t of the childless, homeless, and penniless sufferer! After the
eastern custom in time of affliction, he cut off his hair, rent his
robe, fell upon the ground, and worshipped. The lips, tremulous with
sorrow, uttered the often-quoted and beautiful words: "The Lord gave,
and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord." No
disloyal act, or foolish complaint against Jehovah, gratified the
expectant enemy of God and man. But Satan was not satisfied with the
trial of faith. He was allowed to appear before God, and in answer to
the questioning respecting the patriarch's lofty yet meek submission,
basely and meanly declared that if he had been permitted to torture the
body, he should have succeeded in proving Job to be a hypocrite. The
Lord had purposed to silence the devil, and thoroughly try and sanctify
his own child. So he told the tempter to do what he pleased, only he
must spare life.

Suddenly poor Job was covered with burning ulcers, which defiled his
form until he scraped it with a piece of broken pitcher. While sitting
in the dust, a wretched mass of corruption, he found a new tempter in
the person of his wife: She asked him if he could still "retain his
integrity," and urged him to "curse God and die." Beautifully again his
breaking heart uttered its loyalty. Charging her with folly, he
inquired: "What! shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we
not receive evil?"

The scene of sorrow is now changed. Job had three friends living in the
country not far off, who were clearly intelligent, noble men. They heard
of his calamities, and started on a visit of condolence. When they came
in sight of him, he was so changed that at first they did not know him.
They wept aloud, rent their robes, and scattered dust on their heads, to
express their overwhelming grief. There he sat, in miserable poverty and
disease, and all around him the ruins of his just before magnificent
fortune, and the bodies or graves of his sons and daughters. They
approached him, and could say nothing, but sat down with him seven days
and nights without speaking a word--an awful, expressive silence. At
length Job could refrain no longer, but in his despondency, began to
bewail his birth, and wish he had at least died in earliest infancy.
Then was opened a long, eloquent, and wonderful discussion by the
mourning company upon the providence and grace of God.

Jehovah at length spake from the rolling cloud, borne on the "wings of