VII.

WORKS AND FAITH.

JAMES ii. 14-17.

"What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, and one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit? Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone."

THE longer I meditate, in peace and solitude, on the momentous truth-that man is blessed only through the faith which Jesus taught the clearer and more tranquillizing to my mind does it become.

It is true, I often imagine to myself that genuine Christianity does not depend so much on faith as on practice. Since, however, I perceive that with all my endeavours after a perfect life, I still remain very imperfect in the eyes of God;-that I never advance so far as to be thoroughly holy, that is, free from every offence and fault; I find no consolation except through faith in Divine Mercy.

I am more and more firmly convinced, that the faith of the Christian is alone the prop of his virtue -because he is upheld by it from stumbling, at times when no strange eye observes him, and he might transgress with impunity the laws of man. But looking up to the Omniscient, to the REWARDER, the recollection of eternity restrains him from secret sins. Yet more-it is but too certain that there are moments when cool reflection is suspended; when in the fire of sensual passions the best intentions are dissolved; when the remembrance of the ties of duty is no longer sufficient to bind us down to virtue. Then the weak mortal needs a strong support to prevent his falling, and becoming the prey of a sinful propensity, of which he will afterwards, perhaps, in vain repent. And this support, this protection against the force of temptation, is his Faith. When his reason is subdued, this will yet deliver him.

If I do good, shall I not do it in order to obtain an earthly or a heavenly reward? Such a motive were no virtue, but mere selfishness. Moreover I perceive that with all my upright conduct, I must always stand as a sinner before God, and can have merited nothing at His hands. I should, then, lose the courage to be virtuous, if faith in God and eternity did not strengthen and confirm me. For if there were no God, no everlasting existence to be

expected by me, all the sacrifices which I make for the benefit of my soul, all the sufferings which I undergo for the sake of virtue, were a mere folly. I should do far better, were I born only for this short span of life, to take care to spend my few days here below as pleasantly as I might. Wherefore should I adorn my soul with virtues, if it, like the body, shall perish in the grave?

Hence the declaration which Jesus made, becomes perfectly clear to me: "He that believeth ...shall be saved." Ah! I feel it: without this faith there is no tranquillity, no comfort, no peace, no hope, no blessedness. By this, Christ having obtained for us the "Great Salvation," leads us to His eternal kingdom. No good works—even the deeds of an angel-can of themselves alone exalt to such a state of bliss.

But whilst I acknowledge the wondrous, saving power of Faith, I must not deny the worth of Virtue. Virtue without faith is sowing without reaping; but faith without virtue is a barren, fruitless tree.

Those, therefore, act unwisely and contrary to the doctrine of Jesus Christ, who treat all good deeds as useless, and direct our attention to faith alone. They imagine that a virtuous course conduces little to salvation; that by faith alone we are justified before God; that the blood of Jesus, and His merits, or the intercession of the saints, will alone

cleanse us from sin-if we have lived ever so profligate a life. Woe to those who hold such doctrine! They are zealous opposers of that Jesus, whose servants they desire to be esteemed ;-they tread under foot the divine word, which they undertake to interpret; they pave the way to human perdition, and become murderers of souls. "What doth it profit," says the apostle St. James, (ii. 14. 26.) “what doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? Can faith save him? For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also."

And yet unhappily the opinion has become very prevalent, that it is sufficient for the salvation of the soul, if a man only believe in the Triune God, in the reconciling death of the Son Jesus Christ, in the power of prayer; and observe with pious zeal all the church rites which are connected with public worship. Very far from subduing their passions—their propensity to anger, to lust, to covetousness, to intemperance, to envy and to other sins, men sometimes indulge themselves in these crimes in the firm confidence that Christ has done more than enough to remove their guilt; and that it is sufficient to believe on Him, in order to obtain forgiveness of all such transgressions. They pray regularly to God; and,

with all their pretended holiness, hate or defraud their neighbour. They go constantly to Church, and to the altar, in order that they may return with so much the freer heart to the indulgence of their ungoverned appetites, their ambition, their avarice to envy their brother, and scandalize their sister. They give alms to the beggar, but oppress the unfortunate, defraud and overreach those with whom they have any dealings, and appropriate to themselves the goods of other people.

This is not Christianity; it is a wicked abuse of that which is most holy. Not by their profession of faith shall ye know those who belong to me,' saith Jesus to His disciples, but by their fruits.' "Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.” (MATT. vii. 21.)

Such wrong and ruinous ideas of the alonesaving power of faith, and of the little worth of virtue, arise sometimes out of a misunderstanding of particular passages of Scripture; at other times 'out of the inconsiderate zeal of such preachers, as suppose that they must preach only, and without intermission, on matters of faith, in order to prevent the decay of vital Christianity. These shortsighted people do not consider, that virtuous men are more inclined to religion than wicked men