Homilist Hosea 5:8 Blow you the cornet in Gibeah, and the trumpet in Ramah: cry aloud at Bethaven, after you, O Benjamin.… The idea of the passage is, Give an earnest warning of the judgment about to break on the people, sound the alarm and startle the population. I. THE NATURE OF AN EARNEST MINISTRY. "Cry aloud." Let the whole soul go forth in the work. Earnestness is not noise. "A celebrated preacher, distinguished for the eloquence of his pulpit preparations, exclaimed on his death-bed, 'Speak not to me of my sermons: alas'! I Was fiddling whilst Rome was burning:" 1. It is not frightening people. 2. It is not bustle. He is always on the "go." Genuine earnestness is foreign to all these things. It has nothing in it of the noise and rattle of the fussy brook, it is like the deep stream rolling its current silently, resistlessly, and without pause. 3. An earnest ministry is living. It is the influence of the whole man. 4. Such a ministry is a matter of necessity. The Divine thing in the man becomes irrepressible, it breaks out as sunbeams through the clouds. 5. Such a ministry is constant. It is not a professional service; it is as regular as the functions of life. 6. Such a ministry is mighty. II. THE NEED OF AN EARNEST MINISTRY. Why was the "cornet" to be now blown in Gibeah, and the " trumpet" in Ramah? Because there was danger. 1. The moral danger to which souls around us are exposed is great. 2. It is near. It is not the danger of an invading army heard in the distance. The enemy has entered the soul and the work of devastating has commenced. 3. It is increasing. The condition of the unregenerate soul gets worse and worse every hour. (Homilist.) Parallel Verses KJV: Blow ye the cornet in Gibeah, and the trumpet in Ramah: cry aloud at Bethaven, after thee, O Benjamin. |
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