As was always the case with Amos in a crisis, he thought quickly and arrived at a new plan of action speedily. On his way to Tekoah he selected from among his followers men who could write--scribes--and confided to them that from now on he must confine all his wealth to the spreading of his ideas throughout the empire by means of the written word. After all, God had willed it that he should be driven back to Tekoah. Amos, as a speaker, could address a crowd only in one place at one time. In listening to a speech, too, much of what the speaker says is lost to his hearers. Therefore, Amos concluded, God had willed it that he should return to Tekoah, write out his speeches and his warnings, send them to the farthest ends of the land that all the people may read and study and understand in order that they may return speedily to God; seek good and not evil, that the nation may live. By day, he and his followers tended the flocks and gathered the fruit of sycamore trees. All the products that were sent to market were sold by honest weight and measure and at honest prices. By night, he and his scribes wrote out the speeches that he had delivered in Israel, and especially in Bethel, added new ones and sent them with trusted messengers to all parts of Judah and Israel. Amos was thus probably the first prophet who wrote down his speeches. What we have of them, however, are only fragments. There is not one speech complete as it was originally written or delivered. The fragments are collected in the Biblical book, called "Amos." Through this book the name of the humble herdsmen of Tekoah is written large in the history of religion. It was Amos who first conceived of God as the God, not of Israel alone, but of all peoples: "Are you not as the Ethiopians to me, O Israel? saith God. Did I not bring Israel up out of the land of Egypt, And the Philistines from Caphtor, And the Syrians from Kir?" It was Amos who first appeared as the public champion of the poor and downtrodden, who publicly denounced the greed of the rich and the corruption of the men in power: "For I know how manifold are your transgressions, And how mighty are your sins-- Ye, that trample upon the poor, That afflict the just, that take a bribe, And that turn away the needy in the gate." It was Amos who first cried out against the mistaken idea that animal sacrifices were what God asked of His people: "Did ye bring unto me sacrifices and meal-offerings In the wilderness, forty years, O house of Israel?" It was Amos who first brought forward the great and universal truth that God judges every human being, no matter what the race or color, according to his or her acts: "Seek good and not evil, That ye may live; Seek God and ye shall live." It was Amos who first made clear, that God demands of men, above all things, justice and righteousness: