GOD ANSWERING JOB FROM THE

WHIRLWIND.

JOB, a man celebrated for his patience and piety, dwel in the land of Uz, in the eastern part of Edom. The origin of this holy person, and the age in which he lived, are mere matter of conjecture; some learned men making him contemporary with Moses, and others supposing that he lived before the time of that great lawgiver. Job, who was in a very prosperous condition, had seven sons and three daughters, a vast number of servants, flocks and herds, and was the greatest man of the country in which he dwelt. He was as remarkable for his piety as for his wealth; but God allowed the devil to subject him to a severe trial, knowing that the holy man would come out of it to the discomfiture of his enemy, and to his own honour. Satan was permitted to destroy all that he had, which Job bore with the most remarkable fortitude, submitting resignedly to the visitation, and blessing God, who, having bestowed upon him children and wealth, had a right to take them away. The devil, not content with this proof of Job's submission to his Divine Master, was allowed to try him still further, and to visit his body with any torments his malice could devise, so long as he did not touch his life. For a long time Job bore the most dreadful agonies without a murmur. He was covered with boils that tormented him night and day, but he lay down on a dunghill, and with a potsherd scraped his ulcerated body, mildly upbraiding his wife, who advised him to reproach his Maker with undue rigour. At length, overcome by the extreme severity of his sufferings, he cursed the day of his birth, when he was reproached by three friends, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar. A controversy of great interest ensues between the sufferer and his three friends, in which Job finally proves that they had accused him falsely. This is at length confirmed by "the Lord answering unto Job out of the whirlwind," and declaring his own omnipotence; after which he reproves the officious friends, and not only relieves the patriarch from his sufferings, but gives him greater wealth than he had lost, and another family.