God standeth in the congregation of God; He judgeth among the gods. The supreme God inveighs against the moral confusion that reigns through the earth, and threatens the slack The superhuman character of these world-overseers is shown in the fact that the punishment threatened is their degradation to the rank of mortals. So the Satan or Adversary in the prologue to Job comes amongst the sons of God; there is no difference between his reception and the reception of the rest. These have come from their several provinces; the Satan reports himself as Inspector of Earth: he comes "from going to and fro in the earth and walking up and down in it." If misleading associations from the other use of the word "Satan" are dismissed, it will be seen that there is nothing malignant in the action attributed to this official of heaven. He simply performs the duty of his office when he raises the question of the true meaning of Job's piety : it is the office of an inspector to suspect. It is indeed from the lips of this Adversary that we are to receive the highest interpretation of the mystery of suffering. When once this misunderstanding has been cleared out of the way, the narrative becomes luminous with suggestion. In the councils of heaven the province of Earth is under review, and God instances Job as a type of perfect service. The Inspector of Earth, as in duty bound, puts the possibility that what seems to be perfection may be only policy. Job has had a life of unbroken prosperity : according to the doctrine of judgment— that righteousness brings prosperity and sin brings ruin-Job may have only been manifesting enlightened self-interest, in continuing the conduct which has seemed so well rewarded. If however he were to be visited with adversity, there would be a chance for Job to show whether he would cling to goodness when goodness brought no reward. The experiment is permitted; for life is a state of probation. Job is suddenly overwhelmed with ruin: he does not merely accept the ruin, but makes it an occasion for remembering the giver of the happiness he has lost. The LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away: In the council of heaven that follows the Adversary honours the constancy of Job by advancing a still severer test, and is permitted to smite the patriarch with loathsome disease. Even the good wife of Job loses faith at last, and bids her husband renounce all belief in God. Not so Job: he asks, Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? The experiment has been complete, and probationary suffering may be withdrawn ; when the narrative is resumed in the epilogue, it is told how all his prosperity returned to Job, and he waxed greater than before. Thus the prologue to Job has opened out a higher view of suffering than any that appears in the dramatic discussion. In the councils of heaven, where the ways of providence are determined upon, suffering is seen employed as a test of saintship; the unmerited troubles of the good are the only means whereby they have the opportunity of showing whether they love good for its own sake, or whether they have only been following right because they believe it brings happiness. It was from zeal for the righteousness of providence that the three Friends and Elihu contended for their doctrine of judgment that fate is always determined by character. They fail to see that if this were so- - if there were an invariable connection between right action and prosperity, wrong action and ruin then goodness in the highest sense would be impossible; man would have no moral choice between right and wrong, but only a question of self-interest as between prosperity and suffering. It is the breaches in the law of retribution- the wicked often allowed to prosper, while the righteous must suffer the penalties of the wicked that make the final sifting, between those who are simply wise, and those who are truly good. Job in the midst of his perfect life is visited with ruin : he rises higher Though he slay me, I will trust him. The three children of Babylon are confronted with the fiery furnace for their piety; they are speaking their past convictions when they say,— Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, but they rise higher in the crisis of judgment, and face the other alternative, — but if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods. The highest point that can be reached by wisdom, with its reflections on human life, is an enlightened conception of retribution: Righteousness is the way to prosperity, if not here, then hereafter. But the prologue to Job opens out a higher conception still: Righteousness, though at the cost of prosperity. Beyond wisdom there is faith. Such then is The Book of Job. Its central part draws into a single dramatic movement all the varying aspects of wisdom, the wisdom that founds itself upon observation of life. The prologue and epilogue rise beyond wisdom, to the faith that can penetrate into the mysteries of the supernatural. CHAPTER VI NEW TESTAMENT WISDOM In the ordinary acceptance of the term, the wisdom literature of Holy Scripture is limited to books of the Old Testament and Apocrypha. Yet three books of the New Testament may profitably be read in this connection, although it must be said at once that for two out of the three the term 'wisdom literature' would be an imperfect description. The appearance of Jesus Christ upon earth has effected a vast revolution in human thought; not so much in the thoughts men may think, as in what men actually do think. The philosophic tone of mind. which realises itself in wisdom must have felt this revolution. It is not surprising, then, to find that one of the New Testament epistles, and two of the gospels, differ from other gospels and epistles in the degree in which they approach the literary character of philosophy or wisdom. These three works are the subject of the present chapter. Wisdom Christianised: The Epistle of St. James In this work there is nothing of the epistle except the superscription. The regular order of thought which appears in Hebrews or Romans is lacking; nor is there a trace of that reference to affairs of particular churches which characterises the pastoral epistles. Like the Old |