Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1882 edition. Excerpt: ... LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ST. JAMES, THE LORD'S BROTHER. "Thy Nazarites were purer than snow."--Lam. iy. 7. It is one of the signs of the inimitable truthfulness and power of Scripture, that again and again, by a few simple touches, it enables us to realise the character of those of whom it speaks. There are many whose lives, as recorded in Holy Writ, would only occupy two or three verses, whom, nevertheless, from the inspired power with which they are delineated, we are enabled to represent to ourselves in their distinctest personality. Still more is this the case when we also possess some of their utterances and writings. And such a picture we can paint of St. James, first Bishop of Jerusalem, one of the "brothers of the Lord." Even of his childhood and training we can form some conception. Whether he were a half-brother or only a step-brother of Jesus, tradition and Scripture alike tend to show that he was brought up with brothers and sisters in the lowly home at Nazareth. Joseph w DEGREESas but a village carpenter, and, as tradition says, by no means a skilful one. A carpenter at an outlying Galilean village must of necessity have been poor. But there is an immense chasm between poverty and pauperism. The circumstances of Eastern life take away all the sting from the condition of the industrious poor. The wants of life are there reduced to their simplest elements. There is no wasteful luxury, no extravagant display. A little bread, a few dates, a spring of water, a humble cottage, a single change of raiment, are enough to support the honest labourer in dignity and contentment; and these he can earn with ease and certainty. Where there is no envy in the heart, where restlessness and ambition are under due control, such a state of life is not...