owly above the horizon, and keeping each other in
countenance in laughing at Amos and his gloomy forecasts. They 'trusted
in the mountain of Samaria,' which, they thought, made the city
impregnable to assault. No doubt they thought that the Prophet's talk
about doing right and trusting in Jehovah was very fanatical and
unpractical, just as many in England and America think that their
nations are exalted, not by righteousness, but by armies, navies, and
dollars or sovereigns.

Verse 2 is very obscure to us from our ignorance of the facts underlying
its allusions. In fact, it has been explained in exactly opposite ways,
being taken by some to enumerate three instances of prosperous
communities, which yet are not more prosperous than Israel, and by
others to enumerate three instances of God's judgments falling on places
which, though strong, had been conquered. In the former explanation,
God's favour to Israel is made the ground of an implied appeal to their
gratitude; in the latter, His judgments on other nations are made the
ground of an appeal to their fear, lest like destruction should fall on
them.

But the main points of the passage are the photograph of the crimes
which are bringing the judgment of God, and the solemn divine oath to
inflict the judgment. The crimes rebuked are not the false worship of
the calves, though in other parts of his prophecy Amos lashes that with
terrible invectives, nor foul breaches of morality, though these were
not wanting in Israel, but the vices peculiar to selfish, luxurious
upper classes in all times and countries, who forget the obligations of
wealth, and think only of its possibilities of self-indulgence. French
_noblesse_ before the Revolution, and English peers and commercial
magnates, and American millionaires, would yield examples of the same
sin. The hardy shepherd from Tekoa had learned 'plain living and high
thinking' before he was a prophet, and would look with wondering and
disgusted eyes at the wicked waste which he saw in Samaria. He begins
with scourging the reckless security already referred to. These notables
in Israel were 'at ease' because they 'put far away the evil day,' by
refusing to believe that it was at hand, and paying no heed to prophets'
warnings, as their fellows do still and always, and as we all are
tempted to do. They who see and declare the certain end of national or
personal sins are usually jeered at as pessimists, fanatics, alarmists,
bad patrio