the promise-I am the Lord that healeth thee! (Ex. xv. 23-26). However great the sin, God's grace is mightier; but shall we count our evil slight, and not give all diligence to be entirely healed? God forbid! It is both our consolation and our warning to know, and it is the most effectual evangelical stimulant to holiness, that, although alas! good and evil more or less flow together from within, they do not both come from one fountain; that grace is mightier than sin, the Divine nature shall and will most assuredly tame and restrain thy human nature. He that says-This should not be! will make His law within us a law of liberty and life, and give us strength to keep it.

Sigh not out then, brethren, with the son of Sirach your wishes-"O that I could set a watch before my mouth, and a seal of wisdom upon my lips, that I fall not suddenly by them, and that my tongue destroy me not! (Ecclus. xxii. 27). O that I could!—but I cannot, no man can." But let it be thy earnest purpose, in the renewed will of thy new nature-"I said I will take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my tongue; I will muzzle my mouth!" (Ps. xxxix. 2).

And then, which is the

great concern, let thy watching become prayer for the strength of God" Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth; keep the door of my lips. Incline not my heart to any evil thing, but only to the good!" (Ps. cxli. 3, 4). Then that which is impossible is done, if not at once, yet more and more unto perfection; then that perfection is constantly brought nearer; the evil fountain is gradually dried up, the stronger the good fountain flows. And as, in a condition of nature, the untamed tongue seduces the heart, so in a condition of grace the taming of the tongue-that is to say by watchfulness and earnest prayer-is exceedingly helpful to growth in the Divine nature; for thus can man in truth, being under the power of grace, stop the flow of nature and dry up its fountain. He who makes this his earnest and persevering endeavour, will know by sure experience that with us also the mouth is the proper place in which to place the bit which curbs the old Adam; that the tongue is in sanctification the rudder which steers the whole life. May the Lord help us more and more, that we may not be driven of fierce winds without, but of His Holy Spirit who governeth us; that not the fire of hell, but the fire of heaven, may urge our tongues! Let us ever seek His help with the

determination of our renewed nature-Praise the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me! Praise the Lord, my tongue, and all that goeth out of me! Praise the Lord, my whole life, and every motion !

XX.

THE GENTLENESS OF TRUE WISDOM, AND THE WRATH
OF FALSE.

(Ch. iii. 13–16.)

Who is a wise man, and endued with knowledge among you? let him show out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom. But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth. This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthy, sensual, devilish. For where envying and strife is, there is confusion, and every evil work.

St James teaches us in his Epistle what is genuine faith; and for their sake who say that they have faith, but have not the works by which true faith approves, confirms, and consummates itself. What, then, have these men else in them? There must be something on which they pride themselves, and on which they rely. And that is their dead knowledge—or, as they also say, the discernment of the truth, of which they say that it is faith. But this knowledge, the more hollow and empty it is, the more it swells out in words: therefore, naturally, with vain, presumptuous, and ungrounded words, St James has especially now to do. Whatever is wanting in works, these words must supply, taking their place; instead of walking in obedience they have their so-called knowledge, instead of life they have doctrine, instead of the reality the appearance. The less disposed a man is to be taught, the more forward he is to teach others; the slower his heart is to hear the word of truth, the swifter does his tongue run away with its sayings. Hence, it may be observed that St James has given us specifically, in ch. i. 19, the proper theme of his Epistle, which he then proceeds to expound. Slow to speak!-this has been from the beginning of ch. iii. his text. Similarly, as he had added at the

:

first-And slow to wrath!-and, as he had hinted at this in the condemned cursing which comes from the same mouth as the blessing, he now proceeds more directly to speak of it, and denounces envying and strife, wars and fightings, evil speaking and judging. This extends to ch. iv. 12, when he again returns more generally to the "proud boasting;" and, finally, to the opposite patience, with which the Epistle set out; to the power of prayer for our own and our brethren's cure, and for the conversion of sinners in true wisdom.

There is but one faith, that which is genuine and sound; yet St James called the unsound faith by the same name, in order to exhibit it in all its self-contradiction. There is but one wisdom, that which is true; yet he admits that, independent of and in opposition to it, there is much so-called wisdom to be found. He now places the two in contrast: and, at the outset, before in ver. 17 he perfectly delineates true wisdom, he suggests one great note of distinction between them, which is obvious to all, and itself decisive:-he places in opposition to each other, the meekness of true wisdom and the contention of the false.

By this he has, to use the common saying, at once hit the nail on the head; and can cry to the whole community with power-Who is a wise man and prudent among you' ? Let him show in a good conversation his works, in the meekness of wisdom! He is not now speaking primarily of that wisdom which is most essentially necessary to every man, the want of which first becomes known to ourselves in the time of trial, and drives us to prayer that wisdom, to wit, which is patience, obedience, and the discreet use of God's tests and discipline. But he means, as just before, wisdom for the teaching of others, which was to be shown or approved among the brethren. And that wisdom must thus be shown; for if God has given us such a gift, He gave it to us not for ourselves alone, but for the service and salvation of others also. Only a perversion of this truth lies at the foundation of the delusion and error which makes a man imagine that he is wise, and therefore ready to show his wisdom to others. Who is wise and prudent among you? Answer enough comes from all hands-Such we all are! But not every man who cries-I also! can accept the test of the second part of the sentence. When St James's question is uttered into the midst of the Church, how soon the wise men

and those endued with knowledge announce themselves; how few are disposed modestly to say-That am I not as yet, but must first learn to become wise! Even among the women the ready response is too frequently heard; how many of them are there who can scarcely keep silence in the church; who do not merely ask their husbands at home, but answer them too without being themselves asked, and not only their husbands at home! (1 Cor. xiv. 34, 35.)

But observe well the question of St James, ye presumptuous! Who is wise and endued with knowledge? There is a great difference between these two; and the second is not of much value unless preceded by the former. Not only may a man be knowing for evil with the worst of all folly; there is also a good knowledge or intelligence, a skill in the performance of individual acts, which is then only real and useful when it proceeds from wisdom, and continues in concert with wisdom. To be merely knowing or intelligent, is not much of itself, it is a very ambiguous, dubious, and questionable thing; but to be wise and full of knowledge, that is the great concern! Now, who is wise and endued with knowledge? Who is there that has it in reality, that good thing, and not merely says that he has it? This is the meaning of the question, which asks for the thing itself amid all the semblances and pretensions thereto. First be, become, wise; do not begin at once with the assertion and assumption of being so! Would you know what is the best test of truth, which is sure to detect and baffle all forwardness and error? Show forth, before all things, in your good conversation your works. This we heard in the second chapter ; it is always decisive; and it is so even here, where the teaching of others is concerned. Proud words, which are not sustained by any witness of the life, are clouds without water (Jude 12), mere noisy thunder without the glance and might of the lightning. It is the walk which distinguishes those whose conversation is in heaven, and who are guided by the same rule, from those who are the enemies of the cross of Christ, about which they may very often talk (Phil. iii. 16, 18, 20). In the life, by the works, the light of the Father shines reflected from His children (Matt. v. 16); the true teacher tells us Be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so! (Phil. iii. 17). St Peter exhorts Christians to have their conversation honest

among the Gentiles, that they might see and glorify their good works (1 Pet. ii. 12); and, moreover, he speaks of the mighty power of a silent conversation without word, which he commends to godly women, "that if any obey not the word, they may also without the word be won by the conversation of the wives!" (1 Pet. iii. 1). Where the good foundation has before been laid, the very words become power and life; they themselves are then works: it is this which St James probably means, reckoning among the works the genuine acts of a useful and successful word and testimony. For then there is in the words life and spirit, the emphasis of power and truth. But what kind of spirit is this, in the walk, the work, and the word of Christians? That which teaches and warns-Let us not be desirous of vainglory in teaching, provoking one another, envying one another! That which exhorts-Restore the erring brother in the spirit of meekness (Gal. v. 26, vi. 1). Thus meekness is the element and the token of all true wisdom from above. It is that internal meekness and submission of heart with which a man first submits himself to learn of God, receiving the word which saves his own soul (Jas. i. 21). This meekness, then, shows itself outwardly in the whole deportment, especially where speaking and teaching are concerned. Not as if this wisdom was devoid of earnestness and zeal, of the sacred wrath of love which worketh the righteousness of God, of keenness in bearing testimony to the truth; but even in its zeal its love is approved in the conscience of him who hears, and even in its anger true meekness, which doeth neither too much nor too little, is never disturbed. More upon this point we reserve for St James' description of the wisdom which is peaceable, gentle, teachable, merciful, and impartial. Let us now only hear his question-Have you this wisdom? Do you show this meekness of genuine wisdom, as it dwells in the heart, in your life and works? Are you, then, thus truly wise, who glory in being so?

But if ye have (instead of this) bitter envy and contention in your heart-glory not, and lie not against the truth! The word which is here translated envy is properly zeal; and because there is a good and sweet zeal of love which flows from the fountain of grace in the heart, St James adds the qualification bitter zeal, meaning that which is ambitious, hateful, and envious;