hnsty, impatient mnn who rebelled aga.tnst the first sign of opposition to his wMI. The curse was wrung out of him by II most terrible conjunction of circumetances. 1. Unparalleled calamities. He had Jost nearly all-not property only, but children; not outside things only, but health and strength. He was bereft of almost everything in the world that promised to malrn life clear. Why, then, should he value it any longer? 2. Long brooding over trouble. Job clid not speak in haste. For seven days he had been sitting dumb with his three silent companions-dumb, but not unconscious. What an array of thoughts must have passed through his mind while he thus suppressed all utternuoe I Benumbed at first, perhaps, his mind must have gradually roused itself to take in all the truth. Thus he h,id time to realize it. Nothing is worse than to,, suffer without being able to do anything to meet and conquer our trouble. Action is , a 'powerful antidote to despair. I_naction intensifies pain. Thought and imagination add tremendous horrors of the mmd to the greatest external and bodily troubles. 3. Sympathy. The kind presence of his friends broke down Job's self-restraint. Men can bear in solitude with calmness; but sympathy opens the wells of emotion. This is best, for the heart that dues not let out its pent-up feelings will break with con- cealed agony. • II. THE CHARACTER OF THE OURSE. 1. Its bitterness. Satan said, "Skin for skin, yea, all that a _man bath will he give for his life" (eh. ii. 4). Now Job unconsciously e'.hsw:ers the superficial word of the accuser, though from an unexpected point of view. Life itself may become so cruel as to be not worth living, as to be a curse rather than a blessing. But the trouble must indeed be great that can thus conquer and reverse a primary instinct of nature. 'l'he exceeding bitterness of future punishment will be that the life which has become dead, and yet which is not unconscious, must still be endured. 2} Its humiliation. Job cursed his day, only bis day; he di'd. not curse his God, nor the universe. He did not vent his agony in rage against the whole order of things. He confined it to his own miserable existence. At worst he only complained that he bad been brought into being; he did not complain that the general order of the world was unjust. Here is a token of humility, patience, self-control. Weak sufferers rail against all things in earth and heaven. They take their experience as a sign of universal mismanagement. It is, indeed, difficult· not to judge the universe by our own feelings. 3. Its mistalce. Job's despair was very excusable. Yet it was an error. It was an outbreak of impatience, though sadly provoke,l and bravely limited. No man is able to judge of the worth of his own life. The life which is miserable to its owner may yii't be serving some high Divine purpose, may yet be a blessing to mankind. This was the case with Job's. We cannot know tbe use and value of life till we see it as a. finished whole and from the other side of the grave.-W. F. A.
Ver. 14.-The pyramids. The rook-tombs, mausoleums, and pyramids, which are m_ost striking features of.Eastern and especially of Egyptain architecture, are noted by Job with some feeling of envy. It is not that the splendour of these strange works excites bis admiration, His thought dwells rather on their desolation, but this desolation is brought out the more vividly by contrast with their vastness and origina.l magnificence. To be associated with such imposing embodiments of the idta. of death is just the most enviable goal of de~pair. Job thus directs our attention to the pyramids. Let us note their significant features. . I. THEIR USE; What was the object of the builders of these monstrous structures? for a loug while men regarded the question as an insoluble riddle. Some suggested that the pyramids contained mystic prophecies shaped in symbolical measurements of architecture. Others saw in them astronomical records and libraries of science. But whatever subsidiary ends they may havo served, it is now generally agreed that the primary object of the pyramids was to serve as tombs for their builders. Thus they emphasize the importance of death. We strive to banish the thought of our end; the ~cryptians kept it most prominently before their eyes. We toil for the present ministry otlife; the Egyptians toiled'for the dead. A Pharaoh spent far more i_u constrncting a h,ome for his corpse than in building a palace for his present life. Here was a ~trange perversion of the idea. that we should prepare for death and look forwar<l. to eJ.1Stence beyond. 11. 'l'aJUB VASTNESS. The grent P,rramid of Gizeh was one of the wonders of the 64 THE BOOK OF JOB. [OB,_m, 1-28,