danger enough to make us walk most heedfully: everywhere there are illusions which may lead us astray, temptations to vanity and sin, assaults of the unbelieving and perverse nature, requiring all our circumspection. A very slight complacency in one thing that is wrong may first ensnare us, and awaken a slumbering lust in the heart: presently it goes further, and the unbridled tongue enters into the danger, and this again leads to fellowship in act-until at last the Demas is fully formed who forsakes the communion of the faithful, and loves this present world again! (2 Tim. iv. 10). Or, if this last sad result does not follow, there is a grievous distraction of heart, a departure from the way, a defilement of the spirit. Therefore, the last test which St James gives for the purity of the service of God is this—in the works of love to keep oneself unspotted from the world! He speaks as if we in ourselves were altogether pure and without spot; but, thus warning us, he gives us to remember that we have within us still the inflammable matter of sin. Otherwise the sin without would no more touch or lay hold upon us than upon Him in whom there was no sin.

St James, however, would not say that we might utterly escape all defilement; for he knew well, even as the Master had taught him, that at least the feet must be soiled by our walking in this world, and that they must continually be washed (John xiii. 10). But, as he had said before, whoso seeth at once in the glass of the word these easily contracted spots, looks deeply into that same mirror and finds also the purification. He who diligently and sincerely strives to cleanse and sanctify himself, who puts away immediately every staincontinueth in the perfect law of liberty. And that is the great essential in all complete, pure, and determined earnestness of obedience, which esteems nothing to be unimportant.

XIII.

NO RESPECT OF PERSONS IN THE LOVE OF THE NEIGHBOUR.

(Ch. ii. 1–9.)

My brethren, count not that faith in Jesus Christ, our Lord of glory, suffers respect of persons. For if 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 here, or, Sit here under my footstool: Are ye not then partial in yourselves, and are become judges of evil thought? 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? If ye fulfil the royal law according to the Scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well. But if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors.

St James has spoken of the charitable visitation of the poor, the widows, and the fatherless: he now connects his discourse with what preceded, in such a manner as still most keenly to test our love and mercy, that in which we should serve God in our neighbour. But he tests it with reference to our conduct in relation to the contrast and distinction existing in the world between rich and poor, exalted and humble. The rich and the poor must meet together; the Lord is the Maker of them all (Prov. xxii. 2). Wherefore and to what end hath He made the one rich, the other poor? He knoweth full well in His wisdom: He knoweth moreover, what we also may and should know, that it is not Himself who hath made rich all that are rich, and poor all that are poor; but avarice hasteneth after riches, and sin plunges into poverty. The poor and the rich meet together; the Lord lighteneth both their eyes (Prov. xxix. 13). Forsooth, when that is the lot of both, they meet in very deed. But mark that Solomon in this sentence places the poor first: that their eyes would receive the light of the Lord! If this day the possession of earthly goods was reduced to

equality, how long would that continue, how soon would the sin of men restore the disparity! But God's government suffers it to continue, in order that His grace may operate, and turn evil to good account, in ways which to our dim eyes are too deep and too high. Do not prematurely intrude into the Lord's province; you would rather make the evil worse! The only equality to enlightened eyes is found in the kingdom of God, through faith in Jesus Christ. The present age seeks by art and cunning devices to redeem itself from the misproportion which exists in this matter, and which indeed avaricious industry and ungodly lust of possession are continually increasing: this has indeed become one of the chief problems of dabblers in statecraft, reformers, and clamourers for right and freedom. But they will never accomplish their purpose, while they take not the method which God's word here prescribes. It is that of which St James here speaks. But not as of itself the main thing; for it only prepares the way for the reference to the royal law of love, ver. 8—to the perfect fulfilment of the perfect law in the genuine works of faith, vers. 10-14. But we will first consider these words in themselves.

My brethren, think not that the faith of Jesus Christ, our Lord of glory, may be held with respect of persons! That is the very general position which comes first, and ver. 9 afterwards returns to it. What respect of persons is, the world, which constantly exhibits it, knows very well without much explanation: we, dear brethren, it may be hoped, know in addition that it means the external respect which does not fall on the right person, that is, the man as he really is in himself, and according to his true value, but looks at the specious outward appearance to the eyes. That God does not look at the person in any such sense, is known to all who know anything of God; and yet how hard it is to come to a right appreciation and application of this, is seen in the difficulty with which the first Apostle was brought to confess-Now know I it of a truth! (Acts x. 34). On the day of the revelation of the righteous judgment of God it will be manifest beyond all thought and expectation of ours, that there is no respect of persons with God (Rom. ii. 11). The doing righteousness and the doing wickedness-this will be the sole and final distinction. This is plainly enough declared in the present life to all, whether poor or rich, whether servants or masters.

Whatsoever good any servant, as a servant of Christ devoted to the will of God, doeth, the same shall he receive. But the masters must do what is equal, and know that their Master also is in heaven, and that there is no respect of persons with Him (Eph. vi. 6-9). O how much does that comprehend! There are manifold varieties of servants and masters, of poor and rich, of lowly and exalted, of ignorant and wise, to whom less or to whom more is given. And this extends to the kingdom of God and the Church of Christ, even among the highest prerogatives and gifts of apostolical honour; so that St Paul could boldly say concerning the first-chosen Apostles, "But of those who had respect, whatsoever they were, it maketh no matter to me: God accepteth no man's person!" (Gal. ii. 6). We shall not pursue this too far, but prefer to observe how St James, the Lord's brother according to the flesh (in the eyes of men truly a great pre-eminence !), himself sets a good example; for he never makes mention of this honour throughout the Epistle, but places himself in common with the brethren under the supremacy of our Lord of glory.

This expression is carefully chosen for his phrase, which properly runs as a question, "Do ye hold, forsooth, with respect of persons the faith in this our Lord of glory?" Can these two things, rightly considered, consist together? He, the Lord of all lords, was poor and lowly in this world. Again, how does the glory which is His and which He gives to His people, the glorious riches of this mystery among the Gentiles, Christ in you the hope of glory (Col. i. 17), make pale all the honour of this lower world! How supremely and beyond all other concern important that every man should mind that one thing, the being presented perfect in Christ Jesus! (Col. i. 28). The fact that there is, even among Christians, so much respect of persons, shows how little the genuine and perfect faith in the Lord of glory fills their hearts. But the least and most external thing which belongs to a man's person, and which others may regard, is his present possession of worldly goods; and nevertheless, as evidence of their perverse folly, this is the first and the last thing that most men regard. Is it not now as the son of Sirach said, "The poor man is honoured for his skill, and the rich man is honoured for his riches?" (Ecclus. x. 30). That is, even if the poor man's skill is not despised on account of his poverty;

which, however, often happens, as Eccles. ix. 14, 15 more authoritatively tells us. There was in Christ's time among the Jews-who, besides the priesthood, recognised no other distinction of degree-so deeply-rooted a disposition to honour the rich and to regard Mammon, that He constantly made that the object of His severe denunciation. And is our Christendom wanting in this Jewish spirit? Rather, this age of ours, which would overturn all other government, seems likely to succumb under the vilest of all aristocracies, that of wealth, the meanest of all government, that of money! We are told, my brethren, as Christians-Let it not be so among you! Take heed lest you reject such trite and seemingly needless admonition. Practically, it is not so generally understood that, as before God riches and poverty are of no avail, so also among us they should make no difference. It was not fully understood even in the apostolical Church, for St James gives us a striking example.

If into your assembly, that of the Divine service, there enter a man with gold ring and magnificent apparel, a rich lord who bears his riches visibly about him; and with him a poor man in mean garments, showing the traces of toil and need; and ye should look at once upon the man in the costly apparel, and say to him with reverence-Take this seat in the best place! but to the poor man-Thou mayest stand there, or sit down here at my footstool! do ye not make distinctions among yourselves, and become judges of evil thoughts? Thus does St James paint from the life; and, although he gently puts it as only a possible case, we feel that he had seen what he describes. That the members of the church are not meant who had their own places-but strangers who came in, is evident from the whole context. The assemblies of Christians were open to every man; and it often happened that unbelievers came in, as we read in 1 Cor. xiv. 23-25. That such a visitor might become conscious of Divine truth, might worship God, and avow that God did dwell among His people-this is what every man in the assembly should have thought of, and nothing else. But this eminent and gilded man must have a place of honour, as if there was something special in him even here before God, on whom such a man almost conferred an honour; he must be flatteringly regarded, as if much depended for the Church upon such personages being won. On the other hand,