Help me to trust thee, then, I pray; We.it in the dark and tearfully obey." W.F.A. Vel"ll. 23-26.-The messenger and the ransom. Elihu shows that God has three wa~'s of speaking to man-by inward voices (vers. H--18), by the experience of che.s- tisement (vers. 19-22), and now lastly by a living messenger (vers. 23-26). I. GoD SPEAKS BY A KESSENGER. It is a question whether we should underetnud the word rendered "messenger" in the usual sense attached to it, i.e. as standing for "angel.'.' God has spoken through angel-messengers from the days of Abraham. But any oue charged with a Divine message becomes God's angel to those to whom he delivers it. Every prophet is God's messenger, one who speaks for God. The apostle is one sent forth by Christ. Angels, prophets, apostles-they are all, so far, the same. They are God's missionaries. Christ is once called an Apostle (Heh. iii. 1), because he too was sent forth by his Father (1 John iv. 14). Our Lord's mission on earth was to bring the new message of salvation from heaven, and to make it a real and living thing among men. Every true follower of Christ is called to be a messenger from God to his fellow-men. People will listen to the human voice when' they are deaf to the pleadings of conscience and blind to the teachings of experience. The true preacher is God's messenger. " We are aml!Msadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God" (2 Cor. v. 20). 11. Gon's MESSENGER BB.mGs A RANSOM. It is contrary to the whole course of historical revelation, which develops truth by slow degrees, to suppose that the ransom intended by Elihu was the sacrificial death of Christ on the cross. Such an ana- chronism implies an entire lack of perspective in the view of the interpreter. Never- theless, the essential ideas of a ransom are here brought forward. 1. DeUveram,ClJ. It is the duty of God's messenger to preach "deliverance to the captives." He is more than a revealer of truth; he is a herald of salvation. 2. .A costly method. Elihu may have no conception of the price of redemption. Yet he perceives more or less dimly that some ransom must be paid. We have a much clearer view of the subject, because we can read it in the light of history. We now know that our deliverance is effected through the death of Christ. "The Son of man came to give his life a ransom for many" (Matt. xx. 28). III. THE DIVINE RANSOM SECURES A GLAD WELCOME FIi.OM GOD. The message may seem to come in stem tones of anger, following a John the Baptist preparation of chas- tisement. Yet it is a gospe1 Ver. 26 paints a glowing picture of the _redeemed man, 1 . .Acceptahl,e prayer. Until he was ransomed his prayer seemed to be in vain. Now God hears it with favour. 2. The bt,a,tific vi.sion. "Ha shall see his face with joy." Reconciled to God, he rejoices in communion with God. 3. Restoration of righteous- - · "He restoreth unto man his uprightness." This is the grand human result of redemption. Deliverance from doom is not enough, is not the chief end. The restora- tion of the broken and de6led image of God to its original, or:more than its original, beauty is the great outcome of the redeeming work of Christ.-W. F. A.
Vers. 27-30.-7'ie restored penitent. L THE CONDITION OF BEBTOB.ATION. 'l'he 1·edeemed man is represented as chanting a grateful psalm in recognition of his merciful deliverance. In this psalm he both acknowledges his guilt and recognizes that he has not been treawd as he deserves. Guilt is a. fact to be first of all owned. There is no forgiveness without confession. Even when a man is forgiven, though God may put aside his guilt, the man cannot do so. 'l'he thought of what he has been delivered from heightens his gratitude while it deepens his humility. II. TRE STATE oF RECOVERY. It is deliverence from death-" the pit." Death is the natural penalty of sin. But when God forgives and restores he does more than remit Lhe penalty. Salvation is far more than this negative blessing. The sin has already poisoned the life of the sinner. Already he is "dead in trespasses and sins." '!'Lerelore he needs the gift of life. Now, this positive boon comes with the great restoration of souls in redemption, Gou, who first gave natural life, now gives spiritual lik Thus the blelil!ing is internal and personal. It is not a change of the soul's estate, but a regeneration of the soul itself, on. ltx:t1v. 1-87.J 'l'HE BOOK OF JOB.
III. THE BOUROE OF REDEMPTION. God himself brings about the new, happy condi- tion of the restored penitent. He could not restore himself; no creature in the universe could give him what he needs. For the evil was death, and the requirement was a gift of life. Only be who first created life, and who ever lives in a.II his crea.tures, can renew life. Regeneration implies a Divine energy. Those forms of religion which a.re satisfied with man as he is may dispense with any very marked activity on God's side in religion; but when the ruin of man is acknowledged, the chief element in religi,m must be, not man's devotion, but God's salvation. Now, this is what we see in the Bible. There man appears in his sinfulness and helplessness, utterly unfit for heaven, or even for earthly life in its beauty and fruitfulness, and there God is seen as the mighty Deliverer coming to the rescue of his helpless child. IV. THE METHOD OF RENEWAL. Elihu has spoken of the Divine voices, the experi- ence of chastisement, and the personal messenger. By these means God reaches man. What else is done is not so fully seen here e.s in the later revelation of the New Testa,. ment, in which we discover the cross of Christ as the root of man's new life. But throughout God's dealings with man in all ages it has been apparent that there are various processes of spiritual experience through which God leads returning penitents. Therefore, if the present process is dark and mysterious and even painful, we have great encouragements for submitting to it with more than patient faith, with joyous hope, looking to the end:which is, "to bring back his soul from the pit, to be enlightened with the light of the living."-W. F. A.