“Old Bill” Suggests—

Then Job answered and said:

“Let me shoot the works and then you can go ahead and razz me some more. How long do you want to have me on the pan, anyway? You bust me all up. You’ve all jumped me ten times already. I beef about it, but I don’t get anywhere.

“If I’m a heel, I’m a heel and that’s my business. Whatever good I ever did don’t mean a thing to you. My own family ask me for references. The guys I thought were friends can’t remember day before yesterday. The flunkies in my own dump ask me what I’m selling.

“I telephoned a fellow that’s supposed to be working for me and he hung up on me. My own wife thinks I’ve got halitosis. The young kids on the street corner think I’m a bum and talk back to me. The ones that used to be strongest for me give me the raspberry.”

That, in slightly altered wording,* is the well-justified outburst of a man who had lost his money in a business depression some 2,400 years ago. Property, reputation, even self-respect, were gone. All that remained was his belief “that my Redeemer liveth.” In the end he won out. Friends and relatives came back to him, regretting his trouble and bringing him gifts. He built up a new fortune of 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 yoke of oxen, 1,000 asses, or more than he had when he started. He had seven sons and three daughters, the latter noted for their beauty. He lived 140 years after the depression, saw his sons and his sons’ sons, even four generations, and finally died peacefully of old age. A million sermons have not worn out the realistic vitality of that story.

ROYAL F. MUNGER.

*Book of Job: Chap. 21, v 3; Chap. 19, v. 2, 3, 4, 7, 9, 14-18; Chap. 42, v. 10-17.