The simple dignity of Amos's reply to Amaziah must strike every reader with admiration. The priest of Bethel treated him as a professional prophet, who had a calling which he was Constrained to fulfil in some place or other. But Amos did not prophesy because he had been trained to the prophetic vocation; he prophesied because the Lord constrained him to do so. The Lord had made him very sensitive to the prevailing sins of his countrymen, had sent him with a message of warning to the court of Samaria, and had imparted to him supernatural qualifications for the fulfilment of this sacred ministry.

I. GOD IS NOT DEPENDENT UPON EDUCATION OR LEARNING FOR THE QUALIFICATION OF THE AGENTS HE SELECTS. Amos was not the first or the last unlettered, intellectually uncultivated man employed by Infinite Wisdom upon a high and sacred ministry of usefulness. There were in Palestine "schools of the prophets," but in these Amos was not trained. The spiritual power, which is the true "note" of a prophetic calling, is not confined to those who are reared in seats of learning, who have acquired the scholarship which is imparted by the intellectual discipline of school and university.

II. GOD CAN, HOWEVER, GIVE AN EDUCATION AND TRAINING OF HIS OWN, EFFECTIVE FOR THE PURPOSES OF A SPIRITUAL MINISTRY. It is a common mistake to suppose that those who have not been educated in the way which is familiar to us have not been educated at all The Lord taught Amos in the solitude of the fields, the valleys, the hills of Judea, as he tended the cattle, as he gathered the fruit of the sycomore. His education was, in a sense, very thorough. It gave him insight into the mighty works of the Creator, into his wonderful ways in dealing with the children of men, into the secrets of the human heart. His writings are a sufficient proof of his familiarity with the works and ways of God. His sublime descriptions of natural scenery, of the heavens and the earth, his minute acquaintance with the processes of growth and of husbandry, his knowledge of the human heart and all its conflicts, - these are evidences that his mind was not uninformed or untrained.

III. AN UNLETTERED BUT DIVINELY TAUGHT NATURE MAY BE A BLESSING TO MEN, AND MAY BRING GLORY TO GOD. The service which Amos rendered to Israel, to Judah, to the Church of God in subsequent ages, is a proof that God can use instruments, which seem to man's wisdom unsuitable, in order to effect his own purposes. The power of this prophet's ministry is unquestionable. To some extent his message was heeded; and that it was not more effective was not owing to any fault in him, but rather to the hardness of heart which distinguished those to whom he was sent. At the same time, there was so manifest an evidence of Divine power in the life and work of Amos as must have impressed all who knew him with the conviction that the power of God was upon him. A Divine election, Divine qualifications, may be as really present in the case of a minister of religion who has enjoyed every social and educational advantage, as in the case of him who is called from the plough to prophesy in the name of the Lord. But the impression upon the popular mind is in the former case far more deep, and naturally so. Thus God is honoured, whilst witness is borne to him before men, and the cause of righteousness is maintained and advanced. - T.

I. THE CONVENTIONAL PRIEST. Amaziah was chief priest of the royal sanctuary of the calves at Bethel.

1. He was in close intimacy with the king.

2. He seeks to expel an independent teacher from the dominion of the king.(1) By appeal to the king. By bringing against Amos the groundless charge of treason. By a base slander he endeavours to influence the king against the true teacher. He does this —(2) By alarming the prophet. Amaziah said unto Amos, O thou seer, go, flee thee away into the land of Judah, and there eat bread, and prophesy there: but prophesy not again any more at Bethel: for it is the king's chapel, and it is the king's court." It does not appear that the king took any notice of the message which this authorised religious teacher had sent him concerning Amos; hence, in order to carry out his malignant purpose, he addresses the prophet and says, "O thou seer, go, flee thee away." Not imagining that Amos could be actuated by any higher principle than that of selfishness, which reigned in his own heart, the priest advised him to consult his safety by fleeing across the frontier into the kingdom of Judah, where he might obtain his livelihood by the unrestrained exercise of his prophetical gifts. Thank God, the days of the Amaziahs, through the advancement of popular intelligence, are drawing to a close!

II. Here we have the GENUINE priest of a people. Amos seems to have been a prophet not nationally recognised as such.

1. He is not ashamed of his humble origin. "I was no prophet," that is, I am not a prophet by profession, "neither was I a prophet's son." By the son of a prophet he means a disciple or pupil. He had not studied in any prophetic college. No true prophet is ever ashamed of his origin, however humble. As a rule the greatest teachers of the world have struggled up from the regions of poverty and obscurity.

2. He is conscious of the Divinity of his mission. "The Lord took me as I followed the flock, and the Lord said unto me, Go, prophesy unto My people Israel." Amos seems to have had no doubt at all as to the fact that the Lord called him. How he was called does not appear. When God calls a man to work, the man knows it. No argument will convince him to the contrary.

3. In the name of heaven he denounces the conventional priest. In return for this rebellion against Jehovah, Amos foretells for the priest the punishment which will fall upon him when the judgment shall come upon Israel, meeting his words, "Thou sayest, Thou shalt not prophesy" with the keen retort, "Thus saith Jehovah." The punishment is described in verse 17.

(Homilist.)