ment is to act as a natural remedy, indirectly restoring health in the way just explained, it must be received in due time, otherwise, like ordinary remedies, it will not produce its effects." In a similar spirit Deharbe's Catechism (4 Full Catechism of the Catholic Re- ligion, translated from the German of the Reverend Joseph Deharbe, S. J., . . . revised, enlarged, and edited by the Right Reverend P. N. Lynch, D.D., bishop" of Charleston, 1891, pp. 296, 297), after de- claring that Extreme Unction "often relieves the pains of the sick person, and sometimes restores him even to health, if it be expedient for the salvation of his soul," asks: "Is it not unreasonable for a person, from fear of death, to defer, or even neglect, the receiving of Extreme Unction until he is moribund?" and replies: "Certainly; for (1) Extreme Unction has been instituted even for the health of the body; (2) The sick person will recover more probably, if he em- ploys in time the remedy ordained by God, than if he waits until he cannot recover except by a miracle; and (3) If his sickness be mortal what should he wish for more earnestly than to die happy, which this holy sacrament gives him grace to do?" "As many of those sick persons who were anointed by the Apostles were healed," we read in The Catechumen3 by J. G. Wenham, 1892, p. 358, "so this is often the effect of this sacrament now — that those that re- ceive it obtain fresh force and vigor, and recover from their illness." Although, therefore, Extreme Unction is "given to us in prepara- tion for death," it is ordinarily explained, in deference to its biblical foundation-passage, as (as Bellarimine puts it, following the language of the Council of Trent) "also assisting in the recovery of bodily health, if that should be useful to the health of the soul." Father W. Humphrey, S.J., The One Mediator, ed. 2, 1894, chap, vu, explains the matter more strictly in accordance with the authori- tative declaration of Trent thus: "Hence one end, and that the principal end, of this sacrament is to strengthen and to comfort the dying man. . . . Another and a secondary end of the Sacrament of Extreme Unction is proximately to dispose and prepare the part- ing soul for the new life in which it is about to enter. . . . There is a third and a contingent end of Extreme Unction, and that is the bodily healing of the sick man under certain conditions" On the origin of this teaching and the history of the rite of Extreme Unction, see Father F. W. Puller, The Anointing of the Sick in Scripture and Tradition, London, Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowl- edge, 1904; and cf. Percy Dearmer, Body and Soul,9 1912, pp. 217 ff. The movement forming nowadays in the Anglican churches, with a view to "the restoration to the Church of the Scriptural Practice of Divine Healing," also bases the "office" of anointing,
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which it proposes, on James 5 : 14, 15. See, for example, F. W. Puller, Anointing of the Sick, 1904, chap, ix; Percy Dearmer, Body and Soul,9 191 2, esp. chap, xxix, with Appendix 111; Henry B. Wilson, B.D., The Revival of the Gift of Healing, Milwaukee, The Young Churchman Company, 1914. Mr. Wilson is the director of the "Society of the Nazarene," and writes in its interest, print- ing also suitable prayers and an office for the anointing of the sick. His contention is that the gift of healing was never withdrawn from the church, and that the church must recover "her therapeutic ministry" by means of this formal ritual act. See also Mr. Wilson's later book, Does Christ Still Heal ? New York, E. P. Dutton & Co., 1917.
25. It is sometimes suggested that a miraculous healing is prom- ised indeed, but that this promise applied only to those miraculous days, and is no longer to be claimed. Even J. B. Mayor, The Epistle of St. James,1 1892, p. 218, appears to lean to this view; and it seems to have never been without advocates among leading Protestants. Luther writes to the Elector of Brandenburg, December 4, 1539 (Miss Currie's translation of Luther' 's Letters, p. 378): "For Christ did not make anointing with oil a Sacrament, nor do St. James's words apply to the present day. For in those days the sick were often cured through a miracle and the earnest prayer of faith, as we see in James and Mark 6." Thorndike (Works, vol. VI, p. 65, Oxford edition) writes: "This is laid aside in all the reformed churches upon presumption of common sense, that the reason is no longer in force, being ordained, as you see, to restore health by the grace of miracles that no more exist." J. A. Hessey (Sunday, i860, p. 42) agrees with Thorndike. Nevertheless the view will scarcely approve itself.