Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of James 4:13

Go to now, ye that say, Today or tomorrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain:

13 17. Man proposing, God disposing

13. Go to now, ye that say ] The warnings pass on to another form of the worldliness of the double-minded; the far-reaching plans for the future such as our Lord had condemned in the parable of the Rich Fool (Luk 12:16). It is significant that that parable follows in close sequence upon our Lord’s disclaimer of the office of a Judge. The opening formula, “Go to,” which meets us again in ch. Jas 5:1, is peculiar to St James in the New Testament. It appears in the LXX. in Jdg 19:6 ; 2Ki 4:24. It is obvious that the warning is addressed to Christians as well as Jews, so far as they were infected by the taint of worldliness. The MSS. vary between “to-day or to-morrow” and “to-day and to-morrow,” the latter implying the contemplation of a two days’ journey.

into such a city ] Literally, into this city, that which was present to the mind of the speaker.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Go to now – The apostle here introduces a new subject, and refers to another fault which was doubtless prevalent among them, as it is everywhere, that of a presumptuous confidence respecting the future, or of forming plans stretching into the future, without any proper sense of the uncertainty of life, and of our absolute dependence on God. The phrase go to now, ( age nun,) is a phrase designed to arrest attention, as if there were something that demanded their notice, and especially, as in this case, with the implied thought that that to which the attention is called is wrong. See Jam 5:1. Compare Gen 11:7; Isa 1:18.

Ye that say – You that form your plans in this manner or that speak thus confidently of what you will do in the future. The word say here probably refers to what was in their thoughts, rather than to what was openly expressed.

Today or tomorrow we will go into such a city – That is, they say this without any proper sense of the uncertainty of life, and of their absolute dependence on God.

And continue there a year – Fixing a definite time; designating the exact period during which they would remain, and when they would leave, without any reference to the will of God. The apostle undoubtedly means to refer here to this as a mere specimen of what he would reprove. It cannot be supposed that he refers to this single case alone as wrong. All plans are wrong that are formed in the same spirit. The practice to which the apostle here alludes, says the editor of the Pictorial Bible, is very common in the East to this day, among a very respectable and intelligent class of merchants. They convey the products of one place to some distant city, where they remain until they have disposed of their own goods and have purchased others suitable for another distant market; and thus the operation is repeated, until, after a number of years, the trader is enabled to return prosperously to his home. Or again, a shopkeeper or a merchant takes only the first step in this process – conveying to a distant town, where the best purchases of his own line are to be made, such goods as are likely to realise a profit, and returning, without any farther stop, with a stock for his own concern. These operations are seldom very rapid, as the adventurer likes to wait opportunities for making advantageous bargains; and sometimes opens a shop in the place to which he comes, to sell by retail the goods which he has bought. The practice is common in India. See Roberts Oriental Illustrations.

And buy and sell, and get gain – It is not improbable that there is an allusion here to the commercial habits of the Jews at the time when the apostle wrote. Many of them were engaged in foreign traffic, and for this purpose made long journeys to distant trading cities, as Alexandria, Antioch, Ephesus, Corinth, etc. – Bloomfield.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Jam 4:13-17

To-day or to-morrow we will go

Sinful confidence regarding the future

I.

THE SPIRIT WHICH IS HERE CONDEMNED.

1. The confident expectation of prolonged existence. Here was a purpose formed in which there was no recognition whatever of the uncertainty of life or of dependence on God, in which the future was calculated on with unhesitating confidence. Thus do multitudes presume on the permanence of that which the next moment may be gone like the vapour which the morning sun dissipates or the passing breeze sweeps away without leaving a trace of it behind.

2. The confident expectation of worldly success. There is no mention of anything but trade and consequent profit. There is not a word of seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, of working out their own salvation, of laying up treasures in heaven. All is material, secular, temporal.

II. THE GROUNDS ON WHICH THIS SPIRIT IS CONDEMNED.

1. The notorious uncertainty of human life. While we can review the past, we cannot foresee the future. By a sudden stroke of fortune the poor man may be raised to affluence, or by one of a contrary kind the rich man may be reduced to beggary. Before we are aware friends may be alienated, plans defeated, prospects blighted. Dangers may gather round us, disgrace may settle down on us, and a bright day of prosperity be turned into a dark, dismal night of adversity. The dearest objects may be snatched away, and we may be left solitary and alone, our former joy gone, and a bitter sorrow come in its place. Especially is this the case with that life on the retaining of which all our earthly possessions and enjoyments depend.

2. The dependence on the Divine will which befits the creature. We are not forbidden to look forward to the future, and provide for our prospective wants, personal and domestic. Within certain limits this is right, necessary. As little are we forbidden to be diligent in business and to expect profit as the result. Why, this matter is of express and urgent requirement. But we are to do all recognising the Divine will, cherishing a sense of dependence on God for life and health, for ability to work and success in working.

3. The sinfulness of all such proud confidence as they had been exhibiting–But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil. They were jubilant where they had reason to be afraid. By their boastings we are to understand the manifold workings of that self-sufficient and vainglorious spirit by which they were animated. They presumptuously calculated on life, health, and prosperity. They entertained high expectations and bright prospects, and by these they were elated. Hence they expressed themselves in language of the kind which James is here condemning. Having thus remonstrated with them regarding the spirit which came out in the language he represents them as using, he concludes with the general inference in verse 17–Therefore, to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin. The case in hand fell under this principle: it was one of the exemplifications of the maxim. When people are fully aware of their duty, and yet fail to do it, either by positive transgression or by omission or neglect, they are chargeable with sin which, in these circumstances, becomes peculiarly heinous. Ignorance does not excuse disobedience, but knowledge greatly aggravates its guilt. (John Adam.)

Godless merchants

I. THEY PRACTICALLY MAKE SELF THE END OF THEIR LIFE. It is this, in the resolution of worldly men, that is here condemned.

1. Not their industry. That is right. The rust that settles on inactivity–such, for instance, as the weakness of an unused limb or intellect or affection–is Gods brand on indolence.

2. Again, the condemnation here is not upon their working for profit. It is well to accumulate what will be for our own or others comfort. To amass wealth is a better as well as a wiser thing than to squander and to lose.

3. Nor is working for profit with forethought condemned. It is well to go into the city, for there the stagnant pulses of our whole life are often quickened. It is well in the city to put forth the earnest industry of persevering men. A Christianised commerce may become one of the truest educators of the individual and efficient harmonisers of the race. But the reproach is when this working for profit with forethought is all for self.

When the streets of the city are busily trod and all the details of commerce earnestly carried out merely for gain man wrongs his fellows, degrades himself, and dishonours God.

II. THEY PRACTICALLY DISREGARD THE TRANSITORINESS OF THEIR LIFE. The swiftness with which our life passes defies adequate description. It is well when we regard it as Job did. If he looked on the road he trod he recognised as a symbol of his life, not the slow caravan richly laden with merchandise, but the rapid courier, who urged on the swift dromedary as he promptly carried the royal commands, scarcely deigning to look at the traveller he passed, who might sadly muse, My days are swifter than a post. And as he gazed on the sea the swift ships–canoes of reed, and not the ponderously built and heavily freighted merchantmen–reminded him of his life. In the landscape he read types of himself, not in the rock, nor even in the tree, but in the frail grass and the fragile flower; and in the heavens, not in the enduring moon, nor even in the trembling stars, but in the vanishing cloud and the flimsy mist. Seeing the fact just as Job had thus seen it, James asks, What is your life? it is even a vapour. A vapour is an exhalation from the earth. We are dust, and at death our bodies only return to what they were. A vapour passeth away utterly. Though we can find the powder of the crushed rock, and even the faded leaf of the dying tree, there is no trace left of the mist that is exhaled by the sun or borne away by the breeze. So the places that now know us shall know us no more for ever.

III. THEY PRACTICALLY IGNORE THE GOD OF THEIR LIFE. Not that the men of the world of the first century, any more than the men of the world of the nineteenth, could profess atheism. But whatever may be the language of the creed, the more convincing language of his conduct convicts every worldly man of this heresy. Such heresy ignores the teaching of our text that–

1. The God of life has a will. If the Lord will. The Supreme Being has both desire and determination; and these two constitute will. But beyond this the will of God is distinguished by intelligence, force, benevolence. A God without a will would be a God without a sceptre, without a throne, without any moral attributes. Yet such is the God conceived of by multitudes.

2. Gods will relates to individual men. Ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we, &c. Whenever men conceive their plans and toils and life too insignificant for the control of the Divine will, they limit the Holy One.

3. Gods will refers both to the life and activity of every man. He has a will about your life, though the plans of that will are unknowable by you. It can as easily withdraw your life as it can wither the blade of grass or scatter the morning mist. So your life hangs upon that will. And if you live, your activities depend on that will. The path of enterprise may be blocked up by a hundred unforeseen obstacles, or your power to tread it may, through a weakened body or enfeebled mind, be withdrawn.

IV. THEY PRACTICALLY PRIDE THEMSELVES ON THE VERY EVILS OF THEIR LIFE. Now ye rejoice in your boasting; all such rejoicing is evil. We have glanced at the boastful speeches that indicate a boastful spirit. Do you inquire, What boastfulness, what vaingloriousness? The boastfulness of making self the end and aim of all; of disregarding the transitoriness of life; of ignoring the great God. What worse boastfulness could there be? It is glorying in shame. (U. R. Thomas.)

Religion and business

The trade in England is one of the wonders of the time. To others may be left the boast that they are the great military powers of the world. Our distinction is that we stand the first in the ranks of commerce. In whatever way we look at it, the vastness of the trade which England is doing on every sea, with every nation, in almost every department, must impress the mind. There is not an article so minute as to be unworthy of her notice, not a land so inhospitable that it does not furnish some material for her vast transactions, not a sea so distant that it is not visited by her fleet, not a people so barbarous that she is not willing, and for the most part able, to carry on an intercourse with them. Look at it from another side. Visit some of those great hives of industry, where the discoveries of science are made subservient to its purposes. Everywhere there is eagerness, stir, activity. As in the service of idolatry of old, so here in a better work are all ages and classes employed, to an extent sometimes, indeed, that taxes far too heavily the brain of the thinker and the strength of the labourer. What a multitude of anxieties and calculations, hopes and fears, joys and sorrows, centre here! What an amount of interest is awakened, what a power of thought is engaged, what a variety of different forces are employed to the production of the result I It employs all variety of talents, it enlists an infinite number of agencies, it braves all kinds of dangers, it undertakes the most Herculean toils. It plants its settlement at every centre to which people are likely to be attracted; it penetrates forests or pierces mountains which may obstruct its advance; it goes far and wide in order to gather up the peculiar treasures of all countries, and turn them to profitable account. Now, after taking this rapid and cursory review, the first question which should suggest itself to every man who believes in the Divinity of our religion, and the power which it ought to exert as a guide, and a sanctifier of humanity, is, as to the way in which the Church is to regard this work, occupying so much time, employing so much energy, absorbing necessarily so much interest and desire.

I. RELIGION IS TO BE A GOVERNING POWER IN BUSINESS LIFE. God is to be owned and obeyed in all its relations, all its feelings, and all its labours. The law of truth and righteousness is to be absolute and unchangeable. It may sometimes impose upon him duties and sacrifices which are felt to be very hard. It may require him to renounce advantages which seem to be within his grasp, and which in truth needs only a little straining of conscience on his part for him to secure. It will lead him to adopt principles of conduct which friends and companions may vote visionary and impracticable. But with him it ought never to be a question whether he will obey or not. He is under a rule which he has willingly accepted; not because society approves it, or because it may seem on the whole to be most conducive to his personal interests, but because it is the law of Christ. He is not a Christian although a merchant, nor is he a Christian and a merchant, but he is a Christian merchant; that is the law of Christ rules him in his business as much as in his actions in the Church.

II. RELIGION IS TO BE A PURIFYING POWER. It would be a simple tiling to indulge in declamation against the evils of trade, and the corrupting influence which, even when conducted in the best way, and on the most Christian principles it exerts upon the character. You may be true, righteous, honourable, but the spirit of the world may have such dominion over you that all spiritual desire may be extinguished, and spiritual power and sympathy lost. Under the influence of this passion the purer sentiments of heaven will droop and die, all generous feeling will be resisted until at last it is crushed out altogether, the heart will grow harder and harder, and happy will it be if in some unguarded hour temptation does not betray into grosser evil. But how is even this lowering of tone to be escaped and the soul freed from the dominion of selfishness? It is here, as everywhere else, where the love of the world is, the love of the Father cannot be, and until that heavenly love be shed abroad in the heart, the other cannot be conquered. It is the new and holier affection which must expel the old.

III. RELIGION SHOULD BE A CONSECRATING POWER. Our business must be regarded as work done for God, so that God may be glorified in it and serve by its fruits, and then will it become itself truly Divine. Uprightness, honour, generosity, and unselfishness will redeem it from the faults which provoke so much censure, and stamp upon it a character which all will soon learn to reverence. (J. G. Rogers, B. A.)

Presumptuous language respecting futurity

I. THE FORM OR EXPRESSION WHICH THE APOSTLE CONDEMNS.

1. In general, we may observe that this language relates altogether to a worldly project. The principal object is gain, not the true riches, or that Rood part which shall never be taken from those who choose it; but the gain of this world, the gain which is acquired by buying and selling.

2. The great Lord of all has no part in this scheme. These little arrogant words, we will, thrust Him out at once and occupy His place.

II. THE AMENDMENT SUGGESTED BY THE APOSTLE.

1. It furnishes us with a rule by which all our undertakings ought to be examined. Let us convert the views which we have in any undertaking into the form of a petition, and try whether we can, with decency, offer up such a petition to God. Let us consider whether the means by which we propose to compass these views are of such a nature that we may ask the Divine blessing to accompany them.

2. It teaches us to consider the shortness, and particularly the uncertainty, of life. There is not an element so friendly, nor a circumstance so trifling, that it may not become the minister of death. Ought not this manifest uncertainty of life, then, to cool our pursuit of earthly projects?

3. It teaches us to live in an habitual dependence on God, not only for life, but also for activity and prudence to carry our lawful designs into execution.

4. It teaches us to resign ourselves entirely to the will of God, and to submit all our schemes to Him, to prosper or to disappoint as seemeth good to Him.

Lessons:

1. Guard against that extravagance in laying down schemes for the time to come, which, upon cool reflection, appears so unjustifiable in the example before us.

2. Realise this important truth, that our life is but a vapour, which appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. Die we must, and we know not how soon. (R. Walker.)

The Christian business

Business is the process of making what man needs for his physical wants, and also the process of buying and selling what is made or produced. The farmer is engaged in business, and that, too, of a most essential kind. Yet when we speak of business life we generally refer to what can be carried on in cities. By many people it is thought that Christianity has no relation with this manifold work which men carry on. At best business life, they think, must be governed by the common laws of morality, and by nothing more. What is distinctive in Christianity has nothing to do with mans ordinary occupations. But the incarnation of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, forbids all such views of mans nature and of mans relation to God. In that great act God declared that He for a time would become dependent on outward and material means for the sustentation of His human life. His religion has much to do with material things; for His Son came in the flesh, lived in a material home, inhabited a physical body, worked in a common carpenters shop, and died a physical death. It is true that some of Christs disciples were in His time, and are in ours, set apart for purely religious work. But these did not altogether escape secular toil. They had to live. Then, too, there were good men and true whom Christ left at their secular toil. These were none the less disciples, none the less saintly. There is, therefore, we believe, a Divine call to business. It is not a call to the same work as that undertaken by a minister of the gospel, but it comes from the same lips. What we really need is that all Christian men should feel the designation of God to all honest work. We shall never have a really Christian world and city until this recognition is general.

1. Men are adapted to different and special pursuits. One is evidently cut out to be a lawyer, another to be a doctor, another to be in a bank, another to sell in a shop, another to work in a factory. Who adapted them? We may say that they inherited certain aptitude, or that very much is due to training and early education. All very true. But unless we are going to dismiss God from human life, we must feel that His mind has been at work, and that these varying capacities are proofs of His presiding and providing will.

2. God provides not only the men but the raw material. The earth is the Lords and the fulness thereof. His hand made all things; and when we handle the goods in our commerce, and put our prices on them, we are handling His work.

3. God made spiritual beings like ourselves to do our work through a physical medium. No direct religious work can possibly be done by us except we have been fortified by material means. With angels it may be different; but with us who have bodies it is certain that the souls within cannot act unless we are fed, clothed, nourished, and sheltered, and none of this can happen except through business life. And as God has ordered that we should work and live here through the body, He has ordered the means by which the body of man is to be kept in good working order. He who despises business despises the Lord and His ordinances. If this be so, if God designs that business life shall be the career of most men, then certain consequences follow.

(1) We ought to make business life a matter of prayer. There is a plan in the Divine Mind. Do we not wish that plan to be revealed to us? How it calms and cools the fevered brow to pray! How it nerves a man for the battle of life to pray! How it opens the heaven of light in the midst of the worlds darkness to ejaculate a prayer to God!

(2) Then, too, it is very necessary that business men should be conscious that they are doing the will of God. Men should accustom themselves to feel God with and within them at all times and places. The pious housekeeper of Bengel, the German commentator, used to think that her master spent far too much time over his books and writings; she feared that his soul was in danger. But when one day she went to call him to dinner she saw him fall back in his chair and say, Lord Jesus, accept my work today, and she felt no more fears about his spiritual life. The Christian business is the one that is carried on for the glory of God; it is the work in which Christ is always honoured and obeyed. In order to see the

Christianity of business we must inquire a little as to what it is we mean by the glory of God.

1. Justice is the glory of God. It is impossible to read the nature of God without seeing that justice is at the very foundation, and that all other prerogatives would be rendered nugatory if this were absent. The man, then, who would show loyalty to Christ must pay great heed to this principle of justice. It is a harder one to apply in all its details than is love. It is a more uncommon quality in men than generosity and goodnaturedness. Business life has been purposely arranged to be a training-school for this virtue. We are brought by business life into contact with unchanging laws. Punctuality is simply a means of paying a debt to our fellows, and it is obedience to the irrevocable law of time. In dealing with raw material it is the same. There is a just and honest way of working at it, and of making it of use in society. The paint washes off, the veneer falls away; the poverty of the material is revealed. There is no glory either of man or God then, but only shame. It was a shame that the workman scrimped his work, that the purchaser paid so low a price as to tempt him, that society loved shams and delusions, rather than things honest in the sight of all men.

2. Brotherhood is a part of the glory of God. For as He is our Common Father He certainly desires to see us act toward one another as brothers. A man may strive, but he must strive lawfully. He may do his best, but he must not seek to inflict wrong and loss on another. He may seek his own gain, but he must not seek the damage of his neighbour. These are the principles of the gospel. They are like all lofty principles, difficult of application and hard to carry into practice, but it is a part of the discipline of business life that we should learn this difficult art, and thus seek in all we do the glory of God.

3. We seek the glory of God when we remember that the material in our life exists only for the sake of the spiritual. Every Christian man must have a soul above his business. He must make the Cross of Christ central. A responsible being, he must seek strength from God to discharge his duties to those who come under his influence. A consecrated being, he must find in the fellowship of fellow-Christians that which will fill his heart with joy because it fills his hands with usefulness. (S. Pearson, M. A.)

The absorbing interest of worldly business to be guarded against

Here James does three things.

1. He seems to guard against the absorbing influence of worldly business–against thorough devotedness to the work of buying, and selling, and getting gain. And well he might, on the ground of the very truths which he here propounds. Besides that the love of money is the root of all evil 1Ti 6:10). Accumulated wealth–what a poor and passing portion!

2. The apostle issues a solemn caution against confidence in the future. If, indeed, a man is to be active, energetic, and successful, in any part of his appointed work, he must calculate on future time. Bat to depend implicitly, whether on the prolongation of life, or on the attainment of wealth, is utterly unreasonable, as being what truth, and the actual condition of things, forbid–and eminently dangerous, as setting aside a powerful moral motive, fitted to be useful both to saints and sinners.

3. He prescribes a wiser way–inculcating a habitual sense of dependence on Divine Providence, and a devout recognition and acknowledgment of that Providence, with respect both to the events, and to the termination, of life. (A. S. Patterson, D. D.)

The Jews and trade

Trading and chaffering has been peculiar to the Jews before and after the birth of Christ, especially to those who have lived out of Canaan, their country. For because they had no landed property among foreign nations, they were compelled to make their living by trade, which is the case now, if only it were done as it ought to be done. (Starke)

A Jewish story

Our rabbis tell us a story, which happened in the days of Rabbi Simeon, the son of Chelpatha. He was present at the circumcision of a child, and stayed with his father to the entertainment. The father brought out wine for his guests, that was seven years old, saying, With this wine will I continue for a long time to celebrate the birth of my new-born son. They continued supper till midnight. At that time Rabbi Simeon arose and went out, that he might return to the city in which he dwelt. On the way he saw the Angel of Death walking up and down. He said to him, Who art thou? He answered, I am the messenger of God. The rabbi said, Why wanderest thou about thus? He answered, I slay those persons who say, We will do this or that. and think not how soon death may overpower them; that man with whom thou hast supped, and who said to his guests, With this wine will I continue for a long time to celebrate the birth of my new-born son, behold the end of his days is at hand, for he shall die within thirty days. (Debarim Rabba.)

Ye know not what shall be on the morrow

Ignorance of the future

There has ever been amongst mankind a propensity to trust to futurity. So inveterate has the propensity been, that universal experience from the beginning of time has not yet wrought its correction. It operates like a bewitching spell. The Author of our nature has endowed us with memory but not with prescience. We remember the past; but we know nothing of the future–nothing beyond what He has been pleased to tell us. The remark is trite, but true, that it is better for us that we do not know the secrets of the future. The remark, however, is one which is usually heard in seasons of calamity and distress. But while we might, in such circumstances, have no wish for the anticipation of certain evil, there could, we may think, be no such objection to the foresight of good. By such foresight, it may seem, we should have a threefold enjoyment of it–in expectation, in possession, and in recollection. But here too-the man of spiritual mind at least will admit–ignorance is bliss. If adversity is distressing, prosperity is fascinating and tempting. And if it exerts such an influence over our hearts when possessed, inducing forgetfulness of God and disregard of our higher interests, what an addition would be made to its seductive power were a man foreseeing a long and uninterrupted course of it. In all respects, therefore, it is better that futurity is hidden from our view. And this bounding of our vision should be a teacher of humility. It should make us feel the infinite distance there is between the creature and the Creator–between ourselves, with our short-sighted vision, and the omniscient God. In the passage there are two states of mind and heart brought into contrast: the one described as that which men are naturally prone to indulge, the other that which God enjoins, and which really becomes them.

1. The former is confident in prospect, and boastful in success. The man is secure of life, of health, of a sound mind, of a ready market, of a sure profit; and of all for a whole year. He is certain of prospering. All in fancy stands already accomplished before him. He calculates neither on death, nor on sickness, nor on any hindrance to his schemes. The stream flows on without a ripple. No rock interposes to chafe or to divide its waters. His sky is all sunshine: no cloud comes over its brightness. The other character we have in the words of the fifteenth verse–For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that. The man who says this is supposed to feel it. He humbly recollects that his times are in other hands than his own, and uncertain what even a day, far more what a year, may bring forth, to that God he commits everything he purposes for the future.

2. Then again, the former character is boastful in success. This is equally implied in his language. The man who trusts in himself for success will only follow out the same temper of mind by taking the credit and the glory to himself in success. The other, in the same spirit in which on entering on his course he had committed his way unto the Lord, ascribes to Him, with a heart overflowing with lowly and lively gratitude, all the praise of his prosperity.

3. And we may add, as still another feature of the contrast, that the one is fretful in disappointment; the other humbly and cheerfully submissive. To every judgment and every conscience, without the fear of a dissentient voice, may I put the question–Which of these states of mind is the more becoming? and which, too, is the more truly happy? There can be but one reply. Let us, then, cultivate the one, and repress the other. What is there respecting which we can Say we know what shall be on the morrow? But, while the apostle does not exclude from the uncertainty the various engagements of business which the boastfully confident character he here introduces anticipates, he evidently has special reference to life itself–on the continuance of which all else depends. This is the point to which he specially alludes: Ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. The similitude is striking. Such is human life–so fleeting, so transitory, so incapable of being, even for one moment, arrested and held. But not less true is it of property and business than of life. Today an extensive tenement stands secure, yielding a rental that affords the means of sustenance and comfort to a contented and happy family: tomorrow it is a smoking ruin. To-day a man invests all he is worth in a promising speculation, and is in full and buoyant hope of an abundant return: tomorrow an event, such as no one could have anticipated, occurs, which sinks the markets, blasts his prospects, and leaves him to sigh over irretrievable ruin. (R. Wardlaw, D. D.)

The future

There are some of us who, with vain hopes and faithless terrors, peer into the future, as well as some who, with unavailing regret, brood upon the past. What are the evils that we are to do most to avoid as respects our future? I think they are three-fold; they may be roughly defined as shadowy hopes, needless anticipations, and procrastinated repentance.

1. Shadowy hopes! When the poet says Man never is, but always to be, blest, while he thus describes our imagined bliss as a floating upon the future, as a fragment of a rainbow that always flies as we advance. How many of you, if you will confess the truth, are looking for happiness, not from anything which is in your lives, but for something which you hope will be before you die. Well, if we are doing so, we are not wise: there is a three-fold error and folly in wasting and making miserable our present life by these shadowy hopes. It is foolish, first, because the day which we are thus looking to, and hoping for, may, and very likely will, never come at all. We cannot thus rely upon to-morrow, and we know not what a day may bring forth, and what is our life? Death does not care for mens disappointments, he does not take into account mens plans. Death! It is a folly to postpone your happiness to a time which you may never see, and it is consequently a folly thus to live only in the future, because most probably even when your end is attained, even if you get the thing you are now wishing for, these hopes, being earthly hopes, and therefore in their very nature illusory, may bring you just no happiness at all. You may be happier, in the present, if you only knew it, than in the future, even if you get what you hope for. A man gains rest only to find that rest is weariness, and rank only to find that he has touched a bubble, riches only to find that the path of the rich man is strewn with thorns. And the third, and perhaps the most important reason why a life wasted in shadowy hopes is a folly, is, that thereby we lose what we might perhaps have had of present happiness. When St. Bernard was travelling, he was so absorbed in his own thoughts, that after riding all day along the shores of the lake of Geneva, he asked in the evening where the lake was. Even so we, by looking forward to some time that may never come, lose many a bright scene, many a golden moment, many a sweet wayside flower. Our only real chance of happiness is to get such happiness out of the present, as the present, almost always in some sense or other, has to give to the humble and the good, and if it has none to give, then at least we feel that life has other things besides happiness, and that it is no great matter.

2. And then there is a worse form of this folly of living in the future, perhaps equally common, although exactly opposite in character; it is to destroy all chances of present happiness, not by those vain shadowy hopes, but by equally shadowy fears. Rich men have been known to starve themselves, and even to have committed suicide in the mere dread of future poverty. The worst of evils, says a French proverb, are those which never happen. At any rate, it is absurd for us in any case to suffer them twice over, and sometimes they are more in anticipation than in reality. I have been speaking, for the most part, with immediate reference to this life, but I will extend it to the world beyond. Whatever may await the sinner in the next life, God clearly did not mean this life to be devastated by anticipated horror. As for heaven, you can go there as often as you will. If you do not do so now, you will never be able to do so hereafter. If the angels never sing songs to you now, how can they do so when you come to die? I said, like Richard Baxter, to go to heaven every day. We enter heaven most when we do our duty best and most simply.

3. I can but touch briefly on the one other error about the future–but that is the deadliest, i.e., procrastinated repentance, reliance on the future to mend the wilful sins of the present. For these other follies of which I have spoken are hurtful, but this is absolutely ruinous. It ruins the present by encouraging continuance in sin, by rendering recovery from sin more and more impossible. It ruins the past whatever it may have been. You will repent in the future. But how if you have no future? I say nothing of the terrible impiety of thus bidding God bide your time before you choose to obey His laws, nothing of the shame of thus turning Gods mercies into an engine against your soul–nothing of the insolence of declaring that He has not meant anything by His anger. But this I know, there is no known sin so near the sin that is past praying for, so akin to the sin against the Holy Ghost, as this wilful predetermination to postpone repentance that you may enjoy now the depravity of sin. (Archdeacon Farrar.)

Mans ignorance of the future

I. THE FACT.

II. THE PROBABLE REASONS.

1. TO make us have a deeper conviction of the Divine knowledge.

2. To remind us of our subjection to God.

III. THE INFLUENCE which our ignorance of futurity ought to have upon us.

1. To check our presumption.

2. To check our anxiety. (R. C. Dillon, D. D.)

Impossible to forecast events

The Times spoke thus of an honoured and lamented nobleman the day before his death

Lord Iddesleigh will go to-morrow to Osborne, will then deliver up his seal of office, and will on Friday return to The Pynes, Exeter. Let us listen, however, to Holy Scripture: Go to, now, &c. Even journalists might well remember this.

What is your life?–

What is life?

I. LIFE IS A TEST. Every new ship must have a trial trip. If you take some one into your employ, and a crisis comes where his behaviour will make or break you, you say, Now I will test him; now I will see what is in him. And, my friends, our whole life is a test, and we are all on a trial trip. Men, angels, devils the spectators; heaven, earth, and hell watching. Every word spoken and every action having ten thousand echoes.

II. IT IS AN APPRENTICESHIP. We study eight or ten years and we get our profession, we work five or six years and we get our trade, and then we go forth to the work of life. But this world is not our workshop. This world is to be destroyed, but do you suppose that because this world is to be destroyed all the affairs of the universe are to stop? How many hands and feet and eyes are necessary for the carrying out of the business of this world, and how many activities will be required for the business enterprises of eternity?

III. IT IS A CONFLICT. Have you not found it so? If you have never tried to curb your temper, if you have never tried to subdue your passions, if you have never tried to be better men, better women, then you know not what I mean; but if you have tried to do better, and wanted to be better, and struggled to do better, then you know that Paul was not only graphic but accurate when he described life as war with the world, and war with the flesh, and war with the devil. It may have been a conflict with yourselves, it may have been a conflict with poverty, it may have been a conflict with higher social position, with an unhappy family name, with the persecutions of the world; but I warrant you life has been to most of you a hand-to-hand fight.

IV. IT IS A PROPHECY. What you are now you will in all probability be for ever, only on a larger scale. Are all your preferences toward the bad? The probability is that they will be so for ever. Are your preferences toward the good? Do you want to be better? Do you long after God as an eternal portion? I tell you plainly that you are on the way to grandeurs which no summers nights dream had ever power to depict.

V. IT IS A PREPARATION. If we are going a long journey we must get ready; we must have a guidebook; we must have apparel. If we are going among dangers we want to be armed. We have all started on a road which has no terminus, and once started we will never come back. Are we armed? Have we the robe? Are we ready for the future?

VI. IT IS A GREAT UNCERTAINTY. Of those people who perished on the Brooklyn Bridge, there was not one who expected to quit life in that way. Some, no doubt, had said, Well, I shall leave the world under this disease, or under that disease. Another person said, There are so many perils in that style of business, in that way I shall come to the end of my earthly life. Not one ever expected to go in this way–to perish on the bridge–and to every man the step out of this life is a surprise. I never knew any one to go in the way he expected. You hear of some one who has been an invalid for twenty-five years, and he always departs suddenly. You hear of some friend who, after thirty years of illness, has departed, and you say, Why, is it possible? Our life is struck through with uncertainty. Our friends change, our associations change, our circumstances change, our health changes. All change. But, blessed be God, there is a rock on which we can stand, the Rock of Ages. It is no autocrat at the head of the universe. My Father is King. Though the mountains may depart and the hills remove, His kindness and His love and His grace will fail us never, never. (T. De Witt Talmage.)

What is your life?–

1. In the first place I will remark that it is a very mysterious part of Gods dealings, this making our life so uncertain. A man has a work to do, a great work, compared with which everything else he does is mere trifling, and yet he does not know whether he shall have twenty years in which to do it, or ten, or a few months or days. Surely if we were not accustomed to the thought this would seem strange to us; it is different from most earthly arrangements; men who give a piece of work to be done assign a time for doing it, they do not say, I may come to-day or to-morrow, or perhaps not for twenty years, but whenever I come I expect the work to be ready. Or, again, to take a slightly different view of the case, it must appear strange that such different periods should be given to different persons to do the same work; one person has only childhood, another gets into youth, another is left to mature old age, and falls asleep rather than dies. Some, too, have long warning of their end; a man falls into a consumption and knows that within a certain time he must die, and so he has time as it were to get himself ready; while another is cut off on a sudden, and apparently in health drops down and expires; one man has frequent warnings by illness, and is in such a state that he knows he is liable to be cut off any day; while another has some sudden accident and is gone. It will throw all the light required on the difficulties of which I have been speaking, if we remember one thing, namely this, that our state here is one of trial; we are not told to do this thing and that so much for their own sake as for the sake of seeing whether we will obey God or no. We speak of the future as if it were something certainly to come; we speak of doing this and that to-morrow as if to-morrow were sure to come; but if God calls us away this night, what future, what to-morrow will there be for us? there will be a to-morrow for some doubtless, but will there be a to-morrow for us? Thus, you see, we may not reckon on to-morrow, we do not know whether there will be such a thing, and so the present becomes our great concern, the present is ours; the past is gone and cannot be recalled, the future may never be, but the present is indeed our own to work in, and the most powerful persuasive that we can have to set to work at once is the uncertainty of our having any other time allowed us. In this way, I think, we see something of the explanation of the mystery of Gods dealings in making our lives so uncertain; we see that purposes of trial may be carried out thus better than in any other way; and if any man feel inclined to murmur, we can assure him that if he does not submit himself to Gods will as things are, undoubtedly he would be just as stiff-necked, or rather more so, were he assured that he should live a hundred or a thousand years. And so of that other point I mentioned, namely, the difference of time allotted to different persons; this also seems quite consistent with a system such as we know that of God to be. For what is mans trial? simply this, whether in the position in which God has placed him he will strive to live a life pleasing to God.

2. I will next observe that the truth in the text is the best truth to carry about with us in order to enable us to set things at their value. If the uncertainty and shortness of life make those unhappy who are negligent of the will of God, in the same proportion will it give peace and comfort to the minds of those who do set themselves to live according to His holy will: for the troubles of life will appear trifling to him who thinks of himself as a traveller on his road home; a person on a journey will put up with many inconveniences, because he says they cannot last long, and h-me will appear even pleasanter after a rough journey.

3. Lastly, I wish to consider the question of St. James, What is your life? in a sense rather different from that intended by the apostle, but yet one which afford us much instruction and comfort. What is your life? If any one is troubled by this question, his answer is in the Creed which he repeats, I believe in Jesus Christ–who was born–who was dead and buried–who rose again the third day–who ascended into heaven. In the life of our Lord, Christian brethren, we are to see the life of man represented as in a picture: what He has done we may do, not in our strength, of course, but here is the very blessing of the Christian Church, that we may rise above our own strength, we may claim union with Him who was born, dead, and buried, but who rose again. (Bp. Harvey Goodwin.)

Life

I. WHAT A DESCRIPTION IS HERE GIVEN OF THE LIFE OF THE NATURAL MAN! A vapour–a filmy nothing! Yesterday he was not; he seems scarcely to have existence now; to-morrow he is gone–in a moment gone. Such is mans natural life; one cold, one fever, one mistake in medicine, in eternity. Yet men live, neglecting their souls, as if they were to live for ever. But look we at another feature of his life: look we at his moral life, when destitute of the grace of God. It is but a wretched vapour–a murky vapour. It is but one step above the beast. Look at the mere man of business. Do not think I speak against business; it is one of the mistakes of mankind to suppose that a man must retire from his vocation to give himself up to God. God requires him to give himself up to Him in his business. But look at him the slave of his business, from Monday morning till Saturday night; occupying himself, indeed–altogether occupying himself–but never occupying himself one moment for God. He has not the least concern in this matter. Rise we higher: look we at the man of intellect, the man of intelligence. He dives into the earth, ascends into the clouds, travels, over the sea, goes over the world–thinks himself a man of wisdom. Ask Solomon what he thought–what was the end of the matter with him. To fear God and keep His commandments. That is what lie summed up all his knowledge in; as if there were nothing else worth knowing. We sometimes see beautiful exhibitions of what is termed domestic happiness; but the chief ingredient is wanting, when a man is destitute of the fear of God. Even the benevolence we sometimes see displayed by a worldly man (would that there were more of it exhibited among the saints of God!)–self is at the root of it. And his very religion has all self at the root of it–self-righteousness, self-power, self-wisdom. Shall we descend lower? Shall I ask what there is in profligacy? Is there a profligate here? Is this life? What I is dissipation life? Is excess life? It is not worthy the name of life; it is a mere vaporous nothing, a murky vapour, a stench, as it were, in the nostrils of Jehovah; and it ought to be a stench to thine own soul.

II. Consider THE STRONG CONTRAST WHICH THE LIFE OF A CHILD OF GOD PRESENTS TO THAT WHICH! HAVE BEEN PLACING BEFORE YOU. Here is no vapour–here is substance, reality, truth. To be spiritually minded is life and peace. This is life–to be led of the Spirit, to be quickened by the Spirit, to be drawn by the Spirit, to be kept by the Spirit, and to follow His guidance. This is life–this is peace; nothing short of it. Ye are not your own, for ye are bought with a price; therefore glorify God with your bodies and your spirits, which are Gods. Here is life; no vapour, a substance, a reality, a something, a real thing. To glorify God is the highest element in mans being. Whether a man is in the lowest poverty, or whether he is called to sit upon the most exalted throne, it matters not; if he live under this principle, it is true life. It signifies not what a mans engagements are–it gives a dignity to them, be they what they may. Look at the source ofthis life: nothing less than the Spirit of God. Yet how small were its beginnings! Oh! the wonders of this spiritual life! Think of its security hid with Christ in God–hid with Christs life; just as secure as Christs life is; the perfections of Jehovah encircling it, and that continually. Who can declare the happiness of this life? The happiness of self-denial! And whence is it that this life comes to us? It comes from the life of Christ: His life is our life–it is the support of our life. (J. H. Evans, M. A.)

What is your life

When a prince dies they toll the great bell of the cathedral that all the city may hear it, and that for miles round the tidings may spread. Swift messengers of the press bear the news through the length and breadth of the land, and all mens ears are made to tingle. The Lords voice crieth unto the city, let believers be quick to hear the call to humiliation, to awakening, and to prayer that the visitation may be overruled for great and lasting good. A sudden death is a specially impressive warning. In a moment our strength is turned to weakness, and our comeliness into corruption. Now, upon this matter we have nothing to say but what is commonplace, for, garnish them as you may, graves are among the commonest of common things. Yet a solemn reflection upon the shortness of life, and the certainty of death, may prove to be important, and even invaluable, if it be allowed to penetrate our hearts, and influence our lives. History tells us of Peter Waldo, of Lyons, who was sitting at a banquet as thoughtless and careless as any of the revellers, when suddenly one at the table bowed his head and died. Waldo was startled into thought, and went home to seek his God; he searched the Scriptures, and, according to some, became a great helper, if not the second founder, of the Waldensian Church, which in the Alpine valleys kept the lamp of the gospel burning when all around was veiled in night. A whole Church of God was thus strengthened and perpetuated by the hallowed influence of death upon a single mind. I suppose it is also true that Luther in his younger days, walking with his friend Alexis, saw him struck to the ground by a flash of lightning, and became thenceforward prepared in heart for that deep work of grace through which he learned the doctrine of justification by faith, and rose to be the liberator of Europe from Papal bondage. How much every way we owe to this weighty subject! May a princes death awaken many of you to life. He being dead now speaks to you; from yonder sunny shores he reminds you of the valley of death-shade which you must shortly traverse.

I. The text begins by reminding us that WE HAVE NO FORESIGHT: Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. The text divides itself into an emphatic question, What is your life? and an instructive answer: It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.

1. First, I say, we have here an emphatic question: he asks, What is your life? For solidity, for stability; what is it? What is there in it? is it not composed of such stuff as dreams are made of? Your own breath is a fair picture of the flimsy, airy thing which men call life. What is your life? What is it for continuance? Some things last awhile, and run adown the centuries; but what is your life? Even garments bear some little wear and tear; but what is your life? A deticate texture; no cobweb is a tithe as frail. It will fail before a touch, a breath. Justinian, an emperor of Rome, died by going into a room which had been newly painted; Adrian, a pope, was strangled by a fly; a consul struck his foot against his own threshold, and his foot mortified, so that he died thereby. There are a thousand gates to death; and, though some seem to be narrow wickets, many souls have passed through them. Men have been choked by a grape stone, killed by a tile falling from the roof of a house, poisoned by a drop, carried, off by a whiff of foul air. I know not what there is that is too little to slay the greatest king. It is a marvel that man lives at all. So unstable is our life that the apostle says, What is it? So frail, so fragile is it, that he does not call it a flower of the field, or the snuff of a candle, but asks, What is our life? It is as if be had said–Is it anything? Is it not a near approach to nothing? St. Augustine used to say he did not know whether to call it a dying life or a living death, and I leave you the choice between these two expressions. This is certainly a dying tire; its march is marked by graves. Nothing but a continuous miracle keeps any one of us from the sepulchre. Were Omnipotence to stay its power but for a moment, earth would return to earth, and ashes to ashes. It is a dying life: and equally true is it that it is a living death. We are always dying. Every beating pulse we tell leaves but the number less: the more years we count in our life, the fewer remains in which we shall behold the light of day. From childhood to youth, from youth to manhood, from manhood to grey old age we march onward in serried ranks from which no man can retire. We tarry not even when we sleep: we are continually moving forward like the waters of yonder river, on whose banks we find a habitation. What, then, is our life? That is a question which remains to a large degree unanswered and unanswerable.

2. Yet our text affords us what is in some aspects an instructive answer. It does not so much tell us what life actually is as what it is like.

(1) It is even a vapour. James compares our life, you see, to a very subtle, unsubstantial, flimsy thing–a vapour. If you live upon an eminence, from which you can look down upon a stretch of country, you see in the early morning a mist covering all the valleys. In a little time you look from the same window, and the vapour has all vanished. It was so thin, so fine, so much like gossamer, that a breath of wind has scattered it, or peradventure the sun has drawn it aloft; at any rate, not a trace of that all-encompassing vapour remains. Such is your life. Or you have marked a cloud in the western sky, illuminated with those marvellous lights which glowed during those extraordinary sunsets, the like of which none of our fathers had seen. You looked at the jewelled mass; it shone in the perfection of beauty, and all the colours of the rainbow were blended in its hues: in another instant, lo, it was not; it was gone past all recall. Such is your life. This morning, as we came hither, we saw our breath: it was before our eye for an instant, and anon it had gone. Such is the picture which James presents to us. What is your life? It is even a vapour. He proceeds to explain his own symbol in a sentence which is full of meaning.

(2) It is even a vapour, that appeareth. Vapour is so ethereal, phantomlike, and unreal, that it may rather be said to appear than to exist. If you could reach yon fleecy cloud, you would scarcely know that you had entered it, for it would possibly appear to be the thinnest of mist. The vapour which steams from your mouth, how light, how airy, it is next door to nothing; it only appeareth. And such is this life–a dream, a vain show, an apparition of the night.

(3) Further, the apostle says, It appeareth for a little time. It is only a very little while that a man lives at the longest. Compare a mans life with that of a tree. A hundred years ago that oak seemed every way as venerable as it does to-day, whereas the man was then unthought of by his grandsire. Compare our life with the existence of this world; I mean not the present state of the earth as fitted up for man, but I allude to those unknown ages which intervened between the present arrangement and that beginning wherein God created the heavens and the earth. The long eras of fire and water, the reigns of fishes and reptiles, the periods of tropical heat and polar ice, make one think of man as a thing of yesterday. Then contrast our life with the being of the eternal Lord: and what is man–man when most venerable with years? A Methuselah, what is he? He is but an insect born in the mornings sunbeam, sporting in the noontide ray, and dead when the dews begin to fall. He appeareth for a little while.

(4) The parallel is further consummated by the apostles adding, And then vanisheth away. The cloud is gone from the mountain. Where is it? It has vanished away. No trace of it is left: neither can you recall it. We too shall soon be gone; gone as a dream when one awaketh. With the most of us our remembrance will be short. The air has felt the passing-bell, and now the stars look down upon a stone writ large with HERE HE LIES! Or the dews shall wet a grass-grown mound, girt about with brambles, on which a few wild flowers have sprung up spontaneously to show how life shall yet triumph over death. Children may bear our name, and yet a fourth generation shall quite forget that we ever sojourned in this region. Such is our life–a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.

II. THE LESSONS WHICH LIE WITHIN THIS TRUTH. First, If this life be unsubstantial as a vapour–and nobody can deny the fact–let us regard it as such, and let us seek for something substantial elsewhere. It may be well to make the best of both worlds; but of this poor world nothing can be made unless it be viewed in the light of another. This is a poor withering life at the best, for we all do fade as a leaf. Next, Is life most uncertain? We know it is: no one attempts to deny it. It is certain that life will come to an end; but it is most uncertain when it will come to that end. Is it so uncertain? Then let us not delay. Since death is hastening, haste thou thyself until thou has found a refuge in the cleft of the Rock of Ages, and art safe in the arms of Jesus. Since life is so uncertain, oh, haste thee, Christian, to serve thy God while the opportunity is given thee: be diligent to-day to do those works which perfect saints above and holy angels cannot do. Is life so short? Does it only appear for a little time, and then vanish away? Then let us put all we can into it. If life be short, it is wisdom to have no fallows, but to sow every foot of ground while we can. Is life so short? Then do not let us make any very great provision for it. If I were going a days voyage, I should not wish to take with me enough biscuit and salt beef to last for three years; it would only cumber the boat. One walking-stick is an admirable help, as I often find: but to carry a bundle of them when going on a journey would be a superfluity of absurdity. Alas, how many load themselves as if lifes journey would last a thousand years, at the least! Is time so short? Then do not let us fret about its troubles and discomforts. A man is on a journey, and puts up at an inn, and when he is fairly in the hostelry, he perceives that it is a poor place, with scant food, and a hard bed. Well, well, says he, I am off the first thing tomorrow morning, and so it does not matter. Must life vanish away? We know it must. What then? That vanishing is the end of one life and the beginning of another. And is death quite sure to come to me? Then, as I cannot avoid it, let me face it. But death will become another thing to you if you are renewed in heart. To the Christian it is an angel beckoning him onward and upward. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

I. What is the life of the LOVER OF PLEASURE?

A true estimate of life

1. It is a wandering life; always in pursuit of pleasure, but never satisfied.

2. It is a hollow life; void of all that is exalting and ennobling, and truly unsubstantial as it regards all that is most worthy of the pursuit of an immortal being.

3. It is an accursed life; under the curse of the broken law.

4. It is a tumultuous life. The lover of pleasure spends his time and wastes the most favourable opportunities in the midst of boisterous pursuits and tumultuous joys.

II. What is the life of the WORLDLY-MINDED?

1. It is idolatrous. The world in different senses and under different characters is the idol of the worldly-minded man; and to this idol he offers body and soul, devotes time and talents, and sacrifices earthly ease and heavenly happiness.

2. Such a life is stamped with simplicity and folly–which will appear most obviously if you consider the objects the worldly-man has in view, the means he employs for the attainment of these objects, and the end obtained in the accomplishment of such objects.

III. What is the life of the FORMALIST? it is laborious, enchanted, fleshly and empty.

1. It is laborious. The formalist has a standard, and to keep up this standard much carnal and bodily exercise are necessary.

2. The life of the formalist is an enchanted life.

3. It is likewise a fleshly life. It originates in the flesh, centres in the flesh, and ends in the flesh.

4. An empty life. It is a shadow without substance; like a statue, which, though it may be a true and correct likeness of a human being, is void of life and energy, and therefore only the representation of the human being. (J. F.Whitty.)

What is life?

We have a life–what are we going to make of it? Yet, though life is short and uncertain, it is wonderful in power; it can do wonderful things. How it can love and hate! How it can pray and blaspheme! What are we going to do with it? Let us look at a few ways, and make our choice.

1. The moneymaking way. Will that do?

2. The mechanical way. (Technical knowledge.) Suppose you take all the meausrements of a house, but never speak to the occupants!

3. Pleasure. Now all these ways of life have their right side. We cannot live without money. We can get but a little way on in life without knowledge. And every one of us needs pleasure, and ought to have more relaxation than some of us get now. But there are ugly circumstances in life which mar all the success that is possible along that line of movement. We have 50,000 a year, but we cannot add one cubit to our stature, or make one hair white or black. We know every science, yet we cannot tell what will be on the morrow.

It is the business of the Christian teacher to keep these facts steadily before the public mind, and to draw the heart away from cisterns that are broken, from charms that are mocking, and to fix it upon things invisible, spiritual, Divine.

1. What we want in life is a supreme purpose worthy of our powers. If our purpose is to be rich, the greatest section of our nature will be simply untouched or perverted. If our purpose is to do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with God, our whole nature will be moved to its best exertions, and will produce its best effects.

2. We want next a right view of those trials and circumstances over which we have absolutely no control. Ask why you are baffled–why you are not allowed to scale the only wall which separates you from the sunny land where the gardens bask in perpetual summer; and such questionings will lead you back into solemn sanctuaries, and show you that the earth and all its affairs are under the direction and judgment of God. (J. Parker, D. D.)

What is life?

I. Life is A SENSE–the souls career in a body. On this account the body should be taken good care of, wisely inhabited and vigorously controlled 1Co 9:27).

II. Life is AN IMPULSE–ever pushed forward by some dominant motive, as of selfishness, or benevolence, avarice, ambition, pride, vanity, love of pleasure, &c. (2Co 5:14; Gal 2:20).

III. Life is a PURSUIT, ever reaching out after or pursuing something in general that pleases us (Psa 4:6).

IV. Life is AN ACT, i.e., characterised by things done; either what ought to be done, or what ought not to be done. And this is one of the main pivots of our accountability (2Co 5:10).

V. Life is A POWER, ever sending out influence, as a magnet sends out attraction, or the sun its light and heat.

VI. Life is A TEAR–a scene of varied and multiplied trials. Born to trouble is the worlds cradle inscription. Witness Pauls catalogue (2Co 6:4-5; 2Co 11:23-27). But what an admirable offset (2Co 1:5). And the same resource is free and open to every child of God.

VII. Life is A PERIOD–i.e., with a definite length, it has also an end. For this some adequate preparation should be made.

VIII. Life is A PROSPECT; looking beyond the bounds of time over into the bosom of eternity, and forward to the bar of God (2Co 2Ti 4:8).

IX. Life is A WANT: alike in its beginning, continuance, and end. It is ever needy, as an infant for its mothers arms; or as a vine, stretching forth its tendrils for something by which to climb, or upon which to lean. And how all-happy is that soul that finds the true source of strength, and passes through all the wilderness of this world, and comes up out of it at last leaning upon her beloved. (J. G. Hall, D. D.)

What is your life

I. WHAT IS THE INTENTION OF LIFE? NO man of any consideration can look on this life for a moment without connecting it with the life that is to come. It is evident that the first great intention of this life is education–so that as in a mans life, there is a portion upon this earth allotted to what is strictly preparatory to the rest–so is the whole immortal existence of a man arranged, that there should be a period of instruction and cultivation, to be the education-time for his eternity. God deals with us here as a father deals with the children he is training: nothing is final; but everything has a direct influence upon something else that is to be final. And if it be so, can you wonder that there is so much that is mysterious to our present view? Can a child, while he is a child, understand his own discipline? Allowing, then, that this life is education, education is made up of two parts–probation and cultivation. And when I say probation, I mean by that word, that a man is to know himself, and to show to other men what he really is. The circumstances in which he is put are exactly those the best to unfold his real character. He is treated as a perfectly free agent. He is placed between good and evil. Opposite influences bear upon him. He has such tendencies that, if he follow them, he will be bad and miserable; and he has such convictions and assistances that, if he uses them, he will be good and happy. Every trial-every happiness–every event of life–is to develop character; and, as soon as ever the character is fully developed–be it what it may–then comes death–then comes judgment–which judgment, be it remembered, will not be to decide a mans state–that is decided by his daily actions, i.e., while he lived here; but it will be the public declaration of the decision, made to commend itself to the minds of the whole universe: because, when the decision is made, it will appear to be in strictest conformity with all that every man manifested himself to be while he was down here, in this probationary life. That is probation. But education is also cultivation. Partly by instilling knowledge, but still more by drawing out powers, and by establishing good habits, and exercising right feelings, a child is educated for his after-life. Just such is all machinery which surrounds us in our present state. Every variety of fortune–every little, minute occurrence of life–the Bible–the Holy Spirit–the very atonement itself–are all calculated to train: they are all means to an end. Now, if this life be thus education, let us see two inferences. In the first place, they are quite wrong who think that the life and character of a man are to undergo some great change and some remarkable metamorphosis when he dies. And again, is life indeed education–education for eternity? then I draw my reasoning back from that higher world–What is the great character of heaven? It sees, it loves, it reflects, Gods glory. Do you wish to know, to-night, how your education is getting on? I ask, How far could the past year bear witness to your having lived under the influence of a desire to promote Gods glory?

II. But now I pass to the second thought which lies coiled up in the great question, What is life?–ITS DURATION, NOW, we would have you, brethren, in this matter to distinctly understand and remember in your minds that, however uncertain the term of life may seem to us, it is most determinately fixed by Almighty God. Perhaps I should not be wrong to go further than this, and to say that probably, at this very instant, that course of events is already in progress, and that disease is already existing in your body, which is to be Gods instrument to remove you. It is likely that, for many years, we, most of us, carry about with us the seeds of our own dissolution. And is not it to be believed that that period of death is determined according to the preparedness of the soul? and that as soon as ever a mans spirit has become sufficiently assimilated to its final state–be that state which it may–then the word is spoken–the thread is cut–the ripe saint and the ripe sinner are both cut down! Men talk and menplan for the future, and who that visited our world as a stranger would ever guess, from peoples ways and peoples words, that there were such a thing amongst us as old age–that there were such a thing amongst us as death? Every one seems to see somebody who is older than himself very well, yet alive; and then he thinks, Why should not I live as long as that man? Then, What is your life? At the most a span; and that span is held by a thread. There is no certainty of to-morrow; and many years are out of the question! And, with the angel of death thus in the air, can you sit down at your pleasures, and no blood on the door? If that blood is once there, upon your heart–which is a mans door–the door of his existence–if the blood of Christ has ever been applied–everything is changed age is happy–death is joy. And yet, What is your life? Short in nature; but how much shorter in grace! Who shall fix how near will be the hour when the Spirit, who has been striving So long, shall depart, and with Him all that makes life worth living? Oh, brethren! what would this drear life be if the Spirit were gone?

III. WHAT IS THE REAL NATURE OF LIFE? It is a part of Gods teaching that the life of every creature is the blood; and when God said that, He said it in reference to the blood of sacrifice. There must, therefore, be some antitype to mans blood which constitutes life. And what is that antitype–which I do not say gives life to anything, but which is the life of everything–what will it be but the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ? I may follow that a tittle further. As soon as a man is really united to the Lord Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit actually enters into that mans soul. A new power and principle of life is in him: new affections breathe; new energies spring up; and so there comes a certain secret, hidden life, which consists in communion with God–is fed by hidden manna–exercising itself in hidden thoughts, in hidden places. And that is life because all the other life–everything that is worthy the name–is only the acting out of that first inner life. Then, from that life of God within–which dates itself from the application of the blood of Christ–therecomes a noble expanding of the intellect of a man, and the affections of a man, and the whole being of a man, out into the service of God. (James Vaughan, M. A.)

Life a Divine gift and discipline

I. LIFE IS A DIVINE GIFT. We are so accustomed to look upon life and all that it brings with it as absolutely our own, to be spent in any way we choose, that to grasp the thought of its being a gift for which we are responsible is to experience a radical revolution in our favourite modes of thinking. The false view of life, which is so prevalent, springs from the fact that men are endowed with the power of moulding circumstances to their will, the power of manipulating forces for their own ends, and therefore are prone to make themselves their own centre–the be-all and the end-all of the universe. Hence, I think we may say that the difference between the regenerate and the unregenerate lies fundamentally in this, that while the former have become aware of a Divine purpose in history, and a Divine meaning in life, and are endeavouring to carry forward the one and to realise the other, the latter are blind to these things, and are the unwilling, unconscious instruments in Gods hand for the achievement of His will. The controversy between the Church and the world is reduced to this issue–whether life shall be interpreted in and for itself, or in and for God.Nothing is more sad, and yet nothing is more characteristic of our own age, than its boastful dependence on self, its claims to summon all things in heaven and earth before its tribunal, and its arrogant assumption of superiority over all the eras of the past. Well for it were it more distrustful of self! The man of business, for instance, whose trade or occupation is flourishing, whose balance at the bankers is mounting up by hundreds or thousands, with whom, in common phrase, the world is going well, is he not prone to nourish a sort of self-satisfaction, a feeling that his success is traceable all along to the shrewd common sense and business capacity which are his? The man whose interests are chiefly intellectual, the politician, the statesman, the author, as he listens to the plaudits of admiring crowds, or reads the warm eulogies of newspapers and reviews, does he not at times congratulate himself upon the skill of brain and strength of will which could raise him so high above the mass of men? Life in these cases is valued indeed for itself, the material comfort it can command, the social influence it can secure. To become independent of God is to become dependent on things that are but hollow mockeries. Now, in order to be rescued from this false independence of God, we must grasp by the spiritual understanding this thought, that life is a Divine gift. God gives it to us freely, without merit or effort on our part. Life, therefore, involves–first, reason, and second, a purpose.

1. As to its reason. Life is rooted in Divine love. If we are not to lose faith in humanity, in progress, and in the future of the world, we must hold fast by Gods love as lying at the deepest roots of life, even though many things seem to shake our assurance. God loves us, and hence He gives us life. Love is active, exists, indeed, in virtue of its exercise. It creates worlds, and peoples them with happy spirits. Nay, more, it surrounds these spirits with every influence that can evoke their love and satisfy their yearnings. There are moments which come to the most of us when we can almost echo the prayer of one who was a great sufferer–Wherefore, then, hast Thou brought me forth out of the womb? Oh, that I had given up the ghost, and no eye had seen me! The answer to our hearts pain is to be found here–God gives us life, therefore He loves us. His love is the all-sufficient reply to the pains and losses of his. But, now, look at this thought in another aspect. If life is the evidence of Divine love, then, I take it, there is the closest bond existing between God and man. Some religious teachers speak of the sinner as though he lived in the remotest fringe of Gods universe, outside the range of His love, though not of His power. This is to misconceive the true relation. For, indeed, what closer bond or stronger link can unite God and the sinner than eternal love? If this fails, where shall we find a power that shall succeed? If Gods love fails to win men from their sins, where shall we discover the force that shall avail? Ah! the hope for humanity lies here. A great German preacher is reported to have said of himself, I was brought up in a hard school; my father taught me not to cry out even though my head was dashed against a wall. But when I saw my sins, and realised the love of God, I could not refrain from weeping like a child. Pessimism–the belief that life is essentially evil–is in its deepest ground the result of spiritual blindness. And to be blind to the affections of Gods heart is the greatest curse that can come to man.

2. As to its purpose. Life is given us to realise the Divine will. This also is a thought which comes to most of us as with the freshness of revelation. The majority of men do not realise that life includes a Divine purpose. They are a sort of moral flotsam and jetsam, at the mercy of every wave or eddy of circumstance, devoid of stability, and, therefore, devoid of all noble effort or attainment. Is not this the secret of the weakness, the irresolution, the incapacity which dogs some men throughout all their life? They bare never seen our first principle–that life itself is a gift, the outgoing of Gods heart of love, and therefore a something to be used in His service and for His glory. Love seeks a return, lives in hope of such; and God endows us with life, that we may love Him. But our love to Him cannot be created by coercion or stern exaction from without; it must be the free, glad utterance of obedient hearts. The task which our love to God has to face is that of penetrating and subduing every force and faculty of our nature with its own sweet influence, of bringing every thought, in apostolic phrase, into captivity to the law of Christ. As Mazzini, the Italian patriot once said, Life is a mission, and duty a supreme law. There is no grander conception of man than that he is Gods missionary. We are called to a kingly mission. That is, one essential element of Gods ideal of man is that he shall rule himself, that he shall check with firm reign every lawless appetite, that he shall bring all the manifold energies of his being into subjection to a governing central authority. And what He wants He performs if we are but willing. If we receive Him into our hearts, He will engift us with a kingly power by emancipating us from selfish aims, and degrading fears, and petty motives, that make life such a mean and commonplace thing. But Christ calls us to a priestly mission as well. To have a well-disciplined soul is a good thing. To know that all its powers are working harmoniously together under the central sway of the man himself is something worth aiming at. But Christ beckons us to a higher privilege still. The man whose spirit is thus well ordered, whose intellect and affections are balanced by a ready will and a tender conscience, is to consecrate himself and all his powers to God. A self-discipline that never can get beyond itself is at heart utterly selfish. The ages in our own history most fruitful of good, most full of the heroic element, were ages when the consciousness of men was saturated with the thought of God. The Reformation era which could produce a Luther, a Knox, a Zwingle, a Calvin, the Puritan age which could create a Cromwell, a Baxter, a Milton, a Bunyan, were times when the name of God had not become a theological phrase, but vital realities, unseen, but all-powerful, in living relation with the practical interests of man.

II. LIFE IS A DIVINE DISCIPLINE. When we are asked to believe in life as an effluence or product of Divine love, we are brought face to face with serious difficulties that seem to bar the way to faith. If God loves me, as you say, and has, therefore, bestowed upon me the gift of life, how is it that He has marred His gift by pain and loss and grief; has turned for me what might have been a blessing into what is little less than a curse? I have read somewhere that Christs earthly life is far from being an ideal one, because it was essentially sorrowful. But I ask, is not this the secret of its undying charm for men, that it meets them in the greatest crisis of their history, when the brain is stunned with grief, and the heart pierced with sore trials, and life stands forth, bare and gaunt, as a terrible tragedy? Viewing life, then, as having sorrow for its pervading element, our faith in a God of love can be saved only by extending our vision beyond the boundaries of the present, by seeing that our calling and privileges and opportunities now form a discipline to prepare us for a grander and truer life hereafter. Here, again, it may be seen how a pessimistic way of thinking often takes its rise. To put aside the revelation which Christ makes to us of the future, is to shut men up to despair, unrelieved by a single gleam of light. Admit that revelation, however, and though all difficulties are not thereby removed, yet feeling so many to be mitigated, we can bear the rest until the day of clearer light and fuller knowledge. Now, this mitigation may be seen in two ways.

1. Discipline is a test of character. When God wishes to bring a man to see himself, to disentangle him, as it were, from the disguises which he is prone to wear before his fellow-men, He does it perhaps, by suddenly throwing upon him responsibilities of which he had never dreamt, or, perhaps, by confronting trim with an emergency that demands quick resolution and determined effort. It is then that what is most real in the man comes out. The weakness or strength of character is seen in how it meets the Divine test. God has many ways of effecting this self-revelation. Just as a lightning flash at midnight reveals in a moment the Wooded height or rocky foreland which the murky darkness had concealed, so do the great crises of life unveil, as with the mystic touch of God, the basis of character, the things that have made it what it is. Is it an accession to sudden fortune? A favourable discipline surely! Yet have we not heard of cases where men, intoxicated by the new power that has come to them, have forgotten the simple virtues of their former state, and have become slaves to pride and selfishness, and a hundred other evils? Is it poverty? Then it may be Gods design to test whether the graces and virtues so conspicuous in times of comfort were real or not. In these various ways does God test us. But through them all there is a unity of purpose–the taking of us out of the pretences and make-believes of the world, and the planting of us on the eternal realities of the unseen.

2. Discipline is indispensable to the realisation of the Divine Ideal. We all start in life with grand aims. Our ideals are fair and lovely to look upon. And in the joy which a vision of them creates we think we have but to stretch forth our hands and they are ours. But soon we discover our mistake. Contact with the prosaic realities of the world, or the pressure of unforeseen difficulties and hindrances, soon dashes our enthusiasm with an element of distrust, and the vision splendid is in danger of fading into the light of common day. Not thus, nor so quickly, is our dream to be translated into the region of solid fact. It is only by a baptism of the spirit of burning that our highest modes of thought can be cleansed from the self-reference or self-pleasing which is so liable to vitiate them. Gods ideal is very different from mans, even at the best. Is not this an important part of our life work?–to see how poor and cramped our noblest spiritual creations are when compared with the archetypal thoughts of God. And this we can never see except through discipline. If to obtain a knowledge of the material world and its laws men will spend days and nights of anxious labour, surely it ought not to be considered strange if the supreme possession of the soul, God Himself, cannot be won without at least some spiritual struggle. It is a familiar fact that things of earthly value which are easily purchased are lightly esteemed. Is it not so in the spiritual region? (J. A. Anderson.)

The brevity of life

What is your life? There is a variety of answers to that question. The afflicted might say, My life is a wearisome burden; when shall I lay it down in the grave? The labourer might say, My life is a dull round of toil; I rise early, and late take rest, and eat the bread of carefulness. The prosperous might say, My life is a continued joy; I cannot exaggerate its felicity; flowers strew my path, and overhead the skies are blue. I have sunshine within and without. But the apostle has his answer to the question; and remember that if it is melancholy, it is of God–it is Gods own estimate of human life, It is even a vapour, &c. Thisbeing so, shall we not ask what is the best improvement of this little time, or, in other words, what is Gods design willing it to us?

I. IT IS THE SEASON OF REPENTANCE. By nature we are sinful, abhorrent, therefore, to Gods infinite purity, and devoid of righteousness. We must be brought to admit our vileness, our obnoxiousness to Divine justice, our dishonouring of God, our deep need of pardon. And life is the season for this repentance. It is protracted by the compassion of God for this very purpose.

II. IT IS YOUR SEASON OF GRACE–the period in which you may obtain forgiveness, together with a new heart and a heavenly hope.

III. IT IS THE SEASON FOR SELF-CULTURE. Have you no ambition to grow and mature and excel in piety? Do you not wish to be adorned and beautified, and enriched before you are summoned into the presence of the

King of kings? Would you not be arrayed for that call in bridal garments which shall smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia, out of the ivory palaces? Is it not so that you have a great field within you, which you are to plough, and plant, and cultivate for God, till it shall be ripe unto the harvest?

IV. IT IS THE SEASON FOR USEFULNESS. Let us endeavour to throw more energy and enterprise into our Masters service this year.

1. Resolve that a New Year shall be distinguished by new resolutions.

Wherever you feel you have been deficient, there hasten to repair the breach; there determine that, God assisting you, you will do better for the future.

2. Be a practical Christian this New Year. Be zealous, not so much of good intentions and of good frames, as of good works.

3. Be a cheerful Christian throughout this New Year. The renewed man has sources of joy which external circumstances cannot cloud or quench.

4. Be ready for your removal hence. There can be no solid serenity until we have looked death in the face, and overcome it by faith. (James Bolton, B. A.)

Human life transitory

I. How MEN MAKE THE MISTAKE OF REGARDING THEIR LIFE AS SOMETHING SOLID AND STABLE.

1. Men calculate upon the certain continuance of their strength. The young generally seem to look upon diseases and infirmities as separated from them by an impassable gulf.

2. Men calculate upon an indefinite prolonging of life. They make no deliberate, serious calculation upon giving up friends, possessions, comforts, occupations, and pleasures.

3. The next life will much resemble this, according to their ideas. They forget that after death comes the judgment.

II. HUMAN LIFE IS A VAPOUR.

1. The uncertainty of life. Nothing is stable on this earth. Our cemeteries vie with our cities. Every day, every hour, every moment, a life is escaping. You may be attired for the gayest scene, awaiting a friend, securely seated at your fathers fireside, and in an instant be in the fierce and fiery embrace of death, exchanging your rich garments for a winding-sheet of flame, breathing in an atmosphere of fire; in an instant, unwarned, unattended, unaided–gone.

2. This law is universal. That is, it is not only certain that every human life will cease, but that the time of its cessation is uncertain. There is a place, and a most important place, for medical science; a place for human prudence; but neither skill nor prudence will change the nature of every human life; it will still be even a vapour.

III. How SHALL WE RECTIFY THESE ERRORS IN OURSELVES?

1. We should understand the reality of the case. Life with us is but a process of decay. We possess life, but not less certainly are we losing it.

2. We should become entirely reconciled to it. The higher views we take of man, the more satisfied we shall be with this arrangement.

3. Accommodate all your views, feelings, and plans to this state of things. Make nothing that can perish the foundation of your hope. Money, the favour of man, the admiration of man, worldly pleasure, personal accomplishments (other than holiness and sound knowledge) are all vapour. Enjoy them as you do a beautiful sunset. Take them at their real worth; but be fully persuaded that your happiness must come from higher, and holier, and more unfailing sources. Value life for its highest ends. It can be the period of your personal progress in the life of holiness and heaven; the seedtime for an eternal harvest of blessedness. (E. N. Kirk, D. D.)

What is your life?

Life comes to us so unconsciously, and lifts and drifts us on so easily, that we yield ourselves to its power without a thought–fools that we are! What is this power to which we surrender so unquestionably? What guarantee have we of its friendliness? What is this stream on which we drift so heedlessly? How do we know over what precipices it may hurl us? What is this life which we accept without scrutiny? Who has certified to its character? How can we tell to what a grand folly we are committing ourselves, or into what maelstrom of difficulty and distress we are permitting ourselves to be drawn? The fact that the great human mass about us moves on with us on the same mysterious tide, does not meet the difficulty, but increases it. Life takes on new magnitudes; but its meaning grows no plainer. The question which goes doubtfully forth from the solitary soul comes thundering back with the voice of the multitude which no man can number: What is your life?

I. WHAT IS YOUR LIFE AS TO ITS DURATION? HOW much of this mysterious something, which you call time, is portioned out to you as your part? This is the question of prudence. The first thing that a man asks respecting a possession is: How much is there of it? If life were an estate, you would instantly inquire: What are its boundaries? If years were sovereigns, you would say, How many of them may I have? Life is an estate, but its bounds are invisible. Years are the golden coinage of heaven; and they are counted out to men. Each man shall have his number, and no more, but what number he cannot tell. The counting is done in another sphere, and no mortal ever overheard it.

II. WHAT IS YOUR LIFE AS TO ITS SECURITY? This seems to have been the shape in which the apostle here intended to put it. For what is your life? It is even a vapour that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. The Scriptures have thrown around human life a marvellous imagery to intimate this evanescence. Behold Thou hast made my days as an handbreadth. Not even so substantial as a vapour; not even a substance at all; only the shadow of something; and that something, that shadow, passing quickly away. Can anything be more transitory than that? If it comes to that, our question is strangely answered. What is our life as to its security? It is nothing. It has no security, and can have none.

III. WHAT IS YOUR LIFE AS TO ITS AIM, ITS PURPOSE, ITS USES? If it be so brief, so much the more reason for improving it while it lasts. If it be so insecure and evanescent, so much the more reason for making the most of it. What do you make of it? What great purpose have you set before yourself, for the accomplishment of which you are laying hold of all lifes opportunities, and putting under contribution all of lifes forces? A great, wise man, a few years ago, chanced to be present at a winter-evening party where a company of lively young people were enjoying themselves after an innocent fashion. Standing a little apart, he watched, in thoughtful, but not in cynical or unsympathetic mood, the whirl and flutter of sportive life before him. Presently, a young girl, hovering a moment on the outer verge of the gay circle, stopped to exchange salutations with the venerable guest. And the merry creature, radiant with smiles, steeped with the festive spirit of the hour, won from the old mans lips the great thought which he had been revolving: What are you living for? The question, friendly in spirit and in tone, came to her in no impertinence, but it sounded through and through her soul. It followed her to her home. It repeated itself to her day and night. It announced to her the great problem of life. She met it honestly. She made room for it in her heart. She sought a fitting answer to it, and not many weeks later she could say, I am living for Christ and for heaven. What answer does our daily life afford? What do our acts declare that we are living for? I fear that a just analysis of our life would put some of us to the blush. Let me propound a riddle. There is a certain being a day of whose existence may be thus described. He sleeps–rises–eats–does nothing–eats–does nothing–eats–does nothing–sleeps. Is it an oyster or a man? There are those who have higher employments and pleasures, the analysis of whose life would reveal a strange emptiness. They read. What? and with what purpose? and to what profit? They converse. About what? To what end? They enjoy society. On what account? Isnt the record a pretty meagre one, after all, even with some of us who have thought that we were living quite rationally and worthily?

IV. WHAT IS YOUR LIFE IN GODS CONCEPTION OF IT? Take that question home to your soul, and see what answer is there. Your soul tells you that it was not made to serve the body, or to stoop to any bondage whatever, or to any ignoble purpose. It tells you that it was made to rule, and by its higher nature give the rule to life, and through its higher perceptions to reach Gods rule of life. When men meet on the ocean, they ask each other: Whither bound? and the man who was bound no whither would be a prodigy of folly. Sailing is a vague purpose without a port in view. But with a heavenward aim and movement, life becomes something angelic. Ive lost a day l said a great sovereign, of whom a poet has written that he had been a king without his crown. If it be royal to perceive the worth of time, after it is squandered, how much more to perceive its worth beforehand, and not squander it! If the utterance of such a regret were equal to a coronation, how sadly discrowned and ashamed, on the contrary, shall be he who shall be constrained to lament at last: Ive lost my life! (G. Huntington.)

Estimates of life

I. WHAT IS YOUR LIFE IN DURATION?

II. WHAT IS YOUR LIFE IN ITS SECURITY?

III. WHAT IS YOUR LIFE IN ITS OBJECTS?

IV. WHAT IS YOUR LIFE IN ITS INFLUENCE ON YOURSELF? In a higher and far more fearful sense than the ancient artist, every one of us is painting for eternity–painting, each his own portrait, stroke by stroke, and line by line. And soon the image shall be finished, and hung up for our own gaze, and for the inspection of the universe–every part of it to grow brighter and brighter, or darker and darker for ever.

V. WHAT IS YOUR LIFE IN ITS RESPONSIBILITIES? Every object, every influence of life, implies responsibility. Every moment is inwoven with obligation to God and to your own soul.

VI. WHAT WILL YOUR LIFE BE IN ITS RESULTS? God has left it to your choice whether you will make it the pathway to salvation or perdition.

Earnest living

Religion is the art of living well for Christ and like Him. Three things are essential.

I. A RIGHT PURPOSE. The highest purpose is to serve God and benefit our fellow-men.

II. A RIGHT PRINCIPLE. The only principle that can hold is a conscience illuminated by the Bible and kept strong by inward grace. No one is to be trusted who does not trust God and obey Him.

III. A RIGHT PLAN. NO life is well planned which despises small things, or neglects every opportunity to strike. One rotten thread spoils a fabric. A life without Christ is a lost life. (T. L. Cuyler, D. D.)

What is your life?

The question may be asked in many tones. It may be asked rebuking]y, pensively, comfortingly. There is no doubt as to how the question was asked by the apostle. He was taking a rather humbling view of life. He tells the boasting programme-writers that their life is even a vapour. Thus would James have us religious in everything. He would have no loose talk about to-morrow; in the very midst of our boasting he rebukes us by telling us that we are handling a vapour. That is no doubt the immediate apostolic suggestion. Yet may we not use the words on a larger base, and for another yet not wholly unkindred purpose? May we not read the suggestion in another tone? What is life?–what a mystery, what a tragedy, what a pain, what a feast, what a fast, what a desert, what a paradise; how abject, how august is man! It may not have occurred to some of you, as it has of necessity occurred to those of us who have to address the public, that there is hardly a more appalling and pathetic spectacle than a promiscuous congregation. We do not see life in its individuality, but life in its combinations and inter-relations of most delicate, subtle, suggestive, and potential kind. When we begin to take the congregation man by man, what a sight it is! The old and the very young, the pilgrim going to lay his staff down, tired of the long journey, and the little child sitting on its mothers knee; the rich man whose touch is gold; the poor man whose most strenuous effort is his most stinging disappointment; men who are doomed to poverty! men who never had a holiday; if they were absent a day it was that they might work two days when they went back again; and men who have never been out of the sunshine, before whose sweet homes there slopes a velvet lawn. What is your life? Then, if we go a little further into the matter, the audience becomes still more mysterious and solemn. What broken hearts are in every congregation, what concealed experiences, what smiles of dissimulation! as who should say, We are happy, yes, we are happy, we are happy. The protestation is its own contradiction. There is a protesting too much. If we go a little further into the matter, who can read his congregation through and through? Men are not what they seem. Every man has his own secret; the heart knoweth its own bitterness. Man is a mystery to himself, to others–mostly to himself. The only power that can touch all these is the gospelof Christ. No lecturer upon any limited subject can touch a whole congregation through in all its deepest and most painful and tragic experiences. No lecturer on astronomy can search the heart. Science holds no candle above the chamber of motive, passion, deepest, maddest desire. The gospel of Christ covers the whole area. How does it cover the whole area of human experience? First as a hope. Blessed be God, that is a gospel word. Christianity does not come down to men with judgment and fire and burning; the gospel is not an exhibition of wrath, retaliation, vengeance: the gospel is love, the gospel says to the worst of us, For you there is hope; I know you, I know all the fire that burns in you, all the temptations that assail you, all the difficulties that surround you as with insurmountable granite walls; I know them all, and, poor soul, I have come with good news from God, good news from Calvary; I have come to say, Hope on, for there is a way to reconciliation and pardon and purity and peace. Then the gospel comes covering the whole area not only as a hope but as a cooperation. If we might personify the case, the gospel would thus address man: I have come not only to tell you to hope, but I have come to help you to do so; the work is very hard, and I will do most of it; what you have to show is a willing heart, an earnest disposition, and, come now, together we shall work out this salvation of yours. Work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God that worketh in you, with you, for you; we are fellow labourers with God. And then there is a third consideration, without which the case would be incomplete. Christianity, or the gospel, is not only a hope, or a co-operation, but it is a discipline. You always come upon the strong word in a great appeal. It is not all tears; you come upon the backbone, upon the line of iron, upon the base of rock. So the gospel comes to us as a discipline and says, Having, then, dearly beloved, these promises, let us purify ourselves, even as God and Christ are pure; now for work, self-criticism, self-restraint, self-control, now for patient endeavour. Cheer thee! It is a gospel word. Gospel calls mean gospel helps. Who knows what life is? It is the secret of God. Up and down the mountains and valleys of the soul there are countless millions of germs waiting for the sunshine, and the dew, and all the chemistry of the spiritual universe, and out of these germs will come invention, discoveries, new policies, novel and grand suggestions, heroisms undreamt-of, evangelisations, and civilisations that shall eclipse the proudest record of time. Every evil thought you have kills one of these germs. What is life? A mystery, seed-house, a sensitive treasure. What is life? It is the beginning of immortality. The dawn is the day–the child is the man. It is high time to awake out of sleep and to realise the tragedy, the grandeur, and the responsibility of life. He who loses time loses eternity. (J. Parker, D. D.)

Shortness of life

A little girl was asked why she was working so very hard. She replied, My candle is almost burned out, and I have not got another. Life is as a candle burning out. Sometimes there is a thief in it, a disease consuming it more quickly; or it may be blown out, suddenly extinguished; and we have not got another. (Dr. Wise.)

Changes in life

So have I seen a rose newly springing from the clefts of its hood, and at first it was fair as the morning and full with the dew of heaven, as a lambs fleece; but when a rude blast had forced open its virgin modesty and dismantled its too youthful and unripe retirements, it began to put on darkness, and to decline to softness and the symptoms of a sickly age; it bowed the head and broke its stalk; and at night, having lost some of its leaves and all its beauty, it fell into the portion of weeds and wornout faces. The same is the portion of every man and every woman. (Bp. Jeremy Taylor.)

The possibilities of life

It was no part of the apostles intention to teach that life is necessarily vain and perishing; he suggests that life is what we make it, accordingly as we live to the outer man which perisheth, or to the inward man which is renewed day by day.

I. A vapour–YET A VAPOUR MAY BE A THING OF GLORY OR GLOOM. A vapour is often an object of glory, of richest glory. The firmament is the Royal Academy of God, glorified with countless masterpieces of form and colour. The transfiguring touch of the Divine hand changes the pliant vapour into rich sculptures, superb architecture and pictures of matchless grace or grandeur. The vapour that appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away, is a fountain of perennial delight to poet and painter: it calls up our thought to the glory of heaven, to the glory of God. A vapour may also be a cloud–dense, dark, and forbidding. It may obscure the light, discolour the sky, mar the summer. Thus with human life–it also may be a thing of glory or gloom. Some lives are as the cloud which lies on the sky, an inky blot; whilst other lives in their brightness and beauty remind us of those rainbow tints which are very jewels on heavens bosom. What makes the difference in the vapour? The sun. The orb of day dyes the vapours with colour, warms them with fire, illuminates them with brightness, and fills the depths with shifting scenes of splendour. What the sun is to the vapour, God is to our life; and life shines or saddens according to its relation to Him. The Lord God is a sun; and our lives shine–everything in us and about us shines–just as we keep in the stream of His brightness. Acquaintance with God gives life its purity. The vapour apart from the sun is foul and dark; but as the light pierces it, it becomes white as white wool, white as snow. As we set the Lord God before us and live in fellowship with Him the baser elements of life are purged, and we attain that purity of heart which is the condition of all joy and glory. In the identification of ourselves with God life acquires sublimity. And through the knowledge and service of God life attains fruition in full felicity. The sunless vapour is that murky weeping cloud which is the chosen image of misery, whilst the sun-smitten vapour spreads a smile on the face of day. Life so strangels sad in itself kindles into rapture as it drinks the light of the Throne.

II. A vapour–AND YET A VAPOUR MAY BE THE SOURCE OF BARRENNESS OR BLESSING. Indeed a vapour may be one of three things. It may be the source of blasting, as the sulphurous vapour of the thundercloud. This is true of some lives; they are only pernicious and destructive. Or the vapour may be a merely barren thing. Not working any particular and obvious mischief, only drifting before the wind in barren magnificence. Thus is it with many lives. Men live for garish pride, or rosy pleasure, or golden gain, or crimson greatness; the earth is no better for their presence, they work no private or public service. Or the vapour may be a source of rich and lasting blessing; the messenger of God, scattering showers of blessing. Thus devoted souls pass through society rich in precious and holy influence; they drop as the rain and distil as the dew, and when they have passed out of sight you trace their passage by the rising flowers. If life is to be noble and blessed it must not be hurtful, not neutral, but beneficent. Many of those passages which so pathetically express the transientness of life, and which we quote with extreme mournfulness, have quite another side to them, and it is well to turn them round and refresh ourselves with their sunnier significance. Job has many of these metaphors. My days are swifter than a weavers shuttle (Job 7:6). Hours, days, weeks, months, years pass with confusing rapidity; and we are apt to infer that little can be done or attempted with such conditions. Are we not mistaken here? Swift is the action of the weavers shuttle, yet each rapid movement *nay fix a thread of silk or gold which shall keep its beauty for ages in royal robe or tapestry. Thus each fleeting moment may see some shining thread shot into the worlds raiment or ours, if we are only wise workers in the loom of life. O remember that my life is wind (Job 7:7). A breath, a passing breeze! And yet the vanishing breath may utter great thoughts and kind words to the joy and purifying of multitudes. The passing breeze will freshen the stagnant flood, lift the unhealthy fog, awaken music in the stirred branches, and fill the whole landscape with animation and freshness; thus a human life may pass as the wind, leaving the whole face of the community refreshed and vitalised. Our life may be wind, yet may it be one with that mighty rushing wind which came down at Pentecost, sweetening the world. My days are passed away as the swift ships (Job 9:26). Yes, but what treasures the swift ships bring; what treasures the swift ships take! So is it with the ships of reed–these frail, swift human lives of ours. What treasures these swift ships bring! They come from God freighted with riches of intellect, feeling, utterance, to enrich and rejoice the world. What treasures these swift ships take! Rich results of sanctified sorrow, of spiritual industry, of high duty bravely done, of years of consecrated toil and thought, of pain and blessing, of faith and love and prayer. We grieve to see the white sails vanishing like white wings into the infinite blue; but we must not forget that these weather-stained argosies–built in the noon and rigged with blessings bright–have steered straight into port with mystic treasures which wax not old, eternal in the heavens. Finally, take the figure in our text: A. vapour that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. Life escapes us like melting mist, and we see it vanish with amazement and distress. Still the vanishing vapour leaves beautiful and lasting effects. Whence the green pasture, the leaf-robed forestry, the rich vineyard, the bowing wealth of corn, the orchards full of ripeness? Are they not all the offspring of vapours that appear for a little time, and then vanish away? So the world of noble things and institutions about us–the wilderness blossoming as the rose–is the result of short lives inspired by holy feeling, devoted to high ends.

III. A vapour–YET A VAPOUR MAY END IN A DRAIN OR A RAINBOW. So widely contrasted is the destiny of that self-determining vapour human life. In the text we see men living without any recognition of the relation of this life to immortality. Giving themselves to life on its physical and human side, they lose all clearness and brightness of soul, the stream ever becoming more turbid as it flows (Luk 12:16-21). This mans lifo ran in the gutter, and ended in the sewer. It is whilst we regard these fleeting days in their relation to the will of God that we penetrate their grandeur and become conscious of exaltation (Deu 30:20; 1Jn 2:16-17). It is whilst we regard the eternal meaning of life that all the discipline of this world develops greatness and purity of spirit (2Co 4:17-18). The legend of the American Indians declares that as the flowers fade in forest and prairie their lost beauty is gathered into the rainbow, and thus they glow again in richer colour than before. It is, however, no legend which teaches the perpetuity of moral excellence. The earth is always being made the poorer by the departure of those whom we so sincerely admired or passionately loved–those who were ornaments of society, the pride of the Church, the light of our home. Rut these are neither lost nor injured. We look up to see them shine forth again in added grace and glory in the rainbow round about the Throne. Let us live in constant acknowledgment of God; let us, so far from accommodating ourselves to the fashion of a world which passeth away, identify ourselves with the will of God; let us thoroughly realise our sonship with God, our heirship of heaven; so shall we feel that we are being purified from every grossness, float we are being caught up to meet the Lord in the air, that we are becoming transfigured members in that ring of glory of which the Lord God and the Lamb are the eternal centre. (W. L. Watkinson.)

Life precious because brief

The brevity of life enhances its preciousness. A prudent man, who has only a few shillings to spend, will be careful to lay out not only every shilling, but every fraction of a shilling, to the best advantage. And these few days that God gives us are too valuable to he trifled away. More precious than rubies, they ought to be turned to the very best account.

If the Lord will, we shall live

Mans life and Gods providence

I. HUMAN LIFE.

1. The period of its duration. It is a little time, but it bears a never-ending relationship to eternity. Let us, therefore, improve the precious gift; it will soon be gone, and will never return. Let us look upon our days as so many valuable gifts which God puts into our hands, which we must part with, and which we may exchange, one after the other, so long as they last, for something which shall enrich us for ever.

2. The incidents of which mans life is composed. We go into such a city, continue there a year, and buy and sell and get gain. Alas! this completely describes the lives of multitudes among us; their journeyings, sojournings, tradings, and gains–and that is all! Some of us do not even come up to that. I mean those who spend their lives in killing time without wink. But life is made up of much more than these. What have we received? Goodness and mercy have followed us, etc. What return have we made for so much mercy? Alas! much of forgetfulness, indolence, murmuring, unbelief, and rebellion. We are unprofitable servants. What do we now possess? We have not been buying and selling, or losing, or getting gain only. With all our getting have we got understanding? Have we a more thorough, abiding conviction of the evil of sin? Have we felt a more searching, heart-aching repentance for it–a repentance which leads to the entire forsaking of it?

II. DIVINE PROVIDENCE IN RELATION TO HUMAN LIFE.

1. Our dependence upon it. Whether we know and feel it, or otherwise, we are dependent upon God. Sometimes He makes us know it. Our path is hedged up, our best, wisest schemes fail, and we are suffered to want. And what a mercy that ultimately we are dependent not on bad men, or even good ones, but upon God! Let us look beyond second causes to the providence of God in the changes which are passing in the Church of God, and its associations.

2. Our ignorance of what the Divine providence will accomplish. Ye know not what shall be on the morrow. (T. E. Thoresby.)

The duty of reference to the Divine will

I. MANKIND NATURALLY DO NOT FEEL AND ACKNOWLEDGE THEIR DEPENDENCE UPON THEIR MAKER. How few possess the spirit of the patriarchs, who were bold as lions provided that God led the way, but timid as lambs when they could not see His footsteps. Many men rely upon second causes, and never fall back upon the great First Cause. They calculate upon a long life, because they inherit a good constitution; they expect a successful issue of their plans, because they are regarded by others as shrewd and far-reaching men. In each of these instances the dependence is placed upon something this side of God.

II. THE IGNORANCE AND FRAILTY OF MAN IS A STRONG REASON WHY HE SHOULD FEEL HIS DEPENDENCE UPON HIS MAKER.

1. Respect to all beings and things alike, be they finite or be they infinite, men must say, We see through a glass darkly, and we know in part.

2. Again, mans knowledge is limited by lime, as well as by the nature of objects. His knowledge of the present is imperfect, and he has no knowledge at all of the future. Is not this ignorance of ours a strong reason why we should rely upon the all-knowing God? Though we know nothing in an exhaustive and perfect manner, yet we are not shut up to the unhappiness that would result from such a sense of ignorance if unrelieved by other considerations. If man would consciously live, move, and have his being in God, he would be filled with a cheerful sense of security, firmness, and power, amidst the violent and rapid changes incident to this life, and the dark mystery that overhangs it. He that trusteth in the Lord shall be as Mount Zion, that cannot be moved.

3. Again, the brevity and uncertainty of human life is another strong reason why man should feel his dependence upon God.

III. THE PROPER WAY FOR MEN TO ACKNOWLEDGE THEIR DEPENDENCE UPON GOD IS TO REFER TO HIS WILL, IN ALL THEIR PLANS AND UNDERTAKINGS. Most of our misery, nay, all of it, arises from our asserting our own wills. The instant we yield the point, and submit to our Maker, we are at rest. And this is proof that we are free, for wherever there is any compulsion, there is dissatisfaction and restlessness. (G. T. Shedd, D. D.)

Gods will about the future

The text applies with very peculiar force when our friends and fellow-workers are passing away from us. Perhaps we have been reckoning what this brother would do this week, and that sister next week, and so on. They have appeared amongst us in such buoyant health that we have scarcely thought it possible that they would be struck down all in a moment. Yet so it has often been. The uncertainty of life comes home to us when such things occur, and we begin to wonder that we have reckoned anything at all safe, or even probable, in such a shifting, changing world as this.

I. COUNTING ON THE FUTURE IS FOLLY. The fact of frail, feeble man so proudly ordering his own life and forgetting God seems to the Apostle James so preposterous that he scarcely deems it worth while to argue the point; he only says, Go to now! Let us first look at the form of this folly, and notice what it was that these people said when they were counting on the future. They evidently thought everything was at their own dispersal. They said, We will go, we will continue, we will buy, we will sell, we will get gain. but is it not foolish for a man to feel that he can do as he likes, and that everything will fall out as he desires; that he can both propose and dispose, and has not to ask Gods consent at all? Is it so, O man, that thy life is self-governed? Is there not, after all, One greater than thyself? Notice that these people, while they thought everything was at their disposal, used everything for worldly objects. They said, We will buy; then we will carry our goods to another market at a little distance; we will sell at a profit; and so we will get gain. Their first and their last thoughts were of the earth earthy, and their one idea seemed to be that they might get sufficient to make them feel that they were rich and increased in goods. That was the highest ambition upon their minds. Are there not many who are living just in that way now? All that these men of old spoke of doing was to be done entirely in their own strength. They said, We will, we will. They had no thought of asking the Divine blessing, nor of entreating the help of the Most High. Alas, that men should do even so to-day, that, without seeking counsel of God, they should go forward in proud disdain, or in complete forgetfulness of the arrow that flieth by day, and the pestilence that walketh in the darkness, until they are suddenly overwhelmed in eternal ruin! It is evident that to these men everything seemed certain. We will go into such a city. How did they know they would ever get there? We will buy and sell, and get gain. Did they regulate the markets? Might there be no fall in prices? Oh, no! they looked upon the future as a dead certainty, and upon themselves as people who were sure to win, whatever might become of others. They had also the foolish idea that they were immortal. All men count all men mortal but themselves. Without any saving clause, they said, We will continue there a year. Having looked at the form of this folly of counting on the future, let us speak a little on the folly itself. It is a great folly to build hopes on that which may never come. It is unwise to count your chickens before they are hatched; it is madness to risk everything on the unsubstantial future. How do we know what will be on the morrow? How can we reckon upon an) thing in a world like this, where nothing is certain but uncertainty? Besides, the folly is seen in the frailty of our lives, and the brevity of them. Life is even as a vapour. Sometimes those vapours, especially at the time of sunset, are exceedingly brilliant. They seem to be magnificence itself when the sun paints them with heavenly colours; but in a little while they are all gone, and the whole panorama of the sunset has disappeared. Such is our life. It may sometimes be very bright and glorious; but still it is only like a painted cloud, and very soon the cloud and the colour on it are alike gone.

II. IGNORANCE OF THE FUTURE IS A MATTER OF FACT. Ye know not what shall be on the morrow. Whether it will come to us laden with sickness or health, prosperity or adversity, we cannot tell. To-morrow may mark the end of our life; possibly even the end of the age. How frail is our hold on this world! In a moment we are gone–gone like the moth; you put your finger upon it, and it is crushed. Man is not great; man is less than little. He is as nothing; he is but a dream. Ere he can scarcely say that he is here, we are compelled to say that he is gone.

III. RECOGNITION OF GOD WITH REGARD TO THE FUTURE IS TRUE WISDOM. I do not think that we need always, in every letter and in every handbill, put If the Lord will; yet I wish that we oftener used those very words. I rather like what Fuller says when he describes himself as writing in his letter such passages as God willing, or God lending me life. He says, I observe, Lord, that I can scarcely hold my hand from encircling these words in a parenthesis, as if they were not essential to the sentence, but may as well be left out as put in. Whereas, indeed, they are not only of the commission at large, but so of the quorum, that without them all the rest is nothing; wherefore, hereafter, I will write these words freely and fairly, without any enclosure about them. Let critics censure it for bad grammar, I am sure it is good divinity.

1. We should recognise God in the affairs of the future, because, first, there is a Divine will which governs all things.

2. But while many of Gods purposes are hidden from us, there is a revealed will which we must not violate. I say now, I will do this or that, but certain other things may occur which will render it improper for me to do so.

3. In addition to this, there is a providential will of God which we should always consult. When you come where two roads meet, in your perplexity pull up, kneel down, and lift your hearts to heaven, asking your Father the way. And whenever we are purposing what we should do–and we ought to make some purposes, for Gods people are not to be without forethought or prudence–we should always say, or mean without saying,

All my plans must wait till the Lord sets before me an open door. If God permit, I will do this; but if the Lord will, I will stop, and do nothing. My strength shall be to sit still, unless the Master wishes me to go forward.

4. There is yet another sense I would give to this expression: there is a royal will which we would seek to fulfil. That will is that the Lords people should be saved, and come to the knowledge of the truth. So, as the servants of the Most High, we go forth to do this or that, if the Lord will–that is to say, if by so doing we can fulfil the great will of God in the salvation of men.

IV. BOASTINGS ABOUT THE FUTURE ARE EVIL. One man says about a certain matter, I will do it, I have made up my mind, and he thinks, You cannot turn me; I am a man who, when he has once put his foot down, is not to be shifted from his place. Then he laughs, and prides himself upon the strength of his will; but his boasting is sheer arrogance. Yet he rejoices in it; and the Word of God is true of such a one: All such rejoicing is evil. Another man says, I shall do it, the thing is certain; and when a difficulty is suggested, he answers, Tut, do not tell me about my proposing and Gods disposing; I will propose, and I will also dispose; I do not see any difficulty. I shall carry it out, I tell you. I shall succeed. Then he laughs in his foolish pride, and rejoices in his proud folly. All such rejoicings are evil. I hear a third man say, I can do it; I feel quite competent. To him the message is the same–his boasting is evil. Though he thinks to himself, Whatever comes in my way, I am always ready for it, he is greatly mistaken, and errs grievously. But that young man yonder talks in a different tone. He has been planning what he will do when he succeeds; for, of course, he is going to succeed. Well, I hope that he may. He is going to buy, and sell, and get gain; and he says, I will do so-and-so when I am rich. He intends then to have his fling, and to enjoy himself; he laughs as he thinks what he will do when his toilsome beginnings are over, and he can have his own way. I would ask him to pause and consider his life in a more serious vein: All such rejoicing is evil.

V. THE USING OF THE PRESENT IS OUR DUTY. Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.

1. In the first place, it is sinful to defer obedience to the gospel. All the commands of God to the characters to whom they are given come as a present demand. Obey them now.

2. In the next place, it is sinful to neglect the common duties of life, under the idea that we shall do something more by and by. If we could all be quiet enough to hear that clock tick, we should hear it say Now! now! now I now! The clock therein resembles the call of God in the daily duties of the hour. To him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin, even though he may dream of hew he will, in years to come, make up for his present neglect.

3. Then it is sinful to postpone purposes of service. Mr. Whitefield said that he would not go to bed unless he had put even his gloves in their right place. If he should die in the night, he would not like to have anybody asking, Where did he leave his gloves? That is the way for a Christian man always to live–have everything in order, even to a pair of gloves, Finish up your work every night; nay, finish up every minute. I have this last word: To him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin–that is, it is sinful in proportion to our knowledge. If there is any brother here into whose mind God has put something fresh, something good, I pray him to translate it into action at once. Oh, but nobody has done it before! Somebody must be first, and why should not you be first if you are sure that it is a good thing, and has come into your heart through God the Holy Ghost? (C. H. Spurgeon.)

If

Much virtue in if is the word of Touchstone in Shakespeares charming comedy As You Like It. Several times in Bible story the word comes out conspicuously. The Hebrew leader Joshua, going forth to fight the enemies of Israel, confesses his dependence, able to win no success except the Lord be with him. If so be the Lord be with me, then I shall be able to drive them out. In the hospitable home in Bethany the beloved brother Lazarus grew sick unto death. If only Thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. In numberless forms of lamentation, regret, trust, or hope, we encounter in the affairs of life an element of uncertainty expressed in the word if–a little word, yet covering momentous issues and contingencies. Consider, then, the value of if as a demand for heroism and for trust. First, note some illustrations of its reality. Near Lake Chauoauqua, on the watershed dividing the northerly and southerly flowing waters, one may easily find a hill-top, or perhaps the roof-tree of some home, where the falling rains by a slight breath of air are swayed northward to the fountains and rills that flow into Lake Erie, and thence by the rivers Niagara and St. Lawrence to the everlasting ice of the North Pole, or southward into the Alleghany, Ohio, and Mississippi, to the tropics of eternal summer. So history flows in mighty currents whose beginnings seem slight enough to have been swayed by a breath of air. Imagination reconstructs the destinies of mankind by the change of an if at critical junctures. In every one of the sixteen decisive battles of the world, as narrated by the English historian Creasy, from Marathon and Cannae to Waterloo and Gettysburg, between the tremendous array of opposing hosts, victory hung trembling in the balance, and finally turned upon some contingency that changes the face of the world. In the early days of June, 1815, just preceding Waterloo, had Napoleons Marshal Grouchy gone north instead of east, thus preventing Bluchers corps of Prussians from joining the British army, Napoleon might have annihilated Wellington, and the destinies of Europe been reversed for a century or for ever. In personal experience we also see the reality of the if. By a lightning flash that kills a loved companion at his side, Martin Luther is sent to the monastery and ministry, and becomes the heroic leader of Protestantism. Some chance exposure brings illness and death to parent, child, or dear friend, whose loss can never be replaced, and life is nevermore the same. Trivial circumstances, ordered by no special foresight, prove crises upon which our earthly fate seems utterly to depend. From personal experience and home histories we can all cull such incidents. How largely has the domestic happiness or infelicity of our whole home history depended upon the chance acquaintance of our youth! That we are here to-day in health and peace depends upon some one of a thousand contingencies, whose change might have reversed our destiny. Bitterly we mourn the untoward happenings, Fancy easily paints brighter pictures in our experience that might have come by some more favourable turn of our kaleidoscope. If only our childhood had been more favoured, and Heaven been in some way more indulgent, we imagine ourselves to-day nobler heroes and lovelier saints. Such, then, being the fact, what shall we say about it?

1. The pulpit boldly calls a halt on this strain of lamentation. The force of these minor contingencies is immensely exaggerated. The destinies of nations and men really depend upon deeper springs and broader streams of spirit and principle. Small events are only bubbles on the surface that show which way the stream flows. Some rocky headland at Lake Pepin may seem to direct the course of the mighty Mississippi, and so fix the map of North America. Do not mistakenly imagine that the rock creates the river. Rains, having fallen, are bound to find their way to the sea; and, whether on this side of the rock or the other, all the same they create the great Father of Waters. No if within the range of fate, but personality, rather, is the prime factor and supreme arbiter of destiny. Martin Luther had it in his soul to serve God and truth, or no companions death could have made him a religious leader. Many another had equal advantage. Not the lightning-bolt, but the forces of his manhood, achieved the conquest for liberty. Do not, then, exaggerate the petty contingencies. Some special exposure brings fatal illness to a loved child or friend. Look deeper, and see that the same exposure that others braved with impunity only revealed latent disease, and suddenly brought a crisis that was sure speedily to come. We deplore the overpowering temptation that blotted some fair name. Look deeper, and see that the temptation only exposed existing moral weakness. Oftentimes character creates the contingency. So many turns of an, electric cylinder, and the accumulating force, no longer to be pent up, flashes forth in an electric spark. There is no accident about that: it was sure to come. So much reckless violation of physical law, and the man breaks down. It is no arbitrary visitation or sudden accident. Years of offence are summed up and suddenly brought to judgment. But when at last iniquity launches its thunderbolt, do not call it accident or excuse it with an if. Know that it is simply the inevitable retribution, for a while postponed, but suddenly consummated–sins, long neglected, at last finding you out and summoning you to judgment.

2. While we would not exaggerate the if, whatever reality is in it offers a realm for fidelity and courage. The controlling if I would put far back and deep, down below and beyond the superficial its that delude us. Go back to the realm of character. In the hint-springs of destiny make pure and full the fountain-head, and all the contingencies that can possibly come will but open channels through which the pure waters of life may divinely flow. Foster the homes, schools, libraries, churches, and charities, build up true religion in the land, and no if that winds or fire or flood can bring can imperil our best prosperity. So likewise in personal life. Do not with vain lamentation exaggerate the small its of private experience. You cannot say whether the morrow shall be fair or foul, or bring good or ill fortune. But one can say, God helping me, I will divinely rule my spirit, the real key of destiny; and, come sunshine or storm, come fortune or failure, my temper shall be sweet, my integrity unsullied, my heart pure, my hands clean, and my manhood or womanhood supreme. Here is the sublime superiority of the human soul. Popular thought too strongly exaggerates the outward circumstance of environment, till unwittingly sin is excused and virtue paralysed, and man deemed a helpless bubble on the stream of fate. (R. R. Shippen.)

The providence of God and the providence of man

I. THE PROVIDENCE OF GOD.

1. The rule of it. His will–the origin and law of the universe. There is nothing higher than this; it is the force of all forces.

2. The sphere of it. It extends over all things–is co-extensive with the creation.

II. THE PROVIDENCE OF MAN.

1. That of the practical atheist.

(1) Purely selfish. Buy and sell, &c. No thought of God.

(2) Unreasonably presumptive. Because of the uncertainty and fleetness of life.

2. That of the practical theist. God is the central thought of all his providence. (Homilist.)

Gods will about the future

How do we know what will be on the morrow? It has grown into a proverb that we ought to expect the unexpected; for often the very thing happens which we thought would not happen. How can we reckon upon anything in a world like this, where nothing is certain but uncertainty? Besides, the folly is seen in the fact of the frailty of our lives, and the brevity of them. Why, then, is it that we are always counting upon what we are going to do? Why do we choose to build upon clouds, and pile our palaces on vapour, to see them melt away, as aforetime they have often melted, instead of by faith getting where there is no failure, where God is all in all, and His sure promises make the foundations of eternal mansions?

1. Only God knows the future. All things are present to Him; there is no past and no future to His all-seeing eyes. There are two great certainties about things that shall come to pass–one is that God knows, and the other is that we do not know.

2. As the knowledge of the future is hidden from us, we ought not to pry into it. Let the doom of King Saul on Mount Gilboa warn you against such a terrible course.

3. Further, we are benefited by our ignorance of the future. It is hidden from us for our good. Suppose a certain man is to be very happy by and by. If he knows it he will be discontented till the happy hour arrives. Suppose another man is to have a great sorrow very soon. It is well that he does not know it, for now he can enjoy the present good. He is wisest who does not wish to know what God has not revealed, Here, surely, ignorance is bliss: it would be folly to be wise.

4. Because we do not know what is to be on the morrow we should be greatly humbled by our ignorance. We think we are so wise; do we not? And we make a calculation that we are sure is correct! We arrange that this is going to be done, and the other thing; but God puts forth His little finger, and removes some friend, or changes some circumstance, and all our propositions fail to the ground.

5. Seeing that these things are so, we should remember the brevity, the frailty, and the end of life. We cannot be here long. If we live to the extreme age of men, how short our time is! We are glad that we do not know when our friends are to die; and we feel thankful that we cannot foretell when we shall depart out of this life. What good would it do us? Since He is with us, we are content to leave the ordering of our lives to His unerring wisdom. We ought, for every reason, to be thankful that we do not know the future; but, at any rate, we can clearly see that to count on it is fully, and that ignorance of it is.a matter of fact. Recognition of God with regard to the future is true wisdom. What says our text? For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that. No harm can come to you if you bow to Gods sovereign sway. Do you put yourselves entirely at Gods disposal? Are you really His, or have you kept back a bit of yourself from the surrender? You say, We are not our own; we are bought with a price. But do you really mean it? I am afraid that there is a kind of mortgage on some Christians. They have some part they must give, as they fancy, to their own aggrandisement. They are not all for Christ. We will not buy, end we will not sell, unless we can glorify God by buying and selling; and we will not wish even for the honest gain that comes of trading unless we can be prorooting the will of God by getting it. Our best profit will consist in doing Gods will. May this be your resolve, then. Let this clause, If the Lord will, be written across your life, and let us all set ourselves to the recognition of God in the future. (C. H.Spurgeon.)

If the Lord will

I. Here is DISSUASION FROM PRESUMPTION–from thoughtless, reckless confidence in the immediate future, in the year that is thought about, and in the self that is to make it so and so. When we look at the scheme of life they draw out, it is all planned and purposed as if they had absolute control over events, over other men, over themselves, almost over God. He is not needed. He is not to be consulted. To-day or to-morrow we will go into such a city. But are you sure you will reach it? What if the carriage in which you travel meets with some dreadful disaster? What if the vessel in which you sail should be suddenly wrapped in flames?

II. Let us look now at THE POSITIVE SIDE, although this has been of necessity involved in what we have said of the negative.

1. First comes a distinct realisation and acknowledgment of God. He who would spend a good year must begin it and go through it seeing God. If the Lord will, we ought to say–then of course there is a Lord God to will, and work, direct, watch, and keep.

2. Again, this passage teaches us that the Lord has a will in everything that enters into a mans life. If the Lord will. That is what we are to say at all times, but with emphasis at the beginning of a year.

3. One thing more we notice as in some sort belonging to this passage–this, namely, that life can be great and good, and according to the will of God, not only, yet best, by things done, by a series of activities. If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that. I would not here set forth doing, in the narrow mechanical sense, as opposed to speaking, or thinking, or feeling. Some words are acts, some thoughts, some feelings are also acts. All real thought and feeling is action to God. But undoubtedly the reference is chiefly here to outward action–to what is visible and tangible–thoughts embodied, feelings put into words, words put into action; everything made compact, consistent, harmonious. (A. Raleigh, D. D.)

Holy forms of speech

1. It is good to accustom the tongue to holy forms of speech; it is a great help; the heart is best where there are such explicit and express exceptions of Providence–If the Lord please, If the Lord will, If it please the Lord that I live. A pure lip becometh a Christian. Besides, it is useful to stir up reverence in ourselves, and for others instruction. Such forms are confessions of Divine providence and the uncertainty of human life.

2. The children of God use them frequently (1Co 4:19; 1Co 16:7; Rom 1:10; Php 2:19). The children of God know that all their goings are ordered by the Lord; therefore they often use these reservations of His will and power (Gen 28:20; Heb 6:3).

3. The very heathens, by the light of nature, were wont to use these forms with some religion, and would seldom speak of any purpose of theirs without this holy parenthesis. Plato bringeth in Alcibiades asking Socrates how he should speak; he answereth, Before every work thou must say, If God will.

4. When we use these forms, the heart must go along with the tongue; common speeches, wherein Gods name is used, if the heart be not reverent, are but profanations.

5. It is not always necessary to express these forms; though there must be always either implicitly or expressly a submission to the will of God, yet we cannot make it a sin to omit such phrases. The holy men of God have often purposed things to come, and yet not formally expressed such conditions. (T. Manton.)

A holy frame of mind

I. THE REASONS FOR THIS FRAME OF MIND.

1. Death or want of ability often prevents the execution of our best plans.

2. The plans of others often conflict with ours, or ours with theirs, and so neutralise one another.

3. We are often deprived of the opportunity or the desire to carry out our plans, but all under the guidance of God.

II. ITS FRUITS. It will make us–

1. Careful in laying;

2. Thankful for the success of;

3. Submissive to and satisfied with the frustration of, our most cherished plans and desires. (J. J. Van Oosterzee.)

Recognition of Gods will

It is a special point of godliness in all things that are to be done, first, to make honourable mention of the Lords will and pleasure, and evermore to recount and record our own frailness, and in all things to say, if the Lord will, and if we live, we will do this or that. Our whole life relieth upon Him, our whole state standeth upon His only pleasure, all our condition is only in His hands, without His leave we can do nothing; let us therefore refer all things to His will. And this is not only true in walking after the law of God, and directing our lives according to His will, which without His special grace cannot be, but of the whole course of our life, which is altogether directed by His providence, wherefore in all things men ought to prefer the will of God. To which purpose our Saviour Christ putteth the petition, concerning the will of God, before the things appertaining unto this life. This even reason itself, besides the Word of God, teacheth us; for is it not reason that we should say, by His leave we will do this or that, from whom we have our life, our moving, and being? And this we have from God. Is it not reason, then, that we should yield ourselves under His will? (R. Turnbull.)

The wisdom of the Divine will

Bishop Vincent, who was General Grants pastor at Galena, Illinois, has been telling a fine story of the General
They were walking together one moonlight night in Washington, shortly after the war, but before Grant became President, when the Bishop remarked on the peculiarity of the despatches which the General had sent from the field. It has been noticed, he said, that you never speak of God or invoke the Divine aid, and uncharitable critics have commented unfavourably on the fact. That is true, replied Grant, in his quiet way. The other side were always calling on God, but I thought it better to trust more and say less. At the same time, I always had the most implicit faith in a superior wisdom, and none of my plans ever miscarried without a better result than if they had been fulfilled.

A principle, not a rule

Rules are given that they may be observed literally. Principles are given that they may be applied intelligently and observed according to their spirit. We do not obey Christ when we allow the thief who has taken our upper garment to have our under one also; nor do we obey St. James when we say, If the Lord will, or Please God, of every future event, and make a plentiful use of D.V. in all our correspondence. St. James means that we should habitually feel that moment by moment we are absolutely dependent upon God, not only for the way in which our lives are henceforth spent, but for their being prolonged at all. (A. Plummer, D. D.)

Ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil

Boasting

It will be profitable for us to consider carefully, and to examine ourselves after reviewing them, some of the principal grounds of boasting prevalent amongst us, the vanity of which God has exposed in His Word and in the daily experience of mankind.

I. The most prominent and universal of these is the Pharisees boast, God, I thank Thee that I am not as other men are; the boast of self-righteousness or the refuge of fear, the vaunt of self-complacency or the consolation of a conscience not at ease, the hollow comfort of souls that have heard of a wrath to come, but have not learnt the way to flee from it. The mother does not look upon her fairest children with more pride than the heart of man is prone to feel in looking at the works of its own service and contemplating the fruits of its own goodness. Every act of charity, every deed of grace, every observance of religious duty, the very emotions of religious faith or sentiment, all are turned into food for pride and the strength of a security most insecure.

II.
The wicked boasteth of his hearts desire.
The heart is proud of its idols and is content to worship them; the happy mother boasts of her children and rejoices without trembling over the frailest gift of God; the fond wife clings to her husband and in the strength of her proud reverence and love rests the confidence of her soul if trouble comes to try it. And man makes his boast in the grateful love that surrounds him; he is proud of the hearts that draw their happiness and hopes from him; he gathers the tender ones about him and says with quiet satisfaction, Behold, I and the children whom God hath given me; and so our dearest affections become snares of pride, evil rejoicings, to lull the heart in a false security, to fill it with a peace which is no peace, to strengthen it with motives which are not of Heaven, to wrap it in a short-lived satisfaction, a glorying which is not in the Lord, the light of such happiness as a moment may turn to the darkness of the deepest midnight. From this vain boasting of the heart spring the deepest anguish and sorest trials of our lives.

III. They that trust in their wealth and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches, whose inward thought is that their houses shall endure for ever and their dwelling-places to all generations; the purse-proud or the rank-proud, who hath said in his heart I shall not be moved for I shall never be in adversity, who is not in trouble as other men, neither is he plagued like other men, to whom one day telleth another the same unvarying tale of his prosperity, to whom the world bows down as it bows to every image of the world-god, Mammon, these are types of a false security, such as their lowest worshippers know how to estimate: envy itself) as it looks askance upon them, remembers the rich man in the parable and half-renounces its greediness; and all but the poor deluded boasters themselves remember him who had got together the fruits of an abundant harvest and bade his soul take her ease, eat, drink and be merry, till he was arrested by the terrible voice of God declaring to him, Thou fool! this night shall thy soul be required of thee; then whose shall those things be which thou hast provided?

IV. The boast of youth is strength, the energy of health unbroken by long sickness, the vigour of the hope undaunted by disappointment, the bloom of an unwrinkled cheek, the joy of an untried spirit, the activity of fresh affections and the glowing power to love, the confidence of its simple trust, the earnestness of its crude opinions, the warmth of its zeal, the fire of its devotion; in these youth makes its boast and only finds that its rejoicings are evil when the flower of its strength and beauty has faded, when its hopes have proved to be dreams, when its zeal has reaped the rewards of folly, when experience has made void its unripe judgment, when selfishness has swallowed up or ingratitude has ill requited the warmth of its early regards. And then comes the dreary season when if grace does not take possession of the soul vexation and sorrow are born, uneasiness begins to disturb the hearts unspiritual peace, the weary life-struggle commences, the struggle for progress without hope, for work without strength, for comfort without faith, for the refreshment of love without the power to give it, for the rewards of the world when the soul has acknowledged its vanity and respect for the world has departed.

V. Boast not thyself of to-morrow, for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth. This vain confidence in Time, this vague expectation of what shall be, sometimes takes treacherously the aspect of a holier trust and a more faithful boasting in the goodness and providence of God. Be wise and distinguish between the faith that waits patiently for the Lord, which looks to the morrow to confirm the blessings of to-day, and yet knows that the grace not secured to-day may not be vouchsafed to morrow, which has no fear of its days being cut short and its season of repentance brought to an untimely end, and yet would not postpone its repentance for an hour, knowing that now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation; whose hopes and plans are in the future, but it says, If the Lord will we shall live to do this or that;–distinguish this faith from the blind confidence which puts off the sad work of repentance to a more convenient season, which, while the Spirit is crying To-day if ye will hear His voice, answers inwardly, Nay, but it shall be to-morrow, and so keeps the great work of life ever one day in advance, till postponement breeds indifference, impunity begets boldness, out of boldness comes defiance, procrastination sears the conscience, and so the last hour of all, to which folly has resolved to delay its acceptance of Christs Atonement, is as full of security as if another morrow were still to come instead of the everlasting To-day of godless confusion, of impenitent remorse, of undying death; an Eternity without a future, but full of the vain boastings and evil rejoicings and shocking delusions of the past; haunted by the echoes of that fatal word which was once the souls boast and stay, and still wailing in hopeless impotence the old dreary strain, To-morrow. (A. J.Macleane, M. A.)

Boastful glorying

A man who stood high in the city observed, with great satisfaction, that he had in a single morning cleared 30,000 by a speculation. A brother merchant remarked that he ought to be very grateful to Providence for such good fortune; whereupon the successful merchant snapped his fingers, and said, Providence! pooh! that for Providence! I can do a deal better for myself than Providence can ever do for me. He who heard the observation walked away, and resolved never to deal with such a man again except upon cash principles, for he felt sure that a crash would come sooner or later. Great was the indignation of the man who stood high in the city when he was told, If you and I are to have dealings it must be on strictly ready-money terms. He was insulted; he would not endure it; he would go to another house. That other house welcomed his custom, and in due time it was repaid by losing many thousands. (C. H.Spurgeon.)

Evil boasting

Some of those who despise religion say: Thank God we are not of this holy number. They who thank God for their unholiness had best go ring the bells for joy that they shall never see God. (Old English Author.)

Boastings

The noun is defined by Aristotle as the character of the man who lays claim to what will bring him credit when the claim is either altogether false or grossly exaggerated. He contrasts it; with the irony which deliberately, with good or bad motive, understates its claim. (Dean Plumptre.)

The danger of the boaster

Two geese, when about to start southwards on their annual autumn migration, were entreated by a frog to take him with them. On the geese expressing their willingness to do so if a means of conveyance could be devised, the frog produced a stalk of long grass, got the two geese to take it one by each end, while he clung to it by his mouth in the middle. In this manner the three were making their journey successfully when they were noticed from below by some men, who loudly expressed their admiration of the device, and wondered who had been clever enough to discover it. The vainglorious frog, opening his mouth to say It was me, lost his hold, fell to the earth and was dashed to pieces. (J. Gilmour, M. A.)

To him that knoweth to do good, and dosth it not

Sins of emission

It is hard for men under the plain precepts of the gospel not to know how to do good; but who is there that can say he doth all the good he knows? To do good here doth not barely imply something that is lawful, which it is some way in our power to do; but that to which we are under some obligation, so that it becometh our duty to do it. For a sin of omission must suppose an obligation, since every sin must be a transgression of the law.

I. THE GOOD WHICH WE ARE OBLIGED TO DO.

1. With respect to God.

(1) The duty which we owe to God in our minds; which is, not barely to know Him, but frequently to think of Him as our maker and benefactor.

(a) To have frequent and serious thoughts of Him, without which it will be impossible to keep our minds in that temper which they ought to be

172 in. For the thoughts of God keep up a vigorous sense of religion, inflame our devotion, calm our passions, and are the most powerful check against the force of temptations.

(b) We are always bound to have an habitual disposition of mind towards God. This is that which is commonly called the love of God, and is opposed to the love of sin.

(2) There are duties of external worship and service owing to God; and how shall we know when the omission of these becomes a sin to us? For these are not always necessary, and sometimes we may be hindered from them. To answer this I lay down these rules:

(a) A constant or habitual neglect of those duties which God hath appointed for His worship and service cannot be without a sin of omission, because that must arise from an evil temper and disposition of mind.

(b) Whether the omission of such public duties of Divine worship be a sin or not depends very much on the reason and occasion of it.

2. But besides the duties which we owe to God, there are such which we owe to one another, which cannot be omitted without sin. But there are certain such duties which we owe both to the public and to one another.

(1) As to the public, and concerning that we may take notice of two rules:

(a) Those duties cannot be omitted without sin which cannot be omitted without prejudice to the public Rood. The main duty of this kind which I shall insist upon is the laying aside all animosities and distinctions of parties, and carrying on that which is the undoubted common interest of us all.

(b) Men cannot without sin omit the doing those duties which their places do require from them. For those are intended for a public benefit.

(2) I now proceed to the good which we are to do with respect to others of the same nature and in a worse condition than ourselves, and therefore need our help and assistance.

(a) That the measures of duty in this case are very different, according to the different circumstances and conditions of persons.

(b) There are particular seasons when a greater measure of doing good is required than at others: i.e., when persons suffer for religion and a good conscience; when the necessities of people are more general and pressing; when great objects of charity are certainly known to ourselves and concealed from others, &c.

II. THE NATURE OF THE OBLIGATION WE LIE UNDER TO DO THE GOOD WE KNOW. And the reason of considering this is from the comparison Of several duties with one another; for we may be bound to several things at the same time, but we cannot perform them together; and the difficulty then is to understand which of these duties we may omit without sin.

1. As to the nature of our duties. For there are several kinds of things that are good, and we are to have a different regard to them (Hos 6:6; Mat 9:13; Mat 12:7). When two duties interfere with one another we are bound to prefer the greater and more substantial duty, and then the omission of the lesser is no sin.

2. As to the authority which requires them. There is no question but when the authority of God and man contradict each other, God is to be obeyed rather than man.

3. As to the obligation we are under, and that is threefold.

(1) That of nature, which is to act according to reason; and none can question that, but those who question whether there be any such principle as reason in mankind; and whosoever do so have reason to begin at home.

(2) Of Christianity, which supposes and enforces that of nature, and superadds many other duties which we are bound to perform as Christians.

(3) Of our several relations and particular employments. As to the former, we are under great obligations from God and nature and Christianity to do the duties which belong to us in them. As to the latter, they commonly require a stricter obligation by oath to do those things which otherwise we are not bound to do. But being entered into it by a voluntary act of our own, we cannot omit such duties without sin but where the circumstances of things do supersede the obligation. (Bp. Stillingfleet.)

The responsibility of knowledge

(with Joh 13:17)

Two texts, two sides to one and the same truth, two sides to one coin, back and front. The truth is this–Knowledge without action is simply good for nothing. Act up to what you know, or so much the worse for you. The first text puts it positively, If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them. The second text puts it negatively, To him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin–the mere neglect of doing right. If a man does not act up to his knowledge of right and good, he has committed positive sin. He not only loses his blessedness, but he–the most pure, moral man–is guilty of positive sin. Mere notional religion never saved a man yet. We have plenty of notional religion; we know what is right, every one of us. We know, I believe, pretty well in this congregation. We know the law of God, we know the gospel of God, we know the way of salvation, we have known it all our lives. These great truths, which are spending thousands of pounds to preach among the heathen; we who live in the full sunshine of that light, do we practise them? If we know these things, Jesus says, blessed are ye if ye do them. But how apt we are to rest satisfied with this miserable notional religion–seeing, believing, attending, listening, hearing, and nothing come of it after all. The Great Searcher of hearts searches right through all sophistry of that kind, and He tells us over and over again in His Word that hearing, knowing, assenting, and believing, simply goes for nothing, unless there is acting right in daily life. How apt we are to begin the New Year by making our plans as though we had a long lease of life before us. We think we shall do most wonderful things. We boast, and we rejoice in our boasting, that we can do this and that and the other thing. Purposes and plans of usefulness for ourselves and for the benefit of others we make most liberally; and how many of them come to anything after all? How apt we are to make the largest promises and yet fail in performing them–To him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin! Dear friends, have some of us begun the New Year with this feeling, that we really ought this year to be far more diligent in the keeping of our hearts. Perhaps you say: I acknowledge that my habits of private devotion are becoming careless and hurried and unsatisfactory; I really ought to study my Bible more frequently and systematically; I really ought to give more time to it; I really ought to pray with more feeling–prayer is not merely going through a certain form of words, but is really a coming to close grips with God, and bringing down a blessing from on high by earnest pleading–I really ought to do this; I ought to give more time to it. I confess that my time for devotion has been often sadly scamped and hurried. Devotion cannot be done in a hurry. Hurried devotion spoils all; as I have heard it put, cream does not come upon milk unless it stands. There is often a want in our devotions just owing to the hurried way we pass through them. I really must be different, you say. I will be more careful, more systematic in the study of my Bible. It is well to make resolutions of that kind, but remember that the very knowledge that you ought to do this is positive sin if it is neglected. Take another branch of Christian duty. We are very apt to make plans about the beginning of the New Year. Some are ready to say, I have been leading a very selfish life. God has given me many things to enjoy. He has been giving me time, He has been giving me money, or He has been giving me leisure, and I have just been using these things for my own enjoyment and pleasure and profit, forgetting that I must use them as committed to me as a steward who shall have to give account to God. I must make a better use of my money. I must look clearly, and see how much of my money I am giving to God, and how much I am keeping to myself. Perhaps it is time you have. I am bound, you say, to make a better use of my time. I acknowledge I have wasted a great deal of it uselessly and shamefully. I ought really to employ it differently. I ought to visit among the poor, and the sick, and the afflicted; I ought to try and comfort them more than I have been doing. I know I ought to use my opportunities so ante bring, were it only one soul, to the knowledge of the Saviour during the year. I know I ought. You feel you ought; you know you ought. Then you are guilty of deliberate sin if you dont. Judged from the ordinary standpoint, you may be all that is morally beautiful and amiable; but, if you know you ought to lead this useful life, and if you are leading a useless and indulgent life–To him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin. (F. H.Roberts.)

Sinful neglect of duty

I. That men sin not only when they positively transgress the law of God, BUT ALSO WHEN THEY DO NOT FULFIL THE DUTIES WHICH THE LAW REQUIRES TO THE UTMOST OF THEIR POWER. And–

II. That our guilt is more highly aggravated WHEN WE NEGLECT THE DUTIES WHICH ARE KNOWN TO US, or when we decline opportunities of doing good though we know that it is our duty to embrace them. Conclusion:

1. This subject administers a sharp reproof to those who, in any ease, attempt to evade their convictions of duty.

2. This subject administers reproof also to the slothful and inactive servant who rests content with low attainments in religion.. (R. Walker.)

Sin against knowledge

is sin with an accent, wickedness with a witness. (J. Trapp.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 13. Go to now] . Come now, the same in meaning as the Hebrew habah, come, Ge 11:3; Ge 11:4; Ge 11:7. Come, and hear what I have to say, ye that say, c.

To-day, or to-morrow, we will go] This presumption on a precarious life is here well reproved and the ancient Jewish rabbins have some things on the subject which probably St. James had in view. In Debarim Rabba, sec. 9, fol. 261, 1, we have the following little story; “Our rabbins tell us a story which happened in the days of Rabbi Simeon, the son of Chelpatha. He was present at the circumcision of a child, and stayed with its father to the entertainment. The father brought out wine for his guests that was seven years old, saying, With this wine will I continue for a long time to celebrate the birth of my new-born son. They continued supper till midnight. At that time Rabbi Simeon arose and went out, that he might return to the city in which he dwelt. On the way he saw the angel of death walking up and down. He said to him, Who art thou? He answered, I am the messenger of God. The rabbin said, Why wanderest thou about thus? He answered, I slay those persons who say, We will do this, or that, and think not how soon death may overpower them: that man with whom thou hast supped, and who said to his guests, With this wine will I continue for a long time to celebrate the birth of my new-born son, behold the end of his life is at hand, for he shall die within thirty days.” By this parable they teach the necessity of considering the shortness and uncertainty of human life; and that God is particularly displeased with those …

“Who, counting on long years of pleasure here,

Are quite unfurnished for a world to come.”

And continue there a year, and buy and sell] This was the custom of those ancient times; they traded from city to city, carrying their goods on the backs of camels. The Jews traded thus to Tyre, Sidon, Caesarea, Crete, Ephesus, Philippi, Thessalonica, Corinth, Rome, &c. And it is to this kind of itinerant mercantile life that St. James alludes. See at the end of this chapter (Jas 4:17).

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

Go to now; either this is a note of transition, or of command to inferiors, or rather of admonition to such as are stupid or rash, and tends to the awakening their attention, and stirring them up to the consideration of their duty, danger, &c.

Ye that say; either with your mouths, or in your hearts.

To-day or to-morrow we will go into such a city; not, let us go, but, we will go, in the indicative mood; noting the peremptoriness of their purposes, and their presuming upon future times and things, which were not in their power.

And continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: he doth not condemn merchants travelling into other countries, nor trading there, nor designing gain by their trade, nor forecasting their business; but their promising themselves the continuance of their life, the accomplishing their designs, and the success of their labours, without respect to Gods providence and direction, as if their times and their works were in their own hands, not in his.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

13. Go to now“Come now”;said to excite attention.

ye that sayboastingof the morrow.

To-day or to-morrowasif ye had the free choice of either day as a certainty. Others read,”To-day and to-morrow.”

such a cityliterally,”this the city” (namely, the one present to the mind of thespeaker). This city here.

continue . . . a yearrather,”spend one year.” Their language implies that when this oneyear is out, they purpose similarly settling plans for to come[BENGEL].

buy and sellTheirplans for the future are all worldly.

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

Go to now, ye that say,…. The apostle passes from exposing the sin of detraction, and rash judgment, to inveigh against those of presumption and self-confidence; and the phrase, “go to now”, is a note of transition, as well as of attention, and contains the form of a solemn and grave address to persons, who either think within themselves, or vocally express, the following words, or the like unto them:

today, or tomorrow, we will go into such a city; in such a country, a place of great trade and merchandise; as Tyre then was in Phoenicia, Thessalonica in Macedonia, Ephesus in Asia, and others: some render this as an imperative, or as an exhortation, “let us go”, which does not alter the sense.

And continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain; as is customary for merchants to do; nor does the apostle design by this to condemn merchandise, and the lawful practice of buying and selling, and getting gain; but that men should not resolve upon those things without consulting God, and attending to his will, and subjecting themselves to it; and without considering the uncertainty and frailty of human life; as well as should not promise and assure themselves of success, of getting gain and riches, as if those things were in their own power, and had no dependence upon the providence and blessing of God.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

Go to now ( ). Interjectional use of (from ) as in 5:1 (only N.T. instances) with a plural verb ( , present active articular participle, ye that say) as is common in ancient Greek like (Mt 26:65).

Today or tomorrow ( ). Correct text (Aleph B), not (and).

Into this city ( ). Old demonstrative , rare in N.T. (Lu 10:39) save in neuter plural (these things Ac 21:11). One would point out the city on the map (Mayor) as he made the proposal (we will go, ).

And spend a year there ( ). Another future (active of ). “We will do a year there.”

And trade ( ). Future middle of (, , to go in), old verb from (a merchant or trader, a drummer, one going in and getting the trade, Mt 13:45), a vivid picture of the Jewish merchants of the time.

And get gain ( ). Future (Ionic form) active of , old verb from (gain, Php 1:21), as in Mt 16:26.

Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament

Go to now [ ] . Go to is an obsolete phrase, though retained in Rev. It is a formula for calling attention : come now.

Such a city [ ] . More accurately, as Rev., this city. Continue there a year [ ] . Lit., we will make a year. See, for the same form of expression, Act 14:33; Act 18:23; 2Co 11:25. Better, as Rev., spend a year there. (Compare the A. V., Act 18:23, rightly retained by Rev.) The word poihsomen implies more than mere continuance; rather, a doing something with the year.

And. The frequent use of the copulative gives a lively tone to the passage, expressive of the lightness and thoughtlessness of a careless spirit. Buy and sell [] . Rev., more concisely, trade. Only here and 2Pe 2:3.

Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament

1) A literal translation is: “Be gone and stay gone, you who would make plans for trading and buying and merchandising in an uncertain city, tomorrow or the next day,” and stay for a year trading. It is God who gives you the life to make purposes and plans, consider Him,” Pro 27:1; Luk 12:18.

2) This is a sharp rebuke to the material minded Christian Jew in dispersion who had drifted into bartering, trading, and commercial matters, without regard to Christian principles in seeking the will of Christ for themselves and their friends first, Mat 6:33; Eph 5:15-17.

3) This attitude is so much like the rich barn builder, Luk 12:14-21.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

13 Go to now. He condemns here another kind of presumption, that many, who ought to have depended on God’s providence, confidently settled what they were to do, and arranged their plans for a long time, as though they had many years at their own disposal, while they were not sure, no not even of one moment. Solomon also sharply ridicules this kind of foolish boasting, when he says that

“

men settle their ways in their heart, and the Lord in the mean time rules the tongue.” (Pro 16:1.)

And it is a very insane thing to undertake to execute what we cannot pronounce with our tongue. James does not reprove the form of speaking, but rather the arrogance of mind, that men should forget their own weakness, and speak thus presumptuously; for even the godly, who think humbly of themselves, and acknowledge that their steps are guided by the will of God, may yet sometimes say, without any qualifying clause, that they will do this or that. It is indeed right and proper, when we promise anything as to future time, to accustom ourselves to such words as these, “If it shall please the Lord,” “If the Lord will permit.” But no scruple ought to be entertained, as though it were a sin to omit them; for we read everywhere in the Scriptures that the holy servants of God spoke unconditionally of future things, when yet they had it as a principle fixed in their minds, that they could do nothing without the permission of God. Then as to the practice of saying, “If the Lord will or permit,” it ought to be carefully attended to by all the godly.

But James roused the stupidity of those who disregarded God’s providence, and claimed for themselves a whole year, though they had not a single moment in their own power; the gain which was afar off they promised to themselves, though they had no possession of that which was before their feet.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES

Jas. 4:13. Such a city.This city; the one the speaker is supposed to have in mind.

Jas. 4:14. What shall be.What your life shall be on the morrow. Vanisheth away.Alford, vanisheth as it appeared.

Jas. 4:15. Ought to say.Lit. instead of saying.

Jas. 4:16. Boastings.Same word as translated pride of life in 1Jn. 2:16. The undue self-confidence of the ungodly. Ye glory in your braggings. Aristotle defines the term as indicating the character of the man who lays claim to what will bring him credit, when the claim is altogether false or grossly exaggerated.

Jas. 4:17. Doeth it not.Inconsistency is of the very essence of sin. Supposing him not to do it. Illustrate by Polloks figure of the sentence ever in the vision of lost soulsYe knew your duty, and ye did it not.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.Jas. 4:13-17

Self-confidence in Our Life-plans.St. James has still in mind the same wrong mood of self-reliance and self-assertion. It is altogether unbecoming to those who have professed to make full surrender of their hearts and wills and lives to Christ. Its evil influence is seen in the relations and associations of Christians. This St. James has already shown. Now he shows that it will make the Christian professor look wrongly at his own life, take it out of the hand of God, and try to manage it himself. It leads him to say what he will do, and what he will not do, without any acts of loving dependence upon Godwithout any thought that his times are altogether in Gods hands, and that he has no to-morrow until God gives it to him, and then he must call it to-day. St. Jamess teaching recalls to mind our Lords parable of the rich fool, who made his plans for many a year, and died the very night after he had made his resolves (Luk. 12:16).

I. Human life is in a sense in human control.The earth hath He given to the sons of men. Every man has a right to anticipate that he will live through to old age; and every man ought to look upon the life given to him as the scene on which he is to put his impress, and in which he is to show his energy, ministering to his generation. Every man ought to have

(1) a consciousness of power;
(2) a noble aim;
(3) a well-formed plan; and
(4) a persistent energy in carrying through his plan. Life is, to every man, very much what he chooses to make of it. It is true that he is surrounded by forces that are wholly beyond his control, and that keep him in limitations; but it is also true that he is entrusted with forces, which he is able to control and use in order to carry through plans and purposes which he may form. To each individual whom God sets forth in His world, He repeats the command given to the first man whom He made.Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. It does not honour God to detract from the dignity and independence of the creature that He was pleased to make in His own image. And we may be sure that all advanced truths of revelation are perfectly consistent with the primary truths of nature. To a great extent, then, human life is in human control. A man may properly think over and decide what he shall do with it, where he shall bestow all his fruits and his goods. The business man is doing quite right when he anticipates the markets, and plans his productions accordinglywhen he says to himself, To-day or to-morrow we will go into this city, and spend a year there, and trade, and get gain. The thing planned is not wrong. The spirit of the planning may be altogether wrong. And it is the self-seeking, self-confident spirit in the planning with which St. James alone has to deal in this passage.

II. Human life is, in a sense, not in human control.There is an overruling plan for every life which God makes, and holds as His own secret, so that it shall not, unnecessarily, interfere with mans free experiment. It includes the length, the spheres, the bodily and mental powers, the circumstances, and the issues. Every life that has ever been lived was a Divinely shaped puzzle-piece, and fitted in precisely to its place in the making of the great picture of humanity. All true life has a Divine plan, does Gods work, and submits to His leading. As Dr. Bushnell so skilfully puts it, God has a definite life-plan for every human person, girding him, visibly or invisibly, for some exact thing, which it will be the true significance and glory of his life to have accomplished. There is a definite and proper end, or issue, for every mans existence,an end which, to the heart of God, is the good intended for him, or for which he was intended; that which he is privileged to become, called to become, ought to become; that which God will assist him to become, and which he cannot miss, save by his own fault. Every human soul has a complete and perfect plan cherished for it in the heart of Goda Divine biography marked out, which it enters into life to live. This life, rightly unfolded, will be a complete and beautiful whole, an experience led on by God and unfolded by His secret nurture, as the trees and the flowers, by the secret nurture of the world; a drama cast in the mould of a perfect art, with no part wanting; a Divine study for the man himself, and for others; a study that shall for ever unfold, in wondrous beauty, the love and faithfulness of God; great in its conception, great in the Divine skill with which it is shaped; above all, great in the momentous and glorious issues it prepares. How human life can thus be, in a sense, within our own control, and, in a sense, altogether beyond our control, we may learn from family life. Parents fashion life-plans for their children, and move steadily towards their outworking, overcoming, within the limits of their power, all hindrances that come in their way. But under the parental control the children move to and fro quite freely, working out their own little plans, so mysteriously influenced by the parents that their little plans all bear towards the working out of the parents great ones. Lives go wrong when strong wilfulness in children forces their plan against the parental. So long as man keeps the child-spirit towards God, he is fully content that thus his life should be, and yet should not be, in his own control.

Theres a divinity that shapes our ends,
Rough-hew them how we will.

III. Human life is in the Divine control.It is not in man that walketh to direct his steps. I girded thee, though thou hast not known Me. For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall both live, and do this or that. St. James puts this truth into one particular: the uncertainty of the length of life to man; the control of the length of life which God has. There is always this reminder of God whenever man tries to plan the future. He cannot be sure that he will live to carry out his plan. Thou fool, this night thy soul is required of thee. Let any man sit down to make a plan for to-morrow, for next year, and there must come into his soul this reminder of the Divine control over our morrows. What is your life? For ye are a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.

To-morrow, Lord, is Thine,

Lodged in Thy sovereign hand;

And if its sun arise and shine,

It shines by Thy command.

IV. Within Divine control life is within human control.And this is the precise attitude and relation in which the Christian stands. The Divine control he is fully assured of, and in it he greatly rejoices. But it in no way interferes with his sense of personal responsibility, with his energy and enterprise. He plans, as other men plan; he looks forward, as other men look forward; he works toward an aim, as other men work toward an aim. But there is a cherished mood of humility, submission, and dependence in him which the worldly man knows nothing of. When that mood finds expression in words, it says, If the Lord will, we shall both live and do this or that. What is wrong is

(1) the vauntings of self-confidence, as if we had full control of our lives, which we have not; and, on the other hand
(2) the fatalismwhatever pietistic form it may takewhich leads us to think or to say we have no control of our lives, and therefore it is of no use to plan, or to anticipate and provide for the future. True religion ennobles a mans manlinessit never enfeebles or crushes it. In everything that is manly the Christians sense of God should make him more manly. And it is manly and Christian to grip life with a strong hand. Life is entrusted to us that we may spend it in working out Gods plan, through working out our own; and man is immortal till his work is done. Find out the plan of God in your generation, and then beware lest you cross that plan, or fail to find your own place in it (Prince Albert). Our work is but a segment in the great sphere of Gods eternal work; and if we have eyes to see, we may read in that portion of His work which belongs to us our name and the date of the present year (Pastor Monod).

SUGGESTIVE NOTES AND SERMON SKETCHES

Jas. 4:13. Over-confidence a Sign of Selfishness.We will. The man says I will who is determined to get for himself. It is that getting for self which puts all the strength into the I will. Notice how differently men speak when the matter concerns some one else. If they are asked to do a kind deed, how cautious they become, what qualifications they put upon their promises: they will try; they will see if they can find the means and opportunity; but there never is the We will of self-centredness. It is true that there must be more strength and energy put into our own concerns, and it is the excess of confidence, not the confidence within wise limitations, which St. James reproves. What is called success in life is often the response to self-willed energy.

I. The over-confident man chiefly thinks about himself.He would never be over-confident if he did not. It is just that circling of all his interests about himself, just that self-satisfaction, which makes him so confident. The man may be best seen in the boy. The boasting, bragging boy is self-centred, conceited, always talking about himself, and telling what he is going to do. And such a boy is usually left alone by his comrades, to enjoy the self of which he makes so much.

II. The over-confident man chiefly plans for himself.The particular impulse to undue confidence is self-interest. This man is going to buy and sell and get gain for himself, and that accounts for the determination, the decided resolve, the I will. See what other considerations come in when a man plans for others. The best for them puts limitations on his positiveness. He knows what he would like, but he is not so sure what they would like. And he is strangely alive to hindrances and difficulties when he plans for others, which he never allows to disturb him when he plans for himself.

III. The over-confident man does not take God into his thought.To do so at once puts limits on self-will; because if God is taken into account, our will must be ever kept in harmony with His will.

Plan-making.With that absolute confidence in every truth that was true, though it might seem to conflict with some other truth, which was characteristic of the great Teacher, He both commended and condemned forethought. Wise attention to the responsibilities of the future, and careful preparation to meet them worthily, our Lord commended, when He spoke of the king taking serious counsel as to his ability to meet the advancing enemy. Worryful restlessness and fear, that people the future with nothing but ghostly shapes of disaster and woe, He condemned in His paradoxical way, by bidding His disciples even take no thought for the morrow.

I. The duty of making plans.We cannot be intelligent and moral beings without recognising the duty of making plans. It is essential to developed manhood that it should have an aim in life. A man, to be a man, must have something to live forsomething that he means to attain, or means to win. If he has, he cannot but order and shape his life so as to secure his aim; and that is making a plan. The duty is seen if we realise what the human life is that has no plan. What sort of a man is that who never makes anywho never sees beyond the place of his next footfallwho is satisfied if he is fed, and clothed, and gets a little pocket-money for his self-indulgences? Do you call that a man made in the image of God? There are very many around us who are in that way simply drifting down into eternity. They need to be shaken and aroused. They need to be told that they have a future. The uncertainty of life is not the supreme thing for them to take into account. They need to say to themselves, and in a very resolute way, I have got to live, and I must plan to make the very best of my life. Let no man think it is pious to imagine that he is going to die, and then let the imagination relax his moral muscles, and make his hands hang down. It is the duty of every man to make plans, to cover his life with plansto use his judgment and his business ability, and so to make the best of both worlds, but first of this. If a man has not done nobly and well with the trust of this life which God has committed to him, how can he expect, or how can he be fitted for, the higher trusts of the life to come?

II. The revelation of mens characters in their plan-making.When imagination overmasters judgment, a mans plans are but baseless, dreamy, hopeless castles in the air. When a man has gained but little self-restraint or skill in self-management, he plans so foolishly, and has so little power to carry out his plans, that he is constantly making plans, each new one as practically hopeless as those he made before. When a man is over-confident of himself, his plans are so absurdly big that no giant could ever carry them through. Men can always be searched through and through, if you can only get them to tell you their idea and hope for the future. Religion, because it tones and harmonises all a mans faculties, and because it cultures the noblest elements of human character, helps a man to make sober, wise, reasonable, and workable life-plans. Religion does not crush the ambition that aims at high things. It inspires to really higher things than the man of the world can imagine, but it delivers from the self-interest and self-seeking and self-confidence which make the ambition seek unreasonable things, unworthy things, and things that can only be attained at the disadvantage and suffering of others. It is a matter worth taking into serious account that we are all disclosed to men, and to God, by the plans we have made for our lives.

III. The cherished spirit that ought to be behind all plan-making.St. James tells us what that spirit should be. He does not mean that always and everywhere we should be qualifying our speech by inserting the sentence, If the Lord will. The man he introduces is making his plans by himself, he is talking them over to himself; he is not telling other people about them. He speaks thus in his heart; and as a man thinketh in his heart, so he is. And the advice given is for the same private sphere. When a man is making his plans, he should be saying to himself, If the Lord will. This should represent the spirit that he cherishesthe spirit which gives character and tone to all his schemes. Is such a spirit in any sense at all unmanly? Nay, it is essential to truest manliness, if man is a creature, if man is a son, if man is a servant. To take life masterfully into our own hands, and say, It shall be just as I wish, is not to be a man at all; it is to make claim to be an independent beinga godwhich man is not. But that spirit which ought to be behind all our plan-making is not easy to gain or easy to maintain. It has its rootage in right relations with God. It gains its support in our constantly keeping up those right relations.

IV. The influence of that spirit on the outworking and the issue of our life-plans.When a mans self-will is in his plans, he will put forth a tremendous energy, and resolutely persevere. Does not the spirit of dependence on God pluck away a mans energy, and make his efforts fitful and uncertain? Such a question may be asked, and with some reasonableness, for Christians are sometimes very inefficient in the business of life, and in its battle. The children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light. But this is a matter of weakness of natural disposition, and is not to be charged to the influence of Christian principle. What is true is, that the cherished spirit of dependence at once inspires energy and tones it. It does give a man a calmness and a self-restraint which qualify the intensities and extravagances of human energy; but it knits the whole forces of a mans nature together in such a way as to give the man the highest power for the life-struggle.

Jas. 4:13-15. Negative and Positive Christian Duties.The instruction here lies before us in a twofold formthe persuasive and the hortatory, the negative and the positive, what we are not to think and feel and do, and what we are to think and feel and do.

1. Here is dissuasion from presumptionfrom thoughtless, reckless confidence in the immediate future, in the year that is thought about, and in the self that is to make it so and so. The whole spirit of the persons here instructed and warned is full of presumptuousness, inconsiderateness, headstrong wilfulness. It is as if they had absolute control over events, over other men, over themselves, almost over God. It is not the self that is objected to, but the self alonethe self self-poised, self-nourished, self-directed, self-sustained: let it have direction from heaven, and inspiration of God, and secret nourishment from the fountain of His all-sufficiency, and the self is then the best thing in the world.

2. The spirit here condemned is a spirit of worldliness. What is worldliness? It is buying and selling and getting gain, and spending the strength of life and its years in that. But it is not the act; it is the motive in the act, the principle that rules it, the end that is sought by it, that makes it evil. To be unworldly is to be unsordid, unslippery, unselfish. It is to be honest, true, tender, generous, spiritual, devout. Look now at the positive side.

1. A distinct realisation and acknowledgment of God. If the Lord will, we ought to saythen of course there is a Lord God to will, and work, direct, watch, and keep.

2. The Lord has a will in everything that enters into a mans life. There is no difficulty in understanding the will of God in the greatest things; there is in the smaller and seemingly unimportant things. What are we to do? Acknowledge God; ascertain His will concerning yourself, as far as you can; walk in the light of it, do it faithfully, and all else will unfold. Keep and cultivate the spirit of devoutness, of dependence, of submissiveness, of obedience, of godliness.Alexander Raleigh, D.D.

Jas. 4:14. What is your life?Various answers are given to this question by men according to their disposition, experience, state of mind at the time, and degree of faith. The Bible images and conceptions of life are sleep, flood, grass, tale told, flower, vapour. The materialist, the philosopher, Voltaire, man who has lost and wept, man who has sinned deeply, and the Christian, would each give a different answer to this question. Our views of life change with changing time. Two mistakes are often made: the one in making too much of life, as if it were everything; the other in making too little of life, as if it were nothing.

I. Some considerations which make us think that life is small and mean.

1. Common and valueless thing, because it seems to exist in such quantities. Valuable things are rare. Look at multitudes in great cities, in Chinathe infant mortality which seems to imply that life is a very cheap thing.

2. Its shortness. Things that do not last long are not regarded as worth much. Life is done before almost anything is completed.

3. The way it deceives men. Its appearances and promises are fallacious. An illusion, if not a delusion. The whole of life seems to be constructed on the principle of luring men on by the hope of one thing, and then giving them either nothing or something else.

4. For the great mass of people life escapes being an illusion only because it is so complete a drudgery. They wear harness almost without intermission. They are in the track, and round they must go.

5. If life were of value, surely men would have found out by this time that it is so. Yes; but life is allowed to slip through the impassive hands of men.

II. Some considerations which compel us to feel that life is great.To triflers only is life a trifle.

1. Life is great in its moral significance. Even the confusion of his nature, his self-contradiction, his waywardness, his resolute set towards evil, do not take from the greatness of the nature and the significance of the life.

2. Can human life be small when God once passed through it? A thing is sacred by its associations. The Almighty once wore this human life as a garment.

3. Think of the Holy Ghosts mission. A really Divine personal force in the place of human life transfigured; it gives infinite meaning.

4. Life is much to me, because it is mine. The only thing that is. My section cut out of the mass of ages. My handwriting on the huge scroll of time. My probation. This makes it of supreme value to me.

5. Life is great when we realise that it is passed on the edge of eternity. We have now all the significance that belongs to the spiritual and everlasting sphere, because we are, even now, all our life touching it. Surely this makes life an awful thing. We should not always be thinking of death. It depends entirely how we think of it. We should think of it, not to unman us, but to force us to be real. The sense of the possible nearness of death should make us collected and awed. What is my life? What do I wish it to be? Is Christ in it? is God in it? is hope in it? Is there eternal power in it? It is a vapour, a cloud. But there are different kinds of clouds. Let our life not be like those clouds which are chilled and fall to earth, but like those which soar upwards in the glory of the everlasting sun.John F. Ewing, M.A.

An Emblem of the Uncertainty of Life.For ye are a vapour. The point of the illustration lies in the transient character of vapour, steam, or mistthe breath of the mouth, the smoke from the chimney, the steam from the engine. It is palpable, but only for a while, and even while it is with us it is going, and soon it is gone. Uncertain in its going, for it is entirely dependent on the state of the atmosphere around. Life is like a vapour. It is here; but you cannot imprison and keep it. It is going even while it is here, and its time of going depends on so many things over which we have no control. If a man duly estimates the transient and uncertain character of human life, he cannot presume on any future, and make any absolute decisions as to what he will do and what he will not. For the figure see Job. 7:7; Psa. 102:3; Wis. 5:9-16.

Life a Vapour.We are not sure of life itself, since it is but as a vapour, something in appearance, but nothing solid or certain; it is easily scattered and gone. We can fix the hour and minute of the suns rising and setting to-morrow, but we cannot fix the certain time of a vapours being scattered. Such is our life: it appear but for a little time, and then vanisheth away; it vanisheth as to this world, but there is a life that will continue in the other world; and since this life is so uncertain, it concerns us all to prepare and lay up in store for that to come.Matthew Henry.

Human Life transitory.

I. How men make the mistake of regarding their life as something solid and stable.

1. They calculate upon the certain continuance of their strength.
2. They reckon on an indefinite prolonging of life. They think the next life will much resemble this.

II. The fact that human life is but a vapour.

1. The uncertainty of life.
2. The universal certainty of death.

III. How we may rectify these errors in ourselves.We should

1. Understand the reality of the case.
2. Become entirely reconciled to it.
3. Accommodate all our views, feelings, and plans to it.Dr. Kirk.

Lessons from Mist or Vapour.

I. Our first lesson is drawn from the ephemeral nature of vapour.

Like mist on the mountain, like waves of of the sea,
So quickly the years of our pilgrimage flee.

The time allotted to us here is none too long to fulfil the duties assigned us, and make preparation for the life which lies beyond. It is strange, indeed, that men should be so careless of the fact, even while they are profoundly convinced that there is a future for the soul, and that beyond the mists of this life there shall open an eternal day. It is not strange that those who are overwhelmed with the cares and pressing engagements and hard conflicts of this life should at times permit these things to dim their views of God, of coming judgment, and the heaven of the redeemed. But certain it is that the fact of these obscuring earth-born mists does not blot out the more substantial facts of God and eternity. This life hides heaven, but it comes out again with the vanishing mist. The vapour vanishes, but the day remains. Let us so live that we shall remain within the precincts of eternal day. It is the duty of man to think of his life in this its larger outlook. Our life is a vapour, but there are possibilities within it of which we never yet have dreamed.

II. The mist teaches that our brief life should be a life of blessing. The mist is one of the nutritive forces of nature. Our life may be a vapour in the benevolent phase of the figure of the text. Life is brief, but it may be a benediction. And God is best glorified by an honest endeavour on the part of every man to bring and keep a blessing within the world.

III. Our third lesson comes to us from the obedience of the mist to the will and law of the Creator. See Job. 37:7-8; Psa. 135:7; Psa. 148:7-8. We may well be shamed into our duty by the obedience to Divine law which is stamped everywhere upon the creatures of inanimate nature. From cloud, rain, and dew, from vapour of water, from mist, we expect, always expect, expect without deviation, qualification, or delay, most implicit discharge of the functions which the almighty Creator has imposed upon them. They never fail the hand that made them. They never go counter to the will whose force set them originally in play.

IV. Our last lesson comes from the use of mist as a symbol of judgment upon the wicked. See Act. 13:11; 2Pe. 2:17. In the one of these cases the judgment appears to have been a physical, in the other a spiritual one. The figurative expression mist is an apt symbol of that soul out of whose horizon the vision of the Sun of righteousness with healing in His wings has been permitted to drop away. If it be but a momentary mista vapour that appeareth for a little whileeven thus it is sad enough, for a life without the presence of Christ to brighten and bless it must be a hopeless one. The rejection of Christ, the doubt of unbelief, is a mist of darkness which can only deepen the misery of mans estate. It brings to him in this life restlessness, hopelessness, and despair. Let us devoutly hope that upon none of us shall this mist of darkness settle in the coming eternity. It is sometimes the case in Christian experience that there comes a glimpse of the horror of this mist of darkness in the form of spiritual fears and doubts. These do not cover the fundamental points of faith, but simply obscure the individuals hope as to his own interest in these great facts. Such may take this comfort. Mists love the lowlands. Forsake the lowlands of unbelief. Go higher! on wings of faith mount nearer to the throne, nearer to that hill whose healing cross is the central point of human hopes. As you draw near in reverent trust, there shall fall for you the light that, if it do not disperse all mists in this weary and wicked world of ours, shall at least lift your spirit out of them, and give you that sunshine which God appoints for His own.H. C. McCook, D.D.

Jas. 4:15. The Saying, If God will. Deo Volente.In the same way as Jews, with an over-literalness, put little boxes, containing the words of the law, on their foreheads and on their arms, so have Christians, with an over-literalness, put D.V. into their writings, and even into bills of services and meetings. No such formal obedience of St. Jamess injunction is either necessary or expected. And that over-literalness is in peril of nourishing a hypocritical or a pietistic sensationalism. Too often it comes to represent the Stand by, I am holier than thou kind of feeling, which most seriously injures our Christian relations. The spirit of dependence on God, and of entire submission to His will, is a spirit which must be cherished, but which, if cherished, will find its fitting expression in the tone and temper of all our words and intercourse, and never need gain any forced and precise utterance in a mere sentence. When it is the mood of the soul, all who have to do with us feel it; and that is better for them than merely hearing it; and certainly far better for us.

Acknowledging Gods Will.The Jews began nothing without an if God or if THE NAME (meaning God) will. And it was a saying of Ben Syra, a distinguished Jew, Let a man never say he will do anything before he says, If God will. So Cyrus, king of Persia, when, under the pretence of hunting, he designed an expedition into Armenia, upon which a hare started and was seized by an eagle, said to his friends, This will be a good or prosperous hunting to us, if God will. So Socrates says, But I will do this, and come unto thee tomorrow, if God will (Xenophons Cyropedia, lib. ii., cap. 25; Plato in Alcibiade, p. 135). And it is reported of the Turks that they submit everything to the Divine will, as the success of war, or a journey, or anything of the least moment they desire to be done; and never promise themselves or others anything but under this condition, Inshallah, that is, If God will.Ingram Cobbin, M.A.

Jas. 4:17. The Responsibility of Knowledge.It is a noble saying of Lotze, We do not honour God by elaborating proofs of His existence. We are still elaborating the proofs. Preaching is apologetic rather than declarative. The best way of honouring Jesus Christ is to believe His word, trust His grace, mark the triumphs of His saving power, and, for ourselves, to act on the facts we know. The text has two thingsan exhortation and a statement.

I. The exhortation.Act on what you know. We all know more than we live up to. We see Christianity very much more clearly in our intelligence than others witness it in our lives. We understand Jesus Christ better than we live Him. Our practice lags lumberingly behind our knowledge. Conscience is always ahead of conduct; knowing, of doing. In almost no respect do we practise, in morals, all we know. Now it is remarkable that, notwithstanding this state of things, our efforts are bent on increasing our knowledge rather than on improving our conduct. Men want to know all about Christianity before practising the A B CS. I find myself seeking to expound Christianity to your intelligence, when, just now, the far more urgent matter is to get the elements of Christianity, which all understand, into your conduct. It is just so that the wide discrepancy between our knowledge and our practice has obtained. We have pushed, and are still pushing, our knowledge of Christian teaching at the expense of our practice of Christian teaching. It is far more important to a well-rounded character to blot out this discrepancy than to push our intellectual comprehension of Jesus. The greater need is to practise, to act on what we know, not to know more. Besides, our present course ignores two important facts:

(1) The very end of knowledge is to be enacted; and
(2) to practise what we know is the very best way of extending our knowledge. He that willeth to do shall understand. Those people who insist on understanding all of Christian teaching before practising any of it never understand any of it profoundly. Jesus said His teaching had to be lived before it could fully certify itself. The exhortation of the text is a ringing one, and comes to our time with peculiar aptness and forceAct on what you know! It is an exhortation to Churches, as well as to individuals, and to the Church at large. Churches are still busy at work purging and elaborating and refining their creeds. Thus is Christianity of the head continually refined, while Christianity of the heart and conduct remains, on an average, below par. The demand of the hour upon the Church is, Bring up the rear; bring conduct up to conscience, practice up to profession; bring deeds up to knowledge. It is safe to say that if the Church should devote a generation to the effort to bring its life up to present statements of belief and knowledge, we might bring in the millennium.

II. There is here not only the exhortation, Act on what you knowbut the statement, If you do not, it is sin. Knowledge entails immediate responsibility, failure to meet which is sin. A man whose conduct falls short of his knowledge of what is right is a sinner. So a Church. To defer the doing of what we know of Christian teachinga right thingis to do a wrong thing; and, moreover, our omissions of known duty unfit us more and more for new dutiesindeed, for all duties: the movements of the soul are clogged by disuse. Ignorance of the law excuseth no man. The text refers only to those who know to do good, but who do it not. These are sinners, whether they are unsaved and neglect the salvation of which they are well informed, or Christians whose profession is one thing and whose practice is another, or Churches who spend their time expelling heretics while the poor and vicious and godless surge past their doors unpitied and unsought.E. M. Poteat.

Knowing with Doing.In the Beautiful Legend there is a strife between the call of duty to give out a dole of bread to the hungry, and the temptation to linger in religious ecstasy over a vision of Christ. But the true brother knew to do good, and did it; and, returning at the end of his work, found his cell full of the radiant presence of the Lord, and heard the words of gracious approval

Hadst thou stayed, I must have fled.

ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 4

Jas. 4:14-15.Providence acknowledged.With all our wish to inquire into the future, a thoughtful mind will not fail to acknowledge the wisdom and love of God in keeping it back from us. What little child, says the author of Recreations of a Country Parson, in an essay on the Art of Putting Thingswhat little child would have heart to begin the alphabet, if, before he did so, you put clearly before him all the school and college work of which it is the beginning? The poor little thing would knock up at once, wearied out by your want of skill in putting things. And so it is that Providence, kindly and gradually putting things, wiles us onward, still keeping hope and heart through the trials and cares of life. Ah! if we had had it put to us at the outset how much we should have to go through to reach even our present stage of life, we should have been ready to think it the best plan to sit down and die at once; but, in compassion for human weakness, the great Director and Shower of events practises the art of putting things.

Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell

THE PRESUMPTION OF PLANNING WITHOUT GOD

Text 4:1317

Jas. 4:13.

Come now ye that say, to-day or to-morrow we will go into this city, and spend a year there, and trade and get gain:

14.

whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. What is your life? For ye are a vapor that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.

15.

For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will we shall both live, and do this or that.

16.

But now ye glory in your vauntings; all such glorying is evil.

17.

To him therefore that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.

Queries

351.

Come now is an interjection used to gain attention. What interjection would you probably use to gain attention today?

352.

Comparing Jas. 4:13 with Jas. 5:1, what might be said about the financial status of the people addressed?

353.

Is there any evidence in the section of Jas. 4:13-17 that shows the people addressed are rich? What?

354.

Since James used the expression today or tomorrow, do you think there was anything indefinite about when the rich would trade and get gain?

355.

If the rich were making definite plans, then why does James say today or tomorrow?

356.

What about Jas. 4:13 shows that definite plans for the future were made?

357.

James is very indefinite in referring to these definite plans. Why?

358.

Is James condemning the making of definite plans about the future? What is he condemning?

359.

See if you can reword the question in the middle of Jas. 4:14 to make it a statement contained in the first sentence of the verse.

360.

James says ye know not what shall be on the morrow. Is this true of all men on earth? (Or does it only apply to these rich being addressed?)

361.

What is the point of the question of Jas. 4:14?

362.

You are a vapor. What does this mean?

363.

In Jas. 4:15 is James indicating that these words should be repeated before making plans for the future? If not that, then what does he mean?

364.

What is the significance of if the Lord Will? (Can you expand the expression and put it into your own words?

365.

What are the vauntings? (i.e. what does the word mean?)

366.

Over what vauntings are they glorying?

367.

This vaunting is evil. Why?

368.

What does Jas. 4:17 have to do with the argument that went before?

369.

Is James giving added information in Jas. 4:17, or proving a point?

370.

In either case, what is the added information, or what is the point?

Paraphrases

A. Jas. 4:13.

Come, come, now, you who plan your future trips and transactions even to the time that you shall do thus and so and even to the profit you shall make:

14.

You dont know a thing that shall happen to-morrow, not even whether or not you shall be alive. You are like a breath of smoke that is seen for a moment and then disappears.

15.

You make your plans this way instead of saying, If God sees fit to allow me, I shall live, and I shall do thus and so.

16.

Your plannings without God are really boasting in your arrogances: it is sin to boast against God.

17.

If you refuse to do that which you know to be right, it is sin.

B.*Jas. 4:13.

Look here, you people who say Today or tomorrow we are going to such and such a town, stay there a year and open up a profitable business.

14.

How do you know what is going to happen tomorrow? For the length of your lives is uncertain as the morning fog; now you see it, soon it is gone.

15.

What you ought to say is If the Lord wants us to, we shall live and do this or that.

16.

Otherwise, you will be bragging about your own plans, and such self-confidence never pleases God.

17.

Remember, too, that knowing what is right to do and then not doing it is sin.

Summary

Listen, you who lay out your life without God. It is sinful and arrogant when you refuse to take God into your plans.

Comment

Come, come, now says James. In effect, you know better than this! Had he been speaking with our modern vernacular he might have said, Listen here, now! This kind of an expression was used to gain the attention of the hearer; and in this case, to get them to notice, he had begun a diatribe with the unbelieving rich. Today the expression is still quite common in the English language to separate two opposing views when given by the same speaker in a public discourse, especially when the first view is incorrect and the second is correct. Here James seems to be using it to separate his real audience from his pretended audience.

Although the admonition given to the absent rich certainly applied to them, it likewise applies equally well to any Christian. If the shoe fits, wear it. But try it on for yourself! This practice of making plans for tomorrow without considering Gods will and the fact that God may have other plans is not only arrogant and presumptuous of the rich, but a sin for the Christian (Jas. 4:16-17).

James is not concerned with any particular plan, but wishes to admonish all such planning. His today or tomorrow includes any definite plans, whether in the near future or the far future. To make such plans without taking into account the fact that God may have other plans is wrong.
The error is not confined to the unbeliever who is not present, but is a mistake often made by the Christian worker. Young men and women who plan to go to this or that mission field after so many years training should be warned not to make their plans too definite nor too inflexible. God, who holds the future, might have other plans for them. He then might open avenues of service and training that go unnoticed by the would-be missionary. The young Christian, having definite future plans of his own, counts all closed doors as obstacles which the Lord must remove before the saint can work in the field of his choice. His inflexible planning may blind him for years to the will of God and opportunities of service and he would thus bypass much work that could have been done for the cause of Christ.
The Christian who thinks he must work in this or that particular job may be committing the same sin. The church member who thinks he must spend the rest of his life in one particular locality may have planned this choice out of selfish motives rather than considering that God may reveal other plans as time passes.
God does not remove our will, but He leaves it up to our own will and intellect to seize opportunities of service which He places before us. Selfish desire and wilful planning can blind us to the will of God as effectively as any other sin. If we as Christians desire to work in another locality this desire may be so strong as to blind us to the opportunity in our own home or home town. Likewise, if we have a selfish desire to remain where we are at all costs, we may ignore all opportunities of serving the Lord that are open to us elsewhere. God grant that our wills would be so submitted to Him that we would be willing to submit ourself to His plans whatever they might be.

This unwillingness to conform to Gods will can cause the Christian untold worry. The self-willed saint suspecting that God may alter his own selfish plans, will often be overly concerned with worry over losing that which is of no spiritual significance nor lasting consequence. His prayer requests will reflect his planning to be arrogant rather than being the will of God. His work will be designed to achieve these inconsequential goals rather than to fit into an overall plan of God which he may not know in advance. For this reason he become an unhappy and thwarted worrier because he makes his plans without considering that Gods will may be otherwise.
James indefinite references show he is referring to any specific plans; thus his references are today or tomorrow (or today and tomorrow), and spend a year there, and trade, and get gain.
The fact of the matter, says James, is that you do not know what is to happen tomorrow. The question that follows: What sort (is) your life? may also be a portion of the same sentence. James could be saying: You do not know of the thing of tomorrow: what sort of life you will have. This is really a smoother reading and a likely meaning.
The question is not necessary to a proper translation. If the phrase What sort is your life? were made a separate sentence but not a question, then James might be saying, The fact of the matter is that you do not know what is to happen tomorrow. How miserable is your life! This would still be in keeping with the shortlived vapor that is described in the sentence that follows.
Whichever way the sentence is read, the meaning is consistent with the Scripture. There is no certainty of life, and we are not aware of all of Gods plans for our tomorrows. These uncertainties are big ifs in our plans. God does not object to our making plans; but we should always consider the will of God, both in making our plans and in the possibility of changing our plans. The uncertainty is very vivid the way James puts it. You are a vapor. . . ., using a metaphor (instead of a simile, You are like a vapor . . .).

A mist, or breath of air, vaporizes immediately and vanishes; so also is our lifes span in relation to eternity. Those who are spiritually discerning realize this and plan for eternity accordingly. They plan their days as best they can, but always to His plans. Those who are earthy make their plans as if they were in complete control of tomorrows and God had nothing to do with them.
James says these plans made which ignore God are really boasting. The man who counts himself to be something when he is nothing is vaunting; and when he makes his definite plans discounting God, he is glorying in these vauntings. The fact that he is vaunting may imply that he does know better. He sins doubly. He sins in vaunting in the first place, and he sins because he knows he should honor God and he does not do so when he makes his plans. His sin is both a sin of commission and a sin of omission. Thus verse sixteen ties to verse seventeen.

Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

CHAPTER IX

PRETENDED DEBATE WITH A RICH UNBELIEVER

Jas. 4:13 to Jas. 5:6

Introduction:

The title of this chapter is itself interpretive, and might introduce some discussion. There is no doubt but that James is here debating with a rich man; but is the rich man an unbeliever? Also, is this rich man present as James speaks, or present in the audience to which James writes? It would be better to settle these problems before beginning a more detailed study of the text.

The section in Jas. 5:1-6 is obviously addressed to the unbeliever. James here makes clear the calamities that are to befall him in the judgment so the persecuted Christian (to whom James is writing) will know that justice will prevail and that vengeance belongs to the Lord. After completing this section, he turns back to the Christian, and says, Be patient therefore, brethren, until the coming of the Lord.

If Jas. 4:13-17 is addressed to the rich Christian, then there is a break of thought and a change of argument between the close of chapter four and the opening of chapter five. Jas. 4:13-14 of chapter four are in the same vein of condemnation as is the chapter five section. This is not conclusive, of course, but it does seem to be the most obvious and intended meaning.

One might ask, why argue with a person who will not hear the argument? This is done for the benefit of the reader rather than the call to repentance of the rich persecutor. There is no admonition for correction, nor call to repentance, as James made to the Christians in Jas. 4:8. Furthermore, the come now with which he introduces Jas. 4:13 is repeated in Jas. 5:1, indicating James is speaking to the same persons in both sections. This entire section does not contain the word brethren which James uses or implies in nearly every paragraph of the epistle.

All this seems to indicate James is turning aside and speaking to an imaginary figure who will probably never see his epistle. The rich persons being condemned really do exist, but they are not numbered among the brethren. So he tells the brethren what is going to happen to the rich man in this very dramatic fashion.

The style of argument is the diatribe of the Stoic philosophers. The debater turns to an imaginary opponent and argues with him as if he were present. It is a style of delivery that the Jewish and Greek speakers used often, and is effectively used by ministers and public speakers today.

The Christian at the time, even as now, was numbered from among the poorer classes of the world. His most avid persecutors were the enemies of Christ, especially religious people who followed some other doctrine than that of Christ. But the world was also filled with rich people who habitually made a practice of preying upon the poor. The rich man made no exception of the poor Christian. In fact, he was easy prey because of his meek demeanor. For this reason the Christian needed encouragement to hold fast to Christ in the midst of this ill treatment. The time would come when Gods justice would prevail and the rich persecutor would receive that which he had earned. So dont give up, brethren, says James, for the Lord will come and make all things right. (See Jas. 5:7-8).

TEN THREE-POINT SERMON STARTERS

THE PRESUMPTION OF MAKING PLANS WITHOUT GOD Jas. 4:13-17

1.

What we will do. (Go to this city, spend a year, trade, etc)

Do we really know what tomorrow will bring? Jas. 4:14 a.

2.

When we will do it. (Today; or tomorrow).

Do we really know when we will die? Jas. 4:14 b

3.

Why we will do it. (To get gain).

We should live to glorify Him. All other glorying is vain. Jas. 4:15-17.

WHAT IS YOUR LIFE? Jas. 4:14

1.

It is yours, to plan and do with as you will.

2.

Plans and preparations in this life are a shadow of what will come.

3.

This life is a vapor, soon gone to be replaced by eternity.

WHAT WE KNOW OF TOMORROW Jas. 4:13-17

1.

We think we know what we shall do. Jas. 4:13

2.

We should know it is in Gods hands, not ours. Jas. 4:14-15.

3.

We can know the Lords will for us in eternity. Jas. 4:17.

THE LORDS WILL Jas. 4:15-17

1.

We ought to be surrendered to it, whatever it is. Jas. 4:15.

2.

Our own will and vaunting that is contrary to Gods is sin. Jas. 4:16.

3.

The Lords will is good for me; to do good now and receive good in eternity. Jas. 4:17.

THE SIN OF OMISSION Jas. 4:17

1.

What we know of Gods will. (To Him that knoweth.)

A.

The saint, having Gods revelation, knows all things, or all He shall reveal. 1Jn. 2:20.

B.

The sinner, having the testimony of creation, knows the power and divinity of God, even if he has not heard the Word. Rom. 1:20.

2.

We do not that which we know to do. (and doeth it not)

A.

The more we know of His revelation, the more we realize our transgression.

B.

The uninformed sinner has not glorified God nor given Him thanks. Rom. 1:21.

3.

We all sin.

(But we have an Advocate and a propitiation, 1Jn. 2:1-2).

THERE SHALL BE WEEPING AND HOWLING Jas. 5:1

1.

Weeping for the spiritual torment and howling for physical torment.

2.

The miseries of eternal condemnation.

3.

They are surely coming upon the unjust and ungodly.

ROTTEN WEALTH Jas. 5:2-3

1.

Riches are corrupted. (When they are ill-gotten).

2.

Garments are moth-eaten. (When they foster selfishness and pride).

3.

Gold and silver are rusted. (When they are not used to bless God).

TREASURES LAID UP Jas. 5:1-3

1.

The bank that really counts is in heaven.

2.

The treasures of joy laid up in Christ Jesus.

3.

The treasures of fire and torment laid up for the devil.

THE LORD OF SABAOTH Jas. 5:4

1.

The hosts and armies of God.

2.

The leader of His armies.

3.

The enemy of His armies.

DELICATE LIVING Jas. 5:5 (At the expense of others).

1.

It is the taking of ones own selfish pleasure.

2.

It is preparing our hearts for a day of slaughter.

3.

It is condemning and killing the righteous.

Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

(13) Ye that say . . . .The Apostle would reason next with the worldly; not merely those abandoned to pleasure, but any and all absorbed in the quest of gain or advancement. The original is represented a little more closely, thus: Today and tomorrow we will go into this city, and spend a year there, and trade and get gain. Mortals think all men mortal but themselves; yet who does not boast himself of tomorrow (Pro. 27:1), in spite of a thousand proverbs; and reckon on the wondrous chance of

That untravelled world, whose margin fades
For ever and for ever as he roams?

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

3. And of arrogant conversational ignoring of God, Jas 4:13-17.

13. Go to now An interjection to excite attention. The modern phrase would be, Come now. The old phrase is, perhaps, the more accurate, as it aims to incite to right procedure. The number of precise particulars, to-morrow, such a city, a year, buy, sell, get gain, presumes upon many contingent points in which there is probability of failure, especially the closing one, which is the real aim of all the rest.

It is A preferred reading is, ye are. It is not our life, but even ourselves, that is an appearing and then vanishing vapour or mist.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

‘Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into this city, and spend a year there, and trade, and make ourselves gains”, whereas you do not know what will be on the morrow.’

‘Come now.’ This is the first of two ‘come now’s which introduce two scenarios, both of which are intended to make them face up to serious facts. The first of these reveals the frailty of businessmen whose main concern is monetary gain, in view of the fact that how long they go on living is in God’s hands, and the second reveals the frailty of businessmen’s riches, and the fact that God knows how they are behaving. What they should therefore rather be doing is concentrating on doing what they know to be right (Jas 4:17).

This first case is of those who are so sure of how their lives will turn out that they make plans accordingly. They say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into this city, and spend a year there, and trade, and gain wealth”. James would appear to have a special concern for those who travelled around and had no settled church home. It was easy for such men to lose touch with their faith. But they also provided a lesson for all.

Notice their arrogance as far as God is concerned. They believe that they can regulate their time as they wish (‘today or tomorrow’). They believe that they can choose their destination (‘into this city’). They believe that they have all the time in the world (‘spend a year there’). And they believe that they can do what they want without regard to God’s requirements (‘trade and gain wealth’), whereas what they should be doing is recognise the frailty of their lives, and that what they will be able to participate in depends totally on the will of God, thus recognising that the most important thing that they should do is what is good (Jas 4:17). They should therefore ask themselves, ‘what is His will?’ But they do not do so. They forget that they are mortal, and the result is that they have big ideas about themselves. They forget the words of Pro 27:1, ‘do not boast yourself of tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth’. Compare also the rich fool who forgot that ‘tomorrow we die’ (Luk 12:16-21). That is why they think that they can judge their neighbour (Jas 4:12 b). It is also why they think that they can run their own lives just as they please (Jas 4:13-14). But they are wrong on both counts.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

Covetousness: Overcoming Worldly Covetousness by Committing our Ways unto God (Trusting God in the Financial Realm) Another trial of faith we face is the temptation to worldly gain. We can see this being an issue in a local congregation, where Jewish synagogues traditionally consisted of those who struggled for power and influence in the local community.

Outline Here is a proposed outline:

1. The Temptation to Boast Jas 4:13-14

2. The Path of Life Jas 4:15-17

3. The Path of Death Jas 5:1-6

Note these insightful words from Frances J. Roberts regarding human strategies:

“Thou needest make no plans nor resort to any clever strategy. Keep yourself in the love of God. Pray in the Spirit. Rejoice evermore. Set your affections upon Christ. God will do through you and for His glory such things as it pleases Him to do, and thou shalt rejoice with Him.” [119]

[119] Frances J. Roberts, Come Away My Beloved (Ojai, California: King’s Farspan, Inc., 1973), 83.

Jas 4:13-14 The Temptation to Boast James tells those of us who boast in our gains tomorrow that our lives are but a vapour, and we do not know what tomorrow holds.

Jas 4:13  Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain:

Jas 4:13 Comments – We hear in Jas 4:13 the mindset of an entrepreneur who is in the quest for business opportunities. In contrast, a normal employee does not think about such adventures, but rather, looks to his boss for financial security. Such a confession in Jas 4:13 is a businessman’s way of looking for opportunities that provide him with wealth and ultimately security. The Jews were shrewd businessmen and such a confession would have been typical of them moving about the Empire from city to city, approaching the local synagogues, looking for partnerships or opportunities to make financial gain. James is warning that this boast places a person’s trust is in his own abilities rather than in God’s divine provision.

Jas 4:14  Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.

Jas 4:14 “Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow” Scripture Reference – Note a similar verse:

Pro 27:1, “Boast not thyself of to morrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth.”

Jas 4:14 “It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away” – Comments – On two occasions in the epistle of James the Lord reminds us of the brevity of our lives (Jas 1:9-11, Jas 4:14). This reminder is placed within the message of the underlying theme of James, which is the perseverance of the saints. In Jas 1:9-11 we find an illustration in nature of the brevity of our lives. For we see how quickly it appears in all of its beauty. Within days it withers and dies.

Scripture Reference – Note similar verses:

Psa 39:5, “Indeed, You have made my days as handbreadths. And my age is as nothing before You; Certainly every man at his best state is but vapor . Selah. ( NKJV)

Psa 144:4, “ Man is like a breath ; His days are like a passing shadow.” ( NKJV)

Jas 4:14 Comments – Jas 4:14 says that we do not know what shall be on the morrow. This is because God wants us to learn to trust Him day by day. However, there are many occasions in which the Holy Spirit will reveal future events to us in order to protect us or to give us guidance or to prepare us for future events. For example, see find in the Scriptures that Paul and Peter knew their death was eminent, by special revelation. But most people do not know the day of their death.

2Ti 4:6, “For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand.”

2Pe 1:14, “Knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath shewed me. Moreover I will endeavour that ye may be able after my decease to have these things always in remembrance.”

Jas 4:15-17 The Path of Life The way we overcome covetousness for this world’s goods is to commit our ways unto the Lord.

Jas 4:15  For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.

Jas 4:15 Comments Jas 4:15 describes the pray of consecration. While we all have dreams and goals that we want to strive to reach in this life, the mature Christian knows that yielding to God’s will and plan is the best decision in life. Thus, we should always preface our prayers with a willingness to accept God’s will for our lives. In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus prayed to the Father to be delivered from the Cross, but followed this request by consecrating Himself to God’s will (Luk 22:42). Paul makes a similar statement in his plans to visit the Corinthians by saying, “I will come to you shortly, if the Lord will” (1Co 4:19)

Luk 22:42, “Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.”

1Co 4:19, “But I will come to you shortly, if the Lord will, and will know, not the speech of them which are puffed up, but the power.”

Jas 4:16  But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil.

Jas 4:16 Comments – They boast about the accomplishments that they have achieved and talk about what they want to pursue. This is sin also.

Jas 4:17  Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.

Jas 4:17 Comments – Jas 4:17 closes the discourse on true religion (Jas 1:21). This statement in Jas 4:17 of “knowing to do good” is a reference to the preceding discourse of how to walk in genuine faith towards God.

Scripture Reference – Note a similar passage:

Num 15:27-31, “And if any soul sin through ignorance, then he shall bring a she goat of the first year for a sin offering. And the priest shall make an atonement for the soul that sinneth ignorantly, when he sinneth by ignorance before the LORD, to make an atonement for him; and it shall be forgiven him. Ye shall have one law for him that sinneth through ignorance, both for him that is born among the children of Israel, and for the stranger that sojourneth among them. But the soul that doeth ought resumptuously, whether he be born in the land, or a stranger, the same reproacheth the LORD; and that soul shall be cut off from among his people. Because he hath despised the word of the LORD, and hath broken his commandment, that soul shall utterly be cut off; his iniquity shall be upon him.”

Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures

Trust in God’s providence essential:

v. 13. Go to now, ye that say, Today or tomorrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain,

v. 14. whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away.

v. 15. For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live and do this or that.

v. 16. But now ye rejoice in your boastings, All such rejoicing is evil.

v. 17. Therefore to him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin.

In the preceding verses the apostle has rebuked the presumption of men both against the Lord and against the brethren. He here speaks of another form of arrogance, one which coolly disregards the Lord’s providence and His rule over the world; Come now, you that say, Today or tomorrow we shall journey to this or that city; we shall spend a year there in doing business and making money, you who do not know what tomorrow will bring. The impertinent independence which is shown in the attitude of many people is here skillfully and realistically brought out. Speeches similar to this may be heard any day in all cities of Christendom. The government and providence of the Lord is calmly disregarded. People make their plans for journeys, for the expansion of their business, for the accumulating of wealth without taking the Lord into account. And yet they do not know what the morrow will bring, or even whether they will live to see the morrow!

This the apostle brings out splendidly: For what is your life? For you are a vapor which is visible for a little while, and afterwards it passes away. Just as everything in this world is uncertain and unstable, so this truth holds with regard to the life of man. Who will say how long it is to last, with the evidence on every hand that it is the most uncertain quantity that we can think of? The life of man is truly like a vapor, like a puff of steam, like a wreath of mist floating in the air one moment, and gone the next, Job 14:1-2; Psa 90:5-6. How idle and foolish, therefore, to speak and act as though we were masters of our life and of our destiny, except as under God’s guidance!

The proper attitude is that pictured by the apostle: Instead of your saying, If the Lord wills it and we live, and we shall do this or that, or, If the Lord wills it, we shall live. Our entire life with all its vicissitudes is in the hand of the Lord, under His government. Arrogant independence, therefore, has no room in the life of the Christian. All his plans are subject to approval or rejection by the Lord, under whose will the believer bows at all times. As our prayers with regard to earthly blessings are always conditioned upon His good pleasure, so all the various paths and byways of our life should be placed in His guiding hand, for He knoweth best.

Lest anyone take this admonition lightly, the apostle adds: But now you are boasting in your proud pretensions; all such boasting is evil. To maintain an attitude of proud indifference to the government of the Lord and to His control of the affairs of human life, is exhibiting a pride of mind which cannot be reconciled with true Christianity; it is an evil boasting in which many people are prone to indulge. Many a person that placed his will over against that of the Lord has found out to his sorrow that the Lord will not be mocked, not even in the so-called trifles of every-day life. And so the concluding warning comes with solemn emphasis: To him that knows to do the good and does not do it, to him it is sin. This principle is upheld also by Jesus, Luk 12:47-48. Some of the Christians may have erred with regard to the several points made by the apostle in this chapter through thoughtlessness. This fact would not have excused them, but it would have been a charitable explanation of their behavior. Now, however, that the facts of the will of God have been discussed at such length, even the last shred of an excuse is taken away. Anyone who disregards the points which are here set forth for the sanctification of believers has no one but himself to blame if the full measure of stripes is laid upon him by the judgment of the Lord. For it is not only sins of commission that are subject to condemnation, but also sins of omission, of not doing that which is right in the sight of God. This word should be heeded also in our days with the carefulness which it deserves.

Summary

The apostle cautions his readers against any display of lust, envy, and worldly-mindedness, demanding of them true humility, the absence of uncharitable judging, and trust in God’s providence and government.

Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann

Jam 4:13. We will go into such a city, That is, to Rome or Alexandria, Tyre or Sidon, Corinth or Ephesus; according to the countries into which the Jewish Christians were dispersed, or the trades they carried on. The next verse ought to be read in a parenthesis, as an important piece of advice which might be obviously inferred, when he was reproving them for building too much upon this precarious life. Without the parenthesis, the 13th and 15th verses join very well: “You say so and so;Instead of which you ought to say, &c.”

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

Jas 4:13 . The apostrophe commencing with this verse, and continued until chap. Jas 5:6 , has a character plainly distinguished from other portions of the Epistle (1) by repeated; (2) those addressed are neither directly designated as , as is elsewhere the case with James (with the single exception of chap. Jas 4:1 ff.), nor are yet characterized as members of the Christian church; (3) only their forgetfulness of God is described, and their judgment is announced without any call being added to desist from their practice and be converted; so that this apostrophe contains not the slightest exhortation to repentance, as is the case with those addressed in Jas 4:8 as and . All this is a sufficient proof that James has in view, as Oecumenius, Bede, Semler, Pott, Hottinger, and others have correctly remarked (differently Gebser, Schneckenburger, de Wette, Wiesinger; Theile considers that Jewish Christians and Jews are here addressed), not so much the members of the church, as rather the rich ( , Jas 5:1 ), of whom it is already said in chap. Jas 2:6-7 , that they oppress the Christians and blaspheme the name of Christ, and who are already, in chap. Jas 1:10 , opposed to “the brother of low degree.” The severe language against them in an Epistle directed to Christians is sufficiently explained from the fact that, with many among them, as follows from Jas 4:1 ff., the same forgetfulness of God had gained ground. Also the first section (Jas 4:13-17 ) is of such a nature that the fault therein expressed affected many of the readers not less than the arrogant Jews. [207] In this section, those addressed are at first characterized only according to their presumptuous security in their striving after earthly gain.

] , occurring in the N. T. only here and in chap. Jas 5:1 , is a summons , which also, with classical writers, is joined with the plural (Winer, p. 458 [E. T. 649]).

] serves not only for strengthening (de Wette, Wiesinger), but likewise for connection with what goes before. As in what follows there is no summons to do anything, some expositors suppose that is designed only to excite attention; Grotius: jam ego ad vos; so also Pott, Theile: age, audite vos. Others supply a thought; thus Schulthess: , or , and the like. De Wette thinks that the summons to lay aside the fault is indirectly contained in the reproof. Wiesinger suggests Jas 4:16 as the material for the designed imperative clause. It is more correct to assume that James has already here in view the imperative clause in chap. Jas 5:1 ,

. . . , placed after again resumed; thus Gebser, Hottinger, Schneckenburger; similarly Lange, according to whom “refers to the announcement of the judgment, which comes out quite clear in chap. Jas 5:1 , but is here darkly and menacingly alluded to.”

] ye who say. is to be retained in its usual signification; comp. chap. Jas 2:14 . Theile, without reason, explains it: qui non solum cogitare soletis sed etiam dicere audetis.

] announces the precise duration of the intended journey not when it should commence, but how long it should endure. With this explanation there is no difficulty in ; otherwise (as the Rec. reads) must stand. In there lies a greater confidence (Theile), as according to it a definite plan is fixed upon also for the morrow. According to Wiesinger, different instances are here taken together, as in 2Co 13:1 (so already Bengel: unus dicit hodie, idem aliusve eras, ut commodum est); according to this, would have to be explained: “and relatively” (sec Meyer on that passage); but the indefiniteness contained therein does not suit the certainty with which these people speak. Lange’s meaning is unjustified: “that is used for the undefined future subsequent to to-day.”

] The indicative we shall journey expresses the certain confidence more strongly than the conjunctive let us journey; see critical remarks.

] Luther: into this and that city. This explanation is also in Winer, p. 146 [E. T. 201], who adduces for it in Plutarch, Symp. i. 6. 1; but Al. Buttmann (p. 90 [E. T. 103]), on the other hand, correctly asserts that the pronoun in that passage, as everywhere among Greek authors, has its full demonstrative meaning, and that therefore it must be understood in James in the same sense; thus Schirlitz (p. 222) observes that the pronoun is here used ; see also Lnemann’s remark in Winer, Exo 7 , p. 153; still it is not to be explained, with Schneckenburger: in hanc urbem, quae in conspectu quasi sita est; but, with Theile: certa fingitur, quae vero verie eligi potest. Those introduced as speaking mean each time a definite city; but as this differs with different persons, James could only indicate it in an indefinite manner, and he does so by the pronoun by which each time a definite city is pointed to; thus into the city which the traveller had chosen as his aim. By . . is indicated not merely the going into the city, but also the journey to the city in which they would remain.

. . . ] we will spend there a year; with a designation of time, as in Act 15:33 ; Act 20:3 , and other places; in the O. T. Pro 13:23 ; see also Nicarch. epigr. 35 (Jacobs’ ed.): . Luther incorrectly translates it: “and will continue there a year;” [208] for is not the accusative of duration, but the proper objective accusative. The reading fittingly expresses the confidence with which those introduced as speaking measure out their time beforehand, but not “their restless and unsteady conduct” (Lange).

] Bengel: frequens; polysyndeton exprimit libidinem animi securi.

] = to traffic; the final aim is designated by . That aim is worldly gain, which, in carnal security, is recognised as certain to be realized, so that it cannot fail. Kern correctly remarks: “Traffic is introduced only by way of example , as characterizing man’s doings with reference to the earthly life as contrasted with the life in God.” [209]

[207] Lange agrees with this in essentials, affirming that this section was principally addressed to the Jews; whereby he certainly proceeds from the erroneous supposition that the Epistle was directed to the Jews generally by the hands of the Jewish Christians.

[208] Stier correctly: “will spend there a year.” The opinion of Lange, that “ along with a definition of time may likewise have indicated that the time in question is busily employed,” is contradicted by 2Co 11:25 .

[209] Lange indeed assents to this; but he thinks that the apostle, with a prophet’s glance, evidently describes beforehand the fundamental trait of the diabolically excited worldliness of his people, as it afterwards became more and more developed.

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

DISCOURSE: 2372
THE FOLLY OF UNDUE SECURITY

Jam 4:13-14. Go to now, ye that say, To-day or to-morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.

RELIGION has ever a tendency to decline. Sin has pre-occupied the ground: and though religion expels it for a time, it is ever watching, as it were, for an opportunity to return, and to regain its former ascendant over the soul. Even in the Apostolic age manifold declensions were found, not only in individuals, but in whole Churches: and St. James, with the utmost fidelity and earnestness, set himself to counteract the fatal evil. Amongst the various evils which he had to reprove, was that of undue security, or of presuming on the success of our plans for future advancement, without any becoming reference to the shortness and uncertainty of life: and there being still but too much reason to complain of this habit in the Christian world, I shall distinctly mark,

I.

The habit which is here censured

The Apostle does not intend to condemn all forethought and contrivance; for then we should all be as weak and foolish as children: nor, indeed, if prospective plans were unlawful, would any one branch of agriculture or commerce, or even of liberal education, be carried forward. It is the proud reliance on our own wisdom, and the confident expectation of time to come, that is here condemned; and this is,

1.

A great evil

[What is it but an entire forgetfulness of our dependence upon God? For who is it that can give success to any plans, but God himself? And, if we could command success, who can tell whether that which we seek as a blessing, may not prove to us the greatest curse? Even an unqualified desire of the things themselves, without a reference to the wisdom of God to choose for us, and his will to bestow them on us, is highly sinful. It contravenes that express command, Thou shalt not covet, and is, in fact, an usurpation of Gods prerogative to direct and govern the affairs of men. Besides, such a confident expectation of life is of itself most offensive to God: for it is he who holdeth our souls in life: in him we live, and move, and have our being: and the contemplation of life, irrespective of his agency, is no other than practical atheism.]

2.

A common evil

[We imbibe these atheistical sentiments from our earliest infancy. Scarcely any other ever meet our ears. Our very parents are constantly speaking to us of what is to be gained us in future years in consequence of our own care and industry. As we grow up, we buoy up ourselves with the same unqualified hopes and expectations: from youth to manhood, and from manhood to old age, we still continue to speak of future events as depending on ourselves, rather than on God; and seldom, if ever, have any direct reference in our minds to the superintending and all-directing providence of God. Indeed, it is from hence that our exertions principally arise: and so gratifying to our minds is this corrupt habit, that our chief happiness in life arises from it: for it is a well-known fact, that the fond dreams of hope almost invariably exceed the pleasures of actual enjoyment.]
Such is the evil which the Apostle censured in the words before us: which, however, lead us yet further to consider,

II.

The folly of it

There is nothing in reality at our command, or under our controul. We cannot by any means secure,

1.

The success of our labours

[We cannot tell what shall be on the morrow: we cannot tell how soon circumstances may arise to make us view that as an evil, which we just before coveted as a good. The fact is, that there is scarcely a man living, who has not as much reason to bless God for the dispensations by which his desires have been thwarted, as for those by which they have been gratified. How foolish then is it to take the disposal of events out of Gods hands, instead of committing it to him, whose wisdom cannot err, and whose power cannot be counteracted! We may, like Israel, cause him in wrath to give us the object of our inordinate desires, and constrain him to inflict upon us the judgment denounced against his disobedient people; I will curse their blessings.]

2.

The continuance of our lives

[What is our life? it is a vapour that appeareth but a little time, and then vanisheth away. This is a truth which all acknowledge; and which, if duly considered, would abate the ardour of our earthly pursuits, and moderate our too sanguine expectations. Who has not seen persons in the bloom of youth, when promising themselves years of prosperity and joy, cut off suddenly, even as the flower of the grass, which in the morning looks gay and flourishing, and in the evening is cut down, dried up, and withered? Yes, a light, airy, unsubstantial vapour is but too just an image of life, which in its best estate is vanity, and in the twinkling of an eye may pass away for ever. Is it wise then to be either looking forward to future joys, or resting too confidently in joys possessed, when for aught that we know, the decree may have already gone forth, This year, this month, this very day, shalt thou die [Note: Here any instances of hopes disappointed by sudden death may be referred to.]?]

Let us learn from this subject,
1.

To have a direct reference to God in all things [Note: ver. 15, 16.]

[God will govern all things, whether we acknowledge him or not: and, if we refer all to him, he will govern all things for our good. Not a hair of our head shall fall to the ground without his special permission.]

2.

To be moderate in our anticipations of earthly bliss

[What a lesson is taught us by the fate of him who said to his soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; eat, drink, and be merry. The reply of God to him was, Thou fool, this night shall thy soul be required of thee. The true way to avoid disappointment from earthly things, is, to regard them as vanity and vexation of spirit, and to be contented with such a measure of them as God sees to be best for us.]

3.

To bend all our attention to the concerns of eternity

[These will never disappoint our hopes: we shall never seek eternal happiness in vain. Our desires in reference to them cannot be too large, nor our expectations from them too sanguine. Who, on coming to our blessed Saviour, was ever cast out? In what instance did the blood of Christ ever prove insufficient to justify, or his grace to save? As for life, the cutting short of that will not deprive us of any blessing which we have ever sought: on the contrary, it will bring us to the speedier possession of all good. We must indeed, in spiritual as well as carnal things, place our hope in God alone; because God alone can give us either to will or to do; and in the bestowment of his blessings he will consult only his own will and pleasure: but if we look steadfastly to him, and rely confidently on him alone, we shall not be ashamed or confounded world without end.]

Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)

(13) Go to now, ye that say, Today or tomorrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: (14) Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. (15) For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that. (16) But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil. (17) Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.

What a beautiful transition the Apostle makes from the subject of the foregoing verses, to what is contained in the opening of this? From the frail tenure of human life, which, in numberless cases, is sometimes crushed, even before the moth, and, in its highest strength, is but as the vapor exhaled from the earth, or the bubble on the water, which are scarce formed before they both dissolve into air, and are instantly lost; the Apostle shews the Church the inconsiderateness and folly of all plans, but such as are founded in divine wisdom, and are looking for divine strength to carry them on. How can any man, who is not the sure proprietor of the present hour, calculate on a day or a year. Reader! bring home the reasoning to your own heart. Know you that there will be a morrow for you? Is it certain your life will be prolonged to that morrow? Nay, if it should, is it certain health wilt come with it? Will strength also, intellect, ability, purpose, yea, all things concur, in such a way and manner, that the schemes of this day shall be realized on the morrow?

But those words of the Holy Ghost, by his servant, to a child of God, may be spiritually considered, I conceive, with great sweetness. There is a day, a year fast approaching, when the redeemed will enter into that blessed city which hath foundations, whose Builder and Maker is God. They are now the citizens of that country; and it is their proper home. There they will indeed continue a year, even an eternal year, for they will go out no more, Rev 7:15 , and in the truest sense of the words, buy and sell, and get gain, Pro 23:23 . Even now, then, they are supposed, by virtue of their union with Christ and interest in Christ, to be on the daily look out for that morrow which shall call them home. They are God’s property, and consequently God’s care. And, as in this life, the Lord raiseth for them waters in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert, to give drink to his people, his chosen; Isa 43:20 . so in that blessed climate, where none of the inhabitants shall any longer say I am sick, there the Lord will give them living waters, and all tears will be wiped away from all eyes, Isa 33:24 ; Rev 7:17 . Reader, pause over the subject. God’s sovereignty in the choice is the bottom and everlasting foundation of all these mercies, Eph 1:4-6 . The Son of God’s betrothing his Church before all worlds, and the redemption of his Church in the time-state of her being, brings up the vast blessing, and places it on its own proper basis, Eph 1:7 . And God the Holy Ghost, by regenerating life, and grace, and unction, makes the redeemed suited subjects for glory in the inheritance, among, all them that are sanctified. See Commentary, Eph 1:3-10 . Oh! the blessedness of that morrow, when the whole Church shall enter into the gates of the holy city

They are God’s chosen, the first fruits of his increase and holiness to the Lord, Jer 2:3 . They are consecrated to his service, to be kings end priests to God and the Father: and all their holy employment in this city will be the gain of durable riches and righteousness, Rev 1:6 ; Pro 8:18 . And , as the culminating crown of all, to sum up their unspeakable felicity, the nearness and union into which the whole Church, and every individual of it, as the spouse of Christ, will then be brought, is that of an everlasting communion with God and the Lamb. This people have I formed for myself! Isa 43:21 . Reader! is it your language.? My soul! is it thine? When will that morrow come, when I shall go to this blessed city! Haste, haste, my beloved, and until the day break and the shadows flee away, be thou like a roe, or a young hart upon the mountains of division, Son 2:17 .

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

13 Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain:

Ver. 13. We will go into such, &c. ] As if they were petty gods within themselves, and needed not to call God into counsel, or to take his leave along with them. But such confident exchange language became not the mouths of scattered exiles. And yet it is the common sin of dispersed Jews in all places to this day. And I would it were their sin only; and that this rude and rash peremptoriness were not in use among us also.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

13 17 .] Against ungodly and presumptuous confidence in our worldly plans for the future . This again falls into the previous context, where we are warned against hearts divided between God and the world. But, as has been rightly remarked as early as Bed [13] , and by many since, e. g. c., Semler, al., St. James, though carrying on the same subject, is no longer, from this place to ch. Jas 5:6 , addressing members of Christ’s church, but those without: the ungodly and the rich in this world. This however must be taken with just this reservation, that he addresses Christians in so far as they allow themselves to be identified with those others. This first paragraph, for example, might well serve as a warning for Christians who are in the habit of leaving God out of their thoughts and plans. That it is still Jews who are addressed, appears from Jas 4:15 , and ch. Jas 5:4 .

[13] Bede, the Venerable , 731; Bedegr, a Greek MS. cited by Bede, nearly identical with Cod. “E,” mentioned in this edn only when it differs from E.

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

13 .] Go to now (“interjectio ad excitandam attentionem,” Beng. This seems to be the true view of it: ‘come on,’ q. d. let us reason together: cf. , , Isa 1:18 . The serves to mark the time, as noted by the point to which the argument of the Epistle has arrived. It is hardly purely temporal, but as so often, slightly ratiocinative, = ‘rebus sic stantibus,’ ‘qu cum ita sint:’ see on 1Co 13:13 ), ye that say (no stress on : not as Theile, “qui non solum cogitare soletis, sed etiam dicere audetis.” The fault is even oftener perhaps committed in word than in thought. We speak more presumptuously before men than we think in our own hearts; though there also we are too liable to forget God), To-day and to-morrow (the of the rec. would suppose an alternative, “to-day, it may be, or to-morrow:” with , the two days are assigned for the journey, without any alternative. Bengel and Wiesinger take , as in , 2Co 13:1 , as combining two possible cases: “Nunc dicit hodie , idem aliusve cras , ut commodum est,” Beng. This is possible: but I prefer the other) we will go (the indic, fut. (see var. readd.) gives the fixed certainty of the assumption) into this (most Commentators render, “ this or that ,” = “such a,” as E. V.: and Winer, Gramm. 23. 5, refers to Plutarch, Sympos. i. 6. 1, for this usage of . But his reference does not quite bear him out. Plutarch is proving the vinosity of Alexander from the , in which is found very often written , : where is clearly a quotation from the diary, not ‘this or that day,’ but “this day:” and then is an improper elliptical way of recording, that against the next day a similar entry was made. So that I should much doubt this usage of , there being no mention of it in the best Lexx., and apparently no other example: and should consider as a sort of ‘oratio mixta,’ to express in general terms the city then present to the mind of the speaker) city, and will spend (reff. for this temporal sense of ) there one year ( is the accus. not of duration, but of the object, after . So that the E. V. “continue there a year,” is not accurate. It should have been ‘spend a year there,’ which savours of presumption much more strongly and vividly. . : “Sic loquuntur, quasi mox etiam de insequentibus annis deliberaturi.” Beng.), and (Bengel remarks well: “ frequens: polysyndeton exprimit libidinem animi securi”) will traffic (this word brings up the worldly nature of the plan) and get gain:

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

Jas 4:13-17 form an independent section entirely unconnected with what precedes or follows. The section is very interesting as giving a picture of the commercial Diaspora -Jew. The Jews of the Dispersion had, from the outset, to give up agricultural pursuits; since for the most part they congregated in the cities it was commerce in which they engaged chiefly. A good instance of the Diaspora -Jew going from city to city occurs in Josephus, Antiq. , xii. 2 5 (160 185), though the period dealt with is far anterior to that of our Epistle. Egypt was, of course, the greatest centre of attraction, and many wealthy Jews were to be numbered among the large Jewish population of Alexandria; Philo speaks of Jewish shipowners and merchants in this city ( In Flaccum , viii.). When such Jews embraced Christianity there would be, obviously, no reason for them to give up their calling. It must, however, be confessed that both this section and the following read far more naturally as addressed to Jews than to Jewish-Christians.

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

Jas 4:13 . : this expression of disapproval occurs only here and in Jas 5:1 in the N.T.; although it is used here and there in the Septuagint, it is the rendering of different Hebrew words; one may compare, though it is not the equivalent of , the Aramaic expression of disapproval (“Ah you!” literally “Woe unto you”). is used with either a singular or a plural subject, cf. Jdg 19:6 ; 2Ki 4:24 . : Cf. Pro 27:1 , , . There is a Rabbinical saying, in Sanhed. , 100 b , which runs: “Care not for the morrow, for ye know not what a day may bring forth. Perhaps he may not be [alive] on the morrow, and so have cared for a world that does not exist for him” (quoted by Edersheim, Life and Times , ii. 539); cf. Luk 12:16 ff; Luk 13:32-33 . : 2Pe 2:3 is the only other passage in the N.T. in which this word occurs; it means primarily “to travel,” then to travel for the purpose of trading, and finally “to trade” simply. : a rare form; “the Attic is , with aorist , Ion. and late Attic , aorist ; the latter occurs often in the N.T.” (Mayor).

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Jas 4:13-17

13Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.” 14Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. 15Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.” 16But as it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil. 17Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin.

Jas 4:13 “Come now, you who say” It is uncertain to which group of recipients this refers: (1) unbelieving Jews; (2) believing Jews; or (3) a continuing diatribe with a supposed dissenter or objector.

“Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit” This refers to the specific plans of Jewish businessmen who do not take God into account. It is a glaring example of practical atheism.

Jas 4:14 This seems to relate to Pro 27:1. This truth is also stated in Jesus’ parable of Luk 12:16-21, called “the Rich Fool.”

NASB, NKJV”vapor”

NRSV, NJB”mist”

TEV”like a puff of smoke”

We get the English word “atmosphere” from this Greek word (atmis). The frailty and fleetingness of human life is often alluded to in the Bible as:

1. a shadow (cf. Job 8:9; Job 14:2; Psa 102:11; Psa 109:23)

2. a breath (cf. Job 7:7-16)

3. a cloud (cf. Job 7:9; Job 30:15)

4. a wild flower (cf. Psa 103:15; Isa 40:6-8; 1Pe 1:24)

5. vanity or mist (cf. Ecc 1:2; Ecc 1:14; Ecc 2:1; Ecc 2:11; Ecc 2:15; Ecc 2:17; Ecc 2:19; Ecc 2:21; Ecc 2:23; Ecc 2:26; Ecc 3:19; Ecc 4:4; Ecc 4:7-8; Ecc 4:16; Ecc 5:7; Ecc 5:10; 6:2,4,9,22; Ecc 7:6; Ecc 7:15; Ecc 8:10; Ecc 8:14; Ecc 9:9; Ecc 11:8; Ecc 11:10; Ecc 12:8).

“that appears for a little while and then vanishes away” These are two Present participles that sound alike: “appears” (phainomen) and “vanishes away” (aphanizomen). Human plans come and go; only God’s plan remains.

Jas 4:15 “If” This is a third class conditional sentence, which means potential action, but with a contingency.

“the Lord wills” This type of phrase is used often by NT writers (cf. Act 18:21; Rom 1:10; Rom 15:32; 1Co 4:19; 1Co 16:7; Heb 6:3; 1Pe 3:17). The biblical worldview attributes all knowledge and direction to God. This is a NT idiom affirming monotheism and should not be taken as a theological determinism. Believers know and assert that God is involved in their lives, but this does not link God to evil, tragedy, and random natural acts of violence. We live in a spiritually fallen and “cursed” world. This is not the world that God intended it to be! He is still active in His creation, but there is mystery in the how and why of individual actions and lives.

SPECIAL TOPIC: THE WILL (thelma) OF GOD

Jas 4:16

NASB, NKJV,

NRSV”you boast in your arrogance”

TEV”you are proud and you boast”

NJB”how boastful and loud-mouthed you are”

Human plans apart from God are empty and vain as are human pride and boasting (cf. Joh 15:5; Rom 14:8).

“all such boasting is evil” Paul states this same truth in 1Co 5:2; 1Co 5:6. Mankind’s problem from the beginning has been a desire for independence from God. Life apart from God is sin and rebellion. See SPECIAL TOPIC: BOASTING at Jas 1:9.

Jas 4:17 This seems to be a significant independent summary statement, unrelated to the immediate context. This refers to the sins of omission (cf. Mat 25:35-40). This may reflect the cryptic sayings of Jesus on the relationship between knowledge and sin (cf. Mat 23:23; Luk 12:47; Joh 9:41; Joh 15:22; Joh 15:24). In many ways it sounds like Rom 14:23.

Robert B. Girdlestone’s Synonyms of the Old Testament has an interesting remark on this verse:

“An important definition of sin is given by St. James’to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin’ (4. 17). It would seem to be implied that where there is no knowledge of what is right or wrong there is no sin; and with this agree the words of our Lord to the Pharisees, ‘If ye were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth’ (Joh 9:41). The profession of knowledge involved responsibility, and caused the Pharisees to be condemned, out of their own mouth, as sinners. Absolute ignorance is excusable, even though it is a missing of the mark, but negligence is not (see Heb 2:3)” (p. 85).

Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley

Go to = Come. Greek. age. Imperative mood of ago, used as an adverb. Here and Jam 5:1.

such a = this.

and. Note the Fig, Polysyndeton. App-6.

continue. Literally make, or do. Compare Act 20:3. Figure of speech Synecdoche. App-6.

buy and sell = trade. Greek. emporeuomai. Only here and 2Pe 2:3. Compare Mat 22:5. Joh 2:16. This eagerness to travel for trade purposes is a prominent characteristic of the Jew of to-day.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

13-17.] Against ungodly and presumptuous confidence in our worldly plans for the future. This again falls into the previous context, where we are warned against hearts divided between God and the world. But, as has been rightly remarked as early as Bed[13], and by many since, e. g. c., Semler, al., St. James, though carrying on the same subject, is no longer, from this place to ch. Jam 5:6, addressing members of Christs church, but those without: the ungodly and the rich in this world. This however must be taken with just this reservation,-that he addresses Christians in so far as they allow themselves to be identified with those others. This first paragraph, for example, might well serve as a warning for Christians who are in the habit of leaving God out of their thoughts and plans. That it is still Jews who are addressed, appears from Jam 4:15, and ch. Jam 5:4.

[13] Bede, the Venerable, 731; Bedegr, a Greek MS. cited by Bede, nearly identical with Cod. E, mentioned in this edn only when it differs from E.

Fuente: The Greek Testament

Jam 4:13. , come now) The interjection used to excite attention, ch. Jam 5:1.-, ye who say) In plain terms, ye who boast: Jam 4:16.- , to-day or to-morrow) One says, to-day; the same, or some other person, says, to-morrow, as it suits his convenience; as though he had a free choice. , Beza; and my note in the Gnomon was formerly in accordance with this reading; afterwards, in the course of inquiry, I preferred .[57] See App. Crit. Ed. ii.-, …, we will go, etc.) The Subjunctive [let us go] makes the language modal,[58] and suggests urgent reasons for actions.-) This is put instead of a proper name, as .-, and) The repetition of the conjunction, and, expresses the will of a mind at ease.- , one year) They thus speak, as though presently after about to deliberate also respecting years to come.

[57] B Vulg. and Elzev. Rec. Text have ; and so Lachm. A and later Syr have ; and so Tisch. and Stephens Rec. Text.-E.

[58] See Append. on SERMO MODALIS.-E.

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

Jas 4:13-14

SECTION 10

Jas 4:13-17

PRESUMPTUOUS CONFIDENCE

Jas 4:13-14

13 Come now, ye that say,—There is an exceedingly dose connection between this section, and the preceding one. As a matter of fact, the whole of chapter 4 is a penetrating analysis of the sins which were common to those of whom James wrote, the basic character of which was a presumptuous disregard for God an<l his way. Verses 1-10, show that those people chose the world in preference to God; verses 11, 12, indicate their contempt for the law of God; and here, verses 13, 14, introduce another sin of this category: presumptuous confidence with reference to the future–a future from which God was excluded, and where there was no recognition of the operations of divine providence. Jews have ever been a restive and restless people; and, this, plus the fact that they have often been persecuted and driven from their homes and lands, have made them a nomadic people. They have, in consequence, developed great skill in buying and selling and trading, and this has, through the centuries, required much travel. Those thus engaged are prone to formulate plans without regard for God, a disposition by no means limited to Jews, nor to the people and period of which James wrote. The attitude is a common one; and one doubtless characteristic of all of us, at one time or another. Dependence on God is the most fundamental premise of Christianity; the dis.position to leave him out of our affairs is gross indifference; and, when to this is added the feeling that he is not needed in such plans, the attitude is godless in nature.

“Come now,” (age nun), in an interjectional phrase, the design of which is to gain attention, and simply means (though not literally), “See!” “Behold!” “Listen!” The Greek word is often used in connection with the imperative for the purpose of gaining a hearing. It also occurs in Jas 5:1. Here, the implication of it is that there is something seriously wrong and those thus addressed should give careful heed to what the writer is about to set forth. If there is a close relationship in thought between this and the rebukes of the preceding section, it is by no means unrelated to those earlier portions of the Epistle wherein censorious judgment is condemned. The presumptuous disregard of the law of love as evidenced in such unjust judgments, also shows itself in plans for a future from which God has been excluded. James does not mean by the word, “Ye that say … ” that he is actually quoting some man or group of men among them; it is an imaginary case in which a band of traveling merchants are freely expressing their plans for the future, a future which does not take account of God, or of his will. The noun logos, from which the verb, “say,” in the passage derives (legontes), which denotes reasoning and thought, shows that these men were not indulging in idle meaningless, chatter; their plans were well laid, carefully thought out, and adopted only after much consideration. Their sin was not in such careful planning, but in planning without regard for God and the realization that all plans are dependent on his will for success.

Today or tomorrow we will go into this city, and spend a year there, and trade, and get gain:—A simple analysis of this statement will reveal, in striking detail, the appalling presumption characteristic of these people: (1) the time when they will leave is of their own choosing; it may be today, or tomorrow; (2) the city to which they will go they also select; (3) they will remain there a year; (4) the business they will pursue there is trading; (5) from such activity they will derive gain. Their assumption is that the whole matter is in their hands; all is settled, and of course in their favor; God is completely disregarded. If we are disposed to be shocked by this callous presumption, let us take stock and inquire of ourselves how near to our own practice does this approach? Do not all of us assume that tomorrow, next week, next year are all ours, and are we not continually making plans which necessitate the assumption that we will be here and able fully to carry them all out? Solomon solemnly warned, “Boast not thyself of tomorrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth.” (Pro 27:1.) It was this common characteristic of humanity which prompted our Lord to deliver the parable of the rich fool who, in formulating his plans for the future for got the length of life is a matter over which man has no control; and discovered to his dismay, that just as he believed himself to he in position to enjoy the fruits of his plans he was called, by death, for ever more away from them. (Luk 12:16-21.)

Though the proposition, “All men are mortal,” must by all be admitted as true, most of us reason regarding it as we do concerning an automobile accident; it will not happen to us ; we are the exceptions. It is not that we think we shall never die; we feel that, in our cases, it is far distant and there is no occasion, at least for the moment, to give om attention to it. It is most difficult to impress those in youth and in early life with the realization that they ought to be making plans for the day when they must leave this world; that eventuality is, to them, so remote as to be of little interest. Those for whom the years have flown and who find themselves in middle age (a misnomer truly, because those of this classification have long since passed the mid-point of life in years, and may reasonably expect only a fraction of the time they have lived, at most), live and act as if there is ample time for preparation for the future. Even the aged, those who have definitely reached “the golden years,” are frequently disposed to refuse to admit their status, and to reason as did Barnard Baruch that “Old Age is ten or fifteen years older than you are!” One seventy years old can look about him and see others living who arc eighty, ninety, or more, and thence assume that such will be characteristic of himself as well. This disposition, in some measure, common to us all, is a delusive one; and fails to take into account two things: (I) The uncertainty of life: (2) divine providence.

We are without assurance that we shall he living the next minute, much less the next day, the next week or the next year. Death often comes with shocking suddenness-a sudden stroke, a fatal heart attack, the rending crash of an automobile, and it is over, in a moment, without an instant’s warning. The writer of these comments preaches in approximately forty gospel meetings each year and it is not unusual for him to preach to people in the outset of a meeting and for some day- thereafter, and yet, before the meeting ends, either to preach, or to attend, thei”r funerals. A Jewish sage once said, “Care not for tomorrow, for you know not what a day may bring forth. Perhaps he may not be alive on the morrow, so have cared for a world that does not exist for him.”

14 whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow.—This statement appears to contain considerable irony. Those to whom James wrote were making plans that contained a year of tomorrows; whereas, they did not know what would occur on the first of these morrows I The contigencies involved every aspect of the future, (a) whether they would be alive ; (b) whether there would be a tomorrow; ( c) whether they would be physically able to make the trip planned ; ( d) whether circumstances would allow them to enter the city; ( e) whether if they were able to enter, they would be able to pursue their business; and (f) whether such activity would prove to be profitable. What great folly there is in disregarding all of these uncertainties, each o( which is in God’s hand. Though we are utterly unable to fathom the future and to ascertain what it holds, and are powerless to determine the situation for a single hour, yet all of us arc disposed to act as if the future is in our hands.

The sentence, ‘”Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow,” (hoitines ouk epistasthe tes aurion), means “You do not know with certainty what shall occur on tomorrow.” The verb epistasthe means to be certain, to know assuredly. It is, therefore. sheer folly for one to act as if the future is under one’s control when one is wholly ignorant of what even one day holds.

What is your life?—( Poia he zoe humon, literally “of what character is your life?”) It is as if James were saying, “Stop and consider! Before making plans for the future, determine what sort of life you have. Is it permanent, abiding, enduring, possessed of those qualities which assure that you will be here tomorrow, next week, the following year, over in the next century? Inasmuch as your future plans depend on the maintenance of life, what is the character of it?” Some have sought to place emphasi., on the pronoun “your,” and to understand James to be pointing to the emptiness, and ultimate destruction of an ungodly life. It is quite true that his address here is to the people who have eliminated God from their plans, and who presume on the permanence of life which is but a vapor; but the same is true of the physical life of all, whether good or bad. The sacred writers have, as we shall see below, frequently recognized the fleeting character of life and have mournfully chronicled its inevitable end as the grave. This characteristic of life James indicates in the statement following.

For ye are a vapor that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.—Life is “a vapor,” (atmis, mist) which appears “for a little time,” (pros oligon), “and then vanisheth,” ( phainomene epeila kai apham:zomene), a play on words in the original text, “appears, then in a moment, disappears.” Such is life, a languid wisp of cloud that floats idly in the airy ether of the heavens, outlined momentarily in a setting of liquid turquoise, and then disappears to be seen no more. Nothing is more unsubstantial than a vapor, and it is an excellent representation of the brevity of life, and the fleeting and unstable existence characteristic of all of us here. It is the same idea as that expressed by Job when he said,

“My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle,

And are spent without hope.

Oh remember that my life is a breath;

Mine eye shall no more see good.

The eye of him that seeth me shall behold me no more;

Thine eyes shall be upon me, but I shall not be.

As the cloud is consumed and vanisheth away,

So he that goeth down to Sheol shall come up no more.

He shall return no more to his house,

Neither shall the place know him any more.” (Job 7:6-10.)

The transitoriness of life and the inevitability of death are familiar themes to all Bible students. Again and ag;i.in the writers thereof have commented on this fact and have sought to impress us, with vivid figures, to this end. Life is by them compared to water spilled on the ground, to a flying shadow which flits across the sky and in whose shade the toiler rests briefly and looks up only to find that it has flown away; to a frail and fragile flower; to sleep, to a dream, to a handbreadth, to a shepherd’s tent which has been removed, to a tale that is told, to a long journey one is about to undertake. These are Inspiration’s answers to the question, What is your life!

Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary

Go to: Jam 5:1, Gen 11:3, Gen 11:4, Gen 11:7, Ecc 2:1, Isa 5:5

To day: Pro 27:1, Isa 56:12, Luk 12:17-20

and buy: Isa 24:2, Isa 56:11, Eze 7:12, 1Co 7:30

Reciprocal: Gen 27:45 – then I Jdg 19:9 – to morrow 1Ki 19:2 – to morrow 1Ki 22:27 – until I come in peace 2Ki 5:5 – go 2Ch 33:21 – two years Job 17:11 – purposes Psa 4:6 – many Psa 10:3 – boasteth Psa 121:8 – thy going out Ecc 10:14 – a man Jer 18:11 – go to Lam 3:37 – saith Eze 28:5 – and by Mal 1:4 – but Luk 12:19 – for Act 24:25 – when Rom 15:28 – I will 1Co 7:29 – that both Heb 3:7 – To day

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

Jas 4:13. Go to is from AGE, a Greek word that Thayer defines, “Come! come now!” It is a pointed expression made to someone, calling attention to foolish presumptions. The things mentioned are not necessarily wrong in themselves, but the folly is in taking it for granted that nothing can prevent it.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

Jas 4:13. It is a matter of dispute and considerable difficulty to whom this passage is addressed; whether James is here addressing unworthy members of the Christian Church, who had not yet laid aside the Jewish vices of their unconverted state; or whether he admonishes the oppressors of the Jewish Christians, the unbelieving Jews, the ungodly and rich in this world. Three reasons have been assigned in support of the opinion that unbelievers are here addressed. 1. The address Go to, again repeated (chap. Jas 5:1), seems to indicate that the words in the two apostrophes are addressed to those without the Church. 2. Those addressed are not designated as brethren, as is the usual custom of St. James, nor are any marks given to indicate that they are Christians. 3. Their ungodly conduct is so described that it can only be applicable to those without the church, and their doom is pronounced without any call to repentance. Others affirm that we are ignorant of the extent of moral corruption in the early Church, and that it was not the practice of the sacred writers to address those who were outside of the Christian community. Perhaps the most correct opinion is to assume that the first part of the passage, to the end of the fourth chapter, is an admonition to the worldly members of the Church; and that the second part, commencing at the beginning of the fifth chapter, is an apostrophe to the rich and the ungodly in the world. The passage is divided into two distinct portions, each beginning with the address Go to; and there is no reason to conclude that the persons thus similarly addressed in both paragraphs were the same. We consider, then, that those here addressed in the first paragraph were members of the Christian Church.

Go to, a call to attention, found only here and in the beginning of the next chapter.

now: this being the case; an inference from the preceding warning against worldliness and presumptuous confidence.

ye that say, Today or tomorrow; other manuscripts read today and tomorrow; but the difference in meaning is slight.

we will go into such a city: literally, into this city or the city in the intention of the speaker.

and continue there a year: literally, spend a year. Other manuscripts read, Let us go into such a city, and let us spend there a year.

and buy and sell: literally, traffic.

and get gain. There could be nothing wrong in the mere merchandise; the sin consisted in a presumptuous confidence in themselves, and in a want of realization of their dependence on God. The practice referred to is still very common in the East. Merchants journey to some distant city with their stock of goods, and continue there until the whole is disposed of.

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

For the clear understanding of these words,

consider, 1. What is not here forbidden or condemned by our apostle; namely, prudential resolutions for a right management of human affairs: It is lawful for men to take up a purpose to go to such a place, and follow their trade there, to buy, and sell, and get gain in an honest way; but no man must be peremptory in this, because we know not what shall be on the morrow, such determinations must be made with submission to divine providence: If the Lord will, we shall do this or that, referring all to his pleasure, who alone doth whatsoever pleaseth him.

Consider, 2. What is hereby intimated to us, and what is the duty incumbent upon us, namely,

1. That we have no assurance of our lives, nor any of the comforts of our lives, for one day, and therefore ought to refer all our actions, our enterprises, and undertakings to the will of God. What is your life? It is but a vapour; therefore ye ought to say, If the Lord will we shall do this or that.

2. That in regard of the great frailty of our lives, and the great uncertainty of issues and events, it is the height of presumption to promise ourselves great things, without the leave of God’s providence; as our times are in God’s hand, so are our actions also in God’s power, both as to the performance of them, and as to the success of them: Say not then, today, or tomorrow, we will go into such a city; for that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall do this, or that.

Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament

“Are You Listening?”

V. E. Howard, a great gospel preacher, often stopped in the middle of an important point and asked, “Are you listening?” Usually, those who were not, begin doing so at that time. James says “Come now” to get the same effect. They were making great plans for the future without bringing God into their planning. It’s as if they thought it was all up to them and they were dependent on no one. Such planning without God is a serious mistake ( Jas 4:13 ).

In warning against covetousness, Jesus told a parable about a rich man. His ground brought forth a great yield. When contemplating what to do with all the abundance, the rich man failed to consider his fellow man or God’s wishes. Instead, he resolved to tear down his barns and build bigger ones so that he might retire. “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This night your soul will be required of you; then whose will those things be which you have provided?’ So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God” ( Luk 12:16-21 ).

Fuente: Gary Hampton Commentary on Selected Books

Jas 4:13-15. Go to now , come now, an interjection, calculated to excite attention; ye that say, To-day or to-morrow we will go, &c. As if future events were in your own power, and your health and lives were ensured to you for a certain time; whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow Whether your spirits before then shall not have passed into eternity; for what is your life? It is even a vapour An unsubstantial, uncertain, and fleeting vapour; that appeareth for a little time In this visible world; and then suddenly vanisheth away And is seen here no more. Thus Isaiah, All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof as a flower of the field; a similitude used also by David, Psa 103:15-16, As for man, his days are as grass, as a flower of the field so he flourisheth; for the wind passeth over it and it is gone, and the place thereof shall know it no more. And still more striking is the metaphor used by Asaph, Psa 78:39, where he terms men, even a generation of them, A wind that passeth away and cometh not again. But in no author, sacred or profane, is there a finer image of the brevity and uncertainty of human life than this given by St. James, who likens it to a vapour, which, after continuing and engaging mens attention for a few moments, unexpectedly disappears while they are looking at it. For that ye ought, &c. That is, whereas ye ought to say In consideration of this your great frailty; If the Lord will, we shall live and do this or that

Intimating, even by your manner of speaking, the sense that you have of his being able, at pleasure, to cut you short in all your schemes and appointments. The apostle does not mean that these very words should always be used by us, when we speak of our purposes respecting futurity; but that, on such occasions, the sentiment which these words express should always be present to our minds.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

ARGUMENT 12

AVARICE

13. This verse vividly describes Christians in the old states getting so bewildered and enthused with the love of money, that they sell out, migrate to California and plunge into the gold mines, wild with speculation after riches. They leave their religion in the old country; and forsaking God, they worship gold.

14. This verse vividly describes the evanescence of all things earthly, and the transcendent folly of living for this world. It is said that an inhabitant of one of Gods innumerable, immortal, unfallen worlds came down and became a citizen of the earth. He was utterly unacquainted with all things terrestrial. On arrival, responsive to his inquiry, What is the chief good? all answered, Money making and money getting. Acquiescing in their response, and falling into line with the people of this world, himself entering upon the pursuit of wealth. One day he happens to see a graveyard. As death was unknown in the country whence he came, he interrogates a passerby, What is this? When the man gave him a candid answer, observing that all the people in this world live but a few years and then die, he said Oh, 1 have been deceived; if what you tell me is true, not money, but a preparation for never-ending eternity, is the chief good in this world.

15. On the contrary if the Lord wills and we should live we will do this or that. In my innumerable responses to evangelistic calls I always append the initials D.V. (Deo volente God willing). It is very unbecoming in people who profess to believe in God to leave Him out of their daily conversation and transactions.

16. Here James positively condemns all human, boastful arrogance as utterly out of harmony with the meekness and lowliness of true Christian character.

17. Therefore to him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin. This verse teaches that our responsibility to God is commensurate with our knowledge. When the whole world shall stand before the great white throne there will be an infinitesimal diversity of judgments. The people who lived and died under the Mosaic dispensation will be judged by the Old Testament only; those who have lived in the Christian era will be judged by the Old and New Testaments, while the heathen millions will be judged by neither, but only by the laws of nature. Hence myriads who have lived and died in pagan darkness and superstition will be acquitted, because they walked in all the light they had, while multiplied thousands who have lived in Christian lands and shown better moral characters, will go down under condemnation because they did not walk in all the light God gave them. 1Jn 1:7, If we walk in light… the blood… cleanseth us from all sin, applies to all nations indiscriminately Jews, Mohammedans, pagans, Catholics and Protestants, having an infinite diversity of light, but only responsible for what they have.

1. Come now, ye rich, weep howling over your calamities coming upon you. The rich here appealed to are those Christians mentioned in the preceding chapter who migrated out of their humble rural homes, providentially so favorable to piety, into the rich mercantile cities, there to trade, speculate and accumulate fortunes. They have succeeded in getting rich, but utterly backsliding, their life worn out in laying up treasures on earth, which they must now leave for others to enjoy, go out into eternity and meet God unprepared, destined to weep and howl in the flames of hell through all eternity, bewailing their blind folly in permitting Mammon to crowd God out of their hearts.

2. In the olden time fine garments were exceeding costly. These people were vain enough to buy them, but too stingy to wear them till the moths devoured them.

3. This verse vividly describes the remorse of conscience superinduced by their ill-gotten gains as a consuming fire devouring their flesh. Ye laid up treasure in the last day. Money accumulates money faster than anything else, consequently a life spent in hard toil to accumulate riches is followed by a feeble and afflicted old age, in which the grace of God is so much needed to ripen them for eternity, but the rapid accumulation of riches inundates them with such a multiplicity of cares as to crowd God out, envelop them in an awful spiritual night, and thus precipitate them into eternity.

4. Here we see how the accumulation of riches almost invariably involves a guilty conscience because of ill-gotten gains, fraudulently wrung from the stinted wages of the poor laborers.

5. You flourished and lived sumptuously on the earth; you nourished your heart in the day of slaughter. Here we have the striking similitude of a slaughter pen, in which the sheep, hogs and cattle are fattened for food. These animals, intellectually blind to their awful fate, eat voraciously till the fatal blow strikes them dead and their flesh is cruelly cut to pieces and devoured. So these unfortunate people, who embarked upon a great financial speculation, grew rich, backslid and became hopeless reprobates, are now in Satans slaughter pen, feeding on the carnal pabulum of this world, by which they are fattened for the barbecues of hell, in which cruel devils will devour them without mercy.

6. You condemned, you murdered the righteous, he does not resist you. These people have not only utterly apostatized, in their wild scramble after wealth, but they have actually turned persecutors of the Lords true people and imbrued their hands in martyrs blood. In this argument against covetousness, illustrated and enforced by the course of these Christians immigrating into a mercantile city to accumulate riches, while they succeed in their mercantile enterprises and riches wonderfully accumulate, they become worldly, apostatize, forget God and actually persecute the righteous, dropping out of life in Satans blackest midnight. Thus the argument, winding up in the signal triumph of sin and Satan, is a solemn warning to all Christians to beware of the seductive covetousness. It almost ruined Jacob, and utterly ruined Judas.

Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament

Jas 4:13-17. This and the next paragraph denounce the vices of the rich, in the spirit of Amos and Isaiah; that they are Jews, and not Christians, seems obvious, if this epistle is to be got into the first centuries of Christian history, when the rich had small power to oppress the poor. First comes a warning suggested presumably by the Lords parable of the Rich Fool. They make plans for a year, and know not what will happen the very next day; human life is transitory as a puff of steam. They were proud of big plans which fate might turn to folly. And such idle words (Mat 12:36) were not meaningless frivolities; there was evil in themit is a strong word, that which closes the Lords Prayer. Finally, since these people knew how to do gooddid they not boast of their Law?and would not do it, they were guilty of sin. For the NT with one consenthere following the spirit of the prophetsmakes sin mainly the failure to do right, and not merely the doing of wrong.

Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible

Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: 14 Whereas ye know not what [shall be] on the morrow. For what [is] your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. 15 For that ye [ought] to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that.

There may be a play on words in the original here. The term translated “tomorrow” seems to be derived from a term that means a breeze. The use of the word tomorrow in relation to life being a vapor, may imply not only life is tentative, but also “tomorrow may be tentative. None of us know what tomorrow will bring – it is all nebulous until it is history.

The thought of “vanisheth away” seems to be that it passes due to outside forces. We know that when our time comes, it will come due to God’s infinite wisdom and timing, thus we have no control over when it will be – thus the thought of vapor – we have no idea if tomorrow will even occur for us as an individual.

This might apply some to the question of whether suicide is wrong or not. In Oregon we have doctor assisted suicide – the technical name for it is euthanasia, but we don’t use that term in Oregon, for many find it offensive. The state is assisting people to do that which God’s word tells us is His prerogative. The state and those doctors involved are going against God as much as the one that takes those pills.

Suicide will not keep one out of heaven, but the state and doctors should not be a part of it, lest they be held accountable in some manner when they face their maker. I would even guess that those that voted for such legislation will face their creator in some manner for their vote.

This passage speaks to God’s will in our lives. There is a wide diversity on just how we relate to God’s will, and just how much control He desires in our lives. Some allow Him little input into their lives, while others tend to look to God for each and every decision of life, even to the buying of a pair of shoes. Just what is the right amount of God’s involvement in our lives? Is the first person less spiritual than the second person? Is the first person in error or in sin because they allow so little control to God?

If we believe in the concept of servanthood, we would opt to the total control end of the spectrum, while if we reject God’s right to be our master, then what control could He want. Servanthood is the norm in Scripture and should be the line of thought in the believers life. If it is not then there is not a proper relationship between the Father and His child.

I am not saying we have to stop and bow our heads and pray for guidance on that pair of pink tennies, but in our minds we certainly should be doing some evaluation. Are these necessary, are they honoring to God, and listening to the Spirit’s moving – God is interested in our shoes, He is interested in our every need. We ought to include Him in our daily business as if He was an integrated part of our nature – indeed, He is but we need to allow Him control.

Years ago I WANTED a turntable to play records on. I capitalized “wanted” because it was a want and not a need. We had one that worked fairly well, but I wanted a better one.

My employer had a nice one, but was a few dollars more than I wanted to spend. I also found one across the street from where I worked for the right price and was contemplating the purchase. I just didn’t feel comfortable about going ahead so I decided to wait. As I was sitting in the car before driving home I asked the Lord if I was doing the right thing. I opened my pocket testament and the words that my eyes landed on were “purchased a field.” This was speaking of Judas and his wrong doing. Naturally that didn’t relate to a turntable so was about to go back and make the purchase. As I opened the door “purchased a field” hit me – purchased a field, or buy elsewhere. This was a negative context and maybe I shouldn’t make a purchase elsewhere. I closed the door and drove home.

The next day as I walked into work my employer called me into the back of the shop and pointed to a great looking turntable and asked, “Stan, can you use that, it is free. Someone left it months ago and if you don’t want it, it is going into the trash, we need the room.” I took the unit home and it worked perfectly for many years until we sold it.

I could have bought the one I could afford, but God wanted me to have something much better, and for free. Had I not been considering Him in my decision I would have missed out on a great blessing.

I might add that I am not a strong believer in opening the Word to see what magic answer is there, but I must admit that God has spoken to me very clearly on a number of occasions in this manner. I would also admit that at other times, the words that my eyes landed on might as well been gibberish, because they had no meaning to me at the time.

Knowing God’s will is a combination of many things, reading the Word on a regular basis, praying, listening to the Spirit’s moving, using good common sense and anything else that can reveal His will to us in a Biblical manner.

Take time in your life to be sure you include Him in your decisions; you will be blessed by including Him in your life in a detailed manner.

Fuente: Mr. D’s Notes on Selected New Testament Books by Stanley Derickson

4:13 {8} Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain:

(8) The other fault is this: That men do so confidently determine on these and those matters and businesses, as though every moment of their life did not depend on God.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

C. Self-reliance 4:13-17

As in the previous chapters, James began with the exposition of a practical problem and moved on to its larger contextual problem, that is, its context in life. He already identified the source of interpersonal and inner personal conflicts as self-centeredness and explained that criticism places the critic in a seat that only God should occupy. Now he pictured a self-centered person living his or her life. He did this to enable his readers to see the root of this problem clearly.

"James gave an example of a boastful statement [Jas 4:13], struck a condemnatory sentence on such boasting [Jas 4:14], and offered a practical solution for boasting [Jas 4:15-17]." [Note: Blue, p. 831.]

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

1. The self-centered person 4:13-16

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

James confronted his audience as the Old Testament prophets did. He began, "Come now" (cf. Isa 1:18; et al.). The person in James’ illustration was probably a travelling Jewish merchant, ". . . the materialist core of the contemporary bourgeois prosperity." [Note: Adamson, p. 178.] Jewish merchants were common in the culture of James’ day, and undoubtedly some of them were Christian Jews. The man’s plans were not wrong in themselves.

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

Chapter 22

SELF-ASSURANCE AND INVASION OF DIVINE PREROGATIVES INVOLVED IN PRESUMING UPON OUR FUTURE-THE DOCTRINE OF PROBABILISM.

Jam 4:13-17

WORLDLINESS and want of humility are the two kindred subjects which form the groundwork of this portion of the Epistle. This fourth chapter falls into three main divisions, of which the third and last is before us; and these two subjects underlie all three. In the first the arrogant grasping after the pleasures, honors, and riches of the world, in preference to the love of God, is condemned. In the second the arrogant judging of others in defiance of the Divine law of charity is forbidden. In the third arrogant trust in the security of human undertakings, without consideration of Gods will, is denounced. The transition from the false confidence which leads men to judge others with a light heart, to the false confidence which leads men to account the future as their own, is easily made; and thus once more, while we seem to be abruptly passing to a fresh topic, we are really moving quite naturally from one branch of the main subject to another. The assurance which finds plenty of time for censuring others, but little or none for censuring self, is closely akin to the assurance which counts on having plenty of time for all its schemes, without thought of death or of the Divine decrees. This, then, is the subject before us-presumptuous security as to future undertakings. The future is Gods, not ours, just as to judge mankind belongs to Him and not to us. Therefore to think and speak of the future as if we had the power to control it is as presumptuous as to think and speak of our fellow-men as if we had the power to judge them. In both cases we assume a knowledge and an authority which we do not possess.

“Go to now” ( ) is a vigorous form of address, which occurs nowhere in the New Testament, excepting here and at the beginning, of the next section. Although originally an imperative singular, it has become so completely an adverb that it can be used, as here, when a number of persons are addressed. It serves to attract attention. Those who think that they can acquit themselves of the charge of censoriousness have yet another form of presumptuous confidence to consider. The parable of the Rich Fool, who said to his soul, “Soul, thou hast much good laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry,” {Luk 12:19} should be compared with this exhortation. And it is remarkable that it was just after our Lord had refused to be made a judge over two contending brothers that He spoke the parable of the Rich Fool.

There is no special emphasis on “ye that say,” as if the meaning were, “ye who not only have these presumptuous thoughts, but dare to utter them.” In the previous section giving utterance to unfavorable judgments about ones neighbors is evidently worse than merely thinking them, and is a great aggravation of the sin; but here thinking and saying are much the same. The presumptuous people look far ahead, think every step in the plan quite secure, and speak accordingly. Today and tomorrow are quite safe. The journey to the proposed city is quite safe. That they will spend a year there is regarded as certain, and that they will be able to spend it as they please, viz., in trading. Lastly, they have no doubts as to the success of the whole enterprise; they will “get gain.” All this is thought of and spoken of as being entirely within their own control. They have only to decide on doing it, and the whole will be done. That there is a Providence which needs to be considered is entirely left out of sight. That not even their own lives can be counted on for a single day is a fact that is equally ignored.

It was long ago remarked that “All men are mortal” is a proposition which each man believes to be true of every one excepting himself. Not that any one seriously believes that he himself will be exempt from death; but each one of us habitually thinks and acts as if in his ease death were such an indefinite distance off that practically there is no need to take account of it – at any rate at present. The young and the strong rarely think of death as a subject that calls for serious attention. Those who are past the prime of life still think that they have many years of life in store. And even those who have received the solemn warning which is involved in reaching mans allotted threescore and ten years remember with satisfaction that many persons have reached fourscore and ten or more, and that therefore there is good reason for believing that they themselves have a considerable portion of life still in front of them. Perhaps the man of ninety finds himself sometimes thinking, if not talking to others, of what he means to do, not only tomorrow, but next year.

Such habits of thought and language are very common, and a man has to be carefully on the watch against himself in order to avoid them. They are entirely opposed to the spirit of both the Old and the New Testament, and in the most literal sense of the term may be stigmatised as godless. The security which ignores the will of God in its calculations, and thinks and acts as an independent power, is godless. Dependence upon God is the center both of Judaism and of Christianity. A story of the Rabbinists brings this out as clearly on the Jewish side as the parable of the Rich Fool does on the Christian.

At his sons circumcision a Jewish father set wine that was seven years old before his guests, with the remark that with this wine he would continue for a long time to celebrate the birth of his son. The same night the Angel of Death meets the Rabbi Simeon, who accosts him and asks him, “Why art thou thus wandering about? Because,” said the angel, “I slay those who say, We will do this or that, and think not how soon death may come upon them. The man who said that he would continue for a long time to drink that wine shall die in thirty days.” It is in this way that “the careless ease of fools shall destroy them”. {Pro 1:32} And hence the warning, “Boast not thyself of tomorrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth”. {Pro 27:1} The man who makes plans for the future without taking account of Providence is not far removed from “the fool, who says in his heart, There is no God”. {Psa 14:1; Psa 53:1} “Set not thy heart upon thy goods; and say not, I have enough for my life. Follow not thine own mind and thy strength, to walk in the ways of thy heart; and say not, Who shall control me? for the Lord will surely avenge thy pride” (Sir 5:1-3). “There is that waxeth rich by his wariness and pinching, and this is the portion of his reward. Whereas he saith, I have found rest, and now will eat continually of my good; and yet he knoweth not what time shall come upon him, and that he must leave those things to others, and die” (Sir 11:18-19).

The Cyrenaics and their more refined followers the Epicureans started from the same premises, viz., the utter uncertainty of the future, and the inability of man to control it, but drew from them a very different conclusion. Dependence upon God was one of the last doctrines likely to be inculcated by those who contended that there is no such thing as Providence, for the gods do not concern themselves with the affairs of men. True wisdom, they said, will consist in the skilful, calm, and deliberate appropriation of such pleasure as our circumstances afford moment by moment, unruffled by passion, prejudice, or superstition. The present alone is ours, and we must resolutely make the most of it, without remorse for a past which we can never alter, and without disquietude about a future which we cannot determine and may never possess. This is not very profound as philosophy, for in the wear and tear of life it can neither fortify nor console; and as a substitute for religion it is still less satisfying. The whole difference which separates Paganism from Christianity lies between two such stanzas as these; –

“Quid sit futurum eras, fuge quaerere; et Quem Fors dierum cunque dabit, lucro Appone, nec dulces amores Sperne, puer, neque tu choreas”;

and-

“Lead, kindly Light, amid th encircling gloom, Lead Thou me on: The night is dark, and I am far from home; Lead Thou me on. Keep Thou my feet; I do not ask to see The distant scene; one step enough for me.”

“We will go into this city, and spend a year there, and trade, and get gain.” The frequent conjunctions separate the different items of the plan, which are rehearsed thus one by one with manifest satisfaction. The speakers gloat over the different steps of the program which they have arranged for themselves. St. James selects trading and getting gain as the end of the supposed scheme, partly in order to show that the aims of these presumptuous schemers are utterly worldly, and partly because a restless activity in commercial enterprise was a common feature among the Jews of the Dispersion. Such pursuits are not condemned; but they are liable to become too absorbing, especially when not pursued in a God-fearing way; and it is this which St. James denounces.

“Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. What is your life? For ye are a vapor, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.” It is not easy to determine the original Greek text with certainty, but about the general sense there is no doubt. It is possible, however, that we ought to read, “Whereas ye know not as to the morrow of what kind your life will be: for ye are a vapor,” etc. In any case, “Whereas ye know not” represents words which literally mean, “Since ye are people of such nature as not to know” ( ). As human beings, whose life is so full of changes and surprises, it is impossible for them to know what vicissitudes the next day will bring. The real uncertainty of life is in marked contrast to their unreal security.

“What is your life? Of what kind is it? What is its nature” ()? Bede remarks that St. James does not ask, “What is our life?” He says,” What is your life?” It is the value of the life of the godless that is in question, not that of the godly. Those who, by their forgetfulness of the Unseen, their desire for material advantages, and their friendliness with the world, have made themselves enemies of God-what is their life worth? Such persons “are a vapor, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.” But it may be doubted whether St. James is here speaking of the emptiness of an ungodly life. He is addressing godless persons, and in rebuking them reminds them how unstable and fleeting life is, not merely to them, but to all men. It is the same thought as we find in Jobs complaint, “As the cloud is consumed and vanisheth away, so he that goeth down to the grave shall come up no more”; {Job 7:9} and we shall see that in the next two sections {Jam 5:1-11} there are coincidences with the Book of Job. But it is perhaps the Book of Wisdom that is specially in the writers mind: “Our life shall pass away as the trace of a cloud, and shall be dispersed as a mist, that is driven away with the beams of the sub, and overcome with the heat thereof” (2:4). “For the hope of the ungodly is like dust that is blown away with the wind; like a thin froth that is driven away with the storm; like as the smoke which is dispersed here and there with a tempest, and passeth away as the remembrance of a guest that tarrieth but a day”. {Jam 5:14} And if these passages are the source of St. Jamess metaphor, Bedes interpretation becomes more probable; for in both of them it is the life of the ungodly that is likened to everything that is unsubstantial and transitory.

“For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall both live, and do this or that.” We must beware of understanding these words in such a way as to lose the spirit of them. It is one of many passages of Scripture which are often taken according to the letter, when the letter is of little or no importance. As in so much of the teaching in the Sermon on the Mount, we have a principle given in the form of a rule. Rules are given that they may be observed literally. Principles are given that they may be applied intelligently and observed according to their spirit. We do not obey Christ when we allow the thief who has taken our upper garment to have our under one also; nor do we obey St. James when we say, “If the Lord will,” or “Please God,” of every future event, and make a plentiful use of “D.V.” in all our correspondence. Nor is it enough to say that everything depends upon the spirit in which the second garment Is surrendered, and in which the “Please God” is uttered, or the “D.V.” written. It is quite possible to keep Christs precept without ever surrendering the second garment at all; and indeed we ought not to surrender it. And it is quite possible to keep His brothers precept without ever writing “D.V.” or saying “Please God,” the habitual use of which would be almost certain to generate formalism and cant in ourselves, and would be quite certain to provoke needless criticism and irreverent ridicule. St. James means that we should habitually feel that moment by moment we are absolutely dependent upon God, not only for the way in which our lives are henceforth to be spent, but for their being prolonged at all. At any instant we may be called upon to surrender, not only all the materials of enjoyment which He has bestowed upon us, but life itself, which is equally His gift; and whenever He does so call upon us we shall have neither the right nor the power to resist. “Shall He not do what He will with His Own? The Lord gave; and the Lord may take away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.”

The man who is thoroughly impressed with the fact of his utter dependence upon God for life and all things is sure to express this in his bearing, his tone, and his manner of speaking about the future, even although such phrases as “Please God” and “If the Lord will” never come from his lips or his pen. Indeed, the more complete his realization of this truth is, the less likely will he be to be constantly expressing it in a formula. It is the habitual setting of his thoughts, and does not need to be stated any more than the conditions of time and space. On rare occasions it may be well to remind others of this truth by giving expression to it in words; but in most cases it will be wisest to retain it as an unforgotten but unexpressed premise in the mind. But it is for each one of us to take care that it is not forgotten. Only those who have it constantly in their hearts can safely absolve themselves from the obligation of obeying the words of St. James literally.

“But now ye glory in your vauntings: all such glorying is evil.” The carnal self-confidence with which people serenely talk about what they mean to do next year, or many years hence, is only part of a general spirit of arrogance and worldliness which pervades their whole life and conduct; it is one of the results of the thoroughly vitiated moral atmosphere which they have chosen for themselves, and to the noxiousness of which they are constantly contributing. The word here rendered “vaunting,” and in 1Jn 2:16 “vainglory” () indicates insolent and empty assurance; and here the assurance lies in presumptuous trust in the stability of oneself and ones surroundings. Pretentious ostentation is the radical signification of the word, and in Classical Greek it is the pretentiousness which is most prominent, in Hellenistic Greek the ostentation. There is manifest ostentation in speaking confidently about ones future; and seeing how transitory everything human is, the ostentation is empty and pretentious. To be guilty of such vaunting is serious enough; but these fellow-countrymen of St. James, with their minds absorbed in material interests, gloried in their godless view of life. The simple character of his comment makes its severity all the more impressive: “all such glorying is evil.” He uses the very word which is commonly used to express “the evil one” ( ), and thereby indicates the character and source of such glorying.

In concluding this section of his letter, St. James brings the conduct which he has been condemning within the sweep of a very comprehensive principle: “To him, therefore, that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.” No Jew, whether Christian or not, could plead ignorance as an excuse for his transgressions in this matter. Every human being has experienced the uncertainty of the future and the transitoriness of human life; and every Jew was well instructed in the truth that man and all his surroundings are absolutely dependent upon the Divine will. Moreover, those whom St. James is addressing prided themselves on their spiritual knowledge; {Jam 1:19} they were professed hearers of Gods Word, {Jam 1:22-23} and were anxious to become teachers of others. {Jam 3:1} Theirs is the ease of servants who knew their masters will, and neglected to do it. {Luk 12:47} They themselves declared, “We see”; and the rejoinder is, “Your sin remaineth”. {Joh 9:41} They knew, long before St. James instructed them on the subject, what was seemly for human beings living as creatures in dependence upon their Creator; and they neglected to do what is seemly. To them this neglect is sin.

The passage is very commonly understood as applying to all sins of omission; and no doubt it is very capable of such application, but it does not follow that St. James was thinking of more than the particular ease before him. The words may be interpreted in three different degrees of comprehensiveness, and St. James may have meant one, or two, or all three of them.

1. The relation in which a creature ought to stand to the Creator is one of humility and entire dependence; and he who knows that he is a creature, and adopts an attitude of self-confidence and independence, sins.

2. In all cases of transgression knowledge of what is right aggravates the sin, which is then a sin against light. “If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no excuse for their sin.” {Joh 15:22}

3. This applies not only to transgressions, but to omissions. Knowledge of what is evil creates an obligation to avoid it, and knowledge of what is good constitutes an obligation to perform it. The latter truth is not so readily admitted as the former. Every one recognizes that an opportunity of doing evil is not a thing about which any choice is allowable. We are not permitted to use the opportunity or not, just as we please; we must on no account make use of it. But not a few persons imagine that an opportunity of doing good is a thing about which they have full right of choice; that they may avail themselves of the opportunity or not, just as they please; whereas there is no more freedom in the one case than in the other. We are bound to make use of the opportunity of doing good. “To him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.”

Some of those who think that St. James knew the Epistle to the Romans see here an allusion to the principle which St. Paul there lays down: “Whatsoever is not of faith is sin”. {Rom 14:23} For reasons already stated, it must remain doubtful whether St. James had knowledge of that Epistle; and even if he had, we could not by any means be sure that he had it in his mind when he wrote the words before us. But his words and St. Pauls, when combined, give us a complete statement of a great moral principle respecting the possession or non-possession of knowledge as to what is right and wrong in any given case. So long as we have no knowledge that a given act is right, i.e., so long as we are in doubt as to whether it is allowable or not, it is sin to do it. As soon as we have knowledge that a given act is right it is sin to leave it undone.

This principle cuts at the root of that unwholesome growth which in moral theology is known as the doctrine of Probabilism, and which has worked untold mischief, especially in the Roman Church, in which its chief supporters are to be found. This doctrine teaches that in all cases in which there is doubt as to whether a given act is allowable or not the less safe course may be followed, even when the balance of probability is against its being allowable, if only there are grounds for believing that it is allowable. And some supporters of this doctrine go so far as to maintain that the amount of probability need not be very great. So long as it is not certain that the act in question is forbidden it may be permitted. The object of which teaching is not that which ought to be the object of all moral teaching, viz., to save beings with immortal souls from making serious mistakes of conduct, but to enable beings with strong desires and passions to gratify them without scruple. The moral law is not so much explained as explained away. The very titles of some of the treatises in which the doctrine of Probabilism is advocated indicate their tendency, e.g., “The Art of Perpetual Enjoyment.”

To all such special pleading, and making the Word of God, of none effect by human glosses, the simple principles laid down by St. Paul and St. James are the best antidote: “Whatsoever is not of faith is sin”; and “To him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.”

Fuente: Expositors Bible Commentary

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