Now after three days wherein Job kept his bed—­yet without pain or sickness, for no disease had power over him since the day when he put on that heavenly girdle—­after three days, I say, he was aware of those that were coming to bear away his soul.  And he arose, and gave to his eldest daughter a harp, and to the second a censer, and to the third an instrument of music, that they might welcome those that were on their way.  And even as they took them into their hands they saw the chariots of light approaching; and they uttered hymns of praise and thanksgiving, each one in the language of them that dwell in the holy places.  Then He that sat in the great chariot came near and took the soul of Job, embracing it in His arms in the sight of his daughters; but no man else saw that sight.  And He took it into the chariot and departed towards the sunrising.

And after three days we made ready the body of Job to the burial; and all the widows, and the fatherless, and the helpless came about us, crying and saying, “Woe unto us this day, woe unto us!  He that was the strength of the weak, the light of the blind, the father of the fatherless, the home of the homeless, is taken from us.”  And they would not that his body should be hidden out of their sight.  But when we carried him to the sepulchre, his three daughters went before, girded with the heavenly girdles, and giving glory to God in hymns and psalms of thanksgiving.  And we laid him in the tomb as it were sleeping a fair sleep; and verily he left after him a name that shall be famous and renowned in all generations.

SOLOMON AND THE DEMONS

In an ancient Greek book called The Testament (that is, the Last Words’) of Solomon, the story is told of the way in which Solomon overcame the demons and made them serve him.  The tale is put into the mouth of the king himself.

When I was engaged upon the building of the temple in Jerusalem, there was a lad, the son of the foreman of the builders, of whom I took notice, for he was a clever workman.  Indeed, so skilful was he that I increased his wages and his allowance of food above the rest.  Yet in spite of that, as I saw him by day, I noticed that he was becoming thin and weak and pale.  So one day I called him and asked him whether anything was the matter with him.  At first he would not tell me, but when I pressed him he said, “I know not whether you will believe it, O king, but a strange thing has been afflicting me.  Every night when I go to my bed, something comes and sucks my right thumb, and, moreover, it steals away my food; and I feel that it is taking away all my strength, and I believe that it is an evil spirit.”  When I heard that, I went back to my palace, and thought earnestly, and consulted the writings of the ancients; and I prayed that a way might be shown to me how I could set the lad free from the power of the demon.  And after some days there came to me an angel, and