y to King Jeroboam's own shrine at Bethel a man in
the garb of a shepherd and speaking in the name of Jehovah, like the
prophets. But what strange words are these which he utters?

="I hate, I despise your feasts, and I will take no delight
in your solemn assemblies. Yea, though ye offer me your ...
meal-offerings, I will not accept them: neither will I regard
the peace-offerings of your fat beasts. Take away from me the
noise of thy songs; for I will not hear the melody of thy
viols. But let judgment roll down as waters, and
righteousness as a mighty stream."=

What this shepherd prophet was proclaiming was a religion in which
burnt-offerings, or sacrificial ceremonies of any kind had little or
no place, but which expressed itself in justice and righteousness
toward one's fellow men. What Jehovah wants is not sacrifices at all,
he said, but to stop cheating the poor: to throw away your false
balances, and set free the slave.

=Amos' dire forebodings.=--In many addresses, as reported in the book
which bears his name, with bitter and thrilling eloquence Amos tried
to drive home this great message to the hearts of his fellow
countrymen. He warned them that unless they heeded, disaster would
come to the nation. For as surely as Jehovah demanded justice, so
surely would he punish injustice. Terrible are his pictures of the
calamities with which the guilty Israelites would be visited. Nor did
he appeal wholly to fear. There is now and then a pleading note in
Amos. Honest and burning indignation and threats are indeed most
common in the pages of his book; yet listen to this:

="Thus the Lord God showed me: and, behold, he formed locusts
in the beginning of the shooting up of the latter growth ...
and ... when they made an end of eating the grass of the
land, then I said, O Lord God, forgive, I beseech thee: how
shall Jacob stand? for he is small."=

There speaks the shepherd pleading for his little sheep--"How can
Jacob stand, for he is small?"

THE RESULTS OF AMOS' WORDS

Amos' mission to the northern kingdom seemed to be a failure. He had
come up from his sheep tending, in his home in Tekoa, in Judah,
because he felt burning within him a message for his people. But he
soon went home. The chief priest at Bethel drove him out. And
apparently the people did not care. No doubt even the poor people in
whose cause Amos had so eloquently spoken were shocked by his words.