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it has, without once failing, brought forth a crop of sins and social evils.— Arthur. They are not grieved. It is a great offense to God when His church is in affliction and we are not grieved for it nor lay it to heart.— Sel. Here is the egotist’s code: Everything for self; nothing for others. — Dubay. Affliction of Joseph. Luxury possibly may contribute to give bread to the poor, hut if there were no luxury, there would he no poor.—Home. v. 7. They shall go captive. It takes disaster to teach humility.—Anselm. It is in periods of apparent disaster, dur ing the sufferings of whole generations, that the greatest improvement in hu man character has been effected.;— Allison. v. 8. Abhor the excellency of Jacob. Many are puffed up and rocked to sleep in carnal security by the position they occupy in the world, set upon their own pleasure and careless of the afflictions of others. Those who thus give them selves to mirth when God calls to mourning, will find it a sin that will he punished with terrible woes.— Sum. Bible. Hate palaces. On the soft bed of luxury most kingdoms have expired. __Young. By luxury we condemn our selves to greater torments than have yet been invented by anger or revenge, or inflicted by the greatest tyrants upon the worst of men.—Temple. Pictorial Questions Who was Amos? Amos 1:1. To which kingdom did he belong? Against which kingdom was he prophesying? Where d i d Amos LESSON live? Amos 1:1. QUESTIONS What were the con- W. H. Pike ditions in Israel when Amos prophesied? What other prophet was contempor ary with Amos? Hosea. What judgment came upon the land of Israel two years after Amos proph esied? Amos 1:1. What kings were reigning in Israel and Judah? Amos 1:1. Why was a woe pronounced upon Is rael? 6:1.
v. 3. Put far away the evil day. Ye persuade yourselves that the evil day foretold by the prophets is far off though they declare It is near (Ezek. 12:22, 27). Ye, in your imagination, put it far off and therefore bring near violent oppression. The notion of judg ment being far off has always been an incentive to the sinner’s recklessness of living. (Eccl. 8:12, 13; Matt. 24:48.) Yet that very recklessness brings near the evil day which he puts far off.— Cal vin. v. 4. Beds of ivory. Some men never show their ingenuity but in their luxury. On that they bestow all their faculty of invention and contrivance.— Henry. Abundance without discretion is plain penury.— Garibaldi. Great abundance of riches cannot he gathered and kept by any man without sin.— Erasmus. Eat the lambs. Some men are horn to feast and not to fight, whose sluggish minds, even in fair honor’s field, still on their dinners turn. —Baillie. The destiny of nations de pends upon the manner in which they feed themselves.— Savarin. Calves out of the stall. Swinish gluttony never looks to heaven amidst its gorgeous feast hut with besotted, base ingratitude cravens and blasphemes its feeder. Milton. But for the cravings of the stomach not a bird would have fallen into the snare, nay, the fowler would not have spread his net. The stomach is chains to the hands and fetters to the feet. He who is a slave to It seldom worships God.— Saadi. v. 5. Invent instruments. Amuse ment may allure and deceive us and lead us down imperceptibly to the grave.— Pascal. You cannot live on amusement. It is the froth on water, an inch deep and then the mud.- McDonald. v. 6. Drink wine in bowls. Thirst teaches all animals to drink, hut drunkenness belongs only to man. Fielding. Call things by their right names— bowl of wine— ask for liquid fire or distilled damnation.—Hall. As long as drinking is made respectable, drinking customs will prevail and the plowshare of death, drawn by terrible disasters, will go on turning up this whole continent with a long, deep, awful furrow of drunkards’ graves.— Tal- madge. Human nature is said by many to he good. If so, where have all these social evils come from? Human nature is the only moral nature in that cor rupting thing called “ society.” It has been planted on every possible field and
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