rightoous!' ( Prov. xv. 29). Greater encouragement to '' continue instant in prayer" can scarcely lie imngined. (3) Filial joy in God's preser.ce. "He," i.e. the pa.rdoned Binner, "shall see hie," i.e. Go,l's, "face with joy." Now by faith coming before him as a happy child exulting in a father's love (Eph. ii. 18); and herea.fter i'n l:.ea.ven when as one of the glotified he shall sta.nd before the throne (Ps. xvii. 15; Rev. xxii. 4). 3. Jubilation. Like Hezekiah (Isa. xxxviii. 20) and like David (P&. xl. 3; civ. 33), the recove_red sick man and accepted penitent breaks forth into singing. "He chanteth unto men and saHh" (ver. 27), the burden of his anthem being: (1) A humble acknow- ledgment of sin. "I had sinned, and perverted that which was right, and it was not requited unto me." Confession of sin, though indispensable to forgiveness (Lev. xxvi. 40-42; Josh .. vii. 19; Prov. x.xviii. 13; Ps. x.xx.ii. 5; Hos. v. 15; Luke xviii. 13; 1 John i. 9), is never so frank, full, or fervent before conversion as after it. The justified sinner sees more clearly than the newly awakened penitent the exceeding heinousness of sin, realizes more acutely the greatness of his own personal guilt, and appreciates more highly the Divine clemency in passing by the transgression he might justly have visited with condign punishment. (2) A hearty acknowledgment of grace. Not only does he. magnify the Divine clemency in not requiting to him his evil deeds, but he extols the Divine loving-kindness in deli,•ering his guilty soul from condemna- tion and death. "He bath delivered my soul from going down into the pit, and my life rejoiceth in the light." Cf. David's anthem (Ps. ciii. 1-5). Learn: 1. The extreme anxiety with which God seeks man's instruction. 2. The natural insensibi\ity of man to Divine teaching. 3. The efficiency with which God can sea.I instruction on the human heart. 4. The indebtedness of wicked men to God's restraining grace. 5. The folly as well as sin of indulging in pride. 6. The inevitable- )1ess of man's destruction unless God interpose.R to save. 7. The beneficent design of affliction. 8. The facility with which God can destroy the pleasantness of life, and conduct even the strong man to the grave, 9. The infinite mercy of God in providing ma.n with an Angel-Ioterpreter and a ransom. 10. 'fbe impossibility of any man escaping the pit unless God says," Deliver." 11. The blessedness of the man whose sins are pa.rdoned, and whose transgression is covered. 12. The obligation lying on all saints to d,eclare what great things God ha.th done for their souls.
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. . Vers. 8-33.-Elihu's first discourse: the guilt of man in the sight of Gori. I. Jo»'s CONFIDENCE IN HIS INNOCENCE CENSURED. (Vers. 8-11.) Elihu gathers up in brief some of those sayings of Job which had shocked his ear and scandalized his spiritual conscience. Job had asserted his own purity, and had accused God of enmity agai11St his person (compare Job's words, eh. ix. 21; x. 7; xvi. 17; xxiii. 10; xx.vii. 5, 6; x. 13, seq.; xix. 11; x.xx. 21). II. THE TRUE RELATIONS OF MAN TO GoD SET FORTH. (Vers. 12-30.) By many intimations of inward and outward experience God seeks tu warn man a.nd to brin"' him to himself. He is no Being of passions such as Job represents him; "higher th~ a. mortal," it is no part of his nature to crush in anger and revenge a defenceless ,creature. Nor is he dumb, voiceless, cold to his creatures' cries and appeals, as Job thinks. He speaks again and again; but the fault is in the deafness anci duluess of the listener (vers.12-14). Home modes of Divine instruction are theu described. 1. The voice of conscience in dreams, (Vers. 15-18.) The ear is opened; the sensuous nature Ill stilled, the imagination is kindled into life; memory unlocks her stores; tbe past suggests the future; and thus hints an.J warning~ are" stamped upon the instruction" of the soul. These are not merely facts of a past age of the world. If the Divine instruction by <lreume was ever real, it is real still. '£be study of the physiology and psychology of our dream-life may yield a fund of interest of a directly religious kind to all who believe our nature to be in immediate intercourse with the unseen and the Divine. We are still warned and comforted of God in dreams. The purpose of these communications is to restrain man from evil; to hide pride from him, that is, so that he ceases to iudulgc it; to keep back his soul from the grave; to warn him against death and all that is d~adly- 1 gaiust the sudden oncoming of the fatal blow. Whatever view be taken of the subject of special visions and communications from tho other world, it is open to us all to observo THE BOOK OF JOB. (ou. xxxrn. 1-83.