THE REV. THOMAS CONNELLAN, - The Gospel Magazine

The Gospel Magazine. 529
are taught by their nurses to kiss their hand to the new moon. Any
homage paid to the heavenly bodies is virtually denying the Creator
that worship due to Him alone, God over all, blessed for ever. "By
the law is the knowledge of sin: nay, I had not known sin but by
the law." If this Word of God by Job had not been written, how
should we have known that such an act was iniquity and a "denial
of God above" ~ "Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my
transgressions; according to thy mercy remember Thou me, for
Thy goodness sake, 0 Lord." Great High Priest of our profession,
apply the blood of atonement to this sin of ignorance now" come to
knowledge" (Levit. iv. 23, 27-30), and let our hearts be sprinkled from
an evil conscience. "If I rejoiced at the destruction of him that
hated me, or lifted up myself when evil found him, neither have I
suffered my mouth to sin by wishing curse to his souL" Surely Job
was endued with an excellent spirit, the Holy Spirit of God, in an
especial degree separating him from evil, and inclining him to good,
pure, holy thoughts. How many Christians are not worthy to unloose
the latchet of his shoe, and yet we have the clearer light and
revelation of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ!
" If the men of my tabernacle said not, Oh that we had of his flesh!
we cannot be satisfied." "The stranger did not lodge in the street,
but I opened my doors to the traveller." Job might have known the
precept, "Be not forgetful to entertain strangers, for thereby some
have entertained angels unawares." It must have been written on
the fleshy tables of his heart by the self-same Spirit who inspired
the Apostle Paul to write it for our learning.
"If I have covered my transgressions as Adam, by hiding mine
iniquity in my bosom." Here is evidence that Job believed the
account of the fall of Adam, and his attempt to hide his sin and nakedness
by his fig-leaf covering; he was an old-fashioned believer in the
doctrinal truths of Holy Scripture, and his life and this defence of
himself against the false accusations of his friends prove he was actuated
by the pure Word of God. He is a rebuke to the critics of the present
day. "Did I fear a great multitude, or did the contempt of families
terrify me that I kept silence and went not out of the door ~" Only
the fear of God will keep us from fearing a multitude, or from following
them to do evil. THe contempt of families is often a terror from
which only his heart who is stable, trusting in the Lord, can be kept
in perwe, and not keep silence when witnessing for God and His truth
prompts us that it is "'a time to speak," and not to shut ourselve!!
indoors when called to confess Him before men.
" Oh that One would hear me ! behold my desire is that the Almighty
would answer me, and that mine adversary had written a book."
This is the continual yearning of a child of God, " Oh that One would
hear me," and that One the Omnipotent God, and the desire of his
heart, that he might know he was heard by the answer; and his
adversary had written his indictment against him in a book
There is a craving for God to speak and settle the question
according to His unerring judgment. It is ever so, that the believer
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