us. when Thou givest cloudiness and trouble. We are miserably unlike Thine ancient saints, of whose victories in Thee we have been reading. We desire to mourn our want of confidence in Thy love towards Who are we, oh adorable Redeemer, that we should not learn to take up our crosses meekly, and to follow Thee whithersoever Thou leadest? Oh, give us strength and fortitude to do this. Look especially, we pray Thee, on this our sick and suffering brother. Enable him to triumph in Thee over the temptations to faint in the day of adversity, whose gloom now lies upon his path. Give him Thine abundant grace, that he may seek to emulate the faith and patience of Thine elder saints, and that in the multitude of the sorrows which he has in his heart, Thy comforts may refresh his soul. Whensoever he is tempted to faint, let him remember, to his great comfort, those who, through faith, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong. Let him remember that, for the sake of a better resurrection, some were tortured, not accepting deliverance that others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, and death, in every painful form, and yet fell asleep in Thee. Stay Thou his soul by means of Thine own inspired apostle's words, and so let him be established and comforted concerning his faith, "That no man should be moved by these afflictions : for yourselves know that we are appointed thereunto." Hear us, good Lord, we beseech Thee, for Thy precious merits' sake, and to Thee, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, be all honour and glory, world without end. Amen. XXX. SPIRITUAL AGENCIES, GOOD AND EVIL, IN JOB ii. 1-10. THIS is one of those mysterious chapters in the Holy Scriptures, wherein God has graciously vouchsafed, for the strengthening of our faith, and loving trust in Him, a brief glimpse of that which is continually going on, day by day, in regions impervious to mortal vision, and in which, could we but at all times feel it, we are so greatly concerned. Holy Scripture is consistent in its testimony throughout-that there is a prince of darkness, a fallen angel, whose constant aim it is to effect our eternal ruin. God has thus prevented us from being able to deny the existence of one so remorselessly malevolent, on the ground of his being invisible to us now. In the vision of Micaiah the prophet, the son of Imlah (1 Kings xxii. 19-23), we have an evil spirit in the same position with reference to God and man, as that which Satan is here represented as occupying. In this case the evil messenger is permitted by the Most High, to afflict one of His own righteous servants with grievous losses, and poverty, and sore disease, for the trial and purification of his faith; in the other case, he was permitted by the Sovereign Disposer of all things to hurry on the wicked Ahab to his doom. Yet is the infinite mercy of God shewn, both in limiting Satan's power over Job, and in warning even the rebellious Ahab of the fact, that an evil spirit had gone forth, by His permission, to be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. In the former case, it is evident that Job was kept of God' in the fiery furnace, to which Satan had been allowed to subject him; and, in the latter case, had Ahab believed Micaiah, the bearer of that timely warning from God, he would not have gone up to RamothGilead to battle, and would have had further time and opportunity for repentance. Satan is called, as we know, the prince of the power of the air; the spirit that worketh in the children of disobedience. St. Paul solemnly warns his Ephesian converts (Ephes. vi. 11): "We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high (or heavenly) places." These passages both contain a reference to the fact that, for the present, Satan and his evil hosts, are encamped in the air above us; whence they have access to the presence of God day and night, as the accusers of the brethren (Rev. xii. 10), and whence Satan himself goes forth to and fro upon the earth, and up and down in it, as a lion seeking whom he may devour. The time is at hand, when, as we believe, these enemies of our salvation will be driven down from their present position, and no longer allowed, for the period of a thousand years, to afflict or deceive mankind. (Rev. xii.) That will be the millennial age, "when the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea." But let us now look into the verses before us, as they may be justly supposed to refer to the Lord's dealings in grace with yourself, my brother, in the matter of your present sickness. We learn from them, first, that Satan is from time to time allowed to move the Lord to afflict even His most faithful people in various ways. "The Lord said unto Satan, Hast thou considered My servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God and escheweth evil? And still he holdeth fast his integrity, although thou movedst Me against him, to destroy him without cause." The Lord's ways towards His people, and indeed toward all men, are most mysterious, but, from the analogy of His dealings with the patriarch Job, we may safely conclude that, though mysterious, they are full of secret love and mercy towards them, and designed to promote their everlasting happiness. It may be, my brother, that Satan has moved the Lord to afflict you. Our countless corruptions do not escape the keen observation of our bitter foe, and the case we are considering seems to show us, that he narrowly watches our progress or declension in the Divine life, and plots against us in the manner he deems most fit to promote our destruction. There is undeniably something most awful in the reflection, that we are then under the tyrannous power, to such an extent as this, of the enemy of mankind; but be not dismayed, my brother, for this sacred history shews us : Secondly that the Lord gives Satan only a limited power over His own people. Just as "the Lord said unto Satan, Behold he is in thine hand, but save his life"; so, in your case, He may have given him liberty to proceed just so far, and no farther, with you. Yes, my brother, be comforted by this inspired assurance, |