---

Elihu declares that his attitude towards God is just the same as Job's. He stands like Job in respect of God. He is a mortal man formed out of the clay. Then, though Job dreads the awful, invisible God, he may listen to a fellow-creature without fear. If he cannot find God in the darkness, he may be cheered and strengthened by feeling the presence of a brother-man. He may take his lessons from Elihu quite simply and naturally as from one like himself. In these ideas Elihu shadows forth what may be perfectly realized in Christ. It was a mark of Elihu's confident vanity for him to speak as he did. But his words, somewhat superfluous as regards himself, set him forth in a striking light as a type of our Lord Jesus Christ.

I. WE NEED HUMAN SYMPATHY IN RELIGION. Although man is made in the image of God, and although his very life is a constant inspiration, and depends on the presence and power of God, still God is invisible, God is great, God is an infinite Spirit. The soul of man hungers for brotherly sympathy. We all want to feel the fellowship of one who is like ourselves.

1. That we may understand aright. We cannot understand a being of a different species from ourselves. We cannot even comprehend the meaning of our own dog when he looks up at us with pathetic eyes, for we are of another species.

2. That our affections may be awakened. We most naturally love one who is kindred to ourselves. The difficulty of loving God is to perceive that there is that in him which is akin to our own natures. When he appears strange to us we shrink from him; we cannot reach out to him in confidence and joyous emotion.

II. CHRIST BRINGS US HUMAN SYMPATHY IN RELIGION. We must not think of him as standing half-way between us and God. Such a Christ would be a monstrous being - neither one with us nor one with God. United with the Father on the Divine side. our Lord is a perfect Man on the human side.

1. He is intelligible to us. We can see him, hear him, understand him. And he has told us that when we see him we see the Father (John 14:9).

2. He wires our heart's affections. His kinship makes this possible; his brotherly love makes it actual; his great work and death for us perfect his hold upon us. Thus our hearts are drawn out to God by the sympathy of Christ.

III. MEN SHOULD SHOW HUMAN SYMPATHY IN RELIGION. What Elihu aimed at, what Christ realized, that is the ideal for us. Without the ostentation of the young Buzite, we are called upon to remember our human nature when we try to help our fellow-men in religious as well as in others matters. There is a sort of sanctimonious spirituality which ignores humanity. This is disgusting to men, and it is the cause of much popular aversion to religion. We cannot help our fellow-men till we recollect we are human like them - frail, fallible, mortal; nay, sinful, fallen, ourselves needing a Saviour. Brotherly sympathy is the first essential for helpful religious influence. - W.F.A.

---

---

KJV: Behold, I am according to thy wish in God's stead: I also am formed out of the clay.

WEB: Behold, I am toward God even as you are. I am also formed out of the clay.