mination on earth, and he receives a partial recompense for the sufferings he has undergone in earthly prosperity. But will such instances authorize us to say, that he who has been proved in tribulation, who has kept the faith, and exercised patience under the chastening hand of God, will be certainly recompensed by a day of sunshine and prosperity, and at last succeed in his wishes and undertakings, and that this will form "the crown of life" of which our text speaks? Ah my friends, the apostle who wrote this epistle was stoned, and his Master was crowned with thorns, and ended his life on the cross. No; the law, according to which good and evil, prosperity and adversity, pleasure and pain, sickness and health, abundance and want, are distributed on earth, the Divine economy, according to which it goes well with one and ill with another, for a long time, or during the whole of life, is a mystery deeply hidden from our eyes; and in those temporal changes which we are constantly witnessing, the righteous cannot see his reward nor find his crown. God has not promised the reward of earthly prosperity to those who love him, nor do the Scriptures term it a crown of life. Must we then say, that it is delayed till after the death of the christian sufferer or conqueror? It is true that St. Paul says, "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day; and not to me only, but unto

all them also that love his appearing," 2 Tim. iv. 7, 8. But he had referred just before, in explicit terms, to his approaching death. "The time of my departure is at hand;" and thus the crown of righteousness was his consolation, when he had nothing more to expect in and from this earthly life. Yet do not the beatitudes at the beginning of our Lord's sermon on the mount, of which our text has already reminded us, relate to the present life? and does not St. Paul declare "godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come?" Can that be any other promise than that which St. James here calls a "crown ?" And when he calls it a crown of life, must we not say that this life, the true eternal life, has its beginning in the faithful already on earth, as the Scripture saith," He that believeth on the Son of God hath everlasting life?" Yes, my brethren, such is the fact. Have we learned in our humiliation to glory in our exaltation, and in our exaltation to glory in our humiliation ? Do we endure the manifold temptations to which we are exposed, and preserve our faith unimpaired? How glorious is the crown of life, even already on our heads, invisible to men of the world, who are sensible only of external pomp and splendour, but visible to the children of God, to whom Divine wisdom is justified in all her ways. Only let this crown adorn us, and we will consent to lie in the dust, the scorn and by-word of the people. Our apostle was stoned to death; but among the martyrs his countenance would

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appear like that of the first martyr, Stephen, face of an angel." That was his crown here below. That adorable head, which on earth had not a place where to lay itself, wore no visible crown but a crown of thorns; but those who looked upon it with the eye of faith, beheld it still resplendent with the glory of the only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth, even when he hung upon the cross; and that was his crown even on earth. But at the right hand of God, his crown shines still more gloriously; and there also the crown of the tried christian will shine with its full lustre. Our faith will obtain its final and complete verification in the hour of death. Then, if we have endured this last trial, and have kept the faith, we shall be blessed in the fullest sense. The most pleasing view we can now form of complete blessedness is that of its being a rest, which agrees with the scriptural representation, "Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord, for they rest from their labours, and their works do follow them." He may already be esteemed blessed, to whom riches and poverty are matters of indifference, who enjoys within his soul a heavenly rest, which nothing earthly can disturb, whom none can rob of that sweet repose with which, like Mary, he sits at the feet of his Redeemer; but how vastly superior must be that repose of the soul, that peace of the heart, which we shall enjoy, when having endured all trials, we shall enter into the rest of God, and in the celebration of the eternal

sabbath, shall behold all that God has made, and like him pronounce all to be very good, and rejoice with him in all his works! Let us then be faithful

unto death, that we may

obtain this crown, the

LECTURE IV.

JAMES i. 13-18.

Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: but every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. Do not err, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first-fruits of his creatures.

You will recollect that the apostle began with pronouncing that man blessed, who withstood the temptations arising either from poverty or riches, (taking these expressions in their widest sense,) that is, who should hold fast his faith, and thus increase his power of patient endurance; blessed would such an one be, since he might expect a crown of life. But the apostle now supposes the case of a man who was deficient in that true wisdom which would make the temptations he endured contribute to his joy, and