stand aside and see rulers, priests and "all the mighty men of wealth"
despoiling his well-beloved fatherland. He must speak words of reproach
and warning. He must open the eyes of his people to the calamity that
was ahead of them.

One night Hosea was at home brooding over his own family troubles and
thinking of the future of his country. He had just seen the children
to bed and his mind was dwelling on Gomer, their mother, from whom he
had not heard a single word since she went away. As he came downstairs
he heard shouting and screaming and hurrying footsteps. Going into the
street, he learned that another of those attacks on peaceful people
had been made by a company of Menahem's followers for the purpose of
robbery.

This did not surprise Hosea in the least. What did chagrin and pain
him was the discovery that the attacking party was under the direction
of several priests whom, he knew personally.

All that night this phrase kept running through his mind--"Like people,
like priest." And, strange to say, the thought of Gomer, his wife, whom
he loved devotedly, whom he never ceased loving, kept on intruding
itself into his thoughts about his country.

By morning, however, the whole situation had cleared up for him.
Israel, its rulers and priests were like Gomer. God loved the whole
people of Israel devotedly as Hosea loved Gomer, but Israel does not
always understand what God desires of His people any more than Gomer
understood what Hosea desired of her. If Gomer had continued loving
her husband, as from the beginning, she would never have left him; if
Israel had continued loving God, as from the beginning, Israel would