381 And the Lord made answer to Job out of the storm-wind, and said, 2 Who is this who makes the purpose of God dark by words without knowledge? 3 Get your strength together like a man of war; I will put questions to you, and you will give me the answers.
4 Where were you when I put the earth on its base? Say, if you have knowledge. 5 By whom were its measures fixed? Say, if you have wisdom; or by whom was the line stretched out over it? 6 On what were its pillars based, or who put down its angle-stone, 7 When the morning stars made songs together, and all the sons of the gods gave cries of joy? 8 Or where were you when the sea came to birth, pushing out from its secret place; 9 When I made the cloud its robe, and put thick clouds as bands round it, 10 Ordering a fixed limit for it, with locks and doors; 11 And said, So far you may come, and no farther; and here the pride of your waves will be stopped?
12 Have you, from your earliest days, given orders to the morning, or made the dawn conscious of its place; 13 So that it might take a grip of the skirts of the earth, shaking all the evil-doers out of it? 14 It is changed like wet earth under a stamp, and is coloured like a robe; 15 And from the evil-doers their light is kept back, and the arm of pride is broken. 16 Have you come into the springs of the sea, walking in the secret places of the deep? 17 Have the doors of death been open to you, or have the door-keepers of the dark ever seen you? 18 Have you taken note of the wide limits of the earth? Say, if you have knowledge of it all. 19 Which is the way to the resting-place of the light, and where is the store-house of the dark; 20 So that you might take it to its limit, guiding it to its house? 21 No doubt you have knowledge of it, for then you had come to birth, and the number of your days is great. 22 Have you come into the secret place of snow, or have you seen the store-houses of the ice-drops, 23 Which I have kept for the time of trouble, for the day of war and fighting? 24 Which is the way to the place where the wind is measured out, and the east wind sent out over the earth?
25 By whom has the way been cut for the flowing of the rain, and the flaming of the thunder; 26 Causing rain to come on a land where no man is living, on the waste land which has no people; 27 To give water to the land where there is waste and destruction, and to make the dry land green with young grass? 28 Has the rain a father? or who gave birth to the drops of night mist? 29 Out of whose body came the ice? and who gave birth to the cold mist of heaven? 30 The waters are joined together, hard as a stone, and the face of the deep is covered. 31 Are the bands of the Pleiades fixed by you, or are the cords of Orion made loose? 32 Do you make Mazzaroth come out in its right time, or are the Bear and its children guided by you? 33 Have you knowledge of the laws of the heavens? did you give them rule over the earth? 34 Is your voice sent up to the cloud, so that you may be covered by the weight of waters? 35 Do you send out the thunder-flames, so that they may go, and say to you, Here we are? 36 Who has put wisdom in the high clouds, or given knowledge to the lights of the north? 37 By whose wisdom are the clouds numbered, or the water-skins of the heavens turned to the earth, 38 When the earth becomes hard as metal, and is joined together in masses?
391 Do you go after food for the she-lion, or get meat so that the young lions may have enough, 2 When they are stretched out in their holes, and are waiting in the brushwood? 3 Who gives in the evening the meat he is searching for, when his young ones are crying to God; when the young lions with loud noise go wandering after their food? 4 Have you knowledge of the rock-goats? or do you see the roes giving birth to their young? 5 Is the number of their months fixed by you? or is the time when they give birth ordered by you? 6 They are bent down, they give birth to their young, they let loose the fruit of their body. 7 Their young ones are strong, living in the open country; they go out and do not come back again. 8 Who has let the ass of the fields go free? or made loose the bands of the loud-voiced beast? 9 To whom I have given the waste land for a heritage, and the salt land as a living-place. 10 He makes sport of the noise of the town; the voice of the driver does not come to his ears; 11 He goes looking for his grass-lands in the mountains, searching out every green thing. 12 Will the ox of the mountains be your servant? or is his night's resting-place by your food-store?
13 Will he be pulling your plough with cords, turning up the valleys after you? 14 Will you put your faith in him, because his strength is great? will you give the fruit of your work into his care? 15 Will you be looking for him to come back, and get in your seed to the crushing-floor? 16 Is the wing of the ostrich feeble, or is it because she has no feathers, 17 That she puts her eggs on the earth, warming them in the dust, 18 Without a thought that they may be crushed by the foot, and broken by the beasts of the field?
19 She is cruel to her young ones, as if they were not hers; her work is to no purpose; she has no fear. 20 For God has taken wisdom from her mind, and given her no measure of knowledge. 21 When she is shaking her wings on high, she makes sport of the horse and of him who is seated on him. 22 Do you give strength to the horse? is it by your hand that his neck is clothed with power? 23 Is it through you that he is shaking like a locust, in the pride of his loud-sounding breath? 24 He is stamping with joy in the valley; he makes sport of fear. 25 In his strength he goes out against the arms of war, turning not away from the sword.
26 The bow is sounding against him; he sees the shining point of spear and arrow. 27 Shaking with passion, he is biting the earth; he is not able to keep quiet at the sound of the horn; 28 When it comes to his ears he says, Aha! He is smelling the fight from far off, and hearing the thunder of the captains, and the war-cries. 29 Is it through your knowledge that the hawk takes his flight, stretching out his wings to the south? 30 Or is it by your orders that the eagle goes up, and makes his resting-place on high? 31 On the rock is his house, and on the mountain-top his strong place. 32 From there he is watching for food; his eye sees it far off. 33 His young have blood for their drink, and where the dead bodies are, there is he to be seen. 34 ... 35 Will he who is protesting give teaching to the Ruler of all? Let him who has arguments to put forward against God give an answer. 36 And Job said in answer to the Lord, 37 Truly, I am of no value; what answer may I give to you? I will put my hand on my mouth. 38 I have said once, and even twice, what was in my mind, but I will not do so again.
401 Then the Lord made answer to Job out of the storm-wind, and said, 2 Get your strength together like a man of war: I will put questions to you, and you will give me the answers. 3 Will you even make my right of no value? will you say that I am wrong in order to make clear that you are right? 4 Have you an arm like God? have you a voice of thunder like his? 5 Put on the ornaments of your pride; be clothed with glory and power:
6 Let your wrath be overflowing; let your eyes see all the sons of pride, and make them low. 7 Send destruction on all who are lifted up, pulling down the sinners from their places. 8 Let them be covered together in the dust; let their faces be dark in the secret place of the underworld. 9 Then I will give praise to you, saying that your right hand is able to give you salvation. 10 See now the Great Beast, whom I made, even as I made you; he takes grass for food, like the ox. 11 His strength is in his body, and his force in the muscles of his stomach. 12 His tail is curving like a cedar; the muscles of his legs are joined together. 13 His bones are pipes of brass, his legs are like rods of iron. 14 He is the chief of the ways of God, made by him for his pleasure.
15 He takes the produce of the mountains, where all the beasts of the field are at play. 16 He takes his rest under the trees of the river, and in the pool, under the shade of the water-plants. 17 He is covered by the branches of the trees; the grasses of the stream are round him. 18 Truly, if the river is overflowing, it gives him no cause for fear; he has no sense of danger, even if Jordan is rushing against his mouth. 19 Will anyone take him when he is on the watch, or put metal teeth through his nose? 20 Is it possible for Leviathan to be pulled out with a fish-hook, or for a hook to be put through the bone of his mouth? 21 Will you put a cord into his nose, or take him away with a cord round his tongue? 22 Will he make prayers to you, or say soft words to you? 23 Will he make an agreement with you, so that you may take him as a servant for ever? 24 Will you make sport with him, as with a bird? or put him in chains for your young women? 25 Will the fishermen make profit out of him? will they have him cut up for the traders? 26 Will you put sharp-pointed irons into his skin, or fish-spears into his head? 27 Only put your hand on him, and see what a fight you will have; you will not do it again! 28 Truly, the hope of his attacker is false; he is overcome even on seeing him!
161 And he came to Derbe and Lystra: and there was a certain disciple there named Timothy, whose mother was one of the Jews of the faith, but his father was a Greek; 2 Of whom the brothers at Lystra and Iconium had a high opinion. 3 Paul had a desire for him to go with him, and he gave him circumcision because of the Jews who were in those parts: for they all had knowledge that his father was a Greek. 4 And on their way through the towns, they gave them the rules which had been made by the Apostles and the rulers of the church at Jerusalem, so that they might keep them. 5 So the churches were made strong in the faith and were increased in number every day.
6 And after they had gone through the land of Phrygia and Galatia, the Holy Spirit did not let them take the word into Asia; 7 And having come to Mysia, they made an attempt to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not let them; 8 And going past Mysia, they came down to Troas. 9 And Paul had a vision in the night; a man of Macedonia came, requesting him, and saying, Come over into Macedonia and give us help. 10 And when he had seen the vision, straight away we made the decision to go into Macedonia, for it seemed certain to us that God had sent us to give the good news to them.
11 So, from Troas we went straight by ship to Samothrace and the day after to Neapolis; 12 And from there to Philippi, which is the most important town of Macedonia and a Roman colony: and we were there for some days. 13 And on the Sabbath we went outside the town, by the river, where we had an idea that there would be a place of prayer; and, being seated, we had talk with the women who had come together. 14 And a certain woman named Lydia, a trader in purple cloth of the town of Thyatira, and a God-fearing woman, gave ear to us: whose heart the Lord made open to give attention to the things which Paul was saying. 15 And when she and her family had had baptism, she made a request to us, saying, If it seems to you that I am true to the Lord, come into my house and be my guests. And she made us come.
16 And when we were going to the place of prayer, we came across a girl with a spirit which gave knowledge of the future, whose masters made great profit from her power. 17 She came after Paul and us, crying out and saying, These men are the servants of the Most High God, who are giving you news of the way of salvation. 18 And this she did on a number of days. But Paul was greatly troubled and, turning, said to the spirit, I give you orders in the name of Jesus Christ, to come out of her. And it came out that very hour. 19 But when her masters saw that their hope of profit was gone, they took Paul and Silas, pulling them into the market-place before the rulers; 20 And when they had taken them before the authorities, they said, These men, who are Jews, are greatly troubling our town; 21 Teaching rules of living which it is not right for us to have or to keep, being Romans.
(Read Acts 16:1-5)
Well may the church look for much service from youthful ministers who set out in the same spirit as Timothy. But when men will submit in nothing, and oblige in nothing, the first elements of the Christian temper seem to be wanting; and there is great reason to believe that the doctrines and precepts of the gospel will not be successfully taught. The design of the decree being to set aside the ceremonial law, and its carnal ordinances, believers were confirmed in the Christian faith, because it set up a spiritual way of serving God, as suited to the nature both of God and man. Thus the church increased in numbers daily.
(Read Acts 16:6-15)
The removals of ministers, and the dispensing the means of grace by them, are in particular under Divine conduct and direction. We must follow Providence: and whatever we seek to do, if that suffer us not, we ought to submit and believe to be for the best. People greatly need help for their souls, it is their duty to look out for it, and to invite those among them who can help them. And God's calls must be complied with readily. A solemn assembly the worshippers of God must have, if possible, upon the sabbath day. If we have not synagogues, we must be thankful for more private places, and resort to them; not forsaking the assembling together, as our opportunities are. Among the hearers of Paul was a woman, named Lydia. She had an honest calling, which the historian notices to her praise. Yet though she had a calling to mind, she found time to improve advantages for her soul. It will not excuse us from religious duties, to say, We have a trade to mind; for have not we also a God to serve, and souls to look after? Religion does not call us from our business in the world, but directs us in it. Pride, prejudice, and sin shut out the truths of God, till his grace makes way for them into the understanding and affections; and the Lord alone can open the heart to receive and believe his word. We must believe in Jesus Christ; there is no coming to God as a Father, but by the Son as Mediator.
(Read Acts 16:16-24)
Satan, though the father of lies, will declare the most important truths, when he can thereby serve his purposes. But much mischief is done to the real servants of Christ, by unholy and false preachers of the gospel, who are confounded with them by careless observers. Those who do good by drawing men from sin, may expect to be reviled as troublers of the city. While they teach men to fear God, to believe in Christ, to forsake sin, and to live godly lives, they will be accused of teaching bad customs.
