The Pulpit Commentary — James — Section 87

should be for our treasures of sacred poetry-the grand old Hebrew psalms and our Christian hymns I III. TBl!I OABJIJ OF TBJIJ BIOK. (Vere. 14, 15.) The sick brother is to" call for the presbyters of the Church." This implies that it belongs to the elders, or bishops, to visit the diseased and infirm. In early times they were to do so, not only to render spiritual aid, but to exercise such "gifts of healings" (1 Cor. xii. 9) as they might possess. It i1 enjoined, or rather taken for granted, that they would "anoint" the sick man "with oil." Why eo? Either because this was the accredited me<lical panacea in that age (lea. i. 6; Luke x. 34), or because oil is a symbol of the gracious influences of the Holy Spirit, the Divine Healer (Mark vi. 13). If we judge that the anointing was medicinal, the lesson is that in sickness we are to have recourse both to "the prayer of faith" and to the prescriptions of an enlightened pharmacy. If, how- ever, we regard it as symbolical-perhaps the better view-in that case it would remind all parties that the miraculous cures were effected only by the Holy Spirit, whom the. Lord Jesus had given. And so the apostle expressly says that the anointing is to be done" in the Name of the Lord," and that "the prayer of faith" which accompanied it would be followed by a cure. The gift of healing was granted to the apostles as a temporary aid in the work of founding the Christian Ch11rch. At first, before the gospel was sufficiently understood, signs and wonders were needed as helps to faith. This gift would cease with the death of the last person who had been endowed with it by the last of the apostles. The injunction to use oil as a symbol was, therefore, only temporary. Many, however, have judged otherwise. 1. Homan Catholics, who base their rite of extreme unction upon this Scripture. But that so-called sacrament differs entirely from the ordinance before us. Here, it is the elders; there, a priest. Here, it is a sick man who is to be restored to health ; there, one who is about to die. Here, the object of the anointing is the recovery of the patient; there, it is to prepare him for death. 2. The" Peculiar People" in England, and the" Tunkers" in the United States, who in times of illness Btill rely upon this unction and prayer, rejecting all medical advice. At Ma.nnedorf, in Switzerland, Miss Dorothea Triidel for many years superin- tended an establishment in which prayer was employed in preference to medicine for the cure even of the most serious diseases. And at Bad Boll, in Wiirtemberg, Pastor Blumhardt has prosecuted upon a large scale a s.imilar enterprise. Hundreds of cures have been authenticated as having been wrought in these institutions. What, then, are we to say to this? J!'irst of all, that the promised recovery is doubtless con- nected in ver. 15, not with the anointing, but with the prayer, and with the faith which breathed in it. If there were faith on the part of the praying presbyter, and of the sick brother himseU~ his sickness would be healed; and his sins, of which perhaps his disease was a punishment, would be forgiven. But again, although we do not now look for evidently miraculous cures, "the prayer of faith" still pierces the super- natural; and thus it is as reasonable now as ever to pray for the recovery of the sick, provided also we diligently use, at the same time, the best physical means of cure. It is a Divine law, in every department of life, that we must employ the means if we would Becure the blessing. During sickness, therefore, we must pray as if all depended upon prayer; and avail ourselves of medical skill as if we had no other resource than that. But what Christian can doubt the efficacy of prayer as a means of cure? If Jesus Christ and his apostles could heal the sick, may not our Father in heaven still, although in occult ways which medical skill cannot trace, touch the secret springs of human life? and may he not do so in answer to the prayers of his own people? Certainly diseases are under law. But even a medical man has some power to direct the action of the physical laws of disease. And is not the power of the Lawgiver greater still than that of the most eminent physician? Is it not literally omnipotent'? LESSONS, 1. Prayer, although by no means of the nature of a charm, is a real medicine for sickness. 2. While this is true, the supreme end of prayer is the attain- ment of spiritual blesJing. 3. We should therefore ask more earnestly for the forgive- ness of sins than for temporal mercies.-C. J. Vars. 16-18.-MutuaZ confession and· prayer. In the latter part of ver. 15 the apostle has hinted at the connection between sin and suffering. He proceeds now to urge upon the sick and the erring, on proper occasions to acknowledge to their brethren JAMES, G 8l! THE GENERAL EPISTLE OF JAMES. [OH, V, 1-20,