The Pulpit Commentary — Job — Section 29

exaggerate, nor to bo pnrl,i11l in our statements; not to add to nor take from/acts; to "t~ll the truth, the wholo truth, and nothing but the truth;" to abstain from flattery on ! he one hand, and slanderous perversion on the other; to regard one's word ae one's bond: to think nnd speak with others in that candour, that clearest light iu which wo ever commune with ourselves; to hate semblances and dissemblances to get rid of duplicities and confusion&; in all relations, to self, to God, to others, io be one and the same ma11.; to amid turnings and twistings in our route; to go straight to our ends, like an arrow to its mark ;-this is the spirit, this is the tetnper, of the" upright 11 ru~n. His character resembles the fine-drawn lines of a true wotk of art• while the "froward" man reminds us of the ill-drawn design, whose deformity no 'amount of overlaying and ornament can disguise. 3. God-fearing. This and the following epithet complete the representation of the two former. No man is" perfect" without being e. fearer of God; none upright without departing from evil. Religion takes its rise in man's feeling of awe towards the vast unseen Power and Cause revee.l_ed through things seen, His conscience, by its exhortations, speaks to him of the righteousness of the unseen eternal Cause. All his experience inward and outward impresses upon him the sense of his absolute dependence. Obedience, active and passive, to the Eternal '\\'ill is the primary law revealed in the heart of man amidst Sinai-like thunders, over all the world, and in e.11 times. Feelings like these constitute man's earliest and universal religion; Scripture designates them by this comprehensive ,expression, "the fear of God, the fear of the Eternal." It is no slavish feeling, if man be true to himself. It is not a blind terror, not a Panic inspiration. It is fear chastened and elevated by intelligence, by spiritual fellowship; it is unbounded respect, immeasurable reverence; it is ever on the way to become perfect love. The result of this genuine.religion upon the character is to n:.a.ke us view all things in their relation to· the unseen and the eternal. Thus life is dignified, lifted out of meanness, receives a certain significance and purport in its smallest details. Without religion we exist as animals, we dq ,h-;it live as men. The busiest career, the loudest reputation, the most splendid worldly success-what sense, what meaning, is there in it without the principle in the heart which consciously binds it to the unseen? "'Tisa to.le told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, but meaning nothing." 4. "Eschewed evil,." Or, e. man who departed from evil. This was the he.bit of his life. It completes what is given in the second trait. Bis rectitude, kading him in a direct line of conduct, delivers him from the bypaths of deceit, of transgression, the ways of darkness and of she.me. Here, then, in these four words we have suggested the idea of complete piety, the picture of a constant and a noble life, standing "four-square to ell the winds that blow." We see e. spotless character, attended by a fair fa.me in the world; the secret foundation on which the moral structure rests is revealed to us, in a habit of principle, a heart full of the fear of God. We look upon the patriarch, moving in the pure 1/,ir and the holy sunlight of Heaven's favour, blessed with the good will of men, and with all those hopes of the future which a past happiness inspires, little dreaming that his skies a.re so soon to be darkened, and the foundations of his earthly joy to be so violently shaken. _ Ill. FEATURES OF EXTERNAL PROSPERITY. These, too, are briefly and suggestively sketchtd, and need not be dwelt upon at length. All the elements of a high prosperity ano. great position in that simple state of life are present. 1. His family. • He had teu childreu, the sons more than twice as numerous as the daughters. Men felt in those times that e. large family was e. great blessing, one of the visible marks of Heaven's favour. Sons especially were a new source of wealth and importance to the Lousebold. Parents in our day are perhaps seldom in the habit of thanking God for large families. They are too ready to groan beneath the care, rather than to cheer- fully .admit the reality of the blessiDg. Yet how constantly do we see .llroofs of th,e happiness of large families, even in poverty! .A rightly ordered household is the Divinest of 1ebools. Character is so variously developed and in so many way;s tried and educated in them. In the v~ety of this little world there is e. fine preparation going on for activity-and for endurance in the greater world.. On the whole, f~ere can be no question that large families are a great sourc~, p.ot only of happiness, bµt' ~f *J,es of every kind. And the truth needs to.be jµsj.sted on from time to time; wli1p.. ,,,e Lear the matter spoken of in terms pf disparagement or pity. The f~I quiv11r ~ 1 OS, I, 1-22,) TB;E BOOK 0:B' JOB. 19