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The Argument 
 
 OF THB 
 
 Book of Job Unfolded. 
 
 BY 
 
 WILLIAM HENRY GREEN, D.D., 
 
 PROntSSOR IN PKINCEIiiN TIIE<)I.O<;:CA L SEMINARY 
 
 NEW YORK : 
 
 HURST & COMPANY, Publishers, 
 
 122 Nassau Street. 
 
 

 Gi*i" 
 
 latered according to Act of Congress in the year 1875* bj 
 
 ROBERT CARTER AND BROTHERS, 
 
 la the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washingtofv 
 
 o 
 
 COPTBIOHT, 1891, 
 
 By hurst & COMPANY. 
 
 ARGYLE PRESS, 
 
 Book Maniifactiirers, 
 
 265-267 Cherry St., N. Y. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 TT may be worth considering whether current 
 methods of dealing with the Bible do not favor 
 a fragmentary, rather than a comprehensive, knowl- 
 edge of the sacred volume. The attention given 
 to detached and scattered portions of Scripture 
 should be corrected or supplemented by the careful 
 study of entire books, by him who aspires, as every 
 Christian should, to a thorough acquaintance with 
 the word of God. It is in the hope of encouraging 
 and aiding such a study of the book of Job that 
 this volume has been prepared. It is not a contin- 
 uous commentary, occupying itself with the expo- 
 sition in detail of each successive paragraph or 
 sentence. Nor is it concerned with the vexed 
 questions of its age or authorship. Its aim is 
 simply to set forth its general drift, to exhibit its 
 plan and structure, and trac9 the course of thought 
 from first to last by showing the part taken by each 
 
2 PREFACE. 
 
 of the actors, the purport of their several speeches, 
 and the bearing of each portion of the book upon 
 the common theme of the whole. Such a compre- 
 hensive survey as is here proposed will be an 
 excellent preparation for more detailed study subse- 
 quently. And the coherence of parts thus exhibited 
 furnishes the best demonstration of the unity of 
 this remarkable book against those who have ven- 
 tured to apply to it the critical knife. 
 
 The author hopes that this humble effort may 
 be of some service in promoting a better under- 
 standing and a higher appreciation of the book of 
 Job, among both ministers and laymen. And he 
 will be particularly happy if any afflicted child of 
 God can be assisted in drawing the waters of con- 
 solation from this inspired and copious source. 
 
 Princeton, N. J., Oct ii, 1873. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Ckaptbr Pagb 
 
 I. Job's Happy Estate 7 
 
 II. Satan 41 
 
 III. Job in Affliction 73 
 
 IV. Job's Three Friends iii 
 
 — V. Job's Conflict 149 
 
 VI. Job's -Triumph 181 
 
 VII. Job Refutes his Friends 221 
 
 VIII. Elihu 24s 
 
 IX. The Lord 285 
 
 X. The Place of the Book of Job in the 
 
 Scheme of Holy Scripture .... 325 
 
 Explanatory Note. The Doctrine of Immor- 
 tality 357 
 
 Analysis of THfi Book of Job 367 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
There was a man in the land of Uz^ whose name 
 was Job; and tJiat man was perfect and upright^ and 
 one that feared Gody and eschewed evil, — Job L i. 
 
JOB'S HAPPY ESTATE. 
 
 nPHE book of Job is one of the most 
 remarkable in the Old Testament. 
 Apart from its inspiration, and considered 
 simply as a literary production, it bears the 
 stamp of uncommon genius. It is occupied 
 with a profound and difficult theme yjiiQ.jaa^ 
 ter y uT i livi i i" |' i ■ i i i ln i r - in thp pnfFpringg 
 of good mo sxf This is not treated in the 
 abstract, in simple prose or in a plain didac- 
 .tic method. But an actual case is set vividly 
 before the reader, in which the difficulty ap- 
 pears in its most aggravated form. By an 
 extraordinary accumulation of disasters a 
 man of unexampled piety is suddenly cast 
 down from his prosperity, and reduced to 
 the most pitiable and distressed condition, 
 
 1* 
 
^ .• . • •: .-job's. JJAEPY ESTATE. 
 
 And then there is delineated in the most 
 masterly manner the impression made on 
 others by the spectacle of these calamities, as 
 well as the inward conflict stirred in the suf- 
 ferer himself, his bewilderment and sore 
 distress, his alternations of despair and hope, 
 his piteous entreaties for a sympathy which 
 is denied him. and his irritation under the 
 unjust suspicions and censures which are 
 cast upon him, his wild and almost passion- 
 ate complaints against the Providence which 
 crushes him, intermingled with expressions 
 of strong confidence in God which he cannot 
 abandon. This wild tumult in his soul is 
 graphically depicted in its successive stages, 
 until we are brought to the final solution of 
 the whole, and the vindication at once of the 
 providence of God and of His suffering ser- 
 vant. And all this is set forth in the loftiest 
 style of poetry, abounding in fine imagery 
 and containing passages of deep pathos as 
 well as of rare sublimity and power ; while 
 the whole presentation and treatment of the 
 case is managed with consummate skill. 
 
JOBS HAPPY ESTATE. 9 
 
 The book of Job well deserves the high 
 encomiums which have been bestowed upon 
 it as a product of the poetic art. And while 
 we humbly receive its inspired lessons, there 
 is no reason why we should be insensible to 
 its graceful beauty, or refuse to recognize its 
 other attractions. The Bible is not, indeed, 
 amenable to the laws of criticism, nor to be 
 judged of by ordinary standards of taste. 
 When God speaks to us, we must reverently 
 listen and obey, however homely the medium 
 through which He_communicates His will. 
 And yet jt_adds to the variety of this holy 
 book, and^to its adaptation to the needs of 
 all classes of men, and to all the cravings of 
 the human soul, that it addresses itself like- 
 wise to the refined taste and the cultivated 
 sense. Like the inexhaustible supplies of 
 Nature in its manifold diversity, the volume 
 of divine revelation gives us 'not only the 
 massive granite and the ponderous metal, but 
 the sparkling and polished gems of thought ; 
 not only the staple articles of food, but the 
 rarer and more palatable delicacies. So that 
 
lO JOBS HAPPY ESTATE. 
 
 the charms and the embellishments of poetic 
 genius, which invest other subjects with such 
 attractions, are lent likewise to the sacred 
 oracles in the sweet lyrics of David, the im- 
 passioned fire of Isaiah, and the marvellous 
 beauty of the book of Job. 
 
 The principal personage of this book, and 
 the one about whom the interest chiefly cen- 
 tres, is Job himself, a venerable and patriar- 
 chal character, whose fortunes are detailed to 
 us at an important crisis of his life. Some, 
 have thought that he was not a real, histori- 
 cal person, and that the narrative of the book- 
 is not one of events which actually took 
 place, but that it is rather a fiction or a para- 
 ble like that of the Prodigal Son or the go* d 
 Samaritan, and he is designed to represv^.xt 
 not some one person to whom all this ha;, 
 pened precisely as is here detailed, but- 
 whole class, such as is often met with in r^ 
 life, of similar character and similar exp^r 
 ences, and the truth of which lies in ^ 
 general conformity to what repeatedly tak 
 place, and in the correctness of the less* ^^ 
 
job's happy estate. I- 
 
 conveyed. This, however, cannot have beer 
 the case. It is related not as a parable, b^ i: 
 as a history, instructive throughout, as all tlie 
 Bible histories are, but still an actual, veri 
 table occurrence. And Job is spoken of ii"^ 
 other parts of Scripture as a real person, and 
 in connection with other real persons like 
 Noah and Daniel, and the events of his life* 
 are referred to in a manner which impli^.^- 
 thalt they had actually occurred. We cai 
 ha^e no doubt, therefore, that, with all tb ^ 
 poetic embellishment of the narrative, Job 
 did- actually live, and the history took place 
 substantially as it is here related. 
 
 That which is in this chapter proposed for 
 
 ^consideration in the life of Job is his charac- 
 
 "^^ ' ion when he is first introducec 
 
 his great excellence and piet) 
 
 and ;; . >u- -y, prosperous state, as these are 
 
 r oiv»-tciiea briefly, but strongly, in the opening : 
 -erses of the first chapter, and again in chap 
 
 J^xxix., where, after his gloomy reverses, Jol 
 oathetically recalls the joys of former years, l 
 We commonly think of Job as a sufferer , ** 
 

 12 JOBS HAPPY ESTATE. 
 
 and the lessons that we mostly associate with 
 , him are those which concern affliction. His 
 I great sorrows form indeed the grand crisis of 
 his life ; and it is to their exhibition, together 
 *with the attendant principles of the divine 
 administration, that this book is chiefly 
 devoted. But the very point of the whole 
 lies in their exceptional character, which r^ 
 ./.^ires an explanation. If this were not s 
 there would be no mystery to be elucidate 
 The enigma is in the contrast between ^ha' 
 Job had to endure and what it might b( 
 expected would befall such a man as4ie- 
 what is in fact the ordinary experience o: 
 such men, and what had been Jobs owr 
 experience up to the time when he was 
 overtaken by these extraordinary calamities 
 " Godliness is profitable unto all things, havi 
 ing the promise of the . life that4}ow is, anc 
 of that which is to come." This was fulfilkvl 
 in the life of Job up to the time of his heavy 
 trial, which had been one continued course 
 of prosperity and happiness. It seemed as 
 though nothing were left him to desir^ . As 
 
JOBS HAPPY ESTATE. 1 3 
 
 he himself expresses it: "In the days when 
 God preserved me, when his candle shined 
 upon my head, ... I washed my steps with 
 butter, and the rock poured me out rivers of 
 oil; . . . my root was spread out by the 
 waters, and the dew lay all night upon my 
 branch." The freshness of a well-watered tree, 
 the richness of butter and oil, the brilliancy 
 of God's own light, are the figures which set 
 forth his joyful and prosperous abundance. 
 And, as the tempter sneeringly said, Job had 
 i^f feared God for nought. God had made 
 an hedge about him and about his house 
 and about all that he had on every side. 
 He had blessed the work of his hands, and 
 his substance was increased in the land. 
 
 While, therefore, we go very properly to 
 Job's dark hours to learn the uses of afilic- 
 tion, and all the salutary lessons which accom- 
 pany it, it behooves us likewise to remember 
 the lesson of all those years which had pre- 
 ceded ; viz., that God's blessing attends the 
 righteous. "He that will love life, and see 
 •good days, let him refrain his tongue from 
 
14 JOBS HAPPY ESTATE. 
 
 evil, and his lips that they speak no guile : 
 let him eschew evil, and do good : let him 
 seek peace, and ensue it. For the eyes of 
 the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears 
 are open unto their prayers ; but the face of 
 the Lord is against them that do evil." 
 (i Pet. iii. IO-I2.) 
 
 Let us attend, then, to the piety and to the 
 happy estate of Job, with the view of taking 
 note how these are combined in the ordinary 
 providence of God. It is not said that there 
 are no exceptions. There are such excep- 
 tions. There are grave and weighty reasons 
 why there should be. Job himself was a 
 notable exception at one epoch in his life. 
 Nevertheless the ordinary rule remains; and 
 in the number and the mystery of the excep- 
 tions we must not forget that it is the rule, a 
 rule verified for the most part even in the 
 general tenor of their lives who constitute 
 the most signal exceptions, a rule which found 
 its evident exemplification in the greater por- 
 tion of the life of Job himself. Goodness 
 and happiness go hand in hand in the ordi 
 nary experiences of this world. 
 
JOBS HAPPY ESTATE. 1 5 
 
 Let US review, in the first instance, the 
 simple description here given of the piety 
 of Job. He is evidently portrayed as a 
 model man. God Himself says of him, " There 
 is none like him in the earth." And in the 
 delineation of Job's piety notice, first, two 
 negative particulars, two omissions in the 
 narrative, which are highly significant, espe- 
 cially as found in a book belonging to the Old 
 Testament. 
 
 The first is that no account is made of 
 ancestry or of connection with the covenant 
 people of God. There is no mention of 
 Job's parentage, no hint of his relationship 
 to Abraham. He was plainly not one of his 
 descendants. Now if what secures the favor 
 of God be a pious ancestry, or a connection 
 with the outward visible Church, it is unac- 
 countable that in the case of Job, held up as 
 a model before all ages and generations, and 
 of whom God gives such a testimony as he 
 does of no other, that these things are not so 
 much as once alluded to, even for the sake of 
 explaining their absence or omission. Evi- 
 
% 
 
 i6 job's happy estate. 
 
 dently it is not outward associations or con- 
 nections, though of the most sacred kind, 
 that constitute the evidence and pledge of 
 God's favor, but personal character and life. 
 In every nation and in every communion, he . 
 that feareth God and worketh righteousness 
 is accepted of Him. The important question 
 is not, Are you a Jew or a Gentile ? Are you 
 a member of this or that particular branch 
 of God's visible Church ? Nor even. Are you 
 a member of any outward body of professii^g 
 Christians whatever } but, Have you person-^ 
 ally that character which is acceptable to God, 
 and are you. leading aiife^thatis pleasing in 
 His sight .?_._ 1?i.^H\,?,V4-. 
 
 A second omission in the account of Job's 
 piety similarly significant is that it is not^ 
 described as consisting of ceremonial observ- 
 ances. No mention is made of any round 
 of ritual service, no fasts or purifications or 
 tithes, no rigorous periods of abstinence or 
 self -mortification or ascetic observance, no 
 priestly intervention or sacerdotal absolu- 
 tion, no holy order of men through whom 
 
JOB^S HAPPY ESTATE. 17 
 
 grace was dispensed as its sole appointed 
 channel. The only religious rite referred to 
 is the simple sacrificial worship of patriarchal 
 times, maintained in faith of the sacrifice and 
 the atonement that was to come, and which 
 was afterwards accomplished by the Son of 
 God on Calvary. Job was priest in his own 
 house ; his own hands offered the sacrifice, 
 though devoid of the grace of orders, and 
 without priestly consecration, and it was 
 accepted. Job's religion was one of the heart^^^)^ 
 and of the life, not of ritualistic service. 
 
 And it is the more striking because this is 
 a model of piety belonging to the Old Tes- 
 tament. It is another illustration of the pains 
 that were taken, even under that restricted 
 and legal economy, to fortify the people 
 against that spirit of bigotry and Phariseeism 
 into which they were so prone to fall, and 
 did fall, and which has in fact been the bane 
 of vital religion in every age. Here was an 
 outstanding and shining example. Job was 
 an eminent saint of God, though his line of 
 descent was not counted from Abraham, and 
 
H 
 
 1 8 JOB*S HAPPY ESTATE. 
 
 though he did not practise the multiplied rites 
 of the Mosaic ceremonial. Whatever advan- 
 tages there may be in an outward connection 
 with the people of God or the visible Church, 
 and whatever benefit may arise from outward 
 attendance upon the services of religion, — and 
 certainly neither of these are to be decried 
 or undervalued, when rightly understood and 
 put in their proper place, — that piety which 
 has the approbation of God is something dif- 
 ferent from them aftd independent of them. 
 
 ^he general description of Job's piety is 
 given briefly and simply in four particulars : 
 he^3^ as perfect and _ upright^and one_ihat 
 feared God, and eschewed evij^ But this 
 statement, brief as it is, is very comprehen- 
 sive. " He was perfect and upright." Up- 
 rightness denotes, in the first place, honesty, 
 straightforwardness, sincerity. There w^as no 
 double dealing or duplicity, no hypocritical 
 pretence with Job, either towards God or 
 man. He was sincere in his professions and 
 honest in his practice. Uprightness, more- 
 over, means conformity to the standard of 
 
JOBS HAPPY ESTATE. 1$ 
 
 right, and this both inwardly and outwardly. 
 We read both of the upright in heart and of 
 the man that is upright in his Way. He was 
 a man of integrity, therefore, both in spirit 
 and in life, — a man attentive to his obligations 
 both to God and man, and who punctually 
 discharged them. And, with all, he was per- 
 fect, — perfect and upright, perfect in his 
 uprightness. Perfect, not of course in that 
 sense in which, according to the uniform 
 teaching of Scripture, and' the universal ex- 
 perience of men, perfection is unattainable 
 in this life. Not that he was absolutely fault- 
 less, for there is no man that liveth and sin- 
 neth not. Job never claims spotless innocence. 
 He himself says, " I have sinned ; what shall 
 I do unto Thee, O Thou Preserver of men ? " 
 *' How should man be just with God ?i If he will 
 contend with Him, he cannot answer Him one 
 of a thousand." " If I justify myself, mine 
 own mouth shall condemn me : if I say, I 
 am perfect, it shall also prove me perverse." 
 But he was perfect in the sense of complete- 
 nessO) His uprightness was not of that par- 
 
 v/ 
 
20 JOBS HAPPY ESTATE. 
 
 tial, limited kind, which restricts itself to 
 certain classes of duties, while neglecting 
 others ; or confines itself to special times and 
 occasions, while at others it is laid aside ; 
 which is very zealous about some of the com- 
 mandments, to the disregard of others, tithing 
 it may be the mint, anise, and cummin with 
 scrupulous exactness, while neglecting the 
 weightier matters of the law, or manifest- 
 ing great devotion on Sabbath days or pe- 
 riods of special religious observance, while 
 the duties of other days are overlooked. A 
 man who can be devout in Church and dis- 
 honest in his business, penitently ask God's 
 forgiveness and yet be unforgiving himself, 
 who can profess great love to the Saviour 
 and yet be heartless to Christ's needy poor, 
 this was not the style of Job's piety. He 
 was perfect as well as upright. There was 
 a completeness in his piety, which compassed 
 \J the whole round of obligation. He studied 
 conformity to the rule of right in all things, 
 at all times, under all circumstances. 
 W And the spring of this perfectness and 
 
JOBS HAPPY ESTATE. 21 
 
 uprightness, or this complete integrity, was 
 that he feared God. He set the will of God 
 before him as his rule, the glory of God as 
 his end, the approbation of God as his high- 
 est reward. In this pious fear of God he 
 walked all the day long. This was his grand 
 motive, overpowering every thing else. This 
 closed his ear against the siren song of 
 temptation. This shut his eyes to every 
 gilded lure of sin.') The one thought, " Thou 
 God seest me," was his safeguard and his 
 
 stimulus. TV>i<; impoHpd V>iTr> \n prompt ^^ 
 
 ready obedience to every divine command . 
 ar|rl IpH fr> V>k pprfprtnpc:<; and rompleteness 
 
 in it . 
 
 I It also led to the sedulous avoidance of its 
 opposite, and thus completed the perfect 
 squgire by the fourth side, which is the finish- 
 ing stroke to this description of a well-regu- 
 lated piety. i^He ** eschewed evil : "he carefully 
 shunned all sin, kept aloof from every thin_g. 
 tha,t was wrong in heart, speech, and behav- 
 ior.: Some eminently good and holy men. 
 
2:2 JOBS HAPI>Y ESTATE. 
 
 have great blemishes; they apparently lay 
 out all their strength on the positive side of 
 religion, and neglect its negative ; they en- 
 deavor strenuously to do right, and forget to 
 strive against doing wrong.i| And thus they 
 leave the periphery of the Christian character 
 unfinished : the last side, which completes the 
 whole, and gives it symmetry, is never added. 
 A great gap is left unfilled. There was no 
 such lamentable deficiency in the case of 
 Job. " He was perfect and upright, and one 
 that feared God, and eschewed evil." 
 
 Besides this general description of Job's 
 pious integrity, two special traits are inciden- 
 tally mentioned in different parts of the book, 
 by which he was particularly characterized, 
 and which belonged to him in separate walks 
 of life. Not as though these were by any 
 means the only ways in which his piety mani- 
 fested itself. But they were marked and 
 prominent, and they may serve as illustra- 
 tions of his habitual piety and consistency in 
 two several spheres ; viz., at home and abroad, 
 in the intimacies of the domestic circle and 
 
JOBS HAPPY ESTATE. 23 
 
 in his intercourse with others less nearly 
 related to him. In regard to the former, 
 mention is made of a fact which serves to 
 show Job's pious regard for the spiritual wel- ^ 
 fare of his children. It was the sacred habit 
 of the family to throw the safeguards of re- 
 ligion around every period of mutual enter- 
 tainment and social enjoyment. Whenever 
 his children gathered, as they regularly did, 
 at each other's houses on festive occasions, 
 cementing and displaying their fond fraternal 
 affection, it was Job's invariable custom to 
 summon all together afterwards, and sanctify 
 them, and offer burnt offerings according to 
 the number of them all. For Job said, " It 
 may be that my sons have sinned, and cursed 
 God in their hearts." " Cursed God " is too 
 strong an expression for the meaning intended 
 here. It is not blasphemy, or defiance of 
 God, or malignant hatred of His service that 
 he feared. The word is properly a formula 
 of blessing, used in taking leave of friends. 
 It is commonly translated "bless," and is the 
 same that is employed where it is said, " And 
 2 
 
24 job's happy estate. 
 
 Laban kissed his sons and his daughters, and 
 blessed them, and departed." (Gen. xxxi. 55.) 
 ".So Joshua blessed them, and sent them 
 away " (Josh. xxii. 6) ; that is, he took ^ leave 
 of them, he said farewell to them, he bid them 
 adieu. Job was afraid that his sons might 
 have said farewell to God in their hearts ; 
 that they might have taken leave of Him; 
 that, in their thoughtless hilarity, they might 
 have forgotten God and His presence, and 
 acted as though they were out of His sight. 
 He recalls them to solemn thought and to 
 their Maker's service, while he solicits the 
 pardon of their sins by the offering of sacri- 
 fices according to the number of them all. 
 
 Job's piety manifested itself at home in 
 thoughtful care for his children's spiritual 
 good. But it was not limited to his own 
 household. He sought the good of all. And 
 he was especially forward in the relief of the 
 necessitous and the protection of the injured. 
 " When the ear heard me," he says, " then it 
 blessed me ; and when the eye saw me, it 
 gave witness to me: because I delivered the 
 
JOBS HAPPY ESTATE. 25 
 
 poor that cried, and the fatherless, and him 
 that had none to help him. The blessing of 
 him that was ready to perish came upon me : 
 and I caused the widow's heart to sing for 
 joy. ... I was eyes to the blind, and feet 
 was I to the lame. I was a father to the 
 poor. . . . And 1 brake the jaws of the 
 wicked, and plucked the spoil out of his 
 teeth." ^ 
 
 We are further told that Job's outward lot 
 was as happy as his character was exemplary. 
 God's blessing was in the most marked man- 
 ner bestowed upon his faithful servant, bring- 
 ing him the most distinguished prosperity. 
 He was happy in his family, having seven 
 sons and three daughters, who were all settled 
 near each other, and near their paternal 
 home, and lived in the most delightful har- 
 mony and fraternal intercourse. He had 
 large possessions: his wealth in flocks and 
 herds is recited, and it is added that he was 
 the greatest of all the men of the East. And 
 he was treated with the utmost deference and 
 respect by all classes, and held in the highest 
 
26 job's happy estate. 
 
 esteem. He says in his retrospect of these 
 happy days : " When I went out to the gate 
 through the city, when I prepared my seat in 
 the street, the young men saw me, and hid 
 themselves : and the aged arose, and stood up. 
 The princes refrained talking, and laid their 
 hand on their mouth. ... I chose out theii 
 way, and sat chief, and dwelt as a king in the 
 army." There seemed to be nothing to be 
 desired in the way of worldly prosperity or 
 earthly joy, beyond what he possessed. 
 
 Our thoughts are turned so frequently to 
 the discipline of affliction and the spiritual 
 profit which arises out of it, that we are in 
 some danger, perhaps, of losing sight of the 
 rule in the prominence which is given to the 
 exception. And yet religion has its temporal 
 as well as its eternal rewards. The blessing 
 of God attends the good, even in this present 
 life and in regard to their worldly estate. 
 There are promises of long life and pros- 
 perity, as far as it shall serve for God's glory, 
 and their own good, to all those that keep His 
 commandments. " Blessed is every one that 
 
JOBS HAPPY ESTATE. 2^ 
 
 feareth the Lord ; that walketh in His ways. 
 For thou shalt eat the labor of thine hands : 
 happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with 
 thee." " Evil doers shall be cut off : but 
 those that wait upon the Lord, they shall 
 inherit the earth." " Verily there is a reward 
 for the righteous: verily he is a God that 
 judgeth in the earth." 
 
 It is true that worldly possessions bring a 
 snare. And our Saviour said that it is a hard 
 thing for them that have riches to enter into 
 the kingdom of God. And an apostle adds, 
 Not many wise men after the flesh, not many 
 mighty, not many noble, are called. So like- 
 wise another apostle : Hath not God chosen 
 the poor of this world, rich in faith, and heirs 
 of the kingdom } There is a peril, no doubt, 
 in having a large share of this world's good. 
 The danger is of cleaving to the world unduly, 
 and of setting the affections upon earthly 
 comforts and earthly pleasures, — of being con- 
 tent with an earthly portion and ceasing to 
 strive after or long for one that is heavenly. 
 If the heart is given to the world, and worldly 
 
?8 job's happy estate. 
 
 objects, be they what they may, become our 
 end and aim, then we are worldly-minded and 
 are not the servants of God. If any man 
 love the world, the love of the Father is not 
 in him. Ye cannot serve God and Mammon. 
 They that will be rich, i.e., that seek riches 
 as their chief good, and make this their 
 main, controlling object of pursuit, fall into 
 temptation and a snare, and into many foolish 
 and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruc- 
 tion and perdition. The love of money is a 
 root of all evil. Our Saviour's rule is, seek 
 first the kingdom of God and His righteous- 
 ness, — first in order of time, first in impor- 
 tance, first in the urgency of desire and in 
 the strenuousness of endeavor, — and all 
 other things shall be added unto you. 
 
 If this true order is preserved, then other 
 things may be safely added, and no harm 
 will resiilt. The damage arises from the pre- 
 vailing disposition to invert this order, to seek 
 the world first, and then as much of heaven 
 as can be had without too great a sacrifice oi 
 worldly interests. Now upon the basis both 
 
JOBS HAPPY ESTATE. 29 
 
 of Scriptural teaching and of the common 
 experience of men, it may confidently be 
 affirmed that the true way to a happy life, 
 even in this world, is found in the service of 
 God. Our Saviour announced the universal 
 law when he said, " Whosoever will save his 
 life, shall lose it : and whosoever will lose his 
 life for my sake, shall find it." This is a 
 seeming paradox, but it is perpetually veri- 
 fied. He who aims at worldly good fails to 
 attain it. He either is unable to acquire that 
 form of worldly good which he seeks, or, if he 
 gets possession of it, he does not find it what 
 he expected : it proves to be empty and un- 
 substantial, and does not yield the satisfaction 
 which he anticipated and desired. But he who 
 abandons this world as his object, and aims 
 at God's glory instead, gains that and this 
 world too. It is as in the case of Solomon, 
 who prayed not for riches, nor for long life, but 
 for wisdom. God gave him that he asked : 
 He gave him wisdom, and added long life and 
 riches besides. Selfishness defeats itself: in 
 grasping with desperate eagerness after earthly 
 
30 JOBS HAPPY ESTATE. 
 
 good, it snatches a painted bubble, which bursts 
 in its hands. Our truest welfare and highest 
 happiness, even if we limit our view to the 
 present life, will be most effectually secured 
 by faithfully serving God and doing His will 
 It has passed into a proverb that honesty is 
 the best policy. In a like sense and with 
 similar limitations it is equally true that piety 
 is the best policy. He who refuses to defraud 
 his neighbor, not from any principle of integ- 
 rity, but simply because he will thus in the 
 end enhance his gains, does not deserve the 
 praise of real honesty. And he who adopts 
 the guise of piety to further worldly ends 
 forfeits alike the approbation of God and the 
 esteem of men. Nevertheless goodness has 
 its temporal rewards. Length of days is in 
 Wisdom's right hand, and in her left riches 
 and honor. i 
 
 That this is so in the general, and in its 
 application to communities and masses of 
 men, is obvious upon its simple statement. 
 
 Religion fosters those qualities and habits 
 which tend to worldly prosperity and success 
 
JOBS HAPPY ESTATE. 3 1 
 
 and to the promotion of the general good. 
 It encourages industry, thrift, and frugality, 
 and thus lends its aid to accumulation, while 
 on the other hand it represses all those forms 
 of vicious indulgence which lead to profli- 
 gacy, neglect of proper occupation, and waste- 
 ful dissipation. A large part of the extreme 
 poverty and suffering that is found in the 
 world is either directly or indirectly the con- 
 sequence of criminal or vicious conduct, its 
 natural and inevitable retribution affecting 
 the vicious themselves or those connected 
 with them. And it is not the evils of de- 
 graded poverty alone that arise in this way, 
 but miseries that affect wealthier classes, des- 
 olating families in high life, withering every 
 joy, and blighting all their possessions. God 
 has set the brand of his disapprobation upon 
 sin by these moral sequences, which he has 
 fixed in the world and by which a penalty 
 has been fastened to transgression. These 
 consequences can only be averted by dry- 
 ing up the sources of the evil ; and this re- 
 ligion does. 
 
 2* 
 
32 JOBS HAPPY ESTATE. 
 
 Another fertile cause of suffering and sor- 
 row in the world, which the prevalence of 
 true religion would obliterate, is the injustice 
 and unkindness of man to his fellow-man 
 The strong oppress the weak, and they who 
 cannot defend themselves are mercilessly 
 trodden in the dust. Each man becomes the 
 antagonist of his fellow, with rival interests, 
 profiting by his downfall ; instead of his 
 brother, co-operating with him, mutually help- 
 ful and serviceable to each other. Hence the 
 struggle of injurious competition, none car- 
 ing in his greed of self-advancement that his 
 neighbor is driven to the wall. Hence those 
 feuds of mutually dependent classes; labor 
 and capital seeking each its own advantage, 
 and forcing hard terms upon the other, or 
 coming to open rupture to the injury of both. 
 Hence discords, tumults, wars, with all the 
 sorrows they occasion and the miseries they 
 entail. How would the world blossom like 
 an Eden, if religion held full sway, and its 
 golden rule were enshrined in every heart and 
 acted out in every life ! 
 
JOBS HAPPY ESTATE. 33 
 
 And religion is the only salt which can 
 preserve from national corruption and decay. 
 The history of the past utters its warning 
 voice, showing how the downfall of nations 
 swiftly follows on the heels of national pros- 
 perity, and the seeds of dissolution are 
 involved in the very materials of their great- 
 ness and splendor. Accumulation multiplies 
 the opportunity and the facilities of indul- 
 gence, and public virtue gives way, amid 
 the glittering prizes held out for its allure- 
 ment. Recent events have suggested gloomy 
 thoughts to many reflecting minds amongst 
 ourselves. Can virtue and integrity be main- 
 tained in our rulers and among our people, 
 amidst the manifold temptations which are 
 now assailing them, and before which many 
 once trusted and confided in have sadly 
 fallen ? If honesty and integrity fail us in 
 the centres of authority, if the enactment 
 and administration of law can be tampered 
 with by corrupting influences, and the public 
 conscience becomes itself debauched by the 
 corruption that is coming in like a flood, what 
 
34 JOBS HAPPY ESTATE. 
 
 must every sane mind anticipate as the inevi- 
 table result? In this growing — we fear it 
 must be said rapid — decay of virtue and in- 
 tegrity in legislative halls, in some quarters 
 even in courts of justice, and in leading finan- 
 cial circles, the most portentous evils are 
 opening before us. Can they be arrested? 
 The answer to this question depends upon 
 another. Have we vital Christianity enough 
 among us to check the progress of moral 
 decay ? Is there that fear of God and love 
 of truth and right among our countrymen, 
 which will insist on honesty and integrity in 
 the administration of public affairs and in the 
 conduct of moneyed corporations and com- 
 mercial enterprises. The religion of the gos- 
 pel is the stronghold of our national safety and 
 of the perpetuity of our institutions. The 
 more thoroughly this gospel shall leaven our 
 people, the stronger we shall be, the firmer 
 will be the pillars of our national prosperity, 
 and the more abundant and widely diffused 
 will be the blessings enjoyed by all our popu- 
 latioa 
 
/ JOBS HAPPY ESTATE. 35 
 
 But the temporal blessedness springing 
 from true religion has its application to indi- 
 viduals as well as to communities and masses. 
 Communities are made up of individuals, and 
 what tends to promote the welfare of the 
 whole must in the same ratio be conducive to 
 the good of its constituent members. Upon 
 this there is no need to dwell ; but there are 
 other considerations, which should likewise be 
 taken into the account. 
 
 Happiness is- not so dependent on exter- 
 nal circumstances as many suppose. It is far 
 more powerfully affected by men's own char- 
 acter and disposition. It lies not so much 
 in the abundance of outward sources of en- 
 joyment as in the capacity to enjoy. It is 
 not graduated by wealth, or social position, or 
 success in worldly schemes. They who look 
 at the bare outside of things are often griev- 
 ously mistaken in their judgments. A splen- 
 did mansion may be the home of misery and 
 care. And he who reclines on the most lux- 
 urious couch may be a stranger to repose. 
 When we speak of the blessing of God accom- 
 
36 job's happy estate. 
 
 (panying fidelity to His service, we do not 
 mean that the pious man will always be rich, 
 
 I or that he will always attain distinction, or that 
 he will be invariably successful in his worldly 
 
 ^schemes. But we say that while in ordinary 
 
 ■ cases he will not be damaged, but rather fur- 
 thered, even in outward prosperity, by his relig- 
 ion, his real substantial happiness will be vastly 
 promoted.) He will the better enjoy what he 
 does possess, he will draw a livelier and purer 
 satisfaction from it, than if he had not the 
 lave of God in his heart and the fear of God 
 before his eyes. If his religion has simply 
 taught him this one lesson, in whatsoever 
 state he is, therewith to be content, it has 
 done much to establish and confirm his earthly 
 happiness. For " godliness with contentment 
 is great gain." It frees him from the dominion 
 of evil passions, envy, jealousy, hatred, and 
 the like, which are a fruitful source of discon- 
 tent. It relieves him from the galling slavery 
 of those in haste to be rich, with its attendant 
 cares, anxieties, and consuming toil. It leads 
 him to see in his earthly lot the appointment 
 
job's happy estate. 37 
 
 of his Heavenly Father, and thus cures him 
 of all restless endeavors to overleap bounds 
 he cannot pass. It gives him the conscious- 
 ness of being at peace with his Maker and 
 with all the world. He has the joy which 
 flows from doing right ; and every outgoing 
 of unselfish love, every exercise of pure affec- 
 tion, every act of generous kindness to the 
 necessitous to which his religion prompts 
 him, is a new source of pleasure. And all 
 this is additional to the delight of communion 
 with God, the actings of his regenerated fac- 
 ulties, the enjoyment which is inseparably 
 linked with the Christian's duties and privi- 
 leges and his glorious hopes, — in fine, all that 
 is summed up in that significant phrase, " the 
 joy of the Holy Ghost," a joy which is often- 
 times unspeakable and full of glory. 
 
 If any man on earth should be a happy man, 
 it is he who is truly religious. Looking 
 barely at this present life, and at the sources 
 of gratification which are opened before us 
 here, the good man is most truly blessed. 
 Religion does not foster gloom : it is the per- 
 
38 JOB*S HAPPY ESTATE. 
 
 ennial spring of cheerfulness and joy. It 
 does not abridge the enjoyments of Hfe: it 
 multiplies and heightens them. And there is 
 no step that any person can take, more fraught 
 with blessing to himself in this world as well 
 as in the next, than that in which he makes 
 choice of God as his portion and his friend, 
 and pledges himself to be His ever-faithful 
 servant 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
Again there was a day when the sons of God came 
 to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan 
 came also among them to present himself before the 
 Lord. — Job ii. i. 
 
SATAN. 
 
 "Y^E are now introduced to a scene in the 
 invisible world of a most impressive 
 and surprising character. The singular spec- 
 tacle is presented of the Piince of Darkness 
 appearing in the train of the Most High. He 
 comes not hypocritically in the guise of an 
 angel of light, but in his proper character, 
 with the rest of God's servants, to offer his 
 homage, to receive his commissions, to rendi^r 
 his stated account of work done and service 
 performed. This astonishing and unusual 
 representation has led some to entertain the 
 opinion that the Satan of the book of Job 
 is a different being from the Satan of the 
 later Scriptures. Else how could he have his 
 place among the sons of God ? How could 
 he come with them at stated times to present 
 
42 SATAN. 
 
 himself before the Lord? How could this 
 be said of the enemy of God and the adver- 
 sary of all goodness ? A deeper view of this 
 passage, however, reveals the harmony between 
 the character in which Satan appears here 
 and that which he maintains throughout the 
 rest of the Word of God. He is not a mere 
 spy, traversing the earth and intent upon fer- 
 reting out all that he can discover. lifi^ 
 ihf^ r>1r1\Vgpjp >., of malice and wick g^ess, 
 aimirig fr> ppfVfrt merWr om the right ways of 
 t he . Lord , ?^nd >- to do Kiroy all goodnp<;<; a^u far 
 as it is in his pow^ fX And there is a profound 
 meaning in his appearing here among the 
 sons of God before the Lord. It is designed! 
 to express his subordination and subjection j 
 to divine control. He cannot act untram- 
 melled and at his own discretion. He is not 
 at liberty to pursue his mischievous designs 
 to whatever extent he may choose. There is 
 a superior restraint to which he is obliged to 
 bow, a superior will that sets limits to his 
 rage, and allows him even within these limits to 
 act out his evil nature only for the sake of some 
 
SATAN. 43 
 
 divine^nd, which Jie_ is made to be instru- 
 mejital-in achieving.* It is evil in the per- 
 son of its arch-representative and head, subject 
 to good and constrained to be its minister. 
 It is Satan actually exhibited in the attitude 
 of a servant of God, and made subservient to 
 the discipline and training of his people. 
 
 Satan is the enemy of goodness and the 
 enemy of man. With the powers of an arch- 
 angel, and with the malice and subtlety of a 
 fiend, he is intent on our destruction, and 
 hesitates at nothing by which it can be accom- 
 plished. He pursues his mischievous designs 
 with sleepless vigilance and untiring assiduity. 
 Invisible to human eyes, he has all the ad- 
 vantage of secrecy, and taking his victims at 
 unawares. He has his tools and associates 
 in vast numbers of spirits of wickedness, who 
 acknowledge him as their head, and are ani- 
 mated with a rage and cunning similar to his 
 own ; and in wicked men who are led captive 
 
 * The singular passage, i Kings xxii. 19-22, affords a re- 
 markable parallel, whose figurative dress may perhaps have 
 been suggested by the symbolical language here employed. 
 
44 SATAN. 
 
 by him at his will ; and even in friendly hands 
 from whom no danger is suspected, and who 
 little think themselves whose commission they 
 are unwittingly fulfilling. He has a control 
 over external nature and over the bodies of 
 men, which we have no means of estimating, 
 but which can only be conjectured from such 
 facts as the disasters he brought upon Job, 
 and the maladies he caused in the time of our 
 Lord. And, more than all, he has direct access 
 to our souls : he can touch .in some incom- 
 prehensible way the springs of feeling and 
 conduct, and exert an influence over us, which 
 it may well make us shudder to think of. 
 
 All this is terrible. It is a dreadful thing 
 to have a constant consciousness of danger, 
 and especially of unknown danger ; to appre- 
 hend that an implacable and unscrupulous foe 
 is seeking your life, and that he has woven 
 his plot so stealthily that you know not when 
 you are safe, nor whom to trust. But the 
 assassin can only kill the body. Satan is a 
 murderer of souls. 
 
 It is an awful thing to be exposed to his 
 
SATAN. 45 
 
 treacherous solicitations. To come under his 
 power is perdition. It is to be alienated from 
 God and to incur the sentence of everlasting 
 death. To yield to him in ever so slight a 
 degree is to contract untold guilt, to bring 
 ourselves under the displeasure of God, and 
 put our eternal all in jeopardy. And yet 
 we have no might to stand up against him. 
 Surely, if there is any petition that we offer 
 in all sincerity and with agonizing fervency, 
 that which our blessed Lord has taught us 
 should be so offered, " Lead us not into temp- 
 tation, but deliver us from the evil one." 
 
 And yet these temptations cannot be es- 
 caped. It may be said, in a sense which is in 
 no danger of being misunderstood, that by an 
 ordinance of God they belong to this present 
 state. Jesus was tempted of the devil; and 
 the disciple is not above his Lord. The mem- 
 bers must be made like their head. Through 
 much tribulation we must enter into the king- 
 dom of God. Fightings and fears beset the 
 passage to the crown. The peril is awful, 
 but success is glorious. " Blessed is the man 
 
r? 
 
 46 SATAN. 
 
 that endureth temptation: for when he is 
 tried, he shall receive the crown of life." 
 
 Before entering strictly upon the develop- 
 ment of the teachings of this book, which is 
 the chief design of this little treatise, we may 
 be here permitted to devote a chapter to a pre- 
 liminary inquiry of no small practical moment. 
 What is the design of God in subjecting his 
 people to this terrible ordeal ? What are the 
 disciplinary ends of the temptations of Satan, 
 and how may we best attain them ? 
 
 And to this we answer : — 
 
 I. They should drive us to take refuge in 
 God. One grand aim_ of__the_^gaxt hly . di sci- 
 pline of G od's people, in a]] jt^. pnrtn, ii io 
 b ring t hem to n rlpg^^ ?(?q^^ f ^ ^' " t 7 \n '"<^M ¥f<4i Him 
 and dependence upon Him .. They are made 
 to learn more and more of His fulness, and to 
 draw from Him larger and richer supplies. 
 All the disclosures of His grace and of His 
 unbounded resources made in His Word are 
 designed to bring them to Himself as to an 
 overflowing fountain, that they may drink the 
 water of life freely. But in order that they 
 
SATAN. 47 
 
 may be stimulated to avail themselves of these 
 benefits, and not perish in sight of abundance, 
 an inward appetite is necessary, a hungering 
 and thirsting after God, a craving for those 
 blessings which He has to bestow. And the 
 more imperative and urgent the sense of need 
 which is awakened, the louder will be the cry 
 for help, and the more importunate the applica- 
 tion for it. 
 
 Here precisely the temptations of the Evil 
 One have their place in God's great scheme 
 of training. Every instinct of self-preservation 
 in a gracious soul should lead it to cry mightily 
 unto God for His delivering aid. Every temp- 
 tation is attended with an imminence of peril, 
 which should startle us out of our security, and 
 lead us to fly for safety to Him who alone can 
 save. He who has any just sense of his own 
 weakness and frailty, and of the frightful evil 
 of sin, must be incessant in his entreaties 
 that he may be upheld in steadfastness by an 
 almighty arm, and guarded from the assaults 
 of one who succeeded even in enticing angels 
 to their fall, and prevailed over our first 
 
 4^ 
 
48 SATAN. 
 
 parents in all the vigor of their early integrity, 
 and to whom we shall prove an easy prey, 
 unless One, stronger than the strong man 
 armed, interferes for our rescue. 
 
 A proper sense of our peril will not only 
 tend to beget the general conviction that in 
 God alone is our help, but will, in addition, 
 lead us to fasten upon those particular assur- 
 ances and grounds of encouragement which 
 are afforded by Him for just such a crisis as 
 this. The knowledge of the vast power of 
 our spiritual adversary will lead us to take ref- 
 uge in the omnipotence of God, to place a 
 new value upon this glorious attribute, to 
 avail ourselves of it as a basis of repose and 
 confidence, to make experience in our daily 
 consciousness of what it is to have a God of 
 such infinite resources to supply our pressing 
 need. The almighty power of God is then no 
 longer an abstraction to us, - — an intellectual 
 conviction, — but a present practical necessity ; 
 not a perfection which we distantly contem- 
 plate, but one by which we live and without 
 which we perish. The dire necessity which 
 
SATAN. 49 
 
 drives us to the fount of life is, in its results, 
 an incalculable blessing. And the temptation 
 of Satan, which terrifies the soul out of all 
 self-dependence and creature-dependence, and 
 compels it to find refuge in an almighty Sav- 
 iour, has accomplished a gracious end. 
 
 And as with this, so with other perfections 
 of the ever-blessed God, and with the precious 
 promises of His Word, and with the merciful 
 provisions of the covenant of grace, and with 
 the priceless salvation of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ. The tempted soul learns afresh how 
 to prize them, and embrace them, and cling 
 to them, and rest upon them, and live by 
 them. To what can he have recourse for pro- 
 tection against the subtlety and craft of Satan 
 but the infinite wisdom and knowledge of 
 God ? How his dread of the rage of Satan 
 enhances to him the value of the love of God ! 
 His unseen approaches exalt in our esteem 
 God's gracious omnipresence. His access to 
 our minds and hearts can only be baffled or 
 rendered abortive by the indwelling and illumi- 
 nation of the Holy Ghost. What new delight 
 
50 SATAN. 
 
 is awakened by the thought of God's providen- 
 tial control, when we remember that He who 
 has set the seas their bound restrains like- 
 wise the malice of Satan, suffers him not to 
 overstep the limits which our Father's love 
 has fixed, and will not allow His people to be 
 tempted above that they are able to bear, or 
 without providing a way of escape for them 
 that they be not overcome thereby! And 
 what completeness is imparted to Christ's 
 redemption, when we see that He triumphed 
 over Satan, bruised the serpent in the dust, 
 and shall bruise him under His people's feet! 
 With what new eagerness will these dreaded 
 temptations compel us to look to the cross, 
 which is the symbol and pledge of victory 
 over the destroyer ! 
 
 2. The temptations of Satan answer the 
 important purpose of training the believer in 
 the duties and exercises of the Christian war- 
 fare. The sacred historian informs us that 
 there was a providential design in leaving 
 a remnant of the Canaanites in the land of 
 Israel, viz., to teach succeeding generations 
 
SATAN. 51 
 
 of the people war. There is no teacher like 
 necessity, and no training in the military art 
 comparable to that enforced by actual hos 
 tilities. 
 
 What emphasis there is ia that direction of 
 the apostle, " Put on the whole armor of God, 
 that ye may be able to stand against the wiles 
 of the devil " ! It is not a time of peace and 
 security, but of deadly conflict. It will not 
 do to remain defenceless, and no armor that 
 is defective or incomplete will answer in this 
 terrible exigency. The weapons of our adver- 
 sary will be swift to find it, if there be one 
 weak or unguarded spot from head to foot. 
 And what a school for practice in all the 
 measures of offence and defence is this con- 
 test for life or death with such a foe ! It is 
 said of a great master in the art of war, that 
 he learned his skill in strategy entirely from 
 the powerful and able leaders with whom he 
 was obliged to cope. The Christian, in his 
 protracted and stubborn contest with the 
 wiliest of all antagonists, cannot fail to make 
 distinguished progress in spiritual generalship, 
 
52 SATAN. 
 
 as well as to develop the qualities of a good 
 soldier of Jesus Christ. 
 
 Nothing is better adapted to call forth a 
 manly vigor than the necessity of strenuous 
 exertion. The struggles one must make, the 
 endeavors one must put forth to resist temp- 
 tation and to overcome the evil one, react 
 to the greatest advantage upon Christian 
 character. The circumspection necessary to 
 escape his insidious designs, the vigilance of 
 one who is obliged to be ever on his guard, 
 the fixed determination of one who has set 
 his face like a flint for the celestial city, and 
 who has resolved that he will be true to his 
 God and his Saviour at all hazards, tend to 
 elevate rapidly the standard of the inner life. 
 
 And these temptations exhibit grace as 
 well as develop it. It can never be shown 
 either to himself or to others what a man is 
 until he is tried. The constancy of Job and 
 the power of his faith could never have been 
 made to appear so conspicuous, if it had not 
 been for the severity of the test to which he 
 was subjected. This lay not only in the 
 
SATAN. 53 
 
 accumulated sorrows by which he was so sud- 
 denly overwhelmed, but chiefly in the sug- 
 gestions of the tempter, who was mercilessly 
 goading him on to give up his confidence in 
 God, and to renounce His service. It was these 
 sore temptations, based on the mystery of dis- 
 pensations which he could not unravel, and 
 backed by a logic which he knew not how to 
 confute, which tortured him almost to despair, 
 and wrung from him those bitter wailings 
 with. which the book abounds. And yet in 
 spite of all, out of the midst of the depths we 
 hear him utter in the very face of the tempter 
 his unabated trust in God, " I know that my 
 Redeemer liveth." 
 
 3. The temptations of Satan, if properly 
 met, may be made a means of intensifying 
 our hatred of sin. He who has barely es- 
 caped the fangs of a venomous reptile will 
 ever after entertain a deeper abhorrence of it. 
 Sin is in every temptation offered to our 
 choice. But it need only be stripped of its 
 disguises to present it in its repulsive and 
 odious features, and make us shrink with 
 
54 , SATAN. 
 
 loathing from the contact. The very act of 
 repelling it will cultivate a spiritual sensitive- 
 ness which can less and less endure its hate- 
 ful presence. 
 
 But, in the fourth place, observe that temp- 
 tation may be an aid to self-knowledge. The 
 germs of evil often lie undeveloped in the 
 heart, and the man himself never suspects 
 their existence until under the influence of 
 some sudden or strong temptation they are 
 brought to light. It is like the searching tests 
 of the assayer exposing the presence of alloy 
 in what might easily have passed for sterling 
 metal. Such mortification enters into the 
 Christian's daily experience, humiliating dis- 
 coveries of the strength of latent corruption 
 and unsubdued propensities to evil, appetites 
 which he supposed he had under subjection 
 resuming the mastery in some fatal moment, 
 the feebleness of his resolutions, insincerity 
 in motives, imperfection in his best services. 
 If these discoveries serve to humble him in 
 the dust, and bring him in penitent broken- 
 ness of heart to sue for pardoning mercy, 
 
SATAN. 55 
 
 and lead him to be more watchful against his 
 besetting sins, the ends of divine grace in 
 suffering him to be overtaken by this tempta- 
 tion will be answered. 
 
 It was thus with Job. God himself testified 
 that there was none like him in the earth, 
 a perfect and an upright man, that feared God, 
 and eschewed evil. And yet there was a 
 leaven of corruption in his imperfectly sancti- 
 fied nature, of which he was not aware, until 
 by the terrible thrusts of Satan it was exposed. 
 Underneath his really sincere and fervent piety 
 there was a taint oiself-righteousness, which 
 made him smart as he did under the reproaches 
 of his friends, and which, in the awful darkness 
 of that mysterious dispensation in which he 
 was enshrouded, led him even to the length of 
 justifying himself rather than God. Brought 
 at last to himself, and dismayed at the thought 
 of what he had allowed himself to utter, he 
 says, " I abhor myself, and repent in dust and 
 ashes.'* The design of God in this severe but 
 salutary discipline was accomplished. Job had 
 been led to know himself better than he did 
 
 3*" 
 
56 SATAN. 
 
 before, and he was humbled by this knowledge. 
 The evil which before lurked within him un- 
 suspected was detected and renounced. 
 
 5. The temptations of Satan afford the occa- 
 sion to grace to develop itself in forms which 
 otherwise it could not assume. Thus all that 
 is implied in patient continuance in well-doing 
 could have no place under other circumstances 
 than those in which we are. The blessed in- 
 habitants of that upper sphere, where sin and 
 sorrow never enter, know not what it is to drag 
 for ever after them this body of corruption, to 
 be checked and hampered in all their aspira- 
 tions by a law of sin in their members, to 
 maintain their steadfastness amid surrounding 
 foes, to preserve the flame of piety bright and 
 clear under the deadening influences of this 
 ungodly world, to keep a cheerful hope in the 
 midst of discouragement and ill success, and 
 doubts and fears ; or to continue to trust un- 
 waveringly in the Lord, when deprived of the 
 light of His countenance. Now, however God 
 may be glorified and His law honored by the 
 unhesitating obedience rendered by the count- 
 
SATAN. 57 
 
 less ranks of those who do not understand 
 from their own experience what temptation 
 means, it would appear as though there was 
 something yet more signal and illustrious in 
 that willing obedience which costs many a weary 
 effort and many a painful struggle, — in that loy- 
 alty to Jesus which is maintained not amidst 
 the sympathy and applause of those who 
 likewise adore His name, but in the face of 
 derision, obloquy, and persecution ; in that un- 
 faltering submission, which can say not merely 
 in the sunlight of the throne, but in the bowl- 
 ings of the pitiless tempest, " Thy will be 
 done." The post of danger is the post of 
 honor, if it be well and bravely defended. Is 
 it no honor, then, which the Lord of all puts 
 upon faithful souls when He sets them in the 
 fore-front of the battle, where the fiery darts of 
 the adversary shower thickly around them, 
 and bids them stand firmly there, and bravely 
 maintain His cause ? Might not angels envy 
 them this exalted privilege? 
 
 And then, besides, there are forms of pious 
 service which are conditioned by the tempta- 
 
58 SATAN. 
 
 tions of Satan directed not upon the actors 
 themselves, but upon others, — those holy 
 Christlike ministrations to the sinful and the 
 suffering, the ignorant and the needy, — those 
 beautiful acts of heaven-born charity which so 
 illustrate and adorn the gospel, and shed a fra- 
 grance so pleasing both to God and man, — 
 all this belongs to a world where sin abounds, 
 and Satan has free scope, and can appear 
 nowhere else. 
 
 A sixth gracious end, which temptations 
 may be designed to accomplish, is to wean the 
 heart from the love of this present world. It 
 is sheer cowardice or faint-heartedness in a 
 soldier to be for ever whining about the dan- 
 gers or hardships of the campaign, and im- 
 portuning for a release. And it would be 
 reprehensible in the Christian to be indolently 
 sighing for the coming rest, merely to escape 
 the toil of laboring in his Master's service. 
 But this error is far less common than the 
 opposite extreme of clinging unduly to this 
 vain world, and having the affections too firmly 
 rooted here. To counteract this dangerous 
 
SATAN. 59 
 
 tendency, measures must be employed to 
 loosen this attachment, by making the world 
 seem less desirable, and causing us to sigh for 
 what is purer and better. The weariness in- 
 duced by the incessant conflict between the 
 flesh and the spirit often weighs heavily upon 
 the soul. It is a hard thing to be for ever 
 crucifying our corrupt nature, to be always 
 struggling against a power which we find it 
 impossible to subdue, endeavoring to keep 
 down principles and propensities which we 
 strive in vain to eradicate or extinguish, and 
 never able with safety to relax our vigilance or 
 to desist from effort. And it is disheartening 
 to find how slow is our progress towards the 
 completed conquest, even if we advance at 
 all ; how often the ground which we seemed 
 to have won is wrested from us, and foes that 
 we thought slain rise again to their feet 
 as powerful as before. All this, though it 
 should not lead us to abandon the fight while 
 the enemy is still in the field, would make the 
 news of victory more welcome. It gives sweet- 
 ness to the thouglit of a world where there 
 
6o SAFAN. 
 
 shall be no more sin, and into which temp- 
 tation cannot enter, where inbred lusts and 
 native corruption shall be removed for ever, 
 and Satan shall at length have ceased 
 to annoy. And this suggests the farther 
 thought : — 
 
 7. That the future glory shall be heightened 
 by the temptations of this present time, which 
 have been bravely met and successfully re- 
 sisted. It is not merely that the coming bless- 
 edness shall be an ample compensation for all 
 that tempted souls can now endure, that the 
 flood of joy shall swallow up all thought of pres- 
 ent pains, and the light affliction, which is for 
 a moment, shall be followed by a far more ex- 
 ceeding and eternal weight of glory. But this 
 glory shall, in various ways, be directly en- 
 hanced by those temptations, in so far as they 
 have not been criminally yielded to, but in the 
 name of the Master stoutly repelled. And thus 
 what Satan intended for your hurt shall be 
 converted into a source of everlasting profit. 
 The experience of rest shall be heightened 
 by the contrast of the antecedent toil and 
 
SATAN. 6 1 
 
 strife ; and the felicity granted to the ran- 
 somed soul shall be likewise enhanced in its 
 absolute amount. If the reward, though 
 wholly the gift of grace, is in proportion to 
 the service done or the fidelity shown, duty 
 resolutely performed in the face of tempta- 
 tions of the evil one will surely receive a 
 marked and signal acknowledgment. The 
 training given to the spiritual faculties in the 
 exercises of the Christian warfare, the devel- 
 opment and expansion thence resulting to 
 the powers of the soul, bear directly on our 
 capacity for bliss and holiness. They who 
 have attained the highest measure of fitness 
 thus for the enjoyments of heaven shall have 
 the largest experience of its blessedness. And, 
 further, those who have been driven by the 
 assaults of the adversary into the closest 
 union with their covenant God, and the most 
 entire dependence upon Him, shall for this 
 reason again partake most freely of those joys 
 which flow from endless communion with the 
 infinite source of all blessedness. 
 
 8. And lastly the temptations of Satan 
 
62 SATAN. 
 
 redound to the glory of divine grace. It 
 belongs to the magnificence of God*s uni- 
 versal government that opposition and hos- 
 tility, to whatever degree and from whatever 
 quarter, instead of tending to thwart or retard 
 His plans, invariably contribute to further and 
 promote them. Satan forms no exception. 
 This arch-fiend, with all his legions and the 
 entire kingdom of evil which he instigates 
 and controls, in spite of their gathered forces 
 and formidable numbers, and subtle craft and 
 hellish spite, is absolutely powerless to prevent 
 or to retard the execution of the least of God's 
 designs. An infant in the arms is not more 
 impotent to arrest the movement of the 
 spheres than Satan is to check the fulfilment 
 of God's sovereign decrees. 
 
 And this absolute control is rendered more 
 illustrious by the manner of its exercise. It 
 is not by bringing the resources of omnipo- 
 tence to overpower the devil and his crew, 
 and to chain them in the awful prison-house 
 prepared for them, so that, driven entirely 
 away from the theatre of His operations, they 
 
SATAN. 63 
 
 can no longer interfere with or obstruct 
 them. On the contrary, Satan is allowed free 
 range, as the prince of the power of the air. 
 He has installed himself as the god of this 
 world. He is busy with his plans and his 
 combinations. They are laid with consum- 
 mate skill, and he is working them with tre- 
 mendous energy. He is laboring to undo 
 the work of God, to defeat the atonement, to 
 destroy souls whom Christ would save. But 
 his machinations shall recoil upon himself. 
 Do what he may, let him rage as he please, 
 let him accomplish his worst, and he is after 
 all only building up what in his blind fury and 
 malice he is endeavoring to tear down. The 
 decrees which he would frustrate embrace 
 himself and all his hateful deeds, as agencies 
 co-operating to their fulfilment. With all his 
 hatred of God and spite against His people, 
 he cannot emancipate himself from that sov- 
 ereign control, which binds him to God's ser- 
 vice. In all his blasphemous designs he is, in 
 spite of himself, doing the work of God. In 
 his rebellious efforts to dethrone the Most 
 
64 SATAN. 
 
 High, he is actually paying Him submissive 
 homage. In moving heaven and earth to 
 accomplish the perdition of those whom 
 Christ has ransomed, he is actually fitting 
 them for glory. Fiend as he is, full of bitter- 
 ness and malignity, and intent on every form 
 of mischief, he is constrained to be that which 
 be most abhors, and is furthest from his in- 
 tentions and desires, helpful and auxiliary to 
 the designs of grace. Like the sons of God 
 who assemble in the presence of the Infinite 
 Majesty to receive the commissions of the 
 King of kings, prompt to do His bidding and 
 to execute His will, Satan is, though most re- 
 luctantly, and in a different sense from them, 
 yet as really and as truly, in the case of those 
 who, like Job, steadfastly resist his insidious 
 assaults, a ministering spirit sent forth to 
 minister to them who shall be heirs of sal- 
 vation. 
 
 But the enforced subordination of this 
 spirit of malice and wickedness to the ends 
 of divine mercy and grace is rendered yet 
 more illustrious, both to the praise of God's 
 
SATAN. 65 
 
 glory and to Satan's everlasting shame and 
 crushing defeat by another particular in the 
 achievement of this triumph. This is the 
 immediate agency by which his subjugation 
 is effected. The New Testament seer beheld 
 a vision of war in heaven. Michael and his 
 angels fought against the dragon ; and the 
 dragon fought, and his angels, and prevailed 
 not. Neither was their place found any more 
 in heaven. And the great dragon was cast 
 out, and his angels were cast out with him. 
 Here, though he was defeated, it was by an 
 antagonist worthy to cope with him. The 
 rival forces fairly matched his own ; and, how- 
 ever disastrous his overthrow, there was no 
 dishonor in falling by such hands. 
 
 But when, smarting under his defeat in 
 heaven, he went to make war with them 
 which keep the commandments of God, and 
 have the testimony of Jesus Christ, he pre- 
 pared for himself a most ignominious repulse. 
 He who aspired to be the leader of the host 
 of heaven, and drew a third part of the angels 
 in his fall, assaults the feeble children of men, 
 
66 SATAN. 
 
 and utterly fails to compass the ruin of one 
 of them upon whom Jesus has set his love. 
 He can terrify them ; he can torture them ; 
 he can make them drag on the weary conflict 
 with sin and corruption while life lasts ; he 
 can extort from them bitter groans of agoniz- 
 ing distress ; he can shower upon them his 
 hery darts ; but he cannot destroy them. 
 The glimmering spark, which divine grace 
 has kindled, he cannot with all the floods 
 of temptation extinguish. Satan cannot by 
 any means harm the feeblest of God's 
 saints, who stands up against him in the 
 name of the Lord. If he have on the armor 
 with which divine grace has furnished him, 
 and use aright the weapons with which he is 
 supplied, and in humble dependence on his 
 Lord abides faithful at his post, he is invin- 
 cible ; and the boastful foe, who came upon 
 him ready to swallow him up, shall be driven 
 back in shame and confusion. Resist the 
 devil, and he will flee from you. 
 
 In the rapid view w^nich has been taken of 
 this subject, our attention has been confined 
 
SATAN. 67 
 
 to the temptations of Satan, as directed 
 against the individual believer. Our limits 
 will not allow us to extend our view to his 
 assaults upon the kingdom of God in its 
 collective capacity, and see how there, too, he 
 most unwittingly acts under orders from the 
 throne ; how, in stirring up opposers to com- 
 bat the truth of God, he but contributes to 
 clear its statements, to unfold its richness, 
 and render its defences more impregnable; 
 how all his designs upon the Church, whether 
 in provoking against her the hostility of the 
 world, sowing dissensions in her own ranks, 
 or in whatever way he may endeavor her 
 injury, are unable to effect her overthrow. 
 The gates of hell cannot prevail against the 
 Church. The earthquake, which in its violent 
 upheaval threatens to demolish the city of 
 God, but shows how absolutely secure its firm 
 foundations are. He may shake earth and 
 heaven, and the crash will only bring down 
 what he had himself essayed to build with rude 
 untempered mortar, and it will only reveal in 
 
68 SATAN. 
 
 its unique stability, and bring to view in its 
 fair proportions, free from every disfiguring 
 addition, the solid, immovable building of 
 God. 
 
 And now in this warfare we are engaged. 
 The temptations of Satan are not to be 
 escaped: no sheltered position, no seclusion 
 from the world, no sacredness of occupation, 
 can screen us from them. The only question 
 is, Shall they prove our infinite damage, or 
 shall they be made to recoil harmless and 
 pointless? It is the most awful question 
 which we can be summoned to answer; 
 and yet the decision of this question may be 
 said to have been placed by the infinite grace 
 of God within our own control. If you yield 
 to the tempter, you become his helpless prey. 
 If you steadfastly resist him, confiding in the 
 grace of God and the salvation of Jesus, he 
 cannot touch a hair of your head. Tempta- 
 tion and sin, if you bravely resist them, will 
 react to your everlasting welfare : your 
 position is impregnable, the protection is 
 
SATAN. 69 
 
 ample, the armament is invincible, the sup- 
 plies abundant, and the fortress can never 
 be entered by the enemy, unless betrayed 
 into his power by your own treacherous 
 hands. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
The Lord gavey and the Lord hath taken away ; 
 blessed be the name of the Lord. — Job i. 2I. 
 
 Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and 
 shall we not receive evil r— Job ii. 10. 
 
JOB IN AFFLICTION, 
 
 "l^jyE have seen Job in his piety and pros- 
 perous estate. We are now to see him 
 in his sad reverses, and to witness his behav- 
 ior in affliction. A change of circumstances 
 often makes a great change in men themselves, 
 or at least exposes a new and previously 
 unsuspected side of their character, and de- 
 velops unlooked-for results. Sometimes it 
 brings to light defects that had never been 
 dreamed of in those who were esteemed 
 almost faultless ; sometimes it reveals unan- 
 ticipated excellencies. Emergencies are the 
 making of some men, and the destruction of 
 others. The former rise in greatness, and in 
 every noble quality of soul, in proportion to 
 the increasing demands of the occasion. The 
 
74 JOB IN AFFLICTION. 
 
 latter are unable to abide the severity of the 
 test applied to them, and fall before it. How 
 will it be with Job ? 
 
 A disclosure is made at the outset, to the 
 readers of this book, of things that are con- 
 cealed from the human actors in it. The veil: 
 that hides the unseen world is partially drawn 
 aside, so as to afford us a glimpse of a spirit- 
 ual agent, who is to give a new turn to events. 
 The arch-enemy of man has had his eye upon 
 Job. True to the instincts of his own vile 
 nature, he has no faith in the reality of good- 
 ness. He sees in the piety of Job nothing 
 but a refined form of selfishness. He serves 
 God because it is his interest to do so. God 
 protects and blesses him, and as a matter of 
 course he inclines to the quarter from which 
 the favors come ; but if these favors were 
 to cease, the tempter urges, Job's piety would 
 vanish with them. His goodness has its 
 spring in its attendant rewards : withhold the 
 latter, and Job will soon take leave of God 
 and His service, which no longer yields him 
 any advantage. 
 
JOB IN AFFLICTION. ^y 
 
 h- 
 
 ' Satait is allowed to bring to an issue this 
 question which he has raised. j|He niayjput 
 Job's piety to the test, and in him he may test 
 the question whether there is such a thing 
 as real piety in the earth, a piety that is not / 
 merely self-seeking and actuated by a hope of 
 gain, but which heartily loves the right and 
 cleaves to it, and chooses the service of God 
 though no hope of profit can attach to so doing. 
 Job is_on trial, though he knows it not ; and 
 unfriendly eyes are eagerly watching for his 
 halting. And he is on trial not merely for 
 himself : /the cause of religion is represented . 
 
 in him/ the cause of God on earth, though ^ y 
 he is also unconscious of the dignity of his 
 position and of the sacredness of the interest 
 which he is set to sustain, and of the fact \ 
 that the eyes of the Lord of all are turned 
 upon him with approval, and with a lively 
 concern for the favorable issue of the strug- 
 gle in which he is engaged. Of the spiritual 
 significance of this transaction, Job is pro- 
 foundly ignorant. He feels the terrible pres- 
 sure of his heavy sorrows, but he is not aware 
 
74 JOB IN AFFLICTION. 
 
 that they have been sent upon him as a test 
 of character. He knows nothing of Satan's 
 malicious designs, who seeks to prove his 
 piety a pretence. He knows nothing of the 
 sovereign purpose of God, who means to es- 
 tablish its reality and power to the confusion 
 of the tempter.l 
 
 It is with trembling apprehension that we 
 see such power granted to this unseen adver- 
 sary, with liberty to use it against the unsus- 
 pecting patriarch : " Behold, all that he hath is 
 in thy power." " Behold, he is in thine hand.*' 
 Ijj^The contest seems fearfully unequal between 
 this arch-fiend and mortal man, however firm 
 his integrity, whatever the sincerity and 
 strength of his piety. It reassures us some- 
 what, however, when we observe that the 
 tempter is, after all, limited and restrained by 
 Job's almighty Guardian and Friend. The 
 fiend cannot frame and carry out his malevo- 
 lent designs unchecked^ He acts only by suf- 
 ferance. He must have leave from the Most 
 High, before he can touch Job at all to harm 
 him or lay his hand upon any thing that he 
 
JOB IN AFFLICTION. 77 
 
 has.k And, when permission is given, it is 
 within fixed limits, which he may not over- 
 step. When Job's property was put at Satan's 
 disposal, it was with the accompanying restric- 
 tion : " Only upon himself put not forth thine 
 hand." When Job's own person was further 
 subjected to his power, it was with the added 
 requirement, " But save his life." With all 
 the limitations, however, a tremendous range 
 was conceded to this enemy of all right- 
 eousness, and the assault which he makes 
 is a frightful one. Can Job endure the 
 shock ? 
 
 In order that we may properly appreciate 
 the conduct of Job in his affliction, we must 
 further take into account another considera- 
 tion. Job went into his trial destitute of 
 many of those firm supports and grounds of 
 consolation, which are now so plentifully sup- 
 plied to suffering saints. Those revelations 
 had not yet been made, upon which the be 
 liever now so firmly rests his hope in times 
 of deep distress. Truths, which are as famil 
 iar to us as household words in the gra- 
 
78 JOB IN AFFLICTION. 
 
 cious disclosures of the gospel, had never yet 
 been clearly set before the minds of men. 
 Perhaps it may be said that the faintest con- 
 ceptions of them had scarcely dawned on 
 any human consciousness. The king's broad 
 highway through the wilderness of earthly 
 sorrow, along which suffering pilgrims can 
 now pass in comparative safety and comfort, 
 had not then been constructed. Its route 
 had not even been surveyed, nor a pathway 
 broken. Job was one of the hardy pioneers 
 to whom this primary task was committed. 
 He had to make his own way, without guide 
 or chart or knowledge of the ground, through 
 the tangled, trackless, howling waste; with 
 no light to relieve the darkness of the night 
 that enveloped him but the lone pole-star of his 
 unshaken trust in God, and this, alas ! dimmed 
 often, and obscured by the black, threatening 
 clouds which swept athwart his sky, though 
 ever and anon peering forth afresh ; unshel- 
 tered, too, from the tempest and the storm, 
 which broke over him without mercy. Prec- 
 ipices yawned at his feet, swollen streams 
 
JOB IN AFFLICTION. 79 
 
 ran across his route, and there were treacher- 
 ous bogs in which he might be hopelessly 
 mired. Is it strange if his stout heart quailed 
 at the terrors which surrounded him ? Is it 
 strange if groans of distress were extorted 
 from him ? Yet, in spite of all, he pushed 
 his way through, and the path which he 
 opened has defined the route for many trav- 
 ellers since. There is not a weary sufferer 
 in Christendom who is not indebted to the 
 patriarch of Uz, who has not been helped 
 and aided by his example of fortitude and 
 constancy, and in addition had reason to be 
 grateful for the lessons of comfort and hope 
 transmitted to us from him. He grappled 
 with the mystery of affliction in all its unex- 
 plained darkness and difficulty, until his own 
 soul found rest. Those cheering views of 
 truth, to which he fought his way, or which 
 were graciously vouchsafed to him in his trial, 
 have been the heritage of God's people ever 
 since. 
 
 Think for a moment what it would be to 
 encounter crushing sorrows not only without 
 
 4* 
 
80 JOB IN AFFLICTION, 
 
 Calvary and Gethsemane and the sympathy 
 of the incarnate Son of God, who is Himself 
 touched with the feeling of our infirmities, for 
 He was in all points tempted like as we are, 
 yet without sin; but to go into trials that 
 offer no bright spot this side the grave, with 
 no clear views of that eternal blessedness, in 
 comparison with which all earthly sorrows, 
 however grievous in themselves, and long 
 continued, are nevertheless light and momen- 
 tary; without the assurance that present 
 griefs and sufferings shall be overbalanced 
 and outweighed by that far more exceeding 
 and eternal weight of glory, whose absolute 
 amount they shall themselves greatly enhance. 
 What would it be to encounter frowning 
 providences without the distinct understand- 
 ing that these are nevertheless consistent with 
 the abiding, unchanging love of our heavenly 
 Father? They are not tokens of His dis- 
 pleasure ; they are not evidences that He has 
 withdrawn His love or has shut up His tender 
 mercies. On the contrary, whom the Lord 
 loveth He chasteneth. There is a paternal 
 
JOB IN AFFLICTION.^ 8 1 
 
 discipline in affliction. It has a gracious 
 design, and will have a salutary result The 
 rod is in a loving Father's hand : its strokes 
 are not capriciously nor unkindly given, they 
 are administered solely for our good. 
 
 Deprive the sufferer of the solace afforded 
 by his knowledge of these precious truths, 
 hide from him the benefit to be derived from 
 affliction, take away his consciousness of the 
 divine love in the midst of it all, and remove 
 from him the assurance of the everlasting 
 reward which shall infinitely more than com- 
 pensate all that he now endures, and how 
 defenceless would he appear in the presence 
 of heavy griefs ! These wellsprings of con- 
 solation had not yet been opened. These 
 comforting truths had never found utterance 
 in human speech. Simple and obvious as 
 they now appear to us from frequent repeti- 
 tion, and belonging to the very alphabet of 
 our religion, they had never been distinctly 
 formulated, and no clear conception of them 
 had ever been reached. Job must fight the 
 battle without the aids which his experience 
 
§2 JOB IN AFFLICTION. 
 
 as well as later revelations have furnished 
 us. His sorrows came upon him, not for 
 his own sake merely, but for ours. A new 
 lesson was to be given to the world ; and Job 
 was to be the medium of instruction. The 
 stream of adversity swells around him, until 
 in danger of sinking he is compelled to strug- 
 gle with all his might to get upon the sure 
 foundation. Where he finds firm footing, 
 other children of sorrow may safely tread. 
 
 The spectacle before us, then, is that of this 
 eminent man of God, chosen to be the leader 
 of the band of sufferers in their mortal con- 
 flict with evil and the evil one. He goes into 
 the strife unpractised and unawares. The 
 onset of the foe is fierce and furious. Will 
 even Job be able to stand in the evil day ? 
 ^ The conflict unfolds itself in three sue-" 
 cessive stages of growing violence, and the 
 demeanor of this holy man is depicted to us 
 in each. In the first, we behold him in one 
 evil day suddenly and irretrievably despoiled 
 of all his possessions. In the morning his 
 sky was without a cloud.. He was in the 
 
JOB IN AFFLICTION. 83 
 
 midst of the prosperous abundance which he 
 had long enjoyed, and seemed to have every 
 reason to feel secure of its continuance. It 
 was in fact a day of special festivity and 
 family reunion ; and, so far from leading to 
 the anticipation of evil, it was an occasion of 
 more than ordinary joy. Happy in his chil- 
 dren, and in his possessions, and in the re- 
 spect and consideration universally accorded 
 to him, his cup of blessing overflowed. 
 And there was nothing to suggest the like- 
 lihood of a coming reverse. /And yet, before 
 that day was ended, every thing was gone. 
 (\|To such destitution was he reduced that his 
 condition is aptly likened to that of a new- 
 born child. He came naked into the world ; 
 and now that he had been stripped of all, he 
 shall leave it as naked as he came.\^ 
 
 Suddenly, and without a moment's warning, 
 the storm of calamity burst over the head 
 of the doomed patriarch^^ One messenger of 
 evil chased another with tidings of disaster. 
 One had not ended his tale of loss before 
 another came with a tale more doleful still. 
 
84 JOB IN AFFLICTION. 
 
 His oxen and his asses were driven off by the 
 wild and roving tribe of the Sabeans ; his 
 sheep were consumed by fire from heaven ; 
 his camels were carried away by plundering 
 bands of Chaldeans; and his servants put 
 to the sword. And, to complete the dismal 
 intelligence of woe, the house in which his 
 children were assembled, and passing the 
 hours in glad hilarity, was overturned by a 
 tornado and fell upon them all, crushing 
 them to death. In one moment of terrible 
 reverse the stricken patriarch is bereaved of 
 his children and despoiled of his property. 
 All is taken from him in an instant ; and, of 
 all that he had cherished and delighted in 
 and prized of earthly good, he has nothing 
 left. 
 
 If the calamity had been less sweeping and 
 universal, it would not have been so over- 
 whelming. If something had been spared 
 him, if it had been only a part of his prop- 
 erty and not the whole which was taken, the 
 loss might still have been considerable, it 
 might have been heavy, it might have involved 
 
JOB IN AFFLICTION. 85 
 
 the greater part of his fortune ; still, if he had 
 not lost all, it would have been easier to bear 
 it with equanimity Or though all his prop- 
 erty were taken from him, if those posses- 
 sions had been left which were dearer far 
 than flocks and herds, those precious domes- 
 tic treasures which he valued beyond all his 
 wealth, — if his beloved children had been 
 spared, it would have been easier to bear the 
 loss of all beside. It would have been hard 
 to part with one of that cherished circle that 
 he prized so much and loved so fondly ; but 
 to lose not only one, nor two, nor three, but 
 all, and all at once, this was bereavement and 
 desolation indeed. 
 
 If the blows had not fallen so suddenly 
 and in such quick succession; if he could 
 have had some time in which to steady him- 
 self for the shock ; if there had been some 
 intervals of relief in which he could have 
 summoned all his strength to meet the com- 
 ing blows, it would have seemed less dreadful, 
 it would not have been so crushing as when 
 the whole dire weight came down upon him 
 
 y 
 
S6 JOB IN AFFLICTION. 
 
 at a stroke. By this accumulation of sorrows 
 
 so suddenly sprung upon Job, the violence 
 
 . of the attack was increased to the utmost, 
 
 I and thus his steadfastness was put to the 
 
 nJ severest test Can the tempter drive him 
 thus to give up his integrity and abandon 
 his trust in God ? 
 
 Under the pressure of sore affliction men 
 are in danger of falling into one or other hi 
 two opposite extremes, either of which is in- 
 consistent with fidelity to the Lord's service. 
 The first is that of repining and murmuring 
 at the divine allotment : the other is that of 
 bearing it in a spirit of stoical indifference. 
 The wise man warns us against both. " My 
 son, despise not thou the chastening of the 
 Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of 
 Him." Job avoided both these dangers in 
 that subdued but noble demeanor which has 
 been in all ages since the model of submissive 
 
 J resignation. The stricken patriarch, bowed 
 with grief, adopts the tokens of the most pro- 
 found humiHation and sorrow: he rent his 
 mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down 
 
JOB IN AFFLICTION. Sj 
 
 upon the ground. Not to sit in sullen silence, 
 and brood despondently over the terrible 
 losses which he had sustained ; not to complain 
 of the providence of God, which had dealt so 
 hardly with him : no, he prostrates himself in 
 reverential worship ; he bows with meek sub- 
 mission to Him who had smitten him ; and 
 his only language is that of grateful adoration 
 to the Source of all blessings, who in remov- 
 ing all had but taken away what He Himself 
 had given. Job fell down upon the ground 
 and worshipped ; and said, " Naked came I 
 out of my mother's womb, and naked shall 
 I return thither. The Lord gave, and the 
 Lord hath taken away ; blessed be the name 
 of the Lord." Can humble, trustful piety 
 reach a sublimer utterance than this? He 
 has been cast down from the height of his 
 prosperity ; has suffered the total wreck of 
 his fortune and the loss of all his family ; he 
 is weighed to the earth with his crushing sor- 
 rows ; and yet, with bleeding heart and pros- 
 trate form, this venerable man utters not one 
 word of complaint. So far is he from giving 
 
 v/ 
 
88 JOB IN AFFLICTION. 
 
 up his confidence in the goodness of the 
 
 Lord, that he strengthens himself in this con- 
 
 J fidence by the very greatness of the calamity 
 
 > that he has suffered, and draws his argument 
 
 W praise for the multitude of God's mercies 
 
 from the very bitterness of the cup that is 
 
 now pressed to his lips. 
 
 The submission of Job is not merely that 
 he yields to what is inevitable ; that seeing 
 the stroke of fate has fallen, and its blow can- 
 not be turned aside, and the past cannot be 
 undone, he resigns himself to what is beyond 
 the possibility of repair. Nor does he merely 
 succumb to Omnipotence, convinced that it 
 is futile to resist what the almighty God has 
 appointed. None can stay His hand, or pre- 
 vent the execution of His sovereign will. It 
 can be of no avail to oppose himself to Him, 
 and so he subsides in forced acquiescence. 
 Nor is it merely the rectitude of the infinite 
 Ruler before which he falls prostrate, who 
 has a right to do as He will with His own, 
 and who can dispose of his creatures accord- 
 ing to His sovereign pleasure. - Job meekly 
 
JOB IN AFFLICTION, 89 
 
 bows not before the stroke of inevitable fate, 
 not simply before the resistless energy of 
 almighty power, nor simply before the 
 righteous control of the sovereign Ruler; 
 but before the goodness of the Lord, a sense 
 of which now fills his heart proportioned to 
 the magnitude of the reverse which he has '-^' 
 sustained. . " The Lord gave, and the Lord \y 
 hath taken away ; blessed be the name of the 
 Lord."! The bitterness of his loss is made 
 the measure of the preciousness of the bless- 
 ings God had given. The severity of his 
 trial consists in parting with what God had 
 bestowed./ Every pang that now rends his 
 heart is a 'fresh proof how gracious God has 
 been. The magnitude of the loss determines 
 the value of the gift, and the depth of his 
 anguish enhances his grateful sense of the 
 goodness of the Giver.y The more deeply he 
 mourns the treasures which have been taken 
 away from him, the higher is his appreciation 
 of the gracious kindness of Him who be 
 stowed them. Thus the more profoundly he 
 grieves, the more fervently he still blesses the 
 name of the Lord. 
 
90 JOB IN AFFLICTION. 
 
 Not that he sees the goodness of God in 
 afflicting him. This was a lesson Job had 
 not yet learned. The benefits and uses of 
 affliction, and the gracious design with which 
 it is sent of God, had not yet been revealed. 
 It was through these trials of Job himself, and 
 the disclosure of His purposes thus given, 
 and the providential issue of His dealings with 
 His servant, that the first rays of light were 
 shed on this dark and mysterious subject. 
 It was partly in order to afford an occasion 
 for giving these lessons to the world, which 
 , might lighten the sorrows, and ease the bur- 
 
 ^1 dens, and mitigate the trials of subsequent 
 sufferers, that these distresses were sent on 
 
 y Job. Thus did he in a measure suffer for 
 our sakes, and by his stripes we are healed ; 
 as a forerunner and a type of the great Prince \ 
 of sufferers, of whom this was true in its 
 strictest and highest sense. 
 
 But these lessons, which we have learned 
 from the example of Job and the measures of 
 God's grace with him, as well as from later 
 revelations, were all unknown as yet to the 
 
JOB IN AFFLICTION. 9 1 
 
 patriarch himself. He knew not that afflic- 
 tion was a means of grace ; that there was 
 healing in the bitter draught ; that there 
 was mercy in these seeming frowns ; that all 
 that he experienced was in fact the chastise- 
 ment of love. He knew not even that it was 
 a trial and a test of his integrity and pious 
 faith in God ; and that the Lord regarded 
 with complacent approbation his steadfast 
 endurance of the test thrust upon him by 
 his great adversary. 
 
 And it heightens our conception of Job's 
 sterling piety, and gives us loftier apprehen- 
 sions of the nobility of his character, and 
 enhances to our view his sublimely meek and 
 submissive demeanor, when we see him con- 
 fronting the unsolved enigma of this mysteri- 
 ous dispensation, and deducing from it fresh 
 matter for grateful praise. \ He _jiQt-jnerely 
 confesses that He who gave n^ight justly with- 
 draw His own, so that, whatever his losses, his 
 mouth is stopped from making any complaint. 
 But the withdrawal of the gift makes him 
 sensible of its greatness, and, instead of draw- 
 
92 JOB IN AFFLICTION. 
 
 ing from him the language of repining, com- 
 pels him to the utterance of praise^ — " Blessed 
 be the name of the Lord." 
 
 The first stage of the trial is ended, and the 
 tempter is foiled. The record is, ''In all this 
 Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly." 
 
 But the tempter is not yet satisfied, and 
 Job's piety must be put to a yet further proof. 
 He has borne with becoming resignation the 
 loss of all outward possessions, the ruin of his 
 property, the decease of his children ; but 
 how if the blow should fall not on what he 
 owns, but upon himself ? Satan accordingly 
 meditates a fresh onset, and leave is given 
 him to aggravate the sorrows of Job already 
 so great by an additional disaster. To the 
 calamities previously sent is now added an 
 infliction upon his own person, — a most dis- 
 tressing, offensive, and acute disease, one of 
 the symptoms of which was an eruption of 
 painful ulcers, covering his entire body. He 
 was smitten with sore boils from the sole of 
 his foot to his crown. " And he took him a 
 potsherd to scrape himself withal ; and he sat 
 down among the ashes. 
 
JOB IN AFFLICTION. 93 
 
 Can Job bear up under this new distress ? 
 What will be the effect of pain and bodily 
 suffering added to the shock of former sor- 
 rows ? Now that he is weakened by disease 
 and distracted by torturing anguish in every 
 member of his body, will it be strange if the 
 trustful submission which he has maintained 
 hitherto gives way? and though he has 
 borne his previous trials with noble fortitude, 
 and he has seen his property swept away, 
 and his children taken from him with tran- 
 quil resignation, he should be unable to with- 
 stand the pressure of this new calamity, and 
 physical suffering should extort from him 
 murmurs and repining words, and lead him 
 to cherish hard thoughts of God, and give up 
 his trust in His goodness and His gracious 
 providence ; and thus the tempter should at 
 length succeed, and Job's piety be put to a 
 test which it could not bear? 
 / The trial proves too much for his wife. 
 Her fortitude forsakes her at this new spec- 
 tacle of woe. " Dost thou still retain thine 
 integrity? " she says to him: "curse God," — 
 
 V 
 
94 JOB IN AFFLICTION. 
 
 or rather, take leave of God, abandon his ser- 
 vice, — " and die." The wife of Job has often 
 been misjudged, and the meaning of her 
 words misunderstood. She has been cen- 
 sured as though she were destitute of piety, 
 had neither love nor sympathy for her hus- 
 band, and were lacking, in fact, in common 
 humanity. It has even been hinted that 
 Satan showed his hostility to Job no less in 
 sparing her to be a torment to him than in 
 taking the lives of his children. The repre- 
 sentation is frequently made, that, never hav- 
 ing sympathized with Job in his piety, she 
 was provoked that he should maintain it still 
 when it had proved so unprofitable and was 
 so poorly rewarded. And she bids him 
 curse God and die, as though she would have 
 him bid defiance to his Maker, from whom he 
 received nothing but unmerited injuries and 
 ill-treatment; as though she would have him 
 upbraid Him with the causeless suffering He 
 had brought upon him, if he perished for it ; 
 with the intimation perhaps that he might as 
 well die in the wretched condition in which he 
 
JOB IN AFFLICTION. 95 
 
 then was, it would the sooner end his misery ; 
 and possibly also with the hard-hearted sug- 
 gestion that it was of little concern to her, as 
 he had ceased to be any thing but a burden, 
 of which she was willing to be relieved. 
 
 We cannot but look upon this severity of 
 censure as quite undeserved. It is unfair to 
 put the worst construction possible upon the 
 language of Job's wife in this case, and then 
 make her conduct on this occasion the index 
 to her whole life. Such a judgment is al- 
 together misleading, and gives a perverted 
 view of the incident itself which is here 
 recorded, and of the design with which it is 
 introduced. There is no intimation either 
 here, or in the single allusion subsequently 
 made to the wife of Job, xix. 17, that there 
 had been any unhappiness in Job's domestic 
 life ; that his wife had been uncongenial to 
 him, a thorn in his side, or any thing other 
 than the worthy partner of such a husband, 
 his joy and solace, united with him in heart 
 and life, approving and sharing his upright- 
 ness and pious trust in God. Else in the 
 6 
 
96 JOB IN AFFLICTION. 
 
 days of his former prosperity his felicity 
 could not have been as pure and untroubled 
 as it is represented to have been ; and when 
 his prosperity again returns there is no inti- 
 mation that she served in any wise to make 
 his happiness incomplete. 
 
 And, so far .as appears, she had borne their 
 first terrible trial with ^ like spirit of meek and 
 submissive resignation to that of Job himself. 
 She had faced adversity as bravely as he. At 
 least we hear of no murmur from her lips 
 any more than from his on that dreadful day 
 of disaster and sudden reverse, when property 
 and children were all swept remorselessly 
 away, and they were left destitute and alone 
 in remediless desolation. She offered no 
 word of protest then, against Job's utterance 
 of pious resignation. So far as appears, her 
 heart went with his. She, too, parted with 
 her wealth and with her children without 
 one repining word. 
 
 But when her last earthly prop is breaking, 
 and her only surviving solace is perishing 
 before her eyes, and she sees her husband in 
 
JOB IN AFFLICTION. 97 
 
 _such,m isery and suffering;^and sinking into 
 death by so frightful a disease, she is well- 
 nigh frantic in her despair; her fortitude 
 gives way; ^r trust in God, which she had 
 c herished hithert o^_ passes un der a clo ud. 
 She feels that it is a cruel dispensation, and 
 He is cr uel who has inflicted it. She cannot 
 longer give her adoration to a Being who 
 rewards His faithful worshippers thus ; who 
 wantonly sends such dire extremity of woe, 
 and has brought such desolation upon her 
 household and her heart. And she cannot 
 bear to have her husband in his helpless mis- 
 ery continue to bless and to adore the God 
 who is torturing him to death. _A GgcL-Sa. 
 pitiless and_so cru el it were be tter to take 
 
 leave of than to worship ; to renou nce His 
 service th an to ser ve Him, and be requited 
 thus. It were as well to curse Him as to 
 bless, for in this desperate extremity it can 
 make matters no worse, for death is equally 
 at hand in either case. Since you must die, 
 die cursing, not blessing, the author of your 
 misery, the source of all our bitter woe. 
 
gS JOB IN AFFLICTION. 
 
 And thus the loving wife in the frenzy 
 of her anguish has ranged herself unwit- 
 tingly upon the tempter's side. It is not 
 the first nor only time that fond hearts 
 and friendly hands have unknowingly leagued 
 themselves with the destroyer, and ignorantly 
 done the work of Satan. That Job's wife did 
 what she did under the impulse of her affec- 
 tions, seems to be implied in the connection. 
 Her words are introduced as adding force to 
 the temptation, and affording a fresh exhi- 
 bition of the firmness of Job's piety. Cold, 
 unfeeling sarcasm and impious taunt from 
 his wife would not have enticed, but rather 
 repelled. Instead of assailing his integrity 
 at a new and tender point, it would have 
 naturally thrown him into an attitude of 
 resistance to the heartless and wicked sug- 
 gestion. 
 
 But the case is altered, if we see in his 
 wife one who tenderly loves him, and whom 
 he fondly loves. She has stood firmly with 
 him hitherto, but now at length her con- 
 stancy is overcome ; and she would persuade 
 
JOB IN AFFLICTION. 99 
 
 him, too, to abandon his piety, which has not 
 availed to save him from this dismal fate, and 
 to give up the service of a God who, with 
 such a disregard of His constant, faithful 
 worship, has so causelessly and cruelly af- 
 flicted him. Job has borne all former disas- 
 ters unmoved. His bodily sufferings even '- 
 cannot shake his integrity. And now the 
 solicitations of his wife he turns aside. His 
 reply to her suggestion is not harsh and 
 severe, as it is frequently interpreted, but 
 rather the language of pained surprise. It is 
 not a stern censure, but a mild rebuke, though 
 'decided in its rejection of her ill-judged coun- 
 sel. He does not rudely charge her with 
 being herself a foolish woman, whether the 
 meaning be destitute of sense or lacking in 
 true piety. He simply says this was not 
 spoken like herself ; it is such a suggestion 
 as he would not have expected from her. 
 She had spoken not with her usual wisdom 
 and pious feeling, but as one of the foolish 
 women speaketh. " What ! shall we receive ^ 
 good at the hand of God, and shall we not 
 receive evil?" 
 
^J' 
 
 lOO JOB IN AFFLICTION. 
 
 Job's trust in the goodness of the Lord 
 does not falter yet. Here was not, as in his 
 former trial, a simple withdrawal of what 
 God had previously given and in which the 
 amount so withdrawn was simply an index to 
 the goodness of Him who had bestowed it. . 
 There was now not the mere privation of 
 good, but the positive infliction of evil, of suf- 
 fering and pain. Job knows not that this 
 suffering encloses a benefit, and is sent with 
 a benevolent design. He cannot therefore 
 praise God for the suffering itself, and ac- 
 knowledge in it a token of the divine good- 
 ness, as he might have done if the lesson had 
 been taught him which the Psalmist learned 
 when he said, " It is good for me that I have 
 been afflicted," and which the apostle ex- 
 pressed when he said, " We glory in tribula- 
 tions also," " I take pleasure in infirmities, 
 in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, 
 in distresses for Christ's sake." Job did not 
 yet know that all things work together for 
 good to them that love God. He did not 
 understand that pain and suffering were or 
 
JOB IN AfFLmTtO'^J'^^ { }]]' ]\Mq1 
 
 could be any thing else but evils. Yet regard- 
 ing them simply in this light, as evils, and evils 
 received from the hand of God, they did not 
 blind' him to the fact of the divine goodness 
 and the great preponderance of blessing 
 received from His bountiful hand. The 
 evil does not by any means match the good, 
 much less outweigh it. Shall we forget the 
 immensity of the benefits bestowed because 
 He also sends some suffering.? Shall we 
 receive good at the hand of God, and shall 
 we not receive evil ? 
 
 ( Job is again victorious, and the tempter 
 is once more foiled.^ His piety has proved 
 equal to the severity of this fresh test to 
 w^hich it was subjected. "In all this," the 
 record runs, "did not Job sin with his lips." 
 
 But Job's trial is not yet ended. He has 
 passed through two stages of it, and has suc- 
 cessfully surmounted them. Thus far his 
 piety has borne the test triumphantly, to the 
 confusion of the tempter. He suffered the 
 loss of his property and of his children with 
 noble resignation ; with his heart wrung with 
 
V 
 
 f^i I / ; s 1 { ' } ' ' J0B ; m Al&FLICTION. 
 
 grief, clad in the insignia of mourning and 
 prostrate on the earth, he still blessed the 
 name of the Lord. He bore the further 
 infliction of what was deemed a fatal disease, 
 accompanied by acute bodily suffering, with 
 heroic fortitude jLand though his wife herself 
 threw her weight upon the side of tempta- 
 tion, he still held fast his integrity, and sub- 
 missively received jeyH as well as good from 
 the hand of the Lord. ^ But the third stage 
 of the temptation is yet before him, and it 
 will test his endurance more severely still. 
 It i s the persisten ce of suffering, its continued 
 pressure through long^interyjals of time. 
 
 Many a citadel is proof against assault, 
 which yet may be obliged to succumb to the 
 slow and steady progress of a siege. Con- 
 stant dropping wears away rocks. There are 
 limits beyond which human endurance can- y 
 not go. The first onset of pain and suffering 
 is not nearly so formidable as its protracted 
 continuance, which wears out the strength 
 and uses up the capacity of resistance. Pain jf 
 which can be patiently borne for a short time 
 
JOB IN AFFLICTION IO3 
 
 becomes intolerable after a longer period. 
 Sad indeed is the condition of the worn and 
 weary sufferer, whose strength is exhausted, 
 his spirits sunk, his buoyancy gone, all hope 
 fled ; unable to calm his irritated nerves or 
 ease his aching limbs, restless and unquiet, 
 finding no repose, no comfortable posture and 
 no cessation of pain, just wearing out the 
 tiresome hours as they drag heavily along ; 
 through all the tedious night, and night after 
 night watching for the dawn, which in its 
 turn brings no relief; and through all the 
 day sighing for the night, though the night 
 brings no repose. It is not so much the 
 amount of pain endured at any one moment 
 as its long and wearisome continuance that , 
 is so hard to bear. This weary, exhausting / 
 round of suffering, with no prospect of relief, Vv 
 is the third stage of Job's heavy trial. The ^ 
 tempter, who had twice failed in his fierce 
 onset, would now wear him out, if possible, 
 and break his strength by continued en- 
 durance. 
 
 Day after day, week after week, he is still 
 
 6* 
 
I04 JOB IN AFFLICTION. 
 
 compelled to drag his heavy burden, and he 
 does so in silence. How long we know not. 
 It was some time after his seizure before his 
 friends arrived to comfort him. Doubtless a 
 number of days had passed before they heard 
 of his calamity. A further interval was con- 
 sumed in concerting an appointment to 
 come. When they arrived, his disease had 
 already so altered his features and form that 
 they lifted up their eyes and knew him not. 
 And after their arrival they sat with him 
 seven days and seven nights before Job 
 uttered a word of lamentation. Through all 
 this protracted period he bore his grief in 
 silence.^ "^But at length his sorrows grow 
 beyond his power to suppress them, and he 
 breaks forth in the piteous meanings of in- 
 tolerable anguish. He has borne the torture 
 with pious fortitude, until at length nature 
 can hold out no more : he can endure it no 
 longer, and he gives vent to the most dis- 
 tressed sighs and groans ; but in it all observe 
 that he does not rail against God. / 
 
 In the most passionate manner he utters 
 
JOB IN AFFLICTION. IO5 
 
 his wailing cry. With the most vehement 
 expressions he heaps execrations on the day 
 in which he was born ; he wishes that day 
 blotted from existence/ — in other words, that 
 it had never been, — so that it could not have 
 inflicted upon him the misery of an intoler- 
 able existence. Oh that he had never been 
 born ! Oh that when born he had perished, 
 neglected and uncared for, and thus might 
 never have come to know the wretchedness 
 of living ! Oh if he had but found in early 
 infancy a grave, which closes over all alike, 
 and sweeps into its all-devouring maw the rich 
 and great, kings and counsellors, the prisoner 
 and the oppressor, the master and his slave, 
 gathering all into that profound and undis- 
 turbed repose, which now is denied to him ! 
 Oh, how he longs for death ! he would clutch at 
 it as the miser grasps his gold, as men dig 
 for hidden treasures. Why is this coveted 
 privilege of death denied him.? 
 
 Thus the poor sufferer bemoans his dismal 
 fate. It is the doleful lament of one who has 
 more laid upon him than he can bear. It is 
 
I06 JOB IN AFFLICTION. 
 
 not the utterance of considerate reflection. 
 It is not the expression of deliberate views. 
 The sentences are not to be nicely weighed, 
 and their propriety or impropriety passed 
 upon as though they were spoken in moments 
 of calm repose. They must be judged of 
 from the situation of Job. They are the 
 . / language of one tortured beyond endurance, 
 who cannot support the anguish that he suf- 
 fers, and whose life has become an intolerable 
 burden. Allowance must be made for these 
 
 /paroxysms of helpless, hopeless sorrow. His 
 strength was not the strength of stones, nor 
 his flesh of brass. He was incapable himself 
 of weighing what he uttered. It only repre- 
 sents the bitterness of irrepressible woe. 
 I Still, bruised as he is, hopeless of good, 
 
 ^ with but one wish, and this that he might die, 
 V Job does not reproach or revile his Maker. 
 The tempter has broken his spirit, and 
 crushed him to the earth ; but he has not 
 succeeded yet in wresting from him his 
 integrity or bringing him to forsake his God./J 
 Here we must leave the patriarch for the 
 
JOB IN AFFLICTION. I07 
 
 present. This third, most dreadful stage of 
 his trial is not yet ended. The tempter has 
 not relaxed his hold. He has new instru- 
 ments of torture to apply to the victim already 
 reduced to so pitiable a condition ; and he 
 will use them mercilessly. He sees his ad- 
 vantage in Job's extremity of misery, and he 
 will push it to the bitter end, if so he can 
 wring from him the renunciation of his trust 
 in God. Will he be able to compass his 
 malicious design.'* The future will reveal. 
 Meanwhile let it be recorded that he has not 
 succeeded yet. In the desperate straits to 
 which he has been driven. Job has not yet 
 renounced the service of the Lord. 
 
 And may He whose grace supported Job 
 in all his dreadful trials hitherto grant like 
 grace to us, — grace according to our need, 
 grace to do according to the measure of the 
 task required of us, grace to bear according 
 to the measure of the burden laid upon us. 
 And to His name be praise. Amen. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
Now when yoUs three friends heard of all this 
 evil that was come upon him^ they came every one from 
 his own place; Eliphaz the Temanite, and Bildad 
 the Shuhite^ and Zophar the Naamathite : for they 
 had mads an appointment together to come to mourn 
 with him, and fo comfort him, — Job ii. 1 1. 
 
 e 
 
JOB'S THREE FRIENDS, 
 
 TOB'S sorrows seemed to have reached 
 their last extreme. And now some new 
 personages are introduced upon the scene, 
 who are to be quite conspicuous in the re- 
 mainder of the book. Three friends meet by 
 appointment at the house of the suffering 
 patriarch, to condole with and to comfort 
 him. The prominence accorded to them 
 from this point onward shows that their visit 
 is no unimportant incident, but that it is a 
 fact of great consequence in the transaction 
 here recorded. A very large space, and 
 indeed the greater portion of the book, is 
 occupied with what they say to Job, which 
 is here reported in detail, and with what he 
 says in reply. We cannot be mistaken in 
 
112 job's three friends. 
 
 J 
 
 supposing that they have much to do with 
 the case here pending. They are not mere 
 spectators in a scene which deeply affects 
 them as concerning their intimate and Hfe- 
 long friend. They are themselves actors and 
 participants, and that in a most significant 
 and important way. /They appear in the very 
 crisis of Job's trial ; in the last and most terri- 
 ble stage of his sufferings, and when it would 
 seem as though nature could bear no more. 
 They, too, are unwittingly taken into the ser- 
 vice of the tempter, who makes use of them 
 to add a fresh aggravation to Job's intolerable 
 woe, which is most artfully contrived to drive 
 him to that result which Satan seeks to com- 
 pass, to make him do what his cunning and 
 unscrupulous enemy has from the first been 
 aiming to bring about, viz., to renounce the 
 service of the Lord. 
 
 ^^, The alternate discourses of the friends and 
 of Job are not simply a discussion of the 
 i^ mysterious subject of God's afflictive dispen- 
 sations. They are not to be sundered from 
 the circumstances in which they are uttered, 
 
JOBS THREE FRIENDS. II3 
 
 which preclude an abstract treatment of a 
 general theme. They are occupied with the 
 case of Job, and every word uttered by his 
 friends finds its way to the sufferer's heart. 
 He is wounded by their harshness, stung by 
 
 \ their censures, exasperated by their reproaches, 
 and driven into antagonism by their argu- 
 ments. They are the professed advocates 
 of religious obligation. They represent the 
 cause of God, enforcing His claims on Job 
 and justifying His ways with him, which they 
 do in a spirit that repels him, with assump- ■ 
 tions that experience does not sanction, and 
 which his own inner consciousness falsifies. 
 
 ,^ The unfairness, if not disingenuousness, with 
 which they plead God's cause, place him 
 under additional temptation to reject that 
 cause itself. The hopeless variance which 
 they assume or create between God's justice 
 and Job's integrity, for which latter he never- 
 theless has the testimony of his own con- 
 science/ which he cannot surrender or falsify, ) 
 tends to place before his mind a distorted 
 image of the character of God. God appears 
 
x; 
 
 /■ 
 
 114 JOBS THREE FRIENDS. 
 
 to be torturing him for crimes which he has 
 not committed, to be relentlessly pursuing 
 him as an implacable foe, and without justice 
 or reason to be employing His resistless 
 ipower to crush him to the earth. This is the 
 phantom which his friends are constantly set- 
 ting before him, this false notion of God as 
 unjust and pitiless toward him; and this his 
 own intolerable sufferings, for which he can- 
 not himself otherwise account, seem to rivet 
 upon him. This phantom, apparently so real, 
 he is incessantly obliged to fight, or it would 
 drive him to absolute despair, and force him 
 to give up his confidence and trust in God, 
 and thus throw him completely into the 
 tempter's snare. 
 
 This is the point around which the con- 
 flict in Job's soul so fearfully rages, which is 
 depicted in this book in its various phases 
 with such a master hand. 'This is the very 
 acme and crisis of the temptation. This 
 unwelcome apparition, which his friends are 
 constantly bringing up and dressing out 
 before him, of a.._God _of arbit rary jiower^ 
 
 Ti<<^m-' 
 
JOB^S THREE FRIENDS. II5 
 
 whose justice, as they assert it, would be rank 
 injustice, and who seems to be devoid of pity, 
 — this it is which fills him with the deepest 
 anguish. And yet, in the darkness and the 
 mystery of his unexplained sufferings, how is 
 he to rid himself of it ? how chase the dreaded 
 spectre away ? To admit this conception of [ 
 God, which both his own helpless misery and 
 the arguments and assertions of his friends 
 appear to force upon him, is to fall inevitably 
 away from God's service. Such a God might 
 be dreaded ; but it is impossible that He »^ 
 could be either loved or feared. X 
 
 Here, then, are Job's three friends, who as 
 the self-constituted advocates of God, and the 
 monitors of Job, concerned about his spiritual 
 good, are busily engaged in letting fly. their 
 poisoned arrows and flinging their envenomed 
 darts. And here is Job himself exposed with- 
 out shield or buckler to their dangerous 
 attacks. Can he sustain the weight of this 
 new burden ? Can he hold out against this 
 fresh assault.? Can his confidence in God 
 remain unshaken when every prop is removed 
 
Il6 JOB^ THREE FRIENDS. 
 
 and the very foundations seem to be swept 
 away ? His heart is all laid open before us, 
 down to its lowest depths, in his discourses 
 with his friends. Every thing is faithfully 
 photographed. We see all the tumult of his 
 soul in its conflicting emotions. We see him 
 now sinking, now rising ; now almost gone, ^ 
 tottering on the very verge of the precipice, ' 
 over which to fall would be fatal ; now recoil- 
 ing in the energy of his still unvanquished i 
 faith ; giving vent to expressions wrung from \ 
 him in the bitterness of his spirit, which he ^' 
 would not have uttered in calmer moments, "^ 
 until we almost dread to have him open his -/' 
 mouth again, lest he should in his desperation 
 be betrayed into speaking the fatal word to 
 which Satan by all this combination of forces 
 is ceaselessly urging him, and apparently 
 shutting him up ; beside himself with intol- 
 erable anguish, the terrors of God driving 
 him to distraction, yet through it all he is 
 still ever and anon turning unto God and 
 tearfully looking up to Him, his only hope 
 and solace. Can even Job's piety still hold 
 out ? Shall the tempter at length succeed ? 
 
JOBS THREE FRIENDS. II7 
 
 In order that we may the better under- 
 stand how and to what extent the friends 
 of Job aggravated his temptation, it will be 
 necessary to pay more particular attention to 
 the persons of these friends, and their conduct 
 and language towards Job. This is the 
 purpose of the present chapter. 
 
 The censure which the Lord Himself 
 passes upon Job's friends at the close of the 
 book, and the fact that they misapprehend as 
 they do the cause of Job's sufferings and the 
 purpose of God's dealings with him, has often 
 led to an undue depreciation of their charac- 
 ter. Against this we must carefully guard, 
 or we shall weaken the force of the tempta- 
 tion so far as they are concerned, which lies 
 greatly in this, — that such men take part in it, 
 and that they do this just as they do, and to 
 the extent that they do. 
 
 We have reason to believe that these were 
 eminent men, wise men, and good men. 
 They were cherished and familiar friends of 
 Job, such as he would naturally lean upon in 
 a time of trouble, or turn to in perplexity for 
 
ii8 job's three friends. 
 
 counsel and advice. They were venerable 
 men, men of age and experience. Eliphaz 
 says to Job, xv. lo: " With us are both the 
 gray-headed and very aged men, much elder 
 than thy father." We cannot think of Job, 
 with his ten children grown up to manhood 
 and womanhood, as at this time much less 
 than fifty-five or sixty years old. Eliphaz 
 in this statement probably refers to himself, 
 since the precedence is accorded to him 
 among the friends. He in every instance 
 speaks first, and is followed by the others, and 
 may therefore be supposed to be their supe- 
 rior in age. If this be so, and he alludes to 
 himself as " gray-headed and very aged," and 
 " much elder " than Job's father, he must have 
 been at least as old as seventy-five or eighty. 
 And age commanded reverence, more even 
 then, in the patriarchal period, than with us. 
 And it was significant of distinction, when 
 the oldest living ancestor was the chieftain 
 of the clan ; when he was the visible lord of 
 his descendants, and the recognized authority 
 looked up to, deferred to, and obeyed in all 
 
JOBS THREE FRIENDS. IIQ 
 
 their families and dependants. It was signifi- 
 cant, too, of wisdom gathered by long experi- 
 ence and observation, when intercourse with 
 men, and acquaintance with things rather 
 than knowledge of books, were the chief 
 sources of information. 
 
 The region in which Job's friends resided 
 should also be noted, for it was proverbial 
 for the sagacity of its inhabitants ; and it is 
 not unlikely that it is for this reason, to sug- 
 gest that they were men of superior ability, 
 of intellectual acumen, and of extensive ac- 
 quirements, that the residence of each is par- 
 ticularly mentioned, — Eliphaz the Temanite, 
 Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naama- 
 thite. Teman was famous for its wise men, 
 and their profound, sententious sayings ; so 
 was in fact Arabia, or the East, the country 
 to which the other friends likewise belonged. 
 To this well-known reputation of the region 
 the prophet alludes, Jer. xlix. 7 : "Is wisdom 
 no more in Teman ? is counsel perished from 
 the prudent ? is their wisdom vanished ? " 
 And when the eminent endowments of 
 
 6 
 
I20 job's three friends. 
 
 Solomon were to be exalted by a compari- 
 son, the sacred writer says of him, i Kings 
 IV. 30 : " Solomon's wisdom excelled the 
 wisdom of all the children of the east 
 country." 
 
 And that Job's friends were worthy rep- 
 resentatives of a land of sages is shown 
 by their speeches here recorded, which are 
 marked by extensive observation and careful 
 reflection, and abound in beautiful and ap- 
 propriate illustrations drawn from both nature 
 and experience. Their reasoning is fallacious, 
 indeed, because built on false though spe- 
 cious premises; but their arguments are 
 
 I coherent and strongly put. They fail to 
 convince or to confute Job, but it is from no 
 want of skill in advocacy : they prove them- 
 selves no mean antagonists, and it requires 
 all his address to parry their blows. What 
 saves him is not his superiority in argument, 
 
 / but that it is a matter of personal conscious- 
 ness about which they contenl^ No subtle- 
 ties and no cogeiic^^^f-^demonstration can 
 convict him of offences of which his own 
 
JOBS THREE FRIENDS. 121 
 
 conscience pronounces him innocent. They 
 misinterpret the ways of providence, and fail 
 to explain the mystery of Job's sufferings. 
 But this is from no mental incapacity. Job 
 can see no farther into this dark dispensa- 
 tion than they can. He knows that they are 
 mistaken. But he no more understands the 
 real state of the case than they do^The fact is 
 that the enigma is insoluble by the unaide 
 reason of man.^God can alone declare the 
 purpose of His afflictive dispensations, and 
 this He had never yet revealed. These dis- 
 tresses of Job were to afford the occasion of 
 shedding the first rays of light upon it. It is 
 no discredit to the friends any more than to 
 Job that they did not discern what they had no 
 means of knowing. In what they really were 
 to blame, and to what extent, we shall inquire 
 presently. y 
 
 They were, moreover, good men, and had 
 at heart a real affection for Job. The whole 
 tenor of their speeches shows that they were 
 concerned both for the honor of God and for 
 the spiritual welfare of Job. They advocate 
 
; 122 job's three friends. 
 
 1 
 
 and approve what is good, they reject and 
 
 / condemn the bad. Their discourses sparkle 
 
 1/ with gems of moraHty and religious truth. 
 
 The principles which they propound are 
 
 mostly just and unexceptionable as general 
 
 maxims. It is only the application which 
 
 they make of them to a case that they do not 
 
 really cover, which is false. They entertain 
 
 a true friendship for Job; but the mistake 
 
 under which they are with regard to him and 
 
 /his trials warps their judgment; and, in their 
 
 / desire to reclaim him from imaginary wrong 
 
 \ / fdoing, they are themselves guilty of actual 
 
 ' I though unintended injustice, ani treat him 
 
 With unmerited severity. 
 
 The friends of Job, then, as we may con- 
 ceive, were men of distinction, eminent for 
 wisdom and of approved piety, worthy confi- 
 dants and intimates of Job, trusted and tried 
 doubtless in the companionship of years. 
 They hear of the great sorrows of their friend, 
 and they show their attachment to him by 
 agreeing to meet at his house to mourn with 
 him and to comfort him. They bring him in 
 
JOBS THREE FRIENDS. 1 23 
 
 actual fact but little comfort, it is true ; but 
 this is the design and expectation with which 
 they come. 
 
 It is important to observe the change 
 which takes place in the friends themselves 
 in their feelings and attitude towards Job in 
 the progress of the book. This is depicted 
 with admirable art, and is essential to a proper 
 understanding of the whole transaction. To 
 impute to them from the beginning the harsh 
 and ungenerous suspicions which they come to 
 entertain and express towards the last, is to 
 mistake their character entirely, to confuse 
 what is perfectly distinct, and to lose sight 
 of that inward revolution in their sentiments 
 respecting Job which is so skilfully drawn and 
 is so true to nature. The longer the friends 
 argue with him without convincing him, the 
 more obdurate and incorrigible he appears to 
 them, and the more severe is the censure 
 which they are disposed to pass upon him. 
 
 They come with sympathy and sorrow for 
 him in his griefs. Finding him so changed 
 that they no longer recognize him, they are 
 
 / 
 
124 JOBS THREE FRIENDS. 
 
 affected to tears. " They lifted up their 
 voice, and wept; and they rent every one 
 his mantle, and sprinkled dust upon their 
 heads toward heaven. So they sat down 
 with him upon the ground seven days and 
 seven nights, and none spake a word unto 
 him : for they saw that his grief was very 
 great." They could not more tenderly and 
 delicately express their commiseration for 
 him in his terrible sorrows, which it was 
 beyond the power of human helpers to miti- 
 gate or to relieve. In all this there was 
 genuine pity and compassion. There is no 
 room for supposing that they entertained any 
 other than the most friendly feelings, or that 
 any ungenerous suspicions had as yet taken 
 possession of their minds as to the reality of 
 Job's piety or the reasons of these extraor- 
 dinary sufferings which had been sent upon 
 him. 
 
 Job first breaks the mournful silence by his 
 outburst of lamentation, extorted by insup- 
 portable distress. Eliphaz, probably the eld- 
 est and most respected of the three friends, 
 
JOBS THREE FRIENDS. 1 25 
 
 as he is certainly the most dignified and 
 courteous in his style of address, first makes 
 reply. And, as Job answers him, he is succes- 
 sively followed by Bildad and by Zophar. As 
 the interview still proceeds, and Job continues 
 to respond, the friends once more address 
 themselves to him in the same order ; and 
 yet again the third time. Only in the third 
 and last series of discourses this third friend, 
 Zophar, fails to speak, for a reason to be 
 stated hereafter. Eliphaz and Bildad accord- 
 ingly each speak three times, and Zophar 
 twice. Job invariably responding. There is 
 thus a triple series of discourses, in which the 
 growing alienation and distrust of the friends 
 can be plainly traced. They begin with com- 
 parative mildness and expressions of regard. 
 But, as the discussion advances, they are 
 astounded and excited by Job's opposition tqfl 
 what they esteem primary principles of reJ 
 ligious faith ; they are provoked and incensed 
 by his obstinacy, his want of submission to the 
 divine allotment, and by his language, which 
 appears to them to savor of irreverence and 
 
/ 
 
 ^ 
 
 126 job's three friends. 
 
 impiety ; until at length they lose all confi- 
 dence in his uprightness and sincerity, and 
 believe him to have been secretly guilty of 
 the most atrocious and outrageous crimes. 
 • When Job, unable longer to contain him- 
 self under the pressure of his anguish, utters 
 his wail of frantic grief, cursing the day in 
 which he was born, and complaining that life 
 with all its miseries is forced upon him, when 
 e would so gladly be blotted from existence 
 or seek rest in the grave, Eliphaz feels called 
 upon to interpose a remonstrance. He makes 
 an endeavor in this first speech" to rouse 
 his friend from this utter despondency, to 
 remind him of the moral reasons of this 
 terrible infliction, and to exhort him to that 
 more complete submission which would be 
 followed by the return of God's favor, and by 
 more than his former prosperity. 
 
 He begins in an apologetic and insinuat- 
 ing strain : " If we assay to commune with 
 thee, wilt thou be grieved ? but who can 
 withhold himself from speaking } " He then 
 proceeds by bidding Job remember how he 
 
JOBS THREE FRIENDS. 1 27 
 
 had strengthened and comforted others in 
 their affliction; and he ought not now to 
 show weakness himself. As a good and 
 righteous man, he should not despond, but 
 hope in God, who would not suffer the inno- 
 cent to perish, nor the righteous to be cut off. 
 As to the source of his troubles, he reminds . 
 him of the universal sinfulness of men. ^Mor-, 
 tal m an cannot be just in the sio-ht of God. 
 nor man pure before his M aker. Men are 
 
 sinners] hence their frail and perishable 
 nature. They are crushed before the moth, 
 they are destroyed from morning to evening. 
 Affliction cometh not forth from the dust, 
 neither doth trouble spring out of the ground. 
 They arise from no extraneous sources.. But 
 man is born to trouble as the sparks fly up- 
 ward. He is involved in it by a necessity of 
 his nature : it springs directly ^"^ ^f b^> ^'"- 
 bor n sinfulness . Hence he admonishes him 
 to submit his case humbly and trustfully to 
 God, under whose universal and righteous 
 providence the poor hath hope, and iniquity 
 is compelled to stop her mouth. " He shall 
 
 6* 
 
r28 job's three friends. 
 
 deliver thee in six troubles : yea, in seven 
 there shall no evil touch thee." And he 
 concludes by describing in beautiful and 
 impressive terms the happy consequences of 
 submissively accepting the Lord's correction 
 To this plausible and, rhetorically con- 
 sidered, elegant address of Eliphaz, there are 
 two exceptions to be taken. In the first 
 place, it could not but grate harshly on the 
 ears of Job that his friend should expect him 
 to sustain his long-continued and bitter suf- 
 ferings with equanimity, and that he should 
 appear to reproach him with not himself ex- 
 hibiting that fortitude now in his own case 
 which he had inculcated in that of others. 
 As though there were no limits to human 
 endurance, and it were possible to bear up 
 under misery like his without a word of com- 
 plaint. The sobs and groans and lamenta- 
 tions wrung from him by an anguish too 
 severe to be quietly endured is surely a weak- 
 ness that is not to be too harshly judged. 
 And the appeal to Job's piety, as though this 
 should have quieted his clamor and led him 
 
JOBS THREE FRIENDS. 1 29 
 
 still to maintain a cheerful hope amidst his 
 overwhelming distress, showed a want of con- 
 sideration for the condition in which he then 
 was. There was in all this a lack of that 
 tenderness and that appreciative sympathy 
 which was a prime requisite in one who 
 would comfort such a mourner as Job. 
 
 The second point open to exception in the 
 discourse o f Eliphaz is not a matter of feeling, 
 like the preceding, but of principle. It is the 
 manner in which he represents sin and suffer- 
 ing as linked to gether in God's providential 
 dispensations, as though this afforded an 
 adequate explanation of every case of afflic- 
 tion, Job's included. This point is so skil- 
 fully put, that what he actually says can 
 scarcely be objected to : it is only what he 
 implies, by offering this as the solution of the 
 case in hand. He brings no harsh or doubt- 
 ful charge against Job. He expresses no 
 suspicion, and apparently entertains none, of 
 the depth and reality of his piety. His plea 
 is rather based on the assumption that Job 
 is really what he has ever been supposed to 
 
130 JOBS THREE FRIENDS. 
 
 be in uprightness and the devout fear of God. 
 He lays no accusation upon him but such as 
 is common to all viho are sharers of our 
 degenerate nature. All are impure in the 
 sight of God, and all are in consequence 
 born to trouble. Exposure to suffering, and 
 ffering itself, being an inevitable result of 
 that corrupt nature with which we were born, 
 the wise and reasonable course, and the truly 
 pious course, is not to indulge in passionate 
 outcries against the divine orderings, which 
 can only be productive of harm to the suf- 
 ferer himself (v. 2), but meekly to accept and 
 submit to the sorrows which He sends, who 
 maketh sore and bindeth up, who woundeth 
 and His hands make wholedSucK submis- 
 sion will surely lead to peace and to sal- 
 vatibttr--^ 
 
 It is undoubtedly true that where there is 
 no sin there will be no suffering among the 
 subjects of God's moral government. All 
 suffering has sin as its invariable and neces- 
 sary antecedent. It is also true that the 
 consciousness of sin and ill-desert must for 
 
JOBS THREE FRIENDS. I3I 
 
 ever close the mouth of every sufferer from 
 any well-grounded complaint against the 
 righteousness of God. The holiest and the 
 best are sinners nevertheless ; and, whatever 
 sufferings they may endure in the providence 
 of God, it cannot be said that they are unjustly 
 treated ; for, as Zophar states this point in 
 more developed form to Job, " God exacteth 
 of thee less than thine iniquity deserveth." 
 xi. 6. No man's sufferings in this world are 
 equal to his just deserts. 
 
 But, while this is true and incontestable, 
 it does not account for cases of special and 
 extraordinary suffering, and especially such 
 as occur in the experience of good men, and 
 such as that to which it is here applied. The 
 general sinfulness of men may account for 
 human sorrows so far as they are uniformly 
 distributed ; and a like principle may be 
 applied where they are plainly graduated in 
 proportion to the demerit of the sufferers. 
 But special suffering, not involving special 
 guilt, cannot be thus accounted for. A sin- 
 fulness common to all cannot be the reason 
 
132 jOB*S THREE FRIENDS. 
 
 why one is singled out rather than another, 
 and made to endure extraordinary sorrows. 
 
 The special significance of suffering, there- 
 fore, remains unexplained. Its importance 
 as a test of character, its value as a means of 
 discipline and training, and the far more ex- 
 / ceeding reward by which it shall be abun- 
 \j dantly compensated, are not once suspected. 
 Eliphaz alleges that man suffers because he 
 ^ is a sinner; he kne\v_not tha t a m an may 
 likewise suffer because he is a saint ; that he 
 may thus exhibit more distin ctl^^iis s amtly 
 draTSct eF;Tliat he may be riperied jti ll more 
 in holiness ; and that his filial recompense 
 may be proportionably increased.>_Suffering, 
 to. Eliphaz, was ever and. onlx..a^unis^^ 
 a judgment for sin, an infliction of the divine 
 displeasure. He knew not that it might also 
 be a tokeiTof love, a means of grace, a bless- 
 ing in disguise ; that whom the Lord loveth 
 He chasteneth, and scourge th every son 
 whom He receiveth. 
 
 The other friends, in their discourses, fol- 
 low Eliphaz in the principles and method of 
 
JOBS THREE FRIENDS. 1 33 
 
 the discussion, only with increased vehemence -m 
 and more open censure of Job. /Their axi om 
 is that God cannot deal unjustly, and there- 
 fore suff ering must be the fruit of sin. Bil- 
 ladmtimates that Job's children had but 
 suffered the consequences of their own mis- 
 deeds, so that this loss which he had experi- 
 enced was the result of sin, not his own 
 indeed, but theirs ; and he puts an " if " 
 before his affirmation of the piety of Job him- 
 self. " If thou art pure and upright, and wilt 
 seek unto God betimes, and make thy suppli- 
 cation to the Almighty, surely He will awake 
 for thee, and make thy righteous habitation 
 prosperous." Zophar puts the " if " before 
 the contrary hypothesis as to Job's character 
 and conduct, implying at least its possibility. 
 " If iniquity be in thine hand, put it far away, 
 and let not wickedness dwell in thy taber- 
 nacles. For then shalt thou lift up thy face 
 without spot ; yea, thou shalt be steadfast, and 
 shalt not fear : because thou shalt forget thy 
 misery, and remember it as waters that pass 
 away ; and thine age shall be clearer than the 
 
134 J^^S THREE FRIENDS. 
 
 noonday : thou shalt shine forth, thou shah 
 be as the morning." The vividness and 
 beauty of the imagery which they employ, 
 and the force and vigor of their expressions, 
 cannot fail to charm and to impress, however 
 unsatisfactory their treatment of the mystery 
 with which they deal, however unsound or 
 rather one-sided the conclusions to which they 
 come, and however unjust and ungenerous 
 they may be in their treatment of Job. 
 
 When Eliphaz speaks a second time, it is 
 plain that he has undergone a considerable 
 change in his feelings towards Job. He 
 reasserts the fundamental principle common 
 to him with the other friends, of the neces- 
 sary connection of suffering with sin.. But 
 he no longer illustrates or defends it by the 
 consideration of the universal and native sin- 
 
 fulness of the rac^M[t^is not of man as " born 
 to trouble " that he now speaks, so much as 
 of man " who drinketh iniquity like wat er. "\ 
 It is the fate of the ungodly and the^wicked 
 man that he holds up before Job for his warn- 
 ing. And instead of presupposing Job's integ- 
 
JOBS THREE FRIENDS. 1 35 
 
 rity and urging him in consequence to cherish 
 the hope that he should not be utterly cut off, 
 he charges him rather with serious guilt ; not, 
 it is true, with criminal misdeeds or acts of sin, 
 but with wicked words. In his speeches now 
 uttered in the presence of the friends he has 
 inculpated himself. He has maintained prin- 
 ciples and uttered expressions inconsistent 
 with pious reverence for God. " Thou castest 
 off fear, and restrainest prayer before God ; '* 
 /that is to say, you put an end to piety and an- 
 nul the value of prayer by the sentiments which 
 you have here propounded. " For thy mouth 
 uttereth thine iniquity, and thou choosest 
 the tongue of the crafty. Thine own mouth 
 condemneth thee, and not I : yea, thine own 
 lips testify against thee." 
 
 Bildad and Zophar once more follow 
 Eliphaz in the same general strain, holding 
 up before Job the destruction that is certain, 
 sooner or later, to overtake the ungodly, and 
 intima4;ing, not obscurely, that this is the 
 explanation of the dismal fate which has 
 befallen him. 
 
136 job's three friends. 
 
 EHphaz in his third discourse makes a yet 
 further advance. He now, without any am- 
 biguity of language or indirectness of intima- 
 tion, explicitly, and in so many terms, charges 
 Job with the most atrocious wickedness. He 
 has become more and more estranged from 
 him as the discussion has proceeded. He 
 has become more and more convinced from 
 the language of Job himself that he is desti- 
 tute of real piety, until at length all his for- 
 mer confidence in him has utterly vanished, 
 and he not only believes him capable of any 
 amount of wickednessfbut is persuaded that 
 he has actually perpetrated crimes of the most 
 serious character, and that the sorrows by 
 which he has so suddenly and so fearfully 
 been overwhelmed are thus easily accounted 
 
 It is not now the* 'general sinfulness of 
 human nature which he adduces against him 
 as in his first discourse. Nor does he merely 
 J^^ allege the language of impiety and irreverence 
 to be found in his speeches which he had here 
 uttered in their presence, as in his second 
 
JOBS THREE FRIENDS. 1 37 
 
 discourse. Nor does he content himself with 
 indirect insinuations and implications that 
 his fate was but the customary fate of the 
 wicked, as the other friends had already done. 
 But he goes beyond all this, and makes open ^ 
 and direct charges of habitual and gross 
 transgression. " Is not thy wickedness great ? 
 and thine iniquities infinite ? For thou hast 
 taken a pledge from thy brother for nought, 
 and stripped the naked of their clothing. 
 Thou hast not given water to the weary to 
 drink, and thou hast withholden bread from 
 the hungry. . . . Thou hast sent widows away 
 empty, and the arms of the fatherless have 
 been broken. Therefore snares are round 
 about thee, and sudden fear troubleth thee." 
 A just and all-seeing God has detected the 
 villany and set the brand of His reprobation 
 upon it. Job was suffering just what might 
 be expected as the righteous recompense of 
 the iniquity which he had practised. His*^ 
 fancied impunity is now at an end, and de- 
 served vengeance has overtaken him at last. 
 What a spectacle is this ! and what a les- 
 
138 job's three friends. 
 
 son it reads to us ! This man is one whom 
 God declared to be without his equal for 
 piety in the earth, — perfect and upright, and 
 one that feared God, and eschewed evil. And 
 yet here are good men, wise men, men of 
 age and experience, his friends and intimates 
 through many former years, knowing him 
 not merely by reputation but by personal, 
 familiar, and long acquaintance, who do not 
 scruple to cherish the grossest and most un- 
 just suspicions, and actually to charge upon 
 him the most egregious misconduct. And 
 all this they do without the slightest founda- 
 tion in actual fact. It is purely inferential 
 and supposititious ; nevertheless they charge 
 it upon him as though they had* the most 
 undoubted evidence of its reality. We say 
 again, What a spectacle ! and what a lesson 
 it reads to us ! 
 
 The friends of Job, as has been admitted 
 already, are not to blame for not knowing 
 what could only be known by divine revelation, 
 and had not then been revealed. It neither 
 implies any obliquity of moral vision, nor any 
 
JOBS THREE FRIENDS. 1 39 
 
 dulness of intellectual perception, that they 
 were unable to discern the true intent of the 
 sufferings of Job, or the divine purpose in 
 permitting them. This was a secret still 
 undisclosed. The mystery of the afflictions 
 of the righteous was now to be unveiled as 
 it had not been before ; and the sufferings of 
 Job were to furnish the occasion, by the les- 
 sons to be divinely communicated in connec- 
 tion with this event. But this was not to be 
 done until gifted minds, and well instructed 
 in the general truths of religion before made 
 known, had first employed themselves upon 
 it, and shown by the trial the incompetency 
 of unaided reason to solve the riddle, or to 
 dissipate the darkness which overhung the 
 dispensation. The ignorance of Job's friends, 
 and of Job himself, regarding the meaning 
 and design of God's dealings with him, was 
 not reprehensible. This could not have been 
 otherwise, for they had no means of know- 
 ing it. 
 
 ~ So far then they are excusable. But what 
 cannot be excused in them is that in the 
 
140 JOBS THREE FRIENDS. 
 
 first place they undertook to expound, as 
 though they had full knowledge in the case, 
 what they did not understand ; and in so 
 doing rested the divine procedure on insuf 
 ficient reasons, and sought to square it by 
 their own limited notions. If^they had con- 
 fessed the mystery and owned their ignorance 
 regarding it, all would have been well. They 
 would have been saved from their subse- 
 quent errors and mistakes, and from the gross 
 injustice of which they were guilty towards 
 Job. By acting as they did, they in fact 
 arraigned the providence of God, which they 
 were professedly defending. They prescribed 
 a rule for its administration as the only one 
 compatible with justice, which is not, after all, 
 the method which it actually follows. Suffer- 
 ing is not distributed according to the ratio 
 nor on the principles which they allege to be 
 absolutely demanded by God's essential attri- 
 butes. By defending His dispensations on 
 grounds which are demonstrably inadequate, 
 and insisting that these are the grounds on 
 which their defence must necessarily be 
 
JOBS THREE FRIENDS. I4I 
 
 lested, they do, in fact, proclaim that these 
 dispensations are indefensible ; and they do 
 their utmost, unwittingly indeed, but no less 
 really, to bring them into discredit. 
 
 And in the second place they were inex- 
 cusable in another respect. They not only 
 entered a weak and unsuitable plea as the 
 only one upon which the cause of God could 
 be rested or His providence justified, but they 
 likewise undertook to bolster up His cause 
 by a disingenuous, if not positively immoral 
 method. As Job charges upon them (xiii. 7), 
 they spoke w^ickedly for God, and talked 
 deceitfully for Him. They made allegations 
 which they had no means of knowing to be 
 true, and which, in fact, were not true : they 
 were mere inferences from the false premises 
 on which they were conducting the defence 
 of the divine government. In defending the 
 cause of religion and of piety, as they pro- 
 fessed to do, they were guilty of making rash 
 and reckless assertions ; they were unjust to 
 Job in not only harboring baseless suspicions, 
 but in venturing upon positive declarations 
 
\y 
 
 V 
 
 142 JOBS THREE FRIENDS. 
 
 of his guilt in matters of which he was wholly 
 innocent ; they were shamefully cruel to their 
 suffering friend, causelessly aggravating his 
 distress, which, professedly, they had come to 
 soothe, when he was already weighed down 
 by troubles that might have disarmed malice 
 itself and softened hearts of stone. No ex- 
 igencies of their argument could justify a 
 course like this. And no straits in which 
 the defence of God's righteous government 
 and the claims of religion seemed to be could 
 justify it. / If the divine administration could 
 not be honestly and truthfully defended, and 
 without a resort to what is questionable or 
 false, they should have retired from its de- 
 fence, and concluded that they were not 
 called of God to be His champions in this 
 particular. ; They should have owned the 
 mystery and confessed their ignorance, and 
 waited patiently till the Lord Himself dis- 
 closed the impregnable basis on which He 
 chose to have His cause rested. Confiding 
 in Him who doeth great things and unsearch- 
 able, and whose ways are past finding out, 
 
JOB S THREE FRIENDS. I43 
 
 they should have trusted that he would make 
 all plain in His own good time, instead of 
 presuming to put forth unholy hands to sup- 
 port the ark of God, and darkening His in- 
 finite counsel by words without knowledge. 
 
 The gross charges put forth by Eliphaz 
 could not be repeated by Bildad in his speech 
 next following, in the face of Job's solemn 
 asseveration of his innocence, and his appeal 
 to the omniscient Judge of all. He accord- 
 ingly recedes from them entirely, and falls 
 back upon the original position of Eliphaz in 
 his opening speech ; viz ,,JjiP^.i] n i vensal sinful- 
 ness of men, in which Job is of necessity 
 involved* _ He thus not only impliedly re- 
 tracts the charges hitherto insinuated or 
 openly made against Job, but concedes his 
 inability to conduct the argument further. 
 He has nothing to adduce but what had been 
 adduced and answered long before. The 
 same thing is likewise intimated by the 
 brevity of his speech, which consists of but a 
 few commonplace sentences. And Zophar 
 makes no attempt to speak at all. He has 
 
 nothing whatever to say. 
 
 1 
 
144 JOB S THREE FRIENDS. 
 
 i ^ 
 
 \The friends accordingly give up their 
 argument with Job. They cannot convince 
 or confute him. They entered their protest 
 against his complaint in his wild outburst of 
 grief. They sought to convict him of the 
 irreverence and impiety of which they thought 
 him guilty, and to bring him back to what 
 they esteemed right views and a proper 
 spirit.'' Instead of this they, in point of fact, 
 threw themselves upon the side of the great 
 adversary. They became the tools and ac- 
 complices of Satan in his sore temptation, 
 giving all their weight to the scale opposed 
 to God and goodness, embittering Job against 
 a cause which was upheld by such disingenu- 
 ous methods, and by methods so unjust to 
 himself ; casting discredit upon God's provi- 
 dence, which was so inadequately defended 
 and justified by arguments which were pal- 
 pably false; and tempting Job to renounce 
 the service of God Himself, whom they repre- 
 sented in a light that served only to repel. 
 
 The question has now reached its utmost 
 intensity. Can Job withstand the tempta- 
 
JOBS THREE FRIENDS. I45 
 
 tion, which is brought to bear upon him with 
 all this accumulated force ? With his _p_rop- 
 erty swept away ; his children gone ; himself 
 the victim of^ndathsome and painful dis^ 
 order ; his very^ife entreating him to aban- 
 don the service of a God so cruel, the author 
 of all their woes; his agony, both of body 
 and of mind^ilLgrowing, without^the^pros- 
 pect of release.; thejrusted friends of former 
 years deserting and scorning him, and sting- 
 ing him w ith t heir undeserved reproaches; 
 while he is himself totally unable to compre- 
 hend the righteousness or the reasons of this 
 dreadful infliction, — can he be ar it all and still 
 m aintain his trust in God, w ho hides H imself 
 in suc h aw f uX_dark ness ? The answer is to 
 be found in Job's successive replies to his 
 friends, in which all the workings of his soul 
 in this fearful crisis are so vividly and faith- 
 fully portrayed. The examination of these re- 
 plies must be deferred until another chapter. 
 Meanwhile, may He, who alone can, in 
 mercy uphold and comfort all His tried and 
 suffering saints. Amen. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
My friends scorn me: hut mine eye poureth out 
 tears unto God, — Job xvi. 2a 
 
JOB'S CONFLICT. 
 
 Q^ATAN now has his train completely laid ; 
 and it would almost seem as though at 
 length he has his victim entirely in his power, 
 and there was no escape out of the fatal snare. 
 Job, with all he had, was put at the disposal of 
 the evil one, with the single limitation that he 
 must spare his life. And Satan has used the 
 liberty accorded to him without stint. He 
 has brought the most frightful complication 
 of sorrows and sufferings upon the unsus- 
 pecting patriarch, and set every influence at 
 work that he could bring to bear upon him, to 
 overturn his integrity and detach him from 
 the service of God. Can he succeed in his 
 fiendish purpose? 
 
 He has crushed the spirits of Job, and 
 
150 JOBS CONFLICT. 
 
 quenched his hopes. He has accumulated 
 pain and grief upon him, until, in the depth 
 of his long-continued anguish, existence itself 
 has become an insupportable burden. The 
 weary sufferer, stunned, bewildered, tortured 
 to the last extreme of despair, curses the day 
 that he was born, and longs for nothing so 
 much as to die. It would seem as though 
 nature could hold out no longer. Satan per- 
 ceives his advantage in this crisis of Job's 
 misery, and presses it relentlessly, through the 
 medium of his friends, who unwittingly range 
 themselves on the tempter's side. These pro- 
 fessed ministers of consolation and advocates 
 of piety treat him in a manner which embit- 
 ters him against them and the cause which 
 they defend. Their pleas for the equity of 
 the divine administration are ' repugnant to 
 his sense of right, and to the testimony of his 
 own conscience. They represent his aggra- 
 vated sufferings as a righteous retribution, 
 either for the sinfulness jnborn in our common 
 human nature, or for the sin betrayed in his 
 present irreverent~and unsubmissive speeches, 
 
JOBS CONFLICT. I5I 
 
 or for the guilt of some gross criminality now 
 first jde tected and _ brought tq_Jight. These 
 assumptions Job repels point by point. His 
 sufferings cannot be so explained. What, 
 then, is the inevitable alternative .^^ Is not 
 God unrighteous ? 'is He not treating him 
 as an offender, when He knows him to be 
 innocent? Or is He not at least like an 
 implacable foe, mercilessly and gratuitously 
 inflicting upon him these grievous sorrows ? 
 If woe like this be not the award of justice, 
 must it not be injustice or wanton cruelty ? 
 and, if God be either unjust or pitiless, how 
 can the sufferer, crushed beneath His arbi- 
 trary inflictions, adore or trust Him.f* 
 
 Job's triumph is, in the most absolute and 
 unqualified manner, the triumph of faith over 
 sense. He seems to outward view to have no 
 ground left to stand upon. Satan has appar- 
 ently shut him up to conclusions respecting 
 the providence of God, which positively ex- 
 clude worship and piety. It would seem as 
 though every thing conspired to show that 
 God was persecuting_Hm^and_Jreati^ 
 7* 
 
152 JOBS CONFLICT. 
 
 as an enemy. Yet from an angry God he 
 can turn nowhere but back to God Himself, 
 ^in whom he does and must confide, in spite 
 of his apparent hostihty. God is still his 
 only refuge, even from the fierceness of His 
 own displeasure. " Thoughjfe slay rne,yet 
 will I tr ust in Him." 
 
 Job's triumph was not easily gained. He 
 was indeed hardly beset by the adversary. 
 The struggle was desperate, and tested his 
 constancy to the utmost. The contest was 
 not barely one of fortitude, of capacity to 
 endure, of power to bear up under calamities 
 and sufferings, and to rise superior to that 
 terrible combination of distresses which was 
 weighing him down. The question to be 
 settled was not whether Job had that heroic 
 firmness, and indomitable self-master}^ and 
 self-control, or rather self-sufficiency, which 
 was the Stoic's ideal, and could calmly bear 
 all outward losses, and support undisturbed 
 the most grievous inflictions of pain and sor- 
 row. His trial lay in a totally different plane. 
 The point of it was, whethe r he would still 
 
JOBS CONFLICT. I^-^i? 
 
 cleave to God and maintainjiis trust in Him, 
 when there no longer_remained any thing 
 e xternal to attract him to His servicejj)ut 
 every thing combined to repeljnm and drive 
 him from^t. 
 
 The hand of God was in these dreadful 
 sorrows. Why had He sent them, or per- 
 mitted them? The Christian can readily 
 answer this question, and can comprehend 
 without difficulty how afflictions are consist- 
 ent with the divine goodness and love. But 
 the revelations which shed such a cheerful 
 light for us upon this mysterious subject had 
 not then been given. Job was left to con- 
 front the difficulty, with no help afforded him 
 for its solution. He was in utter darkness 
 and perplexity, and unable to apprehend the 
 reasons of the dispensation. And the only 
 solution which offered itself, and towards 
 which he was persistently driven by antago- 
 nism to the inadmissible position urged upon 
 him by his friends, was not reconcilable with 
 the goodness or justice of God. Hence the 
 tumult of his soul, and the tempest of con- 
 
T'I54 JOBS CONFLICT. 
 
 flicting emotions which rages within him. 
 Reason and sense urge him in one direction, 
 and the strong recoiV of. faith drives him back 
 in the other; and thus he is swayed perpetu- 
 ally to and fro, still hoping against hope, ever 
 afresh seeking unto God who had cast him 
 off, unable to release himself from the toils 
 which Satan had so artfully woven around 
 him, yet continuing to struggle, and never 
 submitting to be captured; unable to escape 
 from conclusions to which the logic of his 
 sufferings seemed to constrain him, or to ban- 
 ish the forbidding spectre of an angry God 
 which they perpetually raise before him, and 
 yet holding fast to his inmost convictions, in 
 spite of all that seems to contradict them. 
 
 This, inward struggle of Job is not made 
 the subject of any formal description ; but it 
 i§ vividly depicted in his successive speeches 
 in reply to his friends. These lay bare all 
 the workings of his soul, and the fearful 
 agitation which was going on within him. 
 They disclose the terrible conflict through 
 which he was passing, in its various phases, 
 
JOBS CONFLICT. 1 55 
 
 until out of the depths of despair he fought 
 his way to solid peace. They show into what 
 distress the tempter plunged him ; what 
 gloom and darkness had settled upon his 
 path ; to what spiritual straits he was reduced ; 
 but how in spite of all he never abandoned 
 his faith in God. He staggered and tot- 
 tered under the tremendous blows which 
 were given him, and it seemed at times as 
 though he could not recover himself, and 
 must fall. But somehow he always regained 
 his footing, and never lost his balance en- 
 tirely. The adversary was foiled, notwith- 
 standing all his arts and all the weapons he. 
 employed. And the piety of Job, which he 
 sought to undermine or to destroy, sustained 
 the test, and triumphed in the encounter. 
 
 Job's opening speech, in which he first 
 breaks silence and pours forth his piteous 
 plaint of woe, is a soliloquy. It is the melan- 
 choly wail of insupportable anguish. It is 
 the frantic outburst of grief, which has been 
 held in until it can no longer be repressed, 
 and to which he now gives vent, apparently 
 
'X. 
 
 156 job's conflict. 
 
 unconscious that any one is present, bemoan- 
 ing himself without the thought of being 
 overheard. The burden of his speech is the 
 misery of this intolerable existence : Oh that 
 I had never lived! Oh that now I might 
 cease to be ! 
 
 When Eliphaz and the other friends under- 
 take to address him, reproving him for his 
 want of submission, justifying the dispensa- 
 tion under which he suffers, and pointing out 
 what they conceive to be the true method of 
 relief. Job directs his replies partly to them 
 and partly to God. He speaks to his friends 
 with the double aim of exciting their pity and 
 replying to their arguments. What he says 
 to God is likewise of a twofold character : he 
 both wrestles with God, in the way of expos- 
 tulation for the misery which He has inflicted 
 upon him, and he affirms his confidence in 
 Him. It is in these addresses to God that his 
 inward agony most fully asserts itself ; that 
 the antagonistic emotions with which his soul 
 is rent asunder meet in the sharpest contrast 
 and collision; and that he undergoes the 
 
JOBS CONFLICT. I57 
 
 greatest and most sudden transitions of 
 feeling. 
 
 The progress and the stages of Job's 
 inward strife are very plainly marked. His 
 ineffectual appeals to his friends for the sym- 
 pathy which they deny him throw him back 
 more and more upon God, as his only source 
 of help. ^Refused the pity that he craves on 
 earth, he can look nowhere but to Heaven, 
 and is forced to seek his only refuge there. 
 Accordingly, that which overwhelmingly oc- 
 cupies his mind in the first instance is the 
 relat ion between himse lf and God. Is God 
 his^ Enemy. or is He his Friend .? Despair 
 and hope struggle for the mastery, and the 
 conflict grows more and more intense until 
 the climax is reached at the central point of 
 the discussion between him and his friends. 
 Corresponding to the three series of speeches 
 addressed to Job by his three friends, who 
 follow each other in the same invariable 
 order, are the three series of his replies 
 severally addressed to them. Throughout 
 the first series of Job's rejoinders, and into 
 
158 JOES CONFLICT. 
 
 the middle of the second the conflict in his 
 soul continues to heighten, until in his sec- 
 ond reply to his second friend, Bildad, it 
 attains its acme. Here the opposing princi- 
 ples come to their most intense encounter. 
 His sense of the hostility of God to him 
 reaches its most vivid and vehement expres- 
 sion, but is immediately succeeded and swal- 
 lowed up by the conviction which overspreads 
 his soul of the certainty of God's friendship 
 and favor, which, though the worst comes to 
 the worst, must and will manifest itself, here- 
 after if not now, in the world to come, if not 
 in this. With this burst of triumph the 
 temptation is trodden under foot. Satan is 
 vanquished, and Job's inward conflict is sub- 
 stantially over. Faith has gotten the victory. 
 He has gained the assurance that God is his 
 Redeemer, come what may and in spite of 
 all adverse appearances. And with this the 
 whole power of the temptation is broken. 
 
 The darkness is not dispersed. The 
 mystery of the dispensation is no nearer its 
 solution. The enigma remains, and is as 
 
JOBS CONFLICT. 1 59 
 
 inexplicable as ever. Why he has been 
 made to suffer or allowed to suffer so terribly 
 he does not know. He has not the faintest 
 idea of the reasons of the infliction. He 
 does not discern how it is to be reconciled 
 with the goodness of God, or His righteous- 
 ness, or His favor towards himself. But he 
 has laid hold of the fact with the strong 
 gras£^ X)£-faith. He is assured that God is 
 his Redeemer and his Friend ; and his 
 confident trust does not again give way. 
 Notwithstanding the continuance of his suf- 
 ferings and the difficulties that encumber 
 their explanation, he is now on the solid rock. 
 The floods may dash around him, but they 
 cannot break over him ; and he is no longer 
 in peril of being overwhelmed. 
 
 Having thus reached comparative peace, 
 and settled the question which chiefly agi- 
 tated him hitherto, — of his relation to God, — 
 Job next turns his attention more immediately 
 to his controversy with his friends. He has 
 denied the truth of their position before, and 
 stated facts at variance with it ; but in his 
 
i6o job's conflict. 
 
 subsequent speeches, viz., the last of the 
 second series and in those of the third series, 
 he refutes their position by reviewing their 
 arguments in detail, and he shows that they 
 have furnished no adequate or satisfactory 
 account whether of God's providence in gen- 
 eral or of his sorrows in particular. 
 
 Having thus hastily sketched in outline 
 the current of Job's feelings toward God and 
 his attitude toward his friends, we may now 
 return to take a more deliberate survey of his 
 several speeches, with the view of noting more 
 minutely his demeanor at each successive 
 step of his great struggle. 
 
 In his first reply to Eliphaz, Job is in the 
 same state of unrelieved despair as in his 
 opening complaint. The poor alleviation 
 even of the sympathy of his friends had been 
 denied him, and he bitterly upbraids them for 
 withholding that pity which was so needful 
 to him in his distressed situation, and would 
 have cost them so little. Eliphaz had re- 
 minded him of the infinite greatness of God, 
 and of the feebleness and frailty of sinful 
 
job's conflict. i6i 
 
 man, and urged these as reasons why he 
 should be submissive under his sufferings. 
 To Job's mind these are but an aggravation 
 of his misery and a fresh justification of his 
 complgiijt. He had but one brief life to live, 
 and this was filled up with weariness and 
 woe. *' Therefore," he says, " I will not re- 
 frain my mouth ; I will speak in the anguish 
 of my spirit ; I will complain in the bitter- 
 ness of my soul." And he converts these 
 into pleas with the Almighty that he would 
 mitigate the severity of his treatment. He 
 was too insignificant and frail, sinner though 
 he was, to deserve or to require such terrible 
 constancy of attention from the infinite God. 
 It was making too much of a creature so tri- 
 fling and so powerless, that he should be so 
 fearfully visited, and made a mark at which 
 God was always directing His shafts, and 
 never allowed a moment's respite day or 
 night, when he would shortly sleep in the 
 dust and cease to be. 
 
 There does not appear to be a single ray 
 of comfort nor a gleam of hope for the 
 
1 62 JOB^S CONFLICT. 
 
 stricken sufferer in the present or the fu- 
 ture, from man or from God. But from this 
 abyss of darkness and cheerless despondency 
 he struggles constantly upward towards the 
 light. In each successive speech some 
 slight advance is made ; there is each time 
 some fresh reaching out towards help or hope. 
 Every address made by his friends shows him 
 more and more plainly that nothing is to be 
 looked for or expected from them : they still 
 persist in refusing to him even that measure 
 of relief or consolation which human sym- 
 pathy might supply. Cut off from all earthly 
 assistance or even pity, there is no one but 
 God to whom he can have recourse. And 
 here he is torn by conflicting feelings. God 
 is persecuting and afflicting him, and, to all 
 outward appearance, is treating him as an 
 enemy. And still he cannot let go that 
 inward persuasion, which manifests itself at 
 first but dimly, and yet grows in clearness 
 and strength as he recurs to it, that God will 
 not altogether withhold his favor from him. 
 Each time that he essays to speak, sense and 
 
job's conflict. 1 6 
 
 o 
 
 faith stand in blank antagonism. His suffer- 
 ings press overwhelmingly upon him with 
 their apparent evidence that God is against 
 him. But Faith comes with its whispers, 
 scarcely audible, and yet refusing to be 
 stifled, that God must nevertheless be on 
 his side. 
 
 These suggestions of his unquenched con- 
 fidence in God are only hypothetical at first. 
 If such an obstacle were only removed, or if 
 such a condition could only exist, then God 
 would surely manifest Himself in his favor. 
 But the obstacle remains ; the condition is 
 impossible to be realized; and so he sinks 
 back each time into a state of unrelieved de- 
 spondency and gloom. But his despair is no 
 longer absolute and total. These suggestions 
 of faith and hope gradually assume a more 
 definite form, and take upon themselves more 
 reality. They gain in strength, and come to 
 a fuller utterance with each successive re- 
 siponse he makes to his friends, until at last 
 rhey grow into a clear and decided conviction 
 which dissipates the clouds of despondency, 
 
164 JOB^S CONFLICT. 
 
 breaks through the toils which the adversary 
 has thrown around him, and vanquishes the 
 temptation completely and forever by the 
 language of triumphant assurance, " I know 
 that my Redeemer liveth." 
 
 In the reply to Bildad, the second of the 
 friends, we see the first budding of this rising 
 hope, the first glimmer of the coming dawn. 
 We there find the earliest suggestion of a 
 more favorable issue ; but it is a suggestion 
 clogged with an impossible condition, and 
 which cannot be realized in the form in 
 which it presents itself to his mind. If he 
 could but speak with God on equal terms, 
 if God would lay aside His infinite majesty 
 and divest Himself of His awful terrors, then 
 he would present his case before Him and it 
 would be acceptably heard, and he would be 
 vindicated by his Judge. But how is such a 
 hearing to be obtained } " He is not a man, 
 as I am, that I should answer him, and we 
 should come together in judgment. Neither 
 is there any days-man betwixt us, that might 
 lay his hand upon us both." He neverthe- 
 
JOBS CONFLICT. 1 65 
 
 less pours forth his expostulation with God, 
 pleading with Him for His righteousness' 
 sake and for His past mercies, upon which 
 he fondly dwells, not to destroy him. " I will 
 say unto God, Do not condemn me. Is it 
 good unto Thee that Thou shouldest oppress, 
 that Thou shouldest despise the work of Thine 
 hands, and shine upon the counsel of the 
 wicked ? " 
 
 When Zophar, the last of the friends, 
 speaks, it is in the same strain with those 
 who had preceded him, only with greater 
 harshness and impetuosity. If Job had 
 entertained a lingering expectation of pity 
 or even justice from at least one of his 
 friends, this is now gone. And he retorts 
 in terms of bitter and indignant rebuke for 
 their arrogant conceit in adducing the famil- 
 iar common-places of God's rectitude and 
 justice, as though they were an adequate 
 solution of the mysteries of His providence. 
 These rest on totally different and as yet 
 unexplained grounds. They were undertak- 
 ing to vindicate God's providence in a man- 
 
1 66 job's conflict. 
 
 ner which would not be sanctioned by God 
 Himself. They were justifying* the dealings 
 of God by false and unfounded assumptions. 
 They were in fact impugning the righteous- 
 ness of God, which they professed to defend, 
 for they suspended its defence on the as- 
 sumption that He invariably acted on prin- 
 ciples, upon which He did not even ordinarily 
 act in His administration of human affairs, and 
 upon which Job knew from his own inward 
 consciousness He was not acting in the pres- 
 ent instance. He was confident, therefore, 
 that God would declare in his favor and not 
 in theirs. He was sure of a vindication, if 
 his case could only come before God. And 
 his mind recurs again to the same twofold 
 obstruction as before ; and the hypothesis of 
 its removal, though doubtful and distant, does 
 not seem so absolutely impossible as before. 
 " Only do not two things unto me. With- 
 draw Thine hand far from me : and let not 
 Thy dread make me afraid. Then call Thou, 
 and I will answer: or let me speak, and 
 answer Thou me." 
 
job's conflict. ^67 
 
 But the sense of his misery returns upon 
 him, and of- his life almost at an end, cut 
 off amidst his hopeless sufferings ; and what 
 possibility remains of a divine vindication? 
 " There is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, 
 that it will sprout again, and that the tender 
 branch thereof will not cease. But man 
 dieth, and wasteth away : yea, man giveth 
 up the ghost, and where is he? As the 
 waters fail from the sea, and the flood de- 
 cayeth and drieth up: so man lieth down, 
 and riseth not : till the heavens be no more, 
 they shall not awake, nor be raised out of 
 their sleep." Oh if it were otherwise! If 
 death were but a temporary suspension of 
 his earthly life ! If he could go down to the 
 grave for a season, until God's favor were 
 restored to him, and then could return to 
 the land of the living and come back to his 
 former abode, he would patiently bear all 
 that was laid upon him now. " Oh that Thou ^ 
 wouldest hide me in the grave, that Thou 
 wouldest keep me secret until Thy wrath be 
 past, that Thou wouldest appoint me a set 
 
/ 
 
 1 68 job's conflict. 
 
 time, and remember me ! '^ If man could die 
 and then live again, all the days of my ap- 
 pointed time would I wait till my change 
 come," my restoration from death to life. 
 > Job is trembling here on the verge of a 
 hope full of immortality, which is soon to 
 assume its proper form before his mind and 
 to swell to its just dimensions. But it is as 
 yet only inadequately conceived by him. A 
 -Conscious state of existence beyond the grave 
 was part of the faith of the early patriarchs, 
 who looked forward to being "gathered to 
 their fathers." But the future state was then 
 revealed only in the most dim and shadowy 
 outline. It was to them an unseen and 
 M unknown world ; no bright and joyous antici- 
 pations were connected with it, no clear 
 disclosures had yet been made regarding it. 
 The bare fact of its reality was almost all 
 that was known. The veil was about to be 
 lifted to the wrestling soul of Job further 
 than it had ever been raised to human eyes 
 before. The lesson of his immortality was 
 one of special value for his present need. 
 
job's conflict. 169 
 
 And he is here darkly and vaguely feeling 
 after it, and reaching out towards it. In all 
 his speeches hitherto the grave has been the 
 end of all that he expected or hoped for, — not, 
 we may assume, the end of being and con- 
 scious spiritual existence, but of life in any 
 desirable sensd^. He had no anticipations 
 of good in the grave or beyond it, no thought 
 of blessedness in another state, which could 
 outweigh or alleviate his present sorrows. 
 All his notions of the future were negative. 
 He conceived of it simply as a state of priva- 
 tion of all earthly good. He had no idea of 
 the positive blessings belonging to it, of its 
 bliss and glory and beatific vision of God. 
 He looked downward to Sheol, the land of 
 ghosts and shades, not upward to heaven, 
 the abode of glorified spirits in the immedi- 
 ate presence of God Himself. 
 
 The mists that shrouded the future world 
 were never taken completely away until 
 Jesus Christ abolished death, and brought 
 life and immortality to light through the 
 gospel. The apostles and disciples of Christ 
 
170 JOBS CONFLICT. 
 
 stand in an entirely different attitude to the 
 future world, and hold a different language 
 respecting it from the saints of God, who 
 preceded his coming. The consciousness 
 that to die is gain, the desire to depart as 
 far better than to abide in the flesh, belongs 
 wholly to the New Testament: it has no 
 parallel in the Old. Nevertheless, preliminary 
 lessons of great value were already given 
 under the former dispensation. And one 
 of the first gleams of heavenly light sent to 
 irradiate the darkness of the grave is found 
 in this book of Job. It is born of an 
 assurance graciously vouchsafed to his soul 
 as he struggles with his terrible tempta- 
 tion. 
 
 In all that he had said hitherto of death, 
 it has been spoken of as terminating every 
 hope and every joyful prospect. "As the 
 cloud is consumed'and vanisheth away : so he 
 that goeth down to the grave shall come up 
 no more. ,He shall return no more to his 
 house, neither shall his place know him any 
 more " (vii. 9, 10). " I go whence I shall not 
 
job's conflict. 171 
 
 return, even to the land of darkness, and the 
 shadow of death ; a land of darkness, as dark- 
 ness itself ; and of the shadow of death, with- 
 out any order, and where the light is as 
 darkness" (x. 21, 22). But in the speech to 
 Zophar upon which we are now remarking, 
 he ventures the hypothetical suggestion of a 
 return again to life from the dead. If that 
 were only possible, it would relieve the gloom 
 of this dark dispensation under which he is 
 suffering. It would allay the strife, which 
 now rages in his soul, between his convic- 
 tion that God will declare on his behalf, and 
 the outward appearance as though God were 
 his foe. It would open the way to a recon- 
 ciliation between these seeming contradic- 
 tions. It would afford an opportunity for 
 the divine favor, of which he was inwardly 
 assured, still to manifest itself to him. In 
 the precise form in which this vague sug- 
 gestion has arisen in his mind, it cannot be 
 realized. This earthly life cannot again be 
 renewed. And with this impossibility he 
 relapses again into his former state of cheer- 
 
K 
 
 172 JOBS CONFLICT. 
 
 less despondency. But the germ of hope is 
 there, which will soon unfold itself in a more 
 practicable form to the assured conviction of 
 God's favor manifested to him in a future 
 life. 
 
 The temptation is now approaching its 
 crisis ; and Job's inward conflict is becom- 
 ing more and more intense. In his next 
 two speeches he says little, almost nothing, 
 to his friends. He merely in a few words at 
 the beginning gives vent to his impatience 
 at their unfeeling speeches, and begs them to 
 desist and torture him no longer. He makes 
 no reply to their arguments, but turns from 
 them to God and pours forth all the agitation 
 of his soul before Him. Despair and hope 
 alternate in his bosom, and the struggle is a 
 fearful one indeed. His agony and inward 
 distress are at their highest point, and are 
 reflected in the vehemence and even pas- 
 sionate character of his expressions. He is 
 bowed down by the sense of God's anger as 
 apparently shown in these terrible inflictions. 
 " He teareth me in His wrath, who hateth me: 
 
JOBS CONFLICT. 1 73 
 
 He gnasheth upon me with His teeth ; . . . 
 I was at ease, but He hath broken me 
 asunder : He hath also taken me by my neck, 
 and shaken me to pieces and set me up for 
 His mark. His archers compass me round 
 about, He cleave th my reins asunder, and 
 doth not spare ; He poureth out my gall 
 upon the ground. He breaketh me with 
 breach upon breach. He runneth upon me 
 like a giant. . . . My face is foul with weep- 
 ing, and on my eyelids is the shadow of 
 death." 
 
 And all this, as his inward consciousness 
 of integrity and his total inability to compre- 
 hend why God should have treated him thus, 
 prompt him to exclaim, " Not for any injus- 
 tice_in mine hands : also my prayer is pure." 
 Such violent treatment, which he has no con- 
 sciousness of having deserved, dealing with 
 him as though he were a gross offender, which 
 he was not, and carrying the infliction even 
 to the point of destroying his life, extorts 
 from him the passionate outcry as from the 
 victim of atrocious injury : " O earth, cover 
 
174 JOBS CONFLICT. 
 
 not thou my blood, and let my cry have 
 no j)lace." I must die, but it is unrighteous 
 murder. Let the earth refuse to drink in 
 my blood thus unjustly shed, so that it may 
 remain forever exposed, a constant witness to 
 the terrible wrong perpetrated upon me ; and 
 let my death-cry never be hushed to silence, 
 but resound forever in testimony of the cruel 
 violence under which I suffer. I die, unable 
 longer to sustain these dreadful inflictions 
 which God is bringing upon me; but I 
 die, protesting against the injustice and the 
 outrage. 
 
 Has Satan then gained his end, and has 
 Job at length fallen into the snare ? In the 
 frightful darkness, which has to outward view 
 obscured the evidence of God's rectitude, has 
 Job given up his sense of that rectitude ? Is 
 his confidence in God's eternal justice gone ? 
 Then has he indeed been driven to that 
 renunciation of God's service to which Satan 
 has been relentlessly endeavoring to force 
 him. 
 
 But no ! In all this agony and darkness 
 
J0B*S CONFLICT. 175 
 
 ind inexplicable mystery, Job cannot let go 
 his ineradicable trust in God. '^Brought, as 
 it might seem that he was, almost to the 
 point of abandoning it, the strength of that 
 trust only becomes more conspicuous from 
 the strain to which it has been subjected. 
 By its powerful recoil it carries him sud- 
 denly back from the verge of the abyss to 
 the immovable foundation. The faith that 
 seemed to be vanishing, if it had not already 
 vanished, rises unexpectedly superior over 
 all the tumult of his soul, and all depress- 
 ing circumstances. From his frantic outcry 
 against the injustice that is slaying him, 
 he passes to the instant expression of his 
 unabated trust in God. " Also now, behold, 
 my witness is in heaven, and my record is oii 
 high. My friends scorn me : but mine eye 
 poureth out tears unto God." Only the infi- 
 nite exaltation of the Most High still inter- 
 poses its impassable obstruction, and places 
 him at such a remove that his case cannot 
 be adequately brought before God to be 
 
 8* 
 
176 JOB^S CONFLICT. 
 
 rectified. And yet he pleads with God, 
 who alone will or can, to be his surety and 
 take his part. All others have deserted him. 
 All others misunderstand his character and 
 misinterpret his condition. God is his only 
 refuge. But, under the returning sense of 
 his misery and approaching end, he sinks 
 once more at the close of his speech into 
 a cheerless and despondent frame. 
 
 But the victory for which he has been 
 struggling is now near at hand. The ele- 
 ments of hope, which have been gathering 
 in his soul, have attained a consistency, 
 which will make them superior in the strife. 
 And his trust in God is preparing to assert 
 itself invincibly, though deprived of all exter- 
 iial supports and in the face of all opposi- 
 tion from outward sense. 
 
 The more particular examination of the 
 language of his triumph will occupy another 
 chapter. 
 
 Now unto Him that kept Job from falling, 
 and who is able likewise to keep us from 
 
JOBS CONFLiCt. 177 
 
 falling, and to present us faultless before the 
 presence of His glory with exceeding joy, to 
 the only wise God our Saviour be glory and 
 majesty, dominion and power, both now and 
 ever. Amen. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
For I know that my Redeemer liveth^ and that 
 He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth ; and 
 though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet 
 in my flesh shall I see God: whom I shall see for 
 myself and mine eyes shall behold^ and not another; 
 though my reins be consumed within me, — Job xix, 
 25-27. 
 
JOB'S TRIUMPH. 
 
 np OB'S triumphant assertion of his unshaken 
 confidence in God, which he reaches 
 near the close of the nineteenth chapter, is 
 deservedly ranked as the most important 
 passage in all his discourses. In some re- 
 spects it is one of the most signal passages 
 in the entire Old Testament, not so much in 
 the positive amount of revelation which it 
 contains as in the intrepid spirit of an uncon- 
 querable piety which it discloses. It exalts 
 the patriarch of Uz to a level with the 
 patriarch of Ur, the acknowledged father of 
 the faithful,^nd marks Job as no less con- 
 spicuously an example and a pattern of faith^ 
 than Abraham, — the one as distinguished 
 and heroic in his constancy in suffering as 
 the other in his unswerving obedience. 
 
1 82 JOB^S TRIUMPH. 
 
 The central position of this noble utter- 
 ance in the discourses of Job has been before 
 referred to ; and that it is the turning-point 
 in his discussions with his friends, the cul- 
 mination and the close of his sore inward 
 conflict, the full and complete outcoming of 
 a trust which has been gradually gathering 
 strength in the face of the most formidable 
 opposition, and struggling to find expression, 
 and the crowning victory over Satan's fiercest-^ 
 and most subtle temptation. It is faith 
 planting itself firmly on the unseen, when 
 not one single external ground of support 
 remains. The flukes of his anchor have 
 _taken hold of the immqyabJeJR-Qck of Ages, 
 and the rage of f^Q tempest and the dashing 
 waves and the heaving sea cannot tear his 
 vessel from its moorings. Held by the strong 
 grasp of the invisible, which is no less real, 
 solid, and abiding because it is out of sight, 
 he can safely defy all that is visible and on 
 the surface, the mutable and the transient; 
 and Satan's most furious assaults have no 
 power to dislodge him or unsettle his sure 
 and well-grounded persuasion. 
 
job's triumph. 183 
 
 The suffering patriarch is, to all human 
 appearance, and in his own estimation, sink- 
 ing rapidly to the grave under an accumu- 
 lation of disasters, which seem to exhaust 
 ^Satan's fiendish ingenuity of torture, and 
 which appear to betoken the divine displeas- 
 ure. His friends charge upon him that God 
 is herein bearing testimony against his ag- 
 gravated criminality. Conscious of his integ- 
 nty,_and yet confounded by these apparent 
 evid ences of God's hostility to him, he pite- 
 ously pleads with God no longer to treat 
 " hiirT as a criminalLsince he does not deserve 
 to be so treated, but to remove His heavy 
 hand and openly bear witness to his inno- 
 "cence and uprightness. But his cries are 
 unanswered. He cannot get his case before 
 the supreme Judge of all so as to obtain 
 the hearing and the adjudication to which 
 he makes his ineffectual appeal. The Most 
 High does not in any way interfere to take 
 his part, or to redress the wrongs which His 
 servant is enduring, or to correct the grievous 
 and unjust imputations which offer them- 
 
184 job's triumph. 
 
 selves as so direct an inference from God s 
 own dealings with him. The heavens are 
 silent. The situation remains unchanged. 
 The sufferings of Job are unabated. His 
 friends continue to taunt him with this plain 
 evidence of guilt. 
 
 We have observed the growing intensity 
 of Job's inward struggle, and the strife is not 
 yet allayed. He repels the insinuations of 
 his friends. He rejects their conclusion, for 
 yj/it is contradicted by his own consciousness ; 
 f^ but he cannot break the logic of their argu- 
 / ment. VAs a consequence he is tossed by 
 \ .conflicting emotions. He seems to be shut 
 lup to the conclusion that God is unrighteously 
 oppressing him, afflicting him without cause 
 or punishing him for crimes w^hich he has 
 not committed. And if God be unrighteous, 
 He is not a God to be worshipped and con- 
 fided in. If he admit this, he has fallen 
 IJ before the temptation, and Satan has gained 
 his end. But how can he escape it.? The 
 facts stare him sternly in the face. And 
 even if he were disposed to shut his eyes to 
 
job's triumph. 185 
 
 them, his friends with officious pertinacity 
 are for ever obtruding them upon him with 
 their inevitable deductions. 
 yit IS a time of outspoken frankness, in 
 which the convictions of his soul utter them- 
 selves without reserve and without disguise. 
 He cannot shelter himself behind conven- 
 tional phrases which may have a religious 
 sound, though emptied of their meaning and 
 not expressive of his real and honest faith. 
 He is not in a mood to save appearances by 
 the gloss of pious professions. He dare not 
 deceive himself and others even by uncandidly 
 smoothing over difficulties in the divine ad- 
 ministration, and persuading himself that he 
 has explained what he has simply evaded. 
 /His whole soul is opened before us down to 
 its inmost depths, and his most secret imagin- 
 ings. He is engaged in a contest for life or 
 death, in which every thing is involved, and 
 no mere pretence or flimsy material can avail 
 him./ He must have truth, the solid basis 
 of truth on which he can rest with un- 
 shaken conviction. He cannot save even 
 
i86 job's triumph. 
 
 piety by shallow pretext or insincere pro- 
 fession. 
 
 yin the unshrinking truthfulness with 
 which he utters his inmost feelings, we are 
 startled sometimes by the boldness and seem- 
 ing irreverence with which he arraigns the 
 rectitude of the divine proceedings. But 
 it is not the daring recklessness of presump- 
 tuous speculation intruding on the unre- 
 vealed; nor is it the profane utterance of 
 the impious transgressor blaspheming his 
 Maker. It is the transparent sincerity of 
 the tempted soul, driven almost to distrac- 
 tion by suggestions which are forced upon 
 him, and which he cannot shut out. They 
 are not cherished thoughts on which he 
 loves to dwell, and to which he gladly re- 
 verts. They are like frightful spectral illu- 
 sions from which he shrinks away, but which 
 continue nevertheless to glare upon him 
 until by the surpassing energy of faith the 
 dreadful spell is broken, and the temptation 
 vanquished. 
 
 In his former speeches Job has been strug. 
 
job's triumph. 187 
 
 gling desperately with the idea perpetually 
 thrust upon him by his friends, and forcing 
 itself upon him from all that he endured, that 
 God was his enemy. Germs of hope have 
 arisen within him, but they have not been 
 sufficient to lift the burden off his heart. 
 In the beginning of this speech he is still 
 oppressed by these evident tokens of God's 
 antagonism. But the argument of guilt t 
 deduced from it by his friends he warmly '; 
 repels. It is not true, as they urge, that he v 
 deserves what he suffers. It is not true that \/ 
 this is a display of divine justice : no, it is 
 injustice. " If indeed," he says (xix. 5, 6), " ye 
 will magnify yourselves against me, and plead 
 against me my reproach : know now that God 
 hath overthrown me ; " literally, has perverted, 
 distorted, wronged me. It is the very word 
 that Bildad had used in a former address, 
 in his pious indignation at the sentiments of i 
 Job, viii. 3 : " Doth God pervert judgment ; j 
 or doth the Almighty pervert justice ? " And 
 it is the same that Elihu uses subsequently 
 in his rebuke of Job's rash and impatient 
 
1 88 job's triumph. 
 
 utterances, xxxiv. 12:" Yea, surely God will 
 not do wickedly, neither will the Almighty 
 pervert judgment." 
 
 But such perversion Job boldly affirms 
 to exist in his own case. In his conscious 
 integrity he denies the righteousness of any 
 infliction which charges that upon him of 
 which he is not guilty; he denies the justice 
 of executing sentence upon him for crimes of 
 which he was free. If God, in sending these 
 sufferings upon him, has marked him out as 
 a criminal, as his friends allege, then He has 
 perverted justice, He has done him wrong. 
 " Behold," he adds, " I cry out of wrong, but 
 I am not heard : I cry aloud, but there is no 
 judgment." He is the innocent victim of 
 most cruel treatment. He is the defence- 
 less subject of ruffianly violence, who screams 
 for help against pitiless and inhuman out- 
 rage, who calls for justice against the most 
 grievous oppression and wrong. But his 
 cries are uttered in vain. No help is 
 afforded him, and there is no relaxation of 
 the extreme of injury inflicted. And he 
 
job's triumph. 189 
 
 proceeds with his harrowing recital of these 
 causeless and gratuitous inflictions : " He 
 hath fenced up my way that I cannot pass, 
 and He hath set darkness in my paths. He 
 hath stripped me of my glory, and taken the 
 crown from my head. He hath destroyed 
 me on every side, and I am gone : and mine 
 hope hath He removed like a tree. He hath 
 also kindled His wrath against me, and He 
 counteth me unto Him as one of His enemies. 
 His troops come together, and raise up their 
 way against me, and encamp round about 
 my tabernacle." My brethren, acquaintance, 
 kinsfolk, familiar friends, my servants, maids, 
 my very wife, — all whom I loved are turned 
 against me. " My bone cleaveth to my skin 
 and to my flesh, and I am escaped with the 
 skin of my teeth. Have pity upon me," he 
 imploringly adds, "have pity upon me, O 
 ye my friends ; for the hand of God hath 
 touched me. Why do ye persecute me as 
 God, and are not satisfied with my flesh ? " 
 Why will you too join in this relentless per* 
 secution which God has initiated against me, 
 
190 JOBS TRIUMPH. 
 
 and which can only be compared to raven- 
 ous and savage beasts of prey tearing and 
 gnawing my flesh with insatiate greediness ? 
 
 Against such cruelty and injustice on the 
 part both of God and man he enters his ear- 
 nest protest, and he would have his words put 
 on permanent record. Outcast alike from 
 God a_n.d„nian, he makes hi^ appeal ta the 
 rocks. Let the enduring rock be his- monu- 
 mental witness. Let there be carved there, 
 in letters that shall not fade, the inscription 
 of his innocence. Though God and man 
 combine to condemn him, let his own assev- 
 erations of his integrity be graven with an 
 iron pen, and be filled in with lead in the 
 rock forever. And thus may the everlasting 
 rocks, in legible inscriptions never to be 
 effaced, bear testimony on his behalf; and 
 may the justice that he vainly craves else- 
 where find at least its indelible and faith- 
 ful record there. 
 
 It is customary to understand Job here as 
 saying that he would have the words which 
 immediately follow graven in the rock. He 
 
JOBS TRIUMPH. 191 
 
 would have that golden sentence, " I know 
 that my Redeemer liveth, etc.," stand on per- 
 petual record, his legacy to future ages, his 
 testimony through all time that, forsaken as 
 he seemed to be by God and man, he never 
 gave up his confident trust in God his 
 Saviour. In his last and darkest hours he 
 still held fast his unwavering assurance that 
 God was his Redeemer and Friend, and 
 though his body perished and crumbled into 
 dust, he would still with his own eyes see 
 God who would appear on his behalf. And 
 if any prefer so to interpret the patriarch's 
 wish, we make no serious objection. These 
 words are certainly worthy of being recorded 
 on the solid rock. No grander monumental 
 inscription can be found. Job could not 
 have a worthier epitaph upon his rock-hewn 
 tomb. In no way could a more exalted 
 testimony be rendered to his steadfast piety 
 than by preserving this outburst of trium- 
 phant faith, uttered under such circumstances. 
 These words stand out conspicuously upon 
 the speeches of Job, as the noblest, the loftiest, 
 
 9 
 
r 
 
 192 JOBS TRIUMPH. 
 
 the most characteristic that he ever uttered, 
 and the most aptly significant of the power of 
 his faith, and the reahty of his pious trust in 
 God. So that, as has been said before, if 
 any prefer to regard these as the words which 
 Job would have to be carved upon the rock, 
 we make no serious objection. 
 
 Yet it seems to us that those interpreters 
 have more accurately divined Job's own mean- 
 ing, who think that he would have in lasting 
 record on the rock not the particular state- 
 ment about to be made, but the asseverations 
 and protestations of his innocence to which 
 he had given utterance over and over again 
 in this and former speeches. So that this 
 desire to have his words inscribed upon the 
 rock is not so much an introduction to what 
 follows, anticipating and preparing for the 
 exultant announcement he is about to make, 
 as rather the conclusion of what precedes. 
 It represents not his rising consciousness of 
 triumph, but rather his lowest depth of deso- 
 lation and hopeless despair, joined with his 
 inward consciousness of integrity that de- 
 
JfOBS TRIUMPH. 193 
 
 mands some recognition. Bereft of every 
 helper, human and divine, crushed beneath 
 an unrighteous sentence, his appeals to God 
 unheard, and his friends joining in the merci- 
 less persecution, he asks that the rocks may 
 take up his dying declaration, and that his 
 words may be indelibly written there, so that 
 the imperishable stone may speak his inno- 
 cence of these false charges, and testify of the 
 wrong that has been done him, after his own 
 voice is hushed. And thus his appeal to the 
 rocks to transmit his defence to all coming 
 time will be parallel to his passionate apos- 
 trophe to the earth in his last preceding 
 speech, xvi. 18: " O earth, cover not thou my 
 blood, and let my cry have no place." It is 
 the outcry of one hopelessly overwhelmed by 
 unjust imputations and wrongful treatment, 
 but to whom his integrity is dearer than his 
 life, and who insists that what is true and 
 right shall have^ the assertion to which it is 
 entitled ; and who cannot but believe after all 
 that eternal justice shall find a response some- 
 where and at some time. What is right and 
 just must be. 
 
194 JOBS TRIUMPH. 
 
 This view of these words is confirmed 
 by the form of Job's triumphant declaration 
 which follows. This is not a separate, dis- 
 connected sentence, as though it were framed 
 to be inscribed by itself upon the rock ; but it 
 is intimately linked with what precedes, as 
 though it had been intended not to stand 
 alone, but to form part of a continuous con- 
 text, beginning as it does with a conjunction, 
 " For I know," or, more exactly rendered, " And 
 I know that my Redeemer liveth." A mon- 
 umental inscription could not begin with 
 " and." This necessarily marks a connection 
 with some thought either expressed or im- 
 plied in what precedes. And this connection 
 or continuation, while it would be wholly 
 wanting in an isolated legend on the rocks, is 
 readily traceable upon the explanation adopted 
 above. 
 
 Perishing under groundless accusations of 
 whose falsity he is profoundly conscious, but 
 which he has no means of adequately refut- 
 ing ; God apparently testifying against him 
 by the sufferings which He sends ; his friends 
 
JOBS TRIUMPH. 195 
 
 open-mouthed and loud in their reproaches 
 and censures ; deserted by all, and despair- 
 ing of relief from any quarter, he utters as his 
 last wish, while the grave is opening before 
 him, that this amount of justice may be done 
 him, to place his asseveration of innocence 
 on record in the rock. And as he utters the 
 wish, the certainty that justice must and will 
 be done flashes with strong conviction on his 
 soul. I have asked a record on the rock; 
 and all the while I know that my Redeemer 
 liveth. I need no monument of stone to 
 vindicate me, no inscription graven with an 
 iron pen and filled in with letters of molten 
 lead. I have an ever-living and almighty 
 Redeemer, who will rescue me from wrong, 
 and defend me against calumny, and who will 
 certainly, and in spite of all present appear- 
 ances, reveal Himself to me as my Friend, 
 and to whom, therefore, with implicit confi- 
 dence, I intrust my cause. 
 
 Who the Redeemer is, in whom Job thus 
 affirms his confidence, cannot admit of a 
 moment's doubt. It is the same of whom he 
 
196 lOBS TRIUMPH. 
 
 had declared in his preceding speech, xvi. 19, 
 " My witness is in heaven, and my record is on 
 high ; " and whom he had suppHcated to be 
 his surety (xvii. 3) when all others refused to 
 espouse his cause ; and of whose sentence in 
 his favor he had again and again expressed 
 his strong assurance, if his cause could but 
 be brought before Him so as to obtain His 
 decision. Now all doubts have vanished : 
 every condition that had previously clogged 
 his hopes is removed. The Lord has under- 
 taken for him. The Lord has engaged upon 
 his side. The Lord will defend him against 
 all injury and wrong. God, who seems to be 
 persecuting him with such relentless hostility, 
 is not his Enemy ; He is his Redeemer. 
 
 It is commonly supposed, and with reason, 
 that in this word " redeemer " there lies an 
 allusion to an institution dating from the 
 simple and as yet but partially regulated 
 society of patriarchal times, and which was 
 subsequently admitted with some restrictions 
 and modifications into the Mosaic code. It 
 was the office of the next of kin to espouse 
 
JOBS TRIUMPH. 197 
 
 the cause of his injured or impoverished 
 relative ; to redeem his property, and restore 
 it to him if he had in any way forfeited it or 
 been obHged to sell it ; to defend him against 
 injury and wrong ; and, especially, to avenge 
 his blood if he had been unrighteously slain. 
 Now God has assumed the part of the next 
 kinsman in relation to Job. He shall redress 
 his wrongs; He shall avenge his injuries; 
 He shall deliver him out of the bondage of 
 his sorrows, — the very figure which is em- 
 ployed in a subsequent part of this book, 
 where the Lord is said to have " turned the 
 captivity of Job." The frequency with which 
 the title of Redeemer is applied to God in 
 the Old Testament makes still plainer its 
 application here. Jacob speaks of the divine 
 angel that redeemed him from all evil (Gen. 
 xlviii. 16). Moses sings (Ex. xv. 13), Thou 
 hast led forth the people which Thou hast 
 redeemed. David invokes (Ps. xix. 14) the 
 Lord, his strength and his redeemer. With 
 Isaiah it is a favorite name : The Redeemer, 
 the Lord of hosts, who is first and who is 
 last. (Isa. xliv. 6). 
 
198 JOB*S TRIUMPH. 
 
 When Job expresses his assurance that his 
 Redeemer lives, he means not merely that 
 He now exists, as opposed to the idea that 
 there is no one now existing who can appre- 
 ciate his case and understand his real charac- 
 ter, and who is willing to avow Himself his 
 friend, and that it is not until some future 
 generation in a distant age shall read with 
 unprejudiced eye his words sculptured in the 
 rock that he can have an advocate or friend. 
 Nor is it simply meant that He possesses a 
 conscious existence in contrast with the life- 
 less, insensate rock; so that Job is not 
 limited to the mute testimony carved upon 
 the motionless, unconscious stone. He has 
 a living witness and defender. Nor is it 
 simply existence in its highest style that is 
 here affirmed, as though he claimed that his 
 Redeemer was the ever-living one, to whom 
 life is essential and inherent, the self-existent 
 and eternal. But life involves active agency 
 in the character maintained, or in the sphere 
 to which it belongs ; as when the Lord is 
 styled the living God in contrast with dead 
 
JOBS TRIUMPH. 199 
 
 and lifeless idols, who are of no service to 
 their worshippers, "who cannot do good, 
 neither can they do evil." The living God is 
 a God who has power to save and to destroy, 
 and who exerts His power as the occasion 
 demands. A living Redeemer is one who is 
 more than a nullity or a name : He is one 
 who will act as such, and act with real, sub- 
 stantial effect. 
 
 ^>^he rest of Job's triumphant testimony, as ^ 
 it appears in the authorized English transla- (^^^ 
 tion, would lead us to suppose that Job ex- 
 pected his vindication to be postponed until 
 the end of the world and the general resurrec- ^ 
 tion. It runs thus : " For I know that my / 
 Redeemer liveth, and that He shall stand at 
 the latter day upon the earth, and though 
 after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in 
 my flesh shall I see God." 
 
 Our translators have here followed older 
 versions ; and, without designing to warp the 
 meaning of Job or to change the purport of his 
 words, they have been unconsciously guided 
 in the sense which they have assigned to his 
 
 9* 
 
200 JOBS TRIUMPH. 
 
 expressions by their knowledge of doctnnes 
 subsequently revealed with a clearness greater 
 than that with which they had been made 
 known in the time of Job, or with which 
 they are here presented to his own mind. 
 
 Job is speaking under strong excitement, 
 and in the language of lofty poetry. He 
 uses no superfluous words. He simply 
 indicates his meaning in the most concise 
 manner, without rounding out his periods or 
 using those connectives and significant par- 
 ticles, which would be demanded in perspicu- 
 ous prose. Hence his sentences are abrupt and 
 elliptical, and exactness of translation is diffi- 
 cult. The embarrassment of the English 
 translators is shown by the unusual number 
 of italic words, and these of no small impor- 
 tance to the meaning, which are heaped 
 together in these verses. There are a few 
 grammatical questions in the original passage 
 which it is difficult to settle with absolute 
 certainty, but which, however determined, do 
 not materially affect the general sense. With- 
 out laying any stress upon these, therefore, 
 
JOB S TRIUMPH. 20I 
 
 we propose the following rendering as suf- 
 ficiently accurate for our present purpose: 
 "And I know my Redeemer liveth, and 
 last on earth shall He arise ; and after my 
 skin, which has been destroyed thus, and out 
 of my flesh shall I see God." 
 
 He says not that his Redeemer shall stand 
 upon the earth or make His appearance upon 
 it, but that He shall arise, address Himself to 
 action. He shall no longer sit still, as though 
 He were not concerned or were disposed to 
 take no part in what was transacting. He 
 shall arise and participate actively in the mat- 
 ter. As when the suffering Psalmists so 
 often call upon God to arise : (iii. 7) " Arise, 
 O Lord ; save mfe, O my God." (ix. 1 9) 
 " Arise, O Lord ; let not man prevail." (xliv. 
 26) " Arise "for our help, and redeem us for 
 Thy mercies' sake." 
 
 My Redeemer shall arise last ; which may 
 mean simply, He shall arise at last or here- 
 after. Or the strict force of the words may 
 be retained. Job and his friends had been 
 contending first. He shall arise last, enter 
 
202 JOBS TRIUMPH. 
 
 latest on the scene, with the implication that 
 He shall take the matter entirely into His 
 own hands, and settle it unresisted in His 
 own way. And still further, for this too lies 
 in the proper meaning of the word, this 
 shall be the final settlement of this much dis- 
 puted case. He is the last, and none shall 
 come after Him to derange or alter what He 
 has done. It is a word that looks to all 
 futurity, and stretches to the utmost limit of 
 time that the subject spoken of admits, reach- 
 ing out to a boundless eternity even ; for it is 
 the term applied to the unending duration of 
 God Himself, who is the first and who is the 
 last. 
 
 He shall arise last on earth, here spoken of 
 as the scene of the conflict and the trials which 
 He is to terminate and rectify. Or, as the 
 words may mean, and some able interpreters 
 with a measure of plausibility understand 
 them to mean, " over the dust ; " the dust, 
 that is, into which my body has meanwhile 
 mouldered away. Upon which rendering 
 there would here be a distinct assertion of 
 
JOBS TRIUMPH. 203 
 
 what was already, perhaps, involved in the 
 term " last," and what is more fully brought 
 out in the words that follow, that this inter- 
 vention of his great Redeemer shall occur 
 after he is dead. It will not take place until 
 his body shall have been committed to the 
 grave, and mouldered back to dust. 
 
 But whether this meaning be expressed in 
 this particular phrase or no, it is made dis- 
 tinctly prominent in what follows. "And 
 after my skin, which has been destroyed thus, 
 and out of my flesh shall I see God." He 
 looks to a period after the destruction, the 
 complete disintegration of his skin ; and when 
 he himself, the living part, the vital spirit, 
 shall be separated from his flesh, his decay- 
 ing and lifeless body. The just sense of 
 these expressions compels us to regard Job 
 as contemplating the time after he shall be 
 dead, and affirming that then his Redeemer 
 God shall manifest Himself to his disem- 
 bodied spirit. 
 
 Another interpretation which has been put 
 upon this verse, and upon this whole passage, 
 
204 job's triumph. 
 
 conceives Job to be here looking forward not 
 to a future state, but to the restoration of 
 God's favor, and his own deliverance out 
 of all his troubles in the present life. This 
 is not wholly a modern view, nor has it been 
 confined to unbelieving interpreters. On the 
 contrary, it was adopted by some of the most 
 eminent of the Christian Fathers ; and it has 
 been ably advocated both in ancient and in 
 recent times. The decisive objections to it 
 are: — 
 
 1. It does not give their fair meaning 
 to the expressions just recited, which must 
 denote something more than a skin damaged, 
 and a body emaciated by disease. It is 
 something posterior to the total destruction 
 and dissolution of the body that is referred to. 
 
 2. This is further evident from the con- 
 stant tenor of Job's language elsewhere. He 
 regards himself as on the verge of the grave, 
 which is already claiming him as its own (xvii. 
 i). Every earthly hope is annulled. Every 
 temporal prospect has vanished. He in- 
 variably repels the idea, whenever his friends 
 
JOBS TRIUMPH. 205 
 
 present it to him, of any improvement of his 
 condition in this world as plainly impossible, 
 and as though the very suggestion of it were 
 an insult to his understanding. He cannot, 
 therefore, himself anticipate what he uni- 
 formly pronounces irrational and absurd. 
 
 3. The same thing appears from the 
 general drift of his argument with his friends, 
 both prior to this passage and subsequent to 
 it. His friends affirm that men are rewarde d 
 or punished in this life according to their 
 characters. Job steadfastly denies it. I f he 
 here utters his expectation that God will 
 interfere to reward his piety in the present 
 life, he completely abandons his own position, 
 and adopts theirs. 
 
 4. His desire to have his protestation of 
 his innocence recorded in ineffaceable char- 
 acters upon the rock becomes ridiculous, if 
 he cherished the assurance that the strife be- 
 tween him and his friends would be settled 
 in his favor by a divine intervention in his 
 own lifetime. 
 
 5. This passage forms the grand climax in 
 
2o6 job's triumph. 
 
 the utterances of Job's faith and pious trust, 
 to which he has from the first been slowly 
 but steadily rising. He has put the hypothe- 
 sis before of a life beyond the grave, though 
 under the impossible condition of a return 
 to this earthly life from the silence and the 
 darkness of the tomb, when God's favor 
 should be restored to him once more, and 
 He should again have a desire and a loving 
 regard for the work of His own hands. In 
 another passage he had uttered his outcry of 
 atrocious murder, and appealed to the earth 
 not to cover his blood unjustly shed, and he 
 had found the witness to his integrity in 
 heaven. He now takes one step in advance, 
 and faith reaches its clearest and fullest ex- 
 pression, and confident assurance takes the 
 place of a fitful, trembling hope. The hypo- 
 thetical life beyond the grave becomes a real 
 vision of God by his disembodied spirit. The 
 witness to his integrity on high, to whom he 
 had appealed to become his surety, but without 
 any positive response, becomes his Redeemer, 
 the avenger of his innocent blood, vindicating 
 
V 
 
 jOB*S TRIUMPH. i07 
 
 him, appearing as his champion, and on his 
 behalf, and, as he in the verses next ensuing 
 warns his friends, punishing them that have 
 done him wrong. 
 
 6. It very materially lowers the evidence 
 and the power of Job's faith, if we suppose 
 him to be referring to the present life. The 
 victory which he here gains, and which as- 
 sures his triumph over Satan's temptation, — 
 over every possible temptation, in fact, — is the 
 victory of faith over outward sense. If any 
 possible hope were left him in this world, the 
 triumph would be less conspicuous and com- 
 plete. It is only when we see him shut up 
 absolutely to the unseen, and perceive that 
 with his trust in God he ventures boldly into 
 it, not groping blindly or bewildered as in the 
 dark, not hesitating as in uncertainty or per- 
 plexity, not shrinking as from possible danger 
 or mistake, but confident as if treading on 
 solid ground, and amid positive and ascer- 
 tained realities, that we discern the true heroism 
 of a faith like that of Job, and its unconquer- 
 able energy. In his own esteem he is sinking 
 
^08 job's TRIUlvtPH. 
 
 into the grave with every indication surround- 
 ing him of God's relentless hostility; every 
 possibility of a return of God's favor to him in 
 this life is, to his mind, utterly shut out; and 
 yet so fixed is he in his inward persuasion 
 of the real friendship and redeeming grace of 
 God to him, that he bursts the boundaries 
 of time, passes the limits of the visible and the 
 tangible, and knows that the manifest tokens 
 of the divine love, which are denied him here, 
 will be granted to him there. What can shake 
 the trust or destroy the peace of that man 
 who rests his certain hope on the immutable 
 attributes of God ? Satan and the world may 
 vent their rage and ply their arts against him 
 in vain. He is proof against every assault; 
 for his steadfast trust is founded upon the 
 eternal rock, and this is a foundation which 
 never can be shaken. ; 
 
 It is no real objection to the view which 
 has been taken of this passage, that in the 
 subsequent course of the history God actually 
 did interfere for the delivery of His servant 
 and the restoration of his prosperity in the 
 
job's triumph. 20i 
 
 present life. What was in the secret purpose 
 and plan of God must be carefully distinguished 
 from Job's situation as it appeared to his own 
 mind. It was the fact of his being left so 
 entirely in the dark, and without the slightest 
 clue afforded him respecting the design or 
 issue of his sufferings, that created all the 
 mystery of the dispensation, and laid such de- 
 mands upon his faith, and established such 
 a searching test of the reality and strength 
 of his piety and adherence to God's service. 
 God did indeed remove Job's sorrows, and 
 renewedly grant him the open pledges of His 
 favor in this life. He thus rewarded His ser- 
 vant's faith, contrary to and beyond all expec- 
 tation. Job never dreamed of such a result, 
 as all his speeches show, nor once conceived 
 it possible. 
 
 Nor is there any force in the objection that 
 Job has in his previous speeches uniformly 
 spoken of death as the end of every activity 
 and hope, and has never let fall a syllable 
 from which it could be inferred that he be- 
 lieved in the reality and certainty of a future 
 
2IO JOBS TRIUMI>M. 
 
 State. The conclusion has hence been drawn 
 that this cannot have been an article of his 
 faith, and that he could not therefore have 
 referred to it in the passage now under con- 
 sideration. But this is to overlook entirely 
 the progress in Job's own mind, which is 
 delineated in such a vigorous and masterly 
 manner in the course of his speeches. We 
 see Job in the beginning involved in all the 
 mist and obscurity which overhung the fu- 
 ture state in the patriarchal age, when no 
 clear and unambiguous revelations had been 
 made upon this subject. The continued con- 
 scious existence of the soul was known, but 
 all was vague and shadowy in regard to that 
 V other life. Job is, by the intensity of the 
 struggle in which he was engaged, driven 
 step by step into clearer views of this sub- 
 ject than he possessed before. We can watch 
 his gradual advances toward it, his uncertain 
 reachings out after it. And here we see him 
 grasping it with all the fulness of assured con- 
 viction, as the only way out of inextricable 
 darkness and despair, the inevitable deduc- 
 
job's triumph. ^tl 
 
 tion of a most indubitable axiom, the only 
 resting place of his unwavering trust in the 
 immutable grace of God, which nothing can 
 wrest from him. Of God's unchanging favor L 
 he is inwardly and most thoroughly persuaded. 
 There is no room remaining for that favor to 
 display itself to him in this world. And the 
 imperative necessity of his holiest and firmest 
 convictions compels him to the declaration, 
 I know that God will manifest His favor to ^ 
 me, though it be after my body has decayed 
 and my spirit has forsaken this tenement of 
 clay. 
 
 Nor is there any greater weight in the ad- 
 ditional objection that Job makes no further 
 use of this great truth in his controversy with 
 his friends. He never refers to it subse- 
 quently, whether to console himself under 
 the rigors of his own hard lot, or to shed 
 light upon the enigmas of Providence in the 
 unequal distribution of good and evil, or to 
 refute the constantly repeated tenet of his 
 friends of a retribution in the present life. 
 A doctrine of such vast importance in its 
 
2ii J0B*S TRIUMPH. 
 
 bearings on the subject under discussion 
 could not, it is alleged, flash up in one single 
 passage, and then never be alluded to again. 
 The fact that it is not brought up and insisted 
 upon elsewhere, is held to warrant the infer- 
 ence that it is not really cpntained here. 
 
 But this is to mistake entirely the part 
 which this doctrine plays in the book of Job. 
 It is not offered as a solution of the enigmas 
 of divine Providence. It is not even pre- 
 sented as the basis of consolation for the 
 tempted and afflicted. The comfort of the 
 sorrowing rests on a deeper ground than 
 this, as is subsequently unfolded in the 
 speech of Elihu, and by the Lord Himself, 
 to whom it is reserved to present in its true 
 light a subject which has only been growing 
 more and more perplexed under the reason- 
 ings and discussions of Job and his three 
 friends. The doctrine of immortality comes 
 in solely to still Job's inward conflict, and 
 bring hinbto a settled conviction that there 
 is peace between his soul and God, which no 
 outward and temporal troubles can destroy. 
 
JOBS TRIUMPH. P-^t^ 
 
 This it effectually does. Job's inward agita- 
 tion ceases from this moment. He is no 
 longer distracted by the sense of God's hos- 
 tility and wrath. His outward situation is 
 unchanged, and the problem of his suffer- 
 ings is as mysterious as ever; but he has 
 attained to inward peace. He knows that 
 his Redeemer liveth, and that, after his worn 
 and suffering body shall be resolved into 
 
 ■ dust, the clouds shall break away, which now 
 obstruct his vision of the face of God. The 
 lesson of immortality has accomplished its 
 end. It need not, therefore, be repeated. 
 And that it is not applied to matters with 
 which in the plan and purpose of this book 
 it has nothing to do, is surely no argument 
 against its appearance here, where its intro- 
 duction was essential. 
 
 ^ But in what relation, it may be further asked, 
 does this passage stand to the doctrine of the 
 Messiah and of a corporeal resurrection } Is 
 Job's Redeemer ours, and his faith the same 
 in which the people of God now rejoice in the 
 completed victory over death and the grave ? 
 
^t4 job's triumph. 
 
 In germ and substance it was, but, as it lay 
 before his consciousness, not in the same de- 
 veloped form. God was his Redeemer : Christ, 
 who was in the beginning with God and was 
 God, is ours. When Job appeals to his 
 Redeemer, he does so without even remotely 
 apprehending that He is the second person of 
 the Godhead ; for of the distinction of persons 
 in the divine Being, and of the doctrine of the 
 Trinity as unfolded in the New Testament, 
 he knew nothing. But he addresses Him in a 
 character, and solicits the fulfilment of an 
 office which distinctively belongs to God the 
 Son. He is, and has been in every age, the 
 Redeemer out of every distress, the Guardian 
 and Protector of His people, and their De- 
 liverer both from temporal distress and from 
 that everlasting woe of which the former is the 
 figure and the type. It is He to whom the 
 saints of God are indebted for that joyful pros- 
 pect of the vision of God beyond the grave, to 
 which Job looked forward. So that the doc- 
 trine of Christ is here approached from its 
 divine side, not as the Son of Abraham, but as 
 the Son of God. 
 
JOBS TRIUMPH. 215 
 
 And then perhaps it may not be without its 
 deeper significance and its divinely intended 
 meaning that the term " Redeemer " had the 
 association Hnked with it, both in patriarchal 
 and Mosaic usage, of the next of kin. Is there 
 not here possibly a shadowing forth of more 
 than Job himself intended or imagined when 
 he used the word ? an index pointing to that 
 divine Redeemer, who is, withal, our nearest 
 Kinsman, and who allied Himself to us in the 
 bonds of our common humanity, bone of our 
 bone, and flesh of our flesh, that He might 
 have a kinsman's right to espouse our cause, 
 to vindicate us from the accusations of the 
 law, and free us from the sentence of death 
 written in our members, and open to us life 
 and immortality with the beatific vision of 
 God ? So that as Abraham saw Christ's day, 
 it may likewise be said of Job that he rejoiced 
 to see Christ's day, and he saw it and was 
 glad. Only it was the seed of Abraham to 
 whom the father of the faithful looked forward. 
 It was his divine Redeemer that gladdened 
 the believing soul of the man of Uz, 
 
2i6 job's triumph. 
 
 The human aspect of Christ's work, so far 
 /^ as it is foreshown in the book of Job, is chiefly 
 set forth by Job himself, in his own person, as 
 the type of the man of sorrows, forsaken and 
 persecuted by his friends, and abandoned 
 apparently by God, and yet for whom the 
 cross was the passage way to the crown, and 
 suffering to a glorious reward, and the fruit 
 of the travail of whose soul abounded to the 
 blessing of others, as Job's intercession brought 
 healing to his three friends, and he has been a 
 helper to the distressed from his own day to 
 this. 
 
 The resurrection of the body was probably 
 not present to Job's thoughts, certainly not in 
 the form of a general and simultaneous rising 
 from the dead. And yet it is so linked, 
 seminally at least, with our continued spiritual 
 existence, and it is so natural and even neces- 
 sary for us to transfer our ideas of being, drawn 
 from the present state, to the great hereafter, 
 that it may perhaps be truly said that the 
 germs of the doctrine of the resurrection 
 may likewise be detected here. "Whom I 
 
JOBS TRIUMPH. V,^^^ 217 
 
 shall see for myself," says Job, " and mine eyes 
 shall behold, and not another," — so natural was 
 it to transfer the thought of these corporeal 
 organs along with this personal identity, upon 
 which he insists, even while speaking of him- 
 self as disembodied. We shall not here revive 
 the curious and profitless speculations to which 
 these words have given rise, nor shall we 
 involve ourselves in any discussion as to 
 whether Job means eyes of the soul or 
 eyes of the body. It is enough that we find 
 here suggested the intimacy of the link which 
 binds the two parts of our nature together, 
 and the powerful association which almost 
 inevitably carries us forward from the con- 
 tinued life of the soul to the restored life of 
 the body. And then, when we add to this 
 the ambiguity of certain expressions here em- 
 ployed, and which may not have been wholly 
 unintended (shall we say ? ) by the Spirit of 
 truth, so that they yield themselves readily 
 to the setting forth of the doctrine of the res- 
 urrection, as shown in our own English trans- 
 lation and in various other versions, ancient 
 
2i8 job's triumph. 
 
 and modern, it will appear that this passage 
 has not been without important bearings, at 
 least, upon the history of the belief in this 
 great and cardinal doctrine of the gospel of 
 the Son of God, if not upon its actual dis- 
 closure in the course of divine revelation. 
 
CHAPTER VIL 
 
How then comfort ye me in vain, seeing in your 
 answers there remaineth falsehood f — Job xxi. 34. 
 
JOB REFUTES HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 xTHHE crisis of the temptation is past, but 
 Job's perplexity is not yet removed. He 
 refuses to be driven from his constant trust in 
 God by all the influences that Satan has arrayed 
 against him. Amidst all the seeming evidences 
 of God's hostility, he maintains his confidence 
 in him as his Redeemer. He who is afflicting 
 him now will effect his deliverance hereafter. 
 But the time of this deliverance has not yet 
 come. He is walking in darkness, trusting in 
 the Lord. The storm of calamity continues 
 without abatement, and the mystery of his sor- 
 rows is still unsolved. 
 
 Hitherto Job has spoken principally to God. 
 It was with Him that he had to do, rather than 
 with his friends. That which has been chiefly 
 agitating him, and which was in fact the main- 
 spring of the temptation, was the question of 
 
J 
 
 22 2 JOB REFUTES HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 his personal relation to his Maker. When his 
 friends affirmed and reiterated, as they did in 
 every speech they made, the doctrine of a provi- 
 dential retribution, that it was the wicked who 
 suffered under God's righteous rule and in pro- 
 portion to their wickedness. Job made immedi- 
 ate application of this, as they designed that he 
 should, to his own case. He had, indeed, more 
 than once declared the falsity of the general 
 principle : " He destroyeth the perfect and the 
 wicked. If the scourge slay suddenly. He will 
 laugh at the trial of the innocent. The earth 
 is given into the hand of the wicked : He cover- 
 eth the faces of the judges thereof" (ix. 22-24). 
 " The tabernacles of robbers prosper, and they 
 that provoke God are secure ; into whose hand 
 God bringcth abundantly " (xii. 6). 
 
 But this was only incidental to the main cur- 
 rent of his thoughts. He was in no mood for 
 an abstract discussion. The personal question 
 involved in it swallowed up every other consid- 
 eration. It concerned what was dearer to him 
 than life. It affected the very foundation of 
 his trust in God. It was not simply that he had 
 
JOB REFUTES HIS FRIENDS. 223 
 
 a tender regard for his reputation, and that he 
 could not bear to have a cloud brought over his 
 good name. He who had borne the loss of 
 property and children, and endured the suffer- 
 ings inflicted on his own person with such noble 
 resignation, could also have submitted with 
 equanimity to unjust censures and false re- 
 proaches. That was not, dear as his good name 
 was to him, the tenderest and most vital point. 
 The estimation in which he was held by his 
 fellow-men was not his chief treasure. But his 
 conscious integrity was an inalienable posses- 
 sion. This he could not part with. And if 
 the affirmation of his friends was true, and the 
 rectitude of Him who ruled the world seemed 
 to give it sanction, then God was punishing him 
 for crimes which he was conscious that he had 
 never committed. He was, indeed, in a most 
 pitiable dilemma. If he denied the position of 
 his friends, then the plain inference was that 
 God was unjust. If he assented to it, then God 
 was unjust. And, in either case, how could he 
 serve a God who was unjust, and was withal 
 so pitiless and so cruel ? 
 
 10* 
 
2 24 JO^ REFUTES HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 Satan seemed, at length, to have driven him 
 into a position from which there was no escape. 
 How can he do otherwise than renounce the 
 service of God ? What basis remains for that 
 confidence and reverential homage which is 
 essential to true worship ? Satan has complete- 
 ly enveloped him with his deadly snare, and it 
 would appear as though there were no alterna- 
 tive. Job must fall before his adversary. 
 X We have traced the fierce and weary conflict 
 to its final issue. We have watched him in his 
 inward strife, in his piteous moans, his expostu- 
 lations with God, his vain appeals to Him to 
 declare Himself on his side. We have seen him 
 driven to and fro in his tumultuous agitation, 
 until, forced to the very edge of the precipice, 
 and apparently about to fall hopelessly and 
 helplessly into the awful chasm that yawned 
 beneath him, he cleared it by one energetic 
 act of faith, reaching forth into the unseen, 
 and sustaining himself without any visible 
 support. 
 
 The personal question is now settled, and his 
 intense inward agitation has subsided. He is 
 
JOB REFUTES HIS FRIENDS. 225 
 
 in a much calmer and more tranquil state of 
 mind. He has gained that unshaken conviction 
 of the rectitude and goodness of God, which 
 enables him to claim Him as his Redeemer in 
 spite of all adverse appearances. This source 
 of his disquiet is put to rest. The power of 
 the temptation is broken. Satan cannot detach 
 him from the service of God, seeing that he 
 holds fast to his faith in Him, in spite of all the 
 I suggestions of sense and of reason. 
 
 Job is safe from falling. But outward sense 
 and human reason still present a problem, which 
 baffles him completely. He holds fast to his 
 confidence in God, but he is bewildered never- 
 theless. The solution of his friends is no so- 
 lution. According to their principles, indeed, 
 there is no enigma in Providence. They see 
 nothing but the evident and uniform reign of 
 justice. Job shows, on the contrary, that this 
 is not the case. He takes issue with them in 
 regard to their fundamental principle, and ex- 
 poses its falsity. It is not, as they allege, a fact 
 of uniform experience that the righteous are 
 rewarded and the wicked suffer. This is the 
 
226 JOB REFUTES HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 point to which he addresses himself in his 
 remaining speeches. 
 
 It is, as he avers, a most distressing truth, 
 one that fills him with painful emotions at 
 every contemplation of it, and at which they 
 might well stand aghast themselves. The 
 administration of this world is not conducted 
 on such evident principles of equity as they 
 have maintained. " Mark me, and be aston- 
 ished, and lay your hand upon your mouth. 
 Even when I remember I am afraid, and trem- 
 bling taketh hold on my flesh " (xxi. 5, 6). So 
 far from just retribution overtaking the guilty, 
 bad men are often signally prospered. " Where- 
 fore do the wicked live, become old, yea, are 
 mighty in power? Their seed is established 
 in their sight with them, and their offspring 
 before their eyes. Their houses are safe from 
 fear, neither is the rod of God upon them. 
 They send forth their little ones like a flock, 
 and their children dance. They take the 
 timbrel and harp, and rejoice at the sound of 
 the organ. They spend their days in wealth, 
 and in a moment go down to the grave." 
 
JOB REFUTES HIS FRIENDS. 227 
 
 Their merry, joyous prosperity continues to 
 the very last. Experiencing no reverses and 
 no unusual calamity, with no check upon 
 their good fortune, and no term of suffering 
 that could be regarded as a penalty for their 
 misdeeds, they go down peacefully and quietly 
 to the grave. Their life is filled up with 
 pleasure, and with every form of earthly good 
 to its very close. And the natural consequence 
 follows. In their arrogant and impious pre- 
 sumption they refuse all subjection to the 
 Most High. " Therefore they say unto God, 
 Depart from us; for we desire not the knowl- 
 edge of Thy ways. What is the Almighty, 
 that we should serve Him ? and what profit 
 should we have, if we pray unto Him ? " 
 
 Bildad had said (xviii. 5), " The light of 
 the wicked shall be put out ; " and verse 1 2, 
 " destruction shall be ready at his side." Job, 
 with such facts of experience in mind as he 
 has just recited, asks in reply. How often is 
 this the case? It is by no means the in- 
 variable rule. " How oft is the candle of 
 the wicked put out.? and how oft cometh 
 
228 JOB REFUTES HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 their destruction upon them ? How often does 
 God distribute sorrows in His anger, and 
 make them as stubble before the wind, and as 
 chaff that the storm carrieth away ? " 
 
 But, interpose the friends, the retribution 
 is sure to come : it is only awhile delayed. 
 " God layeth up his iniquity for his chil- 
 dren " (v. 4, xviii. 19, XX. 10). This, Job 
 retorts, is no retribution at all in any proper 
 sense. " Let Him reward him," the sinner 
 himself, in his own person, " that he may know 
 it. Let his eyes see his destruction, and let 
 him drink of the wrath of the Almighty. 
 For what pleasure hath he in his house after 
 him, when the number of his months is cut 
 off in the midst ? " How is he affected by 
 what happens to his children, after he is dead 
 and gone ? They were presuming to " teach 
 God knowledge," by thus prescribing a law 
 for His government of the world, and might 
 justly fear that sentence with which He re- 
 wards the proud. On the other hand, he 
 alleges that in actual fact there was no dis- 
 crimination exercised in the fortunes allotted 
 
JOB REFUTES HIS FRIENDS. 229 
 
 to men. No reason could be assigned why 
 some men never have trouble, and others 
 never have any thing else. " Ye say, Where 
 is the house of the prince ? and where are 
 the dwelling-places of the wicked?" imply- 
 ing that they have disappeared, or that their 
 ruins only remain as monuments of God's 
 righteous vengeance. But this is not so. 
 " Have ye not asked them that go by the 
 way ? and do ye not know their tokens, that 
 the wicked is spared * in the day of destruc- 
 tion.? they are brought off in the day of 
 wrath." They are often screened from calam- 
 ities that befall better men. And when they 
 die, instead of being followed by execrations or 
 regarded as malefactors, cut off by the just 
 sentence of Heaven, they are buried with 
 every mark of distinction, attendant crowds 
 doing honor to their memory and perpetuat- 
 ing their pernicious example. 
 
 Astounded by this audacious attack upon 
 their stronghold, this plump denial of what 
 
 * The common rendering here reverses Job's meaning, 
 and destroys his argument 
 
230 JOB REFUTES HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 they have all along been asserting as an 
 incontrovertible axiom, and the foundation 
 of their whole argument, the friends are 
 obliged to modify materially their method 
 of attack. Eliphaz, who speaks next, comes 
 to the rescue of the principle by a furious 
 onslaught upon Job himself. Their oft- 
 repeated maxim itself, in its broad univer- 
 sality, cannot again be affirmed in the face 
 of what has just been said. But he is more 
 than ever convinced that it exposes the real 
 secret of all Job's troubles. Whether it can 
 be established as a general rule or not, whether 
 it is applicable to all other cases or not, it un- 
 questionably holds true in this instance. He 
 therefore restricts himself no longer to covert 
 insinuations or indirect suggestions, but makes 
 positive and explicit charges of enormous 
 wickedness, and assigns this as the undoubted 
 reason of these terrible inflictions. God 
 could have no motive for dealing with Job 
 otherwise than with impartial justice. He 
 must have been guilty, therefore, of atro- 
 cious crimes, the righteous penalty for which 
 he is now enduring. 
 
JOB REFUTES HIS FRIENDS. 23 1 
 
 The whole matter is thus brought to a sim- 
 ple issue. Is Job a gross transgressor, or is 
 he not ? The charge is open, and unambigu- 
 ous. Job promptly takes up the challenge, 
 and meets the charge with an equally explicit 
 deniair God has indeed hidden Himself in 
 the mystery of these inexplicable sorrows, 
 which continue to press upon him with the 
 same dire weight as before. He is withdrawn 
 beyond the reach of outward sense. But con- 
 cealed as He is from sight, impossible as it is 
 to penetrate to His secret seat to urge his 
 plea, and to obtain the removal of these dis- 
 tresses under which he now groans. Job yet 
 makes to Him his confident appeal : " He 
 knoweth the way that I take : when He hath 
 tried me, I shall come forth as gold. My 
 foot hath held His steps. His way have I 
 kept, and not declined. Neither have I gone 
 back from the commandment of His lips ; I 
 have esteemed the words of His mouth more 
 than my necessary food." And, as he pro- 
 ceeds to say, the world is full of just such 
 enigmas, of open wickedness that is suffered 
 
232 JOB REFUTES HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 to go unpunished, and of grievous wrongs 
 that are not redressed. 
 
 As the charges brought against Job are 
 wholly destitute of proof, being mere infer- 
 ences from a principle, which, as has now 
 been shown, is not verified by the actual 
 experience of the world, Bildad cannot again 
 repeat them in the face of Job's solemn assev- 
 eration of his innocence and his appeal to the 
 Searcher of hearts. There is consequently 
 nothing for him to do, if he would maintain 
 the show of an argument, but to fall back upon 
 the sinfulness inherent in human nature. No 
 \/ man can be pure in the sight of the infinite 
 God. This point had been made by Eliphaz 
 at the very outset of the discussion, and it had 
 been sufficiently answered long since. Bildad, 
 sensible of the weakness of his position, makes 
 no attempt to illustrate or enforce it, and, after 
 a few feebly uttered sentences, relapses into 
 silence. The friends withdraw discomfited 
 from the contest. 
 
 Job cannot refrain from taunting them with 
 the completeness of their failure in an argu- 
 
 V 
 
JOB REFUTES HIS FRIENDS. 233 
 
 ment which they have been conducting with 
 so much pretension. He then seizes the 
 opportunity to guard his language against 
 misconception. In saying what he had done 
 respecting the inequalities of divine provi- 
 dence, he had neither meant to reflect upon 
 the glorious nature of God, nor to deny the 
 existence of moral retributions. He accord- 
 ingly affirms the exalted majesty of God in as 
 lofty terms as his friends themselves could em- 
 ploy. And, while continuing to insist upon his 
 own integrity, notwithstanding the afflictions 
 sent upon him, he freely admits, and this in 
 language as emphatic as their own, the reality 
 of God's providential government, and that 
 punishment does overtake the ungodly. Nev- 
 ertheless there is a mystery enveloping the di- 
 vine administration, which is quite impenetrable 
 to the human understanding. 
 
 This thought of the impossibility of men's 
 arriving, by their own unaided powers, at any 
 comprehension of the divine plan in the admin- 
 istration of the universe, is illustrated with great 
 beauty. An apt figure is taken from the art of 
 
2 34 JO^ REFUTES HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 mining. Men can discover the precious and 
 the useful metals, though they are hidden deep 
 under ground. They will descend into the 
 bowels of the earth, and push their shafts re- 
 mote from the habitation of men ; and, regard- 
 less of the obstructions that block their way, and 
 of the gathering streams that hinder their prog- 
 ress, and of the obscurity which reigns in these 
 dark abysses, they cut a passage through the 
 rocks, and beneath the mountains, to the treas- 
 ures of which they are in quest. But there is a 
 treasure greater far, which cannot be thus ob- 
 tained ; a treasure that gold nor silver cannot 
 equal, and which vastly exceeds in worth the 
 most valued of jewels and precious stones. This 
 no ingenuity of men, and no search, however 
 prolonged or anxious, can ever discover. Where 
 shall wisdom be found ? and where is the place 
 of understanding } It is hid from the eyes of all 
 living, and kept close from the fowls of the air. 
 Even the world of the departed does not possess 
 it: they "have heard the fame thereof," but 
 they are not able to grasp it. There is but one 
 Being in the universe who does possess a 
 
JOB REFUTES HIS FRIENDS. 235 
 
 perfect comprehension of God's grand plan, 
 and that is He who adjusted all things with in- 
 finite precision, and who is guiding all to His 
 own preordained results. And He who is 
 infinite in knowledge has disclosed to man 
 wherein for him true practical wisdom lies. 
 " God understandeth the way thereof, and he 
 knoweth the place thereof. For he looketh to 
 the ends of the earth, and seeth under the 
 whole heaven; to make the weight for the 
 winds ; and he weigheth the waters by measure. 
 When he made a decree for the rain, and a way 
 for the lightning of the thunder ; then did he 
 see it, and declare it ; he prepared it, yea, and 
 searched it out. And unto man he said, Behold, 
 the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom ; and to 
 depart from evil is understanding." 
 
 The providence of God is not conducted 
 upon such a palpable rule, and one so perfectly 
 simple and susceptible of easy application, as 
 the friends have maintained. The dealings 
 of the infinite God are not regulated upon a 
 principle so obvious as to be level to the hum- 
 blest understanding. On the contrary, they 2^ 
 
236 JOB REFUTES HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 enveloped in the profoundest mystery. It is 
 impossible to lift the veil which obscures His 
 designs, or to penetrate the reasons which gov- 
 ern the divine proceedings. This is not because 
 there is no reason in them, and wild confusion 
 reigns. The impossibility of discovering the 
 divine order does not arise from the absence of 
 any real order in the universe. The world is 
 not under the dominion of chance, swinging at 
 random to and fro, without an aim, without 
 intelligent oversight, a ship without chart or 
 compass or rudder, tossed by the waves and 
 driven by the winds. Nor is it under the blind 
 sway of inexorable fate. Nor has it been sur- 
 rendered to the mere control of physical laws, 
 working out their fixed and uniform sequences 
 with a relentless disregard of any thing but in- 
 herent material properties, which, with undevi- 
 ating precision, pursue each their own affinities, 
 but own no superintending control, and are sub- 
 ordinated to no high moral aims and to no end 
 superior to themselves. Nor is the Ruler of 
 the world a capricious tyrant, whose absolute 
 power is directed by mere arbitrary will, but 
 
JOB REFUTES HIS FRIENDS. 237 
 
 with no wise forethought, no well considered 
 and worthy purpose. 
 
 Infinite wisdom reigns throughout the uni- 
 verse. He who adjusted the physical forces of 
 external nature with such admirable precision, 
 who balanced their action with such delicate 
 nicety, that perfect equilibrium is maintained, 
 and no derangement ensues in the onward 
 movement of all this complicated machinery 
 through successive ages, — He who established 
 and perpetuates this universal harmony in all 
 material things, giving their weight to the winds 
 and their measure to the waters, orders with 
 equal wisdom the multitudinous affairs of men. 
 There is a divine method. There is an infinite 
 plan, and it is one that is worthy of the su- 
 preme intelligence ; it bears throughout the 
 stamp of consummate wisdom. But it is past 
 finding out. 
 
 We cannot attain to a comprehension of it. 
 We cannot see how its several parts cohere 
 with each other, or how they consist with the 
 perfections of Him who designed it and who is 
 tionducting it. There is much that, to human 
 
238 JOB REFUTES HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 view, seems to be at variance with a well or- 
 dered administration. There is much that we 
 cannot account for, much that we cannot un- 
 derstand. There are many things in the man- 
 agement of the world that completely baffle 
 every attempt to unriddle them. We cannot 
 see why they are, nor why God permits them, 
 nor how He can consistently permit them. 
 With our Hmited understandings and our re- 
 stricted range of observation, we cannot pretend 
 to fathom the bottomless deep, nor measure 
 what has no bound. We cannot, even by the 
 most prolonged search or the most elaborate 
 investigation, attain to a thorough understand- 
 ing of God's infinite designs. Wisdom rules 
 in all, a wisdom more valuable than gold, and 
 above the price of rubies. But the keenest in- 
 sight and the most indefatigable application of 
 the human faculties fail to discover it. The 
 secret that resolves all mysteries, harmonizes 
 all strifes, reconciles all contradictions, and re- 
 duces this seemingly inextricable confusion to 
 perfect symmetry and order, is hidden in the 
 infinite mind alone. 
 
JOB REFUTES HIS FRIENDS. 239 
 
 Man can never aspire to a comprehension 
 of the absolute wisdom. But the Most High 
 has in condescending mercy revealed to him 
 all that is necessary for his practical guidance. 
 He may not presume to know how God gov- 
 erns the world, or what rules He prescribes for 
 His own procedure; but he has been suffi- 
 ciently taught how to direct his own conduct 
 and to govern his own life. He cannot solve 
 the mysteries of Providence ; but he may, by 
 taking heed to the lessons given him, solve what 
 is of more immediate moment to him, all ques- 
 tions of personal duty. He cannot tell the end, 
 which is subserved by every thing which God 
 permits or brings to pass ; but he need be in no 
 doubt how to accomplish the true end of his 
 own being and to secure his own highest wel* 
 fare. " The fear of the Lord, that is wisdom ; 
 and to depart from evil is understanding." 
 
 Job here pauses, as he had done once be- 
 fore, for his friends to make reply, if they have 
 any thing further to say. Whether on ac- 
 count of his obstinate persistence in his own 
 views they think that it will be of no use to 
 11 
 
240 JOB REFUTES HIS FRIENDS. 
 
 argue further, or whether they begin themselves 
 to suspect the unsoundness of their position, 
 and to perceive that there is more of mystery 
 in the case of their suffering friend than they 
 had imagined, they at any rate say nothing. 
 And Job proceeds to state at length the 
 unsolved enigma of his sorrows. His friends 
 have shed no light upon this distressing dis- 
 pensation, and he can get none himself. He 
 dwells upon his former happy condition, then 
 recites the dismal reverse which he has ex- 
 perienced, and finally, in the most solemn 
 manner, affirms his innocence of any crime 
 which could account for his being treated 
 thus. 
 
 The words of Job are here ended. He 
 stands face to face with a mystery that is thus 
 far wholly unexplained! He has no theory, 
 and can imagine none ilpon which his present 
 sorrows can be accounted for. His friends 
 undertook to silence his complaint, but he has "\ 
 silenced them. He holds fast to his faith in ^ 
 God, but he does so notwithstanding troubled 
 questionings, of which he cannot rid himself, 
 
JOB REFUTES HIS FRIENDS. 24 1 
 
 that have arisen in his soul, and notwithstanding 
 the presence of facts which he can neither 
 escape nor explain away, and which seem to 
 be in direct contrariety with the divine attri- 
 butes. " Therefore," as he gloomily said, xxiii. 
 15, 16, " am I troubled at His presence: when 
 I consider, I am afraid of Him. For God 
 maketh my heart soft, and the Almighty 
 troubleth me." Uneasy apprehensions mingle 
 with his thoughts of God, which he is unable 
 to still. There is an unrest in his soul, which 
 he cannot compose. Satan has not been able 
 to destroy him, but he has plunged him into 
 darkness and distress, out of which he cannot 
 find his way. His pious trust continues. He 
 still confides in his Redeemer, who after his 
 skin is destroyed, and his flesh has mouldered 
 back to dust, will reveal Himself to his disem- 
 bodied spirit. But will God suffer his servant 
 to go on in darkness to the end, bearing his 
 heavy burden, and hoping against hope? 
 Must Job die under the cloud? 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
Then was kindled the wrath of Elihu the son of 
 Barachel the Buzite, of the kindred of Ram ; against 
 Job was his wrath kindled^ because he justified him- 
 self rather than God. Also against his three friends 
 was his wrath kindled, because they had found no 
 answer i and yet had condemned Job, — Job xxxii. 
 a, 3. 
 
ELIHU. 
 
 T^HE three friends of Job cannot answer 
 him, and yet it is plain that he ought to 
 be answered. He has silenced his friends, and 
 has shown that the principle which they have 
 so confidently urged will not explain the 
 mystery of God's dealings in general, nor solve 
 the enigma of his own case. But he has not 
 brought the question to any satisfactory issue, 
 nor to one in which it can be properly left. 
 The friends undertook to justify God's provi- 
 dential dealings : the failure of their argument 
 apparently leaves the divine proceedings open 
 to censure and without any adequate vindica- 
 tion. They aimed to show Job that he had 
 no right to complain of the sufferings which 
 God had sent upon him or permitted to be- 
 
546 tunv. 
 
 fall him, and they were not successful in their 
 endeavor. Job has triumphantly maintained 
 his ground in his controversy with his friends ; 
 and, in his victory over them, there is danger 
 of his entertaining the impression, and the 
 impression being made on others, that he is 
 likewise in the right in his controversy with 
 the providence of God. This dangerous im- 
 pression needs to be corrected, both for his 
 own sake and for the sake of those to whose 
 instruction his great trial, and the book that 
 records it, was designed to contribute. 
 
 In the vehemence of his opposition to his 
 friends, and in the intensity of his inward 
 struggles. Job has been betrayed into expres- 
 sions, which cannot be approved, in which he 
 seems to arraign the equity of the divine 
 administration. Great consideration is re- 
 quisite in judging of these expressions, and in 
 estimating their real meaning. Allowance 
 must be made for the circumstances in which 
 they were uttered. Words wrung from him 
 in the bitterness of his heart, and in the 
 tnmult of his feelings under the terrible pres- 
 
ELIHU. 247 
 
 sure of his sorrows and the exasperating treat- 
 ment of his friends, are not to be regarded as 
 though they had been spoken in calmer mo- 
 ments. But if Job had gone no further astray 
 than this, that in his desperation and intoler- 
 able distress he had occasionally let slip what 
 he subsequently regretted, and what did not 
 express his real state of mind, no correction 
 might have been deemed necessary. 
 
 The fact, however, is that Job was involved 
 in an irreconcilable conflict with himself. 
 He was in a dilemma from which he could 
 not by any skill or power of his own be extri- 
 cated. His most intimate and ineradicable 
 convictions were seemingly at hopeless vari- 
 ance. On the one side was the conscious- 
 ness of his own integrity, which was dearer 
 to him than his life, which he could not deny 
 nor part with, and which he was prepared to 
 assert at all hazards. He knew from the tes- 
 timony of his own conscience that he was not 
 a gross and wicked offender; and he made 
 his confident appeal to the Searcher of hearts 
 for the uprightness of his past life. But how, 
 
 n* 
 
248 ELIHU. 
 
 then, can he maintain his confidence in the 
 justice and rectitude of God in His providen- 
 tial government ? A God who lets the wicked 
 ■ triumph and who afflicts the just, how can He 
 be a righteous and a holy God ? Job cannot 
 put these two things together, though he holds 
 them both and will not abandon either. And 
 yet, in the honest frankness of his soul, he does 
 not and cannot shut his eyes to the fact that 
 they do seem to him to clash. And, as in the 
 guilelessness of his nature he makes no con- 
 cealment, what he feels, he says. 
 
 His controversy with God's providence is 
 not limited, therefore, to a few passionate out- 
 bursts, which in moments of reflection he 
 would gladly recall. But it is forced upon 
 him by an inward necessity which he cannot 
 escape. He has justified his own integrity 
 against the suspicions and accusations of his 
 friends.^ But how is the righteousness of God 
 to be vindicated ? This is the problem. His 
 friends can throw no light upon it, and he is 
 as much in the dark as they. He still holds 
 indeed, with an unslackened grasp, his confi- 
 
ELIHU. 249 
 
 dence in God's righteousness, and he will not 
 let it go. ^ In his struggle to retain this great 
 essential truth he fought his way through to 
 that grand burst of triumphant trust in God, 
 in which he utters his faith in the unseen 
 without a particle of misgiving, though flatly 
 contradictory to outward sense : " I know that 
 ray Redeemer liveth," and that the divine rec- 
 titude now so mysteriously hidden shall yet 
 appear, and, though He suffers me to perish in 
 this world, He shall vindicate me in the next. 
 But even this noble utterance leaves the black 
 clouds of the present undispersed. The right- 
 eousness of God shall shine forth radiantly 
 hereafter, but why is it so strangely obscured 
 now.? This Job cannot answer; and, though 
 his trust abides in God's ultimate justice, it is 
 after all a trust in a God who has hidden Him- 
 self. 
 
 A glimpse into one design, at least, of this 
 infliction, has been afforded to the readers of 
 the book at the outset, in what is there said of 
 the agency of Satan in bringing it about. This 
 arch-fiend plots the ruin of Job. Quite discred- 
 
 } 
 
250 ELIHU. 
 
 iting the reality of goodness, he lays a snare, 
 which he boastingly affirms will be effectual in 
 overthrowing this godly man, and bringing him 
 to abjure the service of his Maker. The Lord 
 permits the tempter to try his arts to the full ; 
 and the result is his complete discomfiture. 
 Hardly beset as Job was, and driven to the 
 most desperate straits, he nevertheless holds 
 fast his trust in God, and succeeds in trampling 
 the temptation under foot. And thus it is when- 
 ever the malice of evil spirits and the rage of 
 wicked men are allowed to assail the saints of 
 God, in order to the more complete exhibition 
 of the reality and power of their pious fear. 
 God's martyrs, suffering for their attachment 
 to their blessed Lord, and adhering to Him in 
 spite of all that can be employed to turn them 
 from their fidelity, illustrate the reality of god- 
 liness, and glorify God in the fires. \We see 
 J Satan's design in Job's distresses, and how 
 conspicuously it was foiled. ^But what did 
 the Lord intend by them ?I7 This has not yet 
 been stated. Nevertheless, we cannot con- 
 ceive otherwise than that He had a design of 
 
ELIHU. 251 
 
 His own in permitting Satan to make this fu- 
 rious onset upon Job. This cannot have been 
 to gratify Satan's spleen, with which the Lord 
 had no sympathy ; nor can it have been that 
 God needed such a test to satisfy Himself of 
 the reality of Job's piety, which He knew as 
 thoroughly before the trial as after it, and to 
 which he had already borne unqualified testi- 
 mony ; nor can we suppose that God would 
 have allowed such overwhelming distresses to 
 befall His faithful servant, merely to convince 
 Satan of the falsity of his unreasonable and 
 malicious suggestion. God must have had a . 
 purpose of His own in all this, and which did \K 
 not terminate upon others, but directly affected 
 Job himself. God would not have made of 
 His servant a passive instrument for accom- 
 plishing something in which his proper per- 
 son and his own interests were wholly disre- 
 garded. He would not have made him suffer 
 as a mere spectacle for others, when there was 
 no end to be answered affecting himself. 
 There must have been some end, which, so 
 far as Job himself was concerned, would be an 
 
t 
 
 V 
 
 252 ELIHU. 
 
 ample justification of the providence of God 
 in permitting him to be treated as he was, and 
 to suffer as he did. 
 
 Some inkhng of the divine purpose may be 
 already gathered from what has thus far taken 
 place. We have already seen how trium- 
 phantly Job bore the severe and searching 
 test applied to him. And we may be sure 
 that the desperate struggle, through which he 
 passed, has developed and strengthened his 
 piety. Job has learned to maintain his faitH^ 
 under new and most difficult circumstances. 
 He has risen to a loftier exercise of faith than 
 ever before. With no external props and aids, 
 and in the face of all the suggestions of out- 
 ward sense, he was obliged to maintain him- 
 self by the simple putting forth of faith in 
 the unseen. His faith could not but gather 
 strength and clearness by the effort. That 
 Job learned to say with such positiveness, " I 
 know that my Redeemer liveth," in spite of 
 all that conspired to extinguish his hopes 
 and quench his pious trust, was attended with 
 a positive and decided spiritual gain. He 
 
ELIHU. 253 
 
 was lifted thereby into a higher spiritual/ 
 sphere. 
 
 And associated with or growing out of this 
 new elevation and increase of Job's faith is the 
 fresh enlargement of his spiritual perceptions, 
 and his keener insight into religious truth. 
 In groping eagerly about for something to 
 lean upon, for something to support his soul 
 in this time of his deep distress, he grasps 
 the firm pillar of his immortality, and puts 
 it into a connection previously unknown or 
 unthought of with his present needs. A new 
 element of truth is won in the struggle, a new 
 ground for the tempted to stand upon, a well- 
 spring of consolation to thirsty, fainting souls. 
 
 Still, though we may gather something by 
 inference respecting the design of God in this 
 mysterious and clouded providence, we feel 
 the need of some authoritative disclosure of 
 this design. We feel this need likewise and 
 particularly for Job's sake, and for those who 
 are to be instructed by his example, that the 
 question raised between him and his friends 
 should be set at rest, that the truth should be 
 
254 ELIHU. 
 
 distinctly stated which they have both vainly 
 essayed to discover, that the antagonistic prin- 
 ciples in Job's soul should be composed, and 
 that the divine rectitude which has seemed to 
 be impugned hitherto should find a just and 
 satisfactory vindication. 
 
 The solution of the perplexed problem is 
 given partly by Elihu and partly by the Lord 
 Himself. Elihu, who here appears for the 
 first time, and whose descent is somewhat par- 
 ticularly described as well as his motive for 
 speaking, first addresses Job in a series of 
 chapters, pausing at intervals apparently for 
 the sake of affording an opportunity for a 
 reply, if Job was disposed to make any. Job, 
 however, says nothing. Then the Lord speaks 
 to Job out of the whirlwind, and finally brings 
 the whole matter to a termination by restor- 
 ing Job to more than his former prosperity. 
 
 No portion of this book has proved more 
 embarrassing than the discourse of Elihu, and 
 in regard to none has there been a greater 
 diversity of views. There has been a wide 
 divergence of opinion from very early times as 
 
ELIHU. 255 
 
 to the part which is assigned to him, or why 
 he is introduced at all ; in what relation the 
 solution of the enigma afforded by him stands 
 to that which is furnished by the Lord, or why 
 two solutions are given instead of only one. 
 The perplexity is increased by the difficulty on 
 the one hand of harmonizing what Elihu says 
 with the lessons to be drawn from the discourse 
 of the Lord, and on the other of discriminat- 
 ing in a clear and satisfactory manner between 
 the sentiments propounded by Elihu and 
 those which had been previously advanced by 
 Job's three friends. 
 
 Many have concluded that the lessons 
 taught by Elihu and the Lord are hopelessly 
 at variance, while the doctrine of Elihu and 
 the three friends is identical ; and, conse- 
 quently, that what he says contributes nothing 
 toward the true and proper settlement of the 
 question at issue. The solution which he 
 offers of the enigmas of Providence is alleged 
 to be substantially that of Eliphaz and his 
 associates, and accordingly open to the same 
 condemnation, and to be regarded as set aside 
 
256 ELIHU. 
 
 by the subsequent decision rendered by the 
 Lord Himself, which is alone to be accepted 
 as the true solution, and the one which ade- 
 quately meets the case. • On this hypothe- 
 sis Job does not reply to Elihu, because he 
 really advances nothing new, and nothing 
 which he had not sufficiently answered be- 
 fore. And the Lord makes no allusion to 
 him, because he is a mere intruder who has 
 said nothing deserving of special regard ; and 
 he is, moreover, involved in the censure passed 
 upon the friends, whose tenets he had simply 
 repeated. 
 
 Among those who hold this view there is 
 still a diversity of judgment as to the ability 
 displayed by Elihu in the presentation of his 
 argument. In the opinion of some he is a 
 shallow pretender, a vain and conceited up- 
 start, intruding his weak opinions unsolicited, 
 where wiser and better men had already 
 exhausted that side of the question and spoken 
 with more force than he is able to do. Others 
 concede to his argument distinguished merit, 
 and think that his several points are put with 
 
ELIHU. 257 
 
 great skill and cogency. They consider him 
 the exponent of human reason, representing 
 the highest results to which it is capable of 
 attaining without an- immediate divine revela- 
 tion. He fails to give the true solution of the^ 
 mysterious problems of divine providence, but 
 he only does so because they are not within^ 
 the grasp of man's unaided intellect. God 
 can alone give the correct answer where the 
 wisest and most sagacious of men are incom- 
 petent to discover the truth. The failure of 
 Elihu to advance the settlement of the question 
 beyond the point at which the friends had left 
 it is thus supposed to render still more palpable 
 the necessity for the Lord Himself to inter- 
 vene, if the matter is ever to be put upon its 
 proper basis. 
 
 It seems highly improbable, however, that 
 so much space would be devoted to a person- 
 age who really contributes nothing whatever 
 to the design of the book, and only repeats 
 what the friends had already substantially said 
 before. This view, therefore, very naturally 
 paved the way for another which has also had 
 
258 ELIHU. 
 
 not a few advocates, that the speech of Elihu 
 forms no part of the book as originally written, 
 but is an addition by a later hand. This, as 
 some think, mars the symmetry and complete- 
 ness of the work, or, according to others, adds 
 fresh and valuable thoughts, but such as did 
 not enter into the plan of the original writer. 
 
 The difficulties which have been felt with 
 regard to Elihu will, we are persuaded, disap- 
 pear, and the hypotheses already referred to, 
 which are built upon them, will vanish upon a 
 more careful study of the speech attributed to 
 him, and of the language with which he is 
 introduced. It is plain that the writer of the 
 book does not regard him as siding with the 
 friends in their controversy with Job. He 
 represents him as equally displeased with the 
 positions of both the contending parties. 
 r " Against Job was his wrath kindled, because 
 ^ he justified himself rather than God. And 
 against his three friends was his wrath kindled, 
 because they had found no answer, and yet had 
 tcondemned Job." He accordingly steps forth 
 as an arbiter, and puts the question at issue 
 
ELIHU. 259 
 
 upon entirely new ground. He agrees, to 
 be sure, with the friends in some of their 
 positions, which as general statements were 
 quite correct. But his fundamental tenet 
 is totally different from theirs, as will be seen 
 presently. 
 
 Elihu is not spoken of in the beginning of 
 the book, when the arrival of the three friends 
 is mentioned, because there was no occasion for 
 speaking of him then. He only engages in 
 the dispute because the three friends have 
 failed to find a satisfactory answer to Job ; and 
 to refer to him in the outset would have been 
 to anticipate their incapacity to deal with the 
 subject before they had made the attempt. Job 
 does not make answer to Elihu as he had done 
 to the friends, because he is convinced of the 
 truth of what he says, and he has therefore 
 nothing to reply. 
 
 The Lord makes no allusion to Elihu, when 
 He subsequently expresses His approval of Job 
 and passes censure on his friends, because he 
 was not one of the parties to the strife which 
 was to be adjusted. He was not one of the 
 
i/ 
 
 260 ELIHU. 
 
 contestants respecting whom a verdict was to 
 be rendered, but an arbiter, whose decision the 
 Lord assumes as preliminary to His own. It 
 would not have comported with the divine dig- 
 nity, for the infinite God to place Himself on a 
 level with His dependent creature, and enter 
 into an argument with him in justification of 
 His own sovereign acts, as though He were 
 amenable to human judgment. As far, there- 
 fore, as there was any occasion for arguing the 
 case with Job, and correcting his misapprehen- 
 sions or vindicating the divine proceedings, this 
 was committed to Elihu, who could meet Job 
 as an equal and reason out the case with him, 
 showing him that he was wrong, and that God 
 was right. This course was adopted likewise 
 from a consideration of what was really best 
 for^Job himself. There was no divine terror 
 to appall him, no effulgence of the infinite maj- 
 esty to overwhelm him. Elihu came as the 
 messenger of God to plead God's cause. Job 
 could stand on a par with him and in a calm 
 state of mind, and could make reply without ir- 
 reverence, if the considerations presented did 
 
ELIHU. -261 
 
 not convince his judgment. They were con- 
 vincing. Job yielded to his arguments, and had 
 no reply to make. He tacitly confesses the jus- 
 tice of all that Elihu says. His false views are 
 corrected ; his misconceptions of God's provi- 
 dences toward him and of the design of God 
 in his afflictions are removed. The way is thus 
 prepared for the Lord to appear, and by the 
 simple majesty of His divine perfections to 
 make the needed impression upon the heart of 
 Job. The awe-struck patriarch bows at once in 
 submissive penitence, for he has learned from 
 Elihu to see in God no longer the impersona- 
 tion of arbitrary power wielded for his destruc- 
 tion, but the God of grace, in whose hand even 
 the rod of affliction was a means of blessing. 
 
 It appears that, though Elihu had not been 
 spoken of before, he had been present during 
 the discussion between Job and his three 
 friends. He had said nothing, but had main- 
 tained throughout a respectful silence. This 
 suggests the probability of the presence of 
 others likewise. The fame of the patriarch's 
 sorrows had gone far and wide. And as 
 
262 ELIHU, 
 
 after his restoration all his brethren, and all 
 his sisters, and all they that had been of his 
 acquaintance, came unto him to eat bread 
 with him in his house, and to bemoan him 
 and comfort him over all the evil that the 
 Lord had brought upon him (xlii. ii); so 
 doubtless they did while his sorrows lasted. 
 Of this company of sympathizing friends, 
 Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar were the spokes- 
 men, to whom the rest deferred as their supe- 
 riors in age and in reputed wisdom. In the 
 presence of this interested group the discus- 
 sion had been conducted with the issue 
 already recited. The friends had shown 
 themselves unable to still Jobs complaint, 
 or to answer his arguments. They could only 
 vindicate the righteousness of God's provi- 
 dence by aspersing the character of His right 
 eous servant. So far it might appear as 
 though Job's complaint were justified. Upon 
 the principles of his friends, and upon any 
 theory that he could frame for himself, God 
 had done him wrong. He was treating him 
 as though he were guilty of offences which he 
 
ELIHU. 263 
 
 had not committed. The mystery that over- 
 hung the present case, and which involved 
 the ways of Providence in general, was still 
 unsolved. Neither the friends nor Job could 
 penetrate it or remove it. Must it remain for- 
 ever insoluble ? 
 
 Elihu had waited in the expectation that 
 the three friends would bring out the true 
 moral reasons of the distresses that befall goed-x^ 
 men like Job, and would show the harmony 
 of the perfections of God with His providen- / 
 tial government. As, however, they failed to / 
 do this, he could no longer be restrained by 
 his deference for these venerable sages, but 
 was irresistibly impelled to speak. If the 
 surmise be correct, that the kindred of Ram, 
 to which he is said to have belonged, was the 
 same as Aram, he came from a different re- 
 gion from the three friends, and there may be 
 a significance that should not be overlooked 
 in the mention of the fact. 
 
 Eliphaz and Teman were names perpetu- 
 ated in the territory of Edom (Gen. xxxvi. 10, 
 
 11), and the Shuhite recalls the children of 
 12 
 
264 * ELIHU. 
 
 Keturah, who were settled in the East coun* 
 try (Gen. xxv. 2, 6) : all belonged to a region 
 renowned for the wisdom and sagacity of its 
 inhabitants. But Elihu comes, it may be, 
 from a territory with associations of a differ- 
 ent sort. When Balak was in straits, and felt 
 the need of a higher than human help or 
 counsel, he sent to Aram (Num. xxiii. 7), for 
 one who heard the words of God, and knew 
 the knowledge of the Most High, and saw 
 the vision of the Almighty (Num. xxiv. 16). 
 It was from Aram that Abraham came, the 
 friend of God; and the epithet the Buzite 
 reminds us of Buz in the family of Nahor, 
 Abraham's brother (Gen. xxii. 21). It is not 
 impossible that there may lie in these names * 
 the suggestion of a land of divine intervention 
 
 * If an appropriateness were to be sought in the personal 
 names, Eliphaz might be explained to mean God separates 
 or divides^ and thus hnked with his fundapiental tenet of a 
 providential discrimination between the good and the bad. 
 It is formed from a verb, which is used of separating gold 
 from dross. Elihu may mean God is or God Himself ; and he 
 gives a truer doctrine of God, and one which more accurately 
 represents the divine Being. And he is the son of Bar- 
 achel, blessing God, or whom God blesses. 
 
ELIHU. 265 
 
 or immediate divine revelation as opposed to 
 the land of the highest earthly wisdom. The 
 representatives of the land of sages first con- 
 front the enigma, but are baffled : the resources 
 of human reason are inadequate to the task. 
 Then Elihu comes as the messenger of God. 
 He is but a youth, with no pretensions to 
 superior sagacity, and without the age that 
 ordinarily brings wisdom and experience, but 
 the inspiration of the Almighty had given 
 him understanding (xxxii. 8). And he un- 
 ravels the mystery which the venerable and 
 the wise could not rightly expound. The wis- 
 dom of man is at an utter loss. ^ That of God 
 is alone competent to relieve the difficulty. 
 " God thrusteth him down, not man " (ver. 
 
 13). 
 
 Elihu begins with an apology for speaking 
 which may seem repetitious and prolix. But 
 this arises from the diffidence of youth and 
 inexperience in the presence of aged and ven- 
 erable men, which made him feel as though 
 he could not affirm too strongly nor repeat 
 too often his reluctance to obtrude himself or 
 
266 ELIHU. 
 
 his own views upOn them, while yet an inward 
 constraint that he could not resist compelled 
 him to declare the truth which had not thus 
 far been uttered, and to return the proper an- 
 swer to Job, which had not yet been given. 
 He promises that his treatment of the theme 
 shall be perfectly impartial and unbiassed: 
 without respect of persons and without flattery, 
 but with a single regard to the judgment of his 
 Maker, he will hold an even balance between 
 the friends and Job. He proposes to put the 
 matter on an entirely new basis, one alto- 
 gether different from that on which it had 
 been placed by the friends, and against which 
 Job had successfully aimed his arguments. 
 " He hath not directed his words against me : 
 neither will I answer him with your speeches " 
 (ver. 14). 
 
 That which chiefly distressed Job was that 
 God seemed to be treating him as an enemy. 
 He had dwelt most pathetically upon this as- 
 pect of his case, and had recited his dreadful 
 sorrows as so many evidences of the fierceness 
 of God's anger and the bitterness of His hos- 
 
ELIHU. 267 
 
 tiHty. It was this which was so unaccountable 
 to him and so dreadful. It is to the disabusing 
 of his mind on this point, which was his radical 
 error, that Elihu first and mainly addresses 
 himself. Affliction, he tells him, is not a 
 token of God's displeasure, but one of the 
 measures of His grace. It is not sent in wrath, w 
 but with a kind and merciful design. It is one 
 of the ways in which God speaks to men to 
 draw them away from sin and to promote their 
 highest welfare. 
 
 There are two principal methods, as he 
 explains, which God employs in dealing with 
 men, to detach them from what is wrong, 
 and establish them in what is pure and good ; 
 viz.. His word and His providence. The 
 former is described in terms appropriate to the 
 period when Job lived, prior to a written reve- 
 lation, and allusive to one of the most usual 
 forms in which immediate divine communica- 
 tions were then made (xxxiii. 15, etc.). " In a 
 dream, in a vision of the night, when deep 
 sleep falleth upon men, in slumberings upon 
 the bed; then He openeth the ears of men 
 
268 ELIHU. 
 
 and sealeth their instruction, that He may 
 withdraw man from his purpose, and hide 
 pride from man." By these sacred instruc- 
 tions He saves him from sin, and from the 
 punishment which sin would involve. "He 
 keepeth back his soul from the pit, and his 
 life from perishing by the sword." Now, as 
 he further goes on to say, God uses affliction 
 for the same gracious end. He sends sickness 
 and suffering to recall men to the path of 
 uprightness. And then if the sufferer recog- 
 nizes this merciful intent of his sorrows, and 
 
 ^yields himself up to it, his pains will be re- 
 moved. Their whole design will be accom- 
 plished, and they will be needed no more. 
 
 This is an entirely new doctrine, and ex- 
 hibits the matter under a totally different 
 aspecj>- "The friends had seen in suffering 
 
 /Nothing but the punishment of sin, and the 
 divine displeasure against it. To Job's mind 
 it was an arbitrary infliction, irrespective of 
 men's deserts. But the idea of a gracious 
 purpose in earthly distresses, the idea that they 
 betokeu the diviae benignity and love, and are 
 
ELIHU. 269 
 
 meant to accomplish a kindly end, had not 
 dawned upon either of them. Eliphaz indeed 
 in his first and most gentle speech approaches 
 so nearly to it, and uses expressions so akin to 
 those of Elihu, that to a hasty and superficial 
 view their doctrine might appear identical. 
 He speaks (v. 17) of the blessedness of the 
 man whom God correcteth, and bids Job not 
 to despise the chastening of the Almighty. 
 " For He maketh sore, and bindeth up : He 
 woundeth, and His hands make whole." This 
 looks to the possibility of good results follow- 
 ing upon affliction, which may so far counter- 
 balance the evil that he may be pronounced 
 happy who endures it. And God who now 
 sends sorrow may hereafter send joy. Never- 
 theless suffering is to Eliphaz in its proper 
 nature punitive, and represents God's dis- 
 pleasure against sin ; while in the estimate 
 of Elihu it is curative, and represents God's 
 affectionate concern for the true welfare of 
 the sufferer. The two ideas are wide as the 
 poles asunder. On the one view, God in 
 afflicting a man regards him as a sinner, and 
 
270 — ELIHU. 
 
 treats him as such : his sufferings are tanta- 
 mount to a sentence of condemnation. On the 
 other, God regards rather his capacity for good- 
 ness, and seeks his purification and improve- 
 ment. The development of the doctrine of 
 the friends led directly to their gross and 
 unfounded charges of hypocrisy and guilt 
 That of Elihu is perfectly consistent with 
 Job's true character as affirmed by God Him- 
 self ; and it quite disarms Job, by showing that 
 he has been neither unkindly nor unjustly 
 dealt with. God is not treating him as a 
 criminal nor as a foe, as he supposed, but is 
 showing a solicitous regard for his highest 
 good. 
 
 The suggestion of Elihu as to the divine 
 purpose in suffering is additional to that which 
 is stated in the opening of the book as the 
 occasion of the sorrows of Job ; but it is not 
 inconsistent with it, nor is it excluded by it. 
 Though it was permitted at the instigation 
 of Satan, who sought Job's hurt, it does not 
 follow that the Lord had no designs of His 
 own in granting the permission. Undoubt- 
 
fiLtHU ^71 
 
 edly one design of God was to exhibit the 
 reality of Job's piety, and its adequacy to bear 
 the test, terrible as it was, which Satan pro- 
 posed. But nothing obliges us to believe 
 that God's merciful purpose was simply com- 
 mensurate with the mischievous intention of 
 the fiend, and that it was limited to thwart- 
 ing and defeating the harm concocted for 
 His servant. Why may He not likewise 
 have had positive designs of good, which 
 Satan's malice was by overruling grace to 
 be made the instrument of effecting ? Elihu 
 declares that He had. And we have already 
 seen good evolving to Job out of this seem- 
 ing evil ; and there is yet more to be brought 
 out of it hereafter. Job is, purified and in- 
 structed : his piety is heightened, and his 
 knowledge of divine things is increased by 
 this affliction. So that the doctrine of Elihu, 
 far from conflicting with the rest of the book, ^' 
 finds in it ample justification and support. \ 
 It was the purpose of God from the first to y^ 
 bless Job by means of this trial. And al- 
 though this purpose has not been previously 
 
 12* 
 

 25^2 ELiHU. 
 
 announced, until it is formally stated by 
 Elihu, it is already gradually working itself 
 out, and we shall see fuller fruits of it in that 
 which follows. 
 
 That Job was put on trial was not stated 
 to himself, for it was not the truth he needed 
 to hear. But now that he has successfully 
 borne the test, he needs to know the end of 
 this infliction, not so far as Satan was con- 
 cerned, but its end for himself. He needs to 
 know that it was sent with a gracious design, 
 nd that it enclosed a real benefit. It was 
 necessary that he should understand this, in 
 order that he might be thoroughly released 
 out of the tempter s snare, and might receive 
 the full profit that was in store for him. 
 
 Elihu's doctrine of suffering is not ham 
 pered by the rigid and inflexible rule of exact 
 retributive justice maintained by the friends ; 
 nor does it conflict, as that did, with the gen- 
 eral facts of Providence or with the conscious- 
 ness of Job. Job's arguments and protests 
 against the friends do not lie against it. It 
 is a view, in fact, against which he has no dis- 
 
ELIHU. 273 
 
 position either to argue or to protest. It is 
 not only consistent with, but gives a satisfac- 
 tory account of the inequalities of human 
 condition. The unbending rule of strict jus- 
 tice would have required a uniform and pre- 
 cise correspondence of men's fortunes with 
 their characters. It admitted of no devia- 
 tion. There might, indeed, be temporary de- 
 lays. The divine retribution might be for a 
 while postponed, but it must never fail to be 
 ultimately and palpably meted out to all, in 
 the true proportion of their merits and de- 
 merits. 
 
 But a gracious purpose is from its very 
 nature free : it can be bound by no rule but 
 the disposition and will of him who exercises^, 
 it. The only limitation upon a providence 
 so conducted is God's good pleasure ; and 
 none can prescribe in advance where He 
 shall send joy or where He shall send sor- 
 row. He may by His goodness lead men 
 to repentance. He may employ chastise- 
 ment to wean them from the love of this 
 world or to turn their hearts from sin. The 
 
274 ELIHU. 
 
 method employed in each particular instance 
 depends solely upon His sovereign will. 
 rTThis admits all the free variety found in 
 the actual experience of men, while at the 
 same time it neither divorces the world from 
 God nor represents His dealings as capri- 
 cious and arbitrary!^ He without whom not 
 a sparrow falls numbers the hairs of our 
 heads, directs all that concerns us, appoints 
 all our lot. He governs in all the affairs of 
 men, and He does so in a manner worthy of 
 Himself. There is a method in all that oc- 
 curs, and a purpose and a divine intelligence. 
 Providence is harmonized with the infinite 
 rectitude and the universal moral government. 
 It becomes in fact the expression, the visible 
 manifestation of God's holiness as well as of 
 His grace ; for it is directed with the view of 
 reclaiming men from sin and training them 
 in holiness and virtue. It is not graduated 
 by any formal mechanical rule of correspond- 
 ence with men's deserts, but it is wisely 
 adapted, nevertheless, to their multiform 
 needs by Him whose resources are end- 
 
ELIHU. 275 
 
 less, and whose understanding is without a 
 bound. 
 
 This doctrine likewise supplies the hitherto 
 undiscovered key to the enigma of Job's suf- 
 ferings. N o refle ctiorLis,£asl upon his integrity 
 or the genuineness of his piety. His afflic- 
 tions are neither an indication of the Lord's 
 displeasure nor of His wanton hostility. A 
 gracious God is by this severity of discipline 
 purging away the dross which still adhered to 
 His faithful servant, and refining the gold to a 
 higher measure of purity. 
 
 Accordingly, when Elihu pauses in his dis- 
 course (xxxiii. 32) to afford Job an opportunity 
 for reply, he makes none. He has nothing to 
 say in opposition to what he has heard. He 
 has no answer to make. It has wrought con- 
 viction in his soul. It has composed the strife 
 which previously agitated him. It has recon- 
 ciled the conflicting opposites. It harmonizes 
 his convictions respecting God with what has 
 hitherto been inexplicable in His providence. 
 It makes all plain in his own case, which has 
 thus far been so dark and impenetrable. God 
 
276 ELIHU. 
 
 has not been impeaching his integrity by these 
 terrible sufferings which He has inflicted or 
 permitted. God has not been charging upon 
 him a guilt of which the testimony of his own 
 conscience acquits him. Nor has He been 
 treating him with causeless and gratuitous se- 
 verity. There is no hostile intent on the part 
 of God : all has been done in kindness and in 
 love. The truth evidences itself to him by its 
 adaptation to all the exigencies of the case in 
 hand. It finds a prompt echo in Job's own 
 heart, and he bows in mute acquiescence to 
 the force of what has been said. He is no 
 longer roused to opposition as by the language 
 of his friends, whom he has reduced to silence. 
 He is now himself silenced in his turn. He 
 owns and feels the justice and propriety of the 
 view which has been propounded, and he lis- 
 tens in silent acknowledgment of its truth. 
 Elihu has not only gained his ear, but his 
 heart ; and the solution of the mystery, which 
 has so baffled and perplexed him, begins to 
 open before him. 
 
 Having established his main position, Elihu 
 
£LtHtJ. 277 
 
 proceeds (xxxiv., xxxv.) to comment upon 
 some of Job's ill-considered and hasty utter- 
 ances, which fell from him in the heat of his 
 controversy with his friends. They were in- 
 cessantly representing the justice of God as/ 
 hopelessly at war with the idea of the integrity 
 of Job. Not seeing, in the desperate gloom 
 that enveloped him, how this conclusion was 
 to be escaped. Job boldly admits it, and in the 
 thorough consciousness of his own rectitude is 
 driven to affirm that God has done him wrong. 
 But now that this antagonism has been done 
 away by the new principle which Elihu has an- 
 nounced. Job is no longer under any temptation 
 to dispute the righteousness of God's providen- 
 tial administration. Elihu accordingly holds 
 up before him some of his most extravagant 
 assertions, and points out their absurdity and 
 impropriety. In saying (xxxiv. 5 ; comp. xxvii. 2), 
 " God hath taken away my judgment," de- 
 spoiled me of my rights, treated me unjustly, 
 Job was consorting with wicked men, and 
 loosening the foundations of God's universal 
 government. Shall not the Judge of all the 
 
v/ 
 
 278 ELlHtT. 
 
 earth do right ? It is repugnant to every no- 
 tion of propriety to charge the supreme and 
 all-perfect Ruler with injustice. If a conflict 
 arise between God and His creatures, whom 
 He can be under no possible temptation to in- 
 jure, the overwhelming presumption, nay, the 
 absolute certainty, is that He is right and they 
 are wrong, whether they can see it to be so or 
 not. " Surely it is meet to be said unto God, 
 I have borne chastisement, I will not offend 
 any more : that which I see not, teach Thou 
 me: if I have done iniquity, I will do no 
 more " (xxxiv. 31, 32). " Thinkest thou this to 
 be right," he adds (xxxv. 2), " that thou saidst 
 [not in so many words, indeed, but in sub- 
 stance], My righteousness is more than God's," 
 when you are but a trifling, insignificant 
 creature, of no account compared with the 
 infinite Creator.? 
 
 Job had invariably resented such language 
 before from his friends. Their appeals to God's 
 righteousness always exasperated him, for the 
 necessary implication from it, as presented by 
 them, was that he was a guilty man, who de- 
 
ELIHU. 279 
 
 served all that he suffered. Sensitive as he 
 might properly be to unjust imputations, he 
 was indignant at these indirect reproaches. 
 But in the mouth of Elihu it is different. It 
 contains no covert censure of himself. The 
 assertion of God's inviolable justice veils no 
 aspersions or insinuations. The simple truth 
 of the perfection of the ever-blessed God stands 
 alone before him in its innate majesty, and free 
 from all distortions or false conclusions, and its 
 reality cannot but be confessed. Job cannot 
 oppose what is so self-evident. He continues 
 to bow in silent acquiescence. 
 
 Elihu, having thus corrected Job's errors 
 and reproved the rash speeches into which 
 he had in consequence been betrayed, reverts 
 again to his fundamental principle of the 
 design of suffering, making special applica- 
 tion of it to the case of Job, and basing 
 upon it a faithful admonition (xxxvi.). Afflic- 
 tions, he repeats, are sent upon the righteous 
 for their good; and such an experience is 
 fraught with solemn responsibility to the 
 afflicted themselves. If they recognize the 
 
28o ELIHU. 
 
 gracious purpose of God in their sorrows, and 
 heed the lesson they involve, then the design 
 of this painful dispensation will be accom- 
 plished, and it will be itself removed. If, on 
 the contrary, they disregard the voice of love 
 and warning which speaks to them in these 
 distresses, they will incur the divine dis- 
 pleasure, and bring God's judgment on them- 
 selves in the form of still heavier sorrows 
 than they have yet experienced. Thus, he 
 tells Job, it will be with him. He might have 
 found deliverance already, if he had profited 
 sufficiently by the teachings of his sad ca- 
 lamities, and learned from them to be more 
 diligent in avoiding sin, and to cleave more 
 unreservedly to the service of the Lord. 
 
 Elihu has now fulfilled the task assigned 
 to him. He was charged with removing mis- 
 apprehensions from Job's mind, and correct- 
 ing the mistakes into which he had fallen. 
 But it was not given to him to extricate 
 Job entirely out of Satan's snare, and accom- 
 plish for him the full and blessed effects of 
 his temptation. This work the Lokd reserved 
 
ELIHU. 281 
 
 for Himself, to be performed by Him in His 
 own Person. Elihu is but His messenger 
 sent before His face to prepare His way 
 before Him. And now even while he is 
 speaking the rumbling is heard of distant 
 thunder (xxxvii. 2) ; heavy masses of cloud 
 begin to darken the sky, and the advancing 
 tempest betokens the Lord's approach. Elihu 
 points to these insignia of the divine Majesty 
 as they steadily draw near, and his own voice 
 is hushed in a.ve. All are mute in solemn 
 expectation. It is the Lord who comes. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
Then the LORD answered yob out of the whirl- 
 windy and said. Who is this that darkeneth counsel 
 by words without knowledge f — Job xxxviii. i , 2. 
 
THE LORD. 
 
 TJITE have now come to what is beyond all 
 comparison the most sublime portion 
 of this wonderful book. All the discourses 
 hitherto, whether of Job or of the other 
 speakers, have been well conceived and ad- 
 mirably expressed. They present their pro- 
 found and earnest thoughts with singular 
 beauty and force. They glow with elegant 
 and appropriate imagery. And they body 
 forth in vividly graphic language the inward 
 excitement and changing emotions of those 
 by whom they are uttered. All had been 
 well and ably spoken. But now when the 
 Lord Himself speaks to Job, His discourse 
 is fitly marked by a grandeur and a majest'*" 
 altogether unequalled before, and which '^^^ 
 worthy of the divine Being. ^ 
 
 .y 
 
THE LORD. 
 
 It might upon the first superficial view of 
 the case appear as though the discourse of 
 the Lord had no particular relevance to the 
 circumstances in which it was uttered. And 
 the question might arise, what these appeals 
 to the magnificence of the works of God in 
 nature have to do with the solution of the 
 enigma, to which this book is devoted. How 
 do they contribute to the explanation of the 
 mystery that is involved in the sufferings of 
 good men ? The fact is, this discourse is not 
 directed to an elucidation of that mystery at 
 all. It is not the design of God to offer a 
 vindication of His dealings with men in gen- 
 eral, or a justification of His providence to- 
 wards Job. He has no intentjon of placing 
 Himself at the bar of His creatures, and 
 erecting them into judges of His conduct. 
 He is not amenable to them, and He does 
 not recognize their right to be censors of 
 Him and of His ways. The righteousness 
 of His providence does not depend upon 
 .neir perceiving or admitting it. The Lord 
 'oes not here stand on the defensive, nor 
 
THE LORD. 287 
 
 allow it to appear as though He were in any 
 need of being relieved from the strictures of 
 \job, or it were of any account to Him whether 
 feeble worms approved His dealings or con- 
 fessed the propriety of His dispensations. 
 He puts Himself in a totally different atti- 
 tude, and moves upon quite another plane. 
 He is the sovereign Lord of all, account- 
 able to no being but Himself. He does not 
 appear to vindicate Himself, but to rescue 
 
 m 
 
 Job has been exposed to the fierce assaults 
 of Satan, and has successfully withstood 
 them. The tempter employed all his power 
 and all his craft to bring him to forsake the 
 service of the Lord ; but he remained firm in 
 his steadfastness nevertheless. The reality 
 and the strength of Job's piety were conspicu- 
 ously established from the moment that he 
 uttered his memorable declaration, " I know 
 that my Redeemer liveth." His heroic trust 
 in God was not destroyed by the direst ca- 
 lamities, nor even by the wrathful frowns 
 that seemed to darken His face. Job was 
 
 13 
 
288 THE LORD. 
 
 fully vindicated against Satan's baseless 
 slander. 
 
 But the affair was not to be terminated 
 there. It was not the divine purpose that 
 the trial should end with this merely nega- 
 tive result. Nor was it enough that he 
 should simply receive the profit, which had 
 already arisen to him from the struggle 
 through which he had been obliged to pass. 
 His constancy and faith have been height- 
 ened. He has grown in spiritual heroism 
 and power. He has risen to clearer and 
 broader views than he possessed before. 
 And practice has taught him skill : he has 
 learned how to overcome temptation by 
 actual experience. But even this was not 
 all. The Lord had still larger designs of 
 good in store for His faithful servant. The 
 true vindication of God's providence lies in 
 the event. It must not be judged by the 
 confused and tangled threads which it seems 
 to present to the beholder while in the pro- 
 cess of being wrought, but by the completed 
 pattern when all shall be finished. The Lord 
 
THE LORD. 289 
 
 has been in no haste to justify Himself by a 
 premature disclosure of His plans. He has 
 suffered things to move regularly forward 
 and to take their appointed course. But 
 now the time has arrived for His own inter- 
 vention to bring the matter to its intended 
 termination. 
 
 Satan had been allowed to bring a double 
 evil upon Job, in his outward circumstances, 
 and in his spiritual state. He had inflicted 
 severe external losses and sufferings, and he 
 had involved him in a sore inward conflict. 
 Job had fought this latter through victori- 
 ously, so far as it was possible for him to 
 do from his previous standpoint in religious 
 knowledge and in the religious life. He 
 h^ad risen _toJhe sublime assurance that God 
 was his Redeemer and friend, and would be, 
 let come what would. No floods of temptation ' 
 could destroy this conviction, no fierceness of 
 Satan's assault could wrest it from him. Still 
 the cloud and the mystery remained. A dis- 
 turbing element had been introduced into 
 .the patriarch's inward experience, to which 
 
290 THE LORD. 
 
 he could indeed so far bid defiance as to 
 hold fast to his faith in God in spite of it 
 but which was nevertheless productive of dis- 
 quiet and distress. He could not attain to 
 that placid, unruffled state of calm repose 
 which marked his condition before his trials 
 came. There had been a jar icL-his- relations 
 to his Maker, which, though it could not 
 kI throw him off his firm foundation, had__yeL 
 marred his tranquillity and peace. But this 
 disturbance was not to last always. 
 
 It had been a valuable discipline to Job in 
 two respects. He had in the first place, as 
 / we have seen, been instructed and strength- 
 ened by the intensity of the struggle which 
 had been forced upon him. And he had in 
 addition been prepared to receive a further 
 spiritual lesson. He had been made sensi- 
 
 y 
 
 ble of a need which he did not previously know 
 to exist, — a need of instruction, a need of 
 succor, which craved a heavenly gift that had 
 before been unsought, because the necessity 
 which required it had not been felt. He was 
 now in a state of readiness to welcome a new 
 
THE LORD. 291 
 
 divine communication; and this had been 
 .brought about by the trials through which 
 he had passed. Satan meant to have sun- ^ 
 dered him from the Lord : he, in fact, opened 
 • the way for larger and fuller impartations of 
 divine knowledge and grace. He had but 
 prepared the way of the L.QjBLiv^wha..was now 
 to come to Job with a nearness and fulness 
 of manifestation asjieyerbefore. 
 
 ''The sore discipline of Job had endured 
 long enough. It had wrought it? full effect 
 of preparation for the divine intervention. 
 The Lord, therefore, appears upon the scene 
 without further delay, to perfect the blessing 
 which, as He has all along intended, was to 
 be the issue of his severe but salutary trials. 
 He comes to rescue him from the double 
 distress in which Satan has plunged him, and 
 to bestow upon him a corresponding twofold 
 benefit, — first inward ^^^d spiritual; secondly, 
 outward and temporal. 
 
 The Lord first produces an effect upon the 
 heart of Job. He makes such a manifestation 
 of Himself to the sufferer's soul as brings him 
 
292 THE LORD. 
 
 to the deepest humiliation and contrition for 
 all his rash and impatient utterances, and all 
 the improper reflections he had cast upon God's 
 dealings with him in His providence. He had 
 before found peace with his Maker, so far as 
 his personal relation to God was concerned. 
 But now he is entirely acquiescent in all the 
 Lord's dealings; he repents of his murmur- 
 ings ; he surrenders his wayward resistance to 
 the divine orderings ; his will^ is henceforth 
 coincident with the divine will, and completely 
 swallowed up in it. And he is amazed at 
 himself and filled with self-abhorrence that 
 it ever could have been otherwise with him. 
 Thereupon the Lord in addition restores Job's 
 outward estate, and raises it to a higher meas- 
 ure of prosperity than he possessed before. 
 The whole matter is thus brought to its final 
 issue : J ob^s .piety:is..elevated^, and his welfare 
 and happiness are promoted. The latter is 
 recorded in the historical paragraph which 
 concludes the book, the last eleven verses of 
 the final chapter. The former is accomplished 
 by the Lord's discourse, which does not do its 
 
THE LORD. 293 
 
 work, however, by means of arguments ad- 
 dressed to the solution of the enigma that has 
 occupied the minds of Job and of his friends. 
 This discourse contains a solution only in so 
 far as it is effective in bringing about that 
 result, which is itself the explanation of this 
 mysterious providence. 
 
 The purport of the Lord's discourse in its 
 relation to Job and to the problem of the af- 
 flictions of the righteous has been variously 
 misconceived and misstated. As it is chiefly 
 occupied with appeals to the works of God in 
 nature, which display in such a striking manner 
 the omnipotence of the Most High in its con- 
 trast with the impotence of man, it has been 
 thought that the main idea, reiterated in various 
 forms and enforced throughout this address, is 
 the infinite exaltation and power of God. His 
 sway is irresistible. It is vain to think of op- 
 posing omnipotence. And the lesson thenc^ 
 deduced is supposed to be that of unconditional 
 resignation to the will of the Infinite Sover- 
 eign. Since God is almighty, His orderings 
 must be submitted to. The creature must yield 
 
THE LORD. 
 
 unresistingly to what the Creator decrees. It 
 is worse than useless to repine or murmur: 
 man must bow with meek submission to any 
 allotment, be it what it may, coming from such 
 a source. 
 
 But submission to the inevitable is stoicism, 
 or fatalism, not Scriptural resignation. We have 
 to do not with overwhelming force, but with 
 our heavenly Father, who demands our love as 
 well a^ur willing obedience ; and to whom we 
 shojmd submit, not by constraint, but with a 
 n^dy mind. IWe^ may be compelled to yield 
 subjection to irresistible power, but it will not 
 satisfy the reason nor the sense of rightjl It 
 was this, in fact, which lent its chief aggrava- 
 tion to the temptation of Job; this was the 
 very point about which it all centred. His 
 unaccountable sufferings, the baseless reason- 
 ings of his friends, and every thing in his 
 /' whole situation, conspired to set the Lord 
 before him in the aspect of a Being of absolute 
 and arbitrary power, who was using His om- 
 nipotence to torture and destroy him without 
 ■ any ground in reason or any rel entings of p ity. 
 
 ^ 
 
THE LORD. 295 
 
 An almighty tyrant on the throne of the 
 universe would inspire terror, but could not 
 awaken confidence or love. He might break 
 down all open opposition and stamp out the 
 very semblance of it, but He could not compel 
 the adoration of the heart. Job, prostrate and 
 bleeding, protested with what he supposed to 
 be his dying breath against the cruel wrong 
 which was done him. Violence, from which 
 there is no escape and against which there is 
 no remedy, is only the more dreaded and de- 
 tested on that account. God is more than 
 almighty power, or Job would not have hum- 
 bled himself before Him as he did in cordial 
 homage and submissive self-abasement. He 
 fell prostrate before an inward constraint which 
 was very different from outward compulsion. 
 
 Again it has been supposed that the bur- 
 den of the Lord's discourse is God's infinite 
 wisdom as displayed in His works, which so 
 far transcends our faculties, baffling the most 
 adventurous efforts of the human under- 
 standing. These appeals to the incomprehen- 
 sible marvels which everywhere abound in the 
 
 13* 
 
296 THE LORD. 
 
 world are intended, it is said, to suggest the 
 existence of marvels equally incomprehen- 
 sible in God's providence. There is a mys- 
 tery in all His ways, in nature, and in the 
 affairs of men, which no human intelligence 
 is able to penetrate. It must be accepted as 
 a product of the infinite reason without in- 
 sisting upon knowing how or why. It is not 
 given to man to fathom what it belongs only 
 to the divine understanding to comprehend. 
 The ways of God are inscrutable. Man 
 should adore w^here he cannot understand, 
 and submit without questioning to allotments, 
 which it would be arrogant to suppose could 
 be made level to his feeble comprehension. 
 
 There is a partial truth in this view as in 
 the preceding. God is infinitely wise and 
 infinitely powerful ; and both of these attri- 
 butes of the divine nature supply considera- 
 tions which enter into and enforce pious 
 resignation. But the lesson of the book of 
 Job in these its most solemn utterances from 
 the mouth of God Himself is something more 
 than that there is nothing we can know; 
 
THE LORD. 297 
 
 that the mystery of the sufferings of good 
 men must remain unexplained, for no ex- 
 planation is possible. This would not be to 
 set at rest troubled questionings and anxious 
 inquiries into the principles of the divine ad- 
 ministration, and its consistency with God's in- 
 effable perfections. It would rather tend to 
 repel all inquiry as profitless and leading to 
 no certain or.safe...result, even if it is not posi- 
 tively profane, and a pernicious treading on 
 forbidden ground, and prying into what it 
 is not allowable to know. Instead, then, of 
 shedding any light upon this mysterious sub- 
 ject, the only teaching of this book would be 
 that we must reniaia. content with a darkness 
 that can never, from the nature of the case, 
 be dis pelled . Instead of adding to our 
 kn ow ledge it would declare that further 
 knowledge was unattamable. 
 
 And, if this were the case, why should the 
 Lord have revealed Himself to Job at all in 
 so august a manner ? In what respect was 
 he helped or instructed by the manifestation 
 of God to him, if it had no other intent than 
 
298 THE LORD. 
 
 that just stated? If the discourse of the 
 Lord, with all its rare sublimity, does not 
 carry him beyond the point which he had 
 already reached himself, what was the need 
 of any immediate divine intervention ? Job 
 was profoundly sensible of the mystery of 
 God's providence. And he had confessed it 
 to be quite impenetrable. The wisdom that 
 could fathom it, he had said, was " hid from 
 the eyes of all living," and was possessed by 
 God alone ; and the highest wisdom to which 
 man could attain was the fear of the Lord 
 (xxviii. 20-2 8). Job had^learned to adhere to 
 his pious fear of God, though he could not 
 comprehend His ways ; to avouch the Lord 
 to be his Redeemer, though His providence 
 remained an incomprehensible mystery. The 
 lesson of the Lord's discourse must be some- 
 thing beyond what Job had himself already 
 attained to. 
 
 There are two things which may supply 
 the key to what this lesson really is : the first 
 is the preliminary speech of Elihu, by which 
 that of the Lord is immediately preceded* 
 
THE LORD. 299 
 
 and the second, the effect which the lattei 
 produces upon Job. The Lord's discourse is 
 not to be sundered from that of Elihu, which 
 was the preparation for it, which was followed 
 by it without any pause and thus as it were 
 merged in it, and which was taken for granted 
 by it. Elihu was sent with the theoretical, as 
 the Lord supplies the practical, solution of this 
 great problem.. He was commissioned to make 
 the needed explanations to Job, to rectify his 
 mistakes and point out to him wherein he had 
 erred. His task was to disabuse his mind of 
 every false impression and prepare him for 
 the coming of the Lord, so that upon His ap- 
 pearance he might instantly recognize Him in 
 His true character, and feel toward Him as 
 he should. To Job's mind his sufferings had 
 been hostile treatment on the part of God. 
 He could look upon them in no other light 
 than as tokens of the divine displeasure. God 
 was dealing with him in anger. He was in- 
 deed able notwithstanding to affirm that God 
 was his Redeemer. In spite of His present 
 hostility, which was so unaccountable and so 
 
300 THE LORD. 
 
 distressing, Job had gained the confident as- 
 surance that God would yet at some future 
 time lay aside these strangely mysterious frowns, 
 and manifest Himself on his behalf^ But 
 ~Elihu opens up t^him a new view of the case. 
 He shows him that this imagined hostility is 
 not really such. His afflictions are not the 
 fruit of God's anger, but of His kindness and 
 love. God has not been dealing hardly and 
 cruelly with him, but has been accomplishing 
 the purposes of His grace on his behalf by 
 methods which, however severe, are salutary. 
 
 This alters the whole aspect of the mat- 
 ter. What had been dark before is dark no 
 longer. The face of God seems no more to 
 wear a forbidding aspect even for a season. 
 What he had thought to be the terrible seiz- 
 ure of a mortal foe is the powerful grasp of 
 a friend. What he had imagined to be the 
 deadly thrust of hostile weapons proves to 
 be the skilful incision of the great Physician 
 who wounds but to heal. His repinings and 
 murmurings and bitter complaints have no 
 longer any foundation. The chief source of 
 
THE LORD. 301 
 
 his agitation and distress is gone. The 
 seeming contradiction has vanished between 
 the actual and the ideal, between what he 
 experienced and what he might have ex- 
 pected, between the God of the present and 
 of the future, between the God who afflicts 
 and the God who saves. God is his re- 
 deemer, not merely out of existing sorrows 
 or in spite of them, but in them and through 
 them and by means of them. Faith is no 
 longer reduced to such straits that it can 
 barely maintain itself by looking away from 
 
 I the present and holding fast to the unseen 
 future. It has a visible and tangible basis in 
 
 k the present itself. In these very trials which 
 had threatened to sweep away his trust in 
 God, that trust now finds a new and firm 
 support ; for he discerns in them the clear 
 tokens of heavenly love. 
 
 The cloud has disappeared which for a 
 time had hidden the bright shining of his 
 Father's face. And now when God mani- 
 fests Himself to Job, there is nothing to 
 obscure his sense of the divine favor and 
 
302 THE LORD. 
 
 loving-kindness. The distorted image of 
 God has passed away completely and for- 
 ever. Ineffable love is restored to its true 
 place among the perfections of the Most 
 High. His might and greatness do not 
 stand alone. He who is infinite in these 
 is infinite likewise in His compassions. It 
 is sufficient to point out any indication of 
 the Lord's presence or of the grandeur of 
 His being, to bring all the divine attributes 
 full-orbed before the mind of Job. He sees 
 the Lord no longer through a false medium, 
 which shuts out half the glory of His nature, 
 but as He truly is. 
 
 The same thing appears from the effect 
 which the Lord's discourse produces upon 
 Job. It gives him a new and more distinct 
 apprehension of God, a more vivid and pow- 
 erful impression of His glorious nature. It 
 was not the perception of one attribute iso- 
 lated from the rest, or exalted above the rest, 
 which led him to exclaim, " I have heard of 
 Thee by the hearing of the ear: but now 
 mine eye seeth Thee " (xlii. 5). All his pre- 
 
THE LORD. 303 
 
 r 
 
 vious conceptions of God were faint and dis- 
 tant compared with the intimate and thorough 
 conviction of His exalted being which now 
 possessed his soul. It was as that which 
 is learned by distant report compared with 
 that which stands revealed with the clearness 
 and evidence of eyesight. This points to no 
 partial, imperfect, one-sided view of God, in 
 which certain attributes are made prominent 
 at the expense of others, and some are hid- 
 den altogether, but to a complete and true 
 perception of God in His real character. His 
 impatient utterances under the pressure of 
 his afflictions were due to a defective appre- 
 hension of the glorious character of God. 
 Now that he sees God as He truly is, he is 
 abashed and confounded that he ever could 
 have spoken as he did or indulged such feel- 
 ings as he then had. 
 
 The Lord's discourse was spoken with the 
 aim of producing this effect upon Job, and 
 bringing him to this humbled and repentant 
 state of mind. The important fact, and that 
 which is really influential in the case, is that 
 
304 THE LORD. 
 
 God now manifests Himself to the soul of 
 Job ; and this discourse is simply an accom- 
 paniment or a medium of this manifestation. 
 It opens up to Job and brings home to him 
 in the most impressive manner the greatness 
 and the perfection of that Being with whom 
 he has to do. The whole address is but the 
 unfolding of the thought, I am the infinite, 
 and all-perfect God. And this truth is set 
 before his mind by a series of appeals to the 
 grandeur of God*s works, by which His per- 
 fections are so strikingly displayed in con- 
 trast with the utter insignificance of man. 
 Job is made to feel at once who it is that is 
 speaking to him; and how completely he 
 had stepped out of his province, and of what 
 incredible arrogance and presumption he had 
 been guilty in venturing to pass his judgment 
 upon the doings of the Most High. 
 
 " Then the Lord answered Job out of the 
 whirlwind." The clouds, to which Elihu had 
 pointed as covering the light, had grown 
 darker and more threatening, until they over- 
 spread the sky. The lightning, the thunder 
 
THE LORD. 505 
 
 and the tempest, in which the Lord had 
 veiled His awful majesty, had been steadily 
 approaching, and filled all hearts with solemn 
 dread. And now from the bosom of the 
 rushing storm comes forth a voice, the voice 
 of Jehovah, in unapproachable sublimity, 
 speaking unto Job: '"Who is this that dark- 
 eneth counsel by words without knowledge ? " 
 Who and what is he who has been daring 
 to obscure the wise orderings of my gracious 
 and holy providence by the ignorant and 
 empty reflections he has cast upon them ? 
 What is his ability, and what his claims to 
 act as the censor of the divine proceedings ? 
 "Gird up now thy loins like a man; for 
 I will demand of thee, and answer thou 
 me. Where wast thou when I laid the 
 foundations of the earth ? declare, if thou 
 hast understanding. Who hath laid the 
 measures thereof, if thou knowest.?^ or 
 who hath stretched the line upon it? 
 Whereupon are the foundations thereof 
 fastened ? or who laid the corner-stone 
 thereof: when the morning stars sang to- 
 
306 THE LORD. 
 
 gether and all the sons of God shouted for 
 joy ? Or who shut up the sea with doors, 
 when it brake forth, as if it had issued out 
 of the womb ? When I made the cloud the 
 garment thereof, and thick darkness a swad- 
 dling band for it, and brake up for it my de- 
 creed place, and set bars and doors, and said, 
 Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further: 
 and here shall thy proud waves be stayed. 
 Hast thou commanded the morning since 
 thy days ; and caused the day-spring to know 
 his place?" The Lord further continues 
 His appeal to the marvels of the sea, of 
 death and the unseen world, of light and 
 darkness, of the snow and rain, the ice and 
 cold, of the stars, of the various celestial 
 changes with their terrestrial effects, of the 
 soul of man, of the instincts, habits, and 
 adaptations of various orders of the animate 
 creation; and concludes with the pointed 
 interrogation (xl. 2) : " Shall he that contend- 
 eth with the Almighty instruct Him? he 
 that reproveth God, let him answer it." 
 Awe-struck and abashed at his own little- 
 
THE LORD. 307 
 
 ness and at the absurd pretensions involved 
 in his rash and inconsiderate complaints, 
 Job answered the Lord, and said : " Behold, 
 I am vile; what shall I answer Thee? I 
 will lay my hand upon my mouth. Once 
 have I spoken; but I will not answer: yea, 
 twice ; but I will proceed no further." 
 
 The Lord then speaks once more to Job 
 with the view of deepening the impression 
 already made, and of showing still further 
 of what vain conceit of his own powers Job 
 had been guilty, and what unheard-of as- 
 sumptions were involved in the language he 
 had suffered himself to use. Was he pre- 
 pared to assume the government of the world, 
 and to take it out of the hands of the Most 
 High, whose administration he had ventured 
 to arraign ? God challenges him to show a 
 power or execute deeds of judgment which 
 would warrant these bold pretensions. " Wilt 
 thou also disannul my judgment? wilt thou 
 condemn me, that thou mayest be righteous ? 
 Hast thou an arm like God ? or canst thou 
 thunder with a voice like Him ? Deck thy- 
 
308 THE LORD. 
 
 self now with majesty and excellency ; and 
 array thyself with glory and beauty. Cast 
 abroad the rage of thy wrath: and behold 
 every one that is proud, and abase him. 
 Look on every one that is proud, and bring 
 him low ; and tread down the wicked in their 
 place. Hide them in the dust together ; and 
 bind their faces in secret. Then will I also 
 confess unto thee that thine own right hand 
 can save thee." So far indeed is he from 
 being able to measure himself with God that 
 he cannot even cope with His creatures, as he 
 is reminded by a reference to two formidable 
 animals, behemoth and leviathan, probably 
 the hippopotamus and crocodile. 
 
 The full impression intended has by this 
 time been made on Job, and he falls prostrate 
 before the infinite God in self-abasement and 
 self-reproach. Convicted of his fault, he 
 makes instant confession. " I have uttered 
 that r understood not; things too wonderful 
 for me, which I knew not. I have heard of 
 Thee by the hearing of the ear : but now 
 mine eye seeth Thee. Wherefore I abhor 
 myself, and repent in dust and ashes." 
 
 I 
 
THE LORD. 309 
 
 Job has now reached an elevation far 
 above his former self. The depth of his ^ 
 humiliation is really the summit of his ex- I 
 altation in piety, and in the fear and love of 
 God. That he now looks down upon him- 
 self as he does, shows how he has been raised 
 above what he was before. He has made a 
 great advance beyond the fervor of that mo- 
 ment when, in the darkest period of his 
 struggle, his faith looked out with more than 
 eagle glance into the unseen, and by one 
 mighty effort rose superior to every tempta- 
 tion based upon the visible and the temporal, 
 affirming God to be his redeemer in the face 
 of every thing outward which seemed to for- 
 bid all hope. The faith, to which he has now 
 attained, would not only have gained the 
 mastery in this frightful contest, but would 
 have trampled Satan's temptation under foot 
 without a conflict. 
 
 The faith, which shone out so conspicu- 
 ously in that triumphant exclamation, was 
 nevertheless defective, or the struggle would 
 not have been so fierce, nor the triumph so 
 
310 THE LORD. 
 
 hard to gain. He trusted in God, who was 
 afflicting him, so far as steadfastly to believe 
 and to declare that God would certainly here- 
 after, in the world to come, if not in this, lay 
 aside His seeming hostility and reveal Him- 
 self as his friend. He trusted in God in 
 spite of these afflictions, confident that He 
 would deliver him out of them and would 
 then be his God. But his trust in God was 
 not such as to persuade him that in afflicting 
 him He was still acting as his gracious God 
 and redeemer. He was so far under the 
 dominion of sense that there was still a 
 region which faith had not completely sub- 
 dued unto itself. The opposition between 
 God's present treatment of him and His lov- 
 ing regard for him still remained to his mind, 
 and he had not that implicit trust in God 
 which could do it away. He had a faith 
 which could resolutely turn its back upon 
 the mountain of difficulty, but not one which 
 could say to it. Be thou removed, and be thou 
 cast into the depths of the sea, and sunk out 
 of sight or dissolved away beneath the ocean 
 
THE LORD. 311 
 
 of divine love. There still was to him an 
 apparent contradiction here, which his faith 
 could disregard, but could not annul; a pres- 
 ent breach between him and God, which his 
 faith could bridge over, but could not close 
 up. 
 
 Now, however, he has learned to exercise 
 a more perfect trust in God. He now con- 
 fides in Him more thoroughly than before. 
 He can now trust God in every thing, and 
 believe that He doeth all things well. He 
 has gained such a view of God and of the 
 perfections of His being, that he now be- 
 lieves that the Most High cannot do any 
 thing that is out of harmony with His per- 
 fections. All that He does must be right 
 and wise and good. Job's faith may not 
 enable him to fathom the mysteries of God, 
 nor to solve the riddles of His providence. 
 He may not comprehend how these things 
 are. But he knows that God is all-perfec<: 
 and all-glorious, and he has that confidence • 
 in Him which assures him that these things 
 must be so. If He has sent affliction, this is 
 
 14 
 
312 THE LORD. 
 
 not even a temporary interruption of His 
 favor and love, though these are sure to 
 shine forth again hereafter clear and full. 
 Nor is it enough to say that affliction is 
 capable of being reconciled with the divine 
 love. It is itself a fruit of that love. God is 
 equally loving and gracious when He sends 
 affliction and when He sends prosperous 
 abundance. 
 
 Job's afflictions have not abated yet. His 
 terrible losses are still as great as they were, 
 and his bodily sufferings are as grievous. 
 But the cloud is gone. He has lost all dis- 
 position to murmur or repine. He is amazed 
 at himself that he could ever have done so. 
 Since the Lord has disclosed Himself to him, 
 such a sense of the perfections of Him, who 
 is blessed for ever, has filled his soul as 
 forms the basis of an absolutely unlimited 
 confidence. He can trust the infinitely holy 
 and mighty and wise and gracious One to 
 do whatsoever seemeth Him good. It is 
 good if God does it; it is the best thing 
 possible; no man at least, nor any finite 
 
THE LORD. 313 
 
 being, could alter it for the better ; and Job 
 would not have it otherwise. The tempta- 
 tion is not vanquished now: it has disap- 
 peared. It is not overcome by a tremendous 
 effort ; but the huge mountain has sunk to a 
 level plain. Though the sea roared before 
 and was troubled, he went through the midst 
 of its waves unharmed and dry-shod; but 
 now his faith has gained in strength, until it 
 has been able to bid the sea become dry land; 
 and the billows have ceased their tempestu- 
 ous roll, and there is no more sea. 
 
 Job has now come to the end of the third, 
 which is the last and most fearful stage of 
 the temptation. The struggle has been tre- 
 mendous. It has been a long and a weari- 
 some and a desperately contested conflict. 
 But the issue is glorious. The forces of the 
 enemy are not merely driven back, and left to 
 rally and return again to the charge. They 
 are not merely routed and put to an igno- 
 minious and disordered flight. They are 
 positively annihilated, and the victory is 
 complete and final. Sublime as was Job's 
 
 ^ 
 
314 THE LORD. 
 
 resignation in the first and second stage of 
 his afflictions, it is sublimer now. When his 
 property and his children were all swept 
 from him at a stroke, Job still blessed the 
 name of the Lord, mindful of the fact that 
 the Lord had given what He now took away. 
 When in addition his own person was vis- 
 ited with a dreadful and incurable malady, 
 he meekly received the evil at the hands of 
 the Lord, mindful of the good which He had 
 previously bestowed. His constant trust in 
 God rooted itself each time in the past, in 
 the abundance of former mercies, his grateful 
 sense of which was not effaced by all the 
 severity of his present trials. He put his 
 trials in the scales over against the benefits 
 which the Lord had so bounteously conferred 
 upon him, and the latter still largely out- 
 weighed. 
 
 Nevertheless each infliction of evil was 
 an opposing weight, acting with whatever 
 force it possessed in a contrary direction 
 from God's mercies, and to that extent de- 
 tracting from his sense of the divine good- 
 
THE LORD. 315 
 
 ness and love. This laid him open to the 
 temptation of Satan. And it created the 
 possibility that if weight enough could be 
 accumulated on the side of affliction, acting 
 as it did with the advantage which the imme- 
 diate present, ever thrusting itself on the con- 
 sciousness, has over the dim and fading sense 
 of the more and more distant past, it might 
 at length create an equipoise, and finally 
 turn the scales the other way. And if this 
 takes place, Job has fallen, and Satan has 
 gained the victory. During the most ter- 
 rible period of his sorrows, when Satan 
 seemed to have summoned every influence 
 possible to depress the scale. Job was indeed 
 hard pressed by his wily and unscrupulous 
 foe, and was put to the greatest straits. It 
 was as much as he could do, by straining his 
 strength to the utmost, to maintain the bal- 
 ance on the right side. It was only by the 
 strenuous efforts of a faith that took hold of 
 the unseen, brought to its aid the world of 
 the future, and laid its grasp upon the immu- 
 table attributes of God Himself, thus pinning 
 
31 6 THE LORD. 
 
 the scale down to the everlasting rock, that 
 he could keep the balance on the side of 
 God and piety against a pressure too great 
 for nature to sustain. 
 
 And thus there was, to this extent, some 
 foundation for Satan's malignant sneer, Doth .^ 
 Job fear God for nought ? The enemy had 
 detected a crevice in the structure of Job's 
 faith, into which he hoped to drive a wedge 
 that should rive the edifice asunder and bring 
 it down crumbling into ruins. Job's sense 
 
 / of God's goodness rested on the benefits re- 
 ceived from Him, instead of the divine good- 
 ness being itself the fixed foundation, and 
 every thing received from the hand of God 
 being for that reason counted a benefit. He 
 
 g judged of God by his own partial and defec- 
 tive notion of His dealings, instead of judging 
 of those dealings by his knowledge of God. 
 Job had, in the fierce conflict which Satan 
 had waged against him, been driven by sheer 
 necessity to base his faith on the immovable 
 foundation, notwithstanding the darkness and 
 confusion of mind which still rested upon the 
 
THE LORD. 317 
 
 mysterious subject of his sufferings. But 
 now that Elihu had, as God's messenger of 
 instruction, pointed out to him the gracious 
 ends of affliction, and the Lord had revealed 
 Himself to him in the true glory of His 
 nature, the previously existing flaw in Job's 
 faith is closed up. The perfections of God 
 have now become his first postulate, self- 
 evidenced, and independent of any support to 
 be derived from His particular dealings with 
 him. 
 
 Heaven and earth may pass away. All 
 things seen and temporal may fluctuate and l^ 
 change. But the perfections of God abide, 
 incapable of mutation or decay. This is the 
 one invariable, fixed point, the basis of all 
 certainty, and of all correct judgments. It is, 
 in mathematical phrase, the origin to which 
 every thing is to be referred, and from which 
 every thing is to be estimated. God must 
 ever act like Himself. Whatever He does / 
 must be consistent with His glorious attri- 
 butes, must be in fact the outflow of those 
 attributes. The orderings of Providence 
 
31 8 THE LORD. 
 
 have their spring in the perfections of the 
 ever-blessed God. Sense cannot discern this. 
 But faith affirms it, and persistently adheres 
 to it, be the outward appearance of things 
 what it may. 
 
 This is the lesson which Job has now 
 learned ; and hence he retracts all his mur- 
 muring words, and all that he has said re- 
 proachful to his Maker. He abhors himself 
 for having uttered them, and repents in dust 
 and ashes. He would not now ask as before, 
 Shall we receive good at the hand of God, 
 and shall we not receive evil ? There is no 
 evil, there can be no evil from the hand of 
 the Lord. Evil is good when it comes from 
 Him. He no longer puts the benefits received 
 
 1^ from God in one scale and afflictions in the 
 other. But afflictions are put in the same 
 scale with benefits: they, too, are benefits 
 when God sends them. And thus, instead 
 
 \ of tending to create a counter-poise, they but 
 add their weight to that of obligation pre- 
 viously existing. The nerve of Satan's temp- 
 tation is now cut completely. Every weight 
 
THE LORD. 319 
 
 goes henceforth into the scale of God's good- 
 ness, and there is no possibiHty of disturbing 
 the existing preponderance. He who has 
 learned to place his sole and undivided trust 
 in God, and to estimate all things by the stand- 
 ard of His perfection, is beyond the reach of 
 any serious attempt to detach him from the 
 Lord's service. To such a faith Job has risen 
 under the felt power of God's immediate pres- 
 ence. He is now in a perfectly impregnable 
 position, and Satan can assail him no longer. 
 His spiritual deliverance is complete. 
 
 The Lord's purpose in permitting these 
 dreadful sorrows is at length fully accom- 
 plished. There is no further occasion, there- 
 fore, for their continuance. Accordingly the 
 Lord now interferes for their removal. And 
 first he pronounces in Job's favor and against 
 his friends. " The Lord said to Eliphaz the 
 Temanite, My wrath is kindled against thee, 
 and against thy two friends : for ye have not 
 spoken of me the thing that is right, as my 
 servant Job hath." They had really incul- 
 pated the providence of God by their professed 
 
 14* 
 
320 THE LORD. 
 
 defence of it. By disingenuously covering 
 up and ignoring its enigmas and seeming 
 contradictions, they had cast more discredit 
 upon it than Job by honestly holding them 
 up to the light. Their denial of its apparent 
 inequalities was more untrue and more dis 
 honoring to the divine administration, as it is 
 
 ^ in fact conducted, than Job's bold affirmation 
 of them. Even his most startling utterances 
 wrung from him in his bewilderment and sore 
 perplexity were less reprehensible than their 
 
 \^/ false statements and false inferences. In aver- 
 ring that God was treating Job as a gross 
 offender, they indirectly charge Him with 
 injustice and cruelty to His faithful servant. 
 Job's impatient outcries under his sore dis- 
 tress were less offensive to God than these 
 unwarrantable misrepresentations. And now 
 that humbled and penitent he had retracted 
 all that he had rashly spoken, every thing was 
 forgiven and forgotten but his present noble 
 confession, in which, stricken as he was in the 
 dust, and bleeding at every pore, he had yet 
 placed God upon the throne, and submitted 
 without a murmur to His holy will. 
 
THE LORD. 321 
 
 The friends of Job, who had thought him ^ 
 an outcast from the divine favor, can only be 
 restored to that favor. themselves through the 
 intercession of their maligned and injured 
 friend. This intercession is not withheld, / 
 
 for he bears no malice toward them, and no 
 resentment for all their ill-treatment. The ' 
 bitterness that had sometimes broken out 
 in his former speeches is entirely gone. He 
 forgives them as God had forgiven him. And 
 with this renewed evidence of the profit which 
 he had derived from his afflictions, his cap- 
 tivity is turned and his former prosperity is 
 renewed and doubled. 
 
 Job is now entirely extricated from Satan's /\ 
 snare, and released from his burden of woe. 
 And the riddle is at length solved. The 
 explanation of the sufferings of God's dear 
 children, as suggested by the case of Job, 
 may be embraced in the following particulars. 
 They afford to all gainsayers a palpable^ 
 test of their integrity. The very intensity of j/ 
 the struggle develops their faith and other 
 graces, and leads them on to clearer views of 
 
322 THE LORD. 
 
 heavenly truth. These sorrows are sent on the 
 part of God with a gracious design, and af- 
 ford the occasion of His revealing Himself to 
 chastened souls with new fulness and power, 
 in consequence of which they are brought 
 nearer to Him than ever before, and their 
 happiness and welfare are proportionally pro- 
 moted. 
 
 " Behold," says the Apostle James (v. ii) 
 " we count them happy which endure. Ye 
 have heard of the patience of Job, and have 
 seen the end of the Lord ; that the Lord is 
 very pitiful, and of tender mercy." 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
Blessed are they that mourn : for they shall be 
 comforted. — Matt. v. 4. 
 
THE PLACE OF THE BOOK OF JOB IN 
 THE SCHEME OF HOLY SCRIPTURE. 
 
 TTIT'E have now made our way, as we have 
 been able, through the book of Job. 
 We have traced the sore temptation which 
 it describes, from its beginning through its 
 successive stages until its ultimate removal. 
 We have seen the part taken by each of the 
 actors in this spiritual strife, Satan, Job's wife, 
 his friends, Elihu, and the Lord. We have 
 observed Job's own demeanor through it all. 
 And we have endeavored to read the lessons 
 of this mysterious dispensation, as they are 
 here suggested. Our task is not quite fin- 
 ished yet, however. If we would estimate this 
 book aright, we must learn not only what it 
 is, but to what it leads. Germs of truth are 
 exhibited that were destined to be expanded 
 
326 THE PLACE OF THE BOOK OF JOB IN 
 
 subsequently. Lines of thought are started 
 which, consistently followed out, conduct to 
 far-reaching consequences. The sorrows of 
 the man of Uz stand like the smitten rock of 
 the desert at the head-waters of the stream 
 of consolation. This precious tide flows on 
 with ever-deepening current, gathering fresh 
 tributaries as it flows, and bearing more 
 abundant blessings on its bosom, until it 
 issues in the boundless, unfathomable ocean 
 of divine grace and love, within view of which 
 we are brought in the gospel. 
 
 No book of the Bible stands apart by 
 itself, or can be fully understood if it is only 
 studied separately and in its isolation. It is 
 part of a gradually unfolded revelation. It 
 belongs to a well-ordered system. It is a link 
 in a chain. It is a member of an organism. 
 It is what it is, not for itself alone ; it has 
 been shaped with reference to the position 
 that it is to occupy and the function it has 
 to perform in the plan of the whole. The 
 history of Job is one among a great body 
 of signal facts illustrative of God's ways with 
 
THE SCHEME OF HOLY SCRIPTURE. 327 
 
 men and of His plan of grace. The book of 
 Job is one of a long series of inspired writings 
 through which it has pleased God to make 
 known His will and to reveal Himself. 
 What precise part does it take in the succes- 
 sive disclosures of divine truth ? How does 
 it advance upon what had before been made 
 known ? How does it prepare for what was 
 to follow.? What educating power lay in the 
 truths which it lodged in the minds and hearts 
 of men, and of what further consequences 
 were they fruitful ? And how do its teach- 
 ings stand related to the completed revelation 
 of the gospel ? 
 
 It would be impossible to treat such a 
 theme as this exhaustively within the narrow 
 limits to which we must confine ourselves. 
 And the attempt to do so under any circum- 
 stances might savor of arrogance and pre- 
 sumption. It will be sufficient to venture a 
 few observations by way of suggestion. 
 
 In logical order as in actual fact the law 
 precedes the gospel. It is thus in the experi- 
 ience of the race of man as a whole, in that of 
 
328 THE PLACE OF THE BOOK OF JOB IN 
 
 the chosen people, and in that of individual 
 men. The covenant of works goes before the 
 covenant of grace; the sentence upon our 
 transgressing first parents before the promise 
 of Him who should bruise the serpent's head ; 
 the commandment given by Moses before 
 grace and truth by Jesus Christ ; the convic- 
 tion of sin before the apprehension of saving 
 mercy. Unless the lesson of the just desert 
 of sin and of the inflexible righteousness of 
 God has first been learned, the necessity and 
 value of the offer of salvation cannot be 
 understood. The doctrine of retribution is a 
 necessary prerequisite to that of delivering 
 grace. God must be apprehended as a Law- 
 giver and a Judge before He can be known 
 as a Redeemer. 
 
 In a general sense the Old Testament may 
 be said to contain the law, and the New 
 Testament the gospel ; and they are accord- 
 ingly contrasted by the apostle (2 Cor. iii. 6), 
 in respect to their tendencies on the whole, 
 as the letter that killeth and the spirit that 
 giveth life. The foundations were laid 
 
THE SCHEME OF HOLY SCRIPTURE. 329 
 
 broad and deep, and strongly cemented by 
 ages of the continued inculcation of God's 
 essential righteousness. What is the Old 
 Testament in its grand divisions but the Law 
 proclaimed at Sinai, confirmed by the provi- 
 dential retributions of the History, devoutly 
 meditated upon and practised by the Psalm- 
 ists and other inspired poets, and expanded 
 and enforced by the added revelations of the 
 Prophets? When the law had thus been 
 wrought by all these concurrent methods into 
 the minds and hearts and lives of men, then 
 and not before was there an adequate basis on 
 which to rear a superstructure that should 
 match it in amplitude and in solidity, the 
 revelation of God's immeasurable grace. 
 
 While, however, the two Testaments are 
 predominantly what has now been described, 
 they are not exclusively so. The statement, 
 though correct in the main, is not exhaustive. 
 The gospel was already witnessed by the law 
 and the prophets (Rom. iii. 21) ; and the faith 
 of Christ re-enacts and establishes the law 
 (Rom. iii. 31). Coupled with the revelation 
 
330 THE PLACE OF THE BOOK OF JOB IN 
 
 of God's justice under the Old Testament 
 there was a co-ordinate disclosure of His 
 grace, which was set forth with growing clear- 
 ness and fulness from the beginning to the 
 end. Every advance in the presentation of 
 the one was attended or followed by a cor- 
 responding advance in the knowledge of the 
 other. Judgment and mercy are concomi- 
 tants, as well as mutual opposites or rather 
 counterparts, being reverse sides of the same 
 divine excellence. Acts or declarations con- 
 firmatory of one serve consequently to illus- 
 trate and enforce the other. And the two 
 series of progressive and related lessons move 
 along together side by side throughout the 
 whole of the former dispensation. 
 
 While, however, the gospel was already 
 substantially preached before Christ came, this 
 was prevailingly done in a legal form and 
 under legal aspects. The pardon of sin, for 
 instance, and reconciliation with God, were 
 accomplished by sacrifices, which prefigured, 
 it is true, the atonement of the Son of God, 
 and derived from it all their present efficacy 
 
THE SCHEME OF HOLY SCRIPTURE. 33 1 
 
 but were nevertheless a ceremonial institution, 
 enacted in the law, to be performed by the 
 offerer himself, and making up a part of his 
 righteousness in view of the law. Mercy came 
 to him indeed as unmerited grace to an 
 offender, and yet under the form of an 
 acceptance or justification procured by a 
 performance of his own, or an act in whose 
 performance he took part. The mercy that 
 cancels sin did not drop out of sight, but it 
 could not stand forth so conspicuously and in 
 its own proper simplicity as now, when the 
 typical sacrifice has been merged into and 
 superseded by the great reality, and our entire 
 pardon and justifying righteousness are seen 
 to be wrought out by another in our stead. 
 
 And so long as the free grace of the gospel 
 was not yet exhibited in its fulness it was also 
 impossible that the law itself, to which the 
 former dispensation was mainly devoted, should 
 attain its complete expression. Dark and 
 threatening as Sinai was, the law never ap- 
 peared in such majesty, was never enforced 
 by such sanctions, never exerted such a con- 
 
332 THE PLACE OF THE BOOK OF JOB IN 
 
 straining power on men's hearts, and the 
 exceeding breadth of the commandment was 
 never so laid open as in the transaction on 
 Calvary. 
 
 We have now to inquire into the particular 
 function assigned to the book of Job in un- 
 folding this blended revelation of law and 
 gospel. One obvious characteristic belonging 
 to it in common with the other poetical books, 
 and in which it stands in marked contrast with 
 the rest of the Old Testament, is that it is 
 occupied with what is individual and personal. 
 The books of Moses contain God's covenant 
 with Israel as a nation. The historical books 
 record His dealings with the people as such. 
 The books of the prophets make known His 
 will to Israel and concerning Israel as the 
 people of God. These set forth the general 
 principles and methods of the divine adminis- 
 tration. The promises and threatenings con- 
 cern the entire body of the people or some 
 considerable section of them, and individuals 
 share the fortunes of the mass. If prosperous 
 abundance is sent upon an obedient people^ 
 
THE SCHEME OF HOLY SCRIPTURE. 333 
 
 the wicked among them participate in the 
 benefit. If a nation of transgressors is led 
 into captivity, the calamity involves the right- 
 eous with the rest. But Job stands alone and 
 by himself. He is dealt with as an individual, 
 not as one of a certain race or nation, and par- 
 ticularly not as one of the chosen seed or 
 covenant people, to which he does not even 
 belong. In his history we see the righteous- 
 ness of God in its relations not to Israel, but 
 to an individual man. 
 
 The Psalms record the devout meditations 
 and aspirations of pious souls, taking as their 
 theme God's attributes. His word or His 
 works. The Song of Solomon, which cele- 
 brates the divine institution of marriage, forms 
 a striking parallel to the forty-fifth psalm. 
 Lamentations is properly an appendix to the 
 book of Jeremiah. Leaving these out of 
 view for the present, the other three poetical 
 books are occupied with the righteousness of 
 God as verified in the experience of men. 
 Proverbs exhibits this verification as a fact of 
 ordinary observation. On the whole, and a? a 
 
334 THE PLACE OF THE BOOK OF JOB IN 
 
 general rule, and agreeably to the native ten- 
 dencies of things, virtue is rewarded and vice 
 is punished. But general rules have their 
 exceptions. And to the common order of 
 Providence as exhibited in Proverbs there 
 are two apparent exceptions. These are so 
 serious in their character, and withal of so 
 frequent occurrence, as to demand attention. 
 There may be prosperity without piety ; and 
 there may be piety without prosperity. The 
 first of these is treated in the book of Eccle- 
 siastes. It presents the case of a man of the 
 rarest wisdom, and with every facility that 
 abundant wealth and royal station could sup- 
 ply, who set himself with deliberate purpose 
 to extract gratification from earthly sources, 
 but found that every thing was vanity. And 
 after the baffling experiments of a lifetime he 
 came at length to the conclusion that to fear 
 God and keep His commandments was the 
 only way to secure real enjoyment and man's 
 true welfare. 
 
 The other exception furnishes its theme to 
 the book of Job. This deals with the case ot 
 
THE SCHEME OF HOLY SCRIPTURE. 335 
 
 piety without prosperity, or the righteousness 
 of God as exercised towards pious sufferers. 
 Its lessons all grow out of this theme, or clus- 
 ter about it. It is here, therefore, that we 
 are to look for that unfolding of doctrine 
 which belongs to it in the system of the Old 
 Testament. The righteousness of God in its 
 more general and obvious manifestations is 
 assumed as the starting-point. This is taken 
 for granted as well understood and agreed 
 upon between Job and his friends at the out- 
 set. But a crisis occurs in Job's spiritual 
 history in which the opinions that they 
 have hitherto entertained are not adequate. 
 A state of affairs arises at variance with their 
 defective notions of the divine righteousness. 
 In the struggle that ensues, new light is im- 
 parted, and more accurate conceptions are 
 reached. God's righteousness had been in- 
 adequately apprehended in two respects, be- 
 longing severally to the two poles of Old 
 Testament truth or the two phases of Old 
 Testament instruction, the law and the gospel. 
 The question that agitates the soul of Job is 
 
 16 
 
33^ THE PLACE OF THE BOOK OF JOB IN 
 
 that of his personal relation to God. Is he 
 the object of the divine displeasure, or will 
 God accomplish his salvation? But in fact 
 he knew neither the extent of the divine dis- 
 pleasure nor the greatness of God's salvation. 
 The righteousness of God condemned more 
 in him than he suspected ; while that which 
 he looked upon as a sentence of condemna- 
 tion was a measure of God's grace. 
 
 The new impressions which Job gains of 
 the extent and spirituality of the law of God 
 appears from his altered language respecting 
 himself. His oft-repeated assertions of his 
 righteousness, which were even carried to the 
 extent of chiding with God as having done 
 him wrong in sending afflictions upon him 
 which he had not deserved, are superseded by 
 penitent confession and self-abhorrence. " I 
 abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes." 
 This change was wrought in his mind by the 
 instruction received from Elihu, coupled with 
 God's manifestation of Himself. Elihu took 
 the stumbling-block out of his way which had 
 led to his previous false conclusions, by show 
 
THE SCHEME OF HOLY SCRIPTURE. 337 
 
 ing him that in inflicting extraordinary suffer- 
 ings upon him God was not thereby charging 
 him with unusual guilt. This cause of offence 
 removed, Job could listen with unprejudiced 
 ear to Elihu's suggestion of a deeper and 
 more spiritual view of the nature of sin, as not 
 merely consisting in actual transgressions such 
 as the friends had Hnked with God's judgments, 
 but as represented likewise in pride of heart 
 and evil purpose (xxxiii. 17). With his 
 thoughts thus turned inward, Job finds rea- 
 sons for the strokes of divine chastisement 
 which he had not previously recognized, and 
 he cannot regard himself with the same com- 
 placency as before. 
 
 But pious men under the Old Testament 
 nowhere reach the platform of the New in 
 this respect ; and it was impossible that they 
 should, because the facts on which the Chris- 
 tian doctrine of the law and of sin is based 
 had not then been made known. This ought 
 to be borne in mind in estimating the lan- 
 guage of these ancient saints. We see them 
 maintain their own righteousness in the view 
 
33^ THE PLACE OF THE BOOK OF JOB IN 
 
 of God, when we would look rather for 
 an humble confession of utter unworthiness. 
 They plead with God to save them for His 
 righteousness' sake, when we would expect 
 to hear them sue instead for unmerited 
 mercy. And we find it hard to enter into 
 their feelings. We can scarcely acquit them 
 of irreverence, or comprehend how such good 
 men can speak as they do. 
 
 It is true, and this affords a partial expla- 
 nation of the matter, that these assertions of 
 their own goodness are mostly made in oppo- 
 sition to avowed or implied charges of crimi- 
 nality of which they are guiltless. The 
 Psalmists were often like Job the objects of 
 unjust aspersions and slanders ; and they 
 were entitled to declare their innocence of 
 what had been falsely alleged against them 
 with honest indignation. But they do not 
 limit themselves to the claim of being pure 
 from that which has been wrongfully attrib- 
 uted to them, nor to the claim of an integrity 
 that should shield them from the censure of 
 men, but while with the same breath confess- 
 
THE SCHEME OF HOLY SCRIPTURE. 339 
 
 ing their sinfulness they lay claim to an up- 
 rightness of such breadth and purity that it 
 can maintain itself at the bar of God and 
 expect His approbation. 
 
 It is also true that in making their appeals 
 to God's righteousness they include under 
 this term His faithfulness as well as His jus- 
 tice. They intend by the righteousness of 
 God that attribute in virtue of which He does 
 right, not merely in view of their deserts, but 
 in view of His own gracious engagements. 
 They remember His covenant and His prom- 
 ises; and the righteousness of God assures 
 them that He will keep that word which He 
 has mercifully given. 
 
 But with all these explanations and abate- 
 ments we cannot but feel how differently the 
 Apostle Paul is accustomed to speak of him- 
 self, and what a different estimate he puts 
 upon his own deservings. " Not by works 
 of righteousness which we have done, but 
 according to His mercy He saved us." " I am 
 carnal, sold under sin. . . . The good that I 
 would, I do not ; but the evil which I would 
 
340 THE PLACE OF THE BOOK OF JOB IN 
 
 not, that I do. . . . Oh wretched man that I 
 am ! who shall deliver me from the body of 
 this death ? " Such an experience belongs 
 to the New Testament exclusively. There 
 is repentance in the Old Testament. There 
 are confessions of sin. There are deep views 
 of its greatness and vileness and enormity. 
 There are prayers for forgiveness. There 
 are fervent breathings after greater conform- 
 ity to the will of God. All the roots of the 
 apostolic experience are there, but they are 
 never quickened into the same intensity of 
 life, they never reach the same expansion, 
 they never gain that ascendency, that com- 
 plete mastery of the soul, which shapes all 
 its thinking and feeling, and makes its con- 
 stant attitude before God that of helpless 
 unworthiness. And why ? They had never 
 learned the lesson of the cross of Christ. 
 The vastness of the provision first gave an 
 idea of the greatness of the necessity. The 
 demerit of sin was never so plainly seen as in 
 the light of the infinite merit of the atone- 
 ment which was requisite to efface it. And 
 
THE SCHEME OF HOLY SCRtPTURE. 34 1 
 
 the utter worthlessness of our own righteous- 
 ness first became manifest from the fact that 
 men are justified without any worthiness or 
 deservings of their own by simple trust in 
 the righteousness of another. The full ap- 
 prehension of this humbling and abasing 
 yet at the same time elevating and cheering 
 truth altered, of necessity, the whole com- 
 plexion of piety. It changed the very basis 
 of men's standing in the sight of God, or 
 at least enabled them to see more distinctly 
 than was possible before where they really 
 did stand. It swept the gathered sand and 
 rubbish from the rock, and precluded the pos- 
 sibility of their imagining that by heaping 
 these together they were adding to the 
 strength of their position or the security of 
 their hope. But this, while it banished for- 
 ever all thought of any claim of merit or 
 righteousness in the sight of God, gave a 
 new and impregnable basis of confidence 
 before him, — a confidence which no craft of 
 Satan and no storms of affliction could dis- 
 turb. 
 
34^ THE PLACE OF THE BOOK OF JOB IN 
 
 It is, however, on the side of the gospel 
 that the lessons of the book of Job chiefly lie. 
 These are all in the direction of the ampler 
 disclosures to be subsequently made, though 
 of course they do not in any case pass the 
 bounds imposed on the knowledge of God's 
 grace for the time then present, nor do they 
 ever anticipate in its fulness what was re- 
 served for a brighter future. Piety was still, 
 as it is prevailingly characterized in the Old 
 Testament, " the fear of the Lord " (xxviii. 28). 
 The love of God, springing from the knowl- 
 edge and belief of the love that God hath to 
 us, had not yet been made perfect (i John iv. 
 16, 18). 
 
 In these unfoldings of gospel truth we are 
 not to expect any direct presentation of the 
 person of the Messiah. He is not in the Old 
 Testament invoked in individual straits or 
 in present necessities. He is ever exhibited 
 rather as the Hope of Israel and the Saviour 
 of the world. His coming was to introduce 
 an era of peace and holiness and bliss. From 
 the existing degeneracy and defection of the 
 
THE SCHEME OF HOLY SCRIPTURE. 343 
 
 people of God, or the calamities by which they 
 were threatened or overwhelmed, from the 
 growing power of their adversaries or the pros- 
 pect of the downfall of these haughty foes, the 
 prophets pointed forward to Him in whose days 
 Judah shall be saved and Israel shall dwell 
 safely, and under whose beneficent reign all 
 nations shall flock to the mountain of the Lord, 
 beating their swords into ploughshares and 
 learning war no more. But it was not so 
 clear to their minds that this same Saviour 
 was the present deliverer of each one of His 
 people in his own individual distress. Hence 
 suffering saints in the time of their trouble 
 call not upon the name of the Messiah for 
 help and rescue, but upon the name of the 
 Lord, unaware that they are directing their 
 petitions to the same person whose appear- 
 ance amongst men shall introduce the antici- 
 pated glories of the future. 
 
 But addressing the Lord as they do in 
 the capacity of their covenanted Redeemer, 
 soliciting from Him the help which He alone 
 can supply, making Him the sole ground of 
 
 15* 
 
344 THE PLACE OF THE BOOK OF JOB IN 
 
 their confidence as well as of all their affec- 
 tion and desire, it is in fact, if not in form, the 
 Son of God to whom they make their appeal. 
 And all the knowledge that they gain of this 
 divine Saviour, and the homage that they 
 learn to pay to Him, and the trust that they 
 repose in Him, is a direct preparation for 
 the doctrine of Christ-r They knew not at 
 the time that this line of instruction which 
 they were following, converged upon that other 
 line which taught them of the Son of David 
 and the King of Israel. The point of junc- 
 tion was visibly reached when the word was 
 made flesh. Then the divine ^ Redeemer 
 and the expected Saviour were consciously 
 identified; the Lord from heaven to whom 
 each struggling soul had looked for succor, 
 and the son of Abraham in whom all the 
 families of the earth were to be blessed ; He 
 who bafiled Satan's wiles and rescued Job 
 from his snare, and the seed of the woman 
 who was to crush the serpent's head and 
 restore the fallen race of man. 
 
 ' — ■ 4 
 
 ♦ The relation of xix. 25 to the Messiah is more particu* 
 larly stated, page 213. 
 
THE SCHEME OF HOLY SCRIPTURE. 345 
 
 Additional elements of Messianic instruc- 
 tion are found in the typical character of Job 
 and that of Elihu. They are each representa- 
 tive of a class which finds its highest exem- 
 plification in Christ. Whether the type was 
 discerned to be such by the writer of this 
 book and his original readers, it might be 
 difficult to determine. But whether it was or 
 not, it supplies an exemplar conformed to 
 the model of Him who was afterwards to be 
 revealed. It presents a character or an office, 
 which would be better understood and more 
 correctly appreciated when realized in Christ 
 for having been known already and grown 
 familiar as exhibited in others. And the 
 idea to which it gives rise is certainly linked 
 with the expected Saviour in other parts of 
 the Old Testament in a manner which shows 
 that this connection was patent to the in- 
 spired penmen themselves. 
 
 The typical correspondence between Job 
 as a pious man sorely afflicted and the man 
 of sorrows has been suggested in a former 
 chapter (p. 2 1 6). This is no mere casual rela- 
 
 A 
 
34^ THE PLACj. of the BOOK OF JOB IN 
 
 tion of accidental resemblance, out rests upon 
 a general principle of the divine administra- 
 tion. It is a principle consistently applied in 
 God's dealings with His children, that they 
 are made perfect through sufferings. It was 
 thus with Job. It has been thus, and will be, 
 with many more in every age. The circum- 
 stances and the particular mode of its applica- 
 tion may differ greatly, but the law is the 
 same. It was thus with God's own Son when 
 revealed in human flesh. He too learned 
 obedience by the things which He suffered ; 
 and, being made perfect, He became the Au- 
 thor of eternal salvation unto all them that 
 obey Him. This uniform method of God's 
 grace is especially dwelt upon by the Psalmists, 
 and its highest application is deduced or fore- 
 seen by them. On the basis of their own ex- 
 perience of trial, with its resulting benefits to 
 them, and through them to others, they re- 
 peatedly (e.g. Ps. vi., Ixix., Ixxi., etc.) portray 
 the righteous man oppressed by calamities. 
 The picture which they draw is mostly a 
 general one, such as has its counterpart in 
 
THE ^-lEME OF HOLY SCRIPTURE. 347 
 
 great numbers of God's faithful servants, 
 who, though weak, imperfect, and sinful, have 
 passed through deep waters and found safety 
 in delivering grace. But sometimes (as in Ps. 
 xxii.) the picture is an ideal rather than a 
 portrait. The human characteristics are pre- 
 served, but the excellencies are heightened till 
 they have become faultless ; imperfections are 
 removed till absolute sinlessness is reached ; 
 suffering is followed by unbounded exaltation 
 and glory ; and the blessed results of the sor 
 rows swell to proportions that admit no limita- 
 tion of space or time. The picture is plainly 
 human, and yet it transcends all ordinary 
 human experience. It has and can have but 
 one realization: the Holy Sufferer is the 
 incarnate Son of God. 
 
 Elihu is himself such a " messenger " as he 
 describes (xxxiii. 23, 24), "an interpreter, one 
 among a thousand, to shew unto man his 
 uprightness." He had been selected from all 
 others and sent of God to expound to Job the 
 divine will and purpose in this mysterious dis- 
 pensation, and to make known to him his duty 
 
34^ THE PLACE OF THE BOOK OF JOB IN 
 
 in the case. And this was with the result 
 that he had foreshown. " Then He is gracious 
 unto him, and saith, DeHver him from going 
 down to the pit: I have found a ransom." 
 Elihu acts the part of a divinely commissioned 
 and effectual instructor, a teacher who is the 
 instrument of salvation to his suffering and 
 needy friend. He fulfils in a lower sense the 
 very function of the great teacher and prophet 
 of the Lord, in response to whose prevalent 
 vindication the same reply is given, " De- 
 liver him from going down to the pit : I have 
 found a ransom." Only the ransom is then 
 no longer limited to the figurative sense in 
 which Elihu uses it of the sufferer's own im- 
 proved spiritual state as an adequate ground 
 or reason for his release from further endur- 
 ance. The great Teacher has provided a 
 ransom in the strict and proper sense for the 
 release of His people, now and forever, from 
 the bondage that oppresses them. 
 
 As the book of Job circles about the con- 
 flict in which this man of God was engaged, 
 its lessons mainly concern the foe with whom 
 
THE SCHEME OF HOLY SCRIPTURE. 349 
 
 he had to contend on the one hand, and the 
 supports and encouragements vouchsafed to 
 him on the other. His real adversary was 
 not God, as his friends alleged, and as he 
 apprehended, but Satan. And here a new 
 view is opened into the kingdom of dark- 
 ness. The great foe to human peace and 
 goodness is here for the first time in Script- 
 ure disclosed in his proper person and char- 
 acter. The serpent had tempted Eve; yet 
 though the narrative of the fall requires the 
 assumption of a spiritual agent concerned 
 in the transaction, his presence is not dis- 
 tinctly mentioned, but left to be vaguely 
 inferred. Here, however, he is explicitly 
 named; his spiritual nature, his malignity, 
 his great power, his subtlety, and untiring 
 assiduity of evil are exposed. At the same 
 time it is shown that he is limited, restrained, 
 and overruled, and good brought out of evil 
 in spite of his devices by the gracious provi- 
 dence of God. This is an important advance 
 toward the amplitude of New Testament 
 revelation on this subject, in which a disclos- 
 
350 THE l>LAC£ OF THE BOOK OF JOB IN 
 
 ure is made not merely of a single adversary, 
 but of the whole hierarchy of evil, embrac- 
 ing principalities, powers, and multitudes 
 of spirits of wickedness; and in which a 
 broader view is afforded of the territory 
 covered by the conflict and of the method 
 in which it is conducted, as well as a height- 
 ened assurance of victory over foes already 
 vanquished by the Captain of our salvation, 
 and who shaM be bruised under the feet of 
 each of His people shortly. 
 
 We see in Job how his afflictions were a 
 test of the sincerity and strength of his pious 
 fear, and how his confidence in God's right- 
 eousness carried him successfully through; 
 how he clung to his belief, in spite of all out- 
 ward appearances, that God was faithful and 
 would not desert His servant, and how at 
 length he learned that affliction might be 
 converted into a benefit. But the disciple 
 of Christ has a firm support and a wealth of 
 consolation altogether new in the assurance 
 afforded him of the infinite love of God. " He 
 that spared not His own Son, but delivered 
 
THE SCHEME OF HOLY SCRIPTURE. 35 1 
 
 Him Up for us all, how shall He not with Him 
 also freely give us all things?" A U things 
 are yours, death as well as life, sorrow as well 
 as joy. In tribulation, distress, and persecu- 
 tion, we are more than conquerors, through 
 Him that loved us. For neither death nor 
 life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, ' 
 nor things present, nor things to come shall 
 be able to separate us from the love of God, 
 which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. In this 
 consciousness the child of God glories in J,^ 
 tribulation, assured that he shall be kept 
 from real harm by his Heavenly Father, 
 knowing that sorrow is one of the appointed 
 agencies of grace, since tribulation worketh 
 patience, experience, and hope that maketh 
 not ashamed; looking unto Jesus, and re- 
 joicing to be conformed to Him who endured 
 the cross, despising the shame. Hence the 
 striking difference between the demeanor of 
 the apostles and followers of Christ under 
 calamity and that of the saints of God in the 
 Old Testament. The moans and complaints 
 of desertion, which are uniformly heard from 
 
352 THE PLACE OF THE BOOK OF JOB IN 
 
 the latter in times of sore distress, grow 
 directly out of the legal aspect under which 
 they contemplated the character of God. But 
 outward distress never brings a shadow over 
 the spirits of the apostles. It is to them no 
 token of the divine displeasure, but is rather 
 hailed as an evidence of sonship. It is the 
 love of God which sends affliction, which sup- 
 ports under affliction, and which delivers out 
 of affliction. 
 
 The gospel reveals also, as it was never ap- 
 prehended before, the heavenly inheritance, 
 that far more exceeding and eternal weight of 
 glory, with which the sufferings of this pres- 
 ent time are not worthy to be compared. Job 
 was brought in his conflict into contact with 
 the doctrine of immortality ; but he only 
 attained a limited conception of this blessed 
 truth, and never drew from it that abundant 
 comfort and solace which, when rightly under- 
 stood, it is adapted to supply. His confidence 
 that God would not forever withhold His fa- 
 vor from him, coupled with the fact that there 
 was no room left for that favor to display 
 
THE SCHEME OF HOLY SCRIPTURE. 353 
 
 itself in the present life, had driven him to 
 the conclusion that it must be granted to him 
 in the world to come. He laid hold of his 
 immortality to steady himself in the absence 
 of any earthly hope. It never occurred to 
 him to prefer it to every earthly hope, even 
 if this latter had been possessed in the fullest 
 measure. Life without God's favor and bless- 
 ing would not indeed have been an object of 
 desire to him any more than to the Psalmist, 
 who exclaims (Ps. Ixxiii. 25): "Whom have I 
 in heaven but Thee ? and there is none upon 
 earth that I desire besides Thee." But life 
 with God's favor was his chief inheritance 
 and his portion. The idea had not presented 
 itself to his mind that the boundless hereafter 
 blessed with God's presence was a more de- 
 sirable portion than this brief life could be 
 with the same divine presence and blessing. 
 He had faith that God would vindicate His 
 servant and appear upon his side in the fu 
 ture state. But he had not so far surmounted 
 the gloom of the grave and the shadowy 
 nature of the world of spirits as to transport 
 
354 THE PLACE OF THE BOOK OF JOB IN 
 
 into it the full conception of a life with God, 
 a life free from sin .and every form of sorrow, 
 a glory and bliss eternal. It was not until 
 the divine Saviour had Himself appeared, and 
 the magnitude of redemption and its unend- 
 ing results had in consequence been disclosed, 
 that men could say with the Apostle Paul, 
 that though to live was Christ, yet to die 
 was gain. 
 
 The sense of immortality to which Job 
 attained was likewise echoed by the Psalm- 
 ists, who speak upon occasion of the future 
 life, but in ambiguous and doubtful phrase, 
 which leaves it uncertain how clear their 
 conceptions may have been. The prophets 
 reached the same result by a somewhat dif- 
 ferent route. God's covenant faithfulness to 
 Israel secured His people as a whole in all 
 perpetuity against death and destruction ; or 
 if their fortunes were so broken that they 
 seemed dead and buried. He would accom- 
 plish their resurrection. And this deliver- 
 ance from death and from all the evils result- 
 ing from the fall, which was guaranteed to 
 
THE SCHEME OF HOLY SCRIPTURE. 355 
 
 the body as a whole, was secured likewise to 
 its constituent members. 
 
 But these flashes of assurance which we 
 find in the Old Testament are as nothing 
 compared with the clear and steady light shed 
 on the future life in the New Testament. 
 And this fulness of revelation has revolution- 
 ized the whole idea and aim of life. The 
 believer has learned to regard the transient 
 present as of small account in comparison with 
 the eternity that lies before him, to set his 
 affection on things above, not on things on 
 the earth, to lay up his treasure in heaven, to 
 look not at the things which are seen and 
 which are temporal, but to look at the things 
 which are not seen and which are eternal. 
 With such a blissful portion in prospect, what 
 are all the light and momentary sorrows to 
 which he can be subjected here? 
 
THE DOCTRINE OF IMMORTALITY IN 
 THE OLD TESTAMENT. 
 
EXPLANATORY NOTE. 
 
 THE DOCTRINE OF IMMORTALITY IN" THK 
 OLD TESTAMENT. 
 
 T^HERE is a broad and palpable distinction 
 between Old and New Testament saints 
 in their attitude relative to the future life. 
 And the desire to exhibit this sharply and 
 strongly may perhaps have led to the employ- 
 ment of language that is capable of being mis- 
 understood or misinterpreted. In what has 
 been said upon this subject in this volume, 
 there is no disposition to deny or overlook the 
 fact that from the very beginning of the old 
 economy the immortality of the soul and a 
 future state of unending existence were re- 
 vealed and were believed. The indications 
 of this are clear. This was a common doc- 
 trine throughout the ancient world. The very 
 heathen had some notion, though vague and 
 
 16 
 
^in>c 
 
 v/ 
 
 ;• ^ ■ 
 
 rV)0 THE DOCTRINE OF IMMORTALITY 
 
 J 
 
 brrect, of a life hereafter. This truth is 
 involved in the account of man's creation, who 
 alone of all terrestrial beings was made in 
 God's image (Gen. i. 27), and whose soul, 
 breathed into him by the Lord, is expressly 
 distinguished from his material body (Gen. 
 ii. 7 ; comp. Eccles. xii. 7). It is also involved 
 in the account of the tree of life in the Garden 
 of Eden, and in the law there given rewarding 
 obedience with life and making death the 
 penalty of transgression (comp. Prov. iii. 18, 
 viii. 35, 36, xii. 28, xiv. 27, xv. 24), as well as 
 in the promise of redemption from the damage 
 of the fall (Gen. iii. 1 5 ; comp. Isa. xxv. 8, 
 xxvi. 19). It is explicitly recognized in the 
 translation of Enoch (Gen. v. 24), as subse- 
 quently in that of Elijah (2 Kings ii. i), and in 
 the reappearance of Samuel (i Sam. xxviii. 14); 
 in the expression used of the deceased patri- 
 archs and others, "gathered to his people" 
 (Gen. xxv. 8), "gathered unto their fathers" 
 (Judges ii. 10), which is clearly distinguished 
 from their burial, and must therefore relate not 
 to their bodies laid in the ancestral tomb, but 
 
IN THE OLD TESTAMENT. 36 1 
 
 to their joining those who had gone before 
 them, in the world of spirits ; in the special 
 term " Sheol " (Gen. xxxvii. 35), employed to 
 designate the region of the dead, which is 
 obscured in the common English version by 
 being sometimes translated " the grave " or 
 "pit," and sometimes "hell," though it denotes 
 neither the place of interment nor the place of 
 future torment, but the common receptacle of 
 departed spirits, into which all men pass at 
 death. When Isaiah (xiv. 9, ff.) represents 
 the mighty dead in Sheol as taunting the 
 deceased monarch of Babylon with his down- 
 fall, the language is no doubt figurative ; but 
 it is based upon and lends its sanction to the 
 current doctrine of a continued, conscious, 
 and intelligent existence after death. Pos- 
 sibly an intelligence beyond that which is 
 possessed in this world may be ascribed to 
 the departed (Job xxviii. 22), where the wis- 
 dom that is " hid from the eyes of all living " 
 is said to have been at least heard of by 
 " destruction and death ; " that is, by those who 
 people the realm over which death holds sway. 
 
362 THE DOCTRINE OF IMMORTALITY 
 
 The burial of the bodies of the dead, 
 instead of burning them or disposing of thera 
 in some other way, is a token that in the 
 popular beHef they were still regarded as a 
 part of the person, and were not to be 
 destroyed, but preserved in anticipation of a 
 future resurrection. And the explicit direc- 
 tions given by Jacob (Gen. xlix. 29) and by 
 Joseph (Gen. 1. 24, 25), that their bodies 
 should be taken to the land of Canaan, seems 
 to indicate the interpretation which they put 
 upon the promise so often repeated, " To thee 
 will I give this land, and to thy seed " (Gen. 
 xiii. 15, XXXV. 12), as pledging to them a per- 
 sonal share in the actual possession of that 
 land, or at least of what was typified and repre- 
 sented by it. They as well as their seed have 
 the assurance of a part in the ultimate accom- 
 plishment; so that the representation made 
 in Heb. xi. 13-16, of the faith of the patri- 
 archs, is amply sustained. When further the 
 Lord calls Himself (Ex. iii. 6) " the God of 
 Abraham, the God oE Isaac, and the God of 
 Jacob," this establishes or recognizes a rela- 
 
IN THE OLD TESTAMENT. 363 
 
 tion, which, as our Saviour expounds (Matt, 
 xxii. 32), and as all must have felt, could not 
 be limited to this life, but must have spread 
 itself over the entire future of their being. 
 To which may be added that the popular 
 belief is reflected likewise in the impious arts 
 of necromancers, and in the criminal conduct 
 of those who resorted to them (i Sam. xxviii. 
 7, 8, Isa. viii. 19). And what is thus already 
 taught in the very beginning of the Old Tes- 
 tament is repeated and enlarged in the com- 
 munications subsequently made through the 
 Psalmists and the Prophets. 
 
 Still, though these things are true, and in a 
 just view of the Old Testament should not be 
 lost sight of, the wide chasm remains between 
 those who preceded and those who followed 
 the advent of the Son of God. The com- 
 pleted doctrine of Christ and the greatness of 
 the redemption which He achieved, His own 
 actual return from the state of the dead, and 
 His ascension to heaven as the forerunner 
 and type of His people, opened a new view 
 and poured fresh light upon the mystery of 
 
364 THE DOCTRINE OF IMMORTALITY 
 
 the world to come ; and abundant springs of 
 consolation, previously untasted, gushed forth 
 for suffering and tempted souls. All the 
 instructions previously given were in compar- 
 ison vague, obscure, and indistinct. Both in 
 the promises of God and in the hopes of the 
 people, this life had been emphasized rather 
 than the next. The present life was promi- 
 nently held up and looked to as the sphere 
 both of duty and of enjoyment. The first 
 thing to be learned, and that to which the 
 early lessons of revelation and of divine disci 
 plinary training were devoted, was the signifi 
 cance of a life with God here as a life of faith 
 and obedience. Men were taught to sanctify 
 their present activity and present experiences. 
 If these were duly attended to, the future 
 might be safely left with God, even though 
 few explicit disclosures had been made con- 
 cerning it. The proper conception of a life 
 with God on earth was the only basis on 
 which it was possible to construct a correct 
 idea of a life with God in heaven. The 
 former truth was first inculcated, therefore, as 
 
IN THE OLD TESTAMENT. ^6f 
 
 a necessary preliminary to any just apprehen- 
 sion of the latter. The mere continuance of 
 spiritual being is a philosophical dogma, not 
 a religious truth. An immortality without 
 God is devoid of all reality or significance, 
 and falls to the level of the pagan notion, 
 which is as far as possible from all that is 
 taught us in the word of God. 
 
 Hence, though the germs of the gospel 
 doctrine of a blessed immortality are trace- 
 able everywhere in the Old Testament, the 
 power of this truth was not apprehended, nor 
 were all its relations perceived. It is with 
 this as with much beside, with the deity of 
 the Messiah for example, which was known, 
 and distinctly declared, and yet no such place 
 was assigned to it in the system of truth as is 
 given to it in the New Testament, and as we 
 now see properly belongs to it. So with the 
 doctrine of immortality, the ancient saints 
 did not recur to it in trouble, nor draw from 
 it the manifold consolation which it is capable 
 of supplying. They did not apply it to the 
 solution of the perplexed problems of God's 
 
366 THE DOCTRINE OF IMMORTALITY 
 
 providence. They did not go forth to it in 
 glad anticipation, and fix their hopes upon it 
 as their chief and highest portion. 
 
 The aged patriarchs indeed anticipate 
 their departure with composure, and lay them- 
 selves down peacefully to die. There is no 
 lamentation in the prospect of this inevitable 
 event, no regrets at leaving the world, no 
 wish expressed that they might live longer. 
 The moans and complaints of Job and the 
 Psalmists are invariably uttered under a sense 
 of desertion. They are under a cloud as 
 they seem to themselves to be going down to 
 death. They interpret the providence which 
 threatens their dissolution as the withdrawal 
 of God's favor. This is the secret of their 
 gloom, not that they must die, but that God 
 is alienated from them. If so, they are with- 
 out hope ; they are ruined here and hereafter. 
 Hence their dismal complaints. But where 
 is there, even from the most favored of these 
 ancient worthies, a clear, outspoken testimony 
 like that of the apostle Paul as he neared the 
 end of his earthly career } " I am now ready 
 
IN TH£ OLD TESTAMENT. 367 
 
 to be offered, and the time of my departure 
 is at hand. . . . Henceforth there is laid up 
 for me a crown of righteousness, which the 
 Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at 
 that day : and not to me only, but unto all 
 them also that love His appearing" (2 Tim, 
 iv. 6, 8). 
 
 16* 
 
ANALYSIS 
 
 OF 
 
 THE BOOK OF JOB. 
 
 (!rjeme: ^z STewptatton of 3ai&. 
 
 Introduction, i. 1-5. 
 
 Job's pious character and happy estate. 
 
 First Stage of the Temptation, i. 6-22. 
 
 The loss of his property and children ; Job victori- 
 ous over the temptation. 
 
 Second Stage of the Temptation, ii. i-io. 
 
 The infliction upon his own person ; Job still vic- 
 torious. 
 
 Third Stage of the Temptation, ii. ii-xlii. 17. 
 
 The persistence of suffering; Job's struggle and 
 ultimate deliverance. 
 
 Preliminary statement, ii. 11-13. 
 The coming of Job's three friends. 
 
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