fondly looked back upon when he exclaimed, "Oh! that it were with me as in months past--when the candle of God shined upon my head; when I washed my steps with butter, and the rock poured me out rivers of oil; when the young men saw me and hid themselves, and the aged arose and stood up ; when princes refrained talking, and nobles held their peace; when the ear heard me and blessed me; when I delivered the poor and the fatherless, and caused the widow's heart to sing for joy; when to me men gave ear, and waited, and kept silence at my counsel; when I chose out their way, and sat chief, and dwelt among them as a king." Very different from all this was his position now, when, stripped of every thing, disrobed, dishonoured, poor, crippled, diseased, sitting in dust and ashes, he complained with something of proud bitterness-" But now, they that are younger than I have me in derision, whose fathers I would have disdained to have set with the dogs of my flock." The character of the one set of "months was very different from that of the other; Job could not do the same things in the second as in the first; but it did not follow therefore that there was nothing for him to do, or that nothing could be done.

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The fact is, Job had a great deal to do-a great deal for which there was no opportunity except in such a change of circumstances as had occurred to him. He had to learn, for instance, to do nothing, and, what is still harder, to be nothing. It was a great change, and made a prodigious demand on his reason, his conscientiousness, and humility. He did not regard his months of active usefulness, of glory and honour, as months of vanity; and yet, in another sense, there might be a good deal of vanity mingling with all that he was and did. We know, that in his most palmy and prosperous state, he was a good man- one that feared God and eschewed evil "—but then, benevolent service, public and honourable duties, are very pleasant to the flesh; the natural man, with his natural feelings, motives, and impulses, may be very much gratified, even by religious activities, if they happen to be accompanied by honourable office and popular incense, as they were in the case of Job.. Now, it was no easy lesson for Job to have to learn to be willing to retire, to stand aside, to go out of the sunlight into neglect and darkness, and to welcome that, because it was the will of God, and to be as satisfied with it as with his previous conspicuous and affluent honours, and the sort of duty that was then his. This was one of the things Job had to do. Instead of the candle of the Lord shining outwardly upon him, and work being allotted to him that required active effort, he had to call into exercise those passive virtues which had no scope in his months of prosperity, but which are as necessary for the perfect development of the religious life, as the most active and muscular of what belongs to visible achievement. His months of vanity" were not destitute of grand opportunities for glorifying God. They were a time for faith, for patience, for submission to the sovereign will, to the exercise of righteous power, for uncomplaining trust and confidence, in spite of the dark and perplexing mystery of his complicated calamities. Job had to "study to be quiet," to be perfectly "still," to be willing to let God appoint him that very hard form of work which consists in doing nothing, and in

trying to be content with that. There may be much self-seeking and self-will in wishing to serve God in some conspicuous sphere of action, in public and splendid service; and there may be eminent virtue-virtue "in the sight of God, of great price"-in being content to be put aside as if not wanted.

"God doth not need

Either man's work or his own gifts; who best

Bear his mild yoke, they serve Him best; his state
Is kingly. Thousands at His bidding speed,
And post o'er earth and ocean without rest.
They also serve who only stand and wait."

There may be as much, if not more, virtue in an angel who merely stands and waits, and sees a great commission given to another, and who rejoices in the honour thus conferred, as in his being ready to receive and accomplish the service itself. This lesson Job had to learn; to this form of work he was called; and, if he learnt and did it, he would find that months thus spent were anything but "months of vanity."

2nd. You may observe, in the next place, that, in addition to this first duty, Job found out that he had a good deal of other work to do, and that he had to learn a good many other valuable lessons. He had much to do in argumentative controversy with his friends, in opposing their false assumptions, and in contending for higher views of the proceedings of providence than they were disposed to entertain. It is true that in doing this he sometimes gave way to temper; that his personal sufferings, and the injustice of his friends, so fretted and distracted him, that he spake at times unadvisedly; yet, on the whole, he was more just in his advocacy for God than they, so that at last he was honoured by the Divine approbation, and heard his friends rebuked by Jehovah Himself, who testified against them that they "had not said of Him the thing that was right, as his servant Job had." In spite of this, however, Job himself had much to learn. He had to have his views corrected, obscurities and mistakes removed, both respecting the Divine character and his own. At first, he seemed willing silently to kiss the rod, and to accept his trial; but, by its severity and continuance, his spirit got chafed and exasperated, and he gave way to murmuring and complaint. He was disposed to think that he was unjustly dealt with; and hence he uttered "hard things " against God, and spoke of himself" more highly than he ought to speak." In the glare and lustre of his prosperity, he had not been duly penetrated by the thought of his personal sinfulness, nor by the clear apprehension of the ineffable purity and the awful almightiness of God. "His mountain stood strong," and he almost imagined that his blessings were deserved; God, too, was hidden from him by the multitude and magnificence of his gifts. The great mountain of worldly possessions and secular distinction rose up between him and heaven, and darkened for him the face of the sky; but when the mountain sank, and the obstruction was removed, though he did not immediately see all that it had concealed, he did learn, at last, to look intelligently-with spiritual insight and just appreciation-both on his own errors and the Divine character. The veil was removed alike from his intellect and his heart; and God stood visibly revealed to faith. "I know

that Thou canst do every thing; and that no thought can be withholden from Thee. I have spoken of things too wonderful for me, and have uttered that I understood not." "I have heard of Thee with the hearing of the ear, but now mine eyes see Thee, and I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes." They were no "months of vanity " that wrought out an issue like that, though they might be months of sore trouble. When all goes well with us, our views of ourselves are an opinion-of God, a speculation or hypothesis; ourselves are hidden from ourselves, and God is seen as at a distance; but when God, by affliction, strips off the covering from the heart, and reveals Himself as very near to us, opinion becomes feeling and impression, and reasoning and speculation faith and sight, and we learn to wonder both at our own sin and God's forbearance; and to be thankful for what he has not done to us, rather than disquieted by what He inflicts.

3rd. We observe, in the third place, that Job found, in his subsequent experience, that what he deemed "months of vanity," were a seed-field, from which sprang a large harvest of blessings and advantages.

It does not seem as if, during the continuance of his trouble, Job had many of those Divine consolations, which, under the Christian economy, are so freely dispensed, and which have often enabled good men, not only to submit to, but to "rejoice in tribulation." Yet, as seasons of suffering are times of special need and special communication of grace, we cannot doubt that there were occasions, during the long, dense darkness that overshadowed the Patriarch, when he found that Jehovah was a God who gave 66 songs in the night." Job's case, however, more directly exemplified another scripture, in which it is said, that "no chastening for the present is joyous but grievousnevertheless, afterwards it bringeth forth the peaceable fruits of righteousness to those who are exercised thereby." Whatever were Job's failures, he did, on the whole, so accept and improve his visitation, that the "end of the Lord," -the object God had in view in it was reached and realised. "The Father of Spirits" afflicts his children, not for his own pleasure but for their profit, that he might make them "partakers of his holiness." This end was answered in Job. He came out of the furnace sublimed and purified, sadder, it might be, but a wiser and a better man. His character was divinely acknowledged and recognised, and he was honoured of God by being permitted to become a priest and an intercessor on behalf of others. The men who had misjudged him were directed to bring a burnt offering; in connection with which, the Lord said, my servant Job shall pray for you, for him will I accept." God heareth not sinners; he who intercedes for others, must himself be in harmony with Him, even, as it is said, we have an advocate, "Jesus Christ, the righteous." It would almost seem as if Job's sufferings resulted in his becoming a type and representative of the Messiah, in one of the highest functions of his redemptive work. For it came to pass that "God turned the captivity of Job when he prayed for his friends." The "months of vanity" terminated in a memorable act, in which were united deliverance to himself and blessing to others; and from that moment all went well. The Patriarch was reinstated in his former condition, and went back

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to the honours and the duties of his previous life. His possessions were doubled, God gave him twice as much as he had before; his life was prolonged for a great number of years; he had seven sons and three daughters; his daughters were the fairest and loveliest in all the land, and his sons, we doubt not, were brave, and good, and God-fearing men. Job saw his children's children, his sons and his sons' sons-even four generations." "So the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning."

In addition, however, to all these material blessings and advantages, there can be no question that Job's personal character was exalted, and that his capacity for usefulness was vastly increased by what he had gone through. He would be more humble, more charitable, more tender, sympathetic, condescending, than he had ever been before. He would know how to speak a brotherly word "to him that was weary; not being ignorant of evil, nor of the divine results springing from it, he would be able to comfort and to cheer the mourner as he could not have done previously to his at once sad and happy experience. His history enabled him to anticipate, as it were, the experience of St. Paul— "blessed be God-the God of all comfort, who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God." And then, in his public relations with society, the blessed influence of his trial would be seen. When he took his seat among the elders, when the aged men rose and stood up, when the princes refrained talking, and kept silence and waited for his words-what a ripeness of wisdom there would be in his utterances, and with what dignity and modesty he would speak; his whole bearing towards others being indicative at once of affection and respect. None would envy, none would be hurt, none repelled, all would be conciliated. His acts of beneficence, too, would be more numerous and more ample than ever; the blessings rising on every side, from the objects of his bounty, would be more distinct and expressive than before; but all would be done and received with far less of conscious superiority and of gratified self-love, than in those days when "his root was spread out by the waters, and his glory was fresh in him," and he had no idea but that "his mountain would stand strong for ever," and that he might say to himself, "he should die in his nest." It could not but be that Job knew something, in his first bright days, of the inflations of vanity and the swellings of pride; but nothing of the sort would cling to him, we think, after he had been afflicted. It was no light thing, for that period which he looked upon as a dead loss-so much taken from life and that could be reckoned at nothing-to become the seed-field, as we said, of such a large harvest of those fruits of righteousness which distinguish the highest development of the character of a wise, good, and God-liko man.

4th. Job, we may say, has no doubt long since discovered that his "months of vanity" wrought out for him, in the upper world, far more than would otherwise have been his.

The patriarchs had some expectation of a future life, but they neither saw it distinctly, nor did they understand fully the bearing of the events of their pilgrimage upon it. We may be quite sure, however, that the same laws

governed the Divine procedure then, in relation to his saints, as prevail now, the only difference being that they have become more expressly revealed. We feel warranted, therefore, in applying to the case of Job the Christian statements as to the connection between present suffering and future recompense. The Patriarchal, Jewish, and Christian dispensations are only successive stages in the development of the same faith; the religion is essentially one and the same all the way through; its centre is in Him who was "The Lamb slain from the foundation of the world," even so He will be surrounded at last by the saints of every age, constituting one Church, and saved with a "common salvation." Hence, to the men of all times, and to Job and his contemporaries among them, the words may be applied: "Now, for a season, if needs be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations, that the trial of your faith being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, may be found unto praise, and honour, and glory, at the appearing of Jesus Christ." "The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us; for "If we are children, we are heirs of God, and jointheirs with Christ: if so be that we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified together." Ordinary sufferings, constituting the discipline of life, will, of course, only have results proportioned to their sanctifying effects on the character; but suffering for God, what is of the nature of persecution, and is consequent on a man's bearing witness for Him, that is represented as being recompensed by a distinct and additional gracious reward. The sufferings of Job were not ordinary-they did not come in the way of the natural events and incidents of life-they were a diabolical persecution. They were permitted of God to test the loyalty of his servant, but they originated in that opposition to truth and righteousness, among "spiritual wickedness in high places," which was the source of much which the Christian apostle had to endure. On this principle we ground the belief, that Job's place and position in the upper world may have been wonderfully advanced in consequence of his conflict with the powers of evil in this. He was a witness for God. He endured and suffered for the truth. He had to enter the lists as for single combat with the enemy of our race. The conflict, we may suppose, took place openly, the opposite hosts of light and darkness looking on. Heaven was moved to its utmost verge; hell to its profoundest centre, for great results were suspended on the issue. The Patriarch was victorious, though he escaped not without some slips and falls. This fidelity, however-this patient endurance and resolute trust in God-were so conspicuous that God himself pronounced him worthy of reward. He "obtained a good report" here, and up yonder he has, no doubt, found that his "light affliction," which, after all," was but for a moment, has wrought out for him a far more exceeding, even an eternal weight of glory." "Who are these in white robes, with palms in their hands? These are they that have come out of great tribulation, therefore are they before the throne." They were confessors and martyrs-they suffered for God; and among such confessors near the throne Job may have found his glorified position-the reward of sufferings which had a character and a meaning deeper than he knew! He has ceased to think of his months of tribulation as "months of vanity."