"Twill surely rain; I see, with sorrow, 14, 15. (14) this, i.e. the lesson conveyed by such things. stand still, be calm and quiet; cease from restless complainings. (15) dost thou know," if Job could not compass, and fitly explain God's work in nature, how could he expect to explain the more difficult questions of Div. Providence? light, lightning. shine, or flash. God in nature. A present Deity in all. It is His presence that diffuses charms Unspeakable o'er mountain, wood, and stream; 16, 17. (16) balancings, poisings; attemperings of weight; And I have felt A presence that disturbs me with the joy All thinking things, all objects of all thought, 18-20. (18) spread out, "firmament" is regarded as a solid body spread out, Gen. i. 6, 7. strong, etc., “wh. for firmness is like a molten mirror." looking glass, mirror, wh. was made of plates of metal highly polished. The sky was regarded as a solid bright expanse, so like a mirror. (19) order, frame; carefully and fittingly arrange. darkness, of mind; ignorance. Elihu again intimates that Job's hurried and intense speeches were unworthy. (20) if.. up, more correctly, "shall one wish to be destroyed ?" as Job had done. The pleasure of surveying the heavens.—I invariably experience a variety of sensations when I "survey the heavens on a calm clear night, about the end of the month of May. I can then inhale the sweets of the woodbine and other flowers, whose fragrance is drawn out by the gentle dews of evening. The nightingale breaks the silence by his sweet and varied notes; and the full moon "walking in brightness," and rendered still B.C. cir. 1520. f Dr. Jenner. the wondrous works of God 12, 13. ii. 21; J. Adams, I 16; J. Charlesworth, i. 239; E. Thompson, 280; C. S. Drew, 55. "What throbbings of deep joy pulsate through all see; from the full bud whose unctuous sheath is glittering in the moon, up through the system of created things, even to the flaming ranks of seraphim.”—Alford. b Grahame. the mysteriousness of a cloudy firmament a "The phenomena of the clouds would be among the first that would attract the attention of man, and in the early times of Job it is not to be supposed that the subject could be explained." Barnes. b Wordsworth. B.C. cir. 1520. speak before Him, that he is, without cause, being destroyed?"-Umbreit. Ec. v. 2; Job xiii. 3, 18-22. The love of Naquality, it is rich in the best re ture is no idle sults. the bright light in the cloud a LXX. "clouds shining like gold." b Barnes applies to some special sign of God's approach by symbol of light; and observes that the ancients regard ed the northern regions as the "All God's attributes harmoother, and find their perfect manifestation in love."-Spk. Com. d La. iii. 32, 33; nise with each He. xii. 10. e Mat. xi. 25; 1 Co. i. 26. v. 21. C. E. Ken naway, 140. v. 22. Alex. Pirie, more beautiful by the lustre of so many shining stars, which 21-24. (21) now, while the storm-cloud hung so thick and low. So there was a darkness about the spirit of Job wh. kept him fr. discerning God's gracious ways. cleanseth them, cleareth them so that the sunlight comes again to view. (22) fair weather, or golden splendour, sunshine." terrible majesty, therefore there should be cherished holy awe of Him. (23) find him out, so as fully to know the mystery of His ways. excellent, excelling others; and beyond our thought. not afflict, as an end, but as a means; not in mere punishment, only as chastisement.d (24) fear him, with reverent, godly fear. wise, i.e. in their own conceits. The bright light in the clouds.-Here appears to be a figurative residences of the allusion to the occurrences which are under the control of Divine gods. Providence under the similitude of clouds, and the bright design which is sometimes beyond the reach of the human mind to understand. I. These occurrences resemble the clouds sometimes -1. In their sudden appearance; 2. In their various magnitude; 3. In their happy effects. II. There is a bright light in every cloud, or something cheering in all the dispensations of Providence. 1. The character of God is a bright light; 2. The promises are a bright light in the clouds; 3. The past conduct of God is a bright light in the clouds. III. There are, however, various causes which frequently prevent us from seeing the bright light in the clouds. 1. Constitutional or physical dejection will do this; 2. There are, however, other causes, both intellectual and moral, such as-(a) Defective views of Divine truth; (b) Want of faith in the wisdom and goodness of God.-The bright light in the cloud.-I shall take the text to illustrate the disposition of men to look upon the dark side of things. I. The text will apply to the sceptic in relation to the dark things of revelation. There are several things which give the darkest of them a bright light. 1. There is the love of the Infinite Father; were walk- 2. The unspotted holiness of our Great Example; 3. The proviing through asion He has made for our spiritual recovery; 4. The existence of land of Egyptian a blessed immortality. II. The text will apply to the factious followed him fault-finders with God's providence. III. The text will apply to would actually the misanthropic in relation to the character of the race. IV. walk in the light, The text will apply to the desponding Christian in relation to his they kept to him experience. Learn-1. To cultivate the habit of looking on the the clearer their bright side of things; 2. To anticipate the world of future lightwould be and light. Wks. 3. vv. 23, 24. H. Wharton, ii. 76. f Dr. Thomas. If a man whose body was radiant and bright as the sun darkness, all who and the closer the safer their Light in darkness. road. He who follows Christ follows One from The sun's bright rays are hidden, The rains in floods descend; God speaks a Spk. Com. the wise and gracious counsel of God in afflicting him, by words without knowledge, in wh. he presumptuously asserts 1-3. (1) the Lord answered, by a voice heard: no actual form was seen. It may, however, be that the writer of the book does but put in methodical form the thoughts suggested by God to Job's mind in connection with the great tempest." Job, not the friends; not Elihu ; but Job himself: this favours the idea that it may have been a voice in Job's heart. (2) darkeneth counsel, makes the subject darker. (3) gird, etc., for contending the matter with God, as he had desired to do. like a man, boldly, courageously; as one entereth upon a battle. The Word of God as a sword.-I. A sword has a maker; the Word of God has an Author-the Spirit. II. A sword has a form made after a pattern; the Word of God has a style of language, a form of moral and religious truths, fashioned after the similitude of the Divine mind. III. A sword has a scabbard; so has the Word of God, which is the letter, the type, the paper. IV. A sword has point, edge, brightness, weight; so the Word of God has point to pierce the heart, edge to divide asunder, brightness so as to be a mirror, weight so as to be mighty to the pulling down and breaking down of strongholds. V. A sword is for Job ix. 34, 35, defence against enemies; so is the Word of God. VI. A sword to be of any practical use must be used; so the Word of God. VII. A sword in the hand of some persons may do mischief; soney, iv. 53; J. H. the Word of God. VIII. A sword used by proper persons in a Newman, Justifiright way, and at a right time, does great exploits; so the Word cation, 1. of God.d The power of the Word.-All human speculations have alloy about them-that Word is perfect. All human speculations fail -that Word abideth. The Jew hated it--but it lived on, while the veil was torn away from the shrine which the Shekinah had forsaken, and while Jerusalem itself was destroyed. The Greek derided it but it has seen his philosophy effete, and his Acropolis in ruins. The Roman threw it to the flames-but it rose from its ashes, and swooped down upon the fallen eagle. The reasoner cast it into the furnace, which his own malignity had heated seven times hotter than its wont," but it came out without the smell of fire. The Papist fastened serpents around it to poison it -but it shook them off and felt no harm. The infidel cast it overboard in a tempest of sophistry and sarcasm-but it rode 66 and his own righteousness, impugns God's justice."-Words worth. Lu. vii. 30. xiii. 22, xxii. 3, xxxi. 35. v. 2. Dr. J. Dis vv. 2, 3. Cyril, Cat. Lec. ii. 90. cult task before 'Poor fellow! be B.C. cir. 1520. -Roberts. gallantly upon the crest of the proud waters. And it is living not well girded."" still-yet heard in the loudest swelling of the storm-it has been speaking all the while-it is speaking now. The world gets higher at its every tone, and it shall ultimately speak in power, e W. M. Punshon. until it has spoken this dismantled planet up again into the smiling brotherhood of worlds which kept their first estate, and God, welcoming the prodigal, shall look at it as He did in the beginning, and pronounce it to be very good. human life a Ge. i. 1, ii. 4; He. i. 10. vv. 4-7. Bp. Gray, Disc. 1. b Dr. Thomas. "We talk of hu those who come 4, 5. (4) where, etc., ironical allusion to the comparison between Job's short life and God's eternity. To understand the cause of things man should have been present at their origin. Questions such as these would most effectively humble the spirit of Job. laid the foundations, lit. "when I founded it: created or established it. hast understanding, art capable of judging. (5) laid the measures, as the architect. stretched the line, as the carpenter and builder." The insignificance of a man as a creature. This subject implies two facts. 1. That God has made special communicaman life as a tions to man; 2. That man should pay special attention to them. journey; but how variously is that Adopting a somewhat paraphrastic method of treatment-I. journey perform- What is thine intellect to Mine? II. What is thine age to Mine? ed! There are III. What is thy power to Mine? IV. What is thy independency forth girt and to Mine? For He is-1. Independent in being; 2. In action. shod and This subject serves—(1) To rebuke all disposition to pronounce an opinion upon the ways of God; (2) To suggest that our and smooth ter- grand effort ought to be to cultivate a loving trust in the races, where Divine character, rather than to comprehend the Divine prorested and every Christianity." every gale is ar- cedure; (3) To enable us to appreciate the glorious service of mantled to walk on velvet lawns beam is temper paths of life, naked breast, jaded, mangled, and chilled." Sydney Smith. "Meditation bere ed. There are Permanency of the laws of nature.-To the ancients who lived others who walk in the infancy of the world, or rather in the infancy of man's on the alpine experience, the question whether the laws of nature have that against driving degree of permanence and fixity that can render them subjects misery, and of systematic discussion, or whether, on the other hand, the through stormy qualities of natural agents are subject to mutation from lapse of sorrows, over time, was very rational, and hence their distinctions between sharp afflictions; walk with corruptible and incorruptible. Thus, according to some of them. bare feet and the matter only of the celestial spheres is pure, immutable, and incorruptible, while all sublunary things are in a state of lapse; the world becoming paralysed with age, and man himself deteriorating in character and diminishing at once in intellectual and bodily stature. But to the moderns, who have the additional experience of some thousand years, the question of permanence is in a great measure decided in the affirmative. The profound speculations of modern astronomers, grounding their conclusions useful lesson to on observations made at very remote periods, have proved to the head, and demonstration that one at least of the great powers of naturelearning wiser grow without his the force of gravitation, the main bond and support of the books."-Cowper. material universe-has undergone no change in intensity from a "Life is at most high antiquity. The stature of mankind is just what it was a meeting and three thousand years ago, as the specimens of mummies which have been exhumed at various times sufficiently show. The intellect of Newton, La Place, or La Grange, may stand in fair competition with that of Archimedes, Aristotle, or Plato; and the virtues and patriotism of Washington, with the brightest examples of antiquity. may think down hours to moheart may give a ments. Here the a parting a glimpse into the world of might have been."Massey. c Herschel. 6, 7. (6) foundations, Heb. basis, as of a column or pedestal. Marg. sockets; this, however, would better suit a tent than a building. fastened, or sunk.a corner stone, wh. sustains the principal weight of the building. (7) morning stars, if this refers to the actual stars, it intimates that they existed before our world was set in order for man. The expression may be a symbolic description of the angels. sons of God, the angels. shouted, in chorus.d The music of the stars. Ye brightly beaming stars! Have ye no music as ye roll along? Or is it, that to us earth's discord mars The music of the spheres! Was it a fiction of the olden time? Or are there not who hear with wakeful ears Let thought still hear you raise The joyful anthem which ye sang of yore; 8-11. (8) within doors, gates, such as shut up water in a dam: flood-gates. Such are the shores, holding back the ocean." brake forth, at the uplifting of the mountains, the swirling waters were set in place by God. The mighty sea is, to God, only as a babe. (9) garment, of this ocean-babe. thick darkness, mist as its swaddling clothes. (10) brake up for it, lit. brake over it. decreed place, or decree. (11) proud waves, a beautiful poetic figure. The waves seem as if they would overwhelm, but God's rugged rocks and ribbed sand effectually quell their pride.c The ocean. Oh, thou, clothed round with raiment of white waves ! And lit with sea-shine to thine inland lair, By the live light of the earth that was thy care, Lift itself up to sunward and the fair Thine head republican, With the same splendour on thine helmless hair Who on thy glory gazed away their sacred sight." B.C. cir. 1520. the morning stars singing at the creation a "Reference is to a foundation- or settles down c "This repres. of e Bernard Barton. the boundaries of the ocean a Ge. i. 9, 10; Je. b "The shore, Vulg., "I sur- the day- 12-15. (12) morning, to arise and appear. since thy burne. days, since thou wast created. dayspring, dawn:a aurora. know his place, the point of sky in which morning first appears differs through the year. Yet perfect order controls the variety. (13) ends, wings; extremities. wicked, etc., whose b"This has Я evil schemes are spoiled by returning light. (14) as clay, i.e. special reference the earth is directly influenced by returning light and warmth. to Job's dis a Lu. i. 78. |