Homiletical Commentary.

NOTES ON THE EPISTLE OF JAMES.

"The Tempter."

Chapter iv. 7-10.—"SUBMIT YOURSELVES THEREFORE TO GOD. RESIST THE DEVIL, AND HE WILL FLEE FROM YOU. DRAW NIGH TO GOD, AND HE WILL DRAW NIGH TO YOU. CLEANSE YOUR HANDS, YE SINNERS; AND PURIFY YOUR HEARTS, YE DOUBLE MINDED. BE AFFLICTED, AND MOURN, AND WEEP: LET YOUR LAUGHTER BE TURNED TO MOURNING, AND YOUR JOY TO HEAVINESS. HUMBLE YOURSELVES IN THE SIGHT OF THE LORD, AND HE SHALL LIFT YOU UP."

THESE exhortations rise out of what the apostle has just been saying. God, he has been telling his readers, resists, sets Himself against the proud, against those who, taking the side of the world, and becoming friends with it, thereby set themselves against Him. This is the position which God takes up, cannot help taking up the moment a nation or an individual forgets his creaturely dependence upon Him, and thinks to live apart from, or in antagonism to, Him. "Behold I am against thee," saith the Lord, to every one such; God resisteth the proud, sets Himself as in battle array against every one such, singles him out and advances against him; if He must, to bring down his high looks; if He may, to soften his heart into meek subjection, to make him His willing servant in the day of His power. God resists the proud, but there is that which He more gladly does, which He has delight in doing, He gives grace to the humble, to the lowly, to those who do not think of themselves more highly than they ought to think. Them, He takes into His favour, upon them He bestows the riches of His fellowship, with them, He condescends to dwell. "The proud He knoweth afar off," with him that is of a humble, contrite spirit, it is His

delight to dwell. Thus saith the High and Holy One, who inhabiteth eternity, I delight to dwell with him who trembleth at My word! "God resisteth the proud but He giveth grace to

the humble."

But this being so, there is a very urgent need, a very immediate call for submission. The creature who "sets himself against," can never “stand against" God: shall the thing made strive with its maker? If a man will rush against the buckler of the Almighty, it can only be to be broken in pieces: no

The urgent call for submission.

weapon formed against Him can prosper; when He rises up against the evil-doers, who among them will stand? But there is no need that He should rise up against them, let them, as is surely most meet, submit themselves to Him, instead of setting themselves against Him, let them set themselves against His enemy and their own, let them draw near again to the gracious Master and Friend from whom they have been holding themselves aloof, let them humble themselves in the sight of the Lord, and they will experience His loving-kindness, the tenderness of His mercies who giveth grace to the humble. "Submit yourselves therefore to God." "Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and He will exalt you!"

All this, which is true of those whose whole life has been rebellion against God, is equally true and more heinously sinful in those who, having experienced His friendship, have slighted it, preferring the friendship of the world, of those who, members of His Church, have exalted themselves against their fellows, who have been selfish, and envious, and proud, seeking honour among men rather than the honour which cometh from the enjoyment of the favour of God. The life-long rebels have never experienced the gracious nearness of their King: if they had, perhaps they would never have risen against Him : at all events, they would not have had the guilt of crucifying the Son of God afresh and of putting Him to an open shame but these, His friends-to taste of the pleasures that are at His right hand, and then to prefer the pleasures of the world which is His enemy. . . . is there not greater grace: grace more abounding, when to these, while the terror of His

The sinfulness of the sins of Saints.

power is displayed, there is held out again the sceptre of His grace?-God resisteth the proud, in the outside world, He

Greater grace.

resisteth the proud when they rise up in His own Church, but with each, this is His strange work : He gives grace to the humble. "Submit yourselves therefore to God: Be wise now therefore O ye kings: be instructed, ye judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling."

Submit yourselves to God, this is the sum and substance of the passage before us, it is the exhortation which gathers up all the others into itself, it is the thought which, as the apostle dwells upon it, assumes so many forms, it is the near at hand duty which, that he might the more urgently press upon his hearers, he holds up before them, now in one aspect and now in another. Submit yourselves to God: yes, it is all there, and if they will but consider it closely they will see it all. But he will help them to consider it he will not deal in mere generalities, these too often cover up the truth they were meant to open up; if he were to leave them to these

This apostle does not deal in vague generalities.

maybe they would miss the very thing he wants them to see! They have been drawing off from God, holding aloof from Him, not enjoying, because not seeking communion with Him, and, perhaps, they are but vaguely conscious of this: well, he will not run the risk of letting them remain thus by simply saying "Submit to God;" he will tell them, and tell them plainly, that they have been removing themselves far away from Him, and that they will need to come near. Satan has been very busy with them, there would not have been these wars and battles, these factions and strifes, these envyings and strifes, if he, the stirrer-up of strife, the murderer from the beginning, had not been among them and in them though unseen; they have been giving place to him, else he could not have stirred them up to such flagrant transgressions of their Master's will: well, then, if they would submit to God, they must resist God's foe, they must set themselves no longer against God, but against God's enemy, and, His word for it, they should not fail. In the very act of drawing off from God and giving place to God's foe, they

have been staining their hands and defiling their hearts, the hands uplifted to strike at a brother, the hearts proudly swelling with thoughts of self-elation! Are not these stained, defiled? But to come with these into the presence of God! Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord, or who shall stand in His holy place? He that hath clean hands and a pure heart, who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully! Cleanse your hands, ye sinners, and purify your hearts, ye double minded!

Estranging themselves from God, giving place to God's foe, defiling themselves with pride and all unrighteousness, they had been contenting themselves with the joys which for a season are experienced in the midst of and along with these; the joys which the world can give when it has given power and position to those who have long set their heart upon them, joy which is accompanied even with laughter of a sort, the sneer which is cast at them it has cast down: the self-satisfied ha! ha! with which it contemplates the discomfiture of those in whose discomfiture it sees its own exaltation. But joy of this sort, laughter of this sort, and submission to God: why this joy, this laughter, must be repented of if a man would be admitted into the presence of God: laughter of this kind must be turned into mourning, joy of this kind must be turned into heaviness, dejection, contrition; and the sinners, the double minded, must be afflicted, and mourn, and weep. Repenting after this fashion, they will submit, nay, they will humble themselves in the sight of the Lord, they will take the right measure of themselves in His presence: they will see there how little they are, how unworthy they are, and ashamed of themselves, they will cast themselves at His feet who the moment He sees them there will lift them up!

"Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you Draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep; let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He shall exalt you."

The witness of James

to the

personality

of Satan.

It is all contained you observe in that one word, "submit." Submit yourselves to God, and it might be sufficient to have thus drawn thoughtful attention to it, were it not that in one of the special exhortations following upon it there is something which has been said to be foreign to the apostle's modes of thought: his explicit recognition, namely, of the existence, personality, and power of that evil spirit who under various names is known in Scripture throughout as the enemy of God and man. When those who wish to teach that sin originates entirely in the heart of man himself, that it has not at all any of its beginnings, impulses, or suggestions from one who is other than man, are asked to prove this from Scripture, they turn to the apostle James where he tells that every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death." There, say they, there is nothing about a supernatural wicked spirit, nothing about a seducing tempter of whom one is to beware, against whom one is to watch: "every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust." And is there nothing here of what Paul says about "putting on the whole armour of God that we may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil, for that we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places?" Nothing here of

Compare Scripture

with Scripture.

what Peter says about our adversary the devil walking about as a restless and bloodthirsty lion seeking whom he might devour, and whom we were to resist, steadfast in the faith? Nothing here of what John says about the distinction between the children of God and the children of the devil: nothing here of the liar and murderer from the beginning who abode not in the truth? And yet men will quote just what serves a particular end, and ignore what refuses to serve that end. Men will quote the first chapter of James and not the fourth. It is quite true that James says that "every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust," and that saying this he says what is true; but he does not