Connecticut western news., 1900-11-15

his house or his children or his estate. He practically said: "Job, I will tell you what Is the matter with you. You are bad. You are a hypocrite. You are now getting paid for your wicked ness." No wonder that there came from Job an outburst of indignation, friend, Zophar the Naamathite, who begins denouncing Job by calling him liar and keeps on the discourse until Job responds to all three of them In the sarcastic words, No doubt but ye are the people, and wisdom shall dle with you"
 Oh, what friends Job hadl Heaven deliver us from having one such friend, to say nothing of having three of them. It was for such friends that Job pray ed, and was 1t not a religious triumph for him so to do? Would you, the very best of you, be in very devout mood and capable of,making interces- sion for people who had come to you in day of trouble and said: Good for you. You ought to be chastised. You are being taken in hand by eternal justice. If you had behaved yourself alright, you would not have been sick or persecuted or impoverished or made childless." Oh, no, my friend, you would not have felt like Job when he prayed for his friends, but more like Job when he cursed the day of his nativity.
 Notice that this hagellation by the three friends was premeditated. They did not merely happen In and come suddenly upon trouble for which they could not offer a compound. The Bible says, '"They had made an appointment together" The interview was prear- ranged. They had agreed as to what they would say, to the sick man. You can see that their remarks were not ex- temporanecus. What they said was sublimely poetic. They rose In style Into what in later times we would call the Homeric or Dantesque. But Job was not In need of poetry so much as salve for his eruptive disorder. He was not dying for lack of a paragraph In blank verse. He was not so much In need of didactic lecture about the justice of God as an assurance of the divine mercy. Some pious rustic of the land of Uz, not able to put three gram nautical sentences together, could have said something more consolatory.
 Worthy of Emulation.
 The meanness of the attack of these religious critics was augmented by the fact that they had the sufferer in their power. When we are well and we do not like what one is saying, we can get up and go away. But Job was too i'll to get up and go away. First he en- dured the seven days and seven nights of silence, and then he endured their arraignment of his motives and char acter, and after their cruel campaign was ended, by a sublime effort of soul, which I this day uphold for imitation, he triumphed in prayer for his tantaliz- CTS. In all history there Is nothing equal to 1t except the memorable im- ploration by Christ for his enemies. No wonder that after that prayer of Job was once uttered thrill of recov- cry shot through every nerve and vein of his tortured body and every passion of his great soul, and God answered 1t by adding nearly a century and half
 
 with focks of sheep and filled the air with the lowing of cattle and wakened the silent nursery of his home with the swift feet and the laughing voices of childheod-seven sons and three daugh- ters celebrated for their beauty, the daughters to refine the sons, the sons to defend the daughters. There Is noth- ing that pays so we'll as prayer, and the more difficult the prayer to make the greater the reward for making 1t. Let us all make similar attempt to pray for those who vex and misrepre- sent and tantalize us. You may be very popular in the city or neighborhood where you live, but I warrant if you are in active life there are those who wish you the opposite of wishing you well. Are you benevolent? They say it Is on your part a matter of personal display. Are you eloquent or learnedf They declare you are overrated and that what you say or write Is of no i'm portance. Do you try to make yourself effective In church or hospital or board l of directors? They call you officious. Are you we'll dressed? They say you are proud. Does false report start In the community against your char acter? They believe 1t all and add an- other story to the fabrication. Some of them pretend to be friends, but they have the cudgels all ready for you-Eli- l phaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shu- hite, Zophar the Naamathite. Now, pray for them. "Ohr' you say, "I can not do that" I thought you could not. But you will grow in grace until you can do 1t as easily and as well as did Job pray for his exasperators. You ought to pity them, for defamers and detractors and the envious and jealous are not happy. They hurt themselves more than they hurt you. Better be the pursued than the pursuer. Better be the infant Christ than Herod the robber of the Bethlehem cradles. You want to be a better man. You want to be a better woman. Then scale this height of triumphant prayer, and you will be ten times more of Christian than you ever have been. It will pro- long your life as 1t prolonged Jobs life. You will feel a glorious reaction that will last through all time and all eternity. It will steady your nerves, it
 will reduce your spleen, 1t will regu- late the pulsation of your heart.
 Keep Your Temper.
 Nothing is so unhealthy as to gel
 mad. It Is shock to the whole phys
 ical organization as well as to youi
 mental and moral condition. It is nc
 unusual thing for people to drop dowr
 dead In a fit of anger. You people
 who weigh over POO pounds avoirdu
 pois had better never lose your tenn
 per- for at such times apoplexy Is moi
 far off. Get the equipoise of Job IT
 the text, and 1t will help you in bust
 ness directions. Praying for all of
 lenders. you will have more nerve fol
 large undertakings; you will have {
 better balanced judgment; you will
 waste no valuable time In trying to gel | oven with y0ur pnpmiea Try this