What leads to war, what leads to quarrelling among you? I will tell you what leads to them; the appetites which infest your mortal bodies.

Your desires go unfulfilled, so you fall to murdering; you set your heart on something, and cannot have your will, so there is quarrelling and fighting. Why cannot you have your will? Because you do not pray for it,

or you pray, and what you ask for is denied you, because you ask for it with ill intent; you would squander it on your appetites.

Wantons, have you never been told that the world’s friendship means enmity with God, and the man who would have the world for his friend makes himself God’s enemy?

Do you think scripture means nothing when it tells you that the Spirit which dwells in you loves with a jealous love?✻

No, the grace he gives us is something better still; and so he tells us, God flouts the scornful, and gives the humble man his grace.✻

Be God’s true subjects, then; stand firm against the devil, and he will run away from you,

come close to God, and he will come close to you. You that are sinners must wash your hands clean, you that are in two minds must purify the intention of your hearts.

Bring yourselves low with mourning and weeping, turn your laughter into sadness, your joy into downcast looks;

humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

Brethren, do not disparage one another. In disparaging one of his brethren, in passing judgement on him, a man disparages the law, passes judgement on the law; and in passing judgement on the law thou art setting thyself up to be its censor, instead of obeying it.

There is only one Lawgiver, only one Judge, he who has power to destroy and to set free.

Who art thou, to sit in judgement on thy neighbour?

See how you go about saying, To-day, or to-morrow, we will make our way to such and such a town, spend a year there, and make profit by trading,

when you have no means of telling what the morrow will bring.

What is your life but a wisp of smoke, which shews for a moment and then must vanish into nothing? You ought to be saying, We will do this or that if it is the Lord’s will, and if life is granted us.

As it is, your self-conceit makes boasters of you; all such boastfulness is an evil thing.

Yes, if a man has the power to do good, it is sinful in him to leave it undone.✻