In unrolling a glowing picture of the future of the Ten Tribes, Hosea did not desire to mislead his hearers into the belief that such a time was close at hand. In a second oration, which has probably not been fully preserved, he predicts that many unhappy days would intervene before the return of the Ten Tribes and their expiation. This speech he also introduced with the account of a vision. God had commanded him again to take a much-beloved, yet faithless wife. She was not to bear him children, but he was to keep himself apart from her, nor permit her to associate with other men. This vision denoted that, though God loved the Israelitish nation, she had, forgetting all ties of honour and duty, given her love to other gods. And it denoted further, that the sons of Israel would remain long without a king or a prince, without an altar or columns, without an ephod, as well as without house-gods (Teraphim); till at last, purified by severe trials, she would return to her God--in the latter days. Hosea prophesied the total destruction of the kingdom of the Ten Tribes. On the other hand, he laid even more stress than his contemporaries on the continuance of the house of David and the kingdom of Judah, at the same time reproaching King Uzziah for the importance which he attached to his warlike preparations. Corruption in the one kingdom and misfortunes in the other brought from the hidden depths the precious ore of prophetic eloquence, which was destined to obtain wide-reaching influence. The sins of Ahab and Jezebel aroused Elijah; the evil deeds of Jeroboam II. and his nobles drew Amos away from his flocks, and brought Hosea out of his quiet life into publicity, to communicate in a fascinating form the thoughts which possessed their souls. Their fears and hopes, their thoughts and convictions, became thenceforth the common property of the many whom they inspired and ennobled. Anxiously listening disciples of the prophet imprinted these prophetic lessons on their memories or recorded them in writing. They formed the first pages of that prophetic literature, which was destined to stir up the indolent nations of the earth. By picturing, though only in dim outlines, the prospect of a better future, the prophetic wizards, Amos, Hosea and Joel, have insured the permanence of the nation from which they sprung; for a nation which looks confidently forward to a happy future is safe against destruction, and does not permit itself to be crushed by the most terrible trials of the present. One of these prophets--Joel or Hosea--pictured an ideal of the future, to which the noblest minds have clung, and to which they still hold fast. (Isaiah ii. 2-4.)