Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary
Job 8:7

Clarke's Commentary

Verse Job 8:7. Though thy beginning was small — Thy former state, compared to that into which God would have brought thee, would be small; for to show his respect for thy piety, because thou hadst, through thy faithful attachment to him, suffered the loss of all things, he would have greatly multiplied thy former prosperity, so that thou shouldest now have vastly more than thou didst ever before possess.

Bridgeway Bible Commentary

Bildad speaks (8:1-22)

After rebuking Job for his wild words against God, Bildad tells him that God is always just. Completely lacking in sympathy, Bildad reminds Job that his children have died, and cruelly concludes that it must have been because of their sin (8:1-4). Job’s suffering must likewise be because of his sin. If, however, he is innocent, he need only pray humbly to God, and God will replace his suffering with greater blessing than he had before (5-7).
For Bildad the traditional teaching is of first importance, and this emphasis characterizes all his speeches. Job cannot, on the basis of his short experience, question what all the wisest people of previous ages have believed (8-10).
All disaster, in Bildad’s view, is the consequence of personal ungodliness. As flourishing plants wither and die when the water dries up, so the rich are brought to ruin when they forget God (11-13). They are as insecure as a spider’s web (14-15). They are like a fast-growing plant that is suddenly pulled up and replaced by others. Their joy is shortlived (16-19). According to Bildad, the reason for Job’s terrible losses and tormenting suffering can only be Job’s sin. Repentance will bring renewed strength, joy, victory and prosperity (20-22).

Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible

BILDAD'S FIRST SPEECH:
BLUNT BLUSTERY BILDAD THINKS HE KNOWS THE ANSWER;
HIS BRUTAL, DISCOURTEOUS BEGINNING

"Then answered Bildad the Shuhite, and said, How long wilt thou speak these things? And how long shall the words of thy mouth be like a mighty wind? Doth God pervert justice? Or doth the Almighty pervert righteousness? If thy children have sinned against him, And he hath delivered them into the hand of their transgression; If thou wouldest seek diligently unto God, And make thy supplication unto the Almighty; If thou wert pure and upright: Surely now he would awake for thee, And make the habitation of thy righteousness prosperous. And though thy beginning was small, Yet thy latter end would greatly increase."

To paraphrase Bildad's words: "You old bag of wind, how wrong you are! Doesn't God know enough to give you just what you deserve? Your children sinned, and look what happened to them; but if you will just repent and turn to God he will yet richly bless you!

"This speech of Bildad's was inconsiderate, unfeeling and discourteous."Preacher's Homiletic Commentary, Vol. 10, p. 54. "He insists that God is just; and that Job's troubles are evidence of his wickedness, and that if he would only turn to God, all would be well again."Henry H. Halley's Bible Handbook (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House), p. 228, As Matthew Henry observed, "Job's friends, like the messengers of his disasters, followed each other in rapid succession, the messengers with evil tidings, and his friends with harsh censures, perhaps both the messengers and the friends being unaware of how effectively they fitted into the design of Satan. The messengers were calculated to drive Job from his integrity; and the friends, chosen by the evil one, sought to drive him from the comfort of that integrity."Matthew Henry's Commentary, Vol. III, p. 48.

A comparison of the speeches of Eliphaz and Bildad reveals that there was a progression. "Eliphaz, at first, was gentle and considerate, but Bildad was abrupt and harsh."Layman's Bible Commentary, Vol. 8, p. 76.

"Bildad's conviction that righteous living inevitably leads to prosperity is by no means obsolete."R. B. Sweet Publishing Company, No. 216, p. 23. This writer once attended the funeral of a well-known popular Sheriff in Burkburnet, Texas. He lost his life, trying to save the lives of others when, during a Red River flood, he crossed the threatened bridge to close the Oklahoma entrance. On the way back, he was swept away when 169' feet of the bridge collapsed. In the conversations heard at the funeral, one said, "Well, I thought he was a good man; but evidently he was evil. Look what God did to him"!

Yes, as Bildad insisted in this speech, "This is the wisdom of the fathers" (Job 8:8); but how wrong it is! In our sin-cursed world, headed on a collision course with disaster, in outright rebellion against God, worshipping not the God of all grace, but the god of this world - Yes, in this world it is often, far too often, that it is the wicked who prosper, and the righteous who suffer. From the days of Abel who was slain because his deeds were righteous (1 John 3:12) to the Christian woman who lost her job this week because she refused to participate in the immorality and drunkenness of her contemporaries, the total experience of the human race denies the glib theology of Job's friends.

This age-old error is today prevalent in our own country. Hesser explained why. In the days of the great English writer Chaucer, "The ideal man was presented as the poor man; and the rich religious leaders of Medieval times were severely attacked in Canterbury Tales; but John Calvin taught that God would not justify reprobates by giving them prosperity. Successful business men were therefore honored as God's elect. When the Calvinistic Puritans settled America, they brought with them this evil doctrine, along with other Calvinistic errors."Ibid. The near-universal habit of churches in choosing successful business men as their ruling committee reveals the influence of that old theology.

"If thy children have sinned against him (God)" Barnes wrote that the word "if," as used here means "since";Barnes' Notes on the Old Testament (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, a 1987 reprint of the 1878 edition),Job, p. 197. and James James Moffatt's translation of the Bible, 1929, agreed with this, rendering the passage, "Though your children sinned against him."Moffatt's Translation of the Bible.

Pope identified this verse as an important witness to the unity of the Book of Job: "This verse connects the Dialogue and the Prologue, indicating that the two are not independent compositions."The Anchor Bible (Garden City, New York: Doubleday and Company, 1982), Job, p. 64.

Kelly properly noted that, "One purpose of the Book of Job is to challenge the mechanical view of life,"Layman's Bible Commentary, op. cit., p. 77. represented by Bildad's speech. In Bildad's view, the rich and prosperous people are the saints of God, and the poor, distressed and suffering people are the wicked. The stupidity of that view is matched only by that of the people who accept it.

Of course, God blesses his children; but their sufferings are inevitable because our whole human family, in the greatest extent, are dominated and controlled by that Evil One whom our progenitors chose to obey, rather than the Lord. "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven"! Luke's account of this beatitude is, "Blessed are ye poor"!

Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible

Though thy beginning was small - On the supposition that the children of Job had been cut off, his family now was small. Yet Bildad says, that if he were to begin life again, even with so small a family, and in such depressed and trying circumstances, if he were a righteous man he might hope for returning prosperity.

Yet thy latter end - From this, it is evident that Job was not now regarded as an old man. He would still have the prospect of living many years. Some have supposed, however that the meaning here is, that his former prosperity should appear small compared with that which he would hereafter enjoy if he were pure and righteous. So Noyes and Rosenmuller interpret it. But it seems to me that the former interpretation is the correct one. Bildad utters a general sentiment, that though when a man begins life he has a small family and little property, yet if he is an upright man, he will be prospered and his possessions will greatly increase; compare Job 42:12 : “Yahweh blessed the latter end of Job more than the beginning.”

Smith's Bible Commentary

Chapter 8

So Bildad, the next friend, speaks up and he said,

How long will you speak these things? how long will your words of your mouth be like a [big, bag of] wind? Does God pervert judgment? or does the Almighty pervert justice? If your children have sinned against him, and he has cast them away for their transgression ( Job 8:2-4 );

And okay now, he's getting on my kids. They've sinned and God wiped them out. And now you going to blame God?

If you would seek unto God before, and make your supplication to the Almighty; If you were pure and upright; surely he would awake for thee ( Job 8:5-6 ),

He would take up your cause.

and he would make the habitation of thy righteousness prosperous. Though your beginning was small, yet the latter end should be greatly increased. For inquire, I pray thee, of the former age, and prepare thyself to the search of their fathers: (For we are but of yesterday, and know nothing, because our days upon the earth are like a shadow [on the sundial]:) Shall not they teach thee, and tell thee, and utter words out of their heart? Can the rush grow up without mire? ( Job 8:6-11 )

Now picture the rushes growing up beside the river there in the mud along the river.

can the flags grow without water? While it is yet in his greenness, it is cut down, it withers before any other herb ( Job 8:11-12 ).

So Job, you're like a reed that is growing up. But the mud dries up and while it is still green, you're being cut off. The hypocrites are this way, Job. You must be a hypocrite.

So are the paths of all that forget God; and the hypocrite's hope shall perish: Whose hope shall be cut off, and whose trust shall be a spider's web. He shall lean upon his house, but it shall not stand: he shall hold it fast, but it shall not endure. He is green before the sun, but his branch shoots forth in his garden. His roots are wrapped about as the heap, and he seeth the place of stones. If he destroys him from his place, then it shall deny him, saying, I have not seen thee. Behold, this is the joy of his way, and out of the earth shall others grow. Behold, God will not cast away a perfect man, neither will he help the evildoers: Till he fill thy mouth with laughing, and thy lips with rejoicing. They that hate thee shall be clothed with shame; and the dwelling place of the wicked shall come to nothing ( Job 8:13-22 ).

Basically, Job is saying, "Look." I mean, Bibdad is saying to Job, "God is fair, God is just. Plead your cause before God. Get right with God, Job, and everything is going to be okay. That's your problem. You're a hypocrite and what you need to do is just get right with God. Things will straighten out. You'll be blessed and all again. But something's wrong, Job. Can't happen, you know, unless there's something seriously wrong." "

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

The justice of God 8:1-7

Bildad’s initial words contrast with Eliphaz’s. Whereas Eliphaz was gentle and indirect, Bildad was impatient and insensitive. He accused Job of being a blow-hard (Job 8:2).

"Bildad is objective and analytical in his speech about God and man. As a result he is a neat but superficial thinker. He is a moralist, and in his simple theology everything can be explained in terms of two kinds of men-the blameless (tam, Job 8:20 a; used of Job in Job 1:1) and the secretly wicked (hanep, Job 8:13 b). Outwardly the same, God distinguishes them by prospering the one and destroying the other." [Note: Andersen, p. 140.]

Bildad’s callous reference to the death of Job’s children (Job 8:4) amounts to: "They got just what they deserved!" His point was that if Job was not sinning, God would be unjust in allowing him to suffer calamities. He asserted that God does not punish righteousness (Job 8:6; Job 8:20). He erroneously assumed his basic premise that all suffering is punishment for sin, the retributive dogma.

"Obviously the friends’ theology was far more important than Job." [Note: Bullock, p. 34.]

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

3. Bildad’s first speech ch. 8

Bildad agreed with Eliphaz that God was paying Job back for some sin he had committed, and he believed God would show Job mercy if he confessed that sin. However, Bildad built his conclusions on a slightly different foundation. Eliphaz argued from his own personal experience and observations (Job 4:8; Job 4:12-21). Bildad cited a more reliable authority: the experience of past generations that had come down through years of tradition (Job 8:8-10). He was a traditionalist whereas Eliphaz was an existentialist.

Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

Though thy beginning was small,.... When, he first set out in the world; and which though it greatly increased, and he was the greatest man in all the east, yet Bildad suggests, should he behave well, that was comparatively small to what it would be with him hereafter; and which was fact, for he had double of what he before enjoyed; so Mr. Broughton renders the words, "and thy former state should be little to thy latter": or rather the sense and meaning is, "though thy beginning should be small" r; be it so that it is; or rather that though he should begin again in the world with very little, as indeed at present he had nothing to begin with, and when he did it was but with little; one gave him a piece of money, and another an earring of gold:

yet thy latter end should greatly increase; as it did, for the Lord blessed his latter end, and he had more than at the beginning, even double to what he had in his most flourishing circumstances; see

Job 42:11, c. Bildad seems to have spoken under a spirit of prophecy, without being sensible of it, and not imagining in the least that so it would be in fact for he only affirms it on supposition of Job's good behaviour for the future, putting it entirely upon that condition, which he had no great expectation of it ever being performed.

r והיה "etsi fuerit", so some in Michaelis.

Henry's Complete Commentary on the Bible

      1 Then answered Bildad the Shuhite, and said,   2 How long wilt thou speak these things? and how long shall the words of thy mouth be like a strong wind?   3 Doth God pervert judgment? or doth the Almighty pervert justice?   4 If thy children have sinned against him, and he have cast them away for their transgression;   5 If thou wouldest seek unto God betimes, and make thy supplication to the Almighty;   6 If thou wert pure and upright; surely now he would awake for thee, and make the habitation of thy righteousness prosperous.   7 Though thy beginning was small, yet thy latter end should greatly increase.

      Here, I. Bildad reproves Job for what he had said (Job 8:2; Job 8:2), checks his passion, but perhaps (as is too common) with greater passion. We thought Job spoke a great deal of good sense and much to the purpose, and that he had reason and right on his side; but Bildad, like an eager angry disputant, turns it all off with this, How long wilt thou speak these things? taking it for granted that Eliphaz had said enough to silence him, and that therefore all he said was impertinent. Thus (as Caryl observes) reproofs are often grounded upon mistakes. Men's meaning is not taken aright, and then they are gravely rebuked as if they were evil-doers. Bildad compares Job's discourse to a strong wind. Job had excused himself with this, that his speeches were but as wind (Job 6:26; Job 6:26), and therefore they should not make such ado about them: "Yea, but" (says Bildad) "they are as strong wind, blustering and threatening, boisterous and dangerous, and therefore we are concerned to fence against them."

      II. He justifies God in what he had done. This he had no occasion to do at this time (for Job did not condemn God, as he would have it thought he did), or he might at least have done it without reflecting upon Job's children, as he does here. Could he not be an advocate for God but he must be an accuser of the brethren? 1. He is right in general, that God doth not pervert judgment, nor ever go contrary to any settled rule of justice, Job 8:3; Job 8:3. Far be it from him that he should and from us that we should suspect him. He never oppresses the innocent, nor lays a greater load on the guilty than they deserve. He is God, the Judge; and shall not the Judge of all the earth do right? Genesis 18:25. If there should be unrighteousness with God, how should he judge the world?Romans 3:5; Romans 3:6. He is Almighty, Shaddai--all sufficient. Men pervert justice sometimes for fear of the power of others (but God is Almighty, and stands in awe of none), sometimes to obtain the favour of others; but God is all-sufficient, and cannot be benefited by the favour of any. It is man's weakness and impotency that he often is unjust; it is God's omnipotence that he cannot be so. 2. Yet he is not fair and candid in the application. He takes it for granted that Job's children (the death of whom was one of the greatest of his afflictions) had been guilty of some notorious wickedness, and that the unhappy circumstances of their death were sufficient evidence that they were sinners above all the children of the east, Job 8:4; Job 8:4. Job readily owned that God did not pervert judgment; and yet it did not therefore follow either that his children were cast-aways or that they died for some great transgression. It is true that we and our children have sinned against God, and we ought to justify him in all he brings upon us and ours; but extraordinary afflictions are not always the punishment of extraordinary sins, but sometimes the trial of extraordinary graces; and, in our judgment of another's case (unless the contrary appears), we ought to take the more favourable side, as our Saviour directs, Luke 13:2-4. Here Bildad missed it.

      III. He put Job in hope that, if he were indeed upright, as he said he was, he should yet see a good issue of his present troubles: "Although thy children have sinned against him, and are cast away in their transgression (they have died in their own sin), yet if thou be pure and upright thyself, and as an evidence of that wilt now seek unto God and submit to him, all shall be well yet," Job 8:5-7; Job 8:5-7. This may be taken two ways, either, 1. As designed to prove Job a hypocrite and a wicked man, though not by the greatness, yet the by the continuance, of his afflictions. "When thou wast impoverished, and thy children were killed, if thou hadst been pure and upright, and approved thyself so in the trial, God would before now have returned in mercy to thee and comforted thee according to the time of thy affliction; but, because he does not so, we have reason to conclude thou art not so pure and upright as thou pretendest to be. If thou hadst conducted thyself well under the former affliction, thou wouldst not have been struck with the latter." Herein Bildad was not in the right; for a good man may be afflicted for his trial, not only very sorely, but very long, and yet, if for life, it is in comparison with eternity but for a moment. But, since Bildad put it to this issue, God was pleased to join issue with him, and proved his servant Job an honest man by Bildad's own argument; for, soon after, he blessed his latter end more than his beginning. Or, 2. As designed to direct and encourage Job, that he might not thus run himself into despair, and give up all for gone; there might yet be hope if he would take the right course. I am apt to think Bildad here intended to condemn Job, yet would be thought to counsel and comfort him. (1.) He gives him good counsel, yet perhaps not expecting he would take it, the same that Eliphaz had given him (Job 5:8; Job 5:8), to seek unto God, and that betimes (that is, speedily and seriously), and not to be dilatory and trifling in his return and repentance. He advises him not to complain, but to petition, to make his supplication to the Almighty with humility and faith, and to see that there was (what he feared had hitherto been wanting) sincerity in his heart ("thou must be pure and upright") and honesty in his house--"that must be the habitation of thy righteousness, and not filled with ill-gotten goods, else God will not hear thy prayers," Psalms 66:18. It is only the prayer of the upright that is the acceptable and prevailing prayer, Proverbs 15:8. (2.) He gives him good hopes that he shall yet again see good days, secretly suspecting, however, that he was not qualified to see them. He assures him that, if he would be early in seeking God, God would awake for his relief, would remember him and return to him, though now he seemed to forget him and forsake him--that if his habitation were righteous it should be prosperity. When we return to God in a way of duty we have reason to hope that he will return to us in a way of mercy. Let not Job object that he had so little left to being the world with again that it was impossible he should ever prosper as he had done; no, "Though thy beginning should be ever so small, a little meal in the barrel and a little oil in the cruse, God's blessing shall multiply that to a great increase." This is God's way of enriching the souls of his people with graces and comforts, not per saltum--as by a bound, but per gradum--step by step. The beginning is small, but the progress is to perfection. Dawning light grows to noonday, a grain of mustard seed to a great tree. Let us not therefore despise the day of small things, but hope for the day of great things.

Spurgeon's Verse Expositions of the Bible

The Beginning, Increase, and End of the Divine Life

April 29th, 1860 by C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892)

"Though thy beginning was small, yet thy latter end should greatly increase." Job 8:7 .

This was the reasoning of Bildad the Shuhite. He wished to prove that Job could not possibly be an upright man, for if he were so, he here affirms that his prosperity would increase continually, or that if he fell into any trouble, God would awake for him, and make the habitation of his righteousness prosperous; and though his family were now all destroyed, and his wealth scattered to the winds, yet if he were an upright man, God would surely appear for him, and his latter end would greatly increase. Now, the utterances of Bildad, and of the other two men who came to comfort Job, but who made his wounds tingle, are not to be accepted as being inspired. They spake as men as mere men. They reasoned no doubt in their own esteem logically enough; but the Spirit of God was not with hem in their speech, therefore with regard to any sentiment which we find uttered by these men, we must use our own judgment; and if it be not in consonance with the rest of Holy Scriptures, it will be our bounden duty to reject it as being but the word of man of a wise and ancient man it is true, but still of a man only. With regard to the passage which I have selected as a text, it is rue altogether apart from its being said by Bildad, or being found in the Bible at all; it is true, as indeed the facts of the book of Job prove: for Job did greatly increase in his latter end. His beginning was small: he was brought down to poverty, to the potsherd and to the dunghill; he had many graves, but no children; he had had many losses, he had now nothing left to lose; and yet God did awake for him; his righteousness came out from he darkness which had eclipsed it; he shone in sevenfold prosperity; s that the words of Bildad were prophetic, though he knew it not; God put into his mouth language which did come true, after all. Indeed, we have here a great principle a principle against which none can ever contend. The beginning of the godly and the upright man may be but very small, but his latter end shall greatly increase. Evil things may seem to begin well, but they end badly; there is the flash and the glare, but afterwards the darkness and the black ash. They promise fairly: their sun rises in the zenith, and then speedily sets, never to rise again. Evil things begin as mountains; they end as mole-hills. You sail upon their ocean at first, and as you sail onward it shrinks into a river, and afterwards into a dry bed, if not into burning sands. Behold Satan in the garden of Eden. Sin begins with the promise, "Ye shall be as gods!" How grand is its beginning! Where ends it? Shivering beneath the trees of the garden, complaining of nakedness, sin comes to its end. Or see it in Satan himself. He stretches out his right hand to snatch the diadem of heaven; he would be Lord paramount. He cannot bear to serve, he longs to reign. Oh! Glittering vision, that enchants the eye of an arch-angelic spirit! But where ends it? The vision is all gone, and is succeeded by "the blackness of darkness for ever;" and the chains reserved in fire for those that kept not their first estate. So will it be with you, too, my friend, if you have chosen the path of evil. To-day your mirth is as the crackling of thorns under a pot; it blazes, it crackles with excess of joy; to-morrow thou shalt find nothing there but a handful of ashes, and darkness, and cold. Ay, the path of evil is down hill, from its sunny summits, to its dark ravines from the loftiness, which it assumes when it professes to be a cherub, to that lowliness in which it finds itself to be a fiend. Evil goeth downward; it hath its great things first, and then its terrible things last. No so, however, with good. With good the beginning is even small; but its latter end doth greatly increase. "The path of the just is as the shining light," which sheds a few flickering rays at first, which exercises a combat with the darkness, but it "shineth more and more unto the perfect day." As the coming forth of stars at even-tide, when first one, and then another, and yet another struggles through the darkness, till at last the whole starry host are marshalled on the heavenly plains so it is with good it beginneth with grains of sand, it goeth on to hills, and anon it swelleth up to mountains; it beginneth with the rippling rill the little cascade that leapeth from its secret birth-place, and down the mountain it dasheth, it swelleth to a joyous stream, wherein the fish do leap; anon it becomes a river, which bears upon the surface the navigation of nations, and then it rolls at last an ocean that belts the globe. Good things progress. They are like Jacob's ladder they ascend round by round. We begin as men, we end as angels; we climb until the promise of Satan is fulfilled in a sense in which he never understood it; we become as gods, and are made partakers of the Divine, being reconciled unto God, and then having God's grace infused into us. The principle, then, upon which I have to speak this morning, is this, that though the beginnings of good things are small, yet their latter end shall greatly increase. Instead, however, of dealing with this as a mere doctrine, I propose to use it practically; assume the fact, and then make a practical use of it. Three ends shall I hope to serve first, to quiet the fears of those who are but beginners in grace; secondly, to confirm their faith; and, thirdly, to quicken their diligence. May I ask the prayers of God's people here that I may be strengthened in this preaching? I cannot tell how it is, the cold clammy sweat comes over me now I am about to address you, and I feel almost quivering with weakness; nevertheless, this is a subject which may strengthen me as well as you, and therefore let us go to it at once. I. First, then, for THE QUIETING OF YOUR FEARS. Thou sayest, my hearer, "I am but a beginner in grace, and therefore I am vexed with anxiety, and full of timorousness." Yes, and it shall be my business if God the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, shall enable me, to give thee some few sweet words which, like wafers made with honey, thou mayest roll under thy tongue, and find them satisfactory and pleasant, even as that manna which came down from heaven, and fed the Israelites in the wilderness. Perhaps thy first fear, if I put it into words, is this: "My beginning is so small that I cannot tell when it did begin, and therefore, methinks I cannot have been converted, but am still in the gall of bitterness." O beloved! How many thousands like thyself have been exercised with doubts upon this point! They were not converted in an instant; they were not stricken down as in the Revivals; they were not nerved with terrible alarms, such as John Bunyan describeth in his "Grace Abounding;" but they were called of God, as was Lydia, by a still small voice. Their hearts were gradually and happily opened to receive the truth; it was not as if a tornado or a hurricane rushed through their spirits; but a soft zephr below, and they lived and came to God. And you doubt, do you, because from this very reason you cannot tell when you were generated; it is but necessary for you to know that you are so. If thou canst set no date to the beginning of thy faith, yet if thou dost believe now, thou art saved. If in thy diary there stands no red-letter day in which thy sins were pardoned, and thy soul accepted, yet if thy trust be in Jesus only, this very day thou art pardoned, and thou art accepted, despite thy ignorance of the time when. God's promises bear no date; our notes are dated because there is a time when they run due, and we are apt to forget them; God's promises bear none, and his gifts sometimes do not bear any. If thou art saved though the date be erased yet do thou rejoice and triumph evermore in the Lord thy God. True, there are some of us who can remember the precise spot where we first found the Saviour. The day will never be forgotten when these eyes looked to he cross of Christ and found their tears all wiped away. But thousands in the fold of Jesus know not when hey were brought in; be it enough for hem to know they are there. Let them feed upon the pasture, let them lie down beside the still waters for whether they came by night or by day they did not come at a forbidden hour. Whether they came in youth or in old age, it matters not; all times are acceptable with God, "and whosoever cometh," come he when he may, "he will in no wise cast out." Does it not strike you as being very foolish reasoning if you should say in your heart, "I am not converted because I do not know when?" Nay, with such reasoning as that, I could prove that old Rome was never built, because the precise date of her building is unknown; nay, we might declare that the world was never made, for its exact age even the geologist cannot tell us. We might prove that Jesus Christ himself never died, for the precise date on which he expired on the tree is lost beyond recovery; nor doth it signify much to us. We know the world was made, we know that Christ did die, and so you if you are onw reconciled to God, if now your trembling arms are cast around that cross, you too are saved though the beginning was so small that you cannot tell when it was. Indeed, in living things, it is hard to put the finger upon the beginning. Here is a fruit-will you tell me when it began to be? Was it at the time when first the tree sent forth its fruit-bud? Did this fruit begin when first the flower shed its exhalations of perfume upon the air? Indeed, you could not have seen it if you had looked. When was it? Was it when the full-ripe flower was blown away, and its leaves were scattered to the wind, and a little embryo of fruit was left? 'Twere hard to say it did not begin before that, and equally hard to say at what precise instant that fruit began to be formed. Ay, and so is it with divine grace; the desires are so faint at the beginning, the convictions are but the etchings upon the plate, which afterwards must be engraven with a harder instrument; and they are such flimsy things, such transient impressions of divine truth, that 'twere difficult to say what is transient and what permanent, what is really of the Spirit of God, and what is not; what hath saved the soul, or what only brought it to the verge of salvation; what made it really live, or what was really the calling together of the dry bones before the breath came, and the bones began to live. Quite your fears, my hearers, upon this point, for if ye are saved, no matter when, ye never shall be unsaved. Another doubt also arises from this point. "Ah! sir," saith a timid Christian, "it is not merely the absence of all date to my conversion, but the extreme weakness of the grace I have." "Ah," saith one, "I sometimes think I have a little faith, but it is so mingled with unbelief, distrust, and incredulity, that I can hardly think it is God's gift, the faith of God's elect. I hope sometimes I have a little love, but it is such a beginning, such a mere spark, that I cannot think it is the love which God the Holy Spirit breathes into the soul; my beginning is so exceeding small, that I have to look, and look, and look again, at times, before I can discern it for myself. If I have faith, it is but as a rain of mustard seed, and I fear it will never be that goodly tree, in the midst of whose branches the birds of the air might rest." Courage, my brother, courage; however small the beginnings of grace, hey are such beginnings that they shall have a glorious end. When God begins to build, if he lay but one single stone he will finish the structure; when Christ sits down to weave, though he casts the shuttle but once, and that time the thread was so filmy as scarcely to be discernable, he will nevertheless continue ill the piece is finished, and the whole is wrought. If thy faith be never so little, yet it is immortal, and that immortality may well compensate for its littleness. A spark of grace is a spark of Deity as soon may Deity be quenched as to quench grace that grace within thy soul given thee of the Spirit shall continue to burn, and he who gave it shall fan it with his own soft breath, for "he will not quench the smoking flax;" he will bring it to a fire, and afterwards to a furnace, till thy faith shall attain to the full assurance of understanding. Oh! Let not the littleness of God's beginnings stagger you. Who would think, if he stood at the source of the Thames, that it would ever be such a river as it is making this city rich? So little is it that a child might stop it with his hand, and but a handful of miry clay might dam its course, but there it rolls a mighty river that man cannot stop. And so shall it be with thee; thy faith is so little that it seems not to exist at all, and thy love so faint that it can scarcely be called love, but thy latter end shall greatly increase, till thou shalt become strong and do exploits; the babe shall become a giant; and he that stumbled at every straw shall move mountains, and make the very hills to shake. Having thus spoken upon two fears, which are the result of these small beginnings, let me now try to quiet another. "Ah!" saith the heir of heaven, "I do hope that in me grace hath commenced its work, but my fear is, that such frail faith as mine will never stand the test of years. I am," saith he, "so weak, that one temptation would be too much for me; how then can I hope to pass through yonder forest of spears held in the hands of valiant enemies? A drop makes me tremble, how shall I stem the roaring flood of life and death? Let but one arrow fly from hell it penetrates my tender flesh; what hen if Satan shall empty his quiver? I shall surely fall by the hand of the enemy. My beginnings are so small that I am certain they will soon come to their end, and that end must be black despair." Be of good courage, brother, have done with that fear one for all; it is rue, as thou sayest, the temptation will be too much for thee, but what hast thou to do with it? Heaven is not to be won by thy might, but by the might of him who has promised heaven to thee; thy crown of life is to be obtained, not by thy arm, but by that arm which now holds it out, and bids thee run towards it. If thy perseverance rested upon thyself thou couldst not persevere an hour; if spiritual life depended on itself it would be like the shooting-star, which makes a shining trail for a moment and then is gone; but thanks be unto God, it is written "Because I live, ye shall live also." "For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God."

"The feeblest saint shall win the day, Though death and hell obstruct the way,"

because that feeble sain is girded with Jehovah's strength. If I had to fight in another man's strength, and I knew that he had gigantic force, I should not estimate the power of my own limits and muscles, but of his limbs and muscles; and so if I have to fight in the strength of God, I am not to reckon by what I can do, but what he can do; not what I am able, but what he is able to accomplish. I am not to go forth bound and limited, and cramped, and bandaged by my own infirmity, but make free, and valorous, and unconquerable through that Divine omnipotence, which first spake all things into existence, and now maintaineth all things by the word of his power. Stand up, poor brother, full of fears though you be, and for once glory in your infirmities, and boast in your Master. I say it in thy behalf, and on my own ye principalities and powers of darkness, ye leaguered hosts of hell, ye enemies in human form, or in form demoniac, I challenge ye all; more than a match for ever one of you am I if God be with me; less than nothing were I, if left alone; but were I weaker than I am I would defy you all, for God is my strength; Jehovah is become my strength and my song; he also has become my salvation, therefore will we tread down our enemies, and Moab shall become as straw that is trodden down for the dunghill; in God will be rejoice, yea in God will we greatly rejoice, and in him will we rejoice all the day. Thus have I dealth with a third fear. Let me seek to quiet and pacify one other fear. "Nay, but," say you, "I never can be saved; for when I look at other people, at God's own true children, I am ashamed to say it, I am but a miserable copy of them. So far from attaining to he image of my Master, I fear I am not even like my Master's servants. Look at such-an-one, how he preaches the truth with power, what fluency he has in prayer, what service he undertakes! But I I am such a beginner in grace, that

'Hosannas languish on my tongue, And my devotion dies.'

I live at a poor dying rate. I sometimes run, but oftener creep, and seldom or ever fly. Where others are shaking mountains, I am stumbling over mole-hills. The saints seem to bestride this narrow world like some great colossus, but I walk under their huge legs, and peep about, to find myself a poor dishonoured slave. I have no power, no strength, no might." Pause, brother, pause; stop thy murmuring for a moment. If some little star in the sky should declare it was not a star, because it did not shine as brightly as Sirius or Arcturus, how foolish would be its argument! If the moon should insist upon it that she was never made by God, because she could not shine as brightly as the sun, fie on her pale face, that she cannot be content to be what her Lord hath made her! If the nettle would not bloom, because it was not a pine, and if the hyssop on the wall refused to row, because it was not a cedar, oh! What dislocation would there be in the noble frame of this universe! If these murmurings that vex us vexed the whole of God's creatures, then were this earth a howling wilderness indeed. Now, let me talk to thee a moment, to calm thy fears. Hast thou, my brother, ever learned to distinguish between grace and gifts? For know that they are marvellously dissimilar. A man may be saved who has not a grain of gifts; but no man can be saved who hath no grace. Yonder brother who prayed, yonder friend who preaches, yonder sister who spoke all these perhaps acted so well, because God had given hem excellent gifts. It might not be that it was because of grace. When you are in the prayer-meeting, and hear a brother extremely fluent, remember that there are men quite as fluent about their daily business, and that fluency is not fervency, and that even the appearance of fervency is not absolutely an evidence that there is fervency in the soul. If thou art so mean a thing that thou canst not spell a word in any book, or put six words together grammatically, if thou canst offer no prayer in public, if thou art so poor a scholar that every fool is wiser than thou art, yet if thou hast grace in thy heart, thou art saved, and that is the matter in point just now, whether thou art saved or not. "Covet earnestly the best gifts;" but still, sit not down and murmur because thou hast them not, for one grain of grace outweighs a pound of gifts; one particle of grace is far more precious than all the gifts that Byron ever had, or that Shakespeare ever possessed within his soul, vast and almost infinite though the gifts of those men certainly were. And yet another question would I put to you. My dear brother, have you ever learned to distinguish between grace that saves, and the grace which develops itself afterwards? Remember, there are some races that are absolutely necessary to the saving of the soul; there are some others that are only necessary to its comfort. Faith, for instance, is absolutely necessary for salvation; but assurance is not. Love is indispensible; but that high degree of love which induces the martyr's spirit, does not reign in the breast of ever one, even of those who are saved. The possession of grace in some degree is needful to salvation; but the possession of grace in the highest degree, though it be extremely desirable, is not absolutely necessary for an entrance into heaven. Bethink thee, then, thus to thyself, if I be the meanest lamb in Jesus' fold, I would be happy to think that I am in the flock; if I be the smallest babe in Jesus' family, I will bless his name to think that I have a portion among the sanctified. If I be the smallest jewel in the Saviour's crown, I will glisten and shine as best I can, to the praise of him that bought me with his blood. If I cannot make such swelling music in the orchestra of heaven as the pealing organ may, then will I be but as a bruised reed, which may emit some faint melody. If I cannot be the beacon fire that scares a continent, and throws its light across the deep, I will seek to be the glow-worm that may at least let the weary traveller know something of its whereabouts. O Christians! Ye that have but little beginnings, quiet your fears; for these little beginnings, if they be of God, will save your soul, and you may in this rejoice, yes, rejoice exceedingly. I must ask your patience now while I turn to the second head, and I shall dwell upon that very briefly indeed. II. Upon this head I wish to say a word or two for THE CONFIRMATION OF YOUR FAITH. I am sure you will give me your prayerful attention while I speak for the confirmation of my own faith as well as yours. Well, brothers and sisters, the first confirmation I would offer you is this: Our beginnings are very, ver small, but we have a joyous prospect in our text. Our later end shall greatly increase; we shall not always be so distrustful as we are now. Thank God, we look for days when our faith shall be unshaken, and firm as mountains be. I shall not for ever have to mourn before my God that I cannot love him as I would. I trust that he in my latter end will give me more of his Spirit, that I shall love him with all my heart, and soul, and strength. We have entered into the gospel school; we are ignorant now, but we shall one day understand with all saints what are the heights, and depths, and lengths, and breadths, and know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge. We have hope that, as these hairs grow grey, we shall "grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." Time, that ploughs its furrow in the brow, we hope will sow the seeds of wisdom there. Experience, which shall furrow our back with many a sorrow and a wound, shall nevertheless, we trust, work patience, and nearer and sweeter fellowship than as yet we have come to know. Think not, Mr. Ready-to-halt, that thou shalt always need thy crutches; there may come days of leaping and of dancing even for thee. Oh, Mistress Despondency, the dungeons of Giant Despair's castle are not to be thy perpetual abode; thou, too, shall stand upon the top of Mount Clear, and thou shalt see the Celestial City, and the land that is very far off. We are growing things. Methinks I hear the green blade say this morning, "I shall not for ever be trodden under foot as if I were but grass; I shall grow; I shall blossom; I shall row ripe and mellow; and many a man shall sharpen his sickle for me." I hear the little sapling say, "I shall not for ever be shaken to and fro by winds; I shall grow into an old stalwart oak; gnarled though the roots may be, and twisted though my branches are, I shall one day stand and outlaugh the tempest, while all its waves of wind break harmlessly over me." I shall be strong through him that strengthened me, for I feel a growth within me that can never stop till I have grown to be next to a God a son of God, a partaker of the Divine nature. Courage then, courage, I say, brothers and sisters! These weak days are not always to last; we are not to be shorn lambs always, not always the weaklings of his cattle. We shall one day be as the firstlings of his bullocks, and we shall push our enemies to he ends of the earth, and tread upon them and destroy them. But, further, this cheering prospect upon earth is quite eclipsed by a more cheering prospect beyond the river Death. "Our latter end shall greatly increase." Faith shall give place to fruition; hope shall be occupied with enjoyment; love itself shall be swallowed up in ecstacy. Mine eyes, ye shall not for ever weep; there are sights of transport for you. Tongue, thou shalt not for ever have to mourn, and be the instrument of confession; there are songs and hallelujahs for thee. Feet, yet shall not always be weary with this rough road; there are celestial leapings for you. O my poor heart, oft cowed and broken, often disappointed and trodden down, there waiteth for thee the palm-branch and the robe of victory, and the immortal crown.

"My spirit leaps across the flood, And antedates the hour,"

when I shall come into possession of these joys which could not belong to my childhood here, but which await me in my manhood up there, when the spirit shall be perfected, and made meet to be a partaker of the inheritance of the saints in light. Courage, Christian!

"The way may be rough, but it cannot be long;"

and the end will make amends for all the toil that you can endure when on the road. Oh! Quicken thy footsteps, sit not down in despair. Thy latter end shall greatly increase, though thy beginnings be but small. Perhaps some one may say, "How is it that we are so sure that our latter end will increase?" I give you just these reasons: we are quite sure of it because there is a vitality in our piety. The sculptor may have oftentimes cut in marble some exquisite statue of a babe. That has come to its full size; it will never grow any greater. When I see a wise man in the world, I look at him as being just such an infant. He will never grow any greater. He has come to his full. He is but chiselled out by human power; there is no vitality in him. The Christian here one earth is a babe, but not a babe in stone a babe instinct with life. It is a happy thought sometimes to have of one's-self as sitting down here, compressed, small, insignificant; and one day Death shall come and say, "Rise to thy proper altitude," and we shall begin to grow and expand; and bursting all our cerements and every limit of humanity, we shall become greater than the angels are. I think it is Milton who pictures the spirits in Pandemonium as condensing themselves, so that multitudes of hem could sit in a little space, and then at their own volition mounting up till they attained a prodigious height. So is it now. We are little spirits, but we shall grow and increase, and we know this because there is life in us eternal life. Now, the life of twenty years develops itself into something vastly superior to what it was in childhood; and what will the eternal life be when that vitality within us shall make the littleness of our beginning seem as nothing at all, when our latter end shall have greatly increased? Besides this, we feel hat we must come to something better, because God is with us. We are quite certain that what we are, cannot be the end of God's design. When I see a block of marble half chiselled, with just perhaps a hand peeping out from the rock, no man can make me believe that that is what the artist means it should be. And I know I am not what God would have me to be, because I feel yearnings and longings within myself to be infinitely better, infinitely holier and purer than I am now. And so is it with you; you are not what God means you to be; you have only just begun to be what he wants you to be. He will go on with his chisel of affliction, using wisdom and the graving-tool together, till by-and-bye it shall appear what you shall be for, you shall be like him, and you shall see him as he is. Oh! What comfort this is for our faith, that from he fact of our vitality and the fact that God is at work with us, it is clear, and true, and certain, that our latter end shall be increased. I do not think that any man yet has ever got an idea of what a man is to be. We are only the chalk crayon, rough drawings of men, yet when we come to filled up in eternity, we shall be marvellous pictures, and our latter end indeed shall be greatly increased. And now, one other thought and I will turn to the last point. Christian! Remember, for the encouragement of thy poor soul, that what thou art now is not the measure of thy safety; thy safety depends not upon what thou art, but on what Christ is. If the Rock of our salvation ere within us, indeed the house would soon be over-turned; but we live by what Christ is.

"What Adam had, and forfeited for all, That Jesus is, who cannot fail or fall."

Till he can falter, my spirit need not tremble; till Jesus sins, till Jesus dies, till Jesus is overcome, till he is powerless with his God, till he ceases to be Divine, the soul that trusts him must be secure. Look not within thee for consolation, but look above, where Jesus pleads before the throne of the efficacy of his once-offered blood, and if thou wilt look at thy own state, and then judge thine eternal standing by thine own feelings, or willings, or doings, thou wilt be an undone and miserable wretch. Measure thyself by Jesus' doings, by Jesus' standing, by Jesus' acceptance, by the love of his heart, by the power of his arm, by the Divinity of his nature, by the constancy of his faithfulness, by the acceptance of his blood, by the prevalence of his plea; and so measuring, thy faith need never, never fear

"For should the earth's old pillar's shake, And all the walls of nature break, Our steadfast souls need fear no more Than solid rocks when billows roar."

III. Now for our last point, namely, FOR THE QUICKENING OF OUR DILIGENCE. It was never intended that the promises of God should make men idle; and when we tell hem that their small beginnings shall doubtless come to glorious endings, we tell hem this for their encouragement not that they may sit still and do nothing, but that they may gird up the loins of their mind, confident of their success, to do all that lieth in them, God helping them. Men and brethren, there are many of you here, who, like myself, have to mourn over little beginnings. Let me say to you, be ver diligent in the use of those means which God has appointed for your spiritual growth. First, take heed to yourself that you obey the commandments which relate to the ordinances of Christ. Neglect not baptism. True, there is nothing saving in it, nothing meritorious; but baptism is a means of grace. There have been many, who have found, like the eunuch, that when they have been baptised they have gone on their way rejoicing rejoicing as the effect of grace given when they have obeyed their Master. Be careful, too, not to neglect that most blessed Supper of our Lord Jesus Christ. Forsake not the assembling of yourselves together, as the manner of some is, but let him be known to you in the breaking of bread, and in pouring forth of wine. Do this often in remembrance of him. Ah! I am speaking to some here to-day who love Jesus, but who have neglected his last dying injunction, "This do in remembrance of me;" and you have not grown in grace, and are still little in Israel, as you used to be. Do you wonder at it? You have neglected God's appointed means. "Oh," saith one, "but I am a spiritual man; I do not need these carnal ordinances." There is no man so carnal as he who calls God's ordinances carnal, and no man more spiritual than he who finds spiritual things best brought home to him by what others have ventured to call "beggarly elements." We do not know ourselves if we think we can dispense with these divine signs. Christ knew what was best for us. He has said, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and be baptized." He would not have appended the last command if it were not important. He has bidden us also, as oft as we drink the cup, to do it in remembrance of him. He would not have commanded us that, if it were not for our benefit and for his glory. But further, if thou wouldst get out of the littleness of thy beginnings, wait much upon the means of grace. Read much the Word of God alone. Seek out one who understandeth it well a man whom God hath taught in it and listen hou with reverence to the Word as it is preached. Frequent sermons, but prayers most. Praying is the end of preaching. Make use of ever means that lieth before thee. Be not like the fool, who calls the books of the old father "dead men's brains." What God spake to seers of old, what he spoke to mighty men who preached, is not to be thus despised. Read thou as thou canst, and learn as thou canst. Take care, too, that thou art not content with skimming over a page of Scripture; but seek to get the ver marrow out of it. Be not as the butterfly, which flits from flower to flower, but rests nowhere; be thou as the bee, which enters the flower-bell, and sucks the honey and bears it off upon its heavily-laden thigh. Rest not till thou hast fed on the Word; and thus shall thy little beginnings come to great endings. Be much also in prayer. God's plants grow fastest in the warm atmosphere of the closet. The closet is a forcing-place for spiritual vegetation. He who would be well fed and grow strong, must exercise himself upon his knees. Of all raining practice for spiritual battles, knee practice is the most healthy and strengthening. Note that, if thou forgettest aught besides. And, lastly, if thy beginning be but small, make the best use of the beginning that thou hast. Hast thou but one talent? Put it out at interest, and make two of it. Hast thou two? Seek to have them multiplied into four. Art thou a babe? If thou canst not walk, nor lift, nor carry, thou canst cry. Take care to cry right lustily. Art thou a child? Thou canst not climb; thou canst not as yet teach; but thou canst run. Take care to run in the ways of heavenly obedience. Art thou a young man? Thou canst not as yet give the reverend advice of hoary age; but be strong, and overcome the wicked one. Art thou an old man? Thou canst not now fight the battles of thy youth, nor lead the van in heroic deeds, but thou canst abide with the stuff, and guard those old doctrines which, like the heavy baggage of the army, must not be lost, lest the battle itself should go from us. Ever man to his place and to his post. By thus diligently using what we have, we shall gain more. Rivers increase by their onward flow, flames by burning; sunlight increases by the sun's sining, lights by kindling other lights. And so do thou. Do thou grow rich by enriching others rich by spending. Lengthen out thyself by cutting off the ends that thou canst spare from all thou hast, for it is the way to grow; by giving up that which was an excresence thou shalt get that which shall be a real growth. Oh! Use thyself, and God shall make use of thee; come out, and God shall lead thee forth. Be a man, and God shall make thee more than an angel, and God shall make thee something more. He will make thee better, holier, happier, greater. Oh! Do this, and so shall hy latter end be joyous, thy peace shall be like a river, and thy righteousness like the waves of the sea. Thus, I have spoken this for the comfort of God's people would that I could hope that all I have said belonged to all of you! But, ah! if it does not, may God convert you, may the new life be given to you! Oh! Remember, if you are longing for it, the way of salvation is freely opened to you. "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved." God bless us now and ever, for Jesus' sake. Amen.