My first reason, then, for choosing "Job" has already been given.
It is the most striking illustration to be found. Many of the
Psalms touch perfection as lyrical strains: of the ecstacy of
passion in love I suppose "The Song of Songs" to express the very
last word. There are chapters of Isaiah that snatch the very soul
and ravish it aloft. In no literature known to me are short
stories told with such sweet austerity of art as in the Gospel
parables--I can even imagine a high and learned artist in words,
after rejecting them as divine on many grounds, surrendering in
the end to their divine artistry. But for high seriousness
combined with architectonic treatment on a great scale; for
sublimity of conception, working malleably within a structure
which is simple, severe, complete, having a beginning, a middle
and an end; for diction never less than adequate, constantly
right and therefore not seldom superb, as theme, thought and
utterance soar up together and make one miracle, I can name no
single book of the Bible to compare with "Job.
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