An apparition.
The visionary now tells the thrilling tale of his vision. He thinks that he will overawe Job with a message from one who was no mortal man. All the details and circumstances of the vision are graphically narrated, that the horror of it may add to the weight of its authority.
I. THE REALITY OF THE APPARITION. There is every reason to believe that Eliphaz spoke in good faith. He does not appear before us as a deceiver, though he is certainly capable of making a great mistake. Therefore it cannot be doubted that he narrated his genuine experience. But then we may naturally ask—What did really happen?
1. Possibly a subjective illusion. The apparition may have been only a creature of the visionary's excited imagination. "Seeing" should not be always "believing." We are not justified in invariably trusting our senses. A diseased or a merely disordered brain will evolve visions. Perhaps without derangement the brain's very exaltation may help it to create phantasms.
2. Possibly a real spiritual manifestation. It is not scientific to deny the possibility of any such thing. Science is growing conscious of the endless varieties of existence and of the boundless potentialities of nature. We cannot say that there are no spirits but our own, nor can we say that no other spirits ever do make themselves manifest to men. There may be no external, material presence; the spiritual contact may be internal, and the vision thrown out from it through the brain of the seer; and yet there may be a something in contact with the soul—a real spiritual presence.
II. THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE APPARITION.
1. In solitude. The thing was "secretly brought to" Eliphaz. Some may say, as there were no spectators to check the accuracy of his vision, the whole scene was a delusion. But on the other hand, solitude would be most suitable for a revelation of the other world. The pressure cf earthly things shuts out the very thought of the unseen.
2. In the night. Here, again, the darkness of the material surroundings might give an opportunity for the appearance of the immaterial.
3. In meditation. "In thoughts from the visions of the night." This shows that Eliphaz was in a condition to receive spiritual impressions. The extraordinary writings of Lawrance Oliphant indicate that some kind of peculiar experience is attained by those who think themselves into the preparation necessary for it. This may only lead to the quagmire of "Spiritualism." But it is too much for a "Philistine" scepticism to say that no good influences have ever come in this way.
III. THE EFFECT OF THE APPARITION.
1. A shock of terror. Eliphaz describes most graphically the horror of his experience. The figure was vague, shapeless, nameless, impersonal, and described by the visionary as "It." He felt something pass him, his limbs trembled beneath him, his hair stood up on end! Men dread the supernatural. Some attribute this dread to the guilt of conscience; but the strange, the unknown, the unnatural, suggest fearful possibilities of danger. It is happier to live in the sunshine with children and flowers than in gloom with ghosts. The pursuit of "Spiritualism," even if it is not following a delusion, entails an unhealthy and melancholy fascination.
2. A voice of truth. "It" gave Eliphaz a message. God has revealed truth in dream and vision. The message of the apparition was great and important. Yet that message was not new; and it was liable to misapplication by Eliphaz. We shall be very foolish if we forsake Christ and the Scriptures for spirit-voices—which now generally appear to talk nonsense in bad grammar. It is foolish to make conscience and reason subject to any unauthenticated vision.—W.F.A.