The Pulpit Commentary — Job — Section 267

II. WrrEN THl!I FAULT 18 WITH THE SUFFERER. 1. lmpmitence. It might have been as Eliphaz had suppoaed, and in some cases it is so, and then the guilty man excludes the Divine consolations by refusing to confess his sine. Bo long as the sinner declines to admit his ~uilt he cannot receive God's comfort. The grace of Goel is sufficient for all the needs of nll hie children, and yet none of it is effective with his disobedient and unrepentant children. 2. Rebellion. Possibly no great sin has been committed, and no great guilt incurred, and still the attitude of the snfferer towards hie God may excludo consolation. He must submit in order to be comforted. Resig- nation is a condition of Divine consolation. When the wind is opposed to the tide, it tears off the crests of the waves aml flings them about in wild spray; whereas when wind and tide flow together, the great rollers run smoothly on to the beach. It is our rebellion against the tide of providence that tears our life and makes its bitterest agony. When we have learnt to say, "Thy will ba done," our harmony with God's will smooths down the height of the trouble aad prepares for the Divine peace. 3. Unbelief. Until we can trust God his consolation seems small to us. It is not valued till it is tried. Unbelief minimizes grace. Accordiag to our faith is the blessing, great or small.-W. F. A. Ver. 12.-Heart-wanderings. Eliphnz cannot understand Job. He will assume that the sufferer is guilty, and that, when he protests his innocence and refuses the consola- tions offered on condition of repentance, the patriarch is betrayed by bis own heart into turning his spirit against God. As usual, what Elipbaz says, though it is not applicable directly to Job; still in itself contains an important lesson. I. WE ARE LED DY OUR HEARTS. 1. The inner life. All life flows outward from hidden, deep-seated springs, as the Jordan at Banias bur8ts out of the cave of Pan beneath Mount Hermon, a full river, whose secret origin is too remote and deep for any man to discover it. 2. The thought. The heart in the Bible stands for the whole inner life, and therefore it includes the thinking faculty. Now, we are governed largely by our ideas of things; not by things as they are, but by things as they appear to us. 'l'herefore we need to think truly. 3. The affections and desires. We are chiefly moved by what we love. The love of sin is the parent of sin. If the heart is betrayed into entertaining low desires, a degraded conduct follows. II. OUR HEARTS ARE PRONE TO ERR. 1. In weakness. We have not fixed thoughts and affections. The life within is in continuous change and movement. At the same limo, its weakness makes it peculiarly liable to be led astray. 2. In sinful inclination. We inherit tendencies to evil. Our own self-chosen conduct creates habits of evil. Thus our heart tends downward. Left to itself, it will go astray and drag us down to ruin. The human heart is t1ver wandering and rebellious until it has been renewed. III. THE WANDERING HEART LEADS TO RUIN. We are tempted to neglect the evil on three accounts. 1. That it is ir.ternal. Thus it seems to be a secret thing, not concerned with conduct. But as it is the spring of all our conduct, the excuse is a delusion. 2. That it is under oui- control. The idea is that we can stop before we have gone too far. We are not the slaves of another, we are our own masters. This is also a delusion, for the heart gets out of control. 3. That it only concerns our- selves. It is only our heart that wanders, and our heart is our own possession. This is to assume that we a.re not accountab!e to God. But the supreme Judge takes account of the heart as well o.s of the outward act, and condemns for heart-sios (Matt. xv. 19). IV. THE WANDERING HEART NEEDS TO BE RENEWED. Sio comes from the heart; then sin must bo cured in the heart. Clean hands are of little use without a clean heart. 1. Cleansing. The guilt of sin needs to be washed away; the love and desire of sin also need to be purged out of the heart. This is so difficult a work that o:i.ly the Creator can do it. "Create in me a clean heart, 0 God" (Ps. Ii. 10). 2. Recovery. The wandering heart must be brought back to God. It is not enough that sin is cast out. '!'he love of God must be planted, and tho heart must be restored to fellow- ship with God. These nre blessings which come with the reception of Christ into the heart. 3. Preserva!ion. We are bidden to keep our heart with all diligenc.., (Prov. iv. 23), But we find the treacherous heart eluding our utmost vigila.nce, nnd  THE BOOK. OF .tOB.