en, outcast Job is the sole auditor, and the stage is a whirlwind.
It is related of the late Professor Hodge that, on one occasion when he
was about to perform an experiment in his laboratory, he said to some
students who stood near, "Gentlemen, please remove your hats; I am about
to ask God a question." But here in this chapter we have a still more
sublime situation, for God is here asking questions of the man. And these
questions dig deep into the life of the man and show him how puny and
impotent is the finite in the presence of the Infinite. In this presence
there is neither pomp, nor parade, nor vaunting, nor self-aggrandizement,
nor arrogance. Even the printed page cannot but induce respect,
devoutness, and profound reverence, for it tells of nature's wonders--the
snow-crystals, the rain, the dewdrop, the light, the cloud, the
lightning--and reveals to the bewildered sight some apprehension of the
Author of them all.

The reader must, by now, have divined the conclusion of the whole matter.
Without respect there can be no reverence; and, without reverence, there
can be neither education nor civilization that is worth while. Some one
has defined reverence as "that exquisite constraint which leads a man to
hate all that is unsuitable and sordid and exaggerated and to love all
that is excellent and temperate and beautiful." This definition is both
comprehensive and inclusive, and the superintendent may well promulgate it
in his directions to his teachers. All teaching has to do with Truth and,
in the presence of Truth, whether in mathematics, or science, or history,
or language, the teacher should feel that he stands in the presence of the
Burning Bush and hears the command, "Put off thy shoes from off thy feet,
for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground." It seems a thousand
pities that even college students rush into the presence of the Burning
Bush in hobnailed shoes, shouting forth the college yell as they go.

The man who is reverent disclaims everything that is cheap, or vulgar, or
coarse, or unseemly. He is so essentially fine that the gaudy, the
bizarre, and the intemperate, in whatever form, grate upon his
sensibilities. He respects himself too much to be lacking in respect to
others. He instinctively shrinks away from ugly vulgarization as from a
pestilence. He is kindly, charitable, sympathetic, and sincere.
Exaggeration, insinuation, and caricature are altogether foreign to his
spirit. In his soci