Our reading during this month is the book of Job, a portion of Scripture with which most of God's people are little familiar, and yet its lessons are most important. There is but little of a dispensational or historical character in it. It is hardly a biography, but rather the narrative of God's ways in faithfulness with one of His own who had indeed lessons to learn. The age in which Job lived is not given in the book itself, though the whole scene is so patriarchal that it has been thought, with considerable degree of probability, that he lived in the time covered by the book of Genesis. He might well be one of those who had the true knowledge of God, though not of the chosen seed of Israel-one of Noah's descendants who maintained in his own life and walk a consistent testimony. Be that as it may, there is no indication whatever that he was an Israelite, and therefore his knowledge of the true God is suggestive. There may have been others also, and doubtless were, who had preserved the knowledge of the Lord in face of all idolatry; but it is significant that they were individuals and had but little influence out of their own ordinary circle.

The general theme of the book is clear, and is brought out in its divisions.

1. Job's prosperity, and his affliction at the hand of Satan (chaps, 1:and 2:).

2. Job's conversations with his friends, who accuse him of hypocrisy and outward unfaithfulness to God (chaps, 3:-31:).

3. Elihu's testimony against Job and his friends, witnessing for God (chaps, 32:-37:).

4. God's solemn testimony of His majesty and glory in creation, which brings Job to his face, acknowledging his utter helplessness (chaps, 38:-41:).

5. God's recovery of His penitent, and restoration of all his former prosperity (chap. 42:).

The great lesson of the whole book is the necessity of a true knowledge of one's self. Job was personally a righteous man, and evidently a child of God; but there was in him an undiscovered self-righteousness which indicated a failure to know himself. His righteousness makes him the object of Satan's malice, and we learn some very interesting things with regard to this enemy of man. He has access to the presence of God, along with the angels (chap. 1:). He there accuses God's faithful child, and demands that he be allowed to test the reality of his faith and obedience. Of course, God is over all, and has His own wise purposes in view. Satan is permitted to do just so much, and no more. Job may be bereft of his family, his property may be taken away, his own health may be shattered, but not one hair of his head shall fall to the ground without the knowledge of his God and Father. Satan can only do that which God allows.

In all this terrible trial Job's character comes out very beautifully. He is upright. He receives all at the hands of God. Satan is lost sight of, and all attempts to induce him to dishonor the Holy One who had hitherto blessed his life with temporal prosperity are thwarted. We hear no more of Satan after these first two chapters. But though Job has stood this test, there is still in him an enormous amount of pride, the bottom of which he has never reached, and this is brought out in his conversations with his three friends, who have themselves far less knowledge than Job of God's ways. Their general contention, through long and almost wearisome reiterations, is that God is good and righteous, and that if men are righteous they will be blessed in temporal things. They intimate more and more clearly and strongly that Job must have gone on with secret sin which God has now brought to the light. They reach no deeper, thus, than the surface, and Job indignantly repudiates all their charges; and the fact that he is the object of his friends' suspicion stirs up the corruption of his own heart of which he had not yet dreamed. Thus he manifests, in these conversations, his doubt of God's love, goodness, and justice, and finally exhibits, in the most offensive way, all his own faithfulness and uprightness in contrast with the apparent injustice of the Lord. This, indeed, is a sad fall for one in whom God Himself had found much to commend; but how good it is that the undiscovered evil of our hearts should be brought out, that we may see what we really are in ourselves ! However, in the midst of all this, there are bright gleams of faith in this dear man, who is indeed groping in darkness, but can say in the very depths of his suffering, " Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him." This is a true mark of faith; and where it is present, we know that its trial, though more precious than of gold that perisheth, shall yet be found unto glory and honor.

Job's friends show their pitiable weakness and retire to silence, at last discomfited by the wordy self-righteousness of the poor man, who was afflicted more by his friends' suspicions and accusations than he was by the persecutions of Satan.

But God, in faithfulness, will not let His dear servant die, nor will He allow him to pass through such a dreadful experience without the salutary lessons which he needed to learn. So Elihu comes on the scene, one who speaks for God, and who yet is a man. In this way he seems strikingly to suggest the position of our blessed Lord, the Days man between God and us; One who knows the mind and heart of God, and yet can lay His hand upon the poor, trembling and distracted saint and speak words of wisdom and comfort to him. Elihu does not spare his friends nor Job, but in the midst of all that he has to say there is an evident opening up of relief in the only true direction. He would hide pride from man, and he would show man God's uprightness. If there were true brokenness and humility, he shows how God was ready at once to say, " Deliver him from going down to the pit:I have found a ransom."

Elihu's testimony opens the way for Jehovah Himself to speak in all His majesty. We have, in this marvelous address, simply the setting forth of God's greatness, power and wisdom in creation. These things declare His goodness and faithfulness also. They bring Job where he needed to be brought-into the presence of the infinite God. How puny is he, compared with this all-glorious, mighty One who has but shown a part of His power! But enough is said to recall Job to his true position, and also to put before his eye, not himself, boasting in his righteousness and maintaining his integrity and accusing God, as in the twenty-ninth chapter, but rather that God against whom his proud words have been directed. The effect is utter self-abasement. " I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear; but now mine eye seeth Thee; wherefore I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes."

Is this the man who had been glorying in himself, in his conflicts with his friends, and refusing to acknowledge that there was in him the slightest thing except goodness ? Thus God has had His own way, and brought His dear child to the only place where there can be blessing-in the dust in His presence. Now He can lift him up; and, instead of the pride which had been subtly developing through all his past prosperity, Job now, in his latter end, blessed more than at his beginning, can magnify the goodness of that God whom he had learned to know through darkness as he had never learned Him in the light of this world's prosperity.

We read, with Job, the first epistle of Peter, which is in many ways in keeping with that book. It presents the people of God as pilgrims in the wilderness, rather than worshipers in the sanctuary, as in Paul's epistles. The main theme throughout is suffering in the Christian's pilgrim way, and looking forward to the glory. Its divisions bring this out suggestively.

1. (Chap. 1:1-21.) God's people, chosen of Him to an inheritance which is reserved for them in heaven.

2. (Chaps, 1:22-2:10.) The development of divine life in His children:birth (vers. 22-25); growth (chap. 2:1-3); worship (chap. 2:4-10).

3. (Chaps, 2:n-3:9.) Practical sanctification in the daily life. Here, obedience to God is manifested in subjection to all forms of authority instituted by Him. Servants are to obey their masters even though unkind and unjust, following the example of our blessed Lord, "who, when He was reviled, reviled not again." Wives, in like manner,-are to obey their husbands, though they be fro-ward, seeking to win them without the Word, by their own lives illustrating that Word. Husbands also are to give honor to their wives and walk in holy fellowship as heirs together of the grace of life:

4. (Chaps, 3:lo-4:6.) Suffering for righteousness in a world where all is contrary to God.

This is illustrated in our Lord's own life; and as He has suffered for us in the flesh, we are to arm ourselves with the same mind.

5. (Chaps, 4:7-5:14.) Responsibilities flowing from our position. Here, love is to guide, a sense of stewardship, taking suffering with gladness, and caring for the beloved people of God; he exhorts them to be sober, and to remember that a subtle adversary is walking about, more dangerous than a roaring lion. Him they are to resist, well knowing that the God of all grace will soon bring them into His eternal glory. The sufferings of Christ are to be followed by the glory; and we too, after having suffered our appointed portion, shall enter into the rest and joy of our Lord.