Homilist Hosea 4:7 As they were increased, so they sinned against me: therefore will I change their glory into shame. The "increase" is in the number of the population; but it may refer to increase of wealth. I. SECULAR PROSPERITY ATTAINED BY THE WICKED. 1. That is a common fact. Wicked men in all ages have, as a rule, been more prosperous than their contemporaries. Two things account for this fact — (1) Their secular earnestness. Material good is the one thing With them. (2) Their moral unscrupulousness. They have no high sense of honour, no inviolable rules of right, no swaying sense of moral responsibilities. Hence they will not reject the fraudulent and false if they will serve them in their course. 2. That is a trying fact. Men of incorruptible truth, honesty, and high devotion have in all ages been baffled and distressed by this fact. II. SECULAR PROSPERITY ABUSED. In the hands of the wicked wealth can — 1. Promote injustice. It fattens the despotic in human nature. 2. It promotes sensuality. It provides means to inflame the low passions of human nature, and to pamper the brutal appetites. 3. It promotes practical atheism. The man with wealth, and without God in his heart, sinks into an utter forgetfulness of the Author of all good. III. SECULAR PROSPERITY IS RUINOUS TO THE WICKED. God will strip them of all they now glory in, all their worldly prosperity, and give them shame instead. "Therefore will I change their glory into shame." I will quench all the lights which they have kindled. I will bring them into wretchedness and contempt. (Homilist.) Parallel Verses KJV: As they were increased, so they sinned against me: therefore will I change their glory into shame.WEB: As they were multiplied, so they sinned against me. I will change their glory into shame. |
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