_A basket of summer fruit._ A BASKET OF SUMMER FRUIT As God set before Amos a basket of summer fruit, as a sign or parable concerning Israel; so, at harvest-tide God sets before us a basket of summer fruit, to teach us lessons to our soul’s health. 1. In preparing the earth for a harvest crop, and... [ Continue Reading ]
_Hear this, O ye that swallow up the needy._ AVARICE I. It is execrable in its spirit. 1. It is sacrilegious. Bad as Israel was, it still kept up the mere observances of religion, yet these observances they regarded as commercial inconveniences. Avarice in heart has no reverence for religion. 2.... [ Continue Reading ]
_When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn?_ and the Sabbath, that we may set forth wheat. HONOURING THE LORD’S DAY The physical wants of man demand a day of rest; and it is a gracious appointment of the all-wise One, which has secured it to him. No constitution, however robust, can en... [ Continue Reading ]
_And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord God, that I will cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in the clear day._ THE ECLIPSE OF THE SUN SPIRITUALLY CONSIDERED Though the heavens are full of the glory of the Lord, yet they rarely engage our devout attention,... [ Continue Reading ]
_Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that I will send a famine in the land._ THE USES OF ADVERSITY If adversity tried and sifted men, prosperity tried and sifted them much more. Where adversity slew its thousands, prosperity slew its tens of thousands. Poets and moralists had dwelt on the sweet u... [ Continue Reading ]