The Pulpit Commentary — Job — Section 27

soft-clothed, proaperoua inmate of a wealthy home to sit in aackoloth, amidat uhl!B by a dlll!el'ted harth; yet still- " Perfect then are all his waya, Whom ee.rth adores and heaven obeys." Noble book I that gave, perhapa, to the ancient world the first hint of the aolution of the mystery of pain, by detaching from it the hitherto inseparable asaociatlon of a curse; which teaches men to believe that the Divine Author of all we suffer and all we enjoy is One e_ver-blessed Go~, and so _dis]?els that dread Manicheanism so congenial to_ t~e natur~l mrnd ; book, which con~ms ~n germ the gospel revelations concerning D1vrne chastisement and human sanctificat1on, and the whole subjection of humaa nature to the mixed conditions of the present life in expectation of a glorious ultimate manifestation of the sons of God 1 4. The riddle of human suffering, then is not to be read, as men often superficially read it, in the light of some assumption'which itself requires justification. It is and will remain an enigma. And like the statue of Isis s? carefully veiled! the book impresses s!lencc, sile~ce I chiding the explications and solu- tions of our babblrng tongues. The emgma of pain, of all that we call evil is essentially the enigma of life itself. The key that will unlock the one will open also tb~ other and it lies ready to no human hand. This solution will not content an atheist or a mat~rialist perhaps. It will not be of any service to men who have not yet made up their min~ whether to believe in a Will of perfect intelligence and justice, in a personal Author of this scheme of things. It is, indeed, the fatal flaw in all systems of unbelief or no-belief. that they can make nothing of evil. They cannot get rid of it, they cannot explain it away. It remains a disturbing element in every optimist view of life. Better man as you may in body and in mind, it will not disappear. It is a leaden weight upon the feet of all but the believer in the eternally wise and just God. Extremes meet; and alike to the enlightened rationalist and the darkened devotee of superstition, pain is a curse. But to the believer in God it is a part of the revelation of God. It is an aspect of the Shechinah. It is the dark side of that cloud whose edges a.re silvered with the eternal splendour. Darkness and light, the evening and the morning, the week of toil and the sabbath of rest, pain and pleasure, sadness and gladness, death and birth, time and eternity, short sowing and long reaping, acute but brief-lived trials, unending fruitions,-these are the conditions of human existence. To reconcile ourselves to them in and through the Author of them; not to fight against them, but loyally to accept them, and see that the end and meaning of all is reflected in the soul itself; -these are the lessons of the Book of Job. For there is no strength without trial; no wisdom without experience of both good and evil; no refinement without pain; no progress without self-dissatisfaction; nothing permanent or real that costs us nothing; n.o fellowship with the Eternal except by the initiation of suffering, by the endurance of the croes. To all who believe that the latter end of their life is to be made better than their beginning through the will of One who calls, adopts, and sanctifies men for himself, this book will be full of light and help. They will turn to its pages to remind their hearts that their Redeemer, their Vindicator, ever lives; that "blessing, not cursing, rules above, and that in it we live and move."-J. Vers. 1-5.-.Tob's life and character. The scene opens in all brightness, and the hero of thi,; sacred poem stands before us bathed in the sunshine of earthly prosperity, and, better, crowned with the favonr of God--a truly enviable man. We have in these few lines giveD, in brief, suggestive touches- !. A PICTURE OF COMPLETE HAPPINESS. There are internal and external elements of earthly bliss; and neither must be absent if that bliss is to be full and complete. First in importance is the internal element-the kingdom of God within the man. Yet a starved or stinted virtue, struggling with poverty and adversity, is a sight to kfodle pity as well as admiration. Our moral sense is only thoroughly satisfied when we see goodness furnished with sufficiency of this world's means. 'l'he moral energies are cramped by extr,:me misery; they find in competence a stage upon which they can move with ease and grace, and put forth all their powers in harmonious development. 'l'he great master, Aristotle, taught that the secret of happiness lay in the rational and virtuous a.ctivny of the soul in the whole of its life. But he also insisted that a on. 1. 1-22.) THE BOOK OF JOB. 17