Goldsboro weekly argus. [volume] (Goldsboro, N.C.) 1885-1909, 1895-07-25
THE LESSON IN JOB.

Inc intelligent world has gone
a beyond the point Of believing
3 that the Deity made a compact
t with Satan by the terms OF
: which a mortal man was sub
| Jected to such dispensa-
tiOnS of Providence as was cal
culated to destroy faith and
work renunciatiun of good
: This fact is we'll brought out in
Jobs reflection of his wife to
Curse God and die," and again
in Jobs reply to the Shuhite,
when. after recounting and be-
wailing his multiplied misfor-
tunes, he cried: Though He
slay me, yet [ will trust in Him. :"
The deeper lesson in the Book
of Job is in the illustration of
the propensity Of the human
mind TO imagine evil where none
exists and to consider every
affection visited upon the flesh as
a Divine dispensaJior of an out
ragged God. The reader having
in mind the story preceding the
beginning of the patriarch's suf-
fering has better and clearer
conception of that condition of
mind which moved Bildad and
Eliphaz to remind the victim of
what they conceived to be the
hidden sins the penalty for
which was being visited upon
him. He had walked as a man
of God in the sight Of the world,
eschewing wrong and fearing
evil. He had heard the cry of |
the widowed and fatherless. Hell
had sat in the gates and dispens-
ed justice tempered with mercy.
In all the land of Uz there had
been none to rise up as his &C
cuser. Yet when disaster over
took him his earliest accusers
were those who had known him
long and favorably, who had en-
Dyed his confidence and friend
ship and had been first among
proclaiming his honor and good
repute.
And these accusations came in
way to indicate that beneath
the veneering of regret and sym
pathy with which. in true mod.
ern fashion they were covered,
there lurked a secret and withal
poorly concealed satisfaction at
the fall of his house. 1t is meet,
said Eliphaz, that retribution
should overtake the wicked in
their courses. No matter, said
Bildad, how much a man exaltethl
himself before men, the Lord
knoweth all the secrets of his
heart. He may assist the needy
and reach forth his hand to them
that need help. He may not lie
or steal or covet or bear falsel
witness. He may even love his
neighbor as himself and humble
himself in public places. Yea,
though ne even wash the feet of
the poor in the gates, though he
sacrifice to man as we'll as to
God and surrender all those
things which to most men are the
joy and substance of life, yet he I
may sin against God in his heart
and hold evil concourse with
them that are accursed of God.
He may play the hypocrite, seek
ing to exalt himself among men
and seeking to deceive God with
false appearance. but the Lord,
who searcheth all hearts, and
knoweth whereof the hypocrite I
is made, condemneth him and ALL
his.
What wonder that Job, perse- 6
cutGd with such comforters. {
sought to justify himself against
them? Sometimes, in his del
fense, he goes perilously near Y
condemning God for leaving him {
open to the malice of those whom
he had hitherto accounted his
friends, but who, in the depths +
OF his misfortune, were revealed 7
to him as enemies. Yet never. /
IN all his bitterness of soul and
Of spirit, does he fail :
to feel the love of God in his :
neart, 1t is not the fear of that q
God who had already strickenl t
him SO sorely, and to whom he
cries out for death as surceasel
Of sorrow and suffering. To Job,
death had been robbed of all it's i
terrors. To him it appeared as a
oenediction. It was the love of
tod which led him, even in the ,
midst of his Affections, to feell f
that tlora was still a h1oec;, =: