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Hosea fully realised and taught that in the divine economy punishment was never an end in itself but only a means to a higher end. In imagination he pictures the divine Lover as looking forward to the day when discipline shall have done its work and love could find perfect expression. No more stirring love-song can be found in the world's literature, for it voices the love of the divine Lover for human society (Hos. 214-20):

Therefore I am going to allure her,

And bring her into the wilderness,

And speak endearingly to her.

And I will give her from there her vineyards,
And the valley of Achor as a door of hope,

And there she shall respond as in the days of her youth,
As in the days when she came up from the land of Egypt.
And it shall be in that day, is the oracle of Jehovah,

She shall call to her husband,

And shall call no more to the Baalim.

And I will remove the name of the Baalim from her mouth,
And they shall no more be mentioned by their names.
And I will betroth her to me forever,

Yea, I will betroth her to me in righteousness,

And in judgment, and in kindness, and in mercy,
Yea, I will betroth her to me in faithfulness,

And she shall know Jehovah.

In these impassioned words Hosea sets. forth his central social teaching. Righteousness, justice, kindness, love, and fidelity are the essential and only foundations on which an intimate and abiding relationship between God and mankind can be established. Hosea's figure describes that relationship as closer than even that between parent and child. When once it is firmly established the foundations of a perfect society and a perfect world will be laid. Being a prophet of agricultural Israel and a poet who loved nature, as revealed in the radiant beauty of fertile Palestine, Hosea pictures the ultimate social state in concrete terms drawn from the productive vineyards and the waving fields of Northern Israel. He addresses Israel by its ancient name Jezreel, whose meaning, God sows, was now

a reminder not of Jehu's crime (Hos. 14) but of the prosperity that awaited the nation whenever it merited Jehovah's favour (Hos. 221-23):

And it shall come to pass in that day,

That I will speak,-it is the oracle of Jehovah,

I will speak to the heavens,

And they will speak to the earth.

And the earth will speak to the grain,

And the new wine and the oil;
And they shall speak to Jezreel,

And I will sow her in the land.

And I will have pity upon the unpitied,

And I will say to Not-my-people, "Thou art my people,'
And they will say, 'Thou art my God.'

In a later passage Hosea apparently uses the figure of father in describing Jehovah's love for his people. While the translation at certain points is doubtful, the meaning of the passage as a whole is clear. As in a mighty symphony, the two contrasting emotions of divine love and of human disloyalty struggle together in this wonderful monologue (Hos. 111-5, 8, 9):

When Israel was young, then I began to love him,

And out of Egypt I called his sons.

The more I called them,

The further they went away from me.

They kept sacrificing to Baalim,

And making offerings to images.

Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk,

Taking them up in my arms;

But they did not know that I healed them;

With humane cords I ever drew them,

With bands of love.

And I was to them as one who lifts up the yoke from off their jaws,

And bending toward him, I gave him food to eat.

He must return to the land of Egypt,

Or Assyria will be their king;

For they have refused to return to me,

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How can I give thee up, O Ephraim! how can I give thee over,

O Israel!

How am I to give thee up as Admah! make thee like Zeboim!
My heart asserts itself;

My sympathies are all aglow.

I will not carry into effect the fierceness of my anger;

I will not turn to destroy Ephraim.

For God am I, and not man,

Holy in the midst of thee, therefore I will not consume.

In the end divine love triumphs. If this passage stood alone it would seem that this triumph was won at the cost of divine justice; but in the light of Hosea's teachings as a whole it is obvious that there is no antithesis between divine love and justice. In the presence of defiant wrong-doing divine justice and discipline are the only possible expressions of love. Hosea makes it absolutely clear that all of Israel's seeming misfortunes, the calamity which overtook the pioneer nation in the valley of Achor (which means sorrow), her earlier conflicts with neighbouring nations, and even the Assyrian scourge are but Jehovah's method of teaching her the way in which she should walk and the folly of disobedience and disloyalty. As in Thompson's Hound of Heaven, God is unescapable, but his tireless pursuit is prompted only by love.

Hosea's Contributions to Israel's Social Ideals. The first impression conveyed by Hosea's brilliant impassioned addresses is that he was a preacher and theologian rather than a social teacher. A closer study, however, makes it clear that he was one of the most scientific of the prophets, for his fundamental teachings are not dogmatic nor metaphysical, but are based on personal experience and a careful study of the psychological forces which mould society. He spoke with power and conviction because he stood squarely on reality; but he dealt not merely with external acts but also with underlying motives. He recognised that a man's will, and therefore his every act, is governed as much by his emotions as by his intelligence. Hence he sought to develop normal feelings in the heart of the individual and society, so that whatever be the social environ

ment a right response would be assured. In other words, for external control through law and custom and public opinion he sought to substitute social self-control.

Hosea also revolutionised man's conception of God and the function of human society. He anticipated by eight centuries Jesus' teaching that God is love and that personal loyalty to him ("Seek first the rule of God") is the essential prerequisite of a perfect social order. Hosea vastly simplified the idea of religion when he declared that God is the supreme Lover and that man is the chief object of his love. With intuitions sharpened by painful personal experience he recognised that the dominant passion of every true lover is to perfect the character and happiness of the one loved. He saw, too, that God cannot alone perfect society. If love is to realise itself fully it must be reciprocated. Hence, when the prophet saw the perjury, the falsehood, the immorality, the oppression, and the apostasy of the Northern Israelites he realised with horror how far they were from attaining to the social ideal of their divine Lover. In the immortal passage found in Hosea 64-6 the prophet makes Jehovah himself declare in impassioned words these basal truths:

What can I make of you, O Ephraim !
What can I make of you, O Israel!
Since your love is like a morning cloud,
Yea, like the dew which early goes away.
Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets,
I have slain them by the words of my mouth.
And my judgment is like the light that goes forth,
For it is love that I delight in and not sacrifice,
And knowledge of God and not burnt-offerings.

Hosea's analysis of the causes of the crimes which destroy society is as simple as it is satisfying. Men wrong their fellows because they are not inspired by a passionate loyalty to God. They are unfaithful to God because they do not love him. They do not love him because they do not truly know him

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(Hos. 41). To the entire group of Israel's faithless teachers the prophet declared (Hos. 46a):

Thy people are being destroyed for lack of knowledge.

Hosea's solution, therefore, of the social problem was as simple as his analysis. If we are to have a perfect social order men must first gain an intimate knowledge of the character and purpose of that divine Lover who created man and is ever seeking to develop a perfect humanity. Hosea firmly believed that "only they who know can serve." He taught, therefore, that religious education is the first step toward any lasting social reform. When once men know God not only through instruction but also through personal insight and experience, they will love both him and their fellow men, who are the chief objects of his love. When they truly love God and their fellow men they will be faithful to all their social obligations. Then, like streams cut off from their sources, the vices and crimes which sweep society on to its ruin will vanish and a perfect social order will be established. The first task, therefore, of Israel's teachers and of all social reformers is, according to Hosea, to make men intimately acquainted with God and thereby to kindle in their hearts that divine love and loyalty which will bind them to their divine Lover and to their fellow men. Thus Hosea proclaimed that real religion is the supreme motive power in all enduring social reform.