with the law of the Lord, and testifies of communion with Him. Since, then, the Philippians, as we have above remarked, lived in such circumstances, where temptations to anger and revenge were many and great, he gives especial prominence to the exhortation, (chap. iv. 5), "Let your moderation (gentleness) be known. unto all men;" and then adds, "The Lord is at hand," referring to the consciousness of His perpetual nearness. This consciousness leads Christians to such gentleness when irritated, that, as walking before the face of the Lord, they dread giving way to passion in the presence of Him, who, with heavenly patience and long-suffering, bore all manner of wrong. The consciousness also of this nearness of the Lord will restrain them from seeking to usurp the judgment which belongs to Him, and to take retribution into their own hands. These words also form the transition to the exhortation which follows, (chap. iv. 8), "Be careful for nothing." Here again we must call to mind the difficult position of these Christians under their oppressions; yet, in the consciousness of the nearness of the Lord, they were to care for nothing. Not that Paul rejects all human care,for, as we have seen in this epistle, he demands human endeavours-but such an entanglement in cares as would conflict with his exhortation to rejoice always in the Lord; such only is objected to by him, and from this the consciousness of the nearness of the Lord to believers should restrain them. From such care he directs them rather to that elevation of their hearts to God in which everything should merge. In the antithesis we find the true meaning of these words of Paul, when he says, "But in everything, by prayers and supplications, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God," (chap. iv. 6.) There is such care as stands opposed to the prayer of trustful confidence in God, and through which the feeling of child-like petition is obstructed. Such is the care which Paul objects to. As he has described the whole Christian life as one act of rejoicing in the Lord, so he describes it also as one continued prayer. Between the two an intimate connexion subsists. The one can exist only together with the other. He requires not the suppression of these wants, the feeling of which begets care; but the feeling of these wants should transform itself into prayer.

Thus the heart will be relieved, and care at once be removed. But although the Christian has to lay his wants before God in prayer, and to beseech Him for much for the future, yet he knows—since to those who love God, all things must work together for good-he may find enough, in every state, to lead him to thankfulness to God. Paul therefore, though he called on the Philippians, even amid their afflictions, to rejoice in the Lord, assumes there is no exaggeration in calling on them to thank God. The whole Christian life should be one prayer, the prayer of thankfulness and supplication in the consciousness of grace received, and in the feeling of the need of new grace. And under the assumption, that the Philippians would follow this direction, Paul was enabled to impart to them a precious promise, (chap. iv. 7), which would secure immunity from every anxious care amid all their conflicts: " · And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." What does Paul say here? What is the meaning of his deep, sublime words, so pregnant, yet so brief? If the Philippians thus act, peace with God, which they have received from Christ, will remain with them that peace, which is the source of all other peace, which can subsist in the midst of conflict with the world, and' which can be disturbed by no other power-the peace of which Christ spoke: "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you," (John xiv. 27); adding for the consolation of those whom He was leaving behind amidst the trials and strifes of the world, the exhortation, "Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." This peace, as it is one which has its foundation in God, Paul describes as exalted above all human conception. He who possesses it has more than he himself knows, more than he can explain in words and notions; it is an exceeding heavenly calm, which fills the heart of him, who, redeemed from a state of enmity with the Almighty and the Holy One, is conscious of being reconciled to Him. The might of this peace, says Paul, will carry those souls who live in communion with Christ safe and unharmed through every conflict and every temptation, either from within or from without. To this all their feelings and thoughts will

be attuned; this their refuge, outweighing all human cares. We may compare with this the words of Paul, in the Epistle to the Colossians: "And let the peace of God rule in your hearts," (chap. iii. 15.) Peace with God, gained by Christ for believers, which is grounded in Him, and of which they are assured who are in communion with Him, is here described as that element in the Christian life, which maintains its superiority amid all the changes and chances of mortal life.

THE

EPISTLE OF JAMES,

PRACTICALLY EXPLAINED.

It is the saying of an ancient Father of the church, that what Paul expressed in reference to himself, that he became all things to all men, to gain them to the Gospel, to lead them to salvation, is true also, in a still higher manner, of Him whose pattern the apostle followed in this, even of Christ himself, who, as well in His ministry on earth as after His ascension into heaven, in His revelation through the Spirit among all the nations of mankind, draws men to Himself, knows how to guide them to their salvation in ways as diverse and manifold as their various standing-points. The manner in which Christ worked upon earth is assuredly a type of the invisible Divine agency which embraces all times, and in which He still continually reveals Himself, as the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. This diversity Christ Himself describes in the parables of the finding the kingdom of God. In these is indicated at once the one thing in which all must ultimately agree, the desire to be partakers of the kingdom of God, as well as the manifold ways by which they are led to it. To the kingdom of God they only attain who take it by violence. They only find the treasure hid in the field who risk all, convert their all into money, to be able to purchase the field in which the treasure lies concealed. They only gain possession of the costly pearl, which surpasses all others in beauty and lustre, who are ready to acknowledge its value, as one com

pared with which all others are as nothing, and who fear no trouble, spare no cost, to secure this one pearl,—they who regard all other possessions as nought, to be able to gain the one highest good, the kingdom of heaven. But the inciting motives of the persons described in these parables, who take the resolution without which no one can enter the kingdom of heaven, are different, according to their different standingpoints. The one is to be compared to merchants, who spare neither labour nor cost to find beautiful pearls, and who at last succeed in discovering that most glorious jewel, through this their zealous and earnestly applied exploration. These are they, who, impelled by the longing after the one good thing able to give full satisfaction to their spirit, have long sought after it. Many good things they have found in their search. capable of imparting some sort of satisfaction to their own soul, but none of these, they at last become conscious, can fully and enduringly satisfy their spiritual wants; and therefore they again begin a new search, until at length, through this everrenewed seeking, they succeed in discovering that one highest good, which now really imparts the desired satisfaction to their souls. Others come unexpectedly, without seeking a treasure, upon a field, where they, as it were, accidentally find it. Such are they, in whom the longing after the highest good, the kingdom of God, has not yet been evoked, and who, without their seeking it, all at once stumble on that which imparts to their spirit a satisfaction of which they had no presentiment, and which they had never sought. The one, by a gentle and gradual development, were drawn into communion with the Lord, from a life in which, from the first, preparative grace evinced its power in those germs of the higher nature of man, which displayed their vitality and unfolded themselves within them. The other, who have offered, by devotion to their own opposing passions, a long resistance to the Divine call, were drawn, as by a power constraining their refractory will, to Him whose love seeks to save all. As then, in such, the process of development which leads them to faith, is different, so also the form which faith assumes in them will be different. In the one, therefore, the new element imparted to them will exhibit itself, as having