r at least,
into his just and right place, as a spiritual and rational being, made in
the image of God.

But more, he has justified God. He has confessed that God is not a mere
force or law of nature; nor a mere tyrant and tormentor: but a reasonable
being, who will hear reason, and a just being, who will do justice by the
creatures whom He has made.

And so the very act of prayer justifies God, and honours God, and gives
glory to God; for it confesses that God is what He is, a good God, to
whom the humblest and the most fallen of His creatures dare speak out the
depths of their abasement, and acknowledge that His glory is this--That
in spite of all His majesty, He is one who heareth prayer; a being as
magnificent in His justice, as He is magnificent in His majesty and His
might.

All this is argued out, as it never has been argued out before or since,
in the book of Job: and for seeing so much as this, was Job approved by
God. But there is a further question, to which the book of Job gives no
answer; and to which indeed all the Old Testament gives but a partial
answer. And that is this--This just and magnificent God, has He also
human pity, tenderness, charity, condescension, love? In one word, have
we not only a God in heaven, but a Father in heaven?

That question could only be answered by the coming of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Truly He said--No one cometh to the Father, but by me. No man
hath seen God at any time: but the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom
of the Father, He hath revealed Him. He revealed Him in part to Abraham,
in part to Moses, to Job, to David, to the prophets. But He revealed Him
perfectly when He said--I and the Father are one. He that hath seen me
hath seen the Father. Yes. Now we can find boundless comfort in the
words, "Such as the Father is, such is the Son, and such is the Holy
Ghost"--Love and condescension without bounds. Now we know that there is
A Man in the midst of the throne of God, who is the brightness of God's
glory and the express image of His character; a high priest who can be
touched with the feeling of our infirmities, seeing that He was tempted
in all things like as we are, yet without sin.

To Him we can cry, with human passion and in human words; because we know
that His human heart will respond to our human hearts, and that His human
heart again will respond to His divine Spirit, and that His divine Spirit
is the same as the divine Spirit of His Father;