May 30

James v. — 1. Go to now, ye rich men; weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.

2. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten.

3. Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.

4. Behold, the hire of the laborers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth; and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabbath.

5. Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter.

6. Ye have condemned and killed the just; and he doth not resist you.

7. Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain.

8. Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.

9. Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned: behold, the Judge standeth before the door.

This is not the cry of the Communist for the abolition of property; not the declaration of a fanatical reformer against the existing order of society: it is the sentence of justice upon men who have abused their trust, and have consumed upon their pride and their lusts what God had given them as stewards for the good of society. Not upon rich men as such, but upon such as have gained their riches by fraud, or are using their riches for purposes of tyranny and of lux-

10. Take, my brethren, the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction and of patience.

11. Behold, we count them happy which endure.

13. Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms.

14. Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord:

15. And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and, if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.

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 availeth 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.

ury, is this terrible woe denounced. And this it is that makes it terrible. All the world shall see the justice of their sentence; and they themselves must own it to be right. Hence the people of God should not envy those who have such a trust with such a risk; much less should they fear them. In due time, faith in God — a faith sustained and evidenced by effectual prayer — shall bring to the righteous greater and more enduring riches than all that this world can bestow.

APPROPRIATE HYMNS.]

Prayer.

[Nos. 58, 82, 146.

O Lord! make clean our hearts before thee. Baptize us with thine own Spirit, that, being renewed in the spirit and temper of our minds, we may exhibit in our daily walk all the virtues and graces of the Christian life.

We render thanks to thee for thy loving care in the night-season. We thank thee that health and home and friends and country are preserved to us. We thank thee for all thy goodness to us as a family. We would trust in the Lord at all times; and we pray thee, O our Saviour! to abide with us ever.

O Lord! we beseech thee to visit us this day with thy loving-kindness. Give us grace to discharge faithfully our duties to thee and to each other. May we remember, that, as stewards, we must give account of our talents, our property, and the use of all thy gifts! May we be kind and

courteous unto all men, honest in our dealings, truthful in our words, guileless in our thoughts! Strengthen us to bear with patience whatever trials or sufferings may be in store for us, preserve us from the sins which do most easily beset us, and enable us to walk worthy of our Christian calling, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

O Lord Jesus! we long for thy coming in power and glory among the nations. May thy Church arise, and make straight the way of the Lord!

O almighty and most merciful Father! we commend to thee ourselves and all that belong to us, all who pray for us, and all who have at any time asked our prayers for them. Have pity upon the poor, the sick, the dying, and the sorrowing. Incline thine ear to us, and hear us, we beseech thee, and order all our ways, this and every day, according to thy will, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.