Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-08-02
THE BOOK OF HOSEA.
Power of the DisOrderd, Disconnected
Sermons Found There.
INDUSTRIOUS EVILS OF THE TIME.
How the Untaught Teacher Learned the
Lesson Of Forgiveness.
STORY OF HIS UNFORTUNATE WIFE
rwR1rrEs FOR THE prspArcH.)

| oN1O
mon had been rent in twain. In the Soutf
was Judah; in the north was Israel Some
times the northern kingdom was callec
Israel, and sometimes Ephrain (from itl
chief tribe) and sometimes Samaria-
Jereboam IL was reigning in Samaria. 1
was the eighth century B. @. The LAND
was at the crisis and zenith of its power ant
glory. The DEGREES of the King reached
north to the valley of the Orontes and soutl
beyond the Jordan to the borders Of th'
great wilderness. The land was externally
prosperous. 1t was spiritually bankrupt
1t had vast riches; it had no religion. II
such condition of things there can be but
one outcome, and that is national disaster
That is the universal lesson of history. NJ
nation which cares more for money than II
does for morals has ever endured, nor car
endure. No nation which disregards the
moral law of God can have prosperity. II
may posses an army and navy; it may have
a system of excellent and efficient schools
reaching into every country village; it may
send its merchant ships to every sea, laden
with the produce of its fields and its mills
but it is doomed. That is
THE LESSON OF EXPERIENCE.
We have system of politics in this
country which, we are assured, has no
knowledge of the Ten Commandments.
Away with 1t, thenl It is a conspiracy
against the Republic. 1t means inevitable
disaster. Jereboam II. cared no more for
the Ten Commandments than he did for the
eight satellites Of Saturn. And the ineYi-
| table disaster came.
Amos, that fearless preacher, gave fair
| warning of it. There Is a Hebrew tradition
to the effect that they laid hold on Amos,
there at Bethel, and beat him within an
inch of his life, and sent him back to Tekoah
| half dead. That is not unlikely. Amos
said himself that if man had any prudence
he would keep silence In that evil time
| There are occasions, however, when a man
has no business to be prudent and keep
silence. He must speak and take the con-
sequences 1t is very likely that they gave
| that plain-spoken preacher a good beating
But that did not hinder the disaster. Amos
| truth-teller could change it. Nobody can
keep back truth with club. Amos brought
his warning message and they put him to
| silence and went on in their wicked ways,
and every word he said came true.
A BANQUET oB DEATH.
Jereboam died and anarchy reigned in his
| stead. The land was filed with confusion
and violence. King after king came to the
throne with his hands red with murder,
only to be murdered in his turn. The story
| of the death of Jereboam's son is a very good
illustration. There was a conspiracy among
the mobiles; and one night they made fine
banquet for the King on the evening of his
| birthday, and there was laughter and evil
and unclean jesting and drinking; and little
by little they piled the King with liquor
and got him drunk; and as the light Of morn
ing dawned they stabbed him.
Even the course of nat-'re seemed to be
unsettled In one year there were three
eclipses of the sun. There was q fearful
earthquake. There was drought, and famine,
and blasting, and mildew, and plague, and
fire from heaven. And, over beyond Jor-
dan, every year getting more threatening,
was that fierce and mighty enemy, the en-
pire of Assyria It was in Samaria as it was
in Rome in the days of the barbarian inva-
sion. People were eating and drinking and
merrymaking, and forgetting God, and be-
yond Jordan, as beyond the Rhine and the
Danube, was that vast host waiting for the
word to march. 1t was at such a time that
the sermons were preached which are gath
cred together in the Book of Hosea
WHO THE PREACHER WAS.
Hosea was native of the northern king
dom. He knew what he was talking about,
partly from observation, partly from expert
ence. These are the great teachers. Who
ever would himself be teacher must first
take lessons at their school Books matter
little Everybody knows that the truths
which got hold of the people are those which
have first get hold of the preacher. Let
man tell what he has seen with his own eyes,
or experienced in his own life, and men will
listen.
Hosea looks about in this northern king
dom, and sees many things-many evil
things. The land is full of cruelty and false
hood, of lying, swearing, and committing
adultery and murder, ''blood touching blood"
At the head and front of all the evil are the
priests and princes. They have brought in
idolatry. That is at the center of it
all They have degraded religion.
They have bowed their knees to calves and
sticks. The leaders are responsible. All
this Hosea, with clear eyes, sees. And he
must speak. He must stand out against
these priests and princes. And stand he
did Was that easy7 Easy to..stand wholly
alone against all the civil and religious
leaders of his time; he an obscure man,
against all these notables and dignitaries-
was that easy? 1t is not hard to-day to be
q minister Of religion, addressing attentive
congregations. But it was hard enough for
Hoseal They called him fool, madman;
his life was in danger. Nevertheless,
though no man stood with him, yet he
spoke.
THE REVELATION OF SORROW.
Perhaps he might have kept silence, II II |
had not been for a singularly bitter per-
sonal experience. Hosea had q great sor-
row, and that did more to make him help |
full than anything that had ever happened |
to him. There is that good in pain, any: |
how. 1t does help people to understand. |
To Hosea 1t was wonderful revelation. |
This was the way of it: Hosea had married |
q faithless wife. He had seen her, some
think, in the wild dances of the goddess
Asherah, with a wreath of gems in her dark
hair and robe of scarlet cast about her,
thought that he might save her. So they
were married.
All, what mistake that was Getting
married is one of the most serious adven-
lures in the whole world. And marrying
either man or woman with the hope that
some kind of reformation will be effected
after marriage is an experiment which only
once in a hundred times. In
Hosea's case it failed, as usual More and
more his wife grew disloyal and unfaithful.
At last she left him, and went away into all
manner of abominable living. But one
day, passing through the market-place,
Hosea saw a poor, miserable creature set for
sale as slave Andas he looked, behold, it
was his wife She had been cast away by
her lovers, and by the last of them sold into
slavery, offered at the lowest price. Hosea
bought her. Fifteen silver pieces and a few
of barley he paid for her, and he
took her to his home He loved her still
Day by day she sat desolate by the freside,