no thorough ‘turning,’ which had landed them at the side of God.  Many a man turns towards God, who, for lack of resolved perseverance, never so turns as to get to God.  The repeated complaint of the inefficacy of chastisements has in it a tone of sorrow and of wonder which does not belong only to the Prophet.  If we remember who it was who was ‘grieved at the blindness of their heart,’ and who ‘wondered at their unbelief’ we shall not fear to recognise here the attribution of the same emotions to the heart of God.

To Amos, famine, drought, blasting, locusts, pestilence, and probably earthquake, were five messengers of God, and Amos was taught by God.  If we looked deeper, we should see more clearly.  The true view of the relation of all material things and events to God is this which the herdsman of Tekoa proclaimed.  These messengers were not ‘miracles,’ but they were God’s messengers all the same.  Behind all phenomena stands a personal will, and they are nearer the secret of the universe who see God working in it all, than they who see all forces except the One which is the only true force.  ’I give cleanness of teeth.  I have withholden the rain.  I have smitten.  I have sent the pestilence.  I have overthrown some of you.’  To the Prophet’s eye the world is all aflame with a present God.  Let no scientific views, important and illuminating as these may be, hide from us the deeper truth, which lies beyond their region.  The child who says ‘God,’ has got nearer the centre than the scientist who says ‘Force.’

But Amos had another principle, that God sent physical calamities because of moral delinquencies and for moral and religious ends.  These disasters were meant to bring Israel back to God, and were at once punishments and reformatory methods.  No doubt the connection between sin and material evils was closer under the Old Testament than now.  But if we may not argue as Amos did, in reference to such calamities as drought, and failures of harvests, and the like, as these affect communities, we may, at all events, affirm that, in the case of the individual, he is a wise man who regards all outward evil as having a possible bearing on his bettering spiritually.  ’If a drought comes, learn to look to your irrigation, and don’t cut down your forests so wantonly,’ say the wise men nowadays; ’if pestilence breaks out, see to your drainage.’  By all means.  These things, too, are God’s commandments, and we have no right to interpret the consequences of infraction of physical laws as being meant to punish nations for their breach of moral and religious ones.  If we were prophets, we might, but not else.  But still, is God so poor that He can have but one purpose in a providence?  Every sorrow, of whatever sort, is meant to produce all the good effects which it naturally tends to produce; and since every experience of pain and loss and grief naturally tends to wean us from earth, and to drive us to find in God what earth can never yield, all our sorrows are His messengers to draw us back to Him.  Amos’ lesson as to the purpose of trials is not antiquated.