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enticed, or my mouth hath kissed my hand, this also was an iniquity to be punished by the judge: for I should have denied the God that is above."

Mr. P. That will do. You observe how the the pious and sensitive mind of the patriarch appears to be shocked at the mere supposition of any thing like the worship of the sun or moon. It seems in his time to have been a thing almost unheard of, and yet in the days of Abraham, it was a prevalent superstition; indeed the father of the faithful himself, when called out of Ur of the Chaldees, was an idolater. But these proofs are far less convincing than those which I have called positive. Wakefield, will you read the 16th verse of the last chapter of Job?

Wakefield. (reads) "After this, lived Job, an hundred and forty years, and saw his sons, and his sons' sons, even four generations.”

Mr. P. We do not know how long Job had lived before his trials, but the whole tenor of his discourses leads us to believe he was not very young at that time. It is said, too, that he saw four generations of his children; and a generation in those days was much longer than at present, so that we may well suppose him to have been at least two hundred years old. The lives of men were gradually shortened from the first; till, in the days of Moses, they had dwindled down to our own standard; for he fixes their duration at threescore years and ten, as you will find by reference to the 10th verse of the 90th Psalm. We see, therefore, that Job must have lived at a period when men attained a great age.

Rogers. Isaac, sir, died at the age of 180, so I should think it was before that time. Are there any other proofs ?

Mr. P. Why, yes; I think the patriarchal customs referred to in the personal history of Job, were very similar to those of Abraham's time. Will you read from the 3rd to the 5th verse of the 1st chapter.

Rogers. (reads) "His substance was seven thousand sheep, and three thousand camels, and five hundred yoke of oxen, and five hundred she asses, and very great household, so that this man was the greatest of all the men of the east. And his sons went and feasted in their houses, every one his day, and sent and called for their three sisters, to eat and to drink with them; and it was so when the days of their feasting were gone about, that

Job sent and sanctified them, and rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all; for Job said, 'It may be that my sons have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts.' Thus did Job continually."

Mr. P. You will notice that Job was the priest of his own family, continually "sanctifying" his children by prayer and sacrifice, which was the case generally in primitive times, before this office was confided to a chosen line, by God himself. In the enumeration of the possessions of Job, too, you will observe a striking similarity to those of Abraham, related in Genesis, (ch. xii. 16.)

Another proof, more ingenious than conclusive, has been brought forward. Job speaks of binding the sweet influences of Cimah, and loosing the bands of Chesil.* These are supposed to have been the two constellations through which the sun appeared to pass in spring and autumn; so that if it could be accurately ascertained what particular groups of stars were intended by these names, we should be able to learn how long ago it was when the sun occupied a place among them at these seasons. But as this part of the subject cannot be very easily explained to you at present, we will go on with our enquiries about Job. We have now to find where Job lived?

Barker. In the land of Uz, sir.

Mr. P. True: but where was that? Turn to the 4th chapter of the Lamentations of Jeremiah, and read the 21st verse.

Barker. (reads) "Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom, that dwelleth in the land of Uz!"

Mr. P. You may stop there. Edom was Idumea, a well known country in Arabia, lying to the south-east of the Holy Land, and Uz seems to have been either the same or a part of the same country. We have learned, then, I think, these particulars respecting Job-that he was a real man, that he lived in patriarchal times, and that his proper country was Idumea. We must now say a few words respecting the wonderful book which bears his name, and which has so many, and such important and interesting claims to our prayerful regard. Many persons have supposed that it explains the mysteries of providence; but I

Ch. xxxviii. 31.; see also ch. xi. 9.

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should rather say that it was written, less for the sake of explaining them, than teaching us acquiescence in them. It seems, indeed, to hold out that we are not to understand them; whilst we confess with all humility of mind that the Judge of the whole earth can do nothing but what is right. Whilst we see but in part," as the apostle says, we shall never be able to solve all the mysterious dealings of the Only Wise God, though we cannot deny that such mysteries exist. It seems to have been the great mistake of Job's comforters, to think that they could unriddle them; for they thought that Job was a hypocrite, and that God was punishing him in exact proportion to his wickedness. You may plainly infer this from their cutting speeches: will you read, Childs, what Eliphaz says in the 7th and 8th verses of the 4th chapter?

Childs. (reads) "Remember, I pray thee, whoever perished, being innocent? or when were the righteous cut off? Even as I have seen, they that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same."

Mr. P. In the same spirit Bildad says, "If thou wert pure and upright, surely now he would awake for thee, and make the habitation of thy righteousness prosperous," (ch. viii. 6.) and Zophar is equally severe on him. He says to Job, "Thou hast said, My doctrine is pure, and I am clean in thine eyes; but oh! that God would speak, and open his lips against thee!'

Barker. I think such men might be well called "miserable comforters." I dare say that Job was not worse than they

were.

Mr.P. It is not any one's business, my dear children, to judge another; to his own master he standeth or falleth; and we should be especially cautious in interpreting the ways of God's providence. The psalmist confessed, not only that he was too hasty in doing so, but that he came to wrong conclusions on the subject “until he went into the sanctuary of God." It is there only, my dear young friends, that we can obtain a full and final answer; and this God does not give in every case, though we may be well assured that the closer we keep to him, the fewer difficulties we shall meet with in our way to heaven. Jesus is the Great Reconciler, and he will not anticipate his work. We may mourn under painful visitations from God, and persecutions.

from our fellow-creatures, but we never should forget that our appeal, like that of Job, is to Christ himself; and the strong consolation of our wounded spirits, is the knowledge that our Redeemer liveth. Shall we stagger through unbelief when our path is darkened by a passing mystery, forgetting that the government of the church is placed upon his shoulders, whose very name is "Wonderful?"

THE PATH TO THE BUSH.

(From an interesting little Work, with this title, by the Rev. J. A. James.) Ir is the practice of some of the Christian Hottentots at some of the stations, in order to enjoy the privilege of secret prayer with greater privacy and freedom than they could do in their own confined and incommodious dwellings, to retire among the trees and bushes in the vicinity of their village: and, that they might carry on their devotions without being intruded upon by others, and also derive all that tranquillising influence which would be produced by a spot, with which no other occupations, thoughts, and feelings were associated, than such as were holy, each individual selects for his own use a particular bush, behind which and concealed by it, he may commune with his heavenly Father in secret, as Nathaniel did under his fig tree. By the rest, this bush is considered as an oratory, sacred to the brother or sister by whom it had been appropriated, and which therefore is never to be violated by the foot, or even by the gaze of another, during the season it is occupied by its proprietor. The constant tread of the worshippers, in their diurnal visits to these hallowed spots, would, of necessity, wear a path in the grass which lay between their habitations and the sylvan scene of their communion with God.

On one occasion, a Christian Hottentot woman said to another female member of their little community, 'Sister, I am afraid you are somewhat declining in religion." The words were accompanied with a look of affection, and were uttered with a tone that savoured nothing of railing accusation, nor of reproachful severity, but which was expressive of tender fidelity, and the meekness of wisdom. The individual thus addressed, asked her friend for the reason of her fears, "Because," replied this good and gentle spirit,

"the grass has grown over your path to the bush." The unrepressed energies of nature carrying on its usual progress, had disclosed the secret of neglected prayer.

The backslider could not deny the fact; there in the springing herbage was the indisputable evidence that the feet which had once trodden it down, had ceased to frequent the spot. She did not attempt to excuse it, but fell under the sweet influence of this sisterly reproof, and confessed with ingenuous shame and sorrow that her heart had turned away from the Lord. The admonition had its desired effect-the sinner was converted from the error of her ways, and her watchful and faithful reprover had the satisfaction and reward of seeing the wanderer restored, not only to the path to the bush, but to the renewed favor of that God, with whom she there again communed in secret.

GIBBON, THE ROMAN HISTORIAN.

THE causes to which Gibbon attributes the rise and rapid spread of Christianity, are—

1. The zeal of the Jews.

2. The doctrine of the immortality of the soul among the philosophers.

3. The miraculous powers of the primitive church.

4. The virtues of the first Christians.

5. Their activity.

But the child who believes in an overruling Providence at all, must see that these are all effects of a still greater cause-the will of God. And if the upholder and governor of the Universe did not bring all these causes into operation, to achieve the very end they were instrumental in effecting, I confess I do not know the meaning of that sublime prediction-" Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it."-Isaiah xl. 4, 5.

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