13. The Prayer for the Sick. Ch. 5 : 13-18 13 Is any among you suffering? let him pray. Is any cheerful? let him sing praise. 14 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: 15 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. 16 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. 17 Elijah was a man of like passions with us, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain; and it rained not on the earth for three years and six months. 18 And he prayed again; and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.

This difficult but helpful passage is Introduced with a possible reference to the verse which precedes; not profanity but prayer and praise are the proper expressions of emotion: "Is any among you suffering," in body or mind or estate? "let him pray. Is any cheerful? let him sing praise." Worship which consists in prayer and praise, worship, whether in private or public, is the channel by which our excited feelings are to be given an outlet. Whenever the mind is violently agitated, the most rational relief will be found in an act of worship; above all, in times of distress our recourse should be to prayer.

One of the most common occasions of distress is that of sickness. James mentions this as a specific case in which believers are to seek relief in prayer, and his words form the famous passage on "prayer and bodily healing": "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.*' In reference to a passage so much debated it would be foolish to speak v.'Ith dogmatic assurance. A few suggestions, however, may be of help.

1. The use of oil as a medicine, and its application in cases of disease, has been familiar in all ages; and it is a sufficiently satisfactory interpretation of these verses to say that they prescribe, in the case of bodily sickness, prayer and the use of simple remedies.

2. It may be, however, that sending for "elders" instead of a "beloved physician" and the anointing with oil "in the name of the Lord," point to the regulated exercise of the miraculous "gift of healing" which undoubtedly was granted to the early Church, but which, like the gifts of "tongues" and "prophecy," and "immunity from deadly poisons," no longer exists.

3. The emphasis is on "the prayer of faith," and possibly the "oil" is a symbol of the Holy Spirit, by whom the cure was to be effected; the faith of the sufferer would be strengthened by the use of the familiar remedy, and, as his sins seem to have been connected with the cause of his disease, he would be reminded of the cleansing and healing power of the Spirit of God.

4. There is no reference here to "extreme unction"; this is designed to prepare the soul for death; the anointing by "the elders" was intended to restore the body to health.

5. Here the confession of sins was not to a priest or to an elder alone, but to any fellow Christian: "Confess therefore your sins one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed."

6. In all modern uses of the passage care should be taken to distinguish between "the prayer of faith," and such beliefs and practices as are associated with "Christian Science," "Mental Healing," or "Faith Healing." "Christian Science" is in conflict with physical science in its views of matter, of pain, of disease, and of death; it contradicts Christianity in denying the incarnation, the death, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. "Mental Healing" may be quite independent of any religious belief or on the other hand it may be united with Christian faith; but it operates according to the scientific law of "the effect of mind upon matter." Its greatest failures are due to neglecting the complementary principle of "the effect of matter upon mind." "Faith Healing" forbids the use of all physical means, and any employment of physical science in the treatment of disease. Its advocates are devout and sincere and intelligent Christians. It is a mistake to confuse them with "Christian Scientists," or "Mental Healers." Their errors consist in the belief that the use of natural means is dishonoring to God; in their exclusive claim of "spiritual healing," when in reality a cure effected by a physician or surgeon might as truly be "spiritual," accomplished by the power and guidance of the Spirit of God; in their oblivion to the fact that the cures in which they rejoice are effected by the use of means, namely, by means of mental suggestion made by their prayers and their anointings.

7. "The prayer of faith" is offered in the assurance that God can work with or without means known to man, but in the belief that all wise remedies should be employed, while the trust is in God, and while the will is submissive to the will of God. The faith is not in the means, but in God who works through the means. In the whole passage the emphasis is upon the need of faith, and upon the power of believing prayer. Thus the paragraph closes with the example of Elijah, at whose request rain was given or withheld. The fact is emphasized that he was "a man of like passions with us" we need not wait until we become perfect before we pray; yet his was a prayer of intense earnestness and triumphant faith. In applying the truth of this paragraph we should guard against the employment of prayer without means, and also of means without prayer. We should remember that the other equally famous passage of this epistle insists that "faith apart from works is dead."