iga^:^sss^^^;- 
 
THE MAN OF UZ. 
 
 LESSONS FOR YOUNG CHRISTIANS FROM 
 THE LIFE OF AN ANCIENT SAINT. 
 
 BY THE 
 
 Rev. S. a. MARTIN, 
 
 PROFESSOR OF HOMILETICS, LINCOLN UNIVERSITY. 
 
 " Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom." 
 
 Job 28 : 28. 
 
 OF co.v 
 
 
 Vn^.^fi^'V/V 
 
 PHILADELPHIA: 
 
 PEESBYTERIAN BOARD OF PUBLICATION 
 
 AND SABBATH-SCHOOL WORK, 
 
 1334 CHESTNUT STREET. 
 
,ri3 
 
 COPYKIGHT, 1891, BY 
 
 THE TRUSTEES OP THE 
 
 PEESBYTERIAN BOARD OF PUBLICATION 
 AND SABBATH-SCHOOL WORK. 
 
 All Rights Reserved, 
 
 Westcott & Thomson, 
 Stereotypers and Electrotypers^ Philada. 
 
TO THE 
 
 YOUNG PEOPLE'S SOCIETIES OF CHRISTIAN ENDEAVOR 
 
 THIS BOOK IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED 
 
 AS A TOKEN OF 
 
 ADMIEATION AND HOPE. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTEK I. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 A Gentleman of the Old School 7 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 Satan at the Coukt of Heaven 22 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 Satan Let Loose 36 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 The Heroism of Endurance 50 
 
 CHAPTER y. 
 An Ancient Creed 67 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Mysterious Providence 83 
 
 6 
 
6 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTEK VII. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The Young Man's Views 104 
 
 CHAPTEE VIII. 
 Out of the Whirlwind 120 
 
THE MAN OF TJZ. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLD SCHOOL. 
 
 " A perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God and 
 escheweth evil.'^ 
 
 "IVTO man knows who wrote the book called Job, 
 -^^ or who Job was, or where or when he lived. 
 Of unknown date and authorship, it is the most 
 catholic of books. It is a great world-drama un- 
 trammelled by time or place or other accident ; it tells 
 of an experience which in all of its essential features 
 might be yours or mine or any man^s. It never 
 loses its interest, because it treats of questions that 
 are as old as human history and as common as 
 human tears. 
 
 Like some grand oratorio composed by an un- 
 known master, its harmonies resound in every age, 
 sublime and sweet, for they are true to the chords 
 of human feeling. 
 
8 THE MAN OF TJZ. 
 
 It Is, beyond all doubt, a gem of rarest beauty, 
 and it does not concern us greatly to know who 
 digged it from the mine of truth, who gave to it 
 such literary polish or who fixed it in its sacred 
 setting in the word of God. 
 
 We take the book up simply as the book takes 
 up its hero, without a word about his genealogy or 
 race or time or place in history ; simply, '^ There 
 was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was 
 Job,^^ and then proceeding straight away to tell us 
 of his character and his experience. 
 
 His character is very briefly but sufficiently de- 
 scribed in a single sentence : " He feared God and 
 eschewed evil.^^ This is the root of the matter. 
 If you know what a man fears — that is, holds in 
 reverence and love — you know the main line of his 
 life and thought and action, for out of the heart are 
 the issues of life. 
 
 Job was perfect and upright because he feared 
 God and eschewed evil. This was the bed-rock on 
 which he built his character, and because it had 
 this rock foundation it fell not when the floods of 
 tribulation came. 
 
 Job^s greatness rested chiefly on this : the fear of 
 God. This is the fundamental thought that under- 
 lies the whole book. As the fundamental air runs 
 
A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLD SCHOOL. 9 
 
 through some great oratorio, never lost even amid 
 the most elaborate and varied harmonies, so in this 
 book we find in all the agonized distress of the 
 bereaved and broken-hearted hero, in all his lofty 
 disquisitions on the magnificence of God^s creation 
 and in all his pondering on the mysteries of Provi- 
 dence this simple creed recurring : " Behold the fear 
 of the Lord, that is wisdom ; and to depart from 
 evil is understanding/^ This was the one thing 
 which Job believed and held to when all else seem- 
 ed unreliable. This was the one thing which could 
 not be shaken, and which remained when the Lord 
 shook not the earth only, but the very heavens. 
 
 What, then, is this ''fear of God'' which God 
 saw in Job, and, seeing, commended; which Job 
 clung to with such unwavering faith when all else 
 seemed hopeless ruin ? It Avas not the dread and 
 terror which spring from a guilty conscience : far 
 from that. It was nothing akin to that fright 
 which evil-doers feel at every thought of a right- 
 eous God to whom each one must give account of 
 himself. It was, first of all, an unwavering con- 
 fidence that God reigneth, and that he doeth all 
 things well. From this conviction flowed that deep 
 and solemn reverence which bows in awe before 
 Him who is clothed with majesty and girded about 
 
10 THE MAN OF UZ. 
 
 with might. It was a deep and earnest sense of 
 personal responsibility to a personal and holy God. 
 
 This is the kind of fear that lies at the founda- 
 tion of all noble character. There is no more im- 
 portant truth in all the v/orld than this, that a great, 
 deep, earnest reverence for the realities of life and a 
 profound conviction that God rules is the very first 
 essential of true human greatness. Nothing in the 
 world so certainly and utterly destroys all possi- 
 bility of wise and graceful manhood as a frivolous 
 and irreverent habit of mind, a flippant, pert and 
 brainless skepticism. There is a kind of doubt that 
 is akin to reverence. It is the serious perplexity of 
 men who search for truth and wisdom ; who stand, 
 as Job stood, looking out upon this world, of which 
 the most sublime and awful contents are but a whis- 
 per of God's power. They stand astonished at the 
 vastness of life's problems, and confess with Job, 
 " These things are too wonderful for me.'' This 
 kind of doubt the Lord respects. 
 
 But there is a much more common kind of skep- 
 ticism, which is as far removed from this as hell 
 is from heaven. It is shallow, thoughtless, insin- 
 cere. Its chief employment is the ridicule of sacred 
 things which great men of every creed and every 
 age meditate upon with awe. It dismisses with 
 
A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLD SCHOOL, 11 
 
 a silly joke themes which wise men ponder with 
 reverence and deep humility. It answers with a 
 sneer the counsels of experience and age ; and, most 
 contemptible of all, it scoffs at a mother^s faith and 
 despises a father's prayers. 
 
 The young man who affects the airs of this kind 
 of skepticism, and, with a little smattering of 
 science, less of history and none of philosophy, 
 and an insignificant experience of life in any of its 
 deeper phases, sets up as an oracle and critic, and 
 poses before the mirror of his own conceit as the 
 type and embodiment of progress and advanced 
 thought, is perhaps the most petty and the most 
 utterly contemptible style of fool that now afflicts 
 this weary world. 
 
 The utter drivel which these fellows pour upon 
 us from the novel, story, essay or daily editorial 
 is one of the most humiliating proofs that in spite 
 of all our boasting the progress of the world in wis- 
 dom is a very slow and tedious matter. 
 
 The truth is, man is a very small creature in a 
 very great universe. On every hand we are con- 
 fronted with problems whose vastness we can but 
 faintly conceive and on whose practical solution the 
 welfare of millions depends. More and more the 
 study of nature and history is revealing the tre- 
 
12 THE MAN OF UZ. 
 
 mendous sweep of principles and laws which are 
 the Fates of modern thought. More and more we 
 realize the truth that the free action of to-day will 
 crystallize over-night and be our destiny to-morrow. 
 
 ^^ Lo these are the outskirts of his ways, but how 
 small a whisper do we hear of him ; the thunder 
 of his power who can understand ?^^ 
 
 All true appreciation of the great and beautiful 
 will lead toward greatness in ourselves. A deep 
 respect for that which is, an honest love of truth 
 and hatred of all sham and pretence and lies, is not 
 in itself greatness or goodness, but it is the first step 
 toward both. 
 
 This fear of God, this confidence in him who 
 reigneth, this solemn reverence for truth and right- 
 eousness, was the distinguishing mark of Job's 
 character on its Godward side. This was the atti- 
 tude of his soul toward what is high and sacred. 
 The sinward side was the antithesis of this : '^ He 
 eschewed evil.'' 
 
 The word eschew was formerly the same as 
 shun, and it means nearly the same thing, but is 
 more emphatic. The figure that is in the word is 
 that of a horse " shying" at a dangerous or doubt- 
 ful object. To eschew evil means not merely to 
 keep from open acts of wickedness, but to shun it, 
 
A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLD SCHOOL. 13 
 
 to " shy '^ at even the suggestion of it. Evil is not 
 a thing to be trifled with. You do not, unless you 
 are a fool, trifle with small-pox or mad dogs or 
 rattlesnakes. It is more dangerous to trifle with 
 sin than with these ; you may charm the snake, you 
 may escape the most deadly and contagious disease 
 and be none the worse for the risk you ran, but you 
 cannot come in contact with sin and escape unhurt. 
 You cannot dabble in sin without soiling your soul. 
 It is not a matter of choice, but of necessity ; sin is 
 in its very nature a defiling and a deadly thing. 
 The only safe rule is the old rule : '^ Enter not into 
 the path of the wicked, and go not in the way of 
 evil men. Avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it, 
 and pass away.^^ 
 
 This first verse gives us the key to the whole of 
 Job's character. He was perfect because his heart 
 was right with God. 
 
 It is ever so : permanently good character can 
 grow only out of a pure and honest heart. We 
 hear much of the influence of '' environment,'^ and 
 environment has very much to do with the de- 
 velopment of character, as the soil and season have 
 very much to do with the development of the fruit 
 in your garden ; but men do not ^^ gather grapes of 
 thorns nor figs of thistles,'^ even in the best of sea- 
 
14 THE MAN OF UZ. 
 
 sons ; no more can right affections and right moral 
 principles originate in the environment or circum- 
 stances of any man. 
 
 Job^s environment was favorable. In his cir- 
 cumstances Job was greatly blessed. God had 
 made a hedge about him, and about his house, and 
 about all that he had on every side ; he had greatly 
 blessed the work of his hands, and his substance 
 w^as increased in the land. As it is true that our 
 circumstances have much to do with the forming 
 of our character, so it is true that God by his wise 
 providence determines our circumstances. The point 
 which Satan raised was not whether Job's environ- 
 ment was favorable, for that is admitted, but whether 
 it was not the sole cause of his piety. 
 
 Let us see just how much of Job's character was 
 due to his favorable circumstances. 
 
 His wealth and high position gave him oppor- 
 tunities of noble conduct which men in humbler 
 circumstances do not have; these opportunities, 
 well improved, became the means of greater grace 
 and higher culture than he could have reached 
 without them. He had been intrusted with many 
 talents, and his faithful use of them gave him just 
 claim to many honors. ^' To him that hath shall 
 be given.'' This is the law of nature, as well as of 
 
A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLD SCHOOL. 15 
 
 grace. As his goodness made his wealth a blessing, 
 so his wealth gave means of increasing his good- 
 ness by doing good. As his prosperity gave lustre 
 to his piety^ so his piety gave dignity to his wealth. 
 The expression " poor but pious ^^ is so largely over- 
 used that we too often get the impression that suc- 
 cess in business and integrity of heart are incom- 
 patible ; that to be pious one must needs be poor. 
 This is not the teaching of Scripture or of experience. 
 Wealth is a form of power which^ if rightly used, 
 may greatly strengthen and develop godline-ss in 
 character. It is the love of money that is a root 
 of all evil ; it is the greed of gain that starves the 
 nobler affections of the man ; and it is the danger 
 of pride and arrogance growing out of riches that 
 led Agur, like a prudent man, to pray, '' Give me 
 neither poverty nor riches.'^ But wealth with 
 grace to use it is a blessing, for it gives opportuni- 
 ties of benefaction and influence for good. It is 
 doubtless easier to be faithful in the use of two 
 
 1 talents than in the use of five; but he that was 
 faithful with the five received the greater reward. 
 Here are some of the ways Job used these talents 
 of wealth : 
 
 He did not eat his portion alone, and let the 
 fatherless go hungry. 
 
16 THE MAN OF UZ. 
 
 He did not dwell in his luxury while the poor 
 were without covering. They lodged in his house, 
 and they were warmed with the fleece of his sheep. 
 
 He w^as patient as well as just with his servant, 
 for he said, " the same God made us both f both 
 were liable to err ; both must seek for mercy, and 
 not justice only. 
 
 He was not haughty on account of his wealth, 
 nor did he make gold his confidence. 
 
 He was ^^ given to hospitality,^^ and gentle to 
 those inferior to him in place and power. 
 
 On the other hand, he scorned to seek popularity 
 at the cost of dignity or justice; the adverse criti- 
 cism and rebukes of his friends could not drive him 
 from his loyalty to his own conscience. I cannot 
 imagine a more complete picture of dignified and 
 noble manhood than this. 
 
 But this is not all. He was not only a noble 
 man, a kind neighbor, a generous master and a 
 faithful friend, but also a kind and sympathetic 
 father. We are told that '' children are an heritage 
 from God,^^ and there is no more accursed infidelity 
 than the modern unbelief of this. 
 
 Job's family is mentioned first, as chiefest of his 
 blessings, and so he seems to have regarded them. 
 He mentions it as one of the joys of his prosperous 
 
A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLD SCHOOL. 17 
 
 days that his children were about him. And they 
 were not only about him, but they seem to have 
 been a congenial family. The fact that they went 
 md feasted in each other^s houses is not a matter 
 of much importance in itself, but it is doubtless 
 mentioned because of what it implies. It implies 
 harmony and good- will. '' Behold how good and 
 how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in 
 unity.^^ Still more is implied in the fact that they 
 sent for their sisters to eat and drink with them. 
 The presence of ladies is mostly a good guarantee 
 that a feast will not be a drunken revel, and the 
 presence of our sisters is never asked when we have 
 anything on hand that we are ashamed of. There 
 is no better test than this. It is a very bad sign 
 when a young man does not want his sisters present 
 where he wants to go himself. Any place of enter- 
 tainment where you do not w^ish to see your sister 
 is no fit place for you. It is not said that Job took 
 part in these festivities himself, but he seems to 
 have given considerable thought to them. The 
 care he exercised over the spiritual welfare of his 
 sons is the most beautiful evidence of his own piety. 
 A good man will make his children's welfare, espe- 
 cially their spiritual welfare, his first consideration. 
 We cannot bequeath our piety as a legacy to our 
 
18 THE MAN OF UZ. 
 
 children ; we cannot regenerate them ; but we can 
 do a great deal to shield them from temptation and 
 to develop in them sound manly principles by bring- 
 ing them up in a clean and wholesome moral atmo- 
 sphere ; and no considerations of business or ambition 
 can justify us in taking risks in a matter so vital as 
 the welfare of our own children. Alas, that any 
 one should need exhortation to this duty ! but the 
 utter recklessness with w^hich men, in pursuit of 
 gain, take their sons and daughters into the most 
 dangerous influences, at the time of life when char- 
 acter most easily receives impressions from without, 
 is one of the most crying evils of the day. Job was 
 thoughtful for his children. He had reason for 
 good hopes concerning them, but that was not 
 enough to satisfy a faithful father ; he provides, as 
 far as he can, against the possibility of evil. " And 
 it was so, when the days of their feasting were gone 
 about, that Job sent and sanctified them, and rose 
 up early in the morning, and offered burnt offer- 
 ings according to the number of them all : for Job 
 said, It may be that my sons have sinned, and 
 cursed God in their hearts. Thus did Job con- 
 tinually.^^ 
 
 Here is an admirable practicable treatment of a 
 problem that has occupied the mind of every 
 
A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLD SCHOOL, 19 
 
 thoughtful parent from Job^s day to ours — 
 namely, How shall our children have good times 
 and not be the worse for it ? We all know that 
 gay rounds of festive pleasures, even though they 
 be the most innocent attainable, have a very strong 
 tendency to crowd out serious thoughts and sadly 
 interfere with spiritual growth. 
 
 Job met the case this way : he did not say, 
 ^^ There is danger in all such festivities ; my sons 
 must therefore give them up;'^ nor did he say, 
 with careless tone, ^^ Oh, let them go while they are 
 young ; they will grow old and sober soon enough/^ 
 I believe the devil invented that saying. No; he 
 kept in fullest sympathy with them in their fes- 
 tivity, but took good care, in due time, to turn their 
 minds again to serious things. He did not intrude 
 the solemn exercises of religious worship on their 
 hours of amusement — there is a time for all things 
 — but when the feasting was over the good father 
 called them to serious thoughts and the solemn ser- 
 vice of religious worship. 
 
 There is a time to laugh and a time to pray, and 
 a little more thoughtfulness and consideration for 
 the fitness of times and places would make our 
 laugh more merry and our prayers more fervent, 
 to the great improvement of them both. 
 
20 THE MAN OF UZ. 
 
 Job used the ordinances of his time ; he offered 
 a special sacrifice for each one of his children. This 
 he did continually, and was commended for so doing. 
 There are men now who would say to Job, " You 
 make a great mistake; any religious service per- 
 formed in that habitual way is likely to become a 
 mere formality ; see what a perfunctory matter 
 family worship becomes when made a part of the 
 daily routine of duty ?' But Job was not the kind 
 of man to be deceived by any such plausible non- 
 sense. He knew from his own experience that 
 regular and stated times for religious service is a 
 matter of great importance. Nothing is well done 
 w^hen left to mere impulse and convenience. When 
 we become irregular in our attendance on the means 
 of grace, public, social or private, we are already in 
 poor health spiritually. The man who has a good 
 appetite was never yet heard to complain of the 
 monotony of three regular meals each day. 
 
 " Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth, .... 
 but remember,^^ says the wise man. Remember 
 that just beyond the days of youth there are days 
 of manhood, days that will call for all your strength 
 and wisdom, days that are full of opportunities of 
 all true greatness. You will need all the sacred 
 influences you can have to fit you well for those 
 
A GENTLEMAN OF THE OLD SCHOOL. 21 
 
 good days. Then there is above all this^ beyond 
 the things that are seen and temporal, the region of 
 eternal verity, a personal God of infinite majesty 
 and love. He has a plan and purpose for you, a 
 destiny right glorious and excellent. Remember, 
 O young man, remember this. 
 
 " The best is yet to be 
 
 The last of life, for which the first was made : 
 Our times are in His hand 
 Who saith, ' A whole I planned ; 
 
 Youth shows but half ; trust God : see all, nor be afraid." 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 SATAN AT THE COURT OF HEAVEN. 
 
 " Now there was a day when the sons of God came to pre- 
 sent themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among 
 them.'' 
 
 rpiHE word "Satan" signifies the adversary. The 
 ■^ evil spirit to whom this name is given is pre- 
 eminently the one adverse to man. He is adverse 
 to every human interest. He is the arch-enemy, 
 the seducer and traducer of our race and of each 
 soul. He was a murderer from the beginning, and 
 abode not in the truth. We are therefore shocked 
 to find him here presenting himself at the court of 
 Heaven among the sons of God. And not only does 
 he come into the presence of the Lord, but he pre- 
 ssents himself as one who has some right to come. 
 There is an assurance about his manner that seems 
 to imply a certain claim to recognition. He reports 
 his " going to and fro in the earth, and walking up 
 and down in it'^ as if it were an employment allow- 
 ed, if not assigned to him. The Lord talks with 
 him concerning Job as a king might talk with his 
 
 22 
 
SATAN AT THE COURT OF HEAVEN. 23 
 
 minister concerning the affairs of a province. But 
 it seems still more surprising to find that the Lord 
 gives him permission to go and exercise all his ma- 
 lignant powers against the man who " feared God 
 and eschewed evil/^ He is allowed to strip Job of 
 all that he possessed, and afterward his license is 
 extended that he might afflict him in body and 
 mind^ forbidden only to take his life. It is indeed 
 startling to read that '' the Lord said unto Satan, 
 Behold, he is in thine hand ; but save his life/^ The 
 Lord puts a perfect and an upright man into the 
 hands of the arch-enemy, to be afflicted, tormented 
 and abused to the utmost limit of living endurance. 
 This representation of Satan and his relation to 
 God is sometimes explained as being the imperfect 
 conception of the author of this ancient book. We 
 are told that the doctrines of demonology were not 
 fully developed at the time this book was written, 
 and that we have to read what is here represented 
 in the fuller, clearer light of the teaching of the 
 New Testament. We are warned to be careful not 
 to impose on Job the conceptions belonging to a 
 later and more advanced period. All this is true 
 in a sense, but rather misleading. It is doubtless 
 true that the New Testament gives fuller knowledge 
 on this, as on all other doctrines, than is given in 
 
24 THE MAN OF UZ. 
 
 the Old Testament ; but, on the other hand, It is 
 true that nowhere in Scripture do we have so com- 
 plete a picture of Satan and of his relations to 
 God as we have here. Nor do we anywhere 
 find his ^^ great might and deep guile ^^ so clearly 
 revealed. 
 
 We have no right to say that an author's knowl- 
 edge is imperfect if all that he has any occasion to 
 say is accurately said. It would be folly to argue 
 that because a man has written a history of Asia 
 therefore he knows nothing of Europe. It is equal 
 folly to conclude that the author of the book of Job 
 held imperfect notions of Satan because he does not 
 mention all that we find in later books. A good 
 deal of what we are told of the development of doc- 
 trine is of this sort. 
 
 The fact that excites remark here is that Satan is 
 represented as the servant rather than the enemy of 
 God. He has access to his presence ; he brings an 
 accusation against a saint, and receives permission 
 to afflict him, so that it can be said with equal truth 
 that " Satan smote Job," or " the Lord hath taken 
 away.'^ 
 
 This strikes us as remarkable ; but the author of 
 this book sees nothing remarkable in it ; at least, 
 he states it as the most natural thing in the world. 
 
SATAN AT THE COURT OF HEAVEN, 25 
 
 We are surprised because we have not thought very 
 deeply about it. Our surprise will disappear, if I 
 mistake not, when we ask ourselves, What else can 
 Satan be but the servant of God ? If God be om- 
 nipotent and sovereign, Satan cannot act but by his 
 high permission. The notion of an eternal prin- 
 ciple or power of evil warring against the good is 
 utterly foreign to Scripture, old or new. It may 
 seem strange, but it is certainly true, that Satan 
 is as dependent on God as we are. Neither man 
 nor devil lives one moment but by God's all-animat- 
 ing breath. 
 
 Satan comes into God's presence because he can 
 do nothing else : there is no corner in this vast uni- 
 verse where he may hide from his sovereign, no 
 realm where he may dwell and be forgotten. He 
 must say, even as we say, '' Whither shall I go 
 from thy spirit ? or whither shall I flee from thy 
 presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art 
 there ; if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art 
 there/' 
 
 But we are told that this appearance of Satan at 
 the court of Heaven is merely a dramatic figure, a 
 poetic image not to be taken literally. Of course 
 this is poetry, and of course it is not to be taken 
 literally ; but it is not any the less strictly accurate 
 
26 THE MAN OF VZ, 
 
 as a statement of truth. We are no more at liberty 
 to reject the teaching of poetry than we are to re- 
 ject that of prose. The habit of reading into the 
 words of Scripture any meaning which those words 
 are capable of conveying in any circumstances is a 
 common but deplorable means of falsifying Scrip- 
 ture. When Christ said, '' I am the vine, ye are 
 the branches/^ he taught a wonderful truth just as 
 distinctly as when he said, ^^ If ye love me, keep 
 my commandments.'^ And we have no more right 
 to shift the meaning of the one passage than we 
 have to reject the teaching of the other. 
 
 The essential matter here is briefly this : God is 
 Sovereign ; Satan may not touch Job, nor the least 
 of his possessions, without distinct permission from 
 the Lord. He may afflict and tempt and harass 
 the children of men, but only so far as God's good 
 purposes allow. This representation of Satan's re- 
 lation to God is not only in harmony with the latest 
 revelation that we have on the subject, but it is the 
 latest ; we have nothing beyond this. 
 
 But Satan, though the servant of God, is none 
 the less Satan — the adversary. The charge which 
 he brings against Job has three marks of Satanic 
 origin : it is false, it is malignant, it is cynical. 
 " He is a liar from the beo^innino; and the father 
 
SATAN AT THE COURT OF HEAVEN. 27 
 
 of it/^ He is wonderfully skillful in the use of all 
 the vile arts of falsehood^ deceit and insincerity. It 
 is well to iknow the marks of Satan^s authorship^ as 
 it is well to know the marks of poisonous weeds 
 and deadly serpents. The " higher criticism ^^ that 
 will teach us all to recognize the hand of Satan in 
 what we read and hear will be a useful science. 
 
 His lies are very plausible ; they much resemble 
 truth^ and have moreover a show of shrewdness. 
 They are skillfully compounded^ containing a fair 
 amount of pleasant truth and but one drop of the 
 poison of error, but that poison is deadly. The first 
 lie that ever defiled the air of Paradise was his as- 
 sertion to our first parents in the garden of Eden. 
 '' Ye shall not surely die/^ said he, " for God doth 
 know that in the day ye eat thereof, then shall your 
 eyes be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing 
 good and evil.^^ And mankind has found, when 
 too late, that the deadly falsehood lay in words that 
 were, in one sense, true : their eyes were opened ; 
 they did indeed know good and evil. Alas, the 
 evil we have known from that first disobedience ! 
 We, whom God would have to know but good, 
 know evil much more intimately ; not as the gods, 
 but as the devils know it. To our Saviour the 
 Tempter quotes Scripture with the same subtle 
 
28 THE MAN OF UZ, 
 
 plausibility. So here^ in the very court of Heaven, 
 he brings an accusation against God's servant with 
 such an appearance of shrewd insight into character 
 that men who pride themselves on their superior 
 knowledge of mankind repeat it as a maxim of their 
 political philosophy in the phrase, " Every man has 
 his price/^ Satan said, ^^Doth Job fear God for 
 nought ? Hast not thou made a hedge about him, 
 and about his house, and about all that he hath on 
 every side? Thou hast blessed the work of his 
 hands, and his substance is increased in the land. 
 But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that 
 he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face.'' How 
 plausible it sounds ! how often we hear it, almost 
 word for word, from the bitter lips of cynical and 
 sneering critics who boast of their keen insight into 
 the secret motives of the human heart ! But it is 
 the devil's doctrine ; it has the trail of the serpent 
 upon it for ever. 
 
 Men say, '' There is a good deal of truth in it." 
 Certainly there is ; there is much truth in all of 
 Satan's lies. He is the most expert and crafty 
 of liars. He is no such unskilled novice in the 
 art of deception as to offer us that which does 
 not even look like truth. A counterfeit coin is 
 dangerous just in proportion to its close resemblance 
 
SATAN AT THE COURT OF HEAVEN. 29 
 
 to the genuine ; so every lie must wear a mask of 
 truth or no one is deceived. 
 
 Satan does not say that Job is a hypocrite : that 
 was a coarse and clumsy charge brought by his 
 angry friends. Satan is much more subtle and 
 malignant : he admits the facts, but impugns his 
 motives. He does not question the statement that 
 Job is perfect and upright so far as conduct is con- 
 cerned, but he attributes it all to selfishness. He 
 seems to say, and to sneer as he says it, " True, Job 
 does well, very well indeed, and he would be a 
 great fool to do anything else ; what could he do 
 that will pay him as well as this piety ? It is, I 
 fancy, rather easy to be pious on his income, and 
 whatever sacrifice he makes is very well rewarded. 
 Even a dog will fawn upon the hand that feeds him. 
 Job is pious for profit; stop his wages, and you 
 will see that it is so ; he will renounce you openly.^^ 
 Such was Satan's first accusation. God, for some 
 good purpose, gives him permission to put Job to 
 the test. Calamity after calamity falls upon him, 
 till he is stripped of all he owned and bereft of all 
 his children ; unmerciful disaster pursues him, like 
 unrelenting fate, till he is childless, penniless and 
 forsaken, naked as when he was born. 
 
 But the adversary is foiled. "Job arose, and 
 
30 THE MAN OF UZ. 
 
 rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down 
 upon the ground, and worshiped, 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/' 
 
 Such a test would seem sufficient, but Satan's 
 malice is insatiable. His hatred of the perfect man 
 is only inflamed by the proof of his integrity. 
 Again he appears in the court of Heaven, not to 
 confess defeat and ask forgiveness for his abuse of 
 Job : far from that. He comes to repeat his ac- 
 cusation and to ask for license to afflict and torture 
 Job still further. With devilish ingenuity he 
 argues that the test he was permitted to make was 
 quite inadequate to the case ; it did not touch Job 
 close enough ; the root of his selfish service was not 
 reached, could not be reached, without striking Job 
 himself. " Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath 
 will he give for his life.'^ He seems to urge that 
 Job is still enduring in hope of reward. True, 
 he has lost all, but he knows that God is able to 
 give him greater things again. In short. Job is 
 patient now for reward, just as he was pious for 
 reward before ; destroy that hope, and then we will 
 have a true test ; then we will see, as I said before, 
 that he will renounce you openly. Such was the 
 
SATAN AT THE COURT OF HEAVEN. 31 
 
 final accusation which the adversary laid against 
 this ancient saint in the court of Heaven. How 
 plausible it is ! "' His hidden craft is matchless/^ 
 
 It is true that Job will lose nothing by his pa- 
 tient faith. '' God is a rewarder of them that dili- 
 gently seek him.^^ How then can it be proved that 
 godliness is ever anything more than enlightened 
 selfishness ? How, indeed, but by proof-test ? This 
 is, therefore, a subtle defamation of all piety and 
 godliness; one that has been repeated by devilish 
 tongues in every age. But it is even more than 
 this : it is an impious challenge against God him- 
 self. It amounts to this, that there is no such 
 thing as sincere, disinterested goodness in the 
 world — that even God^s love and kindness can 
 inspire in man nothing higher than a mercenary 
 allegiance. If Satan is right, if " every man has 
 his price,^^ and selfishness is the fundamental ruling 
 principle in all men, then there is no real virtue in 
 the world, and God\s effort to win our devotion and 
 our love is a failure. 
 
 If this were only a question of Job's integrity, 
 or of the integrity of any one man, it would be of 
 comparatively little importance. But it is a living 
 question. The devil and his agents have not ceased 
 to teach this doctrine, and many a poor soul is en- 
 
32 THE MAN OF UZ. 
 
 snared by this device. It is a common thing to 
 hear men try to palliate, if not excuse, their selfish- 
 ness by this Satanic cry, "All men are just the 
 same.'^ So powerful is the tendency to measure 
 our own righteousness by the character of our 
 neighbor that nothing will so soon corrupt the 
 conscience and make a man ready to be dishonest 
 as the belief that others are dishonest also. No 
 doctrine is more thoroughly devilish and full of 
 mischief than the teaching that all virtue is sham, 
 all honesty mere policy and all piety hypocrisy. 
 This doctrine is the more dangerous because there 
 is so much apparent truth in it. There is so much 
 sham and insincerity in the world that we are often 
 ready in our haste to say, as David said in his haste, 
 "All men are liars.^^ But it is to the honor of 
 humanity that it can be said that this accusation 
 of Satan against humanity is false. Not only did 
 Job prove that there is, in some men at least, a 
 noble devotion to righteousness that is stronger 
 than the love of self, but history is full of evidence 
 against this doctrine of the devil. Many a man 
 has given up his life rather than his honor ; many 
 have died rather than be cowards or traitors. The 
 martyrs, that noble army whom the whole world 
 delights to honor, — what are they but witnesses, 
 
SATAN AT THE COURT OF HEAVEN. 33 
 
 living witnesses^ in heaven, testifying by their very- 
 presence there that there have been multitudes to 
 whom life was sweet, but duty sweeter ? The com- 
 mon excuse for sin, that " a man must live/^ is the 
 whine of the coward and the shirk ; men, true men, 
 in every age have scorned to put honor in the bal- 
 ance against life. Their motto is, " Quit you like 
 men, be strong.^^ 
 
 But if we would know how false Satan's estimate 
 of man is, we may compare it with the estimate 
 which was put on us by Him who "knew what 
 was in man/' Satan says man is thoroughly and 
 supremely selfish; pay him well enough and he 
 will be pious as you wish ; but he has his price ; 
 honor and virtue and loyalty are always in the 
 market ; they can all be bought if you pay 
 enough. 
 
 This picture of us is like a skillfully drawn 
 caricature : it has so strong a resemblance to the 
 truth that we may not be able to say where the 
 false lines are, but that it is not true becomes evi- 
 dent the moment we brinp; it side bv side with the 
 true portrait drawn by the Master. Then we see 
 that it is totally and meanly false. The meek and 
 lowly Man of Nazareth knows man better, infinitely 
 better, than the sneering fiend, and yet Jesus of 
 
34 THE MAN OF UZ, 
 
 Nazareth thought man was worth redeeming with 
 his own divine blood. None know so well as he 
 the sad depths to which we have fallen, but in his 
 pity there is no contempt ; in all his rebukes there 
 is never a sneer. He who created us in the image 
 of God saw the traces of that image even in the 
 publicans and harlots to whom he brought the 
 gospel of forgiveness and hope. You remember 
 Elijah^s cry of despair, " I only am left/^ and God\s 
 reply, " I have seven thousand in Israel.^^ 
 
 You remember also the command of Christ to 
 begin the preaching of the gospel in elerusalem. 
 All worldly wisdom would say, " That is a great 
 mistake. Better go to some place where the people 
 are not so violently prejudiced against the gospel; 
 it is certain that these people of Jerusalem will 
 never turn to Christ.^^ Nevertheless the command 
 was given, the gospel of remission of sins was 
 preached in prejudiced Jerusalem, and, to our 
 amazement, a great cry is heard on the lips of 
 thousands, ^^What shall we do?^^ and there were 
 added to the Church about tliree thousand souls in 
 a single day. 
 
 Pessimism is of the devil ; to grow discouraged 
 is human. Jesus Christ has given us a gospel of 
 abounding hope, a hope that maketh not ashamed. 
 
SATAN AT THE COUET OF HEAVEN. 35 
 
 May he open our eyes to see in every man a soul 
 that Christ loves and for whom Christ died. To 
 bring accusations against our race is Satan's work, 
 not ours. To believe them is to put Satan's esti- 
 mate above Christ's. It may be that some of our 
 hopes shall fail, and that some of those we trust 
 will disappoint us, but on the whole God will do 
 exceedingly above all that we ask or think. He 
 who works with the largest hope will work with 
 the stoutest heart, and will see most of his hopes 
 realized. 
 
 "He prayeth best who loveth best 
 All things both great and small ; 
 For the dear God that loveth us, 
 He made and loveth all.'' 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 SATAN LET LOOSE. 
 
 " So went Satan forth from the presence of the Lord, and 
 smote Job." 
 
 pHARLES KINGSLEY once remarked that 
 ^^ Satan's latest trick is to pretend that he is 
 dead/' A much older theologian observed that it 
 has always been a favorite device with the Evil 
 One to persuade men that he does not exist. If 
 this be his design, he has much reason to exult in 
 its success, for while there are few who go so far as 
 openly to deny the fact of his existence, there are 
 multitudes to whom he is practically nothing more 
 than a dead devil. There are, indeed, very few 
 who have any adequate conception of his real pres- 
 ence and power on the earth. 
 
 The fact of a powerful spirit, full of all malice, 
 constantly active to destroy us is scarcely felt at all 
 as one of the factors of human affairs. It is a very 
 poor general who fails to learn all that may be 
 known of the enemy's character and power and de- 
 
 36 
 
SATAN LET LOOSE. 37 
 
 signs ; so he is but an ill-trained soldier of Jesus 
 Christ who neglects the information God has given 
 us concerning the great enemy of our souls. We 
 will well deserve defeat if we are so foolish as to 
 accept without consideration the mere rumors of the 
 camp concerning Satan and his devices^ especially 
 when these rumors bear the most suspicious marks 
 of Satan's authorship. The present popular notions 
 of the Evil One are just such as favor his design 
 of concealment, and thus give him easy access to 
 the citadel of our hearts. 
 
 The most popular conceptions of Satan at this 
 time are wonderfully ill-considered and often 
 grossly absurd. A few of the more common of 
 these notions may be classified and examined under 
 three general forms, one or other of which they 
 generally assume : 
 
 The first we may call the transcendental theory. 
 This represents Satan as a philosophical abstraction 
 signifying evil influences in general. He is, ac- 
 cording to this theory, the personification of the 
 hurtful, the corrupting, the degrading ; in short, 
 of every influence that makes for unrighteousness. 
 This doctrine is put forward under banners most 
 likely to attract the eye and win the popular favor. 
 It is introduced as '^ advanced,'^ " modern,^' '^ scien- 
 
38 THE MAN OF UZ. 
 
 tific^^ and whatever else may serve to advertise it as 
 something new and different from the traditional 
 faith. The chief reason for its being accepted lies 
 in the reaction that has followed the too vivid fancy 
 concerning Satan's personal agency in the affairs of 
 men. The witchcraft craze of the seventeenth cen- 
 tury, with its barbarity and shame, was not only 
 the death-struggle of a degrading superstition, but 
 it was also the beginning of a reaction which has 
 carried the present age far to the opposite extreme. 
 Because the absurd garments in which the ignorant 
 fancy of the Middle Ages had clothed Satan have 
 been cast out of respectable belief we deceive our- 
 selves with the notion that we have got rid of the 
 fiend himself. This doctrine of Satan is, however, 
 never received on its own merits. It comes in as 
 a part of a whole system of theology, which strives 
 to retain old names and forms of doctrine, but in- 
 terprets out of them all positive meaning, leaving 
 little more than a lot of pretty .allegories which 
 may mean this or that or nothing, according to the 
 reader's fancy. 
 
 Of course, such a doctrine is practically a mere 
 denial that any such person as Satan exists, and it 
 is all the more dangerous because it does not shock 
 our conservative sense by saying so too plainly. It 
 
SATAN LET LOOSE. 39 
 
 is the most subtle form of Satan^s design to per- 
 suade men that he does not exist. 
 
 The second form of popular conception of Satan 
 we may call the mediaeval. This represents him as 
 a grotesque and absurd but not very dangerous 
 being. He is pictured as horned and hoofed, armed 
 with a pitchfork, the coarse companion of witches, 
 cowardly, cunning and superstitious. This is the 
 devil of the common theatre and of pictorial art. 
 It is the popular conception of the ignorant and the 
 worldly. In the minds of such, Satan is associated 
 with the spectacular drama, blue-fire and a smell 
 of brimstone. His name suggests to them the 
 comedian and the property-room of the theatre, 
 rather than any serious reality of the moral world. 
 This notion of the Evil One is the result of Middle 
 Age superstition worked over by modern irrever- 
 ence. The state of mind in which it flourishes is 
 that which finds amusement in irreverent remarks 
 on sacred things and fancies that they are witty. 
 In the minds of the rude and ignorant this concep- 
 tion answers Satan^s purpose quite as well as the 
 transcendental view does in the minds of the more 
 cultured. In both his object is to conceal his deadly 
 malice and great might and to persuade men that 
 he does not exist. In the one case he is merely a 
 
40 THE MAN OF UZ. 
 
 subjective image, a figment of the imagination, de- 
 noting certain more or less real evils, but devoid 
 of personality, and therefore not to be dreaded as a 
 present danger. In the other conception of him 
 there is such an air of absurdity, of " bouflfe,^^ such 
 a flavor of unreality and buffoonery, that it is al- 
 most impossible to persuade any one to take him 
 seriously. It is evident that, whether he originated 
 these notions of himself or not, they are exceed- 
 ingly well suited to his subtle purpose of pretend- 
 ing he is dead. 
 
 There is a third conception of Satan^s character, 
 which we may call the heroic. This presents him 
 as the unsuccessful but brilliant leader of a great 
 rebellion in heaven. He is wicked but magnificent. 
 John Milton^s poetic genius created this picture for 
 us, and, Puritan though he was, he has made the 
 Satan of " Paradise Lost^^ one of the most interest- 
 ing characters in all literature. Milton does not 
 fail to tell us that Satan is bad, but at the same 
 time he exhibits in him such bravery and fortitude, 
 such shrewdness, skill and eloquence, that we can- 
 not but admire him, and while our judgment is 
 against him our sympathies are with him. Of 
 course, this is poetry, not dogmatics, but it has for 
 that very reason entered the more widely into the 
 
SATAN LET LOOSE. 41 
 
 current conceptions of the prince of darkness. Mil- 
 ton was one of the few j.oets whom the Puritans 
 would read, and his influence must have been very 
 great and very dangerous. It is indeed rather sur- 
 prising that among all the forms of ungodliness 
 that have been organized or formulated some party 
 has not taken Milton's Satan as their hero and 
 patron. It would be hard to imagine a leader bet- 
 ter suited to gain the applause and command the 
 obedience of some anarchist parties, and the time 
 may come when they will read good literature 
 enough to find him. The danger of such a view 
 of Satan^s character is evidently of quite another 
 kind from those we have mentioned above. The 
 danger here is not that we come to think of him as 
 unreal, but, believing that he does exist, come to 
 regard him as having a good deal to claim in his 
 favor. Our sympathy so naturally inclines to the 
 weaker party in the conflict that if Satan can be 
 supposed to have any such good qualities as Milton 
 gives him, there will be plenty of silly folk to pro- 
 fess, and possibly to feel, some sentimental admira- 
 tion for him, just as there are ahvays some weak- 
 minded sentimentalists to make heroes of the vilest 
 criminals when they are about to be punished. 
 Sympathy is a lovely grace, but such diseased and 
 
42 THE MAN OF UZ. 
 
 morbid sympathy as this, which would turn loose 
 upon society tlie cruel and brutal wretches whom 
 justice claims for the gallows, is a pitiable kind of 
 idiocy. And yet this is almost wisdom compared 
 to the insanity that would make a hero of the 
 prince of darkness, the malignant enemy of souls. 
 The Satan of the book of Job is a very different 
 being from any of these. He is an actual, per- 
 sonal, powerful being, shrewd, busy and full of 
 deadly malice. He knows Job thoroughly, and all 
 his circumstances intimately. He hates him with 
 a bitter and aggressive hatred, a hatred that is 
 wholly malignant. Job had done nothing against 
 him on account of which Satan might be expected 
 to hate him. His guile was not 
 
 " Stirred up with envy and revenge," 
 
 as Milton puts it; it is the outgoing of native 
 malevolence. It is a bitter and implacable hatred, 
 that knows no reason, no pity, no remorse. It is 
 hatred absolute, malevolence unmixed. It is not 
 rage nor fury nor anger such as mortals know, but 
 black, cold, hellish hate. This is what we have to 
 fight, " For our wrestling is not against flesh and 
 blood, but against the principalities, against the 
 powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness, 
 
SATAN LET LOOSE. 43 
 
 against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the 
 heavenly places/^ 
 
 "Our old, mortal foe 
 Now aims his fell blow, 
 Great might and deep guile 
 His horrid coat-of-mail ; 
 On earth is no one like him." 
 
 He comes forth from the presence of the Lord 
 exulting in his license to hurt Job and gloating 
 over the prospect of seducing him from his in- 
 tegrity. With what eagerness he strikes him ! and 
 what weapons he has ! The wind and the light- 
 ning and the rapacity of man are wielded by him 
 as if they were his own proper weapons. Whether 
 he has power over the forces of nature dijfiferent in 
 kind from the power man has over the same is an 
 open question. On the one hand^ there is no reason 
 to doubt that he may have; on the other hand, 
 there is no necessity for insisting that he has. His 
 superior knowledge of the laws of nature may be 
 quite enough to account for all the facts. Man can 
 do wonders with the lightning now which a very 
 few years ago would have been thought possible 
 only to supernatural beings. That he has power 
 to stir up the minds of wicked men to evil deeds is 
 more certain. Every evil habit, every unrighteous 
 
44 THE MAN OF UZ, 
 
 desire is a handle for Satan to hold us by and to 
 lead us captive at his will. There is nothing very 
 mysterious about this. We are familiar with the 
 way by which wicked men influence other men by 
 their vices and evil desires ; how they excite them 
 and develop them until they become stronger than 
 conscience, and then pander to them at their own 
 price. The liquor-seller who deliberately creates 
 or intensifies the appetite to which he caters is a 
 horrible example of this devilish method of leading 
 men by the handles of vice. What such men do 
 in their measure Satan does in his larger way. In 
 this, as in other ways which we have noticed, the 
 prince of darkness hides his hand, persuades men 
 that he does not exist. Personal liberty is to men 
 a delusion ; to Satan it is a ghastly joke, at which 
 he and the fiends of hell laugh with that horrible 
 laughter which is the mockery of mirth. The 
 father of lies has never circulated a belief that is 
 more intensely false than this, that he is the patron 
 of the bright and joyous side of life. He offers us 
 the gratification of our desires in the name of free- 
 dom, but he takes good care that each indulgence 
 makes it harder to abstain, and when desire be- 
 comes stronger than principle we are like a ship 
 that has lost its rudder — the wreck is sure to come, 
 
SATAN LET LOOSE. 45 
 
 no matter what wind blows, for there are clangers 
 on every side. It is just here that we see the in- 
 sufficiency of all reforms that aim at anything less 
 than a radical change of principle. Little does the 
 Evil One care into w-hich of his traps you fall. 
 What gain is it to escape the snare of drunkenness 
 only to fall into the pit of filthy lewdness ? What 
 advantage has the man whose avarice destroys him 
 over the man whose sensuality destroys him ? 
 Sometimes it suits the deviPs purpose best to have 
 us rich in this world^s goods ; in other cases it is 
 his aim to take away these things. His attack on 
 Job was by stripping him of all he valued. But his 
 attack on you may be just the opposite. We know 
 not which is the more severe, but we see enough 
 of the danger of both to feel the wisdom of the 
 prayer of Agur, the son of Jakeh, ^^Give me 
 neither poverty nor riches ; feed me with food con- 
 venient for me : lest I be full and deny thee, and 
 say, Who is the Lord ? or lest I be poor and steal, 
 and take the name of God in vain.^^ All honor to 
 the rich man who is a faithful steward of the good 
 things God has committed to his care, but equal 
 honor to the poor man who is faithful and con- 
 tented in his lot. 
 
 Now see this pretended friend of pleasure, this 
 
46 THE MAN OF UZ, 
 
 patron of happiness, this jolly good fellow, as he 
 would have us believe, — see him when he gets a 
 man in his power. How he hurls his weapons, 
 with scowling hate, till he sees him swept bare of 
 every possession, bereft of every earthly comfort, 
 ruined in fortune and distressed in mind, the object 
 of the pity and compassion of every one who reads 
 his sad story ! Surely this is enough to satisfy the 
 spite of even a devil ; surely, we say, unprovoked 
 dislike cannot go beyond this. But we are mis- 
 taken ; here is a hatred that does not know what 
 pity is. He has begged for further license against 
 Job, and, having gotten it, he proceeds to strike the 
 man who is down. He leaps on him, torments 
 him, and uses every means in his power to destroy 
 him, soul and body. 
 
 The whole story of Satan's abuse of Job is a 
 picture of the lowest, meanest malice. There is 
 nothing here of the grotesque, the jesting devil 
 of the modern stage or the daily paper. There is 
 nothing here of the heroic Satan of Milton, nor 
 of the vague abstraction of our ^^progressive'' 
 friends. There is nothing here but bitter hatred, 
 implacable, deadly and inhuman. It is the work 
 of the Old Serpent, the horrible Dragon of the 
 bottomless pit. 
 
SATAN LET LOOSE. 47 
 
 So it ever is. Our adversary is fall of guile ; 
 he can assume the appearance of an angel of light ; 
 he can pose as the friend of youthful sport, the 
 champion of freedom, the patron of sweetness and 
 light. But look at his victims : are they peaceful ? 
 are they joyous? They laugh, perhaps, but it is 
 either with tliat silly laugh that is like '' the crack- 
 ling of thorns under a pot^^ or that horrible bar- 
 room laugh that can hardly be distinguished from 
 a curse. 
 
 Hardly anything is more indicative of character 
 than the laugh. A terrible history of a souFs 
 degradation might be written by simply describ- 
 ing the laugh — if this were possible — from the 
 silly laugh of those who trifle with sin to the 
 coarse yell of those whom sin has brutalized. 
 Nothing can be farther from mirth than the heart 
 that the Evil One has conquered. It is unspeak- 
 ably sad, not merely with the sadness of misfortune 
 and pain and disappointment, but with a deeper 
 and darker sadness — a sadness that is not only 
 dark but hideous, terrifying, causing one to shriek 
 with terror. 
 
 But Satan is not supreme. He is superhuman, 
 superior to flesh and blood, but the ^^seed of the 
 woman '^ hath bruised the serpent's head. 
 
48 THE MAN OF UZ. 
 
 " By might of ours can nought be done : 
 
 Our fate were soon decided. 
 But for us fights a champion, 
 
 By God himself provided. 
 Who is this, ask ye? 
 Jesus Christ: 'tis he: 
 Lord of Sabaoth, 
 True God and Saviour both, 
 
 Omnipotent in battle." 
 
 So Luther puts it, and so it is. No man can cope 
 with such an adversary. But help hath been laid 
 on one who is mighty to save. He hath taken our 
 nature and become man, that through death he 
 might destroy him that had the power of death, 
 that is, the devil. The more we realize the terrible 
 danger we are in from the great enemy of souls, 
 the mor^ we will feel the need of a divine Saviour 
 to come with the omnipotence of God for our de- 
 liverance ; the more we will rejoice in the gospel of 
 Christ our Champion and the Captain of our salva- 
 tion. Then we can sing in triumph, 
 
 " Did devils fill the earth and air, 
 
 All eager to devour us, 
 Our steadfast hearts need feel no care. 
 
 Lest they should overpower us. 
 The grim prince of hell, 
 With rage though he swell. 
 
SATAN LET LOOSE. 49 
 
 Hurts us not a whit, 
 Because his doom is writ; 
 A little word can rout him. 
 
 " The Word of God will never yield 
 
 To any creature living; 
 He stands with us upon the field, 
 
 His grace and Spirit giving. 
 Take they child and wife, 
 Goods, name, fame and life, — 
 Though all this be done, 
 Yet have they nothing won: 
 
 The kingdom still remaineth."* 
 
 * (" Ein feste Burg." Trans, of Dr. T. C. Porter.) 
 4 
 
CHAPTER lY. 
 
 THE HEROISM OF ENDURANCE. 
 
 " Ye have heard of the patience of Job.'' — J as. 5 : 11. 
 
 rpiHE name of Job has become the very synonym 
 -*- of patience. But patience, like the book of 
 Job, must be well known to be appreciated at its 
 proper worth. It is the crowning grace of Chris- 
 tian character, the sweetest and fairest fruit of the 
 Spirit, but its very nature is to hide from sight and 
 observation. The perfection of its beauty consists 
 in this, that it is never showy, but modest, unob- 
 trusive, quiet. 
 
 We are prone to estimate all things by the force 
 they show, by the active energy they manifest. 
 TTe say the blacksmith shapes the iron with his 
 hammer, while the anvil, which outwears a score 
 of hammers, is not so much as mentioned. We 
 speak of the power of steam as that which drives 
 the engine, till, now and then, an explosion re- 
 minds us that the strength of resistance must be 
 greater than the force of steam or there will be 
 
 50 
 
THE HEROISM OF ENDURANCE. 51 
 
 trouble. So it is in Christian character : the active 
 virtues, such as courage, benevolence, hospitality 
 and the like, are so much more easily seen that we 
 too often come to regard the passive graces, such 
 as meekness, gentleness and patience, as secondary 
 both in beauty and influence ; but this is ]:)y no 
 means the case. They are not only the eminently 
 Christ-like graces, but they are abundantly fruit- 
 ful and effective in good works and well-rounded 
 manhood. 
 
 The tendency of our religious life to-day is 
 strongly toward the active and utilitarian extreme. 
 To feed the hungry, clothe the naked, nurse the 
 sick, preach the gospel to the poor and send it to 
 the heathen are duties recognized and performed in 
 this age as never before on earth. This is well : 
 we thank God that it is so ; but there is a very 
 serious danger that we come to look on these activi- 
 ties as constituting our religion. We need to culti- 
 vate with greater care the passive virtues, the graces 
 of endurance, or our life will grow one-sided, lack- 
 ing symmetry, thus failing of the standard set for 
 us in the gospel, ^' That ye may stand perfect and 
 complete in all the will of God.^' 
 
 Another difficulty in the way of properly appre- 
 ciating the grace of patience is that its exercise is 
 
52 THE MAN OF UZ. 
 
 so closely coiiDected with what we call our temper, 
 a most uncertain thing in most of us. In some 
 moods we are able to bear much, while in other 
 moods the merest trifles make the currents of our 
 soul run rough and muddy. A piece of iron may 
 be tested and warranted to stand a certain strain at 
 any time, but it is not so with men ; at one time 
 we can bear a mountain of outrage or injustice, at 
 another time the grasshopper is a burden. To at 
 all appreciate a test of character in the grace of 
 patience we must consider delicately every circum- 
 stance of the trial, and especially the order of the 
 events. It would be hard to imagine circumstances 
 or an order of events better adapted to the devilish 
 purpose of breaking down the patience of a man 
 than that which Satan devised to ruin Job. 
 
 Misfortune, affliction, bereavement, pain and 
 dishonor are poured upon him. First, he is strip- 
 ped of his wealth ; then, at one dreadful stroke, 
 his sons and daughters all are taken from him. 
 He was thus, in a moment, dashed from the highest 
 place of fortune to the lowest depth of adversity ; 
 he was penniless and desolate. He called his servant 
 and received no answer; he realizes by this that he 
 is deserted. He looked to his wife for sympathy, 
 but she, poor soul ! had broken down under these 
 
THE HEROISM OF ENDURANCE. 53 
 
 sad losses^ and, saddest of all, had lost her faith in 
 God. Job is urged to embrace despair and in- 
 fidelity. He longs for sympathy, but the very 
 children in the street mock him ; there is " none 
 so poor to do him reverence.'^ Such was the or- 
 der and severity of Satan^s first attack. It was 
 devilish in plot and execution, but it failed to 
 shake the faith of the man who " feared God and 
 eschewed evil.^^ ^^The Lord gave, and the Lord 
 hath taken away ; blessed be the name of the Lord,^^ 
 said Job, and the blessed God looked down from 
 heaven on his brave saint with admiration and 
 commendation. 
 
 Now the second onset of Satan begins. He 
 strikes Job suddenly with painful and loathsome 
 disease. So sorely is he stricken that he becomes 
 oifensive to his own senses, and groans in agony of 
 pain. He cries out in anguish for death to come 
 to his relief. Still he rules his spirit, and from 
 these depths cries unto the Lord with unwavering 
 faith ; his soul " waited for the Lord more than 
 they that watch for the morniug.^^ 
 
 But the end is not yet; there is a severer test 
 awaiting Job, in a quarter where he least expected 
 it. The sharpest trial of his patience comes from 
 his friends. This seems strange, but it is often 
 
54 THE MAN OF UZ. 
 
 so : no eoemy can so exasperate us as an unreason- 
 able friend. When Job's three friends heard of his 
 affliction and the sad plight he was in, they came 
 at once to see him ; with delicate good taste they 
 would not intrude upon his silent grief, but with rent 
 mantles and dust-besprinkled heads they ^* sat down 
 with him on the ground seven days and seven 
 nights, and none spake a word unto him, for they 
 saw that his grief was very great/' This was very 
 kind ; it was the first bit of bright sky Job had 
 seen since the storm of trouble burst upon him. 
 But it was only such brightness as Satan always 
 gives when he is managing — a deceitful glimmer 
 only to excite a hope which will soon be quenched 
 and leave him in deeper darkness than before. 
 Satan used these friends for his malignant purposes 
 with great adroitness. They were not turned against 
 Job at once ; it might have been easier for Job to 
 bear it if it had been so. It would have saddened 
 his life more, perhaps, but it would not have been 
 so trying to his patience as their wrong-headed 
 friendship was. 
 
 They were men of strict integrity; they were 
 sincere friends of Job ; they loved him dearly and 
 were deeply grieved in his affliction, all the more 
 because they believed that he had brought it on 
 
THE HEROISM OF ENDVBANCE. 55 
 
 himself by some siu, which, though hidden from 
 them and from the world, God saw and was now 
 visiting with his displeasure. 
 
 Job loved his friends, and strove with all his 
 might to vindicate his character in their sight. 
 But they were men of a settled theory, not open 
 to conviction, probably holding it impious to enter- 
 tain a doubt of the truth of their creed. '' Suffer- 
 ing,'^ they said, " is the penalty of sin ; Job suffers, 
 therefore Job has sinned.^' Moreover, since he 
 suffers so terribly, he must have sinned greatly ; 
 the fact that he has seemed good only aggravates 
 the case, for it proves that he was a cunning hypo- 
 crite. This was their theology ; not wholly false, 
 yet totally misleading ; not open to argument, and 
 therefore not to be shaken by facts or logic. Yet 
 these men were by no means stupid bigots. Their 
 manners were courteous and refined, their language 
 dignified and their reasoning high and scholarly. 
 They were gentlemen of a fine type. 
 
 Their fault was a fault most prevalent among 
 scholars everywhere — too much confidence in their 
 own opinion. They set themselves to this un- 
 pleasaut task of bringing Job to penitence and con- 
 fession, not from any envious pleasure in seeing 
 him humbled, but because they honestly loved him 
 
56 THE MAN OF UZ. 
 
 and thoroughly believed that unless he would re- 
 pent and put away the secret sin^ whatever it was, 
 that had brought him to his present sad state, he 
 would be undone for ever. So they come to com- 
 fort and to help him. 
 
 For one whole week they sit beside him in silent 
 sympathy. ^^The heart knoweth its own bitter- 
 ness : and a stranger doth not intermeddle with its 
 joy.^^ They show by every conventional sign of 
 their time and country how they desire to share his 
 burden, how they are afflicted in his affliction. 
 
 How true it is that silence is golden, speech is 
 but silver. After a whole week of silent sympathy, 
 which was like balm to the wounded spirit, they 
 venture to speak. Eliphaz the Temanite, perhaps 
 because the eldest, speaks first. In the gentlest 
 and most graceful way he speaks as friend should 
 speak to friend, frankly, candidly and with dig- 
 nity. He suggests very clearly the belief that Job 
 had brought this great distress upon himself, yet 
 he is very kindly. He refers to this belief as that 
 which all alike held — the orthodox belief of the 
 time, as indeed it was. Then, to soften as much 
 as possible the blow he felt compelled to give, 
 he puts it in the graceful form of a poetic vision, 
 saying, 
 
THE HEROISM OF ENDURANCE, 57 
 
 " Now a thing was secretly brought to me, 
 And mine ear received a whisper thereof. 
 In thoughts from the visions of the night, 
 When deep sleep falleth on men, 
 Fear came upon me, and trembling, 
 Which made all mj 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 appearance thereof: 
 A form 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 ?" 
 
 Thus the old gentleman sets forth the universal 
 imperfection of mankind^ and paves an easy road 
 for Job to come to confession. Then he frankly 
 urges him to come now and confess his sin to God, 
 and thus seek for mercy and forgiveness : 
 
 " But as for me, I would seek unto God, 
 And unto God would I commit my cause ; 
 Which doeth great things and unsearchable. . . . 
 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. . . . 
 Thou shalt come to thy grave in a full age. 
 Like as a shock of corn cometh in in its season. 
 Lo this, we have searched it, so it is ; 
 Hear it, and know thou it for thy good." 
 
58 THE MAN OF UZ, 
 
 An exhortation to repentance could not be more 
 gracefully put, nor more honestly. Job answers it 
 in the same straightforward way. " I know/^ said 
 lie — " I know that it is so : But how can man be 
 just with God V^ He does not claim to be without 
 sin, but he does claim to be guiltless of any such 
 sin as they imply in their speech. He claimed to 
 be just what God testified that he was, a complete 
 and honest man, who did his duty as he saw it. 
 He claimed " integrity,^^ which is moral soundness. 
 But his friends will not believe him, and so the 
 discussion goes on, the friends taking their stand 
 on what they regard as an undeniable first prin- 
 ciple, namely, that God is a just ruler, and there- 
 fore metes out happiness and affliction as the reward 
 of virtue or the penalty of sin. Job does not at first 
 deny this; it is evidently what he too had held, 
 and it involves so much of truth that he is bewil- 
 dered as to where the fallacy lies. But he has a 
 fact which he will not give up for all the theories 
 he ever held : he is firm in the testimony of a good 
 coDScience. On this he stands, as, long after, Mar- 
 tin Luther stood, confident that God would not 
 condemn him when his conscience did not. Now 
 comes what was perhaps the crucial test of his 
 patience. His friends speak in turn, and each 
 
THE HEROISM OF ENDURANCE. 59 
 
 presses a little further the accusations of guilt and 
 becomes a little more direct and specific in his 
 charges, till at length they all three lose their tem- 
 per and become abusive. Eliphaz, who was so 
 dignified and gentle at the first, who clothed his 
 exhortation in the offenceless form of a vision, now 
 becomes almost brutal in his accusations : 
 
 " Is not thj wickedness great ? 
 Neither is there any end to thine iniquities. 
 For thou hast taken pledges of 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." 
 
 Bildad and Zophar follow the lead of Eliphaz ; 
 they berate Job, call him hard names, abuse him 
 for talking so much and complain that he does not 
 show them proper respect. In short, there is 
 scarcely a mean, unmanly thing in all the cata- 
 logue of meanness that they do not accuse him of. 
 So utterly silly and unreasonable do even good 
 men become when they lose their temper. Their 
 elegant language has become common and brutal, 
 their profound philosophy is made absurd by their 
 extremity, and their politeness is torn to rags and 
 
60 THE MAN OF UZ. 
 
 tatters ; they were " mad/^ Let this be a warning 
 to us, for just so foolish and undignified do we 
 become when we get angry. 
 
 We need not follow into further detail the tedious 
 repetition of their railing, for it is mere railing now. 
 We have seen enough already to convince us that 
 the point is reached, and long past, where you or I 
 should have lost control of tongue and temper and 
 would have answered back in rage. The natural 
 impulse to render railing for railing would lead 
 most men, in such a case, to pour out such floods 
 of boiling words as outraged innocence could find, 
 to hurl hard names and hissing contempt from fiery 
 tongues, to revile the revilers. 
 
 But what did Job do ? 
 
 The answer cannot be given in a word or two, 
 but it is given in the vivid picture which the book 
 presents of noble patience, dignified self-control. 
 It is not that he says anything so brilliant, though 
 his words are often eloquent ; it is not that he com- 
 poses epigrams that may be taken as a motto or 
 illuminated for the decoration of a church. On 
 the contrary, it is ever one of the chief difficulties 
 in the way of patience becoming a popular grace 
 that it offers no opportunity for brilliant achieve- 
 ment. "It vaunteth not itself.'^ When a boiler 
 
THE HEROISM OF ENDURANCE, 61 
 
 is carrying enormous pressure of steam there is 
 nothing to indicate it to one who looks on ; any 
 unusual appearance in the metal would be a sign 
 of weakness and a cause of alarm. A boiler that 
 explodes is not so good as one that does not^ but it 
 attracts a great deal more attention. So it is with 
 the power of endurance in mind and soul as well 
 as in matter : excellence and display do not go 
 too^ether. It is the man who endures most and 
 makes no sign that attains the highest excellence. 
 
 But the sublime quality of Job's patience appears 
 in this, that he endured all this not w^ith the dull 
 and stolid temper of one whose sensibilities are 
 blunt ; on the contrary, he was a man of most deli- 
 cate feeling, and almost all circumstances com- 
 bined to make him keenly sensitive. He had been 
 ^^the greatest of all the men of the east,'' and 
 doubtless was accustomed to receive the highest 
 honor and most respectful courtesy from all who 
 approached him ; he was not accustomed to being 
 charged with crime or meanness. He was a gentle- 
 man, and would keenly feel the rudeness of his 
 friends ; from the rabble he could have received it 
 with contempt, but from friends whom he respected 
 it was bitterly unkind. 
 
 Such were the tests to which the patience of this 
 
62 THE MAN OF UZ. 
 
 noble man was put. Certainly the vast majority 
 of men would have found their stock of patience 
 utterly exhausted, and would have raved in what 
 they would regard as '^righteous indignation/^ 
 Here and there is found a man who could have 
 bitten his lips and silently endured it all. As a beast 
 will shrug himself in the corner of his field and 
 bear the winter^s storm, so some men could wrap 
 the cloak of silent dignity about them and with a 
 sort of dogged resignation suffer thus. But this is 
 not the highest kind of patience. Job did not take 
 refuge in silence, but spoke out boldly and freely 
 in self-defence. He does not cease to maintain his 
 integrity ; he does not take the air of injured inno- 
 cence; there are no tears in his voice when he 
 answers the bitter charges of his angry friends. 
 An occasional flash of sarcasm is seen, but even 
 this never exceeds the limits of courteous debate: 
 
 " No doubt but ye are the people, 
 And wisdom shall die with you. 
 But I have understanding as well as you ; 
 I am not inferior to you : 
 Yea, who knoweth not such things as these ?" 
 
 These are sharp words, but not with the acid of 
 anger. So all the way through he does not hesi- 
 tate to strike in self-defence, and good sound ring- 
 
THE HEROISM OF ENDURANCE. 63 
 
 ing blows he gives^ but they are arguments^ not 
 railing or abuse. Job^s patience was not mere non- 
 resistance : it was the much more delicate and diflS- 
 cult task of maintaining the right while suffering 
 wrong. He owed it to the cause of truth as well 
 as of justice to vindicate his character if possible ; if 
 not, still to assert the truth and wait for God's good 
 time to bring the evidence. So he fights for his 
 honor as for life; he answers the accusations of 
 his friends with flat denial ; he rebukes their con- 
 duct, yet says no word unkind or unduly severe. 
 '^ He was reviled, yet he reviled not again ; when 
 he suffered he threatened not, but committed him- 
 self to Him that judgeth righteously. '^ Toward 
 God he was humble and submissive ; he suffered, 
 but worshiped. Toward the world, which he loved 
 with an honest, open-hearted love, he looked back 
 with regret, but without repining. Toward his 
 friends, in whom he was disappointed, he main- 
 tained a dignified defence and a kindly temper. 
 Such was the patience of Job. 
 
 I submit to you that there is no more sublime 
 and Christ-like grace, no one in all the catalogue 
 of virtues that demands such high and godlike 
 powers. In patience there is no place for small 
 ambition, which craves the world's applause; no 
 
64 THE MAN OF UZ, 
 
 place for the stimulus of passion^ which makes 
 even cowards brave on the exciting field of battle. 
 Down in the silent depths of the soul the battle 
 must be fought, the raging passions held with a 
 hand steady enough to give them justice and yet 
 restraint. And when you have succeeded the world 
 will not place the victor's crown upon your brow, 
 for you will have but poorly succeeded if the world 
 knows anything of the battle you have fought. 
 You will, however, have the much more precious 
 rewards, an approving conscience and the favor of 
 your Father in heaven. You will have attained a 
 good degree in the grace which is pre-eminently 
 Christ-like, which the glorious company of the 
 apostles praise and which the noble army of the 
 martyrs exemplify to their unceasing honor. 
 
 Patience will never be a popular grace ; it costs 
 too much and makes too little show for that. The 
 world likes virtues that glitter more and that go 
 off w^ith a louder report, but Christianity gives the 
 place of honor to that grace which suffers long and 
 still is kind; that does not vaunt itself, is not 
 puffed up ; does not behave itself unseemly, seeks 
 not its own, and is not easily provoked; which 
 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all 
 things and endures all things. Such is the greatest 
 
THE HEROISM OF ENDURANCE, 65 
 
 of all graces, the grace that never fails. Call it 
 charity or love or patience, or by what name you 
 please, it is and ever will be the higli-water mark 
 of Christian attainment. Moreover, it is a most 
 powerful grace; in its influence on the world it is, 
 perhaps, the most efficient of all. Good men are 
 '' the light of the world f their influence is like 
 that of the gentle sunshine, without violence, 
 silently, gently and by gradually increasing power 
 brightening and blessing the world. There is no 
 escape from this kind of influence. When our 
 position is assailed by force of argument we in- 
 stinctively fortify ourselves against it; just as soon 
 as a man begins to hammer us with logic we 
 harden ourselves and feel that our honor is some- 
 how involved in a successful resistance. But when 
 we see a Christian suffer well, strong in adversity, 
 calm in sorrow, contented in a hard lot, gentle 
 under wrong and patient under outrage and con- 
 tumely, our admiration is aroused; we feel that 
 there is something great and godlike in this — a 
 reality that logic cannot change, a sweet influence 
 to which honest hearts of every creed give welcome 
 access. There are many things that you can melt 
 but never break. 
 
 The kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ is founded 
 
66 THE MAN OF UZ. 
 
 on forgiveness, and it is distinguished chiefly by the 
 grace of patience. 
 
 The ^^ Prince of Peace" is the ^^Lamb of God." 
 His victories are all the fruit of a most marvelous 
 endurance. The law of his kingdom is, '' Do right, 
 endure as a good soldier of Christ, and leave the 
 rest to God." Alas, how often we are careful and 
 troubled about many things, and cumbered with 
 much serving! Let us remember the words, 
 
 *' They also serve who only stand and wait." 
 
CHAPTER y. 
 
 AN ANCIENT CREED. 
 *^I know that my Kedeeiner liveth." 
 
 rpRUTH is always true, ever the same. There 
 -^ is a sense, therefore, in which a creed, if true 
 at any time, is true at all times. The principles 
 of morals and religion do not change. God^s pur- 
 poses are absolute. The promise made to our first 
 parents that the seed of the woman should bruise the 
 serpent's head contains the everlasting gospel ; it 
 contains the whole of the gospel, as the Child who 
 lay in the manger at Bethlehem was the same as 
 the Man who ^' suffered under Pontius Pilate, was 
 crucified, dead, and buried.^' There is but one 
 gospel ; it is the " same yesterday, to-day and for 
 ever.'' But the revelation of this gospel is pro- 
 gressive. In each age " we know in part, and we 
 prophesy in part." Each age, standing on the 
 shoulders of the ages gone, is able to reach higher 
 and see with a wider horizon. We see in Scripture 
 history very many illustrations of the way in which 
 
 the pinnacles of one man's faith and knowledge 
 
 67 
 
()8 THE MAN OF UZ. 
 
 become the corner-stones on which the next man 
 builds more stately temples. See, for example, how 
 the Benedictus or Magnificat is built upon the Pen- 
 tateuch and Psalms. What the flower is to the 
 plant the gospel is to the old dispensation — the 
 same life, the same identity, but with a fuller de- 
 velopment and richer beauty. 
 
 The history of the Church shows how God has 
 led his people by ways that often seem mysterious 
 and dark. But this is not the wandering of the 
 blind led by the blind; it is not the trying of one 
 way till that failed, and then the trying of another. 
 It is not experiment, but the all-wise providence 
 of Him w^ho knows the end from the beginning 
 and who makes no mistakes. The rainbow in the 
 cloud is the symbol of the everlasting covenant; 
 it is but a single arch ; it stretches all the way 
 from the gate of the garden of Eden to the pearly 
 gates of that city whose maker and builder is God. 
 To know God^s truth in its fullness we must know 
 it in its order. There is great importance in what 
 Dr. Gibson has so happily termed the '' perspective 
 of Scripture history.'^ The relations of time and 
 place, the sequence of events, are often essential to 
 their meaning and always important to their per- 
 fect comprehension. 
 
AN ANCIENT CREED. 69 
 
 In the book of Job we have a very interesting 
 view of a good man's belief in very early times. 
 It is interesting not only on account of its great 
 antiquity, but especially because of its unique and 
 somewhat remarkable position. It stands, appar- 
 ently, outside the pale of the Old -Testament 
 Church, and has a certain catholicity about it that 
 is not found in the Mosaic dispensation. We be- 
 lieve " in the Holy Catholic Church, '^ and so did 
 the prophets of the old dispensatiou, but with a 
 diiference. They believed in the future catholicity 
 of the Church, but, for the time then being, the 
 Church was not so, but Avas exclusive in its very 
 constitution. From the time of Abraham, Israel 
 was a separated people, a nation culled and set apart 
 for a special purpose — namely, that through them 
 all nations might be blessed. There was always a 
 door by which a man of any nation might come in 
 and share the covenant blessings of this chosen 
 race, but practically the Church from Abraham to 
 Christ was strictly exclusive, literally the seed of 
 Abraham. But the separation of that people and 
 the giving to them of special privileges did not ^^ dis- 
 annul the promises,'^ and the promise was a bless- 
 ing for all nations of the earth. St. Paul claims 
 the blessing promised to Abraham and to his seed 
 
70 THE MAN OF UZ. 
 
 as the inheritance of the Christian Church. " If ye 
 be Christ^s then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs 
 according to the promise/' St. Peter also, though 
 with difficulty, apprehended the truth, that '' in 
 every nation he that feareth God, and worketh 
 righteousness, is accepted with him.'' 
 
 The book of Job, though possibly written by a 
 child of Abraham, does not present Job as a mem- 
 ber of that chosen race. Whether we suppose him 
 to have lived before the call of Abraham, or to 
 have lived outside the special covenant, in either 
 case the form of his faith lacks the peculiar features 
 of the Old-Testament symbols and phraseology. 
 His God is not spoken of as the " God of Abra- 
 ham, Isaac and Jacob ;" no covenant is referred 
 to, no temple or tabernacle, no Aaronic priesthood 
 and no Sinaitic ritual. There are the same great 
 truths, as we shall see, but the architecture, so to 
 speak, is different. It is high and catholic, and 
 above all reverent. Let us look at it. ' 
 
 The fundamental article in every creed is that 
 which states w^hat we believe concerning God. 
 The Israel itish creed began with this : ^' Hear, 
 O Israel ; The Lord our God is one Lord." 
 
 In our familiar creed we beo;in with the same 
 
AN ANCIENT CREED. 71 
 
 article : ^' I believe in God the Father Almighty, 
 maker of heaven and earth/^ 
 
 So in the book of Job we find the most promi- 
 nent article of faith is this belief in God as the 
 Almighty Creator of heaven and earth. Nowhere 
 do we have such a sublime picture of creation as in 
 this book. The very words riog with a poetic 
 grandeur in keeping with the grandeur of the 
 theme : 
 
 ^' He stretcheth out the north over empty space, 
 And hangeth the earth upou nothing. . . . 
 He closeth in the face of his throne, 
 And spreadeth his cloud upon it. . . . 
 The pillars of heaven tremble 
 And are astonished at his rebuke. . . . 
 By his spirit the heavens are garnished ; 
 His hand hath pierced the swift serpent. 
 Lo, these are but the outskirts of his ways ; 
 And how small a whisper do we hear of him ! 
 But the thunder of his power who can understand?" 
 
 The closing chapters also, though not the words of 
 Job, may properly be taken as his conception of 
 God's work of creation and providence. In them 
 the writer of the book celebrates the glory of God 
 as revealed in nature. The rolling thunder, the 
 dreadful lightning, the hail, the snow, the furious 
 tempest and the silent frost are cited as the wit- 
 
72 THE MAN OF UZ, 
 
 nesses of power and wisdom in Him who laid 
 earth's corner-stone 
 
 " When the morning stars sang together, 
 And all the sons of God shouted for joy." 
 
 The great sea, rushing into being, yet shut up with 
 bars and doors^ and controlled by the divine com- 
 mand, '' Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further ; 
 and here shall thy proud waves be stayed/' — all 
 this is pictured with the brief clear strokes of the 
 true poet. 
 
 Again and again the phenomena of nature are 
 celebrated in the most appreciative strains. The 
 ordinance of day and night, the time of the day- 
 spring, the preparation of supplies of snow and 
 hail, are each observed. Then, rising with his 
 theme, the poet reviews the sparkling constella- 
 tions of the bright eastern sky. In the graceful 
 imagery so native to the Oriental mind he presents 
 them in the figures of an ancient mythology. The 
 peculiar antithesis of Hebrew poetry is also used 
 with fine effect : The Pleiades bound like a cluster 
 of diamonds ; Orion rejoicing in his freedom ; the 
 Mazzaroth (the signs of the Zodiac) led forth like 
 noble steeds upon their course ; the Bear and her 
 train wanderino; in the darkness of the northern 
 
AN ANCIENT CREED. 73 
 
 sky ; and all the ordinances of Heaven ruling in 
 some mysterious way the destinies of men. 
 
 Such was Job's conception of the great Creator 
 and Ruler of heaven and earth. But such was by 
 no means the whole nor the highest idea he had of 
 the divine Being. 
 
 He does not regard him as merely the powerful 
 and wise Creator of heaven and earth, but also, 
 and much more, as a tender friend. He who by 
 his Spirit hath garnished the heavens does not over- 
 look the humblest of his creatures. He nourisheth 
 the plants with dew and rain, not only in the parks 
 and gardens for the use of man, but 
 
 " In the lonely valley 
 
 And on the mountains high, 
 And in the silent wilderness, 
 Where no roan passetli by." 
 
 He who fastened the gates of the shadow of death 
 does not fail to feed the young ravens when they 
 cry, and he satisfies the hungry appetite of the 
 young lions. The working of God's providence, 
 his care for all creatures, is a theme of which Job 
 never seems to weary; again and again, even in 
 the depths of his distress, he breaks forth in most 
 enthusiastic song of the wonderful works of God. 
 
74 THE MAN OF UZ, 
 
 We hear much now-a-days of conflict between 
 science and religion, as though the Bible was some- 
 how out of sympathy with nature ; but such a 
 thought could rise only in minds densely ignorant 
 of the most important books of holy Scripture. 
 Read the book of Job, and tell me where you can 
 find in all the sneering pages ever penned by in- 
 fidelity such intense and intelligent appreciation of 
 nature as is here. It is broad, and in this it differs 
 greatly from the narrow, theory-bound admiration 
 of so many small scientists and petty theologians. 
 It is poetical, yet free from the sickly sentimental- 
 ism that is too often the blemish of religio-scientific 
 discussion. There is no attempt to exalt nature 
 into a god and the love of the beautiful into a cult, 
 neither is there any suggestion that '' the trail of 
 the serpent is over them all.^' There is no cyn- 
 icism in the whole book. Even in the saddest 
 hours of his affliction Job does not descend to the 
 folly of railing against the course of nature. He 
 cries out in his agony for death to come to his re- 
 lief; he saw then as he had never seen before the 
 insecurity of earthly hopes and the certainty of 
 trouble. He felt then as he had never felt before 
 the insignificance of man in the great world which 
 he inhabits only as a pilgrim and a sojourner for a 
 
AN ANCIENT CREED. 75 
 
 night. Yet in all this there is no fault-finding, 
 but an honest love for the good and beautiful 
 things of earth. 
 
 He believed in God the Father Almighty, maker 
 of heaven and earth ; and he believed in creation 
 as the work of God. It would be well for us if we 
 would add this last clause to our creed also. 
 
 But this ancient creed was not merely specula- 
 tive ; it was eminently practical. In all this refer- 
 ence to God^s power and wisdom there is a practical 
 lesson inferred. It was by the study of God^s work 
 of creation and providence that Job's own hope 
 was confirmed and his confidence maintained. The 
 thought which runs through all is that He who 
 gives such evidence of power, wisdom and love for 
 all cannot do wrong. " Shall not the judge of all 
 the earth do right?" 
 
 The only hope and consolation that endured 
 through all the dark and dismal day was this : 
 God rules above the storm ; " Underneath are the 
 everlasting arms." The rock which saved Job's 
 faith was this convincing evidence that in this uni- 
 verse there is a God whose wisdom none can doubt 
 and whose power and care for all is manifest. The 
 greatness of Job appears in this, that even when he 
 found his former theory of providence to be wrong 
 
76 THE MAN OF TJZ. 
 
 he does not give up all for lost, but, avoiding de- 
 spair on the one hand and cutting loose from his 
 false philosophy on the other, he swings clear of 
 everything that can by any means be shaken, and 
 with serenest confidence holds fast to the simple, 
 childlike creed, 
 
 " Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom ; 
 And to depart from evil is understanding." 
 
 He had the courage to " do right whatever comes 
 of it.'^ His prayer is ever for God's guidance in 
 a world too great for Inm to comprehend: 
 
 " Lead, kindly light, amid the encircling gloom, 
 
 Lead thou me on ; 
 The night is dark and I am far from home ; 
 
 Lead thou me on. 
 Keep thou my feet ; I do not ask to see 
 The distant scene ; one step enough for me." 
 
 But while Job believed thus firmly in the provi- 
 dence of God, believed that this w^orld was under 
 fixed and prudent laws, by which all creatures are 
 assigned their places and given a destiny suited to 
 their capacity, he believed that far above all this 
 God was a friend of those who do his will. God's 
 love for Job is vastly more than providential care 
 for a creature ; it is a personal love ; it is friend- 
 
AN ANCIENT CBEED. 77 
 
 ship. God does not say to Satan, ^' Hast thou 
 considered the scheme of nature upon the earth, 
 what a perfect system it is ? Hast thou observed 
 the order of creation, and the evohition age by 
 age of higher and nobler forms of life?^^ By no 
 means; though these things are doubtless well 
 worth considering, the thought here is much 
 higher and better. " Hast thou considered my 
 servant Job? a perfect and an upright man.^' 
 Why, he knows his servant by name; knows his 
 character and circumstances ; knows him as friend 
 knows friend, and speaks of him with admiration 
 and respect ! Ah, yes ; man is a small weak crea- 
 ture in this universe, but the man who has Je- 
 hovah's friendship, the man of whom Almighty 
 God speaks with interest and respect, has a crown 
 of glory that outshines all the stars of heaven. 
 What dignity it gives to every life to know that 
 God takes pleasure in it and that all its works are 
 ordained of him ! 
 
 Our Christian creeds, as a rule, pass on directly 
 from the being, attributes and work of God to the 
 special acts of providence for our redemption. The 
 incarnation and earthly life and passion of our 
 Saviour are unquestionably the most important 
 facts accomplished since the world was made, and 
 
78 THE MAN OF UZ. 
 
 may very properly be considered in this order ; but 
 the order of events is usually the reverse of the 
 order of plan or purpose. 
 
 If^ for example^ I wish to reach the top of the 
 stairway, I can do so only from the step next to 
 the top, and I can reach that one only from the 
 next below ; this is the order of my plan ; it be- 
 gins with the point to be reached — the object — 
 and selects means for reaching that object. In the 
 execution of the plan the order is reversed : I must 
 start from where I am, and end with that which 
 was first in thought — the object. 
 
 All the means to our salvation were included in 
 God's purpose from the beginning ; the incarna- 
 tion, the passion and the resurrection were present 
 realities in the divine mind. But they became ac- 
 complished facts only in the fullness of time. Job 
 lived long before the incarnation ; whatever he 
 knew of the plan of redemption he knew as God^s 
 promise, not as history. It may be instructive to 
 observe what conception of salvation Job was able 
 to form. 
 
 We gather from his words the following points : 
 
 He believed, first, in the absolute sovereignty of 
 God; 
 
 Second, that all men are guilty before God ; 
 
AN ANCIENT CREED. 79 
 
 Third, that God by his free grace saves those 
 who call upon him. 
 
 This seems, perhaps, a meagre creed, but it is a 
 very comprehensive one. An outline map may be 
 just as perfect in its way as one that gives all the 
 details. The simple rules of addition and division 
 are just as necessary to the great mathematician as 
 to the child who knows nothing beyond them. So 
 this creed of Job concerning the purpose of re- 
 demption is as accurate as could be framed to-day, 
 though not so full. 
 
 These are, after all, the great essential truths, 
 — God^s sovereignty, man's guilt and salvation by 
 free grace. It is the strength of our faith, the 
 loyalty of our adherence to the great essentials, 
 rather than our knowledge of the details of doc- 
 trine that determines our character. All truth is 
 precious, and willingness to accept truth as we find 
 it is a grace to be sought for by every one with 
 prayer and fasting. But the notion that God limits 
 his gift of salvation to the sect or party that is 
 able to frame the most accurate statement of doc- 
 trine is so wretchedly absurd that the virtual 
 teaching of it by not a few is a matter of amaze- 
 ment and shame. 
 
 One more article of Job's creed is worthy of 
 
80 THE MAN OF VZ. 
 
 notice^ namely, his belief in the resurrection. The 
 familiar text, " 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,^^ — this text has been the subject of 
 much controversy. As it stands in the common 
 version, it teaches the doctrine of the resurrection 
 very clearly. But the belief that Job intended to 
 teach this has probably led the translator to give a 
 very liberal rendering of the passage ; at all events, 
 it is a very liberal rendering, and can scarcely be 
 regarded as more than a fair paraphrase of the 
 thought. 
 
 Yet after all this is admitted it remains true 
 that this traditional rendering of the passage is 
 essentially correct. Job did look for a redeemer, 
 a vindicator, who should appear after his decease. 
 He had given up the hope he had cherished so long 
 that God would restore him, and thus vindicate 
 his character; he feels that he shall die under 
 the cloud of the world^s condemnation. He has 
 surrendered without conditions, and sighs, with 
 weary heart, 
 
AN ANCIENT CREED, 81 
 
 " Know now that God hath overthrown me. . . . 
 He hath fenced up my way that I cannot pass. . . . 
 He hath destroyed me on every side, and I am gone : 
 And mine hope hath he removed like a tree." 
 
 He has reached the lowest point of his humiliation. 
 He cries out for pity. His servants desert him, his 
 friends revile him, and the very children on the 
 street mock him. Does he despair? Does this 
 sound like despair? 
 
 " Oh that my words were now written ! 
 Oh that they were inscribed in a book ! 
 That with an iron pen and lead 
 They were graven in the rock for ever ! 
 But I know that my redeemer liveth, 
 And that he shall stand up at the last upon the earth : 
 And after my skin hath been thus destroyed, 
 Yet from my flesh shall I see God : 
 Whom I shall see for myself. 
 And mine eyes shall behold, and not another," 
 
 He has lost all hope of earth, but he is rich in hope 
 in God. He has loosed his grasp of this world, 
 but only to tighten his grip upon the Rock of ages. 
 He has loved this world with an honest, manly love, 
 but when God takes it from him he is able to say, 
 '' He gave ; he takes ; blessed be his name.^^ Buf- 
 feted by Satan, afflicted, tormented and brought 
 down to the dust of humiliation, to the shadow of 
 
82 THE MAN OF UZ. 
 
 death, we look in pity, and wait with tearful 
 sympathy to hear his dying groans ; but it is the 
 shout of a conqueror that breaks upon our ear. 
 It is but another wording of the grand triumphal 
 song, 
 
 " Death is swallowed up in victory. 
 O death, where is thy sting ? 
 O grave, where is thy victory ? 
 Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory." 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 MYSTERIOUS PROVIDENCE, 
 
 "TTTE read that "the way of transgressors is 
 hard/' and our instinct of justice r«3sponds, 
 '' It ought to be.'' The iitness of things ^6<;ms 
 to require that integrity and prosperity should go 
 hand-in-hand. It is assumed that perfect go\drn- 
 ment will secure the welfare of the good and the 
 overthrow of the wicked. Our faith relies on the 
 promise^ " He that walketh uprightly walketh 
 surely/' and the common-sense of men expects the 
 same. In almost every language there are proverbs 
 that assert or imply that ^' godliness is profitable 
 unto all thingSj having promise of the life that now 
 is and of that which is to come." 
 
 The substantial truth of this belief is hardly 
 open to doubt, yet as a theory of life by which to 
 explain the works of providence it has never been 
 quite satisfactory. Thoughtful men in every age 
 have noticed with surprise and disappointment that 
 " there be just men to whom it happeneth according 
 
 83 
 
84 THE MAN OF UZ, 
 
 to the work of the wicked, and there be wicked men 
 to whom it happeneth according to the work of the 
 righteous/' 
 
 Not only does all nature seem quite blind to 
 moral worth, and " red in tooth and claw/' but 
 the whole order of providential government fails 
 to show, in mortal sight, that favor toward the 
 good which we are apt to look for. Like the 
 Psalmist, we are often ^Wexed'' to see how pros- 
 perous the wicked are, while men " of whom the 
 world is not worthy'' are "destitute, afflicted, 
 tormented." 
 
 How is this, and why is it ? is the question which 
 the larger part of the book of Job discusses. 
 
 The question is not stated in the abstract, but in 
 a concrete case — Job's case ; nor is the author's aim 
 quite as ambitious as that of the great poet who 
 wrote the greatest English epic to 
 
 " assert eternal providence, 
 And justify the ways of God to man." 
 
 The purpose of the book of Job (it is well to recog- 
 nize it from the first) is neither to explain nor to 
 "justify" the ways of God to men, but rather to 
 show that they are beyond our comprehension, that 
 it is impossible that they should be, in all cases, 
 
MYSTEETOUS PROVIDENCE. 85 
 
 made plain to mortal man. And the most promi- 
 nent lesson of the book is that our inability to jus- 
 tify his ways gives no ground at all for doubting 
 that they are both just and kind. On the contrary, 
 a providence that we could ahvays understand 
 would be a very poor and petty providence. 
 
 The case under discussion is briefly this : Job, 
 a perfect and an upright man, is introduced to us 
 in the height of prosperity. Health and wealth, 
 honor and a happy household, fill his cup. He is 
 at once a God-fearing man and " the greatest of the 
 men of the East.'^ It is not asserted that his pros- 
 perity was due to his piety, but the two are so asso- 
 ciated as to imply more than accidental connection. 
 Suddenly, and with no reason that any mortal man 
 could see, a series of most frightful calamities befall 
 him. These misfortunes are not due to any one 
 cause, but to various forces over which Job has no 
 control, therefore implying no fault on his part, 
 nor any lack of wisdom. They were clearly provi- 
 dential, ^. e. due to causes which could not be fore- 
 seen or controlled. They were what the law still 
 calls " the act of God.'' 
 
 These were all the facts in the case as it could be 
 known to Job and his friends. The question is. 
 How can such facts be reconciled with our faith in 
 
86 THE MAN OF UZ. 
 
 a righteous providence governing all creatures and 
 all their actions ? 
 
 There are some answers whicii the author of this 
 book did not think worth noticing. There is the 
 atheist^s answer^ " There is no God^ and therefore 
 no providence. Job had bad luck, and that is the 
 whole of it.^^ 
 
 The agnostic answers, ^^Job lost his oxen and 
 asses by robbery perpetrated by some party or 
 parties unknown, supposed to have been Sabeans. 
 The sheep were killed by lightning ; the Chaldeans 
 ^ lifted^ the cattle; a cyclone caused the death of 
 his children ; while Job's disease was evidently 
 brought on by natural causes that had nothing re- 
 markable about them. As for any overruling 
 providence, it is an utterly unscientific hypoth- 
 esis,'' etc. 
 
 Others would answer that it was the work of 
 some evil spirit, or of those principles of evil which 
 war against the good. 
 
 The latter two of these answers have a certain 
 amount of truth in them. Both natural causes and 
 the evil spirit are distinctly recognized, and their 
 place in the chain of causation plainly mentioned. 
 The error of the agnostic is in supposing that by 
 thus reciting the instrumental causes he has in any 
 
MYSTERIOUS PROVIDENCE. 87 
 
 degree approached the solution of the real problem 
 or exhausted the field of profitable thought con- 
 cerniug man's relation to God. To thoughtful 
 men there is something repulsive in such flippant 
 treatment of questions that have such intimate re- 
 lation to the highest and most practical duties of 
 life. Much the same thing may be said of those 
 who rest the subject on the supposition that it was 
 the work of evil spirits. That is true, but is not 
 sufficient. The only question worth discussing lies 
 back of all this. 
 
 The friends of Job were bigoted, perhaps, but 
 they were too broad-minded, too thoughtful, to 
 imagine that this was a question to be settled by 
 any mere inspection of the instruments employed. 
 All parties in the book agree that these afflictions 
 came by the permission of a sovereign God. There 
 is no quibbling over mere terms, no talk of fate or 
 natural law or principle of evil warring against 
 the principle of good. They proceed directly to 
 the great question, Why has God done thus ? They 
 vie with one another in their confession of faith in 
 God^s sovereign providence. Job is the first to 
 speak. ^^Then Job arose, and rent his mantle, 
 and shaved his head, and fell down upon the 
 ground, and worshiped ; and he said, Naked came 
 
88 THE MAN OF UZ, 
 
 I out of my mother^s womb, and naked shall I re- 
 turn thither : the Lord gave, and the Lord hath 
 taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord/^ 
 
 Eliphaz clothes his confession in poetic imagery, 
 a vision, and a voice saying, " Shall mortal man be 
 more just than God? shall man be more pure than 
 his Maker f' 
 
 Bildad puts his creed more bluntly : '' Doth God 
 pervert judgment? or doth the Almighty pervert 
 justice ?^^ 
 
 Zophar continues in the same high tone : 
 
 *' Canst thou by searching find out God ? 
 Canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection ? 
 It is high as heaven : what canst thou do ? 
 Deeper than Sheol : what canst thou know ?'' 
 
 They agree in these two points : God is sovereign, 
 and God is just ; absolutely sovereign, and infinitely 
 just. But from this point their creeds diverge. In 
 answer to the question how God can be just and yet 
 afflict the righteous, the three friends stoutly deny 
 that he ever does afflict them. They are unanimous 
 in their belief that uprightness secures prosperity. 
 To deny this is, in their minds, infidelity. If the 
 wicked prospers at all, it is only for a little while, 
 and in order that his destruction may be the more 
 
MYSTERIOUS PROVIDENCE. 89 
 
 terrible when it comes. Reduced to its simplest 
 terms, their theory was simply quid pro quo — so 
 much righteousness for so much prosperity. 
 
 According to this rule they judge Job^s case and 
 account for his misfortunes. They tell him, kindly 
 and with evident sympathy, but none the less posi- 
 tively, that he is suffering the righteous penalty 
 of great wickedness. They do not deny that he 
 had given every evidence of being a good man, but 
 they know, as we do, that appearances are no cer- 
 tain index of the hearths condition. They did not 
 consider the good repute of Job sufficient reason 
 for setting aside what they regarded as a well- 
 established doctrine of divine justice, and they were 
 quite right in their ruling on the point. The odor 
 of sanctity may create a presumption of innocence, 
 but it cannot be pleaded in answer to facts or well- 
 established principles. In this case the facts were 
 not accessible; they must decide on general prin- 
 ciples. According to these, Job^s affliction proved 
 his wickedness. 
 
 Against this Job has nothing to answer, except 
 the assertion of his own innocence. He can only 
 plead '' Not guilty,^^ and appeal to his good stand- 
 ing in the community to give some value to his 
 assertion. This was his whole case, and it was 
 
90 THE MAN OF UZ, 
 
 still further weakened by the fact that he could not 
 claim absolute innocence; he was only relatively 
 pure^ guiltless of such uncommon sin as his unusual 
 misfortunes indicated^ on their theory. 
 
 The friends, very naturally, refuse to see in this 
 answer any good ground for setting aside a well- 
 established theory of providence. The case was 
 closed ; it could not be argued any farther on this 
 line. 
 
 But these friends are not a court to whose de- 
 cision Job felt bound to submit; they are simply 
 friends who have volunteered to give advice, and 
 who become offended, as such friends so often do, 
 because their advice is not accepted. Their advice 
 was kindly given, but it involved the assumption 
 of Job's great guilt and hypocrisy. This he will 
 not admit, and therefore he appeals from their 
 judgment by calling in question their whole theory 
 of providence. He boldly raises the question. Does 
 God always reward the righteous and afflict the 
 wicked? He does not quite deny this, but he calls 
 it in question. He cites some facts hard to account 
 for on the supposition that it is so. He throws the 
 burden of proof on those who have asserted it to 
 convict him, and thus it becomes the burning ques- 
 tion of the book. Each friend in turn brinp-s this 
 
MYSTERIOUS PROVIDENCE, 91 
 
 doctrine of divine rewards and punishments in this 
 world and fairly hurls it at Job^s head. Eliphaz 
 first puts it thus : 
 
 " Remember, I pray thee, who ever perished, being innocent ? 
 
 Or where were the righteous cut off? 
 Even as I have seen, they that plough iniquity, and sow 
 
 wickedness, reap the same. 
 By the blast of God they perish, and by the breath of his 
 
 nostrils are they consumed." 
 
 Bildad follows in the same strain : 
 
 " If thou wert pure and upright ; surely now he would awake 
 
 for thee, and make the habitation of thy righteousness 
 
 prosperous. . . . 
 Can the rush grow up without mire? can the flag grow 
 
 without water ? 
 Whilst it is yet in his greenness, and not cut down, it 
 
 withereth before any other herb. 
 So are the paths of all that forget God ; and the hypocrite's 
 
 hope shall perish. . . . 
 He shall lean upon his house, but it shall not stand: he 
 
 shall hold it fast, but it shall not endure. . . . 
 Behold, God will not cast away a perfect man, neither will 
 
 he help the evil-doers.'^ 
 
 Zophar^ more briefly^ but to the same effect : 
 
 " The eyes of the wicked shall fail, and they shall not escape, 
 and their hope shall be as the giving up of the ghost." 
 
92 THE MAN OF UZ. 
 
 Job, thus goaded, breaks out with a bold denial of 
 the facts, and asserts that just the opposite is true : 
 
 " No doubt but ye are the people, and wisdom shall die with 
 
 you. 
 But I have understanding as well as you ; I am not inferior 
 
 to you : yea, who knoweth not such things as these ? 
 I am as one mocked of his neighbor, who calleth upon God, 
 
 and he answereth him : the just, upright man is laughed 
 
 to scorn. 
 He that is ready to slip with his feet is as a lamp despised 
 
 in the thought of him that is at ease. 
 The tabernacles of robbers prosper, and they that provoke God 
 
 are secure : into whose hand God bringeth abundantly." 
 
 Job is thoroughly aroused, perhaps a little ex- 
 cited. He is apparently alarmed at his own bold- 
 ness. It seems even to him very little short of 
 blasphemy to deny that God deals out prosperity 
 like rations to the children of men, according to 
 their deserts. But he is convinced that there is 
 something radically wrong with a theory that has 
 to ignore so many facts. He has begun to cite 
 these facts, and plunges ahead to the very border 
 of impious challenge of God^s justice : 
 
 " He leadeth counsellors away spoiled, and maketh the judges 
 fools. 
 He looseth the bond of kings, and girdeth their loins with 
 a girdle. 
 
MYSTERIOUS PROVIDENCE. 93 
 
 He leadeth princes away spoiled, and overthroweth the 
 
 mighty. . . . 
 He poureth contempt upon princes, and weakeneth the 
 
 strength of the mighty. . . . 
 He taketh away the heart of the chief of the people of the 
 
 earth, and caiiseth them to wander in a wilderness 
 
 where there is no way/^ 
 
 The utter pettiness of their theory becomes more 
 apparent to him as he reviews the facts of history. 
 Yet he speaks as one who feels the fainting sensa- 
 tion of collapsing orthodoxy. He has broken with 
 the old doctrine, and is at sea, sure only of this, 
 that whatever truth was, it was not their doctrine. 
 " Horror took hold of him,^^ he says, when he first 
 faced the fact that the wicked often prosper, while 
 the godly are afflicted and apparently forsaken. 
 It seemed to imply utter carelessness, if not in- 
 justice, on the part of God^s all-ruling providence. 
 Nevertheless, the fact remains, 
 
 " Wherefore 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.'' 
 
 He anticipates the answer, that they are reserved 
 for the day of destruction, they shall be brought 
 
94 TEE MAN OF UZ. 
 
 forth in the day of wrath. He replies by denying 
 the fact. The wicked often die without dishonor : 
 
 "One dieth in his full strength, being wholly at ease and 
 
 quiet. ... 
 The clods of the valley shall be sweet unto him, and every 
 
 man shall draw after him. . . . 
 How then comfort ye me in vain, seeing in your answers 
 
 there remaineth falsehood?^' 
 
 How often it is so even now ! The godly^ gen- 
 erous^ kindly man lives a life of toil and sorrow 
 and misfortune, while the selfish worldling pros- 
 pers by hardness and sharp-dealing. It is certain 
 that if success is what we are apt to regard it — 
 namely, the acquisition of the good things of this 
 world — then honesty is not always' good policy, 
 nor is godliness profitable. What then ? Is there 
 no such thing as providence? or does providence 
 ignore all moral considerations, and govern the 
 world according to blind natural law ? Job is not 
 willing to go so far as either of these suppositions, 
 and it is greatly to the credit of his self-control 
 that he is not. A mind less delicately poised than 
 was his would almost certainly have fallen into some 
 such error as this in its reaction from the theory 
 that was used to convict him, and which he sees to 
 be inadequate to the facts. But Job is never small ; 
 
MYSTERIOUS PROVIDENCE, 95 
 
 he is weary sometimes^ but never weak ; extreme 
 sometimes^ but never absurd. His doubt and dis- 
 may in view of what he sees to be a problem too 
 great for any easy solution makes him all the more 
 impatient with the tedious homilies of his friends 
 in defence of their neat but petty doctrines. He 
 confesses that he cannot account for the facts him- 
 self, but he argues that that is no reason for accept- 
 ing a false explanation. Better leave the whole 
 question unsolved than to attempt to justify the 
 ways of God to man by falsehood. 
 
 '' Will ye speak wickedly for God ? and talk de- 
 ceitfully for him V^ There is very delicate sarcasm 
 in this question. To put it more coarsely, it amounts 
 to saying, " Is God such a client that you, as his 
 advocate, must resort to a defence which you know 
 is not sincere ? It is surely wiser in such a case to 
 confess your ignorance.^^ 
 
 " Oh that ye would altogether hold your peace ! and it should 
 be your wisdom.'' 
 
 This is virtually the end of the debate. The 
 friends reiterate their views and intensify their 
 accusations, trying, as we so often do, to make 
 emphatic repetition do the work of sound reason- 
 ing and abusive language take the place of facts, 
 
96 THE MAN OF UZ, 
 
 but there is nothing new advanced in support of 
 either side. They all seem to feel, though the 
 friends will not confess it, that the problem of 
 God's providence is vaster and more difficult of 
 solution than they had ever imagined it before. 
 Eliphaz answers again at considerable length, 
 Bildad very briefly, and Zophar not at all. Then 
 Job closes the discussion with a long review. He 
 goes over the whole case, looking carefully on all 
 sides of it. He is like a prisoner looking for some 
 way of escape. His confidence in God's justice is 
 absolute, but how this terrible affliction which he 
 is suffering is consistent with that justice he cannot 
 understand. He seems almost to forget the pres- 
 ence of his friends and to be entirely absorbed in 
 his efforts to find God. This review of the case 
 which we have in chapters 26-31 is in many re- 
 spects the most beautiful section of the book. 
 
 He first reviews the evidence of God's omnipo- 
 tent sovereignty. He looks out upon the world, 
 and in sublimest poetry magnifies the power and 
 wisdom of God : 
 
 " Sheol is naked before him, 
 
 And Abaddon hath no covering. 
 
 He stretch eth out the north over empty space, 
 
 And hangeth the earth upon nothing. . . . 
 
 He closeth in the face of his throne, 
 
MYSTERIOUS PROVIDENCE. 97 
 
 And spreadeth his cloud upon it. . . . 
 By his spirit the heavens are garnished ; 
 And his hand hath pierced the swift serpent. 
 Lo, these are but the outskirts of his ways : 
 And how small a whisper do we hear of him ! 
 The thunder of his power who can understand V 
 
 Then he turns again to his own experience, as if to 
 see whether what he has just said of God^s power 
 and wisdom will enable him to understand his own 
 case. He repeats with a solemn oath the protest 
 of his innocence : 
 
 '^ Till I die I will not put away mine integrity from me. 
 My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go ; 
 My heart doth not reproach me for any of my days." 
 
 Then he turns to his accusers with a most surpris- 
 ing picture of the hopelessness of the godless and 
 their certain destruction and disgrace : 
 
 " For what is the hope of the godless, though he get him gain, 
 When God taketh away his soul ? . . . 
 For God shall hurl at him, and not spare : 
 He would fain flee out of his hand. 
 Men shall clap their hands at him, 
 And shall hiss him out of his place." 
 
 It is very surprising to hear this from Job, for it is 
 just what he has seemed to deny heretofore. The 
 explanation seems to be that Job is perplexed. He 
 
 7 
 
98 THE MAN OF UZ. 
 
 does Dot deny and never had denied that ^^the face of 
 the Lord is against them that do evil/^ bat he had 
 denied that there was any such regularity in the 
 dealing of God with men as warranted the conclu- 
 sion which his friends had drawn from his affliction. 
 He seems to say, " Now here are the facts : God is 
 infinitely wise, and absolutely sovereign. He de- 
 stroyeth the godless, even as you say. But I am 
 destroyed, being innocent, and on this one fact your 
 whole theory breaks down, and miserable comforters 
 are ye all.'^ He has no doctrine of his own to offer. 
 No modern agnostic has felt more deeply nor ex- 
 pressed so well the utter inability of man to com- 
 prehend his own life or to expound the ways of 
 God to man. But this limitation of human under- 
 standing, which the agnostic makes the excuse for 
 his denial of the possibility of spiritual wisdom, Job 
 makes the starting-point of a new departure in the 
 search for truth and duty. He is convinced that he 
 cannot comprehend God's providence. What then ? 
 Shall he deny the possibility of wisdom too great to 
 be grasped by human intelligence ? No ; Job rea- 
 sons better than this. He says the wisdom of God 
 is too vast for him ; even in the works of nature 
 about him he sees manifested such wonderful wis- 
 dom as he can but feebly admire, how much Jess 
 
MYSTERIOUS PROVIDENCE. 99 
 
 criticise. He lets the hand of reason fall, and 
 reaches up the hand of faith. He ceases to ask 
 for reasons, and begins to ask for duty. He has 
 reached the point of preferring a command to an 
 explanation. This is the highest kind of wisdom, 
 and yet it is just this that is most scoffed at by 
 ignorant unbelief. Ignorance that is so dense as to 
 imagine that it knows everything is most hopeless. 
 Ignorance that will not be directed is deepest folly. 
 What then shall we call those who demand that the 
 divine plans and purposes shall submit to the test 
 of human judgment ? Can you get a quart of water 
 into a pint cup ? Can the whole great ocean give 
 the cup more than it can hold ? It is not a ques- 
 tion of giving, but of receiving. So is the revela- 
 tion of God to man limited not by his resources, 
 but by our capacity. 
 
 Job sought long and honestly for the reason of 
 God's strange treatment of him. He wanted to 
 know, and why should he not ask and seek and 
 ponder? But when he cannot find what he sought, 
 he takes what he can find. Like the blind man 
 whom Jesus healed on the Sabbath day, when the 
 Jews told him that Jesus was a sinner, he answered, 
 " Whether he be a sinner, I know not : one thing 
 I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see.'' So 
 
100 THE MAN OF UZ, 
 
 Job, failing to find an answer to all his questions, 
 falls back on the faith which never wavered. He 
 found rest in the blessed assurance that He who 
 rules in earth as well as heaven knows the end 
 from the beginning and makes no mistakes. Man, 
 therefore, cannot go wrong if he will simply obey. 
 This is the conclusion to which the careful re- 
 view of the whole subject brought him. It is 
 henceforth the corner-stone of his faith. His doc- 
 trine of providence is not so complete, perhaps, as 
 the neat and pretty theory of the three friends, but 
 his doctrine of personal duty is clear as crystal : 
 
 " Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom ; 
 And to depart from evil is understanding." 
 
 This simple faith is the pure gold that came out of 
 the fire of his affliction, and the poetic confession 
 of it is not surpassed in all the literature of the 
 world. The inspired words are better than any 
 comment. 
 
 " Surely there is a mine for silver, 
 And a place for gold which they refine. 
 Iron is taken out of the earth, 
 And brass is molten out of the stone. 
 Man setteth an end to darkness, 
 And searcheth out to the furthest bound 
 The stones of darkness and of the shadow of death. 
 
MYSTEEIOUS PROVIDENCE. 101 
 
 He breaketh open a shaft away from where men sojourn ; 
 
 They are forgotten of the foot that passeth by ; 
 
 They hang afar from men, they swing to and fro. 
 
 As for the earth, out of it cometh bread : 
 
 And underneath it is turned up as it were by fire. 
 
 The stones thereof are the place of sapphires, 
 
 And it hath dust of gold. . . . 
 
 He putteth forth his hand upon the flinty rock ; 
 
 He overturneth the mountains by the roots. 
 
 He cutteth out channels among the rocks ; 
 
 And his eye seeth every precious thing. 
 
 He bindeth the streams that they trickle not ; 
 
 And the thing that is hid bringeth he forth to light. 
 
 But where shall wisdom be found ? 
 
 And where is the place of understanding ? 
 
 Man knoweth not the price thereof : 
 
 Neither is it found in the land of the living. 
 
 The deep saith. It is not in me : 
 
 The sea saith, It is not with me. 
 
 It cannot be gotten for gold, 
 
 Neither shall silver be weighed for the price thereof. 
 
 It cannot be valued with the gold of Ophir, 
 
 With the precious onyx, or the sapphire. 
 
 Gold and glass cannot equal it : 
 
 Neither shall the exchange thereof be jewels of fine gold. 
 
 No mention shall be made of coral or of crystal : 
 
 Yea, the price of wisdom is above rubies. 
 
 The topaz of Ethiopia shall not equal it. 
 
 Neither shall it be valued with pure gold. 
 
 Whence then cometh wisdom ? 
 
 And where is the place of understanding ? 
 
102 THE MAN OF UZ. 
 
 Seeing it is hid from the eyes of all living, 
 
 And kept close from the fowls of the air. 
 
 Destruction and Death say, 
 
 We have heard a rumor thereof with our ears. 
 
 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 a weight for the wind ; 
 
 Yea, he meteth out 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 established 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." 
 
 We cannot understand our relation to this uni- 
 verse in which we find ourselves. Some one has 
 said, '' We are born as on a step of a great stair- 
 way ; there are steps below us, we know not how 
 many ; there are steps above us, leading we know 
 not whither." But we have the blessed assurance 
 that He who sent us hither has a place for us to 
 fill, a destiny for us to reach. In God^s great plan 
 our life has a meaning and a purpose which it shall 
 be our glory to accomplish. No life is insignificant 
 that is constantly present to the mind of God. What 
 
MYSTERIOUS PROVIDENCE. 103 
 
 dignity it adds to the life we now live to know that 
 God " hath ordained the works that we should walk 
 in them ^^ ! Go, therefore, to thy work or warfare 
 with undaunted soul. 
 
 " Poor vaunt of life indeed, 
 Were man but formed to feed 
 On joy, to solely seek and feast. 
 Such feasting ended, then 
 As sure an end to men ; 
 Irks care the crop-full bird ? Frets doubt the maw-crammed 
 beast? 
 
 " Then welcome each rebuff 
 That turns earth's smoothness rough, 
 Each sting that bids nor sit nor stand, but go. 
 
 Be our joys three parts pain, 
 
 Strive, and hold cheap the strain ; 
 Learn, nor account the pang ; dare, never grudge the throe ! 
 
 " For thence — a paradox 
 Which comforts while it mocks — 
 Shall life succeed in that it seems to fail : 
 
 What I aspired to be. 
 
 And was not, comforts me : 
 A brute I might have been, but would not sink T the scale." 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE YOUNG MAN'S VIEW. 
 
 " Lo, all these things doth God work 
 Twice, yea, thrice, with a man. 
 To bring back his soul from the pit." 
 
 Tj^LIHU is a great puzzle to the critics of the 
 -^ book of Job. His introduction at the very- 
 crisis of the narrative, with a long and somewhat 
 tedious discussion of the questions so fully treated 
 already, is against all their notions of what the 
 author ought to have done. 
 
 It must be confessed that Elihu does seem to 
 intrude at a moment when we should have least 
 expected him. When we read that " the words of 
 Job are ended/^ we naturally expect to hear imme- 
 diately, if ever, that "the Lord answered Job,^^ 
 and in that answer to find the conclusion of the 
 whole matter. We are in an attitude of expect- 
 ancy. We feel that neither Job nor the three 
 friends have said the last word in the matter. We 
 may be ready to admit that the questions of God's 
 relation to the world and the connection between 
 
 104 
 
THE YOUNG MAN'S VIEW, 105 
 
 godliness and prosperity are not so simple and clear 
 as we had imagined ; but still to leave the whole 
 field to the agnostic, to imply that these questions 
 are utterly beyond all profitable discussion, seems a 
 lame and impotent conclusion. Moreover, we have 
 heard an appeal taken from the judgment of man 
 to the judgment of God, and we await his answer 
 with great interest. Indeed, there is somewhat 
 more than an appeal to the supreme court of 
 Heaven against the judgment of man. That court 
 has virtually been impeached. It has been hinted 
 that divine justice is, like human justice, blind. 
 Questions have been raised which involve the 
 righteousness of Providence, and the Almighty has 
 been challenged to answer in his own defence. The 
 appeal is audacious, and the interest at this point 
 grows intense. 
 
 We are therefore surprised, and perhaps annoyed, 
 to hear not the voice of the Lord, but the voice of 
 a man break the silence. A young man too, not 
 mentioned before, not a party of either part, a 
 mere bystander, cries, '' Hearken unto me ; I also 
 will show my opinion. ^^ If ever a young man 
 took the floor at a disadvantage, Elihu does so. 
 Our sense of propriety is ofifended, and we are 
 reiidy to find fault on slight occasion. 
 
106 THE MAN OF UZ. 
 
 He is introduced by the author, and then he 
 proceeds to introduce himself with graceful though 
 rather profuse apologies. Then, with a good deal 
 of assurance for so young and modest a man, he 
 reopens the whole case, threshes a good deal of 
 the old straw over again, and when done leaves 
 us somewhat in doubt as to just wherein he differs 
 from those who have spoken before. 
 
 Now, the critics ask, '^ Why is he introduced at 
 all? Why is he not mentioned in the prologue? 
 Why is he ignored in the conclusion? What is 
 the author's attitude toward Elihu's view of the 
 matter ?'' These and many other questions have 
 been endlessly discussed, but never answered. Let 
 us leave them to the learned critics, and pass on 
 to hear what the young man has to say. 
 
 The author has introduced him briefly as " Elihu, 
 the son of Barachel the Buzite, of the kindred of 
 Eam.'^ But neither the name nor the genealogy 
 gives any clue to the questions just asked concern- 
 ing him. The only fact made prominent in his 
 introduction is his youth. The author mentions 
 it, Elihu refers to it repeatedly, and his whole 
 manner proclaims it. His impatience with the 
 three friends because they have not been able to 
 answer Job, his confidence of his own ability to 
 
THE YOUNG MAN'S VIEW. 107 
 
 answer him, the impetuous rush of his speech, 
 the lack of that stately dignity which so prom- 
 inently marked the earlier speeches of the others 
 and the frequent use of new words and phrases, 
 — all seem to mark him as belonging to a later 
 generation and a somewhat different school from all 
 the others. Now, it seems probable that these 
 marks of youth are intentionally used by the 
 author to depict a suitable spokesman for a view 
 of Job's case, and of providence in general, which 
 was regarded by the author as new and to some 
 degree in advance of the traditional views set forth 
 by the other speakers. Their view was, as we 
 have seen, that providence is practically a system 
 of rewards and punishments. The righteous pros- 
 per, and the wicked are destroyed. This is the law. 
 If any case seems unaccountable, it is only appar- 
 ently so, for any real exception to this law would 
 imply unrighteousness in God. 
 
 Job discards this doctrine of providence, on the 
 ground that it does not accord with all the facts. 
 The wicked, he says, are very often as prosperous 
 as the godly ; even more so. And, admitting that 
 the scheme of providence under which we live is 
 such as to favor the good and thwart the wicked, 
 it is only so in a general way, and by no means 
 
108 THE MAN OF UZ. 
 
 SO absolute a law as to be made the basis of any 
 such conclusions as they had drawn from it. 
 
 He further maintained that the scope of provi- 
 dence is so wide, so far beyond our limited horizon, 
 that it is not possible for us to have any knowledge 
 of the whole that could warrant our interpretation 
 of any part. His conclusion is that to us providence 
 is inscrutable, a mystery too deep for human intelli- 
 gence to fathom. Man must fall back upon the 
 fundamental truths of God^s wisdom and power. 
 For man, obedience is wisdom. 
 
 *' Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom ; 
 And to depart from evil is understanding. " 
 
 This was Job's doctrine of providence, and a very 
 good doctrine it is. But in his stout defence of 
 his own integrity he fell into expressions that seem 
 to call in question the absolute justice of God in 
 afflicting him. He sometimes seems to say very 
 plainly, "God has afflicted me without cause.'' 
 
 This is the point at which Elihu attacks him : 
 "His wrath was kindled against Job because lie 
 justified himself rather than God." But his wrath 
 was against the three friends also, "because they 
 found no answer, and yet had condemned Job." 
 
 The young man is the champion of neither party. 
 
THE YOUNG MAN'S VIEW. 109 
 
 He does not share the view of the friends^ that the 
 affliction of Job is proof of his great wickedness. 
 But, on the other hand^ he is scarcely less severe 
 in his censure of Job for what he calls his " rebel- 
 lion/^ He is shocked at his arrogance in chal- 
 lenging the righteousness of God. 
 
 " For Job hath said, I am righteous. 
 And God hath taken away my right : 
 jS^otwithstanding my right I am accounted a liar ; 
 My wound is incurable, though I am without transgression." 
 
 What irreverence this is ! Elihu exclaims. Was 
 there ever such arrogance heard before ! 
 
 *' What man is like Job, 
 Who drinketh up scorning like water? . . . 
 He addeth rebellion unto his sin, 
 He clappeth his hands among us." 
 
 This was Elihu's first '' point/^ and it established 
 his right to speak. He has something to say that 
 has not been said, and which is important. He 
 has put his finger on the one unsound spot in Job's 
 religious system. He does not accuse Job of hav- 
 ing done anything to bring this affliction on him- 
 self. He does not assume that his affliction is 
 punishment at all, and he censures Job severely 
 
110 THE MAN OF IJZ. 
 
 for assuming that God is less kind in sending 
 trials than in sending pleasures. 
 
 We feel that Elihu is too severe in his censure, 
 that he over-states his case in order to make it clear 
 that he has a case ; but in the main he is certainly 
 right. It is perhaps significant that Job does not 
 answer Elihu ; he does not deny this charge. 
 Moreover, the Lord seems to imply the same fault 
 when he asks (chap. 40 : 8), '' Wilt thou condemn 
 me that thou mayest be justified ?^^ Let us ex- 
 amine this charge, therefore, and see just what is 
 the fault in Job — the only fault the Lord lays to 
 his charge. 
 
 Job had said that man^s duty is obedience, his 
 highest wisdom is submission to God. In this he 
 is clearly right. But there is a vast difference be- 
 tween the obedience of the slave, who must, and 
 the obedience of the child, who loves and trusts the 
 father who commands. There is a difference also 
 between the complaining obedience of mere consent 
 and the cheerful obedience of enthusiastic service. 
 Now, Job's obedience was somewhat of the former 
 kind. He submits, but he seems to think that the 
 Lord is somewhat under obligation to him for his 
 submission. When his wife lost faith and advised 
 him to renounce God, he answered with indignation, 
 
THE YOUNG MAN'S VIEW. Ill 
 
 " What ? shall we receive good at the hand of God, 
 And shall we not receive evil ? 
 In all this did not Job sin with his lips." 
 
 Stilly there was no trace of the thought that this 
 was not evil, but good. His attitude of mind has 
 a strong suggestion of forgiving God for doing him 
 an injury. The thought of affliction being a bless- 
 ing had never occurred to him or to his friends. 
 This is the thought which the young man Elihu 
 brings forward. The author puts it in the mouth 
 of the young man because it was in his time a 
 novelty. It is so familiar to us that we rarely 
 think of its recent origin, but it was not a familiar 
 doctrine in the Old Testament. It is true we have 
 many texts in the Old Testament that teach the 
 value of affliction, such as ^^ Behold, happy is the 
 man whom God correcteth f' " Therefore despise 
 not thou the chastening of the Almighty f^ and 
 "Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest, O 
 Lord, and teachest out of thy law,^^ and many 
 others. But in all these the idea is that it is well 
 for a man to be punished, that he may learn to do 
 right. It is correction that is commended. But 
 the thought which Elihu brings out is different 
 from this. He suggests that the Lord may, and 
 often does, send affliction to men not for what they 
 
112 THE MAN OF TJZ. 
 
 have done — not as punishment, but as discipline, — 
 whereby they are taught through their own expe- 
 rience wisdom that cannot be otherwise acquired, 
 and developed in beautiful graces w^hich only ad- 
 versity and sorrow can bring out. Job even at his 
 best seems to have imagined the Lord as keeping a 
 book-account with him, and owing him favors so 
 long as he was loyal and obedient. Elihu does not 
 deny that there is something like this in God^s rela- 
 tion to us, but it is an inadequate conception of the 
 matter. Providence in his view is not so much 
 governmental as educational. God's treatment of 
 us is to be judged by the future as well as by the 
 past ; by what he has for us to do and to be as well 
 as by what we have done and been. 
 
 It is difficult to follow what he says without 
 reading into his words more than he certainly 
 teaches. He was still far from grasping this doc- 
 trine in the fullness of its New-Testament state- 
 ment, '' It is for chastening (education) that ye 
 endure : God dealeth with you as with sons : for 
 what son is there whom his father chasteneth 
 (educateth) not?'' Nowhere in the Old Testament 
 is this doctrine taught so plainly as it is in the 
 New; but Elihu certainly had the essential thought 
 
THE YOUNG MAN'S VIEW. 113 
 
 of it all when he describes how God deals with a 
 man to withdraw him from his purpose : 
 
 *' For God speaketh once, 
 Yea t\\dce, yet man perceiveth it not. 
 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, 
 And sealeth their instruction, 
 That he mav withdraw man from his purpose, 
 And hide pride from man." 
 
 Not only in this way but by other means God 
 strives with men for their good^ and seeks to turn 
 them away from doing evil which would destroy 
 them. He even spares their lives that they may 
 learn wisdom and repentance : 
 
 " He keepeth back his soul from the pit. 
 And his life from perishing by the sword. 
 He is chastened also with pain upon his bed, 
 And the multitude of his bones with strong pain. . . , 
 Lo, all these things worketh God 
 Oftentimes with man, 
 To bring back his soul from the pit. 
 To be enlightened with the light of the living." 
 
 Such is the young man^s view of God^s dealing 
 with men. This^ he seems to say, is the principle 
 
114 THE MAN OF UZ. 
 
 by which all God's works of providence must be 
 studied. 
 
 Elihu DOW proceeds to discuss Job's case in the 
 light of this principle. First, he points out the 
 utter absurdity of Job's complaint : 
 
 " For he hath said, It profiteth a man nothing 
 That he should delight himself with God. . . . 
 Thinkest thou this to be thy right, 
 Or sayest thou, My righteousness is more than God's, 
 That thou sayest, What advantage will it be unto thee ? 
 And, What profit shall I have, more than if I had sinned ?" 
 
 Elihu asks, What does God owe you ? You com- 
 plain of lack of profit : how much then is God in 
 debt to you? 
 
 " If thou be righteous, what givest thou him ? 
 Or what receiveth he of thine hand ?" 
 
 He goes on. to show how man's wickedness may be 
 a matter of personal concern to men, for they may 
 in some way suffer from it ; but one look at the 
 heavens is surely enough to convince any one that 
 God is infinitely above any power of evil which 
 we possess. God's relation to us, then, is not to 
 be regarded as any sort of treaty by which we are 
 bound to do something for his benefit, while he 
 agrees to do certain things for us. He is absolute 
 
THE YOUNG MAN'S VIEW. 115 
 
 sovereign ; he needs nothing. His attitude toward 
 us is that of a loving master to his servants. 
 Elihu does not reach the idea of a ^^ Father in 
 heaven/^ but he comes very close to it. 
 
 This being the relation of God to men, it seems 
 necessary to answer Job^s complaint that oppressed 
 and afflicted innocence gets no answer to its cry. 
 Elihu answers that the mere fact of distress does 
 not give any one a claim on God^s help. If they 
 turn their back on God in prosperity, why should 
 he regard the cry that is the mere groan of pain, 
 with neither faith nor repentance in it? 
 
 " They cry for help by reason of the arm of the mighty. 
 But none saith, Where is God my Maker, 
 Who giveth songs in the night? . . . 
 There they cry, but none giveth answer, 
 Because of the pride of evil men. 
 Surely God will not hear vanity. 
 Neither will the Almighty regard it." 
 
 The thought here is not unlike that in Proverbs, 
 where Wisdom crieth, 
 
 " Because I have called and ye refused ; 
 I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded ; 
 But ye have set at nought all my counsel, 
 And would none of my reproof: 
 I also will laugh in the day of your calamity ; 
 
116 THE MAN OF UZ, 
 
 I will mock when your fear cometh ; 
 
 When your fear cometh as a storm, 
 
 And your calamity cometh on as a whirlwind ; 
 
 When distress and anguish come upon you. 
 
 Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer." 
 
 How often this is true of us in some measure ! In 
 our prosperity we forget the goodness of God. We 
 are so filled and satisfied with the good things of 
 the present life that we have no room in our hearts 
 for thoughts of God our Maker, w^hose we are by 
 creation, and whose laws we are therefore obliged 
 to obey. Even when in times of darkness God 
 delivers us so that our sorrow is turned to singing 
 — ^'giveth songs in the night '^ — we soon forget 
 him. 
 
 Many ask, with Job, " Why am I so aflaicted f 
 but how few ask in the times of gladness, " Why 
 is the Lord so kind V^ Let us learn to say and sing, 
 
 ** Ten thousand thousand precious gifts 
 My daily thanks employ ; 
 Nor is the least a cheerful hearty 
 That tastes those gifts with joy." 
 
 Then Elihu goes on from the consideration of 
 Job's case in particular to a broader view of the 
 whole subject : 
 
 " I will fetch my knowledge from afar." 
 
THE YOUNG MAN'S VIEW, 117 
 
 He now asserts that in this broad view it is un- 
 doubtedly true that God does give prosperity to 
 the good and does destroy the evil : 
 
 " If they hearken and serve him^ 
 They shall spend their days in prosperity, 
 And their years in pleasures. 
 But if they hearken not, 
 They shall perish by the sword." 
 
 Finally^ he exhorts Job to consider the greatness 
 of God^ his unsearchable wisdom : 
 
 " Kemember that thou magnify his work, 
 Whereof men have sung. . . . 
 Behold, God is great, we know him not ; 
 The number of his years is unsearchable." 
 
 Then he goes on with another of the sublime 
 hymns in which the book abounds : 
 
 THE HYMN OF THE KAIN. 
 " For he draweth up the drops of water, 
 Which distil in rain from his vapor ; 
 Which the skies pour down 
 And drop upon man abundantly. 
 Yea, can any understand the spreading of the clouds. 
 The thunderings of his pavilion? 
 Behold, he spreadeth his light around him ; 
 And he covereth the bottom of the sea. 
 For by these he judgeth the peoples ; 
 
118 THE MAN OF VZ. 
 
 He giveth meat in abundance. 
 
 He covereth his hands with the lightning, 
 
 And giveth it a charge that it strike the mark. 
 
 The noise thereof telleth concerning him, 
 
 The cattle also concerning the storm that cometh up. 
 
 At this also my heart trembleth, 
 
 And is moved out of its place. 
 
 Hearken ye unto the noise of his voice, 
 
 And the sound that goeth out of his mouth. 
 
 He sendeth it forth under the whole heaven, 
 
 And his lightning unto the ends of the earth. 
 
 After it a voice roareth : 
 
 He thundereth with the voice of his majesty ; 
 
 And he stayeth them not when his voice is heard. 
 
 God thundereth marvelously with his voice ; 
 
 Great things doeth he, which we cannot comprehend. 
 
 For he saith to the snow. Fall thou on the earth ; 
 
 Likewise to the shower of rain, 
 
 And to the showers of his mighty rain. 
 
 He sealeth up the hand of every man ; 
 
 That all men whom he hath made may know it. 
 
 Then the beasts go into coverts, 
 
 And remain in their dens. 
 
 Out of the chamber of the south cometh the storm : 
 
 And cold out of the north. 
 
 By the breath of God ice is given, 
 
 And the breadth of the waters is straitened. 
 
 Yea, he ladeth the thick cloud with moisture ; 
 
 He spreadeth abroad the cloud of his lightning ; 
 
 And it is turned round about by his guidance, 
 
 That they may do whatsoever he commandeth them 
 
THE YOUNG MAN'S VIEW, 119 
 
 Upon tlie face of the habitable world : 
 
 Whether it be for correction, or for his land, 
 
 Or for mercy, that he cause it to come. 
 
 Hearken unto this, O Job : 
 
 Stand still, and consider the wondrous works of God. 
 
 Dost thou know how God layeth his charge upon them, 
 
 And causeth the lightning of his cloud to shine ? 
 
 Dost thou know the balancings of the clouds. 
 
 The wondrous works of him which is perfect in knowledge ?" 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 OUT OF THE WHIRLWIND, 
 
 " Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind." 
 
 TTERE is a wonderful answer to prayer. But 
 all answer to prayer is so wonderful that this 
 is perhaps but a little extraordinary. Unusual in 
 manner and wonderfully beautiful in expression, it 
 may perhaps awaken in us some more adequate 
 appreciation of the truth that our God is a prayer- 
 hearing God, and that ^' the effectual, fervent prayer 
 of a righteous man availeth much/^ That the de- 
 sire and petition of a creature like man should at 
 all affect the purpose of the all-wise Creator and 
 Ruler of the world is surely a marvelous thing, 
 not sufficiently regarded. The privilege of prayer, 
 of direct and constant access to the very throne of 
 God, is as amazing as it is sublime. The pool of 
 Bethesda was troubled at certain seasons, and it was 
 believed that whosoever first stepped in after the 
 troubling of the water was made whole of what- 
 
 120 
 
UT OF THE WHIRL WIND. 121 
 
 soever disease he had. For this hope a multitude 
 of sick^ blind, lame and withered folk lay waiting 
 for the moment when they might scramble for the 
 first touch of the healing waters. But here is a 
 well-spring whence healing and sympathy and 
 blessing flow perennially, not for one, but for all 
 who come. 
 
 Job had cried to God with an earnest and dis- 
 tressful cry. He had called on him to speak on 
 his behalf, to vindicate him from the unkind ac- 
 cusations of his friends, or else himself accuse him, 
 that he might know his fault. 
 
 It was a cry from the depths. It was the cry 
 of one ready to perish. It was intense and pitiful. 
 Sometimes, indeed, it overstepped the bounds of 
 reverence and became a demand. He almost claims 
 as his right that God should explain his treatment 
 of him, or at least that he should give him a hear- 
 ing and let him plead his cause before him. 
 
 *' Though he slay me, yet will I wait for him : 
 Nevertheless I will maintain my ways before him. . . . 
 Behold now, I have ordered my cause ; 
 I know that I am righteous. . . . 
 Then call thou, and I will answer ; 
 Or let me speak, and answer thou me. 
 How many are mine iniquities and sins? 
 Make me to know my transgression and my sin." 
 
122 THE MAN OF VZ, 
 
 This desire to argue our cause with God is very 
 natural and very common. In our distress how 
 often we demand, as though of right, some explana- 
 tion of our suffering ! We cry bitterly, '^ Why am 
 I afflicted thus? Why do all these sorrows fall 
 on me more than on others ? Must I suffer in the 
 dark, endure and know no reason for it ?'^ Job^s 
 cry is the cry of all who suffer, more or less dis- 
 tinctly uttered. Sometimes it is an impious and 
 blasphemous challenge of God^s justice ; sometimes 
 it is the sobbing of a child who lovingly obeys, but 
 cannot quite keep back the tears of pain and dis- 
 appointment ; sometimes it is the almost inarticu- 
 late cry of the great masses of mankind who suffer 
 and are wretched and degraded. They cry with 
 a pitiful cry, as 
 
 " An infant crying in the night, 
 
 An infant crying for the light, 
 
 And with no language but a cry." 
 
 The Lord^s answer to Job is an answer to all 
 whose cry is, like his, a cry for light. No prayer 
 is disregarded at the throne of Heaven, and no 
 honest, faithful petition fails of an answer. These 
 answers may be given in ways Ave would not antici- 
 pate and by means that look to us both inadequate 
 
UT OF THE WHIRL WIND. 1 23 
 
 and irrelevant^ but given they always are^ somehow 
 and some time. In one of three ways God answers 
 honest prayer : 
 
 First, by granting our petitions. This he does 
 more often than we sometimes think, for he does 
 it in times and ways which we do not observe. 
 
 Second, by changing our desires, so that we cease 
 to wish for what we asked, seeing that something 
 else is better. The cripple who sat at the beautiful 
 gate of the temple and asked an alms of Peter and 
 John did not get what he asked for, but when he 
 felt his feet and ankle-bones receive strength and 
 realized that he was a sound man, how he leaped 
 and walked and praised God ! So in some degree 
 each of us has probably seen some of his petitions 
 refused only to make way for higher gifts. Thus 
 it is a cause of thankfulness that God does not 
 always grant the things we ask as we expect them 
 to be granted. 
 
 But, third, he may, and often does, so lift us up 
 above the care and the interests we prayed about 
 that we no longer give them a thought. He an- 
 swers by "the expulsive power of a new affection.^^ 
 It was after this manner that he answered Job. 
 
 When Jehovah speaks. Devotion cries, ^^Hear, 
 O heavens, and give ear, O earth. ^^ Doubt and 
 
124 THE MAN OF UZ, 
 
 Perplexity say, '^ Now we will know the certainty 
 of things/^ When we read that the Lord answer- 
 ed Job, we expect an answer to the questions so 
 warmly debated between him and his friends. We 
 feel that they are not yet answered. They have 
 raised questions which neither they nor we have 
 been able to answer. 
 
 True, w^e were taken behind the scenes in the 
 very beginning of the book. We saw the malice 
 of Satan accusing Job of selfishness and insincerity ; 
 we saw the high commission of Heaven given to 
 Satan to afflict Job, But our perplexity is rather 
 increased by what we see. Why did God let Satan 
 loose on Job ? Why the " perfect and the upright 
 man^' should be so afflicted we have received no 
 hint. True, also, we have seen some good effects 
 produced in Job by his sore trials. We have seen 
 in him the heroism of endurance. We have seen 
 a great soul warred against by all the powers of 
 darkness, yet victorious. '' Perplexed, yet not unto 
 despair ; smitten down, yet not destroyed.^^ A noble 
 spectacle ! We have heard the young man^s very 
 happy suggestions that affliction is not necessarily 
 an evil. It may be not even correction, but edu- 
 cation ; the admirable means of developing the 
 noblest and fairest graces. 
 
OUT OF THE WHIRLWIND, 125 
 
 But all this gives no answer to the question^ 
 " What is the exact relation between godliness and 
 prosperity, virtue and happiness ?^^ When we 
 hear that the Lord answered, we listen to have our 
 questions answered and our doubts removed. This 
 is well enough, but not the best way to listen. It 
 is well to ask questions of the Lord, but better sim- 
 ply to say, " Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth.^^ 
 It is well to know all that may be known of God 
 and his ways of dealing w4th us, but it is more im- 
 portant to know personal duty. When we seek the 
 former we are frequently disappointed ; the finite 
 cannot comprehend the infinite ; but when we ask 
 what is present personal duty we are not often left 
 in great perplexity. 
 
 If we come to these chapters expecting to have 
 the whole scheme of providence made clear to us, 
 we shall be disappointed. The first thing that 
 strikes us on reading them is that they do not 
 answer the questions that have been so warmly dis- 
 cussed in the book. The whole discourse is general. ^ 
 It has to do with the wisdom of God infinitely 
 transcending the wisdom of man, and the omnip- 
 otence of God in contrast with the impotence of 
 man. It makes no reference to Job^s case, and 
 very little to his character or conduct. Twice only, 
 
126 THE MAN OF UZ. 
 
 and very briefly, he is addressed directly, and each 
 time it is a rebuke. The first is the question, 
 
 " Who is this that darkeneth counsel 
 By words without knowledge ?'' 
 
 He is thus called to account for "darkening the 
 counseP^ of Jehovah, misinterpreting his works, 
 misrepresenting his designs. God's purposes are 
 like the clear sky, deep, high, boundless, but serene 
 and sublime. Our speculations concerning them 
 are earth-born clouds, thick, murky and depress- 
 ing. To-day I read an essay* of Mr. Huxley's 
 subtile skepticism. It is keen, shrewd, hard to 
 answer. But I took up the simple narrative of the 
 life of a devoted missionary f of the cross, and the 
 contrast was a striking illustration of the difference 
 between God's work and man's argument. The 
 essay is the logic of a great and well-trained intel- 
 lect attempting to prove and disprove certain prop- 
 ositions ; the latter is the simple record of a noble 
 life and of notable events. The former is full of 
 petty difficulties; the latter is full of great won- 
 ders. The former is chiefly questioning " how can 
 these things be?" the latter is the careful record of 
 
 "^ Nineteenth Century, July, 1890. 
 
 t Kev. John G. Paton of the New Hebrides. 
 
OUT OF THE WHIRLWIND, 127 
 
 things that are, and are more wonderful than all 
 that Mr. Huxley calls in question. The facts of 
 providence and grace which are attested by the 
 missionary are the wonderful, fathomless sky of 
 his eternal purpose ; the questions which perplex 
 us about these facts are but the clouds of man^s 
 limited apprehension. 
 
 This, I take it, is the relation between Job's 
 painful questioning and Jehovah's answer of simple 
 fact — great, unquestioned and unc[uestionable facts 
 of creation and providence. 
 
 These facts are brought forward with wonderful 
 poetic beauty. From a purely literary point of 
 view there is no grander poetry in human language 
 than this 
 
 CKEATION HYMN. 
 " Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth ? 
 
 Declare if thou hast understanding. 
 
 Who determined the measures thereof, if thou knowest ? 
 
 Or who stretched the line upon it ? 
 
 Whereupon were the foundations thereof fastened ? 
 
 Or who laid the corner-stone thereof ; 
 
 When the morning stars sang together, 
 
 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 swaddling-band for it, 
 
128 THE MAN OF UZ. 
 
 And prescribed for it my decree, 
 
 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 began, 
 
 And caused the dayspring to know its place ? . . . 
 
 Hast thou entered into the springs of the sea ? 
 
 Or hast thou walked in the recesses of the deep ? 
 
 Have the gates of death been revealed unto thee ? 
 
 Or hast thou seen the gates of the shadow of death? 
 
 Hast thou comprehended the breadth of the earth ? 
 
 Declare if thou knowest it all." 
 
 Then the theme of the poem flows on from crea- 
 tion to providence, from the making of all things 
 by the word of his power to the most holy, wise 
 and powerful governing of all creatures and all 
 their actions. There is no break in the continuity 
 of the poem, for there is none in the work it cele- 
 brates. He who creates, sustains. What are the 
 "resident forces ^^ of nature but the immanence of 
 God's powder? What are the laws of nature but 
 the consistent methods of his working ? The wind 
 which blows to-day is to us capricious only because 
 we do not know, or know imperfectly, the compli- 
 cated forces which produce it and direct it. There 
 are no "freaks'' of nature, nothing accidental; all 
 is cosmos, beautiful order, for all is the work of 
 
OUT OF THE WHIRLWIND, 129 
 
 the eternal and unchangeable God ; '' in him we 
 live and move and have our being/^ The world is 
 not governed by law^ but according to law ; that by 
 which all things are governed, that which created 
 and sustains the forces of nature, is to science the 
 great unknown. To this point science brings us, 
 and at this point revelation takes up the theme and 
 adds, " What therefore ye worship in ignorance, 
 this set I forth unto you. The God that made the 
 world and all things therein. ^^ He who made, sus- 
 tains. He who began, continues. Continuity is 
 to-day the most emphatic word of natural science, 
 and immanent sovereignty of the unchangeable 
 God is the word of revelation. Are not these two 
 the same? At all events, the hymn of creation 
 passes, without a break, into the 
 
 HYMN OF NATUKE. 
 " Where is the way to the dwelling of light, 
 
 And as for darkness, where is the place thereof? . . . 
 
 By what way is the light parted, 
 
 Or the east wind scattered upon the earth ? 
 
 Who hath cleft a channel for the water-flood, 
 
 Or a way for the lightning of the thunder ; 
 
 To cause it to rain on a land where no man is ; 
 
 On the wilderness, wherein there is no man ; 
 
 To satisfy the waste and desolate ground ; 
 
 And to cause the tender grass to spring forth ? 
 
130 THE MAN OF UZ, 
 
 Hath the rain a father ? 
 
 Or who hath begotten the drops of dew? 
 
 Out of whose womb came the ice ? 
 
 And the hoary frost of heaven, who hath gendered it? 
 
 Canst thou bind the cluster of the Pleiades, 
 
 Or loose the bands of Orion ? 
 
 Canst thou lead forth the Mazzaroth in their season ? 
 
 Or canst thou guide the Bear with her train ? . . . 
 
 Who hath put wisdom in the dark clouds ? 
 
 Or who hath given understanding to the meteor ? . . . 
 
 Wilt thou hunt the prey for the lioness ? 
 
 Or satisfy the appetite of the young lions, 
 
 When they couch in their dens. 
 
 And abide in the covert to lie in wait ? 
 
 Who provideth for the raven his food, 
 
 Where his young ones cry unto God, 
 
 And wander for lack of meat ?" 
 
 So the beautiful poem goes on, touching here and 
 there the chords of Nature's boundless harmony, 
 the wild goats of the rock, and the hinds of the 
 open field ; the wild ass, '' whose house I have 
 made the wilderness, ... he scorneth the tumult 
 of the city ; the wild ox, who cannot be yoked to 
 the furrow ;'' the ostrich and the eagle, and espe- 
 cially the horse, are cited as wonderful works of 
 God. It is no pale sentimental saint who drew 
 this picture of the horse. It has the ring of gen- 
 uine and enthusiastic admiration : 
 
OUT OF THE WHIRLWIND, 131 
 
 " Hast thou given the horse his might ? 
 Hast thou clothed his neck with the quivering mane ? 
 Hast thou made him to leap as a locust ? 
 The glory of his snorting is terrible. 
 He paweth in the valley, and rejoiceth in his strength : 
 He goeth out to meet the armed men. 
 He mocketh at fear, and is not dismayed ; 
 I^^either turneth he back from the sword. 
 The quiver rattleth against him, 
 The flashing spear and the javelin. 
 He swalloweth the ground with fierceness and rage : 
 Neither believeth he that it is the voice of the trumpet. 
 As oft as the trumpet soundeth he saith. Aha ! 
 And he smelleth the battle afar off, 
 The thunder of the captains, and the shouting." 
 
 In the midst of this sublime song of Nature the 
 Lord addresses Job the second time^ sayings 
 
 " Shall he that cavileth contend with the Almighty ? 
 He that argueth with God, let him answer it." 
 
 But Job is done with caviling. He has been 
 looking up and out upon the wondrous world of 
 God^ and when he is suddenly asked to look at 
 hinaself and his case which he had so loudly cried 
 out about, he can scarcely see it. 
 
 " Job answered the Lord, and said, Behold, I am 
 of small account.^^ This is the effect produced on 
 Job by the contemplation of God's power and wig- 
 
132 THE MAN OF UZ. 
 
 dom as it is revealed in the works of creation and 
 providence. The lurking doubt as to God's justice 
 is gone for ever from the mind of Job. He has 
 no longer any vague, distressing fear that God had 
 overlooked him and was doing him injustice. He 
 is abashed to drag his petty case into the court 
 where the destinies of worlds and solar systems are 
 determined. He is ashamed to remember that he 
 misdoubted the tender care of Him who feeds the 
 raven and satisfies the appetite of the young lion. 
 Job is nowhere greater than when he answered, 
 " Behold, I am of small account f^ never more 
 eloquent than when he said, ^' I lay my hand upon 
 my mouth.^^ 
 
 Once more the poet celebrates the wonders of 
 the realm of Nature. He sings, in a style pecu- 
 liarly Oriental, of the two great monsters of the 
 river : '' Behold now behemoth,^ which I made 
 with thee,'' and leviathan,t who is " king over all 
 the sons of pride." 
 
 Once more Job answers as before : 
 
 " I have uttered that which I understood not ; 
 Things too wonderful for me, w^hich I knew not. . . . 
 I had heard of thee by the hearing of the ear ; 
 But now mine eye seeth thee : 
 
 * The hippopotamus. t The crocodile. 
 
OUT OF THE WHIRLWIND. 133 
 
 Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent 
 In dust and ashes.'' 
 
 Thus concludes the most beautiful poem in the 
 world. The "perfect and upright man'^ of the 
 opening chapter has become the man of an humble 
 and contrite heart. The suffering saint who clam- 
 ored for a hearing of his case has had his wish^ but 
 to our surprise he throws up his hand, sayiug, 
 "Behold, I am of small account.^^ How is this? 
 What has God said to Job thus to transform him ? 
 Nothing, except to call his attention to what he 
 could have seen for himself. He explains nothing, 
 argues nothing, alters nothing, yet Job is satisfied by 
 the wonderful works of creation and providence that 
 his God is good and wise, and maketh no mistakes. 
 He is penniless and childless and suffering still ; he 
 is without hope of relief or prospect of restoration, 
 but he is at ease and quiet in spirit, for he feels that 
 
 " Underneath are the everlasting arms." 
 
 The book of Job ends now with a few brief sen- 
 tences in prose. These tell us of Job's restoration. 
 The first thing restored is the impaired relation 
 between him and his three friends. They had been 
 very harsh in their judgments and bitter in their 
 accusations, and it would be very hard for Job to 
 
134 THE MAN OF UZ. 
 
 feel the same cordial love for them that he felt be- 
 fore. Good friends are the choicest of blessings, 
 and a brother offended is not easily won over to 
 friendship again. The relations here are somewhat 
 strained, and a little irritation is felt in memory of 
 the past. See how the Lord prescribes for such 
 a case : 
 
 He makes Job the advocate and intercessor for 
 his three friends. They are commanded to bring 
 a burnt offering for their sin, and Job is asked to 
 pray for them. It is an appeal to his generosity ; 
 it touches the great heart of Job. He prays for 
 them with earnest, honest petition. As he prays 
 all bitterness disappears from his own heart. 
 The Lord forgives, and peace and kindliness are 
 thoroughly restored. 
 
 But this is not all : Job's restoration to pros- 
 perity is connected with this prayer for others. 
 ^^And the Lord turned the captivity of Job when 
 he prayed for his friends : and the Lord gave Job 
 twice as much as he had before/' 
 
 From grace to grace God leads his saints. The 
 perfect and upright man became the hero of patient 
 faith ; then humble and reverent ; and at last we 
 see him on his knees in intercessory prayer for 
 those who had tried his patience as few men are 
 
OUT OF THE WHIRLWIND, 135 
 
 ever tried. His discipline is ended. The trial of 
 his faith is perfect. He rises from his knees to 
 be promoted now to greater honor and prosperity. 
 He receives of the Lord^s hand double measure. 
 All worldly goods are restored two-fold, and sons 
 and daughters also, for ten grew up about him to 
 comfort his declining years, and ten had gone be- 
 fore to meet him in the heavenly home, when, at 
 length, he died, ^* being old and full of days.'^ 
 
 THE END. 
 
^5 
 

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
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