These sins of omission (_peccata omissionis_) are treated lightly by many people. The Talmud in general takes this easy position on the subject. Oesterley quotes the Jerusalem Talmud (_Yoma_ viii, 6) on Zephaniah 1:12: “I will search Jerusalem with candles, and I will punish the men,” which adds: “not by daylight, nor with the torch, but with candles, so as not to detect venial sins.” But he adds this also (_Shabbath_, 54_b_): “Whosoever is in a position to prevent sins being committed in his household, but refrains from doing so, becomes liable for their sins.” And in 1 Samuel 12:23 we read, “God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you” (AV). Jesus made it plain that he considered sins of omission as real sins: “These ye ought to have done, and not to have left the other undone” (Matt. 23:23). Hear his tragic words to the deluded sinner at the judgment bar: “I was hungry, and ye did not give me to eat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink; I was a stranger, and ye took me not in; naked, and ye clothed me not; sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not” (Matt. 25:42 f.). The repetition of “not” here is like the tolling of a bell. Hear then James: “To him therefore that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.” So also Paul urged the Galatians not to grow weary in doing the good or beautiful (Gal. 6:9). It is so easy to shut one’s eyes and not to see the opportunities for service. It is so easy to let prejudice blind us to the needs of the real neighbor, as the priest and the Levite passed by on the other side and left the poor wounded man to suffer (Luke 10:31 f.). The point that James is anxious to make is that this blindness is sin. The man who has learned how to do the high and noble deed and then falls short has committed a sin. It is a heavy indictment that is here drawn against us. We are charged with not coming up to the standard of our highest knowledge. Plummer comments pertinently on the Roman Catholic doctrine of probabilism, which seeks to excuse the weakness of the flesh and to justify a person in his preference of the lower in the presence of the higher. “So long as it is not certain that the act in question is forbidden it may be permitted.” Plummer adds, “The moral law is not so much explained as explained away.” Alphonse de Sarasa wrote on “The Art of Perpetual Enjoyment” (_Ars Semper Gaudendi_), a piece of special pleading for the indulgence of the flesh. “The good is the enemy of the best,” and the bad is the enemy of the good. Down the steps we go to the bottom of the ladder. Tainted Wealth (5:1-3)