Nature all day long is full of joy; its sufferings are only as a few discordant notes in the harmonies of a long oratorio. Whence comes all this joy? He is the Fountain of life and blessedness, the "ever-blessed God." Had the Maker of the universe been malevolent, He would have filled the world with suffering, and caused the "outgoings of the morning and evening" to howl with anguish. All nature proves that He is love, that He is good, and that His "tender mercies are over all the works of His hands." He is here represented. as: Fourthly: Fructifying. "Thou visitest the earth and waterest it." The hungry earth He visits with fertilizing waters, which fall into the dry "ridges" and "furrows," and thus blesses the vegetation that springs therefrom. Thus He proceeds throughout the round year, which He crowns with "His goodness." The rich harvest is the coronation of heavenly goodness, and all the antecedent and preparatory mornings and evenings are so many sparkling jewels in the diadem. All nature rejoices at the consummation. Even the "wilderness is rich with fodder for the cattle, and the hills "rejoice on every side." The verdant meadows are covered with gambolling flocks, and the valleys with luxuriant crops of corn; and there is joy everywhere. "They shout for joy, they also sing." "What a beautiful image is this!" says a modern author. "How well does it express the loveliness of nature; how appropriately does it describe the goodness of God! Everything seems to be happy, to be full of song; and all this is to be traced to the goodness of God, as it all serves to express that goodness. Strange that there should be an atheist in such a world as this. Strange that there should be an unhappy man. Strange that amidst such beauties, while all nature joins in rejoicing and praise,pastures, cultivated fields, valleys, hills-there can be found a human being who, instead of uniting in the language of joy, makes himself miserable by attempting to cherish the feeling that God is not good." In this psalm we have,— II. God in material nature WORSHIPPED. The Psalm begins with worship: "Praise waiteth for Thee." God should be worshipped in nature, as well as in human history. First: His presence is discoverable in nature. He must be blinded either by prejudice or stolid ignorance, who does not see God in all the processes and forms of nature. "For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse." God is in nature in a higher sense than the engineer is in his machine, or the author in his book. The personalities of men are not in their works; but God is personally in nature. He is here-not merely His influence, His works, but Himself. It is because we are spiritually blind that we do not see Him. "God is in this place, and I knew it not," said Jacob. God had always been there, never from there; but the patriarch's eyes had been closed up to that point. Secondly: His adorable character is discoverable in nature. You cannot worship the mere presence. Worship implies character, and the worshipful character must be benevolent. You cannot worship stolid indifference. Still less can you worship malice. In nature you see Divine goodness everywhere. The verses before us celebrate its beneficent operations, it settles the mountains and hushes the tempests; it beams in the break of morning, and sparkles in the rays of the setting sun. It comes down in the dews and showers that water the earth; it blooms in the verdant meadows, and glows on the purple hills. It drops upon the pastures of the wilderness; it waves in the golden cornfields, and they "shout for joy and also sing." Goodness is everywhere in nature; an ubiquitous presence, therefore let us worship Him as seen in nature. "O, come let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker." HOMILETIC SKETCHES ON THE BOOK OF JOB. The Book of Job is one of the grandest sections of Divine Scripture. It has never yet, to our knowledge, been treated in a purely Homiletic method for Homiletic ends. Besides many learned expositions on the book found in our general commentaries, we have special exegetical volumes of good scholarly and critical worth; such as Drs. Barnes, Wemyss, Mason Goode, Noyes Lee, Delitzsch, and Herman Hedwick Bernard: the last is in every way a masterly production. For us, therefore, to go into philology and verbal criticism, when such admirable works are available to all students, would be superfluous, if not presumption. Ambiguous terms, when they occur, we shall of course explain, and occasionally suggest an improved rendering; but our work will be chiefly, if not entirely, Homiletic. We shall essay to bring out from the grand old words those Divine verities which are true and vital to man as man in all lands and ages. These truths we shall frame in an order as philosophic and suggestive as our best powers will enable us to do; and this in order to help the earnest preachers of God's Holy Word. No. LXXI. The Second Speech of Elihu.-2. His Remonstrance and its Reasons. "IF THOU HAST UNDERSTANDING," etc.--Job xxxiv. 16--30. EXEGETICAL REMARKS: In the for- Ver. 17.-" Shall even he that Ver. 18.-"Is it fit to say to a king, Thou art wicked? and to princes, Ye are ungodly?" Does it behove us to say to a king, "O ye ungodly one," and to any among princes, "O thou worthless one?" Elihu seemed to feel that there would be great impropriety in this; but, alas! it is not al ways wrong, for human kings are often wicked and unjust. Ver. 19.-" How much less to Him that accepteth not the persons of princes, nor regardeth the rich more than the poor? for they all are the work of His hands." The prince is not distinguished from the beggar, all are alike to Him. He is absolutely impartial. Ver. 20.-"In a moment shall they die, and the people shall be troubled at midnight, and pass away: and the mighty shall be taken away without hand." The hour of death is not deferred for the great man on account of his greatness, nor hastened for the poor man on account of his poverty. At "midnight," when least expected, in the season of unconsciousness and repose, He brings all to death, the rich and the poor, the illustrious and the obscure. And does it often in a sudden and terrible way. "The mighty shall be taken away without hand." He requires no human instrumentality to sweep a whole generation from the face of the earth. Ver. 21.-" For His eyes are upon the ways of man, and He seeth all his goings." (See Ps. cxxxix.) Ver. 22. "There is no darkness, nor shadow of death, where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves." "The workers of iniquity" always seek to hide themselves; darkness is evermore the best hiding-place. But they cannot escape His eyes; they peer into the profoundest gloom. Ver. 23.-" For He will not lay upon man more than right; that he should enter into judgment with God." "For He needeth not long to regard a man, that he may enter into judgment with God."-Delitzsch. In this rendering Noyes, Umbreit, Wemyss, and others agree. The meaning probably is, that God does not require any preparation or time to bring a man to judg-. ment. He can do it at once; can call him to His bar in an instant. Ver. 24.-" He shall break in pieces mighty men without number, and set others in their stead." He breaketh in pieces mighty men in an unsearchable manner; no one can discover the means by which He destroys them, and He setteth others in their place. This is always going on, some falling, some rising-births and deaths some passing from the earth, others stepping into their place. Ver. 25.-" Therefore He knoweth their works, and He overturneth them in the night, so that they are destroyed." The word "destroyed" in the margin reads "crushed." Ver. 26.-"He striketh them as wicked men in the open sight of others [margin, "in the place of beholders"]. The idea is, that the wicked are destroyed openly. Sin may be privately committed, but retribution will be publicly administered. Ver. 27.-"Because they turned back from Him [margin, "from after Him"], and would not consider any of His ways." This is the cause of their ruin. They apostatized from Him, and they would not reflect upon His ways or His methods. Ver. 28.-" So that they cause the cry of the poor to come unto Him, and He heareth the cry of the afflicted." No cry or groan ever escaped the lips of anafflicted man without His hearing it. ness, 66 Ver. 29.-"When He giveth quietwho then can make trouble? And when He hideth His face, who then can behold Him? Whether it be done against a nation, or against a man only." When He giveth quietness. When He looketh upon a man and bestoweth ease, peace, and comfort upon him. Who then can make trouble? On the other hand,if He hideth His face, if He withdraws His favour from men, who then can behold Him? Who can hope to behold His face, to enjoy His favour as long as He remains unpropitiated? It is all one whether He doeth this: whether He hides His face, on account of a whole nation or on account of one man. Who has provoked Him?"-Bernard. Ver. 30.-"That the hypocrite reign not, lest the people be ensnared." "Whether on account of a hypocritical man's reigning, or on account of the snares of a people. Whether the anger of God which causes Him to hide His face, arises from the provocation He has received from a whole nation or from that given by a single man: whether from the reign of a hypocrite or from the corruption of a whole nation, it is an anger which will abide in the one case as in the other so long as the sins which called it forth remain unexpiated and unatoned for." HOMILETICS. These words are an expostulation addressed by Elihu to Job, concerning what he considered the patriarch's wrong views in relation to the character and procedure of God. "If now thou hast understanding, hear this: hearken to the voice of my words." His remonstrance, which is somewhat severe and strong, seems to be founded upon the following things, which come out pretty strongly in his language. It is : "Shall I. Founded on the SUPREMACY of the Eternal. even he that hateth right govern? and wilt thou condemn Him that is most just?" He means to say, that where there is absolute supremacy there can be no injustice. The Supreme is a law unto Himself; there is no law outside of Him, no abextra authority to which He is amenable for His conduct. There are some who speak of the absolute law of right, as something outside of the Almighty, independent of Him, and to which He is accountable. This is an absurdity which can only be entertained by shallow thinkers, a blasphemy repugnant to all our moral intuitions. What the Supreme wills, is right, and right because He wills it. "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right? "Is it fit to say to a king, Thou art This is a poor wicked? and to princes, Ye are ungodly? illustration, and shows either that Elihu had no experience of unrighteous monarchs, or that he was one of those servile natures that worship mere power for its own sake. If kings are wicked and ungodly, the people should not only declare it to them but denounce them. To be blind and mute in relation to the vices of royalty, is unjust alike to self, society, and to the ruler himself. If Elihu meant, by king here, an ideal king— all that a king should be, he was, of course, right to declare it wrong to charge him with wickedness. He means, perhaps, to say, that it would be wrong to charge even a good human king with wickedness; and how much more, to charge the Allperfect Monarch of the universe with injustice. There is no true human king but is just: he that ruleth over men must be just. And if to charge such an one with injustice is wrong, how much more heinous the wrong of charging the Great H |