For answer he drew Lo-ruhamah close to his heart--and wept. Hosea did
not know; only God knew.

All the love he bore for Gomer came back in an overwhelming flood. She
had strayed from him, but his love had never lessened. Would that he
could find her! With all her faults he would forgive her, if she would
repent and return. And yet, that morning, he had been so harsh. He
preached that Israel must bear its guilt and that God had forever hid
repentance from before Him.

If he, a man, could love so deeply and could be willing to forgive,
how much the more so does God love His people; how much the more so
will God have compassion and forgive, if Israel will repent and return
to Him?

And that very night it seemed that God had ordained an ordeal for
Hosea to test him and inspire him in his further work as a prophet.

A message was brought to Hosea that his wife, Gomer, was to be sold as a
slave at public auction, in the slave market of Samaria, on the morrow!




CHAPTER III.

_The Repentant Returns._


With a bowed head, though with a stout heart, Hosea went to the market