Homilist Amos 8:1-2 Thus has the Lord GOD showed to me: and behold a basket of summer fruit.… God teaches the world in two ways; by symbols and sayings. By this "basket of summer fruit" He taught Amos that Israel was ripe for judgment. These summer fruits remind us of — I. THE BENEFICENCE OF GOD. In the summer fruit He gives us the useful and the beautiful. In these fruits of the earth pro visions are made for our physical wants. They are beautiful as well as useful. How beautiful are these fruits of the earth! Their exquisite forms, in bound less variety; their lovely tints, their bloom and gorgeous hues, how beautiful! Deep within us all is the love for the beautiful. The God who planted within us the sentiment ministers abundantly to it in these baskets of fruit. God's beneficence in these fruits of the earth is shown to be — (1) Abundant, (2) Unremitting, (3) Undeserved. II. THE MATURING FORCES OF DIVINE GOVERNMENT. This "basket of summer fruit " is the outcome of a very long and complicate process. Snow and ice, showers and dews, clouds and sunshine, storm and calm, bleak winds of winter, genial airs of spring, and the hot breath of summer, the constant care and toil of the labourers in the fields and orchards, have all co-operated in bringing out this result. Antecedently, this result would not have been expected. Suppose a man in the depths of winter being told for the first time that those leafless fruit trees, shivering in the winds, and hung with icicles, should, in a few months, be loaded with clusters of apples, and plums, and pears, and grapes, would he have believed it? The thing to him would have been incredible. Things will ever be occurring in God's universe upon which antecedently no finite being could calculate. Therefore do not argue (1) Against the conversion of the world, or (2) Against the resurrection of the dead. III. THE DESTINED DECADENCE OF ALL ORGANIC LIFE. In that " basket of summer fruit " there is death. In a few short days it will be reduced to utter corruption. So it is with all material life: no sooner is perfection reached than decay begins. (Homilist.) Parallel Verses KJV: Thus hath the Lord GOD shewed unto me: and behold a basket of summer fruit.WEB: Thus the Lord Yahweh showed me: behold, a basket of summer fruit. |
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