True Democracy
My Brothers, are you really trying to combine faith in Jesus Christ, our glorified Lord, with the worship of rank? Suppose a man should enter your Synagogue, with gold rings and in grand clothes, and suppose a poor man should come in also, in shabby clothes, and you are deferential to the man who is wearing grand clothes, and say—” There is a good seat for you here,” but to the poor man— “You must stand; or sit down there by my footstool,” is not that to make distinctions among yourselves, and to show yourselves prejudiced judges? Listen, my dear Brothers. Has not God chosen those who are poor in the things of this world to be rich through their faith, and to possess the Kingdom which he has promised to those who love him? But you—you insult the poor man! Is not it the rich who oppress you? Is not it they who drag you into law-courts? Is not it they who malign that honorable Name which has been bestowed upon you? Yet, if you keep the royal law which runs—” Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thou dost thyself,” you are doing right; but, if you worship rank, you commit a sin, and stand convicted by that same law of being offenders against it. For a man who has laid the Law, as a whole, to heart, but has failed in one particular, is liable for breaking all its provisions. He who said “Thou shalt not commit adultery” also said “Thou shalt not murder.” If, then, you commit murder but not adultery, you are still an offender against the Law. Therefore, speak and act as men who are to be judged by the Law of Freedom. For there will be justice without mercy for him who has not acted mercifully. Mercy triumphs over Justice.
—James, a Brother of Jesus.
The Value of Noble Souls
Beyond all wealth, honor, or even health, is the attachment we form to noble souls, because to become one with the good, generous, and true is to become, in a measure, good, generous, and true ourselves.
—Thomas Arnold.