Amos 4:13

He that formeth the mountains, and createth the wind.

Backgrounds and foregrounds

The mountains made, for the Hebrew, the background of every landscape in which they stand. The foreground of the plain-land rests upon the background of the hills. From them it gains its lights and shadows. The two depend on one another. The background and the foreground together make the complete landscape in the midst of which a human life is set. And this is also true in the world of inner life. There is a foreground and a background to every man’s career. There are things that press themselves immediately upon our attention;--the details of life; these are the foreground of our living. And then, beyond them, there are the great truths which we believe, the broad and general consecrations of our life which we have made, the large objects of our desire, the great hopes and impulses which keep us at our work. These are the mountain backgrounds of our life. They are our reservoirs of power; out of them come down our streams of strength. In the perfect picture you cannot leave out the foreground of immediate detail, nor the background of established principle and truth. The danger of our life is not, ordinarily, lest the foreground be forgotten or ignored. The details of life command us and attract us. The backgrounds of life we are most likely to forget. To most men the actual immediate circumstances of life are so pressing that they forget the everlasting truths and forces by which those circumstances must be made dignified and strong. We are troubled by the superficialness and immediateness of living. There is a need of distance and of depth. And the distance and the depth are there, if men would only feel them.

1. Behind every foreground of action lies the background of character, on which the action rests, and from which it gets its life and meaning. It matters not whether it be an age, a nation, a Church, a man; anything which is capable both of being and of acting must feel its being behind its acting, must make its acting the expression of its being, or its existence is very unsatisfactory and thin. What is all your activity without you? How instantly the impression of a character creates itself, springs into shape behind a deed. If this were not so, life would grow very tame and dull. An engine has no background of character. Its deeds are simple deeds. Man, being character, will care for nothing which has not character behind it, finding expression through its life. Here is the value of reality, sincerity, which is nothing but the true relation between action and character. Expressed artistically, it is the harmony between the foreground and background of a life. What will be the rule of life which such a harmony involves? Will it not include both the watchfulness over character and the watchfulness over action, either of which alone is woefully imperfect? When will men learn that to feed the fountain of character, and yet never neglect the guiding of the streams of action, is the law of life? All the perplexing questions about the contemplative and active life, about faith and practice, about self-discipline and service of our fellow-men, have their key and solution hidden somewhere within this truth of the background and foreground. What culture is there by which the human life can be at once trained into character, and at the same time kept true in active duty? Only the culture of personal loyalty, admiration for a nature and obedience to a will opening together into a resemblance to Him whom we ardently desire, and enthusiastically obey. I recall what Jesus said, “You must be born again,”--that is His inexorable demand for the background of character. “If ye love Me, keep My commandments,”--that is His absolute insistence on the foreground of action. And the power of both of them--the power by which they both unite into one life--lies in the personal love and service of Himself. Closely related to the background of character, yet distinguishable from it is what I may call the background of the greater purpose. A man’s purpose in life lies behind, and gives dignity and meaning to everything that the man does or says. The greater purpose may be bad or good, horrible or splendid. In the smaller world, it is a man’s profession which makes the most palpable background of his life. But the great purpose is ruled by the man, as well as the man by the great purpose, and it is the complicated result of the mutual ruling that makes the life. Both the great purpose, and its immediate activities, are provided with their safeguards, that they may not be lost. A closing word upon another of the backgrounds of life. Prayer. The foreground of prayer is the intense, immediate desire for a certain blessing; the background of prayer is the quiet, earnest desire that the will of God, whatever it may be, should be done. What Christ’s prayer was, all true prayer must be. Remember that it is only in personal love and loyalty that life completes itself. Only when man loves and enthusiastically obeys God does the background of the universal and the eternal rise around the special and temporary, and the scenery of life become complete. Therefore it is that Christ, who brings God to us, and brings us to God, is the great background-builder. (Phillips Brooks.)

He declareth unto man what is his thought.

The Lord showing to man his thought

Our first inference from these words naturally is, “The Lord knoweth the thoughts of man.” How little do we realise this truth, and, in consequence, how little restraint do we exercise over our thoughts! We may be careful in our doings, we may even try, by God’s help, to watch over our words, but our thoughts, the action of the highest part of man, the workings of the immortal soul, how often do we suffer them to wander ungoverned, to indulge in vanity, to exercise themselves in sin! What would our neighbours think of us could they read our thoughts, all our thoughts? All our thoughts are known to God. Many of us are earnestly trying, by the grace of God, to rule and govern our thoughts. The Christian may dare to lay open his thoughts before God, to call God’s attention to them, to sanctify them. The text reminds us that He who knows the thoughts of man also declares to man what they are. He teaches him to discern between good and evil thoughts, between those that are the fruits of the Spirit and such as proceed from the corrupt fountain of the human heart. And this He is pleased to do in different ways and for different purposes. God declares unto man his thought by His Holy Word, to produce conviction of sin, or to speak peace and comfort, according to his need. And God will declare unto man what are his thoughts at the last day. (F. J. Scott, M. A.)