There was the Apostle James, too, writing
about "works" in the same unguarded manner as Paul when speaking of
slaves and slave-holders. Pity that he could not have let "works" alone,
seeing it was so important for the other Apostles to establish the one
idea of justification by faith. He made great trouble for Luther and his
companions in their contest with Popery. Luther had to reject his
epistle; "_straminea epistola_" he called it,--an epistle of
straw,--weak, worthless; and he denied its inspiration, because it
conflicted with his doctrine of "faith alone." So much for trying to be
candid and just, and for presenting the other side of a subject, or of a
man, when the spirit of the age is averse to it, and candor is in
danger of being looked upon as a time-serving thing. Neither Paul nor
James, however, had felt the tonic, bracing effect of good anti-slavery
principles, or they would not have written, the one such a letter to a
slave-holder, and the other such a back-oar argument against "faith
alone." However, I am disposed to think well of Paul and James,
notwithstanding these the great errors of their lives. Indeed I can
almost forgive them, when I am reading other things which they said and
did.
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