“Pure Religion and Undefiled”

It was our mournful privilege to be present at the funeral of a young Christian man, not thirty years of age. On the Saturday, with his wife and two little children, he had been at a Sunday School picnic in the Pararnatta Park, near Sydney, Australia.

Returning home on a cycle he collided with a trap, driven by an intoxicated man. His injuries were great. This was on Saturday. On Monday he died, and on Wednesday we buried him in a beautiful country cemetery beneath a blazing sun.

Speaking to his young widow after the funeral the writer quoted the verse, “Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world” (James 1:27).

This verse should be a great comfort to the fatherless and widows, as it shows they are God’s special care. Even under the Mosaic Law this was so. We read, “When thou cuttest down thine harvest in thy field, and hast forgot a sheaf in the field, thou shalt not go again to fetch it: it shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless and for the widow: that the Lord thy God may bless thee in all the work of thine hands” (Deut. 24:1). And this is only one verse of many framed on these lines.

But to return to our verse, which well bears inspection. First there is the invocation—“Before God and the Father.” Does this not show how “pure religion and undefiled” is noted by God our Father Himself? Then further it seems on first sight to us that the exhortation “to visit the fatherless and the widows in their affliction” should come after that enjoined, in the words, “To keep himself unspotted from the world.” We should have thought that the latter should have come first, if at all. There are so many good things the Christian can do that we wonder why this particular form of Christian activity should have this prominence.

What then is the answer? It is that God, our Father, has a special care for the fatherless and the widow, and therefore puts this exhortation first; and further, may not the reason be that we are slow to care for the fatherless and the widow? Anyhow, here is a very powerful and potent exhortation—and we do well to pay heed to it.

And, further, to visit “the fatherless and the widow in their affliction” does not limit our activity to comforting words. James, the writer of the epistle is very practical. He says “If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, and one of you say to 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?” (James 2:15-16).

So our visiting should be practical. If we called on a widow and her children left in affluence, it might well be that a few well-chosen words said in true sympathy might convey true comfort. But suppose we visit a poor widow and destitute children, a few pious words with no material help might only harden a widow in her grief.

The writer, James, is practical, and would have had much sympathy with the Quaker Christian. A crowd gathered round a man who had sustained a big loss in the death of the animal that drew the cart with which he prosecuted his business. Loud were the exclamations of pity and sympathy on the lips of many. But the Quaker was practical. He said to the poor man, “I’m sorry half-a-crown” and slipped the coin into his hand.

Let this exhortation of the writer James have its practical effect and may it be a comfort to the fatherless and the widow as showing that they are the special care of God, our Father, in heaven.