96 QUAKER ASPECTS OF TRUTH 



prosperous in Israel, Their prosperity was regarded 

 as the reward of virtue ; they must have felt that it was 

 no more than they deserved* Calamity was the punish- 

 ment for sin, so that in their exploitations of the poor 

 they were helping to carry out the Divine Intentions, 

 Thus to the joy of prosperity was added the joy of 

 conscious virtue. In short, the teaching which the 

 eighth century prophets applied to the nation was now 

 applied to the individual, and became the orthodox 

 teaching of the day, *' Be good and you will be happy,'* 

 But there was a man in Israel of a wonderfully 

 tender and sympathetic spirit, and the most marvellous 

 poetic genius the world has ever known. The suffering 

 and injustice of life cut his sensitive nature to the quick. 

 He knew by his own observation and experience that 

 the current solution to the problem of suffering was a 

 lie. It was not always the good who prospered, nor 

 did calamity always befall the wicked. In spite of the 

 comforting assurance of the Psalmist, he knew that he 

 had seen the righteous forsaken, and his seed begging 

 bread. He had heard their bitter cry ascending up to 

 God apparently unheard and unanswered. Moreover, 

 he had seen the wicked flourish like a green bay-tree. 

 He had seen him gathered to his fathers in a ripe 

 old age, respected by all who did not know him. If 

 he had lived to-day he might have read his obituary 

 notices, and have known that they lied. 



Therefore, having a deep concern for the truth, he 

 took an old traditional story, which had come down from 

 remote antiquity, and he grafted upon it the greatest 

 poem that was ever written. 



If only we had the Book of Job in its original form, 

 without the additions and alterations made by '' pious *' 

 hands in the interests of orthodoxy, we should all recog- 

 nise its greatness. No one has ever faced more fear- 

 lessly the facts of experience, and the problems which 



