Of the night wind, down the vnst edges drear And nnked shingles of the world." III. IT 18 NOT THl!l LE88 BEAL BE0AU8E IT 18 UNSEEN. We cannot see the guiding band, but often we ca.n moHt lha.nkfully detect its presence by the providential result. We may not be able to discern the steersman for the driving spray, but if we have come snfely into port we may be sure that he is at the helm. The reign of law cannot dispense with the rule of God, if God is the great Lawgiver. The most wonderful scientific truth that has been brought home to recent generations is the fixed and uniform system of law in nature. How come this to be so? and how is it that the rigorous lnws make for the well-being of God's creatures, as they obviously do? Surely law itself points to a ruling mind. The world is not left to itself, or it would be in chaos. The order of the world throughout, extending to the most distant galaxy of stars, proclaims the universal rule of its one Lord. , IV. IT WILL MAKE ITSELF li'ELT DY THOS"E WHO DO NOT ACKNOWLEDGE IT AT PllESENT. Our deni~l of God's universal rule does not destroy it. We do not abrogate God's laws by ignoring them. The existence of an atheist does not mean the non-existence of God. For the present God waits, giving us our trial, and opportunities for knowing him peaceably and happily. But some day we must behold his throne of glory, if that throne exists at all. '!'hen it will be well for us to have acknowledged it first, and to approach it as his obedient servants coming home from their toil.-W. F. A. Ver. 34.-" A king over all the children of pride." This magniloquent title crowns the elaborate description of leviathan, which occupies the whole chapter. It gives us a vivid idea of the supremacy and kingship that are to be found in nature. I. THERE ABE GRADATIONS OF RANK IN NATURE. Nature is not democratic or communistic. Among her various orders we observe ascending ranks of living creatures. There is a natural aristocracy; there is a natural kingship. All creatures are not endowed alike. Some are gifted with powers that lift them above their fellows. We see the same facts in the human world. All men are not endowed equally. Some have 'five talents, some two talents, some but one talent, There are men who seem born to rule; power is native to them. Now, these facts may seem to justify a rigid adherence to differences of rank and a repression of efforts to bring about a.. state of eqnality. But we must modify the application of them to men in two or three respects. 1. Men are all of one species, of one great family, and are therefore all brethren, whereas in the animal world we have been considering differences of species. 2. Men have a moral nature, and can discern a higher right than that of might. 3. Men have a religion, which teaches them that their own instiucts and wills are to be subordinate to the will of God. II. THE HIGHEST KINGSHIP IS MENTAL AND MORAL. It is only in a highly rhetorical description that the crocodile, even when idealized, can be described as "a king over all the children of pride," for he does not really rule over the beasts and birds and fishes of the Nile. It is his dragon-like size and form and power that suggest to us an idea of royalty. And what royalty I Here we have the reductio ad absurdu.m of the kingship of force. It is natural and right in the crocodile, who lives up to his nature. Yet with all his toughness and terror this animal is one of the most senseless of creatures. It is not much to be able to boast of physical supremacy. The born kings of men are the great leaders in the higher life-leaders of thought, as Plato, Augustine, Aquinas, Bacon, Newton, Kant; leaders of religious life and conduct, as St. Paul, Athanasius, Luther, Wesley. III. Goo IS KING OF KINGB. It would be a fearful thing if the power and supremacy that are entrusted to the larger animals had been given to them without limits or restraints. But the kingly animals, the lion and the eagle, as well as leviathan himself, are all obedient subjects of the Lord who rules over all the works of nature. They could not rebel against their Suzerain if they would. Their kingdoms are but satrapies of the grand empire of nature which God rules absolutely. Hence the order of the world in spite of the power of these monstrous creatures. :Man alone is able to rebel. Yet God overrules the rebellion even of the human world, and brings kings to do his will, although they may recognize him as little Ill! leviathan recognizes his Lord and Maker. Thus God gives power within limits. Men of the largest liberty and ~ 8M THE BOOK OF JOB. [oll. XLII. 1-17,
higbe11t privilege& will be called to account before their 11uprelil.e Moster. Therefore it ie for u11 to look up above all earthly greatness and rule to that perfect kingship cmd that one npnmie authority which h&s ibeen revealed to us iu Ohrlet for the •guidanbe of oar UTia Into the path of loyal obedience.-W. F. A.
SzOTioN vn. H1BTOa1cAL SzQU'JtL TO ms DutooUB.