When it is full grown, brings forth death. Do not be deceived, my dear brothers.

Every kind of generous giving and every perfect

gift is from above, And comes down from the Father of lights, With whom can be no variation,

Nor shadow which is cast by turning. Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of

truth, So that we should be a kind of first-fruits of his

creatures.
You know this, my dear brothers.
But let every man be swift to hear,
Slow to speak, slow to wrath.

For the wrath of man
Does not work the goodness of God,
So, putting away all filthiness

And overflowing malice,
Receive with meekness the implanted word
Which is able to save your souls.

But be doers of the word,
And not hearers only, deluding your own selves.
For if any one is a hearer of the word, and not

a doer, He is like a man looking at his natural face in

a glass,

JAMES For he looks at himself and goes away, And at once forgets what kind of a man he

was. But he who looks into the perfect law, The law of liberty, and continues to look, Being not a hearer who forgets, but a doer who

does, This man will be blessed in his doing. If any one thinks himself to be religious,

While he does not bridle his tongue,

But deceives his heart, This man's religion is vain. Pure religion, And undefiled before our God and Father, is

this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their afflic

tion, And to keep himself unspotted from the world.

My brothers, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons. For if there comes into your synagogue a gold-ringed man, in gorgeous clothes, and there comes in also a poor man in squalid clothes ; and you look with respect on him who wears the gorgeous clothes, and say, Sit here honorably; And you say to the poor man, Stand there, or sit under my footstool; are you not 2:4. divided in your own mind and have become judges with evil thoughts?

Listen, my dear brothers.

Did not God choose those who are poor so far as this world is concerned to be rich in faith, and heirs of the Kingdom which he promised to those who love him?

But you have dishonored the poor.

Do not the rich oppress you, and themselves drag you to courts of justice? Is it not they who revile the noble name by which you are called ? If, however, you keep the royal law according to the scripture : Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself,

But if you are person-accepting, it is sin which you are committing, and you are convicted by the law as law-breakers.

For whoever shall keep the whole law, yet shall offend in one point, he has become guilty of all. For he who said :

Do not commit adultery, said also :

Do not kill. Now if you do not commit adultery, but kill, you have become a law-breaker.

So speak and so act as men who are to be judged by a law of liberty. For judgment is without mercy to him who has showed no mercy.

Mercy glories over judgment.

you do well.

2:14

Go in peace.

What good is it, my brothers,

If any one says he has faith,
But has no works?
Can that faith save him ?
If a brother or sister is naked,
And in need of daily food,
And one of you says to them,

Be warmed and filled,
And yet he does not give them the things

needed for the body,
What good is it?
In the same way also faith,
If it has no works, is in itself dead.

But some one will say:
You have faith and I have works.
Show me your faith apart from your works,
And I will show you my faith by my

works.
You believe God is one. You do well.

The demons also believe and shudder.
But do you want to know, ( vain man,
That faith apart from works is barren ?
Was not Abraham our father set right in God's

sight by works,
In offering up Isaac his son on the altar ?
You see that faith worked with his works,
And by works faith was made perfect.
And the scripture was fulfilled, which says:

W

2:23

And Abraham believed God,
And it was counted to him for goodness
And he was called the friend of God.

You see that by works a man is set right in

God's sight,
And not by faith alone.
In the same way was not Rahab the harlot set

right in God's sight by works,
In receiving the messengers and sending them

out another way?
For as the body apart from the spirit
Is dead,
In the same way also faith apart from works
Is dead.

My brothers, do not get into the way of being many teachers, knowing that we shall receive heavier judgment. For in many things we all offend.

If any one does not offend in word, he is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body also. And if we put the horses' bits into their mouths, so that they may obey us, we turn about their whole body also.

Look, the ships also, though they are so great, and are driven by rough winds, are yet turned about by a very small rudder, wherever the impulse of the steersman wishes.

So the tongue also is a little member, and