I. GOD RULES OVER ALL.

1. He is above all. We rise through the hierarchy of being from one stage to another, and at the head of all we find God. None can equal him, none can reach up to his might and holiness. Supreme in solitary perfection, he crowns the temple of being.

2. He includes all in his sway. His exaltation does not involve his separation from his creatures. On the contrary, it gives him a wide scope; from his exalted position he surveys the whole panorama of existence, and administers the affairs of the universe.

3. He exerts active influence over all. God is not an ornamental figure-head. He not only reigns, he rules. His government is absolute; not despotic, only because it is paternal.

II. GOD'S RULE IS A NECESSITY OF THE UNIVERSE. The worlds could not go on without it. Confusion and chaos would follow if he withdrew his hand.

1. It is needed in heaven. Even there it is God who keeps the peace. The best-tempered society needs order and government to save it from falling into confusion. Heaven would become a babel of disorder if no regulating power were supreme there. The highest intelligences and the purest spirits require a regulative influence to keep them all in harmony. However well its harps are tuned, and however perfect is its music, the celestial orchestra needs one great leader.

2. Much more is it needed on earth. If heavenly beings cannot live aright without Divine guidance and rule, much more is this the case with earthly creatures, who are weak, ignorant, and sinful. If God makes his rule felt in maintaining the perfect order of heaven, assuredly he must make it felt in rectifying the wild disorder of earth.

III. GOD'S RULE SECURES PEACE.

1. It maintains "peace in high places. There is peace above, though at present there may be confusion below. The heavens are calm, though the earth is storm-tossed. The changeless blue sky is above the shifting rack of clouds. Stars keep to their spheres. Angels perform their functions. The blessed dead are at rest. If we do but look high enough we shall see peace.

2. It will bring peace on earth. When heaven touches earth the peace of heaven comes down among men. If God can keep peace among the greatest beings, surely he can establish it among puny mortals. He can reconcile all enmity or crush all opposition. Christ has come from the peace of heaven to be our Peace" (Ephesians 2:14). - W.F.A.

I. THEIR VAST NUMBERS. We can see no limit to the physical universe. The starry hemisphere dazzles us with its multitudinous splendour, but the telescope greatly increases our idea of its vastness, resolving fleecy mist into galaxies of worlds, and discovering distant suns invisible to the naked eye; and photography carries the process much further, and peoples the interstellar spaces of the telescope with hosts of still more remote stars. It is not reasonable to suppose that all these worlds are destitute of life, that our little planet is the solitary home of living creatures in a terrific desert of dead worlds. But if the material world be peopled, this may be but a small part of the universe. There may be other realms of existence unseen by the eye of sense; there may be material worlds that do not contain properties that can be detected by any of our five senses, although they are perceptible to the different senses of different orders of beings; and there may be creatures of God existing in regions that are not material, spirits that do not require what we understand by bodies. The revelation of Scripture gives us glimpses of inhabitants of other worlds than ours. It is reasonable to think that the great God rules over hosts of such beings.

II. THEIR ORDERLY ARRAY. They are armies, not mobs. As the physical universe is regulated by law and maintained in order, it is most probable that the same is true of the unseen universe. All that is revealed about God's heavenly hosts shows them to us in obedience to God's will. It is a human figure of speech that represents them as constituting armies. Milton's poetry, added to the visions of the Apocalypse, have impressed our imaginations with military conceptions of the angelic hosts. But we do not know what tasks may be laid upon those armies of God in subduing the evil of the universe. We may be sure that the vulgar thirst for glory, the pride of brute strength, and the cruel rage of bloodshed that characterize our hideous wars, cannot be found among the hosts of heaven. Therefore the military idea of the angels needs to be received with caution. We are directed rather to the higher warlike qualities, e.g. discipline and obedience joined to courage and strength.

III. THEIR DIVINE LIGHT. They all have their light from God. On what earthly multitudes does the sun rise every day l Yet there is light for all. But an infinitesimal proportion of the sunlight and heat is received by our world; by far the greater quantity of it is scattered through realms of space. God's light of love reaches all his creatures. There are no remote and dark regions of the universe that lie beyond his care. As there seems to be no end to the radiation of light when this is not hindered by obstructing objects, so no limit can be discovered to the radiation of God's love. Though the hosts of beings are innumerable, there is a share of God's goodness for each.

"Its streams the whole creation reach,
So plenteous is the store;
Enough for all, enough for each,
Enough for evermore." W.F.A.

I. GOD'S MAJESTY; AND APPLICATION. (Vers. 2-4.)

1. Absolute power carrying with it overwhelming awe into the minds of his subjects - a power which has quelled the earlier discord of heaven and made peace in those heights - is associated with God (ver. 2). He is "Lord of hosts," and those hosts are innumerable - the stars of heaven, the angels who inhabit and guide them (Job 15:15); and all the marvellous forces of nature - winds, lightnings, waves (Job 38:19-21; Psalm 104:4), which do his bidding (ver. 3).

2. He is the absolute Light' from which all others are but reflected and derived. It is his garment and his glory (Psalm 104:2; Ezekiel 1:27, 28; 1 Timothy 6:16). It blesses and cheers all that lives (Matthew 5:45). No living creature is exempt from its all-pervading beams. Then how can a mortal be just with God? How can man, in his feebleness, enter into court and contend with absolute Power (comp. Job 9:2)? Thus the speaker would convict Job of folly. And then comes the second member of ver. 4 leading to the second great thought of the speech: "How can he be pure that is born of a woman?"

II. GOD'S PURITY; AND APPLICATION. (Vers. 5, 6.) The bright silver lustre of the moon seems pale, the stars are dimmed, when compared with the essential and eternal splendour of the Highest - to say nothing of man, the maggot, the worm! The stars are but the outer adornments of the palace and abode of God; and how, then, shall man, living on this dim spot that men call earth, think to meet God on equal terms and dispute with him? If he, like moon and stars, keeps to his rank and order, he may enjoy the benefit of God; if he attempts to travel beyond it, he will be crushed by the weight of the Divine majesty (Cocceius). The view of yonder glory reminds man of his sin and corruption. The celestial lustre is the sign of celestial purity in the inhabitants of heaven; his frailty and mortality are the evidence of his sin. The time has not yet come when, life and immortality being brought to light, man is conscious of the grandeur of his inward faith and of his spiritual destiny, when he refuses to be crushed by the dazzling might and splendour of the material universe because conscious of affinity to the creative thought. - J.

I. PUTS AN END TO ALL BOASTFUL SELF-CONFIDENCE BEFORE GOD. How shall the condemned and sinful even enter into controversy with the Most High? How shall the frail child of earth - earth-born and earthly - contend with God. Not Job only, but every one, must be silenced in presence of this truth, which has its witness in each man's breast.

II. IS A CAUSE FOR PENITENT HUMILIATION BEFORE GOD. Truly the place of man - sinful man - is the dust. How shall the unclean dare to draw nigh unto the Holy One? Human feebleness and imperfectness should be sufficient to put men as in the dust; but if sinfulness, if a sense of condemnation before God, be added to this, how much greater cause for self-abasement is there? In penitence man has ground of hope, for the Lord lifteth up the meek; but in presumed self-justification he can only meet with confusion.

III. IS A REASON FOR THE EAGER EMBRACE OF THE MERCY OF GOD IN CHRIST. Whither shall a sinner fly? Where is true safety for him? In the revelation of the mercy of God to the penitent sinner there is an assured hope. This graciousness on the part of the Most High holds out the utmost encouragement to the self-condemned to return; while the inability to justify himself is in itself the highest reason why the gracious overture of God should receive from man an eager response.

IV. IS A HIGH MOTIVE TO STRICTNESS OF LIFE. With how much carefulness and lowliness and effort ought not he to live who by his very nature is so prone to err! "The son of man, which is a worm," ought to seek to order his course before God with the utmost lowliness and care. A pensioner upon the Divine bounty, a criminal at the Divine bar, he has no warrant for rude self-assumption, but has need to seek, in patient, humble effort, to avoid deeper condemnation. - R.G.

I. THE INCOMPARABLE HOLINESS OF GOD. This is a thought that cannot be described in human language. When conscience is aroused, some thrill of the awe of it may open our minds to its sublime meaning. We start from the conception of the absolute sinlessness of God. Not a spot of evil can be found on all he is or does. But holiness is more than negative freedom from sin. It is a real excellence, and on its positive side it expands into infinity. We do not know how far goodness may go. It is like light. No one can conceive how intense this may be; after a short time it becomes too brilliant for our eyes, and we are only blinded when we look at it; but it is conceivable that its intensity may be increased a thousandfold beyond the highest degree that we are capable of perceiving. There may be a brilliancy of light compared with which the glare of a tropical noon is as dull and gloomy as an English November. So there may be a holiness which in its positive character rises above all we can conceive or imagine of goodness into infinite regions of perfection. We can see no limit to the strength and depth of love. Human love may be strong as death. Yet compared to God's love it is but as a feeble, flickering flame lost in the full sunlight. No one can conceive how full and rich God's love is. All the attributes of the Divine holiness expand into infinity. Their greatness is immeasurable and inconceivable.

II. ITS OVERAWING INFLUENCE. It is as though the moon cannot shine before such a Divine light. Even that silver shield seems to be tarnished when set by the side of the brightness of God's holiness. The stars, which are far above the filth and corruption of earth, and move in heavenly spheres, do not seem to be pure in the light of God. This impression is natural, though of Course it is thrown into the form of poetic imagery. It leads to the humiliation of all human pride. If what is brightest looks dark in comparison with the splendour of God's holiness, what must man be in his sight? Now, it is possible to abuse these conceptions, as Bildad was doing. God does not make men out to be worse than they are. He does not blame his creatures for not being equal to himself. He does not judge them by his own perfection, but only by their capacities. There is also a foolish way of depreciating humanity. There may be much pride in the heart of a man who calls himself "a worm." Such language is only natural and right when it is wrung out of the soul by a deep consciousness of sin, and by an overwhelming perception of God's holiness. On the other hand, when this is the case, there is no ground for despair. The last stronghold of pride being abandoned, there is room for the mercy of God to come in. God's holiness is just the perfection of his love. The error has been in the separation of the two attributes. In the present day a shallow conception of holiness is tempting men to think lightly of sin, for it is the awe of God's holiness that impresses on us the feeling of our own guilt. Out of the humiliation thus produced springs our only hope - the hope of free pardon and gracious renewal. Then the holiness of God becomes our inspiration; we are called to be perfect, as our Father in heaven is perfect. - W.F.A.