Amos 8

Amos 8:1-14

AMOS—OR —ANCIENT AND MODERN Amos 1:1 to Amos 9:15THE opening sentences of this Book give us briefly, and yet somewhat fully, the history of the Prophet whose name it wears. He belonged to the herdmen of Tekoa, and prophesied in the days when Uzziah was king of Judah, and Jeroboam, Son of Joash, sat upon the throne of Israel, and two years before the earthquake. There are few Prophets the date of whose living is so definitely fixed. It is known that Uzziah and Jeroboam were contemporary kings in the period 809 to 784 B. C. It is certain, therefore, that sometime in these twenty-five seasons, Amos spoke. Some have thought to fix it accurately by referring to the history of this earthquake, which was one of the most terrible visitations the country had ever known of its kind. Josephus assigned, as the immediate occasion of this earthquake, the act of pride on the part of Uzziah in offering incense, for which God smote him with leprosy, and says, “Meanwhile a great earthquake shook the ground and the Temple parting, a bright ray of the sun shone forth and fell upon the king’s face, so that forthwith the leprosy came over him.

And above the city, at the place called Eroge, the western half of a hill was broken off and rolled half a mile to the mountain Eastward, and there stayed, blocking up the ways, and the king’s garden.”But it ought to be said, in all candor, that those people who swear by Josephus, but doubt the inspiration of the biblical writers, have poor occasion for their conduct. This ancient Jewish historian is so often writing down legend, tradition, and even his own imagination, for history, that one dare not receive his statement concerning this earthquake as authentic, and the very year of Amos’ writing remains undetermined.The place of his residence is put past dispute, however. It was at Tekoa, a little village twelve to fourteen miles from Jerusalem, and six miles south of old Bethlehem, the very one whence Joab brought the wise woman to intercede for Absalom, and which the king Rehoboam made a fortified town.His humble station was also affirmed; not even the owner of sheep, but a hireling, who as opportunity offered, followed the herds; and when there was no employment in that avocation, turned to the gathering and selling of sycamore fruit or figs.The most of the Old Testament Prophets are the sons of honored fathers, descendants from famed families; but already God is beginning to manifest forth the fact, which finds so many illustrations in New Testament teachers, namely,“How that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: “But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; “And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: “That no flesh should glory in His presence? (1 Corinthians 1:27-29). But in keeping with the humble station of this man, and his equally humble estimate of self, he spent only a single verse upon his personal history, as if the man were of little moment; while God’s message to the people was the subject of supreme concern.With what a sentence did he smite the ears of his auditors—“The Lord will roar from Zion, and utter His voice from Jerusalem; and the habitations of the shepherds shall mourn, and the top of Carmel shall wither”.It is not difficult to imagine him a successful street preacher, for these words were doubtless uttered in the alley-like avenues of Jerusalem. When he had finished that first sentence, every Jew within hearing of it would be riveted in attention, and ready to give eager ear to all that followed. It is interesting now to note, either the consummate genius of the speaker, or else God’s evident inspiration for both arrangement and expression of his thought.It seems to me that this Book, upon close study, falls naturally into four parts and considered as a sermon or discourse, is ideal in its arrangement.The first of these divisions has to do withTHE PROPHET’S Amos 1:3 to Amos 2:3 From Amos 1:3 to Amos 2:3 Amos speaks solely concerning the heathen round about. He denounces Damascus; he condemns Gaza; he excoriates Tyrus; he reproves Edom, he censures Ammon; and delivers sentence against Moab. What an introduction for a street discourse in Jerusalem! Every Jewish auditor would be delighted, for these were their hated enemies, and to have a man whose very mien and tongue told of his Divine appointment to the order of Prophet, utter such excoriations, would arouse the smouldering hatred which the Jews held against these into a flame of enthusiasm for the man speaking such words.Now, before passing from this subject, let us see some essential truths suggested in these sentences.First of all, The Prophet’s ministry is predetermined. His speech was no trick of the elocutionist to catch his auditors by condemning their enemies. Amos disclaims all originality and responsibility for these words, introducing his deliverance by the sentence, “Thus saith the Lord”.

There are people who seem to entertain an impression that a prophet has no right to interfere in any affairs of another, and no occasion to condemn even the bad doings of his neighbors. It is not unusual to hear it said, “You belong in the Church; and at the most your ministry should spend itself within the circle of her membership. You may have a right to instruct her youth, and even admonish her adults, but what have you to do with others? Those politicians who live and move in another realm; those science Professors who instruct Truth in skepticism, those liquor sellers who lure you to debauch, that realm of commerce, created for barter, not to speak of other confessedly unchristian circles—what business have you with them?They recognize no allegiance to your views, no obligation to your opinions; they regard your speech, concerning their conduct, a presumption. Why, therefore, persist in taking upon yourself a service which is despised by the very ones of whom you speak?Amos’ answer to all of this is sufficient! “Thus saith the Lord”.That is the answer of every true prophet. He is not spying out his neighbors’ sins, and speaking against them because the sermon brings him either pleasure or profit, but because God has said,“Preach the Word; he instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. “* * But after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; “And they shall turn away their ears from the Truth, and shall be turned unto fables. “But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry?” (2 Timothy 4:2-5). Only a few years ago some nominal Christians all over this country were voicing a certain amount of sympathy with the Boxer movement; and taking their cue from the cry of these murderers “Down with the foreign devils,” asked, “What right have we to force our views upon these people when they do not want them?”—a question which can be answered in two sentences. Christians never force their views upon any, only preach them; and their warrant for doing that is in His Word. He who created China and has never signed a quitclaim to His right in that land and that people, namely, Jesus Himself, says, “Go ye therefore, and teach ail nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost”.God’s Prophets who call the Chinese to repentance, are there, commissioned of God Himself. Who will object to His conduct? Shall the creature take issue with the Creator?The Prophet’s message also is God-given. When Amos uttered these words concerning Damascus, and Gaza, and Tyrus, and Edom, and Ammon, and Moab, he was not speaking of himself, “But I will send a fire into the house of Hazael” and “I will send a fire on the wall of Gaza”, and “I will send a fire on the wall of Tyrus” and “I will send a fire upon Teman”, etc., etc.

Such would have been utterly meaningless had it originated at the mouth of the Prophet.There are many people who object to God’s fire, kindled against His enemies, consuming the wicked. But let us not quarrel with God’s Prophet.

This blaze was not born of his breath. When the minister reads from Revelation, “The fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death”, don’t quarrel with John for the speech. Like Amos of old, his authority for the utterance is in the sentence “Thus saith the Lord”.When Hugh Latimer, one New Year’s day, went along with the bishop and nobles, who were carrying their presents to the king, with a Bible in his hand, and presented that as His gift, and the king opening it read, “Whoremongers and adulterers God will judge” he was angry with Latimer; and, Herrick says, “It is a wonder that bluff and fiery King Hall did not take off Hugh’s head.”Possibly the reason is found in the fact that even that fiery king knew that these were not Latimer’s words, and whatever quarrel he had was with God. The man who delivers God’s message is not to be blamed; and the man who does not present it is not God’s Prophet! “How shall they preach except they be sent”?When Moses was called to be a Prophet for God he poorly apprehended the Prophet’s part. His answer was “O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore, nor since Thou hast spoken unto Thy servant: but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue”. And the Lord answered him, “Who hath made man’s mouth” * * Go, and I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say”.

The man, who, like Amos, gets his message from God is God’s minister.This Prophet’s judgment represents Divine justice. When he says “For three transgressions”, and “for four”, of “Damascus”, “Gaza”, “Tyrus”, “Edom”, “Ammon”, “Moab”, “I will send a fire”, there is absolute justice in the sentence declared.

Damascus must suffer because they have “Threshed Gilead with threshing instruments of iron”; Gaza because they have “carried away captive the whole captivity, to deliver them up to Edom”; Tyrus, for participating in the same, and forgetting “the brotherly covenant”; Edom because he “did pursue his brother with the sword, and did cast off all pity, and his anger did tear perpetually, and he kept his wrath for ever”; Ammon because he “ripped up the women with child * * that they might enlarge their border”: and Moab because “he burned the bones of the king of Edom into lime”. “Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap”.Men did not object when houses, infected with the black plague, were burned. There are some infections that can only be consumed in the flame. And there are some sins which can never be removed away save by the fire of Divine judgment; and that judgment always represents Divine justice also.Not a few people have spoken to me concerning a sermon once delivered by my colleague, Dr. Frost, expressing their gratitude in that he made it clear that the innocent were never punished on account of the guilty; and that the guilty never suffered above their deserts; and that judgment was always tempered with mercy.I confess to surprise that these things should strike any as new truths; they are as old as Revelation itself. Aye, they are inseparable from the very character of God.John Watson, in his “Mind of the Master” tells us that “what has filled many honorable minds with resentment and rebellion is not the fact of separation, but the principle of execution; not the dislike of an assortment, but the fear that it will not be into good and bad.” And he continues, “But Jesus rested judgment on the firm foundation of what each man is in the sight of the Eternal. He anticipated no protest in His parables against the justice of this evidence; none has ever been made from any quarter.

The wheat is gathered into the garner. What else could one do with wheat?

The tares are burned in the fire. What else could one do with tares? When the net comes to the shore, the good fish are gathered into vessels; no one would throw them away. The bad are cast aside; no one would leave them to contaminate the good. The supercilious guests who did not value the great supper were left severely alone. If men do not care for Heaven, they will not be forced into it. The outcasts, who had never dared to dream of such a supper, were compelled to come. If men hunger for the best, the best shall be theirs.”That is the truth of God’s judgment everywhere.

And when He consumed these nations with the besom of destruction it was only because to continue them would be to condone sin by reproducing sinners, and stain the earth, calling into question His own wisdom by letting iniquity go unpunished. Say what you will of these judgments, you must commend their justice. Who art thou that repliest against God?But from the Prophet’s neighbors we turn toTHE PROPHET’S NATIONS Amos 2:4 to Amos 6:14 To be sure Amos belonged by birth to Judah, but both these nations were his, by kinship, and by Divine appointment of Prophet to them. He came out of Judah, but he spake to Judah and to Israel. What a change must have come over the audience when this man, with eloquent speech, flaming with the evident enthusiasm of a Divine commission, turned suddenly from his denouncement of neighbors, to a kindred condemnation of the favored nations.“For three transgressions of Judah, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they have despised the Law of the Lord, and have not kept His Commandments, and their lies caused them to err, after the which their fathers have walked: “But I will send a fire upon Judah, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem. “Thus saith the Lord: For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not turn away the punishment thereof; because they sold the righteous for silver, and the poor for a pair of shoes” (Amos 2:4-6). Heathenism is not all with the heathen. You read the words of this Prophet from Amos 2:4 to Amos 6:14 and you will find the elect backsliders, and indulging in the abominations of their neighbors. It is a phrase employed too often, I fear, by those unwilling to go, or through their gold and silver to send, “Why be interested in the heathen or foreign lands when there are so many heathen at home?”Such speak better than they desire. The heathen are at home; aye, the heathen, here, were the very company who called themselves saints. And this Prophet’s descriptions are not ancient; they are up to date!No single discourse upon which my hand has fallen has been comparable in clearness of expression, and vigor of thought, to one, once delivered by my late loved friend, Dr. John O.

Rust, on “The New Heathenism,” and printed in the Presbyterian Quarterly, October, 1902, and reprinted in pamphlet form by Whittet and Shepperson, of Richmond, Va. Rust’s opening sentence is, “We are prone to think that we have left heathenism far behind us in the centuries of the past; or that it is banished from our shores to hide its shame in the remote and darkened corners of the earth; and one is almost stung into a feeling of resentment when the charge is made that there is a lively revival of heathenism at our very doors, here in enlightened America, in this blessed day of grace.”Then Rust continues to show that commercialism has carried many a so-called Christian into heathen practices. The poet has written:“It is success that colors all in life; Success makes fools admired, makes villains honest; All the proud virtues of this vaunting world Fawns on success and power, howe’er acquired.” Rust thinks Ӕ ?stheticism also has been chosen as a term with which to clothe our cultured heathenism. He says, “When the people get rich suddenly they wish to acquire culture quickly.” The consequence is that “elegant ladies and gentlemen, strong in the languor of luxury, lounge in dainty drawing-rooms, and cultivate an Attic difference to virtue, and a Roman contempt for enthusiasm of robust manhood.”Occultism has, within the last ten years, enjoyed a “ridiculous revival.” “Teachers whose chief qualifications are long hair and soiled linen, profess an acquaintance with the mysteries of philosophy which would appall the real learning of the world. Hypnotists reveal the deep secrets of psychology on a month’s tuition which has been hidden from the wisdom of the world for ages. And the amazing thing about it is that thousands of people listen to the babble of these fellows who will not heed the oracles of God. A certain statistician has computed that there has been an increase of 300 per cent in fools in this country in the last fifty years, and one is half inclined to believe the estimate.”Socialism represents an extreme reaction against the proud, arrogant and esoteric tendencies, and by its very consciousness of wrong, it is attempting to get its rights by an attack upon all society.Now I confess it was most interesting to me to take that address of Rust’s, and compare his words with those of the Prophet Amos. Commercialism cursed God’s people in the times of Amos also, and they were called to judgment because they “sold the righteous for silver, and the poor for a pair of shoes”.Ӕ ?stheticism found then the same sensual expression which it is receiving today, “They [stretched] themselves upon clothes laid to pledge by every altar”. “They [drank] the wine of the condemned in the house of their god”.

By their increased riches, through the oppression of the poor, they bought unto themselves beds of ivory, and stretched themselves upon their couches, and ate the lambs out of the flock, and the calves out of the midst of the stall, and chanted to the sound of the viol, and invented to themselves instruments of music, defaming David, by saying they were the same as his; and setting aside the little glasses, emptied great bowls of wine.And, by anointing themselves with the chief ointment imagined that they were a sweet incense to God, forgetting to grieve for the affliction of Joseph, until the drunkards of Ephraim came to be a byword in the streets of Jerusalem.As to Occultism, they turned from the worship of the True God to such false shrines and sorcerers that a temple to Asherah was restored in Samaria; the gold and silver images to Baal were set up; the smoke of sacrifice to idols could be seen upon their mountain tops, and incense smelt in the shade of every grove until the word was Gilead was given to idols. They transgressed at Bethel, and multiplied transgressions at Gilgal.And then the socialism that always attends oppression!

Selfish and sensual living stirred in the breasts of the unsuccessful, and made it easy to bring against their divided forces nations that should afflict them from the entering of Hamath unto the river of the wilderness.Beloved, what greater danger to the land in which we live than these same, before which the ancient people of God sadly fell? Is not the Church itself threatened by commercialism in which, as Rust puts it, “The evangelist has become the finangelist?” The denominations which twenty-five years ago existed on a creedal basis, today continue on a commercial basis. Are not our missionary treasuries pauper-stricken too often because even the people who wear the Name of God, have learned to love palatial residences, and expend upon person and pleasure the whole of their income. And, are not many being brought to the bar of judgment and condemned with the charge having been substantiated against them, by the Lord God Himself, “In tithes and offerings” ye have robbed Me?Let us see another thing to be inferred from the language of the Prophet Amos. Sonship does not insure against chastisement. The true father may witness the most evil deeds upon the part of his neighbor’s child without speaking a word of correction, or claiming the right of chastisement.

But not so when his own children go into sin. His very love of them compels their correction; while his past favors give him that paternal prerogative, God makes that the basis of Israel’s chastisement.

He reminds the Children of Israel that He alone had brought them up from Egypt, saying, “You only have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.”It is an Old Testament illustration of the New Testament assertion, “Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth”. For those who have been the recipients of Divine favor in our day, the poet’s sentences speak this same truth.“But if your ears refuse The language of His grace, Your hearts grow hard, like stubborn Jews, That unbelieving race. “The Lord with vengeance drest, Shall lift His hand and swear, You that despised My promised rest Shall have no portion there.” Beastly conduct necessitates bitter correction. Sometime when you have looked upon people whose moral filth and sensual living was such that your whole nature reacted from the sight, you have been tempted to adopt the language of the street and call them “cattle”. Perhaps you did not know that it was also the language of Scripture, and that it is possible for men to go so deeply into sin that God looks upon their condition as that of a beast in an unclean stall.To these ancient Israelites He said,“Hear this Word, ye kine of Bashan, that are in the mountain of Samaria, which oppress the poor, which crush the needy, which say to their masters, Bring, and let us drink. “The Lord God hath sworn by His holiness, that, lo, the days shall come upon you, that He will take you away with hooks, and your posterity with fishhooks. “And ye shall go out at the breaches, every cow at that which is before her; and ye shall cast them into the palace, saith the Lord” (Amos 4:1-3). These are rude words of the Prophet; but let us remember that they were not his words, but God’s instead. It is an awful thing for one to come to that moral condition where his conduct reminds God of the “cattle” of the field!Such a condition cannot be covered over by feasts, offerings and ceremonies. It is in vain for such to come to Bethel, which means the House of God, and to Gilgal to bring sacrifice every morning, and tithes after three years, and offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving with leaven, and proclaim and publish a free offering. As Joseph Parker says, “There is one thing wanting in all that elegant program, and for want of that one thing the whole arrangement dies in the air like a gilded bubble. What is omitted from this rehearsal? The sin offering, the trespass offering.

They will come with sacrifices every morning as donor to God; they will come with service and sacrifice of thanksgiving with leaven; they will throw money into the treasury, and announce the sum in plain figures. But where is penitence? Where is contrition? Where is heart-wringing? Where is the tearing conscience, the presence of tormenting agony in the innermost life? Most worship is partial; many will have a little partial religion.

Some attention has to be paid to custom, to the habit, wont, and use of life; some mean coin must at least be thrown into the treasury, and thrown in with some ostentation; hymns must be sung, and fault must be found with the music, and judgment must be pronounced upon the rabbi, the priest, the teacher for the time being, and for a certain period there must be an odor of sanctity about what we say and do. All this trickery is possible; but it never reaches the Heaven of God.” And God only answers it all by saying,“Seek not Beth-el, nor enter into Gilgal, and pass not to Beersheba * *. “Seek the Lord, and ye shall live * *. “Seek Him that maketh the seven stars and Orion, and turneth the shadow of death into the morning, and maketh the day dark with night: that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth: The Lord is His Name” (Amos 5:5-6; Amos 5:8). But to pass on in our study of this Book, we come uponTHE PROPHET’S Amos 7:1 to Amos 9:10 It would be a marvel indeed if such a man as this went on without opposition. They beheaded Paul; they killed James, the Just; they crucified Jesus, and Amos reveals no spirit of compromise. How then can he hope to pass on in peace?The Prophet cannot escape the opponent. There is an Amaziah for every Amos. He will send to Jeroboam, the king, saying,“Amos hath conspired against thee in the midst of the House of Israel: the land is not able to bear all his words. “For thus Amos saith, Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel shall surely be led away captive out of their own land” (Amos 7:10-11). It is not pleasant to be pricked by the truth; to be irritated by an inspired word; to feel the lash upon the conscience, quickened by Sacred Scripture; and men always have opposed it, and they always will.Perhaps in modern times we have had no more faithful minister of the Gospel than was Charles Spurgeon. But he had to learn how to be slandered, he says, in order that he might be made useful to God. His statement is, “Down on my knees I have often fallen, with the hot sweat rising from my brow, under some fresh slander poured upon me; in an agony of grief my heart has been well-nigh broken; till at last I learned the art of bearing all and caring for none. * * If to be made as the mire of the streets again, if to be the laughing-stock of fools and the song of the drunkard once more will make me more serviceable to my Master, and more useful to His cause, I will prefer it to all this multitude, or to all the applause that man could give.”That was exactly Amos’ answer when told to prophesy no more at Beth-el, since it was the king’s chapel, and the king’s court. He replied, confessing his humble estimate of himself,“I was no Prophet, neither was I a Prophet’s son; but I was an herdman, and a gatherer of sycamore fruit: “And the Lord took me as I followed the flock, and the Lord send unto me, Go, prophesy unto My people Israel. “Now therefore hear thou the Word of the Lord”. It is the only answer one needs to make to his opponent; and it is the only answer one can make that carries with it any assurance of success. Do you remember that when David, the lad, after being scoffed by his elder brother, and scorned by Goliath, the giant, said to that Philistine, “Thou contest to me with a sword, and with a spear and with a shield: but I come to thee in the Name of the Lord of Hosts”. Oh, beloved, whoever our opponents are, and whatever our opposition, that is the only Name in which we can stand; and that Name is sufficient!Speaking in that Name we cannot be silenced by secular powers. Amaziah, in his inability to meet Amos single-handed, tried the trick of the pious politician, namely, arraying the secular powers against this servant of the Lord. It is an old trick; it was done in the days of Elisha; and repeated in the days of the Son of Man. He was charged with opposition to Caesar; as were His Apostles with rebellion against the civil government.

It is most amazing how patriotic some men become, once the preaching of the truth reveals their personal sins, and those which they have in common with so-called statesmen, at one and the same time.They are not welcomed by the fallen, and sometimes are most bitterly opposed by men who have proclaimed themselves children of the King. Be it remembered, however, that the same Amaziahs who rise to charge God’s Prophets with treason will be compelled to listen, eventually, to the Divine sentence of the Lord,“Thou sayest, Prophesy not against Israel, and drop not thy word against the House of Isaac. “Therefore thus saith the Lord; Thy wife shall be an harlot in the city, and thy sons and thy daughters shall fall by the sword, and thy land shall be divided by line; and thou shalt die in a polluted land: and Israel shall surely go into captivity forth of his land” (Amos 7:16-17). And yet—The Christian’s courage will accord with the Divine commission. Amos only needs to answer, “The Lord took me as I followed the flock, and * * said unto me, Go, prophesy unto My people Israel. When you have spoken in the language of Scripture, and are conscious that your purpose was to help and not hinder; to reform and not deform; to convert and not divert, then fear will flee away, and like Peter and the other Apostles of Jesus, you can answer the command of silence, “We ought to obey God rather than man”, and “We are His witnesses of these things.”S. E. Herrick, speaking of Savonarola, in the times when all Florence was ablaze, having been basely betrayed by their ruler, says that Savonarola remained the one calm spirit, and assigns as the reason, “He is the man who dwells unmoved in (The secret place of the Most High’, and ‘under the shadow of the Almighty’ ”Every man ought to dwell there who is consciously seeking the glory of God, and faithfully presenting the Truth of God. Paul seems to have entertained that opinion of the whole Christian life, when he wrote the Ephesians,“Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might. “Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. “Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. “Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with Truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; “And your feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of Peace; “Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked” (Ephesians 6:10-16). This Book concludes with thePROPHET’S Amos 9:11-15I want to make that also the conclusion of this chapter. This prediction is brief, but how blessed!“In that day will I raise up the Tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old: “That they may possess the remnant of Edom, and of all the heathen, which are called by My Name, saith the Lord that doeth this. “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that the plowman shall overtake the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed; and the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt. “And I will bring again the captivity of My people Israel, and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them. “And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, saith the Lord thy God” (Amos 9:11-15). Take the three points of this prediction and delight thyself in them.The restitution of the House of David is pledged.“That day will I raise up the Tabernacle”. That promise is found in a hundred forms in this Old Testament, and was made the occasion of James’ appeal to missionary endeavor, when, at the council of Jerusalem, he stood before the people saying,“Men and brethren, hearken unto me: “Simeon hath declared how God at the first did visit the Gentiles, to take out of them a people for His Name. “And to this agree the Words of the Prophets; as it is written, “After this I will return, and will build again the Tabernacle of David, which is fallen dawn”. Simeon did not see that Tabernacle rebuilt; James was not privileged to witness it; nor have we; and yet the Word of the Lord will not fail. The House of David is yet to be exalted in the earth.Dr. Gordon tells us, “There is a fragment of Jewish legend that has floated down to us, which represents two venerable rabbis as musing among the ruins of Jerusalem after its destruction. One is giving way to unrestrained lamentation, saying, ‘Alas! alas! this is the end of all. Our beautiful city is no more; our Temple is laid waste, our brethren are driven away into captivity.’ The other, with greater cheerfulness, replies: ‘True; but let us learn from the verity of God’s judgments, which we behold about us, the certainty of His mercies. He hath said, I will destroy Jerusalem, and we see that He hath done it.

But hath He not also said, I will rebuild Jerusalem, and shall we not believe Him?’” The latter rabbi was right! The same God who, by His might, said to His people, “I will sift the House of Israel among all nations, like as corn is sifted in a sieve”; and speedily fulfilled the threat, also declared of one day in the future, “In that day will I raise up the Tabernacle of David that is fallen”.

He will fulfil His promise. “And I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old: that they may possess the remnant of Edom, and of all the heathen, which are called by My Name, saith the Lord that doeth this” (Amos 9:11-12).There is your pledge of the gathering out of the Gentiles. “The heathen which are called by God’s Name.” Isaiah had long ago said, “The Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising”. Jesus once reminded the multitudes of the promises of God concerning His Son—“In His Name shall the Gentiles trust”. But more explicit still is that other statement of His concerning the destiny of Jerusalem—“Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled”.Beloved, this is your age and mine; the period in which we who were aliens, by nature, are being grafted into the True Vine. Arthur T. Pierson has at some time expressed the thought that he never succeeds in winning a soul to the Saviour without entertaining the hope that this may be the last man needful to the filling up of the time of the Gentiles. But, oh, how such a suggestion ought to stir apprehension in the breasts of all Gentile-unbelievers, lest we approach the day of the Lord, and the time of our opportunity will be past!Finally:—The Prophet also predicts the return of the Jews to their own land.“I will bring again the captivity of My people of Israel, and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them. “And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, saith the Lord thy God” (Amos 9:14-15). My brethren sometimes ask whether I see what appears clear evidences of the signs of the times; and if I do, there is something marvelous in this Zionist movement. Only a short time ago a clipping from your own paper here says that in the city of Milwaukee alone thousands of Jews have given their most ardent support to this Zionist movement to buy back again their own land, and make it the place of refuge to their persecuted people. So the movement has enlisted the Jews of St. Paul and Minneapolis. They do not see the significance of such a barter, but who knows but God is already beginning to fulfil literally those promises of His Word,“Surely the isles shall wait for Me, and the ships of Tarshish first, to bring thy sons from far * *. “And the sons of strangers shall build up thy walls, and their kings shall minister unto thee: for in My wrath I smote thee, but in My favour have I had mercy on thee” (Isaiah 60:9-10). And again,“I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion” (Jeremiah 3:14). The first-fruits of that final restoration which is fully pledged, and made emphatic by a hundred repetitions, and when, according to Jeremiah, God will gather the remnant of His scattered flock out of all countries into which He has driven them, and bring them again into their fold. And they shall be fruitful and increase, for in those days He will raise up unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and execute judgment and justice in the earth (Jeremiah 23:3; Jeremiah 23:5). “O then that I Might live, and see the olive bear Her proper branches, which now lie Scattered each where,

And without root and sap decay, Cast by the husbandman away, And sure it is not far! “For surely He Who loved the world so as to give His only Son to make us free, Whose Spirit, too, doth mourn and grieve To see man lost, will, for old love, From your dark hearts this veil remove.”

Amos 8:11-13

GOD’S FOR Amos 8:11-13THE Divine resources are never exhausted! God is never troubled over the question of the next step. The multitude of His opponents and their apparent successes leave Him undisturbed. He may grieve the fate and folly of men, but He never fears the final issue. He knows that the future is with Him, and not with His adversary. He may enjoin men to hold fast the faith once delivered but He does it for their sakes rather than His own.

He has no alarm lest His truth fall from the earth, His revelation be blotted out and His Name forgotten. His concern, rather, is about the faith of men, lest it fail; about their knowledge of the Book, lest it be diminished; about their hold on the truth, lest it break, and they themselves be bruised by the fall. The real point of all inspired teaching, and the real purpose of all revealed prophecy, and the real intent of all biblical preaching is the salvation and sanctification of man, not the mere retention and defense of the truth.Skepticism therefore, does not endanger the Bible; it endangers the people! It can never unsettle the throne of God, but it always has weakened and destroyed its own disciples and apostles.The experience of Israel was the truth of yesterday; but it also is the truth of today. This text from Amos had its application to the Israel of the past; but it also has an application to the present. It involves three significant suggestions—the Word-famine, the Wander-lust, and the Waiting-youth.THE WORD-FAMINE“Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the Words of the Lord” (Amos 8:11) The world was never in greater danger of a wide-spreading, deadly, destructive famine than it is today. If wars continue and suck into their swirl every nation now steadily drawing toward the same, we shall have a complete fulfilment of Christ’s sentence, “Nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines”. The desperate wars being waged today are not one half so much the expression of hatred as they are the manifestation of fear; and the thing that is feared in time of war is not the flying machine, not the armored tanks, not the submarine; these create some alarm: but the terror of the nations is “famine”. Of all enemies that man has ever faced, famine has been the most destructive; and death at its hands is as pitiless as painful; and it never works save in wholesale.But I am to speak of another famine, namely the Word-famine. This is being brought about by such a combination of circumstances as suggest nothing short of Satanic cunning. The state schools exclude the Scriptures; denominational schools discredit the Scriptures; the family and the individual neglect the Scriptures!

It amounts to an onslaught against our Sacred Book.The state schools exclude the Scriptures. Years ago my wife was a student in a state university.

The Chapel was held every morning, and was opened by Scripture reading and prayer. Now few state schools are so privileged by the school powers, and still fewer so characterized by practice. In my own State, Minnesota, not a single public schoolteacher is permitted, either to read or recite any portion of the Scriptures in the presence of his pupils. Protestant leaders have pled with politicians and papists; but in vain! Even such excerpts as have to do with morals and ethics only, fail to receive the approval of schoolboards; and the very Book that gave to American civilization its foundations, becomes an increasingly unknown volume to American born or bred boys and girls.Unfortunately, however, while Bible-loving professors are not permitted to voice the teaching of Scripture, Bible-hating ones are not denied the right of holding them to ridicule, and there are not a few state-paid instructors who exploit a skepticism calculated to create upon the child’s mind the impression that the Bible is altogether an unscientific and unreliable book, and may be properly flung to the rubbish heap of superstition, credulity, myth, fables, and fetishism. The watchword of the present hour is “Science” not Scripture; and many a teacher who is none too well versed in either, makes the first contribute to a professional title, and the second to a professional titter.The denominational schools discredit the Scriptures.

The late Prof. Terry published a book entitled “Moses and the Prophets” to which he attached an “Appendix” that ought to have been submitted to the Mayo brothers of Minnesota and removed.

It involved a diseased appendix, and the case was so advanced that in a short season—twenty-five years—the Methodist denomination became a theologically gangrenous body. That appendix contained opinions from Dr. Bashford, President of Ohio Wesleyan University; Dr. Gobin of DePauw University; Dr. Plantz, President of Lawrence University; Dr. Raymond, of Wesleyan University, and Dr. Warren, President of Boston University. Even Dr.

Terry himself expressed surprise that, with but one exception, the views of all these men should make up a remarkable unanimity of opinion, and the man who read them was not the less surprised, for they gave pith and point to Dr. L. W. Munhall’s “Breakers Ahead, or Methodism Adrift!” There was not a one of them who believed in the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch! There was not a man of them who believed in the infallibility of the Scriptures! There was not a man of them who believed in the omniscience of Christ. Dr. Plantz, for instance, declared: “It seems to me very doubtful whether Christ’s knowledge extends to exact scientific and historical detail.” Dr.

Raymond, said, “There must have been such a limitation of knowledge on Christ’s part as to put Him essentially under the conditions of ordinary men.” Since this publication Methodism has drifted on the rocks of Rationalism.If, in this matter, Methodism was alone, the future of the denominational school might be less discouraging; but, as a matter of fact, the appendix of Congregationalism has festered; while that of the Baptist denomination is in most perilous estate. The President of the most outstanding Baptist University, long since remarked, “I shall never recommend to the Trustees of this University the removal of any professor on account of his theological opinions. No particular religious profession shall ever be held as a condition precedent to the election of any professor to a chair in this school.” That school now has open atheists on its faculty. Presbyterianism, supposedly the most orthodox of sects, has amazingly slipped in matters of faith.Many a youth, studying in our so-called Christian colleges, or taking courses in our so-called theological seminaries, dwells for years in an atmosphere frigid and prayerless; for years he listens to the Bible treated, in the language of Dr. Pell “as if it were a literary patch-quilt in the course of renovation,” and hears “Christ spoken of as if He were an unidentified being.”A. J.

Gordon, for twenty-five years Boston’s outstanding Baptist minister, once remarked, “The heresies which have afflicted the church have almost without exception, been invented by learned scholars, and the speculations which have blighted the faith of believers have generally been hatched and brooded in theological schools.”All of this is no argument against education! The finest religious atmosphere it has ever been my privilege to breathe, characterized the Presbyterian college from which I graduated; and the most scholarly and saintly men it has been my privilege to know, instructed in the theological seminary where I took my course.But that was forty-five years ago!

The wave of German rationalism was then beginning to beat upon our shores; now it has rolled from coast to coast, and only those men and colleges that have lived on the spiritual heights, near to God, have escaped its Scripture-discrediting, doubt-deluging effects.The companion of these adverse movements, and in some instances the result of them, exists in the fact that the family and the individual are now neglecting the Scriptures.We read of how the elder Spurgeon, Charles’ grandfather, was so absorbed in Scripture study that when a neighbor came to visit him, he arose from his study long enough to show the gentleman a chair; but, going straight back to his open Bible, he soon forgot the man’s presence, and devouring sentence after sentence, as a hungry child might devour food, he was heard occasionally to mutter to himself, “Wonderful! Wonderful!” while the inner light radiated from every feature of his old face. Our forefathers in America were a Bible-loving, Bible-reading company; almost every day began with what is known as “the family devotions,” and they were never hurried. Now in ninety-nine homes out of a hundred, they are either spasmodically revived or left to lie in utter neglect.The time was in England, and that not so far away, when human greatness was often accounted for by Bible Study; men believed themselves to bring from this Book Divine, wisdom. When a father consulted Earl Cairns as to what books his son should read in his preparation for the law practice, the great Earl answered, “Let him begin with the Bible! There he will find the foundation of all law, as well as of all morality.” Sir Matthew Hale declared “There is no book like the Bible for learning, wisdom, and justice.” Bacon, Blackstone, Lord Littleton, and Erskin, Wilberforce and Gladstone— what great students of the Word they were!

And what great souls they developed by steeping them in Scripture! What a strange contrast the present Englishman presents.

Dr. G. H. Knight, in one of his volumes says, “An allusion to a Bible story has more than once set half the House of Commons wondering where it came from.”If one visited Washington City and mingled with our national law-makers, and heard them talk on biblical subjects, he might feel as George Ade. Ade said, “I hoped to see the day when I would represent the Tenth District in Congress. I have not realized my boyish ambition; but I have seen congress, and I am reconciled.”It is doubtful whether the English race, once putting aside the Bible, can ever duplicate the great names of the past.

Ruskin was a remarkable soul and the flight of time can all too seldom see his accomplishments repeated; and John Ruskin wrote, “All that I have taught of art, everything that I have written, any greatness that there has been in any thought of mine, whatever I have done in my life, has simply been due to the fact that when I was a child my mother daily read with me a portion of the Bible and daily made me learn a part by heart.” The direst need of the American nation is not a navy or army; not colleges or commerce; it is not even a revival of religion, in the common employment of that phrase; but it is a revival of Bible reading. To be steeped in the sentences of this sacred Book lends an unconquerable strength to any people, insures an intellectual progress that is irresistible, and produces a religious revival that is both deep and far-reaching.When God commanded Joshua to be a builder of a nation, he commenced with him by saying,“This Book of the Law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success”. THE WANDER-LUST“And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and. fro to seek the Word of the Lord, and shall not find it”.Strange how Scripture can express the relation between strenuous living and spiritual dying; between rapid transit and fading truth.Our locomotion has become the enemy of our meditation. We shoot from place to place with such rapidity that even reason is upset, and spiritual meditation is made impractical, if not impossible. I think I never realized this fact more than recently when in one day I read the reports of the hardship endured sixty years ago by a boy who sought to gain an education, and those being experienced now by the lad mentally ambitious. The first related to A. J. Gordon’s college life, when as a lad it was decided he should go to school, and the place of his education was selected.

His son writes —“In a suit of clothes made by his mother’s hands from cloth, spun in the old mill, he started from home. A long walk truly, thirty-four miles, when one is baggage train as well as infantry.

Yet, doubtless the bag in which he carried his clothes was not heavily loaded,—a change of clothing, a Virgil, and an algebra. The country through which he passed was especially beautiful, Cardigan and Ragged mountains, round the base of Kearsarge and by Sunapee Lake into the town where the school was situated, in New London.”What a beautiful and suggestive description! It must have taken at least two days for the trip. What thoughts would surge through the boy’s soul as he climbed the mountainside, descended the valley, and trudged on to college! What meditations would fill the mind, when at night, in some country home, he lay in a deep feather bed, and with all the world shut out, faced God and thought about the future!But those days are over! The lad who goes to college now, if he cross the continent, is whirled along on iron wheels; or, if wealthy, in a flying machine; the hum of human voices is in his ears in the instance of the first, and the roar of the engine and propeller in the second; if he go a shorter distance, he drives his car paid for by his father, and forgets the God above, and over-runs the pedestrians below.A recent graduate was asked to tell of the hardships of his early education and he replied,—“I lived seven blocks from the Carnegie Library, and we had no automobile.”Ah, truly; “They shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the Word of the Lord, and shall not find it”.This strenuous living militates against Bible study.

If only men would stop a while and sit down and open the Book, it would speak to them unless they were too tired to give attention to the tale it was telling. Too often, we fear, that is the case.Old Horace Bushnell said, “My experience is that the Bible is dull when I am dull; when I am really alive the text comes upon me with a tidal wave of living affinity.

It opens up discoveries and reveals depths faster than I can make note of them.”But when do we stop long enough for tidal waves to even overtake us? The pace of the century is the ruin of Christianity. In Liverpool, one day, I went down to the Mersey River. I saw scores of vessels, many of which seemed shipshape; but all of them appeared stranded on the beach. I said to my walking companion, “Why are so many of these vessels on the land; are they all in need of repair?” He replied, “No, they are in perfect repair; they are in to be loaded. You see, you do not quite understand!

The Mersey River is running out to the ocean now, but tonight the tide will turn and the ocean will come into this river, flooding and filling its every part, and these freighted vessels will be lifted to places of power; and pulling out to sea, will ply their ways to the ends of the earth.”In reflecting upon the remark later, I said, “It is a parable of spiritual life!”The reason so many of us are stranded and cannot go, is that the tide of spiritual life is running out. If only we knew how to use the closets of prayer or the curtains of night to find and face God, and let all the fullness of the Godhead flood us, and lift us, we would become vessels of power, and bear to the uttermost parts of the earth the golden truths of the Gospel of the Son of God!When the Mersey River runs out to sea it sinks and grows shallow; but when the great sea comes into the river, it rises alike in volume and power.It is a parable!

When shall we cease from running to and fro long enough to read the Word of the Lord? When shall we know that no professional teaching can ever take the place of the personal perusal? More . and more this swiftly traveling, starving crowd are waking up to the fact that many of their journeys are in vain, so far at least as finding at the end of them either spiritual food or drink.The non-Scriptural minister has produced a Scriptural famine. There are people in every city, and their name is legion, who travel from sanctuary to sanctuary, and wander from sea to sea, in search of the truth and never find it. The sanctuary in which they spend the Sabbath does not prove to be like the John Huss’ “Bethlehem”—“The House of Bread.” Many of them are not even respectable lunch counters for the soul. The milk they serve is skimmed indeed, and their philosophical sandwiches have in them no meat of the Word,—only a thin spread of Pseudo-Science, or questionable philosophy or history.

Much of it reminds one of what happened nearly forty years ago in the Plymouth Church of Minneapolis.Dr. John H.

Elliott, later my co-laborer, had preached one night, and some interested souls had been taken into a side room to be prayed with by personal workers, and the sexton showed some impatience about continuing the lights; whereupon Dr. Elliott thought to engage him in conversation and keep him content until the instruction was finished. After a moment it occurred to him to ask the man if he was a Christian, to which he replied, “No!”“That is strange,” said Elliott, “and you a janitor of a Christian Church. How long have you been in this position?”“About ten years,” was the answer.“Well, why are you not a Christian?”“Well,” answered the sexton, “I don’t exactly know why; no one has ever spoken to me about it.” “What!” said Dr. Elliott, “has not the pastor spoken to you about being a Christian in these ten years?”“No,” said the sexton, “I don’t think Dr. C______ would like to talk on the subject of religion.

We talk on a lot of other things, but he has never made any mention of that subject.” The pathos of the story is that it is a parable with increasing application.We are sometimes compelled to question whether the Church of God, on the whole, has been profited by the exchange of a farmer preacher for the seminary output. That man of former days who divided his time between tilling the soil and steeping his soul in Scripture quotations and Scriptural thoughts, was no mean teacher.

At his feet some of us grew up, and we have never ceased to thank God for the fact that while he talked to us in no terms of science, and his very tongue would have halted at the phrase, “moral philosophy,” he did know the Word of God; he did know the will of the Lord; he did dwell on the “thus saith the Lord”, and he did come from a sacred trysting place with the Most High; and he did make the impression that he was God’s man, with God’s message; and we were mightily moved by it; moved emotionally, moved morally, moved mentally, moved spiritually. We never went to the sanctuary in vain! When asking these fathers for bread, they did not hand us out a stone of so-called science; or if we asked an egg, they did not, for an egg, give us the scorpion of philosophy.I am not asking that the preacher of the Twentieth Century be as unschooled as was his predecessor in the nineteenth; I am only declaring it is a profound pity that having become more schooled, he has become less Scriptural. I doubt if for him the times can ever even twist, much less change, the imperative sentence of Scripture, “Preach the Word”!John Watson never said a saner thing than when he remarked, “There are enough men to ventilate doubts without the preacher’s assistance. From him the world expects faith; and the dynamic of one man, believing with all his mind and all his heart, is incalculable. Doubt can be got anywhere; faith ought to be supplied by the pulpit.”And if the relation of the Wander-lust to the Word-famine is evident, then the relation of both toTHE WAITING YOUTHis as logical as the connection of Scripture is here close and consecutive.“In that day shall the fair virgins and young men faint for thirst”. Is that our day? Let us see.Youth is still strongly characterized by spiritual desires and aspirations! The young convert comes as close to God now as he ever did. If he be truly regenerated he begins the Christian life with the same emotions which characterized his grandsires, though he has come to express them differently. His disposition to pray is the first proof of the Spirit’s work; and the disposition to know what God has spoken is in itself the sign of sonship. As the babe’s first word is commonly “Mama” or “Papa” so the new-born soul cries “Abba Father”, and listens to hear what the Father will say.Some of us who are older, and whose emotional natures, like our joints, have become a bit stiff, may have forgotten, in part, how we used to feel in spirit, as we have also forgotten some of the exuberance of the flesh; but we may be assured that the race changes not, and that Christ is “the same yesterday, and to day, and forever”, and the young men and women who are coming to Him now, are just as restless as we were at their age, and just as anxious to know God as we were at their same point of experience, and just as thirsty for an additional portion of His Word, and for the Divine direction of His Spirit as we (who are now in advanced life) were when the great soul-decisions of fifty years ago were being made.If I were a man of the world, and moved only in the social round or commercial realm, and were compelled to face from day to day “the bloodless, worn-out society,” of which John Watson speaks, I should well nigh lose confidence in all spiritual things.

But my soul renews its youth when I stand in the midst of the four hundred young men and women now studying in the Northwestern Bible and Missionary Training School, the majority of whom have come away from the farm, none of whom are far removed from the day of their regeneration and consecration, the most of whom are what Gordon once called “the raw material” ready to be hand-made for God.When they pray I am carried on the wings of their petitions into the Divine presence. When they sing I am caught by the exuberance of their spirit and again reach the mountain-top.

When they speak I am illumined by the very sparkle of their eyes and the joy of their faces; and in that illumination I see God!Oh, what would be the pathos of the world without youth; and what would be the prospect of the Church without converted children—Fair virgins and young men thirsting for God!With this company comes the Church’s greatest opportunity. Let teachers tread lightly here; it is holy ground! And yet, let them speak with alacrity; it is a gracious but fleeting opportunity.I never look into the faces of this crowd of young men and women, the most of whom were converted but yesterday, many of whom are too well advanced in years to sit down in the high school with what they would call “the babies.” and the most of whom are too poor in purse to attempt the select or even state school; but I thank God for the privilege of teaching them; and I never look into their intelligent faces and mark the perfectly marvelous progress they make from week to week, without feeling a contempt for those people who can never be interested in any section of society save the upper-crust!They are like the priests and Pharisees of Christ’s day, who, when the officers sent to arrest Him, returned, saying, “Never man spake like this Mari’, answered, “Are ye also deceived? Have any of the rulers * * believed on Him”?The longer I live the less am I concerned about the opinion of the ruling classes, for I know that this raw material, if rightly educated and trained for God, will, with the true Ruler, reign tomorrow.Society is in eternal revolution. It is a depressing thing to see the top go down to the bottom. But, oh, to watch the other side!

What an inspiration to see the bottom come to the top! And may I remind you that there is but one thing that can lift it, and that is the teaching of Christ expressed in the sacred Scriptures.What then is the greatest spiritual movement of the century?

You will dissent, I have no doubt, but I speak from the deepest conviction;The modern Bible Conference, and the Bible and Missionary Training School. The first is a short course in Scripture. The second, a more complete training in the same. In them God has flung His lines of defense from sea to sea; and destructive criticism,—the enemy that has come in like a flood, —is finding the Bible Conference and the Bible Training School capable of both stubborn and successful resistence. Every state in the Union has its Bible Conference in multiplied numbers.Thirty-five years ago Northfield stood almost alone in America, and Keswick was well nigh solitary in England; and forty years ago the Moody Institute was a solitary little sister, and looked upon with scorn by the mature and purse-proud theological schools of the land. But that God was in the movement can hardly be disputed when we recall the names of the Bible Conference and Bible School advocates,—Spurgeon, Guinness, Meyer, Morgan and others of the Old World; Moody, Gordon, White, Horton, Torrey, Fowler, Gray, Davis, Adams, and other like men in the New World.These Conferences and Schools are not the exponents of science, not the special advocates of philosophy, not the instructors in history; it is an age of specializing, and they have deliberately chosen to specialize in the knowledge of God’s Word.

Tens and hundreds of thousands of ministers and laymen attend upon these conferences every summer, and Keswick in England, Cedar, Winona and Medicine Lakes in America, are now names that suggest two things,—the study of the Word of God and the deepening of the spiritual life; and the Bible Schools established in New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Omaha, Denver, Minneapolis, Los Angeles, and other cities, are making greater strides, everything considered, than any class of schools that have ever sprung into existence. They have been the subjects of constant criticism, the objects of repeated ridicule; they have been characterized as “educational short-cuts;” their graduates have been spoken of as “unscholarly and crude;” but perhaps Dr.

Gordon’s reply is significant, “I prefer a little man with a great Gospel to a great man with a little Gospel.”Ours is a great Gospel! The people that best proclaim it are marked for progress; and those that most deny it are destined to perish!