Chapter 5

Come now, you rich, weep and howl over your miseries which will come upon you.

Your riches have rotted and your garments have become moth-eaten.

Your gold and silver are rusted; and their rust will be a witness against you, and will devour your flesh as fire does. You have laid up treasure in the last days.

Behold, the wages of the laborers who reaped your fields, which have been kept back by you unjustly, cry out; and their cry has entered into the ears of the Lord of Hosts.

You have feasted upon earth, and you have nourished your hearts on dissipation in the day of slaughter.

You have condemned and put to death the just, and he did not resist you. Patience in Affliction

Be patience, therefore, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. Behold, the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient until it receives the early and the late rain.

Do you also be patient; strengthen your hearts; for the coming of the Lord is at hand.

Do not complain against one another, brethren, that you may not be judged. Behold, the judge is standing at the door.

Take, brethren, as an example of labor and patience, the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.

Behold, we call them blessed who have endured. You have heard of the patience of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is merciful and compassionate.

But above all things, brethren, do not swear, either by heaven or by the earth, or any other oath; but let your yes be yes, your no, no; that you may not fall under judgment. Last Anointing

Is any one of you sad? Let him pray. Is any one in good spirits? Let him sing a hymn.

Is any one among you sick? Let him bring in the presbyters of the Church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord.

And the prayer of faith will save the sick man, and the Lord will raise him up, and if he be in sins, they shall be forgiven him.

Confess, therefore, your sins to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be saved. For the unceasing prayer of a just man is of great avail.

Elias was a man like ourselves, subject to the same infirmities; and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain upon the earth, and it did not rain for three years and six months.

He prayed again, and the heavens gave rain and the earth brought forth its fruit. Conversion of a Sinner

My Brethren, if any one of you strays from the truth and someone brings him back,

he ought to know that he who causes a sinner to be brought back from his misguided way, will save his soul from death, and will cover a multitude of sins.