Job had to answer to himself, Which of these two Gods is the true one? The God of my contemporaries, who is ever on the watch for a slip or an offence that He may punish it, and who seems often to punish when there is no offence ; or the God of whom my own heart speaks to me, who doth not afflict willingly, and whose chastisements are all kind ? If the God of the theological imagination were the true God, he was prepared to hold his own before Him. This Divine Despot, as the stronger, might visit him with Hiscastigations, but in his conscious integrity. Job would not blench. " Behold, he will slay me ; I will wait for him. I will maintain my cause before him."
^ A favourite theme of Greek tragedy was the conflict between fate and freedom, between Divine necessity and man's free will, between the despotism of nature's inexorable laws and the passionate longings of the human soul. And in the story of Prometheus, or Forethought, we have this conflict most vividly set forth. Because Prometheus brought fire from heaven for the benefit of mortals, Jupiter was angered and caused him to be chained to a rock on Mount Caucasus, where for thirty thousand years a vulture was sent to feed upon his liver, " which was never diminished, though continually devoured." His ofience was that he had brought a heavenly boon to men ; and he would not cry " Peccavi " any more than Job would in order to secure release. "He whose God-like crime it was to be kind, he who resisted the torments and the terrors of Zeus, relying upon his own fierce soul," is in this respect the counterpart of Job in his suffering. " Each refuses to say he is wrong merely to pacify God, when he does not see that he is wrong. As Pro- metheus maintains this inflexible purpose, so Job holds fast his integrity." ^
* J. Halsey, The Spirit of Truth, 83.
42 TRUST INEXTINGUISHABLE
2. Let us dare to follow our own thoughts of God, interpreting His relation and providence towards us through our own best instincts and aspirations. This is what Jesus taught us to do. He revealed and exemplified a manly and man-making faith, as far removed as possible from that slavish spirit which is so characteristic of much pietistic teaching. Christ said, Find the best in yourselves and take that for the reflection of God — the parental instinct, for instance, with its patience, its unselfishness, its self-denying love. Keason from that up to God, He says. " How much more shall your heavenly Father ! "
^ John Sterling with us. Talked over many people. Much discourse on special providences, a doctrine which he totally disbelieves, and views the supporters of it as in the same degree of moral development as Job's comforters. Job, on the contrary, saw further ; he did not judge of the Almighty's aspect towards him by any worldly afflictions or consolations ; he saw somewhat into the inner secret of His providence, and so could say, " Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him." We must look for the hand of His providence alike in all dispensations, however mysterious to us. Every movement here has its first impulse in Heaven ; though, like a pure ether, it may be contaminated or altogether changed by collision with the atmosphere of this world, yet its origin is Divine. Thus, on the ruins of the doctrine of particular providences may be built up our belief in the constant superintendence and activity of our Infinite Father ; and though some highly extolled species of faith maytlose their value for us, we shall, instead of them, see our entire dependence on Omnipotence for every gift, however trifling, and feel that He doeth all things transcendently well.^
3. It is pleasant to know from the last chapter, that before the drama closes Job comes to truer thoughts of God and a more spiritual knowledge of himself. He perceives that his heart, in its blind revolt, has been fighting a travesty of God and not the real God. Then, as soon as he sees God as He is, and himself as he is, his tone changes again. The accent of revolt is exchanged for that of adoring recognition, and the note of defiance sinks into a strain of penitential confession. "Who is this that hideth counsel without knowledge ? Therefore have I uttered that which I understood not. I had heard of thee by the hearing
^ Caroline Fox, Journals and Letters, i. 236.
JOB XIII. 15 43
of the ear" (the things that Eliphaz the Temanite, and Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite had said to him about God) ; " but now mine eye seeth thee." The vision brought him back by one bound to God and himself. " Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes."
^ The sentiment that the highest bliss might be found in love without return is no other than that which has nourished in all time the noblest forms of human love and devotion. It is the sentiment which inspired with sublime passion the well- known words of Saint Teresa : " Thou drawest me, my God. Thy death agony draws me ; Thy love draws me, so that, should there be no Heaven, I would love Thee. Were there no Hell, I would fear Thee no less. Give me naught in return for this my love to Thee ; for were I not to hope that I long for, then should I love Thee even as I do now," Not until the passion of self- abandonment has touched the point at which the words, " Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him," are the simple and natural expression of pride and joy, is that height of exaltation reached the attainment of which includes the highest possibilities of love and sorrow. For "love's limits are ample and great, and a spacious walk it hath, but with thorns not lightly to be passed over." The call to love, rightly understood, is, in truth, a call to self-renunciation, as indeed is every call to lead the higher life. The soul to whom such a call comes is directly confronted with the necessities of sacrifice, for devotion to another in its highest form leads to the way of the Cross. Only through much suffering may the Saint attain the fulfilment of the promise of the spiritual life and see Him face to face, yet in her triumph she cries, " Give me naught in return for this my love to Thee!"i