(Continued from page 188)

Division IV (Chaps. 38-41).

Jehovah's testimony from Creation, testing Job and bringing him into the dust.

We have already called attention to the intimate connection between the addresses of Elihu and those of Jehovah which follow. Viewed merely as a piece of literary work this portion is one of matchless beauty and grandeur. Elihu had begun his address in all deference and quietness; he had carried forward his arguments in a masterly way, convincing both to intellect and conscience, which, from the silence of Job when repeatedly invited to reply, we may judge did not fail of their purpose. As he proceeds Elihu passes from the didactic style into the descriptive, setting forth the wisdom
and greatness of God as seen in His great creation. So vivid do the descriptions of the storm become that we are constrained to think of it as actually impending-the lightnings flash, and the terrific thunder-peals fill him with dread, while the trembling herds show their fear. A golden glow is seen sweeping down in the dark storm-clouds from the north. In a few words of awed reminder to Job of the goodness as well as the majesty of God, Elihu closes his address, and Jehovah, out of the whirlwind just described titters His awful voice.

The voice of Jehovah! We are no longer listening to the gropings of the natural mind, as in the discourses of the friends; nor to the wild cries of a wounded faith, as in Job; nor even to the clear sober language of Elihu-we are in the presence of Jehovah Himself, who speaks to us. That voice caused our guilty first parents to hide amid the trees of the garden. It bade Moses remove the shoes from off his feet at the burning bush, and later caused him to say, " I exceedingly fear and quake," amid the terrors of Sinai, while the people removed to a great distance. Later, that Voice- "a still small voice"-penetrated Elijah's soul with awe, as he realized that he was standing in the presence of the Lord.

The voice, perhaps more than the appearance, seems to reveal the person. If we could see the form and features of a man, mark the changes of his countenance and every gesticulation, without hearing his voice, it would not impress us as under reversed conditions. So the voice that came to Job out of the whirlwind brought him into the presence of One of whose character he had until now been
greatly ignorant. He had spoken many excellent things about God, but His actual presence had never before been known. This it will be found furnishes the key to the amazing change wrought in Job.

When God is personally recognized as present, He is thus recognized in the entirety of His being. It is not merely His power that is seen, or His greatness or even His goodness, but Himself, the One in whose presence seraphim veil their faces as they cry, " Holy, Holy, Holy."

Peter caught such a glimpse of Him by the sea of Galilee (Luke 5), and was constrained to cry, " Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord." And Paul fell to the earth under the same revelation, as also John in the Apocalypse. The outward display in each of these cases was different, passing from a lowly Man in a fisher-boat to the enthroned majesty in the heavens; but the essential fact is that it is Himself, and however much He may veil His glory, and meet man in mercy and grace, it is God who thus speaks and acts. If this is not realized, no grandeur of setting, no splendor of natural phenomena, can convey His message to man.

This is pitifully apparent in the use men make of the majestic panorama of nature daily spread before their eyes. The heavens as an infinitely spacious tent are arched overhead, resplendent by day and by night; the drapery of the clouds, the greatness of the mountains, the beauty of forest, field and sea-what do these tell to one who hears not the Voice ? The heathen makes his image, or bows to sun and moon; the scientist sweeps the heavens with his telescope, and pierces the penetralia of earth with his microscope; he talks learnedly and interestingly of "laws of nature," of "principles of physics and of chemistry," of gravitation, cohesion and affinity:but unless he has heard the Voice of Jehovah, he knows Him no more than the poor deluded idolater groveling before the hideous Vishnu.

This ignorance is a guilty ignorance, "for the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse :because that, when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God," etc. (Rom. i:18-25). All men are in a measure conscious of this guilt and moral distance from God, and quite willing to remain in that condition. They stop their ears to the Voice of Him who is not far from every one of us.

If this is the inherent thought of this personal revelation of God, how important it was for Job to grasp it; how necessary too for us, as we speak of it, to realize His voice who speaks still in Nature and in His word. May it be ours, not to withdraw to a distance, nor to hide amid His beautiful trees, but to come near with unshod feet and veiled faces and hear what God the Lord will speak.

Looking at His words as a whole, we might be surprised at their character. They are not in one sense profound, as unfolding depths of theological truth. They are scarcely didactic in a moral sense, impressing upon man his duty. They are not so much a revelation of truth as a question to Job if he knows the truths that lie all about him in the vast creation of God.

It is this which makes these words of Jehovah so wonderful. He speaks, not "in a tongue no man can understand," but in the language of nature, about the earth, the sky, the clouds and rain, and beasts and birds. The number of the division, the fourth, is most appropriate. It is, as we know, the number of the creature, of creation; it suggests also the testing of man, and the weakness and failure which that testing so often brings out. How amazing it is to think that the Creator should thus veil His glory-that "light unapproachable"-and show Himself in the works of His hands.

For creation itself is, we would reverently say, a divine humiliation. It reminds us of Him who, "though He was in the form of God," emptied Himself of His glory and took a servant's form, being made in the likeness of men. Creation is the "lattice" behind which the Beloved hides Himself (Song 2:9). And yet He reveals Himself thus to faith. The swaddling bands of Ocean are but a figure of those bands which He who made all things took upon Himself, when He became flesh. The whole universe, immense and boundless, forms the garments of the infinite God, who thus reveals Himself.

So we may apply this fourth Division to Himself. He "humbles Himself to behold the things in heaven and in earth." The significance of the number encourages us to believe that He is drawing near to us, that the message He has to give is one of mercy.

But this message tests and humbles man. He who boasted in his righteousness, who seemed to consider his knowledge all sufficient, is obliged to own his ignorance, weakness, and his unrighteousness. It is divinely done, and done so effectively that the lesson brings Job to his true place for all time. Creation, we may say, is like the clay which the Lord put upon the eyes of the blind man. Like him Job can say, "Now mine eye seeth Thee."

God lays His hand upon His vast creation-the heavens, earth and sea-as though to say He is Master and Lord of all; as though to say to Job, "Canst thou doubt the power of such an One? or His wisdom ? Nay, canst thou doubt the goodness of One who sends His rain to render fertile the earth for man's need, or His faithfulness who brings day by day His mercies to His creatures ?"

This leads us to ask whether we may not expect a deeper meaning to all these questions as to nature -a moral and spiritual significance in them. Creation is a vast parable, and we fail to gather its lessons if we do not find, as we have already indicated, rich typical truth lying just beneath the surface. We cannot pretend to dogmatize; all that may be said is subject to correction; but we have no hesitation in saying that we should seek to find God's

" Secret meaning in His deeds."

We are encouraged to do this, for has He not said, " He that seeketh findeth? "

But let us take up our subject in an orderly way. S. R.

(To be continued.)
'THE STAR OF THE MORNING"