Amos 2:11-12 And I raised up of your sons for prophets, and of your young men for Nazarites. Is it not even thus, O you children of Israel?… Though Amos was neither a prophet nor a prophet's son, but a rough herdsman, and unlettered gatherer of sycamore leaves, his was one of those masculine, indignant natures which burst like imprisoned flame through the white ashes of social hypocrisy. Like Samuel before Saul, like Elijah before Ahab, like John the Baptist before Herod, like Paul before Felix, like John Huss before Sigismund, like Luther before Charles V., like John Knox before Mary, so Amos testified undaunted before the idolatry of courts and priests. One crime of that bad period was luxury and intemperance. In this text the prophet confronts Israel with the high appeal of God, whether He had not put the fire of the Spirit into the hearts of some of their sons, and they had quenched that fire by their blandishments and conventionalities; and whether He had not inspired some of their youths to take the vow of abstinence, and they with the deliberate cynicism of worldlings had tempted them to scorn and break that vow? The very essence of the vow of the Nazarite was self-dedication. The young Nazarite consecrated himself to God, he offered himself, his soul and body, a reasonable, holy, and living sacrifice. The Nazarite was a marked man, and because his vow was regarded as a tacit condemnation of the popular self-indulgence, he was exposed to the sneers of the worldly, and the temptations of the base. Nevertheless, "wisdom is justified of her children." The best men, and the bravest men, and the least conventional men, in this world have been ever the most loudly and the most scornfully abused. Little recked the true Nazarite of muttered sarcasm and bitter hate, — little as recks the sea of the foolish wild birds that scream above it. Health, strength, physical beauty, wholesomeness of life, tranquillity of soul, serene dominion over evil passions, followed in the path of early and life-long abstinence. There seems to be a special strength, a special blessing, above all, a special power of swaying the souls of others for their good, which is imparted to wise and voluntary abstinence. The hands of invisible consecration overshadow, the fire of a spiritual unction crowns the head of him who in early youth has learnt to say with his whole heart, "In strong warfare, in holy self-denial, I dedicate my youth to God." This age wants, this England wants, the Church of Christ wants those who, self-dedicated, like the ideal Nazarite, to noble ends, have not lost the natural grace and bloom of youthful modesty. We do want natures strong and sweet and simple, to whom life is no poor collection of fragments, its first volume an obscene and noisy jest book, its last a grim tragedy or a despicable farce; but to those of whom, however small the stage, the life is a regal drama, played out before God and man. We want the spirit of willing Nazarites. And total abstinence was the central conception of the vow of the Nazarite. (The rest of the sermon is an impassioned plea against indulgence in alcoholic drinks.) (Dean Farrar.) Parallel Verses KJV: And I raised up of your sons for prophets, and of your young men for Nazarites. Is it not even thus, O ye children of Israel? saith the LORD. |
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