September 25

16 Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availed much.

17 Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months.

18 And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit. 19 Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him.

20 Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.

Confess your faults one to another (verse 16).

"As long as you make your faults a bulwark to stand behind and fight me, so long I am your enemy and you are my foe. . . . It is not the offence, but the defence of the offence that makes it hard for us to bear with one another. A man may say to me, 'You are a vile sinner;' he may rain his words on me like blows, but if he comes back when his passion has gone down with tears in his eyes, and says, 'Oh, forgive me; I did not mean it,' it is all gone, quicker than a flash of lightning. I love him all the more. The fault is not hard to bear. It is the defending the fault—it is the refusing to make up under fault—that rankles and makes us ugly in return. Where there is one ugly man there are generally two. How wise, then, is James' command: 'Confess your faults one to another!'—H. W. Beecher

"Pray one for another" (verse 16). When your brother offends or does wrong, pray for him. Do not report his fault. Rejoice not in iniquity. If we prayed more we should blame less; we should be far more tolerant; we should not suspect so much; we should not carry stories so much; we should not do wrong so much.

"Intercession is a wonderful help to forgiveness of injuries. See how the personal unkindness of brother and sister stirred up Moses to pray for each, and how repeatedly the wrong feeling, speaking and acting of the people against himself was made the occasion of prayer for them. Let us avail ourselves of this secret of his meekness. Also, it is an immense help to love. Do we not find that the more we pray for any one the more we love?"—F. R. Havergal.

Closet Promise.—Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort, who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.—2 Cor. i. 3, 4.

"Or, just as God comforted you. But that implies experience in sorrow! Yes, comfort does not come to the light-hearted and merry. We must go down into 'the depths,' if we would experience and appreciate this most precious of God's gifts—comfort—and thus be prepared to be co-workers together with Him."