Vor; 10.-The obedience which God requires is absolute. "Whosoever shall keep the whole Law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all." Why, since the breach of but one command is certainly not as sinful as the breach of all? Because (1) "the principle of duty and of obedience to all the commandments is one; so that if we choose for ourselves nine commandments to keep, and one to break, we are not doing God's will, but our own; (2) all the precepts are alike expressions of one Divine will, and rest on one authority ; (3) all the precepts are manifestations of love at work--love first to God, and then to our neigh boar; and each particular failure shows defect in this" (Dean Scott). "A garment is torn, though you only take away one piece of it ; a har- mony in music is spoiled if only one voice be out of tune" (Starke). The perfect figure of the circle is marred by a flaw in any one part of it. So to break one command out of all is to violate the whole principle of obedience. Thus men have no right to pick and choose which commandments they will keep, or to " Compound lor Bins they are inclined to, By damning those they have no mind to." As Christians, we are not entitled to bow down in the house of Rimmon, nor does the strictest obedience to one command give us a dispensation to break another ; e.g. spotless chastity on the part of the unfallen will not atone for Pharisaism and harshness to the fallen, for "if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the Law." (On this verse see a sermon in Dr. Pusey's 'Parochial Sermons,' vol. iii. p. 70.) Ver. 13.-The character of mercy. The most suggestive commentary on this verse may be found in Shakespeare's lines- "The quality of mercy is not strain'd; It droppeth, as the gentle rain from heaven Upon the place beneath: it is twice bless'd; It blesseth him that gives, and him that tak:01: 'Tia mightiest in the mightiest; it becomes The thronM monarch better than his crown ; His sceptre shows the force of temporal power, The attribute to awe and majesty, Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings; But mercy is above this sceptred sway, It is enthroned in the heart of kings, It is an attribute to God himself; And earthly power doth then show likest God's When mercy seasons justice." (' Merchant of Venice,' act iv. sc. 1.) Vere. M-26.-Faith and works. I. THE HOLLOWNESS OF PROFESSION WITHOUT PRAOTIOE; of a mere orthodox creed without the deeds of love, which are as the fruits by which the tree is known. There is no reason to think tha.t the Pharisee of the one parable was unorthodox, or that Dives in another was a heretic; but the faith of ea.eh. of these wa.s worthless, because not a "faith which worketh by love." The good Sa.maritan was a stranger and an alien, but did by nature the deeds of the Law; and thus (although "salvation is of the Jews") is held up for an example. The barren fig tree stands forth as the type of profession without practice-a great show of foliage, the ordinary sign that marked the presence of fruit, but after all "nothing but leaves." So is the man who says to his destitute brother," Depart in peace, get warmed and filled," but gives him none of those things which be needful for the body; and the fate of the fig tree is a warning to all ages of the danger in which such stand. II. THE NEED OF WORKS. 1. In the case of Abraham his faith was perfected by his obedience. 2. Rahab the harlot was justified by works. Works are necessary for all Christians, wherever they are possible, (1) as tho fruits of faith, and (2) as the evidences JAMES, D 34 THE GENERAL EPISTLE OF JAMES. [OH. ll. 1-26.
that the fait.h is genuine. Hence jud_qment by works is expressly taught in the New 'l'est,,mcnt. So in the Athanasian Creed, "They that have done good shall go into life ever]Rst.ing, '' ek. III. On the apparent difference between the teaching of St. Ja.mes and of St. Paul see Farrar's 'Early Days of Christianity,' vol. ii. p. 99. "We may thank God that the tr~t~ ha~ ~een revealed to us under many lights; and ~hat by a diversity of gifts the Sp!r~t mm1stered to each apostle severally as he would,. inspiring the one to deepen our spmtual hfe by the solemn truth that works cannot Justify apart from faith and the other to stimulate our efforts after a holy life by the no less solemn truth that faith cannot justify us unless it be the living faith which is shown by works. There is in the diversity a deeper unity. The Church, thank God, is' Circuma.micta varietatibus • --dothed in raiment of many hues. St. Paul bad dwelt prominently on faith; St. Peter dwells much on hope; St. John insists most of all on love. But the Christian life is the synthesis of these Divine graces, and the works of which St. James so vehe- mently impresses the necessity, are works which are the combined result of operative faith, of const.raining love, and of purifying hope."