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Amherst College
Glass of 1891
Papers on Old Testament Prophecy
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Papers on on Testament nopnasg.
CLASS OF 'gi^MHERST COLLEGE.
WITH AN INTRODUCTORY STATEMENT REGARDING THE STUDY
OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE IN AMHERST.
PAPERS ON OLD TESTAMENT PROPHECY,
/
CLASS OF '91, AMHERST COLLEGE.
WITH AN INTRODUCTORY STATEMENT REGARDING THE STUDY
OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE IN AMHERST.
CONTENTS.
Prefatory Note. .____- 3
Introduction. The Study of the English Bible in Amherst
College. ------ 5
Selected theses from class-room work. Prophecy in the Kingdom
of the Ten Tribes :
1. The Historical Situation in the Book of Amos. H. F.
Jones. - - - - - 13
2. The Personality of Amos, as Seen in His Prophecy.
G. L. Leonard. - - - - 15
3. The Characteristics of the Divine Love, as Portrayed
in the Book of Hosea. E. W. Blatchford. - 1 7
4. The Relation of Religion and Morality in the Ten
Tribes, as Revealed in Amos and Hosea. H.
DeW. Williams. - - - - 1!)
."». The Characteristics of Messianic Prophecy in the Ten
Tribes, as Adapted to their Situation. W. L.
Williams. - - - - - 12
Prize Thesis. The Literary Features of Prophecy, as Illus-
trated in the Books of Joel, Amos and Hosea. C. X.
Thorp. ------ 25
u
PREFATORY NOTE.
The following papers, together with the introductory statement,
are printed in response to repeated requests for information regarding
the study of the English Bible as a part of the curriculum of Amherst
College. These inquiries come largely from those who are at present
teachers of the Bible in schools and colleges or who are designing to
enter upon such instruction. Information in detail is desired ; it is
asked: "Just what are your classes doing, and just how are they
doing it?" [t is found practically impossible to reply satisfactorily
through correspondence ; yet, in the present state of aroused interest
regarding scientific study of the Scriptures in our institutions of higher
learning, each one should endeavor to contribute to the subject what-
ever light he may be able. The best revelation of class-room work,
as regards its character and its method, is found in the results attained
by the students themselves. It is believed, therefore, that a careful
examination, in the light of the statement of facts made in the intro-
duction, of the following theses, as results illustrative of the method
of instruction described, will enable interested friends of college Bible
study to gather quite clearly and fully such information as is sought.
It only remains to call special attention to the fact that these papers
are the work of college Juniors, taking up for the first time the his-
torical and literary study of the Scriptures. They are selected, as
will be seen from a reading of the introduction, from the work of the
lirst part of the Junior course, practically from its first third. It has
seemed wiser, however, to place before the reader a few specimens of
attained results selected from a limited portion of the course and
that the commencement, rather than to glean here and there from its
entirety. Such defects and crudeness as may readily be detected
by the critical examiner will possibly be of no inconsiderable service
to one desiring to attempt work along the same lines. The prize
thesis was, indeed, written at the close of the first term's work, but it
will be seen, on examination, that it deals almost entirely with the
ground covered in the papers which precede it.
THE STUDY OF THE ENGLISH BIBLE IN
AMHERST COLLEGE.
Bible study iu college is a many-sided problem. It can be solved
only by the co-operation of instructors, students and those interested
in the moral and religious welfare of our institutions of higher learning.
Moreover, its solution can be reached only by moving carefully along
the paths of experience and observation. What can be done is largely
discoverable by noting what has been done.
First, we ask, What should be the aim of college Bible study? The
answer will greatly simplify matters. Is its purpose simply a devo-
tional use of the Scriptures? Should it aim only at the production of
the worshipful spirit? The evoking of religious feeling, especially for
a practical influence on conduct, is a high and important end of the
study of the Scriptures anywhere. It is certainly to be sought iu
the college. But how ? If we could assume, in the case of the young
man entering college, an understanding of the Bible in any degree
commensurate with his knowledge of other subjects, the situation
would be quite other than it is. But such an assumption is out of the
question. The fact is, there is not at present sufficient knowledge of
the Scriptures among our college students, themselves being judges,
to admit of extensive and thoroughly successful devotional or practical
Bible study. The college must do what it can to remedy this defect.
It must try to do what ought to have been done long before. It must
aid the student in obtaining a knowledge of what the contents of the
Bible are.
What has been said justifies a prompt negative reply to the inquiry
as to whether the purpose of college Bible study can be an intellectual
grasp of the Scriptures alone. To desire simply to know the Scrip-
tures is a good and also a high motive for entering upon their study.
But it is evident that the present condition in the college demands
intellectual study of the Bible especially as a means to the use of the
volume for the up-building and the maintenance of the moral and
spiritual character of the individual student. The existing situation
therefore shows us that the purpose of college Bible study should be
intellectual knowledge of the Scriptures, not as an end in itself, but
2
6
as a means, all-essential, to their practical use, throughout life, in the
upbuilding and maintenance of moral and spiritual character.
How can this purpose be attained ? Will a class, gathered on Sun-
day, under the direction of a competent instructor, with the intention
of emphasizing the intellectual element in the study of the Scriptures,
meet the end in view? I have yet to find the earnest and judicious
Christian student or professor who, face to face with the situation,
advocates that such intellectual mastery of the Bible as the college
to-day needs, be sought through a voluntary, or a required, Sunday
exercise. Increasingly it is becoming evident that such study
as is necessary can only exist as it finds a place for itself in the college
curriculum. In but one way can the situation be met. Special pro-
fessorships of Biblical instruction must be founded and filled with
men fitted by natural endowments and special training to carry on this
difficult yet important work. Thoughtful and generous benefactors
must see to it that no institution of importance as a center of educa-
tion is left destitute in this particular.
How then shall Bible study, as a part of the curriculum, under the
direction of a competent and efficient instructor, devoting his entire
time to the task, be carried on? This question must be answered in
each individual case according to the circumstances. Certain things
will, however, I believe, be found true in general everywhere. Certain
principles, therefore, as we may perhaps call them, may be laid down,
the application and illustration of which are the privilege of the teacher
in each individual case.
First, the work should be made as thoroughly a means of mental
discipline as any other part of the curriculum. Painstaking, accurate,
thorough scholarship should be expected and required by the teacher.
The work should be as exacting and exhausting as any other study
occupying an equal portion of time.
Second, Bible study, as a part of a college curriculum, should be
conducted from the points of view of history and literature. True,
philosophy and social science are also to be legitimately found in the
Scriptures, and legitimately are these to be drawn from them ; but,
first of all, the Sacred Library must be studied with the historic and
literary sense ; otherwise all further work is vain. The teacher,
therefore, must be one possessed of aptitudes, at least, for instruction
in both history and literature. The wider his researches in these fields
and the more manifold his resources as the result, the better. The
student must also have attained such a degree of mental development
that a personal insight into historical movements and some intuitive
perception of literary forms may reasonably be expected of him.
Third, the same general considerations which would influence the
allotment of time, together with its arrangement, in the case of any
other college discipline, should prevail regarding this one. Who
would think of extending a course of philosophy or of social science
through the four years of a college course as a weekly exercise? Who
would advocate such an arrangement for a course in history or litera-
ture? Increasingly, in preparing a schedule of exercises for a given
college term, the tendency prevails to " bunch" the hours of a given
study. Better results can unquestionably be thus obtained. It would
seem far better, therefore, to permit a student to study the Bible during
a single term of a college year, allotting from two to four hours a
week to the exercise, than to make the study a weekly exercise
throughout the year. If so much time can be commanded for the
subject, a four-hour course, extending through one term, might well
be arranged, either as required or elective work, for each class. And
if the example of other disciplines be followed in this particular also,
it might be quite proper to expect that the work at the outstart should
be required and later on become elective.
Fourth, and most emphatically, Bible study, as demanded by our
colleges at present, should be scientific in character. Its method must
be inductive. Its highest form, for most advanced work, should be
the laboratory or German seminary system of instruction. Its lower
forms should approximate, so far as may be, to this. The great object
of the discipline is to develop independent and original students of
the Scriptures. The general road, therefore, to this goal must be that
universally accepted to-day as the proper one along which to proceed
in the effort to produce original scholars in the sciences, while the
special pathway may well be that method which is increasingly meeting
with large success in the pursuit of the historical sciences, to which
Bible study certainly belongs.
The following account of what has thus far been attempted in
Amherst College in the study of the Bible, as a part of the curriculum,
should be regarded as a narrative of illustrative experiments along
the lines of the general principles which have been laid down.
In the beginning of its history, Amherst planned for Bible study.
The first printed statement of its course of instruction includes " a
critical recitation in the Greek Testament, once a week, during a part
of the year, for each of the classes." Five years later, a weekly
8
exercise, for each class, in the English Bible was made a part of the
curriculum. The Freshmen studied the historical books, the Sopho-
mores the prophetical, the Juniors the N. T. epistles, the Seniors the
Assembly's catechism in connection with the Scriptures. By far the
larger part of the faculty participated, in turn, in the instruction of
the three lower classes, while the President took charge of the work
with the Seniors. The hour of instruction for all was assigned to
Thursday afternoon, in order thus to bring religious influences into
the mid-week. Evidently a devotional result was the end specially
sought. Later on, this arrangement was so modified, as regards the
three lower classes, that each professor taught something in, or con-
cerning, the Scriptures kindred to his own department. At this period
Bible-listening was taking the place of study on the part of the students
and lecturing that of active class instruction on the part of the teacher.
The difficulty of finding instructors who could and would conduct
these exercises with profit, the comparative inutility of a single meeting
with a class during the week, together with the fact that all work, on
the part of the student, in preparation for the exercise, had disap-
peared, led to the gradual abandonment of this plan of instruction,
until the only Bible study remaining in the curriculum, except the
catechism and the Bible exercise with the Seniors, was that of the
Sophomores and Juniors in the Greek Testament. The former passed
with the Greek professor, in consecutive lessons, through a gospel or
the Acts, the latter through one of the epistles. Finally, these exer-
cises also were, for good reasons, omitted. Meanwhile, another
force for religious instruction in the college had begun to make itself
felt. A professorship in Biblical history and interpretation having
been founded, the president became its first incumbent, and, in con-
nection with his conduct of the regular morning prayers, consecutive
Bible readings and expositions, necessarily limited as to time, were
carried on. Subsequently this professorship was separated from the
presidency, and, although still connected with the college pastorate,
opportunity has been afforded through it for the re-establishment of
a systematic course of Bible study, as a part of the regular instruction
of the college, quite unlike, however, in character and manner of con-
duct, that pursued in the early history of the institution.
The present development of Bible study in the curriculum may be
largely attributed to the earnest request of students of the upper
classes that time for such study might be allotted to those who desired
it from the other work of tne college, and that this study in its methods
and its thoroughness might be placed on a level with other studies of
the last two years of the course. The insufficiency of the results
attained in the work attempted on Sunday, doubtless, contributed
largely to the request. An elective, of four hours a week, running
through the winter term, and open to Juniors and Seniors together,
was the first step taken. The work was so planned that a different
course should be presented alternate years. The first year O. T.
history, poetry and prophecy were studied in selected books and also
certain of the N. T. epistles. The aim of the O. T. work was largely
to show the prophet in his historical setting and the historic progress
of O. T. religion under his guidance. At the same time, the literary
form in which his deeds and words have been transmitted to us com-
manded careful attention. The Semitic genius and the theocratic
elements in O. T. literature were considered. Personal peculiarities
of temperament and education, and their expression in the language
employed, were noted. Back of the book was seen the living man,
thinking, moving, a great factor not only in Hebrew, but also, indi-
rectly and subsequently, in world progress. The study of the N. T.
epistles, pursued along the same general lines, was designed to give
an insight into the personal elements in the development and history
of primitive Christianity, together with a careful consideration of the
points of contact between this new life and the older religious civili-
zations, Jewish, Greek, and Roman, among which it found the soil
for its growth and its place of influence. The second year of the
course was devoted to the historical and literary study of the gospels,
with the attendant problems. The synoptic gospels, the question of
their literary similarities and differences, their relation of dependence
upon one another and their relative date, their authorship, genuine-
ness and authenticity, including the question of the supernatural
historically considered, occupied attention first. Then followed the
study of the Fourth Gospel, at first by itself, along the same lines,
subsequently in comparison with the synoptics. Thus the whole field
of early Christianity was passed over, the foundation for the study
having been laid in the investigation of the epistles, especially the
four undisputed Pauline ones, the previous year.
Soon, however, it was manifest that much better results could be
obtained by separating the Juniors and Seniors, permitting the former
to elect work in the Biblical history and prophecy, together with the
epistles, and opening the critical study of the gospels to Seniors alone.
The influence of the studies in Junior year, especially those of English
10
literature and history, was found very helpful in connection with the
former course, and considerable progress in these quite desirable as a
preparation for the latter. Moreover, the qualities of mind developed
by such Senior studies as political economy, constitutional history
and philosophy were seen to be very desirable in the work of gospel
criticism. Thus two separate terms of work, of four hours each, were
opened, the one for Juniors only, the other for Seniors alone, while,
in all ordinary cases, no one would be expected to take the work of
the Senior elective who had not previously taken the Junior course.
This division of the study, which is the existing condition at the
present, has led to some modifications in the work of both years.
While naturally the Junior work is prefaced by remarks on method,
and practice work, making certaiu the student's understanding
regarding it, must be done at the threshold, these can be omitted
Senior year. Moreover, there is now opportunity for the profitable
giving of supplementary lectures, applying, in their larger relations,
the facts and principles which the student is discovering and putting
into practice in his own personal inductive work. These lectures cover
in the Junior year the entire field of 0. T. literature, giving a fail-
survey of the ground, although certain questions, as for example that
of Pentateuch criticism, cannot be entered into in detail. Little, if
anything, however, is lost here, as the student at this stage is not
fitted to handle such a problem, nor, in the opinion of the writer, are
final results yet clearly enough attained or formulated to permit of its
profitable consideration at any length in a college course. In the
Senior year, the lectures deal with the entire N. T. literature, the
development, historically viewed, of apostolic Christianity, the per-
sonal and historical factors tending to the unity, while rendering
necessary the variety, of Christian thought and practice in the first
days. Thus many subjects for further investigation are marked out
before the student and the lines along which they may be approached
are indicated. He is taught to believe that he is to be throughout life
an independent, yet humble, investigator of truth as it presents itself
in living form in the literature of the Scriptures, and to find in the
Christ its highest and complete personal manifestation.
But it must be emphasized that these lectures are supplementary ;
they presuppose and rest upon the personal inductive work of the
student, which is the essential part of the course. This requires some
extended explanation.
First, as has been stated, the characteristics of inductive Bible study
11
are emphasized in introductory 'lectures, and practice work is assigned
each student, in the doing of which he is most carefully watched and
searchingly criticised. The class then begins to apply what has been
thus learned to a single book, characterized by unity and limited in
scope. The revised version is the single text-book, the student being
encouraged in N. T. work to make constant comparison with the
original Greek. The special book selected is studied by paragraphs ;
the contents of a given paragraph are concisely stated in writing ;
occasionally its condensed sense is written out ; thus by generalization
the scope of the book as a whole is determined. This work is daily
submitted to the instructor. Meanwhile, questions of importance are,
as they occur to the student, briefly noted and classified. Next, an
inductive study, prepared by the teacher, is put into the hands of the
student. It consists entirely of questions, standing in close connection
with one another and intended to bring out the leading thoughts and
topics of the book, thus preparing the student to appreciate its marked
individuality. While this study is being worked through and the
results are being submitted to the teacher, the time in the class-room
is occupied with a brief survey of the book, paragraph by paragraph,
following after, but never preceding, the inductive study, and consid-
eration is given to the most important questions which have been
raised by the students individually. After the inductive study has
been completed, a list of topics, suggested by it, is submitted to the
class ; a given one is assigned to each student for personal investi-
gation, a thesis upon which, short and concise, is the goal of his work
upon that individual book. Interviews are had with each student
privately regarding his topic ; suggestions are made and inquiries
answered. While the iheses are in preparation, the bibliography
bearing upon the topics as a whole is treated, and the supplementary
lectures, which have been described, proceed. Upon these matters,
written recitations are held at least once in two weeks, and in these
the student is encouraged to present freely his own views and any
difficulties which have occurred to him along the line of his personal
research. These difficulties are met in private conference with each
student. The theses, when completed, are read before the class and
each is c.xiticised by the teacher in private, general criticisms only
being given in public.
Of course only a limited number of books can be taken up in this
exhaustive wray, yet after the first has been handled, the work becomes
much more rapid. In the Senior year but four, the Gospels, are to
12
be considered ; in the Junior year four to six, according to their size,
may be passed through by each student ; but these will be represen-
tative books, e. g. in prophecy Amos or Micah, in the epistles Galatians
or Romans. The class is generally divided this year, after passing
over the first book, into two or more sections, each working a separate
book. Thus the results of work upon eight or twelve books at least
may come before the class in the theses. In moving from book to
book, comparative study is insisted upon ; thus the conception of the
organic character of Biblical literature is brought out and the devel-
opment of revelation in historical movement and inward experience
is seen.
What students elect such work? Generally those who are good
scholars in other departments. Not alone those who are professing
Christians ; by no means those only who are looking forward to the
ministry. These are always in the minority. They may postpone
their Bible study for the theological course ; others can not. With
these it must be a part of the college course or something, in most
cases, never done. Inquiring minds are attracted ; those who have
religious difficulties are often met with. This is well. It is better to
meet a difficulty squarely and with help than to evade it or struggle
with it alone. Students of literary and historical tastes are specially
attracted. In number, from twenty to twenty-five per cent, of a
given class are found to elect the study.
What are the observed results of the work? Increased respect
for the wealth of beauty and the power of truth found in the Scripture
literature. Increased humility before great subjects, whose magnitude
and difficulty are clearly seen. Increased reverence for the personal-
ities of Bible history, profound reverence for the Christ. Fortified,
intelligent Christian faith ; a mind open to the evidence of experimental
religion. Increased reading of the Bible in private ; increased
devotional appropriation to self of the life which it contains.
George S. Burroughs.
THE HISTORICAL SITUATION IN THE BOOK
OF AMOS.
A thorough understanding of the book of Amos is, in great degree, depen-
dent on a knowledge of its historical situation, on some conception of the
times in which the prophet uttered his message and the condition of the
people to whom it had reference.
"We inquire : How is this historical situation to be discovered? The book
itself is the great source whence our knowledge both of the external and
internal condition of Israel at this time is derived, though other sources may
furnish some light iu our search.
Let us first consider the external condition, as being the key to the internal ;
and the situation of Israel with respect to the states of Palestine is a natural
starting point for our inquiry. At this time Jeroboam II, son and successor
of Jehoash, reigned in Samaria." The northern kingdom was at the height
of its prosperity. Its monarch was successful in war; his armies had over-
run Moab and Ammon,ai and had conquered the hosts of Syria and driven
them to the very gates of Damascusb. Judah, humbled by Jehoash, bb offered
no disturbance in the south, and, thus, Israel was the leading state in Pales-
tine. Her energies could now be devoted to commerce, the results of which
we shall see later. Her victories over Syria were the more easily obtained
because the latter power was weakened by the attacks of the Assyrian Empire
on the east. We find, however, no definite mention of Assyria in the book
of Amos, but it is certain, from other sources, that this power is in the mind
of the prophet when he speaks of Israel's going " into captivity beyond
Damascus "c and prophesies " an adversary shall there be even round about
theTand."d
The internal situation was the result, in great measure, of the external.
The wealth, which, as the writings of Amos show, was abundant in the northern
kingdom, e was the result of Jeroboam's victories and of the prosperous
commerce with the East and the states of Palestine. Isi'aePs territorial
extent was greater than it had been since the days of Solomon/ The mon-
archy seemed firmly established, and Israel apparently had entered upon a
period of remarkable national prosperity. But all this glory was external.
There was no equal distribution of wealth among the population, and that
which flowed into the country seems to have been shared by the aristocracy
alone. The material condition of this aristocracy was prosperous in the
highest degree. Mansions of hewn stone rose everywhere8. These were
wainscoted, even furnished, in ivory. Couches of this valuable material were
upholstered with cushions of silk.h Houses for comfort in summer, others
for protection from the dampness of winter, were erected.' At their feasts,
reclining on their rich couches, they were entertained by musicians who sang,
to the accompaniment of instruments, not the praises of Jehovah but songs
of idlenes3.J On the other hand, the condition of the poorer classes was
a. 1:1. aa. 6: 14; 2 Kgs. 14: 25. b. 2 Kgs. 14 : 25-2S. bb. 2 Kgs. 14 : 8-14. c. 5:27
d. 3:11. e. 6:4-7. f. 6:2. g. 5:11. h. 6: 4; 3:12. i. 3:15. j. 6:5.
14
most pitiable. The successes of the armies in war and of the merchants in
peace seem to have brought them no prosperity. The husbandman had often to
make a gift of a portion of his wheat crop which he could ill afford to lose."
Monopolies of the wheat market sprang up and the poor were frequently
compelled to pay full price for an inferior quality of grain. b Such was the
material condition of Israel in the days of Amos.
The moral condition of a theocratic people like the Hebrews is so intimately
connected with, and dependent upon, its material condition that the task of
treating the two subjects separately is no easy one. At this time, the pres-
ence of prosperity led to wrong methods of enjoying it. The first effect of
the material welfare to be noted is the loss of religious character. There is
no doubt that the outward observances of religion were followed in the
strictest manner; but the heart was gone from them.0 The King was himself
an idolater, and because of his wickedness incurred the prophet's special
curse. d The monarchy was upheld by a brutal soldiery necessary to protect
it against the constant risings of the oppressed multitude. e There was no
justice in legal proceedings. Officers of the law wronged the just, scorned
the needy and delighted in bribes/ Nor was the wickedness of the rulers
confined to quiet wrong-doing; they permitted and in some cases joined in
public robbery and violence.8 The immense wine crops made drunkenness
common11 and a profligate life led to a long series of crimes : robbery,1
oppression of the poor,j debauchery in its worst forms ;k false dealing in
business, as the use of false- balances, false weights in money, false measures
for grain.1 The religion of Jehovah did not aid the oppressed, for its repre-
sentatives, the priests, were corrupt. The prophet speaks bitterly of their
" feasts and solemn assemblies.""1 That the moral condition of the people
at large was very low there can be no doubt. There was even a strong
prejudice against any one who dared to stand for the right, so strong that the
prudent man ' kept silence in such a time.'" So great was the corruption
of manners that to speak in behalf of reformation seemed useless as well as
perilous.
We may sum up our discoveries as follows. The power of Israel was only
apparent, and, under the external coating of splendor, the nation was rotten
to the core. Though some culture and conscience were left in Israel, else
the people could not have understood and received the lofty and severely just
language of Amos, yet the conclusion must be that it was indeed, as the
prophet tells us, "an evil time" and that Israel was indeed a "sinful
kingdom".0
H. F. Joxes.
a. 5:11. b. 8:4-6. c. 4:4,5. d. 7:9. e. 3:9. f. 5:12. g. 3 : 10; 6:3. h. 6:6. i. 3:10.
j. 5:11. k. 2: 7; 6:3-6. 1.8:5,6. m. 5:21-24. n. 5:10, 13. 0.5:13; 9:8.
THE PERSONALITY OF AMOS, AS DISCLOSED
IN HIS PROPHECY.
The scenes described in the book of Amos occur during the reigns of Uz-
ziah, king of Judah, and Jeroboam II, king of Israel*. Jehovah has been
forsaken by the Ten Tribes and idolatry is prevalent. The people have
become luxurious in the extreme, dwelling in palaces finely constructed of
hewn stoneb, finished in ivory0 and richly furnished with ivoryd and silk6.
They delight in feasting and revelry, drinking wine in bowls, singing idle
songs to the viol and other instruments of musicf. Fig and olive trees they
possess, pleasant vineyards which they have planted^; fat beasts and horses
are theirs. h Oppression is Severe'; the needy are crushed and sold for a pair
of shoesj ; violence and robbery are not unusual" ; wantonness, adultery, brib-
ery, tumult are common.1
There lived at this time, in Tekoa, a city of northern Judah, a herdsman
named Amos, known to us as the prophet.1" To him comes the call from
the Lord to prophesy, and from God he receives his message. His attitude
of modesty and humility are well seen in his own words, as he declares that
' he was no prophet nor prophet's son, only among the herdmen, a dresser
of sycamore trees.'11 If not a learned man, as we now understand the term,
he had a fitness, equally as necessary, for the task before him. He was a
man of great natural ability. His shepherd life had made him thoughtful, as
he gazed at the heavens, at Pleiades and Orion, at nature about as well as
above him. In these he saw Jehovah, him who " calleth for the waters of
the sea and poureth them out upon the face of the earth," "who maketh the
day dark with night," "that formeth the mountains and createth the winds."0
Not only had he this natural quality of thoughtfulness, but he must also have
been an observer of human affairs. How fully must he have known the sit-
uation, as he proclaims forcibly and pointedly the sins of his own home,
Judah, p of Israel adjoining, i and of the surrounding nations'!
His message is to Israel,* but not of their own sins does he speak at the first.
His sound judgement leads him to denounce the sins of their enemies, Phil-
istia, Tyre, Edom, Moab, and even Judah, before he denounces the great and
terrible evils in Israel.1 Thus winning their attention and interest by con-
demning the transgressions of the outlying nations and their most bitter
rival, Judah, he boldly accuses those of the northern kingdom of their trans-
gressions, and to their rising resentment he puts the question, " Is it not even
thus, O ye children of Israel? "u How often this interrogative form shows
his directness and force, and at the same time invites to consideration of the
justice of God's judgements!
Amos has portrayed vividly the condition of the people and the enormity
of their iniquity in speech simple yet decisive, plain but convincing. He has
included in his charge all classes, the poor, the wealthy, the notable men of
the chief of the nation, even the rich women of Samaria : all alike are to
receive the vengeance which the Lord is to send upon Israel."
a. 1:1. b. 5:11. c. 3:15. d. 6:4. e. 3:12. f. 6:4,5,6,7. g. 4:9; 5:11. h.5:22;
4:10. i. 3:9; 4:1. j. 2:6. k. 3: 10; 6:3. 1. 2 : 7; 5: 12; 3 : 9. m. 1:1; 3:7; 7: 14, 15.
n. 7:14, 15. o. 5:S;4:13. p. 2 : 4, 5. q. 2 : 6-8. r. 1 : 3, 6, 9, 11, 13; 2 : 1. 8. 7:15; 2:6.
t. 1:6, 9, 11; 2:1, 4,6. u. 2:11. v. 4 : 1; 5: 16, 17; 6: 1; 7 : 17.
16
Although thus boldly and fearlessly he has taken up his task, and has
declared the message of Jehovah directly, even, we may think, severely and
harshly, still, through it all, we see another side of the prophet's nature. He
has a deep realization of siu ; he has been stirred to his depths ; but he comes
also with a special appeal to remind Israel of God's goodness and mercy in
the past; " I brought you up out of the land of Egypt;" " You only have I
known of all the families of the earth ;" ' I have sent affliction upon you, I
have taken away your friends, I have caused temporal disaster to come upon
you, all to the end that ye might return unto me, yet have ye not returned.'*
Such thoughts as these move the heart of Amos. Thus deeply impressed,
he appeals to his hearers : " Seek good and not evil, that ye may live, and so
God shall be with you."b Then again, feeling that the judgment can not be
withheld, with tenderness and solemnity, he calls the people to do what alone
remains; " Prepare to meet thy God, 0 Israel.""
How deeply Israel is moved by the words of the shepherd prophet we see
from the message sent by Amaziah, the priest, to Jei'oboam : " Amos hath
conspired against thee, the land is not able to bear hi:- words." At length
Amos is commanded to flee the country."1 The prophet's work is done. Yet
though he has declared to Israel the punishment of sins and destruction, he
does not leave them without hope, for in the dim future he sees Jehovah
' bringing again the captivity,' ' the cities rebuilded, and themselves no more
plucked out of the land God had given them'.e
Let us gather up the characteristics of this man of Judah and estimate his
personality. We see in him a man daily laboring, by no means wealthy but
doubtless well to do, rude perhaps in speech but not in knowledge, an intel-
ligent believer in the God whom he saw revealed in nature, one reverential
and humble, yet in no sense shrinking from the world, a student of human
nature, an observer of his own times, one as well informed and educated as
his station would permit. From his style many a trait is discoverable which
indicates a strong personality. We find here directness, simplicity, clearness,
conciseness, force. A large warm hearted man, tender yet strong, a devout
worshiper of the God of Jacob, a man among men, a man of God — such was
the prophet Amos.
G. L. Leonard.
a. 3:1,2; 4: tf, 7,9, 10, 11. b. 5:14. c. 4:12. d. 7.10-13. e. 9:14, 15.
THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE DIVINE LOVE
AS SEEN IN THE BOOK OF HOSEA.
To truly understand the book of Hosea, either as a whole or in any of its
different characteristics, one must study the character of Hosea himself.
The prophet is one who stands between God, whom he loves with all his
heart and in whose love he has perfect trust, and rebellious Israel, whom he
also loves with a strong affection. By reason of the very strength of these
two affections, he longs to bring rebellious Israel back to God. To accom-
plish this, he feels that all that is necessary is that Israel should know him
whom he loves and serves. Hence he earnestly urges : " Let us know, let us
follow on to know the Lord."a Moreover, in Hosea's personal history we
find a light upon his prophecy. His wife was unfaithful to him and in his
deep and child-like trust he believes this affliction has been sent directly from
God for his instruction. b And so by this sorrow he finds himself brought
into a closer fellow-feeling with Jehovah, whose boundless love Israel has
rejected. We find the prophet of so intense a nature that the conflicting
emotions of his heart almost unbalance his miud.c He is all on fire with the
desire to reunite Israel and Jehovah. His one message, born out of his life
and heart, is an entreaty to receive again the affection of God. God showed
his divine power in choosing such an one to be his mouth-piece as thoroughly
as if he had dictated to him certain exact words for utterance.
In describing this love of God in its relation to Israel, Hosea uses as a text
his own domestic sorrow. d He proceeds to draw a parallel between this
personal experience and the circumstances of moral and religious life about
him. Israel, the ehosen people of God, had often been spoken of in their
sacred literature as the spouse of Jehovah. e Though at first thought the
comparison may seem irrevent, yet it was thoroughly natural to the Hebrew
mind, and we find it used, as it were, spontaneously throughout this prophecy.
Moreover, the prophet rises above the ordinary conception of this relation.
Among the Semites the wife was the property of her husband as much as
the horse which he rode. In fact the same word is used by the worshiper in
addressing the god and by the wife in addressing her husband. f When then
Jehovah says that he will no longer be called "master" but " husband, "ff
a degree of love is shown that was in general unknown to the Israelites.
But mother Israel had been and was unfaithful to her husband, Jehovah. *
She had adopted the natural religion of the people about her, and she had
accepted the prosperity which she enjoyed as coming from these divinities. h
On account of this unfaithfulness, the wife might be utterly cast off. But here
the mighty love of Jehovah shows itself. He will send afflictions upon her,
severe ones it may be,' but only that she may be forced to come back to him
at last.j And then, when she becomes his faithful wife, he will bless her
abundantly.11 Thus is the extreme tenderness of Jehovah's love brought out.
If, however, Jehovah is the husband of mother Israel, he can also be taken
a. 6:3. b. 1:2-9 c. 9:7. d. 1 : 2-9; 3: 1-5. e. Ex. 34: 15, 16; Deut. 31 : 16; Is. 62: 5;
Jer. 3:14, etc. f . 2 : 16, 17. ff. 2 : 16. g. 2:2. h. 2 : 5, 12. i. 2: 6-13. j. 2: 14, 17. k. 2 : 19-23-
18
as the father of the Israelite, and in the latter part of the book we find Hose a
using this figure of father and son. In primitive society every stranger was
regarded as an enemy, and relations of love are either identical with those of
kinship or are conceived as resting on a covenant. The relationship existing
between the Israelite as a child and Jehovah as a father, is of this latter kind.
The Israelite is rather a child by adoption. He is not simply the offspring of a
God whose worship might tend to a merely natural religion. a His adoption
makes the relationship between himself and his God more spiritual. In the
prophecy the dealings between father and son rest on a covenant, and any
breaking of this covenant may cut asunder all bonds of love. Butisb this the
case? Certainly the child has clone wrong, and in his guilty fear he has sought
protection from foreigners.0 Yet Jehovah, though his child has gone far
astray, still loves him and longs to have him return that love.d Even in his
sinfulness, Jehovah is ever ready to save and to heal him.e The one desire
of Jehovah is that the son should put himself in such an attitude that the
father may do everything for him. The word translated mercy four times
in the book of Hoseaf signifies dutiful love, this is what Jehovah looks for in
the Israelite, his son.
Finally, there are in Hosea's prophecy several beautiful Messianic passages
which show the great blessings that will follow true repentance and genuine
love toward Jehovah as the husband and the father of Israel. And all
through the book we find the prophet manifesting his conviction that the
highest good which he can desire for his people is but a small part of that
which Jehovah is willing and waiting to give. The prophecy is throughout
preeminently a revelation of love.
E. W. Blatchford.
a. 11:1; 13:4; 9: 10a. b. 6:7; 8:1, etc. c. 5: 13; 7: 1J ; 12: 1. (1.11:3.4,8-11. e. 7'
la. f. 4: 1; 6:6; 10: 12; 12:6.
THE RELATION OF RELIGION AND MORALITY
IN AMOS AND HOSEA.
It is as though we had asked ourselves, What is the prophet's purpose?
How does the prophet work? when we center our thought upon this theme,
for we enter the very work-room of prophecy. True it is that the history
with its facts and allusions, the mirror of its age, is a mine of value; and as
truly is the style, with its poetic beauty and wealth of imagery, an untold
treasure; but in the relation of religion and morality we come upon the
very core of prophecy. To discover God's truth and will, to know widely
and deeply the current of human life, these things were for the prophet to
lay hold of his materials. To help toward uniting these, to guard the former
and to upraise the latter, this was the prophet's work.
First, then, is search for truth. We need not undervalue the divine in
prophecy, to grant that men, whom God can use, must be in the deepest sense
" men of knowledge." Wise both in truths of God and in comprehension of
their fellowmen. Thus we may understand how closely the personality of
the man affects his preparation for his work. It enters into his vision of
God ; it moulds his deepest study and thought ; it fashions his impression of
the life about him.
Another thought follows upon this. No factor can be greater in the study
of our theme than the prophet's conception of his God. From this conception
comes his view of religion, its attributes and duties, and from this conception
as well comes the standard by which he judges life about him, the power of
his thought, the courage of his utterance.
And now of the men whose words we study. The shephei'd Amos has been
a deeply thoughtful man. He has studied God in nature, he has studied God
in his own heart, until he is alive to a power above him, majestic in its
strength," worthy of complete obedience and no less of deepest reverence.b
He has had little of direct contact with the world,0 but to his ears have come
tidings of sins and immoralities which fill him with sorrow and- with fear,
almost with hopelessness. d
Hosea, like his brother prophet, has led a thoughtful life ; he has studied
God, but less in nature than in men. His life has been in daily contact alike
with good and bad, and here he has seen God not less in majesty and power,e
perhaps, but more in mercy and patient, loving-kindness. His own heart has
taught him a God of love, and thus, with wider conception, he brings forth
the new truth needed for his time. Upon such men, then, God sent that
power, which would not let them rest until they had declared His truth.
In the times of Amos, Israel was at the height of power, f and while with-
out doubt there was at the very basis disobedience and wrong attitude toward
God,g as more and more they came in contact with the Canaanites, yet, on the
whole, there seems to have been another natural cause in the mind of the
prophet as that which led them to the point at which he came to them. The
land had become prosperous ; luxury had taken hold upon the people ;h and to
supply its need their greed' had been indulged, even with dishonesty1' and
crueltyk as its servants. Quickly following, as indeed was necessary, were
a. AmoaS:s,9. b. lb. 4: 6-11. c. lb. 7: U, 15. d. lb. 5: 15. e. Hosea 10: 10. 1. Amos
6:1,2. g. lb. 3:14. b. lb. 6: 11; 6:4. 1.1b. 2:6, 7. j. lb. 8:4, 5. k. lb. 3: 10.
20
carelessness,* unthankfulness,b irreverence,0 formalism,"1 and disobedience,8
until at last the people whom the Lord has known/ hate one reproving them
and " abhor him that speaketh uprightly ".e And, now, what hinders their
incorporating in their formalism the rites of an idolatrous worship? All this
the prophet sees, and he knows how severe must be the sentence of a righteous
God upon a faithless nation, forgetful of their moral duties, confident and
thoughtless,'1 bewitched by idol worship.
As yet, either the people have not adopted to any degree Canaan's worship,
or Amos does not realize it, for he comes forth denouncing not so much the
idol worship as sinful life and formalism.1 To a people who are fast forsaking
God, he comes a herald of Jehovah's righteousness.-1
But turn to Hosea. We find him opening his message : " The land doth
commit great whoredom departing from the Lord."k What is the condition
of Israel? The people, who in the time of Amos had incorporated in their for-
mal worship the rites of Canaan's Baal, have now gone on to thorough Baal
worship1. As in those times they were forgetful of God's law™ and God
Himself, so now they are oblivious to His blessing11 and render thanks to other
Gods.0 They think to deceive GodD because their own hearts are divided ;q they
try to hide their irreligion behind the symbolism God has given them.r From
this the step is short to image worship,3 and soon they have rejected not
knowledge only' bat God,u and stubbornly hold on their course in wickedness7
A few years pass, and meantime Hosea watches, until with such terrible
immorality before him, he can no longer withhold the message God would
have him speak. He knows full well that these errors in morality have
sprung up from irreligion and idolatry and, thus, all through his later
prophecy, a striking feature is the fierce denunciation, not so much of Baal
as of the molten bull-images. w While Amos says no word against these,
Hosea sternly denies any divine power behind themaa and describes them
as a source of all the many evils of his time bb He bursts forth with the
words: " There is no truth nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land.
There is nothing but swearing and breaking faith, and killing, and stealing,
and committing adultery ; they break out and blood toucheth blood."00 An
impassioned and severe testimony of national apostasy with deep prevailing
immorality as its fruit !
Compare the two. In Amos luxury, greed, dishonesty and cruelty, with
necessarily something of disobedience, has led Jehovah's people on until they
stand, in confidence and thoughtlessness even, somewhat over the line
between true worship and idolatry. Amos in these circumstances sets before
them a God of righteousness who must judge their sin and curse their formal
worship. In Hosea, the great mass have gone beyond the line of idolatry,
and wickedness has grown from irreligion, until the land is rotten to the core
with sin. Yet Hosea brings to them not alone a God of righteousness and
powerdd but of tender patient love, and never failing kindness.ee
a. Amos 6: 3, 5. b. lb. 2:9, 11; 3: 2. c. lb. 2: 7, 8. d. lb. 4: 4, 5; 8: 5. e. lb. 2:12. f.
lb. 3: 2. g. lb. 5: 10. h. lb. 6:1. i. lb. 5: 21-24. j. lb. chs. 7 and 8. k. Hos. 1 : 2. 1. lb.
1:10b. m. Am. 3:10. n. Hos. 13:6. o. lb. 2:8. p. lb. 11:12. q. lb. 10:2. r. lb. 3:4.
8. lb. 2:13. t. lb. 4:6. u. lb. 8: 3; 10: 3. v. lb. 7: 13, 16 a. w. lb. 8 : 4, 6; 13 : 2. aa. lb.
8:5,6. bb. lb. 8: 11-14. cc. lb. 4:1,2. dd. lb. 10: 10. ee. lb. 6: 4; 11, 8, 9.
21
The prophecies were perfect messages to their times. The one, when
growing sin and formal worship, leaving out the heart, was gaining full
control, revealed a cause of the evil and the godlessness which filled the
land, and summoned back the people to true worship. The other, where idol
worship was a widespread curse, and immorality was spreading everywhere,
held forth the only remedy, the God of righteousness, and yet the God also
of love and mercy, who gladly would restore Israel to Himself.
H. DeW. Williams.
THE CHARACTERISTICS OF MESSIANIC PROPH-
ECY IN THE TEN TRIBES AS ADAPTED
TO THEIR SITUATION.
In studying Messianic prophecy two great factors are to be taken into
consideration, the personality of the prophet and the historical situation of
the people to whom he speaks. As the first must, to a large extent, be over-
shadowed by the second, it in consequence has less significance. The
prophetic utterance, since it dealt with every-day life, was mainly moulded
and controlled by the condition of society, and, even in its Messianic state-
ments, existed especially for its own age. Each prophet was seeking, first
of all, to reach and save the people of his own generation. It was, therefore,
always his aim to lay open the future in a manner peculiarly suited to their
need. Thus he pictured the coming Kingdom of God by means of the familiar
colors of their own national life; he gave them only those phases of the
Divine rule that were required by their present circumstances.
At the time when Amos labored among the people of the Northern Kingdom
society had become extremely depraved. The Nazarites and prophets no
longer performed the duties of their holy offices in purity ;a those in high
places, even the women, h were given over to revelry and debauchery.0 In the
general decline, justice and judgment had been swept away,d thus giving free
rein to avarice and passion. Pitilessly were the poor and righteous ground
down.e Nothing was deemed dishonorable, if only it furnished those luxuries
that had become so much a part of Israelitish life.f Religious rites and
ceremonies had indeed been continued, Bbut this worship, hollow and heartless,
was addressed to a God whose law they had rejected.11
The whole situation presents a picture of extreme degradation in the mate-
rial and moral condition of the people. Their history tells us only of the
abuse of the divine blessing. They themselves display none of the higher
spiritual qualities; these indeed are, in their present condition, beyond the
range even of their understanding. They are living upon a low plane. To
men upon that plane and with a thorough knowledge of their situation, Amos
delivers his Messianic prophecy.
The nation is, fir»t of all, to be cleansed of its sin, that it may once more
be pure in heart.1 And then the house of David is to be raised up and
restored to its former position of importance among the nations.J Corrup-
tion, perversion of justice, avarice, luxury, insincerity, all are to give place
to a purer condition of things. k After that are to come showers of blessing,
material blessing, just such as the Israelites had been striving for in their
blind, sinful way.1 Prosperity, wealth and happiness, things that they under-
stood so well, were to be theirs without end,m for in these could they best
see the symbols of the highest good.
Now, as Ave turn to Hosea, we find the same deep-seated demoralization of
the people ; but the situation is quite different. The government was almost
a. Amos 2: 12; 7:12, IS. b. 4:1. c.6:3-7. d. 5: 7, :2; 6: 12. e. 2: 6, 8; 5: 11, 12; 8:6-4
f. 3: 12; 6:4-6. g. 4 : 4, 5; 5: 21-24. h. 2:4. i. 9:9,10. j. 9:11,12. k. 9:9-11. 1. 9: 13-61
m. 9:16.
23
in a state of anarchy. Revolutions, plots, and acts of lawlessness were of
common occurrence.5114 The Israelites themselves recognized their national
weakness and had sought the aid of foreign powers to prop up the tottering
state. bD
With comparatively a brief allusion to the national situation, the prophet
directed his reproaches to a wide-spread lack of spiritual qualities. Immor-
ality in its worst forms, he showed them, had laid hold upon them.a They
had forgotten all true knowledge ;b they no longer cared for honor and
uprightness.0 More than all, they had deserted God, had left his worship,
and were eagerly serving gods made with hands. d It was a dark picture of
spiritual back-sliding. Material conditions, though still given a place in the
prophet's thought, were subordinated to the one great idea of spirituality.
The people had a wider horizon of knowledge than the men of the time of
Amos, and therefore might have risen to a higher plane of life. They had
the capacity for discerning spiritual things, but they had chosen to pervert
their possibilities by the worship of idols.
Hosea's Messianic utterances are perfectly in accord with this condition.
Temporal needs are, indeed, met by declarations of temporal prosperity for
the future. e Civil dissensions and dependence upon foreign powers are to
give place to national unity and strength. f But it is in appeals to their
thoughtfulness, in pleading's with their spiritual nature, that the prophecy of
Hosea reaches its height. He tells the Israelites of the power and majesty,
the awful grandeur, of God ;g and at the same time he expresses the bound-
less love and compassion which that mighty God bears to his children.'1 He
reasons and pleads with then that they return unto Him who tenderly
watched over Israel when a child.1 He meets, too, their greatest need in
revealing God's readiness, even yearning, to pardon their sin and idolatry ,j
and to again make them his chosen people. k
But the way in which these two meu deal with the surrounding nations
shows, perhaps even more clearly, the influence of the historical situation
upon their prophecy.
The neighboring peoples, in the time of Amos, were merciless warriors.1
They were wont to sell their captives into slavery,1" and to treat even those
who should have been their brethren with extreme harshness.11 Oppression
and avarice were their ruling passions.0 While thus deep in sin, they could
have, in the mind of Amos, no part in God's great plan. For their iniquity
they were as nations to be destroyed.'' No mercy is held out to them. The
prophet is dealing more with material conditions, and in his eyes the material
blessing of Israel demands that her enemies be swept from national existence
and that the surviving remnant be placed under her control.'
Hosea in the very brief mention of other peoples which he makes, describes
them as dishonest and oppressive.1 They are mighty in political power,"
aa. Hosea 6: 9; 7: 1; 9: 15. bb. 5: 13; 7: 11; 8:9; 12: 1.
a. Hos. 4: 12-15; 4: IS; 7:4, 5. b. 4:6:7:2,3. c. 4: 1 ; 10 : 4, 13; 11 : 12; 12 : 1. d. 1:2;
4:6,10,12,17; 5: 4, 7; 6: 7, 10; 7: 13-16; 8 : 1, 14; 9 : 1 ; 10:1,2; 11 : 2, 12: 11; 13: 2, 6. e.
2 : 21-23 ; 14 : 5-7. f. 1 : 10, 11; 3 : 5. g. 6:1-3. li. 11:8 11. i. 14: 1,2,8; 11: 1-4. j. 2:14-20
14:4. k. 1:10. 1. Amos 1 : 11, 13; 2: 1. m. 1 : 6, 9. n. 1: 9, 11; 2: 1. o. 1 : 3, 13. p. 1 : 4,
5, 7,8, 10, 12, 14, 15; 2:2, 2. q. 9:12. r. Hosea 12 : 7. s. 5 : 13; 7 : 11; 8: 9; 12 : 1.
24
but are given up to idolatry, and are not the people of the living God. The
prophet, however, since he deals more fully with individual life than did his
predecessor, seems, if we may read between the lines, to recognize more
clearly their personal responsibility and possible personal blessing. They are
apparently to share Israel's temporal good; and thus to have peace aud pros-
perity. True to the more spiritual atmosphere of his thought, he may be
seen here and there in the prophecy holding out to them, at least by infer-
ence, God's pardoning grace and declaring that they also are to be sous of
the Living God. We may certainly, with the apostles, see in the pardon of
Israel a type of the reception of the nations to the divine favor and thus a
foreshadowing of the calling of the Gentiles.'
It is, in conclusion, evident that there existed no defector weakness in the
condition of society about him on the one hand, and no possibility of better
things on the other, which the prophet of Israel did not clearly perceive. He
put himself so intensely into the spirit of the needs of that society, he repre-
sented so earnestly its highest aspiration, that the perfection of God's King-
dom seemed to him nothing more nor less than the present condition of
society freed from these defects and weaknesses and crowned with the
fruition of forth-reaching desire. Thus he gave to those for whom he
labored a conception of the cla}'s of the Messiah and of their characteristics
that was suited to the range of their intelligence, a conception that appealed
to the highest sentiments developed in their nature.
W. L. Williams.
t. 1:10; 2:23; cf . Rom. 9 : 25 ; 1 Pet. 2:10.
THE LITERARY FEATURES OF PROPHECY AS
ILLUSTRATED BY A STUDY OF THE
V/ORDS OF JOEL, AMOS AND
HOSEA.
In the early days of world history, a family received the promise from God :
" I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless theeand make thy name
great. "a The descendants of that family became a mighty people, distin-
guished from other peoples, as the ancestral family had been from other
families, because its God was the Lord. Man had not yet lost himself amid
abstractions and philosophic conceptions. The Hebrew nation, true to the
youth of the world as well as to its native simplicity, looked upon Jehovah
as a great paternal ruler, and upon the works of nature as the revelation of
his mighty power. The Mosaic ritual was given this people as a rule for
their daily living, since they were not yet in a position to maintain an upright
life from an adequate sense of moral obligation, still less from any true
spiritual conception of obedience. A long career of sin and apostasy lay
before them, which was to educate them to a position where they could
receive a spiritual revelation of God's attitude toward man in the person of
Jesus Christ. The system of penalties and sacrifices was a stepping-stone to
lift them to higher things and a purer life.
For a long term of years the nation was prosperous, and seemed to be
progressing toward the desired goal. But there came a change. In the
latter days of the Kingdom of All-Israel, and, after the disruption, especially
in the Kingdom of the Ten Tribes, the people became engrossed with con-
quest, pleasure, and the acquisition of wealth : Luxury, insinuating its way
into the national character, found itself attended by injustice, vice, and
idolatry. The life of the nation was on the eve of a terrible crisis. Their
enemies perceiving it, began to form alliances and to divide in anticipation
the rich spoil of the coming conquest. But the Hebrews themselves were all
unawares. They bought, sold, drank, debauched, and went through the
forms of sacrifice, with no thought of danger or retribution. Meantime, far
in the north a cloud of dust was rolling up from the advancing hosts of
Assyria, soon to seize upon Israel and carry her away into ignominious exile.
Nor very far offwas the day of Judah's overthrow at the hand of the Babylonian.
Should the crisis come without warning? Should this people be forced to
the level of the nations round about, and receive the fruit of their apostasy,
simply as the fortune of war? Above all, should the principles of the divine
Kingdom, destined through the Hebrew nation for all posterity, be suffered
to pass away amidst defeat and exile? It was in truth a crisis, not only in
Israelitish but also in world history, in the great progress of the redemption
of man.
No ; Israel was to have her warning. The death-sentence was to be read
to her in the words of the Judge himself, and the great reprieve, the depth
a. Genesis 12 : 2.
26
of which few of those who heard it would ever fully fathom, was to be
sounded in her ears. Divine justice, tempered with mercy, was to find its
revelation. That voice of the public conscience, the prophet, had long been
hushed. But now, when most needed, prophecy, bursting forth anew,
enjoyed the clays of its maturity, and shone resplendent before the dark back-
ground of the future which it interpreted. The men of God of these trying
times had not their only qualification in standing in a line of prophetic suc-
cessors. They were individually possessed of broad, sagacious minds, and
also of deep spiritual insight, by which they could, through communion with
the Almighty, interpret the divine word. The prophet stood, as it were,
upon a lofty eminence. He looked back over the history of the theocracy
and traced the design of the divine King through the past. Then, with a
sagacity equal to that which any statesman of to-day puts forth, he studied
the future, until gradually, before his strained vision, the horizon receded
and he saw whither the nation was tending. To speedy ruin, it seemed, and
no human hand could save. But, like David of old, " he prayed to the God
of his fathers, and was not afraid. b Then certain fixed principles, the
thoughts of the divine mind, came into his heart, disclosing the attributes
of Jehovah, not merely a just and jealous God. but also a God of love. The
dark and forbidding future became bright and auspicious. He forgot the
terrible scourging of the Assyrian and Babylonian, and the horrors of the
coming exile. Far beyond was a harbinger of joy to all peoples, a sign
whose import he himself could not fully understand. The Messianic promise
and hope shed a new light upon present and future. A conception of the
true relations of things and of the full attitude of Jehovah toward his people
ciwstallized in his soul, and he stood enraptured at the completeness of the
divine plan.
It was a sublime conception. Some such an one, coming to a cloistered
monk, has only rendered more dense the cold walls which separated him from
the outer world. But the prophet could not thus selfishly clasp his newly
found treasure. Scarce had he received it, when he was aroused to the situ-
ation by the voice of conscience : " "Why stand ye here, gazing? Go, prophesy
unto my people, Isi'ael!" As he turned away from the vision, and set his
face toward his appointed work, he emerged from the position of mourner
over the sins of his people, and assumed a new relation toward his times.
He became the interpreter of God's will toward man. He was to set up the
divine standard of religion and morality, and to fearlessly rebuke until man
should accept it. To the faithful remnant he was to preach also endurance
and trust. He was, moreover, to take the first steps toward breaking down
the exclusiveness of the Hebrew, by predicting the participation of other
nations in the coming blessing. It was a difficult mission and required the
utmost faith and confidence in Jehovah.
The prophet was no blind instrument of the divine hand. Though the
divine element permeates his whole work, its basis and inspiration, the human
element is there also, and upon it the divine thought is reflected. Therefore,
as in other literature, we find in prophecy a true adaptation of the style to
b. Browning's Saul.
27
the matter and to the Hebrew audience, while the whole, conceived by the
divine mind, bears at the same time the impress of the prophet's'individual
character. Let us examine more closely into the qualities to be expected in
a prophetic discourse, and afterward take up the closer study of certain
individual prophecies, showing the wide variety which theyjexhibit in style
and treatment.
In the first place, the prophet's message was not his own. The situation
and revelation itself demanded more than human power. He was depending
upon Jehovah for the inspiration, the spirit of his work. We are impressed
with his position as the interpreter of the divine by the frequent reiterations
of the phrase, "Thus saith the Lord!", the spirit of which pervades all
prophecy. The man loses himself in his message. The absence of self-
consciousness is his, since the sublime self-consciousness of Jehovah takes
its place. This feature of self-abnegation acted both as a seal of the divinity
of his office, and as a shield from the malice of his hearers, shifting, as it
did, the tremendous responsibility of the message from the spokesman to
its Author.
Having thus seen the attitude of the prophet toward his message, let us
look for a moment at his audience, as they are related to this message. We
have already seen that the matter of prophecy, is the great spiritual truths
of God, localized, so to say, and applied to the Hebrew nation in such manner
as to reveal to them Jehovah's attitude and plan. Now there are limitations
in any language wheu spiritual things are to be set-forth. It is as impossible
to clothe these in full expression as for a painter to produce a perfect ideal.
The speaker can lead his audience so far only ; he must then leave them upon
the borders of that promised land which only the eye of the sympathetic soul
can penetrate. The Hebrew prophet came before an audience in whom the
spiritual vision was-not developed, yet they had the elements of this spirit-
uality, and one of the prophetic duties was to foster its growth. In the
absence of this most essential medium for the conveyance of higher truths,
the prophet could not revert to the opposite extreme and prove in due form
of logic the coming woe and its bearing upon the theocracy. The Hebrew
mind never troubled itself with cause and effect or logical sequence. It was
purely intuitive. Man was still a child of nature; such, indeed, the Hebrew
remained long after other nations had explored the province of the intellect.
The revelation of Jehovah to his chosen people had been ever through intui-
tion. Their worship naturally took on the sensuous forms of sacrifice and
priesthood. Jehovah was to them a Ruler, and further revelation of him
must come in concrete form. The person of Jehovah, his wrath, his mercy,
and especially the pictures of the future Messianic triumph are is some sense
unsatisfactory to the Christian of to-day. He sees far more in the future of
the Hebrew nation than is therein expressed, and perhaps wonders at the
seeming superficiality of these sensuous figures. But such figures, crude as
they were, conveyed vastly more to a Hebrew audience than would an
attempt at a spiritual revelation of the mission of the Christ. Prophecy was
thus to materialize thought, to convert the unseen and spiritual into what
was practical, active, and concrete.
28
In the concrete the Hebrew nation saw truth, but fortunately it did
not stop with the merely concrete. They went a step farther, and were
intensely poetic. An idea to impress them must not only be in sensuous form
but must also be fitly clothed in beautiful or sublime expression. And more,
the truths to be spoken iuvited the poetic expi'essiou which was demanded.
A righteous Judge and a merciful Father, an erring people, wandering like
sheep without their shepherd, an immediate future, overhung by clouds of
exile and ignominy, a bright and radiant restoration under the Messiah! —
could such subjects be presented concretely without frequeut recourse to the
lofty strains of song? The prophet, too, was fresh from communion with
the Almighty, his heart throbbing with great thoughts both of man and his
Maker. The conception of the Messiah which he must present to the popular
mind, amid the present horrors, nerved him to a pitch which only poetry
could relieve. Spiritual conceptions, thus vividly realized, find their natural
outlet in a heightened manner of expression.
The heart of humanity is seen in Hebrew poetry. When some sweet singer
of Israel sweeps the strings of his harp and sings his hymn of thanksgiving
or sobs out his prayer of penitence, he is but echoing the changeless emotions
of the human soul. Thus also was the prophet to interpret human life,
not as the poet of to-day, by a glorification of man, but by a glimpse of the
human nature of the time as contrasted with the ideal subject of the
theocracy. Poetry in general has an uncertain element. Its original lofty
purpose, to interpret the finer emotions and thus ennoble man, is too
often subordinated to that esthetic taste which finds in its forms pleasure
and satisfaction. It thus becomes a mere lnxury, refining indeed, yet by no
means fulfilling its complete mission. But the poetry of prophecy had an
end in view. To be sure, its figures are taken from nature and many of them
are surpassingly beautiful. A modern poet might have succumbed to this
temptation, and wandered about " with many a sweet digression," enchanting
the reader by beautiful pictures and striking scenes. But here every figure
had its place in the development of revelation. The message was the all
important part. We must, therefore, expect no digressions or conscious
artistic motive, for all other ends were frowned into subservieuce by the
summons, " Go, prophesy."
We have seen that it was not the ideal audience to which the prophet was
to speak. The people had not only forfeited religious privileges but had
degenerated far toward brutehood. Instead of ruling the body in self-
continence, they were ruled by it. Sin was publicly and privately tolerated,
and the nation was not only a source of displeasure to Jehovah, but, from its
seeming failure, was become a byword among the peoples. The prophet,
therefore, was to speak directly against the public sentiment of his degen-
erate day. He was to rebuke sin long countenanced, and set up a standard
of justice and righteousness long forgotten amid national infamy. It was
thus necessary that in some way he should win the confidence of his hearers.
The presentation of his message must be arranged with especial reference
to the state of his hearers and throughout we are led to expect the utmost
variety, with frequent and abrupt transitions from reproof to exhortation,
29
from scathing delineations of the present, to glowing pictures of the future.
By such a manner alone, could he hold the restless audience before him and
force their reluctant ears to listen. Then, too, the power of truth must And
its forcible expression. Tact was indeed a necessary accessory, but no
compromise could be tolerated. Compromise had brought the people into
their sin ; they had not sustained the character of a " peculiar people." The
very majesty of truth and the divinity of his calling must render the prophet
a man of power, whose unflinching purpose and rigid, almost Puritanical,
spirit send every word home to the heart.
With such a general idea of the office and methods of the prophet, we are
prepared to examine the works of three of the so-called Minor Prophets,
and by comparison to evolve the peculiarities and literary features of each.
First, then, we study the Prophecy of Joel. " The word of the Lord that
came to Joel the son of BethuelB" was directed to Judah at the time of a terrible
locust plague, which, followed by drought, had swept the land to desolation,
leaving scarcely enough for the sacrifice. National reverses also, fresh in
memory, seemed but harbingers of more terrible disasters. Spiritless and
discouraged under their calamities, the people seemed to have lost their faith
in Jehovah's guardian care. Yet it was out of such seeming desertion and
in contrast thereto that their God was to reveal to them a glorious future.
The prophecy is in the form of two oi'ations, the former covering 1 : 1 to
1 : 19, the latter 2 : 18 to 3 : 21. Iu the former, bold strokes paint the horrors of
the famine and drought, and represent a " Day of the Lord" already at hand,
in which their trust in him is to be put to the test. In the midst of the sad
recital, the prophet's feelings burst forth in prayer for deliverance, and in
exhortation to the priests to call the people to worship, that the Lord may
spare his people and not make them a reproach among the nations. Iu the
second oration there is a great change. The mutterings of evil, the picture
of woe, and the cry to a spiritless people give place to the inspiring words :
" Then was the Lord jealous for his land, and had pity upon his people."6
The locusts are to be scattered ; the trees, vines and beasts of the field are to
be glad in the unparalleled fruitf ulness of the land. The people, delivered
from their miseries, are to rejoice and regain their position of honor. After-
ward the spirit of the Lord is to come upon all flesh, and " whosoever shall
call upon the name of the Lord shall be delivered.0" After their captivity
has been turned back, the people, with their ennemies, are to be called to a
great judgment-harvest, when the sins of the latter and the faithfulness of
the former shall receive their due requital. Jehovah is to destroy Judah's
enemies, pitying the while her weakness, and, by a new revelation of his
mercy, help and encourage man, and thus draw him into closer union with
his God.
The book of Joel presents a much more evident plan than do some books
of prophecy. While this may have been developed in writing out the orations
after the prophet retired to private life, yet it would not have detracted in
the least from the force or naturalness of the spoken words. In the former
• Joel 1:1. b 2 : 18. o 1:32.
5
oration, reproof and exhortation are alternated. In the latter, we find
material blessing followed by spiritual. Then comes the gathering of
the nations before Jehovah, the punishment of these enemies, already
typified by the annihilation of the locusts, and the resulting blessing, delin-
eated, as before, first in the material form, and then in the spiritual. These
blessings, the result of the influence of Jehovah's spirit, are not local but
universal, world-wide in their bearing upon mankind.
Joel was bearing in essence a spiritual message to Judal.. The locust
plague, the drought, disasters were upon them, horrors which no pen could
make more real, but that the Lord would, taking pity upon his land, pour out
of his spirit upon all flesh, and judging the Gentiles, deliver Judah and Israel,
— these were high thoughts for them ; they appealed to a side of their nature
hitherto largely unawakened. Spiritual thimgs are therefore interpreted in
sensuous images, such as the fruitf ulness of the earth ; the descent of
Jehovah's spirit is connected with visions and dreams," because the people
could, through these forms, come nearest to an adequate conception of
the truth. The greatness of the judgment is symbolized by " wonders in the
heavens, b" and finally the judgment itself is represented as the treading of a
great wine-press. Thus Jehovah condescended to reveal himself to man's
short-sighted vision.
The reformative tone in the prophecy it directed mainly against formalism
in religion. The people were still virtuous as compared with their neighbors
of the north, but the command, "Rend your hearts and not your garments !°"
implies a need of deeper feeling in worship. This was especially called for
if any understanding was to he had of the blessing of the spirit of Jehovah,
the conception which forms the most valuable part of the message. The
Messianic prophecy of the book covers the delivery of Judah from her
enemies, the judgment, and this outpouring of the spirit, in a word, the
revelation of the love of Jehovah toward man through his people. Here we
have a long step forward. The position of Jehovah as a Redeemer as well
as a Judge foreshadows the as yet unnamed Messiah. The outpouring of
Jehovah's spirit upon all flesh is one of the first revelations of the final issue
of the theocracy into a spiritual woi'ld-empire.
The style of Joel is nnique. In its dignity, terseuess and elegance it re-
minds one of Tacitus. But there is an emotional element, a suppressed
fervor, produced by an inspiration which Tacitus never knew. A master of
descriptive power, the prophet delineates the locust-army in its approach ;
" At their presence the people are in anguish; all faces are waxen pale;"
"The earth quaketh before them; the heavens tremble.4" Again the
locust plague is before our eyes. " How do the beasts groan, the
herds of cattle are perplexed yea the flocks of sheep are made deso-
late.6" There is little invective in Joel save in his rebuke of the priests ;
" Lament ye priests; howl ye ministers of the altar l1" As for the poetic
element, his whole book is a continuous poem. The succession of highly
wrought figures, delineating past, present and future, are not only full of
poetry, but fall readily into the peculiar verse which belongs to prophecy.
a2:2Sand29: b2:30and31. c2:13. d2:10. e Joel 1:13. fl:13.
31
Such a production, so terse, lofty and esthetic externally, and embodying
such precious truths, must have made a profound impression, the trace of
which is clearly evident iu subsequent prophecy.
Turning now to the book of Amos, we are confronted by a far different
scene. We behold not rugged and virtuous Judah, but sin-stained and idol-
atrous Israel, living iu voluptuous ease and godlessness. Those wars with
Damascus, which had increased the wealth of the upper classes, but left the
poor in a pitiable condition, were not long overpast. Intercourse with heathen
nations, bringing with it their idolatry, had caused the altars of Jehovah to
be forsaken, or to become the haunts of vice and debauchery. Famine, pes-
tilence and war had failed to convince the people of Jehovah's displeasure,
The prophet's voice was silent, and the nation seemed on the brink of ruin.
Siu and misery were within, the threatened invasion of the Assyrian without
such was the sad state of Israel.
The prophet Amos, as he himself says, "was no prophet nor the son of
a prophet, but a herdsman of Tekoa.a" He was called away from his herds
and sent into the Northern Kingdom to represent Jehovah in the crisis. His
message is as different from that of Joel, as were the circumstances under
which they labored diverse. The prophecy has not the elaborate and cor-
related plan which we fouud in the book of Joel; but it may be divided,
quite accurately, into the introduction, covering 1 to 2:5; the body of the
the book 2 : 6 to 9 : 10, and the conclusion 9 : 11 to 9 : 15. The introduction is
an announcement of the divine vengeance coming upon the neighbors of
Israel, gradually drawing nearer through Judah. Thus, having tactfully
gained the attention of his audience, the prophet arraigns Israel herself for
public and private sin. Calling the people to hear, he enters into a statement
of this sin and its punishment as cause and effect. After referring to the
former judgments of Jehovah as of no effect, and pronouncing sentence
against nation, family and individual, he concludes his denunciation with
the significant words, " I will rise up against you a nation, they shall afflict
you, saith the Lord.b" Then follow five visions, setting forth various aspects
of the coming judgment. The certainty, suddenness and justice of the des-
truction have been pictured, when Amos, as though relenting, declares that
it shall not be complete, but that the way of the righteous, as ever, shall be
secure.0 The prophecy closes with a glimpse into the distant future, fore-
telling the tabernacle of David renewed in the time of the Messiah, and
portraying in material figures the spiritual blessing which was to accompany
the true emancipation of Israel.4
Amos was emphatically a reformer. It was his mission to rebuke sin and
reveal the danger involved therein, and to forcibly delineate the attribute of
stern justice as prominent iu Jehovah's nature. The " selling of the right-
eous for silver and the needy for a pair of shoes, e" the fornication and the
idolatry meant ruin. Warnings repeatedly unnoticed now culminate in a
thrilling cry of dauger. Amos entered upon his work with uncompromising
and resolute >pirit. " The Lord God hath spoken, who can but prophesy ?f"
were his words, and when Amaziah the priest of Bethel reported him to the
a Amos 7: 14. b Amos 6 : U. c 9 : 8b, 9. d 9 : 11-15. e 2 : 6. f Amos 3 : 8.
32
king and ordered him to return to Judah, his answer was a curse upon his
house forever. "Therefore will I cause you to go iuto captivity beyond
Damascus," " is the burden of his message, and the reasons for the divine
decree are dreadful sius called by their own names in such a scathing rebuke
as must have made the hearer blush with shame and tremble at the thought
of the divine anger.
The conception of Jehovah presented by Amos is quite different from that
shown by Joel. In the first part of the book he appears in the character of
an angry king whose ungrateful subjects have deserted him. Further on,
this conception takes on the element of mercy both in the words " Seek ye me
aud ye shall live,b " and also in the answers to the prophet's prayers.0 Next to
Jehovah's infinite Justice, tempered with mercy toward the faithful, his
power as ruler of the universe is brought out grandly in descriptions of cre-
ation and of divine omnipresence. The significance of this is evident when
we remember that Jehovah was revealing to the Hebrews that he was God
of the whole world and not of a single nation. The main work of Amos
being denunciation, we can expect a corresponding disclosure of the horrors
of the immediate future, aud but little regarding that spiritual triumph
which should show itself later. Near the close of the prophecy, however,
beginning with the words " I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob,4"
we have a picture of the restoration of the tabernacle of David, a sign of
the divine favor to be realized in the Messiah. Here, less than in Joel, could
any spiritual conception of the future be understood, and accordingly, we
have what would the better appeal to a " wicked and perverse generation,"
a beautiful picture of material prosperity. "The plowman shall overtake
the reaper, and the trader of grapes him that soweth seed; and the mountain
shall drop sweet wiue, and all the hills shall melt.e" In Joel we had a full
prophecy of future blessings to spur on a flaggiug yet faithful people. Here,
the present sin must be frowned down with but a glimpse of the Messiah's
day to comfort the faithful remnant.
The style of Amos is powerful and in the main denunciatory. He even
goes so far as to ironically call the people to their idol-worship. f With all
the abhorrence of a rugged nature he paints sin in all its horrid reality,
before a mob to whom every word is a blow. His imagery is taken from
nature and out-of-door life. The lion, the cart of sheaves, the cedar, the
hunter and the husbandman are used with vivid effect, while the references
to the courses of the stars fall naturally from a shepherd's lips We have
in his book the normal prophetic style, always concrete and forceful, drop-
ping into vigorous prose in the delineation of the facts, but rising into a
semi-poetic fervor in places where the feeling is more intense. The
poetry of Amos is not like Joel's, classic and almost studied. It is natural
and spontaneous, savoring of the open air. Perhaps for this very reason it
is more beautiful in its rustic ruggedness and grandeur.
Closely following the work of Amos, and in sharp contrast with it, came
the revelation of Jehovah to Israel, through the words of Hosea, the prophet
of the decline and fall of the Northern Kingdom. The words of Amos would
a 5:27. b 5:4. c 7:2,3,5,6. dAinos9:8. eAmos9:I3. f Ainos4:4,5.
38
seem to have had but a transient effect upon the people, for the description
given by Hosea of the immorality, violence, and, worst of all, of the shame-
less and licentious worship of idols, is a sad and discouraging recital of
national decay. To arrest it the revelation of Jehovah must be very direct
and plain, and must appeal to something beside mere fear of punishment.
The new truth which Hosea was to give to Israel he had worked out and
realized in a domestic trial which well nigh broke his heart. He had married
a wife who proved unfaithful. Children were born to them ; yet she persisted
in breaking her marriage vow, finally leaving her husband, and remaining
with her unlawful paramours. But even in the midst of her harlotry. Hosea
loved her, and though he loathed her sin, he pitied her abandoned condition,
and in her desertion he found her, bought her back to him, to learn gradually
the faithfulness of true wifehood. It was through such a personal experience
that the prophet received his idea of Jehovah's relations with his people. To
him his wife, Gomer, was a type of sinning and fallen Israel, who had for-
feited all claim to the forgiveness of her husband, Jehovah. The infinite
purity of the divine mind shrank from the uncleanuess and infidelity of the
chosen people, with abhorrence. But with infinite tenderness was Jehovah
to deliver Israel from the wilderness after a season, to lift her up from her
sin and win her back to faithfulness. It was, indeed, a new thought to
Israel that Jehovah was grieved as well as angry, merciful as well as just.
The truth, however, had become woven into the very fibre of Hosea's
emotional nature, and thus in his prophecy the personal element is unusually
prominent.
This prophecy divides itself naturally into two books, the former coveriug
chapters 1 to 3 ; the latter chapters 4 to 14. The former book contains a
statement of the family history, already narrated, followed by an elaborate
allegory giving the bearing of this history upon the message of the man of
God. The conception is set forth of Jehovah as the husband of Israel,
delivering her from her self -wrought folly and winning her back to a com-
plete reconciliation to himself. The lovers of the unfaithful wife are the
idols of Baal worship. To them the blessings of each day have been prosti-
tuted, but soon these blessings are to be cut off. " I will also cause all her
mirth to cease, her feasts, her new moons, her Sabbaths and all her solemn
assemblies."* Yet wandering Israel was to be sought and brought back to
Jehovah's love. The second book is in striking contrast with the orderly
discourses of Joel and Amos. The position of the prophet, standing between
the mercy of a God of love and the utter prostitution of everything good,
was a difficult one. A merciful father, when Israel was in direst sin? The
love of God to be bestowed upon a people so utterly depraved and apostate?
The only answer to the problem was for the prophet to look at his now
faithful wife, reclaimed by his love from her sin. Here was the solution. If
a human heart could love to the rescue such a sinuer, surely the Divine Father
could have compassion upon his erring children. But this dilemma, as it were,
of mercy and justice, causes the prophet to run through the whole scale of
human emotion, from utter despair, at the awful state of the nation, to
sublimest faith, as he looks away to the perfectness of the Divine Love.
a. 2:11.
34
Such a treatment of such a subject no more admits of a careful plan or logical
sequence than does the restless cry of the human soul tortured by a sense of
sin, and feeling after the God of mercy, if haply it may find him.
We may, however, trace several leading motives which embody the
main thoughts of this so-called second book.aa These paragraphs are
" sparsa quaedam sibyllae folia," says Bishop Lowth, and thus cannot be
divided chapter by chapter. The thoughts presented may be thus generalized :
The immorality of the Northern Kingdom ; the sinfulness of the confusion
of Jehovah, and Baal worship; the sinfulness of the foreign policy, and of
the separation of the two Kingdoms ; the conception of the love-bond between
Jehovah and Israel. It was Hosea's chief work to impress upon Israel the
divine quality of love, and he accordingly denounces immorality as an imped-
iment to the exercise of such a bond. With Amos, immorality was measured
according to divine justice and the sinner found guilty. Here the sinner is
brought face to face with the throbbing heart of Jehovah, grieving over his
people, and thus one of the strongest appeals is made of which human nature
is susceptible. The greatest sin of the nation, and the one to which all her
other short-comings could be traced was her apostasy. She had indeed
"gone a-whoring from her God."b The mingling of the two worships was
particularly demoralizing, because the people thought themselves faithful to
Jehovah, when in reality their worship was the hollowest of mockeries. The
finger of scorn was thus pointed at Jehovah by the heathen round about in
the same way as the father of the Prodigal Son might well be imagined as
mocked by his friends for having reared a son only to have him fall into sin.
Israel's foreign policy was also disastrous. She had cemented alliances with
Egypt and Assyria which would soon prove her ruin. The " peculiar people"
had become not only a nation of idolaters, but of those who put their trust
in princes. Hosea urged them to break their alliances before it was too late.
The leading thought, God's love and care over his people, is well shown in
Chapter 11 : " When Israel was a child, then I loved him and called my son
out of Egypt. ... I taught Ephraim to go ; I took him on my arms ;
but they knew not that I healed them. . . . How shall I give thee up,
Ephraim? how shall I deliver thee, Israel? ... I will not execute the
fierceness of mine anger. . . . They shall come trembling as a bird out
6f Egypt, and as a dove out of the land of Assyria, and I will make them to
dwell in their houses, saith the Lord."0 What more winning and appreciative
conception of the love of God to his creatures ! Have we not here the prin-
ciples which, clarified in the character of the Christ were given to the world
by the writer of the Fourth Gospel? In Joel we have a revelation of the
divine love in mystic phrases, in Amos the element of fear cast out per-
fect love, but here we have the whole story of the secret of the divine heart
reflected from the heart of one who had seen its manifestation in his own
troubled life.
Says Cheyne, "the proverb ' le style e'est l'homme'is peculiarly true of
Hosea." His delicate, almost feminine, nature, so susceptible to the beautiful
and poetic, found its natural exprsseion in discourse the very antipodes of
aa.chs.4-U b. Hosea 4: 13. c. 11: 1, 3,4, 8, 9, 11.
35
Joel's measured dignity or of the oratorical denunciation of Amos. There
is very little in the prophecy of either of these sterner prophets which is
unclear. The obscure passages are lighted up by the frequent repetition in
which they indulged. But the changeable character of Hosea's discourse and
the absence of this parallelism have made many passages in his prophecy
enigmatical and obscure. There is nothing stndied in the poetry of Hosea,
as in that of Joel or Amos. It is simple, passionate, adorned with figures
not so bold and striking as those of Amos, yet having a beauty all their own.
The conception of Jehovah as the dew and again as the lily and the flr-treed
reveals a delicacy which impetuous Amos did not possess. Hosea was more
of a poet than an orator. Yet the Hebrew heart, susceptible as it was to the
strongest, as well as the most delicate, of human emotions, must have been
more strongly moved by the heart-words of Hosea, than by the elegant
phrases of Joel, or the burning denunciation of Amos. Hosea must be felt
to be appreciated. If we are in full sympathy with his nature, we can trace
in his words some of the grandest emotions which stir humanity, we can And
in his mission some of the grandest work for a righteous God.
The literary study of the prophetical works is inspiring. The truths
involved are eternal ; they can never grow old. The attitude of these faithful
men toward their generation might well be emulated by the Church of to-day.
Could the same earnestness, consecration and self-abnegation, the same
implicit confidence in the Divine Guide, the same love of the Truth, which
inspired the prophets of old take the place of that lifeless and half-hearted
spirit which is too often abroad to-day, God, Righteous and Loving, would
not lack a true representation upon the earth. The prophets were indeed
grand men. No monument need stand to their memory save the written
words which have come down to us. They served their generation. Their
words are ours, a priceless heritage to the student and the seeker for truth,
a fitting memorial of lives given up nobly for the redemption of mankind.
Charles N. Thorp,
d. Hosea 14: 5 and 8.
Cfctyloni ==
.PAMPHLET BINDER
-■ ■ Syracuse, N. Y.
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