The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1907-03-21
Woes and Drunkenness. q.

10 the JORDAN. In the midst stood
Samaria, the capital, on a COM
handing enlinence. The tropical
luxuriance of the valleys hung
about it like the bacchanalian gar
land on the brow of the banqueter.
And its exuberance was as evanes-
cent; for its glorious beauty was
a fading flower. Destruction was
at hand.
The capital, court, and people
were enslaved to drink. Under its
subtle delusion they were in per-
feet ease. With the proverbial
stupidity of the drunkard, they
felt perfectly safe, trusting in the
mountain fastness of Samaria.
With the sense of justice blunted
by the use of intoxicants, aud their
!basest passion infamed, they op-
pressed the poor and crushed the
needy. With the Unsuitable thirst
which the use of alcoholic liquors
always begets, kept crying,
Bring, and let US drink
Samaritan equivalent to our mod
ern Bacchanal, Here's a health
to you" (Amos vi, ~
But the judgments of God are
abroad. The irresistible Assyri-
ans, Shalmaneser, mighty and
strong, is Gods instrument of
wrath. He looks upon Samaria
like a peculiarly tempting morsel;
like a fig ripe in June, so rare and
succulent that one swallows it as
soon as it is in his hand; does not
even think of laying it aside to
preserve it or eat at at his leisure.
His coming will be like a tempest
of hail, destroying storm, flood
of waters; figures peculiarly I'M
pressive in that latitude, where in
an hour the dryest water-course
becomes an awful current. This
prophecy had its literal fulfllment
72I B. c., in the ninth year of
Hosea, king Of Israel. The
country was ravaged by the As
syrians under Shalmaneser, and
1sreal deported in the cities of AS
syria and Media. e Kings xviii,
9-I2.)
The prophet now turns from
Israel to Judah. He contrasts the
imperishable crown and diadem,
glorious and beautiful, rewards of
plety on the brow of Judah, the
and faithful residue,
with the fading garlands of volup-
tuous pleasure on the brow of
drunken Ephraim. God shall
help Judah's judges on the bench
and her warriors at the gate. This
has been aptly called Messianic
pendant to the foregoing picture of
Samaria's fall.
But Judah, too, is not free from
this degrading sin. Even her
priests and prophets are infected
with it. And the people will not
endure the prophets rebukes.
Listen to their drunken scohing:
docs Isaiah presume to instruct
us? Does he take us to be lust
weaned, that he adopts such
way? Here and there,
with no set order, and coming his
words over, as if we were still in
our primers,
"Tzav lat-zav, tzav lat-zav,
Quv laquv, quv laquv."
Ewald says: 1--WE must con-
ceive the abrupt, Intentionally
short, reiterated, and almost child
ish words of verse ten, as spoken
in mimicry with a hooking motion
of the head, and in a childish
stammering tone. r"
The prophet rejoins: "Ah! if
you will not let me teach you, then
the Assyrians and Babylonians
shall, and their foreign accent will
seem more like stammering and
twaddle than my instructions. "
If they had only hearkened to the
prophets voice, they might have
found rest from warlike prepare
tons, and that more blessed rest
which comes from obedience to the
Divine precepts.
P,,f fdn osl1, 1 r.