p. 142 | JOS. CLARKE by JOS. CLARKE.

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Oct 18, 1870

JOS. CLARKE

By JOS. CLARKE.

Constancy.

“Thus did Job continually.” Job 1:5. Job was evidently a man of great attainments in the Christian life. He had been highly spoken of by the Lord. As a man of God, he stood pre-eminent. Now, where was the secret of his virtue and patience and greatness of character?

It seems to me that the fifth verse of this chapter unfolds to us the secret of all this; and shows to us the source from which he gained his strength, and his manner of obtaining it.

From this verse it is manifest that his anxiety for his sons, and his desire for their spiritual welfare, caused him to draw near to God, and to supplicate him perseveringly, lest his sons might offend God by irreverence or profanity, or by murmuring against their Heavenly Father.

It also appears that this was not an occasional anxiety, felt for a time, and then lost in an ocean of worldliness; but it was his continual practice. He daily rose at an early hour to ask Heaven’s protection for himself and family. He feared lest his children should offend God. This fear was so strong as to cause him to rise very early in the morning, to offer prayer and sacrifice to God in their behalf.

He knew the waywardness of youth; its dangers, and its difficulties, and its snares; and his fears prompted him to prayer and sacrifices to God.

Hence we conclude that it had been the constant practice of Job to begin the day with prayer, and a solemn consecration of himself and all he had to God.