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Amos
Commonly reckoned among the minor Hebrew prophets, and having an obscure position in the arrangement of the Old Testament, Amos ought to be counted among the persons who have initiated forward steps of large importance in the spiritual progress of mankind. He deserves a creditable rating among all who have contributed distinctly to humanity's knowledge of God. For one thing, Amos appears to have been the first to teach that Yahweh was not exclusively the God of the Hebrew people but was also the God of all people. Apparently, also, Amos was one of the first persons to teach that God is the Mind of man. Furthermore, he evidently had a concept of God's character far in advance of the ordinary religious thought of his time.
To be appreciated as he deserves, Amos needs to be given his own place in Hebrew history. He delivered his prophecies or sermons between 760 and 750 B. C. This period was about five centuries after Moses and about two centuries after the kingdom left by Solomon had been divided into the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. The prophet-statesman Isaiah had not spoken yet, nor had many of the Psalms been written. Jeroboam II was king of Israel, while Azariah (Uzziah) was king of Judah. For both kingdoms, especially for Israel, this was a time of material prosperity but of spiritual poverty. Tiglath-Pileser III became king of Assyria, then the dominant power in that part of the world, and he was soon to reduce both of the Hebrew kingdoms to the position of dependent and tributary states. Before many years, one of his successors put an end to the kingdom of Israel, and scattered its inhabitants so widely that they were remembered afterward only as the lost tribes. "There was none left but the tribe of Judah only" (II Kings 17:18).
Amos was a resident of Judah, not of Israel. He was a shepherd and a cultivator of fruit trees, not a priest. Nevertheless, he felt that he was called to exhort and warn the rich and ruling class in Israel. So he went to Bethel, the northern kingdom's religious center or sanctuary, and succeeded in delivering the oral sermons which he afterward preserved as the Book of Amos. During the series of sermons, the chief priest at Bethel tried to stop them (Amos 7:10-13), but Amos persisted, and was allowed to complete his work.
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November 29, 1930 issue
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Our Protection from Evil
ETHEL MUNRO GOSS
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The Immediacy of the Power of God
SYLVANUS W. MITCHELL
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To-day
JESSIE G. CALDWELL
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Claim Your Road
NATHAN H. WEIL
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Reward of Obedience
ODELIA L. LA TOUR
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God's Divine Faithfulness
MARION B. EMERY
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"Judge not"
GWENDOLYN M. L. THOMAS
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Progress
ARTHUR CROOKENDEN
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A Prayer
MARY I. MESECHRE
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In your issue of Monday, July 14, there appears a report...
Albert J. Windle, Committee on Publication for Nottinghamshire, England,
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Mrs. Eddy, the subject of an editorial, was born of devout...
Aaron E. Brandt, Committee on Publication for the State of Pennsylvania,
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Your esteemed newspaper contained on the third of May...
Nils Lerche, Committee on Publication for Norway,
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The sentence as quoted from the Christian Science textbook...
William H. Adler, Committee on Publication for Hongkong and Canton, China,
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Revelation
LORETTA HANDKE
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Amos
Clifford P. Smith
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Assimilation
Violet Ker Seymer
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Choosing the Real
Duncan Sinclair
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The Lectures
with contributions from Herbert M. Peet, Elbert B. Tuttle
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Many years ago I heard of Christian Science through a...
Harry Andersson
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About twenty-five years ago I was an earnest worker in...
Sarah Romain Tyler
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In 1919 I turned to Christian Science as a last resort...
Laura Sherren McClurg
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Several years ago Christian Science was proved to us to...
Mable E. Stone
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My husband became very ill and four doctors decided...
Estelle M. Blackmore
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"Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man...
Nellie A. Frost
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My first reading of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures"...
Bessie Street Coburn
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We have depended upon Christian Science in our home...
Grace H. Sayers
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God is Spirit
KATE M. DICKERSON
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Signs of the Times
with contributions from Charles Stelzle, Charles A. Forbes, correspondent, Julius Klein, G. S. Lackland