The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1913-06-17
An Old Picture Of the New Times
The international Sunday School Lesson for June q,
"The Binding Effect of SIM" Temperance
Lesson.) Amos els.

0AAiiotio
mention the ClairvOyantS and mind
readers of our American cities. Amos
lifted up the plane of the office to a
level that was beyond price and pro-
f~essiOnalism. He dared speak his
message even when it was indiscreet.
and so when silenced by ecclesiastical
and political powers he had to utter
his word through the written page.
Down or the plains of TekOa. six
miles below Bethlehem, lived this
herdsman, about forty years after
Elisha. He was a pincher of syca-
more figs, as DR.. Franklin f. Hoskins
once showed me when we halted un-
der a sycamore tree and he pinched
the poor fruit to help it ripen. From
the fields of Bethlehem to the high
places of Bethlehem, Amos ranged,
perhaps in pursuit Of his wool bust
ness. His ray had made him aware
OF the condition of the times, and
his lowly calling gave him opportun-
ity to mediate upon it. He belonged
to no school of the prophets: he, like
h Greatest, was tutored alone in
separation and in silence by the voice
that spoke to his own soul. A bust
ness man teaching spiritual truth,
Amos was a f~Orerunner of the many
men in all walks of life who are to-
day crying aloud the peril involved
in some Of u present social and ma
l1Oudl IcnOonCleS.
The Patriots Task.
Patriotism makes prophets. No
man becomes a prophet by caring for
his own soul. Only the great pas
sions can stir into flame this gift. A
national crisis produces the great pa
trlOts with a message. Thus the ad-
vent of the Assyrian into the history
OF Israel, creating conditions singular
~ analogous to our own, when a new
l ClVlnZ2f1On q noU nnWor orr q ~ouv
world entered h consciousness of the
people.
The city problem perturbed Amos.
A long period of wealth and security
had set the Hebrews to building.
Luxury had become Men
sprawled on ivory touches and drank
buckets full Of wine, and sought out
delicate portions Of food and devoted
music's highest art to their
feasts. Their grossly fat eyes were
blind to the miSeries Of their poor
and to the plight of their people. They
were needless of the signs of the
times The storm that was gathering
IN the east and soon to break upon
them gave them too little concern.
The prosperous people were making
a business OF pleasure, and when a
nation comes to that pass it is on the
threshold of dire danger. The sue
ceSses OF these ancient Jews, their
intemperance. heir s%ensuality, their
ioleness, their gross materialism,
bring into view our own problems
which are perhaps not as far apart as
they semitic one class of people
M live by vice n the other class
J VINO i've by unearned money for which
they make no return to society.
: Then as now the nation was en-
tering upon a new era Of interna-
tlonalism. Life could no longer be
viewed from the pastoral, tribal. pro
: vincial viewpoint. The old terms O
petty preJudlces must give way to 8
more universal conception and Ian.
e guage. Amos indictment was laiC
: over against the Jews because the,
were not ready for the new day. ARE
S we?
S The .Ageiess Problem.
Old Amos, with those sun-wrinkled
qulzzlcal eyes, saw to the hear Of tn
e matter. Superficial conditions did no
lead him aStray. He perceived tina
the root of the evil was the sin of tn.
t people. The new p? and fashion!
were but fresh o~utcroppings of tn,
old spirit Of iniquity. At the core o
e lSraels question was sin.
The social doctors are busy will
our modern conditions. Their inyesti
cations and proclaimed remedies fl
s the newspaper columns. Organiza
e tons ranging ali fine way from vic,
n commissions to political parties ar,
e active over the problems that trouble
e us.
o But h real remedy. which is S,
e old-fashiOned that it has not tn,
i virtue Of novelty. is yet to be applied
in power and persistence. This i
1t nothing less than the preaching o
the awfulness Of sin in all it's loath
II someness: n Of the gospel which
delivers from sin. Perhaps we mus
Is wait until the eXperimenters ar
Is through with merely material rem
y edies for our tiEe. but in the en-
Is We cannot escape a facing OF the fear
IT full fact of sin. We are dropping tn
l. word sin from our vocabulary nova
he days. while increasing the thing itsel
in our life. Ministers. teachers an
pubiicists face no need greater tina
u that of returning to a study of on
times in the light of the word G
- God with its clear message upon tn
=; part that sin plays in blighting huma
society. We have not outgrow
q Amos.