and the speech of Jehovah.

The latter is in

troduced with the words," The Lord answered Job," and this implies that Job had just been speaking. 2. Elihu's speech weakens the speech of Jehovah, inasmuch as it anticipates the appeal to the divine power and wisdom, upon which so much stress is there laid. 3. It is inconsistent with the speech of Jehovah, for it professes to give a logical solution of the mystery of suffering. 4. The language and style of Elihu's speech differ greatly from those which we find in the rest of the poem. It must have been written, according to Dr Samuel Davidsonwho is perhaps the highest authority on the subject at least a hundred years later than the original work. The Rev. Samuel Cox, to whose book I am indebted for many useful suggestions in the preparation of these sermons, has made an eloquent defence of the speech. His strongest reason, however, for believing in its genuineness, is, that "it adds something to the argument of the poem; that it meets and refutes the main positions taken up by Job." But as I endeavoured to show you in my introductory remarks, and as we shall see more clearly still in the next sermon, the poem is not an argument at all. It is the history of

a soul's experience. The long discussion which Job is represented as carrying on with his friends, is only introduced for the sake of unfolding and explaining the various stages of doubt and despair through which the sufferer passed. Elihu's discourse, though pertinent enough to the discussion as such, has nothing to do with Job's experience. It does not elucidate a single sentence to which he gave utterAnd therefore it completely destroys the

ance.

unity of the poem.

next to consider.

So that, in the original poem, we may, as it seems to me, take it for granted Job's soliloquy, which finished in chapter xxxi., was immediately followed by Jehovah's speech, which begins in chapter xxxviii. This speech we shall have In the meantime, let us just notice the state of mind in which Job at present finds himself. He is now comparatively calm. He has attained to a belief in the resurrection of the dead, and therefore his affliction can never again appear to him so desperate as it did, when he supposed that his little all of life was being swallowed up in calamity. But the most fervent faith in another world will never make it agreeable to suffer in this. He is still as much puzzled as ever in regard to the why

and wherefore of his afflictions. He knows of no other meaning in suffering than punishment; and punishment, he is sure, he has done nothing to deserve. He longs as much as ever for an explanation. He has found out that the solution of the problem is beyond the reach of human faculties. But he wants a special revelation. He would like to hear an explanation from the lips of God Himself. He no longer gives vent to blasphemous recriminations against God. He no longer explicitly accuses Almighty of injustice and tyranny and cruelty; but he is, nevertheless, quietly, despondently sceptical. God, at any rate, he feels, must have forgotten him. There is a verse in Austen's "Human Tragedy" which exactly expresses his mental condition. We have all, I suppose, at times felt constrained to ejaculate the same bitter cry:

66

:

Stupendous Power! that, secret and afar,

Sitt'st on Thy throne where none may come to Thee,
O fling the gates of heaven ajar,

That for one moment suffering flesh may see

Thy face, and what Thy darkened judgments are!
Are war and sin and sorrow Thy decree?

Is Fate our Father? Thou art supremely strong,
And we so weak! How long? O Lord, how long?"

the

151

Fob.

VIII.

WE

whirlwind."

CHAPTERS XXXVIII.-XLII.

E have now come to the speech of Jehovah. "The Lord answered him out of the This is the oriental way of saying that it was the sight of a storm, which led Job into some such train of thought as that which follows. Generally speaking, men see God most distinctly in what is strange and appalling. In Longfellow's "Evangeline" we read for example:—

"Keenly the lightning flashed, and the voice of the echoing thunder

Told her that God was in heaven and governed the world He created."

The same truth is asserted by the falling dew. But, for one who will observe God speaking in the still small voice, there are thousands who

And the

will hear him in the thunder-peal. ancients were even less affected than we are by any natural phenomenon which was quiet and commonplace. This, I apprehend, was the reason why the poet adopted a storm as the vehicle of the divine suggestions. Jehovah's speech is somewhat as follows:

Who is this that obscures the ways of Providence by his foolish words? Prepare now for the contest with me which thou hast desired. I will

question thee, and answer me if thou canst. Where wast thou when I founded the earth? Tell me, how was it done? Who determined its measurements? and on what were its foundations laid? Did you hear God's elder children rejoicing over this new creation? Who was it, at the birth of the sea, made clouds into garments for it, and mists into swaddling-clothes? Who was it that restrained the ocean as by bars and gates, and said to it, "Hitherto shalt thou come, but here shall the pride of thy waves be stayed"? Hast thou ever commanded it to be night, or taught the dawn when it was to appear and disperse the works of darkness? -How wonderful is the dawn! All the features of the landscape stand out in relief, and the earth decks herself with her gayest colours. Night is the sinner's day, but with the dawn his fell purposes