James

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Canonicity of the Epistle
James 1:1.—James, a servant of God, and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes, which
are scattered abroad, greeting.
REV. ALBERT BARNES.—The particular proof of the canonical authority of this epistle is contained in the evidence that it was written by one of the apostles. It was early received as of authority in the churches. It was included in the old Syriac version, the Peshita, made either in the first century or in the early part of the second. Ephrem, the Syrian, in his Greek works, made use of it in many places. It is quoted as of authority by several of the Fathers, as by Clement of Rome, by Hermas, and by Jerome (see Lardner, Vol. VI., p. 195-199).—Introd. to James, p. xiv.
PROF. FREDERICK MEYRICK, M. A., Oxon.—Eusebius bears witness that it was publicly read in the churches, and in his time accepted as canonical. Origen bears the same testimony as Eusebius. It is quoted by nearly all the Fathers of the fourth century. In A. D. 397 the Council. of Carthage accepted it as canonical, and from that time there has been no further question of its genuineness on the score of external testimony: and the objection on internal grounds proves nothing except against the objectors, for it really rests on a mistake.—Smith's Dict. of Bible, p. 1208.
Wavering
James 1:6.—But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea, driven with the wind and tossed.
EPICTETUS.—No man can improve while he is-wavering. Whichever way you decide to be preferable, incline to that way altogether, and let no other kind of reasoning draw you aside.—Epict., lib. iv., c. 2.
CICERO.—A mind that disagrees and quarrels with itself, cannot taste any portion of clear and unrestrained pleasure.—De Fin., I., 18.
Whence Temptations Spring
Jas. 1:13, 14.—Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.
HOMER.—
Perverse mankind! whose wills, created free,
Charge all their woes on absolute decree;
All to the dooming gods their guilt translate,
And follies are miscalled the crimes of fate.
Odyss., I., 32.
PLATO.—To say that God, who is good, is the cause of ills to any one, this we must by all means oppose, nor suffer it to be said in our state.—De Rep., II., 19.
All Good From God
James 1:17.—Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights.
MAXIMUS TYRIUS.—There is nothing good given to man which does not proceed from God.— Diss., 22.
PLATO.—We have no good 'at all which the gods did not impart.—Ruth., c. 18.
The Hearer Only
James 1:23.—For if any man be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass.
PLAUTUS.—Not only for the sake of the face were it right for men to have a mirror for themselves, but one with which they might be able to examine the heart of discretion and the resources of the mind; when they had looked in that, they might afterward consider how they had passed their lives in guilt.— Epidic., act iv., scene I.
The Friend of God
James 2:23.—Abraham believed God, and it seas imputed undo him Ter righteousness: and he
was called the Friend of God.
PLATO.—As respects the gods, the unjust man will be a foe, but the just man a friend.— De Rep., I., 23.
EPICTETUS.—I am free and the friend of God, so as to obey him willingly; but I must not value any other things; for it is not his will that I should value them.—Epict., IV., 3.
MAXIMUS TYRIUS.—The pious man is a friend to the Deity; but the superstitious man is a flatterer only.—Diss., 4.
The Tongue a World of Iniquity
James 3:5, 6.—Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold how great a matter a little fire kindleth! And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity.
EURIPIDES.—From a small beginning the tongue furnishes a mighty dispute to men.— Androm., v. 642.
PLUTARCH.—By means of a little spark you might set Mount Ida on fire: so a word spoken to one man may reach to every ear in the city.—De Garrul., C. 10.
All Living Creatures Tamable
James 3:7.—For every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed of mankind.
EURIPIDES.—Small is the power which nature has given to man, but by various acts of his superior understanding, he has subdued the tribes of the sea, the earth, and the air.—In Barnes.
DR. JOHN KITTO.—There is perhaps no kind of creature, to which man has access, which might not be tamed by him, with proper perseverance. The ancients seem to have made more exertions to this end, and with much better success, than ourselves. The examples given by Pliny of creatures tamed by men, relate to elephants, lions, and tigers, among beasts; to the eagle among birds; to asps and other serpents: and to crocodiles, and various fishes, among the inhabitants of the water (Nat. Hist. VIII., 9, 16, 17; and X. 5, 44.) The lion was very commonly tamed by the ancient Egyptians.—Pict. Bib., In loco.
The Tongue Untamable
James 3:8.—But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.
REV. ALBERT BARNES. —The allusion here seems to be to the bite of a venomous reptile. Nothing would better describe the mischief that may be done by the tongue. There is no sting of a serpent that does so much evil in the world; there is no poison more deadly to the frame than the poison of the tongue is to the happiness of man. Who, for example, can stand before the power of the slanderer? What mischief can be done in society that can be compared with that which he may do?—In loco.
SHAKSPEARE.—
'Tis slander;
Whose edge is sharper than the sword; whose tongue
Outvenoms all the worms of Nile; whose breath
Rides on the posting winds, and Both belie
All corners of the world: kings, queens, and states,
Maids, matrons, nay, the secrets of the grave
This viperous slander enters.
—In Cymbeline.
James 3:9.—And therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God.
MAXIMUS TYRIUS.—The human soul is most near and most similar to divinity. —Diss., 38.
See Gen. 1:27.
Whence Come Wars
James 4:1.—From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence even of your lusts that war in your members?
PLATO.—Nothing else but the body and its desires occasion wars, seditions, and contests; for all wars among us arise on account of our desires to acquire wealth.—PhÅ“do, c. I I.
MAXIMUS TYRIUS.—All things are full of war and injustice: for desires wander everywhere, exciting in every land an immoderate desire of possessing; and all places are filled with armies marching to invade the property of others.—Diss., 13.
CICERO.—Desires are insatiable, and ruin not only individuals but entire families, and often overturn the whole state. From desires arise hatred, dissensions, quarrels, seditions, wars. Nor is it only out of doors that these passions vent themselves, nor is it only against others that they run with blind violence; they are often shut up, as it were, in the mind, and throw that into confusion with their disagreements.— De Fin., I., 13.
The Proud and the Humble
James 4:6.—God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. XENOPHON.-Perhaps God has ordained this in order to humble these proud conceited boasters, and to give us the greater glory who derive all our hopes from the gods.—Anab., VI., 3.
DIODORUS SICULUS.—God, I conceive, purposely sets himself, by contrary events, to disappoint the expectations of those who proudly resolve beforehand what shall absolutely be done.—Diod. Sic., XX., 13.
The One Lawgiver
James 4:12.—There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy.
PROF. WILLIAM WHEWELL, M. A.—How incomparably the nature of God must be elevated above any conceptions which our natural reason enables us to form! The Divine Mind must be conceived by us as the seat of those Laws of nature which we have discovered. It must be no less the seat of those Laws which we have not yet discovered, though these may and must be of a character far different from anything we can guess. The Supreme Intelligence must therefore contain the Laws, each according to their true dependence, of organic life, of sense, of animal impulse, and must contain also the purpose and intent' for which these powers were put into play. But the Governing Mind must comprehend also the Laws of responsible creatures which the world contains, and must entertain the purposes for which their responsible agency was given them. It must include the Laws and Purposes connected by means of the notions, which responsibility implies, of desert and reward, of moral excellence in various degrees, and of well-being as associated with right-doing. All the Laws which govern the moral world are expressions of the thoughts and intentions of our Supreme Ruler. All the contrivances for moral no less than for physical good, for the peace of mind, and other rewards of virtue, for the elevation and purification of individual character, for the civilization and refinement of states, their advancement in intellect and virtue, for the diffusion of good, and the repression of evil; all the blessings that wait on perseverance and energy, in a good cause; on unquenchable love of mankind, and unconquerable devotedness to truth; on purity and self-denial; on faith, hope, and charity; all these things are indications of the character, will, and future intentions of that God, of whom we have endeavored to track the footsteps upon earth, and to show his handiwork in the heavens. And if, in endeavoring to trace the tendencies of the vast labyrinth of Laws by which the universe is governed, we are sometimes lost and bewildered, and can scarce, or not at all, discern the line by which pain, and sorrow, and vice, fall in with a scheme directed to the strictest right and greatest good, we yet find no room to faint or falter: knowing that these are the darkest and most tangled recesses of our knowledge; that into them science has as yet cast no ray of light; that in them reason has as yet caught sight of no general law by which we may securely hold: while, in those regions where we can see clearly, where science has thrown her strongest illumination upon the scheme of creation; where we have had displayed to us the General Laws which give rise to all the multifarious variety of particular facts; we find all full of wisdom, and harmony, and beauty: and all this wise selection of means, this harmonious combination of Laws, this beautiful symmetry of relations, directed with no exception which human investigation has yet discovered, to the preservation, the diffusion, the well-being of those living things, which, though of their nature we know so little, we cannot doubt to be the worthiest objects of the Creator's care.—Astronomy and General Physics, p. 193.
See Ex. 20:3-17; and Deut. 5:7-21.
Presuming on the Future
James 4:13, 14.—Go to now, ye that say, To-day or to-morrow we will go into such a city, and continue them a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.
PLUTARCH.—How blind is man to futurity!—Solon, c. 12.
SENECA.—How ridiculous is it to promise ourselves a long life, when we are not certain of to-morrow. O the madness of entering into distant speculations.—Epist., 101.
See Prov. 27:1
James 4:15.—For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that. CYRUS.—Our design will succeed, if God be willing.—Xen. Anab., VII., 3.
The Latter Rain
James 5:7.—Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and bath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain.
REV. ALBERT BARNES.—In the climate of Palestine there are two rainy seasons—the autumnal and the spring rains—called here and elsewhere in the scriptures "the early and the latter rain."—In loco.
James 5:12.—But above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any other oath; etc.
See Matt, 5:34.
The Effectual Prayer
James 5:16.—The effectual fervent prayer of e righteous man availeth much.
PINDAR.—The gods above with favoring ear The prayers of pious mortals hear.—Olymp., VIII., 10.