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 Amherst College 
 Glass of 1891 
 
 Papers on Old Testament Prophecy 
 
 
 
 
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26 I960 
 
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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 w r ay, 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 Damascus b . 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 everywhere 8 . 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. 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 
 common 11 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". 
 
 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 stone b , finished in ivory and richly furnished with ivory d and silk 6 . 
 They delight in feasting and revelry, drinking wine in bowls, singing idle 
 songs to the viol and other instruments of music f . 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 shoes j ; 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." 
 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, 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. Butis b this the 
 case? Certainly the child has clone wrong, and in his guilty fear he has sought 
 protection from foreigners. 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 Hosea f 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, 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 dishonesty 1 ' and 
 cruelty k 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, 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 
 worship 1 . As in those times they were forgetful of God's law™ and God 
 Himself, so now they are oblivious to His blessing 11 and render thanks to other 
 Gods. They think to deceive God D 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 wickedness 7 
 
 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 them aa 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 
 power dd 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. 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, B but 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. 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. 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 Bethuel B " 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. " 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 l 1 " 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. 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. 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." 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-tree d 
 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. 
 
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