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were to me most profane. The glory of the kingdom of God, and the glory of the kingdoms of this world, cannot become international. The head of our nation who originated that Exhibition, and the head of our Church, who trailed in the rabble at the opening of it, have, both alike, passed into the kingdom of Him the sceptre of whose kingdom is a sceptre of righteousness.

"When the Holy Ghost is come, He will reprove the world of sin of sin, because they believe not on me." "Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every one whom he receiveth." Scourgeth is a frightful word; but I would say to England, do not flinch, do not let the stroke be a botch, nor a scab, nor a fretting leprosy; God will not take any good thing from you, only just that which will do you harm; if you glorify His great name, He will exult over you and exhibit you to the world just as He did Job. Heaven is not far from us, if we would only travail into heaven. Our only disturbing cause is Satan. Deliver us, O God, from that ghostly enemy!

CHAPTER XXV.

ON THE BOOK OF JOB.

IN this chapter I shall extract a few passages from the answers of Job to his friends. And first, to show that his disease was leprosy, that he considered himself as dead; and secondly, to show that it was a fretting leprosy, that with which we are all diseased; and thirdly, to show that that which his friends called self-righteousness, was simply and honestly a vindication of himself from false accusations, a right determination to maintain his integrity and Christian name, for Job was a Christian; and fourthly, to show his faith.

First, to show that he was a leper. "My flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust; my skin is broken, and become loathsome." The leprosy in clothes and houses was known by little holes in the material and the walls, and it is supposed the holes were made by worms; and this was what Job meant; he was clothed with worms, and his body was a tenement of dust. "My skin is broken," tells us it was the elephantiasis-leprosy.

"Mine eye shall no more see good. The eye of him that hath seen me shall see me no more: thine eyes are upon me, and I am not. As the cloud is consumed and vanisheth away: so he that goeth down to the grave shall come up no more. He shall return no more to his house, neither shall his place know him any more. Therefore I will not refrain my mouth; I will speak in the anguish of my soul." (vii. 5-11.) Job considered himself then in this state, as one dead.

"I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin." Sackcloth was the garment of mourning; and we have seen his friends "come to mourn with him, and they sprinkled dust upon their heads. So they sat down with him upon the ground seven days and seven nights." And so Job continued. "And I have defiled my horn in the dust. My face is foul with weeping, and on my eyelids is the shadow of death." (xvi. 15, 16.)

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(xvii. 1, 14, 15.) "Though

My breath is corrupt, my days are extinct. I have said to corruption, Thou art my father: to the worm, Thou art my mother, and my sister. And where is now my hope? as. for my hope, who shall see it?" after my skin worms destroy this body." (xix. 26.) All this referred to the disease of leprosy, of which, as I have said, worms were supposed to be the cause. "He hath put my brethren far from me, and mine acquaintance are verily estranged from me. My kinsfolk have failed, and my familiar friends have forgotten me." (xix. 13-15, 21-23.)

This referred to the separation of lepers even from their family and friends.

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My skin is black upon me, and my bones are burned with heat." (xxx. 30.) And Elihu said, "His flesh is consumed away, that it cannot be seen; and his bones that were not seen stick out." "His flesh shall be fresher than a child's; he shall return to the days of his youth."

I have only extracted a few passages; you must read the book for yourselves if you would see Job a leper, he was as a being cut off from the living, and his three friends greatly aggravated his bodily suffering by insisting that it was God who had thus thrust him down, whereas it was indeed Satan in themselves and in their people.

It is true Naaman the leper was not thus cut off from the people, therefore the law of separation may have been amongst the Hebrews only; but it was a Divine law amongst them from the earliest time; the leprosy a divinely instituted type of sin, or rather, should I not say, a satanic exhibition of it, and oh! what a loathsome exhibition of it have we seen, the poison of the old serpent, the worm that dieth not of itself, the fire that is not quenched of itself, at the root of the soul! Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me whole. I will, be thou whole. Go, show thyself to the priest."

It is possible that filthy disease was produced, not more from want of food and water, than from contact with the herds of camels, and other beasts of burden of the desert.

God had not then given to His people a knowledge of the science of cleanliness as He has to us.

But I must now look at the fretting leprosy in Job. "The arrows of the Almighty are within me, the poison whereof drinketh up my spirit: the terrors of God do set themselves in array against me. Oh that I might have my request; and that God would grant me the thing that I long for! even that it would please God to destroy me; that he would let loose his hand, and cut me off!" (vi. 4, 8, 9.)

"So am I made to possess months of vanity, and wearisome nights are appointed to me. When I lie down, I say, When shall I arise, and the night be gone? and I am full of tossings to and fro unto the dawning of the day." (vii. 3, 4.)

"He will not suffer me to take my breath, but filleth me with bitterness. If I wash myself with snow water, and make my hands never so clean; yet shalt thou plunge me in the ditch, and mine own clothes shall abhor me." (xix. 17-30.)

"My soul is weary of my life; I will speak in the bitterness of my soul." (x. 1.) "Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O ye my friends; for the hand of God hath touched me." (xix. 21.) "Then Job answered and said, Even to-day is my complaint bitter: my stroke is heavier than my groaning. Oh that I knew where I might find him! that I might come even to his seat!"

We see from this that there was in the Patriarchal Church a most holy place, where the high priest of that dispensation

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