blessing? There is a great deal of such religion. It consists in professions and privileges, in ordinances and observances. It is made up of opinions more or less sound-of forms more or less imposing. There may be feelings too, deep impressions, strong convictions. But it reigns not over the heart and life-it fills not the former with tender sympathies, nor does it keep the latter from worldly pollutions. It produces neither the beneficence nor the purity which is characteristic of true Christianity; and its real nature is often shown by little things, by the prevalence of some evil habit of no great enormity. There may be much freedom from gross excesses; but the unbridled tongue, or other evidence of the absence of a constraining fear of God, may prove that the old man, not the new, holds supremacy within. Those on their guard with reference to vicious indulgences and immoral practices, may yet in ways like this let out their want of all gracious principle. Get rid of such a religion. It will be of no service when you most need it— instead of holding you up it will drag you downward, it will sink you deeper. Cast it away, and seek a betterseek it in Jesus, in his all-cleansing blood and life-giving Spirit.

Believing brethren, your religion is of the right description. It is pure and undefiled. Let it be so in an ever-increasing degree. Rest less in opinions, though these are most important-less in feelings, though they too are of great influence; and seek ever to exhibit the practical power of the grace you have received, in "works of faith and labours of love." Let your walk resemble our blessed Lord's-let it be marked as his was by beneficence and purity. Do good to all men as you have the opportunity. Have an open heart and open hand, so far as your circumstances permit. Remember the place which deeds of charity done from a right motive are to have in the judgment. The very least of them is to have its great reward. And while blessing

others watch over yourselves.

Guard against all pollution. surrounded by it, yet be sepa

In the world, never be of it; rate from it, that is, in spirit, character, and behaviour. Follow after that holiness without which no man shall see the Lord; and let every increase of it only urge you forward the more resolutely toward the perfection of it; for while never attained here, it is yet to be ever more and more nearly approached, and is at length to be enjoyed above by all the faithful.

XI.

RESPECT OF PERSONS.

For if

"My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons. there come unto your assembly a man with a gold ring, in goodly apparel, and there come in also a poor man in vile raiment; and ye have respect to him that weareth the gay clothing, and say unto him, Sit thou here in a good place; and say to the poor, Stand thou there, or sit here under my footstool: are ye not then partial in yourselves, and are become judges of evil thoughts? Hearken, my beloved brethren, Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him? But ye have despised the poor. Do not rich men oppress you, and draw you before the judgment-seats? Do not they blaspheme that worthy name by the which ye are called?"-JAMES ii. 1–7.

JAMES deals with the gospel very specially in its practical aspects and relations. He brings it to bear on every part of the character and conduct of its professed adherents. He exposes in the strongest terms the sin and danger of those who satisfy themselves with hearing the Divine word without doing it—who rest in their supposed faith, while not evidencing it by those fruits of righteousness of which it is ever productive when genuine, vital, saving in its nature. He also lays open, with an unsparing hand, certain corrupt tendencies which had appeared in the Church, various forms in which Antinomianism was showing itself, even where the general principles

of the parties infected with the evil leaven were comparatively sound and scriptural. One of these sad perversions he assails here-that of respecting persons. It manifested itself, as we see, at a very early period, under the eyes of the apostles themselves, for James clearly treats here of no hypothetical or remote state of matters, but of one that was real, actual, and present. Such a loud note of warning was greatly needed, for this sin was to work a world of mischief in the Church's subsequent history. It spread its malign influence in primitive times, and was largely the means of introducing many of those abuses by which the gospel was so soon and so deeply corrupted. It has not ceased to operate still, and to tell most injuriously on the management of ecclesiastical affairs, with which the credit and success of Christianity are in a variety of ways closely connected. Let us now proceed to consider as the Lord the Spirit may enable us :

I. The sin against which the warning is directed.— Vers. 1-4. Here we have the sin stated, and then illustrated, by means of a case, an example. Look at it, then, in both these respects.

1. It is stated.-Ver. 1, "My brethren," he begins, addressing them in an affectionate, conciliatory manner, well fitted to gain their confidence and compliance. He calls on them not to hold, in a certain way, "the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ." He had spoken immediately before of true and undefiled religion, of what it consists in, practically regarded,-of how it comes out in action, namely, visiting the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and keeping ourselves unspotted from the world. Now, he traces it up to its vital root, its underlying ground, its radical, essential principle, faith, "the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ." It is this which alike determines the state and forms the character of the really religious,-of those who are so in the

scriptural sense of the expression.

It is only by believing

with the whole mind and heart that we are united to the Saviour, and reap the benefits of his great redemption. It is thus we are sprinkled with the blood of atonement, and sanctified by the Spirit of holiness. It is the inlet to all gracious influences and heavenly blessings. Faith lies at the foundation of the entire Christian structure. By it alone can forgiveness of sins be obtained; by it alone can the fruits of righteousness be produced. It is now spoken of as generally as possible, to bring out strongly how utterly inconsistent with it, under every form and in every measure, is that practice which is here condemned. The two are directly, essentially opposed in their very nature. The faith is indeed taken as representative of, and as equivalent to, that religion, of which it is so fundamental and prominent a part,—the religion of Christ. It is as if James had exhorted them not to hold, not to profess the gospel, of which this grace is preeminently distinctive, "with respect of persons." He sets forth the great object of faith with much fulness, for the purpose of making all the more distinct and complete that contrast and contrariety which he is seeking to establish. "Our Lord Jesus Christ."-And to this most comprehensive name and designation is appended the additional title, "the Lord of glory." You see that in the latter "the Lord" is supplied by our translators, but quite warrantably and correctly, so as to bring out the sense, for other proposed methods of rendering the original are far less natural and probable.

Well does the Saviour deserve to be so called. He does so in his eternal and essential being, as the second person of the Godhead. John says, "we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father." Another sacred writer describes him as being "the brightness of his (the Father's) glory, and the express image of his person." He possessed every Divine perfection and prerogative. All the

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