The writer has said in ver. 21 that the wise hearer is a "receiver of the Word, and he now proceeds to emphasize the fact that he is also a doer" of it. "Receiving represents the root of the Christian life, and doing" indicates its fruit.

I. THE INJUNCTION. (Ver. 22.) Very many hearers of the gospel are not sufficiently upon their guard against the dreadful danger of being "hearers only." Some, when the service is over, seldom think of anything but going home. Others will pass a remark about the sermon, and then dismiss the subject finally from their thoughts. A few will express more deliberately the pleasure with which they listened to the discourse; but perhaps even these are satisfied merely with having enjoyed it. The purpose of preaching, however, is not that the people may be "very much pleased," but that they may be profited, edified, and inspired to live an upright, generous, godly life. The highest praise that can be bestowed upon a Christian minister is not to tell him how much his preaching is enjoyed on sabbaths, but to let him see how well it is being translated into the life on the other days of the week. We live in a practical age; and the mission of the pulpit is as practical and definite as that of any other institution of our time. It is an agency for man-building. Its work is to promote the doing of the Word of God in the everyday lives of men. Those people, therefore, are the victims of a miserable self-deception who regard "hearing as the sum of Christian duty. Such persons have no idea of the nature of true piety. Their profession is nothing better than an empty form. They may be strictly orthodox in doctrine and evangelical in sentiment; but what does this profit, if their church-going carries with it no power to direct their daily life into the ways of holiness? A theologian is not necessarily a Christian. The hearer only" is on the road to final spiritual ruin.

II. A COMPARISON TO ENFORCE THE INJUNCTION. (Vers. 23-25.) Our Lord had illustrated the same thought by the figure of the wise and foolish builders (Matthew 7:24-27). The simile here is that of two men looking at their faces in a mirror. "The Word of truth" is the spiritual glass in which we may see the reflection of our own souls. The Bible not only reveals the holy God to man; it also discovers sinful man to himself. But the mere hearer, after he has momentarily recognized himself in it, goes on his way and forgets his moral uncomeliness. He finds it convenient not to remember that what he saw was the features of" the old man, which waxeth corrupt after the lusts of deceit." The wise hearer, on the other hand, looks into the mirror that he may learn the law of his renewed life. The gospel law brings no bondage or terror to him. It does not constrain him to an unwilling obedience. It is to him "the perfect law, the law of liberty" (ver. 25), which the Holy Spirit is writing within his heart. The apostle indicates three elements of contrast between the conduct of the two men in relation to the gospel mirror.

1. The one man "beholdeth;" the other "looketh." In the case of the mere hearer it is only a passing, cursory, careless glance of the eye - a look at the mirror, and at himself in it. But, in the case of the wise hearer, it is the serious, eager, anxious gaze of the soul: this man stoops down to take a close look "into" the law of liberty.

2. The one man "goeth away;" the other "continueth" to look. The mere hearer glances hastily and briefly, because uninterestedly, He thinks always of sermons as dull, and is glad to dismiss the subject of religion so soon as the church-service is over. But the wise hearer goes on looking. Ills gaze is persistent and unwearied. He looks so long that what he sees becomes indelibly impressed upon his heart.

3. The one man "straightway forgetteth; "the other is a doer that worketh. The mere hearer soon dismisses the thought of the spots and blemishes which he saw upon his spiritual features when he glanced at them in the gospel mirror. But the wise hearer looks carefully and continuously, because he wants to know himself, and because it is his purpose to be always a "doer." He has learned that it is the business of his life to obey the perfect law of liberty. By the doing of this work he will attain both self-knowledge and self-government. And in the doing of it he shall be "blessed."

CONCLUSION. We learn from this passage, what is insisted upon throughout the whole Bible, that the secret of true human happiness lies in holy obedience to the will of God. - C.J.

I. Here is a summary of THE CHARACTERISTICS OF GOD'S ROYAL WORD. It is brought before us in its authority, in its sufficiency, and in its freedom.

1. It is, in the first place, a law. It is not an opinion amenable to the caprice of the individual, to be obeyed or to be ignored at the bidding of an arbitrary will. It is a law, a supreme and an authoritative obligation issued by one who has a right to claim unquestioning obedience, and enforced by sanctions which it were madness to disregard. Herein does the teaching of Christ, the great Gospel Lawgiver, differ largely from the teaching of all others. He does not argue, He pronounces; He does not suggest, He commands. His words are veiled in no confusion and are prefaced by no apology. They are not opinions to be canvassed, perhaps refuted, but eternal truths, principles of conduct and of action, marching at once in their unconscious royalty to the lordship of the inner man. And with like majesty does the Word of God, our corn-men and precious Bible, present itself as a claimant for the sovereignty of the human mind. It is the province of your intellect to examine its evidence, to elicit its hidden meanings. Then your conscience should acknowledge its supremacy, and then your hearts, with loyal affections, should apply its truths and reduce them into the practice of the life.

2. I observe, secondly, this Word is presented to us not only in its authority, but in its sufficiency — it is a "perfect law," given originally in fragments: it is presented now as the completed canon of Jehovah's will, the last, sufficient, everlasting message of God's love to man. It is a perfect law — then it can be followed by no supplement. Perfect — then it can be superseded by no supplement. Perfect — then it can be ignored by no school of modern illuminators. Coming from a holy God, its morality is spotless. Issuing from the Just One, its decisions are equitable. It is a sufficient revelation. It is enough; not as if God had begun to build and was not able to finish His work.

3. And then, thirdly, I observe, the Word is presented to us not only in its authority, and in its sufficiency, but also in its freedom. It is a "perfect law of liberty." it has been well observed that the highest liberty is a self-imposed restraint. The lark enjoys as rare a sense of freedom when it nestles in the tuft of grass as when it trills its sky-song in the visionless heights. We do not wonder that James, and Peter, and Jude, so delighted to call themselves servants, or, as the word might be with equal accuracy rendered, "slaves" of the Lord Jesus; that Christ Himself should have presented it as the condition of Christian discipleship; that we should take His yoke upon us, which is easy; or that the heart, in the fulness of its new experience, should exultingly exclaim — "Thy service is perfect freedom." And this is the liberty promised by the perfect law. And this inner freedom extends to all needs, and is poured over every department and every faculty of a man.

4. And this law of liberty is perpetual. It perpetuates this freedom. "There is now, therefore, no condemnation," &c. Such is the glorious freedom conferred by this law of liberty upon every believing soul. It is a freedom which the universe cannot parallel. There is a magic, you know, in the very name of liberty to which every heart re-spends. Poets have sung its praises; painters have immortalised its heroes upon canvas, and sculptors upon marble; patriots have looked proudly to heaven from its death-beds: its associations have glorified the commonest and least interesting spots of earth into holy shrines beaten with the pilgrim-feet of the world. The Theropylae of the world's liberties; the Marathon of its triumph; the flat marsh upon the banks of the Thames where the charter of our freedom was wrung from a monarch's dastard soul; that field upon the Belgian plains which has grown up into, the Waterloo of a nation's prowess — these flush our cheek, brighten our eye, and send the blood pulsing through our veins. But political liberty, dearly as we love it, though it has entailed sacrifice of blood and treasure, exerts no liberating influence upon the inner man, and can benefit any individual only for a few brief and fleeting years. But moral freedom is gained with no such price. We wade through no slaughtered hosts to reach it. Every individual is a partaker of its benefits. It dies not with the death of time; it is not an earthly boon or charter of victories that have turned tribunes into autocrats of a mob. There is no law of liberty here. It is there, if you choose to look for it, where frail and erring men — men of like passions with yourselves — have won, by the grace of God, the victory over their own hearts and passions, have pressed on in holiness of life and philanthropic service, resulting in blessing, and, at last, in the recompense of the conqueror's heaven.

II. THE HEARERS OF THE WORD. If there be such a Word, so authoritative, so perfect, so free, and if that Word be the gospel which is preached unto you, there is a very solemn obligation resting upon you to take heed how ye hear. Those who fulfil this duty aright will not be forgetful hearers, to whom the truth comes in monotonous accents, as the dull sound of apology.

(W. M. Punshon, D. D.)

I. A DIVINE DESCRIPTION OF THE GOSPEL.

1. A law. Not a mere set of propositions, theories, doctrines, which need not concern us; but a rule of life and conduct.

2. A perfect law.

(1)Made by the only and absolute Sovereign of mankind.

(2)Based upon a perfect knowledge of man's entire nature, conditions, and relationships in every place and time.

(3)Adapted to promote the highest ends of law in every way perfectly.

3. A law of liberty.

(1)It accepts only willing obedience.

(2)Submission to it brings liberty from —

(a)guilt;

(b)fear,

(c)sinful habits and propensities,

(d)the everlasting consequences of past (forgiven) transgressions.

II. MAN'S DUTY TO THE GOSPEL.

1. Careful personal investigation.

2. Retention of the truth thus learned.

3. Continual obedience.

III. THE BLESSINGS OF THE GOSPEL.

1. Approval of conscience.

2. Assurance of Divine favour.

3. The delight of conscious moral progress.

4. The joys of usefulness.

(Systematic Bible Teacher.)

I. A PARTICULAR DESIGNATION GIVES TO THE GOSPEL. Modern legislation is very largely a history of repeal — the repeal of unjust laws; and this will go on until all inequalities and injustice are swept away. The gospel is perfect. You cannot improve it.

II. A PARTICULAR CONDUCT TOWARD THE GOSPEL DESCRIBED. A persistent childlike look of a trustful obedient child.

III. A PARTICULAR ASSURANCE made to him who maintains that conduct toward the gospel. "Virtue is its own reward," so is obedience in this case.

(J. Lewis.)

I. THE GOSPEL IS A LAW. The gospel may be called a law, because everything that concurreth to the right constitution and making of a law is found in the gospel; as —

1. Equity. All precepts of the gospel are just and equitable (Romans 7:12).

2. Promulgation, which is the life and form of a law (Mark 16:15; Isaiah 61:1).

3. The author, God; who has a right to prescribe to the creature (1 Timothy 1:11).

4. The end, public good; and the end of the gospel is salvation (Romans 1:16).

5. By this law we must walk (Galatians 6:16; Isaiah 8:20; Romans 2:16).

II. A LAW OF LIBERTY.

1. Because it teacheth the way to true liberty (John 8:36; Romans 6:18).

2. The bond of obedience, that is laid on us in the gospel, is perfect freedom.

(1)The matter. Duty is the greatest liberty, and sin the greatest bondage (Psalm 119:45, 2 Peter 2:19).

(2)We do it upon free principles (Romans 12:1; Titus 2:12).

(3)We have the assistance of a free Spirit (Psalm 51:12).

(4)We do it in a free state (Romans 8:15; Galatians 4:31; Luke 1:74).

III. A PERFECT LAW OF LIBERTY.

1. When compared with the law of Moses (Hebrews 10:1, 2).

2. It directs us to the greatest perfection (1 John 4:18).

3. Because it is pure, free from error (Psalm 119:140). And, lastly, because it maketh perfect (Psalm 19:7).

IV. "WHOSO LOOKETH."

1. Deepness of meditation (Psalm 119:97).

2. Diligence of inquiry (Proverbs 2:3, 4).

3. Liveliness of impression (2 Corinthians 3:18). As Moses's face shone by talking with God; and we, by conversing with the Word, carry away the beauty and glory of it in our spirits.

V. AND CONTINUETH THEREIN; i.e. persevereth (John 8:31; 2 John 9). He being not a forgetful hearer, but remembereth, so as to reduce to practice; vers. 23, 24. (Proverbs 4:20, 21; Luke 2:19); a doer of the work. The gospel was not ordained only for speculation (Matthew 3:8; John 6:29; Hebrews 6:10). The apostle speaks of "a form of knowledge" (Romans 2:20). Let not the tree of knowledge deprive us of the tree of life. Work the works of God: faith is our work, repentance our business, and the life of love and praise our duty. "This man shall be blessed in his deed," alluding to Psalm 1:3; in his deed, net for it (Psalm 19:11). He shall be blessed here with peace (Galatians 6:16), and hereafter with eternal happiness (Revelation 22:14).

(T. Hannam.)

"Whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty." A law must in the first instance be known and understood. It is by means either of the eye or the ear; by examining it for ourselves, or by receiving an account of it from the testimony of others. Both of these are alluded to in our text. The man whom the apostle pronounces "blessed" is he who "looketh into the perfect law of liberty." He does not merely look at it; he looks into it. The word is expressive of fixed, earnest, and scrutinising inspection. Such is the disposition of the Christian inquirer, looking into the perfect law of liberty. He does not take matters on trust, or at second-hand. It is not enough that he has been instructed in the truths of the gospel in his youth by parents and others. He must look into it with his own eyes, and form a judgment of it from personal observation. Nor is he satisfied with a superficial inspection, or a general survey: He must look into it particularly — embracing in his inquiry every doctrine it reveals, every precept it recommends, and every ordinance it appoints; considering the nature and importance of each separately, estimating the evidence and excellence of the whole collectively. He gives it not a mere passing glance, but considers it with a steady, deliberate attention; reflecting on it calmly, dispassionately, with personal application and fervent prayer. It discloses to him the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ: it unfolds the plan of redeeming mercy; opens up the way of reconciliation; makes manifest the privileges of the people of God, both in a state of grace, and in the kingdom of glory. He looks into them not merely with the bodily eye, but with the eye of faith, realising their truth, persuaded of their necessity, continually discovering more and more of their grandeur, contemplating them with unfeigned growing delight; and by each new discovery animated to pursue his researches, until, in the light of eternity dissipating every shade of ignorance and error, he shall in God's light see light, and know even as he is known. "A hearer" of it, and attends to the preaching of the Word, as well as the reading of it. I might enumerate classes of hearers in great variety, all of them equally in error, but time does not permit, nor does the subject call for it. Our text contains a description that includes them all. They are all "forgetful" hearers. They all forget the very thing which they should be most concerned to remember; and that is, their own personal interest in what they hear. They forget that their design in hearing should be the same with God's design in speaking, and that is, that the heart may be made better. What they hear, however, makes no lasting or practical impression. But the man whom the apostle declares to be blessed, is "not a forgetful hearer." He listens with deep attention, having both the understanding, the conscience, and the heart in exercise. He mingles faith with what he hears. Above all, he endeavours to follow up the design, and to secure the profit of hearing, by a course of devoted obedience. For true religion is altogether a practical thing. In this view, the apostle here contemplates it. The man whom he pronounces "blessed," is, in opposition to the "forgetful hearer." "A doer of the work." It is observable that he says nothing of believing, and speaks only of doing. Nor was it necessary that he should. The "doer of the work" must, in the first instance, be a believer of the Word. The fountain must be cleansed that her streams may be pure. The tree must be made good that the fruit may be good. But as principle must precede, so it will produce practice. The believer, in obedience to the impulses of his renewed nature, will also become a doer. The man who from right principles yields obedience to any one precept of the law, will, under the impulse of the same principles, yield obedience to every other precept; will resist sin in all its forms, and pay a regard to duty in all its branches. What he ought to be at any time, he desires and endeavours to be at all times. To complete the description of the man whom he pronounces "blessed," the apostle includes this thought. It is added, that he "continueth therein." Of what use are momentary impulses and superficial impressions? There is a goodness which promises fair, but it soon vanishes, like the morning cloud and the early dew. The apostle has said of him, in most emphatic language, "This man shall be blessed in his deed." This blessedness, though principally future, is partly present. He is even now blessed with an assured confidence, he is blessed with an approving conscience, which bears testimony to the sincerity of his profession, or the genuineness of his character, and holding out to him the prospect of a gracious reception, and a triumphant acquittal, at the tribunal of his Judge. He is blessed with a good hope, which rests on the surest foundation, is warranted by the clearest evidence. He is blessed with a contented mind, satisfied with the dealings of his heavenly Father, thankful for His mercies, patient under His chastisements. The consummation of blessedness is reserved for the just made perfect, who Shall suffer neither the misery of desire ungratified, nor the sickness of hope deferred; who shall drink deep in the river of pleasures, and be replenished with that fulness of joy which is at God's right hand for evermore.

(James Barr, D. D.)

I. What is "THE LAW — THE PERFECT LAW OF LIBERTY"? This question I have no hesitation in answering. It is the gospel. And, as a designation of the gospel, it is full of encouragement.

1. In the first place, the gospel is a law. Let none be alarmed. Instead of there being anything fearful in this view of it, there is everything that is fitted to impart the surest confidence to our souls. Were it not a law, no such confidence could be ours. It is as much the law, or revealed will of God, that man the sinner should be justified by faith, as it was that man the innocent should be justified by works. The way of deliverance from the law's curse has the same authority as the law itself, and the law's sanction.

2. In the second place, the gospel is a law, as coming with the full force of a Divine command. And strange that sinners should refuse submission to it! — strange that they should not embrace it with gratitude and joy! — for it is "the law of liberty." Now, in the terms of prophetic intimation, the gospel proclaims, with the full authority of the Supreme Lawgiver, "liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound": and various are the descriptions of liberty which it imparts. And it is "the perfect law of liberty." All that is Divine is perfect. All God's doings, in creation, in providence, and in redemption, are "perfect."This "law of liberty" is "perfect," in two senses: —

1. It is perfect, in regard to the ground of freedom which it reveals. That ground is perfect, as it perfectly provides for the unsullied glory of all the attributes of God; as it perfectly answers the demands of His pure and holy law; and as it perfectly secures the principles of His moral government, and the stability of His throne.

2. It is perfect also in its effect on the conscience and on the heart. In this respect, it stands in contrast with the institutes of the Mosaic dispensation; which is termed "a yoke of bondage," "a yoke," says Peter, "which neither we nor our fathers were able to bear."

II. THE DUTY OF LOOKING INTO THIS LAW: "Whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth." — that is, I apprehend, continueth looking. There is apparently an intended contrast between the transient and careless "beholding of the natural face in a glass" referred to in the preceding verses. The "looking" is not, in this case, cursory and forgetful, but steady, and constant, and mindful. The full contents of "the law of liberty' — "the glorious gospel of the blessed God" — are full of sublimity and interest, in all the manifestations they make of the Divine Being, and of His relations to His creatures. They are inexhaustible. The duty incumbent upon us, then, is that of close, constant, unwearied contemplation.

III. THE INFLUENCE OF THIS LOOKING UPON THE CHARACTER: "Whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work." How is this? Mere looking is not doing. Contemplation is not action. No; but doing is the result of looking; action of contemplation. The contemplation will increase faith: and the faith will "work by love"; producing, by the efficacy of what God reveals, a growing conformity to what God enjoins. The effect, indeed, may be traced to two principles — that of fear, as well as that of love. The more we contemplate the wonders of Christ's work in the gospel, the more must we see of the purity, the perfection, and the irrepealable sanction of the Divine law — of which the transgression by men mingled for Him the inexplicably bitter cup of mediatorial suffering; and, as inseparable from this, the holiness, the justice, the truth, and the avenging judicial jealousy of the Lawgiver: and the more must we be filled with a salutary fear of offending, and so of incurring His displeasure, who has thus testified how infinitely hateful in His sight all sin is. Then, on the other hand, "the love of God," and "the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ," so marvellously discovered in the gospel — "in the law of liberty" — cannot fail, the more closely they are contemplated, to animate the great principle of all godly practice — the principle of love — of love at once complacential and grateful — love for what God is, and love for what God hath done, delightfully harmonising, and blending into one irresistible impulsive affection — the moving power of active and devoted service.

IV. THE HAPPINESS THENCE RESULTING: "This man shall be blessed in his deed." In holy obedience to God's will — in the filial and free service of this Divine Master — there is true happiness; happiness with which "a stranger cannot intermeddle"; which no man can take from its blessed possessor. He is "blessed in his deed." Whatever enjoyment he might have in the contemplation, there could be no blessing upon him from God, without the result of the contemplation the holy practice. He enjoys subdued and regulated desires and affections; and has thus peace within. He has the inward consciousness of love to God and love to men; and thus a participation in the blessedness of the Divine benevolence.

(R. Wardlaw, D. D.)

"Law" — merely "law" — "law" only — is a bondage harsh and severe. "Liberty" alone, and unguarded, passes into licentiousness, runs riot, and becomes tyranny. "Law" needs to be sweetened by "liberty," and" liberty" is no "liberty" without the fences of law. St. James strikingly blends them, and finds the blending where only it exists — in God's Word: "The perfect law of liberty." It is just, what all good legislation has as its aim: "Law" which is no less than "liberty," and "liberty" which is compatible with "law." But what human legislation has ever yet reached it? It would not be too much to say that the Christian religion is the only code in the whole world which ever has united, or can perfectly unite, those two things, so as to make them really one. See how it is in God's method. And, first, we look at the "liberty." Every man who becomes a real Christian becomes a free man: and the more he is a Christian the more he is free. The date and the measure of his Christianity are also the date and measure of his "liberty." For, as soon as ever we really know Christ, and come to Christ, and believe in Christ, our sins are all forgiven. Therefore we are free from our past. And then, the Christian now, by his union with Christ, made, in a higher sense than before, a child of God, is undertaken for in everything: so that he need have no anxiety about what is coming. Every needful thing is covenanted to him for time and eternity: therefore that man is free from his future — he is liberated from the bonds of care. And the "liberty" is not only thus of a negative character. He is free, every moment of his life he is free, to go to the throne of God "by a new and living way"; to his own God, and to open there his whole heart and to tell Him everything; and have the closest communion with Him. And then to listen for "still small voices" which shall speak back to him. He is free to claim every promise. He is free to lay his hand of faith upon the Cross, and all that Cross has purchased, and say, "It is mine!" He is a freed man of the heavenly city, free, as a child of God is free of his Father's house. To him the doors of glory are flung wide open! And he is free to mingle with the saints; to sit down at the feast; to join in the song; free, to the very feet of Jesus; to know as he is known, and love as he is loved. That is "liberty!" Now see the law — "the perfect law of liberty." God has given, since the creation, four laws to man; but only one of the four can be rightly called a "law of liberty." The original "law" of all was the law of conscience, a law which if man had not fallen would have been, we must believe, a perfect guide. But as man is now, conscience is only "law" in so far as it is the reflection of other laws which God has given us. Secondly, there was a "law" given to Adam and Eve in Paradise. This was a law of prohibition. Therefore it was not a "law of liberty." The next "law" which God gave was the law enacted from Mount Sinai. But neither was this a law of liberty. Almost the whole of it is negative; it tells what we are not to do: and negatives can never be liberty. Fourthly, came the law of the Lord Jesus Christ. See what is the basis and the character of that fourth law. Every other law had failed; no man did keep it, or could keep it. If a man's eternal happiness depended upon any law which could be given, no man, from Adam to the latest man, could have fulfilled the condition. Christ saw that, and He came, and He Himself fulfilled all the law, to the minutest point. He carried out the whole mind of God. He fulfilled it as a Representative Man, that His fulfilment might be our fulfilment. And so God accepted it. What, then, is our "law"? Love, love, love for a law which has been kept for us. It is the strictest law that was ever made on earth. It binds every thought, every moment: but it has no shackles. It is more than voluntary: it is happy, quite happy — the only thing that is happy and makes everything else happy. It is free, quite free — the only thing that is tree and makes everything else free. It is the outcome of the heart. It is the law of angels. It is the law of the saints in heaven. It is the law of love; and the law of love is "the law of liberty."

(James Vaughan, M. A.)

I. THE OBJECT.

1. The gospel, therefore, has all the qualities and characteristics of a Divine legislation.

(1)A law is the mandate of a superior, who is supposed to possess judicial authority.

(2)A law is supposed to be founded in equity; and it is assumed that its requirements and exactions are such as justice cud reason bind its subjects to observe.

(3)A law is established for the public good, and is beneficial in its operations.

(4)A law must be promulgated or made known to those who are under it.

(5)A law has certain punishments annexed to the violation of its institution.

2. This system of religious truth, which we designate the gospel, is emphatically a perfect law.

(1)It is perfect, having nothing either deficient or redundant.

(2)It is pure.

(3)It is perfect, contrasted with the ceremonial ritual of the Mosaic law.

3. The gospel is also a law of liberty.

(1)The gospel exhibits to us the privilege of liberty.

(2)The gospel exhibits the means necessary for the attainment of this liberty.

(3)The gospel is the instrument of liberty.

II. AN ACTION.

1. This action implies —

(1)Attention to the letter of the gospel.

(2)That it is our duty to search into its signification.

(3)It implies also a participation in the benefits of the gospel.

2. It is necessary that we not only look into "the perfect law of liberty," but that we continue therein.

(1)There must be a continuance in the possession of gospel privileges.

(2)Constant use of its ordinances.

(3)A constant exercise of gospel graces.

3. We now proceed to consider another branch of Christian duty" He being not a forgetful hearer."

(1)The man who is entitled to the blessedness of the text must be a hearer. Endeavour to cultivate an affection for the Word of God — it requires no labour to remember what we love. Let us meditate on its precepts, not only when we are in the house of God, but when we have returned to our several occupations (Psalm 119:97). That we may not be forgetful hearers, we must seek Divine assistance (John 14:26).

(2)In order to profit by what we hear, it is necessary that we reduce it to practice.

III. THE BENEFIT RESULTING FROM THE PERFORMANCE OF THIS DUTY. The reward here mentioned does not consist in the acquisition of worldly wealth, nor yet in freedom from trials or persecutions. If implies that his soul shall receive such a measure of the favour of God as shall enable him to find comfort and satisfaction in every dispensation of Providence. He shall be blessed with the approbation of God. He has also peace of conscience. He enjoys heavenly protection.

(R. Treffry.)

I. THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST, HERE COMPARED TO A LOOKING-GLASS, IS ALWAYS BEFORE THE EYES OF THE CHRISTIAN, AND IS CALLED "THE PERFECT LAW OF LIBERTY."

1. By this glass the soul discovers its filthiness (John 16:8, 9).

2. This points him to Christ for cleansing (1 John 1:7).

3. This shows him his perfect purification (Hebrews 10:14).

4. And freedom from condemnation (Romans 8:1).

5. Hence the gospel is called a law (Romans 3:27).

(1)It is perfect (Psalm 19:7).

(2)It is the law of liberty from sin, Satan, the world, death, hell; to love, know, enjoy, and believe in God (Romans 8:21).

II. THE BELIEVER'S CONDUCT IN RESPECT OF THIS GOSPEL LAW. He "looketh into it."

1. He has now spiritual eyes to see (Isaiah 29:18).

2. To look is to understand (1 Peter 1:12).

3. To look is to believe (Isaiah 45:22).

4. To look is to expect (Psalm 123:2).

5. By metaphorical usage, it denotes to look into by way of examination: and by implication, to comprehend. Hence, believers look —

(1)Diligently.

(2)Anxiously.

(3)Constantly.

(4)Prayerfully.

(5)And with faith in Christ.

III. His PERSEVERANCE AFTER DIVINE KNOWLEDGE. "And continueth therein."

1. God has pledged the grace of continuance (Jeremiah 32:40).

2. The believer desires to continue (Psalm 17:8).

3. The Scriptures exhort to continuance (Hebrews 13:9).

4. The gospel is a means of continuance (2 Corinthians 4:7).

5. Through this glass he continues to look unto Christ, and is saved (John 15:9).

IV. THE INDIVIDUAL CONSEQUENCE OF UNDERSTANDING THE GOSPEL. "He being not a forgetful hearer," &c.

1. Being conscious of his weak memory, he prays for the Spirit as his Remembrancer (John 14:26).

2. And of his wavering heart, that the gospel may be written therein (Psalm 119:80).

3. He is a doer of the work of faith and love (1 Thessalonians 1:3).

4. It is not man's, but God's work (John 6:38).

5. It is not performed by man's but God's strength (Philippians 4:13).

6. It is done to Christ's glory (Romans 11:36).

V. THE RESULTS OF BELIEVING THE GOSPEL. "This man shall be blessed in his deed."

1. Not for what he does, but in what he does (Psalm 19:11).

2. He shall be blessed providentially (Romans 8:28).

3. He shall be blessed graciously (Psalm 132:15).

4. It also denotes that the Christian shall be blessed with —

(1)A knowledge of himself.

(2)A knowledge of God.

(3)A knowledge of His Word.

(4)A knowledge of salvation.

(5)The fulfilment of the promises.

(6)Deliverance from enemies.

(7)Support in difficulties.

(8)Joy in death.

(9)Everlasting glory of both soul and body in the life to come.

(T. B. Baker.)

I. As A SYSTEM TO BE PROFOUNDLY STUDIED.

1. Its subjects have the highest claims to intellectual investigation.

2. Its method of revealing its subjects requires intellectual investigation.

3. Its blessed effects upon the heart can only be realised by intellectual investigation.

II. AS A LAW TO BE CONTINUALLY OBEYED. There are three things implied in a law — authority, publicity, and power of obedience. This law has the highest authority; is widely published; and all who bear it have the power to obey. The "law" of the gospel consists of two elements: the evangelical and the moral; the first, involving repentance towards God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ; and. the second, love to our neighbour and our God.

III. As A BLESSING TO BE NOW ENJOYED. "This man" is "blessed," not in his ideas, sentiments, talk, lint in his deeds; not for deeds in some future state, but in his deeds now.

(D. Thomas.)

I. THE NATURE AND PROPERTIES OF THIS LAW. The law by which Christ governs is "holy, just, and good." It unites the glory of the sovereign with the good of the subject.

II. MAN'S DUTY IN RELATION TO THIS LAW.

III. THIS ADVANTAGES RESULTING. "This man shall be blessed in his deed."

1. He shall have the approval of his own mind.

2. He shall be blessed with increasing light and knowledge.

3. That which he doeth shall prosper.

4. He shall be blessed after his deed. "God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love." "Every man shall be rewarded according to his works."

(Joseph Taylor.)

1. We should with all seriousness and earnestness apply ourselves to the knowledge of the gospel. Jewels do not lie upon the surface; you must get into the caverns and dark receptacles of the earth for them. No more do truths lie in the surface or outside of an expression. The beauty and glory of the Scriptures is within, and must be fetched out with much study and prayer. A glance cannot discover the worth of anything to us. He that doth but cast his eye upon a piece of embroidery cloth not discern the curiousness and the art of it. So to know Christ in the bulk doth not work half so kindly with us as when we search out the breadth, and the depth, and the length, the exact dimensions of His love to us.

2. The gospel is a law, according to which —(1) Your lives must be conformed (Galatians 6:16).(2) All controversies and doctrines must be decided (Isaiah 8:20).(3) Your estates must be judged (Romans 2:16).

3. The Word of God is a perfect law.(1) It maketh perfect.(2) It directeth us to the greatest perfection, to God blessed for ever, to the righteousness of Christ, to perfect communion with God in glory.(3) It concerneth the whole man, and hath a force upon the conscience: men go no further than outward obedience; but "the law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul" (Psalm 19:7). It is not a lame, defective rule; besides outward observances, there is somewhat for the soul.(4) It is a perfect law, because of the invariable tenor of it; it needeth not to be changed, but is always like itself: as we say, that is a perfect rule that needeth no amendment.(5) It is pure, and free from error. There are no laws of men but there are some blemish in them.(6) Because it is a sufficient rule. Christ hath been "faithful in all His house," in all the appointments of it. Whatever is necessary for knowledge, for regulating of life and worship, for confirmation of true doctrines, for confutation of false, it is all in the Word "That the man of God may be perfectly furnished unto every good work" (2 Timothy 3:17). Well, then —(1) Prize the Word. We love what is perfect.(2) Suffer nothing to be added to it: "Ye shall not add to the Word which I command you." So the whole Bible is concluded (Revelation 22:18).

4. That the gospel, or Word of God, is a "law of liberty." As it is a perfect, so it is a free law. So it is in divers respects.(1) Because it teacheth the way to true liberty, and freedom from sin, wrath, death (John 8:36). There is no state so free as that which we enjoy by the gospel.(2) The bond of obedience that is laid upon us is in deed and in truth a perfect freedom.For —

1. The matter itself of our obedience is freedom.

2. We do it upon free principles.

3. We have the help of a free Spirit.

4. We do it in a state of freedom. Well, then, consider whether you be under a law of liberty, yea or no. To this end —(1) Ask your souls, which is a bondage to you, sin or duty? When you do complain of the yoke, what is grievous to you, the commandment or the transgression?(2) When you do duty, what is the weight that poiseth your spirits to it? Your warrant is the command; but your poise and weight should be love.(3) What is your strength for duty — reason or the assistance of the free Spirit? When our dependence is on Christ, our tendency is to Him.(4) Would you have the work accepted for its own sake, or your persons accepted for Christ's side? It is an ill sign when a man's thoughts run more upon the property and quality of the work than upon the propriety and interest of his person.

5. From that "and abideth therein." This commendeth our knowledge of and affection to the Word, to con-throe in it. Hypocrites have a taste; some men's hearts burn under the ordinances, but all is lost and drowned in the world again "If ye continue ill the Word, then are ye My disciples indeed" (John 8:31). There may be good flashes for the present, but Christ saith, "If ye continue," if ye ripen them to good affections. So 2 John 9.

6. From that "being not a forgetful hearer." Helps to memory —(1) Attention. Men remember what they heed and regard.(2) Affection. An old man will not forget where he laid his bag of gold.(3) Application and appropriation of truths. We will remember that which concerns ourselves.(4) Meditation, and holy care to cover the Word, that it be not snatched from us by vain thoughts.(5) Observation of the accomplishment of truths.(6) Practise what you hear (Psalm 119:93).(7) Commit it to the Spirit's keeping and charge (John 14:26).

7. From that "he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer." Sin cometh for want of remembering: forgetful hearers are negligent (Psalm 103:18). There are some truths that are of a general use and benefit; others that serve for some cases and seasons. In the general, hide the whole Word in your heart, that ye may have a fresh truth to check sin in every temptation (Psalm 119:11). "Remember and forget not how thou provokedst the Lord thy God in the wilderness" (Deuteronomy 9:7). Labour thus to get a present ready memory, that will urge truths in the season when they do concern us.

8. From that "but a doer of the work." The Word layeth out work for us.

9. From that "shall be blessed in his deed." There is a blessedness annexed to the doing of the work of the Word; not for the work's sake, but out of the mercy of God. See, then, that you hear so that you come within the compass of the blessing; the blessing is usually pronounced at the time of your addresses to God in this worship.

(T. Manton.)

I. THE PERFECT LAW.

1. No word of the New Testament is given to us only in order that we may know truth, but all in order that we may do it. Every part of it palpitates with life, and is meant to regulate conduct.

2. In the very central fact of the gospel there lies the most stringent rule of life. Jesus Christ is the Pattern, and from those gentle lips which say, "If ye love Me keep My commandments," law sounds more imperatively than from all the thunder and trumpets of Sinai.

3. In the great act of redemption, which is the central fact of the New Testament revelation, there lies a law for conduct. God's love redeeming us is the revelation of what we ought to be, and the Cross, to which we look as the refuge from sin and condemnation, is also the pattern for the life of every believer.

4. This law is a perfect law. It not only tells us what to do, but it gives us power to do it: and that is what men want. The gospel brings power because it brings life.

II. THE DOERS OF THE PERFECT LAW.

1. Cultivate the habit of contemplating the central truths of the gospel, as the condition of receiving in vigour and fulness the life which obeys the commandment.

2. Cultivate this habit of reflective meditation upon the truths of the gospel, as giving you the pattern of duty in a concentrated and available form.

3. Cultivate the habit of meditating on the truths of the gospel, in order that the motives of conduct may be reinvigorated and strengthened.

4. The natural crown of all contemplation and knowledge is practical obedience.

III. THE BLESSEDNESS OF THE DOERS OF THE PERFECT LAW. Notice the in, not "after," not "as a reward for," but "blessed in his deed." "In keeping Thy commandments there is great reward." The rewards of this law are not arbitrarily bestowed, separately from the. act of obedience, by the will of the Judge, but the deeds of obedience automatically bring the blessedness. This world is not so constituted as that outward rewards certainly follow on inward goodness. Few of its prizes fall to the lot of the saints. But men are so constituted as that obedience is its own reward. There is no delight so deep and true as the delight of doing the will of Him whom we love. There is no blessedness like that of increasing communion with God, and the clearer perception of His will and mind which follow obedience as surely as the shadow does the sunshine. There is no blessedness like the glow of approving conscience, the reflection of the smile on Christ's face.

(A. Maclaren, D. D.)

To have the heart in close communion with the very Fountain of all good, and the will in harmony with the will of the best Beloved; to hear the Voice that is dearest of all, ever saying, "This is the way, walk ye in it"; to know" a spirit in my feet "impelling me upon that road; to know that all my petty deeds are made great, and my stained offerings hallowed by the altar on which they are honoured to lie and to feel fellowship with the Friend of my soul increased by obedience; this is to taste the keenest joy and good of life, and he who is thus "blessed in his deed" need never fear that that blessedness shall be taken away, nor sorrow though other joys be few and griefs be many.

(A. Maclaren, D. D.)

There are some who have not forgotten what manner of men they are, simply because they have never known it. From childhood they have been brought up with utterly false notions of themselves. Subservience and flattery may create convictions which take such firm hold of the mind that it can never get free from them; or constant engrossing work may so expend its forces as to leave none for introspection. But most of us at times have had little glimpses of ourselves. We have been worsted in some conflict; and although we do say to ourselves that the contest was not quite fair, yet there is the fact that we have been beaten, that perhaps we have been beaten often; and there does come the little suggestion of disappointment at times, that perhaps we are not quite so wise and competent as once we took ourselves surely to be. Or some friend whose affection for us determines that we shall not think, without protest, more highly of ourselves than we ought to think — called "the malice of kind people" — such a friend feels it a duty to tell us of some fault which "people talk about and think such a pity," and the spiteful truth, or lie "truth-tinged," gives us a side view of ourselves which we have never seen before, and we do not like it much. Or people talk about graces and gifts which so eminently distinguish others, when, to tell the truth, if anybody is remarkable for possessing them, certainly we thought we were. It was mortifying that nobody seemed to know it. Then, again, there have been moments when, as it were, the devil himself has entered into us, and, by the lurid light of his presence, we have for an instant seen inside some of the dark chambers of our heart, and looked upon the unclean spirits which hide there, yet ready at any moment to go forth on an evil work. Or the vision of some beauty or purity with which the trust of love had endowed us, but which we knew was not ours, or some voice of God which seemed to draw the soul up from its low dwelling-place to fairer regions, have made us dissatisfied with our. selves and shown us our grievous faults, and yet filled us with the hope of rising above them. Few men thoroughly know themselves, few men can look upon their characters as upon a geological map, with each stratum clearly marked, showing its colour and extent and fossil history, so that a man can stand before his mapped-out character and see what manner of man he is. If the dead are able to read their own memoirs, how startled at times they must be, how mortified, how indignant! How should one of us like to read these words about ourselves: "His life was one long series of tricks — mean and malicious. He was all stiletto and mask. To injure, to insult, to save himself from the consequences of injury and insult by lying and equivocating, was the habit of his life. Besides his faults of malignity, of fear, of interest, and of vanity, there were frauds which he committed for love of fraud alone"? Do you think the man about whom such words were written thought himself all that? Yet that is Macaulay's estimate of the character of Pope. But, as I have said, if we know ourselves very imperfectly, we do at times get glimpses of ourselves, and these transient glimpses should be turned to profit in new labour of caution and prayer. In the first place, I think we may say that there are those who not merely forget what manner of men they are, but who almost forget the fact that after all they are only men. Because circumstantially they differ from their fellows, they think that they belong altogether to another race. The vauntings of Nebuchadnezzar; the bursting ostentation of Herod Agrippa; the frenzy of some of the Roman emperors, whose deity compelled obsequious courtiers to shade their eyes; the punctilios of abject daily observance demanded by Louis XIV., these are types of moral dementia. But the same kind of improper forgetfulness extends through all ranks of life. It is sometimes seen in the mental arrogance of some powerful mind, which has nothing but scorn for the simple and the dull It is seen in that overweening sense of social superiority which is a fertile parent of bad manners, If, instead of this weak, foolish self-importance, we realised the Church's teaching, "All ye are brethren," the lot of the humbler and less fortunate of our fellow-men would be alleviated by the tender consideration and affectionate courtesy of those more highly favoured. But if we are in danger of forgetting that we, however highly placed, are only men, is it not a fact that we still more frequently forget that we are weak, faulty, and, indeed, too often fallen men? When one thinks of it, how few things can be more surprising than the readiness with which the mass of mankind are prepared to pass decisive judgment on anything which may come under their notice. They allot approval to this, and pronounce condemnation upon that, and have forgotten what manner of men they are — for-gotten that they possess nothing but inherited prejudices, or capricious partialities, or fugitive reflections from other minds on which to found their assumption. And, more especially, would not the hardness and intolerance which is shown by thousands towards certain Churches and certain parties be shamed away, if only those parties and Churches were thoroughly understood; and if only we all remembered how apparently accidental is our own position, that but for chance, as we say, we might have been that which now we denounce. But, again, if men forget their intellectual poverty, do they not oftener forget their moral depravity? Certainly there is a great deal of evil in the world, but it does not strike one that the mass of mankind are possessed by a sense of their own badness. Take those we severely blame in our tenants, servants, dependants. Have we not quite forgotten that something like the same thing is done by ourselves? Even a fraudulent bank director has sentenced a petty thief to gaol without blushing. The things we have done, and the things we should like to do if we dared — these tell us something of our nature, and should tinge all our judgments with pity. Or, take it again in the quiet scenes of worship, when the tumult of life is stilled, and we draw nigh in confession to the great throne of renewal. There are uttered the solemn words of confession, and on bended knees we join with the priest and make our self-revelation. But what is there we see when we pour forth the litauies of the penitent? Is it a line of hated foes through which we have passed, and by which we have been smitten on every hand, and does the new week show the same dark gauntlet to be run again? and is the cry, "Lord, have mercy upon us," our cry of conflict with recognised evils? Then the pangs of memory become a cross of salvation. Or, on the other hand, when we make our confession, is the only thing we have forgotten our faults and the ruin they are working, our moral diseases and the grave to which they are leading us; and the only thing we see — ourselves arrayed in Sunday graces? Oh, we forget the days of the week, each with its evil of temper, intention, and indulgence, its meanness, its frivolity, its cruelty; the scenes of home, and work, and reelection — the scenes which, if some one for whon we cared had seen, would have compelled an unaccustomed blush — all these we forget as we kneel and confess. Oh! it is time that we remembered ourselves, so would a humbler and more gentle spirit rule us. It is time that we remembered ourselves, so would a regenerating intention inspire us. And if we would indeed see ourselves, and, having seen, see that same self no more, we must "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world."

(W. Page Robert. , M. A.)

Christ did not make laws for His Church as Phaleas, in Aristotle, did for his commonwealth, who took good order for preventing of smaller faults, but left way enough to greater crimes. No; He struck down all, digged up all by the roots, both the cedars and the shrubs, both the greatest and the smallest. He laid His axe to the very beginnings of them, and would not let them breathe in a thought, nor be seen in a look. Nor did He, like that famous Grecian painter, begin His work, but die before He could perfect it. It were the greatest opposing of His will to think so. He left nothing imperfect, but sealed up His evangelical law, as well as His obedience, with a Consummatum est. What He began He ever finished. In a word, His will is most fully and perspicuously expressed in His gospel. But yet, to urge this home, this giveth no encouragement to condemn those means which God hath reached forth to direct us in our search. Though the lessons be plain, yet we see many times negligence cannot pass a line, when industry hath run over the whole book. Nor can We think that that truth which will make us perfect is of so easy purchase that it will be sown in Any ground, and, like the devil's tares, "grow up whilst we sleep" (Matthew 13:25).

(A. Farindon, B. D.)

Horace Bushnell speaks of a liberty above, and a liberty below the elbows; and Charles Kingsley says, "There are two freedoms — the false, where a man is free to do what he likes; the true, where a man is free to do what he ought."

James II., on his death-bed, thus addressed his son: — "There is no slavery like sin, and no liberty like God's service." Was not the dethroned monarch right?

(H. Melvill, B. D.)

I commend perseverance unto you as "a condition annexed to every virtue"; so Bernard — as "that which compasseth every good grace of God about as with a shield"; so Parisiensis — as "that gift of God which preserveth and safeguardeth all other virtues"; so . For though "every good gift and every perfect gift be from above" (ver. 17), though those virtues which beautify a Christian soul descend from heaven, and are the proper issues as it were from God Himself; yet perseverance is unica filia, saith Bernard, "his only daughter and heir," and carrieth away the crown (Matthew 24:13). He runneth in vain, who runneth not to the mark. He runneth in vain, that fainteth in the way, and obtaineth not. Whatsoever is before the end, is not the end, but a degree unto it. What is a seed, if it shoot forth and flourish, and then wither? What is a gourd, which groweth up in a night, and shadoweth us, and then is. smitten the next morning with a worm and perisheth? What is a fair morning to a tempestuous day? What is a Sabbath-day's journey to him who must walk to the end of his hopes? What is an hour in Paradise? What is a look, an approach towards heaven, and then to fall back and be lost for ever? A good beginning must be had, but let the end be like unto the beginning. Let not Jupiter's head be set upon the body of a tyrant; as the proverb is, "A young saint, and an old devil": but let holiness, like Joseph's coat of many colours, be made up of many virtues, but reaching down to the very feet, to our last days, our last hour, our last breath. For this is our eternity here on earth; et propter hoc aeternun consequimur aeternum: Our remaining in the gospel, our constant and never-ceasing obedience to it, is a Christian's eternity below; "and for this span of obedience, which is the mortal's eternity, we gain right and title to that real eternity of happiness in the highest Leavens." To remain in the gospel and to be blessed for ever, are the two stages of a Christian; the one here on earth, the other in the kingdom of heaven: to "look into" the gospel, that is the first; and the second is like unto it, to "remain in it," to set a court of guard about us, that no deceitful temptation remove us out of our place. Our perseverance is a virtue which is never in actu complete, "never hath its complete act in this life."

(A. Farindon, B. D.)

There is much in the eye. For the law of liberty is still the same; it moulteth not a feather, changeth not its shape and countenance: but it may appear in as many shapes as there be tempers and constitutions of the eyes that look into it. An evil eye seeth nothing but faction and debate. A lofty eye seeth nothing but priority and pre-eminence. A bloodshot eye seeth nothing but cruelty, which they call "justice." All the errors of our life, as the philosophers speak of the colours of the rainbow, are oculi opus, "the work of the eye." For the law itself can lend nothing towards them, but stareth them in the face, when the eye hath raised them, to shake and demolish them. It were good, then, to clear our eye before we took into the law, lest whilst we find what pleaseth us, we find what will ruin us. But oh that we should have such eagles' eyes in the things of this world, and be such bats in the gospel of Christ! The covetous looketh into the world, and that hath power to I transform his soul into earth. The wanton looketh upon beauty, and that turneth his into flesh. David beholdeth Bathsheba in her bath, and is on fire. Ahab looketh upon Naboth's vineyard, and is sick. The eye of flesh pierceth deep into the object, and the object pierceth as deep into the soul. But we look and look again into the law of liberty, but so faintly that we draw no power from it to "renew us in the inward man" (Ephesians 3:16). It is a law of liberty, and we look upon it, and yet are slaves.

(A. Farindon, B. D. .)

It is a bad thing to have a poor memory. What a difference there is between people in this respect! How little impression events make on some persons! How easily they forget names, dates, faces, the books they have read, the scenes they have visited! And how wonderfully others remember all these things! Macaulay could repeat from memory books he had read when he was a boy; could repeat the whole of "Paradise Lost," or one of the books of Homer. Indeed, there seems to be hardly any limit to the power of memory. Generals have been known who recollected the name of every soldier in their army, and politicians who could call by name every man to whom they have been introduced. A good memory is the necessary basis of all intellectual action. I think the time will come when we shall know how to educate and discipline the memory, and keep it from forgetting. There will be rules for memorising taught in our schools, to strengthen the memory and keep it in a healthy condition. The most important element of such a system will probably be to form a habit of attention with the purpose of remembering. How we recollect times, places, scenes, adventures, experiences, in which our whole soul was interested! I have heard a woman describing the last days of her husband's life, or that of her child, and every minutest incident was photographed on her brain. So the Evangelists recollect and record all the sayings of their Master, word for word. So the man who has been in a shipwreck, or a railroad accident, or a battle, describes, with intense minuteness and accuracy, all the details, till it rises before you a vivid picture, which you also will remember always, though hearing it at second hand. The stories of travellers are interesting for the same reason, because the novelty of the scenes they visit rouses their attention, and the vivid impressions made on their own minds excite a like interest in ours. We remember that in which we are interested, because we give our attention to it. But when we are not interested in anything, and so do not give our attention to it, we are sure to forget it. Facts and lessons which do not interest us are like the plants which have no root in themselves, and soon wither away. I heard a worthy gentleman arguing that studies ought not to be made too interesting, because boys and girls should have the discipline of hard work. But who works the hardest, I should like to know, he whose heart is not in the work, and who has to force himself to do it by main strength of will, or he who enjoys it while he does it, or does it with the hope of future joy. It is hope and joy which give us strength to work, not disgust or indifference. But we weaken the memory by inattention, which results from the absence of a deep interest and a living purpose. The general rule, then, for improving the memory is, "Take an interest in anything, and you will attend to it; attend to it, and you will recollect it." But what cure is there for moral forgetfulness? Here is a man who forgets all the lessons of experience. He commits the same faults over and over again. Each time, he says to himself, "This is the last time; I will never do so again; I will keep my resolutions hereafter." But he goes his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he is. When I was a boy at the Boston Latin School, our master introduced one day a learned-looking gentleman, who, he told us, had come to teach us a new system of intellectual mnemonics. The thing was done by help of the law of association. We first fixed in our mind a list of familiar objects, and then associated them with the names of kings and queens. But where is the science of spiritual mnemonics? Who shall teach the conscience to remember its duty in the hour of temptation? the heart to remember its best love when drawn aside to the world. There are many marked instances of moral forgetfulness, which show the importance of such a science as this. We are very apt, for example, to forget the religious and moral truth which we hear. We are forgetful hearers of the Word. Where is all the instruction which has been poured into our ears and heart from childhood, by ever-faithful parents, by teachers, professors and guardians. It has all gone. Again, how we forget our own good resolutions! We arrange our life, at the beginning of the year, into a perfect order. We select the faults to be conquered, the virtues to be acquired, the studies to be pursued, the good actions to be done. At the end of the year we look back and find that all these resolutions were presently forgotten, and we went on as before. Again, we forget our duties. "You are one of the most perfect of men," said Lamb to Coleridge, "with only this one slight fault, that if you have any duty to do, you never do it." We remember everything but our duties — these slip from our memory too easily. We forget our promises and engagements. How very mortifying to find that we have promised to do a multitude of things, and that we have forgotten them all! Alas I and worse, we forget the kindness done to us. At the time we feel very grateful, but gratitude becomes burdensome, and so, after a while, we have forgotten our benefactors and their deeds. We forget them, but do not forget those who have injured us, who have wounded our pride. Ah! we remember that too well; "the deadly arrow adheres to our side." We forget the holy love of Christ, the ever-present providence of God, the impending judgments of the future. Who shall give us the system of moral mnemonics by which to remember these things? The difficulty is that we are not really as much interested in the love of God, in duty and spiritual progress, as we are in other matters. But we have all seen those who did not suffer from this fatal want of memory. How is it that they remember so well? It is love which quickens all the powers, memory among the rest. Did Dr. Howe ever forget his blind people? Did Mr. Garrison ever forget his slaves? Did Howard ever forget his prisoners? Did Dorothea Dix ever forget her insane persons? Did Florence Nightingale forget the sick soldiers? Did Lincoln forget the dangers of the country which he served? Or did Jesus ever forget His disciples or His work? No. All these, having loved their own, loved them to the end. Where the heart goes, there memory watches, a sleepless sentinel, ready for every occasion. Only to hear about truth, therefore, profits nothing. We must do it ourselves in order to know it. Lazy acquiescence in another's opinion is not knowledge. Easy assent to the established creed is not belief. Enthusiastic admiration of the eloquence of some favourite teacher is not faith. Truth helps no one who has only heard about it. Until we are doers of the Word, as well as hearers, we are like the clocks and watches in the watchmaker's shop. He sets them all to the right time, and winds them up; but till he touches the pendulum and sets in motion they cannot keep time. So we go to church every Sunday, and the minister winds us up by convincing arguments and by the truths of the gospel; and then he appeals to our feelings, and touches our hearts, and we are set exactly right. The hour-hand and minute-hand are right to a moment. The moral chronometer is regulated to a second. But we ourselves must set the pendulum in motion, and begin to go; else what does it profit us? To be set right and regulated every Sunday morning, what use is there in that, unless we keep going through the week? When we are hearers and not doers, we deceive ourselves. All our thoughts are excellent, our ideas of duty correct, our sentiments noble: we take the highest grounds on all occasions. But this is all outside of our central life. We wash our hands, but not our hearts. Because we are so familiar with what is true and right, we forget at last what manner of men we are. Hearing the truth, when we refuse to act it out, ends in opinion, and opinion in talk, and talk in self-deception. There is a good deal of cheating in the world, but people usually cheat themselves more than they do others. We repeat by rote what we hear, and think that we know it. We talk well and imagine that we are what we say. We hear a truth, and imagine that it is a part of our own character. So we deceive ourselves. Until we have put a truth into action, we do not really know it. The artist may study colours and forms for ever; but until he tries to paint a picture he is only a dilettante artist. The carpenter may hear lectures on the use of tools, but till he learns to use them we do not call him a carpenter. The youth who graduates in a law-school, full of the theory of law, is not yet a lawyer. Do anything, and you come to know it, and then truth becomes knowledge and creates love. We have in Boston a "Free Religious Association," as it is called. Yet true religion is always free, and always sets us free. It is a law of liberty; liberty and law in one. Religion is the source of all real freedom, for true freedom is not wilfulness, but self-direction. And we can only direct ourselves when we have some rule or law by which to direct ourselves; some aim of life, and some method by which to pursue that aim. The rule for strengthening the memory, then, so that we shall not be forgetful hearers, is, first, to give our attention to what we hear, to put our mind into it. A common phrase in English is "to mind a thing," meaning "to remember it." Another meaning of mind is to obey. "Mind your father and mother, child!" To put our mind seriously into anything, leads, first to memory; next, to action. And this action, if we continue therein, becomes at last interesting for its own sake, and so we make it a part of ourselves. We eat it and drink it, and it enters into our life, and life's most secret joy, so that finally we become "blessed in our deed." Thus continued, persistent attention, given to what is true and right, leads to action; and persistent, continued action, leads to love, and deed.

(J. Freeman Clarke.)

Were you to stand at the door of many of our churches, and ask the people as they came out what had been the subject principally dealt with, or the point aimed at by the discourse they had just been listening to, how many would be able to give an intelligible and satisfactory answer? In a large number of cases even the text is, I fear, forgotten before the ascription is reached. Only a short time ago a friend of mine was preaching in one of our cathedral churches. As he was going to select for his text a prominent passage in one of the portions for the day, he thought it expedient to inquire of the clerk, "What did the Canon preach from this morning?" The clerk became very pensive, seemed quite disposed to cudgel his brain for the proper answer; but, somehow or other, he really could not think of it just then. But there were all the men of the choir robing in the adjacent choir vestry; he would go and ask them. Accordingly the same question was passed round the choir, and produced the same perplexity. At length the sagacious clerk returned with the highly explicit answer, "It was upon the Christian religion, sir!" I think those good people must have needed a reminder as to how we should hear, don't you?

(W. H. M. H. Aitken, M. A.)

The truth in Jesus is not a comet, attracting attention, awakening wonder, appearing for a little time and then vanishing away; it is the sun which makes and which rules our spiritual day, and it is the moon relieving the darkness of spiritual night. The truth in Jesus is not like the pictures on the walls of our dwellings, pleasant rather than serviceable, or if useful, not essential; it is as the necessary furniture of our homes. It is not as the garnish of the dishes of a feast, it is as the viands themselves; it is not as honey to bread, but is itself bread of life. It is not as unimportant appendage to Christian character, it is that character's necessary foundation. Let us not neglect doctrine, and let us be careful to render it into action and life.

(S. Martin.)

I. THE DESCRIPTION OF THE GOSPEL REVELATION.

1. James calls it "the law," "the law of liberty," and "the perfect law of liberty." The gospel revelation is the law of the Christian. It is a law of life in contrast with a law of sin and death. It is revealed by Christ Jesus in contrast to that revealed by Moses; it is a law of grace and truth: "The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ."

2. The gospel revelation is the law of liberty, in describing which we cannot, perhaps, more simply and impressively dwell upon it than by keeping before the mind the contrast between the Old and the New Testament revelations. The moral and ceremonial laws enslave their subjects, or rather, they are in bondage who are under the law. But the law of the gospel is a law of liberty; it is a provision of mercy and love to set free from the law of sin and death. The son who loves his father feels a delight in doing his father's will; the service done is perfect freedom, and the law of the father is perfect liberty. It is just in this spirit and in this way the gospel is a law of liberty to us. It is true that the natural man cannot understand this, for the service of religion appears to him servile duty; he cannot find interest nor pleasure in it, and by his own feelings and inclination he judges of others. He is, it may be, a very slave to the vilest propensities of his fallen nature, and yet never dreams that he is suffering himself to be led captive by the devil at his will.

3. The gospel revelation is the law of perfect liberty. There is perfection in everything that originates with God. This law is perfect with respect to its completeness and the liberty it affords. As a revelation from God, it contains a full development of the mind of God concerning the covenant of His grace with men; it contains a perfect directory to us as sinners; it opens up and points out the way to happiness and God. It is perfect in all its provisions; perfect in the sinless obedience of the Son of God, who engaged in covenant with the Father for our salvation; perfect in .the infinite satisfaction given by Him to Divine justice; perfect in the spotless sacrifice He offered for our sins; perfect in the complete salvation obtained for us and therein revealed. It is perfect in its precepts, perfect in its promises, perfect in its doctrines, and perfect in the countless blessings it brings to men.

4. Now, this perfect law of liberty is given to us that we may know the mind and will of God concerning our salvation. We have not to say, "Who shall ascend into heaven? or, Who shall descend into the deep?" to obtain this law of the gospel for us, for the word is nigh us, even in our mouth and in our heart.

II. THE CONDUCT OF THOSE WHO ARE INFLUENCED BY IT.

1. Such conduct is described in our text as looking into it, continuing therein, and doing the work. Looking into it signifies no superficial investigation, nor casual perusal, such as the uninterested and unconcerned would give it under some conviction of conscience arising from a sense of duty. A profound meditation is directed into the word of the gospel, with a view to comprehend the breadth, and length, and depth, and height, and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge. When savingly interested in the gospel, we look into it so as to find the virtue of it in our hearts. It cannot be better explained, perhaps, than in the words of the apostle (2 Corinthians 3:18). The Christian cannot rest satisfied unless he is looking into the law of the gospel so as to be transformed by it into the likeness of Christ.

2. The continuance therein proves that with the true Christian religion is not of an evanescent character. It is true that the Christian is the subject of many changes. The liveliness of his impressions may not always be the same. Clouds may cover his mind, temptations may assault his soul, unbelief may distress his spirit. But under all such painful exercises he does not despise the perfect law of liberty; he rather turns to it with solicitude and prayer. It is his chart to heaven; it sheds a light upon his path to cheer and comfort his distressed spirit.

3. Continuing therein presents a line of conduct directly in contrast with that of the casual observer or the individual who discovers in it the deformity of his own character, add straightway goeth his way and forgetteth what manner of person he was, or that of a hearer and not a doer of the work.

4. Doing the work is knowledge reduced to practice, theory carried to a living embodiment of truth, and principle fell wed to active development. Where there is sincerity of heart, obedience will follow. The glory of the gospel revelation is, that God, by implanting a gracious principle in the souls of the regenerate, gives power to the Christian to do all that He requires. Though we are not under the moral law as working for life, we are under it as a rule of action, and every Christian delights in it. The commands of the New Testament are to repent, believe, love, serve, worship, and praise God. The individual who doeth these doeth the Christian work — the work that God requires of us in the gospel of His grace — and such shall be saved.

III. THE HAPPINESS OF THE PRACTICAL CHRISTIAN "This man shall be blessed in his deed." It is not every man nor every professor of Christianity to whom attention is directed, but that individual who lives his profession by learning from the revealed will of Heaven what is required of him, and who reduces it to practical godliness. He may, in his onward course to heaven, experience rebuffs, assaults, and various trials; but with all these the Lord points him out as the object of His favour and delight. It is in his deed he is to be blessed, for in the practice of godliness the blessing comes. It is a medium or a channel through which the Lord visits him with blessing, or makes him happy. It is as impossible to separate happiness from religion as it is to separate sensation from life. The seraphic joys of heaven spring from likeness to God and from doing His will; and were it not for the remaining corruption of nature and the imperfect knowledge and service of the Christian on earth, the bliss of a paradise would be experienced. The devoted Christian's happiness is a combination of spiritual peace, love, joy, fellowship and communion with Jehovah. The experience of this blessedness is not in its full measure. There are degrees of happiness, and for the most part in this life moderately and faintly experienced. But the lowest degree makes the Christian feel how foolish, vain, and hurtful are the highest enjoyments of sinful and worldly pleasures, so that he turns from what the world calls happiness with sorrow and disgust. It must not be forgotten that the devoted Christian is not exempt from trials and afflictions as diversified and multiplied as those of men generally, and by reason of mental and bodily infirmities may have sorrow, distress, and darkness of soul. He has seasons when he is in the valley as well as on the mount, but he is blessed notwithstanding. God is still his covenant Father; Jesus Christ is still his Saviour, Friend, and Brother; the Holy Spirit is still his Sanctifier and Comforter; the promises of God are still his. He is pardoned, he is justified, and he is sanctified. The life of Christian devotedness is, then, a life of happiness. There is blessedness in all spiritual exercises of the Christian heart, blessedness in all the performances of Christian devotion and duties, and blessedness in all the benevolent operations of the Christian's life and actions; so that not even a cup of cold water can be administered in the name of a disciple unregarded by the Lord or unblessed by Him.

(S. Wills, D. D.)

JamesDispersionTRUE, Acts, Becoming, Blessed, Blessing, Closely, Continue, Continues, Continueth, Deed, Doer, Effect, Effectual, Fixes, Forgetful, Forgets, Forgetteth, Forgetting, Free, Freedom, Gives, Goes, Happy, Hearer, Intently, Law, Liberty, Looks, Makes, Memory, Obedience, Obedient, Perfect, Perseveres, Putting, Result, Therein, View, Worketh1. James greets the twelve tribes among the nations;
2. exhorts to rejoice in trials and temptations;
5. to ask patience of God;
13. and in our trials not to impute our weakness, or sins, to him,
19. but rather to hearken to the word, to meditate on it, and to do thereafter.
26. Otherwise men may seem, but never be, truly religious.

James 1:25

     1615   Scripture, sufficiency
     5499   reward, divine
     5881   immaturity
     6661   freedom, and law
     6746   sanctification, means and results
     8102   abiding in Christ
     8117   discipleship, benefits
     8321   perfection, divine
     8330   receptiveness

James 1:21-25

     8351   teachableness

James 1:22-25

     5959   submission

James 1:22-26

     5943   self-deception

James 1:23-25

     5411   mirror

February 28. "Count it all Joy" (James i. 2).
"Count it all joy" (James i. 2). We do not always feel joyful, but we are to count it all joy. The word "reckon" is one of the key-words of Scripture. It is the same word used about our being dead. We do not feel dead. We are painfully conscious of something that would gladly return to life. But we are to treat ourselves as dead, and neither fear nor obey the old nature. So we are to reckon the thing that comes as a blessing. We are determined to rejoice, to say, "My heart is fixed, O God, I will …
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth

Fourth Sunday after Easter Second Sermon.
Text: James 1, 16-21. 16 Be not deceived, my beloved brethren. 17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom can be no variation, neither shadow that is cast by turning. 18 Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures. 19 Ye know this, my beloved brethren. But let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath: 20 for the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness …
Martin Luther—Epistle Sermons, Vol. II

George Buchanan, Scholar
The scholar, in the sixteenth century, was a far more important personage than now. The supply of learned men was very small, the demand for them very great. During the whole of the fifteenth, and a great part of the sixteenth century, the human mind turned more and more from the scholastic philosophy of the Middle Ages to that of the Romans and the Greeks; and found more and more in old Pagan Art an element which Monastic Art had not, and which was yet necessary for the full satisfaction of their …
Charles Kingsley—Historical Lectures and Essays

October the Eighteenth Unanimity in the Soul
"A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways." --JAMES i. 1-8. If two men are at the wheel with opposing notions of direction and destiny, how will it fare with the boat? If an orchestra have two conductors both wielding their batons at the same time and with conflicting conceptions of the score, what will become of the band? And a man whose mind is like that of two men flirting with contrary ideals at the same time will live a life "all sixes and sevens," and nothing will move to purposeful …
John Henry Jowett—My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year

May the Fifth Healthy Listening
"Be ye doers of the word and not hearers only." --JAMES i. 21-27. When we hear the word, but do not do it, there has been a defect in our hearing. We may listen to the word for mere entertainment. Or we may attach a virtue to the mere act of listening to the word. We may assume that some magical efficacy belongs to the mere reading of the word. And all this is perverse and delusive. No listening is healthy which is not mentally referred to obedience. We are to listen with a view to obedience, …
John Henry Jowett—My Daily Meditation for the Circling Year

An Address to the Regenerate, Founded on the Preceding Discourses.
James I. 18. James I. 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. I INTEND the words which I have now been reading, only as an introduction to that address to the sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty, with which I am now to conclude these lectures; and therefore shall not enter into any critical discussion, either of them, or of the context. I hope God has made the series of these discourses, in some measure, useful to those …
Philip Doddridge—Practical Discourses on Regeneration

On Patience
"Let patience have its perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing." James 1:4. 1. "My brethren," says the Apostle in the preceding verse, "count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations." At first view, this may appear a strange direction; seeing most temptations are, "for the present, not joyous, but grievous." Nevertheless ye know by your own experience, that "the trial of your faith worketh patience:" And if "patience have its perfect work, ye shall be perfect and …
John Wesley—Sermons on Several Occasions

On Charity
"Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing." 1 Cor. 13:1-3. We know, "All Scripture is given by inspiration …
John Wesley—Sermons on Several Occasions

Loving Advice for Anxious Seekers
However, the promise is not to be limited to any one particular application, for the word, "If any of you," is so wide, so extensive, that whatever may be our necessity, whatever the dilemma which perplexes us, this text consoles us with the counsel, "If any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God." This text might be peculiarly comforting to some of you who are working for God. You cannot work long for your heavenly Lord without perceiving that you need a greater wisdom than you own. Why, even in directing …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 13: 1867

All Joy in all Trials
Beginning with this word "brethren," James shows a true brotherly sympathy with believers in their trials, and this is a main part of Christian fellowship. "Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ." If we are not tempted ourselves at this moment, others are: let us remember them in our prayers; for in due time our turn will come, and we shall be put into the crucible. As we would desire to receive sympathy and help in our hour of need, let us render it freely to those who are …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 29: 1883

The Days of the Week
JAMES i. 17. Every good gift, and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is neither variableness, nor shadow of turning. It seems an easy thing for us here to say, 'I believe in God.' We have learnt from our childhood that there is but one God. It seems to us strange and ridiculous that people anywhere should believe in more gods than one. We never heard of any other doctrine, except in books about the heathen; and there are perhaps not three people …
Charles Kingsley—The Good News of God

Sermon on a Martyr's Day
Of three sorts of spiritual temptation by which holy men are secretly assailed; to wit: spiritual unchastity, covetousness, and pride. James i. 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. ALL our life (says Job), so long as we are upon earth, is full of struggle and temptation, insomuch that this life is not called a life by the Saints, but a temptation. When one temptation is over, …
Susannah Winkworth—The History and Life of the Reverend Doctor John Tauler

The Sixth Petition Corresponds as we have Observed to the Promise of Writing the Law...
The sixth petition corresponds (as we have observed) to the promise [26] of writing the law upon our hearts; but because we do not obey God without a continual warfare, without sharp and arduous contests, we here pray that he would furnish us with armour, and defend us by his protection, that we may be able to obtain the victory. By this we are reminded that we not only have need of the gift of the Spirit inwardly to soften our hearts, and turn and direct them to the obedience of God, but also of …
John Calvin—Of Prayer--A Perpetual Exercise of Faith

The Deepest Need of the Church Today is not for any Material or External Thing...
The deepest need of the Church today is not for any material or external thing, but the deepest need is spiritual. Prayerless work will never bring in the kingdom. We neglect to pray in the prescribed way. We seldom enter the closet and shut the door for a season of prayer. Kingdom interests are pressing on us thick and fast and we must pray. Prayerless giving will never evangelise the world.--Dr. A. J. Gordon The great subject of prayer, that comprehensive need of the Christian's life, is intimately …
E.M. Bounds—Purpose in Prayer

Biographical Preface.
"The Church! Am I asked again, What is the Church? The ploughman at his daily toil--the workman who plies the shuttle--the merchant in his counting-house--the scholar in his study--the lawyer in the courts of justice--the senator in the hall of legislature--the monarch on his throne--these, as well as the clergymen in the works of the material building which is consecrated to the honour of God--these constitute the Church. The Church is the whole congregation of faithful men, in which the pure word …
Lewis Bayly—The Practice of Piety

Antecedents of Permanent Christian Colonization --The Disintegration of Christendom --Controversies --Persecutions.
WE have briefly reviewed the history of two magnificent schemes of secular and spiritual empire, which, conceived in the minds of great statesmen and churchmen, sustained by the resources of the mightiest kingdoms of that age, inaugurated by soldiers of admirable prowess, explorers of unsurpassed boldness and persistence, and missionaries whose heroic faith has canonized them in the veneration of Christendom, have nevertheless come to naught. We turn now to observe the beginnings, coinciding in time …
Leonard Woolsey Bacon—A History of American Christianity

The Puritan Beginnings of the Church in virginia ---Its Decline Almost to Extinction.
THERE is sufficient evidence that the three little vessels which on the 13th of May, 1607, were moored to the trees on the bank of the James River brought to the soil of America the germ of a Christian church. We may feel constrained to accept only at a large discount the pious official professions of King James I., and critically to scrutinize many of the statements of that brilliant and fascinating adventurer, Captain John Smith, whether concerning his friends or concerning his enemies or concerning …
Leonard Woolsey Bacon—A History of American Christianity

The Neighbor Colonies to virginia-Maryland and the Carolinas.
THE chronological order would require us at this point to turn to the Dutch settlements on the Hudson River; but the close relations of Virginia with its neighbor colonies of Maryland and the Carolinas are a reason for taking up the brief history of these settlements in advance of their turn. The occupation of Maryland dates from the year 1634. The period of bold and half-desperate adventure in making plantations along the coast was past. To men of sanguine temper and sufficient fortune and influence …
Leonard Woolsey Bacon—A History of American Christianity

Directions to Church-Wardens, &C.
CHURCH-WARDENS are officers of the parish in ecclesiastical affairs, as the constables are in civil, and the main branches of their duty are to present what is presentable by the ecclesiastical Jaws of this realm, and repair the Church [1] . For the better information of Church-wardens as to those particulars, which they are to present, [2] articles are to be given them extracted out of the laws of the Church, according to which they are to make their presentments, Can. 119. They are obliged twice …
Humphrey Prideaux—Directions to Church-Wardens

Theological Controversies and Studies
(a) Baianism. Schwane, /Dogmengeschichte der neuren zeit/, 1890. Turmel, /Histoire de la theologie positive du concile de Trente au concile du Vatican/, 1906. Denzinger-Bannwart, /Enchiridion Symbolorum/, 11th edition, 1911. Duchesne, /Histoire du Baianisme/, 1731. Linsenmann, /Michael Baius/, 1863. The Catholic doctrine on Grace, round which such fierce controversies had been waged in the fifth and sixth centuries, loomed again into special prominence during the days of the Reformation. The views …
Rev. James MacCaffrey—History of the Catholic Church, Renaissance to French Revolution

The Downfall, 1616-1621.
The dream of bliss became a nightmare. As the tide of Protestantism ebbed and flowed in various parts of the Holy Roman Empire, so the fortunes of the Brethren ebbed and flowed in the old home of their fathers. We have seen how the Brethren rose to prosperity and power. We have now to see what brought about their ruin. It was nothing in the moral character of the Brethren themselves. It was purely and simply their geographical position. If Bohemia had only been an island, as Shakespeare seems …
J. E. Hutton—History of the Moravian Church

Knox and the Book of Discipline
This Book of Discipline, containing the model of the Kirk, had been seen by Randolph in August 1560, and he observed that its framers would not come into ecclesiastical conformity with England. They were "severe in that they profess, and loth to remit anything of that they have received." As the difference between the Genevan and Anglican models contributed so greatly to the Civil War under Charles I., the results may be regretted; Anglicans, by 1643, were looked on as "Baal worshippers" by the …
Andrew Lang—John Knox and the Reformation

Whether Sacred Doctrine is a Practical Science
Whether Sacred Doctrine is a Practical Science We proceed to the fourth article thus: 1. It seems that sacred doctrine is a practical science. For "the end of practical knowledge is action," according to the philosopher (2 Metaph., Text 3), and sacred doctrine is concerned with action, according to James 1:22: "Be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only." Sacred doctrine is therefore a practical science. 2. Again, sacred doctrine is divided into the Old and the New Law, and the Law has to do with …
Aquinas—Nature and Grace

Wherefore Let this be the First Thought for the Putting on of Humility...
42. Wherefore let this be the first thought for the putting on of humility, that God's virgin think not that it is of herself that she is such, and not rather that this best "gift cometh down from above from the Father of Lights, with Whom is no change nor shadow of motion." [2172] For thus she will not think that little hath been forgiven her, so as for her to love little, and, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and wishing to establish her own, not to be made subject to the righteousness …
St. Augustine—Of Holy Virginity.

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