November 27

of the fiction—This hope is the true myrtle staff. Take it constantly along with you: and you will renew your strength—you will run and not be weary, and walk and not faint.

NOVEMBER 27.—“He knoweth the way that I take.”—Job 23:10.

THIS, under the dark and distressing dispensation with which he was exercised, afforded Job relief and satisfaction—The knowledge of his covenant God and Father: “He knoweth the way that I take.” But what are we to understand by this knowledge? Acquaintance and approbation.

First, acquaintance. So he knoweth the way that his people take: and so he knoweth also the way that others take. But they do not deem this a privilege; yea, it is an irksome and fearful reflection; and therefore instead of having recourse to it for consolation they endeavour to banish it from their minds. “For he that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.” “But he that doeth truth cometh to the light.” He feels pleasure in the thought, “Thou God seest me.” Not that he is so vain and ignorant as to imagine that he can bear censureless the gaze of Omniscience; far from it: he is conscious that God will see much that is amiss in him—but he is conscious too, that God himself will see nothing wrong in him which he does not wish to have rectified. “I must be cured; and he alone can heal me; and therefore I rejoice that his knowledge prepares him to deal unerringly with me; and therefore I can pray, See if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”

And as this relieves him with regard to his experience, so it comforts him with regard to his outward condition and circumstances in the world. He telleth all my wanderings. He knoweth all my walking through this great wilderness. He sees all my dangers, and can defend and guide me. I know not the way that I take, but he knoweth it, and my welfare depends upon his knowledge, not mine. He is now bringing the blind by a way that they know not, and is leading them in paths that they have not known; and he will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight: these things will he do unto them and not forsake them. All is now perfectly clear to him; and I can trust him when he says, And thou shalt know hereafter.

There is also another case. “Am I misunderstood by friends, and reproached by enemies, while acting conscientiously and uprightly? How pleasing is it to turn from creatures so liable to err, and appeal to him who scareheth the heart, and discerns our motives and aims! My witness is in heaven, and my record is on high.” “Let my sentence come forth from thy presence; let thine eyes behold the things that are equal”—“He knoweth the way that I take.”

Secondly, approbation. Thus “he knoweth the way of the righteous,” but does not know the way of the ungodly. “For the way of the ungodly shall perish;” he “is angry with the wicked every day.” But if any man love God, the same is known of him. The Lord takes pleasure in them that fear him. The words of their mouths and the meditations of their hearts are acceptable in his sight. And that Job here peculiarly intends approbation as obvious