December 3

"Behold, I am vile." Jonah 40:4.

VILE, says Johnson's Dictionary, signifies mean, worthless, base, despicable, impure. There is nothing in the world to which this applies so well as to sin. And it is to sin that the exclaimer here refers. He does not call himself vile because he was reduced and poor. By this no man of reflection would ever feel himself degraded. A horse is not valued for his trappings, but for his strength or his speed. Character is a personal thing, and independent of outward circumstances. If poverty, as some fools seem to judge, make a man vile, how vile were the apostles, who could say, "We hunger, and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no certain dwelling-place!" And how vile was He who had not where to lay his head!

Nor does he call himself vile because he was diseased, and full of sore boils from the crown of his head to the sole of his foot. The Scripture, indeed, calls the body "this vile body;" and it is truly humbling, not only in the putrefaction of the grave, but frequently also even in life. How low are some of its appetites, how mortifying some of its infirmities; while some of its diseases are so trying as to require all the force of friendship to discharge the common duties of humanity. But there are no "wounds, bruises, putrefying sores" to be compared with the effects of sin—nothing is so vile as this. This makes us abominable to God himself, and is the only thing that does render us offensive. And how loathsome must that be, that causes the Creator to abhor the work of his own hands; and the Father of mercies to punish it with everlasting destruction from his presence, and to refuse to pardon it without the sacrifice of his own Son.

But who makes this confession? Is it a profligate wretch, whose iniquity in its effects has been found to be hateful, even to himself? Is it a penitent newly awakened, and looking into his own heart, that had been concealed from him before? No; but Job, a saint, and a saint of no ordinary magnitude. You have heard of the patience of Job; and know how he is mentioned by Ezekiel, along with Noah and Daniel, as one of three who were preeminently righteous; and how God, the Judge of all, calls him "a perfect and an upright man." Yet this is he who cries, "Behold, I am vile!" And what do we learn from hence but this, that the most gracious characters are the most remote from vainglory, and that they are always more affected with their imperfections than with their excellences? The nearer we approach completeness in any thing, the more easily we shall discern, and the more sensibly we shall feel our remaining deficiencies. A little learning puffeth up, but modesty and diffidence attend profound science. The advancing in knowledge is like sailing down a river, which widens as we proceed, till we find ourselves launched on the sea, and lose sight of the shore. Whoever vaunts himself as sinless, Paul did not. "I have not attained."

says he, "I am not already perfect." "I am less than the least of all saints;" "I am the chief of sinners." Not that there is no difference between a saint and a sinner. Job does not mean, that he loved sin, or lived in sin. His friends accused him of this, but he denied it; and turning to God, could say, "Thou knowest that I am not wicked." But he knew that in many things he offended, and in every thing came short of the glory of God. He was aware of the remains of sin opposing, hindering, vexing, polluting his renewed mind; and though they appeared not to the view of others in gross transgressions, they were constantly felt by himself in an evil heart of unbelief, prone to depart from the living God; and constraining him to sigh, "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?"

And let us observe also when this acknowledgment was made. It was immediately after God's interposition and appearance and address. "Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said, Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge? Gird up now thy loins like a man, for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me." Then he displayed before him some of his works and perfections. "Moreover the Lord answered Job, and said, Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct him? He that reproveth God, let him answer it. Then Job answered the Lord, and said, Behold, I am vile:" teaching us, that the more we have to do with God, the more we shall see and feel our nothingness and unworthiness. What can make us so sensible of our ignorance as his wisdom; of our weakness, as his power: of our pollution, as his purity—the purity of Him in whose sight the very heavens are not clean? Those are struck with little things who have never been abroad to see greater ones. But travelling enlarges the mind, and fills it with new and superior images; so that on our return, we think nothing of the river and the hill and the plain of our native village. The queen of Sheba prided herself upon her magnificence till she came to Jerusalem, and had seen Solomon in all his glory. He that has been introduced to the Lord of all, and has had communion with him, will never think highly of himself again. "The loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low; and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day." Ah, said Job, "I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes."

"The more thy glories strike mine eyes, The humbler I shall lie."

And I need not be afraid of the effect; my pride is the only prevention of my happiness.

"Thus while I sink, my joys shall rise Unmeasurably high."