²⁷ The children of light should reckon upon the attempts of the powers of darkness against them. A sudden moment of conflict should not therefore surprise us. For we are set to be the scene or theatre of their defeat by Christ. "It is our illumination" that exposes us. That is its proper natural operation. The more we are in the light, I may say, the more exposed we are. It was Adam’s creature-beauty, Job’s memorial with God, and the Apostle’s attachment to Christ, that laid them open to Satan. But let me add, that a "messenger of Satan" may be sent forth from the presence of God upon either the _flesh_ or the _heart_ of man. An evil spirit from the Lord came upon Saul, and a lying spirit came upon the prophets of Ahab. 1 Sam. xvi.; 1 Kings xxii. The Lord was beginning solemn acts of _judgment_, and, therefore, these messengers of Satan were sent forth upon the _heart_ of those who were righteously under judgment. But other messengers of Satan reach only the _body_ or _circumstances_, as in the case of Paul and of our patriarch. And this is _discipline_ merely, and not judgment. These analogies are as strict and literal as they can be. And further--for it is edifying to trace this still--we find the patriarch in one school with the distant apostle of the Gentiles--so richly does one Spirit breathe through the whole volume. We are in the last chapters of 2 Corinthians, when reading the first chapters of the Book of Job! We have the "thorn in the flesh," "the messenger of Satan," in both Job and Paul. Then, as to Job and his friends, or the elect one whose faith is cast into the furnace, and his brethren in the faith. A very principal part of this patriarchal story is made up, as we commonly know, of the controversies that arose between them. Bitter and heated they were, in something more than the ordinary measure. But such things are still, and have been in every age. Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar were friends and brethren indeed, though they proved to be but "miserable comforters." They came to Job when all had deserted him, children mocking him, young men pushing away his feet, his kinsfolk failing him, his inward friends forgetting him, his servants giving him no answer, and his wife refusing him, though he entreated for their children’s sake. They were true-hearted friends, who said that they would go and comfort their afflicted brother. And they did go; and they sat with him in his place of ashes and potsherds for seven days.