A WORD TO THE GOD-
CRITICISING MAN.

"Should it be according to thy mind?"-Job. xxxiv. 33. THIS appeal occurs in one of the magnificent addresses of Elihu to Job. Although the speaker, like the "three friends," misunderstand the partriarch's character, and reason from wrong principles, many of his sentiments are divinely true, and stated, with remarkable clearness, vigour, and sublimity. I accept the popular idea attached to the textnamely, that it is not to be expected that God will consult the views of his creatures as to his own procedure. I regard Elihu as virtually saying to Job, "Is it to be supposed that God will manage his government according to thy mind?" The appeal indicates a tendency in human nature that is irrational, immoral, and prevalent. The text is an appeal to those, and they are many, who are, dissatisfied with the procedure of Heaven, and dare to sit in judgment upon the Most High. To such we put two questions:

I. SHOULD THE ARRANGEMENTS OF LIFE BE ACCORDING

are constantly murmuring under the dispensations of Providence, and who think and say that things should be otherwise, should remember four things :-(1.) The circumscribed sphere of their observation. What a small spot of this earth, which is itself but a mere atom in the creation, thou, who wouldst have things according to thy. mind, occupiest; whereas God's Government comprehends the universe. (2.) The limitation of human faculties. How little, even in thy small sphere, hast thou the power of seeing. Thou canst not penetrate the essence of anything about thee, nor canst thou understand all the relations, bearings, issues, of what thou seest in that little spot of thine. (3.) The brevity of man's mortal existence. The system of things under which thou livest began in eternity, and reaches through interminable ages. Thou art only here for a few short years. Thou "art of yesterday, and knowest nothing." (4.) The narrowness of human sympathies. You only feel an interest in the few things about you. Your sympathies are bounded to your little

the system of things under which you live is founded upon a sympathy with the universe. What is your point of observation to his? What is a mole-hill to the Andes ? What is your faculty of knowing to his ? What is the glowworm, that reveals the tiny leaf on which it rests, to the central sun that makes manifest the creation? What is your time for understanding things compared with his? Even a thousand years to eternity are less than one atom to all the massive globes of space. What is your sympathy to his? He loves all. His love is the spring, the support, and the sunshine of all existences? Should life, then, be arranged according to thy mind? The idea is as monstrous as it is wicked.

II. SHOULD THE METHOD OF REDEMPTION BE ACCORDING TO THY MIND? There are many who raise objections to Christianity. Many who imagine that they could have constructed a better system of Spiritual redemption. Two facts convince us that the human mind is utterly incompetent to form a scheme for Spiritual restoration.

First: The mistakes it has made on the subject in interpreting nature. Men under the light of nature tried for four thousand long years to I find out a true system of

religious redemption, and failed-signally failed. "The world by wisdom knew not God." And now everywhere where Christianity is not, it is still trying, and all its efforts are fruitless. "Darkness covers the earth and gross darkness the people."

Secondly: The mistakes it has made on the subject in interpreting Christianity. With the Gospel under its eye clearly revealing the scheme, it has formed most gross and absurd conceptions as to the way of salvation. The perverters of the Gospel plan of salvation may be divided into two grand classes. (1.) Those that infer from Christianity that they can be saved by a mere intellectual faith in certain theological propositions. (2.) Those that infer that they can be saved by an external observance of certain ceremonies-the intervention of priests, the invocation of saints, the observance of sacraments, &c.

Thus, we say to the captious sceptic, we cannot have a system of religion according to thy mind. Thy mind is utterly unsuited to construct a religion redemptive to man and acceptable to God. "Eye hath not seen, ear hath not heard," &c.

TRUE SAINTHOOD. "If children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint - heirs with Christ."-Rom. viii. 17.

I. TRUE SAINTHOOD HAS A SPECIAL FILIAL RELATION TO

GOD. All genuine saints are "children of God" in a special sense. There is, indeed, a general sense in which all men are his children; they are his offspring, and, as spirits, they have a resemblance to him. But true Christians are his children in a special sense. Wherein is the difference? Simply, here they have the true spirit of the relationship -the filial love. Mankind in general have not this. The unconverted millions are his offspring, but they have lost all filial affection and regard. Hence, they practically ignore the existence of their Father, and pursue a course of conduct opposed to his wishes and commands. Genuine Christians have this true filial spirit-the spirit of adoption; hence, they are in a special sense his children. Now, the giving of men this spirit of children is the great work of the Gospel-a work that is variously represented as conversion, regeneration, redemption, adoption, new creation, &c.

II. TRUE SAINTHOOD IS INVESTED WITH THE HIGHEST

PRIVILEGES. "If children, then heirs, heirs of God, and

joint heirs with Christ." Infinite is the difference, in condition, between those who have the true spirit of children and those who have it not. The latter are without hope, and without God in the world; the former are "heirs" to a magnificent inheritance.

First: They are "heirs of God." An heir is one who is entitled to an inheritance either by the will of another, or by birth. Christians are heirs of God by the birth within them of this filial spirit. Heirs of God! What a universe of blessedness is involved in this position. On earth there are poor heirs expectants of a very slender But Christians patrimony. are heirs to an "inheritance incorruptible, undefiled," &c.

Secondly: Joint heirs with Christ. This expression is used, no doubt, by the apostle, to convey a higher idea of the privileges of the good. Angels are true children of God, and they are heirs of God, but they are not "joint heirs with Christ." They are not to expect what Christ has as a son-thrones, crowns, empires won by suffering, toil, and battle. Christians have to "enter into the joy of their Lord," and sit down on the throne with Him.

CONCLUSION. First: Learn the infinite mercy of God. That love which stoops to

make rebellious men his true children, and invest them with a sublime heirship, passeth knowledge. “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed on us, that we should be called the children of God. "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath begotten us again to a lively hope," &c.

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Secondly Learn our obligations to live a dignified life. Men on earth who are heirs to an illustrious title and a magnificent patrimony, are trained to conduct themselves with a noble bearing. In a far higher sense ought Christians to be dignified in their spirit, their manners, and pursuits.

Thirdly: Learn our encouragement to fortitude under all the trials that afflict us. What awaits us? "Our light afflictions, that are but for a moment," &c.

THE LIFE OF THE TRUE.

"The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord."-Job. i. 21. JOB was undoubtedly a true man. He is described in the first verse as "a perfect and upright man, one that feared God, and eschewed evil." His history, therefore, may fairly be regarded as a type of the history of all true men, and

that utterance of his, in the text, suggests three general truths, that mark the history of true men.

I. THE LIFE OF THE TRUE

HAS THE ORDINARY VICISSITUDES. Job had received children, cattle, and property from the Lord, and all had been now "taken away." In the life of all men there is a constant receiving and losing. Health, pleasure, friendship, fame, property, these come and go. We have them to-day, and they may be gone to-morrow. Nothing that we have received but sheer existence with its wondrous sensibilities and faculties can we permanently hold. God Himself will not take that from us, all else is liable to be "taken away." Even the particles that build up our bodily frame are going from us every moment. This is life-gains and losses. How much that we all once had has been taken away from us. The freshness of childhood, the buoyancy of youth, the circles of early friendships. These vicissitudes of lifeFirst: Remind us that this world is not our rest. Secondly Urge us to rest on the Unchangeable.

II. THE LIFE OF THE TRUE HAS AN ENNOBLING CREED. Job felt that God was in all the receivings and losings of his life. "The Lord gave

and the Lord hath taken away." Some trace their vicissitudes to chance, and some to necessity, but Job to God. He recognised God in all the events of his life. This creed is

First: Reasonable. If there be a God, He must be concerned in everything — the small as well as the great. This creed is

Secondly: Scriptural. The Bible is full of it. Not a sparrow falleth to the ground without his notice. This creed is

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Thirdly Dignifying. It brings God in conscious proximity to man in his every-day life. God's agency is recognised in all.

III. THE LIFE OF THE TRUE HAS A MAGNANIMOUS

RELIGIOUSNESS. "Blessed be the name of the Lord." The language is that of pious exultation. This spirit is something more than submission to the Divine will under suffering—even something more than an acquiescence in the Divine will in suffering. It is exultation in the manifestation of the Divine will in all the events of life. It amounts to the experience of Paul, who said, "We glory in tribulation also, knowing that tribulation worketh patience, patience, experience," &c.

SOUL STRENGTH.

"Who, passing through the valley of Baca, make it a well: the rain also filleth the pools. They go from strength to strength: every one of them in Zion appeareth before God."-Psa. lxxxiv. 6, 7.

THREE times a year the law of Moses required all the men, and as many of the women as were able to go up to Jerusalem, in order celebrate certain feasts, commemorative of certain great events in their history. He who could take a position commanding a wide view of the country, would see on those occasions groups of pilgrims wending their way in all directions from various parts of Palestine to the metropolis, the multitudes swelling like a river at the confluence of its streams, as they approached the city. Such was the scene before the before the imagination of David when he composed this Psalm. He, however, was an exile from Jerusalem, through the rebellion of his son, and was not privileged to engage in those festivities. Still he longed to go up to Zion, "My scul longeth, yea, fainteth for the courts of the Lord." We take the text to illustrate true strength of soul, and we observe

I. THAT IT SPRINGS FROM A SPECIAL CONNECTION WITH

GOD. "Blessed is the man whose strength is in Thec."