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Testimonies for the Church Volume 3
bear the especial marks of being dictated by the Spirit of God they do
far more injury than they can do good.
I was shown that my husband’s course has not been perfect. He has
erred sometimes in murmuring and in giving too severe reproof. But
from what I have seen, he has not been so greatly at fault in this respect
as many have supposed and as I have sometimes feared. Job was not
understood by his friends. He flings back upon them their reproaches.
He shows them that if they are defending God by avowing their faith in
Him and their consciousness of sin, he has a more deep and thorough
knowledge of it than they ever had. “Miserable comforters are ye all,”
is the answer he makes to their criticisms and censures. “I also,” says
Job, “could speak as ye do: if your soul were in my soul’s stead, I
could heap up words against you, and shake mine head at you.” But he
declares that he would not do this. “I,” he says, “would strengthen you
with my mouth, and the moving of my lips should assuage your grief.”
[509]
Brethren and sisters who are well meaning, but who have narrow
conceptions and look only at externals, may attempt to help matters of
which they have no real knowledge. Their limited experience cannot
fathom the feelings of a soul who has been urged out by the Spirit of
God, who has felt to the depths that earnest and inexpressible love
and interest for the cause of God and for souls that they have never
experienced, and who has borne burdens in the cause of God that they
have never lifted.
Some shortsighted, short-experienced friends cannot, with their
narrow vision, appreciate the feelings of one who has been in close
harmony with the soul of Christ in connection with the salvation of
others. His motives are misunderstood and his actions misconstrued
by those who would be his friends, until, like Job, he sends forth the
earnest prayer: Save me from my friends. God takes the case of Job
in hand Himself. His patience has been severely taxed; but when
God speaks, all his pettish feelings are changed. The self-justification
which he felt was necessary to withstand the condemnation of his
friends is not necessary toward God. He never misjudges; He never
errs. Says the Lord to Job, “Gird up now thy loins like a man;” and
Job no sooner hears the divine voice than his soul is bowed down with
a sense of his sinfulness, and he says before God, “I abhor myself, and
repent in dust and ashes.”