Amos has had a singular destiny among his fellows. Many herdsmen tended cattle in Tekoa, or gathered fruit from its sycamore trees, but on him alone lighted the spirit of inspiration. It came to him as, like Elisha, he was employed in his peaceful toil; it hurried him to duty and to danger; it made him a power among the moral princes of the land; it gave his name and his prophecy a place in an immortal volume; and from gathering sycamore fruit it promoted him to stand below the "tree of life," to pluck from it, and to distribute to after ages not a few clusters, as fair as they are nutritious, of its celestial fruit. All honor to the bold herdsman of Tekoa!—George Gilfillan.