Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: THE BOOK OF JOB: A LECTURE, PROFESSOR DR. E. W. HENGSTENBERG. THE BOOK OF JOB. The very first verse of the Book of Job informs us as to the nature of its subject: ? There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job. The same was simple and upright, one that feared God and eschewed evil. The name Job (or more correctly Hiob) signifies the much persecuted. Understanding the name of the man, we are no longer astonished afterwards to find him surrounded and assailed on all sides by enemies, with Satan at their head, whose very designation, signifying the adversary, stands to that of Job in the relation of an active to a passive. The much persecuted is described as a thoroughly just man. Four several terms, designative of righteousness, are employed, in order to indicate its great breadth and completeness. According to the clue thus given, we should judge the theme of the book to be the sufferings of the righteous, ?how they are to be explained, and shown consistent with the divine righteousness; what should be the conduct of men so situated, and by what means the heart is then to be quieted and consoled. The importance of this theme, and the great significance of the book, whose mission it is, as part of the marvellous organism of the canon of sacred Scriptures, to thoroughly discuss it, must be evident to all. If what Paul Gcrhardt says is true, ? Until the grave, the rod of the cross will lie on us; but then it ends, ?it is of the utmost practical consequence to have a clear understanding of this subject. But, that it is no light matter to attain to this clear understanding, that the cross is a deep, unfathomable mystery, that it belongs to the sphere of great secrets, which the Spirit of God alone can unfold, is shown by the futility of all the efforts pu.