Bible Commentaries

Job's Reply to His Three Friends.
V.

Job 13:26

Note the unity and continuity of life.—There is a philosophy which asserts that the human body changes its atoms or particles, say, every seven years, and in view of that philosophy it has been attempted to show that human identity practically changes.—The suggestion is not without fancy and beauty; at the same time it is simply driven out of court by certain moral instincts which insist that time has nothing whatever to do with the mitigation of deep moral offences.—Who, for example, would say that a man is no longer to be charged with murder after seven years have elapsed since the perpetration of the crime? Who would admit a forger to his countinghouse on the plea that more than seven years have passed by since the forgery was committed, and therefore the identity of the man had changed?—We have to elect between theories which are fanciful, and practices which are well-proved and established: as a mere matter of fact, it would be universally acknowledged that no man would be admitted to trust and fellowship who had committed murder or forgery even thirty years ago; he would be still held to be the same man, and his offence would be resented with undiminished indignation.—Here, then, is a law, the action of which we must faithfully recognise: Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap; this plain word stands for ever, and nothing can change its application.—As a matter of fact, we know that after long years the trangressions against health which we have committed remind us by practical consequences of their reality.—We are constantly telling men that they treated themselves hardly in their youth, that in their youth they ruined their constitution, that in their youth they laid foundations for this or that disease.—This being the case bodily, it is also the case spiritually.—So mysterious is the connection between the body and the mind that what is done in the one affects the other for good or for evil.—A man cannot think a bad thought without taking so much quality out of his brain.—A man cannot even silently muse upon the possibility of doing forbidden things without returning from his contemplation shorn and weakened and dishonoured.—The brain gives off its quality very subtly, but most surely; so much so, that he who has been indulging evil thoughts finds himself unprepared to discuss great questions or undertake perilous adventures.—Another law that is recognised in this text in the law of delay in the infliction of punishment or in the realisation of facts.—The penalty does not immediately succeed the transgression.—Herein men have hardened themselves to a high degree of impenitence against God.—"Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil."—We have illustrations of this even in physical life.—Men notice with wonder that people who have been infected with rabies do not instantly fall down dead: the poison mingles with the blood slowly, and probably months, in some cases even years will elapse, before the fatal result is developed.—This is looked upon as a scientific fact; it occasions no moral disturbance in the men who regard it as such: why, then, should it be thought a thing incredible that a man of fifty should have to suffer for wrongs which he did at twenty?—Is it not matter rather for religious wonder and thankfulness that the law should be so continuous and inevitable in its operations and executions?—In science this would be thought admirable, and would be held up as an instance of the solidarity and majesty of nature; the moral teacher must be none the less ready to avail himself of it for his superior purposes.—A text of this kind justifies the preacher in exhorting his hearers to beware what they sow. to take care of themselves in their youth, and to proceed along the line of life with the caution of men who know that every word will be heard again, that every deed will repeat itself in some consequence, and that character is but the summing-up and consummation of works done day by day from the very beginning of life.