Ver. 14.-Bcared with dreams. This eeems to be on& of the symptom, or Job's terrible diseMe, elephantiasis, Sleep even does not give him rest from his sufferings. 'rhe bodily torments of the day only give phLce to horrible dreams aod a'arming vi:-noos at night, I. DREAM-TlllRRORS ARE REAL IN EXPERIF:NOE. Look at the man in a nightmare, how he groaos and shrieks I We smile nt his fancied troubles. Yet to him, while he endures them, they are very real. We feel according to onr subjective state, not according to our objective circumstances. Souls are tortured by day-dreams which hn.ve no better foundation than those of the night, yet are not their distresses the less acute. Superstition peoples the heavens with dream-fancies of horror. There are no corresponding realities. Yet the victims of superstition are in real agony. An enormous amount of terrible mental suffering seems to be experienced by the heathen in their superstitious terrors of malignant divinities. One happy result of Christian missionary -work is to sweep away those gloomy dreams, and bring the peace and confidence of Ohristian daylight to the benighted regions of the world. !I. SOME OF OUB WORST DISTRESSES HAVE NO BETTER FOUNDATION THAN IDLE DREAMS. 'l'hey are terrible so Jong as we are under their spell; but if we only knew they were but fancies of the diseased mind, we should be relieved of their incubus. Note some of these. 1. The idea that God is opposed to us. This was Job's thought. He thought that even his ill dreams came from God, and that it was God who was scaring him. 'l'he too common notion in religion was and is that God is averse to us, and that we have to do somethiog to win his favour, whereas the Scriptures tell us that he loves us and seeks ue to be reconciled to him, and that, instead of our needing to do something to make him. gracious, he has given his Son to redeem us to himself. 2. The notion that our sins are incurable. People will not believe that holiness is pos- sible; therefore of course they do not have it, because they have not the heart of hope to seek it. We scare ourselves with ugly dreams of our own irretrievably ruined con- dition. Our sin is not a dream, but onr despair· is one. 3. The terror of death. To 'the Christian this is ,but an idle dream. Death is no hideous Miltonic monster, but the servant of Christ. Dying is the advent of Christ to the soul that lives in Christ's service. • . III. CHRIST BAB oo:ME TO DISPEL IDLE DREAMS. We are troubled about God's dealings with us because we do not know him. We have bnt to acquaint ourselves with him in order to be at peace (eh. xxiL 21). Christ reveals God in his Fatherhood. There are reasonable fears that are no dreams, but which spring from our consciousness of guilt. Often the dream is found in the illusion that ignores or excuses sin. Christ dispels that dream by revealing a dread reality, but only that he may lead us through repentance to pardon. Then all terrors of the night flee away in the glad daylight of God's love.-W. F. A.
Vers. 17, 18.-T/ie littleness of man. These verses have been characterized as a parody on Ps. viii. 5. While following the form of the psalmist's language, and pro- ceeding on the same general thesis, they suggest a very different inference. The psalmist was am~zed o.t the condescension of God in noticing man, and filled with ,wonder at the honour that is put on so puny a creature. But Job is here represented as expressing his dismay that God should stoop to try and trouble so small a being. There is no equality in the contest, and it appt'ars to Job as though God were taking advantage of the weakness of his victim. In spite of Job's perplexity and short- sighted complaints, there are truths behind what he says. We must endeavour to dis- entangle these truths, and separate them from the illusioos unworthy of the goodness of God with which they are confused, I. Goo IS WRONGLY OHARGED WITH WHAT HE DOES NOT DO. 'vVe know from the pro- logue that it is not God, but Se.tan, who is the •• watcher of men," in the sense of the spy who delights to pounce on a fault and to worry the miserable in their helplessness. Most of the sufferings of life do not come directly from the Divine will, but proceed from the injustice of other men, from our own faults and mistakes, and from "spiritual wickedness in high places." We must beware of the dualism which would give this evil an independent power over agninst God. Satan can only go as far as God permitd him. Still, the evil is from Satan, not from l.}od, It is sin, not provid,i!l.ce, that me THE BOOK OF JOB. [OH, VU, 1-21.
bringl! the greatest trouble or life, and yet providence overrules that trouble for ultimate good. II. THE BUFF'EIU!:11 n TEMPTED TO MAGNIFY ilI8 OWN DIPORTANO& Job's troubles were unique. But every sufferer is tempted t.o think that no one was ever troubled as he is. Feeling bis own pain most intensely, he is inclined to me.ke this the central experience of the universe, and to fancy that he is singled out for peculiar attacks of lldvel'!!ity. Job, however, generalizes, and regards himself as e. specimen of mankind. Man himself seems unduly marked out for affliction. But no one is justified in coming to this conclusion till be 1.-nows how other beings are treated. It m.a.y be that man's hardships are but a part, and a fair pa.rt, of the hardships of the universe. III. To BE SPECIALLY TROUBLED J8 TO BE MAGNIFIED IN IlllPORTANCE, If it be so that man is specially singled out for affliction, no doubt a peculiar, though a most painful, importance is a.ttached to him. Job becomes a great figure in Scripture tbrough his troubles. Christ, crowned with thorns, is most significant on bis cross. The sublimity of supreme sorrow is the inspiration of tragedy. Man is sometimes mlled out of his littleness by being made to suffer greatly. If God has a hnnd in all human sufferings-as God had in Job's, behind Satan-be is honouring man by con- descending to permit him to receive exceptional trials. IV. GREAT SUFFERING IS PERlllITTED FOR THE SAKE OF GREAT GOOD. This is seen in the final outcome of Job's sufferings. 'l'hey throw light on the higher life, and demon- strate the existence of disinterested devotion. The parody in Job is not so far from:thil origine.l in the psalm. It is wonderful that God should permit human life to be honoured as the theatre in which the great tragedy of ,the 1confilct between evil and ·,good,ds displayed. God is ~ot stDoping to tormen.t men-like a giant. torturi:Dg an -inllec~as to Job he appeara to be doing with surprising effort. He is condescending. to,1ead man on to greatness through sufiering.-W. F. A. _ , ,. ;.