THE BOOK OF JOB.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 261, 4 November 1933, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE BOOK OF JOB.

GREATEST HEBREW POEM. I. (By S.) The Book of Job is the greatest poem of the Hebrew race. Carlyle was so taken with it that he went so far as to say that there was nothing in the Bible or out of it that was equal to it in merit. It deals with the perplexity and struggle of the human heart under the stress of sorrow and suffering, and the spiritual insight and wisdom it shows is remarkable. If ever a man was crushed to the dust it was Job, yet, though his wife lost - heart and hope, and though he was wretchedly disappointed in his friends, he came out of his trials with patience and resignation. He never lost his reverent regard for God or ceased to be loyal to Him. He remained all through a devout man, and revealed a splendidness of soul that is almost unexampled in history. Now his invincible faith and splendidness of soul would never have been known, for they would never have been revealed, but for his misfortunes. And so with ourselves. It is doubtful if others would ever see any nobility in any of us if there were no background of misfortune or temptation, of tragedy or pathos, in our lives. The Book does not solve the problem of suffering and sorrow. No book does that. But it shows us, as a thoughtful writer puts it, "how we should feel and how we should act" when we are made to drink deepjy of the cup of misery. "If one were asked what blessing he wouid most desire," says Robertson Nicoll in one of his essays, "the readiest answer would be, 'perfect health'; and yet," he goes on, "I doubt whether on reflection, this would be the choice of the wise man. The man who is always in perfect health is ignorant of many things which it is well to know." That is true, and Nicoll wrote as one who was dogged with ill-health. It is not easy, however, to be philosophic about our health when we feel as if we were crowned with thorns, and less easy still, when along with that the good seems to have vanished, when "all the stars are quenched and the heavens are solid with blackness." Yet Job was philosophic when that was. his experience. And he was wise. There is always a certain, wisdom in being philosophic in our sufferings arid misfortunes, for it not only saves us from dashing ourselves against the bars of fate —it makes it possible, for ns to learn many things, as Nicoll says, of which we should otherwise remain ignorant, as well aa to develop the soul in us. No one's soul, indeed, can ever Teach, even approximately, the full stature of perfection possible in this life without some experience of sorrow and suffering, and many of the men and women whose careers were largely made up.of sufferings that had no tongue have believed that. So for aught we know Providence may be oftentimes kind to us when He allows the tide to turn against us. The spoilt child is never to be envied, and there may be a deeper truth than we find it easy to believe in the paradoxical saying of the writer to the Hebrews, that the Lord disciplines those He loves.