The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1899-06-15
LOVE SUFFERETH LONG.
Harshness of Human Judgment-The
Hidden Sources of Weakness
We Overlook.

What secret of helpful life can ex-
coed the power to look charitably upon
human weakness? This is the natural
gift of some, the hard-won accomplish
ment of others. Many excellent Chris
tan people find themselves invariably
harsh in their judgment OF certain
classes of offenders or offenses. This
/ will pardon, they say. but that can
not forgive. This weakness is eXcusa-
BILE, but that is too debasing. lrrita-
bility they condone, fickleness they de-
spise. The drunkard may gain their
pity, but the gambler never. In thus
setting ourselves to judge men we come
far from the charity of Christ. These
words, from the Christian Herald, de-
serve the thoughtful attention OF every
man and woman to whom censorious-
ness IS second nature.
"All around us are people blamed for
what they cannot help. There is some
thing in their health, or something In
their worldly circumstances, or some
thing in their domestic condition, that
disqualifies and disabies them. Blamed
for idleness, when they have not the
strength to work. Blamed for parsi-
mony, when their finances are cramped.
Blamed for ill-temper, when their
nerves have given out. Blamed for mis-
anthropy, when they have had enough
to disgust them forever with the human
race. After we have criticised and
blamed and exhausted the vocabulary
of abuse, death steps in and makes rev.
elaticn of the wrong we have done,
when it is too late for reparation.'
He must have been very bad man
who is hated in his coffin. Many man
who was but little loved or respected
while he lived wins our pity and SYM
pathy by the great price of death, and
wins it too late. His infirmities sink
now to their proper level; very likely
his physician, with, lips now unsealed,
can tell us that heredity or unsuspectet
disease was responsible for that sharp
temper, that occasional weakness of
will, that GOODNESS of heart which were
so detested. Very likely rough men
whom we never saw will step in from
the street to gaze tenderly at his pale
face, because he had done them hidden
kindnesses. Perhaps his friends will
find among his papers pathetic evidence
of his secret devotion to some lost one,
or of the defeats and disappointments
which made him what he was.
And this thought comes sometimes
when one beholds the calm countcnance
Of life's prisoner set free by death, the
Thie, pnl1a, ,.,,Sh IF r,ttu
that softens our hearts and fills our
eyes for one brief hour at the end of
that unlovely life is but a wave from
the Wilderness of Gods mercy, like the
Wilderness of the sea-" AS we see this
man now, God has seen him always. AS
we lose our resentment now in the con-
temptation of his mysterious peace, SO
God has loved him these many years in
the midst of the storms that have left
their burrows on his brow. We, by the
sharpest of rocks, are reminded that we
are dust. God has never forgotten. His
love it is that suffereth long and is kind
Ours is a poor, wavering love that
wearies so easily in the face of human
weakness and sin.
Never was there truer WORD spoken
than this, that at the last we shall never
regret having shown too much tender
ness; we shall regret our severity. The
thunderbolt of death clears the sky and
shows us the world in it's true outliI j.
And in that gentle light the only things
worth striving for seem to be the things
that we have so often passed by
purity, and forgiveness, and the love
that shineth in MISUNDERSTANDING
Standard.