--AMOS viii. 1-14.

There are three visions in the former chapter, each beginning as verse
1. This one is therefore intended to be taken as the continuation of
these, and it is in substance a repetition of the third, only with more
detail and emphasis. An insolent attempt, by the priest of Beth-el, to
silence the Prophet, and the fiery answer which he got for his pains,
come between. The stream of Amos's prophecy flows on, uninterrupted by
the boulder which had tried to dam it up. Some courage was needed to
treat Amaziah and his blasphemous bluster as a mere parenthesis.

We have first to note the vision and its interpretation. It is such as a
countryman, 'a dresser of sycamore trees' would naturally have.
Experience supplies forms and material for the imagination, and moulds
into which God-given revelations run. The point of the vision is rather
obscured by the rendering 'summer fruit.' 'Ripe fruit' would be better,
since the emblem represents the Northern Kingdom as ripe for the
dreadful ingathering of judgment. The word for this (_qayits_) and that
for 'the end' (_qets_) are alike in sound, but the play of words cannot
be reproduced, except by some clumsy device, such as 'the end ripens' or
'the time of ripeness comes.' The figure is frequent in other prophecies
of judgment, as, for instance, in Revelation xiv. 14-20.

Observe the repetition, from the preceding vision, of 'I will not pass
by them any more.' The first two visions had threatened judgments, which
had been averted by the Prophet's intercession; but the third, and now
the fourth, declare that the time for prolonged impunity is passed. Just
as the mellow ripeness of the fruit fixes the time of gathering it, so
there comes a stage in national and individual corruption, when there is
nothing to be done but to smite. That period is not reached because God
changes, but because men get deeper in sin. Because 'the harvest is
ripe,' the long-delayed command, 'Put in thy sickle' is given to the
angel of judgment, and the clusters of those black grapes, whose juice
in the wine-press of the wrath of God is blood, are cut down and cast
in. It is a solemn lesson, applying to each soul as well as to
communities. By neglect of God's voice, and persistence in our own evil
ways, we can make ourselves such that we are ripe for judgment, and can
compel long-suffering to strike. Which are we ripening for--the harvest
when the wheat shall be gathered into Christ's barns, or