and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six 18 months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.

19

Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one 20 convert him; let him know, that he which converteth the

had himself referred to that history when he sought to call down fire from heaven on the village of the Samaritans (Luke ix. 54). The inference is, at the best, uncertain. It is, perhaps, more to the purpose to note that the son of Sirach, with whose teaching that of the Epistle presents so many parallels, had dwelt with great fulness on the history of Elijah (Ecclus. xlviii. 1—12). It is remarkable that the Old Testament narrative does not directly state that the drought and the rain came as an answer to Elijah's prayer, and that this is therefore an inference drawn by St James from the fact of the attitude of supplication described in 1 Kings xviii. 42. An interesting coincidence in connexion with this reference to Elijah's history presents itself in the narrative given in Josephus (Ant. xviii. 8, § 6) of the troubles caused by Caligula's insane attempt to set up his statue in the Temple at Jerusalem. Petronius, the then Governor of Judæa, was moved by the passionate entreaties of the people, and supported the efforts made by Agrippa I., who remained at Rome, to turn the Emperor from his purpose. It was one of the years of drought that brought about the great famine foretold by Agabus (Acts xi. 28). No rain had fallen for many weeks, and the people-Christians, we may well believe, as well as Jews, though Josephus, of course, makes no mention of the former-were "instant in prayer," calling upon the Lord God of Israel to send rain upon the earth. Suddenly rain fell in a plenteous shower from an almost cloudless sky. The earth was refreshed, and the pressing danger averted. Petronius, Josephus relates, was much moved by this manifestation, this Epiphany, of the Divine Power, and looked upon it partly as an answer to the prayers of the people, partly as the reward of the equity which he had shewn in dealing with them. According to the date which, on independent grounds, has here been assigned to St James's Epistle, the event referred to must have happened but a few months before, or but a few months after, it. If before, he may well have had it in his thoughts. If after, it may well have been in part the effect of his teaching. Students of Church History will remember the strikingly parallel instance of the prayers of the soldiers of the Thundering Legion in the Expedition of Marcus Aurelius against the Marcomanni (Euseb. Hist. v. 5. Tertull. Apol. c. 5).

19. if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him...] Better, as the verb is passive, if any of you be led astray. The "truth" here is obviously not the faith which was common to Jews and Christians, but specifically "the truth as it is in Jesus,' "the truth which the "brethren," who held the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ" (ch. ii. 1), had received as their inheritance. To convert one who had so strayed, in thought or will, in belief or act, was to bring him back to the truth.

sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.

20. from the error of his way] The noun always involves the idea of being deceived as well as erring. Comp. 2 Pet. ii. 18, iii. 17;

I John iv. 6.

shall save a soul from death] The soul is obviously that of the sinner who is converted. Death, bodily and spiritual, would be the outcome of the error if he were left alone, and in being rescued from the error he is therefore saved also from death.

and shall hide a multitude of sins] The phrase is one of those which St James has in common with St Peter (1 Pet. iv. 8). It occurs also in the LXX. of Ps. lxxxv. 2, and in a nearly identical form in Ps. xxxii. 1. The Hebrew, and English version, of Prov. x. 12 present a still closer parallel, but the LXX. seems to have followed a different text, and gives "Friendship covers all those that are not contentious. The context leaves hardly any room for doubt that the "sins" which are thought of as covered are primarily those of the man converted, and not those of the converter. There is, however, a studied generality in the form of the teaching, which seems to emphasise the wide blessedness of love. In the very act of seeking to convert one for whom we care we must turn to God ourselves, and in covering the past sins of another our own also are covered. In such an act love reaches its highest point, and that love includes the faith in God which is the condition of forgive

ness.

The absence of any formal close to the Epistle is in many ways remarkable. In this respect it stands absolutely alone in the New Testament, the nearest approach to it being found in 1 John v. 21. It is a possible explanation of this peculiarity, that we have lost the conclusion of the Epistle. It is, however, more probable that the abruptness is that of emphasis. The writer had given utterance to a truth which he desired above all things to impress on the minds of his readers, and he could not do this more effectually than by making it the last word he wrote to them.

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