It is not God who casts up the mire
and dirt. It is they who cast it up. God has not made them
restless: but they themselves, with their pride, selfishness,
violent passions, longings after this and that. God has not made
them foul and dirty, but they themselves, with their own foul words
and foul deeds, which keep them from being at peace with themselves,
because they are ashamed of them all the while; which keep them from
being at peace with their neighbours; which make them hate and fear
their neighbours, because they know that their neighbours do not
respect them, or are afraid of their neighbours finding them out.
What says brave, plain-spoken St. James?--'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.' 'From whence come wars and fightings
among you? Come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your
members? Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and
cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask
not.'
But as for God, he says, from him comes nothing but good. Do not
fancy anything else. 'Do not err, my beloved brethren. 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.
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