the law” (Stanley). Twice only the name of Christ occurs (i. 1; ii. 1); the word “gospel” not at all; and there is no allusion to Redemption, Incarnation, Resurrection, or Ascension. The rules of morality which he lays down are enforced by Jewish rather than by Christian motives and sanctions. The violation of the “royal law” is menaced with the sentence of the law (ii. 8,18); and uncharitable judgment is deprecated on the ground of the law’s condemnation, and not as alien to the spirit of Christ.
At the same time, the very legalism of the epistle is the out- growth of the Sermon-on the Mount, the language of which it reflects more than any other book of the New Testament. It meets the formalism, the fatalism, the hypocrisy, the arrogance, insolence, and oppression engendered by the sharp social dis- tinctions of the age, with a teaching conceived in the spirit, and often expressed in the forms of the Great Teacher’s moral code. “The epistle,” says Dr. Scott, “strikes the ear from beginning to end as an echo of the oral teaching of our Lord. There is scarcely a thought in it which cannot be traced to Clrist’s per- sonal teaching. If John has lain on the Saviour’s bosom, James has sat at his feet.”
The following correspondences may be noted:
MartHew. J AMES.
Ve Be i, Oar, bs
v. 4. Thy De
VanlseOs ii, Use aa, 27.
Vai Se iv. 8.
v. 9. iui. 18.
Ver dal AIP: HR PAS Sie 1h alle
y. 19; 1.19 seq., 25; ii. 10, 11. v. 22. . i. 20.
Vocals TOY ale
v. 34 seq. v. 12.
vy. 48. i. 4. te vi. 15. ii. 13. vi. 19; v. 2 seq. . vi. 24. iv. 4. Vin 203 iv. 13-16.
vil. 1 seq. iii. 1; iv. 11 seq.