^ The Electoress Louise Henriette von Oranien (died 1667), the authoress of the immortal hymn, " Jesus meine Zuversicht " [the English translation begins, "Jesus Christ, my sure defence"], chose these words, " Though the Lord should slay me, yet will I hope in him," for the text of her funeral oration. And many in the hour of death have adopted the utterance of Job in this form as the expression of their faith and consolation. Among these we may mention a Jewess. The last movement of the wasted fingers of Grace Aguilar was to spell the words, " Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him." ^
(3) Again, reverses of fortune often come on the good and honest with giant strides because of sickness, because of fraud, or the failure of others, because of unforeseen calamities ; and then, oh ! the anguish of heart-breaking anxieties which a man must feel, if not for himself, at least for those whom he loves. What is he to do ? What form is his faith and fortitude to take ?
^ There is a grandeur which has always touched my heart in the young man struggling with the storm of fate, in CEdipus nobler and grander in his blindness and exile than on the throne, in Marius sitting among the ruins of Carthage, and Belisarius begging for his obolus in the streets of Constantinople. Strip a man of everything that he possesses, rain all sorts of blights and sorrows and afflictions on his head as on the head of Job, let him die by lonely martyrdom, after long imprisonment, amid the alienation of all for whom he has spent his life, like St. Paul ; let him be pelted and spat upon by the boys in the streets of his own city ; or, like Savonarola, cast into the flames after recanta- ^ F. W. Farrar. ^ F. Delitzsch, Commentary on the Book of Job, i. 214.
JOB XIII. 15 49
tion, enforced by the hideous torture of his fellow-men, and what remains to him ? The grandest of all things remains to him, as an inalienable and abiding possession — himself. Not all the vaunted legions of men and devils can rob a man of himself and his immortality, of his peace with God, the glory-cloud of God's presence in the temple of every pure and noble soul,^
^ Our earth holds no more glorious scene than that of men and women who have passed from a mansion to a cottage, from abundance and servants to simplicity and necessity, and who have widened their influence as the path of life narrowed. Here is a man who, through no fault of his own, has lost all his goods. Gone the splendid house, the carriages, the positions of honour. Gone his pictures, his wife's piano and all her jewels. He lives in a tiny little house. He who always rode now walks. He still stands in the aisle of the church on Sunday morning ; his beautiful face is more handsome at seventy than it was in the prosperous days when he was fifty. Never was he so useful, never did his word and example count for so much. Having no more duties as director of companies he has more time to visit the poor, to teach boys in the mission school, to serve the needy, to carry the Hower and the cup of cold water to Christ's little ones. He never repines. The note of victory is in his voice when he refers to the old days. Once he ruled over things and bonds and stocks and markets. Now he rules over souls, and has time to spare. His last days have been his best days, through poverty. His happiest years have been his despoiled years. Once he made his gold to shine through Christian generosity; now he makes his coppers to shine. Yesterday, in the brown sear field, where the plough had made havoc, where the gleaners had carried away the last ear of corn, there stood in the corner of the field a bunch of wild asters, blooming up to the very edge of frost and winter, their brave beauty challenging the north wind ! It was my old friend, with his stout heart, his finely-chiselled face, his beautiful, Christ- like life, flinging out his challenge to poverty, disaster, revolution, and standing victorious over all life's troubles. When the sunset gun shall boom for him the end of that man will be peace.^
(4) But there are even closer tests, harder trials and heavier burdens. So long as a man is strong he can endure ; the crucial test is made in weakness. He can endure poverty, standing erect in the strength of manhood ; he can bear death — it is the common lot. But there is one thing a man cannot endure, simply
1 F. "W. Farrar. ^ N. D. Hillis, The Contagion of Character, 266.
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50 TRUST INEXTINGUISHABLE
because it takes away the strength to endure. Disease is the intolerable thing in human life, because it is the reversal and negation of life. It confuses or destroys our field of action ; it takes the world from under our feet ; it is a subtraction from our powers; it colours and distempers the action of the mind; it saps the will, dulls or exaggerates the sensibilities ; and because it does all this, it unfits us beyond all else for resistance.