Homilist Hosea 6:4 O Ephraim, what shall I do to you? O Judah, what shall I do to you? for your goodness is as a morning cloud… I. MAN IS A WRECK. The picture which this book gives us of the Jewish people is truly a hideous and lamentable one. Sin roils its warm, sparkling, but poisonous current through the veins of all. Man everywhere is a moral ruin. Physically, intellectually, and morally man is a wreck. He is at war with himself, at war with the universe, at war with God. But God is earnest about man in this condition. He appeals in the most tender and moving strains of love and mercy. II. MAN, THOUGH A WRECK, IS AN OBJECT OF IMPORTANCE. Nothing impresses so much the importance of man as the interest which the great God seems to take in him — the earnestness which He displays for his recovery. A great, mind is never earnest about an unimportant object. Little minds grow enthusiastic about small matters. There is a strange power in suffering to heighten affection. As is seen in homes in times of sickness. III. MAN, THOUGH A WRECK, IS CAPABLE OF RESTORATION. Three things show this. 1. The condition of man in this world. 2. The deep aspiration of humanity. 3. The extraordinary means that are provided for man's restoration. IV. MAN, THOUGH A WRECK, EXERTS A FEARFUL POWER. Why did all God's operations fail? On account of man's power, even in his wrecked condition, to resist. Man counteracts the moral influence of nature and the tendency of providence: he even resists the appeals of the Gospel and the strivings of the Spirit. (Homilist.) Parallel Verses KJV: O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? O Judah, what shall I do unto thee? for your goodness is as a morning cloud, and as the early dew it goeth away. |
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