ing we also secure our salvation, in the continuous seed of good works and salutary sufferings. Let us do good, while we have opportunity, and faint not; so shall we also reap in due time without ceasing! (Gal. vi. 9). Every truly good work is one seedcorn more, for the increase of the ears and sheaves; but every sin of omission is itself a deduction from the full reward. For he that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin! Therefore strengthen your hearts to labour, as Azariah the son of Obed exhorted-Be ye strong therefore, and let not your hands be weak; for your work shall be rewarded (2 Chron. xv. 7). So the holy Apostle: Be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord; forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord (1 Cor. xv. 58). But the great and fundamental work is that of patience, which receives the rain and endures the heat until the fruits be ripe; receiving and suffering as from the Lord all discipline and correction. This patience is strong in faith, and firm in the hope of the certain promise; it is immovably unmurmuring toward God, and humble toward man; silently submissive, and therefore deeply strong. "In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and confidence shall be your strength" (Is. xxx. 15).

Thus we are then further warned and defended against every evil, against even that slightest and most secret guilt of the heart which might be exceedingly evil in its consequence. Groan not one against another, brethren, that ye may not be condemned! Behold, the Judge standeth before the door. Where there reigns that patient temper of the heart which waits for the Lord, and looks for the precious fruit, there can be no room for gross external sins against the law of love. Therefore St James does not here allude to them; he does not even say as before--Speak not evil one of another! For he who does that, has already forgotten entirely the Judge and the compassionate Saviour. The suffering just man submits to be judged like his Saviour, from whom his righteousness cometh—even unto death, and doth not resist. St James takes that for granted: but are we not merely to sigh? Is not that demanding an impossibility? Let us, however, understand it aright. The sighing of the suffering oppressed is not wrong in itself, and can never cease. We sigh over the ungodly in their misery. Those

who took away the sheaf from the hungry, Job says, made men groan from out of the city (Job. xxiv. 12). And Solomon says

When the righteous are increased, the people rejoice; but when the wicked beareth rule, the people sigh (Prov. xxix. 2). They sigh to God, the Judge and Avenger, the Helper and Redeemer. Even the Apostle recognises a sighing of the husbandmen over unfruitful fields, when he says-"Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves; for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with sighing: for that is unprofitable for you" (Heb. xiii. 17). But quite different is that sighing against one another, which might become the cause of our condemnation. The oppressed Church crieth and mourneth to her Lord, like the poor widow-Avenge me of mine adversary! and His elect cry day and night to their patient God! (Luke xviii. 3, 7). But they well know him who is the essential adversary, the Devil; as it respects persecuting men, they sigh not and cry not for vengeance, but pray for them who despitefully use them, as children of Him whose sunshine and rain of grace are never withheld while the day of mercy holds out. Be ye therefore patient, brethren! Murmur not against God; groan not against the sinners whose misery will quickly enough hasten upon them; wish not, against the patience of the Lord, that the judgment would come, which will soon enough recompense fearful tribulation to them that trouble you, and bring eternal rest to you who are troubled (2 Thess. i. 6, 7). Least of all sigh against one another, ye that are yet brethren. that are yet brethren. Let every one bear his brother's burden, and have patience with him in his weakness. Let no man complain to God against his brother for giving him a heavy burden to bear. For he who thus groans against him, has not forgiven him; and he that forgives not, shall not be forgiven, but shall be condemned! If the Lord come to thee, while thou art murmuring in bitterness and without love,what judgment might befall thee! Therefore still your hearts before the Judge, even as ye stablish them before the Redeemer. Behold, the Judge standeth before the door-this is always true until He cometh-not merely as it respects them, but also in your own case. He standeth before the door of your houses, your hearts; He hears and marks your sighing, which is not concealed from Him; He reckoneth all righteously for the

future fruit. Be patient! If any man suffer, let him cry to the Lord, and He will be near to him, and strengthen him by the prospect of His speedy coming. But in all his lamentation before the Lord, let him not groan against his neighbour : so will the Lord receive him, and make him by His Spirit patiently ready for the precious fruit.

XXVIII.

THE EXAMPLES OF SUFFERING AND PATIENCE.

(Ch. v. 10, 11.)

Take, my brethren, the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience. Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.

"Be patient! Sufferings are to men inevitable; and in this there is the goodwill and counsel of God. Tribulation and trial. is wholesome: it tends to improve, test, purify, confirm them. Be ye specially patient, ye children of God, ye disciples of the Lord Jesus; for that ye suffer a while with the Lord Jesus is the appointed and foretrodden way for you to all the greater glory." This is the doctrine upon which all Scripture expatiates; and herein is this Book of books incomparable, that it constantly and faithfully gives the right word of instruction and exhortation to those who suffer that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope (Rom. xv. 4). But still more strongly do the examples encourage and affect us-the living examples and narratives which bring these great truths most clearly before both our ears and our eyes. This the gracious God well knew; and therefore, as life is everywhere rich. in teaching and warning examples, so is the history of God's people in the Scriptures rich in personal instruction. St James turns to them after his exhortation, and points us to the examples of suffering and of patience.

Examples of suffering generally are everywhere to be found; we need not go to seek them in ancient books, or even

in the Scriptures; no human life is altogether without them. If your own has been hitherto nearly free, look around and see how others are called to suffer. Ask the physicians and pastors, who have to do with men's sufferings in body and soul; ask all who know what human life is; look where you will into the histories of the present and the past:-examples of suffering are nowhere wanting. If sudden tribulation come upon your happy and sheltered life, and you first think it strange (as men commonly do), as if some strange thing happened to thee (1 Pet. iv. 12)—then look around, and you will see that it is only the common lot of the children of men. We generally then first really mark the sufferings of others, when we become their fellows in suffering. A very small thing possibly may cause us to cry out at once-Why am I thus smitten? and much too soon we adopt the song-Behold and see if there be Behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me! (Lament. i. 12). Behold and see yourselves, and you will find everywhere what will rebuke your impatience. How would it be, if those sufferings were to fall upon you, examples of which may be seen in this or that man?

But why do we speak merely of examples of suffering? How great is the difference in those sufferings, according to the manner in which the sufferers bear them! Some there are who receive joyfully the hardest afflictions, or at least so patiently and resignedly, with all their weakness, that they learn to endure them better and better the longer they continue and the more they increase! Others make to themselves great burdens out of little troubles, kick as foolishly as vainly against their trials, embittering their own lives and the lives of all about them! Hast thou been such a stranger and pilgrim in the world as not to have seen these things? Examples of impatience are never far to seek; and it is a good thing to behold them, that we may learn lessons from their folly. But much better are those examples of suffering and patience, of which St James here speaks. They are not so plentiful as the others, but, thank God! there are enough to be found, if we inquire for them. It is for us to learn, to take what we find as our example. And why should we not also, if the Lord will, become such blessed examples ourselves? To give an example of patience, is among the most precious of good works, more precious than many of those good

works which you complain against affliction for denying you time to perform. How many have transmitted to children and children's children the touching image of their patience, as the good seedcorn bears fruit long afterwards, preaching more livingly than all doctrine-The patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit! (Eccles. vii. 8).

All this St James presupposes; and to all this he points, when he begins to speak of the example of suffering and patience. But here he has specially to do with the brethren's sufferings for righteousness' sake; with the oppression, persecution, shame, and opposition, which Christians encounter as Christians: therefore he would excite to patience by examples. He might have referred the one class to the example of the other, the impatient to the patient; but because he cannot, in this general Epistle, give prominence to individual personal characters of the present, he turns to the past, which still better exhibits the counsel and will of God that His people must suffer, as a counsel extending to all times. He turns to the histories of Scripture, which he presumes his readers to be acquainted with, or would thereby excite them to seek out. He acts like his Master, in the Sermon on the Mount (which he has steadily in view through the Epistle), when He counted the persecuted for righteousness' sake happy, and said—For so persecuted they the prophets, which were before you! (Matt. v. 12). Thus, here-Take, for example of suffering and patience, the prophets, who spoke in the name of the Lord. Who spoke to you—is not in the original text: it is, indeed, true that they always spoke for us and to us, as to the fathers; but St James omits this, where he is only indicating the high dignity of the elect messengers of God, who notwithstanding that dignity suffered so much. To speak in the Lord's name to His people, to His men-what an honour is this; but also what a source of distress and scorn to all the servants of God, and witnesses of His truth! Look only to their life, only read the histories of the prophets in Scripture, and take the example which they give! That is, in a certain sense, the great fundamental example which the Spirit of God sets before you.

Should not the ancient people have received their prophets as angels of God; as in the beginning the Galatians received the Apostle Paul,-who, if it had been possible, would have plucked out their eyes and given him? (Gal. iv. 14, 15). Alas,