situation, or perhaps in their temper and nature, which is to dispense with self-denial, and make disobedience venial.

But let no man be deceived by any such groundless expectations and false hopes. If you fall into divers temptations, they are ordered for your probation, not for your destruction; not to pervert, but to "stablish, strengthen, settle you."

If, indeed, you are content to venture through the world with no determined plan or object, then you will be "like a wave of the sea," driven and tossed by every wind of temptation. The desire of your own heart, whatever it be, will carry you here and there, till sin bringeth forth death. But if you are disciples of Christ, have renewed for yourselves that covenant to which you were engaged in baptism, and have set your heart on God, and your mind on heaven, then you have a positive assurance that all things shall "work together for good" to you, and not for evil: that "God will with the temptation make also a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it." The same storm which brings to the ground the house built without foundation, proves the strength of that which is founded on a rock. And thus it is with the temptations of the world. Elisha rejects what Gehazi runs after: Joseph triumphs when David is overcome: Luke is faithful to the cause which Demas forsook: Mary sits at the feet of Jesus, whilst Martha is distracted by worldly cares.

In the end it appears, that He who ordereth all things, ordereth all things well: he tempteth no man to evil: but he proves men, and sees what is in their

hearts, that he "may be justified when he speaks" his final sentence, "and clear when he judges:" when he makes an everlasting "difference between him that serveth Him, and him that serveth Him not:" when he shuts out from his presence the unstable and unfaithful, and fulfils his exceeding great and precious promises to the man who endureth temptation."Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God.""

LECTURE V.

GOD THE AUTHOR OF ALL SPIRITUAL GOOD. JAMES i. 16-21.

16. Do not err, my beloved brethren.

17. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.

There seems connexion between this and the preceding verses. St. James had been before declaring, God cannot be tempted with evil. How could such a thought be imagined, as that God should tempt any man with evil? Do not err, my beloved brethren. Every good and perfect gift is from above. God is the author of good, and only of good. He is the Father of lights: and "with him is no darkness at all." The mental, inward light, and the material, outward, light: the light that shineth in our hearts, and the light that shineth in the heavens, are

7 Rev. iii. 12.

equally from Him. At the creation of the world he said, "Let there be light, and there was light:" there was light in the world. At the creation of man he said, "Let us make man in our own image :" let him have intellect: let him have conscience. So he willed it; and there was light in the mind of man.

And it is not with Him, the Father of lights, as it is with those heavenly bodies which he has made. It is part of the great design, that they should change; that there should be variableness with them: the moon, which gives light by night, shines not upon the whole world at once: now gives us its benefits, and now denies and the sun, that rules the day, knoweth its going down. The case is otherwise with the great Contriver: with him is no variableness, neither shadow of turning: "he is the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.'

Still further to contradict the thought that God could tempt any man to evil, St. James is led to reflect on the kindness which he had shown towards themselves, and the intent of that kindness.

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18. Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we might be a kind of first-fruits of his creatures. Of his own will. It was his own merciful design. We did not move towards him, but he towards us. We did not ask any such mercy: he was found of those that sought him not, who were not seeking him, when he made us, as it were, the first-fruits of his creatures. St. James is looking onward with a prophet's eye to that multitude which no man can number, which shall here

1 βουληθεις.

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after surround the throne of God, and join in the praises of their Redeemer. And of this vast harvest, he and those whom he was addressing were a kind of first-fruits, the first produce offered to God of a new creation in Christ Jesus: the forerunners of that harvest which should be gathered from all the ends of the earth, "even as many as the Lord our God shall call." God had so ordered it of his own will and pleasure: by the voluntary exercise of his own counsel he had determined that these should be the first of that great family of believers in Christ, reared on earth and raised to heaven. Of his own will begat he us. Let no one doubt to whom the praise must belong, if we are a part of his new creation. If we are in an especial sense his children, he is our Father: to him we owe our spiritual being. If Christ is made our Re-. deemer," the Father draws" us to him. If we hear his invitation, it is because "he opens our hearts" to receive it. He is the author of every good and perfect gift: and surely then he is the author of that best and most perfect gift, which is eternal life. He, the Father of lights, lights," shines into our hearts, that we may see his glory in the face of Jesus Christ."3

Thus we are referred to the author of our faith. So are we also to the instrument which he uses.

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2 It was commanded in the law, Levit. xxiii. 10, When be come into the land which I give unto you, and shall reap the harvest thereof, then ye shall bring a sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest unto the priest; and he shall wave the sheaf before the Lord, to be accepted for you.

31 Cor. iv. 6.

Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth. This is the visible parent of the new creation; the instrument which effects the spiritual change. The word of truth. To James it had been the spoken word. James, like the other apostles, had been following his earthly pursuits, when the Lord had called him from them; had spoken to him "that which he knew, and testified that which he had seen," concerning heaven, and the way to heaven. It was a new life to James; and from thenceforth he walked as one who had been "begotten anew." So it was the word spoken by Peter and John, which caused the assembly of Jews, as related Acts ii., to repent of the wickedness which they had committed in "killing the Prince of life," and to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins. In our day, sometimes the word spoken, for "faith still cometh by hearing," and sometimes the written word, is made the visible instrument through which faith is wrought in the soul. "There are diversities of operations." But never let us forget, "it is the same Spirit;" it is still God the Father of lights which makes the word of truth effectual: so that whilst in one the spark is feeble, finds nothing to nourish it, is soon extinguished and seen no more; in another it kindles a steady flame, gathers strength as it continues, and burns brighter and brighter unto the end. Without the Father of lights, the word of truth has no more effect, produces no more fruit, than seed when cast upon a stone.

And yet observe the nature of the instrument which the Father employs in the conversion of his