per class, which cares only for
material luxury glossed over by art, which has condescended to be its
servant, is bringing near the evil day which it hugs itself into
believing will never come.

RIPE FOR GATHERING

'Thus hath the Lord God shewed unto me: and behold a basket of
summer fruit. 2. And He said, Amos, what seest thou? And I said, A
basket of summer fruit. Then said the Lord unto me, The end is come
upon My people of Israel; I will not again pass by them any more.
3. And the songs of the temple shall be howlings in that day, saith
the Lord God: there shall be many dead bodies in every place; they
shall cast them forth with silence. 4. Hear this, O ye that swallow
up the needy, even to make the poor of the land to fail. 5. Saying,
When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell corn? and the
sabbath, that we may set forth wheat, making the ephah small, and
the shekel great, and falsifying the balances by deceit? 6. That
we may buy the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes;
yea, and sell the refuse of the wheat? 7. The Lord hath sworn by
the excellency of Jacob, Surely I will never forget any of their
works. 8. Shall not the land tremble for this, and every one mourn
that dwelleth therein? and it shall rise up wholly as a flood; and
it shall be cast out and drowned, as by the flood of Egypt. 9. And
it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord God, that I will
cause the sun to go down at noon, and I will darken the earth in
the clear day: 10. And I w ill turn your feasts into mourning, and
all your songs into lamentation; and I will bring up sackcloth upon
all loins, and baldness upon every head; and I will make it as the
mourning of an only son, and the end thereof as a bitter day. 11.
Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a
famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water,
but of hearing the words of the Lord: 12. And they shall wander
from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall
run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it.
13. In that day shall the fair virgins and young men faint for
thirst. 14. They that swear by the sin of Samaria, and say, Thy
God, O Dan, liveth: and, The manner of Beer-sheba liveth; even they
shall fall, and never rise up again.'