The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1900-11-16
CAPTIVITY OF JOB.
DR.. Talmage Urges Us to Avoid
Selfish Thoughts.
Lessons Drawn from Him who Prayed
for His Friends While Imprisoned
-seIf-Comcentration the
Fault of Too Many.

"And the Lord turned the captivity Of
Job when he prayed for his friends"
Comparatively few people read this
last chapter of the Book of Job. The
earlier chapters are SO full of thrilling
incident, of events so dramatically por-
| trayed. of awful ailments and terrific
disaster, of domestic infelicity, of STAG
to passage, of resounddng address, OF
omnipotency proclaimed, of utterances
showing Job to have been the greatest
scientist of his day, an expert in mining
and precious stones, astronomer and
geographer and zOologist and cleo
trician and poet, that most readers
stop before they get to my text, which.
strangely and mysteriously, announces
that ''the Lord, turned the captivity of
Job when he prayed for his friends"
Now, will you please explain to me
how Jobs prayer for his friends halted
his catastrophes? Give me some good
reason why Job, on his knees in behalf
of the welfare of others, arrested the
long procession of calamities. Mind
you, it was not prayer for himself, for
then the cessati ton of his troubles would
have been only another instance of
prayer answered. But the portfolio of
his disaster was rolled up while he
supplicated God in behalf of Eliphaz
the Temanite, Bildad the Shuttle and
Zophar the Naamathite. l must con-
fess to you that had to read the text
over and over again before got its full
meaning: "And the Lord turned the
captivity of Job when he prayed for
his friends"
Well, if you will not explain it to me
will explain it to you. The health
lest, the most recuperative thing on
earth to do is to stop thinking so much
about ourselves and go TO thinking
about the welfare of others. Job had
been studying his misfortunes, but the
more he thought about his bankruptcy
the poorer he seemed, the more he
thought of his carbuncles the worse
they hurt, the more he thought of his
unfortunate marriage the more intol-
cradle became the conjugal relation,
the more he thought of his house blown
down the more terrific seemed the cy
clone. His misfortunes grew blacker
and blacker. But there was to come
day he said TO himself: 81 have been
dwelling too much upon my bodily all
ments and my wife's temper and my
bereayements. 1t is time / began to
think about others and do something
for others, and will start now by pray
ing for my three friends" Then Job
dropped upon his knees, and as he did
so the last shackle of his captivity of
troubles snapped and fell off. Hear it,
all We ages of time and all We ages of
eternity, 'the Lord turned the captiv-
ity of Job when he prayed for his
friends"
The fault with most of us is too much
self-concentration-o health, our
fortunes, our advancement, our social
position, our achievements. our losses,
our defeats, our sufferings, our perse-
cusion, our life, our death, our immor-
tally. Of course there is lawful and
righteous selfishneSs. In a world and
in time of such activities and rivalries
and temptations we must look after
our own interests and our own destiny
or we will go under. Do not wait for
others to take care of you. Take care
of yourself. But it will not hinder our
preservation and prosperity if we en-
large the sphere of our wishes and
prayers so as to take in others. The
law in the natural world would do we'll
for the moral and spiritual world. The
centripetal force in nature would
throw everything in toward the center
and the centrifugal force in nature
would throw everything out from the
center. But the centripetal and the
centrifugal work beautifully together.
The one force that would throw every
thing toward the center is balanced by
the force that would throw everything
outward.
Our world, with its own interests,
feels the pull of other worlds. No
world, no nation, no community, no
man, no woman. can afford to exist !
only for itself or himself or herself. |
The hour in which Job has that So
liloquy about the enlargement of his |
prayers so as to take in his friends, |
and he put into execution his good |
resolution, was the hour when he felt |
a tonic, sedative, a nervine, q cata-
plasm that helped to cure his body |
and revived his fortunes till thew were
a hundred per cent. better than ever
before, for the record is "the Lord |
gave Job twice as much as he had be-
fore" and tended TO make him a won
der of longevity, for he lived $40
years after his troubles were gone.
Oh, what mighty medicament is the
of and the effort for
The welfare of othersl
But" says some one, at is easy
enough for Job to pray for his friends.
Anybody can do that. There are those
10 whom we are obliged for years of
kindness. They stand so close to us
n sympathy and Renaissance and an
Licipation that il is easy for us to
pray for their welfare" Well, I see
Tou do not understand that these
friends OF Job were the most tantaliz-
ng and exasperating friends a man
,ver had. Look at their behavior.
When they heard of his bereavements
ind the accidents by whirlwind and
lightning stroke they came in and sat
Town by him a whole week. seven
lays and seven nights, and the rec
'rd IS none spake a word to him."
What disrePutable and wicked 81
ence! Mind You, they professed to be
ehgious men, and they ought to have
'een able TO offer some religious con-
olation. Instead of that they were
umb as the sphinx which at that time
TODD in the African desert and stands
here still. Why did they not say
omething about reunion in the Heav-
My realms with his children who
ad been slain? Why did thew not :
ak TO him abnY7f +ha ~o4;SFao+o- ,