the storm, the lightning and the whirlwind breathed out the feelings of his passionate heart, after which, in communion with the still, small voice of God, his spirit was cheered, his heart revived, and he himself prepared for new and noble work. Such communion and inspiration were the source of Elijah's success, and are open to us all.

His insistance upon justice between man and man, even when the one man was a powerful king and the other an insignificant individual, gave him, notwithstanding the popularity of Baal-worship, a strong hold upon the popular heart. This insistance resulted from his perception of the moral nature of God. Most men of his time thought and the idea is still in the worldthat whatever they did God could be cajoled into forgiving them. Elijah understood and taught that righteousness and justice are the only conditions on which the divine blessing can be received. God can neither be ignored nor bought.

Such a conception of God came like a draught of fresh air into a poison-laden vault. It conflicted with vested interests;

it met with opposition; its champion could have no easy life; but it signified the dawning of a new era of religion and morality in Israel.

Israel herself perceived the true significance of Elijah's life; she realized that in him a most unusual man of God had been in her midst. It is said that God honored him as he had none other, except Enoch, by permitting him to escape the underworld and by taking him directly to Himself in heaven.

The work of Elijah did not die. It was taken up in succeeding generations by a succession of prophets, as we shall see, and carried on to the culmination in the coming of the Christ. The story of Elijah's life illustrates what one life, even though it be insignificant, poor, and alone, may accomplish for God and the world, if it is only lived in communion with God and in complete obedience to Him,-i. e. if it is lived "in the spirit and power of Elijah."

CHAPTER XXXVIII.

AMOS. 1

"The Lord will roar from Zion,

And utter his voice from Jerusalem;

And the pastures of the shepherds shall mourn, And the top of Carmel shall wither." Amos i, 2.

"It often falls, in course of common life,

That right long time is overborne by wrong, Through avarice, or power, or guile, or strife, That weakens her, and makes her party strong; But justice, though her doom she do prolong, Yet at the last she will her own cause right." -Spenser.

THE book of 2 Kings gives us but scant information of the reign of Jeroboam II of the kingdom of Israel. One would infer from its brief reference to Jeroboam that his reign was unimportant, whereas just the opposite appears to have been the truth. This impression results from the fact that it was unimportant from the point of view from which 2 Kings was written, whereas from the point of view of a modern student, who would take into account all the forces which enter into a great creative epoch in a people's life, its importance is very great. 2

1 On Amos, see George Adam Smith's Book of the Twelve Prophets, ch. vi. 2 See ch. iii. of G. A. Smith's work cited in n. 1.

It was a time of peace, and one reason why the chronicler of Israel's history found so little in it to record was that it presented no deeds of martial valor,-no records of battles.

It was an era of peace. Assyria was once more a weak power, the Syrian state of Damascus had been subdued for a time, Israel and Judah between them had extended their dominion almost to the limits of the old Davidic boundaries, trade revived, wealth accumulated, the national hopes and the national spirits ran high, and the oppression from the wealthy was keenly felt by the

the poor. The increase of wealth produced a leisured class, and luxury gave them time for self-indulgence. To these the Baalized worship of Jehovah, against which Elijah and Elisha had protested, appealed as affording opportunity for the indulgence of passion. Even if they transgressed the known laws of their God, they thought he could be bought off by sacrifices.

Meantime there grew up in the village of Tekoa in the wilderness of Judah a simple

shepherd. He was poor and eked out his living by gathering the coarse sycamore figs which were eaten only by the poor. But his ear was open to the voice of God, and in obedience to that voice he appeared one day in the streets of Bethel, the capital of Jeroboam's kingdom, with the cry of doom upon his lips which stands at the head of this chapter. As the people gathered about him he made the threat of doom more specific. The sins of Damascus, Edom, Moab, and other neighboring nations were not only to be punished, but the sins of Israel herself. With many an eloquent illustration did he set forth the truth, that violated law was sure to bring doom. Sacrifice was, he declared, no part of the primitive religion; it could not put away sin. Justice must run down like water and righteousness as a perennial stream,"-moral obliquity must give place to moral rectitude,—or ruin was sure. God was by nature a moral God; He would destroy all who were immoral.

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For some days Amos proclaimed this truth till his words were reported to the