Job 33:29

All these things God worketh three times with every man.

Because God does not immediately and finally damn man, but warns him many times, Eliud adds, "Behold, all these things," the instruction through dreams and rebuke through pains and healing, "God works in three ways," i.e. many times for as long as he thinks them …

All providences are to be looked upon as God's workings with man, his strivings with him. He uses a variety of methods to do men good; if one affliction do not do the work, he will try another; if neither do, he will try a mercy; and he will send a messenger to interpret both. He often works such things as these twice, thrice; so it is in the original, referring to

Lo, all these things worketh God oftentimes with man.

SOME people are wonderfully enamored of anything that is old. An old coin, an old picture, an old book, or even a piece of antique rubbish they will almost worship. The jingle of a rusty medal is music to them, and "auld nick-nackets" are as precious as diamonds. It is wonderful what a little mold and a few worm-holes will do in the way of increasing values! I confess I do not very greatly share in the feeling, at least it is no craze of mine but, nevertheless, all things being equal, antiquity has its charms. Old, old stories of the days far past, when time was young, have a special interest. They are as windows which permit us to gaze down the dim aisles of ages long gone by—we look through them with mingled curiosity and awe. I am about, this morning, to speak to you concerning an old conversion. We shall rehearse an ancient story of the renewal and salvation of a soul. In our day we meet with professors who cry down everything of the present and cry up everything of the former days, which they call the good old times. Such persons talk much about old-fashioned conversions and hold in great admiration the lives of Believers of the old school. I shall, this morning, introduce you to an old-fashioned conversion and explain the way in which men were brought to God not only hundreds, but thousands of years ago. I suppose that Elihu delivered this description of conversion about the time of Moses, or at the period when Israel was in Egypt, for almost general consent appropriates one of those dates to the Book of Job. The record we shall read this morning, and study carefully, refers to the very, very oldest of times. Let this fact give additional interest to our meditation—and if it does I am sure that we shall not lack for earnest attention, for the subject is of great intrinsic value. Kindly keep your Bibles open.