JOB;

OR, THE BLESSING OF AFFLICTION.

WHO was Job? We have heard and spoken of his patience all our lives; and it may be well to enquire a little into his history.

He is thus brought before us in Scripture: "There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil. And there were born unto him seven sons and three daughters. His substance also was seven thousand sheep and three thousand camels, &c. So that this man was the greatest of all the men of the East."

Job then was a very rich man, probably one of the most leading men in his own country. He was the father of a family too. And, what is of still greater importance, he was a good man. When the Scripture speaks of him as a "perfect man,"

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it does not mean that he was faultless, but that he was a holy, upright, and consistent servant of God.

But Job's trials and temptations were unusually great-greater perhaps than almost any other person's of whom we read. Now, Satan always aims at the ruin of God's people. If he can, he will pull them down from their high standing. And it was so especially with Job. He made a desperate attack upon him. him. He desired to have him,

and sift him as wheat.

One day, when Job was in the midst of his prosperity, a messenger came in haste to tell him that some plunderers had come and seized a quantity of his cattle. Presently another messenger arrives to inform him that his camels had been stolen, and the servants who were watching them had been killed. Here was bad news; but there was worse yet to come. Scarcely had the last messenger told his tale, than another arrives, bearing still graver tidings—that a sudden and awful accident had occurred, and that all his children had been swept off as in a moment.

The

Here was indeed a trial, heavier than falls to the lot of most men! Ah, how anxiously did Satan watch the effect of this heavy chastisement. He longed to see him fight against God, and utter some hasty word of unbelief. But he was disappointed. storm swept over him; but his soul was unharmed. There was another eye too watching him-the eye of one who loved him with a father's love, and sustained him with a father's care that eye which marks the path of His afflicted children, and to whom each one of their sorrows is known.

Now, observe the humble, calm resignation of this man of God. Not a murmur escapes him; all is submission. He "fell down upon the ground," and poured out his broken heart to God, exclaiming, "Naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither: the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord."

But Job's afflictions had not yet come to their height. To be bereft of all his children in a day was an awful chastisement. But in addition to this, he was visited by a most

painful and loathsome disease; so that he at once became a burden to himself, and an object of abhorrence to all about him. "I am made (says the wretched sufferer) to possess months of vanity; and wearisome nights are appointed me. My flesh is clothed with worms, and clods of dust. My skin is broken, and become loathsome. My skin is black upon me, and my bones are burned with heat."

And where were those, to whom he would naturally look for comfort? His children, who might have soothed him in his sorrow, had been all snatched from him. His neighbours and friends looked coldly upon him; "My breath (he says) is strange to my wife, though I intreated for the children's sake of my own body."

Three of his friends, it is true, came and talked with him. But they took so wrong a view of his case, that they only added to his grief, instead of lessening it.

At times, this poor afflicted believer was tempted to distrust the love and kindness of God. More than once a murmuring expression escaped his lips. When he was

accused of having committed some special sin, and of having thus provoked God to punish him, this was more than he could bear; the natural pride of his heart boiled up, and he spake as one who had for the moment forgotten that he had indeed “sinned, and come short of the glory of God:"

But, oh how brightly did his faith shine forth! Wretched and hopeless as his present condition was-lonely, suffering, and forsaken-he could look up, and feel that God was with him; and he could look forward with the certain hope that a restingtime would surely come-"I know," he said, "that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth. And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God." Here was light amidst the gloom, a drop of sweetness in his bitter cup. He knew in whom he had believed. He had a hope to support him in his sorest trial.

At length the days of Job's mourning were ended. Affliction had done its work.

And

he came out of the furnace a better and a

holier man.

The Lord lifted up once more