fasten; and no one but he could say, "The prince of the world cometh, and he halh nothing in me." II. 'l'm: GENEALOGY OF BIN. (Ver. 15.) "Lust" is throughout this passage per• eonified in allegorical fashion as a harlot, ever striving, like the harlot Folly of Prov. ix. 13-18, to allure and captivate the will. First, she draws the man "who goes right on his way" out of the path of sound principle and wholesome pleasure; anrl then ehe entices him into her embrace with the siren strain, "Stolen waters arn eweet." Lust may be said to "conceive," when it obtains the consent of the will, or disarms its opposition. The man who dallies with temptation, rostead of meeting it with instant and prayerful resistance, will be sure eventually to succumb to it. From the guilty union of lust with the will, a living sin is born. The embryo corruption becomes developed into a deed of positive transgression. And this is not all. Sin, the progeny of lust, itself grows up from the infancy of mere choice to the adult life of settled habit; and "when it is full-grown," it in turn becomes, as the result of union with the will, the mother of death. It was so with the sin of onr first parents in Paradise. It was so with the sin of Achan (Josh. vii. 21); he saw, coveted, took, and died. It is so with the sin of licentiousness, which has suggested the figure of this passage; the physical corruption which the practice of sensuality entails is just a. sacrament of spiritual death. Death is the fruit of all sin. Sin kills peace; it kills hope; it kills usefulness; it kills the conscience; it kills the soul. The harlot-house of lust and sin becomes the vestibule of perdition. As Milton baa it, in a well-known passage of bk. ii. of • Paradise Lost. •-a passage suggesteci. by this very verse-Sin is " The snaky sorceress that sat J'ast by hell-gate, and kept the fatal key;" while Death, her son, is "the grizzly Terror" on the other side, which stood "Fierce as ten furies, terrible as bell." III. 'fHE GLORY AWAITING HIM WHO ENDURES. (Ver. 12.) This comfortable word reminds us of the Beatitudes. 'l'he blessedness of which it speaks belongs not only to all Christians who-" letting patience have its perfect work "--endure "tempta- tions" in the sense in which the word is used in ver. 2, but to all also who escape victorious from the solicitations of evil desire, referred to in the verses which we have been considering. Notice here: 1. The character of the blessed man. He "loves the Lord," and in the spirit of this love he "endures temptation." Love is the substance of the Christian character, and love "endureth all things." Love alone will enable e. man to stamp out lust. 2. Bis glorious reward. "He shall receive the crown of life." Not a chaplet of parsley, not even a diadem of gold; but a crown composed of life. Eternal life itself will be the believer's reward. Temptation unresisted, as we have seen, is always pregnant with sin and death; but holy endurance entails upon one the gracious reward of spiritual life, which shall be confirmed in spotless purity for ever and ever. This glorious blessing is guaranteed ; the believer has for it a definite warranty from his Redeemer. 3. The time and condition of its bestowal. It is "when he bath been approved;" i.e. tested as gold or silver in the white heat of the refiner's fire. The one way to the kingdom is the way of persevering endurance. "Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee the crown of life." LESSONS. 1. Flee from spiritual death. 2. Crucify sin. 3. Mortify lust. 4. Cul- tivate the grace of endurance. 5. Watch and pray against outward occasions of evil. 6. Sprinkle the conscience with the blood of atonement, and wash the soul in the laver of regeneration.-C. J.
Vers. 16, 17.-All good is from God. The exhortation of ver. 16 introduces addi- tional coofirmation of the truth that God cannot tempt men to sin. He is the Author of all good. He not only abhors evil, but from him come those gracious influences which destroy it. Three she.des of thought appear in the argument of ver. 17. I. CoNSIDER ms GIFTS. Ee.eh of these is ":perfect" in its matter, and "good" in \he manner of its bestowal. While raw sins (ver. 14) and ripe sins (ver. 15) a.like ,pring from one's "own lust," "every good gift and every perfect boon is from above." All temporal blessings come from God; and even in this lower province his bounty 14 THE GENERAL EPISTLE OF JAMES. [ OJI, I, 1-27,