misjudge Job if you think him egotist. He is rather
one who knows himself, and feels sure of his purity in motive; has
self-respect therefore--a hard thing for a soul to have, and the
possession of which is a benediction. To know we meant well, to be
able to justify us to ourselves, is next in grace to being justified of
God; for next to Him, self is the most exacting master and judge. He
feels misjudged, knows these men have misinterpreted him, being
deceived by his calamities, and he therefore is thrown on the
defensive, and becomes his own attorney, pleading for his life. "Pray
you, my friends, do not misjudge me," is his tearful plea, while they
press their cruel conclusions as a phalanx of spears against his naked
breast. This conception will clear Job of the blame of being
self-righteous. I do not find that in his utterances; but do find
sturdy self-respect, and assertion of pure motive and pure action; for
his argument proceeds thus: "I know my heart; I know all my purposes; I
meant right, and tried to do right. You think me hypocrite. I pray
you rectify your judgment, since neither in intent nor yet in execution
have I been other than I seemed, and who can bring accusations against
my doings? God breaketh me with a tempest, yet will I cry to him, Do
not condemn me: show me wherefore thou contendest with me. I call on
God to vindicate me, who knoweth my life to the full. Will God break a
leaf, driven to and fro by the wind? Though to you, my friends, I seem
smitten of God, your logic is wrong. I am not vile. O that I knew
where I might find Him! I would order my cause before him, seeing he
knows the way that I take." Job is himself confounded by his calamity,
so that he does not see clearly; finding no reason why God should
afflict him, he being as he is and as he has been, just in purpose; for
Job had yet to learn that lesson he has taught us all; namely, that not
God, but Satan, sent his disaster. He thought God was sowing ruin, as
the rest thought; whereas God was letting Satan work his evil way,
while God was to vindicate his servant by an apocalypse of himself.
Job, though bewildered as to the meaning of his troubles, asserts his
innocency; and as he presents his case, his sky clears, and his voice
strengthens, and his argument rises in its eloquence, sonorous as the
sea: "Know now that God hath overthrown me. He hath fenced my way,
that I can not pass. He hath stripped me of my glory, and t