Jam. iv. 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 appear eth 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
94 J. Wilis, IV. 13, lk [2372.
manifold declensions were found, not only in indivi- duals, 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, 1 shall distinctly mark,
I. The habit which is here censured —
The Apostle does not intend to condemn all fore- thought 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 ex- pectation 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 God's prero- gative 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 contempla- tion 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 by us in future years in consequence of our own care and industry. As we grow up, we buoy up ourselves with the