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unto love and to good works ;" and of what kind of considering he is speaking, and that our love should look beyond our neighbour's bodily good, is plain from the verse following: "Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, but exhorting one another;" not serving and loving God alone by ourselves, but striving to sympathize with others and to get others to sympathize with us, that we may love each other the better from all loving Him. This is the very bond of our Christian communion; this is the meaning of our receiving it together. As far as it is a communion with Christ alone, we might receive it each by ourselves; but the Church wisely orders it otherwise, because Christ is not alone nor are we alone: He is the head of His body the Church, and we are members one of another, and we cannot come to Him alone. O that we might feel this more and more, and all draw one another towards Him; then we should be indeed one with Him and He would be one with us; and being thus with Him in this life, we should be with Him for ever in happiness, and not fall into His hands as a God of judgment.

RUGBY CHAPEL,

December 4th, 1836.

SERMON XXXIII.

ST. JAMES.-CHRISTIAN SERVICE OF GOD.

ST. JAMES i. 27.

Pure religion, and undefiled before God and the Father, is this: To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.

THE word here translated "religion," is one which occurs very seldom in the New Testament. It denotes commonly the outward service of religion, as consisting in rites and ceremonies; and as these were supposed too often to be the real service of God, so the title of "religious" might be and was applied to persons, who in their lives and hearts scarcely served God at all. Hence the language of the Apostle in the text, and in the verse immediately before it, declares how much the word had been misused, and how it should be used properly. His religion or service to God is vain, who bridles

not his tongue; whereas his is the true religion or service to God, who visits the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and who keeps himself unspotted from the world. Such is the meaning of the text; let us now proceed to consider it more fully.

It has been the fate of certain passages of Scripture to be continually made use of for party purposes, and to be used for the sake of giving the authority of Scripture to views and doctrines to which in reality the Scripture is either adverse or indifferent. Thus worldly men are for ever quoting the text, "Christ's kingdom is not of this world;" in order to prevent the Gospel from being admitted as the world's law. Others, who would represent differences of religion as of no consequence, quote the words of St. Peter, that "in every land he who feareth God, and worketh righteousness, is accepted of Him." A third set are fond of applying to the practice of using written forms of prayer in the church, the expression of St. Paul, which has not the slightest relation to it, about "holding fast the form of sound words;" while there have been others no less absurd, who have quoted, as condemning the repetitions in our Church service, our Lord's words to His disciples, telling them, "when they pray, not to use vain repetitions." So also with the words of the text; they also have been used invidiously to decry what we commonly call devotion or religious affections, and to represent the whole of

religion as consisting in acts of charity and tempe

rance.

Now the lesson to be drawn from these misquotations, as far as our own use is concerned, is to show us how necessary it is to study the Scripture in the first place generally, and in the second place carefully and sensibly. He whose reading is confined to detached texts or passages, or to particular parts of the Scripture only, cannot see the whole mind of the Spirit respecting us, but must get views incomplete and partial. The Epistle of St. James presents one view of Christianity, and one most beautiful and instructive; but it does not give us all the views which we need; we were not intended to refer to it alone, as the Epistles of St. Paul, St. Peter, and St. John have been provided for us also. So, on the other hand, it is ill done to admire St. Paul so exclusively, as to refuse, as some have done, to listen to St. James also. Again, it is necessary to study the Scripture carefully and sensibly, as well as generally to understand what the words meant in the first instance, and how far they can or ought to be applied to things seemingly similar now. Obvious as this seems, even to a truism, yet it would be well if it were attended to in practice; and that it is not attended to, every day's experience of men's talking and writing upon points connected with the Scriptures does but prove too fully.

But to return to our particular subject. It is

clearly wrong so to interpret St. James as to make him say literally, that the whole of religion consists in acts of charity and temperance. It is manifest that every idea of religion contains in it the idea of serving God. And it is equally clear that there can be no serving God without intending to serve Him; that is, without thinking Him to have a claim on our service. When then St. James calls the works of charity and temperance "pure and undefiled religion," or service of God, it is plain, by the very force of the words, that he must mean such works of charity and temperance as are done in order to serve God; that is, such as are done in faith. For if they be done without any notion of God, they cannot be called a pure service to God; for they are not a service to Him at all, except accidentally; they are no service so far as regards our intention. But it may be said that still the words include no mention of Christ; and that pure religion, according to St. James, may exist without any belief in the Son, provided there be a belief in the Father. Undoubtedly, if the words of the text were a single fragment, written by we knew not whom, and belonging to we know not what, this might be said fairly. But I only allude to it now, to show the mischief of looking at texts of Scripture separately, without regard to the writer, or the occasion, or the whole composition from which the text is taken. The interpretation which might be given of the passage

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