Job 7:11

"Handfuls of Purpose"

For All Gleaners

"I will speak in the anguish of my spirit." Job 7:11

This is natural, but unwise. A spirit that is in anguish cannot take a fair and full view of any question. Anguish and justice can hardly dwell together. To speak in an agony of sorrow is to attach undue meanings to words, to burden them with unjust weight, and to shut out elements and considerations which are essential to impartial and philosophical conclusions. No man ought to speak in the anguish of his spirit concerning divine providence; otherwise he may charge God foolishly, bringing together all the inequalities, severities, and miscarriages of life, and urging them against the goodness of divine providence. We should be silent in sorrow, for to speak without self-control is to speak without wisdom. Let him speak who has passed through sorrow and seen something of its true purpose: then will he be likely to speak with the sobriety of experience and with the deep feeling of sympathy. We could not speak fairly about a friend in the moment in which he has caused us grief or severe anxiety; we should fall into an accusatory strain and charge him with having been inconsiderate if not cruel towards us. Time is required for many an explanation, social and divine. Sometimes we boast that in the course of a year or two the friend whom we have now annoyed or grieved will see the wisdom of our course and thank us for our decision or counsel: in the strength of this we support ourselves, sometimes indeed we plume ourselves with pardonable conceit; and when in the lapse of time our judgment is vindicated we hail our friend with the expectation that he will bless us for counsel that appeared to be unsympathetic or for a decision which was so stern as to be momentarily cruel. There are indeed countless incidents in life calculated to bring anguish upon the spirit, to excite scepticism in the heart, and to depose faith from its calm and absolute sovereignty: virtue is thrown down in the streets, vice has everything its own way, men who never pray are satisfied with abundance, and thus Providence appears to be on the side of wickedness and selfishness of every degree. Under such circumstances the spirit is filled with anguish, and when it speaks it is in tones of disapprobation or fretful-ness or unbelief. We should pray for the calm spirit, for the spirit of patience and longsuffering, and only speak after we have been in profound and continuous communion with God. Even a believing man, when he allows his anguish to dictate his speech, may offend against God, and bring discredit upon the altar at which he serves. Let us understand that the moment of anguish is to be the moment of silence, so far as criticism is concerned.