(Continued from page 65.)

3.-Zophar's Second Address and Job's Reply. (chaps. 20, 21.)

There is, as already noticed, an intensity in Zophar that gives a distinct character to his words. He fiercely denounces evil, leaving no room for doubt that he refers to Job, and depicts the certain doom of the wicked in language whose very vehemence soon exhausts what he has in mind. This seems to be the reason why he concludes all he has to say with this second address. The fiercer the fire the more quickly it burns out. All that he says is true; his own unpardonable error is that he seeks to apply it to a righteous man. This address may be divided into seven parts; the last is but a concluding word.

(1)Brief triumph of the wicked (vers. 1-5).

(2)He is soon cut off (vers. 6-11).

(3) Poisoned with his own venom (vers. 12-16).

(4)Past prosperity unavailing (vers. 17-20).

(5) Retribution (vers. 21-25).

(6) Abiding wrath (vers. 26-28).

(7)Conclusion (ver. 29).

(1) Zophar springs to the reply, as a young man would, feeling that he had abundant thoughts to meet all Job's statements, and convict him of the wickedness they charged upon him. He is not the first man who has mistaken vehemence for argument, and whose haste to express his feelings is an indication of poverty of thought rather than the weight of truth. He seems prepared for reproach, which Job's past answers lead him to expect, but is impelled by his knowledge to make one more attempt to silence Job. As a matter of fact, wounded pride may be the real reason for his eagerness to speak.

He now lays down the fact upon which he rests all he has to say. It is a well-known truth, he declares, known from the time man has been upon the earth:"The triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the hypocrite (or evil-doer) is but for a moment." There is both truth and error in this statement. Cain was not cut off immediately after the murder of his brother. On the contrary, his life was spared by God, and he settled down in the world with a city and a numerous progeny. Similarly, the men before the flood prolonged their days in the enjoyment of their pleasures, possessions and inventions. It is so to this day. How often does the wicked seem to prosper, even to old age.

On the other hand, sin naturally tends to shorten life. "Bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days." Excesses bring their own consequences, and violence often brings down the arm of human vengeance upon its head. Besides this, God makes examples of evil men, especially those professedly under His government. Korah, Da-than and Abiram are an instance of this in the Old Testament, and Ananias and Sapphira in the New.

But this is not. the universal, nor even the ordinary rule. Many evil men go on for years in outward prosperity, and pass, with little apparent change, to their account in another world:There is no intimation that the "rich man" in Luke 16 was cut off early because of his sins. God varies His dealings with men, that in every possible way they may be left without excuse:swift judgment, prolonged patience, chastening and prosperity have all been tried, if men may by any means be led to repentance. The apostle sums it up thus:"Some men's sins are open beforehand, going before to judgment; and some men they follow after " (i Tim. 5:24)". Our Lord rebukes the tendency to regard sudden death as a mark of special sin (Luke 13:1-5). We would therefore conclude that Zophar was putting a part for the whole, and to that degree his statement was faulty. Job indeed in his reply calls attention to this. So anxious, however, are the "friends" to make good their case, that they do not scruple at extreme and unfair statements, which become positively evil when applied to the grief of a man not proved guilty. We shall find that this tendency culminates in the last speech of Eliphaz in direct and specific charges of evil without the slightest foundation.

(2) Zophar proceeds with his picture, poetic but dreadfully stern-solemnly beautiful, if we can forget his purpose. The course of the sinner is further dwelt upon, and his end contrasted with his ambitions. His hopes may have risen to the heavens, his head to the clouds, in imagination, but he is consumed away like fuel stored up for the winter. The well-known custom in the East of preparing the dung of cattle for this purpose, explains the figure here used. Men will miss him, and ask in vain, Where is he ? As a passing dream of the night he is gone; the eyes that once looked on him behold him no more. His ill-gotten gains are given, reluctantly enough, we may well believe, by his children to the poor. His bones, once full of youthful vigor (as suggested in the revised translation), are now laid low in their parent dust. The section begins with heaven and ends with the grave! Such is the downward path of those who know not God.

(3) Nor is the reason for this dreadful conclusion of the life of the wicked far to seek. He has but himself to blame, and is reaping what he sowed. The poison comes from his own vitals. In a few strokes the speaker draws a dreadful picture of the sinful man, who, gorging himself with sinful pleasures, hidden and cherished beneath his tongue, is like the venomous serpent, preparing the deadly virus which shall bring death to him. His riches, evilly acquired, will be torture to his closing days. Truly, all this is solemnly true. God is not arbitrary in the punishment of the wicked; they treasure up "wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God." The "good things" received by the rich man, instead of leading him to gratitude and faith, were used for his own gratification-away from God- and thus did but return to torture him with remorse. " Son,- remember," shows where the thoughts must turn when there is no further opportunity to hide from the consequences of his own acts. As has been pointed out, the name "Gehenna" is from a root, " to be freely given "- '' gratuitous," it might be rendered. How wickedly vain is the talk about God being "too merciful to send men ,to hell; " men show no mercy to themselves; they have only themselves to blame for their doom. All this is accentuated by the fact that infinite love has provided a "gratuitous" remedy, which is rejected by so many.

(4) Zophar next glances at the former prosperity of the wicked, when he quaffed the draught of pleasure as from an overflowing river of honey and cream. What was grasped-from others, must now be given up, and his riches can bring him no joy. Like Ahab, who came down to see the vineyard acquired by the murder of Naboth, and had to hear his own doom pronounced by the prophet, he can get no joy from his possession. The unfinished house he took remains as a monument of his crime ; he cannot even take his most cherished belongings with him.

Zophar is indeed an expert in describing evil and its results. It will be noted that the wickedness described is largely violations of the second part of the law, particularly in regard to dishonesty and violence. Much that he hints at here is directly charged by Eliphaz against Job. The friends thus strengthen one another in their determination to establish their theory that Job is the wicked hypocrite suffering for his own misdeeds.

(5) The thought of retribution is enlarged upon in this portion. Covetousness means an ultimate ruin; the very ones he oppressed (the "needy," rather than the "wicked," ver. 22) shall be arrayed against him. And, above all, God shall pour forth the fury of His wrath upon him, like the fiery rain that fell upon Sodom. Seeking to flee from the weapon of iron, he is pierced by the more deadly arrow; "As if a man did flee from a lion, and a bear met him; . . . and leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit him" (Amos 5:19). With unerring precision the shaft pierces the vitals of the terror-stricken man, and there is no escape.

(6) This doom is final, with no gleam of hope beyond. The sinner has laid up a treasure of "wrath against the day of wrath; " and unquenchable fire, which needs no "blowing upon" to add to its fierceness, consumes him, and those he leaves behind taste the same fire. The heavens are against him ; their holy light only reveals his iniquity. Job had appealed to heaven and earth to witness to his righteousness (chap. 16:18, 19), but Zophar hints the absolute reverse-the heavens do but declare his sin, and earth rises up in the judgment against him. He concludes his fearful picture with the mention of divinely appointed wrath.

(7) "This is the portion of a wicked man from God, and the heritage appointed to him by God " (ver. 29). Zophar has completed his terrible charges. He has pursued without pity a bruised and apparently dying man. He has refused the appeal of Job for pity, has ignored the declaration of his unshaken integrity, and has pressed his suspicion with an iron hand into the soul of the poor sufferer, and all this under the specious plea of piety pleading for God! However it may end, we feel that no help is to be got from Zophar and those like him, and we do not regret that we shall hear him no more until he comes in a very different spirit to ask the prayers of the friend whom he has maligned.

Job's Reply.

While our sympathy goes out to Job for the treatment he is receiving at the hands of his friends, there is abundant evidence in his replies that he is quite able to answer for himself, so far at least as men are concerned. He meets each of the speakers on his own ground and silences him. In this reply to Zophar he shows that his spirit is still unbroken, and answers with collusiveness the semblance of arguments which he had presented. Job's reply, following the form of Zophar's address, may be divided into seven portions :

(1) The solemnity of his reply, which has to do with God (vers. 1-6).
(2) The prosperity of the wicked (vers. 7-16).

(3) Judgment seen only in their children (vers. 17-21).

(4) Varied experiences of the wicked (vers. 22-26).

(5)He charges the friends (vers. 27-31).

(6) The end in death (vers. 32, 33).

(7) Conclusion (ver. 34).

(1) He begins with a plea that at least they will listen to him. This will at least take the place of the consolation which they refuse to give him. After that they can resume their taunts. For himself, he says he has ceased to expect any right judgment from man; and well he might if that were all his hope. This implies that he has turned to God, which is in itself an indication of the faith at the bottom of his heart. But his difficulties have not vanished ; they may well be astonished, for he himself trembles to speak of what he is now going to lay before them, and it disproves much that which Zophar had just so eloquently set forth. It will be noted, here, that the tone of querulous-ness is absent from this dignified opening of Job. He propounds his difficulty to his friends, and if they are men they must see his point.

(2) He looks at .the other side, at the case of the prosperous wicked, and with ability equal to Zophar's, reminds him that evil men often go on unchecked. They live to old age and become mighty in power. Their families grow up about them, and all abides in quietness without the rod of God falling upon them. Flocks and herds increase ; his children -in sad contrast to the now childless speaker- are like a group of lambs skipping about the home, and in it is heard the sound of timbrel and harp and pipe. All their days are in prosperity until the end comes, although these very men said to God, "Depart from us, for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways." Like Pharaoh, they ask, "What is the Almighty that we should serve Him, and what profit should we have if we pray unto Him?" While describing their profane defiance of God, which goes so long unrebuked, Job is careful to express his abhorrence of such impiety:"Lo, their good is not by their own hand " (all that they have is from God); "the counsel of the wicked is far from me " (ver. 16). All this is true, and bears out the teaching of psalm 73, where one is under exercise similar to his own.

(3) In this part Job fully admits that there will be a final manifestation of the sin of the wicked, but it is so often seen in the children instead of themselves; and what do they care for their house after them ? (ver. 21). In opposition to Zophar, he reminds him "how rarely is the candle of the wicked put out," as ver. 17 has been rendered; how seldom does calamity break in upon them, as the scatterings of "snares" or "lightnings" in the wrath of God. While it is true, as the psalmist tells us, that the ungodly are "like the chaff which the wind driveth away " (Ps. i :4), Job reminds his hearers that this seldom takes place in the present life; it is reserved for the "judgment." The two following verses, 19, 20, state the facts (which are put in the form of a desire in another rendering), that God layeth up the iniquity of the wicked for the children, "visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children." He shall eventually see the result of his evil, though the day is long deferred.

(4) In fact, as Job goes on to show, the experiences of the wicked are varied, and he adds, Who shall sit in judgment upon God for these varied dealings? One dies quietly in the midst of abounding prosperity, as the psalm says, "The wicked have no bands in their death;" another is cut off in wretchedness. Both alike reach a common end in the grave. And this being the case, how ill it becomes his friends to state, as an unvarying rule, that judgment in this life was always a sign of sin, and prosperity of righteousness, in the persons affected. Although he himself had reached no solution to his problem, he could at least urge his friends to "judge nothing before the time."

(5) He now declares their purpose, which they have only hinted at hitherto, that Job was an instance of the soundness of their contention; and see, say they, what has become of him! He throws back their insinuations by the bold question, Have they not learned from observers everywhere that the wicked is "spared " in the day of calamity (not "reserved," as in our version), "to the day of destruction" ? And so powerful is he that none dare charge his sin to him, or inflict deserved punishment-all this, alas, only too common in our own day.

(6) It is in death alone that the end of the prosperity of many of the ungodly is reached; even in his burial outward pomp and display accompany him as far as possible-buried with all the honor that wealth can buy, and the watchman guarding the tomb where his body is laid away. In this sense the very clods of his grave seem to pander to his pride; his gorgeous mausoleum still declaring what a great man he was.

(7) Thus Job concludes a very complete answer to all the magniloquence of his friends. Their "comforts," indeed, are vain, and their replies are lacking in the sincerity that indicates the real seeker after truth.

We have reached the end of the second series in the controversy. As already stated, there are gleams of Job's faith in it, though still clouded with dark questionings of God. On the other hand, his friends have evidently reached the limit of their ability to force a conclusion, although they will make one more effort. On the whole, we may say that distinct progress has been made, and the advantage is with Job. As yet, however, the enigma remains, " Why does God afflict the righteous?" and Job has yet to learn the reply, not from men, but from God Himself. S. R.

(To be continued.)