Sunday Companion Amos 1:1 The words of Amos, who was among the herdsmen of Tekoa, which he saw concerning Israel in the days of Uzziah king of Judah… Do you remember what was the immediate agent in Bishop Hannington's conversion? Someone sent him a little book. Hannington determined to read every word of it, so he began with the preface. He became impressed with the notion that the book was unscholarly. "I therefore threw the book away, and refused to read it." Some time after he was leaving Exeter for St. Petherwyn, and he spied the old book. He knew his friend would ask him if he had read it. "I suppose I must read through it, and so I stuffed it into my portmanteau. At Petherwyn I took the book out, and read the first chapter. I disliked it so much that I determined never to touch it again. I rather think I flung the book across the room. So back into my portmanteau it went, and remained until my visit to Hurst, when I again saw it, and thought I might as well read it, so as to be able to tell the sender about it. So once more I took the old thing, and read straight on for three chapters or so, until at last I came upon that called, 'Do you feel your sins forgiven?' And by means of this my eyes were opened. I was in bed at the time, reading. I sprang out of bed, and leaped about the room rejoicing and praising God that Jesus died for me. From that day to this I have lived under the shadow of His wings in the assurance of faith that I am His and He is mine." The Lord used that which was apparently contemptible to be a minister of salvation! What appeared to James Hannington to be despicable turned out to be the instrument of his redemption. Now God loves to use the apparently base and ignoble, and the despised! He loves to send His power along commonplace wires! He calls into His service some uncultured speaker, whose words tumble out in disorder, and whose thoughts are wanting in logical succession, and He fills the ungainly speech with power, and through the rough utterance there come spiritual stabs that pierce to the very hearts of the hearers. He loves to use some letter which is devoid of literary grace, and written with no grammatical accuracy, and He fills it with the dynamic of the Holy Ghost, and it is mighty to the bringing down of strongholds. (Sunday Companion.) Parallel Verses KJV: The words of Amos, who was among the herdmen of Tekoa, which he saw concerning Israel in the days of Uzziah king of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash king of Israel, two years before the earthquake. |
    |