ページの画像
PDF
ePub

in wealth, connexions, and honour, brought down from her exalted condition to pennyless poverty and desertion. She had the feelings of a mother, bereft of her seven sons and three daughters, in one dreadful day. She had the feelings of a wife for an afflicted and tortured husband. If any should question this, I would remind them that they are judging of her from the state of her mind subsequently to the exasperating and maddening effects of the trials to which she had been subjected. But have we any right to suppose the same irreligious and rebellious spirit as having characterized her previously? I think not. When her spirit was distracted and overwhelmed, the subtle adversary plied his temptations, infused evil surmises, and hard and unworthy thoughts of God; and succeeded in stirring up, to a lamentable degree, the tempers of insubordination, unbelief, and impiety. All that we are entitled to conclude, is, that what did not succeed with Job himself, did succeed with her. I am far from being satisfied, therefore, that the evidence is sufficient of the absence of all religious principle. I do not think this likely in itself. And if Jonah, in impious discontent and proud passion, said, "I do well to be angry, even unto death :”—if Asaph, by his troubles, contrasted with the prosperity of the wicked, was tempted to exclaim, "How doth God know? and is there knowledge in the Most High?" tempted to the very verge of atheism: is there any thing incredible in the supposition, that a woman, even of true religion, should, in such circumstances of sudden and accumulated trial and strong temptation, have had her mind shaken and unhinged, and should have given way before the wiles of the wicked one? "Charity hopeth all things." In the exercise of this charity, I would indulge the fond persuasion, that his power over her was but temporary; that her impiety was the unhappy result of the frenzy of wild and despairing sorrow, a sorrow, when judged by its effects, by no means to be exculpated, but which every rightly-feeling heart, while it deplores, will censure with considerate tenderness; and that, by the grace of God, she might be afterwards restored to a right mind. We shall find the patriarch himself, soon after this, "opening his mouth and cursing his day;" and, although he continued to maintain correct general principles as to Divine Providence, yet going far astray in the spirit of unqualified self-vindication. He was brought to see, and feel, and own his error; and, although nothing is said of his wife's repentance, nothing is said to prohibit our at least in charity in supposing it.

It is not, however, the design of the book to record the experience of Job's wife, but of Job himself; and the circumstance of her failing him, to whom he might naturally look, amid the desolation of all his other joys, for his only remaining earthly consolation and support, was indeed, a most affecting addition to the trial of his faith and patience. It is as such, and to show how he triumphed over it, that it is here introduced. Job's reply to her profane expostulation is in full harmony with

his previous submission: verse 10. "Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What? Shall we receive good at the hand of the Lord, and shall we not receive evil also?" I am disposed, with Heath, to adopt the interrogative rendering of the first clause: "Dost thou speak as one of the foolish?" or, "Is thy speech as the speech of the foolish?" It may then be understood as the language of tender and bitter disappointment. Thus it stands in the poetical version of Scott, already referred to :

"Dost thou-(he said, and cast a tender look,

While zeal deliver'd its severe rebuke)—
Even thou, thus rashly speak? In such a style
Let a blind Paganess her gods revile.
Jehovah's hand divides our portion still:

Shall we embrace his good, and not his ill?"

I quote the last two lines because they convey the proper sense of the words, "Shall we receive good at the hand of the Lord, and shall we not receive evil also?" A careless reader is ready to attach no further meaning to this question, than that it need not be matter of surprise to us that there should, from the hand of God, be evil in our lot as well as good. But when, for the word "receive," we substitute the poet's word, "embrace," or Mr. Good's, "accept," we have the true sense, the submissive state of mind with which the one as well as the other should be welcomed. In the original, there is an article before both, which renders this meaning the more pointed :-"What? Shall we accept the good at the hand of the Lord, and shall we not accept the evil also?" the one, that is, in the spirit of gratitude, and the other, in the spirit of confiding resignation, just such as he had, on the former occasion, expressed-chap. i. 20.

I

O my reader, how keen, how envenomed, was this additional wound, to the heart of piety and of connubial affection; in some respects, repeat, the severest he had yet experienced! First of all, to see the enemy of souls succeeding with the partner of his life; the spirit of impiety infused into her heart, and the language of impiety proceeding from her lips, and that, too, in the form of taunt and temptation to himself:-Oh, this was agony indeed! And then, secondly, to see his last earthly resource failing him; the resource to which a man, with the confidence of tried affection delights to betake himself, when all else has been blight and disappointment :-this yet remaining to him, the fond and faithful heart, that shares with him all his sorrows and all his joys, the one earthly friend that is sure to feel for him, that clings to him like a "ministering angel," with the melting of soft and soothing sympathy, mingling her tears with his, and pouring out, in sweet communion with him, those tears unto God, unburdening her spirit with his before the throne of their heavenly Father's grace! To see this resource, and his heart turned to it, instead of yielding the needed

when his

eye

[blocks in formation]

comfort and support, proving "the staff of a broken reed!" And thou! "dost thou speak as one of the foolish ?"

"In all this did not Job sin with his lips." He "still held fast his integrity," a heart "right with God:" and the calumnious charges of the wicked one were still refuted.

We reserved practical remarks till we had considered both the series of Job's trials: and, although I have already, I fear, gone to the limit of my room, I must petition for another page, to press these briefly on the reader's notice.

1. The first lesson here taught us, is that of grateful acknowledg ment of God in our prosperity :-"THE LORD GAVE." All Job's abundance was from Him. So is all ours. Whatever be its extent, we have it "as God hath prospered us." "In his hand our breath is; and his are all our ways." Is there any one thing in the whole range of good, to which the question of the apostle does not apply, "What hast thou that thou hast not received?" Let the reader peruse the following passages:-1 Chron. xxix. 11-16; Psa. ciii. 1-5; Deut. viii. 7-18. Our incessant proneness to forget the hand of a kind God in our prosperity, is one among the many affecting evidences of our nature's apostacy and alienation from him. And let it be further remembered that, if we feel the full import and impression of "The Lord gave," we shall not be satisfied with using these terms of acknowledgment with our lips; we shall give practical proof of the feeling and the impression, by the use we make of his gifts; "honouring the Lord with our substance;" "doing good, being rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate;" in a word, to the extent of our ability, imitating Job's use of God's gifts :-Job xxix. 11-19.

2. The second lesson is a correlate to the first; cheerful resignation in the reverses of life:-"THE LORD HATH TAKEN AWAY." How beautiful the example! When times (to use the common expression) are bad, and when Christians, like other men, suffer losses, let them see to it that they repeat the example. By what instrumentality soever their sufferings have been produced, let them beware of venting their fretful maledictions against the real or supposed impolicy of national measures and public men, or the untoward and unprecedented occurrences that have agitated and depressed the commercial world, or the unjust, and selfish, and dishonourable dealings of individuals in trade. That would be as if Job had lavished his imprecations on the Sabeans, the lightnings, and the tempest. Never let us forget that all second causes, of what kind soever, conscious or unconscious, are under supreme and irresistible control :-"The Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord!"

Have you been bereaved of friends? Think of him who, having lost ten grown-up children, his entire family, in one day, "bowed the head and worshipped," and uttered in reverential lowliness these words of

an agonized yet submissive spirit; and, if personal affliction is added to your bereavement, think of him who, when smitten, even while the deep wounds of his heart were profusely bleeding, with a torturing distemper throughout his whole frame, had still no complaint to murmur, but accepted the Divine infliction of evil, as he had accepted the Divine bestowment of good. Amid the meltings of nature, then, cherish the feelings of grace. "Let patience have her perfect work." "Ye have heard of the patience of Job," yes, and of a greater than Job. Imitate it :-Rom. xii. 12; James i. 2—4 ; v. 7—11.

What cause have Christians to "bless the name of the Lord," even under their heaviest trials, when the gracious design of them is considered. They are all subservient, in the kind administration of their Father in heaven, to one blessed end. And that end is well worth losing all to gain. The passing world we live in is well lost for the world to come; the riches that "make to themselves wings, and fly away, as an eagle towards heaven," for the true, the durable riches; the widest and finest estate on earth, for the "inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away." "All things work together for good to them that love God." The "good" is spiritual and eternal. And what child of God is there, who would rather suffer in his soul if he might but keep his wealth, than lose his wealth, or any, or all of his earthly joys, for his soul's benefit?

3. Let those beware of being tempters, who ought to be comforters. Christian husbands and wives, united in the tenderest and closest of earthly ties, and in the still holier and more endearing bond of grace, having common pleasures, common cares, common interests, both temporal and spiritual, feeling for each others' bodies and souls as for their own, should, in all circumstances, be "helpers of each others' faith and joy." One in gratitude, they should be one in submission; one in praise, one in prayer. It is theirs to "strengthen each others' hands, and encourage each others' hearts in God." In seasons of deep distress, when the blight of some withering dispensation of Providence passes over the Eden of their earthly joys, it is theirs to look, in the exercise of a common faith, to the common Author of their woes as well as of their delights, and to the common Source of their consolation and strength, and, through the tears that gush from melting, but not rebelling hearts, to say, in the union of resigned confidence and love, each to the other, and both to God-" Shall we accept the good at the hand of the Lord, and shall we not accept the evil also?" Each should look for the personal experience of the sweets of God's promises and the joys of God's salvation, not for self alone, but that both may be "able to comfort one another with the comforts wherewith each is comforted of God." This is what the apostle Peter calls "dwelling with each other according to knowledge, and as being heirs together of the grace of life." I might apply the same remarks, in the spirit of them, to

other relations, both of kindred and of intimate friendship, in which fellow Christians may stand to one another. But I must forbear.

4. Let the simple but affecting truth be seriously pondered by all"Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither." The same truth is urged in other places with equal simplicity, 1 Tim. vi. 7; Psa. xlix. 16, 17. It is a truth of which men do not so much need the conviction, as the impression. Oh, remember, the time is near when "to dust thou shalt return"-when your shrouded corpse shall be measured for its coffin-when the " narrow house" shall be meted out for its reception-the length and breath of your grave the extent of your earthly domain. There you must sleep, till "the trump of God" shall sound. And when it does sound, and summons the dead from the dust, shall it be to re-invest you in your worldly possessions? Alas for you if, while you lived in the world, the world was your all! If in your passage through time you laid up nothing for eternity; if, spiritually as well as temporally, you "returned naked" to the grave; then naked you must rise from it,— rise, in all the dreadful consciousness of an unprovided eternity! Oh, be persuaded, any of you, my readers, that are living "without God in the world," to seek in earnest " a better and more enduring substance,”the "good part that shall never be taken away from you." These are blessings, of which the Psalmist's words-"When he dieth, he shall carry nothing away"-are not true; the blessings which, pertaining to the never-dying soul, shall be carried with it when it quits the body, and, in their unmingled purity and full perfection, be its "portion for ever." Seek these,- -secure these,—and then you may "go on your way rejoicing!"

HYMN FOR A CHRISTIAN FAMILY.

Great Father of earth's family,
Behold, thy children worship thee;
With gratitude, before thy throne,
Thy ceaseless care and mercy own.

Our speech and knowledge, joy and health,
Lord, thou hast given, earth's truest wealth;
Our food and clothing, home and friends,
Are blessings thy indulgence sends.

Our mind, with all its wondrous powers,
Our pious thoughts, our sacred hours,
Our guarded nights, our peaceful days,
All, all demand the song of praise.

And nobler blessings clearer prove
Thy arm of power and heart of love;
Thy grace on earth, thyself in heaven-
What could a Father more have given?

The Spirit's aid, the Saviour's blood,
Thy promises, eternal God,
Thy holy Word, the Sabbath day,
Revive our heart and cheer our way.

For all we are, and all we have,
For all we hope beyond the grave,
Thy mercy, Father, we adore;
Oh, teach our hearts to praise thee more!
S. W. PARTRIDGE.

« 前へ次へ »