put themselves beyond the pale of controversy. Though at first they angered him, they have on the whole been leading him to the attainment of peace. Eliphaz by his misinterpreted visions, Bildad by his misapplied quotations, Zophar by his self-complacent stupidity, have been driving him nearer to God. The want of human sympathy has been helping him, as it has helped many desolate hearts since, to believe that God, though more just than man, is at the same time infinitely more merciful. As Faber has beautifully expressed it :

"There is no place where earth's sorrows

Are more felt than up in heaven;
There is no place where earth's failings
Have such kindly judgment given.

But we make His love too narrow
By false limits of our own;
And we magnify His strictness
With a zeal He will not own.

For the love of God is broader

Than the measure of man's mind;

And the Heart of the Eternal

Is most wonderfully kind."

94

Fob.

III.

CHAPTERS IV.-X.

I

HAVE already given you a general idea of

the discussion which extends from the 4th to the 25th chapters of the Book of Job. We must now look at this discussion a little more in detail.

It is opened by Eliphaz. He acknowledges Job's previous piety, but at the same time suggests to him that suffering can only result from sin. He then exhorts him to repent, and to become pious again, assuring him on these terms of a brilliant future. He begins apologetically

My conscience compels me to say something to you. Might I venture to speak without your being vexed? How is it that you, who have so often comforted the distressed, are dismayed as soon as calamity comes upon yourself? Instead of despair

ing, you should remember that the innocent never perish. It is only the wicked who are consumed. You need not be ashamed to own

your sin, for all of us are sinners. vealed to me once in a vision.

This was re

In the darkness of

the night, when deep sleep falls upon men, a fear came upon me and trembling, a wind swept over my face, and there stood before me a Presence, whose form I could not discern. It spoke in a clear, soft voice, and asked, "Shall mortal man, who is sooner crushed than the moth, be pure in the sight of God his Maker, who chargeth even the angels with folly? It cannot be." Ask any of the holy ones themselves, and they will confirm my doctrine. I have watched the wicked, and always found it ill with them. Their property is enjoyed by robbers. with lawsuits.

Their children ruin themselves They themselves prematurely pass away. But this suffering is no accident; it is the punishment of sin. And since all men are sinners, suffering must come, more or less, to all. Man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward. Your grief is but an extreme illustration of the common rule. Were I in your place, I would have recourse to God. Forgiveness and happiness may seem more than you can hope for; but God is always doing great things past finding

out. He is continually exalting those that are cast down. Happy is the man whom God correcteth. Despise not His chastening. It is for your good. His purpose is to make you reflect. God only bruises in order that He may heal. Return to Him, and your prosperity will be restored-nay, increased. In famine He will sustain you. In war He will protect you. You will laugh at all forms of danger. Wild beasts will never hurt you. Even the stones of the field will be in league with you, and, instead of obstructing your crops, will give them a more luxuriant growth. Your children will be multiplied as the very grass of the land. You shall go down to the tomb in a ripe old age, like a shock of corn fully ripe. This, Job, is my experience. Hear it, and learn it for your good.

Such is the gist of the speech of Eliphaz, as contained in the 4th and 5th chapters. If he must preach rather than sympathise, he could not well have preached a better sermon. The harshness of the insinuation that affliction was a judgment, he delicately tempered, by suggesting that suffering was common to man, and by assuring Job of a happy future if he would but repent. Still it was evident that he had not realised the greatness of the sufferer's grief.

Had he done so, he would never have attempted to assuage it by theology.

In the 6th and 7th chapters we have Job's reply. He begins with upbraiding Eliphaz, and ends with upbraiding God. True, I have been passionate, but my passion is as nothing if compared to my grief, which is heavier than the sands of the sea. The poisoned arrows of the Almighty are rankling in my soul. You might have guessed what I was suffering when you heard my complaint. Not even a brute cries out without cause; still less would a rational man. Your moralisings are insipid and disgusting to me.

You

threaten me with death, if I do not confess that I am guilty. Death is the very thing that I desire. I am not afraid to die, for I have never broken the commandments of the Holy One. Oh that God would crush me out and out, instead of preserving me for this lingering torture! I would dance for joy under any pain that might speedily end in death. You promise me a happy future, if I do confess. But there can be no future for me. It is too late to hope for restored health. I am not made of stone or brass. It is the part of friendship to show pity, otherwise the afflicted may be led into despair and atheism. My brethren have deceived me. They are like a brook,

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