Famine

"I will send a famine in the land ...........of hearing the words of the Lord."Amos 8: 11.
Israel will not listen to God' s prophets , and their voices will be silenced . This was a just retribution . As they were not willing to have the word of God , so there should be a famine of that word . The word of God was precious in the days of Samuel , because there was no open vision ; so should it be again . And perhaps this privation will be one day meted to our own beloved country . There is a much larger proportion of our population outside than inside our churches ; and men proudly eschew God's Word . It may be that the message of the Gospel will almost cease from among them , and be replaced - as in many instances is now the case  - by the dry husks of morality and ceremonialism . Then they shall run to and fro to seek the word of of the Lord , and shall not find it .................. It is worth notice , that if men have not God , they will find some substitute . They will swear by the sin of Samaria , and say , Thy God O Dan ; thy manner O Beersheba . This is why so many false religions are just now so much in vogue . Man's nature is made for God , and hungers for a substitute    Meyer

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