from the simplicity of the gospel to reliance on the “carnal ordinances” of Judaism, which would have been virtual apostacy from Christ.  This magnificent epistle constitutes in some sense a solemn requiem to the old temple service with its altar and priesthood, where the blood of bulls and goats that can never take away sin had flowed for so many centuries.  This service had accomplished its end in prefiguring Christ the true “Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world,” and it was destined soon to pass away forever “with tumult, with shouting, with the sound of the trumpet”—­to pass away forever, that men might give their undivided faith to Christ, our great High-priest, who ministers for us in the heavenly tabernacle, presenting there before his Father’s throne his own blood shed on Calvary to make propitiation for the sins of the world.

To the argumentative part of this epistle are appended exhortations (partly, indeed, anticipated in the preceding part) to constancy in the Christian profession, drawn from the awful doom that awaits apostates, from the examples of faith furnished by ancient worthies, and especially from the example of Christ himself and the glorious fellowship to which his gospel introduces us.  To these are added some admonitions of a more special character.  Thus the present epistle performs an office in the general system of revelation which is supplied by no other book of the Old or New Testament.  To the book of Leviticus it may be said to hold the relation of substance to shadow, and it is its divinely appointed expositor.

CHAPTER XXXI.

THE CATHOLIC EPISTLES.

1.  Seven epistles, that of James and the six that follow, are called Catholic, that is, general or universal, as not being directed to any particular church.  They were not all, however, addressed originally to believers generally, but some of them to particular classes of believers, or even to individuals, as the introductory words show.

I. EPISTLE OF JAMES.

2.  The question respecting the person of James who wrote this epistle is one of great difficulty.  That “James the Lord’s brother,” whom Paul names as one of the apostles (Gal. 1:19), is identical with the James mentioned by Luke in Acts 12:17; 15:13; 21:18, and is the author of the present epistle, is admitted by most writers, though not by all.  That this James of Gal. 1:19 was the James who is named with Joses, Simon, and Judas, as one of our Lord’s brethren (Matt. 13:55; Mark 6:3), must be received as certain.  But whether he was identical with “James the son of Alpheus,” who was one of the twelve (Matt. 10:3; Mark 3:18; Luke 6:15; Acts 1:13), is a question which has been much discussed and on which eminent biblical scholars are found arrayed on opposite sides.  The question turns very much on the interpretation of the words