the Lord. Men think that because a thing is called a prayer it is good. As some of David's social acts and conversations were bad and some good, so some of his prayers were good and some were vile. And certainly such imprecations as these are immoral, impious, and anti-Christian. Immoral—for there is not in them a feeling towards others as we would have others feel towards us; impious-because they invoke the Almighty Father to destroy those who are as dear to Him as themselves. Anti-Christian-because thoroughly opposed to the teaching and example of Christ. Revenge is essentially an evil passion. It is that thirsty dropsy of our own souls that makes us covet that which hurts us most. "If thou," says Sir Thomas Browne, " must needs have revenge of thine enemy, with a soft tongue break his bones, heap coals of fire on his head, forgive him, and enjoy it."* We discover another moral mood:

III. Here is a sense of RELIGIOUS LOYALTY. "Let all those that seek Thee rejoice and be glad in Thee; let such as love Thy salvation say continually, The Lord be magnified." Here the writer passes into one of the purest and noblest states of mind. He desires that all who love and serve God should be happy, and engaged in joyously magnifying the Divine name. The verse may be regarded as suggesting:

(1) Thenature of religion. (a) Searching for an acquaintance with God. "Those that seek Thee." Seek Thee, not Thine. It is one thing to seek good things that God has to give, another thing to seek Him for His own sake. True religion goes for nothing less than God Himself, it thirsts after Him. (8) Appreciating the redemption of God, "Such as love Thy salvation." Alas! the great body of men either neglect, undervalue, or despise God's redemptive work. Genuine religion appreciates it. The verse suggests:

(2) The happiness of religion: "Rejoice and be glad in Thee." God Himself is the source of a good man's joy; He is the fountain of his life; he rejoices in Him as his great Father, all-wise, all-perfect, and all-good. The verse suggests :

* See vol. xxxii. page 7.

(3) The devotion of religion. "The Lord be magnified." God cannot be made greater than He is in Himself, but He can be made infinitely greater in the thoughts and feelings of His intelligent creatures; and this is what the really religious in all worlds seek. The verse suggests,—

(4) The benevolence of religion. This is the spirit of the prayer. It wishes well to God's devoted saints and to Himself, wishes them happy and Him magnified. "Let Thy kingdom come and Thy will be done."

We discover another moral mood.

IV. Here is a sense of GOD'S CONDESCENSION.

"But I am

poor and needy, yet the Lord thinketh upon me; Thou art my help and my deliverer; make no tarrying, O my God."

(1) Here is a description of mankind undoubtedly true. "Poor." How mean in body, intellect, spirit. What is he to other creatures in the universe? what is he to God? "Needy." No creature on earth is so dependent as man. The earth would blossom, the heavens would shine, the birds would sing, the cattle on the hills would gambol, were there no men; but men could not do without them. He is "needy."

(2) Here is a representation of the Almighty, truly wonderful. "The Lord thinketh upon me.” He, to whom all nations are but as a drop in the bucket, to whom the universe is as nothing, "thinketh upon me," a mere creature, poor, needy, the child of an hour. This is wonderful, yet not unphilosophic. This is wonderful, but demonstrable; reason and Scripture prove it.

Homiletic Sketches on the Book of

Job.

The Book of Job is one of the grandest sections of Divine Scripture. It has never yet, to our knowledge, been treated in a purely Homiletic method for Homiletic ends. Besides many learned expositions on the book found in our general commentaries, we have special exegetical volumes of good scholarly and critical worth; such as Drs. Barnes, Wemyss, Mason Goode, Noyes Lee, Delitzsch, and Herman Hedwick Bernard: the last is in every way a masterly production. For us, therefore, to go into philology and verbal criticism, when such admirable works are available to all students, would be superfluous, if not presumption. Ambiguous terms, when they occur, we shall of course explain, and occasionally suggest an improved rendering; but our work will be chiefly, if not entirely, Homiletic. We shall essay to bring out from the grand old words those Divine verities which are true and vital to man as man in all lands and ages. These truths we shall frame in an order as philosophic and suggestive as our best powers will enable us to do; and this in order to help the earnest preachers of God's Holy Word.

Subject: Job's Second Reply to Eliphaz, in which He Reproves His Friends of Unmercifulness. III. His Threefold Address (continued from vol. xxxiv., p. 334).

"My breath is corrupt," etc.-Joв xvii. 1–16.

HOMILETICS.-This chapter concludes Job's second reply to Eliphaz. His reply, we have seen, is characterized by censure and complaint. In the preceding chapter he complains, in language stong and vehement, both of the severity and undeservedness of his sufferings. He continues his complaint in this chapter; and it comes out in a threefold address. An address to the Almighty, to his friends, and to himself.

I. His address to the ALMIGHTY. This extends from the first to the ninth verse. In this address we find three things: the piteous, the reprehensible, and the commendable.

First: The piteous. There are three things which he bewails in touching tones of sadness.

(1) The near approach of his death. "My breath is corrupt, my days are extinct, the graves are ready for me." This language means condensely, I am dying. All is over. My powers are exhausted. My spirit has spent its force. The days I have are even graves to me. The solemnest sight on this earth is a man in conscious contact with death, the frame convulsed, the world receding; eternity parting

C

its awful folds.

of his friends.

Such an experience awaits us all. Kind

heaven, prepare us for it! He bewails (2) The cruel conduct "Are there not mockers with me? And doth

their provocation ?" They did and then the language of scorn

not mine eye continue in not deal out to him now and provocation, but were persistent in their aggravating talk. They gave him no respite: and scarcely had he answered their arguments before they bounded again with fresh vehemence and apparent heartlessness into the controversy. Had it been a mere theoretical debate, a discussion on abstract dogmas, he might have borne their language better; but it was a discussion which involved his virtue, his purity and honour, and which, by implication, charged him personally with a guilt and rebellion of which he was consciously innocent. And this was a provocation most bitter and burning. He bewails (3) His utter prostration. eye also is dim by reason of sorrow, and all my members are as a shadow." This may mean, I am a mere skeleton; a skeleton, too, whose eyes are well-nigh sightless with sorrow. Strange that a good man like Job, a man upright, "fearing God and eschewing evil," should be reduced to such a truly pitiable condition! Such a fact demonstrates the existence of moral evil in the world, and prophesies a future retribution.

"Mine

Secondly: The reprehensible. "Lay down now, put me in a surety with Thee: who is he that will strike hands with me?" There is certainly much that is reprehensible in the language which he here addresses to the Almighty. (1) There is lamentable ignorance here. He degrades the Almighty to the level of a man, when he asks Him for a "surety." His language implies a doubt that the Almighty would not of His own accord deal out full justice to him. Hence he seeks some special pledge from Him that justice shall be done. The universal tendency of depravity is to bring the Eternal down from His transcendent elevation to a level with ourselves, to humanify Him, give Him the weaknesses, the passions, and even the sins of men. Alas! even modern pulpits are found presenting to the people a human God.

(2) There is lamentable profanity here. "For Thou hast hid their heart from understanding; therefore shalt Thou not exalt them." Here he is virtually charging the Almighty with a sin. He ascribes the moral darkness of his friends' understanding to His agency. There is no need for the Almighty to conceal moral truths from His creature man. Depravity and the devil have done this; and to suppose Him capable of doing it, is an insult to His immaculate holiness and a contradiction of His own expressed declaration, that He tempteth no man. No; His work is not to darken, but to enlighten the human soul. (3) There is a lamentable egotism here. This seems to come out in the fifth, sixth, and eighth verses. that speaketh flattery to his friends, even the eyes of his children shall fail. He hath made me also a byword of the people, and aforetime I was as a tabret. Upright men shall be astonied at this, and the innocent shall stir up himself against the hypocrite."

66

"He

Here he seems to make himself of enormous importance. He considers that the man who injures him, even the eyes of his children shall fail. The time would come when his name would be like a "tabret," sounding a warning into the ears of and that the best men, even men, upright men," would be astonished at his injuries that they would be stirred up with indignation. He seems to say, The time will come when the best men will be amazed that God allowed such a "holy man as I am to suffer so much and to be treated as I am by these friends." Now, egotism is always bad; but never does it appear so vile and hideous as when it manifests itself in an address to God. And this is not uncommon. There is a vast amount of egotism in our social prayer-meetings, and even in our pulpit devotions. The I is constantly projecting itself in our prayers. Men are only what they ought to be, are only true men as they become self-oblivious. It is only as the carnal ego is crucified with Christ, that the true ego rises into life, honour, and grandeur.

Thirdly: The commendable. "The righteous also shall hold on his way; and he that hath clean hands shall be