The Pulpit Commentary — Job — Section 609

the Divine eecrets of exiBtence. With what keen irony does Jehovah rebuke the 1.1ciolist.6 of every age in ver. 21? Shall abort-lived man presume to know the begin- ning aod eo11roe of anything? What though we may have cleared up some childlike confu!!iona of thought, have introduced some method and system into our conceptions of the univenoe, have reduced heat and light to modes of motion, traced the correlation of fol'Ce8. and perhaps are on our way t.o the conception of a oneness of force in all its TBrious mauif88t.ationa: what then? Whence force? Whence and. what is motion P Approach as indefinitely near as we may to the last generalisation, to the ultimate germ-principle of the irenesis of the universe, there will still remain the unknown and the unlmo"·able; there will be need and room lltill for wonder, worship, reverence, religion. (8) Or tum to the wonders of the atmosphere: snow and hail, light and wind (vera. 22-27). The qnestions here asked a.go.in are those of childlike wonder and ignorance. We do not put them in the same way. Science restates thl!Se questions for us; but only to give our wonder a new direction, a wider scope, a more intelligent quality. 3. The t v ~ q.f ~ air and starry heaoem. (Vers. 28-38.) (1) Here a number of Ratvrul phenomtma <md processes are mentioned, and the explanation of them in like manner demanded. The generation of rain, of dew, of ice, of frost,-science mediately explains these, i.e. traces them to their seconda.ry causes, and brings these causes uncier certain general laws. But thus the interest deepens in the phenomena; the wonder is not less, but more. (2) The guidano, of the stars, and their influence upon the earth (vers. 32, 83). The Pleiades, or seven stars, appear as if threaded upon a skein, as a necklaoe of jewels. Who formed that wondrous thread? Or who can loose the fetters of Orion, so that that splendid figure of the heavens should fall to pieces or descend from the sky? Can man lead forth the splendid stars (Mazzaroth) in their season?-Jupiter, Venus, Mars, and the Bear along with its little ones? Knowest thou the laws of the heaven, by which the course of the planets, the changes of the day and of the year, are brought about? Or canst thou determine its influence upon the earth? Modem science has answered these ancient questions with a clearness and fulness inconceivable in the days of the patriarch. But the field of contemplation and of wonder it thus opens to us is infinitely vaster (see Proctor's • Other Worlds than Ours'). And the sentence holds good, " An undevout astronomer is mad." Perhaps there is no science which more assists the mind to the sense of the sublimity of God than astronomy. And besides the revelation of the infinitely great above our heads, microscopic science has brought to light the infinitely small beneath our feet. The longer Job stands gazing, musing, the more do the Divine questions thicken upon him. From every st.ar, from every cloud amidst the innumer- able host spread out in the wel.k.in, from every :Bash of lightning and from every drop of rain, the same voice speaks, the same challenge comes. Man cannot create by all his science the least of these things, and how shall he presume to penetrate the mysteries of ~he coUDsel of the Almighty, or question the wisdom and the rightness of his doings? 4. Ths animal tDOrl,d. (Ver. 39-ch. ::um. 30.) A rich field of study is opened here in the evidences of natural hist.ory to the creative power and the loving providence of God for all his creatures. We cannot turn our sermons into lectures on natural history ; to descend into details would be to 1088 sight of those grand elemen- tary truths of which nature's every page furnishes such abundant illustrations. For purposes of teaching, religion and ecienoe must to some extent be kept apart in their consideration. That is, we mw.t not burden religious teaching with natural details, however interesting; nor interrupt at every step a scientific lesson, in orJer to prqnounce a homily, or thrust forward a moral application. But viewed in a general way for the purpose of stimulating intelligent religioUB feeling, the animal world presents: (1) Variiety, rich and bonndless, of form, of structure, of mode, and existence, How different the powers of the animals here enumerated-the lion, the raven, the goat, the wild ass, the horse! The limbs that spring and boUDd, that climb or :By, provided with that muscular apparatus which no human &rt can rival; the internal organs fitting the creature for it.a particular food and scene of existence ;-these and all the variety of fact.I that come to light under this head bespeak a power &nd skill that can adapt the i.Damiment to every eet of circuID.llt&Dces, can be daUDtctd by no difficulty, can find IDllllLDS for all necessary ends (see the illUBtrations in M.cCosh and Dickie's • Typical Forms a.nd Special Ends'). Whatever ma7 be the ecientific theory in fashion, whether on. :n.xvm. 1--41,l THE BOOK OF JOB. 826