earth? "O God, forsake me not, until I have shewed Thy strength unto this generation." Alas, it may not be; for "I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the Word of God, and for the testimony which they held; and they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost Thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth." What Divine meaning, then, and what gracious purpose is there in this burden of enlightenment imposed by God upon His servants? Why does He shew them iniquity, and cause them to behold grievance? It is

III-A BURDEN OF DISCIPLINE, designed as a (1) test to see if they will continue to work and witness for God. To see also if they will still (2) trust in the Lord, even in the presence of the great mystery of iniquity; and let Him govern His own world in His own way; and despite wrong, pain, sorrow, and sin unavenged, and unrepressed, believe that the Judge of all does what is right, and wise, and good; that He is a God of love and mercy, hell upon earth, and hell in the future, notwithstanding. Hence the burden is for (3) training, that God's servants may become strong in faith, giving glory to God. Be it ours, then, to labour on, for, though we may not be able to mark progress, the mountain of evil is being removed, as it were, by spadefuls, and the temple of righteousness is rising stone by stone, the end shall come, and the shout ring through the universe-" It is finished," grace, grace unto it."

KINGSWOOD, BRISTOL.

JOSEPH WILLCOX.

"The only way to regenerate the world is to do the duty which lies nearest to us, and not to hunt after grand, far-fetched ones for ourselves. If each drop of rain chose where it should fall, God's showers would not fall as they do now on the evil and on the good alike."-CANON KINGSLEY.

Homiletical Commentary.

NOTES ON THE EPISTLE OF JAMES.

"The Little Member."

Chapter iii. 3-6.-" BEHOLD, WE PUT BITS IN THE HORSES' MOUTHS, THAT THEY MAY OBEY US; AND WE TURN ABOUT THEIR WHOLE BODY. BEHOLD ALSO THE SHIPS, WHICH THOUGH THEY BE SO GREAT, AND ARE DRIVEN OF FIERCE WINDS, YET ARE THEY TURNED ABOUT WITH A VERY SMALL HELM, WHITHERSOEVER THE GOVERNOR LISTETH. EVEN SO THE TONGUE IS A LITTLE MEMBER, AND BOASTETH GREAT THINGS. BEHOLD, HOW GREAT A MATTER A LITTLE FIRE KINDLETH! AND THE TONGUE IS A FIRE, A WORLD OF INIQUITY: SO IS THE TONGUE AMONG OUR MEMBERS, THAT IT DEFILETH THE WHOLE BODY, AND SETTETH ON FIRE THE COURSE OF NATURE; AND IT IS SET ON FIRE OF HELL."

"NOT to offend in word," in any circumstances, under any provocation, is to have the tongue bridled; to have the tongue bridled is to have the whole body under control,-its passions, affections, desires. For example, the rider has the control of the bit or bridle in the horse's mouth, and having this control he makes the animal carry him wherever he choses to go; the pilot has the control of the helm, and having this control he turns about the ship whithersoever he listeth: in like manner the man who has the full control of his tongue is able to bridle, to keep under, the whole body. The horse in its native state is an ungovernable creature, but let a man once succeed in getting the bit in its mouth and the reins in his hands and it will soon be subjected altogether to his will. The ship, the great ship, exposed to the raging of the waves would be utterly at their mercy but

N

Suppress, not

for the helm in the pilot's hands; with this the huge bulk in the most tempestuous seas is guided safely to the desired haven. A man with an ungovernable tongue, whose tongue is express. at the mercy of, and must just speak out the uppermost feeling or passion that is working within him; this man is like the horse which has run away with the bit, like the ship which refuses to answer to the helm, the rider, the crew, completely at their mercy. On the other hand, the man who can keep down the rising passion, who can at least so far suppress it as not to express it, who appreciates the wisdom of silence and who has determined that this shall be his wisdom, who knows that a word once spoken cannot be recalled, no matter the pain it may occasion or the unavailable regret, this man shows the result of the training wherewith he has trained himself, in his power to control his whole body, his whole lower nature, everything in him which needs to be controlled.

Not, indeed, that every man, without exception, needs to exercise such stern repression; not that all men are so given to the licence of the tongue; there are men in whom the spirit of love and thoughtfulness for others has been so truly the moulding principle of the life, that it would be to do violence to their natures to utter a word that would pain their fellow man. Looking on their conduct from the outside we might be apt to attribute it to mean-spiritedness; might judge them as lacking in manly self-assertion; might uncharitably insinuate that it was from fear of men. It would be highly unjust; they are equally high-spirited, manly, fearless, with ourselves: they act as they do because the law of kindness is written on their hearts, because they partake of His spirit, of whom it is written, "His voice was not heard in the streets"; "When He was reviled, He reviled not again." There are such, and the more thoroughly Christian men become the more will they be such, and the more of such will there be. And it is well to remember that the terrible picture the apostle here draws of some is not true of all; that while it is sadly and widely true that there is "that speaketh like the piercing of a sword," that "an ungodly man diggeth up evil, and in his lips there is a

Not everybody

needs

the rebuke.

burning fire"; it is to be gladly acknowledged that there are many who answer to the description of the wise man,-"The tongue of the just is as choice silver; the lips of the wise is health; a wholesome tongue is a tree of life." The apostle has some hard things to say about the tongue. Let no one diminish from them for they are true. It is he who has something to say about the "good conversation" which manifests the wisdom that is from above, pure, peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and of good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy.

In the passage for exposition, the apostle is enforcing the statement that if a man can control his tongue, it is sufficient proof that he can control his whole body. The illustrations of the bridle and the helm imply the power of the tongue,

The power is there.

Το

be controlled.

and in any exposition of the words this idea of the power of the tongue ought not to be overlooked. Still this does not seem to be the primary aim of the apostle in drawing attention to it. Rather would it appear that, assuming this incalculable power of the tongue, he is eager to show his readers that this power must be put under their control, and to convince them that if it were controlled there would be nothing more to control. It is the "bit" which really controls the horse,―get the control of the bit and you have got the control of the horse; it is the "helm" which really controls the ship,get control of the helm and you have got control of the ship; it is the "tongue" which, in a very real and terrible sense, governs the body,―get control of the tongue, and if you get that control and keep it, if you offend not in word, you are a perfect man. Observe, the "bridle" and the "helm" are illustrations to cast light upon, they are not arguments to prove what the apostle has here before him. The fitness of the illustrations will be missed if we try to harden them into arguments. The "bit" is a small member, so is the "helm," so is the "tongue." Great things are done by the "bit," by the "helm," by the "tongue." Yes, but if you are to have the control of the great things which the tongue does, you must have the control of the tongue itself, just as in the case of bit or

Illustrations

with

the force of arguments.

bridle. The illustrations are not arguments; they do not prove the apostle's assertion, but they cast very vivid light upon it, and this is what he is using them for; and if we would but take home the lessons, and let them be in us powers of the world to come in governing that little member of which it is said life and death are in its power, the purpose of the apostle, in writing these things, so far as we are concerned, would be fulfilled.

Not only

But more than this, the control of the tongue is not only the evidence, it is through the control of it that we gain the control of the whole body. For a man to set a watch upon his lips, to resolve with the Psalmist that he will not sin with his tongue, is to set himself against, shall we say, all sin? How varied the iniquities of which the tongue is the instrument! evidence but Impure words, insincere words, murderous, blaspheefficiency. mous, irreverent, God-defying words. Take the ten commandments and see how easily every one of them may be broken by the tongue! Suppose a man then to set a watch upon his lips, what a reacting effect this would have upon the impulses of the will as upon the affections of the heart. Impure thoughts would be crushed down and crushed out, insincerities would die away; for that which is not allowed expression, whereas, in the Christian life, contrary things are nourished, must naturally give way and eventually perish.

The apostle now passes on to the more general thought of the power of the tongue, and specially of its power for evil: even so the tongue is a little member, and" not "boasteth great things," but doeth great things, effects great things, actually worketh out the things of which, by-and-bye, it boasteth, as indeed it is so often wont to do. The apostle has been speaking of the great things the "bit" and the "helm helm" can do; it is natural to speak of the great things the "tongue can do, of the great evil things the tongue can do: natural, because it does do such evil things, because it is just these evil things he is seeking to warn his readers against. And what evil the tongue can do, what destructive influence it wields, what power to lay waste! "Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth! And the tongue is a fire." Rather: "Behold, how much wood; behold, how