The Pulpit Commentary — Job — Section 587

and cdn tell tho.t their cryetals assume five leading forms; but with all his le1m•jng and a.mid a.II his reseo.rches he ho.s never laid his finger on the a.rt of ma.king snow or or se.ying to a single flake," Be thou on the earth." ' IV. WONDERFUL IN RESPECT OF THEIR CO:STROL. If nature is not a. vast ma.chine from which God has departed, still less is it a.n engine which he has suffered to escape from his hand. Conceived by infinite wiedom and fashioned by almighty power, it has by the same combination of qualities been kept in complete subordination. Elihu insto.nces the lightning-cloud as a. work of God that is "turned round a.bout by hi8 counsels, and that doeth whatsoever he commandeth upon the face of the wide earth" (ver. 12). But it is the ea.me with the snow and the rain, the frost and the wind. These a.re as submissive to his command as the thunder when it roars, or the lightning when it gleame. So, according to the concurrent testimony of Scripture, are all his works in all places of his dominion (eh. x:xiii. 13; Ps. xx:xiii. 9; cxix. 90, 91; Isa. xl. 26; Dan. iv. 35; Eph. i. 11). V. WONDERFUL lN RESPECT OF THEIB 11\lPREBBIVENESS. More especially is this the case with the grander and sublimer phenomena. The thunderstorm, with its ominous gloom, its lurid fires, its terrific detonations, carries a sense of awe to evi;ry sentient creature. .At its first approach the cattle manifest their fear by herding together in th(\ most sheltered spots that they can find. 'l'he birds, as they fly with eager haste to screen themselves among the boughs, give evidence that they are smitten with an unknown dread. Even the wild beasts that roam through the forest or scour the plain, the shaggy lion and the ferocious tiger, slink away to hide themselves within their dens. Nay, man, whether civilized or barbarian, religious or unbelieving, cannot witness the dread commotion of the elements, cannot look upon "the sulphurous and thought-exe- cuting fires, vaunt couriers of oak-cleaving thunderbolts" as they flash across the murky vault of heaven, or listen to the "all-shaking thunder" as it crashes, rolls, and roars across the pavement of the skies, w.ithout instinctively holding his breath and feeling solewnized, as if he stood iu presence of the supernatural. Even the heart of Elihu trembled and tottered from its place before the awe-inspiring manifestation of Divine power which was then taking place (ver, 1), very much as Moses did in the presence or Mount Sinai, when it shook beneath the feet of the God of Israel (Ps. lxviii. 8), and he gave expression to his horror, saying," I exceedingly fear and quake" (Heh. xii. 21). But scarcely less impressive to a thoughtful and devout mind is Nature in her quieter moods. '' The meanest fioweret of the vale, The simplest note that swells the gale, The common sun, the air, the skies, To him ore opening Paradise." Elihu speaks of God sealing up the hand of every man by the terrors of his thunder or the rigours of his winter (ver. 7); that is, arresting man's customary occupati.ons, and compelling man, by a period of enforced leisure, to meditate upon his work, so as to know and recognize it to be his. One reason why men fail to trace God's presence in his own creation is the waut of a religious contemplation of his works. The supreme Creator has so constructed every portion of nature that, if rightly interpreted, it will speak of him. IV. WONDERFUL IN RESPECT OF THEIR DESIGN. It is a fundamental article in biblical theology that the supreme Artificer never acts without a purpose (Acts xv. 18; Eph. i. 11). The universe was not summoned into existence without a specific end in view (Rev. iv. 11). The earth was not created in vain, but formed to be inhabited (I,a. xlv. 18). So every single work of God has its particular aim. Elihu again recurs for au example to the thunder-cloud. When Go<l causes a thunuerstorm to burst upon a land, it is not an accident, or a haphazard operation, but an event with a well-defined object in contemplation, It is either as a punishment for sin, or as an act of mercy towan!s man, or as e. meuns of fertilizing the land and thus conferring benefit on e.n entire popula- tion. 'l'hat is to say, it is employed ns e.n instrument in the execution of God's pre- arranged design, whether that be specific in its destination or general, i.e. for the benefit of an individual or the good of a country, and whether it be punitin3 or merciful. And every other phenomenon of nature is in like manner connected with the silver line of God's eternal purpose. Science may not be able to see how the two u.re linked  602 THE BOOK OF JOB. [on. uxvn. 1-21.