There is no escaping the fact that a heavier penalty rests on preachers and teachers who leave a trail of error behind them. This point of view explains Paul’s anxiety in the pastoral epistles for the future of Christianity, as it had to confront Pharisaism, Gnosticism, Mithraism, the emperor cult, and the hundred and one vagaries of the age. Certainly a teacher must speak his mind. He must be intellectually honest and tell what he sees, but he is not called upon to give his guesses at truth as truth. He ought to be interesting if he can, but not at the expense of truth. Freedom of teaching is quite consonant with fidelity to truth. One does not have to be a mere traditionalist in order to escape wild speculation. He must bring forth things new and old if they are true. The severest words that fell from the lips of Jesus are against the Pharisees who filled the place of teachers for the Jews but who “say, and do not,” who “sit on Moses’ seat” as authoritative teachers and yet “strain out the gnat, and swallow the camel” (Matt. 23:2-3, 24). “Woe unto you lawyers! for ye took away the key of knowledge: ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered” (Luke 11:52). The child was kept in the dark while at school because the teacher did not let in the light. “The hungry sheep look up and are not fed.” The Test of Perfection (3:2a) Others besides teachers have pitfalls, for teachers are not the only errant men. “For in many things we all stumble.” James includes himself in this category. The Vulgate reads “ye” in verse 1 (_sumitis_), not willing to admit that James ran any risk about the heavier judgment; but that is not the correct text. James shows no disposition to exempt himself. One and all we make many slips, stumble over something in the path. Our falls are only too frequent. Who is the perfect man? Seneca (Clem. 1:6) says, “We all sin” (_peccamus omnes_). But Epictetus (bk. IV, chap. iv, § 7) uses the word for sin for merely “commit a fault.” He has a weak conception of sin. Epictetus also (bk. I, chap. xxviii, § 23) says, “No man stumbles on account of another’s action.” But surely he is in error here. Teachers are particularly liable to stumble in speech, for precisely in that sphere their activity lies (Plummer). This point is common to all. Most assuredly, all men are guilty of sins of speech. Each one is sure to stumble there sooner or later. This is a very easy test of one’s perfection. He can be prodded by the tongue. “The scribes and the Pharisees began to press upon him vehemently, and to provoke him to speak of many things; laying wait [ambush] for him, to catch [as if wild game] something out of his mouth” (Luke 11: 53 f.). Yes, but they were all the more angry when the one perfect Man kept control of his tongue.