This language of reproach and threatening was addressed to Israel and Judah. Yet all who occupy a parallel position of privilege, and who are guilty of similar insensibility, ingratitude, and apostasy, are subject to the condemnation and the penalty pronounced upon the favoured but sinful descendants of Israel.

I. UNPARALLELED FAVOURS ARE RECOUNTED. As a matter of history, Israel had been treated in a singular manner, with unique favour. However we may explain the fact, a fact it is which is here recalled to the memory of the too oblivions Hebrews.

1. Israel had been treated as the family of God. The heavenly Father had cared for, provided for, and protected his peculiar family, the children whom he had adopted.

2. Israel had been brought up from the land of Egypt. To the marvellous deliverance and interposition recorded by Moses, to the equally marvellous guidance and guardianship experienced in the wilderness of wandering, the sacred writers frequently refer. This is not surprising; for never was a more signal instance of Divine compassion than that afforded in the earlier passages of the national life of the chosen people.

3. Israel had been the object of the Divine knowledge, By this we understand (for the language is accommodated to our human weakness) that God had regarded and selected Israel in his inscrutable wisdom for a certain purpose, viz. in order by Israel to make himself known to mankind at large. A peculiar honour was conferred upon the Hebrew nation, not, however, for any excellence or worthiness in them, but for reasons larger and higher than any which were generally apprehended.

II. UNPARALLELED INIQUITIES ARE IMPUTED. Idolatry was charged upon those who had been distinguished as the recipients of the revelation of the Divine unity. Immorality of various kinds was rife amongst those who enjoyed the advantage of the purest moral code known amongst the nations of mankind. The just principle was applied, "To whom much is given of him will be much required." And the application of this principle made manifest the peculiar guilt of Israel. The Word of the Lord by his prophet was therefore righteously severe; other nations were guilty of equal enormities, but the privileges of Israel rendered their iniquities more reprehensible.

III. UNPARALLELED CHASTISEMENT IS THREATENED. All the iniquities of Israel were to be visited by Divine correction. In the remainder of his prophecies Amos enlarges upon this theme. Whether we consider the captivities and humiliations undergone by the favoured nation in the period immediately succeeding, or the history of subsequent centuries, we see the truth of this prediction. Much more apparent is it when we look at the national life of Israel as a whole; and, connecting the earlier apostasies with the rejection of the Messiah, recognize in the present dispersion of. the tribes the fulfilment of a Divine purpose and the inculcation of a Divine lesson. - T.

You only have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities. Can two walk together, except they be agreed? "You only have I known," says God, "of all the families of the earth." What does this mean? It does not mean that he was ignorant of all other people. God knows everything connected with each individual of all generations. Nor does it mean that he had not been kind to other people. "His tender mercies are over all the works of his hands." But by the expression, "I have known," he means, "I have bestowed on you privileges which I have bestowed on no other people" (see Romans 9:4, 5). Now, it is a fact that some men are far more highly favoured by Heaven than others. Some have more health, some more riches, some more intellect, some more friendships, some more means of spiritual improvement. We offer three remarks about specially favoured people.

I. THEY ARE OFTENTIMES THE GREATEST SINNERS. Who of all the people on the face of the earth were greater sinners than the Israelites? Yet they were specially favoured of Heaven. There was not a crime they did not commit; and they filled up the measure of their iniquity by crucifying the Son of God. England is a specially favoured land, but where is there more moral corruption? The fountain of moral iniquity is as deep, as full, as noxious, as active, here as in the darkest and most corrupt parts of the earth. It is true that civilization has so decorated it that its loathsomeness is to some extent concealed; but here it is. The corpse is painted, but it is still a putrid mass.

II. THEY ARE EXPOSED TO SPECIAL PUNISHMENT. "Therefore will I punish you for all your iniquities." Men are not to be envied simply because they are endowed with special favours. Those very endowments, unless they are faithfully used, only augment responsibility, deepen guilt, and ensure a more terrible retribution. Where much has been given, much will be required. "It will be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment," etc. "Therefore will I punish you." I who know all your sins, I who abhor all your sins, I who have power to punish you, will execute vengeance.

III. THEY SHOULD, LIKE ALL PEOPLE, PLACE THEMSELVES IN HARMONY WITH GOD. "Can two walk together, except they be agreed?"

1. Agreement with God is essential to the well being of all intelligent existences. No spirit in the universe can be happy without thorough harmony with the will and mind of God. Heaven is happy because of this harmony; hell is miserable because of antagonism to the Divine mind.

2. The condition of all sinners is that of hostility to the will of God. Indeed, enmity to God is the essence of sin. What, then, is the conclusion? Reconciliation. "We beseech you on behalf of Christ, be ye reconciled unto God" (2 Corinthians 5:20). - D.T.

These words have passed into a proverb, which fact is in itself a proof that they accord with human experience.

I. HARMONY OF SENTIMENT AND PURPOSE ALONE CAN ENSURE AGREEMENT IN LIFE. The spiritual is a key to the outward life. And this holds not only with regard to the individual, but with regard to society. Because people live together in a house, they are not necessarily a true family; because they meet together in an ecclesiastical building, they are not therefore a true congregation; because they occupy the same territory, they are not therefore a true nation. There must be inner accord in order that fellowship may be real.

II. WANT OF HARMONY OF HEART WILL SURELY MANIFEST ITSELF IN LIFE. This is the other side of the same law. The strifes of society are an indication of conflicting principles. Even Christ came to send, not peace, but a sword. Where there is no agreement, one will walk in this road and another in that. External uniformity is of little value. In fact, manifest discord may be of service in revealing the want of spiritual unity, and so leading to repentance.

III. IN THE RELATION BETWEEN GOD AND MAN AGREEMENT IS ONLY TO BE ATTAINED BY THE CONFORMITY OF MAN'S MIND AND WILL TO GOD'S. It is not to be expected, it is not to be desired, that God's purpose should bend to man's. The human ignorance must accept the Divine wisdom, and the human error and sin must embrace the Divine grace and holiness. Such is the teaching of revelation, of the Law, and of the gospel.

IV. WHERE THERE IS WANT OF HARMONY BETWEEN (GOD AND MAN, IT IS FOR MAN TO SEEK THE RECONCILIATION AND UNITY WHICH ALONE CAN BRING ABOUT MAN'S WELFARE. If these blessings were not offered, there would be room to doubt their accessibility. But the revelation of God's counsels in Scripture assures us that our heavenly Father desires that his children should be at one with him. - T.

Will a lion roar in the forest, when he hath no prey? etc. These verses suggest certain remarks on retribution.

I. RETRIBUTION SPRINGS OUT OF THE NATURE OF THINGS. The lion roars in the forest for prey; the young lion cries in his den from an instinct of nature. They are hungry, and they roar; they crave for food, and they cry; this is natural. The lion is quiet till he sees his prey, but roars at the sight of it, and thereby inspires it with such terror that it is deprived of the power of escape. In like manner the young lion which has been weaned and is just beginning to hunt for prey, will lie silent in the den till it is brought near, when the smell of it will rouse him from his quiet. Poiset, in his travels, states that the lion has two different modes of hunting his prey. When not very hungry, he contents himself with watching behind a bush for the animal which is the object of his attack, till it approaches; when by a sudden leap he springs at it, and seldom misses his aim. But if he is famished he does not proceed so quietly; but, impatient and full of rage, he leaves his den and fills with his terrific roar the echoing forest. His voice inspires all beings with terror; no creature deems itself safe in its retreat; all flee they know not whither, and by this means some fall into his fangs. The naturalness of punishment, perhaps, is the point at which the prophet aims in the similitude. It is so with moral retribution. It arises from the constitution of things. Punishment grows out of vice. Misery follows iniquity. Every sin carries with it its own penalty. It does not require the Almighty to inflict any positive suffering on the sinner. He has only to leave him alone, and his sins will find him out.

II. RETRIBUTION IS NOT ACCIDENTAL, BUT ARRANGED. "Can a bird fall in a snare upon the earth, where no gin is for him? shall one take up a snare from the earth, and have taken nothing at all?" The bird is not taken in a snare by chance. The fowler has been there and made preparation for its entanglement and death. Every sinner is a bird that must be caught; the snare is laid in the constitution of things. Instruments were prepared by the providence of God for the capture of the Israelites, which would certainly do their work.

III. RETRIBUTION ALWAYS SOUNDS A TIMELY ALARM. "Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not be afraid?" Heaven does not punish without warnings. Nature warns, providence warns, conscience warns; there is no sinful soul in which the trumpet of alarm does not sound.

IV. RETRIBUTION, HOWEVER IT COMES, IS ALWAYS DIVINE. "Shall there be evil in a city, and the Lord hath not done it?" God is in all. He has established the connection between sin and suffering. He has planned and laid the snare. The everlasting destruction with which the sinner is punished comes from the presence of the Lord and the glory of his power. - D.T.

There is something in this interrogatory style that arrests the attention and excites inquiry. Combined as it is with bold figures of speech, it gives both vivacity and impressiveness to the prophecies of the herdsman of Tekoah.

I. THE PRESENCE OF CALAMITY. The phrase, "evil in a city," is certainly vague, but how much it may imply! How many forms of misery may be suggested by the expression! - e.g. famine, pestilence, war, riot, and faction, all are evils, and evils which do not always come singly to a community.

II. THE MORAL SIGNIFICANCE OF CALAMITY. The suggestion of the prophet is that "the Lord hath done it." We are not warranted in applying the test of our opinions to events permitted by Divine providence. It is foolish to profess ourselves able to interpret all the events, and especially all the calamities, that occur; to see God's "judgments" in all human distresses. Yet no devout mind can question that there is a very important sense in which, when evil happens to a city or a country, the Lord hath done it. The world is governed by moral laws; but the Governor is the supreme Creator of all things, the supreme Disposer of all events. Disobedience to his authority and ordinances entails suffering, privation, disaster. Men reap as they sow.

III. THE PROPHETIC WARNING OF COMING CALAMITY. The prophet was a watchman, as Ezekiel so vigorously shows us, whose office it is to recognize the approach of ill, and to give the people timely and faithful warning. The same office is still fulfilled by those who being dead yet speak, whose declarations concerning Divine government remain for the instruction of all generations. The Bible abounds with admonitions to which cities and nations will do well to give heed. And all ministers of religion are bound to explain to the people the principles of moral rule and law, of moral retribution, of repentance and reformation.

IV. THE PROPER EFFECT OF CALAMITY. The immediate result is that described in the text - fear, trembling, alarm. But the remote result, that chiefly to be desired, is the turning of men's hearts unto the Lord, and their consequent acceptance and forgiveness. - T.

That there must be assumed to be some limitation to this broad statement is manifest. It is not intended to declare that God made his prophets acquainted with all his counsels and intentions, but rather that revelation and inspiration are realities, and that prophecy is a Divine ordinance.

I. THE ACTIONS OF GOD ARE THE RESULT OF DELIBERATE COUNSEL AND PURPOSE. This way of representing the conduct of Divine affairs is out of harmony with much current teaching of our time. We are often told that it is childish to conceive of God as personal, as thinking, feeling, and acting. But so far from such representations being derogatory to the Divine dignity, they do, in fact, enhance our conceptions of him. Reason and will are the lofty attributes of mind; and whilst the Eternal is not bound by the limitations which circumscribe our faculties, these faculties are the finite reflection of what is infinite in him. It is the glory of our Scriptures that they reveal to us a God who commands, not a blind awe, but an intelligent veneration, and elicits an appreciative and grateful love.

II. THE COUNSELS AND PURPOSES OF GOD ARE REVEALED TO THE SYMPATHETIC MINDS OF HIS SERVANTS THE PROPHETS. The mode of this communication is concealed from us; it may have been but partially understood even by the prophets themselves. There is nothing unreasonable in the fellowship of mind between the Creator and created spirits. The human consciousness is above all vehicles surely the fittest medium for the intercourse between the Divine and the finite. God has his own servants employed in his household, his husbandry; and he chooses his own agents for the several works he has for them to do. Among his servants are the prophets - men selected and qualified to speak forth his mind and will to their fellow men. Perhaps we are too restricted in the view we commonly take of the prophetic office. We know that there were schools of prophets among the Hebrews, and that there was an order of prophets in the primitive Church. There were oases in which by the agency of prophets new truth was revealed, but there were also cases in which prophets were inspired to apprehend and republish truth already familiar. Prophets in this second sense there certainly are among us to this day.

III. THE COUNSELS AND PURPOSES OF GOD COMMUNICATED BY THE PROPHETS DEMAND OUR REFERENTIAL ATTENTION AND CHEERFUL OBEDIENCE. When the Omniscient declares his mind, when the Omnipotent unfolds his purpose, by the agency he has chosen, the revelation is first made by the Spirit to the human minister, and then by the human minister to his fellow men. The holiness of the Divine character and the righteousness of the Divine government are thus brought effectively before the minds of the intelligent and responsible sons of men. The secret is revealed, not simply to excite wonder, but to guide conduct. The appropriate attitude of those privileged with a revelation so precious is that expressed in the resolution, "All the words which the Lord hath spoken will we do." - T.

Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets, etc. These words mean that although punishment for the guilty Israelites was natural, arranged, and withal Divine, yet it would come according to a warning made to them through the prophets, and which these would feel compelled to deliver. The words suggest two remarks.

I. GOD HAS MADE A SPECIAL REVELATION TO HIS SERVANTS. "He revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets." In all ages God has selected men to whom he has made communications of himself. In times past he spake unto the fathers by the prophets. In truth, he makes special revelations of himself to all true men. "Shall I hide from Abraham the thing that I do?" "The secrets of the Lord are with them that fear him, and he will show them his covenant." God has given to all men a general revelation. In nature without and within, in the material domain, and in the spiritual. But he makes a special revelation to some. The Bible is indeed a special revelation.

1. Special in its occasion. It is made on account of the abnormal moral condition into which man has fallen - made in consequence of human sin and its dire consequences. Had there been no sin, in all probability we should have had no written revelation. The great book of nature would have sufficed.

2. Special in its doctrines The grand characteristic truth is this - that God so loved men as sinners that he gave his only begotten Son for their redemption. This is the epitome of the gospel,

II. THAT THE RIGHT RECEPTION OF THIS SPECIAL REVELATION NECESSITATES PREACHING. "The lion hath roared, who will not fear? the Lord God hath spoken, who can but prophesy?" The idea is that the men who have rightly taken the truth into them can no more conceal it than men can avoid terror at the roar of the lion. There are some truths which men may receive and feel no disposition to communicate, such as the truths of abstract science, which have no relation to the social heart. But gospel truths have such a relation to the tenderest and profoundest affections of the spirit, that their genuine recipients find them to be irrepressible. They feel like Jeremiah, that they have fire shut up in their bones; like the apostles before the Sanhedrin, "We cannot but speak the things that we have seen and heard;" like Paul, "Necessity is laid upon me to preach the gospel." "Who can but prophesy?" None but those who have not received the truth. - D.T.

The conception of Ames is remarkable for grandeur. He sees in prophetic vision the approaching siege of Samaria, the capital of the northern kingdom, and poetically summons the Egyptians and Philistines to gather themselves together upon the surrounding hills, and to witness the tumults within the city, the assaults from without, and the impending ruin. But the moral significance of history, in the prophet's mind, transcends the pictorial interest; and in this verse he gives utterance to a profound and awful truth with regard to human nature. Wrongdoing corrupts the conscience and interferes with a correct perception of right and goodness.

I. IT IS A LAW OF HUMAN NATURE THAT CONDUCT REACTS UPON CHARACTER. No doubt actions are the expression of the moral nature, the moral habits, of men. But, on the other hand, those who persevere in a certain course of conduct are by that very fact moulded and fashioned and even transformed. Thus it is that those who submit to circumstances and who yield to influences are affected even in their inmost moral nature by the experience they pass through.

II. PASSION AND INTEREST WARP THE MORAL JUDGMENT. Nations which, like Israel, are guilty of luxury and of idolatry, which pillage their neighbours' goods, and wage unlawful war, involving widespread calamity, thereby blunt their sensibilities to right and wrong. They habituate themselves to regard all questions in the light of their own ambition, or their own aggrandizement and enrichment. As a consequence they are tempted to call evil good, and good evil. Especially are they liable to term a false judgment upon their own conduct.

III. THUS WRONG DOING HAS A TENDENCY TO PERPETUATE ITSELF. They who by reason of abandoning themselves to evil courses have silenced the voice of conscience, lose the moral power to do better. Because they "know not to do right," they continue to do wrong. They reap as they have sown. They advance upon the road of sin by the momentum derived from past iniquity. - T.

For they know not to do right, saith the Lord, who store up violence and robbery in their palaces, etc. We derive from this passage three general remarks.

I. THAT THERE IS AN ETERNAL LAW OF "RIGHT" THAT SHOULD GOVERN MAN IN ALL HIS RELATIONS. Right, as a sentiment, is one of the deepest, most ineradicable, and operative sentiments in humanity. All men feel that there is such a thing as right. What the right is, is a subject on which there has been and is a variety of opinion. Right implies a standard, and men differ about the standard. Some say the law of your country is the standard; some say public sentiment is the standard; some say temporal expediency is the standard. All these are fearfully mistaken. Philosophy and the Bible teach that there is but one standard - that is the will of the Creator. That will he reveals in many ways - in nature, in history, in conscience, in Christ. Conformity to that will is right.

1. The law of right should govern man in his relations with God. That law says - Thank the kindest Being most, love the best Being most, reverence the greatest Being most. "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God," etc.

2. The law of right should govern man in his relation to his fellow men. "Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even so unto them." This law of right is immutable. It admits of no modification. It is universal. It is binding alike on all moral beings in the universe. It is benevolent. It seeks the happiness of all. Earth will be Paradise again when the will of God is done here "as it is in heaven."

II. THAT A PRACTICAL DISREGARD OF THIS LAW LEADS TO FRAUD AND VIOLENCE. "For they know not to do right, saith the Lord, who store up violence and robbery in their palaces." The magnates of Samaria had no respect for the practice of right, hence they "stored up violence and robbery in their palaces." Fraud and violence are the two great primary crimes in all social life. By the former men are deceived, befooled, rifled of their rights, and disappointed of their hopes and expectations. Never was fraud stronger in England than today - fraud in literature, commerce, religion, legislation. By the latter, men are disabled, wounded, crushed, murdered. Can the history of the world furnish more terrible manifeststions of violence than we have had in the wars of Christendom in this age? Why this fraud and violence? Why are these devils let loose to fill the world with lamentation and woe? The answer is in the text, "Men know not to do right" That is, they do not practise the right.

III. THAT FRAUD AND VIOLENCE MUST ULTIMATELY MEET WITH CONDIGN PUNISHMENT. "Therefore thus saith the Lord God; An adversary there shall be even round about the land; and he shall bring down thy strength from thee, and thy palaces shall be spoiled." How was this realized? "Against him came up Shalmaneser King of Assyria; and Hoshea became his servant, and gave him presents .... In the ninth year of Hoshea the King of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away into Assyria, and placed them in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes" (2 Kings 3-6; 2 Kings 18:9-11). The cheats and. murderers of mankind will, as sure as there is justice in the world, meet with a terrible doom. Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth eaten. Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days. Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth. Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter. Ye have condemned and killed the just; and he doth not resist you" (James 5:1-6). "Punishment is the recoil of crime; and the strength of the back stroke is in proportion to the original blow." - D.T.

The language of the prophet in this passage is severe in its import and graphic in its style. He foresees the approach of the invaders, the powerlessness of Israel to resist their attack, the completeness with which their work is destined to be done. In two directions especially the blow of vengeance is seen to fall

I. IDOLATRY IS PUNISHED BY THE DESTRUCTION OF IDOL TEMPLES AND ALTARS. Departure from Jehovah was the radical offence of Israel. Beside the great altar set up at Bethel by Jeroboam, where the golden calves were worshipped, there seem to have been other sacred places, which were polluted by idol service and idol sacrifice. Heathenism was seen to encroach upon the territory consecrated to Jehovah. Altars were reared to deities, imaginary indeed, but endowed by popular superstition with characters altogether opposed to the pure and perfect character of the Eternal who had revealed himself to the ancestors of the Hebrew nation. It was most appropriate that retribution should fall upon the centres and the symbols of a worship so debasing as that which had been substituted for the service of Jehovah. The powerlessness of the so called "gods" to protect their sanctuaries and their altars was made manifest; the defeat of Baal was the triumph of Jehovah.

II. PRIDE AND LUXURY ARE PUNISHED BY THE DESTRUCTION OF THE MANSIONS AND PALACES OF THE GREAT. Whether we regard these "summer houses" as simply the upper apartments, or as country villas erected in rural retreats, the prophetic lesson is the same. Their destruction, and the destruction of the sumptuous residences decorated with ornaments of ivory, was a retribution upon those who esteemed the splendour and luxuriousness of their abodes more dear than the practice of virtue, of benevolence, of piety. No lesson is more frequently repeated in Scripture than the lesson that the Judge of all the earth delights to abase the proud, whilst he exalts the lowly. When the princes of Israel beheld their sumptuous dwellings razed to the ground, and when they themselves passed into exile, how could they fail to recognize the hand of a righteous and indignant God? - T.

Hear ye, and testify in the house of Jacob, saith the Lord God, the God of hosts, etc. The same persons are here addressed who in the ninth verse were summoned from Philistia and Egypt. They were now to testify to the facts of the case, that it might be seen that the punishment inflicted upon the inhabitants was richly deserved. The subject of the words is national judgment, which we are here led to regard in three aspects.

I. IN RELATION TO THE TRUE PROPHETS. "Hear ye, and testify in the house of Jacob." We may perhaps regard the words also as spoken to the prophets. Hear, ye prophets.

1. The prophets were to make themselves acquainted with the coming judgments. They were to be watchmen who were to descry afar the coming danger. All true ministers of religion should by earnest study acquaint themselves with the terrible punishment that awaits the guilty world.

2. The prophets were to announce the coming, judgment. "Hear ye, and testify." Their work is to sound the alarm, to blow the trumpet. "So thou, O son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel: therefore thou shall hear the word at my mouth, and warn them from me" (Ezekiel 33:7). One of the chief duties of a true minister is to "warn every man" (Colossians 1:28).

II. IN RELATION TO ITS MORAL CAUSE. What was the cause of these threatened judgments? Here it is. "I shall visit the transgressions of Israel." Judgments do not come on men as a matter of necessity; they do not roll on man like the billows of ocean on the shore, by blind force; nor do they come because the Governor of the universe is malevolent, and has pleasure in the sufferings of his creatures. No; he is love. He "desireth not the death of a sinner." They come because of sin. The sins of a nation draw judgment after them as the moon draws after it the billows that beat upon the shore. Let no nation hope to escape judgments until it gets rid of sin. Judgments are but sins ripened into a harvest, subterranean fires breaking into volcanoes. Eternal love requires for the order and happiness of the universe that sins and sorrows, transgressions and troubles, should be inseparably linked together.

III. IS RELATION TO ITS TERRIBLE ISSUES.

1. There is the deprivation of religious institutions. "I will also visit the altars of Bethel: and the horns of the altar shall be cut off, and fall to the ground." "Signal vengeance was to be taken on the place whence all the evils which spread through the ten tribes originated. The 'horns' were four projecting points, in the shape of horns, at the corners of ancient altars. They may be seen in the representations of those dug up by Belzoni in Egypt. As they were ornamental, the action here described was designed to express the contempt in which the altar would be held by the Assyrians." Corrupt punishment for a nation's transgressions would involve the ruin of religious institutions.

2. There is a deprivation of all their conveniences and luxuries. "And I will smite the winter house with the summer house; and the houses of ivory shall perish, and the great houses shall have an end, saith the Lord." Eastern monarchs and princes, we are told, have summer as well as winter houses. The "ivory houses" do not mean houses composed of that material, but richly ornamented dwellings. These were to be destroyed. "The pomp or pleasantness of men's houses," says Matthew Henry, "will be so far from fortifying them against God's judgments, that it will make them the more grievous and vexatious, as their extravagance about them will be put to the score of their sins and follies." - D.T.