The Pulpit Commentary — Job — Section 644

1. THE~E ARE _TER~IBLE ~RINGS m NATURE. When we look at the cruel jBwa or the crocodile, gapmg m reRdmess for itil prey, and the little ene.ke~llke e~s watl\hlng intl'ntly, in spite of Rn inert Rtlitude of l,ody thRt tempts us to despise the creature aa no better than a log of wood, we he.,·e before us the mystery of nRture.l terror, Could Go,\ ha,•c m11dc this horrible monster? Is there something in the animal world like the tares in the field, that RD enemy sowed in the night? The unity and harmony of nature forbid Buch a thought. Moreover, the crocodile has as much right to live ae the fish or the calf that it feeds on. Even when it snaps at an innocent and beautiful young creature, it is but fulfilling that great natural instinct of hunger, without which the world would perish. Far more terrible than the crocodile is the old serpent, who brought into the world not natnral death, but sin and the death of the soul. II. NATURE 1s ADVANCING IN BEAUTY AND JOY. Both behemoth r11d leviathan- the idealized hippopotamus and the idealized crocodile-are survivals of a more ancient order of creatures than those which now inhabit our globe. Geology teaches us that once such creatures, and greater on11s, were the chief if not the sole inhabitants of the earth. They are really akin to the huge mastodon, a monster that would dwarf an elephant; and the dinosaurus and ichthyosaurus, in comparison with which the most tremendous reptile of our own day is an insignificant animal. While these monsters crashed through the forests or plunged in the rivers the world was no fit place for man, But since their time God has peopled the earth with a fairer and more docile fauna. At all events, with such animals as now i.Dbabit it, he bas made it possible for so weak a being as man to rule the world. The older ugly and fearful creatures remain to bear witness to the past. Bat by their contrast with the general life of the present they show how God is improving the earth. III. 'l'BE MOST FEARFUL CREATURES HAVE TBEm LIVES ADJtJBTED BY GoD. There is poetry in the ma,,,<Tt1ificent description of leviathan, especially because the whole hangs together in harmony. There are no real "freaks of nature." The most eccentric creatures have their spheres. The terror and fury of the lower life of nature is all calmly provided for by God. We msy, perhaps, think that something must have been wrong, "When dragons in their prime Tare each other in their slime." To us this fury, this agony of nature, is fearful and mysterious, But in the sight of God it is innocence itself compared with fury of sin and the agony of remorse. The terrible things of nature may possibly prove to have come from some perversion of God's original plan by the influence of evil beings; this, however, is but a wild conjec- ture. Bat the terrible sin of man is a certain fact, and the evil of the heart from which it epriags is worse than the cruel rage of leviathan, just because the human evil is quite out of harmony with the will of God and in direct antagonism to his law,-W. F. A. Ver. ll..-The universal nile of God. This is witnessed to even by leviathan. The splendid terror of the water-master is depicted in order that we may be made to feel in some way how great God must be, who made him and who rules over him. I. IT isCLUDES THE PHYSICAL UNIVERSE. All nature is as much under the hand and power of God to-day as when it first appeared at the dawn of creation. Even the disorder and confusion that have entered into nature have not been able to tear it away from the rule of God. God rules through terror and confusion and death ae truly as throngb beauty and life. God does not confine himself to what we call the spiritual. He is not only concerned with that which, in the narrow sense of the word, we understand as" the religious." He is the great .Architect, Mechanic, Engineer, of the universe. • IL 1T IS NOT ALW An VISIBLE TO MAN. The hand that go.ides is unseen, The reign of law seems to drive back the reign of God. Thus Matthew Arnold writes- " The sea of faith Wos once, too, at the full ll.lld round earth's shore, LPy like the folds of e. bright girdle furled; But now I only hee.r Its mele.ucholy, long, withdmwing roar, Bet.rea.ting, to the breath  OB. XLI, 1-34.] THE HOOK OF JOB. 661