In all this, Job seems to reveal a consciousness that stood in firm and solemn defiance against their dogma. It is infinitely better to have consciousness on the side of truth than logic. "Thrice is he armed that hath his quarrel just.”

We infer from this speech, that he felt their dogma to be opposed

II. TO HIS OBSERVATION OF FACTS. "Wherefore do the wicked live, become old, yea are mighty in power ? " * And on to verse 16 he proceeds to state facts in relation to

wicked men. Observe from the verses,

First: That he saw wicked men about him. Their character he describes as follows. "They say unto God, Depart from us, for we desire not the knowledge of Thy ways. What is the Almighty that we should serve Him? And what profit should we have if we pray unto Him?" In this description of wicked men we have two of the primary elements of depravity. (1) Hostility to God. Hostility shown (a) In a desire for His absence. "Depart from us." The instinct of all depravity is to banish God from His universe, to quench the sun from the moral heavens, and to light up the world with the smoky lamps of corrupt reason. Hostility shown (b) In a repugnance for His knowledge. "We desire not the knowledge of Thy ways." Who wants to hear the name of one he dislikes? The name of the man I hate will fall as fire on my ears. I desire not a knowledge of his " ways." Hostility shown (c) In a rebellion against His authority. "What is the Almighty that we should serve Him." What authority has He over us? What impious hardihood! Few men will utter all this hostility in words; but in practice the millions declare it. (2) Devotion to self. "And what profit should we have if we pray unto Him?"† Here is the essence of selfishness, and selfishness is the root of all immorality. Such were the wicked men Job saw around him on all hands. Secondly: He saw wicked men very prosperous. (1) They

*For a sermonic sketch of this verse, see Homilist, Series IV., vol. iii., page 369.

† For sketch on this verse, see Homilist, Series III., vol. ii., page 288.

prosper in their own persons. They "become old and are mighty in power." Although virtue is necessarily productive of good health and long life, wickedness often outpowers and outlives it. There are, perhaps, as many centenarians found in the ranks of sin as in the ranks of holiness. (2) They prosper in their property. "Their houses are safe from fear, neither is the rod of God upon them. Their bull gendereth and faileth not: their cow calveth and casteth not her calf." Natural providence treated them as beneficently as the good; their habitations were unmolested, Divine chastisements were not manifest, and their herds multiplied as the herds of other men. Nature knows nothing of moral distinctions: she treats all characters alike. (3) They prosper in their posterity. Their seed is established in their sight with them, and their offspring before their eyes. They send forth their little ones like a flock, and the children dance. They take the timbrel and harp, and rejoice at the sound of the organ.' He saw the children of the wicked skip about them happy as a flock of lambs.

Thirdly: He saw wicked men happy in living and dying. "They spend their days in wealth, in a moment they go down to the grave." Wealth means mirth, and a sudden death was regarded as a blessing. In death they had no torturing pain, no lingering disease; they had no bands in their death, their strength was firm..

All these facts Job saw, and he states them as a refutation of the dogma that his friends held and urged against him. His argument means this: You say that wickedness brings suffering and ruin in this world, meets here with a prompt and adequate retribution. What say you to these facts, which are dead against your theory? Why hold a dogma which all the facts of life refute?

To these facts Job supposes them to make three remarks, to which he replies.

Notice, First: Their first remark and his reply. We have this in verses 16, 17, and 18. "Lo, their good is not in their hand.". This is what they say, which seems to mean this:

"Their prosperity as well as themselves may be annihilated by God in one moment; how then can they dare to use such insulting language to God as you indicate ?" Their idea seems to be, that their prosperity after all is not theirs, they do not enjoy it, it depends for its continuance every moment on the will of God. Job replies, "The counsel of the wicked is far from me." Their language (which I have quoted) is foreign to my sympathies, repugnant to my nature all I know is, that such is their language. "How often is the candle of the wicked put out?" That is, how often is their prosperity brought suddenly to an end? You say that their good is "not in their hand," but in the hand of another who will draw it suddenly and violent; but I ask, "how oft" this occurs? Job does not mean by this interrogatory, that it frequently occurred, but that it very seldom transpired. He means to say, that as a rule the wicked were not suddenly overtaken in the calamities as they maintained. How often is the candle put out, how often does their destruction come upon them, how often does God distribute sorrows in His anger, how often do they become as stubble before the wind and as chaff that the storm carrieth away? You say it is common; I say it is seldom. As a rule they are dealt with here as the best of men. What Job says is true enough. "Those were not sinners more than all the rest, on whom the tower of Siloam fell."

Notice, Secondly: Their second remark and his reply. "God layeth up his iniquity for his children." You see God layeth up his iniquity-that is, punishment-for his children, i.e., the wicked man's children. You say that judgment not only pursues the wicked man here, but his children when he has left the world. My reply is, that the wicked man himself ought to feel the punishment of his wickedness. Where is the justice in letting his punishment pass over him and fall on his children? He himself should feel it. "His eyes shall see his destruction, and he shall drink of the wrath of the Almighty. For what pleasure hath he in his house after him, when the number of his months is cut off in the midst ? " Job means to say, the wicked man himself should feel his

punishment, should with his own eyes see his destruction, with his own heart drink of the wrath of the Almighty, for what does it matter to him when he is in his grave, what becomes of his posterity? This is good reasoning. I ask why, under the righteous government of God, wicked men are allowed to prosper here? I am told that the punishment will fall upon their children. The answer is an insult to my reason and my conscience. Job felt this.

Notice, Thirdly: Their third remark and his reply. "Shall any teach God knowledge, seeing that He judgeth those that are high." This is a grand utterance, but no answer to Job's arguments. No one can teach Omniscience. No one can dictate to the absolute Monarch of the universe. He knows all and directs all. Job of course would accept with a loyal reverence such an utterance as this. It was no more in their favour than in his. He replies by directing them again to the plain facts that were about them, which showed that Providence as a rule made no distinction between the good and the bad. "One man," perhaps he meant the wicked man, "dieth in his full strength, being wholly at ease and quiet. His breasts are full of milk, his bones are moistened with marrow." He dies without knowing what poverty, secular anxiety, physical pain, and exhaustion is. "Another dieth," probably he means the good man, "in the bitterness of his soul, and never eateth with pleasure." is a fact common enough in all lands and times. "They shall lie down alike in the dust, and the worms shall cover them." In the grave there is no difference. Common worms feed on them, and their flesh moulders back to dust in the same way. Notice,

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This

Fourthly: Their fourth remark and his reply. "Behold, I know your thoughts, and the devices which ye wrongfully imagine against me. For ye say, Where is the house of the prince, and where are the dwelling-places of the wicked?" To this Job virtually replies. You say it is quite impossible for short-sighted mortals to decide positively with regard to any house, whether it harbours a good or a wicked man,

because, judging as they do only from appearances, they may mistake one for noble-minded who, in reality, is wicked and depraved, or hold another to be wicked who is secretly and without ostentation acting in a manner altogether pleasing and acceptable to Him who knoweth the secrets of the heart. By thus disputing the competency of a man to pronounce any one of his fellow-men to be either just or wicked, you of course mean to insinuate that I too, though you can bring no distinct charge against me, have all my life been wicked and depraved.

Thus Job answers the real, or imaginary, or both, objections which his friends had urged against his reiterated statements that the wicked did not meet with their full punishment here; and throughout he appeals to facts in society that came under his own observation.

We infer from his speech that he felt it to be opposed,

III. TO HIS HISTORIC KNOWLEDGE. 66 'Have ye not asked them that go by the way? and do ye not know their tokens, that the wicked is reserved to the day of destruction? they shall be brought forth to the day of wrath." If you are not satisfied with the facts which I have stated as falling under my own observation, I will refer you to the testimony of other men-men who have travelled through other lands and lived in other times. They have noted down their experience, and you will find that their observations of society in remote times and countries agree with all that I have stated.

66

First: They observed, as I have, that the wicked are often protected in common calamities. They are reserved to the day of destruction, and they shall be brought forth to the day of wrath." Our translators have given a wrong idea of this verse. It does not mean (as their version conveys) that the wicked will meet with a terrible retribution in a life beyond this. The version of Delitzsch, which agrees with Bernard and others, gives, I think, the idea, which is that the wicked are withdrawn from the day of destruction and led away on the day of wrath. Job means to say, that wicked men often manage to escape calamities that overtake and overwhelm other This also is a fact: wicked men who have weal citer

men.