Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1900-11-16

soiatlo instead OF that they were
dumb as the sphinx which at that time
stood in the African desert and stands
there still. Why did they not say
something about reunion in the Heav-
emily realms with his children who
had been slain? Why did they not
talk to him about the satisfactory ex-
plantations in the future world of
things we do not understand in this
world? Why did they not go to the
apothecary and buy a poultice that
would have soothed the carbuncles,
or some quieting potion that would
calm his nerves, or a few drops of
febrifuge that would cool his heated
frame? No! For seven days and
seven nights they did nothing and
said nothing for his relief. They must
have almost bored him to death.
After these three friends had COM
pleted their infamous silence of
week they began to lecture Job. First,
E1iphaz the Temanite opens with
long story about a dream which he
had in the night and initiates the suf
ferer with words that make things
worse instead of better and sets him
in an attitude of defense against the
lecturer. Then comes Bildad the
Shuttle, who gives the invalid round
scolding and calls him garrulous and
pra ctically tells him that he deserved
all that he got, and that if he had be-
haved himself Alright he would not
have lost his house or his children or
his estate. He practically says: Job,
I will tell you what is the matter with
you. You are bad; you are a hypo-
critic; you are now getting paid for
your wickedness." No wonder that
there came from Job an outburst of
indignation which calls out the other
quondam friend, Zophar the Naa-
mathite, 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 We are the people, and
wisdom shall die with you"
Oh, what friends Job had! Heaven
deliver us from having one such
friend, to say nothing of having three
of them. It was for such friends that
Job prayed, and was it religious tri-
umph for him to do so? 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 eter-
nal justice. If you had behaved your
self Alright you would not have been
sick or prosecuted 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 fagellation by the
three friends was premeditated. They
did not merely happen in and come
suddenly upon the trouble for which
they could not offer compound. The
Bible says: "They had made an ap-
pointment together" The interview
was prearranged.. They had agreed
as to what they would say to the sick
man. You can see that their remarks
were not extemporaneous. 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 a salve for his eruptive dis
order. He was not dying for lack of
| paragraph in blank verse. He was
not so much in need of didactic lee
ture about the justice of God as an
assurance Of the Divine mercy. Some
pious rustic of the land of W not able
| to put three grammatical sentences
! together could have said something
| more consolatory.
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 we'll 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 endured the seven days and
| seven nights of silence, and then he
| endured their arraignment of his mo-
! tives and character, and after their
| cruel campaign was ended by a sub
| lime effort of soul, which this day up
hold for imitation, he triumphed .. in
| prayer for his tantalizers. In all his
tory there is nothing equal to it ex-
| cept the memorable imploration by
| Christ of His enemies. No wonder
that after that prayer of Job was
once uttered a thrill of recovery shot
| through every nerve and vein of his
tortured body and every passion of his
great soul, and God answered it by
adding nearly a century and half to
| his lifetime, and whitened the hills
with f1ocks of sheep, and filed the air
| with the lowing of cattle, and wax
ened the silent nursery of his home
with the swift feet and the laughing
voices OF childhood-seven sons and
three daughters celebrated for their
beauty, the daughters to refine the
sons, the sons to defend the daugh-
tiers. There is nothing that pays so
well as prayer, and the more difficult
the prayer to make the greater the re-
ward for making it.