Ver. 7.-Speaking wickedly for God. Here was the great fault and sin of the three friends. They affected to be God's advocates, yet they spoke wickedly. Thus they endeavoured to support their view of providence by uncharitable assumptions anJ. theories that were not in accordance with the facts. Such conduct was culpable, dis- pleasing to God, and most injurious to the true interests of religion. I. 'l'HE TEMPTATION TO SPEAK WICKEDLY FOR Goo. This comes from the notion that the end justifies the means. If the object is to serve God, it is assumed that whatever process is employed must be right. Thus it has been a doctrine among the Jesuits that equivocal conauct which would be condemned in the work of the world is to be con- doned when it is turned to the advancement of the Church. The apparently unselfish character of the action adds to the subtle deceptiveness of the temptation. What is said is not for our own sakes, but for the glory of God. Further, it is argued men have no right to complain, because the true servants of God will rejoice in what glori- fies him; and they who are not of the Church are out of court, and can have no ground on which to plead a complaint. Yet even they might profit, it is further urged; if they were led to the Church by fraud, when once they were in, would they not bless the fraud that saved them? All this is but the sophistry of a temptation from the devil. II. 'l'HE GREAT SIN OF SPEAKING WICK!lDLY FOR GOD. This is peculiarly hateful to 240 THE DOOK OF JOB. [ou. xn1, 1-28.
him, for he ls a God of right('()usneBB. Several points go to make up the exceedinc1 badness of such conduct. 1. It deswoys wuth. If we may lie for God truth iteelf i: humiliated. The permission of mere equivocation which is intended to 'deceive lowers the standard of truth. This is a break-up of the rigorous moral law. 2. It is fatal to charity. The plea is that man must be sacrificed for the sake of God. But God has eaid, "I will have mercy, and not sacrifice." He will not accept the service that is rendered at the cost of cruelty to a brother. 3. It is dishonouring to God. Hie holy Name is dragged down to man's low conduct, and enlisted in the service of evil. What is done for his glory is supposed to carry his sanction. Thus the God of truth e.nd love is made to appae.r as the champion of lies e.nd hatred. This is a most abominable insult to God. 4. It is a mi,serable cloak/or sin. It would seem that men would not think of speaking wickedly for God unless there were wickedness in their own heart& It is true they may be foolish enough to imagine that their conduct will really minister to the Divine glory, e.nd it is only fair to admit that people who are deluded by Jesuitical casuistry will do for the Church what they would not dream of doin11 for themselves. Thus these people are not. really so bad as their_ conduct suggests, Still, unless they are utterly duped by therr system, unless their consciences have been warped into a kind of moral insanity by their training-and it must be allowed that this is possible-we cannot but say that their action must spring from a low tone of morality. At all events, it must tend to produce this, must be distinctly degrading and demoralizing. 5. It i.B doomed to failure. Nothing more injures the ce.use of Christ than the unworthy conduct of h:s followers, especially when this pleads his glory a.sits excuse. Nothing so favours unbelief as the suspicion of want of candour in defenders of the faith, It is fatal to cling to a bad argument because of its tendency to support the right. We ca.n only please and serve God when we follow truth and love. 'l'his is the method of Christ, who scorned all subterfuges, and chose the apparent failure of the cross rather than the triumphs of safe diploma.tic policy.-W. F. A.
Ver. 23.-Sin revealed by God. Job is in a sad perplexity. His friends e.ccuse him of great sin as the ea.use of his great trouble, but his conscience does not echo their accuse.tion. Ca.n it be that he has sinned unconsciously, that God is really angry with him for some offence which he ha.s not recognized ? J. lT 15 NOT POSSIBLE TO BIN UNOONSOIOUSLY. It is not to be supposed that a man could be a.s guilty a.s Job's friends assumed the patriarch to be, and yet possess the clean conscience that was the one mitigating condition in his terrible distresses. The glaring contradiction proved ~he error of !he comforters. Moreove~, nobody can sin unconsciously, because the evil deed that 1s done ape.rt from consciousness possesses no moral character. A hypnotized person who killed another wonld not be a. murderer, nor would one who did so in the delirium of a fever. To sin in ignorance is not really to sin at all All sin lies in the motive, and the motive must be evil for the deed to be sinful. But we cannot have a.n evil motive without knowing it. II. IT 15 POSSIBLE JiOT TO BE FULLY CONSCIOUS OF ONE'S SIN. 1. The guilt of it may be minimized. A man knows that he has done wrong, and this very knowledge sets him to work on the ingenious search for excuses. He puts his conduct in the best light hides its more ugly features, hunts up extenuating circumstances, pleads weak- ness,' necessity, custom, ulterior good, etc. 2. The fact may be ignored. We keep the door locked on the skeleton in the cupboard. We do not care to rake up ugly memories. We tread lightly over the weak places in our life's story. When this careful ignoring of sin ha.s gone on for some time, conscience itself is soothed and charmed into peace. III. lT 15 MOST DESIRABLE THAT OUR-BIN SHOULD BE REVEALED TO us. The revela- tion has ma.uy good results. 1. It "leads to repentance. We never know how odious our sin is till we look at it in God's light. Hidden and forgotten sin is not repeuted of. Pride grows on the graves of buried sins. The sins must be exhumed and scat- tered to the wiuds, if· we are to take the humble ground of peuitents. 2. It helps us tc, ccrr.quer sin. The 6in that Jives within us is not recognized in its deadly character till God reveals it to us. Thus our excuses for sin encourage the reign of sin. To dei;troy it we must see it in its true character. IV. IT IS WELL TO PRAY THAT GoD WOULD REVEAL OUR BINS TO 171!, 1. He can. Oil. Xlll, 1-28.] THE BOOK OF ,JOB. 241