in spite of the entreaties and groans of the myriads whom it tortures and prematurely slays; the necessity of believing, if we are to believe at all, not only without seeing, but even in opposition to what we seem to see; the consciousness that we have sought for God and found Him not, so that there is nothing for it but to say with Job, "Behold I go forward, but He is not there; and backward, but I cannot perceive Him: on the left hand, where He doth work, but I cannot behold Him; He hideth Himself on the right hand, that I cannot see Him; "-such feelings as these may at times weigh upon our spirits like a nightmare, and lead us to exclaim with the poet :

"Who shall read us the riddle of life?

The continual sequence of pain,

The perpetual triumph of wrong,

The whole creation in travail to make
A victory for the strong?

How are we fettered and caged,

Within our dark prison-house here!
We are made to look for a loving plan;
We find everywhere sorrow and fear.

We look for the triumph of Good;

And from all the wide world around,
The lives that are spent cry upward to heaven
From the slaughter-house of the ground,
Till we feel that Evil is Lord.

And yet we are bound to believe,-
Because all our nature is so,-

In a Ruler touched by an infinite ruth
For all His creatures below.

Bound, though a mocking fiend point

To the waste and ruin and pain;

Bound, though our souls should be bowed in despair ;
Bound, though wrong triumph again and again,
And we cannot answer a word."

The study of Job may help us. He who had fathomed to its deepest depth and its blackest darkness the abyss of despairing scepticism, attained eventually to the joy of joys-the happiness of a calm and unwavering faith. And so, God helping us, may we.

80

Fob.

II.

CHAPTERS I.-III.

HE Book of Job naturally divides itself into

THE

seven parts. I. The prologue, contained in the first and second chapters, setting forth the early history and circumstances of the hero, and explaining the origin of that terrible mental conflict which it is the chief business of the poem to portray. II. Job's curse, contained in the third chapter. III. A discussion, extending from the 4th to the 25th chapter, as to the connection between suffering and sin. This discussion, as we shall see, is not introduced for its own sake. It is no mere piece of intellectual gymnastic. Its purpose is to unfold and explain the struggle which is going on in the heart of Job. IV. Job's soliloquy in chapters

26-31. V. (Chapters 32-37 are an interpolation.) The discourse of Jehovah in chapters 38-41. VI. Job's final confession of faith, in the first six verses of the last chapter. VII. The epilogue in the remaining verses.

The prologue and the epilogue are but the setting of the poem, and they are written in prose-in order, as I imagine, that they may not be confused with the main action of the drama, which lies in the heart of Job. Many parts of the prologue are fully as dramatic, and imaginative, and poetical in spirit, as anything that follows. But had the poetical form been adopted, it would have interfered with the essential unity of the drama as conceived by the author. He intended it to describe the progress of a soul from darkness to light, from scepticism to faith. And to this purpose everything is subordinated.

We are introduced in the outset to a highly prosperous and a truly good man. He had property which, estimated at the present value of money, must have made him what we should call a millionaire. He had, we are told, seven sons and three daughters. Large families in those days were, as you know, peculiarly prized, and sons were more valued than daughters. He was no less good than prosperous: he was a

F

"perfect and an upright man, fearing God and eschewing evil." One characteristic feature of his religious life is mentioned in particular. It seems that his sons were in the habit of holding festive gatherings, periodically, at each other's houses. There could have been no harm, no impropriety, in the festivals, for their sisters were always invited to join them. But when the feast-days were over, Job offered up sacrifices on behalf of his children. "It may be," he said to himself, "that my sons have abandoned God in their hearts." He was afraid that they might have been led, by their very happiness, into forgetfulness of God. In a word, for prosperity he was the "greatest man in all the East," and for goodness "there was none like him on the earth."

Now it was such a man as this that, according to the old tradition, had once been overtaken by the direst calamities with which ever mortal was afflicted. Tradition gave the facts, but it was puzzled by them; for up to the time when this book was written, suffering was regarded as invariably retributive. The poet wishes to intimate, at the outset, that suffering may have a far higher-viz., a didactic-purpose. It may teach lessons which there are no other