Part 4

004:009 Afflict yourselves and mourn and weep aloud; let your laughter be turned into grief, and your gladness into shame.

004:010 Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you.

004:011 Do not speak evil of one another, brethren. The man who speaks evil of a brother-man or judges his brother-man speaks evil of the Law and judges the Law. But if you judge the Law, you are no longer one who obeys the Law, but one who judges it.

004:012 The only real Lawgiver and Judge is He who is able to save or to destroy. Who are you to sit in judgement on your fellow man?

004:013 Come, you who say, "To-day or to-morrow we will go to this or that city, and spend a year there and carry on a successful business,"

004:014 when, all the while, you do not even know what will happen to-morrow. For what is the nature of your life? Why, it is but a mist, which appears for a short time and then is seen no more.

004:015 Instead of that you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we shall live and do this or that."

004:016 But, as the case stands, it is in mere self-confidence that you boast: all such boasting is evil.

004:017 If, however, a man knows what it is right to do and yet does not do it, he commits a sin.

005:001 Come, you rich men, weep aloud and howl for your sorrows which will soon be upon you.

005:002 Your treasures have rotted, and your piles of clothing are moth-eaten;

005:003 your gold and your silver have become covered with rust, and the rust on them will give evidence against you, and will eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded up wealth in these last days.

005:004 I tell you that the pay of the labourers who have gathered in your crops--pay which you are keeping back--is calling out against you; and the outcries of those who have been your reapers have entered into the ears of the Lord of the armies of Heaven.

005:005 Here on earth you have lived self-indulgent and profligate lives. You have stupefied yourselves with gross feeding; but a day of slaughter has come.

005:006 You have condemned--you have murdered--the righteous man: he offers no resistance.

005:007 Be patient therefore, brethren, until the Coming of the Lord. Notice how eagerly a farmer waits for a valuable crop! He is patient over it till it has received the early and the later rain.

005:008 So you also must be patient: keeping up your courage; for the Coming of the Lord is now close at hand.

005:009 Do not cry out in condemnation of one another, brethren, lest you come under judgement. I tell you that the Judge is standing at the door.

005:010 In illustration, brethren, of persecution patiently endured take the Prophets who have spoken as messengers from the Lord.

005:011 Remember that we call those blessed who endured what they did. You have also heard of Job's patient endurance, and have seen the issue of the Lord's dealings with him-- how full of tenderness and pity the Lord is.

005:012 But above all things, my brethren, do not swear, either by Heaven or by the earth, or with any other oath. Let your `yes' be simply `yes,' and your `no' be simply `no;' that you may not come under condemnation.

005:013 Is one of you suffering? Let him pray. Is any one in good spirits? Let him sing a psalm.

005:014 Is any one ill? Let him send for the Elders of the Church, and let them pray over him, after anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.

005:015 And the prayer of faith will restore the sick man, and the Lord will raise him up to health; and if he has committed sins, they shall be forgiven.

005:016 Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be cured. The heartfelt supplication of a righteous man exerts a mighty influence.

005:017 Elijah was a man with a nature similar to ours, and he earnestly prayed that there might be no rain: and no rain fell on the land for three years and six months.

005:018 Again he prayed, and the sky gave rain and the land yielded its crops.

005:019 My brethren, if one of you strays from the truth and some one brings him back,