Vers. 9-12.-The only true _ground for boasting. High and low, rich and poor, can glory in their Christian exaltation. "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ," said St. Paul; o.nd, referring to that same cross, the Saviour said," I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto me." Thus the cross forms part of the "lifting up," the "exaltation" in which the Christian is to glory. "Per crucem ad lucem." Our Christian privileges cannot be separated from our Christian sufferings. In both alike we are to rejoice and glory. Vers. 13-18.-The genesis of sin. 1. Four stages are described. (1) The desire- the appetite draws the man towards evil indulgence. (2) The will yields to the desire, which thus becomes pre,,"llant with action. (3) Sin is born, the offspring of the unhallowed union between will and desire or lust. (4) Lastly, sin, "when it is full grown, bringeth forth death" (cf. Milton's allegory in 'Paradise Lost,' bk. ii. I. 745, etc.). "First there cometh into the mind a bare thought of evil, then a strong imagination thereof, afterwards delight, and evil motion, and then consent. And so little by little our wicked enemy geiteth complete entrance, for that he is not resisted at the beginning" ('l'homas a. Kempis). 2. God is not tempted with evil, and he doth not tempt to evil. " Ascribe it not to the Father of lights, bnt to the prince of dark- neaB. But ascribe all good, from the smallest spark to the greatest beam, from the least good giving to the best and most perfect gift of all, to him, the Father of lights " (Andrews, 'Sermons,' iii. p. 363). If there can be no change with the Father of lights, no " shadow cast by turning," what folly to suppose that the works of darkness come from him! Temptation may be regarded (1) as a test to prove a man; (2) as a discipline to improve him ; (3) as an allurement to entice him. In the two former aspects it has been already treated of by the apostle, and bas been shown to be a cause for joy. As an allurement it can have no power, unless it meets with some response in man. Thus man has no right to charge his sins upon God, or to make God the author of his temp- tations. The outward occasion may indeed be from him, sent either as a test or a discipline; but the inward inclination, that which leads a man away and entices him, is entirely evil. Vera. 19-27.-Deeds, not words. 1. The right spirit for the Christian is the receptive; ready to hear, and to receive with meekness the engrafted Word, which is to be as the seed falling on the good ground (comp. Matt. xiii. 3, etc.). A heathen philosopher bas noted that man has two ears and only one mouth; showing that he should be more ready to hear than to speak. 2. A receptive spirit is not alone sufficient. Action must follow. Holy Scripture is a mirror, in which a man may see his own image reflected. The man who merely listens to it sees his own likeness, perhaps, but "goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was." Without doing, what is the ~ood of hearing sermons? Knowledge without obedience only increases condemnation. So our Lord's severest denunciations were for those cities which had known most of his mighty works; and" many stripes" were reserved for that servant who knew his Lord's will and did it not (Luke xii. 47). (On the subject of ver. 22, see a good sermon of Bishop Andrews, 'Sermons,' vol. v. Serm. ix.) 3. Government of tongue may serve WI a test of a man's religion, it being " a most material restraint which religion lays us under; without it no man oan be truly religious." Sins of the tongue include not only such fla"rant ones as lying, swearing, filthy conversation, etc., but what Bishop Butler calls "~nrestrained volubility and wantonness of speech,'' which is the sin more particularly alluded to by St. James, and which is "the occasion of numberless evils and vexations in life." "If people would (1) observe the obvious occasions of silence; if they would subdue (2) the inclination to tale-bearing, and (3) that eager desire tu THE GENERAL EPISTLE OF JAMES, [oH, L 1-27,
engage attention_ whic_h is a~ original disee.se in some minds, they would be in little danger of olfendmg with their tongue and would in a moral and religious sense have due government over it" ~ishop Butler. See the whole sermon 'On the Gover~ment of the Tongue:' 'Sermons, No. iv.). It he.s been well ssid that the tnlkative often do mo": harm than the wilfully false and malicious. They betray secrets, part friends, embitter foes, wound h_earts, blight ch~r~ters, hinder truth. Is not this true of many a m~n. w~o ~ms ~ hunselr to be religious? 4. If the external service, the ritual of Chnst1amty, 1s a hfe of purity and self-devotion in the service of others what must its inmost spirit be? '