that it must be fatal to success in prayer.

Ver. 7, "For

let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord." In point of fact, he does receive from him many a thing. He is constantly cared for and supported by that Lord whom he distrusts. He is fed, clothed, protected, blessed with countless temporal, and not less with high spiritual privileges. But he need expect nothing in answer to prayer, as the fruit of his asking. He has no good reason to look for the least portion, or any kind of favour, by coming to the footstool of mercy. Why? Why? His wavering hinders God from giving. It closes the open ear, and turns away the full hand; it shuts up heaven, and intercepts the showers of blessing. While faith unlocks, it bars the Divine storehouse. Such a suppliant dishonours, insults God to his face, by doubting the truth of his word, by treating him as unworthy of confidence, by not drawing near in the way he has prescribed as that in which alone access can be had, and benefits obtained. We see this among men themselves; for what more efficacious in procuring favours than a generous trust, and what has a stronger tendency to prevent their bestowal than unmistakeable signs of suspicion,than questioning the truth, challenging the character of the party to whom the request is preferred? But this wavering unfits us for receiving, as well as hinders the Lord from giving. What use could we make of the blessing sought, if it were granted? The unsteady hand cannot hold the full cup, but spills its contents. So the undecided, vacillating man cannot turn to good account heavenly benefactions. He would be sure to lose them, to waste them, to remain as empty as if he had never been filled. Those who have no stability, no fixed principles and plans, are little the better for anything they obtain. We often see this in temporal matters. Some persons are so changeable, irresolute, unreliable, that any help you give them is of little service. It is practically very much the same

whether they have or want; for whatever they may get soon disappears. This feature of the case is brought out strongly in what is added.

Ver. 8, "A double minded man is unstable in all his ways;" or, continuing the account of the waverer who is to receive nothing, James says of him, "He is a double minded man, unstable in all his ways." Double minded—that is, he has a divided spirit, he is drawn in two opposite directions— now heavenward, then earthward. The meaning is not that he is hypocritical, deceitful; that he is one thing, and pretends to be another. He is distracted, fluctuating, vacillating, inclined to good and evil by turns,—with his feelings moved, but his principles unfixed,—with a sense of what is right, but a love of what is wrong; having a selfish desire to serve God, but a still stronger reluctance to abandon mammon. The 'consequence is, that such a man "is unstable in all his ways." Now he goes forward, then backward; now to the one side, then to the other. It is not only in prayer that his divided mind appears; that is but a manifestation of what comes out in every department of his conduct. It is only an index of his character generally. He is unsteady, uncertain, not to be depended on in his whole course of action. He wants the resolute will, the fixed purpose; he wants strength of mind and deep religious principle.

1. Let us realise our need of wisdom.-It is indispensable if we are to get good from our trials. Without it, we will not discern the hand or the purpose of God in our divers temptations. Without it, we will not see either the source of support under them, or the door of deliverance from them. Without it, we will make comparisons and draw conclusions equally erroneous in their nature, and injurious in their influence. Without it, we will fret and murmur, we will rise in rebellion, or sink in despondency; and so render the yoke more galling, instead of lightening it by a calm, submissive, confiding, God-honouring spirit.

Without it, we will flee to false refuges, and perhaps adopt means of cure worse a great deal than the disease itself. And we need it not only for the bearing and improvement of trial, but for the whole of our Christian work and warfare. We require the wisdom of the serpent amidst the snares and perils by which at every step we are surrounded. Not restrained and regulated by it, zeal often defeats its own ends, and injures the cause which it seeks to advance. In proportion as we are taught of God, and grow in grace, we cannot but feel our lack of this heavenly gift the wisdom that cometh down from above. Have you, my brethren, learned that lesson? You must, to some extent, if you have entered the school of the heavenly Master.

2. Let us see how this and every want is to be supplied.— We must go out of ourselves, and rise far above all creatures. We must repair to the only good, the only wise God. Ask of him, brethren. Ask largely. He is "the God that giveth,”giveth simply, giveth without upbraiding. We please not him by coming with narrow and poor requests. Though not in other respects, yet in this we are to seek great things for ourselves. Ask boldly. I do not mean in a presumptuous or self-sufficient, but in a hopeful, confiding, filial manner. Be humble, but not timid; be lowly, but not fearful, desponding in spirit. Lay hold of the exceeding great and precious promises which are all yea and amen in Christ Jesus. Fill your mouths with arguments. Like Jacob, wrestle with the angel of the covenant until you obtain the blessing. "My God shall supply all your need, according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus." "Now, unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly, above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us,-unto him be glory in the Church, by Christ Jesus, throughout all ages, world without end. Amen."1

1 Phil. iv. 19; Eph. iii. 20, 21.

III.

POOR AND RICH BELIEVERS.

Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted; but the rich in that he is made low: because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away. For the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat, but it withereth the grass, and the flower thereof falleth, and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth: so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways."-JAMES i. 9, 10, 11.

HE apostle sets out in his Epistle by speaking of trials, which were then in a very special sense the portion of Christians. He calls on those here addressed to receive them with joy, and bear them with patience, because of the gracious ends they are fitted and designed to serve, the precious issues they are sure to have, if so regarded and improved. But, in order to this, much wisdom is needed, for only by means of it can we discern the Divine hand and purpose in such dealings, learn from them the lessons which they are intended to teach, and act so as to reap the fruits of them in progressive holiness and ultimate perfection. James exhorts as many as feel the lack of this heavenly gift to come to the mercy-seat for it, to seek it from that God who giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not, assuring them that their request will be granted. But we cannot succeed in our application for this or any other spiritual benefit merely by asking, for all acceptable asking must be in faith, without wavering. We must draw near, believing that God is both able and

ready to bless us, that his resources are both sufficient and available, that his promises are equally large and surebelieving not less that Jesus is the one Mediator, and not only desiring, but expecting a gracious answer, solely on the ground of his infinite merit and all-prevailing intercession. If we approach in doubt, distrust, carried backwards and forwards like a wave of the sea driven by the wind and tossed, we can receive nothing. How can we?-seeing we thereby dishonour God to whom we present our petitions, by the want of confidence we manifest, the unworthy suspicions we cherish; and seeing also we show ourselves unfit to grasp and turn to account the blessings thus unsteadily, if we may not even say sceptically, supplicated. Here the apostle has still a reference to the temptations or trials of the righteous, as is evident from the verses which follow those now before us as the subject of discourse. He brings out their effect on two classes among them, the poor and the rich, and teaches how that effect should be regarded in both cases.

Let us

then consider, as the Lord the Spirit may enable us, the truths here inculcated.

I. The two classes of persons addressed. They are poor and rich believers. Let us look at them separately.

1. Poor Christians.-He appeals at the outset to "the brother of low degree." He calls the party addressed a brother, that is obviously a brother in the faith of the gospel, a member of the same spiritual family. It was thus Christians then spoke of, and to each other. They realised the close and endearing relationship which subsisted between them, the existence of a fraternal bond by which they were knit together,—a bond not of a merely figurative or formal nature, but most true, intimate, and endearing. As children of God by union with his Son Jesus Christ, they were brethren, and they acknowledged, saluted, loved one another accordingly. They felt and owned the ties of grace