sharper than a thorn hedge: the day of thy watchmen and thy visitation cometh; now shall be their perplexity.

5 ¶ Trust ye not in a friend, put ye not confidence in a guide: keep the doors of thy mouth from her that litch in thy bosom.

6 For the son dishonoureth the father, the daughter riseth up against her mother, the daughter in law against her mother in law; a man's enemies are the men of his own house.

7 Therefore I will look unto the LORD: I will wait for the God of my salvation: my God will hear me.

8 ¶ Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the LORD shall be a light unto me.

9 I will bear the indignation of the LORD, because I have sinned against him, until he plead my cause, and execute judgment for me, he will bring me forth to the light, and I shall behold his righteousness.

10 Then she that is mine enemy shall see it, and shame shall cover her which said unto me, Where is the LORD thy God? mine eyes shall behold her: now shall she be trodden down as the mire of the streets.

11 In the day that thy walls are to be built, in that day shall the decree be far removed.

12 In that day also he shall come even to thee from Assyria and from the fortified cities, and from the fortress even to the river, and from sea to sea, and from mountain to mountain.

13 Notwithstanding, the land shall be desolate because of them that dwell therein, for the fruit of their doings.

14 ¶ Feed thy people with thy rod, the flock of thine heritage, which dwell solitarily in the wood, in the midst of Carmel: let them feed in Bashan and Gilead, as in the days of old.

15 According to the days of thy coming out of the land of Egypt will I shew unto him marvellous things.

16 ¶ The nations shall see and be confounded at all their might: they shall lay their hand upon their mouth, their ears shall be deaf.

17 They shall lick the dust like a serpent, they shall move out of their holes like worms of the earth: they shall be afraid of the LORD our God, and shall fear because of thee.

18 Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy.

19 He will turn again, he will have compas.

soon upon us; he will subdue our iniquities, and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.

20 Thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob, and the mercy to Abraham, which thou hast sworn unto our fathers from the days of old.

The imagery of the first verse is exceedingly vivid and suggestive. The picture before the eye of the prophet is that of famine in the midst of plenty. The time for ingathering is at hand. "The summer fruits" have ripened under the golden sunshine, the "vintage" groans under the weight of the clusters. And yet Israel had no appreciation of the golden fruit, no heart or no capacity to pluck and eat the ripe clusters. Without were sunshine, plenty, gladness, and abundant fruitage; but within were darkness, want, sadness and spiritual desolation! Practically it was as if there had been no summer fruits, and no vintage, nay, it was worse; it was only a mockery— just as the sight of food is mockery to a hungry man who has lost the capacity to swallow or his relish for food.

And this is a truthful representation of the experience of many to-day. God comes to them in gracious spiritual manifestations; but so dull are their spiritual perceptions, so vitiated are their tastes, so surfeited are they with the "apples of Sodom" and the wild grapes of sinful indulgence that they know it not, and feel no hungering after righteousness; "there is no cluster" in all God's vintage which they can "eat."

Micah closes this book by a thanksgiving for God's pardoning mercy (verses 18-20). The soul which is truly penitent never wearies of the wondering love, "Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy." "And thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea." Not some, but all.

"So that, as in the passage of the Red Sea there was not one Egyptian left of those who pursued His people, so neither shall there be one sin, which, through Baptism and on Repentance, shall not through His free mercy be pardoned. As they which sank as lead in the mighty waters never rose again, so shall the sins, unless revived by us, not rise against us to condemnation, but shall in the Day of Judgment be sunk in the abyss of hell, as if they had never been."—E. B. Pusey, D. D.

Closet Promise.—Call upon Me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify Me.—Psalm 1. 15.

"If you are sick, you leave it to your physician to order your case. If your affairs are perplexed, and you have a plea at law, you leave it to your lawyer. And when you have a process at the Court of heaven, will you not leave it to your God? You are little competent judges of what glory

God can have by such and such a management. God can raise glory to Himself where you can see nothing but dishonor to Him, and He will have glory; 'for of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever.' Believe that and leave the way of raising it to Himself. The seed of glory to God in Job's trial, neither he nor his friends generally saw for a long time, yet it sprung up at length and flourishes to this day."