alleys of trouble, and of weeping, and
of the shadow of death.

'LET HIM ALONE'

'Ephraim is joined to idols: let him alone.'--HOSEA iv. 17.

The tribe of Ephraim was the most important member of the kingdom of
Israel; consequently its name was not unnaturally sometimes used in a
wider application for the whole of the kingdom, of which it was the
principal part. Being the 'predominant partner,' its name was used alone
for that of the whole firm, just as in our own empire, we often say
'England,' meaning thereby the three kingdoms: England, Scotland, and
Ireland. So 'Ephraim' here does not mean the single tribe, but the whole
kingdom of Israel.

Now Hosea himself was a Northerner, a subject of that kingdom; and its
iniquities and idolatries weighed heavily on his heart, and were ripped
up and brought to light with burning eloquence in his prophecies. The
words of my text have often, and terribly, been misunderstood. And I
wish now to try to bring out their true meaning and bearing. They have a
message for us quite as much as they had for the people who originally
received them.

I. I must begin by explaining what, in my judgment, this text does not
mean.

First, it is not what it is often taken to be, a threatening of God's
abandoning of the idolatrous nation. I dare say we have all heard grim
sermons from this text, which have taken that view of it, and have tried
to frighten men into believing now, by telling them that, perhaps, if
they do not, God will never move on their hearts, or deal with them any
more, but withdraw His grace, and leave them to insensibility. There is
not a word of that sort in the text. Plainly enough it is not so, for
this vehement utterance of the Prophet is not a declaration as to God,
and what He is going to do, but it is a commandment to some men, telling
them what _they_ are to do. 'Let him alone' does not mean the same thing
as '_I_ will let him alone'; and if people had only read with a little
more care, they would have been delivered from perpetrating a libel on
the divine loving-kindness and forbearance.

It is clear enough, too, that such a meaning as that which has been
forced upon the words of my text, and is the common use of it, I
believe, in many evangelical circles, cannot be its real meaning,
because the very fact that Hosea was prophesying to call Ephraim from
his sin showed that God had _not_ let Ephraim alone, but was wooing him
by His prophet, and seeking to