FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   822   823   824   825   826   827   828   829   830   831   832   833   834   835   836   837   838   839   840   841   842   843   844   845   846  
847   848   849   850   851   852   853   >>  
shall dwell with thee, even among you, in that place which he shall choose in one of thy gates, where it liketh him best: thou shalt not oppress him." The warning which the prophet Isaiah gave to oppressing Moab was of a similar kind: "Take counsel, execute judgment; make thy shadow as the night in the midst of the noon-day; hide the outcasts; bewray not him that wandereth. Let mine outcasts dwell with thee, Moab; be thou a covert to them from the face of the spoiler." The prophet Obadiah brings the following charge against treacherous Edom, which is precisely applicable to this guilty nation:--"For thy violence against thy brother Jacob, shame shall come over thee, and thou shalt be cut off for ever. In the day that thou stoodst on the other side, in the day that the strangers carried away captive his forces, and foreigners entered into his gates, and cast lots upon Jerusalem, _even thou wast as one of them_. But thou shouldst not have looked on the day of thy brother, in the day that he became a stranger; neither shouldst thou have rejoiced over the children of Judah, in the day of their destruction; neither shouldst thou have spoken proudly in the day of distress; neither shouldst thou have _stood in the cross-way, to cut off those of his that did escape_; neither shouldst thou have _delivered up those of his that did remain_, in the day of distress." How exactly descriptive of this boasted republic is the impeachment of Edom by the same prophet! "The pride of thy heart hath deceived thee, thou whose habitation is high; that saith in thy heart, Who shall bring me down to the ground? Though thou exalt thyself as the eagle, and though thou set thy nest among the stars, thence will I bring thee down, saith the Lord." The emblem of American pride and power is the _eagle_, and on her banner she has mingled _stars_ with its _stripes_. Her vanity, her treachery, her oppression, her self-exaltation, and her defiance of the Almighty, far surpass the madness and wickedness of Edom. What shall be her punishment? Truly, it may be affirmed of the American people, (who live not under the Levitical but Christian code, and whose guilt, therefore, is the more awful, and their condemnation the greater,) in the language of another prophet--"They all lie in wait for blood; they hunt every man his brother with a net. That they may do evil with both hands earnestly, the prince asketh, and the judge asketh for a reward; and the great man
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   822   823   824   825   826   827   828   829   830   831   832   833   834   835   836   837   838   839   840   841   842   843   844   845   846  
847   848   849   850   851   852   853   >>  



Top keywords:
shouldst
 
prophet
 

brother

 

distress

 

American

 

asketh

 

outcasts

 
stripes
 

banner

 

vanity


mingled

 
surpass
 

madness

 

Almighty

 

defiance

 
oppression
 

exaltation

 
treachery
 
Though
 

thyself


ground

 

oppressing

 

wickedness

 

emblem

 
Isaiah
 

punishment

 

oppress

 

liketh

 

reward

 

prince


earnestly

 
Levitical
 

people

 

affirmed

 

habitation

 

warning

 

Christian

 

condemnation

 

greater

 
language

deceived

 

shadow

 

stoodst

 

captive

 

forces

 

foreigners

 

carried

 
strangers
 

choose

 

Obadiah