Studies _in the_
Epistle _of_ James
_First published as_
PRACTICAL AND SOCIAL ASPECTS
OF CHRISTIANITY
A. T. ROBERTSON
Late Professor of New Testament Interpretation, Southern Baptist
Theological Seminary, Louisville, Kentucky
_Revised and Edited by_
Heber F. Peacock
[Illustration: ]
BROADMAN PRESS
_Nashville, Tennessee_
421-06232
_Library of Congress catalog card number: 59-5861_
Printed in the United States of America
5.AT58K.S.P.
Preface
In August, 1912, it was my privilege to deliver a course of lectures at
the Northfield Bible Conference. There were many requests for the
publication of the addresses. I shall never forget the bright faces of
the hundreds who gathered in beautiful Sage Chapel at 8:30 on those
August mornings. In August, 1913, the lectures were repeated at the New
York Chautauqua and at the Winona Bible Conference. There were renewed
appeals for publication, but it was not possible to put the material
into shape because of my work on _A Grammar of the Greek New Testament
in the Light of Historical Research_.
I have expanded the lectures a good deal and have added some
introductory discussion about James himself. I have in mind ministers,
social workers, students of the Bible, Sunday school teachers, and all
lovers of the Word of God and of rightness of life. Technical matters
are placed in parentheses or in footnotes so that the reader may go on
without these if he cares to do so. There is a freshness in the Greek
text not possible in the English, but those who do not know Greek may
still read this book with entire ease.
I do not claim that these addresses are a detailed commentary on the
Epistle of James. They are expository talks based, I trust, on sober,
up-to-date scholarship and applied to modern life. It is the old gospel
in the new age that we need and must know how to use. There is a
wondrous charm in these words of the long ago from one who walked so
close by the side of the Son of man, who misunderstood him at first but
who came at last to rejoice in his Brother in the flesh as the Lord
Jesus Christ. It is immensely worthwhile to listen to what James has to
say about Christianity and the problems of everyday life. His words
throb with power today and strike a peculiarly modern note in the
emphasis upon social problems and reality in religion. They have the
breath of heaven and the warmth of human sympathy and love. Except for a
few quotations from the King James Version, Scripture quotations follow
the American Standard Version.