An image WM before mine ey911; (Jf, a" a'P"' founchtioll i1 in th, aut ; i.e. " whtlee origin pearnMe (LXX., µop.,,,). There W88 lil-e; wae the dust of the ground," which were or, a Aush-" etutlll! aerie nnll.o motn tnr- fom,ed from it and must return to it, ac- ·b&ti, et tmnquillil!l'imoe" (S~.hnltens). And cording to the words of Gen. iii. I!), " Dust I heard a voice, saying. After a while the thou art, and unto dust thou must :return." 11ilence WM broken by a voice, whioh whia- Which are oruahe4 before the moth. Thie ii pereJ in Eliphaz'e ear (oomp. ver. 12). somewl!at obscure, It may mee.n," which nre Ver. 17.~hall mortal man be more jut so frng,.lo that e. moth, a tly, or other weak than God, le it to oo l!llpposed that the creiLture may destroy them," or "which are\ way& of God cnn be rightly criticized and crushed with the same ea.so with which a condemned by me.n? Surely not; for then moth is crushed and destroyed." man must be more penetrated with the Ver. 20.-They are destroyed from morn- spirit of justfoe tl1an the Almighty. If our ing to evening, Human bodies undergo a thon!,'.hts are not R.8 God's though1s, it must ooutinuous destruction, From the moment be our thoughts the.t e.re wrong. Shall a the.t we a.re born we begin to die. Decay of man be more pure 1ll.an hill Kaker 1 Equally powers is coevnl with their first exercise. imposaible. God e.lone is absolutely pore. Our insidious foe, Death, murks us e.s his The beet man must be oonscious to himself, own from the very firdt bree.th the.t we 11,11 L!aiah was (lea. vi. 5), of uncleanness. draw. Our bodies are machines wound up Ver. J 8.-Behold, he put no trust in hia to go for a certain time. The moment thli.t 1erva.nts ; rather, hi, putteth no tnut, or he we begin to use them we begin to wear them pulleth not trU8t. The " ,ervants " intended out. They perish for ever, The fine.I result / are thoee that minister to him directly in is the.t our" houses of cle.y •• perish, crumble heaven, the members of the angelic host, to dust, disappear, and coine to nothing. e.s appears from the parallelism of the other They "perish for ever," riayli Elipliaz, re- clause of the verse. Even in them God does peating what he believed the spirit of ver. not trust implicitly, since he knows that 15 to have said to him; but it i~ not clear they are frail and fallible, lia.ble to err, etc., the.t he understood more by this tha.p. the.t only kept from sin by his own sustaining they perieh and disappear for ·ev!)r,· so far and assisting grace (comp. eh. xv. 15, where as this life and this world are concerned; Elipha.z expresses the same belief in hie Without any regarding it.· No one is ·sur- own person). .And his angels he cha.rged prised or thinks it he.rd. It is the lot 'of with folly; rather, chargeth. The exact me.n, and every one's mind ie prepared for it. meaning of the word translated "folly" is Ver. 21.-Doth not their ezcellency which uncertain, since the word does not occur is in them. go away 1 " Their excellency•~ elsewhue. The LXX. renden by tr1to>..,~11 (c"11"1') would seem to mean that_ which is .,.., "crookedness; " Ewald, Dillmann, and highest in them-their spirit; or soul. It others, by "error." The t.ee.ching clearly do.:s not ma.ke much difference if we,trane• is tlie.t the angels are not perfect-the late, with the Old Testament Revisers t'· their higbe,;t angelic excellence falls infinitely tent-cord," since that would be merely. a short of God's perfectness. Even angels, metaphor for the soul, which .sustl/,-ins the therefore, would be incompetent judges of body e.s the tent-cord dees the tent. W'he.t God's doings. deserves especial remark is that the II ex• Ver. 19.-How mllllh leu in them thai cellency" does not perish; it' goes away, 4well in houses Df clay! mther, hoUJ much departs, or is removed. They die, even mm-e doth lie not put t,-ust, if' them that in- without wisdom; literally, not in tDiBdom; luwit f<JJtJ,N,J1 of clay I i.e. " earthly bodies," i.e. not having lee.rot in the whole course bodies made out of the dust of the ground of their lives that true wisdom which their (Gen. ii. 7; comp. eh. x:aiii. 6). Whose life-trio.le were intended to teach them.
HOMILETICS. Vers. 1-11.-El,iphaz to Job: the opening of the se.;,ond controversy: 1. Tjie relation of suffering to sin. I. A COUB'l"EOUS EXORDIUJII. Ehphaz, the oldest and w1Hest of the friends, a.doi,ts an apologetic strain in replying to Job's imprecation, repr_esenting the task assumed by him as: 1. Painful to Job; which it certainly was. In c1rc1.!,mstances even the must favourable, it requires no little grace to receive admonition with_eque.- 1,irnity; not to speak of counting it a kindness and esteeming it an excellent oil (Ps. cl.Ii. 5), and embracing its dispenser with affection (Prov. ix. 8); and much more when that admonition is not onlr felt t.o be undeserved, but spoken at a time wben•the soul, crushed beneath the burden of its misery, wants sympathy rather than reproof, and when, Lesi<les, the reproof is unfeeling in its toue and somewhat fiavoured with self-complacency THE BOOK OF JOB. 71