Page:Lives of the apostles of Jesus Christ (1836).djvu/431

 did not resist them." But in all these awful signs, should the faithful see the forewarned coming of the Son of Man; and as he himself told his chosen apostles, "then should they lift up their heads; for their redemption drew nigh."

Besides these external troubles, there were others of a different character, arising and existing solely among those who professed the religion of Christ. The instructions given by Paul, in reference to the absolute necessity of faith, and the insufficiency of a mere formal routine of religious duties, had been most grossly perverted into a warrant for the all-sufficiency of a mere belief, as the means of salvation;—an error by no means limited in its mischievous existence, to the days of the apostles, but so comfortable to the minds of mere religious formalists, in all ages of Christianity, that a new revelation, like that here made by James, though directly repeated through every century of the Christian era, would be equally vain, for the prevention or the remedy of this never-dying heresy. All the words of James on the subject of faith and works, are evidently aimed at the refutation of those who had taken advantage of the opinions which Paul had expressed, on the same subjects; but which were expressed with a totally different reference, being stated not generally nor abstractly, but in application to some particular dogmatic errors. James, after distinctly condemning the "unlearned and unstable, who thus wrested to their own destruction the things hard to be understood in the writings of Paul," next attacks certain persons who, without being authorized or qualified, had assumed the station and responsibility of religious teachers. Many persons taking up the office of instructors in this manner, had caused great confusion, by using their hasty tongues, in mere polemic and denunciatory discourse, condemning and cursing, in unmeasured terms, those who differed from them in opinion. These he rebukes, as thus "giving occasion for offense and error to all;" and sets forth the character of that true wisdom which comes from above, and which is peaceable, "sowing the fruit of righteousness in peace."

Many teachers. In order to understand this reference, it should be noticed that the word masters in the common translation of chap. iii. verse 1, of this epistle, is not to be taken in the common modern sense, but in that of "religious teachers." The original is not [Greek: Kyrioi] (Kurioi,) "Lords," "Masters,"—but [Greek: didaskaloi] (didaskaloi,) "Teachers." The translators probably intended it only in the latter sense; for the word "Master" really has that meaning in such connections, in good authors of that age; and even at this day, in England, the same usage of the word is very common, though almost unknown in this country, except in technical phrases.