March 1

James I.—1. James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting.

2. My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;

3. Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.

4. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.

5. If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.

6. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.

7. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.

8. A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.

9. Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted:

10. But the rich, in that he is made low; because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away.

11. For the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat, but it withereth the grass, and the flower thereof falleth, and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth: so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways.

The philosophy of sin is given in verses 13-16 in terms that answer exactly to our own experience. God is not the author of sin: God does not subject us to temptation, that, through sinning, we may illustrate his grace. Trials as tests of our choice of good or evil, of our faith in himself, of our love and devotion, he does appoint for our moral discipline and culture; but temptations that look toward sin, and lead to sin, are the prompting of our own desires, when these are loosed from the control of reason and conscience. The sin does not lie in the fact of temptation, nor in the susceptibil-

12. Blessed is the man that endureth temptation; for, when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.

13. Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God; for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man:

14. But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed.

15. Then, when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin; and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.

16. Do not err, my beloved brethren.

17. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.

18. Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first-fruits of his creatures.

19. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath;

20. For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.

21. Wherefore lay apart all filthiness, and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the ingrafted word, which is able to save your souls.

ity to temptation: but when we suffer our susceptibilities to natural good to be wrought upon to such a degree that they entice us to forget reason, conscience, duty to God; when these over-stimulated desires come to a head in the decision of the will to gratify them,—then do they bring forth sin. The counteractive to such temptation is a just conception of our highest good as in God, and from him; a patient, prayerful, unwavering trust in him; and the keeping his word in our hearts as our law and guide.

APPROPRIATE HYMNS.]

Prayer.

[Nos. 28, 40, 67.

O God, in whom we live and move, and have our being, and from whom all blessings flow! we give thee thanks for thy care and guardianship during the past night, and for the light and comfort of this morning. We take the cup of salvation, and call upon thy name. We adore thee for health and reason, and the manifold bounties of thy providence. Give us that due sense of all thy mercies, that our hearts may be unfeignedly thankful; and that we may show forth thy praise, not only with our lips, but in our lives. We bring to thee this household and all who are allied to us by kindred or affection, and pray for thy good gifts from above, according to thy wisdom and our necessities.

Holy Father, we commit ourselves to thy love and blessing for the day. We go forth to its duties in childlike dependence on thy strength and

wisdom and grace. Preserve us from temptation and sin, from danger and from death. Help us to walk as becometh saints, keeping our garments unspotted from the world. Teach us to govern our tempers, to subdue our passions, to do whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are good, and whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely; and whatsoever things are of good report. Pitifully behold us in our weakness and insufficiency, and grant unto us strength and fortitude and all heavenly influence. Suffer not our affections to be fixed on the things of earth and time: purify and lift them up to things unseen and eternal.

All this we ask in the name of Him who hath redeemed us with his most precious blood, our only Mediator, Jesus Christ; to whom be glory in the Church throughout all ages. Amen.