The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord. — JOB i. 21.

Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? — JOB ii. 10.

JOB IN AFFLICTION.

WE

have seen Job in his piety and pros

perous estate. We are now to see him in his sad reverses, and to witness his behavior in affliction. A change of circumstances often makes a great change in men themselves, or at least exposes a new and previously unsuspected side of their character, and develops unlooked-for results. Sometimes it brings to light defects that had never been dreamed of in those who were esteemed almost faultless; sometimes it reveals unanticipated excellencies. Emergencies are the making of some men, and the destruction of others. The former rise in greatness, and in every noble quality of soul, in proportion to the increasing demands of the occasion. The

latter are unable to abide the severity of the test applied to them, and fall before it. How will it be with Job?

A disclosure is made at the outset, to the readers of this book, of things that are concealed from the human actors in it. The veil that hides the unseen world is partially drawn aside, so as to afford us a glimpse of a spiritual agent, who is to give a new turn to events. The arch-enemy of man has had his eye upon Job. True to the instincts of his own vile nature, he has no faith in the reality of goodness. He sees in the piety of Job nothing but a refined form of selfishness. He serves God because it is his interest to do so. God protects and blesses him, and as a matter of course he inclines to the quarter from which the favors come; but if these favors were to cease, the tempter urges, Job's piety would vanish with them. His goodness has its spring in its attendant rewards: withhold the latter, and Job will soon take leave of God and His service, which no longer yields him any advantage.

Satan is allowed to bring to an issue this question which he has raised. He may put Job's piety to the test, and in him he may test the question whether there is such a thing as real piety in the earth, a piety that is not merely self-seeking and actuated by a hope of gain, but which heartily loves the right and cleaves to it, and chooses the service of God though no hope of profit can attach to so doing. Job is on trial, though he knows it not; and unfriendly eyes are eagerly watching for his halting. And he is on trial not merely for himself: the cause of religion is represented in him, the cause of God on earth, though he is also unconscious of the dignity of his position and of the sacredness of the interest which he is set to sustain, and of the fact that the eyes of the Lord of all are turned upon him with approval, and with a lively concern for the favorable issue of the struggle in which he is engaged. Of the spiritual significance of this transaction, Job is profoundly ignorant. He feels the terrible pressure of his heavy sorrows, but he is not aware

that they have been sent upon him as a test of character. He knows nothing of Satan's malicious designs, who seeks to prove his piety a pretence. He knows nothing of the sovereign purpose of God, who means to establish its reality and power to the confusion of the tempter.

It is with trembling apprehension that we see such power granted to this unseen adversary, with liberty to use it against the unsuspecting patriarch: "Behold, all that he hath is in thy power." "Behold, he is in thine hand." The contest seems fearfully unequal between this arch-fiend and mortal man, however firm his integrity, whatever the sincerity and strength of his piety. It reassures us somewhat, however, when we observe that the tempter is, after all, limited and restrained by Job's almighty Guardian and Friend. The fiend cannot frame and carry out his malevolent designs unchecked. He acts only by sufferance. He must have leave from the Most High, before he can touch Job at all to harm him or lay his hand upon any thing that he