Vers. 26, 26.-Tlu, IJ'IIJi,/t days. Job compares his days to what is swiftest-on earth, the ninning messengl'r; in the sea, the boat of reeds; in the air, the eagle darting down on its prey. We must not look for a difference in the suggestiveness of these several illustrations. Gat-hered from every re~on of existence, they give great emphasis to the one significant fact of the brevity of life. . I. OUR DAYS ABE SWIFT IN 0OMI'ARISON WITH NATURE. The course of nature moves on slowly. Geology tells of innumerable vast ages of antiquity. Evolution presupposes an even longer stretch of time. By the side of the gradual movements of Datnre, our little days are swift and brief. Each man's life registers but a moment on the great dial of time. The old world rolls on, while we children of a day oome and. go in e. rapid march of succeeding generations. IL OUR DAYS .t.RE SWIFT IN RELATION TO OUR DESIRES. We crave for long expe- rience. Extinction of bl•ing is a horror to us. There are within us great instincts of mmortality. Thus, wl,ile we live our little e:\rthly day, we are reaching forward to God's great eternity. We cannot be satisfied with an ephemeral existence. III. OUR DAYS ARE SWIFT IN REGARD TO OUR POWERS. It takes us long to train those powers. Half a lifetime is not enough to perfect them. But before they are perfected, the shadows begin t.o lengthen and tho melancholy afternoon is upon us. Surely, if God has given us faculties that take so long to develop, and that seem capable of great achievements if only they had full .scope~ it is sad that they should begin to wither as soon as they have reached maturity. IV. Oua DAYS ARE SWIFT m OOb.'liECTION WITH OUR DUTIES. There is so. much to be done and so little time to do it in. Our tasks gro,v upon us, and our opportunities are cramped and cut short. Do we not all plan out more work than we can: ever accomplish? Th.us we labour with a sad consciousness that we can never overtake our intentions. V. OUR DAYS ARE SWIFT BY THE SIDE OF OUR EXPECTATIONS. A child sees eternity before him. In his estimation., one year-a whole year-is a vast epoch. Even in later youth time seems to be an abundant commodity. There is little need to economize it, for have we not enough and to spare? Presently we are surprised to· see how quickly its unheeded moments are slipping away from us. Every year it goes faster, till the silent stream has become a heac:Uong torrent, and days fly past us with terrible speed. VL OUR DAYS .A.BJt .BWIPT Il!T THE LIGBT OF ETEB.."'UTY. H ere 1S . . 0f . t h e exp1anat1on the whole mystery. We are not creatures of a day, although our earthly life .is so ahort. God has given WI a .spark of his own immortality. In view of that the largest earthly life is a fleeting shadow. Yet the ample leisure of eternity must not ·make us careless of the work of the day, for this day will never return. How valuable is time in the outer world! The messenger runs with swiftest paces, the little skifi' darts about on the waters, the fierce eagle drops on its prey like a thunderbolt; Though eternity is long, let us hasten to use our glorious prospects as an inspiration for a .like eagerness in making the most of our brief earthly days.-W. F. A. Vera. BO, 31.-De.spair of purificatwn. Job is possessed by a terrible thought. He imagines that God is so deLermined to have him as an object of condemnation that nothing he can do can set him right ; even if he makes himself ever so clean, God will plunge him back in the mire, God will overwhelm him wit_h guilt. This is, of course, a wholly false view of God, though it is not altogether inexcusable with Job in his ignorance and awful distress. I. Gon ONLY DESIRES oua P.UBIFICATION. We may not be tempted to fall into Job's mistake, for we have more light, and our circumstances are far more hopeful than his were. Still, it is dijficult for us to conceive how .entirely averse to making the worst of UB God is. He cannot ignore sin, for his searching glance always reveals.it to him, and his just judgment always estimates it rightly. He must bring our sin homo to us; for this is for our own good, as well as necessary in regard to the claims of righteous- nt:lill. Thus he seems to be forcing out our gu.ilt. But in doing so ho ie not plunging OH, IX, 1-35,] THE BOOK OF. JOB, 175
us into the mire, but only ma.king apparent the hidden evil of our heart. The process is like thl\t of a. pbotogmpher developing a picture, like that of a. physician bringing a disea.se to tho surface. The result makes apparent what existed before, unseen but dl\ngerously powerful. II. h• 18 IIOPEl,EBB TO ATTEMPT OUR OWN PURill'I0ATION. Here Job was right. We may wash ourselves, but we shall not be clean. Sin is more than a defilement; it is a stain, 11. dye, an ingrained evil. It is like the Ethiopian's nkin and the leopard's Rpots; sin has become a part of tho sinner's very constitution. Tears of repentance will not wash it out. Blood of sacrificed victims will not cleanse it away. Penance and good deeds will not remove it. We cannot undo the past, cannot do away with the fact that sin was committed. Therefore we cannot remove the guilt of our sin, nor its contaminating, corrupting influence from our consciences. III. GoD PROVIDES. ,PURIFICATION FROM BIN. We need not despair. Job is not only mistaken; the truth is the very opposite to what he imagines it to be. God himself, instead of aggravating guilt, bas provided the only efficaciollil means for its removal. This was promised in the Old Testament: "Come now, and let us reason. together, saith the Lord," etc. (Isa. i. 18), It is accomplished in the New Testament. Chris, offered forgiveness of sin (Matt. ix. 2). By his death on the cross he made that for- giveness sure to us. What no tears or works of ours can do is effected by the blood of Christ, which "cleanseth us from all sin" (1 John i. 7). That is to say, Christ's death is the great purifying sacrifice. When we trust in him the cleansing of guilt that is given, on condition of the perfect sacrifice, is ours. Our despair of purification outside Christ should only drive us to Christ tha.t we may receive it.-W. F. A. Ver. 33.-The Daysman. • Job regarded it ae unfair tha.t his Judge and his Accuser should be one and the same Person, and be craved an umpire to come between. As a.