The Pulpit Commentary — Job — Section 608

and let us reason together," is the gracious invitation of him who iB Eternal Reason amidst the wild clamours of our passion e.nd despondency. At the same time, Lhi; revelation of the majesty of God humiliates and purifies the recipient of it, teaching him hie own littleness and Jimito.tion in presence of this fulness of might and of wisdom, God, as the Almighty and only Wise, with whom no mortal may contend in judgment, may appoint the sufferings of the righteous for their probation a.nd purifi- cation. And thus the great problem of the book, the enigma of life, receives from the highest Source its long-delayed solution.-J. Ver. 1-ch. xxxix. 30.-First discowrse of Jehovah: God the -t1.lmighey and the All- wise: man may not contend with him. I. INTRODUCTION. APPEARANCE OF Goo; SUMMONS TO Jos. (Vers.1-3.) Out of the storm, in all its grandeur and beauty, which had been gathering while Elihu was speaking, the voice of the Creator is heard, calling upon Job, as one who ha.a been obscuring the Divine counsel by ignorant words, to gird up his loins and prepare for the contest he has so often invoked. II. Goo's QUESTIONS TO MAN'S REASON AND CONSCIENCE. (Ver. 4--ch. xxxix. 30.) These questions all appeal to man's wonder and curiosity, which impel him to seek the causes or things, and are therefore indirect reminders of his ignorance which can find no last answer to the questions be cannot but ask. 1. Quei;tions on the mode of creation. (Vers. 4-15.) (1) How was the earth founded? Who prescribed its limits? How shall the solid pillars, on which in the fancy of the ancient world it was conceived as resting, be themselves conceived as supported? Where is the comer-stone of this world-building, and who laid it? How can that great epoch of creation be realized in imagination when all the celestial beings held jubilee over the new-born world? We conceive of the existence of the earth in space under different notions than these; bnt is the wonder of e. world rolling in space, and bound by the principle of gravitation to other bodies, e. less wondrous conception, or one more easy to explain ? (2) So with tlie great sea. Who gave it its limits, who shut in as with gates the vast flood of waters? Breaking forth, as it seemed, from the womb of earth with impetuous force, yet governed and kept within bounds, so that its proud waves cannot transcend the limits fixed by Omnipotence, clothed with the raiment of clouds, the great ocean awakes in all minds the sense of sublimity, the emotion of awe. "Thou glorious mirror, where the Almighty's form Glaases itself in tempests ; in all time,- Calm or convulsed, in breeze, or gale, or storm. Icing the pole, or in the t.orrid clime Dark-heaving-boundless, endless, and sublime, The image of eternity, the throne Of the Invisible; even from out thy slime The monsters of the deep 11.J:e me.de; each zone Oboys the.e : thou goest forth, dree.d, fathomless, a.lone." (3) Or l'ook a.gain at the dawn in its splendid beauty, wliich men worshipped as Eo,, Ushas, Aurora; consider the regularity of its appearance, gladdening the hearts of all creatures. Who bade the dawn arise and gild the summits of the mountain, causing the earth to flash with all her brilliant variety of colours? Who bade the sun clothe the torrent with rainbows? Nay, who made yonder sun a symbol of righteousness, instinctively perceived by the human conscience, so that ill-doers flee before its revealing beams.., for their stronghold of darkness is broken open and their power is overthrown·? 2. Question continued: earth's depths and heights, and the forces that thence proceed. (Vers. 16-27.) (1) The depths under the earth. (Vers. 16-18.) God calls man to reflect upon the immeasurable, the inaccessible; to cause his thought to plunge into the abysses of the see., to pass in imagination those gloomy portals where the sun goes down, and which lead to Hades, the realm of shadows and of darkness; or with exten- sive view to survey the broad earth in all its vastness from east to west. " Cabin'd. oribb'd, oonfin'd" to one spot by the conditions of the bodily life, our mind has spiritual capacitie11 and organs by which we may have notions of the Infinite, and these fill us with the sense of the unsearohe.bleness of God. (2) Again, from the depths let fancy 10ar to the bright heights above (verd. 19-21), let it seek to explore the unapproachable Count of light or the seat of darkness. Still our ignorance blushes and hides her face before 624 THE BOOK OF J( Ill [oe. nxvm. 1--f.1.