LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

FRONTISPIECE :-Mount Zion.

VIGNETTE :-Pools of Solomon.

Casting Dust over the Head,

Ancient Sarcophagi,

Sepulchres in Rocks at Naksh-i-Rustam, Persepolis,

The Dumb Bell Nebula,

Tree growing on Wall, and extending its roots to the ground,

Tartar Courier,

The Wild Ass,

147

Ancient Medal of Cyprus, supposed to be the Kesitah,

255

HE Book of Job is one of the most remarkable, not only in the Bible, but in all literature. As was said of Goliath's sword-' There is none like it;' none in ancient or in modern literature. Hence the difficulty of those who have laboured to define the class of compositions to which it belongs. It belongs to no class; it is a class by itself.

This day we limit our view to the object of this not merely singular, but perfectly unique book.

The design appears, at the first view, to be like that of the greatest of human poems, 'to justify the ways of God to man ;' and this, in the largest sense, is the correct view of it. Yet the ways of God, so often, to man's imperfect view, 'puzzled with mazes,' cannot be said to be forensically vindicated therein. Much is stated to correct crude notions of the Lord's dealings with man in this state of life: but the result rather binds us up in the position, that the greatness and infinite wisdom of God being demonstrated by his marvellous works, the only satisfactory conclusion in which erring and feeble man can rest, is, that He doeth all things well; and that by reason of his perfections, which render wrong-doing impossible to Him, we are bound to believe that whatever tempts us to mistrust and mis

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giving must ultimately prove to be consistent with eternal justice.

The book is, in fact, engaged with the great problem regarding the distribution of good and evil in the world, especially as viewed in connection with the doctrine of a righteous retribution in the present life. It sets forth the struggle between faith in the perfect government of God, and the various doubts excited by what is seen and felt of human misery, and by what is known of the prosperity of many among those who are despisers of God. The subject thus appears to be one that comes home to men's business and bosoms. Even under the light of Christianity, there are, perhaps, few who have not at particular seasons felt the strife between faith in the perfect government of the world, and the various feelings excited in the mind by what they have experienced of human suffering. The pains of the innocent, of those who cannot discern between their right hand and their left, the protracted calamities which are often the lot of the righteous, and the prosperity which frequently crowns the designs of the wicked, have at times excited wonder, perplexity, and doubt in every thinking mind. We, as Christians, silence our doubts and confirm our faith, not only by what experience teaches of the general wisdom and benevolence of the Creator, and by the consideration that affliction comes from the same hand which is the source of all our blessings, but by an enlightened perception of the moral and religious uses of adversity; by the assured hope of that joy in a better world, which belongs to those who endure to the end; and, above all, by the filial conviction which ought to become, and which often is, a principle of action in all the relations of life, that He who spared not his own Son to secure our redemption from the calamities of sin, cannot possibly, after such proof of his love, mean other than well and kindly to us, no less in the bitter than the sweet which He casts into our lot.

But to understand and appreciate the object of the Book of Job, and the discussion which it embraces, we are bound to overlook some of the sources of consolation which are open to us as Christians, and try to enter into the state of mind of