Sham Versus Reality
Who among you claims to be wise and intelligent? Let him show that his actions are the outcome of a good life lived in the humility of true wisdom. But, while you harbor envy and bitterness and a spirit of rivalry in your hearts, do not boast or lie to the detriment of the Truth. That is not the wisdom which comes from above; no, it is earthly, animal, devilish. For, where envy and rivalry exist, there you will also find disorder and all kinds of base actions. But the wisdom from above is, before every thing else, pure; then peace-loving, gentle, open to conviction, rich in compassion and good deeds, and free from partiality and insincerity. And righteousness, its fruit, is sown in peace by those who work for peace.
What is the cause of the fighting and quarreling that goes on among you? Is not it to be found in the desires which are always at war within you? You crave, yet do not obtain. You murder and rage, yet cannot gain your end. You quarrel and fight. You do not obtain, because you do not ask. You ask, yet do not receive, because you ask for a wrong purpose—to spend what you get upon your pleasures. Unfaithful people! Do not you know that to be friends with the world means to be at enmity with God?
—James, a Brother of Jesus.
Life Abundant Daily
In taking the account of your life, do not reckon by great distances, and by the periods of pleasure, or the satisfaction of your hopes, or the sating your desires; but let every intermedial day and hour pass with observation. He that reckons he has lived but so many harvests, thinks they come not often enough, and that they go away too soon. Some lose the day with longing for the night, and the night in waiting for the day. Hope and fantastic expectations spend much of our lives; and while with passion we look for a coronation, or a day of joy, passing from fancy to possession without any intermedial notices, we throw away a precious year, and use it but as the burden of our time,—fit to be pared off and thrown away, that we may come at those little pleasures which first steal our hearts, and then steal our lives.
—Jeremy Taylor.