The Saline County journal. [volume] (Salina, Kan.) 1871-1893, 1878-04-11
"With Charity For AL"

From the Lawrence Journal
1t ought to be easy to be just. In
fact, it IS usually very gradual attain.
ment. In the Grecian Mythology the
judges who presided over Hades and
determined the fate of men in the spirit
world were represented with the air Of
age. They conceived them fit to weigh
tho motives of mortals only after long
experience of human life.
In our youth our ideals are vivid.
We see the beautiful and true for others
as well as ourselves. We are impatient
with them as with ourselves for every
slip. We are fretted by apologies, tax
ing it as only sign that he who can
find an excuse for folly has ceased
TO be sensitive to wisdom. But as we
begin to climb the steep way, our own
feet grow sometimes tired. We are
surprised to find it so easy to stumble
here and fall there. The glorious sum-
NIT that was SO distinct from the plain
before We started is quite hidden by
intervening peaks. The level parks are
tempting. We find We did not under.
stand. If we persevere, we 60 on with
the humility of selfknowledge, and pa
thence for others taught BY our own
weakness.
1t is said the best mistress of servants
is she who best understands the details
OF housekeeping, because she will not
expect impossibilities. Her comprehen-
sion of processes enables her to Judge
results justly, to praise or to blame with
discrimination. The scripture advises
us not TO think of ourselves more high
y than We ought to think, but i: never
commands Us to Judge our neighbOrs
more severely; and we get a new per-
ception Gifts adaptation to the intricacies
OF human nature as experience teaches
US how necessary the first injunction is,
and how superfiuOs the other would
be.
Is it not the persons who are most
easily offended by a hint of their own
deficiencies who flash tho most uncom-
promising Indignation on the errors Of
others? 1t would be laughable il it
were not sad. In the same breath q
man will mournfully arraign you for
lack of comprehension of him because
you suggest a mistake, and scare you
with the sternness of his Reproduction
when third person is spoken of whose
faults arc no moro palabIc than his own.
We must keep our self.complacency at
any cost. We can't forgive o man for
yielding to appetite, because we never
want too much whisky. The agony of
his struggles or his repentance do not
soften our cold contempt, while he whose
danger lies in uncontrolled impulse finds
it equally hard not TO hate Us for what
no would call our respectable selfish
ness, and our compromise with heaven
in offering prayers and praise in the
place of honor and kindness in ever.
day dealings. In either case, could
hereditary tendency, absurd instruction
early prejudice, and unfortunate con-
stitution DO weighed, we would end with
a sigh what began with sneer.
Stern to ourselves and gentle to 9th
hardly put it better than Thomas KEN
pis does in book that has been re-
ligious classic for 500 years. "Keep
thy eye" he says, "turned inwardly
upon myself, and beware of judging the
actions of others. In Judging others a
man labors to no purpose, commonly
errs, and easily SINS" Robert Burns,
who is not a religious classic, and from
whence the recluse of st. Agnes would
least expect a confirmation of bis pious
injunctions, wins the heart of all time
by the Same broad spirit of federation
''Who made the heart, Ills He alone
Decidedly can try
lie knows each chord-its various stone.
Each spring-its various bias.
Then at the balance let's be mute,
We never can adjust IL
What 5 dOTso we partly may compute
But know not what's resisted