James 3:4

CHRISTIAN ABILITY

‘Behold also the ships, which though they be so great, and are driven of fierce winds, yet are they turned about with a very small belm, whithersoever the governor listeth.’

James 3:4

We have no capacity, under the natural laws of the soul, as a self-governing creature, to govern successfully anything, except indirectly—that is, by a process of steering.

I. The process of steering.—We cannot govern a bad passion or grudge by choking it down, or master a wild ambition by willing it away, or stop the trains of bad thoughts by a direct fight with them, which fight would only keep them still in mind as before—all that we can do in such matters, in the way of self-regulation, is to steer simply the mind off from its grudges, ambitions, bad thoughts, by getting it occupied with good and pure objects that work a diversion.

II. All human doings as regards the soul’s regeneration, or the beginning of a new life, amount to nothing more than the right use of a power that steers it into the sphere of God’s operation. And the reason why so many fail is that they undertake to do the work themselves, wearing away spasmodically to lift themselves over the unknown crises by main strength—as if seizing the ship by its mast, or the main hulk of its body, they were going to push it on through the voyage themselves.

(SECOND OUTLINE)

LITTLE THINGS

Real success in self-government is not the waiting for some special occasion to exert ourselves, but doing the best that can be done in the circumstances of everyday life.

I. No day will pass without opportunities for this.—There are sarcastic remarks to be left unsaid, censorious judgments to be left unpronounced, bad thoughts to be suppressed, and good suggestions to be carried out in practice. We shall never be without opportunities to say the right thing, and to season our converse with salt; never without opportunities for little industries and self-denials. There will always be something to do or to forbear, some struggle to be carried on with self, little opportunities, and little victories won in them, and these day by day are the battle-fields for us. ‘I will not drive them out from before thee in one year.… By little and little I will drive them out before thee, until thou be increased, and inherit the land’ (Exodus 23:29). And do we not say, ‘Give us this day our daily bread’? and again, ‘Vouchsafe to keep us this day without sin’?

II. As the Isthmian wrestler gained strength by his struggles, so does the servant of God by his.—By attending to our little faults and making little efforts to correct them, we gradually overcome them; by not attending to them, they gradually overcome us. The poet complains of us, ‘Man never is, but always to be blessed.’ So we might say of many, they never are, but always going to be improved; they wait for a great occasion and a future opportunity. But when the young Hebrews were chosen out to be trained in the court of Babylon, and were allowed a sumptuous portion from the royal bounty, Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s meat, and he gained leave for himself and his three companions to carry out this purpose, living by preference on very hard fare. It might be said this conscientious scruple was a little effervescence of youthful enthusiasm; but it had this good in it—it showed a spirit of self-discipline, and a desire to honour and obey God, even at some inconvenience to self. When we begin we may expect to go further, and you find by and by that when the most extraordinary trial of faith came to Daniel’s three companions, and it was a choice between giving up promotion and life itself on one hand, or giving up God’s honour and God’s service on the other, then the life, trained by self-government in lesser things, was prepared for the conflict, and was able to make this instructive and memorable decision.

III. Not a few lives which once began full of promise have gradually fallen away from their former grace, tire down into formal routine, and some of them decline into failing faith and prevailing sin. ‘Ye did run well. What did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth?’ (Galatians 5:7). I can tell what I think is the answer. They slackened; the enemy did not. They let themselves fail in little failings, they excused themselves when little duties came; and so little failings warped them into great defects, and in the hour of serious calls on them they were found wanting.

Rev. Canon T. F. Crosse.