as the venerable priest walked through the row of bowed heads, toward
the sanctuary. He stopped in front of Amos and looked at him
curiously.

Amaziah was an old man, but as erect as a cedar in Lebanon. He was
dressed in an ephod, the holy garment of his office. The robe was of
fine twined linen, with threads of blue, scarlet and purple, embroidered
in gold. Two shoulder pieces, fastened to the shoulders of the ephod
with cords of "wreathed gold," came down the front of the garment to
just above the girdle, where they were fastened with two golden rings.
Held by these cords above, and by blue ribbons through the golden
rings below, was the breastplate, the insignia of the High Priest. On
the front of the breastplate, in gold settings, were twelve precious
stones, four rows of three stones each, on each of which was engraved
the name of one of the tribes of Israel. A mitre on his head completed
the High Priest's holy vestments.

Thus brilliantly arrayed, "for glory and for beauty," Amaziah made a
great contrast to the simply clad shepherd, robed in his woolen
mantle, as they faced each other.

The splendor of Amaziah, his age and his authority, the tension caused
by the struggle that was imminent between the Priest and the Prophet,
overawed the assembly. There was a deep silence, like the calm before
a heavy downpour.

Amos, cool and collected, always prepared for an emergency, bowed low
to Amaziah out of respect to his gray head. Amaziah, who was equally
prepared for an emergency, smiled at Amos, kindly, in greeting.