against man regarded as a mere physical being, destroys continually all his hopes, gradually changes his aspect, from youth to manhood, from manhood to age, from age to decrepitude, and finally sends him away from this scene of ever unsuccessful conflict with the outward influences that are continually bearing upon him. V. 19. The waters gradually wear the stones. —paulatim atterunt-by little and little. Hence the noun p-pulvis-corresponding to the modern geological term detritus,-that which was worn down by the waters, as was probably the case with all that now constitutes the loose soil of the earth. Isa. 40: 15-The small dust of the balance. Thou washest away the things that grow out of the dust of the earth. In this our English Version gives the common sense of although it does not explain the suffix. Herder and Noyes render it -The floods overflow the dust of the earth. Rosenmüller's translation comes to the same thing. They all give an unusual sense to, not warranted, we think, by its connection, in any other place, and besides requiring a very harsh grammatical anomaly, in a plural masculine nominative to a feminine singular verb. Such a construction can hardly be justified by an appeal to some rare usage of the Arabic. Moreover, in this idea of a sudden inundation of a flood, there is lost that feature of the comparison which appears in all the other parts, namely, of steady and irresistible power,-gradual, yet finally prevailing. May not be the nominative? It would present something of an anomaly in respect to gender, but nothing so strange as that arising from the other view. Besides, in the compound nominative 7, we may regard the gender of the latter noun in regimen as controlling. The sense then would simply be―The dust of the earth -or the earth with its dust-overwhelms its productions, or the vegetation which grows spontaneously out of it. It would then seem to refer to the gradual encroachment of the desert sands upon the cultivated soil, such as often had taken place, and does yet take place, in that part of the world. It would, in this way, present a very natural parallel to the first member, the former referring to the gradual encroachment of the waters, the latter to that of the desert upon the cultivated earth. And then follows most naturally the sentiment of the closing member-Thou destroyest the hope of man. Nature is ever at war with him-or, rather-Thou, through nature, art ever defeating his most lasting plans, and bringing to nought his proudest works. Horace has something of this idea, together with comparisons substantially the same, though presented in an opposite aspect 1849.] Death closes the Scene. Debemur morti nos nostraque, sive receptus 505 Terra Neptunus classes aquilonibus arcet, Doctus iter melius; mortalia facta peribunt,' With this view admirably coincides the verse following -Thou prevailest continually against him until he depart; or, that he may depart; ever changing his countenance until finally thou sendest him away. as a rare word occurring here, in Job 15: 24 and in Eccl. 4: 12, with some few instances of the derivative The places where it is found are, however, sufficient to show that its radical idea is that of irresistible power. Joun. Rosenmüller finds here also his favorite idea of irreparableness -opprimis morte irreparabili ut resurgere nequeat. It accords well with the primary idea of the word, and the previous train of thought, to render continually,-implying a steady, uninterrupted, and irresistible course of action, operating by way of an immutable law, or of a fixed divine procedure in the employment of natural powers. This also agrees well with the other sense of the word, namely, that of victory or final triumph. . This word, according to the view we have taken, would not refer merely to the change that passes upon the human countenance at death, but to the gradual evidences of decay which attend us during almost the whole of our earthly life. V. 21. This verse evidently refers to a state after death, when man has finally succumbed and given up the weary conflict. His sons come to honor, and he knoweth it not; they are brought low, and he regardeth it not. There is here the same idea to which we have before adverted. Man goes not to the land of annihilation, but to the ghostworld of Sheol, where the soul, in its penal separation from the body, loses its connection with the upper world,—has no longer any recollection of, or interest in its past scenes; but is reduced to its rudimentary, quiescent, dream-like, powerless state of ghostly animation. Their hatred and their love is lost; The closing verse of the chapter seems to have given the commentators much trouble. There is something very harsh in regarding it as spoken of the dead, on any view we may take of their condition ; and yet many have given it this interpretation. "He speaks figura tively," says Rosenmüller, " of his body, as though it felt the gnawing of the worm, and of his soul, as though it felt grief for its separation." We cannot help thinking this exceedingly unnatural, repulsive, and improbable. Even on his own hypothesis, it would be strange that such a figure should come directly after Job is supposed to have spoken of death as a state in which there was no recollection. The reference by Rosenmüller to Num. 6: 6, is unworthy of his scholarship. The use of there for a dead body, is on a different principle altogether. It is merely an elliptical expression for what visibly remains of man after dissolution, or the departure of the spirit, and which is taken as the true representative of what was once the whole humanity. So the Greeks sometimes use wvy by way of ellipsis for death, or the loss or departure of the soul-as in Euripides Iphig. in Aulid. 1453 οὐ πενθεῖν με σὴν ψυχὴν χρεών. By a similar, though inverted use of a part for the whole-rezooi, which literally means dead bodies, is sometimes put for the souls in Hades, or the dead generally. As in Eurip. Hecuba 557 · ἐν νεκροῖσι γὰρ δούλη κεκλῆσθαι, βασιλὶς ούσ', αἰσχύνομαι. The true explanation of the connection here may be found in what has been already said of the meditative, musing, soliloquizing and ejaculatory nature of Job's discourse. May we not here also imagine a pause of impressive silence? He reviews the whole ground of his former meditations, and then comes the closing thought,—not intended to be in immediate logical connection with what just precedes, but as a sort of moral, or summing up, to the whole chapter containing this rhapsody on mortality; or rather to the general picture of human frailty presented in the latter part. As though he had said-"Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter-Such is man. His life is a scene of perpetual conflict. Death conducts him to the ghostly land of forgetfulness. Such is his mere physical condition in this world. It is sorrow, and labor, and a sore travail, and a heavy yoke for all the sons of Adain, from the day in which they come forth from their mother's womb, until they return to the earth, the mother of all." As the son of Sirach thus sums up human life -"Anxious thought—fear of heart, passion, zeal, commotion, fear of death, little or nothing of rest;" so Job most concisely expresses it all in reference to both departments of human nature-His flesh upon him has ever pain; his soul within him ever mourns. The one is ever the seat of disease in some of its 1849.] Reinhard's Sermons. 507 various forms; the other of care and grief alleviated by comparatively little of rest or enjoyment. In other words-Flesh and heart (~==;8 body and soul) both fail. Here closes the picture as drawn by desponding Job. The stronger and steadier faith of the Psalmist could append the triumphant finale-But thou, O God, art the strength of my soul (the rock of my heart) and my everlasting portion. A strong, though not conclusive argument for this view of the verse, is derived from the use of the futures, which the whole style of the passage requires us to take in what has been called the frequentative or habitual sense, as referring to that which is done continually or uninterruptedly; a good example of which may be found in Job 1: 5, in the future, . So here they refer not to what takes place in the future strictly, or after death, but to what is commonly experienced by both soul and body upon earth. ARTICLE VI. REINHARD'S SERMONS. By Edwards A. Park, Professor in Andover Theological Seminary. In the last No. of the Bib. Sac, it was proposed to give some illustrations of the sermons of Francis Volkmar Reinhard, the celebrated Court Preacher at Dresden. Some remarks having been made on his Life and Labors, the Novelty and Variety of his Themes for the Pulpit, the Connection of his Themes with his Texts, and with the Occasions on which they were discussed, the Rhetorical Structure of his Discourses, their Vivacity, and their Fitness to excite the Curiosity of hearers or readers; we now proceed to consider the § 9. Historical Character of his Sermons. The festivals of the Romish and some of the Reformed churches, have reference to the external facts of Christianity. Many of the lessons prescribed for these festivals are of course narrative in their character, and lead to the composition of historical discourses. When Such as Annunciation day, Good Friday, Easter, Ascension day, Whitsuntide, etc. Reinhard was appointed, in 1808, to make a new pericope for the Saxon churches, he selected as many narrative lessons as propriety allowed, because such texts "give the preacher an opportunity to vivify his discourses by actual events, and to apply his remarks immediately to the relations of common life." His example is congenial with his theory. Although he never occupies the chief part of a discourse with a continuous narrative, he frequently diffuses the historical element through his entire discussion. It may be called his favorite method, first to expose the principle which underlies some biographical incident, and then apply that principle to our common life. His text presents an individual fact; he briefly develops the moral truth involved in that fact, and devotes the body of his sermon to the illustration of that truth in the daily conduct of men. Thus his discourses have the interest and the vividness of the historical style, their moral lessons being pictured out in the significant fact which the text records, and have at the same time the unity and directness of the logical arrangement, unfolding a principle in its exact relations, and explaining it incidentally by the text. There is, however, an occasional infelicity, perhaps an apparent irreverence, in applying a record of the divine operations, or a passage of our Saviour's life, to the habits of men, and thus making the greater merely illustrative of the less. In the lesson Matt. 9: 1-8 it is said, that Jesus" entered into a ship and came into his own city" (Capernaum, the place of the Saviour's frequent residence during his public ministry), "and immediately they brought to him a man sick of the palsy," etc. This fact indicates that Jesus enjoyed the confidence of those who lived near him, and suggests to Reinhard the Proposition of a sermon,2 How valuable to true Christians is the confidence of their own townsmen. It shows a) that a good religious sentiment prevails around them; b) it is a testimony to their exemplary life; c) it is a means of doing good to their fellowcitizens; d) it encourages them to persevere in works of charity. We should by no means be regardless of our reputation at home; we should diligently examine our own characters if we are in ill repute among those who best know us; we should never strive to obtain this home reputation by improper means; we should never disturb good men in their enjoyment of this blessing. In a sermon on Matt. 4: 1—11,3 the scene of our Saviour's Temptation, he treats of those epochs which occur in the life of men, and at which they decide their future destiny. The Temptation of Christ 1 Vorrede zu Predigten, 1809, s. V. VI. |