THE BOOK OF JOB.

BY G. L. BAUER.

WE should place the Book of Job either in the age of Solomon, or in that immediately subsequent. In the ideas contained in the Book of Job there is a striking similarity to those which are found in the Book of the Proverbs. Several commentators are of opinion that the former is the joint production of some of the wise men who lived during the reign of Solomon, or soon after his death.

This book is the most sublime and beautiful poetical work of the Hebrews: it surpasses all their other writings in the excellence of its religious sentiments, especially in the purity of its notions concerning God. It may with justice be styled the masterpiece of antiquity. An author who, in a period of general ignorance, could so far expel from his mind the prevailing prejudices and superstitions of his country, and could work out for himself a belief and morality so comparatively pure and reasonable, must have attained to a high degree of intellectual advancement. The subject of the poem is wholly religious, but it is deeply melancholy, owing to the gloomy views entertained by the author of an hereafter; to him the future is wrapped in an appalling darkness. The object of the work is to explain in what manner the sufferings of the good may be reconciled with the existence of a just providence, and also to afford strength and consolation to the afflicted. Job, the hero of the poem, is an Arab; his opponents are Arabs or Idumeans: they are ignorant of Israel's faith and Israel's worship. Their God is the God of all men. The name Jehovah is employed by the narrator, who in the prologue speaks of himself as an Israelite; but, in the dialogues between the several personages who are introduced in the drama, the name of Israel's national God is carefully avoided.

The opinions of the writer are expressed by Job; excepting always those hasty and impatient exclamations, which are uttered by him when irritated by acute bodily suffering, or when heated by controversey and the unjust accusations of his adversaries. The opponents of Job adopt the popular notions of a Providence, and contend-that to suppose that God does not reward virtue, and punish vice, is to impeach the Divine justice :—that a just God cannot do otherwise than secure to the righteous the fruits of their well-doing, and visit the wicked with the curse of His displeasure;-that, consequently, whoever is harassed by misfortunes, sickness, poverty, or other ills, though indeed to human observation his conduct may appear not only innocent, but praiseworthy, he is nevertheless to be regarded as receiving the just retribution of guilt;-that, if a man experience adversity, he is assuredly guilty in the sight of God. Job held other and `more enlarged views of this subject; they will be considered in a distinct section.

§ 1.-NOTIONS OF JOB'S ADVERSARIES CONCERNING GOD AND PROVIDENCE. Four opponents of Job, each sustaining his individual character, are introduced into the poem. Eliphas, Bildad, and Zophar agree in their defence of the divine Providence. The arguments employed by Elihu, a younger speaker, differ but little from those used by his companions; but he is much more moderate in his language, and is desirous of acting the part of a mediator.

ELIPHAS. God is the only God. He is therefore called either Eloah (in the singular number, and not as formerly Elohim), or else, the Almighty. He is the Creator and Governor of the whole earth. The weather and all the phenomena of nature depend on Him. He brings the machinations of the wicked to nought, and rescues the oppressed. "Shall a man be more pure than his Maker."* "I would "seek unto God, and unto God would I commit my cause: which doeth great things and unsearchable; marvellous things without number: who giveth rain 'upon the earth, and sendeth waters upon the fields: to set up on high those that be low; that those which mourn may be exalted to safety. He disappointeth "the devices of the crafty, so that their hands cannot perform their enterprise. "He taketh the wise in their own craftiness: and the counsel of the froward is

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* Job, iv. 17.

"carried headlong. They meet with darkness in the daytime, and grope in the "noonday as in the night. But He saveth the poor from the sword, from their "mouth, and from the hand of the mighty."*

God is just and holy. "Shall mortal man be more just than God? Shall a "man be more pure than his Maker?" "Man more just," so that he shall be able to charge God with injustice in the awards of fate: "more pure," so that he shall be able to charge his Maker with the violation of holiness in rewarding vice.

There exists an intermediate order of beings between God and man, His angels or messengers. These are not free from failings. They appear to men in night visions in order to instruct them. They have no tangible form; they are spirits, phantoms, who are only recognised by the soft breath which precedes them and announces their approach. "Now a thing was secretly brought to me, and mine

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ear received a little thereof. In thoughts from the visions of the night, when deep sleep falleth on men, fear came upon me, and trembling, which made all my "bones to shake. Then a spirit passed before my face; the hair of my flesh stood up: it stood still, but I could not discern the form thereof: an image was before mine eyes; there was silence, and I heard a voice, saying, Shall mortal man be more just than God? shall a man be more pure than his maker? Behold, He put no trust in IIis servants; and His angels IIe charged with folly." "Behold, "He putteth no trust in His saints; yea, the heavens are not clean in His sight."§

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The providence of God is shown in the good fortune which attends the inno cent, and the evil fortune which pursues the guilty. This is the contested point -this is the position which it is the object of the Book of Job to confute. member, I pray thee, who ever perished, being innocent? or where were the righteous cut off? Even as I have seen, they that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same. By the blast of God they perish, and by the breath of His "nostrils are they consumed." ||

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Afflictions sometimes befal the good and pious, but they are merely chastisements permitted by God for a while, in order to promote the accomplishment of some wise though secret purpose. Such chastisements are always of short duration. Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not "thou the chastening of the Almighty for He maketh sore, and bindeth up: He woundeth, and His hands make whole. He shall deliver thee in six troubles: 'yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee."

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The punishments of God may be averted by repentance and amendment of life. "If thou return to the Almighty, thou shalt be built up, thou shalt put away 'iniquity far from thy tabernacles. Then shalt thou lay up gold as dust, and the gold of Ophir as the stones of the brooks. Yea, the Almighty shall be thy defence, and thou shalt have plenty of silver. For then shalt thou have thy delight in the Almighty, and shalt lift up thy face unto God." **

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A man's righteousness cannot be profitable to God: man cannot by obedience and worship add to the happiness and perfection of the Almighty. "Can a man be

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profitable unto God, as he that is wise may be profitable unto himself? Is it any pleasure to the Almighty that thou art righteous? or is it gain to Him, that "thou makest thy ways perfect ?".

Notwithstanding the justness of this sentiment expressed by Eliphas, his views of religion and virtue are strictly selfish.

LONDON PUBLISHED BY M. PATTIE, 31, PATERNOSTER ROW, AND GEORGE GLAISHER, 470, NEW OXFORD STREET.

Printed by W. Ostell, Hart-street, Bloomsbury,

THE PATHFINDER,

A JOURNAL OF

PURE THEISM AND RELIGIOUS FREETHOUGHT,

THE ORGAN OF INDEPENDENT RELIGIOUS REFORM.

It seems to me, on many accounts, important that we should not underrate the present significance and actual strength of Romanism; but chiefly on this account, because a just estimate of the power and position of that Church is necessary in order to appreciate aright the Roman Christian idea; and a right understanding of the Roman Christianity is essential to a right understanding of our own-of Protestant Christianity as distinguished from the Roman. To know ourselves truly, we must know ourselves relatively, we must measure ourselves with others. It is good for us occasionally to collate these different versions of Christianity, and to judge ourselves by comparing the old and the new. Whatever may be our impression of the errors and corruptions of the Roman Church, it will hardly be denied that a Church which has reached such a point of command, and acquired such breadth of dominion, and, what is more, has stood its ground against such a combination of contrary forces as the two last centuries have levelled against it, has, on the whole, a good right to be and to thrive; that, with all its corruptions, there must be some sterling excellence in such a Church. There must be a good deal of truth and a good deal of virtue at the bottom of such success. Protestants may talk about "6 Babylon," and all that, but a power like this never yet based itself on mere corruption. In the long run, success does not side with falsehood. God will not stand by a lie for ever; and certainly of this Church it may be said, in the old Hebrew phrase, that the Lord of Hosts hath been on her side. It is worth our while to study the elements of this success, not for the sake of adopting them,--that would be like adopting another man's eyes or nose, but in order that we may judge correctly of the comparative merits and defects of the two systems.

One very essential element in the success of Romanism is its lofty consciousness, its ecclesiastical consciousness, the Church spirit, the sense of Divine right. Protestantism, as Mr. Martineau very justly characterises it,

"Out of the Cloud" is unavoidably postponed, with other matter, till our next number, by reason of the Editor's indisposition.

VOL. VI. NEW SERIES. VOL. II.

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"has no self-knowledge." "Possessed by a spirit which it did not under"stand, aiming at one thing and realizing another," it "has always mistaken "its own nature and place in history." But Romanism has always understood itself, has always known its end and seen its way. Always conscious of its strength, and confident in its destiny, it has moved onward with no faltering step in the path of empire to which it conceived itself called in him who was to have the heathen for his inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession. It conceives itself called to rule the nations by ruling the mind. The consciousness of such a call was manifest long before the Roman Bishop became the head of Christendom, in the early determination of the Western Church to authoritative settlements of theological questions. The genius of the East inclined to speculation, to free thought and large discourse in matters of religion. The West, ordained to deal with barbarous and unreasoning tribes, who could accept a final proposition, but could make nothing of theories, found it necessary to have opinion fixed in comprehensive and immutable statements. The Greek mind judged of truth by an intellectual standard, and would have every point philosophically legitimated; the Western judged by the standard of expediency, and wished to have all things ecclesiastically settled. Whether philosophically correct, or not, mattered little in their estimation; opinion must be canonically correct, by all means. It would have no open questions. It had the sagacity to perceive that these questions of metaphysical theology admit of no final solution by the intellect, and that the only way to secure any show of unanimity was by a solution ab extra; which, if it did not satisfy the intellect, might do what was next best-keep it in order. The long controversy between the orthodox party and the Arians, which agitated the fourth century, was in some sort a struggle between the Western and Eastern Churches, the West being mostly united on the orthodox side. It was from that quarter that the great Bishop of Alexandria derived his chief countenance and support. In fact, though all the œcumenical councils were held in Asia Minor, there is reason to believe that the prevailing influence in those councils, and their decisions, represented the opposite end of the Mediterranean more fully and distinctly than they did its eastern borders.

A more striking instance of the consciousness, and a very essential condition of the ecclesiastical power of Rome, is the subordination of the secular to the spiritual. This Divine order, which Christianity inaugurated almost as soon as it had governments on its side, the Roman Church has never, in principle, abandoned to this day; and the newest controversy within the limits of the Church turns on that very point. The indebtedness of mankind to the Christian Church, as a barrier against secular tyranny, has never, I think, been acknowledged to its fullest extent. Such a thing as a public censure of government was unknown in the Roman empire since the dictatorship of Cæsar, until Christians assumed the purple. The first Christians, it is true, did not obey the laws which compelled them to violate their conscience, but they did not criticize them. No one dreamed of criticizing government, until government, by becoming nominally Christian, became amenable to a higher law. And when Hilary of Poictiers and old Athanase fulminated their invectives against Constantius, the Roman world stood aghast at the boldness which dared to judge, where others had only learned to obey. The subordination of the secular to the spiritual was consummated, at a very early period, in the Western Empire. And such was the ascendancy of the Church feeling not only over private interest, but over the moral sense,

that, even when the government acted justly, the Church overruled its decisions, if they seemed to affront its own dignity or to contradict its own interest. The Christians at Callinicum had wantonly destroyed a Jewish synagogue. The Emperor Theodosius very justly sentenced them to rebuild it at their own expense. Ambrose opposed the decree as an insult to the Christian Church, which ought not on any pretence to be made instrumental in promoting the cause of Judaism. He defended the conduct of the Christians in this act. They had only retaliated, and that very imperfectly, the ancient persecutions of the Jews. He took the responsibility upon himself, and insisted that the authors of the outrage should be held guiltless. And the ruler of the world submitted to his dictation, as he did on that other more momentous occasion, when, for eight months, the church at Milan was closed against him until he had accomplished the penance exacted by the inflexible bishop for his Thessalonian enormity.

Closely connected with the Church feeling of which I speak, and perhaps a product of it, at all events a very important constituent of the power and success of that body, is the fervent faith of its members in the articles and doctrines of their communion. We hear of the unbelief of professed Romanists among the educated classes in the European capitals. I suppose that to be somewhat exaggerated. But allowing the fact, the sceptics at most are reckoned only by hundreds, the believers by millions. And such believers! The faith of the Romanist is not, as that of the Protestant is apt to be, a mere theoretical admission, or a practical acquiescence, but an assurance amounting to the uttermost possible degree of certitude. Said an individual of that Church to a member of one of the Calvinistic Churches of the city in which I live, "Why do you exclude Unitarians and Universalists "from your Church? The answer was, "Because we believe them to be in error on points of vital moment in religion.” But do you know that they are wrong? Why, we think we have sufficient reason for believing so. "But unless you are absolutely certain, you have no right to exclude them." “How is it, then, with you?" retorted the Calvinist ; you excommunicate "all Protestants without distinction." Yes, because they are all alike wrong in matters of faith.' "That is, you think so.' .""Not at all," said the Romanist; "there is no thinking about it; we simply know that you are wrong as well as we know that you are alive." Such has been in all periods the faith of Rome-unquestioning, unreasoning, unwavering,-the faith of the will. It was faith like this that overthrew the Irminsul on the banks of the Lippe, and compelled the iron Vikingr to receive the baptism of Ansgar. It was this that motived the great reaction of the fifteenth century, that rolled back the tide of the Reformation, and secured to the Vatican the fairest portions of Europe,-France, Austria, Bavaria, Poland, Belgium,—already on the point of secession, and assigned to Protestantism an early boundary line, beyond which it has made no conquest for two hundred years.

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Still another source of the peculiar power of the Roman Church, is the preponderance which it gives to the feelings over the intellect, the ascendancy it accords to the devotional over the dogmatic in religion. It addresses the sentiments more than the understanding. Romanism puts theology in the background and worship in the foreground, devotion first and theory last. The Romanists as a body, it must be acknowledged, are more devout than the Protestants as a body. Their churches, in the countries where that faith prevails, are always open; and every day, and almost every hour of the day, you may find there worshippers who have turned aside from their vocations