(4) В¶ And his sons went and feasted in their houses, everyone his day; and sent and called for their three sisters to eat and to drink with them.
Though I am very ready to allow, that in those feasts of Job's children, there are certain amiable qualities worth remarking; such as the love which, as brethren, they lived in together, their affection for their sisters also, and their societies in their own houses, far preferable to public-houses, and the taverns of modern times, wherein the carnal indulge too often their lusts and pleasures; yet Job's children would have been more like their father, had they feasted less, and given more. Oh! thou heavenly Samaritan! what a feast would that be, if followed up by our great ones; and what a very different world would it make the present, from what it now is, if, when they made a feast, they called in the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind. The imagination is not competent to form the full blessedness of such a mind, who would thus spread the Lord's bounties for the Lord's poor; and while the table was surrounded with such guests, and the hungry bellies of the perishing supplied, the generous lord of the feast seasoned his entertainment for the body, with sweet and gracious discourse for the soul. Such was thy feast, dearest Jesus! and I hope there are still some of thine, following thy example. Luke 14:13. and Luke 15:2.