Job 25:4

"Handfuls of Purpose"

For All Gleaners

"How can he be clean that is born of a woman?" Job 25:4

This is a question supported by reason. It is a fact also confirmed by experience. There has been opportunity enough of knowing what the human race can do for itself; we need not now be making experiments as to the quality of human nature; within the scope of thousands of years it has had field enough in which to display itself, alike to advantage and disadvantage. The question is philosophical and scientific: how can the effect be better than the cause? How can water rise above its level? How can a fountain send forth both sweet water and bitter? How can a vine bear fruit other than that of its own kind? The inquiry is thus justified by all the processes of nature. Yet revelation comes with a sublime and hopeful reply. There is a cause above all the causes which we know a great First Cause: we are stopped in our inquiry by ministries, mediums, intermediate arrangements, and what are termed secondary causes and impulses: within the circle of their operation the question must be answered, as involving an impossibility; but here it is that grace triumphs over law, here is the miracle of redemption and regeneration: with men this is impossible, with God all things are possible: the Holy Spirit takes up the work where man lays it down, and that which is resigned in feebleness is completed by omnipotence. No man can heal himself, regenerate himself, recreate himself; a voice comes sounding down the ages, "O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in me is thine help." This is the great gospel voice, declaring at once the saddest fact and the most blessed opportunity.