Homilist Job 42:17 So Job died, being old and full of days. Note the following facts — 1. The unconquerable force of an unselfish religion. Job loved the right for its own sake. His religion was not a means to an end; but the end itself, the centre of his affections, and the spring of his activities. A sublimer force is not found in the creation of God than the force of genuine religion. 2. The comparative worthlessness of theological controversy. This lengthened and often excited talk led to no satisfactory solution of the difficulties connected with the Divine procedure. Neither party was convinced of its mistakes. 3. The absurdity of boasting of the march of intellect. In mental and moral culture, what are we superior to the men who figure on the pages of this wonderful book? 4. The impropriety of deeming all outside the Gospel as morally worthless and lost. Conventional Christianity and missionary theology do this. They depict all the teeming millions of heathendom as without virtue, doomed to irremediable ruin. But here we find men who had no written revelation, no Gospel, not only theologically and ethically enlightened, but highly moral and profoundly religious. 5. The egregious folly of estimating man's moral character by his external circumstances. This is what the friends of Job did, and this is what men have been prone to do in every age. 6. To attempt to comfort the afflicted by discussion is to the last degree unwise. 7. A man may have many imperfections of character, and yet be good in the sight of God. Job was not a "perfect" man, but a genuinely good man. Men are to be judged, not by their imperfections, but by their "fruits." 8. With the fact that a righteous life will ultimately be victorious. Job's was a righteous life. And God blessed the latter end of Job more than the beginning. (Homilist.) Parallel Verses KJV: So Job died, being old and full of days. |
    |