factory, at the flaming forge, in the deep mines, in the fields, and on the roads, but in the exchanges of commerce, in the chambers of professions, in the library of students, in the studios of artists, in the halls of science. There is the labour of the brain as well as of the muscle. "All things are full of labour." There is human labour in everything; in our clothing, in our food, in our habitations, in all the necessaries, comforts, and enjoyments of life. Our civilization is full of labour. It has always been so; the iron law under which man hath lived from the beginning is, "by the sweat of thy brow thou shalt eat.” "The thing which hath been it is that which shall be." Materialists say all this labour is necessarily unsatisfying, it yields no happiness. "The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing." This is true true, I have no doubt, to the materialist. Labour, whether mental or manual, if not inspired with a right spirit, fails to yield any true satisfaction of soul. What said Lord Chesterfield, the brilliant courtier and the man of letters? "I have enjoyed all the pleasures of the world, and I do not regret their loss. I have been behind the scenes. I have seen all the coarse pulleys and dirty ropes which move the gaudy machinery; and I have scen and smelt the tallow candles which illuminate the whole decorations, to the astonishment of an ignorant audience."

Voltaire, the brilliant wit, the literary idol of France, expressed his experience of life in one word, "Ennui.” The man who has laboured most, and laboured in the highest departments of labour with a worldly spirit, must ever experience dissatisfaction of soul. The man that

"Drank every cup of joy, heard every trump
Of fame; drank early, deeply drank; drank draughts
That common millions might have quenched-then die
Of thirst, because there was no more to drink."

Yes, true, for ever true! Worldly labour can never

satisfy the human soul. You may as well endeavour to empty the ocean with your bucket, or quench Etna with your tears, as to get happiness out of any amount or kind of labour wrought in a worldly spirit. The idea of labour, however, propounded by Christianity is the opposite of this. Labour need not be, and ought not to be unsatisfying. A good man is "blessed in his deed." This idea is the true one. All labour should be inspired with the spirit of love to God, and trust in His paternal care. Such labour will be ever satisfying, ever blessed. The labour of love is the melody of life. He is "blessed in his deed;" not for his deed, but in his deed. Virtue is its own reward. Every true deed beats heavenly music into the soul.

IV. The one idea represents life as DOOMED TO OBLIVION --the other as IMPERISHABLY REMEMBERABLE. "There is no remembrance of former things: neither shall there be any remembrance of things that are to come with those that shall come after." The past is forgotten, the present will soon be in oblivion. Men and their doings are speedily lost in forgetfulness. The greatest of their age never can live long in the memory of posterity. Even those in their day, whose figures filled the horizon of public thought, and whose words ran swift as lightning from man to man, and nation to nation, soon flow down into the abysses of the unremembered. Great kings, conquerors, sages, orators, tribes, and nations were once here, and struck their influence deep and wide, whose names are now unknown. As painted bubbles on the stream, they are broken and are lost. Even those whom their successors strove hard to keep in the memory of succeeding ages gradually disappear beneath the dark and silent wave. Time wipes out their names from the most durable marble-moulders the metal, stone, parchment and paper on which they were inscribed.

"Some sink outright.

O'er them and o'er their names the billows close;

To-morrow knows not they were ever born.

Others a short memorial leave behind.

Like a flag floating when the bark's engulphed,

It floats a moment, and is seen no more

One Cæsar lives-a thousand are forgot."

Such is the gloomy idea of materialism—an idea under

whose dark and chilling shadow men may well weep and wail. But is it true? Only partially-only true so far as the memory of posterity is concerned. Posterity, it is true, soon forgets the greatest of its ancestors; but their ancestors, nevertheless, are not forgotten. They are remembered by their contemporaries, by their friends, and their God. Souls are undying; no soul can be forgotten; its words will echo for ever, its movements produce interminable vibrations. "The righteous shall be had in everlasting remembrance." The good man, "being dead, yet speaketh." Thank God! Christianity tells us that man will never be forgotten. He will live for ever in the memory of those who love him. The genuine disciple of Christ has his name written in an imperishable book— "the Lamb's Book of Life."

CONCLUSION. Brothers, which idea of life will you accept? That of the materialist, or that of Christian spiritualism? Which is the more rational? Which better matches the faculties of your nature? Which is the more in accord with the longings and aspirations of your inner life? Which is the more sunny-the more invigorating and ennobling? Which will the better qualify you to begin this year with a true heart, enable you to discharge its duties faithfully, enjoy its blessings with a grateful soul, and meet its trials calmly and undismayed?

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 great scholarly and critical worth; such as Drs. Barnes, Wemyss, Mason, Goode, Noyes Lee, 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.

PROLOGUE. Before directing attention to any particular passage of this book, it seems necessary to notice, in the most condensed way, the following points in relation to the whole book itself: its hero, age, author, style, canonicity, purpose, and divisions.

Is he a

First: Its hero. Is Job a historic or a fictitious character? veritable man, or the creation of fancy? That he had a historic existence we hold, for the following reasons:-(1.) The book has far more of the attributes of a narrative of facts than of a delineation of fancies. (2.) Other parts of the Inspired Volume refer to him as an historical character. See Ezek. xiv. 14; James v. 11. Thus Ezekiel refers to him as Jeremiah to Moses and Samuel (Jer. xv. 1), and James just as he had referred to Elisha as a real character. (3.) The book, although written in a poetic form, has all the attributes of history. It gives the details of persons, places, events, &c.

Secondly: Its age. When did Job live? The most competent judges fix the period as earlier than the age of Abraham, and consider that the book should be read between the 11th and 12th chapters of Genesis, as a supplement to the brief record of the early history of mankind. The reason for this belief is the long life of Job, extending to 200 years; the absence in the book to any allusion to Mosaic law, or of any reference either to the exodus of the Jews from Egypt or of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah; and the correspondence of the worship, manners, and customs referred to in the book with those of patriarchal times. He lived, in all probability, then, between the Deluge and the call of Abraham; and his existence is a proof that God has never left the world without witnesses to His truth. Thirdly: Its author. Some refer its authorship to Elihu, some to Job himself, and some to Moses. We are disposed to regard the book as autobiographic. It is evident from the book itself, xxiv., that the art of writing was known in the days of Job; and it is perfectly evident from the remarkable ability displayed by Job in his discussions, that he was fully equal to the authorship. The conclusion to which some

of the ablest critics have come is, that the work was composed by Job himself in the period of rest and prosperity which succeeded his trials, and came to the knowledge of Moses during his residence in Arabia, and was adopted by him to represent to the Hebrews, in their trials, the duty of submission to the will of God, and to furnish the assurance that He would yet appear to crown with abundant blessings His own people, however much they might be afflicted. Fourthly: Its style. The style, with the exception of the first and second chapters, and the last part of last chapter, is poetic. The language is a mixed dialect of the Mosaic, Hebrew, and the Arabic throughout. "In all countries," says a modern able expositor, "poetry is the earliest form of composition, as being best retained in the memory." And in the East especially it was customary to preserve their sentiments in a terse, proverbial, and poetic form (called maschal). Hebrew poetry is not constituted by the rhythm or metre, but in a form peculiar to itself. 1. In an alphabetical arrangement somewhat like our acrostic; for instance, Ps. i. 2. 2. The same verse repeated at intervals, as Ps. xlii., cvii. 3. Rhythm of gradations, psalms of degrees (cxx., cxxxiv.), in which the expression of the previous verse is reserved and carried forward in the next (Ps. cxxi.) 4. The chief characteristic of Hebrew poetry is parallelism, or the correspondence of the same ideas in the parallel clauses. The earliest instance is Enoch's prophecy (Jude 14), and Lamech's parody of it (Gen. iv. 23). Three kinds occur- (1.) The synonymous parallelism, in which the second is a repetition of the first, with or without increase of force (Ps. xxii. 27; Is. xv. 1); sometimes with double parallelism, (Is. i. 15). (2.) The antithetic, in which the idea of the second clause is the converse of that in the first (Prov. x. 1). (3.) The synthetic, where there is a correspondence between different propositions, noun answering to noun, verb to verb, member to member; the sentiment, moreover, being not merely echoed or put in contrast, but enforced by accessory ideas (Job iii. 3, 9). Also alternate (Isa. li. 19), "Desolation and destruction, famine and sword,”—i.e., desolation by famine, and destruction by the sword. Introverted, where the fourth answers to the first, and the third to the second (Mic. vii. 6). Parallelism thus often affords a key to the first interpretation. For fuller information, see Lowth ("Introduction to Isaiah," and "Lecture on Hebrew Poetry,") and "Spirit of Hebrew Poetry," by Herden, translated by Marsh.

Fifthly: Its canonicity. How, when, or by whom the books which now compose the Jewish canon were compiled, collected, and arranged, no one has yet determined with certainty. It is evident, from the chapter already referred to, that the book was known by Ezekiel, who flourished about 600 years B.C. The Seventy translated it 270 years B.C. Josephus places it in the number of historical writings; Jerome introduced it

See Job and his Times, by Wemyss.