"James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting."

So begins "the General Epistle of James," one of the shorter books of the New Testament. It is a curious way to begin a letter, unique among the epistles in the canon, which typically are addressed to individuals (e.g. Timothy, Titus and Philemon) or to defined groups of people within specified cities or branches of the church of Christ, as is the case with most of Paul's epistles.

Because the greeting in James' letter is less specific, it seems to have more of a universality than other epistles in the New Testament. And with that universality is a remarkable sense of timeliness and import as we apply it to our situation in this, the latter-day gospel dispensation.

For example, it includes this familiar passage: "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him" (James 1:5).

We know this as the passage which, according to his own account, prompted Joseph Smith to go to a grove of trees to pray, resulting in the vision of the Father and the Son.

But it has broad application today. In an age when the world often seems to have lost its moral and ethical moorings, who among us has not felt the need for greater wisdom? What comfort there is in the assurance that we can seek it from our Heavenly Father in prayer without fear of reproach.

However, James gives the caution, also timely in our day, that we must ask in unwavering faith, for without it we cannot expect to receive anything from the Lord (see verses 6 and 7).

And immediately preceding the "ask in faith" verses is this admonition: "Count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations (rendered in the Joseph Smith Translation as "many afflictions");

"Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience,

"But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing" (James 1:2-4).

Here, we have a concise and thought-provoking answer to the age-old question of why the righteous must be tried and sometimes suffer. And it seems to go hand-in-hand with the counsel given in a later chapter that the sick and afflicted should "call for the elders of the Church" for an anointing with consecrated oil and blessing by the power of the Lord (see James 5:14-15).

Elsewhere in the epistle, there are an admonition to bridle one's tongue as a key to controlling one's actions (see James1:26 and 3:2-10) and a definition of "pure religion" as comprising both charitable service to the needy and keeping oneself "unspotted from the world" (see James 1:27). How much richer we would be if we more carefully followed these precepts.

Also in Chapter 1 is the admonition to be "doers of the word and not hearers only," suggesting that application — not just learning — of gospel principles is essential. Otherwise, one is apt to forget what it means to be a disciple of Christ, just as a man who beholds his face in a mirror and then "goeth on his way" is apt to forget "what manner of man he was" (see James 1:22-25). But those who are "doers of the word" are reminiscent of King Benjamin's subjects who, after hearing his preaching, had no more disposition to do evil, but rather, to do good continually (see Mosiah 5:2).

As we read the epistle of James, let us apply his counsel to our own needs and situation, for it applies in our day as well as it did in the time he wrote it.