to strain the fibre of his nerves.

And if he had had no thorn to bear, he would have been a lesser man; for he was made perfect by his suffering.

And there are some in every age, and will be always, who sacrifice their health in the service of others, and lay down their life for their friends.

So much for the present, and for a long future. There are many thorns mingled with the roses, and to some the very tree of life seems to be a briar, bereft of every blossom. Yet there can be no doubt as to the Pattern whither we are tending. Christianity is the faith in a new heaven and a new earth, the first heaven and the first earth being. passed away; and the Incarnation in its eternal aspect is the progressive tabernacling of God in humanity, till the World shall become the Church which is the Body of Christ—

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Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he shall dwell with them, and they shall be his peoples, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God: and he shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; and death shall be no more; neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain, any more: the first things are passed away. And he that sitteth on the throne said, Behold, I make all things new."

CHAPTER XXII

THE UNCTION OF THE SICK

The Teaching of St. James; Growth of the Mediaval View; Roman Catholic Teaching

The Teaching of St. James

THE last instance from the Apostolic teaching (No. L) is in some ways the most important, since it led to the establishment of a definite rite for the healing of the sick

"Is any among you suffering? let him pray. Is any cheerful? let him sing praise. Is any among you sick? let him call for the elders of the Church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: and the prayer of faith shall save him that is sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, it shall be forgiven him. Confess therefore your sins one to another, and pray one for another that ye may be healed. The supplication of a righteous man availeth much in its working."

This, with the passage in St. Mark (No. 43), "and anointed with oil many that were sick, and healed them," is the only reference in the New Testament to Unction, but a command so clear and practical from our Lord's brother and apostle naturally produced important results.

It is exceedingly important to observe that, ac1 Jas. 5 13-15

cording to St. James, Unction is for the healing of the body, and not for the remission of sins. The Apostle is describing two classes of people (a) the sick, and (b) those who are not only sick but also in grievous sin.

This is clearer in the Revised than in the Authorised Version: it may be made still clearer by a close translation, thus

(a) "Is any among you sick? let him call for the presbyters of the Church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the Name of the Lord, and the prayer of faith shall make the sick man whole, and the Lord shall raise him up;

(b) "and if he have committed sins, remission shall be imparted to him: confess therefore your sins one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed."

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(a) The sick man is thus to be anointed in order that the prayer of faith shall save him," i.e., save him from sickness; for this is the normal meaning of σge and the word is often translated "to make whole" in the English New Testament.1 "And the Lord shall raise him up": again a word is used eyeipe which is constantly employed of the miracles of healing.2 Obvious as this is, it is worth mentioning, because, through a slip of mediæval copyists, the Latin of the Vulgate has a word for eyepei which can bear the sense of comfort " (alleviabit) and thus Roman Catholic writers have

1 e.g., Mt. 921-22, "If I do but touch his garment I shall be made whole thy faith hath made thee whole and the woman was made whole:" in each case

σώζειν is the word used.

2 e.g., Mt. 95, “Arise (eyeɩpe) and walk."

generally said that the meaning is "the Lord shall comfort the soul of the sick man." A good deal of the current Roman teaching about Unction is due to this mistake.

(b) St. James then goes on to describe a second class of sick persons those who have sins 1 upon their consciences. When a sick man is in this condition he is to confess his sins, in order that "forgiveness may be imparted to him,” ἀφεθήσεται αὐτῷ, in accordance with the Lord's commission — "whose soever sins ye forgive, they are forgiven unto them,' "2 where the same word is used for forgiveness or remission. It is not the Unction which conveys this remission, but Absolution following on confession of the sin. Two separate things are therefore described here- Unction for the body and Absolution for the soul.

It is most necessary to insist on this distinction, because by the Middle Ages men had come to think of Unction as conveying remission of sins; and thus it was that the idea of Unction as healing the body was bit by bit lost sight of. How all this came about can be studied in Father Puller's book on The Anointing of the Sick.3 This is not the place for a long technical discussion: in Father Puller's work the authorities will be found arranged with admirable clearness and erudition. None the less, a short statement may be useful here.

1 Sins of a serious character, duaprías, not merely "faults," as in the A. V. which follows a later and less accurate text. 2 Jn. 20 23.

3 Church Historical Society, The Anointing of the Sick in Scripture and Tradition, by F. W. Puller; London, Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge, 1904.

Growth of the Medieval View

Father Puller says

"During the first seven centuries of our era, the custom of praying over sick people and anointing them with holy oil continued without any break." 1

In the eighth century there is also evidence that healing was expected to follow, and in the tenth.2 And again

"I can find no trace in the first seven centuries of sick people being anointed for the remission of their sins, or for the removal of the reliquiæ of sin, or to impart to them grace enabling them to die happily or courageously."

"I find no evidence of persons in articulo mortis being anointed with the object of preparing them for death." "94

In the period which we can easily remember by connecting it with the famous date, A. D. 800, the year of Charlemagne's accession, a change began. Bishop Theodulph of Orleans issued, c. 800, a pastoral instruction on Unction, which "reads like a manifesto issued with the object of introducing a new observance," in which Unction is ordered to be administered as a preparation for death.5

In the Councils of Chalon-sur-Saône (813) and

1 Church Historical Society, The Anointing of the Sick in Scripture and Tradition, by F. W. Puller, p. 188. No certain instances, however, have been found in the records of the second century, till Tertullian's case, A.D. 193-211. See P. 252.

2 Puller, Ibid., p. 201, n. I.

8 Puller, Ibid., p. 191. 4 Puller, Ibid., p. 192.

Puller, Ibid., pp. 193-4.