I God begins: "I will be as the dew unto Israel." Of dew we may notice several things. (1) It is beautiful and glistening; but the process by which it is formed, and the way by which it comes, are hidden from us, as behind a veil, in mystery. (2) Dew is always proportionate. The greater the need, the larger the supply; the hotter the day, the thicker it lies; and by refreshing where it falls it tends to vitality and growth. (3) And it comes faithfully, morning and evening, wherever it is wanted, and never fails. That is like God. How the Holy Spirit distils upon us, or why, we cannot tell. The commencement of the Divine life and its supplies are perfectly inscrutable. The workings are secret, but the results are patent. And just as I want it, I find it. It comes fullest in the morning of our hottest conflicts, and the fiercer and most searching days of trial have their richest drops. At evening what is the most worked is the most renovated. And without it all the soul's verdure and all the soul's life would wither and die.
II. Now trace the consequences on the man himself. The metaphor is sustained. It is by the dewlike, gentle workings of God's Spirit, by myriads of drops, each imperceptibly small. "He shall grow as the lily and cast forth his roots as Lebanon," etc. There are five things: growth, strength, expansion, beauty, fragrance.
III. They that dwell under His shadow shall return. We all cast our shadows; and the influence we carry, the effect we produce, may be, and should be, and must be, always for good and for God. And this is the characteristic of the Christian, that "they that dwell under his shadow shall return" return to what they have lost: return to peace; return to that good land; return to Canaan; return to their God.
J. Vaughan, Sermons,10th series, p. 181.
Hosea's picture of what the state of Israel would be, in returning to righteousness and becoming reconciled to heaven, is composed curiously and daintily composed of rich colours, drawn from various sources. To his glowing anticipation, no singleimage sufficed to represent the approaching glory. For an adequate portrayal of the brilliant prospect which his eyes beheld, he had to borrow and cull from this quarter and that to gather and combine many things selecting here a little and there a little, and binding the medley together, in one. And it is his eclecticism here that I find inviting and suggestive; his free flitting from object to object, in order to collect materials for an image of perfection.
I. It reminds me of what we need to recognize and act upon, both in the intercourse of life and in the pursuit of truth. No man is worth accepting wholly, and every man has a grace and glory of his own that is worth searching out. See on the one hand, how we renounce and shut ourselves up from canine, snarling, disagreeable people as though there were no lingering lines of beauty in them with which to cultivate acquaintance. See on the other hand, our tendency to hero-worship; to insulate and set up on high and warn off criticism from the man who has shown himself grand and supreme in two or three points, or perhaps in a single quality: how we foolishly assume him to be equally grand and supreme all round on all sides. What is needed is, that we should be more ready and quick to discern the special grace, and the consequent essentialness, of every unit in the crowd, and less ready and quick to confineourselves to any.
II. The perfect man ishere, but not to be brought together and expressed in any single personality. We can approximate towards securing the benefit and use of him by association,uniting in work, study, and intercourse, what we each have our various distinctive characters and attainments. Instances of this may be seen in politics, in Church fellowship, in differing religious views. What we need in order to a growing discernment of the universe of spiritual truth among us is, comprehensionthe comprehension within our circle of intercourse, of as many visions and impressions of earnest brother-souls as possible.
S. A. Tipple, Echoes of Spoken Words,p. 187.
References: Hosea 14:5-7. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. vi., No. 342; Clergyman's Magazine,vol. xxii., 348. Hosea 14:7. J. Keble, Sermons for Holy Week,p. 163.Hosea 14:8. A. Maclaren, Contemporary Pulpit,vol. iii., p. 159; Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xxiii., No. 1339; vol. x., No. 557; Ibid., Morning by Morning,p. 252.Hosea 14:9. J. M. Gibson, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xxxii., p. 344.