in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience. Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.

emphatic order of the Greek, As an example of affliction and longsuffering take, my brethren, the prophets...... The first of the nouns expresses simply the objective affliction, not the manner of enduring it.

the prophets who have spoken...] Better, who spake. The words point, perhaps, chiefly to the prophets of the Old Testament, as having, with scarcely an exception, suffered persecution (Matt. v. 12). But we must not forget that there were prophets also in the Christian Church (1 Cor. xii. 10, xiv. 24, 29; Eph. ii. 20, iv. 11; Rev. xxii. 9), and that these were exposed to the same trials as their predecessors. It is to their sufferings that St Paul probably referred in 1 Thess. ii. 15, and St James may well have included them in his general reference. Stephen and his own namesake, the son of Zebedee, may have been specially present to his thoughts.

11. we count them happy which endure...] Better, we call them blessed, the verb being formed from the adjective used in ch. i. 12. Comp. Luke ii. 48. The words may contain a reference to Dan. xii. 12.

Ye have heard of the patience of Job] Better, endurance, to keep up the connexion with the verb. It is singular that, though the book is once quoted (I Cor. iii. 19, Job v. 13), this is the only reference in the New Testament to the history of Job. Philo, however, quotes from Job xiv. 4 (de Mutat. Nom. XXIV.), and he is referred to by Clement of Rome (1. 17. 26). The book would naturally be studied by one whose attention had been drawn, as St James's manifestly had been, to the sapiential Books included in the Hagiographa of the Old Testament. It is obvious that he refers to the book as containing an actual history, as obvious that his so referring to it throws no light on the questions which have been raised, but which it would be out of place to discuss here, as to its authorship and date.

and have seen the end of the Lord] The words have received two very different interpretations. (1) They have been referred to the "end" which the "Lord" wrought out for Job after his endurance had been tried, as in Job xlii. 12. (2) The "end of the Lord" has been understood as pointing to the death and resurrection of Christ as the Lord who had been named in verse 7, the highest example of patience in the Old Testament being brought into juxtaposition with the Highest of all Examples. On this view the passage becomes parallel with 1 Peter ii. 19-25. The clause that follows is, however, decisively in favour of (1), nor is there any instance of a New Testament writer using the term "end" of the passion and death of Christ. Matt. xxvi. 58, which is the nearest approach to such a use, is scarcely in point.

that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy] The first of the two adjectives, of which the nearest English equivalent would be largehearted or perhaps tender-hearted, is not found in any other writer,

II

12

13

12. Oaths.

But above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any other oath: but let your yea be yea; and your nay, nay; lest ye fall into

condemnation.

13-16. Affliction-Sickness-Confession.

Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? and may have been a coinage of St James's. The latter occurs in Ecclus. ii. 11, in close juxtaposition with a passage which we have already found referred to in the Epistle (Ecclus. ii. 11), and which may therefore have been present to St James's thoughts. In this instance "the Lord" is clearly used in the Old Testament sense, and this, as has been said, determines the meaning of the previous clause.

12. OATHS.

12. above all things, my brethren, swear not...] The passage presents so close a parallel with Matt. v. 33-37 that it is almost a necessary inference that St James, if not himself a hearer of the Sermon on the Mount, had become acquainted with it as reported by others. Comp. Introduction, p. 8. The words condemn alike the rash use of oaths in common speech, and the subtle distinctions drawn by the Scribes as to the binding force of this or that formula (Matt. xxiii. 16—22). That the condemnation does not extend to the solemn judicial use of oaths we see in the facts (1) that our Lord answered when questioned as on oath by Caiaphas (Matt. xxvi. 63, 64), and (2) that St Paul at times used modes of expression which are essentially of the nature of an oath (2 Cor. i. 23; Romans i. 9; Gal. i. 20; Phil. i. 8). It is not without interest to note that in this respect also the practice of the Essenes, in their efforts after holiness, was after the pattern of the teaching of St James. They, too, avoided oaths as being no less an evil than perjury itself (Joseph. Wars. II. 8. 85). They, however, with a somewhat strange inconsistency, bound the members of their own society by "tremendous oaths" of obedience and secresy.

13-16. AFFLICTION-SICKNESS-CONFESSION.

13. Is any among you afflicted, let him pray...] The precepts point to the principle that worship is the truest and best expression of both sorrow and joy. In affliction men are not to groan or complain against others, or murmur against God, but to pray for help and strength and wisdom. When they are "merry" (better, of good cheer) they are not to indulge in riotous or boastful mirth, but to "sing psalms." The verb is used by St Paul (Rom. xv. 9; 1 Cor. xiv. 15; Eph. v. 19). Primarily it was used of instrumental string music, but, as in the word "Psalm," had been transferred to the words of which that music was the natural accompaniment. It is, perhaps, specially characteristic

let him sing psalms. Is any sick among you? let him call 14 for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: and the 15

of St James that he contemplates what we may call the individual use of such music as well as the congregational, as a help to the spiritual life. We are reminded of two memorable instances of this employment in the lives of George Herbert and Milton. Compare also Hooker's grand words on the power of Psalmody and Music (Eccl. Pol. v. 38).

14. Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church] The rule is full of meaning. (1) As regards the functions of the Elders of the Church. Over and above special gifts of prophecy or teaching, they were to visit the sick, not merely for spiritual comfort and counsel, but as possessing "gifts of healing" (1 Cor. xii. 9). (2) The use of the term "Elders" exactly agrees with the account of the Jewish Church in Acts xi. 30, xv. 6, xxi. 18. In the Gentile Churches the Greek title of Bishop (Episcopos overseer) came into use as a synonym for "Elder" (Acts xx. 28; Phil. i. 1; 1 Tim. iii. 1; Tit. i. 5, 7), but within the limits of the New Testament the Church of Jerusalem has only "Apostles and Elders." It may fairly be inferred from the position which he occupies in Acts xv. that St James himself was reckoned as belonging to the first of the two classes. St Paul's way of mentioning him naturally, though not necessarily, implies the same fact (Gal. i. 19).

The

anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord] The context shews that this was done as a means of healing. It had been the practice of the Twelve during part, at least, of our Lord's ministry (Mark vi. 13). The Parable of the good Samaritan gives one example of the medical use of oil (Luke x. 34), another is found in Isai. i. 6. Friction with olive oil was prescribed by Celsus for fever. Herod the Great used oilbaths (Joseph. Ant. xvII. 6. § 5). The principle implied in the use of oil instead of the direct exercise of supernatural gifts without any medium at all, was probably, in part, analogous to our Lord's employment of like media in the case of the blind and deaf (Mark vii. 33, viii. 23; John ix. 6). It served as a help to the faith of the person healed; perhaps also, in the case of the Apostles, to that of the healer. position of the disciples was not that of men trusting in charms or spells and boasting of their powers, but rather that of those who used simple natural means of healing in dependence on God's blessing. A sanction was implicitly given to the use of all outward means as not inconsistent with faith in the power of prayer, to the prayer of faith as not excluding the use of any natural means. "The Lord" in whose Name this was to be done is here, without doubt, definitely the Lord Jesus. Comp. Matt. xviii. 5; Mark ix. 39; Luke ix. 49; Acts iii. 16, iv. 10, 18, 30. The subsequent history of the practice is not without interest. It does not seem to have been ever entirely dropped either in the West or East. In the latter, though miraculous gifts of healing no longer accompanied it, it was, and still is, employed ostensibly as a means of healing, and the term "extreme unction" has been carefully rejected. Stress is laid on the words of St James as pointing to the collective

prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be for

action of the elders, not to that of a single elder, and the legitimate number ranges from three as a minimum to seven. It is evident that here the idea of united prayer working with natural means has, in theory at least, survived. In the West, on the other hand, a new theory grew up with the growth of Scholasticism. If bodily healing no longer followed, it was because the anointing had become the sign and sacrament of a spiritual healing, and the special grace which it conveyed was thought of as being specifically different from that which came through other channels, adapted to the needs of the soul in its last struggles. So the term "Extreme Unction" came into use in the twelfth century, and the Council of Trent (Catech. VI. 2. 9) limited its use to those who were manifestly drawing near unto death, and gave it the title of "sacramentum exeuntium." In the First Prayer Book of Edward VI. the rite was retained, partly, it would seem, by way of compromise (“if the sick person desire to be anointed"), partly, as the language of the prayer that was to accompany the act seems to indicate ("our heavenly Father vouchsafe for His great mercy (if it be His blessed will) to restore to thee thy bodily health"), with a faint hope of reviving the original idea. In the Prayer Book of 1552, the "unction" disappeared, and has never since been revived.

15. and the prayer of faith shall save the sick] The context leaves no doubt that the primary thought is, as in our Lord's words to men and women whom He healed, "Thy faith hath saved thee"-"thy faith hath made thee whole" (Matt. ix. 22; Mark v. 34, x. 52; Luke vii. 50, viii. 48, xvii. 19, xviii. 42), that the sick man should in such a case "recover his bodily health." The "prayer of faith" was indeed not limited to that recovery in its scope, but the answer to that prayer in its higher aims, is given separately afterwards in the promise of forgiveness.

and the Lord shall raise him up] Here, as in verse 14, we have to think of St James as recognising not merely the power of God generally, but specifically that of the Lord Jesus, still working through His servants, as He worked personally on earth. So Peter said to Æneas, "Jesus Christ maketh thee whole" (Acts ix. 34).

if he have committed sins...] The Greek expresses with a subtle distinction, hard to reproduce in English, the man's being in the state produced by having committed sins. Repentance, it is obvious, is presupposed as a condition, and the love of God in Christ as the fountain of forgiveness, but the prayer of the elders of the Church is, beyond question, represented as instrumental, as helping to win for the sinner the grace both of repentance and forgiveness. It is noticeable that the remission of sins thus promised is dependent not on the utterance of the quasijudicial formula of the Absolvo te (that, indeed, was not used at all until the 13th century) by an individual priest, but on the prayer of the elders as representing the Church. Comp. John xx. 23, where also the promise is in the plural, "Whosesoever sins ye remit."

given him. Confess your faults one to another, and pray 16 one for another, that ye may be healed.

16-20. Prayer and Conversion.

The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, 17

16. Confess your faults one to another...] Better, with the old MSS. Therefore confess-and transgressions instead of faults. The noun includes sins against God as well as against men: the words refer the rule of this mutual confession to the promise of forgiveness as its ground. In details the precept is singularly wide. The confession is not to be made by the layman to the elder, more than by the elder to the layman. In either case the question whether it was to be public or private, spontaneous or carried on by questions, is left open. Examples such as those of Matt. iii. 6; Acts xix. 18, 19, suggest the thought of the public confession of individual sins, which was, indeed, the practice of the Church of the third and fourth centuries, as it was afterwards that of many Monastic orders. A later revival of the custom is found in the 'class-meetings" of the followers of John Wesley. The closing words, that ye may be healed, have been thought to limit the counsel thus given to times of sickness. It may be admitted that the words are to be taken primarily of bodily healing, but on the other hand, the tense of the imperatives implies continuous action. The writer urges the habit of mutual prayer and intercession, that when sickness comes, there may be a quicker work of healing in the absence of spiritual impediments to the exercise of supernatural powers working through natural media.

16-20. PRAYER AND CONVERSION.

The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much] The words "effectual fervent" represent a single participle (energumenè), which is commonly rendered (as in 2 Cor. i. 6; Gal. v. 6; 1 Thess. ii. 13) by "working." That accordingly may be its meaning here: A righteous man's supplication is of great might in its working. The later ecclesiastical use of the word, however, suggests another explanation. The Energumeni were those who were acted, or worked, on by an evil spirit, and the word became a synonym for the "demoniacs" of the New Testament. It is possible that a like passive meaning may be intended here, and that the participle describes the character of a prayer which is more than the utterance of mere human feeling, in which the Spirit itself is making intercession with us (Rom. viii. 26).

17.

Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are] The word is the same as that used by St Paul in Acts xiv. 15. The reference to the history of Elijah (1 Kings xvii. 1, xviii. 1) is noticeable, as one of the coincidences on which stress has been laid as suggesting the inference that the Epistle was written by the son of Zebedee, whose thoughts had been directed to the history of Elijah by the Transfiguration, and who