This short but pungent Epistle - deeply rooted in the Wisdom and Prophetic Literature of the Old Testament - presents a virulent call to righteousness in the Church, or what St. James calls the perfect law, the law of liberty. The Epistle of St. James is perhaps the earliest book of the New Testament, having been penned by St. James, the Brother of God. St. James insists that pure and undefiled religion is a working faith expressing itself in sincere trust in God through all trials and zealous deeds of justice and mercy as believers anticipate the coming of the Lord, Whose 2nd Advent is right at the door.