HIS RESIGNATION.

355

proved. He is smitten with "sore boils, from the sole of his foot to his crown!" His wife, who seems not to have borne affliction with the same placid temper, was astonished that he should yet confide in Jehovah-but he silenced her: " What," said he, "shall we receive good at the hand of God, and not evil?" "In all this," adds the historian, "Job sinned not with his lips.' Happy would it be for you and me, who have the assured hope of rejoining our pious friends after death, could we give them up with the same obedient spirit.

Fanny. Was he altogether without that consoling hope?

Mother. By some it has been supposed that he was. By others, his belief in a future state of glory, through the intercession of a Redeemer, is supposed to be clearly marked in some sentences, which he afterwards uttered. Be this as it may, his subdued disposition is entitled to the highest praise. And in this happy state of mind, it is probable he would have remained had he been left to himself. But that serenity which the heavy hand of God had never moved, was disturbed by man, less merciful-and less just. Such unparalleled calamity was soon spread far and wide throughout Arabia, and three men, his particular friends, Bildad, Zophar, and Eliphaz, all men of rank in Idumea, came together to condole with him. They had heard of the loss of his immense property-the death of all his children-and of his own agonizing diseasebut when they approached him, whom they had seen seated in the gate dispensing the law-the most honourable in all the land-" before whom the princes refrained talking, and the nobles held their peace-in whose presence the aged arose, and the young men shrunk away," when they now saw him stretched upon the earth, a loathsome spectacle from which his own domestics turned away-amazement, grief, and horror, struck them dumb-they sate down by him on the ground, and for days and nights no one broke the solemn silence of unutterable wo! In this interval of meditation, the sympathy of pitying friendship gave way to the cooler dictates of erroneous reason. They were themselves virtuous and had flourished in uninterrupt

356

JOB'S COMFORTERS.

ed joy-they were not overwhelmed by misery in every torturing shape like the wretched Job-piety in them had found a rich reward-whence then the uncommon weight of wo that had befallen him? Surely, they concluded, his religion was but a vain pretence, and the hypocrite was now exposed by the just judgment of a righteous Ruler. When, therefore, the sufferer at length broke out into a passionate lamentation, even execrating the day he first beheld the light-they advised him to confess his secret sins, and thus conciliate an offended God! Conscious of the integrity of a well-spent life, he firmly pleads his innocence. This they refused to admit, his unsullied reputation notwithstanding. A dialogue then ensues, in which the comforters contend, that the wicked only are punished, whilst the upright are protected, and crowned with temporal blessings. "Remember," they say, "who ever perished, being innocent, or where were the righteous cut off? They that plough iniquity and sow wickedness reap the same." They even cruelly intimate, that his children had sinned, and were cut off for their transgressions. They magnify the divine attributes, they contend that God is just. "Happy is the man," says Eliphaz, "whom God correcteth, therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty." He accuses Job, whose wisdom and benevolence had heretofore supported others, of weakness in sinking under his own calamity. hold, thou hast instructed many, and thou hast strengthened the feeble knees; but now it is come upon thee, and thou faintest." So hard is it to judge of that which experience has not made us feel! Zophar reproves him for vindicating his own righteousness, against the justice of the Great Supreme. 66 God," said he, "exacteth less of thee than thine iniquity deserveth." But the sufferer answers—“ To him that is afflicted, pity should be shown from his friends"—he desires only death-66 even that it would please God to destroy him-to be hidden in the grave, where the wicked cease from troubling, and where the weary are at rest. Where the prisoners rest together, and hear not the voice of the oppressor." He confesses his own unworthiness and the absolute power of Jehovah,

"Be

but inasmuch as he is nothing in His hands, he expostulates with Him on His excessive rigour and complains that vice and virtue are not distinguished in His administration.

Zophar reproves him harshly for attempting to know the mind of the Omnipotent, and for vindicating himself: again accuses him of unknown crimes, and beseeches him to repent. Exasperated, at length, by the unfeeling acrimony of his accusers, while yet they lay no specific sin to his charge, Job ridicules their affected wisdom, as if he were ignorant, who had been their teacher!" Miserable comforters," cried he, "are ye all!" He pathetically laments his altered state, and entreats their compassion.

"Have pity upon me- -have pity upon me, O ye my

friends! for the hand of God hath touched me!" But in vain he asks their pity, and in vain he contrasts his fallen state with the days when the light of God shined on his tabernacle. "When the Almighty was yet with me, when my children were about me,' he cries, "when the ear heard me then it blessed me, and when the eye saw me it gave witness to me. Because I delivered the poor that cried, and the fatherless, and him that had none to help him-the blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon me, and I caused the widow's heart to sing for joy: the cause which I knew not I searched out." In vain he calls upon them to attest the active usefulness and integrity of his whole life, recounting, eloquently, his deeds of justice and of charity. In vain he contends, "that the wicked are often prosperous all their days;" that "they are reserved to the day of destruction;" and confidently invokes the wrath of his Omniscient Judge, if he had gloried in his wealth, or had perverted his power or his possessions to the purposes of pride or oppression-or if he had been betrayed into idolatry, when he "beheld the sun when it shined, or the moon walking in brightness;" and ardently desires that the Almighty would appear, and permit him to plead his cause in His presence!

Argument and asseveration were alike lost on his hardhearted accusers. Unmoved by the pathetic appeal of their suffering friend, and still persuaded that he had en

358

ELIHU REPROVES HIS COMFORTERS.

joyed an unmerited reputation, yet unable to name the turpitude they suspected, and displeased that they could not drive him to a voluntary confession of his guilt, they are at length silent. Elihu, then, who seems to have joined the company while they were engaged in conversation,— because he is not named in the beginning,-and who had not yet spoken, now arose; and, after apologizing for his interference, because he "was young and they were very old," he declares that he had listened attentively to the debate, and had discovered that " great men are not always wise, neither do the aged always judge correctly," evidently reproving the pretended friends for the severity with which they had irritated the virtuous patriarch. He then turns to Job, and tells him, that he had erred in justifying himself rather than God; that by affirming himself to be altogether perfect, he had arraigned the wisdom and the justice of the Sovereign; that virtue could not entitle a creature to exemption from calamity, because it could not profit the self-sufficient Creator; that the counsels of God are not to be developed by finite man, but his chastisements are to be received with humility; that the righteous and the prosperous are afflicted to remind them of their dependence on the Great Supreme. "If they obey and serve him," he adds, they shall spend their days in prosperity and their years in pleasure. He speaks in glowing terms of the magnificence of the Creator's works, and admonishes Job to reverence the Deity.

66

From the language of Elihu, he would seem to be the author of the whole narrative. In the introduction to his speech, he says-"When I had waited," (for they spake not, but stood still, and answered no more,) " I said, I will answer my part, I will also show mine opinior ;" thus speaking in the first person, whereas the other spe- kers are always quoted in the third.

When Elihu had ceased speaking, then comes the most majestic part of the poem, a conclusion that cannot be surpassed in grandeur. "The Lord answered Job out of a whirlwind." This is mysterious language to us, nor do we pretend to know how the Invisible Spirit spoke to man. A voice, probably, was heard in the whirlwind, and words

1

PROSPERITY RESTORED TO JOB.

359

were pronounced becoming a Deity to utter. Job is reproved for presuming to scan the moral government of God, the meanest of whose works he cannot understand. He is called upon to contemplate the works of creation, and see if he is able to imitate the least of them. "Where wast thou," (it is asked) " when I laid the foundations of the earth?"" when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy-when the bars and the doors of the unfathomable deep were set," and the raging floods were restrained by the high command.— "Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further, and here shall thy proud waves be stayed." He asks, if man can control the paths of light or darkness: can he direct the stars in their annual round, or set limits to their dominion? Thunders, and lightnings, and clouds, and rain, and hail, and ice, and snow, are all arrayed in grand succession, to show the astonished auditors their comparative impotence. Descending from the firmament the august speaker continues to display his transcendent attributes in a few specimens, though but very few indeed, of animated matterthe eagle who mounts on high at His command-the peacock who proudly spreads his glittering plumes, and the young raven "who cries to God for food-the wild goat that leaps fearlessly from the craggy rock, and the lion who prowls the forest for his prey-the warlike horse, "whose neck is clothed with thunder," and the stupendous whale, (Leviathan,) "before whom the mighty are afraid," -All, all, are the work of His hands:-" who, then,” He asks, "is able to stand before me?"

This appalling address produces the intended effect,Job is humbled, and confesses, “Behold, I am vile, what shall I answer thee? I will lay my hand upon my mouth." "I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth Thee-wherefore, I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes."

The three friends of the penitent Job are then told, 66 ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job hath;" and they are commanded, to go to him, and offer up for themselves a burnt offering-and his prayer for them should be accepted. Job is afterwards