being exposed, Now, irony is a method or showing a thin& in an unexpected liaht so tho.t, while admitting all its claims, we make it apparnnt that those very claim~ are o.bsurd, Slight failings will be best castigated with simple ridicule; more serious ones, if they are not great sine, with grave irony. III. PRETENTIOUSNESS ESPECIALLY PROVOKES IRONY. Each of Job's three friends bas now spoken, Though they were not alike in attainments nor in natural dis- positions, they agreed in their dogmas and in their judgment of Job. A tone of con- scious superiority and irritating censoriousness rings through all their speeches. This not only vexes Job; it prompts en ironical retaliation. It is dangerous to make grand pretensions. Humility is a great security, and when humility is lost, we lay ourselves open to attack on the ground of our assumptions. Pretentiousness does not only thus provoke ironical replies; it best meets its merited castigation by these replies, which humilita.te it in a most unanswerable manner. IV. InoNY IS A DANGEROUS WEAPON FOR A CHRISTIAN TO WIELD, It may be a lawful weapon. There are times when it can be used in the cause of righteousness with tremendous effect. But there is great danger lest the employment of it should destroy" the greatest thing in the world "-love. There is always a tendency to push it too far, and to go beyond wholesome rebuke in the direction of cruel scorn. This is distinctly unchristian. Moreover, as Job's friends did not understand him, possibly he did not understand them. If so, his irony may have been too severe for justice. We should be careful that we are in no error before we venture to use irony against our brother. Even then, zeal for righteousness should be tempered by brotherly kindness. V. GOD DISPLAYS IRONY IN PROVIDENCE. The Greek tragedians saw irony in fate. Man's greatness was shown to be a. very small thing, a.ad his boasted success a mere bubble. The old classical idea was dark and hard, for it did not take into account the Fatherhood of God. But within God's infinite purpose of love there is room for irony. By the slow unrolling of the course of events, the boasting of the pretentious ends in confusion, God humbles his creatures in their pride and vanity, giving them sudden falls, by means of which they cannot but feel their helplessness and littleness. The monarch is choked by a fly. Such things are not done vindictively, or in scorn; but bees.use we are ruined by boasting and saved in our humiliation. Thns the ugly weapon of irony may prepare us for the healing grace of the gospel.-W. F. A. Ver, 5.-0ontempt for the unfortunate. Like Jesus, when he prayed for his mur- derers, with the plea that they knew not what they were doing (Luke xxiii. 34), though in much less perfect magnanimity, Job sees some excuse for the conduct of his censors. He finds that conduct to be an instance of a common rule of action, viz. that the prosperous despise the unfortunate. I. WE CANNOT UNDERSTAND THE TROUBLE WE DO NOT SHARE. Job's vast woe was quite beyond the comprehension of his would-be sympathizers. They thought that they had fathomed its depths, and that they were in a position to adjudicate upon its merits. But they had scarcely skimmed its surface. 'fhey did not know what Job suffered; much less did they see why God had permitted him to be thus afllicted. The happy look from their sunny homes on the dark abodes of misery, but they cannot understand the sorrows they have never tasted. 'l'hey who have always had their wants satisfied simply do not know what hunger and thirst are. The unbroken family cannot conceive of the agony of bereavement. II. WE ARE TEMPTED TO DESPISE THE TROUBLE WE DO NOT UNDERSTAND. As we have not the faculty to dive into its mystery, it seems to us a shallow thing. There- fore, when the sufferers appear to make much of it, we are inclined to think that they are ex11ggernting it ; that they are giving way to it in a cowardly weakness ; that they are indecently demonstrative or even shamming hypooriiically. The rich are too often ready to regard the very poor as whining impostors. They who have never felt the pangs of conscience look witti contempt on the penitent's tears. Ill. WE MAY UBE OUR OWN TROUfLE AS A ME.A.NB OF BTlllULATING OUR SYMPATHY WITH THE TROUBLES OF OTHERS, Possibly this is one reason why it is sent to us. We have been too narrow and selfish in our view of it, thinking it must be confined to some lltfcct directly and solely beneficial to ourselves, But it rnay l)a l;lrgely jntend~d to 22! THE BOOK OF JOB.
~pare u■ ~or our work In helping otb~rs in trouble•. Tb.e widow oan aympathh1e with the Wldow; the poor ahow most kindness to the poor. The experienoe. of the pt'Ol!tration of a gre&t illn81!1! enables a person to understa.nd and help sick people, ni.ua 11orrow is a talent to be used for the good of·otbers, by being invested in sympathy. IV. TBl!: BORROWS OF CHRIST Bl!lLPKD TO IIAKE HU( A PBRFBC'l' S.&.VlDUR. If Christ understands anything, it is sorrow; for was he not "a Man of IIOrt'l'.lws1 and acquainted with grief" 7 Tbemfore the sufferer who is despised by his prosperous brethren oan tum with RBl!1l11lnoe of sympa~by to the Saviour o_f men .. Obrist not only understands rorrow, be knows bow to use It. He converted his cross into a lever for raising a fallen world. He will help his suffering disciples to despise their owu sorrows while sym- pathizing with the sorrows of others. Strong in his victory over sin, sorrow, and desth. Christ for ever 11&11ctifies &Uffering. While the t!uper6cial may despise it true Christians can now see in it a me&ns of he&venly graoe.-W. F. A. '
Ven;. 7-10.-Lessons of natvre. I. NATURE REBUKES llU.N'B IGNORANCE. Job refers his friends to nature in a tone of reproach. They ought to have known. what nature was proclaiming. There are two wnunds for this rebuke. 1. The wealth and fw}.U& of natvre's testimony to her Creator. Go where one may, nature is ready to speak for God. The bessts of the field, the fowls of the air, the creeping things on the ground, the fishes of the se&, all speak for the power and wisdom of their Maker. '!'here is variety in this gnmd utterance of nature, yet there is unity. Many creatures, of divenie sorts, concur to be&r witness to the same great truths. If we cannot under- stand. the beasts, the birds may teach us ; if the insects are au enigma, the fishes may instruct us. 'l'hough all these different voices of nature may not be. sounding in our ellli at onoe, we c:annot be long out of the reach of some of them. Therefore-