I. A PICTURE OF HUMAN GREATNESS. Man has his own standard of greatness. The prophet piles up epithets to represent man's power. In vivid colours and in rapid succession there rise before the imagination the figures of the "swift" runner who is wont to overtake his foe, the "strong" hero whose blow cleaves the helmet in twain, the "mighty" whose praise is upon all lips, the "bowman" whose arrow pierces the fugitive in the battlefield, the "swift on foot" who trusts for safety to his speed, the "horseman" whose charge has often broken the doughty ranks of the enemy, the "courageous," "the strong of his heart," whom no danger daunts.

II. A VISION OF INEVITABLE RETRIBUTION AND OF THE DISCOMFITURE OF THE ENEMIES OF GOD. Even such as those who have been described shall be powerless in the day of the Lord. Exemption from the operation of righteous law is not to be obtained by any human craft or might. The swift shall be overtaken, and the arm of the warrior shall tall powerless by his side. Justice must be vindicated; the Lord of right will never abandon his sovereign throne. - T.

I. A PICTURE OF THE DECAY OF NATIONAL PROWESS. It is a painful remembrance of departed power, like some castle once the seat of a nation's strength, now in ruins. The swift are there, but their swiftness is gone; the strong remain, but only as a wreck of their former selves, unable to gather up their strength. Danger found them, like Samson in the lap of Delilah, shorn of all their boasted power. He who handles the bow dare not stand to pour his shafts on the enemy; the fleet of foot, and even the mounted soldier, should fall into the hands of the enemy, and the mighty man, once full of courage, should be glad to escape, stripped of arms and clothing, in the day of visitation. Every sentence increases the effect of this picture. What they had been and what they were forms a terrible contrast.

II. THE REASON FOR SUCH A DECAY OF PROWESS. Sin had borne this deadly fruit. All their national valour sprang from confidence in God. They knew that "the angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear Him, and delivereth them." What foe could stand before men who leaned on the arm of God? Lord Bacon says, that "man, when he resteth and assureth himself upon Divine protection and favour, gathereth a force and faith which human nature in itself could not obtain." All their victories are proof of these words. Confidence in God had brought David off victorious in his conflict with Goliath (Deuteronomy 32:30). All was changed now. Sin had sapped their confidence in heaven, and the whole fabric of their national life was tottering to its foundations. They felt the truth of the old words, "He that offends against heaven has none to whom he can pray." History presents many parallels to this declension. Injustice and sin have shorn great men of their strength, and left them weak in the hour of danger.

III. THE EFFECTS OF THIS DECAY OF VALOUR WERE SOON EVIDENT. For them, as for us, peace depended on prowess; prowess was born of confidence in God. Foes, who were only held in check by fear, soon discovered their declension, — for such decay has many tokens, — and quickly overran their land. The floodgates were opened, and a tide of vengeance poured itself over their land. Three times Amos repeats, — the reiteration marking the certainty of their doom, — "He shall not deliver himself." Application. Sin is ruin. He who would have victory must be loyal to heaven, then God will surely fulfil to him the great promise to Joshua (Joshua 1:5).

(J. Telford, B. A.)