Then was kindled the wrath of Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite, of the kindred of Ram; against Fob was his wrath kindled, because he justified himself rather than God. Also against his three friends was his wrath kindled, because they had found no answer, and yet had condemned Fob.-JOB Xxxii. 2, 3. ELIHU. THE be answered. HE three friends of Job cannot answer him, and yet it is plain that he ought to He has silenced his friends, and has shown that the principle which they have so confidently urged will not explain the mystery of God's dealings in general, nor solve the enigma of his own case. But he has not brought the question to any satisfactory issue, nor to one in which it can be properly left. The friends undertook to justify God's providential dealings: the failure of their argument apparently leaves the divine proceedings open to censure and without any adequate vindication. They aimed to show Job that he had no right to complain of the sufferings which God had sent upon him or permitted to be fall him, and they were not successful in their endeavor. Job has triumphantly maintained his ground in his controversy with his friends; and, in his victory over them, there is danger of his entertaining the impression, and the impression being made on others, that he is likewise in the right in his controversy with the providence of God. This dangerous impression needs to be corrected, both for his own sake and for the sake of those to whose instruction his great trial, and the book that records it, was designed to contribute. In the vehemence of his opposition to his friends, and in the intensity of his inward struggles, Job has been betrayed into expressions, which cannot be approved, in which he seems to arraign the equity of the divine administration. Great consideration is requisite in judging of these expressions, and in estimating their real meaning. Allowance must be made for the circumstances in which they were uttered. Words wrung from him in the bitterness of his heart, and in the tnmult of his feelings under the terrible pres |