The metaphor, you will answer, is put into our mouths, and felt to be a beautiful and necessary one.
But why is the metaphor so necessary, or, rather, how far is it a metaphor at all ? Do you think the words " Light of the World " mean only " Teacher or Guide of the World " ? When the Sun of Justice is said to rise with health in its wings, do you suppose the image only means the correction of error ? Or does it even mean so much ? The Light of Heaven is needed to do that perfectly. But what we are to pray for is the Light of the World ; nay, the Light " that lighteth every man that cometh into the world."
You will find that it is no metaphor — nor has it ever been so.
To the Persian, the Greek, and the Christian, the sense of the power of the God of Light has been one and the same. That power is not merely in teaching or protecting, but in the enforce- ment of purity of body, and of equity or justice in the heart ; and
96 I KNOW THAT MY REDEEMER LIVETH
this, observe, not heavenly purity, nor final justice ; but, now, and here, actual purity in the midst of the world's foulness, — practical justice in the midst of the world's iniquity. And the j)hysical strength of the organ of sight — the physical purity of the flesh, the actual love of sweet light and stainless colour — are the necessary signs, real, inevitable, and visible, of the prevailing presence, with any nation, or in any house, of the " Light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world." ^
"Without, as I heard the wild winds roar, And saw the black clouds their floods outpour, As the lightnings flashed. And the thunders crashed, And the hurricane's force waxed more and more,
I said, as I looked from my window warm, " Heaven never on me send such a storm ! "
Then came a dark day, when fierce and fast, Down fell on my head the blinding blast ! Yet tho' sore assailed, I nor shrank nor quailed. For tho' loud the gale raged, as 'twould rage its last, The struggle I waged, as I journeyed on, Awoke in me powers before unknown !
I felt my hot blood a-tingling flow; With thrill of the fight my soul did glow ; And when, braced and pure, I emerged secure From the strife that had tried my courage so,
I said, " Let Heaven send me or sun or rain, I'll never know flinching fear again ' " ^
^ Be content to wade through the waters betwixt you and glory with Him, holding His right hand fast ; for He knoweth all the fords. Be not afraid, therefore, when you come to the black and swelling river of death, to put in your feet and wa.de after Him. The death and resurrection of the Son of God are stepping- stones and a stay to you ; set down your feet by faith upon these stones, and go through as on dry land.^
1 Ruskin, The Eagle's Nest ( Works, xxii. 203),
^ Thomas Crawford, Eorae Screnae, 17. ' Samuel Rutherford.
Acquaintance with God.
JOB-PS. XXX. — 7
Literature.
Dinwoodie (J.), Outline Studies, 126.
Maclaren (A.), Expositions : Esther, Job, 49.
Morgan (G. C), Christian Principles, 22.
Parkinson (R.), in Practical Sermons, i. 39.
Raleigh (A.), The Way to the City, 229.
Salmond (C. A.), For Days of Youth, 193.
Simeon (C), Works, iv. 418.
Spurgeon (C. H.), Evening hy Evening, 129.
Vaughan (J.), Sermons in Christ Church, Brighton, 1st Ser., 42.
Christian World Pulpit, Ixx. 289 (Horton) ; Ixxx. 140 (Tattersall).
Church of England Magazine, xliv. (1858) 344 (Clayton).
Church of England Pulpit, xxx. 1. (Kerr-Smith) ; xlii. 175 (Naylor) ;
xliii. 133 (Maturin). Clergyman's Magazine, 3rd Ser., xii. 159 (Burrows). Preacher's Magazine, xii. 81 (Whittleton).
98
Acquaintance with God.
Acquaint now thyself with him, and be at peace : Thereby good shall come unto thee.
Job xxii. 21.
In the sense in which the speaker meant them, these words are not true. They mean little more than " It pays to be religious." What kind of notion of acquaintance with God Eliphaz may have had, one scarcely knows, but, at any rate, the whole meaning of the text on his lips is poor and selfish. The peace promised is evidently only outward tranquillity and freedom from trouble, and the good that is to come to Job is plainly mere worldly prosperity. This strain of thought is expressed even more clearly in that extraordinary bit of bathos, which with solemn irony the great dramatist who wrote this book makes Eliphaz utter immediately after the text, " The Almighty shall be thy defence and — thou shalt have plenty of silver ! " It has not been left for com- mercial Englishmen to recommend religion on the ground that it produces successful merchants and makes the best of both worlds.
These friends of Job's all err in believing that suffering is always and only the measure of sin, and that one can tell a man's great guilt by observing his great sorrows. And so they have two main subjects ou which they preach at their poor friend, pouring vitriol into his wounds : first, how wicked he must be to be so haunted by sorrows ; second, how surely he will be delivered if he will only be religious after their pattern, that is, speak plati- tudes of conventional devotion and say, " I submit." That is the meaning of the text as it stands. But there is a higher sense in which it is true.