JOB'S COMFORTERS; OR, SCIENTIFIC SYMPATHY. BY JOSEPH PARKER, D.D., MINISTER OF THE CITY TEMPLE, LONDON. WITH INTRODUCTION AND NOTES, BY GEORGE ZABRISKIE GRAY, RECTOR OF TRINITY CHURCHN, BERG N POINT, N. J3 NVEW YORK: ANSON D. F. RANDOLPH & COMPANY, 770 BROADWAY, COR. gth STREET. I876. THE AUTHOR'S CONSENT TO REPUBLICATION. LONDON, Sejt. I4, I875. DEAR SIR: —You have my hearty consent to your proposed reprint of " Job's Comforters." It should be made very clear that, as Christian teachers, we rejoice in the progress of true science, whilst we refuse to be made into mere chemical laboratories, or to be ticketed as so much animated carbon or salt. We must insist that there is a science of morals as certainly as there is a science of matter, and that when physical science has done its best, there yet remains a hunger peculiar to the soul. To say that because science is true, therefore religion is false, is equal to saying that because two and two are four, therefore there can be no resurrection of the dead; or, because an acid is neutralized by an alkali, therefore St. Paul was never converted. With all good wishes, I am, very truly yours, JOSEPH PARKER. REV. GEO. Z. GRAY. INTRODUCTORY NOTE. HAVING met with this tract through the kindness of a friend, it seemed to me that its reproduction and circulation in this country would be opportune, as a valuable aid in resisting the tide of materialism which appears to be setting in over our land, where that absorption in things seen and temporal, which is peculiar to a new and developing nation, affords a congenial and welcoming soil to the seeds that are scattered by an unbelieving science. The author, Rev. Joseph Parker, D.D., has been long known as the writer of " Ecce Deus," and he has recently secured a new title to the thanks of the Christian world by his work on "The Paraclete," wherein he most signally vindicates, in a manner that the popular mind can appreciate, the reality and reasonableness of spiritual truths and opera. tions. Anything of his writing needs, therefore, no further introduction. The power of satire in argument has been too (5) 6 INTROD UCTOR Y NOTE. often felt, and its lawfulness too often shown, to need any justification of its employment now, however much the foot that it pinches may protest. It is the most pointed and the most unanswerable method of showing the weak points of an antagonist in controversy, and impresses them in a way that will penetrate many a head which would be unaffected by sober argument. The propriety of its use in the discussion of sacred things, has not only the pages of many a great and saintly name in its behalf, it has the precedent of inspiration and the authority of Him "who spake as never man spake." The form of satire employed in these pages is that most cogent of all-the reductio ad absurdum. Rarely has this been more skilfully handled than by the author. Rarely has any system been so thoroughly tried by submitting it to application to legitimate cases, wherein it was found to fail, than has materialism, in the tests to which it is here subjected. The idea is not new, but the method and the shape given it are among the originalities of the time. A word of explanation may be of value, to the unscientific reader, regarding the men who are selected as the representatives of cotemporary materialism, and the names which are given them —Hux IN TROD UC TOR Y NO TE. 7 ley the Moleculite, John Stuart the Millite, and Tyndall the Sadducee. Huxley, whose services in the investigation of nature must be readily confessed, says:... " If, as I have endeavored to.prove to you, their protoplasm (that of a fungus or of a foraminifer) is essentially identical with, and most readily convertible into, that of any animal, I can discover no logical halting-place between the admission that such is the case, and the further concession that all vital action may with equal propriety be said to be the result of the molecular forces of the protoplasm which displays it."'* Or, as Dr. Parker sums up Huxley's view: "All mental phenomena are to be accounted for by molecular motion and molecular grouping; for the brain is composed of molecules, probably too minute for miscroscopic detection, whose motion, combination, and electrical discharges account for all supposed spiritual phenomena." t This makes it clear why in these pages this gentleman is called " the Moleculite." If ever man had a hobby, Huxley has one in the molecule. * " Lay Sermons and Addresses," page x38. The italics are my own. t "The Paraclete," page 293, Am. Ed. 8 INTROD UCTOR Y NO TE. John Stuart Mill was not, and denied being, formally, amaterialist. He repudiated what he called "dogmatic Atheism," while he had a peculiar antipathy at the same time to all forms of religion. His position was " that the question,'WVho made me?' cannot be answered, because we have no experience or authentic information from which to answer it; and that any answer only throws the difficulty a step further back, since the question immediately presents itself,'Who made God?"* Yet his real feelings were revealed when he compared the brain to a voltaic pile giving shocks of thought. The peculiarity of his position is that he was, to a rare degree, regardless of the authority of all the wise and great men that had lived before him. He was a disciple of no one but his father, James Mill, and believed only in himself. How true this is, is painfully evident in his " Autobiography," where the words " my father " occur with a frequency which is wearisome, and only less marked than the iteration of " I." In fact, in the former expression, one can hardly help feeling that the.writer thought that the title to regard of the person referred to, was based upon the fact that he was " my father." *' Autobiography," page 43, Am. Ed. INTROD UCTOR Y NO TE. 9 Therefore, as this " comforter " cannot be classed with any school, since he and his father form a part of the intellectual world by themselves, he is well called " John Stuart the Millite." Tyndall, that man of keen investigation and rare English, says, as an exposition of his views:" The mind of man may be compared to a musical instrument with a certain range of notes, beyond which, in both directions, we have an infinitude of silence. The phenomena of matter and force lie within our intellectual range, and, as far as they reach, we will at all hazards push our inquiries. But behind, and above, and around all, the real mystery of this universe lies unsolved, and, as far as we are concerned, is incapable of solution." That is, in regard to matters beyond the range of the material, he doubts everything and believes nothing, as is seen in all his theologico-scientific writings, where he illustrates, also, as no one else ever did, the wanderings of a " sutor ultra crepidam." This position of resolute doubt and inaccessibility to arguments for faith, have secured him in this tract the fit title of "the Sadducee." Such are, then, the positions and tenets of the persons who figure as " Job's comforters," and such the reasons for the names assigned them. IO IN TROD UCTOR Y NO TE. In the words put into their mouths, Dr. Parker has caught, with singular felicity, the language of each, and has most dexterously interwoven their favorite expressions, with which the reader of their works is familiar. It had been my intention to note all the actual quotations from their writings, but they are sor many and so skilfully inserted, that I had to abandon it. Besides all this, in the replies made to them and in their confusion, there are a sustained cogency of argument and a clear exposure of their weak points, that are crushing. Throughout the whole work, there is a combination of sarcasm and fairness, of wit and pathos, that render its perusal delightful. Some differences between this and the English edition are due to the suggestion of the Author. The notes are all my own, and are only a few out of many comments that might have been made to the assistance of some readers. GEO. Z. GRAY. BERGEN POINT, N. J., Sept. 30, I875. "Where are thy gods that thou hast made thee? Let them arise if they can save thee in the time of thy trouble." (Jer. ii. 28). " Go and cry unto the gods which ye have chosen; let them deliver you in the time of your tribulation." (Judges x. I4). " Thy calf, O Samaria, hath cast thee off." (Hosea viii. 5). JOB'S COMFORTERS. THERE was a man in these latter days whose name was Job; the same was a fol. lower of Jesus Christ, and his delight was in the law of God, from whom was all his expectation. Job went amongst men as one who ceased not from prayer, nor hesitated to declare the sufficiency and joyfulness of a life of faith in the Son of God. Day by day he blessed his bread in the name of heaven, and set the Lord always before him as the source of his strength and the giver of every good gift. And unto Job were born sons and daughters, and as for his wheatfields and orchards, they were fruitful beyond measure. And it came to pass that a sudden blight fell upon the whole fortune of Job, and that Job himself was bowed down in weakness and in great fear. His children perished out ('3) I4 yOB'S COMFOR TERS. of his sight, and his ground brought forth abundantly no more; and it was as if God had forsaken him in unexplained and terrible anger and given him over as a prey to the enemy. Yea, his wife also spake not the word of sympathy, but talked of death as the only release from grief so unendurable. Now, when the new leaders of human thought heard of all the evil that was come upon Job, they came every one from his own place; Huxley the Moleculite, John Stuart the Millite, and Tyndall the Sadducee. And when they lifted up their eyes afar off and saw Job more a shadow than a man, they whispered to each other, " This comes of religious faith," and they hastened towards him with swift feet. So they sat down beside the shattered man, and in less than seven seconds Stuart the Millite began metaphorically to throw stones at his bewildered head. "Just what might have been expected," said he; "this comes of your star-gazing, and of reading the patriarchs, instead of watching the markets. I always say that a man brings yOB'S COMFORTERS. I5 all this sort of thing upon himself, and that as he makes his bed, so he must lie upon it. Excuse me, Job, if I don't speak in the old mealy-mouthed way. Be your own God, and then pray as much as you like." But Job answered and said: " 0 that my grief were understood, and that ye could heal the pain that is in mine heart, for then would I bless you as those who speak wise words. Behold, this cometh not of mine own hand, for wherein have I dared the Most High to overwhelm me?" Then answered Huxley the Moleculite and said: "Cease from thy languishing, nor let thy repining any longer be heard. Understand thou that this disturbance is entirely molecular: * by some means or other the molecules have got into a disordered condition, and that singular whitey-brown fluid found in the heads of human animals has * Hardly a burlesque. Huxley says, in an address (Lay Sermon, p. I38), "the thoughts to which I am now giving utterance, and your thoughts regarding them, are the expression of molecular changes, etc." i6 YOB'S COMFOR TERS. become a little addled, diluted, or otherwise injured, and hence these phenomena: all animal life is more or less subject to this visitation, and viewed scientifically, yours, Job, is a singularly beautiful case." Whereupon Job moaned in the bitterness of his soul, and cried, saying: " 0 that my children were about me as in the days that are gone, and that 1 could recall the light which made my home a scene of gladness. If not, would to God I might die and be at rest. My children! my children! whence have ye fled from me! " Then answered Tyndall the Sadducee, and said': "Thy children have melted into the infinite azure of the past, as all living things must melt. They have gone again to the dust, but in their decomposition there will be liberated gases and other elements, which, mingling with ditto ditto, otherwise flying about, and on the outlook for whatever they can extract from dead individuals, will contribute somewhat to the nourishment of animals and plants, and in this way the children eOB'S COMFORTERS. 17 of Job will be of great use in the chemic economy of nature." Then was Job full of indignation, and his soul was overwhelmed within him. " Miserable comforters are ye all," said he; "'and yours is the wisdom of fools. Have ye seen sore trouble and has your day been suddenly turned into night, or have your eyes stood out with fatness, and your souls been long at ease? Know ye what it is to be carried away as with a flood, and to be thrown down by an irresistible arm? Your words are strange to me, and your speech without savour." Then answered John Stuart the Millite, and said: " Are thy children more than the children of other men that they should live for ever? Reform the sanitary arrangements of the country, return a thoroughly representative Parliament to St. Stephen's, give women the franchise, and let all leading articles be signed by the names of the writers, and then we may look for better health, higher wages, and more general comfort.This you may call utilitarianism, but I call it commn-on sense." i8 0.B'S COA1FOR TERS. And Huxley the Moleculite said: "Wilhy grieve for children? And why moan and groan over the inevitable? You should take a scientific view of all things. What my friend the Sadducee has said is strictly scientific. We live upon one another all through and through creation, We find the origin of protoplasm in the vegetable world; the plants drink the fluid containing carbonic acid, water, and ammonia, and thus maintain themselves in vigor, and then the animals in their turn eat the plants and perform a high feat of constructive chemistry by converting dead protoplasm into the living matter which is appropriate to itself." Thereupon, in paternal anguish and rage, Job smote Huxley the Moleculite to the ground, and Tyndall the Sadducee exclaimed: "Why this, O Job?" And Job answered in bitter sarcasm: " The molecules! And God do so to me, and more also, if I smite you not one and all for your madness and cruelty. 0, my children! My children!" But Huxley the Moleculite, and John 7OB'S COMFORTERS. 19 Stuart the Millite, and Tyndall the Sadducee reasoned with Job, and besought him to restrain himself, and offered to lend him their complete works to while away his childless hours and his consuming sorrows; moreovecr, Tyndall the Sadducee answered and said: "We are the founders of a new school; we are the valiant leaders of the new age, and we are prepared to suffer a good deal of advertisement, and are willing to risk all the consequences of a remunerative circulation of our books: let me speak to thee, I pray thee, nor let thine anger be too hot." Then Job answered, " Say on." And when Huxley the Moleculite had retired from Job according to the square of the distance which formerly separated them, Tyndall the Sadducee opened his mouth and said: "What is thy complaint, and what is thy desire, that we may answer thee? " And Job answered: "My complaint is that I am sore wounded, and that my life is impoverished and filled with woe. The delight of mine eyes is taken away, and no 20 O0B'S COMFOR TERS. longer is mine ear filled with music: they that knew me turn away from me, and they that understood me are numbered with the dead. O that I might have my request, and that God would grant me the thing that I long for! Even that it would please God to destroy me; that He would let loose HIis hand and cut me off! Is there not a God il heaven, and is not He King over all the earth? Why is His hand heavy upon me, and for what reason hath He shut up my soul in darkness? Answer me, if ye have understanding." "We will answer thee," said the Sadducee, " and let thee know the measure of our wisdom. We have stretched our minds across cosmic spaces and cosmic periods, and have seen the sufficiency of matter to grow and recombine, and produce startling effects; we have seen nothing indeed of which matter is incapable: it seems to be its own secret and its own origin. Still there is an Inscrutable Power somewhere; we know nothing about it; neither does any man. There is, we own, 7OB'S COMFORTERS. 21 a Secret which we cannot make out, and our resolution is never to attempt its explanation. For my own part I have not even a theory of magnetism, muc'i. 1s3; a thAory of the universe.* Let us keep within own limits, and lay down our work at the call of Nature. Be quiet. You are in trouble; you have lost your children; your high so)cial estate is gone. Be it so; take these things philosophically, and don't let your courage fail you." " Beside," added John Stuart the Millite, "as our knowledge of nature extends, we shall get more command over disease, and even death itself. When public baths are more known and appreciated, and the higher education of women is advanced, I imagine we shall dry up nine-tenths of the troubles of life." "0 fools and hard of heart," said Job; "have you no more answer to my grief than this? When a man's life is desolate, will a theory of magnetism recover his comfort and peace? When he has discovered the tomb in * A quotation of Tyndall's actual language. 22 OB'S COMFOR TERS. the midst of his garden, will such things make his heart glad with unspeakable joy? You tell me there is a Secret in the universe which you cannot explain; but because you cannot explain it, is-it therefore impossible of explanation? There is a stone which I cannot lift: does it therefore follow that no other man can lift it? Is there healing for my body, and none for my soul? Is there bread for my physical hunger, and no food for the fiercer hunger of my heart? You mock me: you wish me to give the lie to my own consciousness: you tempt me to commit spiritual suicide;-miserable comforters are ye all! " "Still," said Huxley the Moleculite, with chastened air, "we must be scientific. Let me lay it down that matter and spirit are but names for the imaginary substrata ot groups of natural phenomena."' " And pray who told you that? " said Job. " You chatter great words with glibness, and make fine speeches, but you find for me no fountain in the wilderness, nor can you as* A quotation. V. Lay Sermons, p. I43. 7OB'S COMFOR TERS. 23 suage the swelling of my woe. Is there not something deeper in life than you have yet touched? A wounded spirit who can bear? Will not God hear me when I cry, or will He hide Himself from my approach? Can a man live upon the wind, or satisfy himself with hard words, or rest his head upon the sharp rocks? Have you had pain like mine, or have ye lived in gaiety, and sat at the table of plentifulness? When did the lion rend you, or the wolf lie in wait for your appearing? Ye know not whereof ye affirm, else would your speech be chastened, and your words be few." Then uprose Tyndall the Sadducee, and hastily said: " Should not the multitude of words be answered? and should a man full of talk be, justified? Let me ask Job a question or two that may comfort him in a rational, and in not a sentimental manner. What is the vegetable world but the result of the complex play of molecular forces? What is it which tears the carbon and the hydrogen from the strong embrace of the 24 7OB'S COMFOR TERS.. oxygen? Is it possible for the undeflected human mind to return to the meridian of absolute neutrality as regards ultraphysical questions? Let Job consider these and a million similar questions, if he would be really comforted. Let him read Fichte in the morning, and commit Emerson's poems to inemory on Sundays, and always keep by him a good translation of Plato; and above all things, let him doubt those who pretend to see in cholera, cattle plague, and bad harvests, evidences of Divine anger. And now that I am speaking, I will make a clean breast of it at all hazards. Prayer is wasted breath. The law of gravitation crushes the simple worshippers in the Methodist chapel while singing their hymns, just as surely as if they were engaged in a midnight brawl. Job must hold his feelings in control. Let the Moslem give way to them in his battle-cry, and the Red Indian wake the echoes of his hunting-grounds with such wild howls, but when Job can attend scientific lectures at the Royal Institution, or take a course of evening YOB'S COMFORTERS. 25 lectures at the School of Mines, he ought to conduct himself in a rational way in time of misfortune, and show himself to be a philosopher." Then answered John Stuart the Millite, with unusual warmth: " I, too, have been in trouble, but I needed no sackcloth nor scattered any ashes on my head. I took a philosophic course. I mounted a philosophic steed, and sped away from my trouble. If Job will hear me, he shall know how to keep distress under his feet, and to defy the threatening storm. What time I am afraid I flee to metaphysics; and when conscience threatens to get the upper hand of me, I consider the functions and the logical value of the Syllogism. When my father, who would never allow me to haVe any convictions * about religion different from his own, melted into the infinite azure of the past, I comforted myself under such melting by testing Berthollet's curious law, that two soluble salts mutually decom* True. This is expressly stated by Mill, as his father's "idea of duty." Autob, p. 42. 26 0OB'S COMFOR TERS. pose one another whenever the new combination which result produce an insoluble compound, or one less soluble than the two former; and the comforting effect of the experiments was remarkable,-so much so that in an ecstasy of scientific surprise and delight I almost wished that he had melted sooner, that I might have had longer possession of this prize. O that Job would do something of the same kind l He would forget the past in a trice, and be as happy as I am. Let me put you in possession of a secret, if bv doing so I can rally the dejected Job. When I die there will be found in my desk the manuscript of my Autobiography, and so sustained was I by philosophic reflection during its composition, that never once in its pages have I mentioned my mother! Nobody could know from my Autobiography that I ever had a mother!* That is what I call self-control! Other people talk of their mothers, and their * A fact. Mill in his Autobiography never refers to his mother; not even in the eighty-six pages devoted to his youth and training. YOB'S COMFORTERS. 27 mothers' influence, and their mothers' prayers, and their mothers' example, but I never own the relationship; I keep on the airy highlands of philosophy, and avoid the close and relaxing valleys of sentiment. Once, indeed, I was about to give wvay to the common folly, but I recovered my self-restraint by showing the fallacious reasoning which has been founded on the law of inertia and the first law of motion, and I never lost my balance again. If Job would take some such course, his grief would be for ever dissipated." And to the same effect, Huxley the Moleculite, who had insensibly increased his distance from Job: "I have often steadied myself under a stunning blow by remembering that protoplasm, simple or nucleated, is the formal basis of all life. This has been a great comfort to me in many distresses. Whlen death has invaded the household of any of my friends, I have always proved to them that all living powers are cognate, and that all living forms are fundamentally of one character, and they have invariably thanked me for my sym 28.OB'S COMFOR TERS. pathetic and consolatory expressions. One dear old friend of mine, who suddenly lost all his income in a railway crash, would, I believe, have died of a broken heart had I not asked him to compare in his imagination the microscopic fungus- a mere infinitesimal ovoid particle - with the gigantic pine of California, towering to the dimensions of a cathedral spire; and my friend no sooner complied with my request than in a wave ot victory, as Tyndall the Sadducee would call it, he was lifted far beyond rolling stocks and permanent ways with their fickle dividends and their treacherous attractions. It is very pleasing to me to find that there is in science that which will heal'a mind diseased.' Job, be encouraged by our words; rest upon them as upon a sure foundation, and in passing through the various experiences of life always remember that a nucleated mass of protoplasm is the structural unit of the human body. This you will find a catholicon for human ills." Then Job arose from the ground and 7OB'S COMFORTERS. 29 turned his face towards the heavens, nor spake one word to those who offered him stones for bread. In his eyes were standing great tears, and on his countenance was the stamp of unutterable grief. Then the Lord took up his cause, and answered his comforters out of the whirlwind: " How old are ye, and what is the measure of your days? Ye mighty men and mocking comforters, answer me, that I may know the strength of your understanding and the dignity of your judgment. What will happen you on the morrow? And can you, who are unable to turn over a single page of passing time, read all the volume of eternity gone, and comprehend the measure and the reason of all things? Is the universe without a Maker, a Guardian, a Friend? Are there no boundaries set to power, and is there no watch appointed over ambition? Can the eagle soar quite into the sun, or build his nest amidst the forests of the stars? Can any man deliver his friend in the day of death, or travel with him into the great waters and 30 0OB'S COM'FOR TERS. return from the gulf? Is there no angel of Mercy spreading mighty but gentle wings over all the world, sending the seasons in their course, the rains in rich showers, and the fire to warm the earth all summer long? Are there no mysteries in life which make you pause and for a moment turn your flippancy into at least an appearance of sobriety? Know ye the invisible bonds which keep you within an appointed sphere?, Can you shut your door upon those powers which wither your pride and take away all the -sap of your strength? You call me a Secret and an Inscrutable Force, and ye deny My power to reveal Myself to the children of men. Who are you that you should set yourselves against Moses and David, Ezekiel and Daniel, John and Paul? You have told My servant Job what you can do in the hour of human darkness and sore distress, and behold your helplessness and the vanity of your strength!" Then Job cried aloud, "Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him! He hath been with me in six troubles, and in seven He will 0B' S COMFOR TERS. 31 not cast me off. Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right? Miserable comforters are ye all, though ye are the men, and wisdom will die with you! When you have exhausted your petty science, what have you told me that can touch the agony of my heart or bring back the light of my house? If your theory be right, why should I suffer all this misery when in a moment I can end all my distress? If this chastening be for no higher good, why should I not interrupt it by the instant destruction of my consciousness? You mock me, but you have no satisfaction for my heart. You throw hard words at me, but you have no balm for my healing. Ye are as a bowing wall and a tottering fence: I will not lean upon you. The Lord is my light and my satvation. I had fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. O Lord, Thou hast brought uF my soul from the grave; Thou hast kept mc alive that I should not go down to the pit. Thine anger endureth but a moment; weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in 32 yOBu'S COMFORTERS. the morning! I said in my haste, I am cut off from before Thine eyes; nevertheless Thou heardest the voice of my supplications when I cried unto Thee. Lord, open the eyes of these men that they may see my defence as Thou seest it! " And the Lord opened the eyes of the leaders of science, and they saw, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Job, and the Lord opened their ears so that they heard voices other than of men, saying: " The chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels: the angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear Him, and delivereth them: He shall give His angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy ways. The Lord of Hosts is with thee, the God of Jacob is thy refuge." And the heart of Job was lifted up in praise, and through the sob of his woe there came torth alleluias unto the Lord. Yea, he magtiified his God, and praised Him with many psalms: "' Bless the Lord, 0 my soul, and all yoB'S COMFORTERS. 33 that is within me bless His holy name. He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds; He is the God which fed me all my life long unto this day, the Angel which redeemed me from all evil. I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that my loved ones are standing before Him, glad in His light and beautiful in His holiness. Praise the Lord! " And it came to pass that Job's three comforters-Huxley the Moleculite, Stuart the Millite, and Tyndall the Sadducee-gathered together their inaugural addresses at the British Association, their lectures at the School of Mines and the Royal Institution, their dissertations upon liberty and the higher education of women, and returned with them to their several places. And it came to pass as they journeyed that they came near to a beautiful stream, spanned by a suspension bridge, nigh unto which there nestled the thatched cottage of a ranger in the woods.' That," said Stuart the Millite, "seems to be an ideal house, though so simple and un 34 rOB'S COMFOR TERS. pretending. How clean the place is and sweet-looking, and how these tangled flowers on the front brighten it and give it quite a jewelled appearance; and a beautiful peep of the river must be caught from that western window." And it came to pass as they drew near to the house that the ranger in the woods leaned himself against an aged tree, and seemed as if he did so in heaviness of heart. And it was even so, for lifting up his eyes and seeing three men bearing many books, he said unto them: "' Be ye learned men who can tell us what to do when we are dizzy and senseless? " " Perhaps indeed we can help you a little," said Huxley the Moleculite; "at any rate, we are quite willing to try." " Come with me then and see what is in the house. I lost her mother but a twelverrmonth since, and now she's slipping away." But Huxley the Moleculite, and Stuart the Millite, and Tyndall the Sadducee shrank from the man, and in remembrance of the yOB'S COMFOR TERS. 35 sufferer they had left they dared not to speak of the sympathy of science. " But mayhap you will pray with the child, and not pass by her on the other side. In such books as yours there must be something for broken hearts like mine. It is but a step or two to the girl's bedside. Come! " " It would be but wasted time, my friend," said Stuart the Millite, " for we have no power over the laws of nature." " But cannot you speak comfortably to the child? for she says the river is very cold, and, bless her, her feet are very young." " You are not so very near the river, my friend," said Stuart the Millite. Whereupon the man turned away and answered with a great sob. And it came to pass as the leaders of science had gotten away to the height of a distant hill that they laid down their books and rested a while. And presently Tyndall the Sadducee opened his mouth and said: "' We have been out of our depth to-day, and perhaps we had no business along this road 36 JOB'S COMFOR TERS. at all. These books of ours are invaluable in their places, and very likely they are indispensable to the higher education of the world; but there are two men along this road who somehow need something that we have not got to give them. It is no use concealing the fact, or making it look less important than it is. I wish a great poet would arise who can sing these woes to sleep and charm us out of our ill-fortunes."* And it came to pass that the Lord turned the captivity of Job and made him glad with new joy, yea He crushed for him the finest of the grapes and gave him wine with His own hand, and upon his wheatfields and or* A reference to the following passage from Tyndall: "I think the poet will have a great work to play in the future of the world. To him.... (now that religion and theology have been exploded).... we have a right to look for that heightening and brightening of life, which so many of us need. He (not the revelations made in the Bible through prophets and others sent from God) ought to be the interpreter of that power, which, as'Jehovah,Jove, or Lord' has hitherto filled and strengthened the human heart." The bracketted words are the editor's. yOB'S COMFORTERS. 37 chards He sent the benediction of sun and shower until their abundance returned and was multiplied. And Job rebuilt his altar and bowed down before God with all reverence and love, and sang the praise of the Most High with a loud voice, and made a joyful noise unto the Rock of his Salvation. And in the day of his prosperity, Job sent for the books of Huxley the Moleculite, John Stuart the Millite, and Tyndall the Sadducee and read them all with an attentive eye. Then he rose up and said: "0 wise yet foolish men! your books are full of knowledge and instruction, and mighty men are ye in the fields of learning. But have ye forgotten that there is a spirit in man, and that the inspiration of the Almighty gives him understanding? Know ye the way into the heart when it is in ruins? or can ye lift up those who are pressed down by the hand of God? Keep your learning in its proper place and it will help the progress of the world; but attempt not with it to heal the wounds of the heart. Not to your wisdom, but to your simplicity 38 yOB's COMFORTERS. will God reveal Himself:' He hath hidden Himself from the wise and prudent and shown forth His beauty unto babes: even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Thy sight.' " And the woodman's little girl? Was the river so very cold when her young feet touched it? We cannot follow far along that drear road, nor see far into that great darkness. But there was no splash in the water; there was a quivering in the arch which spanned it, from which the ranger knew that his child had been taken, not through the river, but over the bridge to the mountains of myrrh and the hills of frankincense. REC ENT' BOOKS ON THE C H RISTIAN EVIDENCES. CMODERN Scefpticism. Lectures delivered in connection with the Christian Evidence Society, and designed to meet current forms of unbelief among the educated classes. By the Rev. George Rawlinson, the Lord Bishop of Carlisle, and others. I2mo, cloth.. 2 50 These Lectures are able and timely: they are popular in style; and yet thorough and scholarly.-Herald and Presbyter. PHILOSOPHY of NVatural Theology (The). An Essay in confutation of the Scepticism of the present day, which obtained a prize at Oxford, November 26, I872. 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I6mo, cloth.... 75 The volume, though small in size, is very rich and suggestive in thought, and of more value than many volumes of much larger size and greater pretensions.-Quarterly Review. CA UTIOIVSfor Doubters. By the Rev. J. H. Titcomb, M.A. i6mo, cloth. 1 25 A safe, judicious book to put in the hands of those who are really perplexed and distressed by doubts.-Presbyterian. S TRI VIANGSfor the Faith. The Fourth Series of Lectures delivered under the auspices of the Christian Evidence Society. 12mo, cloth..... I 50 A useful and practical contribution to the literature of belief-as against that of unbelief; and at the same time is a valuable contribution to literature at large. —Christian Intelligencer. SENSUALISTIC Philosopihy of the Nineteenth Century (T he). Considered by Robert L. Dabney, D.D. 8vo, cloth..... 2 00 1FAITH and Free Thought. Being a Second Course of Lectures on Modern Scepticism, delivered before the Christian Evidence Society. 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N..;i Y', Oie: vol., sniat 8,;0, 455 pp. $a25s0,- From the,ev..Wfl4AMU A Y1AER, D.D., LL.', ~W'lltoa nI P'rbf.sor of the Greek L, ae,- arnd ZIrerz,;/, L A ie.,' Ty examination co'lfiflns -e' itr mwe y opinronfbroni - from a cursol-' e.-annaa:io. i ft.he manpgscrpt, of the grat. value;a6nd ierits: of th;- botl -It co'~ers a very wide field; u.huc of fit hitert atceiss tblj only re,ciolar.. - b&t iafl orgreat. interestiarnd importance to every readlerAcf the:Scrip' ure, i~t fneets'a. -waat widely felt by the' inteli.exunt hgiiati tby-ane;ubs xby-a -ig ia' a'd ciar ~imnd satihtfa9l rrrer,-'a mfult.i:tfude. cf questions which the-Y h.;hv h ci'iterto' ha 4 no meana of- aiswerinl.'At -i.e ta n-e tine, tire is-soa.41(miuh accuracy, thbrouhiune7s', patience1 and c'riscreniuous.es Irl the ifvestlgation and. trIatmenti of the:ubjecti.-taht -he b;ok is eitited t6 e'a'high -rank ana6llg tht 11e'ps of eicatecl men. wnc. ters ald. biboi"i, scalcl.t The seeks,6n.nl~ to, aseriain th ta'.'rlt to etfish;.' tbrory, o pcr eiiupp.'tAia~9ttxO eut:ANSO. 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