St.
James tells them that of old. "From whence," he says, "come wars and
quarrels among you? Come they not hence, even of the lusts which war in
your members? You long, and have not. You fight and war, yet you have
not, because you ask not. You ask, and have not. You pray for this and
that, and God does not give it you. Because you ask amiss, selfishly to
consume it on your lusts." And then you say, This world is an evil
place, full of temptations. What says St. James to that? "Let no man
say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted
with evil, neither tempteth He any man. But every man is tempted, when
he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed."
So it was in the Old Testament times, and so it is in these Christian
times. God is good, and God's world is good; and the evil is not in the
world around us, but in our own foolish hearts. If we follow our own
foolish hearts, we shall find this world a bad place, as the old Jews
found it--whenever they went wrong and sinned against God--because we are
breaking its laws, and they will punish us.
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