James · Chapter 5

V. 1. Come now, ye rich-The apostle does not speak this so much for the sake of the rich themselves, as of the poor children of God, who were then groaning under their cruel oppression.

Weep and howl for your miseries which are coming upon you-Quickly and unexpectedly. This was written not long before the siege of Jerusalem; during which, as well as after it, huge calamities came on the Jewish nation, not only in Judea, but through distant countries. And as these were an awful prelude of that wrath which was to fall upon them in the world to come, so this may likewise refer to the final vengeance which will then be executed on the impenitent.

Verse 1. Go to now] See Clarke on “James 4:13”. Weep and howl for your miseries] St. James seems to refer here, in the spirit of prophecy, to the destruction that was coming upon the Jews, not only in Judea, but in all the provinces where they sojourned. He seems here to assume the very air and character of a prophet; and in the most dignified language and peculiarly expressive and energetic images, foretells the desolations that were coming upon this bad people.

Verse 1. The unbelieving Jews, being exceedingly addicted to sensual pleasure, and very covetous, were of course grievous oppressors of the poor. Wherefore, to alarm these wicked men, and, if possible, to bring them to repentance, St. James, in the first paragraph of this chapter, sets before them, in the most lively colours, the miseries which the Romans, the instruments of the divine vengeance, were about to bring on the Jewish people, both in Judea and everywhere else, now deserted of God for their crimes, and particularly for the great crime of murdering the Just One, Jesus of Nazareth, their long-expected Messiah. So that, being soon to lose their possessions and goods, it was not only criminal, but foolish, by injustice and oppression to amass wealth, of which they were soon to be stripped. In this part of his letter the apostle hath introduced figures and expressions which, for boldness, vivacity, and energy, might have been used by the greatest tragic poet. See Macknight. Go to now — Or, come now, ye rich men — The apostle does not speak this so much for the sake of the rich themselves, as of the poor children of God, who were then groaning under their cruel oppression. Weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you — Quickly and unexpectedly. The miseries of which he speaks were those which our Lord had pointed out in his prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem, and in which this apostle foresaw they would soon be involved; miseries arising from famine, pestilence, and the sword. These fell heaviest on the Jews in Judea. But they extended also to the Jews in the provinces. The reader who desires to see a particular account of these calamities, may read Josephus’s history of the Jewish war, where he will find scenes of misery laid open not to be paralleled in the annals of any nation. And as these were an awful prelude of that wrath which was to fall upon them in the world to come, so this passage may likewise refer to the final vengeance which will then be executed on the impenitent.

Verse 1. Go to now, or go now, ye rich men. He had taught them humility, because their glory vanished away as the flower of the field: chap. 1:10. He now calls upon them to weep and howl over the ashes of their tombs and sanctuary, their warehouses and pleasant villas in flames, and Jerusalem the common grave of a ruined nation. It is indubitable that the early christians, from the words of Christ and of the prophets, knew that Jerusalem would be destroyed, and that the event would happen in that generation. The Spirit being poured out on the poor, blood and fire, and vapour of smoke, would attend the enemies of truth. The day that should burn as an oven and consume the wicked, both root and branch, would presently follow the rising of the Sun of righteousness on the church. The approach of the Roman legions against the rebellious city, and the incomparable horrors of the siege, had been three times foretold by our Lord, and always with tears; once in Galilee, once when riding on the untutored colt, and making his entry into Jerusalem, and once in the temple. The apostle therefore merely drops the hint, “Ye see the day approaching.” Hebrews 10:25. Those events, associated with luminous prophecies, greatly confirmed the faithful, and brought many over to the christian faith.

1. Go to now—Note on James 4:13. Rich men—The rich men of St. James were something different from the honest and charitable possessors of wealth of which our Christianity has since furnished so many specimens. They displayed great outward pomp, James 2:2, 3; they were political dynasts, (katadunasteuousin,) or potentates, James 2:6; they were blasphemers and persecutors, James 2:7; they used their power to defraud the labourers upon their broad acres, James 5:4; they held judicial positions, and used them to put the just man to death, James 5:6. They are, therefore, the Jewish ruling tyrant-class of the day, called rich men, because their gorgeous display of pomp and opulence is their prominent aspect to the Christian eye. Of the rich men of St. James’s day in the Roman empire generally, see note on verse 6. But the strangest thing in interpreting the words of St. James is, the fact that leading commentators imagine these rich men to be Christians! Howl and shall come are both participles in the present tense. A literal rendering of the whole verse would be, Ho, now, ye rich men, weep! howling upon the miseries coming on. The howling aggravates the weep, likening them to a pack of eastern dogs.

V. 2. The riches of the ancients consisted much in large stores of corn, and of costly apparel.

Verse 2. Your riches are corrupted] seshpe. Are putrefied. The term ploutov, riches, is to be taken here, not for gold, silver, or precious stones, (for these could not putrefy,) but for the produce of the fields and flocks, the different stores of grain, wine, and oil, which they had laid up in their granaries, and the various changes of raiment which they had amassed in their wardrobes.

Verses 2, 3. Your riches are corrupted — Greek, seshpe, are putrefied, or are as things putrefied by being kept too long. The riches of the ancients consisted much in large stores of corn, wine, oil, and costly apparel. These things the rich men in Judea had amassed, like the foolish rich man mentioned Luke 12:18, little imagining that they would soon be robbed of them by the Roman soldiers, and the destructive events of the war. Your garments — In your wardrobes; are moth-eaten — The fashion of clothes not changing in the eastern countries as with us, persons of fortune used to have many garments made of different costly stuffs, which they laid up as a part of their wealth. Thus, according to Q. Curtius, (lib. 5. c. 6,) when Alexander took Persepolis, he found the riches of all Asia gathered together there, which consisted not only of gold and silver, but vestis ingens modus, a vast quantity of garments. Your gold and silver is cankered — Or eaten out with rust; and the rust of them — Your perishing stores and moth-eaten garments; shall be, eiv marturion, for a testimony against you — Of your covetousness and worldly mind; and of your having foolishly and wickedly buried those talents in the earth, which you ought to have employed, according to your Lord’s will, in relieving the wants of your fellow-creatures. And shall eat your flesh as it were fire — Will occasion you as great a torment as if fire were consuming your flesh. Or, as the rust eats into the gold and silver, so shall your flesh and wealth be eaten up as if you had treasured up fire in the midst of it. This was punctually fulfilled in the destruction of that nation by their own seditions, and their wars with the Romans. For, among the Sicarii and the Zealots, the ringleaders of all their seditions, it was crime enough to be rich; and their insatiable avarice induced them continually to search into the houses of the rich, and, by false accusation, to slay them as deserters, for the sake of their property. Yea, both their substance and their bodies were devoured by the flames which burned up the city and the temple: and if any thing remained, it became a prey to the Roman soldiers. Ye have heaped treasure for the last days — The days which are now coming, when your enemies shall seize or destroy all, to your infinite vexation and distress: or, you have heaped them up when it is too late; when you have no time or opportunity to enjoy them. This phrase, the last days, does not merely signify for the time to come, but for that period when the whole Jewish economy was to close, and when those awful judgments, threatened in the prophets to be poured out upon wicked men in the last days, were just coming.

2. Riches are corrupted—Under a series of physical images the great truth is proclaimed that ill-gotten and oppressive wealth brings upon the possessor the divine malediction, fulfilled in this or a coming world. The various forms of wealth are either to be themselves destroyed, or to become the destroyers of their holders. As it is rich men of the twelve tribes who are here more specifically addressed—as the epistle was written from Jerusalem, and as the magnates of the tribes were even now on the brink of destruction in the coming overthrow of the Jewish State, it is a plausible interpretation which applies this passage as a prophecy, in accordance with our Lord’s memorable predictions of that downfall. Nor is it supposable that a man so deeply imbued with so national and patriotic a sympathy for his kindred would overlook that coming catastrophe so fully predicted by Jesus, and so well understood by Jewish Christians as that they thereby effected their own escape. Indeed, this predicting the day of slaughter, and then the parousia of verse 7, is remarkably parallel to our Lord’s discourse distinguishing and contrasting these two great events. The specifications of their treasures with their destruction embraces a triad, namely, riches, or hoarded goods; garments; and gold and silver. The first has been (for the three verbs are in the perfect tense, and should have been strictly so rendered) rotted; the second, motheaten; the third, not only rusted, but so rusted as that the rust shall corrode like fire, and consume their flesh. Like the old prophets, our apostle takes his standpoint in the future, and contemplates the destruction he predicts as already completed. Corrupted—Literally, putrified, rotted.

V. 3. The canker of them-Your perishing stores and motheaten garments. Will be a testimony against you-Of your having buried those talents in the earth, instead of improving them according to your Lord's will. And will eat your flesh as fire-Will occasion you as great torment as if fire were consuming your flesh.

Ye have laid up treasure in the last days-When it is too late; when you have no time to enjoy them.

Verse 3. Your gold and silver is cankered] Instead of helping the poor, and thus honouring God with your substance, ye have, through the principle of covetousness, kept all to yourselves.

The rust of them shall be a witness against you] Your putrefied stores, your moth-eaten garments, and your tarnished coin, are so many proofs that it was not for want of property that you assisted not the poor, but through a principle of avarice; loving money, not for the sake of what it could procure, but for its own sake, which is the genuine principle of the miser. This was the very character given to this people by our Lord himself; he called them filarguroi, lovers of money. Against this despicable and abominable disposition, the whole of the 12th chapter of St. Luke is levelled; but it was their easily besetting sin, and is so to the present day.

Shall eat your flesh as it were fire.] This is a very bold and sublime figure. He represents the rust of their coin as becoming a canker that should produce gangrenes and phagedenous ulcers in their flesh, till it should be eaten away from their bones.

Ye have heaped treasure together] This verse is variously pointed. The word wv, like as, in the preceding clause, is left out by the Syriac, and some others; and pur, fire, is added here from that clause; so that the whole verse reads thus: “Your gold and your silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall consume your flesh. Ye have treasured up FIRE against the last days.” This is a bold and fine image: instead of the treasures of corn, wine, and oil, rich stuffs, with silver and gold, which ye have been laying up, ye shall find a treasure, a magazine of fire, that shall burn up your city, and consume even your temple. This was literally true; and these solemn denunciations of Divine wrath were most completely fulfilled. See the notes on Matt. 24, where all the circumstances of this tremendous and final destruction are particularly noted.

By the last days we are not to understand the day of judgment, but the last days of the Jewish commonwealth, which were not long distant from the date of this epistle, whether we follow the earlier or later computation, of which enough has been spoken in the preface.

Verses 2, 3. Your riches are corrupted — Greek, seshpe, are putrefied, or are as things putrefied by being kept too long. The riches of the ancients consisted much in large stores of corn, wine, oil, and costly apparel. These things the rich men in Judea had amassed, like the foolish rich man mentioned Luke 12:18, little imagining that they would soon be robbed of them by the Roman soldiers, and the destructive events of the war. Your garments — In your wardrobes; are moth-eaten — The fashion of clothes not changing in the eastern countries as with us, persons of fortune used to have many garments made of different costly stuffs, which they laid up as a part of their wealth. Thus, according to Q. Curtius, (lib. 5. c. 6,) when Alexander took Persepolis, he found the riches of all Asia gathered together there, which consisted not only of gold and silver, but vestis ingens modus, a vast quantity of garments. Your gold and silver is cankered — Or eaten out with rust; and the rust of them — Your perishing stores and moth-eaten garments; shall be, eiv marturion, for a testimony against you — Of your covetousness and worldly mind; and of your having foolishly and wickedly buried those talents in the earth, which you ought to have employed, according to your Lord’s will, in relieving the wants of your fellow-creatures. And shall eat your flesh as it were fire — Will occasion you as great a torment as if fire were consuming your flesh. Or, as the rust eats into the gold and silver, so shall your flesh and wealth be eaten up as if you had treasured up fire in the midst of it. This was punctually fulfilled in the destruction of that nation by their own seditions, and their wars with the Romans. For, among the Sicarii and the Zealots, the ringleaders of all their seditions, it was crime enough to be rich; and their insatiable avarice induced them continually to search into the houses of the rich, and, by false accusation, to slay them as deserters, for the sake of their property. Yea, both their substance and their bodies were devoured by the flames which burned up the city and the temple: and if any thing remained, it became a prey to the Roman soldiers. Ye have heaped treasure for the last days — The days which are now coming, when your enemies shall seize or destroy all, to your infinite vexation and distress: or, you have heaped them up when it is too late; when you have no time or opportunity to enjoy them. This phrase, the last days, does not merely signify for the time to come, but for that period when the whole Jewish economy was to close, and when those awful judgments, threatened in the prophets to be poured out upon wicked men in the last days, were just coming.

Ver. 3, 4. Your gold and silver is cankered, oxidized by lying in your bags and coffers. The rust shall be a witness against you, that you have not fed, as you ought to have done, the widow, the orphan, the blind, the lame; nay, you have withheld the extra rewards of harvest labours, attended with extra exertions. God has pledged himself to hear the cries of the poor.

3. Gold… cankered—Literally, rusted. Gold, however, never does truly rust, or oxidize, just as fire does not eat, or rust eat flesh. Such a fact is, of course, here only figured, as an image of the perishability of human fortunes. Bloomfield says, “Gold does not, properly, rust; yet by long use it contracts a green colour, and a sort of acid humour. The ancient gold and silver might be more liable to rust, from having a greater proportion of alloy.” That greening of gold coin was viewed as a sort of rust, as appears from the poet Theocritus, (Idyl 16,) where he says that no one would give poets money; nay, “not rub off the rust of their money and give it to them.” Witness against you—Not against, but to, you. It does not testify to any crime, but prophesies that you shall be even cankered as it is. For the last days—Literally, in last days. It is to be noted that the heaping of the treasure was within, not previous to, the last days. Both last days and day of slaughter are without the Greek article, while coming, of verse 7, (where see note,) has the article. Both these terms, last days and day, clearly signify the closing days of the apostolic age of the Church, coincident with the closing days of the Jewish State. See notes on 2 Thessalonians 2:7; 1 Timothy 4:1; 2 Peter 3:3; 1 John 2:18-22, and 4:3; 2 John 7.

V. 4. The hire of your labourers crieth-Those sins chiefly cry to God concerning which human laws are silent. Such are luxury, unchastity, and various kinds of injustice. The labourers themselves also cry to God, who is just coming to avenge their cause.

Of sabaoth-Of hosts, or armies.

Verse 4. The hire of the labourers] The law, Leviticus 19:13, had ordered: The wages of him that is hired shall not abide with thee all night until the morning, every day’s labour being paid for as soon as ended. This is more clearly stated in another law, Deuteronomy 24:15: At his day thou shalt give him his hire; neither shall the sun go down upon it;-lest he cry against thee unto the Lord, and it be sin unto thee. And that God particularly resented this defrauding of the hireling we see from Malachi 3:5: I will come near to you in judgment, and will be a swift witness against those who oppress the hireling in his wages. And on these laws and threatenings is built what we read in Synopsis Sohar, p. 100, l. 45: “When a poor man does any work in a house, the vapour proceeding from him, through the severity of his work, ascends towards heaven. Wo to his employer if he delay to pay him his wages.” To this James seems particularly to allude, when he says: The cries of them who have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of hosts; and the rabbins say, “The vapour arising from the sweat of the hard-worked labourer ascends up before God.” Both images are sufficiently expressive.

The Lord of sabaoth.] St. James often conceives in Hebrew though he writes in Greek. It is well known that twabx hwhy Yehovah tsebaoth, Lord of hosts, or Lord of armies, is a frequent appellation of God in the Old Testament; and signifies his uncontrollable power, and the infinitely numerous means he has for governing the world, and defending his followers, and punishing the wicked.

Verse 4. Behold, the hire of the labourers — The apostle alludes in this verse to Leviticus 19:13: The wages of him that is hired shall not abide with thee all night: and to Deuteronomy 24:15, At his day thou shalt give him his hire, neither shall the sun go down upon it, &c., lest he cry against thee unto the Lord, and it be sin unto thee. In allusion to these passages, the apostle here mentions a two-fold cry; the cry of the hire unjustly kept back; that is, the cry of the sin against the sinner for vengeance; in which sense those sins chiefly cry to God concerning which human laws are silent; such are luxury, unchastity, and various kinds of injustice. But the cry of the labourers themselves is also here mentioned, to mark more strongly the greatness of the injustice committed. And “by representing the cries of the reapers defrauded of their hire as entering into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth, that is, hosts, or armies, the apostle intimates that the great Ruler of the universe attends to the wrongs done to his creatures, and is affected by them as tender-hearted persons are affected by the cries of the miserable; and that he will, in due time, avenge them by punishing their oppressors. Let all oppressors consider this!” — Macknight.

Ver. 3, 4. Your gold and silver is cankered, oxidized by lying in your bags and coffers. The rust shall be a witness against you, that you have not fed, as you ought to have done, the widow, the orphan, the blind, the lame; nay, you have withheld the extra rewards of harvest labours, attended with extra exertions. God has pledged himself to hear the cries of the poor.

4. Hire of the labourers—The rich men were great landholders, who had, perhaps, thousands of tenants or serfs, kept to a barely living recompense. Their rightful wages were withheld, and misery and starvation were the result to the helpless toiler. Crieth—Like the blood of Abel against his murderer, (Genesis 4:10;) like the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah, (Genesis 18:20;) like the groaning of Israel against the oppression of Pharaoh, Exodus 2:23, 24. Lord of Sabaoth— Especially are these predictions fulfilled in a nation like our own, which boasted of its Christianity and its freedom, while holding a stolen race in oppression. We have lately found the national crime an antecedent to a national day of slaughter.

V. 5. Ye have cherished your hearts-Have indulged yourselves to the uttermost.

As in a day of sacrifice-Which were solemn feast-days among the Jews.

Verse 5. Ye have lived in pleasure] etrufhsate. Ye have lived luxuriously; feeding yourselves without fear, pampering the flesh. And been wanton] espatalhsate. Ye have lived lasciviously. Ye have indulged all your sinful and sensual appetites to the uttermost; and your lives have been scandalous.

Ye have nourished your hearts] eqreyate. Ye have fattened your hearts, and have rendered them incapable of feeling, as in a day of slaughter, hmera afaghv, a day of sacrifice, where many victims are offered at once, and where the people feast upon the sacrifices; many, no doubt, turning, on that occasion, a holy ordinance into a riotous festival.

Verses 5, 6. Ye have lived in pleasure, and have been wanton — Etrufhsate kai espatalhsate. The former word signifies, ye have lived luxuriously; or, as the Vulgate has it, Epulati estis, ye have feasted; it being intended of their luxuries and intemperance in eating and drinking: the latter word is intended of their indulging themselves in lasciviousness and carnal lusts. Ye have nourished — Or cherished; your hearts — Have indulged yourselves to the uttermost; as in a day of slaughter — That is, as beasts are fed for a day of slaughter; or, as the words may be rendered, as in a day of sacrifice, which were solemn feast-days among the Jews. The apostle’s meaning is, both that the rich Jews pampered themselves every day, as the luxurious did on high festival-days; and that, by their luxury and lasciviousness, they had rendered themselves fit to be destroyed in the day of God’s wrath. Ye have condemned and killed, ton dikaion, the Just One — Many just men, and in particular that Just One, termed, (Acts 3:14,) the Holy One and Just. They had killed Stephen, also, and they afterward killed James, the writer of this epistle, surnamed the Just. But the expression might be intended to comprehend all the righteous persons who were murdered by the Jews from first to last. And he — The Just One; doth not resist you — With that display of power which he can easily exert to your utter destruction, and therefore you are secure. But the day will speedily come when God will avenge his own cause, and pour out upon you the judgments he has threatened.

Ver. 5. Ye have lived in pleasure, eating the fat of sacrifices; epulati, as in Jerome, Ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter. Thus it reads in the Greek, but the spirit of the passage is as in Syrus. You have nourished your bodies, as victims are fed and nourished to the day of slaughter.

5. On the earth—Spoken, as above said, as if from the judgment throne. Wanton—Lascivious, as a result of wealth and luxury. Nourished— Fattened like swine. In a day of slaughter—The crime lasted so as to be, as it were, in the very time of the penalty. The penalty was so sudden as to be in the day of the crime. The (rather, a) day of slaughter ever interrupts the days of oppression, luxury, and lust. So it was in the Jewish state, the Roman empire, the French revolution, and, finally, our own days of slaveholding.

V. 6. Ye have killed the just-Many just men; in particular, "that Just One," Acts 3:14. They afterwards killed James, surnamed the Just, the writer of this epistle.

He doth not resist you-And therefore you are secure. But the Lord cometh quickly, James 5:8.

Verse 6. Ye have condemned and killed the just; and he doth not resist you.] Several by ton dikaion, the just one, understand Jesus Christ, who is so called, Acts 3:14; 7:52; 22:14; but the structure of the sentence, and the connection in which it stands, seem to require that we should consider this as applying to the just or righteous in general, who were persecuted and murdered by those oppressive rich men; and their death was the consequence of their dragging them before the judgment seats, James 2:6, where, having no influence, and none to plead their cause, they were unjustly condemned and executed.

And he doth not resist you.-In this, as in ton dikaion, the just, there is an enallege of the singular for the plural number. And in the word ouk antitassetai, he doth not resist, the idea is included of defence in a court of justice. These poor righteous people had none to plead their cause; and if they had it would have been useless, as their oppressors had all power and all influence, and those who sat on these judgment seats were lost to all sense of justice and right. Some think that he doth not resist you should be referred to GOD; as if he had said, God permits you to go on in this way at present, but he will shortly awake to judgment, and destroy you as enemies of truth and righteousness.

Verses 5, 6. Ye have lived in pleasure, and have been wanton — Etrufhsate kai espatalhsate. The former word signifies, ye have lived luxuriously; or, as the Vulgate has it, Epulati estis, ye have feasted; it being intended of their luxuries and intemperance in eating and drinking: the latter word is intended of their indulging themselves in lasciviousness and carnal lusts. Ye have nourished — Or cherished; your hearts — Have indulged yourselves to the uttermost; as in a day of slaughter — That is, as beasts are fed for a day of slaughter; or, as the words may be rendered, as in a day of sacrifice, which were solemn feast-days among the Jews. The apostle’s meaning is, both that the rich Jews pampered themselves every day, as the luxurious did on high festival-days; and that, by their luxury and lasciviousness, they had rendered themselves fit to be destroyed in the day of God’s wrath. Ye have condemned and killed, ton dikaion, the Just One — Many just men, and in particular that Just One, termed, (Acts 3:14,) the Holy One and Just. They had killed Stephen, also, and they afterward killed James, the writer of this epistle, surnamed the Just. But the expression might be intended to comprehend all the righteous persons who were murdered by the Jews from first to last. And he — The Just One; doth not resist you — With that display of power which he can easily exert to your utter destruction, and therefore you are secure. But the day will speedily come when God will avenge his own cause, and pour out upon you the judgments he has threatened.

Ver. 6. Ye have condemned and killed the just: ton dikaion. The word is given in the singular, and cannot be applied indefinitely to any particular martyr, as John, Stephen, and James, because in our scriptures it is the common title of Christ, who is called the “Holy One, and the Just.” Acts 3:14. 7:52. Paul also was called, that he might see that “Just One,” and hear the words of his mouth. Acts 22:14. The reproof administered to these professors indicates that the crucifixion of Christ turned the scale of justice against the Hebrew nation.

6. The just—True pre-eminently of their condemning and killing the just One, Jesus; and afterwards Stephen, and, finally, St. James himself. Doth not—The continuous present, implying that the martyr is ever non-resistant.

The character of the rich men of St. James’s age may be understood by the following description from a chapter on “The Decline of the Roman Empire,” by the historian Bancroft, in his “Miscellanies:” “The aristocracy owned the soil and its cultivators. The vast capacity for accumulation which the laws of society secure to capital in a greater degree than to personal exertion, displays itself nowhere so clearly as in slave-holding States, where the labouring class is but a portion of the capital of the opulent. As wealth consists chiefly in land and slaves, the rates of interest are, from universally operative causes always comparatively high, making the difficulty of advancing with borrowed capital proportionably great. The small landholder finds himself unable to compete with those who are possessed of whole cohorts of bondmen; his slaves, his lands, rapidly pass, in consequence of his debts, into the hands of the more opulent. The large plantations are constantly swallowing up the smaller ones; and land and slaves come to be engrossed by the few. Before Caesar passed the Rubicon this condition existed in the extreme in the Roman State. The rural indigent crept into the walls of Rome. A free labourer was hardly known. The large proprietors of slaves not only tilled their immense plantations, but also indulged their avarice in training their slaves to every species of labour, and letting them out, as horses from a livery stable, for the performance of every conceivable species of work. Four or five hundred men were not an uncommon number in one family; fifteen or twenty thousand sometimes belonged to one master. The immense wealth of Crassus consisted chiefly in lands and slaves: on the number of his slaves we hardly dare hazard a conjecture. Of joiners and masons he had over five hundred. Nor was this the whole evil. The nobles, having impoverished their lands, became usurers, and had their agents dispersed over all the provinces. The censor, Cato, closed his career by recommending usury as more productive than agriculture; and such was the prodigality of the Roman planters, that, to indulge their fondness for luxury, many of them mortgaged their estates to the moneylenders. Thus the lands of Italy, at best in the hands of a few proprietors, became virtually vested in a still smaller number of usurers. No man’s house, no man’s person, was secure.

“The captives in war were sold at auction. Cicero, during the little campaign in which he was commander, sold men enough to produce, at half price, about half a million of dollars. “The second mode of supplying the slave market was by commerce; and this supply was so uniform and abundant that the price of an ordinary labourer hardly varied for centuries. The reason is obvious; where the slave merchant gets his cargoes from kidnappers the first cost is inconsiderable. The great centres of this traffic were in the countries bordering on the Euxine; and Scythians were often stolen. Caravans penetrated the deserts of Africa, and made regular hunts for slaves. Blacks were highly valued; they were rare, and, therefore, both male and female negroes were favourite articles of luxury among the opulent Romans. At one period Delos was most remarkable as the emporium for slaves. It had its harbours, chains, prisons, every thing so amply arranged to favour a brisk traffic that ten thousand slaves could change hands and be shipped in a single day, an operation which would have required thirty-three or thirty-four ships of the size of the vessel in which Paul the apostle was wrecked. There was hardly a port in the Roman empire, convenient for kidnapping foreigners, in which the slave trade was not prosecuted. In most heathen countries, also, men would sell their own children into bondage. The English continued to do so even after the introduction of Christianity. In modern times, when men incurred debts, they have mortgaged their own bodies; the ancients mortgaged their sons and daughters. “It is a calumny to charge the devastation of Italy upon the barbarians. The large Roman plantations, tilled by slave labour, were its ruin. The careless system impoverished the soil, and wore out even the rich fields of Campania. Large districts were left waste; others had been turned into pastures, and grazing substituted for tillage.… When Alaric led the Goths into Italy he could not sustain his army in the beautiful but deserted territory.… Slavery had destroyed the democracy, had destroyed the aristocracy, had destroyed the empire.”

5. The Christian sufferer under these wrongs pointed to the judgment day, 7-11.

V. 7. The husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit-Which will recompense his labour and patience.

Till he receives the former rain-Immediately after sowing. And the latter-Before the harvest.

Verse 7. Be patient, therefore] Because God is coming to execute judgment on this wicked people, therefore be patient till he comes. He seems here to refer to the coming of the Lord to execute judgment on the Jewish nation, which shortly afterwards took place.

The husbandman waiteth] The seed of your deliverance is already sown, and by and by the harvest of your salvation will take place. God’s counsels will ripen in due time.

The early and latter rain.] The rain of seed time; and the rain of ripening before harvest: the first fell in Judea, about the beginning of November, after the seed was sown; and the second towards the end of April, when the ears were filling, and this prepared for a full harvest. Without these two rains, the earth would have been unfruitful. These God had promised: I will give you the rain of your land in his due season, the first rain and the latter rain, that thou mayest gather in thy corn, and thy wine, and thy oil, Deuteronomy 11:14. But for these they were not only to wait patiently, but also to pray, Ask ye of the Lord rain in the time of the latter rain; so shall the Lord make bright clouds, and give them showers of rain, to every one grass in the field; Zecariah 10:1.

Verses 7-9. Be patient therefore, brethren — He now addresses the pious, oppressed, and persecuted disciples of Christ: as if he had said, Since the Lord will soon come to punish them, and relieve you, patiently bear the injuries which rich men offer you, and quietly wait till he come. Behold the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit — Which will recompense his labour and patience; till he receive the early, or the former rain — Immediately after sowing; and the latter — Before harvest. In Judea the rains usually come in a regular manner; the early rain about the beginning of November, after the seed is sown, and the latter in the middle or toward the end of April, while the ears are filling. These rains were promised to the Israelites, Deuteronomy 11:14, where see the note, and on Hosea 6:3. Be ye also patient — Like the husbandman; stablish — Sthrixate, strengthen, or confirm; your hearts — In faith and patience, considering that your sufferings will not be long; the coming of the Lord — To destroy your persecutors; draweth nigh — And so does his coming to rescue his people from the troubles of this life by death, and to judge the world in righteousness at the last day. Grudge, or, groan, not — As stenazete signifies; one against another — Groaning is caused by oppression; and when it is merely the natural expression of affliction, it is perfectly consistent with genuine piety, and moves God to pity the afflicted person, Judges 2:18: but when it is the effect of impatience, or when it implies a desire of revenge, it becomes criminal, and is the kind of groaning which the apostle forbids. Some read the clause, Murmur not one against another: that is, have patience also with each other; lest ye be condemned — Lest you all suffer for it, and perish in the common calamity; behold the Judge — Christ; standeth before the door — Hearing every word, marking every thought, and ready to execute those judgments.

7. Brethren—Our apostle turns in contrast, from the rich men to the just men; from the persecutors to the persecuted. But what shall we think of commentators who are not quite sure that the rich men and the brethren are not the same! Be patient—To the Church in all ages the judgment seat of Christ, even though long millenniums distant, is, conceptually, near at hand. See supplementary note to Matthew 25, and note on 2 Peter 3:8. Coming—The PAROUSIA; the second advent, the day when the human race, in resurrection state, stands in the presence of its final Judge. Observe, again, that, unlike last days, in verse 3, and day of slaughter, in verse 5, this Parousia has the Greek article. This indicates that the two former were indefinite events, and the last a definite. That is, the latter indicates the one well known and universally expected event, while the former are a special era for these rich men and their contemporaries. Husbandman—As the planter fixes his conceptual eye upon the day of harvest, so do ye fix your mind’s eye upon the final reward. Long patience—An intimation of the unknown length of the period intervening before the judgment day. Early and latter—The word rain, though truly implied, is not, perhaps, a genuine reading. The early “rainy season” in Palestine is autumnal, extending from first of October to last of December, and even, with slight snow, into January. February brings an interval of fine weather. The latter rain is in spring, embracing March and April.

V. 8. Stablish your hearts-In faith and patience. For the coming of the Lord-To destroy Jerusalem. Is nigh-And so is his last coming to the eye of a believer.

Verse 8. Be ye also patient] Wait for God’s deliverance, as ye wait for his bounty in providence.

Stablish your hearts] Take courage; do not sink under your trials. The coming of the Lord draweth nigh.] hggike. Is at hand. He is already on his way to destroy this wicked people, to raze their city and temple, and to destroy their polity for ever; and this judgment will soon take place.

Verses 7-9. Be patient therefore, brethren — He now addresses the pious, oppressed, and persecuted disciples of Christ: as if he had said, Since the Lord will soon come to punish them, and relieve you, patiently bear the injuries which rich men offer you, and quietly wait till he come. Behold the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit — Which will recompense his labour and patience; till he receive the early, or the former rain — Immediately after sowing; and the latter — Before harvest. In Judea the rains usually come in a regular manner; the early rain about the beginning of November, after the seed is sown, and the latter in the middle or toward the end of April, while the ears are filling. These rains were promised to the Israelites, Deuteronomy 11:14, where see the note, and on Hosea 6:3. Be ye also patient — Like the husbandman; stablish — Sthrixate, strengthen, or confirm; your hearts — In faith and patience, considering that your sufferings will not be long; the coming of the Lord — To destroy your persecutors; draweth nigh — And so does his coming to rescue his people from the troubles of this life by death, and to judge the world in righteousness at the last day. Grudge, or, groan, not — As stenazete signifies; one against another — Groaning is caused by oppression; and when it is merely the natural expression of affliction, it is perfectly consistent with genuine piety, and moves God to pity the afflicted person, Judges 2:18: but when it is the effect of impatience, or when it implies a desire of revenge, it becomes criminal, and is the kind of groaning which the apostle forbids. Some read the clause, Murmur not one against another: that is, have patience also with each other; lest ye be condemned — Lest you all suffer for it, and perish in the common calamity; behold the Judge — Christ; standeth before the door — Hearing every word, marking every thought, and ready to execute those judgments.

8. Emphasis on ye, as imitators of the husbandman. Draweth nigh— Note on 2 Peter 3:8.

V. 9. Murmur not one against another-Have patience also with each other.

The judge standeth before the door-Hearing every word, marking every thought.

Verse 9. Grudge not] mh stenazete. Groan not; grumble not; do not murmur through impatience; and let not any ill treatment which you receive, induce you to vent your feelings in imprecations against your oppressors. Leave all this in the hands of God.

Lest ye be condemned] By giving way to a spirit of this kind, you will get under the condemnation of the wicked.

The judge standeth before the door.] His eye is upon every thing that is wrong in you, and every wrong that is done to you; and he is now entering into judgment with your oppressors.

Verses 7-9. Be patient therefore, brethren — He now addresses the pious, oppressed, and persecuted disciples of Christ: as if he had said, Since the Lord will soon come to punish them, and relieve you, patiently bear the injuries which rich men offer you, and quietly wait till he come. Behold the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit — Which will recompense his labour and patience; till he receive the early, or the former rain — Immediately after sowing; and the latter — Before harvest. In Judea the rains usually come in a regular manner; the early rain about the beginning of November, after the seed is sown, and the latter in the middle or toward the end of April, while the ears are filling. These rains were promised to the Israelites, Deuteronomy 11:14, where see the note, and on Hosea 6:3. Be ye also patient — Like the husbandman; stablish — Sthrixate, strengthen, or confirm; your hearts — In faith and patience, considering that your sufferings will not be long; the coming of the Lord — To destroy your persecutors; draweth nigh — And so does his coming to rescue his people from the troubles of this life by death, and to judge the world in righteousness at the last day. Grudge, or, groan, not — As stenazete signifies; one against another — Groaning is caused by oppression; and when it is merely the natural expression of affliction, it is perfectly consistent with genuine piety, and moves God to pity the afflicted person, Judges 2:18: but when it is the effect of impatience, or when it implies a desire of revenge, it becomes criminal, and is the kind of groaning which the apostle forbids. Some read the clause, Murmur not one against another: that is, have patience also with each other; lest ye be condemned — Lest you all suffer for it, and perish in the common calamity; behold the Judge — Christ; standeth before the door — Hearing every word, marking every thought, and ready to execute those judgments.

Ver. 9. Grudge not one against another: stenagete, be not contracted one towards another; let the liberality of God inspire you with liberal sentiments. He will give you the kingdom in due time.

9. Grudge—Rather, murmur. A return to the caution against mutual evil speaking of 4:11, 12. Lessons of submission under persecution, of patience with each other, and waiting for their final reward, interchange with each other. Standeth before the door—Not to be applied to the destruction of Jerusalem, but to the Parousia of verse 8.

V. 10. Take the prophets for an example-Once persecuted like you, even for speaking in the name of the Lord. The very men that gloried in having prophets yet could not bear their message: nor did either their holiness or their high commission screen them from suffering.

Verse 10. Take-the prophets] The prophets who had spoken to their forefathers by the authority of God, were persecuted by the very people to whom they delivered the Divine message; but they suffered affliction and persecution with patience, commending their cause to him who judgeth righteously; therefore, imitate their example.

Verses 10, 11. Take the prophets — Once persecuted like you, even for speaking in the name of the Lord — The very men that gloried in having the prophets, yet could not bear their message. Nor did either the holiness or the high commission of these messengers of God screen them from suffering; for an example of suffering affliction — Or persecution from the persons to whom they brought divine revelations; and of patience — In suffering. Behold, we count them happy — We commend them, and believe them to be the beloved children of God; who endure — Bear their sufferings with patience, meekness, and a contented mind. The apostle’s mentioning this immediately after he had proposed the prophets as an example of patience in suffering, shows that he herein alludes to Christ’s words, (Matthew 5:11,) Blessed are ye when men shall revile you, &c., for so persecuted they the prophets that were before you. Ye have heard of the patience of Job — Under his peculiarly heavy sufferings; and have seen the end of the Lord — Ye have seen, in the history of that good man, what a happy issue the Lord gave to his sufferings; or how much to his honour and comfort his various and heavy afflictions concluded; that the Lord is very pitiful, &c. — And that it is with the bowels of an affectionate father that he corrects his beloved children, and not for his own gratification, but with a view to their eternal advantage.

10. The prophets—In St. James’ view the Christian has a full right to the Old Testament, and he is in his day as the prophets of old. Both suffer on earth in solemn hope of a better life. In the name—Using the name as representatives of him.

V. 11. We count them happy that endured-That suffered patiently. The more they once suffered, the greater is their present happiness. Ye have seen the end of the Lord-The end which the Lord gave him.

Verse 11. We count them happy which endure.] According to that saying of our blessed Lord, Blessed are ye when men shall persecute and revile you-for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you. Matthew 5:11, 12, &c.

Ye have heard of the patience of Job] Stripped of all his worldly possessions, deprived at a stroke of all his children, tortured in body with sore disease, tempted by the devil, harassed by his wife, and calumniated by his friends, he nevertheless held fast his integrity, resigned himself to the Divine dispensations, and charged not God foolishly.

And have seen the end of the Lord] The issue to which God brought all his afflictions and trials, giving him children, increasing his property, lengthening out his life, and multiplying to him every kind of spiritual and secular good. This was God’s end with respect to him; but the devil’s end was to drive him to despair, and to cause him to blaspheme his Maker. This mention of Job shows him to have been a real person; for a fictitious person would not have been produced as an example of any virtue so highly important as that of patience and perseverance. The end of the Lord is a Hebraism for the issue to which God brings any thing or business. The Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.] Instead of polusplagcnov, which we translate very pitiful, and which might be rendered of much sympathy, from poluv, much, and splagcnon, a bowel, (because any thing that affects us with commiseration causes us to feel an indescribable emotion of the bowels,) several MSS. have poluensplagcnov, from paluv, much, eu, easily, and splagcnon, a bowel, a word not easy to be translated; but it signifies one whose commiseration is easily excited, and whose commiseration is great or abundant.

Verses 10, 11. Take the prophets — Once persecuted like you, even for speaking in the name of the Lord — The very men that gloried in having the prophets, yet could not bear their message. Nor did either the holiness or the high commission of these messengers of God screen them from suffering; for an example of suffering affliction — Or persecution from the persons to whom they brought divine revelations; and of patience — In suffering. Behold, we count them happy — We commend them, and believe them to be the beloved children of God; who endure — Bear their sufferings with patience, meekness, and a contented mind. The apostle’s mentioning this immediately after he had proposed the prophets as an example of patience in suffering, shows that he herein alludes to Christ’s words, (Matthew 5:11,) Blessed are ye when men shall revile you, &c., for so persecuted they the prophets that were before you. Ye have heard of the patience of Job — Under his peculiarly heavy sufferings; and have seen the end of the Lord — Ye have seen, in the history of that good man, what a happy issue the Lord gave to his sufferings; or how much to his honour and comfort his various and heavy afflictions concluded; that the Lord is very pitiful, &c. — And that it is with the bowels of an affectionate father that he corrects his beloved children, and not for his own gratification, but with a view to their eternal advantage.

Ver. 11. Ye have heard of the patience of Job. He was the fifth from Abraham in the line of Ishmael, a fit example to be adduced here, because, like Job, the Hebrew christians had sustained joyfully the spoiling of their goods.

11. Count them happy which endure—The noble saints of old are eulogized. We esteem them happy in having left such a record. Be thou like them, and you will be finally happy, too. End of the Lord—The end which Jehovah has for the truly patient. “The Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning.” Job 42:12. Lord… mercy—Job’s example does not prove that you will have, like him, a prosperous latter end; but it does prove the character of our Lord; and that it is his nature to append a happy consequent to our patient antecedents.

6. Cautions against use of violent language, 12.

V. 12. Swear not-However provoked. The Jews were notoriously guilty of common swearing, though not so much by God himself as by some of his creatures. The apostle here particularly forbids these oaths, as well as all swearing in common conversation. It is very observable, how solemnly the apostle introduces this command:

above all things, swear not-As if he had said, Whatever you forget, do not forget this. This abundantly demonstrates the horrible iniquity of the crime. But he does not forbid the taking a solemn oath before a magistrate. Let your yea be yea; and your nay, nay-Use no higher asseverations in common discourse; and let your word stand firm. Whatever ye say, take care to make it good.

Verse 12. Above all things-swear not] What relation this exhortation can have to the subject in question, I confess I cannot see. It may not have been designed to stand in any connection, but to be a separate piece of advice, as in the several cases which immediately follow. That the Jews were notoriously guilty of common swearing is allowed on all hands; and that swearing by heaven, earth, Jerusalem, the temple, the altar, different parts of the body, was not considered by them as binding oaths, has been sufficiently proved. Rabbi Akiba taught that “a man might swear with his lips, and annul it in his heart; and then the oath was not binding.” See Clarke’s notes on “Matthew 5:33”, &c., where the subject is considered in great detail.

Let your yea be yea, &c.] Do not pretend to say yea with your lips, and annul it in your heart; let the yea or the nay which you express be bona fide such. Do not imagine that any mental reservation can cancel any such expressions of obligation in the sight of God.

Lest ye fall into condemnation.] iJna mh upo krisin peshte. Lest ye fall under judgment. Several MSS. join upo and krisin together, upokrisin, and prefix eiv, into, which makes a widely different reading: Lest ye fall into hypocrisy. Now, as it is a fact, that the Jews did teach that there might be mental reservation, that would annul the oath, how solemnly soever it was taken; the object of St. James, if the last reading be genuine, and it is supported by a great number of excellent MSS., some versions, and some of the most eminent of the fathers, was to guard against that hypocritical method of taking an oath, which is subversive of all moral feeling, and must make conscience itself callous.

Verse 12. But above all things, swear not — However provoked. The Jews were notoriously guilty of common swearing, though not so much by God himself as by some of his creatures. The apostle here forbids these oaths, as well as all swearing in common conversation. It is very observable how solemnly the apostle introduces this command; above all things, swear not; as if he had said, Whatever you forget, do not forget this. This abundantly demonstrates the horrible iniquity of the crime. But he does not forbid the taking of a solemn oath before a magistrate. Neither by any other oath — Namely, unlawful or unnecessary; but let your yea be yea, and your nay, nay — Let your discourse be confirmed with a bare affirmation or denial; and use no higher asseverations in common discourse. But let your words stand firm; and whatever ye say, take care to make it good; lest ye fall into condemnation — Expose yourselves to God’s judgments.

Ver. 12. Above all things — swear not. See the note on Matthew 5:34. There is a remark in Œcumenius on this text which very much coincides with the society of Friends respecting swearing.

12. Above all things—Not that this was the greatest of crimes, but that it was one of the greatest sins that a good Christian would be likely to incur. Swear not—A precept of holy patience. It inculcates a preservation of moral serenity by an avoidance of profane and violent speech. The conversational oath, which is not content with the simple yea and nay, is the result and the token of an impatient and peremptory spirit, akin to the violence of persecutors and brigands. That recklessness which constitutes the charm is the reverse of the calm spirit that rests on God and reveres his name. Of course this has nothing to do with the solemn oath in the court of justice, in which reverence is the spirit, and an end of strife is the aim. Let your yea, your affirmation, be not an oath, but a simple yea. Condemnation—From violent feeling or action, produced by violent language.

CONCLUSIONS—1. Consolations for the sad, the merry, the sick; the prayer of faith, 13-18.

Verse 13. Is any among you afflicted? let him pray] The Jews taught that the meaning of the ordinance, Leviticus 13:45, which required the leper to cry, Unclean! unclean! was, “that thus making known his calamity, the people might be led to offer up prayers to God in his behalf,” Sota, page 685, ed. Wagens. They taught also, that when any sickness or affliction entered a family, they should go to the wise men, and implore their prayers. Bava bathra, fol. 116, 1.

In Nedarim, fol. 40, 1, we have this relation: “Rabba, as often as he fell sick, forbade his domestics to mention it for the first day; if he did not then begin to get well, he told his family to go and publish it in the highways, that they who hated him might rejoice, and they that loved him might intercede with God for him.”

Is any merry? let him sing psalms.] These are all general but very useful directions. It is natural for a man to sing when he is cheerful and happy. Now no subject can be more noble than that which is Divine: and as God alone is the author of all that good which makes a man happy, then his praise should be the subject of the song of him who is merry. But where persons rejoice in iniquity, and not in the truth, God and sacred things can never be the subject of their song.

Verse 13. Is any among you afflicted? let him pray — That he may be supported under his affliction, so as to be enabled to bear it with patience and resignation to the divine will, and find it to be sanctified to him, and made the means, as of exercising, so also of increasing his grace, and of purifying him as gold and silver are purified in the furnace. Is any merry? — Is any in health, and in a prosperous condition, and under no peculiar trial; let him sing psalms — Let him give thanks to God, and express his thankfulness by singing psalms or hymns of praise. The purport of the verse is, that, as believers in Christ, we ought to employ ourselves in such private religious exercises as are suitable to our present circumstances and frame of mind. “When rendered cheerful by contemplating the manifestations which God hath made of his perfections in the works of creation, providence, and redemption, or by any blessing bestowed on ourselves, we are to express our joy, not by drinking, and singing profane, lewd songs, but by hymns of praise and thanksgivings offered to God for all his mercies, Ephesians 5:18, 19. On the other hand, when afflicted, we are to pray; that being the best means of producing in ourselves patience and resignation. But as the precept concerning our singing psalms, when cheerful, does not imply that we are not to pray then; so the precept concerning prayer in affliction, does not imply that we are not to express our joy in suffering according to the will of God, by singing psalms or hymns, as Paul and Silas did in the jail at Philippi.” — Macknight.

Ver. 13. Is any merry; let him sing psalms. We have given us in the scriptures those delightful odes of thanksgiving, to raise our hearts above the sorrows of life. The primitive christians, it would seem, were eminent for sacred songs. Tertullian says, the wife sings to her husband. Jerome composed many hymns in his day; and those of St. Hilary, we are told, were sung all over France.

13. Our apostle now shows better methods than swearing to give vent to our moods. Afflicted—Suffers one any evil? Let him not swear, but pray! Merry—Cheery, in good spirits? Let him not blaspheme, but sing psalms. These are the richest methods of letting forth our abounding nature within the sphere of the blessed and divine. No need of oaths, or bacchanalian riot, in order to the most joyous and happy activities of our souls and voices.

V. 14. Having anointed him with oil-This single conspicuous gift, which Christ committed to his apostles, Mark 6:13, remained in the church long after the other miraculous gifts were withdrawn. Indeed, it seems to have been designed to remain always; and St. James directs the elders, who were the most, if not the only, gifted men, to administer at. This was the whole process of physic in the Christian church, till it was lost through unbelief. That novel invention among the Romanists, extreme unction, practised not for cure, but where life is despaired of, bears no manner of resemblance to this.

Verse 14. Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders] This was also a Jewish maxim. Rabbi Simeon, in Sepher Hachaiyim, said: “What should a man do who goes to visit the sick? Ans. He who studies to restore the health of the body, should first lay the foundation in the health of the soul. The wise men have said, No healing is equal to that which comes from the word of God and prayer. Rabbi Phineas, the son of Chamma, hath said, ‘When sickness or disease enters into a man’s family, let him apply to a wise man, who will implore mercy in his behalf.’“ See Schoettgen. St. James very properly sends all such to the elders of the Church, who had power with God through the great Mediator, that they might pray for them.

Anointing him with oil] That St. James neither means any kind of incantation, any kind of miracle, or such extreme unction as the Romish Church prescribes, will be sufficiently evident from these considerations: 1. Be was a holy man, and could prescribe nothing but what was holy. 2. If a miracle was intended, it could have been as well wrought without the oil, as with it. 3. It is not intimated that even this unction is to save the sick man, but the prayer of faith, James 5:15. 4. What is here recommended was to be done as a natural means of restoring health, which, while they used prayer and supplication to God, they were not to neglect. 5. Oil in Judea was celebrated for its sanative qualities; so that they scarcely ever took a journey without carrying oil with them, (see in the case of the Samaritan,) with which they anointed their bodies, healed their wounds, bruises, &c. 6. Oil was and in frequently used in the east as a means of cure in very dangerous diseases; and in Egypt it is often used in the cure of the plague. Even in Europe it has been tried with great success in the cure of dropsy. And pure olive oil is excellent for recent wounds and bruises; and I have seen it tried in this way with the best effects. 7. But that it was the custom of the Jews to apply it as a means of healing, and that St. James refers to this custom, is not only evident from the case of the wounded man ministered to by the good Samaritan, Luke 10:34, but from the practice of the Jewish rabbins. In Midrash Koheleth, fol. 73, 1, it is said: “Chanina, son of the brother of the Rabbi Joshua, went to visit his uncle at Capernaum; he was taken ill; and Rabbi Joshua went to him and anointed him with oil, and he was restored.” They had, therefore, recourse to this as a natural remedy; and we find that the disciples used it also in this way to heal the sick, not exerting the miraculous power but in cases where natural means were ineffectual. And they cast out many devils, and anointed with oil many that were sick, and healed them; Mark 6:13. On this latter place I have supposed that it might have been done symbolically, in order to prepare the way for a miraculous cure: this is the opinion of many commentators; but I am led, on more mature consideration, to doubt its propriety, yet dare not decide. In short, anointing the sick with oil, in order to their recovery, was a constant practice among the Jews. See Lightfoot and Wetstein on Mark 6:13. And here I am satisfied that it has no other meaning than as a natural means of restoring health; and that St. James desires them to use natural means while looking to God for an especial blessing. And no wise man would direct otherwise. 8. That the anointing recommended here by St. James cannot be such as the Romish Church prescribes, and it is on this passage principally that they found their sacrament of extreme unction, is evident from these considerations: 1. St. James orders the sick person to be anointed in reference to his cure; but they anoint the sick in the agonies of death, when there is no prospect of his recovery; and never administer that sacrament, as it is called, while there is any hope of life. 2. St James orders this anointing for the cure of the body, but they apply it for the cure of the soul; in reference to which use of it St. James gives no directions: and what is said of the forgiveness of sins, in James 5:15, is rather to be referred to faith and prayer, which are often the means of restoring lost health, and preventing premature death, when natural means, the most skillfully used, have been useless. 3. The anointing with oil, if ever used as a means or symbol in working miraculous cures, was only applied in some cases, perhaps very few, if any; but the Romish Church uses it in every case; and makes it necessary to the salvation of every departing soul. Therefore, St. James’ unction, and the extreme unction of the Romish Church, are essentially different. See below.

Verses 14, 15. Is any sick? let him call for the elders of the church — Those ministers of Christ whose office it is to oversee and feed the flock; and let them pray over him — For his recovery, persuaded that what two or three of the Lord’s true disciples shall agree to ask, it shall be done for them; anointing him with oil — “This single conspicuous gift, (healing the sick by anointing them with oil,) which Christ committed to his apostles, (Mark 6:13,) remained in the church long after the other miraculous gifts were withdrawn. Indeed it seems to have been designed to remain always, and St. James directs the elders, who were the most, if not the only gifted men, to administer it. This was the whole process of physic in the Christian Church till it was lost through unbelief. That novel invention among the Romans, extreme unction, practised not for cure, but where life is despaired of, bears no manner of resemblance to this.” See Bengelius and Wesley. And the prayer offered in faith shall save, or heal, the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up — From his sickness; and if he have committed sins — That is, any special sins, for which this sickness has been laid upon him; they shall be forgiven him — Upon his repentance the punishment shall be taken off.

Ver. 14, 15. Is any sick among you; let him call for the elders of the church, to pray with and to comfort him. Peace of mind has a great tendency to restore the health of the body. Let them anoint him with oil, medically, to remove the complaint. Wise and aged men in those days were the common physicians of the poor. Sir John Chardin mentions a prevalent custom in the east, of applying a large emolient plaister to the abdomen, to remove interior complaints. Or let them anoint him in a religious view, that if it please God the sick may recover. Men then died in the church as we die; but means must not be despised. Our Lord’s disciples anointed many that were sick, and healed them. Mark 6:13. The papists adduce this text in favour of their extreme unction. Aye, but their oil is intended as a sign of pardon, and as a passport to heaven. The oil referred to by the apostle is sanative, that the sick may be healed, and that the joys of remission may exhilirate the heart.

14. Sick—And even for bodily illness apostolic Christianity had its divine resource. The elders of the church—From this it is to be inferred that organized Churches, with definite authoritative elders, existed in the time of this epistle. We find in Acts (Acts 21:18) that our St. James had a body of attendant elders over whom he appears to be president. The church—The body of the people, whose place of worship is called a synagogue in James 2:2, as see note. Let them pray—As men whose office and power are to pray. Anointing him with oil—Wordsworth remarks that there is no indication in primitive history that oil was used sacramentally. It was used medically, as a means of restoration, with prayer for the due effect.

Wordsworth notes that the gift of healing remained some time in the Christian Church; for which he quotes the authority of Irenaeus, Tertullian, Eusebius, and others; that the Greek Church still retains the custom here prescribed for the purpose of a gracious restoration to health; whereas the Roman Church retains the ritual of oil, but not for the purpose of recovery, having perverted it to an “extreme unction,” or rite for the salvation of those beyond recovery. But the English Church, in the time of reform under Edward VI., after due consideration, disused the anointing with oil, lest it should seem to claim the gift of healing as now existing in the Church. The English Church thereby disclaimed any miraculous power over disease.

V. 15. And the prayer offered in faith shall save the sick-From his sickness; and if any sin be the occasion of his sickness, it shall be forgiven him.

Verse 15. And the prayer of faith; shall save the sick] That is, God will often make these the means of a sick man’s recovery; but there often are cases where faith and prayer are both ineffectual, because God sees it will be prejudicial to the patient’s salvation to be restored; and therefore all faith and prayer on such occasions should be exerted on this ground: “If it be most for thy glory, and the eternal good of this man’s soul, let him be restored; if otherwise, Lord, pardon, purify him, and take him to thy glory.”

The Lord shall raise him up] Not the elders, how faithfully and fervently soever they have prayed.

And if he have committed sins] So as to have occasioned his present malady, they shall be forgiven him; for being the cause of the affliction it is natural to conclude that, if the effect be to cease, the cause must be removed. We find that in the miraculous restoration to health, under the powerful hand of Christ, the sin of the party is generally said to be forgiven, and this also before the miracle was wrought on the body: hence there was a maxim among the Jews, and it seems to be founded in common sense and reason, that God never restores a man miraculously to health till he has pardoned his sins; because it would be incongruous for God to exert his miraculous power in saving a body, the soul of which was in a state of condemnation to eternal death, because of the crimes it had committed against its Maker and Judge. Here then it is GOD that remits the sin, not in reference to the unction, but in reference to the cure of the body, which he is miraculously to effect.

Verses 14, 15. Is any sick? let him call for the elders of the church — Those ministers of Christ whose office it is to oversee and feed the flock; and let them pray over him — For his recovery, persuaded that what two or three of the Lord’s true disciples shall agree to ask, it shall be done for them; anointing him with oil — “This single conspicuous gift, (healing the sick by anointing them with oil,) which Christ committed to his apostles, (Mark 6:13,) remained in the church long after the other miraculous gifts were withdrawn. Indeed it seems to have been designed to remain always, and St. James directs the elders, who were the most, if not the only gifted men, to administer it. This was the whole process of physic in the Christian Church till it was lost through unbelief. That novel invention among the Romans, extreme unction, practised not for cure, but where life is despaired of, bears no manner of resemblance to this.” See Bengelius and Wesley. And the prayer offered in faith shall save, or heal, the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up — From his sickness; and if he have committed sins — That is, any special sins, for which this sickness has been laid upon him; they shall be forgiven him — Upon his repentance the punishment shall be taken off.

Ver. 14, 15. Is any sick among you; let him call for the elders of the church, to pray with and to comfort him. Peace of mind has a great tendency to restore the health of the body. Let them anoint him with oil, medically, to remove the complaint. Wise and aged men in those days were the common physicians of the poor. Sir John Chardin mentions a prevalent custom in the east, of applying a large emolient plaister to the abdomen, to remove interior complaints. Or let them anoint him in a religious view, that if it please God the sick may recover. Men then died in the church as we die; but means must not be despised. Our Lord’s disciples anointed many that were sick, and healed them. Mark 6:13. The papists adduce this text in favour of their extreme unction. Aye, but their oil is intended as a sign of pardon, and as a passport to heaven. The oil referred to by the apostle is sanative, that the sick may be healed, and that the joys of remission may exhilirate the heart.

15. Prayer of faith—Prayer impregnated with and upborne by faith. No formal prayer, but such as is further described in verse 16. Shall—Will, a simple future. Save—From temporal death. Committed sins—By which the illness has been caused.

V. 16. Confess your faults-Whether ye are sick or in health. To one another-He does not say, to the elders: this may, or may not, be done; for it is nowhere commanded. We may confess them to any who can pray in faith: he will then know how to pray for us, and be more stirred up so to do.

And pray one for another, that ye may be healed-Of all your spiritual diseases.

Verse 16. Confess your faults one to another] This is a good general direction to Christians who endeavour to maintain among themselves the communion of saints. This social confession tends much to humble the soul, and to make it watchful. We naturally wish that our friends in general, and our religious friends in particular, should think well of us; and when we confess to them offences which, without this confession, they could never have known, we feel humbled, are kept from self-applause, and induced to watch unto prayer, that we may not increase our offences before God, or be obliged any more to undergo the painful humiliation of acknowledging our weakness, fickleness, or infidelity to our religious brethren. It is not said, Confess your faults to the ELDERS that they may forgive them, or prescribe penance in order to forgive them. No; the members of the Church were to confess their faults to each other; therefore auricular confession to a priest, such as is prescribed by the Romish Church, has no foundation in this passage. Indeed, had it any foundation here it would prove more than they wish, for it would require the priest to confess his sins to the people, as well as the people to confess theirs to the priest. And pray one for another] There is no instance in auricular confession where the penitent and the priest pray together for pardon; but here the people are commanded to pray for each other that they may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.] The words dehsiv energoumenh signify energetic supplication, or such a prayer as is suggested to the soul and wrought in it by a Divine energy. When God designs to do some particular work in his Church he pours out on his followers the spirit of grace and supplication; and this he does sometimes when he is about to do some especial work for an individual. When such a power of prayer is granted, faith should be immediately called into exercise, that the blessing may be given: the spirit of prayer is the proof that the power of God is present to heal. Long prayers give no particular evidence of Divine inspiration: the following was a maxim among the ancient Jews, hdxq µyqydx tlptv the prayers of the righteous are short. This is exemplified in almost every instance in the Old Testament.

Verse 16. Confess your faults — Whether you are sick or in health; one to another — He does not say to the elders; this may or may not be done, for it is nowhere commanded. We may confess them to any pious person who can pray in faith: he will then know how to pray for us, and will be more excited so to do. And pray one for another, that ye may be healed — Both in soul and body. Let it be observed, 1st, This passage of Scripture, only enjoining true believers to confess their sins to one another, affords no foundation for the Popish practice of auricular confession to a priest. Besides, mutual confession being here enjoined, the priest is as much bound to confess to the people as the people to the priest. 2d, This direction being addressed to women as well as to men, they are required to pray for one another, and even for the men, whether laity or clergy. 3d, There is no mention made here of absolution by a priest, or by any other person. 4th, Absolution, in the sound sense of the word, being nothing but a declaration of the promises of pardon which are made in the gospel to penitent sinners, every one who understands the gospel doctrine may declare these promises to penitent sinners as well as any bishop or priest whatever, and the one has no more authority to do it than the other: nay, every sincere penitent may expect salvation without the absolution of any person whatever: whereas the impenitent have no reason to expect that blessing, although absolved by all the priests in the world. See Dr. Benson. The effectual fervent prayer — Greek, dehsiv energoumenh, a singular expression, which Macknight renders, the inwrought prayer; and Doddridge, the prayer wrought by the energy of the Spirit; and Whitby, the inspired prayer, observing, “as they who were inwardly acted by an evil spirit were styled energoumenoi, (persons inwardly wrought upon,) so they who were acted by the Holy Spirit, and inwardly moved by his impulses, were also energoumenoi, inwardly wrought upon, in the good sense: and therefore it seems most proper to apply these words, not to the prayer of every righteous person, but to the prayer offered by such an extraordinary impulse.” Doubtless every prayer of every righteous person is not here intended, but every truly righteous person has the Spirit of Christ, without which no man can belong to him, and is led, more or less, by the Spirit of God, otherwise he could not be a son of God, Romans 8:9, 14; and every such a one walks not after the flesh, but after the Spirit, Romans 8:1: and therefore, if not always, yet sometimes, yea, generally, such a one, as Jude expresses it, (verse 20,) prays in the Holy Ghost; that is, in and by his influence, and therefore in a spirit of true, genuine prayer, feeling sincere and earnest desires after the blessings which he asks, and being enabled to offer those desires up unto God in faith or confidence, that he shall receive what he asks. And this fervent, energetic prayer is evidently the prayer here intended, and said to avail much, or to be of great efficacy, being frequently and remarkably answered by God’s granting the petitions thus addressed to him.

Ver. 16. Confess your faults one to another. This is chiefly relevant to the conscience, and is consoling to the mind. Confession of sin, one to another, is the way to vanquish pride, and to acquire a childlike simplicity. “Nothing,” says Masaillon, “costs a man more than to acknowledge himself guilty. Pride is the first of our propensities; and as the secret conviction of our defects does not permit us to he ignorant, that if we confess ourselves to be what we really are, we shall merit the greatest contempt, we therefore have recourse to a mass of dissimulation concerning all that passes within, so that our whole life is in effect one continued disguise. In all our actions we assume the person of another, and never appear such as we really are. Rien ne coute plus a l’homme, qui de s’avouer coupable.” “But what is most deplorable is, that our pride enters even into our humiliations; and in such sort, that the avowal of our crimes is no other than the criminal artifice to conceal them; and we carry our hypocrisy even to the foot of the tremendous tribunal, where we go to unbosom the secrets of our conscience, and to be judged before Jesus Christ. “Now, my brethren, the language of real contrition is humble, simple, natural, sincere; in such sort, that a soul truly touched, neither dissembles nor excuses its faults.” Serm. sur la Confession. — Though we reject auricular confession, yet a contrite sinner opening his heart to a minister greatly relieves his conscience.

16. In order that the sins may be known and prayed for, confess your faults—This not in the public congregation, where the effect would be bad; but individually, one to another, in a most sincere and penitent way. We now have a fuller description of the nature of that prayer of faith that will save. The effectual—The Greek word (taken in the middle voice) is defined effective, which makes it almost a tautology. We prefer, with the old English commentators Hammond, Bull, Benson, and Macknight, to take it in the passive voice, so that it would signify energized, or inwrought, that is, by the divine Spirit. The Greek commentator OEcumenius considers it passive, and makes it mean energized, that is, by the co-operative prayer of the patient himself. And Michaelis (quoted by Huther) defines the phrase, preces agitante Spiritu sancto effusae, prayers poured forth prompted by the Holy Spirit. This last most nearly expresses the true thought. The prayer is a special prayer, wrought by the divine in the human, by which the supernatural result is produced. This accords with the old distinction between the faith of justification and the faith of miracles. Such faith is the special gift of God, and is accompanied often, if not always, with full supernatural assurance that the prayer is to be answered and the work accomplished.

And this furnishes, we apprehend, a fair answer to Mr. Tyndall’s celebrated “prayer test.” He proposed that a certain number of sick in a hospital be set apart for whose recovery prayer should be made, and that comparative statistics should decide whether any effect was produced. The fair answer would seem to be, that the English Church, and most Protestant Churches, do not claim that the gift of healing remains in the Church. If it did, with exact results, of course the medical profession could be mostly spared. Nor does the Church claim by prayer at will to overrule the forces of nature. When such things are done in answer to prayer, not only the result but the prayer is supernatural and extraordinary. Note on Matthew 17:20. Such a “test” the prophet Elijah did (1 Kings 18:17-40) propose with triumphant result; but he did it, evidently, under special divine premonition. And only with such an inspired premonition could any one now, wisely or authoritatively, accept and institute such “test.” The supernatural fulfilment of a prayer is a sovereign act, “reserved by the Father in his own power;” and it would, undoubtedly, be a presumptuous act for any one, unimpelled by divine assurance, to contract with a sceptic or a divine interposition. We said on Matthew 17:20, (written long before the proposal of the “test,”) “God gives no man faith wherewith to play miraculous pranks;” and we now add, or to make miraculous contracts. A claim over the forces of nature by prayer at will would be a claim to throw the established course of events out of order, and to take the processes of nature out of the hands of the God of nature. But in the sphere of the Spirit, in the region of mental forces, the case is different. We may say that, according to the laws of the spiritual world, in the kingdom of Christ, prayer is the stated antecedent to spiritual effects, to regeneration, sanctification, and salvation. And, hence, the evangelical Church, whatever Romanism may claim, is chary in praying for secular or mechanical results, and, even when praying for them, leaves them humbly to the divine will. She prays for souls rather than for bodies, and for heavenly rather than for earthly goods.

The word fervent is superfluous, having no correspondent Greek word in the text. And the word effectual produces, apparently, a flat truism, making the sentence say, that an effectual prayer is effectual. Of a righteous man—It is the holy prayer, divinely inwrought, of a holy man.

V. 17. Elijah was a man of like passions-Naturally as weak and sinful as we are.

And he prayed-When idolatry covered the land.

Verse 17. Elias was a man subject to like passions] This was Elijah, and a consistency between the names of the same persons as expressed in the Old and the New Testaments should be kept up.

The word omoiopaqhv signifies of the same constitution, a human being just as ourselves are. See the same phrase and its explanation in Acts 14:15, and the note there. There was some reason to apprehend that because Elijah was translated, that therefore he was more than human, and if so, his example could be no pattern for us; and as the design of St. James was to excite men to pray, expecting the Divine interference whenever that should be necessary, therefore he tells them that Elijah was a man like themselves, of the same constitution, liable to the same accidents, and needing the same supports.

And he prayed earnestly] proseuch proshuxato. He prayed with prayer; a Hebraism for, he prayed fervently.

That it might not rain] See this history, 1 Kings 17:1, &c. And it rained not on the earth] epi thv ghv. On that land, viz. the land of Judea; for this drought did not extend elsewhere.

Three years and six months.] This is the term mentioned by our Lord, Luke 4:25; but this is not specified in the original history. In 1 Kings 18:1, it is said, In the third year the word of the Lord came to Elijah, that is, concerning the rain; but this third year is to be computed from the time of his going to live at Zarephath, which happened many days after the drought began, as is plain from this, that he remained at the brook Cherith till it was dried up, and then went to Zarephath, in the country of Zidon; 1 Kings 17:7-9. Therefore the three years and six months must be computed from his denouncing the drought, at which time that judgment commenced. Macknight.

Verses 17, 18. Elias was a man subject to like passions — To the like infirmities; as we are — In which sense the same word, omoiopaqhv, is used, Acts 14:15. It literally signifies, suffering like things with another. Elijah, through natural infirmity, suffered as we do from diseases, from temptation, from persecution, &c. And he prayed earnestly — Greek, proseuch proshuxato, in praying he prayed, that it might not rain — That, by being punished for their idolatry and murder of the prophets, they might be brought to true repentance for these crimes. And it rained not on the earth — That is, on the land of the ten tribes; for three years and six months — This is the period which our Lord likewise says the drought continued, Luke 4:25. It is said, indeed, (1 Kings 18:1,) that in the third year the word of the Lord came to Elijah, namely, concerning the rain. But this third year was computed from the time of his going to live at Zarephath, which happened many days after the drought began; as is plain from this, that he remained at the brook Cherith till it was dried up, and then went to Zarephath in the country of Sidon, 1 Kings 17:7, 9. Wherefore the three years and six months must be computed from his denouncing the drought, at which time that judgment commenced. See note on 1 Kings 18:1. And he prayed again — When idolatry was abolished; and the heaven gave rain — As is recorded 1 Kings 18., where we are told, that he cast himself down on the earth, and put his face between his knees, which was the posture of an humble and earnest supplicant. Thus Moses’s praying is expressed by his falling on his face, Numbers 16:4.

Ver. 17. Three years and six months. Three years only are mentioned in the old testament, but the six months mentioned by our Saviour, and St. James, were no doubt consonant to the received tradition of the nation. Yet the famine might occasion no more than the loss of three harvests.

17. The doctrine confirmed by an illustrious example in Old Testament times. Subject to like passions—Simply like-passioned: had all the intellectualities and susceptibilities of all human beings. As human as we, and we no more human than he. He was not without some failure of temper, 1 Kings 19:4, 10. Prayed earnestly—Literally, prayed with prayer. A Hebraism; he prayed with prayer that was prayer indeed. Three years and six months—One half the sacred seven. See our note on “Sacred Numbers,” in vol. ii, p. 81.

V. 18. He prayed again-When idolatry was abolished.

Verse 18. And he prayed again] This second prayer is not mentioned in the history in express words, but as in 1 Kings 18:42, it is said, He cast himself down upon the earth, and put his face between his knees; that was probably the time of the second praying, namely, that rain might come, as this was the proper posture of prayer.

Verses 17, 18. Elias was a man subject to like passions — To the like infirmities; as we are — In which sense the same word, omoiopaqhv, is used, Acts 14:15. It literally signifies, suffering like things with another. Elijah, through natural infirmity, suffered as we do from diseases, from temptation, from persecution, &c. And he prayed earnestly — Greek, proseuch proshuxato, in praying he prayed, that it might not rain — That, by being punished for their idolatry and murder of the prophets, they might be brought to true repentance for these crimes. And it rained not on the earth — That is, on the land of the ten tribes; for three years and six months — This is the period which our Lord likewise says the drought continued, Luke 4:25. It is said, indeed, (1 Kings 18:1,) that in the third year the word of the Lord came to Elijah, namely, concerning the rain. But this third year was computed from the time of his going to live at Zarephath, which happened many days after the drought began; as is plain from this, that he remained at the brook Cherith till it was dried up, and then went to Zarephath in the country of Sidon, 1 Kings 17:7, 9. Wherefore the three years and six months must be computed from his denouncing the drought, at which time that judgment commenced. See note on 1 Kings 18:1. And he prayed again — When idolatry was abolished; and the heaven gave rain — As is recorded 1 Kings 18., where we are told, that he cast himself down on the earth, and put his face between his knees, which was the posture of an humble and earnest supplicant. Thus Moses’s praying is expressed by his falling on his face, Numbers 16:4.

18. Prayed—In the Old Testament narrative (1 Kings 17:1, 18:42-45) it is not expressly said that he prayed. Herein Huther affirms, and Alford does not deny, a discrepancy. But the whole narrative (1 Kings 18:36-46) suggests the truth of our apostle’s statement. At the time of the evening sacrifice Elijah prays for God’s vindication of himself by miracle, and the prayer is answered by fire. As concluding part of the same transaction Elijah is described as first warning Ahab of the approaching rain which closed the miraculous drought, and as then on Carmel putting himself in the attitude of profound prayer, while his servant was commissioned to watch and report the tokens of the coming of the “great rain.” We are hereby entitled to infer that Elijah’s position by divine assignment was that of deep communion and harmony with God. His office was as mediator between God and Israel, to pray for the divine self-vindication, and the self-vindication itself was verified as being a manifested answer to his permanent inward and outward prayer. Hence was he a true example for the early Church standing in the same position. When specially gifted with the prayer of miraculous faith by its deep communion with God, and commissioned to vindicate God’s revelation of himself in Christianity, the apostolic Church was entitled to offer that prayer which was antecedent to a divine response. It was thereby that the apostle fully comprehended, both by sympathy and similar position, the position of Elijah. And similar to this of James was the view of St. John, as appears by his allusion in Revelation 11:6. Similar was, doubtless, the view of the entire apostolic Church. And similar, too, was, probably, the view of the devout in the Jewish Church. So Ecclesiasticus 48:1-3: “Then stood up Elias the prophet as fire, and his word burned like a lamp. He brought a sore famine upon them, and by his zeal he diminished their number. By the word of the Lord he shut up the heaven, and also three times brought down fire.” Here is a depth of sympathetic understanding of the divine word that rebukes the shallowness of modern rationalism. The deep divine assent of the great prophet, wrought by his commissioning God, was a permanent prayer of which the miracle was the consequent. So that in this deep view our writers make him cause the miracles he predicts. When he prayed again, then the heaven and earth obeyed his prayer through an intervening omnipotence. Her accustomed fruit—So long miraculously withheld.

2. The reclaim of the wanderer, and its reward, 19, 20.

V. 19. As if he had said, I have now warned you of those sins to which you are most liable; and, in all these respects, watch not only over yourselves, but every one over his brother also. Labour, in particular, to recover those that are fallen.

If any one err from the truth-Practically, by sin.

Verse 19. Err from the truth] Stray away from the Gospel of Christ; and one convert him-reclaim him from his error, and bring him back to the fold of Christ.

Verses 19, 20. Brethren — As if he had said, I have now warned you of those things to which you are most liable. And in all these respects watch, not only over yourselves, but every one over his brother also. Labour, in particular, to recover those that are fallen. For if any of you do err from the truth — From the right way in which he ought to walk, if he be seduced by any means from the doctrine and practice of the gospel; and one — Any one; convert him — Be a means of bringing him back into that way from which he had wandered; let him know — Who has been enabled to effect so good a work; that he who converteth a sinner from the error of his way — From the false doctrine and bad practice to which he had turned aside, shall produce a much happier effect than any miraculous cure of the body; for he shall save a precious immortal soul from spiritual and eternal death, and shall hide a multitude of sins — Namely, the sins of the persons thus converted, which shall no more, how many soever they are, be remembered to his condemnation. “The covering of sin is a phrase which often occurs in the Old Testament, and always signifies the pardoning of sin. Nor has it any other meaning here. For surely it cannot be the apostle’s intention to tell us, that the turning of a sinner from the error of his way will conceal from the eye of God’s justice a multitude of sins committed by the person who does this charitable office, if he continueth in them. Such a person needs himself to be turned from the error of his way, in order that his own soul may be saved from death. St. Peter has a similar expression, (1 Peter 4:8,) love covereth a multitude of sins; not, however, in the person who is possessed of love, but in the person who is the object of his love.” — Macknight.

19. Brethren—In the closing two verses our apostle completes his series of fraternal suggestions of Christian duty among themselves, in line with verses 16, 12, 10, and many preceding points in the entire epistle. This closing suggestion is of immense importance, touching the restoration of the wandering backslider. Any one of you—Bringing the point closely down to each one, as an individual duty and reward. Err—A passive verb, and rightly rendered by Alford be seduced. From the truth—Not merely from Christian doctrine, but from that word of truth (James 1:18) which is the life-principle of the soul, without which the man is sure to become, practically, as next verse, a sinner, and will relapse into death. Convert him—From error and sin back to the truth. A clear implication that sin and death would be the result of his apostasy.

V. 20. He shall save a soul-Of how much more value than the body! James 5:14.

And hide a multitude of sins-Which shall no more, how many soever they are, be remembered to his condemnation.

Verse 20. Let him know] Let him duly consider, for his encouragement, that he who is the instrument of converting a sinner shall save a soul from eternal death, and a body from ruin, and shall hide a multitude of sins; for in being the means of his conversion we bring him back to God, who, in his infinite mercy, hides or blots out the numerous sins which he had committed during the time of his backsliding. It is not the man’s sins who is the means of his conversion, but the sins of the backslider, which are here said to be hidden. See more below.

1. MANY are of opinion that the hiding a multitude of sins is here to be understood of the person who converts the backslider: this is a dangerous doctrine, and what the Holy Spirit never taught to man. Were this true it would lead many a sinner to endeavour the reformation of his neighbour, that himself might continue under the influence of his own beloved sins and conversion to a particular creed would be put in the place of conversion to God, and thus the substance be lost in the shadow. Bishop Atterbury, (Ser. vol. i. p. 46,) and Scott, (Christian Life, vol. i. p. 368,) contend “that the covering a multitude of sins includes also, that the pious action of which the apostle speaks engages God to look with greater indulgence on the character of the person that performs it, and to be less severe in marking what he has done amiss.” See Macknight. This from such authorities may be considered doubly dangerous; it argues however great ignorance of God, of the nature of Divine justice, and of the sinfulness of sin. It is besides completely antievangelical; it teaches in effect that something besides the blood of the covenant will render God propitious to man, and that the performance of a pious action will induce God’s justice to show greater indulgence to the person who performs it, and to be less severe in marking what he has done amiss. On the ground of this doctrine we might confide that, had he a certain quantum of pious acts, we might have all the sins of our lives forgiven, independently of the sacrifice of Christ; for if one pious act can procure pardon for a multitude of sins, what may not be expected from many?

2. The Jewish doctrine, to which it is possible St. James may allude, was certainly more sound than that taught by these Christian divines. They allowed that the man who was the means of converting another had done a work highly pleasing to God, and which should be rewarded; but they never insinuate that this would atone for sin. I shall produce a few examples:—

In Synopsis Sohzar, p. 47, n. 17, it is said: Great is his excellence who persuades a sick person to turn from his sins.

Ibid, p. 92, n. 18: Great is his reward who brings back the pious into the way of the blessed Lord.

Yoma, fol. 87, 1: By his hands iniquity is not committed, who turns many to righteousness; i.e. God does not permit him to fall into sin. What is the reason? Ans. Lest those should be found in paradise, while their instructer is found in hell.

This doctrine is both innocent and godly in comparison of the other. It holds out a motive to diligence and zeal, but nothing farther. In short, if we allow any thing to cover our sins beside the mercy of God in Christ Jesus, WE shall err most dangerously from the truth, and add this moreover to the multitude of OUR sins, that we maintained that the gift of God could be purchased by our puny acts of comparative righteousness.

3. As one immortal soul is of more worth than all the material creation of God, every man who knows the worth of his own should labour for the salvation of others. To be the means of depriving hell of her expectation, and adding even one soul to the Church triumphant, is a matter of infinite moment; and he who is such an instrument has much reason to thank God that ever he was born. He who lays out his accounts to do good to the souls of men, will ever have the blessing of God in his own. Besides, God will not suffer him to labour in vain, or spend his strength for naught. At first he may see little fruit; but the bread cast upon the waters shall be found after many days: and if he should never see it in this life, he may take for granted that whatsoever he has done for God, in simplicity and godly sincerity, has been less or more effectual.

After the last word of this epistle amartiwn, of sins, some versions add his, others theirs; and one MS. and the later Syriac have Amen. But these additions are of no authority.

The subscriptions to this epistle, in the VERSIONS, are the following: The end of the Epistle of James the apostle.-SYRIAC. The catholic Epistle of James the apostle is ended.-SYRIAC PHILOXENIAN. The end.-ÆTHIOPIC. Praise be to God for ever and ever; and may his mercy be upon us. Amen.-ARABIC. The Epistle of James the son of Zebedee, is ended.-ITALA, one copy. Nothing.-COPTIC. Nothing.-Printed VULGATE. The Epistle of James is ended.-Bib. VULG. Edit. Eggestein. The Epistle of St. James the apostle is ended.-Complutensian.

In the MANUSCRIPTS: Of James.-Codex Vaticanus, B. The Epistle of James.-Codex Alexandrinus. The end of the catholic Epistle of James.-Codex Vaticanus, 1210. The catholic Epistle of James the apostle.-A Vienna MS. The catholic Epistle of the holy Apostle James.-An ancient MS. in the library of the Augustins, at Rome. The end of the Epistle of the holy Apostle James, the brother of God.-One of Petavius’s MSS., written in the thirteenth century. The same is found in a Vatican MS. of the eleventh century. The most ancient MSS. have little or no subscription.

Two opinions relative to the author are expressed in these MSS. One copy of the Itala, the Codex Corbejensis, at Paris, which contains this epistle only, attributes it to James, the son of Zebedee; and two, comparatively recent, attribute it to James, our Lord’s brother. The former testimony, taken in conjunction with some internal evidences, led Michaelis, and some others, to suppose it probable that James the elder, or the son of Zebedee, was the author. I should give it to this apostle, in preference to the other, had I not reason to believe that a James, different from either; was the author. But who or what he was, at this distance of time, it is impossible to say. Having now done with all comments on the text, I shall conclude with some particulars relative to James, our Lord’s brother, and some general observations on the structure and importance of this epistle. I have entered but little into the history of this James, because I was not satisfied that he is the author of this epistle: however, observing that the current of modern authors are decided in their opinion that he was the author, I perceive I may be blamed unless I be more particular concerning his life; as some of the ancients have related several circumstances relative to him that are very remarkable, and, indeed, singular. Dr. Lardner has collected the whole; and, although the same authors from whom he has taken his accounts are before me, yet, not supposing that I can at all mend either his selections or arrangement, I shall take the accounts as he states them.

“I should now proceed,” says this learned man, “to write the history of this person (James) from ancient authors; but that is a difficult task, as I have found, after trying more than once, and at distant spaces of time. I shall therefore take DIVERS passages of Eusebius and others, and make such reflections as offer for finding out as much truth as we can. “Eusebius, in his chapter concerning our Saviour’s disciples, (Eccl. Hist. lib. i., cap. 12,) speaks of James, to whom our Lord showed himself after his resurrection, 1 Corinthians 15:7, as being one of the seventy disciples.

“The same author has another chapter, (Hist. Eccl., lib. ii., cap. 1,) entitled, Of Things constituted by the Apostles after our Saviour’s Ascension, which is to this purpose:-

“The first is the choice of Matthias, one of Christ’s disciples, into the apostleship, in the room of Judas; then the appointment of the seven deacons, one of whom was Stephen, who, soon after his being ordained, was stoned by those who had killed the Lord, and was the first martyr for Christ; then James, called the Lord’s brother, because he was the son of Joseph, to whom the Virgin Mary was espoused. This James, called by the ancients the just, on account of his eminent virtue, is said to have been appointed the first bishop of Jerusalem; and Clement, in the sixth book of his Institutions, writes after this manner: That after our Lord’s ascension, Peter, and James, and John, though they had been favoured by the Lord above the rest, did not contend for honour, but chose James the just to be bishop of Jerusalem; and in the seventh book of the same work he says, that after his resurrection the Lord gave to James the just, and Peter, and John, the gift of knowledge; and they gave it to the other apostles, and the other apostles gave it to the seventy, one of whom was Barnabas: for there were two named James, one the just, who was thrown down from the battlement of the temple and killed by a fuller’s staff; the other is he who was beheaded. Of him who was called the just, Paul also makes mention, saying, Other of the apostles saw I none, save James the Lord’s brother. “I would now take a passage from Origen, in the tenth vol. of his Commentaries upon Matthew 13:55, 56: Is not this the carpenter’s son? Is not his mother called Mary? And his brethren, James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas? And his sisters, are they not all with us? They thought, says Origen, that he was the son of Joseph and Mary. The brethren of Jesus, some say, upon the ground of tradition, and particularly of what is said in the gospel according to Peter, or the book of James, were the sons of Joseph by a former wife, who cohabited with him before Mary. They who say this are desirous of maintaining the honour of Mary’s virginity to the last, (or her perpetual virginity,) that the body chosen to fulfil what is said, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee, Luke 1:35, might not know man after that: and I think it very reasonable that, as Jesus was the first fruits of virginity among men, Mary should be the same among women; for it would be very improper to give that honour to any besides her. This James is he whom Paul mentions in his Epistle to the Galatians, saying, Other of the apostles, saw I none, save James the Lord’s brother. This James was in so great repute with the people for his virtue, that Josephus, who wrote twenty books of the Jewish antiquities, desirous to assign the reason of their suffering such things, so that even their temple was destroyed, says that those things were owing to the anger of God for what they did to James, the brother of Jesus, who is called Christ. And it is wonderful that he, who did not believe our Jesus to be the Christ, should bear such a testimony to James. He also says that the people thought they suffered those things on account of James. Jude, who wrote an epistle, of a few lines indeed, but filled with the powerful word of the heavenly grace, says, at the beginning, Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James. Of Joses and Simon we know nothing.

“Origen, in his books against Celsus, quotes Josephus again as speaking of James; to the like purpose; but there are not now any such passages in Josephus, though they are quoted as from him by Eusebius also. As the death of James has been mentioned, I shall now immediately take the accounts of it which are in Eusebius, and I will transcribe a large part of the twenty-third chapter of the second book of his Ecclesiastical History: ‘But when Paul had appealed to Cæsar, and Festus had sent him to Rome, the Jews being disappointed in their design against him, turned their rage against James, the Lord’s brother, to whom the apostles had consigned the episcopal chair of Jerusalem, and in this manner they proceeded against him: having laid hold of him, they required him, in the presence of all the people, to renounce his faith in Christ; but he, with freedom and boldness beyond expectation, before all the multitude declared our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ to be the Son of God. They, not enduring the testimony of a man who was in high esteem for his piety, laid hold of the opportunity when the country was without a governor to put him to death; for Festus having died about that time in Judea, the province had in it no procurator. The manner of the death of James was shown before in the words of Clement, who said that he was thrown off the battlement of the temple, and then beat to death with a club. But no one has so accurately related this transaction as Hegesippus, a man in the first succession of the apostles, in the fifth book of his Commentaries, whose words are to this purpose: James, the brother of our Lord, undertook together with the apostles, the government of the Church. He has been called the just by all, from the time of our Saviour to ours: for many have been named James; but he was holy from his mother’s womb. He drank neither wine nor strong drink, nor did he eat any animal food; there never came a razor upon his head; he neither anointed himself with oil, nor did he use a bath. To him alone was it lawful to enter the holy place. He wore no woollen, but only linen garments. He entered into the temple alone, where he prayed upon his knees; insomuch that his knees were become like the knees of a camel by means of his being continually upon them, worshipping God, and praying for the forgiveness of the people. Upon account of his virtue he was called the just, and Oblias, that is, the defence of the people, and righteousness. Some, therefore, of the seven sects which were among the Jews, of whom I spoke in the former part of these Commentaries, asked him, Which is the gate of Jesus? or, What is the gate of salvation? and he said, Jesus is the Saviour, or the way of salvation. Some of them therefore believed that Jesus is the Christ. And many of the chief men also believing, there was a disturbance among the Jews and among the scribes and Pharisees, who said there was danger lest all the people should think Jesus to be the Christ. Coming therefore to James they said, We beseech thee to restrain the error of this people; we entreat thee to persuade all who come hither at the time of passover to think rightly concerning Jesus, for all the people and all of us put confidence in thee. Stand therefore on the battlement of the temple, that being placed on high thou mayest be conspicuous, and thy words may be easily heard by all the people; for because of the passover all the tribes are come hither, and many Gentiles. Therefore the scribes and Pharisees before named placed James upon the battlement of the temple, and cried out to him and said, O Justus, whom we ought all to believe, since the people are in an error, following Jesus, who was crucified, tell us what is the gate of Jesus. And he answered with a loud voice, Why do you ask me concerning the Son of man? He even sitteth in the heaven, at the right hand of the great Power, and will come in the clouds of heaven. And many were fully satisfied and well pleased with the testimony of James, saying, Hosanna to the Son of David! But the same scribes and Pharisees said one to another, We have done wrong in procuring such a testimony to Jesus. Let us go up and throw him down, that the people may be terrified from giving credit to him. And they went up presently, and cast him down, and said, Let us stone James the just: and they began to stone him because he was not killed by the fall. But he turning himself, kneeled, saying, I entreat thee, O Lord God the Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. As they were stoning him, one said, Give over. What do ye? The just man prays for you. And one of them, a fuller, took a pole, which was used to beat clothes with, and struck him on the head. Thus his martyrdom was completed. And they buried him in that place; and his monument still remains near the temple. This James was a true witness, both to Jews and Gentiles, that Jesus is the Christ. Soon after Judea was invaded by Vespasian, and the people were carried captive.’ So writes Hegesippus at large, agreeably to Clement. For certain, James was an excellent man, and much esteemed by many for his virtue; insomuch that the most thoughtful men among the Jews were of opinion that his death was the cause of the siege of Jerusalem, which followed soon after his martyrdom: and that it was owing to nothing else but the wickedness committed against him. And Josephus says the same in these words: ‘These things befell the Jews in vindication of James the just, who was brother of Jesus, called the Christ. For the Jews killed him; who was a most righteous man.’

“The time of the death of James may be determined without much difficulty; he was alive when Paul came to Jerusalem at the pentecost, in the year of Christ 58, and it is likely that he was dead when St. Paul wrote the Epistle to the Hebrews at the beginning of the year 63. Theodoret, upon Hebrews 13:7 supposes the apostle there to refer to the martyrdoms of Stephen, James the brother of John, and James the just. According to Hegesippus, the death of James happened about the time of passover, which might be that of the year 62; and if Festus was then dead, and Albinus not arrived, the province was without a governor. Such a season left the Jews at liberty to gratify their licentious and turbulent disposition, and they were very likely to embrace it.”

I have said but little relative to the controversy concerning the apostleship of James, our Lord’s brother; for, as I am still in doubt whether he was the author of this epistle, I do not judge it necessary to enter into the question. I proceed now to some general observations on the epistle itself, and the evidence it affords of the learning and science of its author.

1. I have already conjectured that this epistle ranks among the most ancient of the Christian writings; its total want of reference to the great facts which distinguish the early history of the Church, viz., the calling of the Gentiles, the disputes between them and the Jews, the questions concerning circumcision, and the obligation of the law in connection with the Gospel &c., &c., shows that it must have been written before those things took place, or that they must have been wholly unknown to the author; which is incredible, allowing him to have been a Christian writer.

2. The style of this epistle is much more elevated than most other parts of the New Testament. It abounds with figures and metaphors, at once bold, dignified, just, and impressive. Many parts of it are in the genuine prophetic style, and much after the manner of the Prophet Zephaniah, to whom there is a near resemblance in several passages.

3. An attentive reader of this epistle will perceive the author to be a man of deep thought and considerable learning. He had studied the Jewish prophets closely, and imitated their style; but he appears also to have read the Greek poets: his language is such as we might expect from one who had made them his study, but who avoided to quote them. We find a perfect Greek hexameter in James 1:17, and another may be perceived in James 4:4; but these are probably not borrowed, but are the spontaneous, undesigned effort of his own well cultivated mind. His science may be noted in several places, but particularly in James 1:17, on which see the note and the diagram, and its explanation at the end of the chapter. Images from natural history are not unfrequent; and that in James 1:14, 15 is exceedingly correct and appropriate, but will not bear a closely literal translation.

4. His constant attention and reference to the writings and maxims of his own countrymen is peculiarly observable. Several of his remarks tend to confirm the antiquity of the Talmud; and the parallel passages in the different tracts of that work cast much light on the allusions of St. James. Without constant reference to the ancient Jewish rabbins, we should have sought for the meaning of several passages in vain.

5. St. James is in many places obscure; this may arise partly from his own deep and strong conceptions, and partly from allusions to arts or maxims which are not come down to us, or which lie yet undiscovered in the Mishna or Talmud. To elucidate this writer I have taken more than common pains, but dare not say that I have been always successful, though I have availed myself of all the help within my reach. To Schoettgen’s Horæ Hebraicæ I am considerably indebted, as also to Dr. Macknight, Kypke, Rosenmuller, &c., but in many cases I have departed from all these, and others of the same class, and followed my own light.

6. On the controversy relative to the doctrine of justification, as taught by Paul and James, I have not entered deeply; I have produced in the proper places what appeared to me to be the most natural method of reconciling those writers. I believe St. James not to be in opposition to St. Paul, but to a corrupt doctrine taught among his own countrymen relative to this important subject. The doctrine of justification by faith in Christ Jesus, as taught by St. Paul, is both rational and true. St. James shows that a bare belief in the God of Israel justifies no man; and that the genuine faith that justifies works by love, and produces obedience to all the precepts contained in the moral law; and that this obedience is the evidence of the sincerity of that faith which professes to have put its possessor in the enjoyment of the peace and favour of God.

7. This epistle ends abruptly, and scarcely appears to be a finished work. The author probably intended to have added more, but may have been prevented by death. James, our Lord’s brother, was murdered by the Jews, as we have already seen. James, the son Zebedee, had probably a short race; but whether either of these were its author we know not. The work was probably posthumous, not appearing till after the author’s death; and this may have been one reason why it was so little known in the earliest ages of the primitive Church.

8. The spirit of Antinomianism is as dangerous in the Church as the spirit of Pharisaism; to the former the Epistle of James is a most powerful antidote; and the Christian minister who wishes to improve and guard the morals of his flock will bring its important doctrines, in due proportion, into his public ministry. It is no proof of the improved state of public morals that many, who call themselves evangelical teachers, scarcely ever attempt to instruct the public by texts selected from this epistle. For other particulars, relative to the time of writing this epistle, the author, his inspiration, apostleship, &c., I must refer to Michaelis and Lardner, and to the preface.

Millbrook, Dec. 9, 1816

Finished correcting this epistle for a new edition, Dec. 31, 1831.

Verses 19, 20. Brethren — As if he had said, I have now warned you of those things to which you are most liable. And in all these respects watch, not only over yourselves, but every one over his brother also. Labour, in particular, to recover those that are fallen. For if any of you do err from the truth — From the right way in which he ought to walk, if he be seduced by any means from the doctrine and practice of the gospel; and one — Any one; convert him — Be a means of bringing him back into that way from which he had wandered; let him know — Who has been enabled to effect so good a work; that he who converteth a sinner from the error of his way — From the false doctrine and bad practice to which he had turned aside, shall produce a much happier effect than any miraculous cure of the body; for he shall save a precious immortal soul from spiritual and eternal death, and shall hide a multitude of sins — Namely, the sins of the persons thus converted, which shall no more, how many soever they are, be remembered to his condemnation. “The covering of sin is a phrase which often occurs in the Old Testament, and always signifies the pardoning of sin. Nor has it any other meaning here. For surely it cannot be the apostle’s intention to tell us, that the turning of a sinner from the error of his way will conceal from the eye of God’s justice a multitude of sins committed by the person who does this charitable office, if he continueth in them. Such a person needs himself to be turned from the error of his way, in order that his own soul may be saved from death. St. Peter has a similar expression, (1 Peter 4:8,) love covereth a multitude of sins; not, however, in the person who is possessed of love, but in the person who is the object of his love.” — Macknight.

Ver. 20. He that converteth a sinner — shall save a soul from death. All men by nature are sinners, and therefore need conversion; but those here referred to are the sinners mentioned in James 4:8, who had first been led astray by false teachers, and then became loose in their moral conduct. Such is the influence of false doctrine, that however trivial it may appear at first, it cannot be embraced without impairing the religious character, and bringing after it a train of evils. The sinners here described are said to be going on in the error of their way; not indeed that the way of all sinners is the effect of speculative error, for many go on in an evil course contrary to their convictions, and in violation of their own consciences. Yet in the fullest sense of the term, all sin is the effect of a departure from the truth, and the embracing of false and delusive notions of some kind or other, either in speculation or in practice. In some cases it may issue in pharisaical pride and self-righteousness, in others in antinomian presumption, indulging the vain hope of being saved at last, though living in error and in transgression.

But we are here assured that the way which the sinner has chosen leads to death, not to corporeal death only, but to that which sin produces, even death eternal, or the second death: James 1:15. The sinner’s way might begin in a single error, in a single act of wilful and flagrant transgression, which might have been pardoned on repentance; it is making sin his “way,” his course of action, habitually and perseveringly, that plunges him at last into the abyss of misery and woe, from whence there is no redemption. How unutterably important therefore, and desirable, is the conversion of a sinner, to save him from such a fearful catastrophe; and how solicitous and laborious ought ministers and private christians to be, that so great a design may be accomplished. He that converteth a sinner shall save a soul from death, an immortal soul, capable of enjoying or suffering more than tongue can tell or heart conceive. All the boasted achievements of armies and navies are trifling when compared with this. If we gain for Christ a single friend only, he may be the means of bringing many more, and the work may go on multiplying and encreasing long after we are silent in the grave. He shall also hide a multitude of sins. Only a small part of the evils of the human heart have been developed; we have seen the surface only, but cannot explore the depth. Jeremiah 17:9, 10. Who can tell how much evil was prevented by the conversion of Manasseh, who had already slain the Lord’s prophets, and filled Jerusalem with innocent blood. Who can estimate the evil prevented by the conversion of Saul of Tarsus, breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the church of God, to say nothing of the good which he afterwards effected. Had none been converted to Christ, the world would ere this have been as Sodom and Gomorrha, and have suffered the vengeance of eternal fire.

20. Let him know—Or, by a reading preferred by Alford, know ye. What now follows is stated as a universal truth, implying that this individual case would be included under it. The sinner—Rather, a sinner, whoever and wherever he may be. Error of his way—Error, or wandering, is the characteristic quality of the way he is pursuing. Shall save—The future far reaching beyond the present. Death—The eternal consequent, commenced here and perpetuated hereafter, of unpardoned sin. Hide—Cover from sight. So Psalm 32:1, 2, “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.” And Psalm 85:2, “Thou hast forgiven the iniquity of thy people; thou hast covered all their sin.” The sins which he shall cover are, of course, the sins of the sinner. The idea of some commentators, that the converter will thereby cover his own sins, is unevangelical. The converter’s sins must be covered by his own penitence and faith, not by bringing somebody else to these conditions. Our apostle incites us to the work of converting the sinner by the greatness and glory in the result itself. Not only a soul is saved from death, but a mass of sins is forgiven, and no longer offends the eye of a holy God, or the hearts of holy men. Doubtless the blessed work performed in true faith has, also, its own exceeding great reward to the worker. But that reward is not the forgiveness of the converter’s sins, but consists in his own increased blessedness and his richer final glory. Truly, he that winneth souls is wise; wise for the saved soul, wise for the approbation of heaven and earth, wise for his own soul.