shall be my salvation." (xiii. 15.) "The righteous shall hold on his way, and he that hath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger." (xvii. 9.) "How hast thou counselled him that hath no wisdom, and how hast thou plentifully declared the thing as it is." (xxvi. 3-6.) "All the while my breath is in me, and the Spirit of God is in my nostrils. My lips. shall not speak wickedness, nor my tongue utter deceit." (xxvii. 3.) "The words of Job are ended. So these three men ceased to answer Job, because he was righteous in his own eyes."

Such was Job-a perfect and an upright man. So that there was supreme majesty in God's question to Satan, "Hast thou considered my servant Job?" And yet we must condemn that fretting leprosy: he should have woke up to a better mind; he should openly have declared himself to be an heir of glory; for, although we have seen a volume of life rolling in his soul, still there was reservation, fear, weakness, leprosy, as though he had been Christless. "Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ." With that garment of light, why should Job have answered his accusers at all? why should he have sat in ashes, and have bemoaned himself at all? why listen to Satan at all? "Unto you I say, and unto as many as have not this doctrine, and which have not known the depths of Satan as they speak; I will put upon you none other burden."

We have seen the depths of Satan to submerge Job, and in the fire from heaven, in the great wind from the wilderness, in the infection of the desert, who can understand

the depths of Satan? Wherever there is an important work to be done, he is there; wherever there is a soul precious to God, he is there; but every Job can say with him, "My witness is in heaven, and my record is on high." What a contrast to him is every unconverted man, who, as the world recedes, is a blasted spectacle; no faith, no mind, no strength, no spirit, no soul, to bear him across the gulf of wreck to restoration, to glory. "The rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it."

See Job's sublime exposition of wisdom in the 28th chapter, from the 12th verse: "Unto man he saith, Behold the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding."

CHAPTER XXVI.

ON THE BOOK OF JOB.

I HAVE now to notice the controlling, presiding power in the history of Job.

"Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said, Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge? Gird up now thy loins like a man; for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me." (Job xxxviii.) This whirlwind was the blast of affliction that had beaten upon the head of Job: "Thou hast been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat, when the blast of the terrible ones was as a storm against the wall." (Isa. xxv. 4.) God stood up in the midst of the tempest to reprove Job for the darkening, compromising spirit of his reasoning, as though He had said, 'Reason is almost all that I have heard from you, Where is your faith? Have you witnessed of me a good confession before men?' We have seen in Job the true patriarchal religion, an eminent believer, a man sound in doctrine and in practice, and yet, as I have said, he was "fearful," and weak

in confessing the covenant made with his fathers, and the spirituality of that covenant; "Did I fear a great multitude, or did the contempt of families terrify me, that I kept silence?" So hidden was the parentage of Job, and the religion of the covenant, that although I have shown you that he was, without doubt, the grandson of Jacob, still to this day it is usually supposed that he was an Arabian emir or chief.

The meaning of the word Uz is counsel, or, according to the Syriac, to fix, or fasten to. The land was originally so called from Uz, the grandson of Shem. (Gen. x. 23.) Stephen makes it one with Aram, Ram, or Abram. God had set His name in the generation of Shem, they were to be the light of the world; Ur, which I believe to be the same, means fire, light. God gave to them the knowledge of Himself, revealed Himself to them, and gave to them His Holy Spirit, that they might make Him known to the whole world. Here we find the justness of God's reproof to Job: "Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?" It was in vain for Job to reason, to justify himself without proclaiming the Messiah of the Everlasting Covenant, and not only for himself, but the whole world. The very name of his little principality, Uz, counsel, seemed to remind him to do this, "I will fasten him as a nail in a sure place." (Isa. xxii. 23; Zech. x. 4.) "His name shall be called counsellor." (Isa. ix. 6.) "Let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw nigh." (Isa. v. 19; vii. 5; xi. 2.) "The Lord of hosts is

wonderful in counsel, and excellent in working." (Isa. xxviii. 29.) "That confirmeth the word of his servant, and performeth the counsel of his messengers." (Isa. xliv. 26.) "The Great, the Mighty God, the Lord of hosts, is his name, great in counsel, and mighty in work." (Jer. xxxii. 18.) "Daniel answered with counsel and wisdom." (Dan. ii. 14.) "The counsel of peace shall be between them both." (Zech. vi. 13.) "I take you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men. For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God." (Acts xx. 26.) In Job there was reserve, and this is very important for us to remember, because we are to be lamps in Jerusalem, a Church in Babylon, lights in the world, and they are to burn clear and pure, and not as "a lamp despised" in the land of Uz: "Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?" God's contention with Job was not for anything he had done, but for what he had left undone; perhaps he doubted God's power to work in him, a poor weak instrument, a sinful man; and so God, as it were, chained him down to the age of reason, and appealed to him of His own power in the natural world alone. The voice is beautifully simple, eloquent, and sublime. I may extract from it, but the chapters must be read connectedly to appreciate the full roll of sublimity.

"Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding. Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? or who hath stretched the line upon it? Whereupon are the foundations thereof