Amos 1:9-15

The Chapter closeth with the judgment of the children of Ammon; and a solemn one it is. When the Lord comes to reckon with his enemies, how tremendous his judgments are!

REFLECTIONS

READER! we shall lose the beauty of this solemn scripture, and overlook the interests we ourselves have in it, if we do not behold the Lord of hosts thus calling the nations to account for their hatred to Christ and his people! It is all on Christ's account that their hatred began. In all ages of the Church, this bitterness of the carnal hath gone forth against the Lord's heritage and chosen. It began in the heart of Cain, against Abel, wholly on this account: Ishmael mocked Isaac; Esau hated Jacob: and thus the seed of the Serpent have shewn their deadly teeth against the seed of the Woman, and his offspring. What an awful consideration it is! And what very awful consequences are involved in it! Reader! in the absence of higher evidences, this is no small one, to bring comfort to a child of God; I mean his love to Zion. If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, (said one of old) let my right hand forget her cunning! If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; yea, if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy. Reader! can you adopt this language? Is Jesus and his Church; Jesus and his members, dear to you? If so, take with you the comfortable assurance of the beloved Apostle in his testimony of the divine life, and say with the same confidence as he said; we know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren!