James Nisbet Commentary - Hosea 7:9 - 7:9

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James Nisbet Commentary - Hosea 7:9 - 7:9


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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

UNCONSCIOUS DEGENERATION

(For the New Year)

‘Gray hairs are here and there upon him, yet he knoweth not.’

Hos_7:9

The first Sunday of another year.—A new year with new possibilities. Let us pause beside the milestone, and turn our thoughts inward; cast up our life’s accounts and balances, and see how they stand with God. We have been taking stock in business, remembering our friends, forming plans and purposes for a new year. Let us take stock of our character. Other things we must some day leave behind; our characters we must take with us. How, then, do they stand? Are they stronger, or are there signs of deterioration, grey hairs here and there upon them, though we know it not?

I. First of all, let us note this: most religious deterioration is unconscious deterioration.—It takes years for a lava stream to change from a fiery torrent into the hard blocks which we cannot cut with steel. So with character. Our strength does not slip away in a night; we do not wake up to find it gone. It ebbs away so gradually that we scarcely know it is going. We scarcely see the coming of the grey hairs. Or look at it in another way. The fear for the members of a Confirmation Class is not lest we should become prodigal sons, claiming our portion, and slipping off to the far country. The fear is rather lest in the stress of business, the whirl of life, we unconsciously deteriorate; not so much the deliberate choice of evil, as this: “While thy servant was busy here and there it was gone!” This is the danger, a gradual but unconscious religious weakening and degeneration. And all the forces of modern life make for this unconscious weakening; the stress of life, the difficulty of Christian fellowship, or of getting into the desert place with Jesus.

II. Nothing is more common than this unconscious degeneration.—Our fathers talked much of backsliding. The word has gone out. There is not much backsliding among our members in the old sense. Our position prevents us. Our duties to our family, church, etc., prevent us. But there is nothing to prevent and ban unconscious degeneration. The world will never know—at least, we think so,—if we have less joy in prayer, less diligence in the study of the Bible, less enthusiasm, if Christ’s presence is more nebulous, if the witness of the Spirit less vivid. And so the unconscious degeneration goes on, grey hairs here and there upon us, and, alas! we know it not.

III. How are we to know whether there is degeneration?—If there is no advance, then we may be certain there is degeneration, though unconscious. In the world of life there is no such thing as balance. Whatever ceases to progress drops back. Illustrations from your garden, business, etc., will occur to all. So with the character. There is no possible balance and standstill. When progress ceases degeneration begins.

IV. This, therefore, is the question to ask ourselves this new year: are we progressing?—If no growth, then the grey hairs are here and there. Where there is no development there must be degeneration, however unconscious; and the very unconsciousness of it one of its dangers. Let us, therefore examine ourselves, and in that spirit enter once more into our solemn covenant with God.